Selfsurprise

Here's a bit of an obscure one, but it made me a little sad to hear of it. Trevor James Constable was a writer and early researcher who posited the theory that UFO'S, rather than being the spacecraft of distant alien races, were infact hitherto unaccounted species of atmospheric life - a trope that would go on to influence many Fortean and fiction writers to this day. He set the theoretical groundwork of his ideas in books such as The Cosmic Pulse of Life and Sky Creatures: Living UFOs, utilizing a camera "fitted with an ultra-violet lens and high-speed film" (according to his Wiki page), Constable began proposing that the various distortions and strange blobs of colouration in his images were infact enormous amoeba-like entities unrecognized by science, which author Larry Arnold christened Amœbæ constablea. In a book rather inauspiciously titled UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture by Gregory L. Reece, Constable was quoted as stating "the creatures could be the size of a coin or as large as half a mile across." 1925-2016

Although I'm not a particularly big fan of it, I've always admired the way anime refuses to explain itself to the world. It's one of those things I sincerely hope will survive for alien explorers or some archaeologists of a future sapient species to stumble upon, long after our species has gone extinct.

I think you mean 'veteran', not 'doctor for dogs'. (also, I agree completely) I'm glad you cleared that up for me BTG. I stared at PsychoticNinja's post for several minutes genuinely baffled and thinking to myself "why do animal vets get discounts? Is this some sort of drive to get more people into the profession? When did this start happening? Am I confused old man already?" No offence Ninja!

I'm curious. Given that a lot of you are talking (predominantly complaining ;p) about school and parents, what's the sort of age range of users here? I'm 28 and whenever I go on the internet I feel like an old man.

Recently began reading a very intriguing and unorthodox novel, titled Hunters In The Snow, the debut work of a lady named Daisy Hildyard. The tone and presentation of the book has far more in common with the kind of broadly encompassing, academic yet domestic factual history texts - think of Keith Thomas or Peter Ackroyd. It takes place contemporaneously, with an unnamed female protagonist organizing her late grandfather's notes (he was a writer) when she finds an unfinished manuscript describing an eccentric history of England. Despite the brief forays into this young womans memories and her developing thoughts on the materials and historical events she is reading, this nebulous plot remains quietly in the background, at the forefront of the book and wherein the real substance lies is in the weirdly scholarly and literary non-fictive style. It presents authoritarian and convincing treatises of social histories, past events and political machinations, all alongside the tension that comes with reading "factual" material in a fictional source - Hildyard even emphatically endorses this at the beginning of the novel; "Although this novel uses some conventions of non-fictional writing, it is fiction." I find myself drawn into the sincerity of the author's erudition like any good historical text, simultaneously convinced of the progressively unlikely interpretations of key events and individuals, all the while knowing it is fiction - I think a cleverly deliberate comment on the problems inherent of writing about the past. "Other people, he said - by 'other people' he usually meant people who weren't professional historians - don't let things be what they are, they turn histories into parables."- Daisy Hildyard

Listening to weird French coldwave music.

@ Jeb: How nice of you to ask :3 Work has been a bit of a ball-ache, what with all the refitting and general shifting around of shelves and stock that has been going on this month, but my resolution this year was to stop complaining about my job so much. Other than that, I've discovered a lot of excellent music, books and art recently - so I'm pretty good!

I'm just an awkward bellend like that.

1. "I'm probably carrying a few blood-borne diseases on my suit. I'm a walking CDC nightmare. It makes me want to hug someone." 2. "And where did that security guard go? I didn't see him! He's off playing with that alien in this giant funhouse of a ventilation system!" 3. "I don't think anyone's gonna buy a few dozen counts of self-defense with a submachine gun. I think there's kind of an unspoken rule in our society that if this many people are trying to kill you, you're supposed to be dead." 4. ""Yore dead". Wow. I can't even make fun of that." 5. "Why can't there be Error 482? Somebody just shot the server with a 12-gauge."

@ Meelis13: You've put a hell of a lot of thought into your Estonian WW2 idea! Kudos to you, for making the bare bones of what sounds to be a pretty worthwhile plot. I don't know anything about CoD, I think I might of played a demo of one the earliest games in the franchise, so this particular games engine or genre isn't something I can give much input on. I wholeheartedly approve of games that take place in smaller or overlooked nations though, that isn't just another example of an Anglo-American ideal of an "exotic locale". Those countries tend to get left out of the grand arching narrative of world war two that exists in the popular imagination, often dismissed as nothing more than abstract occupied territories in precisely the way the major players of the conflict would of wanted. History has been very unkind and inattentive to those countries, and I think a solidly decent game set within an underrated nation's history would go a long way to rectifying that imbalance.

