Selfsurprise

It was actually Heavy Metal headbanging, but it's alright now, as it turned out it was just a screw that got loose.

Yes, I had a screw loose.

It could've been worse. You might of been inappropriately headbanging to William Basinski...

#29 What is X and Other Similar Questions:

These types of questions disturb me on a fundamental level. They aren't questions to begin with and would go as far to say they're anti-intellectual. Take for instance the question "What is Art?". For one the term art itself is nebulous at best and calling something art is an injustice to elements that make up the piece. On one hand I recognize the need for convenience that terms like Art provide but I also find these terms to be a hindrance because they effectively constrict the rhetoric we speak. By creating a compound term like Art we invariably lose ways to describe something due to the convenience that terms like Art provide.

 

So back on track, if the terms like art are nebulous then the question becomes "What is Anything?" or "What is x?" which is a completely asinine question which adds nothing to the overall conversation. This in turn weakens the overall conversation and leaves it intellectually lacking. Those question are posed purely for sound cool and deep without having to be either.

Now this is the sort of conversation I feel better qualified to wade in on! :3

I think your choice of art as a subject of the "what is/is it [***]?" trope to be fundamentally interesting. Many fields of human endeavour, regardless of their absolute necessity or apparent frivolity, have a certain amount of wriggling room for those questions. One would unlikely ask "is it architecture?" of a new building if the building in question, regardless of how much or how little it conforms aesthetic norms, is actually functioning as an architectural object. By extension who would even necessarily think to ask "what is architecture?" and thusly subject buildings to much more fundamental hermeneutic scrutiny. But then why do we stop short of asking those questions of the various artificial and natural elements that compose our world and interaction therein?

One catch-all definition of art is that as a medium or mode of human activity, it is defined by its indefinability. Of course this indefinability is usually considered a matter of academic nitpicking, as most perfectly reasonable and intelligent people probably aren't overtly concerned with the inability of post-modernist cultural discourse to define what does or does not constitute art, or what can or cannot constitute art if it is so declared by an almost equally indefinable self-imposed status as "artist". For many people the hierarchical status of mediums (painting, sculpture and craft in a traditional sense, or in a latter neo-avant gardist sense performance, concept, situation, etc.) will always define their understanding of what currently constitutes art by cultural consensus - something inversely affected by a society's given capacity for tolerance and accessibility.

The fact that contemporary artists are by now are so well versed in the Duchampian model of object making (read "appropriating") that the "what is?/is it?" question has become an increasingly a tedious affair, and not simply some wholly accepted constituent of contemporary art accepted as a viable working strategy, a stand in for some other concept or idea, or simply a motif employed by the artist in an ongoing body of work. Yet there remains a gap between the mainstream understanding of art and the tumultuous criticism and analysis of art since the advent of modernism up until the present. Whether artists, art critics or just avid followers of art (such as myself) like it or not, the "what is?/is it?" question regarding art has yet to be resolved for anybody unversed in the history and theoretical frame-working of modern art - and we must also face the haunting possibility that because of the disconnect between mainstream perception of and active engagement with modern art, it's a debate that is inherently unresolvable. An intriguing poisoned chalice inherited from modernism and further compounded by post-modernism.

So in an attempt to give an answer to your point about the "what is?/is it?" question being anti-intellectual, I'm not sure I can concur with that assessment. It depends how we choose to define intellectualism. Do we define intelligence as a monolithic and unyielding arrangement of unassailable assertions, or do we define intelligence as a far more nebulous phenomena prone to both positive and negative transformation? My instinct and experiences argues that in regards to the subject of art at least, the latter definition is the more apt fit for the ghostly model presented by the subject. I put it to you that the "what is art?/is it art?" question cannot be anti-intellectual because the endeavour of art itself is constantly haunted by the uncertainties conjured up by several centuries of philosophical inquiry into the notion of thingliness, the notion of self and others, the very certainty of existence itself. Without that inherent uncertainty we would lack our current conception of art and as such much of the art of the 20th century onward may never of occurred.

