ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. IN AN EFFORT TO KEEP BRUTAL COMMENTERS FROM BEING SO ANGRY, ZARDOZ GIVES YOU THE GUN LINKS.
- ZARDOZ LOOKS FORWARD TO SJW BRUTALS DENOUNCING COMMUNIST CHINA.
- IT APPEARS TO BE FIRST DAY OF SOME BRUTAL SPORT SEASON.
- OR WAS IT THIS SPORT ZARDOZ WAS PONDERING?
- KIWI BRUTALS SHOULD STICK TO RUGBY AND SHEEP.
- IF ANY BOSTONIAN BRUTALS FELL FOR THIS ONE, ZARDOZ WANTS THEM CLEANSED.
ZARDOZ MUST GO MAKE SCHEDULED GRAIN PICKS UPS. ZARDOZ WISHES HIS CHOSEN ONES A GUN GOOD NIGHT.
FIRST LINKS, THEN ANOTHER GRAIN DELIVERY, AND FINALLY DROP OFF GUNS TO BRUTAL ENFORCERS. ZARDOZ ALL WORK AND NO PLAY.
Zardoz is good AND great.
Preach it, Brother Brutal!
And Go Twins!
Monday is opening day. This silly few games a day early is dumb.
This is the Mariners year. I can feel it. Either that or I got frostbite.
IT APPEARS TO BE FIRST DAY OF SOME BRUTAL SPORT SEASON.
Is it the one with the severed goats head?
I missed my chance to see a bushkazi match in Afghanistan – I was home for two weeks leave when they had one near where I was operating. My buddies said it was….interesting.
I bet. I wonder who the first dude was who started a game with dead goat parts.
SHAZAAM
They have it in for the Amish and that beard chin strap thing lacking a mustache.
LOL can’t imagine why
You beat me to it… Kicks rocks…
Xinjiang, China’s westernmost region, is home to the Uighurs, a Muslim group which claims to face discrimination from the Han Chinese.
Claims? This seems pretty cut and dry. If the Chinese were Republican, that sentence would be different…
In fairness, or not, the muslims in china have been violent extremists and have been giving the chinese bloody hell forever. I would feel pretty indifferent if the chinese slaughtered them. Don’t bother trying to sort out who threw the first punch. That happened centuries ago I am sure.
In this instance, I’ll side with the Muslim extremists. It was a region conquered by force relatively recently. It’s not ethnically part of China, and most Chinese would never accept those people as their countrymen. Not to mention you end up under the thumb of a communist dictatorship (ignore that the alternative would probably suck, as well). As a libertarian, the answer to me is pretty simple and its that the people in those regions have a right to self-determination. Same with a number of other areas that China lords over.
To make perfectly clear, like other ethnic groups in China, those Muslims are second class peasants.
Life’s tough as a peasant.
I’m sure they have freedom of speech and religion, too.
Like everything in China, it’s all relative. Look up the phrase “liangshao yikuan”. While a Uighur may not be able to listen to the preacher he wants to listen to, if he assaults a Han because his eating a pork noodle dish offended him, he will, by official policy, get a less harsh sentence than if the situation were reversed.
Mmmmm pork noodles
I keep running into (and not eating at) pork-free Chinese restaurants. They’re not the kosher or halal ones either. Fortunately they’re offset by some new regional chain-like ones offering pork belly w/ black bean sauce and fresh, killed to order whole tilapia for modest prices.
As I’m in the Tidewater area I’m going to enjoy some yock a mein in the next day or so.
Anyone here ever eat at Sing Wong?
It has the two good signs of Cantonese name and ghetto location.
I’m not sure why you’d do that unless you were kosher or halal. It’s like opening an Indian restaurant that doesn’t serve lamb. What’s the point?
I don’t get that either. Who has a non-religious objection to pork?!
Vegans?
Panda Express doesn’t serve pork. I think some independent ones are just following suit. Maybe it is because chicken is cheaper.
Holy shit! How have I not eaten at Sing Wong. Look at the menu, and especially the hours of operation in these google pics.. The limited hours and days open means the owners are essentially retired. Their offspring are probably too educated and affluent to enter the family business and they aren’t handing it off to some Fujianese greenhorns.
