Selfsurprise

I was watching the second episode of a documentary series on BBC's iPlayer last week called Greece with Simon Reeve, which largely dealt with how the country was dealing with and adapting to the dire financial crisis they are depressingly subject to. Tourism has sharply declined, which is a major blow for a nation of culturally disparate islands and atolls. There was even a feature on a radical sect of "rebel monks" centered on the 1,000 year old Esphigmenou monastery, an ultra traditionalist Orthodox Christian breakaway group opposed to the recent agenda of the Greek Orthodox Church to engender closer ties to Catholicism. They have holed themselves up in the aforementioned monastery nestled in the formidable terrain of Mount Athos, effectively occupying it as well as several other buildings in the region. There have been several failed (and often violent) attempts by both police and mainstream clergy to forcibly remove the monks from the monastery. If that isn't thematic potential for an internecine power struggle in post-apocalyptic Mount Athos I don't know what is! ^ Regional flag of Mount Athos (it has two heads already! ;p) But riffing on the whole "Fallout takes place in a royally screwed up future" theme, I had a particular scenario in mind for a potential Fallout: Greece - Mount Athos or not. Say there was some hair-brained scheme to do what Greece has always succeeded in doing in times of dire consequences - cashing in on their rich historical heritage. A famous (infamous, in some quarters) eccentric pre-war billionaire patriot vows to turn the nation's fortunes around by attracting tourists back. He makes grand plans to utilize advanced technology and unfettered genetic engineering to resurrect the springwell of mythology and legend his country is associated with. He attempts to create living, breathing monsters to entertain and enthrall paying customers. Griffons, chimeras, centaurs, basilisks, cockatrices, lamias, stymphalian birds, two-headed amphisbaena, minotaurs, manticores, cyclops, scylla, gorgons, catoblepas, the man-eating Mares of Diomedes, need I add more even though I easily could? Naturally his ideal beasts of antiquity rarely match up with the harrowing and unspeakably deformed results. ^ A strapping young example of a "Griffin" (in the loosest possible sense of the term)

I appreciate expanding upon pre-existing material. Was this for some practical end or was it simply a project for your own enjoyment? Your description of the fungal interiors effects on it's Dunmer inhabitants is verging on that sci-fi trope regarding the concept of biological engineering, of a species that developed/bred? materials and machinations by organic means. Whenever this type of thing appears in a settings lore or narrative in tends to be in regard to advanced paradigm shifting technology or pseudo-magical weaponry, but I've often pondered how an ordinary society of being relatively similar to ourselves would go about making an equivalent civilisation for themselves via living technology.

Oh! See I have a moderate understanding of the complexities and degree of separation between gender and sexuality, the idea that the former is more of a biological determination and the latter is increasingly argued to be a psychosocial construction, one that ties in with how a person develops a relationship to their cultural context. In a sense the terms cisgender and cisexuality are effectively convenient labels, additions to an already complex and multilayered spectrum of sexual preference. Thanks Rarity, you might not be aware of it but this summary helped me understand what this terminology actually meant. For a few years I've been rather annoyed with myself for not being able to fully grasp a concept that plenty of other less critically-minded folk tossed about with wild abandon. I wasn't certain if it was some "social justice" invention or a legit academic theme that has been unfortunately hijacked by people who ought to know better. Again, thanks for taking the time to clarify it for me

