Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

I already flagged it before you edited it

Off to the dog pound you go

Low IQ gamers dont understand game mechanics where you have to put the arrow IN the fire to get it aflame instead of just stand in the area.

https://x.com/yasshbhardwajj/status/2035037254415261797

Ngl game sounds solid, but ive also seen a LOT of complaints and they are performance or other gameplay related. Saw a complaint that you have to button mash just to run?

RIP internet meme lord and one time martial artist, Chuck Norris.

May you get a rematch with Bruce up there.

Hardly. Indeed Omaha is low on the furry scale, about .5 more than mithra.

IDK when the furry thing got started but I noticed it in sci-fi fandom in the 70s or 80s. Funny animals go back to ancient Egypt FFS.

I suspect Dionysus might have furry aspects.

wow i just got completely screwed on ebay.

I sold an item, two days later the guy requests to cancel. I ask why, he says it would not arrive in time (lol really after 2 days) and wants to cancel. I told him fine, even tho I had a deadline by ebay that was not reached, I will refund him because I was getting screwed on fees (which I later relisted and got it sold for higher.)

So I go to refund him and the page bugs out and doesn't let me select my card to use. I tell him and I contact ebay, then they told me its an error on their end and I have to tell the buyer to contact them.

I told him that and he contacted them. He then cancels the request and makes a new request for cancellation with the reason (buyer did not receive item.) I was like wow you slimy POS, why would you do it like that? He said oh thats what ebay told me to do, don't worry it won't be anything bad. Even in my chat with ebay they said the buyer would then need to make a "case" and get a refund that way since my method was bugged. I told the guy (of course from an India call center) that sounds bad, a "case" and like it will be a negative remark on my account.

He then says oh dont worry its ok. So I went ahead with the refund and it went thru by going to my actual profile to change my card (it still bugged when I tried to refund thru the request.)

Now a couple days later I resold that item, and my payment is on hold. I found it strange because I get paid very fast even before shipping. So then I sell a second item and it again gets put on hold, all until the buyer gets the item.

I contact ebay and the support says oh sorry that is just a systematic thing that happens after a case and nothing we can do. Youl;l just have to wait it out and sell as normal and maybe it will be lifted, sometimes its never lifted.

I just find myself in situations like this completely not my fault and it just makes me seethe. Like I just have such bad luck sometimes. If anyone decides to sell on Ebay never ever trust information from an indian call center, always go with your gut (i was just gonna send it and say screw him when the refund didn't work.)

https://x.com/xboxBG/status/2035011408849469620

Disregard previous statement.
Hitting someone with an RKO is in your offensive repertoire in this game. GOTY.

I really hope this isnt some modded version.

Dog, do you like rice and beans?

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE TWITTER LINKS I HATE ELON HES A NAZI SUPPORTER


Fine
here you go

Youre gonna get Mick Foleyed off the top of your crate

He doesnt know

Sometimes not knowing is for the best.

Sometimes not knowing is a good deed.

We had Purim last month. Its one of those Jewish holidays that celebrate that yet once again we weren't totally wiped out.

The celebration itself is a drinking game. The object, and this is mandated in the bible, is to get drunk enough that you know not the difference between "blessed be Mordecai" the hero and "cursed be Haman" the villain.

If you succeed its an official book of good deeds level good deed.

Not knowing the lore of how the dead man made mankind famous is a sin

That’s just gatekeeping — I don’t follow that stuff.

Im afraid I have some bad news:

Gatekeeping is good

Can we talk about DnD? Let's talk about DnD. What's going on? What's happening here? Oh! I know. DnD has been on a downward trajectory as players are losing interest in the game in recent years and many people blame the likes of Matt Mercer and Critical Role. What many new dungeon masters have taken up is Matt's style of DM'ing where they shoehorn their players down a specific route or path. They want to tell a story. Much like Matt. What they don't realize is that's Matt's version of the game is not true to the game's essence. The objective of the DM isn't to tell a story. The players tell the story. The DM is supposed to build the world that said story unfolds in. Railroading is when Matt tries to push his players into a particular play pattern conducive to his story that he wants to tell. He effectively gatekeeps the rest of the world the players are traversing through and inadvertantly unauthenticates his players experience. So what are we talking about? What does any of this mean? It means Critical Role was never inteded to be a true play through of the game so much as it was meant to he promotional material for Wizards of the Coast. It was a hey this is how cool our game can be when played by talanted players. The problem is that's not the true essence of the game. The true essence is the tale of the adventurers. It's not the DM's job to get the players to defeat Vecna and save the world. This assumes the players are hero's when they may not be. The goal of the DM then is to build Clock Town. Vana'diel. It's to build a living breathing world that the players can go out and write their own story in. The challenge of the DM is being flexible enough to allow your players to traverse throughout the entirety of your world while still maintaining a sense of time, character impact, and growth. If in the start of the scenario they're like hey the moon is falling! It's gunna crash and destroy the world! Someone save us! The players might choose to just piss off. Maybe they don't want to save the world. Maybe their story is one of looting and pillaging as they traverse the lands lawlessly. I don't know. That's for the players to decide. You have to have nonplayable characters with routines and time activated events. Say you save a farmer in act one. In act three you find that now there's milk for sale as a result of your deeds in act one, but if you don't then there's no milk for sale. Yes. Sometimes players will miss out on cool sidequests and items that could range anywhere from necessary to optional. Maybe not saving some woman means you missed out on a key that unlocks an optional dungeon. A boat's a boat, but the mystery box could be anything. As the DM you have to set your emotions aside. You can't be let down because one of your players missed out on a chance to claim a robe of serpents. You have to let them play the game as they want to play it. If your band of players decides to be murder hobo's, let them; but let there be consequnces. Have wanted posters start showing up in towns that fit the descriptions of the travelers and create an opposing force to combat them. If you run through Camelot killing all the villagers, eventually Arthur's going to send Lancelot after your ***. So there's gatekeeping in the sense of DM's not allowing for players to fully explore the world they've been cast into that can negatively impact their experience as players. So then gatekeeping is bad right? Kind of. Sometimes the DM may gatekeep players so that they don't enter an encounter they are ill-prepared for. If the DM says maybe it's not a good idea to go to the Ash Lake, it might be a good idea to listen. Just because areas are open to players from onset does not mean it's always a good idea to run in head first like Leroy Jenkins. It can result in a party wipe that ruins everyone's experience. But again, I would argue that's not up for the DM to decide for the players. If they really want to give it go, let them. It may level set their expectations for future campaigns and they'll be less brash about charging head first into dangerous situations. So was it really Critical Role and Matt Mercer that ruined DnD? I'd argue no. I'd argue it's the gatekeeping of players by other players up to and including the Dungeon Master. It's players that want to DM without understanding the role of the DM. They think being the DM is like being the leading actor. The star. The center of attention as all the other players must bend to their will. This has caused a divide in the community amongst those that want to play the game as Critical Role and those that just want to play the game. Some people go on decade long campaigns and build life lasting friendships much as you players have in Vana'diel. More can always be added to the world. Things can be retconned. There doesn't have to be some ultimate goal of defeating Vecna to save the realm. Maybe during the campaign one of the players are brought to death's door and they must traverse through the Shadowfell to retrieve said player's soul from the Raven Queen and said player becomes warlock at the end of it. Who knows!? The point is, some people get so worked up with the meta as it were, or in this instance Critical Role, that they gatekeep others from entering the game for not wanting to play the game as they believe it should be played. This ruins the experience for players seeking to enter the game which is why DnD is in decline. Gatekeeping might be good for Matt's twitch stream to create a more digestable broadcast for viewers to enjoy, but it's a facade. The majority of the time gatekeeping is bad.

the internet is failed.

Like, you just see comments randomly and always have to wonder if thats a real person

Randomly watching a youtube video of a movie scene and you see this



Like, why would he just comment "OK" like some bot, click ok

Wait this is even in the same video



Like what do these bots gain?? What is the main objective

No.

IDK, I didnt feel like a bot reply.

This "OK" felt like a ironic "Whatever".

Also, it had a delay of 1 day between the reply and rejoinder.

VEREDICT: Not a bot

Well, commenting is a form of engagement for the video. Youtube algorithm favors those discussios, after all, they always are gold for a LLM training, as they are contextualized information.

So it does make sense hiring some bot to just post whatever.

But also, Youtube AI scanning are progressively becoming good in detecting bots in their system

Now, looking for the others suspects:


VEREDICT: Not a bot.


VEREDICT: It is a filthy bot. /ban

I just think if a Drow joins your party, don't expect to be running around in broad daylight. It ruins the immersion, but whatever. Do what you want.

This feels like something only non-casual players would really know about or care about. My observation, as someone who has been on again/off again casual dumbdumb, is that the the social aspect is a struggle for society right now more than any public perception around Critical Role. IIRC they tried to resolve this around 4e timeframe with a PUG-like system where you could create a character online, then join one of a number of campaigns at game shops regularly and come/go as you please. In theory it's not a bad idea, but in practice it kinda eliminates the best part of the game, which is the social aspect. That draw of sitting around with the same group once or twice a week was what made DnD great IMO and that dies with this model. The problem is that just isn't happening as much as it used to.

There's been a lot of talk about the decline of 3rd spaces in the past decade and people just seem more isolated in general. I can give other examples of the same thing, where a decade ago there were a ton of group events and now there are none going on. I can't help but feel like this plays a bigger role, but I only loosely follow DnD ***anymore so maybe I'm wrong.

I personally really enjoy it, but it's a lot harder to keep the same group of people meeting up together with all the obligations that come with life now. The same reason my last group split up, we couldn't all show up regularly enough to make it work.

That's your mistake right there.

It would be easier if you believed in the power of paragraphs.

But Iamaman has it right. With the right group D&D is great. Without it pales. Then again IMHO with LSD it gets really wild.

I agree that third spaces are falling apart. Shopping malls are dying where they used to be public epicenters.

I just find it hard to be empathetic when I've meet people interested in DnD that literally tell me they would not play with me. That's part of the gatekeeping problem. You'll have people crying about the lack of a third space or a friend group to play with, but then they act exclusionary in selecting people to play with. Sometimes you have to make concessions. Do you wanna make friends and play the game or not? Ya know?