I was expecting a response on this from you, though it went a little heavy on the government apologetics and faith in official party line. The Han population levels you cite below resulted from deliberate efforts to colonize the region – particularly the mineral-rich North. The region was overwhelming non-Han until the commies. So, yea, the Chinese get themselves a few tokens to point to in order to show how benevolent they are to the minorities after decades of using brute force to take the best of what the land has to offer and colonizing it with ethnic Han.
Completely false. The Zungharian genocide was conducted during the Qing Dynasty in 1755, after which the Qing sponsored settlement into the area of millions of Han, Hui, and Uighur colonists. They arrived at the same time and pretty much in the same numbers as current demographics suggest.
Hm…kind of odd that only 7% of the population was ethnic Han as of 1953. You know, before the Chinese government implemented a deliberate colonization project in the region. Basically, you are doing what the Chinese government does. You latch onto a single point in history, a snap shot, and try to act as if it was some permanent or constant state from there on. Only part missing is complaining about the white imperialists coming along and breaking everything so you can then argue that Mao was just putting it back together.
Not “as of”, “in”. Supplying the context you deemed not worthy of providing:
I already explained to you down-thread about the shifting ethnic nomenclature between Han, Hui, and Uighur, as well as the history to explain why the Chinese Communist Party wanted to reclassify the majority of people living in the region as Uighur. Now, it’s possible all those Han died during the Chinese Civil War and/or WW2, but I doubt that’s what happened. Regardless of that, what you cite merely further supports my criticism of your claim that “The region was overwhelming non-Han until the commies” as your own source states that the region was 30 percent Han as late as the 1800s.
And somehow I am able to do all this without attempting to smear you as some sort of Islamist apologist. This is your first and final warning. I’m happy to continue this debate, but it behooves you to cut the petulance and the mind-reading shit out.
I thought most people were aware of the 1300 years of Sino civilization in that area? I first learned of it when the.media were scrambling to learn things about Central Asia in late 2001, early 2002. Chinese influence stretched from the Pacific to Kabul.
@Gojira
I always found the Tocharians fascinating. Something about being the easternmost Indo-European language/people.
I’ll include as much petulance and mind-reading in my arguments as I’d like, thanks. If that’s some sort of threat of banning or any other such nonsense, you can feel free to do so or get a site admin to do it. I personally enjoy the claims that you are perfectly willing to continue to engage in a debate, as long as its on your terms and your thin skinned isn’t pricked.
“…as your own source states that the region was 30 percent Han as late as the 1800s.”
Which is entirely irrelevant. It was not Han when the CRP took control of the region. You make some vague reference to showing why the Chinese wanted to reclassify the people in the region below which must refer to this link here. But your argument is only relevant to the statements I’ve actually made if you are going to try and argue that ethnic Han were reclassified. Your link only states that the term Uyghur was adopted to lump together various Muslim ethnic groups:
“Sheng adopted the Soviets’ ethnographic classification rather than that of the Kuomintang and became the first to promulgate the official use of the term “Uyghur” to describe the Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang.”
There is no actual confusion over the designation of Han in the area described in any link you’ve provided nor any reason they would be under counted. People can go read that for themselves. If I’m missing something, feel free to actually quote it. While you don’t directly state Han were reclassified, you sure seem to be implying it. That’s the only way to read your argument there and see it as a refutation of mine.
I agree = Han shot first.
So, you’re being a mendacious dick just to be a mendacious dick. Got it.
If anyone has thin skin, it’s you. All I’ve done is disagreed with you. I really don’t understand where all this hostility displayed by you is coming from.
Who were the victims of the Kulja Massacre?
There was no ‘hostility’ until you started issuing threats.
“Who were the victims of the Kulja Massacre?”
The question seems pretty irrelevant to me. Even asking about it is strange since you seem to be arguing that there wasn’t Han demographic decline in the region in the twentieth century. When there have been multiple uprisings in two different centuries against same group, I think that undercuts your central idea that the Chinese have just as much claim to the region. I mean, what was with all the hostility? It’s almost as if people were rising up against a ruling class of colonists or something.