I don't like the idea of continuously writing letters unless I have something new or novel to say, assuming I hadn't already said it in my foremost letters. I understand the effectiveness of alliteration of the same point by multiple individuals, but let's not forget that the people we are sending this stuff to will almost certainly have secretarial staff to cherry pick the most notable and pressing packages. If I keep on sending a stream of similarly themed letters to the extent that you are recommending, I can't help worrying that they'll rapidly decide to file my correspondence under "to be buried in a peat bog, never to be seen again by human eyes". Besides, I've seen enough of your posts and threads here to know that you are more than capable of writing a distinct and noticeable letter to EA's biggest kahunas :3 Surely the mass strategy that you are proposing will be largely achieved by the pre-made letter Ross created. They'll soon realise that this fanbase and this particular group of gamers have a united interest in reiterating our pleas to stop this particular practice, all those different names and signatures purposefully repeating the words to meme-like effect. It will only serve to make the personal letters stand out more. Sometimes when I come across videos I've already watched on my favourite channels (especially those with a lot of regular updates) I see the annotation below that reads "this video was uploaded three years ago" and I have to stop and consider it for a while. I have a habit of assuming that videos I've randomly stumbled upon are brand new.

Rather simple premise for a thread game, all it requires is the ability to use tags and a first class ticket to ride upon the rainbow coloured wings of imagination! Using the picture that the last user posted (I recommend various genres of art, photography, humorous stuff, scary stuff, fantasy/sci fi stuff, screenshots of actual video games, GIFs, album covers, nothing NSFW for obvious reasons, bizarre images resulting from any conceivable medium, etc) give us a title and a brief description of an imaginary video game inspired by the aforementioned picture. If you chosen image is a work of art with a title, you might consider including it for the sake of getting people's synapses firing - you could just go ahead and steal any provided titles for your game. Then select your own image for the next user to tickle his or her creativity nodules. I'm also going to include optional "inspirational tags" (highlighted magenta, as I've done here) in order provide further incentive to conjure up a fictional game. Here's an example of the kind of thing I hope to see Forgive my hubris, but I don't think that's a shabby idea for a game :3 And it was all influenced by a single painting. I hope this gives you an idea of how to play the game, I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Here's the picture I select for the next play... Seer Of Decay by Grunt (album cover) INSPIRATIONAL TAGS: survival horror, unusual aesthetics/graphics, bodily disorder

Cissexual from what I can tell is the same as cisgender which is identifying with the body you where born with. I'm still not certain how this differs fundamentally from heterosexuality though. From the way you described it, it seems like cisgender simply describes a personal emotional response to one's physical gender, in a sense the opposite of yet intrinsically linked to the emotional response experienced by transgender individuals towards their own bodies. Is it correct to say that cisexism is simply what might otherwise be described as heterophobia?

Tell me about it. I think the extent Ross will be affected by this depends on how many people refer to him when sending letters, emails etc. It might be an idea actually not to refer to him. He can get involved by himself, along with other big internet names if they choose to. The people who make the most impact would likely become seen as the leader(s), and that may not even include Ross. I'm afraid my letters do refer to the Gaming Dungeon episode in question, so I'm afraid Ross's name naturally comes up. I kept it entirely civil though. The most critical thing throughout the entire letter is my entreaty to all concerned parties that they don't allow EA to become an elephant's graveyard for underrated games. But I'm entirely in agreement with you and Bman shared worries in regards to what certain people might say and/or do in response to this rallying call. Gamers, particularly Youtube demographic gamers, aren't always the most reasonable or well-adjusted individuals. I'm sending mine out tomorrow, and I'm giving another user's letters a "piggyback" with my own outgoing mail. I do live in England though. so it might be a short while until they arrive in people's pigeon-holes. I wasn't trying to single anybody out I assure you, I was just surprised to see two new pages that weren't nearly as constructive as I had hoped. Your idea of having a multilingual response might be a pretty good step, it would certainly reinforce the idea that EA's modus operandi is alienating its customers on a global scale. Gamers might not have the self-control or moral fortitude to engage in a full-scale boycott, but we do know how to complain! ;p

I have to confess I find it amusing how it's become something of a norm for everyone, including yourself, to refer to you as Ross's Girlfriend Although it does worry me slightly, I would hate to think the work you presumably do for your significant other doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated. "Companies making jeans sell "short-leg", so now I got to know I have "short" legs...It's kinda insulting, when you think of it..." I'm starting to suspect that your sense of humour has invariably rubbed-off on Ross... :3