I'm leaning towards to voting "in", but predominantly in a "better the devil you know" attitude. I'm not overtly against the EU and I'm certainly glad that it's there to rein-in some of the Conservatives desired financial plans. People regarded the Con/Lib-Dem coalition as a joke, but I think people forget that the latter party, for all of Nick Clegg's reneged promises, did actually succeed in preventing some cuts from being implemented. Your comment about staying in being the "safe" option is very insightful, how the EU will continue to the handle the UK afterwards, and I think we are already unusually compliant with EU regulations! I'm not a strong believer in this narrative that the UK will be plunged into an economic dark age if we leave, I believe we have enough national affluence and assets to manage. If anything the Tories will reduce us to serfdom long before any deleterious effects of being outside of Europe's federation ever will. I consider staying in due short-term problems, but when I take a longer view I honestly start considering voting out as being rather more favourable. The EU's authority relies rather heavily on the on willingness of member countries to assent to their rulings, which I think for the most part we do. But those countries that aren't abiding by the rules quite so diligently or are wilfully disregarding certain responsibilities on their part, the EU seems to unable or unwilling to insist upon it. I can't help wondering if it's better to take our affairs out of an organization that could be in decline. Your contribution means a lot more to me than you give yourself credit for, don't count yourself out of the discussion just because it isn't your nation's problem. Thank you for the link, and trust me when I say that I'm not going to dismiss someone based on their age. You are just as valid as anyone else on here.

It was a coincidence, I swear! I was thinking of a non-magical setting, something would open-world RPG and not RTS orientated.

I'm with you here, about the benefits of Youtube over shitty television listings.

For me certain games work better. Take Assassin's Creed. Those games work best with a controller as I felt keyboard felt awkward at times but overall I prefer keyboard with most games. dark souls, freedom planet, undertale, alan wake, dust, any fighting game certain games work much better with a gamepad, you just have to know how to use one On the subject, I was reminded of my attempts at playing Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth on PC using the mouse and keyboard controls. Given that the game requires a lot of deft movements, considerate stealth and split-second decision making I didn't get very far into it. I got stuck in Innsmouth in some warehouse full of local gun-toting goons and couldn't for the life of me escape them. I'm just a filthy console peasant, I'm afraid to say.

Back on topic... I just played Layers of Fear. Forget all the other walking simulators and interactive narrative games you've played so far and go and play it i m m e d i a t e l y. Forgive the hyperbole, but I've been playing it since 2 PM and managed to finish the game, I've only just noticed it was 9 PM. I've never become so engrossed with a game of this particular genre that I've lost track of time. Not only that, but unlike most IWE/WS games this has some genuine replay value - with three different endings depending on the notes and items you collect, events and rooms you choose to enter or become involved in. It also is absolutely dripping with menacing atmosphere, a haunting soundtrack and ambience, a skin-crawling and masterfully vague plot, and you ought to have a peek at it if you like horror.

I'm not an excellent gamer whatever form of control I'm using. I'm amazing at point n' click games though. Especially the pointing and clicking parts.

Various nameless and dubious phobias I may or may not have. Tinybreakroomfullofagencystaffophobia Inactivethreadaphobia Disappointingtikkamasalaphobia Kelvinmckenziephobia Buyinganalbumbasedonthecoolartworkaloneonlytodiscoveritskindofaletdownyouwouldthinkidknowbetterbynowphobia Beingbittenbyaweregoataphilia Wut?

Temple Of Masturbation by Nocturnal Blood I tend to avoid posting Youtube videos here, mostly because I don't want to contribute to slow loading times on the thread. I do watch a lot of the Eastside Show SCP channel though. I don't suppose you're a fan of it, or of the SCP Wiki in general?

Alyxx The Angry Sentinel Of The Most Hallowed Game Room.

9/10, Saints want it more. “No matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with life.” - Ben Jeffrey, Anti-Matter: Michel Houellebecq and Depressive Realism

"KHAAAAAAN!" "KHAAAAAAAAN!"

^ 1. I see wut u did thar BTG 2. Scott saw wu u did thar BTG. 3. Zaraki saw wu u did thar BTG. 4. Ninja saw wu u did thar BTG. 5. Zaraki saw wu u did thar BTG agen.

You might be going about the wrong way, although "wrong" might be an unfortunate choice of words on my part. It might be more worthwhile to spin out your own personal theories and insights on a particular game or series, rather than trawling the internet for interesting ideas which have more than likely been covered by someone. I gouge primitive looking ogham script in rocks and henges.

Seeing as discussions regarding alternative histories have been rather prevalent on the forum recently, I had one idea for a hugely unlikely and particular game setting after reading about the Doges of Venice. I'm thinking that prior to the founding of Venice by Roman Italian refugees fleeing from Attila the Hun's forces (5th century, I think) some sort of irradiated rock hit the planet and caused long-term natural disasters and hideous mutation of both the local flora and fauna as well as the local populace. Despite all of this Venice still arose and flourished, and centuries later during the late medieval period the city is a weird mixture of distorted Greco-Romano religion, later-than-reality arrival of monotheistic missionaries and bizarre cults worshipping rumoured demonic entities with strange machines and monstrous anatomies - a bit of vague alien invasion sci-fi trope thrown in for good measure. I guess the genre would be post-apocalyptic historical fiction?