Or maybe the angle here is to assign guilt to the Uyghurs. To which I’ll simply ask back, “Who were the perpetrators?” Because my point, as I’ve tried to get across by continuously using the term self-determination and by referencing individuals, is anti-collectivist. I’m not here to rail again against Han Chinese in the region and assign guilt to people living there. Or arguing that people should be kicked out of Xinjiang. I’m arguing against a totalitarian communist regime that is both foreign to the majority of the population and oppressive.
What the Chinese government has done, whether this iteration or previous ones, can’t be completely undone. That doesn’t justify their continued wrongs. Nor does it change the fact that the region is not and has never been predominantly Han or Chinese. One conquest and round of colonization is being justified by a previous conquest and round of colonization.
Yeah, basically this – though there is a bit of the no-good-guy phenomenon going on as well. It’s hard to tell what part of their bad behavior is Islamists being Islamists vs. a conquered people wanting their independence.
I am aware. I am shamelessly siding with the marginally more civilized based on my gut reaction. Still, I admit you are correct.
The Uighurs only make up 45 percent of the population of Xinjiang. Han Chinese make up another 40 percent. I don’t think it’s as clear-cut as you’re making it out to be.
Doesn’t China have a policy of deliberately shipping Han off to the frontiers? I think the Han there are relatively recent arrivals.
Well, yes. “Xinjiang” literally means “frontier” and by Chinese standards the 17th century is relatively recent. But regardless of the timeline, the issue is similar to Israel and Palestine. Where does one expect the other to go exactly?
And the reckoning of the 17th century is Xinjiang as we know it today. If you really want to get technical, the Chinese held control of the region like 1,300 years ago, well before they ruled Tibet, say.
It’s a region that has been traded back and forth between empires for most of recorded history. I don’t see why the descendants of late-10th century Turkic invaders who genocide-ed out the previous Buddhist Tocharians and Sakas from the region have any more of a claim to it than more recent denizens.
Well, I’m certainly no expert on the area. I do have a conditioned reflex to disbelieve anything put out by the Chinese government, however. Like the yellow man’s burden re: Xinjiang propaganda that appeared in the in-flight magazine of one airline I took in China.
Indeed, the CCP does have their own narrative “The Tibetans were drinking out of the skulls of sacrificed children before we came, etc. etc.,” but it’s just the other side of the coin of the propaganda efforts to Palestine-ize what’s going on in Burma with the Rohingya, in Xinjiang with the Uighur, or in Pattani with the Muslim Malay-Thai.
“I don’t see why the descendants of late-10th century Turkic invaders who genocide-ed out the previous Buddhist Tocharians and Sakas from the region have any more of a claim to it than more recent denizens.”
Because one involves people who died long ago, while the other is an ongoing infringement of the rights of a massive number of people still alive? I fail to see why I should care at what points in time China can claim maps show it owned some territory. It’s entirely irrelevant. It’s a moronic academic argument that never questions the underlying assumption that such a thing actually matters or changes the morality of what’s going on.
It’s not irrelevant to falsify your claim that the region was a.) “It was a region conquered by force relatively recently” and b.) “not ethnically part of China”. I think we all agree that the Chinese government is infringing the rights of its citizens, but you point to faulty evidence in your support for the Uighurs’ irredentist claims. Ironically for you, the term “Uighur” wasn’t even used as an ethnic descriptor by these people until 1934 when the CCP governor of the region decided to use the Soviet scheme of ethnic classification instead of the traditional Chinese classification of Chinese Muslims as “Hui”.
The separation of Xinjiang into a sharia-compliant Eastern Turkmenistan would be a great injustice to approximately half of its native population, who have as much claim to the land as their Turkic peers.
Me, I’m certainly not advocating any such thing. At the same time, I don’t believe all the feel-good nonsense put out by the government about how kind they are to their minorities for one second.