You also get to live in a giant mushroom tower. Who wouldn't want that? I've often speculated as to why a good portion of the Telvanni councilors are insane and I thought maybe it's due to them living inside a giant mushroom for so long? Can you imagine all of those fungal spores that you're breathing in constantly for who knows how many years? That can't be good. I'm guessing the spores aren't immediately fatal otherwise the Telvanni wouldn't living inside of the mushrooms. It's probably on par with living inside a house with lead paint. Not deadly but definitely not very healthy. Most of the insane ones are old too so maybe it's a combination of age, magic abuse and living conditions. That makes sense to me. Turns out the Dark Elves were the High Elves, all along... The dunmer architecture was one of the many reasons I enjoyed Dragonborn the most out of all, in regards to Skyrim DLC's. Everything in Solsteim felt a little more unique and genuinely fantastical, with it's bizarre flora and fauna, the stark volcanic environment, the myriad giant spiders, the feisty goblin-like Rieklings, it's Ash themed undead, the daedric library plane of existence Apocrypha*, the noticeably ophidian dragons, etc. Skyrim was a fantastic enough place to explore, although indebted like most fantasy settings to the well established Tolkien tropes. Now that I think about it, being the inveterate bibliophile that I am, I can't think of anywhere else in the world I'd rather live than Apocrypha. I just need to get on good terms with Hermaeus Mora and his attendent Seekers and Lurkers.

This thread has taken a very unhelpful turn... It might help if people who felt uncertain what to write could have the option to write up drafts on this thread, especially if they don't want to use Ross's pre-made letter for whatever reason. If you have something in mind but aren't sure how you want to phrase a certain opinion or point, I for one would be happy to look at your letters. I'm sure others here could offer constructive criticism too.

It's an abject lesson in attempting to find worthwhile debate in the sphere of unfathomably idiotic Z-lister. Anything critical levelled at someone as morally unjustifiable as the Karashians will invariably bring a slew of hostile responses from what are, naturally, the lowest common denominator in a given demographic. By the logic of Tumblrites your personal feelings towards Caitlyn Janner aren't merely a subjective disliking of an individuals conduct (on your part, irrespective of gender or sexuality) but a broad assault on what they take to be a transgender community that they are themselves probably only nominally a part of. As a person of feminist inclinations I always worry about the term "third-wave feminist", because I'd hate to see it misused. In your case and in other sane peoples cases, I know it's meant as a way of differentiating the pseudofeminist drum pounders from the more traditional or critically minded voices in feminism. However I fear that any woman who cites a feminist allegiance or context will immediately be labelled a misandrist by the fedora wearing Men's Rights activists that could never gain ground anywhere outside of the internet, because of the conduct of the aforementioned crowd of S.C.U.M. wannabes. I worry about the literary work of writers like Angela Carter, Nina Power, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Cordelia Fine and even some of the commentary of Claire Bishop instills in her essays about art being dismissed wholesale because they are effectively women writing about women. I think we also return to a cultural problem that was brought up in Meelis13's thread Why do people get so defensive about music? If you replace the target subject of music with anything else, both as trivial as a franchise/hobby or as profoundly important as ideology and politics you're bound to find some vocal minority who haven't grasped the full multifaceted complexity of the very thing they claim to identify with. In terms of their behaviour and the cross-of-deep-seated-inadequacy-in-common that they bear, the Tumblr SJW crowd isn't fundamentally different from homophobic branches of religious fundamentalists, or the kind of shirtless English Defence League guys you see in my country with St. Georges flag tattooed on the back of their heads. You mentioned being CIS male, I'm embarrassed to confess that I still don't entirely understand what cisexuality/cisexism is, even after endeavouring to engage in some cursory research into it. Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly differentiates a cisexual from a heterosexual? Assuming there is some division to take note of. Is the former somehow a more deliberate identification with binary gender mores and the latter supposedly a more incidental psychosocial thing? I get the impression that's how cisexuals mark themselves apart from other sexual orientations, but I'm not sure that I'm sure, if you catch my drift. Thanks mate! I'm certainly wouldn't want to come across as someone sympathetic to transphobes, but when one of the most public transgender figures in one of the worlds most powerful and influential nations is apparently a horrid person, it basically plays right into the worst stereotypes that the bigots clamour for. Your comments regarding feminism give me hope that not everyone is blind to the marked differences between ad-hoc "feminists" that the neck bearded civil movement takes to be all feminists, and the actual feminists who eloquently argue for genuine equality and rightly subject gender identity to scrutiny.