We might instead of had relatively separate worlds of painting, pottery, figurative sculpture, etc. as conceptualization of "high" crafts and their attendant isolated prejudices and hierarchies. Without the "what is?/is it?" question art might of sidestepped its role as a system of subjective engagement and instead of been relegated as a morally indefensible move on the part of social elites. This may of rippled outwardly to other mediums like music, literature, dance, etc. and ultimately made human creativity a much stifled activity and definitely less diverse than it is today. Without the constant overarching threat of it's subjective status being undermined and scrutinized, art could be likened to civic maintenance or people resource management It might of remained a necessity but it would be devoid of spirit. What is right? Is it clothing? What is wrong? Is it writing? What is nothing? Is it alive?

Long Live Prose: A melancholy progressive hardcore band without a vocalist. The shortest song they've ever made was thirty-nine minutes long.

ScottD.Betson isn't trying to tell you that you actually are paranoid, Freeman, you're just being paranoid.

I think March 2021 is a tad optimistic...

;3 On the subject of weird gaming dreams, a while ago I had a dream about what was obviously a episode Freeman's Mind taking place the game Slender: The Arrival. I obviously don't remember all the dialogue but he did crack wise about working with children, noting that he kept making every cliche dumb choice from horror movies and complaining about his shitty camera.

I think people who play the victim all the time and find offence in every miniscule little thing are winging wusses that need to harden the fuck up.

I think it's marginally rarer to come across somebody who is vocally offended by everything in real everyday life than it is on the internet - a place by which, thanks to it's nature as a medium for communication, too often lacks the subtlety for or even requires the nuances of conversation that one is subject to in talking to actual people. I don't even want people to stop being sensitive to others comments or opinions, civility works both ways and no one individual is more responsible than the other in these matters. I'm simply suspicious of anyone whose claim to interest is by having one apparent emotional state or mode of engagement, constantly and without deviation. No matter how left-wing/right-wing/optimistic/pessimistic/ignorant/intelligent/indifferent/trve kvlt black metal you are, nobody can really be that one dimensional all the time.

@KittyCat: Why were you headbanging? XD

 

Maybe he works at retail...

Sorry, had to highlight this...

So i decided it was time to get back into trying to find a job, the Toys R' Us is usually understaffed so I decided to write an application. Their application process? A ten minute questionnaire of bullshit questions that has nothing to do with a cashier position and then TWELVE PAGES of "strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree" questions. I didn't even finish the timed part because the question were pretty hard and some didn't even make sense. "What is a small grove of trees" it was multiple choose with four possible answers. ALL THE ANSWERS WERE SINGLE LETTERS.

 

I can see why they're understaffed now.

You should of ticked all of the options, and then ask them if you did good.

I would encourage you to keep at it, but I know all too well how utterly hideous working in retail is. If you can get a job that involves not working with the public, I urge you to go for it.

I could never get into the Killzone series. I've only played the first two games of the series but completed neither of them, I borrowed them off my older brother who is a much bigger fan of the franchise than me. It does a lot of stuff I dislike about modern FPS games such as regenerating health without a life bar, extremely linear missions that hold your hand throughout, etc. I could forgive the games those minor flaws if the setting wasn't so indefensibly generic. Did they have committee on the development whose sole purpose was to ensure the setting lacked any originality, imagination or charm? "Hey, humanity is now in space for some reason and OH NOES DERE IS AN EVUL EMPIRATS TRYING 2 TAIK OVA" who of course all have hilariously campy Ameri-English accents like all worst/best hollywood villains.

It's just occurred to me. You should ask Ross about it in his next videochat, you can post questions http://www.accursedfarms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=8347 and at the time of writing this his August videochat hasn't happened yet. If you miss the deadline, you could ask him the next time around.

Why did I ever stop posting in this thread?

It was all worth it for that emboldened sentence alone...

I agree with the sentiment as well though I do think Soma is fine without it. Soma's health is pretty consistent in representation as normal, wounded, and of course dead. normal the screen is fine, wounded the character has a limp as well as, actually appropriate, screen decals; and dead is, well, dead. There's no regenerating health so where you stand on the wounded spectrum is pretty clear.

I will grant SOMA props for the death animation that fills the screen with roaring visual noise and disjointed flashes of a bleeding face. That was scary as balls.