The point is not how “kind” the CCP is, but it was raising awareness to the little-known fact that the Chinese do “affirmative action” too, and it actually causes a lot of resentment within in majority Han population. That having been said, it’s quite inaccurate to claim that “other ethnic groups in China … are second class peasants” when the Hui have traditionally dominated the officer ranks of the military, and there are high-ranking members of the CCP of Bai, Zhuang, Mongol, Dai, Manchu, etc. heritage. It’s just hyperbolic nonsense to claim that every ethnic minority group in China experiences the same suppression as the Tibetans and Uighur.
On the other hand, the Chinese will imprison you and harvest your organs for being part of Falun Dafa no matter what your ethnicity is.
Your argument is simple nonsense. Most of the Han in the region are recent arrivals or the offspring of much more recent arrivals – not the descendants of migrants or past colonists from the centuries ago. They are people imported into the region by the Chinese government.
I also haven’t argued what you are claiming. I must have missed when I claimed that the Han in the region are illegitimate and should be forced to leave. That isn’t what I would call justice. I have argued against the Chinese government and shown that it is the reason that they are there in such high numbers. What I did say is that the Muslims in that region have the right to self-determination – the same that all individuals have. Which should be pretty non-controversial among libertarians.
“The separation of Xinjiang into a sharia-compliant Eastern Turkmenistan would be a great injustice to approximately half of its native population, who have as much claim to the land as their Turkic peers.”
The only ones with any claim are individuals. And I personally lack the crystal ball you possess that lets you know exactly the sort of political arrangement and culture that would emerge if the Chinese government no longer dominated it. But I’d rather you just stick with the utilitarian argument instead of bastardizing history.
Nowhere have you provided solid proof of that claim; whereas, I’ve provided ample evidence against it.
Oh? Then just what did you mean when you wrote “In this instance, I’ll side with the Muslim extremists.” What is it do you think the Muslim Uighur extremists want? Perhaps you should say what you mean and mean what you say.
Which gets back to my point that the region is 45% Uighur and 40% Han. What of the Han’s right to self-determination? Instead of answering that, you decided to stamp your feet when I discussed the situation in its broader historical context.
Yes, I, too, look forward to the Uighur Spring.
“Nowhere have you provided solid proof of that claim; whereas, I’ve provided ample evidence against it.”
Now here’s where I’m just going to outright call you a liar. Because you provided one link on this subject, and nowhere in it did it state anything about Han being reclassified or miscounted. The Wikipedia article even states on the 1964 census data that Han had returned to the region and were in numbers similar to their peak during the Qing period. The Xinjiang article, under demographics, makes very clear that the Han population had declined substantially. Your “ample evidence” to the contrary consists of latching onto the history of the term Uyghur to try to muddle the issue and not much else. But your argument would actually only make sense if non-Han groups such as Hui were counted as Han in the 19th century data – which they weren’t. Otherwise, you are arguing that ethnic Han were then re-designated Uyghur with the adoption of the title in the 1930’s. Something that you have provided zero evidence of.
Obviously, that statement was 100% completely literal. I want to see all the Chinamen in Xinjiang ethnically cleansed and thrown into a big ditch and their land and wealth redistributed to the Moslem. Ignore where I’ve now explicitly stated multiple times that all individuals have the right to self-determination. To include the Han (who are mostly dominant in their own enclaves to begin with – ones where all the natural resources happen to be).
The commies have no legitimate claim to govern that territory despite your obfuscation and mendacity.
Actually, I provided three (plus a broken link), and if you actually took the time to read them, you’d know I was referring to the Hui and not the Han.
Again, I ask, who were the victims of the Kulja Massacre?
And to clarify, the 1st massacre, not the 2nd.
I’m not misunderstanding your point at all. Your argument actually only makes sense if you ignore the link I provided and if you want to confuse different types of “Hui.” Your argument being that Hui always referred to the Muslims from China who were culturally close to the Han and other usages:
That’s from Uyghurs article – your link. Now back to the Xinjiang article:
So I’m stuck here in a position where I can only accuse you of being dishonest or careless here. Because you are completely trying to confuse the issue of the term “Hui” to suit your argument on the demographic data from 1953 being misleading. The 30% figure from the 19th century is including Hui and Han Chinese. The
The CRP counts Hui as their own ethnic group. The Uyhurs are distinct. They don’t account for the demographic decline which is clearly spelled out in my link where as you are trying to infer something not actually supported in your links (and if you disagree, how about you provide the actual quote):
The Hui – that is, those who would be considered Han, would not have been reclassified as Uyghurs as you are trying to claim. They were considered Han by the Qing. They are a separate class from Uyghur in census data.