Pepsi/Coke Suicide by Elvis Depressedly

^ Good choice Alyxx 「手さぐりの B R E A K」 by LORDSUN

ALL CAPS Sorry, I couldn't resist! ;p I had to Google who Caitlyn Jenner was to be completely honest, but if I got the gist of your post it sounds like she isn't worth knowing about. I agree that a certain class of liberal, especially Tumblr's community, tend to be haunted by the potential of bigotry even when it isn't present. One of the reasons I try to word my opinions very deliberately when on the site, to avoid the attentions of people who cannot fathom subjectivity.

I found this one really inspiring. I think for the Battleforge episode the conclusion was rather pessimistic and your tell Ross felt a little helpless. But this is something everyone can get involved, more involved than a half-baked or some hollow call for a boycott, but still feasible for the majority of us. I'm commited to writing some passionate but otherwise civil letters to the heads of EA. Thanks Ross, for articulating the frustrations of gamers better than most It might be worth adding the address of Samantha Ryan, who is also in charge of EA's Mobile and Maxis wings, the latter being especially pertinent to the video. Attn: Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President 209 Redwood Shores Pkwy., Redwood City, CA 94065 USA If you write up your intended message/s and post them here (or better still PM it to me), I wouldn't be opposed to printing out and mailing your letters alongside my own. I intend to send letters to the all four individuals in the videos description as well as the vice president Ken Barker if I can get a hold of his corporate address. Once I'm done i'll send them out as a batch. They are pretty much going to the same place.

I'll apologize in advance because I'm afraid my response is, well, negative. It's a little thing, but the fact you immediately called the lady character a bitch for no reason at all turned me off this. It was your first line, and it made me instantly dislike your character. Maybe I'm being oversensitive but the tone of your voice and the unwarranted machismo meant I couldn't really stomach the character for longer than five minutes. The guys dialogue wasn't great either, I got the impression you intended it to be neurotically funny but instead it made him sound like an unimaginative thug, the kind of guy who probably compensates for his deep-seated and confusing feelings towards other men with embarrassingly obvious masculinity. You probably aren't actually like this in real life, but I can't say I want to see anymore of this. Sorry man.

Approach one of the phones in Rapture, you should see a hotline for child protection services. Make up something scurrilous about his parenting and move on. How do I stop Dogmeat from blatantly running into mines when playing Fallout 4?

The Winery Dogs: An assortment of grape vines materialize in the music venue, and soon a group of stray dogs dressed in stereotypical French apparel saunter on stage. They proceed to drink botryatic wine and hurl insults at the audience in absurd accents. Next band: Bloody Panda

DBZ abridged actually Thank you

Was that DBZ video a funny re-dub or was that the actual English dialogue? If it's the latter, that's amazing. Watching that reminds of many amusing hours wiled away on Newground. OYa5aQb3YGE "Defeating a sandwich, only makes it tastier!" - Vegeta

Body Molecule by Positive Molecule

I'm becoming ever so slightly addicted to Ziggurat. On the face of it, Ziggurat is a rather simple first-person dungeon crawler with randomly-generated levels, with minor RPG elements in the form of experience points that allow your chosen character to gain new traits. You play a student of magic undertaking a hallowed rite of passage in the titular Ziggurat, a place full of monsters and secret lore that will test your spell flinging capabilities. The interesting aspect is that you have no lives or continues, if you die you have to start at the beginning of the Ziggurat, only the subsequent level maps will have a different layout, enemies will change and appear in different orders, new spells, staffs, amulets, and alchemical weapons may turn up in hidden rooms, the key to summon each levels randomly selected "guardian" (i.e. boss) will turn up in varied parts of the map, etc. There is a lot of content to unlock too, new traits to select which you often get given upon your characters untimely demise. New characters are awarded upon completing certain milestones, such as killing X amount of a certain enemy or totaling up X amount of damage.