An A-Z Of Metal Subgenres I've Just Made Up

• Austro-Hungarian Saboteur Metal
  
• Bin Lorry Metal
  
• Cuddles The Monkey Metal
  
• Dolphin Metal
  
• Ergonomic Hazard Metal
  
• Football Hooliganism Metal
  
• Grassroots Conservative Party Metal
  
• Heat Death Of The Universe Metal
  
• Itchy Metal
  
• Jeremy Clarkson Metal
  
• Kudzu Metal
  
• Loud-As-Balls Metal
  
• Metallic Metal
  
• Novelty Sized Toblerone Bar Metal
  
• Olympic Doping Scandal Metal
  
• Pontefract Metal
  
• Quincunx Metal
  
• Realistic Pokemon Metal
  
• Space Wolves Metal
  
• Trouble With Tribbles Metal
  
• Ultimate Dodgeball Metal
  
• Vincent Price Voice Impersonation Metal
  
• Waka Waka Waka Metal
  
• Xeriscaping Metal
  
• YOLO Metal
  
• Zooplankton Metal

Let me apologize in advance for this update, my brain isn't up for anything that requires effort today.

• 13. Unfinished Shapeshifter
  The unforeseen result and rude survival of scientific experimentation conducted by shadowy factions of the Commonwealth with access to sinister pre-war technology. In an attempt to engineer a multipurpose espionage/assassination units to rival the Institutes synths, an unknown power group set about the task of creating polymorphic doppelgängers. Although on the cusp of a breakthrough in regards to giving the creatures a form of discrete and physical control over their amorphous organic forms (labeled "cellular stabilization memory") before they could complete their task the Institute raided their laboratories and put the faction on the run. Unfortunately some of these unfinished units slithered out of confinement in the resultant chaos and set about multiplying. --- These protean abominations possess a human level of sapience, but without the blessing of a single "true" form and thusly the lack of behavioural models to inform their own experience, the thoughts of US's are by every other living things standards utterly alien and irretrievably insane. If a typical appearance can be attributed to them, US's tend to resemble sinewy writhing puddles of indiscernible matter and textures (both organic and inorganic) out of which project hundreds of chaotically arranged limbs and bodily features of humans, ghouls, wildlife, even robots; alongside apparent fragments and isolated elements of the wastes artificial and natural landscapes.
  
• 14. Tooth Fairies
  As an example of the gallows humour common to wasteland survivors, Tooth Fairies are a nasty and unusual mutant vespid species with an unusually high degree of sentience - i.e. not quite human levels of intelligence but a touch more sapient than most animals. Resembling a cat-sized ichneumon wasp covered in a morass of rough wiry filaments, Tooth Fairies acquired their nickname from their bizarre predilection for collecting and armouring themselves with the teeth of anything they can temporarily petrify with their paralytic stings. Many a campfire horror story has been told about lone settlers wandering the wastes, bedding down for the night, only to wake up unable to move a muscle, whilst a much afeared Tooth Fairy extracts it's victims gnashers.

oh noes not those guys please no ;_;

 

<== played Afraid of Monsters, hence why is so freaked out

I did wonder if I should just stick the name Spazzers, as referred to in the creature's description, but I was worried it might cause offence. Turns out I caused offence anyway!

Something that bothers me is when games give you no health bar. I don't really have a problem with Regenerating health in general, some games have regenerating health but also give you a health bar and it works really well! But in so many games you only see the screen get covered in blood and hear your character make orgasm noises until your health regenerates. It's not like it is more immersive that way either, it's just stupid.

Although I really enjoy walking simulator/first person horror games like SOMA and the ilk, I also would prefer to see a lifebar rather than having some vague on-screen "distortion" that only allows an indication of how bad a shape you're in. I suppose it's a way of ramping up the fear and tension in survival horror title, because it causes a momentary panic and one forgets to memorize what certain effects and levels of visual distortion/blood staining/colour muting/etc means in practical terms for you.

Level based progression:

Level based progression is a testament to just how much contempt game developers have for their players. Nope, we can't just let you have everything from the get go your brain would probably explode and leak out your ears. Instead of doing things in a simple manner let's make you do a bunch of meaningless grinding to slowly increment a pointless xp bar that goes ding every time you hit what we've designated as levels and at each level you get something. Your our bitch in a Skinner box and we'll make sure you know it.