I’m done commenting on perceived hostility besides saying that there’s one person here who started throwing out vague threats which can seemingly only be interpreted one way.
Kind of like the ethnic Cham Muslims under the Khmer Rouge. They might both suck, but…
Yes, China has its own issues with Muslim violence.
Addressing a party workshop
on Xinjiang in Beijing Xiin Wellesley saidseparatists “severely damage the stability ofXinjiangthe student body, as well asnationalcampus security with religious extremism as their ideological basis, violentterrorwords as the main method, and national division as their ultimate goal.”Man, I butchered that.
IF ANY BOSTONIAN BRUTALS FELL FOR THIS ONE, ZARDOZ WANTS THEM CLEANSED.
Still… The greatest April’s fools joke are the ones that don’t happen on April 1st. For example Nov. 9 2016.
This was a pretty good one.
I uh, heard about it. Ya, that’s it.
That gave me a chuckle.
Ah Pornhub. Montreal’s gift to porn.
God damn. That is brilliant.
I dunno, I’m more for the long con type of April Fool’s jokes.
Comments are quite entertaining.
Points for the Harrison Ford plane reference.
Jesus. The Dodgers are -360 favorites to win their first game against the Padres. I guess I haven’t been following baseball much, because that’s insane. I though Boston was overrated for being -165 favorites to win against the Pirates. Mebbe it’s just the pitchers.
Note for non gambling types: -360 means you’d have to bet $36.00 to win $10. Also, you’d have to be right.
The Dodgers are favoured to win the World Series by some pundits and the Padres are universally expected to be really bad.
Fair enough, but 3+ to 1 is insane considering most baseball games are 130/100 or less, and most teams start their top guy(s) on opening day. I almost did a spit take seeing that.
Also, Rufus, I dog you about Canada and Quebec, but I know you’re right. The PQ is bullshit, Le Francais should STFU and deal, and I’m sure the tax bureau there is even worse. Je ne souviens. (or I don’t want to). I’ll continue to shitpost you, but just understand I know it’s BS. As soon as you can stop your head from flapping, we, might even be friends, buddy.
/raises glass of sour cherry juice. Spreads maple butter on toast.
…and munches on Kraft dinner with ketchup chips…
goddammit! I couldn’t stay civil for a fucking hour!
Seriously, since you’re in QC anyway, look for a place that makes good Tourtière if you haven’t already. Memere’s was amazing.
OMG we had All-Dressed Chips for awhile around here last year but now no more.
*angry*
It’s cruel to provide all-dressed chips and take them away.
Heh. Have some in the pantry. My daughter loves All dressed, ketchup and sour cream and onion.
and salt and vinegar.
One I like is lime and cracked black pepper from Miss Vickies. I think. Anyway, it’s good.
I ate a full-sized bag of those in one sitting last time in Canada. And washed it down with Pilsner.
The simple pleasures are the best.
I don’t get it regarding All-Dressed chips. You know it’s going to be big (TW: HuffPo), yet you refuse to provide it? Market failure.
Until last year, the one and only time I had them was on a visit to Canada ca. 1992. I bought them in the same shop somewhere along the QEW where my friends and I discovered “homo milk”.
Never watched Kids in the Hall? They had a skit where Scott Thompson was going on about the simpler days when all the paper boys were white (or something), and the milk was all homo.
Gives a new framework to now, where all the milk is Hitler.
Yep, all the time but missed that. I’m glad my memory of that wasn’t faulty.
I usually go for salt-and-vinegar at home, but Ketchup and All-Dressed are the favorites I can’t get ahold of at home.
I don’t get the All Dressed. They’re not that good. Last time I was in Canada, I got a bag of PEI Scalloped Potatoes but it really didn’t have any scalloped flavor, just the usual fake cheese powder. Ketchup chips.. there’s ketchup in the fridge so can make those any time.