I'd prefer to be a token Orc in some hold, doing a really un-orcish job in order to confuse the local Nords. The Dark Elves are my favourite of the mer, so good choice! :3

^ (British forum goers might remember this) ;3 ~ Admittedly inspired by the marvellous Useless Advice thread, in this game users take it in turns to post challenging spot from any game they can think of, a difficult puzzle, an adventure game conundrum, a hard-as-nails boss or even just a tricky platforming section. So long as its from a real life computer game it's fine. The next user then has to offer up the least helpful and/or insane solution to it that they can muster up. In fact the query you ask needn't be a particularly difficult part of the game, you might just want to ask it for a laugh. For example, if I asked "how do I up get up the elevator shaft in Half-Life's office complex?" the next user might say, "don't go up! take a headlong dive into the shaft. At the bottom a conveniently placed bouncy castle will cushion your landing, upon which you'll see a door that leads straight out of Black Mesa. That's the end of the game." You got the gist of the game? How do I solve the coin puzzle in Silent Hill 2?

Just a goofy idea me and my sister joked about whilst I was visiting her. We had a discussion in which we conjured up this comedic sketch that involved the lineup of last years Supersonic festival (link, if you're interested) commenting on some of the wonderfully barmy names come up with for themselves. We wondered what the world would be like if bands and musicians eventually became the thing they named themselves, literally, no matter how subjective or abstract the name. Going by the aforementioned lineup we singled out Gazelle Twin (a concerned talking gazelle asking the audience if they've seen her twin sister/brother) All Ears (a horrible shuddering mass of moaning ears) Woven Skull (a skull made of straw that lashes out and captures audience members by weaving skulls over their heads) and Dirty Electronics (a bunch of kitchen appliances and outdated PCs that ask female audience members what kind of pants they are wearing). I guess in order to make this a an actual game thread, each player must post a band or lone musician (preferably who goes by an alias, not by their real name) for the next user, who must describe what they have turned into and perhaps even what they would do if they "performed" live. For example if somebody posted Black Sabbath, I could say Black Sabbath were a group of hooded acolytes who relaxed on stage, sitting reading newspapers or having a nice cup of hot beverage, whilst one of the group throws a frisbee to a goat. At the end of the performance one of acolytes explains all this by simply saying "it's Sunday". I hope you get the gist of the thread from me and my sisters utterly insane ramblings... :3 Next band: Darkthrone ~ Alternatively, just throw out some of your own ideas if you absolutely can't keep them to yourself. I'm not going to make this a dyed-in-the-wool game thread, feel free to participate both aspects of the topic. Here's a few examples I've made up. Animal Collective (a random assortment of animals stampede off the stage, crushing the audience resulting in many deaths and injuries) Sleep Party People (a group of somnambulists throw a disastrous beer fueled dance party) Skinny Puppy (an emaciated puppy with enormous heart melting eyes gains the audiences trust, then eats them) High Wolf (a clumsy and oddly sedate giant wolf "blazes it" on stage) The Jesus Loves Heroin Band (Jesus appears in all his immanent majesty, and tosses little bags of scag to the audience) Whitehouse (the actual Whitehouse slams into the venue where the bands performance is supposed to take place) Minor Threat (a group of ankle-high tough guys appear and attempt to beat up the audience, their efforts cause much merriment) AIDS Wolf (too horrifying to contemplate) P.S. I apologize for my weird choice of bands, I have rather odd tastes in regards to music.