 

Not to mention this mechanic has infected every website and AAA video game under the sun like a cancer. If you can think of a way to implement one odds are it's there. If level based progression had just stuck to RPGs then I wouldn't be complaining about it but it's everywhere now.

I guess it's a geek cultural thing, but levelling characters seems so ubiquitous in the fantasy genre thanks to it's Dungeons & Dragons/d20 heritage that it's hard to imagine doing without it. I suppose there is a point to made about how RPG computer games are arbitrarily engineered to attenuate difficulty, adventures in pen and paper RPG's are typically tailor-made to specifically suit the character/s level/s and has an inherent advantage in those stakes. I agree that the notion of levelling (abilities, weapon mods, "powers", etc) has infiltrated the mindset of game developers to an alarming degree.

A Velvet Worm, just paddling around on my squidgy boneless feet squirting goo at other primitive invertebrates honestly sounds marvellous.

Same question, cus' why not! :3

If there ever is a Ross-Con, I'll cosplay as the crazy puppet show guy from The Secret World, or one of those harrowing Octo-Spiders from Rama. Just out of curiosity what would everyone else go as?

#27: Importance of a legitimately balanced, fact based, unbiased new source. do we need it, or is it un-imporant in our society

I'm not certain it's possible to have a 100% unbiased source of reporting, I think divisive human nature and culture being what it is renders the reality of unquestionably factual news an unattainable ideal that can only ever be aspired to in the spirit of criticism and debate. In a sense, if a genuinely unbiased and agendaless source of news existed some spark of it's human interest would likely vanish. Forgive my far-fetched extrapolating on the question, but I believe that we would find taking in and appreciating a detailed and overarching analysis of a situation (both past and present) free of any human pathos and sentiment to be difficult to the point of sheer futility. Truly unbiased news for surely require an agency outside of the human sphere of influence and control, and even if such a thing does or will exist, we may be psychologically unfit to validate or even comprehend it.

When I saw this topic, my first reaction was "Well this is going to go to shit"

 

has not turned out as bad as i thought, but i'll keep waiting.

The best analogy I can come up with is that we are about halfway between the Royal Society circa 1770 and the comments section on the Angry Video Game Nerd's videos, in terms of the "reasonable conduct/stark raving lunacy" spectrum.

Yep, and seeing as other(s) have beaten me to the punch, I decided not to make the comic.

I eventually figured out it wasn't your comic ;p I thought it was peculiar that you made this comment but the comic was apparentl made in 2011.

I like this idea, if you go through with it please make sure to post pictures here.

I'm not entirely sure what else you could do to nail "the look" of Freeman's Mind Freeman. He does get shot in the ear by one of those automated turrets in one episode, get a small flesh tunnel maybe? But in all seriousness I think what you need to get right is his neurotic personality, tendency to self-aggrandizement and severe persecution complex. Would you say you have a quick and adaptable sense of humour? If so, you might be better off acting like Freeman would if he suddenly found himself in convention during one of his dimension hopping forays.

Having to open a menu to see the map - Fallout 3/New Vegas and Postal 2. As much as I like these games, pausing the game every other turn to see whether i'm on the right track is tedious. Having a minimap adds to the convenience factor.

In regards to Fallout, I personally don't have many issues with the menu map. I'd much prefer a minimap but the location and quest markers of F 3/4/NV/etc were pretty self-evident, so usually I never have to look at the map unless I need to ascertain if I've fully inspected an interior space, especially if it's a cave or some other unevenly arranged interior. The latterday Fallout games tend to mostly consist of open areas and expansive outdoor spaces, which typically results in easy unhindered navigation. I found it was the same with most of the "holds" in Skyrim, with one major exception being The Reach and the city of Markarth. I don't mind admitting that it took me an embarrassingly long time to find my way to the city within it's jagged mountainous terrain. I was about level 28 when I first entered the region, in the process of finding my way around I must of levelled up three or four times.

You just got me an idea for a comic.

Sorry if I'm being dense, but were you referring to my post about weight mechanics here?

How I Feel About You by 悲しい ANDROID - APARTMENT¶ & Architecture In Tokyo

^ You didn't post a question longliveprose, I'll answer Woah's post too.

Hopefully working in a warehouse somewhere away from the public and most other people in general.

If you could be any type of train, what type of train would you be?