What I really miss are Miss Vickie’s Original made in Canada chips. The US made ones aren’t the same.
I’m more of a sour cream and onions chips guy.
Did you eat at Le Belle Province?
It’s the best poutine after a night of heavy drinking.
Poutine is good drunk food. It’s the grits and gravy of Canadian cuisine.
My favorite drunk food in Buffalo was at this Greek joint near all the clubs – French fries, gravy, and feta. I can only guess (years later) that it was inspired by poutine?
Greetings, fellow brutals! I hope your weekend was at least as enjoyable as mine. The Netflix April Fools’ gag was hilarious. Check it out if you haven’t yet (assuming it’s still available).
In furtherance of your enjoyment, please enjoy the media’s ongoing befuddlement over this strange creature known as Trump of the Brutals. Here they are scratching their heads over why he doesn’t pay more people to gratuitously pleasure his vanity:
http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/2/15140892/trump-white-house-photographer-shealah-craighead-vs-pete-souza-obama
I had to read all the way to the bottom to get to where he is as bad as Nixon? They are slipping. I do like to see we now care about retaining government documents and photographs. Maybe Hillary’s 30,000 emails will show up.
The Obama worship of the last photographer really creeped me out.
Two things really jumped out at me from the article.
1.) This stealthily serves to make Trump even more popular. “The photos were typically blurry, underexposed, and poorly composed.” In other words, they’re exactly the kind of photos that millions of average, ordinary people take as part of their everyday lives. Holy shit, the President is just like us! Wowzers!
2.) About halfway into the article, it is noted that White House photographer isn’t even an official job position. In fact, it almost seems like Obama is the one that cranked it up to eleven. Trump instead seems to prefer using resources that are already available instead of adding a six figure salary to the payroll so some failed photojournalist can follow him around slavishly. The horror.
If Trump really wants to troll, he’ll take a selfie while sitting in the bus seat Rosa Parks used. Caption, “They love me”.
I’d settle for a couple staged “halo” shots.
Orthodox style, of course.
Trump is less egomaniacal and narcissistic than Obama. That really says a lot about the current political landscape.
I also recall the media bitching every so often about Obama cutting them off from taking photos and employing his own propaganda arm to replace them. Sadly, they were more upset that they weren’t deemed worthy of glorifying him.
I would not have even known what yesterday was. It’s not like the last few months have been any different from April Fool’s Day as far as the media are concerned.
Re: AR upper build question from Thursday: Hayek, thanks, that was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for (although the instructional video was, uh, enlightening). Your point is well taken about the startup cost of tooling; fortunately I’m exactly the sort of idiot that will spend on tooling so I can do a project myself. “But honey, I need this shaper so I can cut moldings for the new house. What that? We’re doing Craftsman style moldings? Eh, whatever, now I’ve got a shaper.”
Imprisoned Pakistani Christians offered release if they convert to Islam
It’s a trick!
You jest, but Lahore is smack dab in what was once the Delhi Sultanate, which during the Khilji Dynasty did this:
I was thinking of the Ayaz Nizami case. Not much has changed it appears.
Hello Brutals. it’s been a good weekend. too bad it’s over. I had my boys 5th birthday party yesterday. It all went well. He got an upgrade on his red rider bb gun to one a little more substantial. Its a camo one that shoots about 690fps and is much more accurate. His old daisy he’d had for a year and a half and went through two 6000 packs of BBs. I’m pretty sure the barrel was shot out. I couldn’t hit anything over 15yds with it.
Glad to see a Daisy Red Rider can still be part of a boy’s growing up. I got mine at four or so and wore the damn thing out. Save my allowance and upgraded to the pump action.
Does the RR still smash your fingers if you don’t home the lever before firing? “Dad! I think my fingers’ are broken!” “No they aren’t. Guess you won’t do that again.””
I picked one of those up a few years ago to antagonize the squirrels hanging from our bird feeders. Not much luck, but I got a CO2 mockup of a M&P40 that is tons more accurate. Still pretty much just surprises the hell out of them, though, which is all I’m trying to do.
A break barrel? Can your 5 y/o cock it on his own? The best step up from a Red Ryder for a child is the Daisy Avanti Champion .
Shoot carpenter bees on the wing.
I have discovered something about carpenter bees. It takes them about 4 years to evolve behavioral adaptation to Red Ryder BB guns. Their normal behavior now is to rarely hang motionless in the air…to keep moving.
I used to shoot ’em with crushed oyster shell out of a wrist rocket. Not much sport there but very effective.
OT: For those of you who play video games…
I’ve been working my way through the pile of video games I own on Steam that I haven’t finished, and I’ve decided to pick Dark Souls up again. I gave up on it after getting out of the starting area because it just felt like a repetitive, frustrating slog. Everything that people say is great about the game, e.g. challenging combat, lack of hand-holding, I see in other games that I actually enjoy. People rave about the thing, so I figured I’d give it another go, and I’m reaching the exact same conclusions as the last time. It seems like people who love the game are saying that I should enjoy the fact that I have to cautiously spend ten minutes working my way through an area, killing the same enemies in the same sequence, practically with the same button presses, until I reach a boss that essentially just kills me until I learn his movement patterns, with each death setting me back to the beginning of the level. So, MegaMan but with less colorful graphics and much, much slower.
What am I missing? I play all the Paradox games, so I’m no stranger to steep learning curves. I play multiplayer shooters, so I’m used to dying often. I played and absolutely love Dragon’s Dogma, which has been compared to the Souls games in the difficulty of combat. For some reason, Dark Souls just feels like a game about tedium and frustration, with the reward being that you’ll temporarily stop being frustrated if you kill Boss X after spending ten hours banging your head against a wall. And after an hour of that I start regretting that I’m wasting my time playing DS and not something I actually enjoy.
I haven’t played Dark Souls, so on that specifically I can’t answer, but sometimes it’s either due to it just not clicking with you. It may do it eventually, it may never.
Case in Point: I played and loved the original; Deus Ex, Loved Thief: The Dark Project, and most of the early immersive sim style games. So I thought I’d give System Shock 2 a go since it was in the same genre. Figured I’d love it just as much.
First time I started it, barely made it an hour in, got tedious, tiring, and frustrating.
Second time, made it a couple hours in, same result.
Third time, almost a year later, it finally “clicked” for me. Played through the whole thing in a few days, enjoyed it tremendously.
Probably not much help, but if you’re not enjoying something and you can’t pin down exactly why, that’s usually it (in my experience.)
I’ve really enjoyed Dishonored! Great sneak/assassin game.
As somebody who enjoys the Dark Souls formula…
The main draw for me is advancement. The bosses are secondary. Leveling up, improving your build, and especially finding/unlocking better equipment/spells is what draws me to the games. Being able to get out of a tricky situation alive, thanks to wits and preparation (and some luck), is more rewarding to me than beating the average boss.
Also, if you’re not taking advantage of the multiplayer interaction, then you’re doing it wrong. If you are struggling with a boss, turn yourself human and summon a phantom to help. It’s especially helpful to summon a player whose build complements yours. You still might lose, since the bosses get more difficult with each summon, but you might learn something in the process. Join a covenant that fits with your play style, too (doesn’t have to be multiplayer-focused).
I do put the game down a lot, it is frustrating at times. And there have been decisions I don’t like: the parry-riposte mechanic is very different in DS2 than in the first and third games, the same covenant is not consistently useful between games, and poise is basically worthless after the first game.
Hello guys! Nothing much to add, just soaking in the links tonight.
Oh, and the Rick and Morty S3 premiere was excellent.
Yes, yes it was.
A totally unexpected treat, too, to get the first episode yesterday. Have to keep the patience dial up at 11 waiting for Venture Bros Season 7, though.
Maybe linked, but in case you missed this gem: Want equality? Curtail free speech
And I checked. Not April first foolery.
Fuckin’ Kiwis hate American values. Too bad because they speak English, have nice roads, great cars and excellent fresh and saltwater fishing
The author’s name “JACOB VAN DE VISSER” only has 2 hits on Google.
Color me
baddskeptical.I’d agree, but I’ve seen/heard similar arguments made repeatedly.
“Visser”, according to Wikipedia, means fisherman.
As in bait — probably a /pol/itician or other memer.
I think it is a reader contribution.
I’d like to think that’s a “Modest Proposal” type of thing, but there are an awful lot of people who effectively advocate for the same thing if not so baldly authoritarian. The social justice movement has weaponized victimhood as step one, they’re in the midst of step two, which is to transform that victimhood into political power, and they’re gearing up for step three, which is to use that power to punish enemies. You can tell because of the schisms within feminism and the various “aggrieved” groups; identity politics gets you so far, but now if you don’t tow the party lion you’re getting Trotskyed.
Oh c’mon people (this was posted in a previous thread as well), this is definitely satire:
(stating a usually-unstated assumption to highlight its silliness)
(mocking SJWs for focusing so much on a seemingly trivial issue)
(ditto, plus perhaps the comic juxtaposition of rape jokes, which even outside of SJW circles many people find inappropriate [even if they don’t believe in or talk about “rape culture”] and behavior pretty much everybody who’s sane considers normal and harmless)
(“criticism of feminism”, unlike those others, is typically not mentioned as a candidate for criminalization even by SJWs)
There are a few more you can pull out, but you get the idea.
A judge rules Trump may have incited violence … and Trump again has his own mouth to blame
WP;DR
(sigh)
they (the DNC, and by extension, the media, deep state, and federal judges very close to retirement) really are investing heavily into a strategy that is based entirely on ‘keeping the already frothy-Prog-base heavily frothed’
its froth for no purpose. Democrats not only have little/no real power… i personally think the can’t keep this bullshit up until 2018. people were already tired of the partisan nuttery in 2016. i think most people want the nonsense to end. Frothing progs up is no recipe for down-ticket electoral success, imo.
maybe i’m wrong, and they’re not even trying for that.
maybe the whole thing is just some ‘create lots of smoke’-strategy, while they try and figure out wtf to do for 2020. basically, gin up controversies to distract from their utter toothlessness and to avoid further fracturing of the bernie/prog vs. DNC-establishment branches.
It’s just too bad it’s not a libertarian triggering all this pantshitting because I could be having a lot more fun.
All of the contenders in that class are too much part of the political establishment. I cant think of anyone that could have done what Trump did, libertarian or not.
Unfortunately, it looks like you need a “man of personality” to bring about any real change. Hoppe’s acknowledgement of the superior aspects of monarchy to democracy is about as close to the truth as you’ll find.
It takes someone who doesn’t give a shit about politics. Trump doesn’t give a shit.
I cant think of anyone that could have done what Trump did, libertarian or not.
McAfee? Though, if part of “what Trump did” includes “win the election”, then you are probably right.
” ‘create lots of smoke’ – strategy, while they try and figure out wtf to do for 2020.”
This is probably pretty close. I think they are hoping that they can pull off a soft-coup by gumming up the gears so badly that Trump cant function and eventually self destructs. They dont have much in the way of serious contenders for electoral success in the foreseeable future, they dont have any real power now and half of them are secretly or not so secretly hoping for some kind of hard coup. They have been playing the long game for 100 years and I think they feel the tipping point should have been reached or has been reached. Instead of that tipping point ushering in a progressive golden age it has resulted in people sick of their shit and telling them to fuck off. They aren’t taking it well. I am pretty sure they dont really know what to do. They will keep up the shadow government resistance as long as they can keep their tits out of the wringer and see how much success they can obtain with that. They are just missing one important aspect of all of this. Power really does come from the people that told them to fuck off. If they unseat Trump things will not turn out in a way they will like.
yeah. i think even aside of whether he can function or not, or whether any real gears get gummed…
(as opposed to merely bad PR + a few of these rogue federal judges generating short term headlines and some bureaucratic roadblocks)
…i think its probably a good bet that they assume “we just pump out completely bullshit headlines every day, and they will HAVE to fight back” And that in the course of fighting back, that the Amateur-Hour trump-team will end up fucking up in some material way, however trivial, that gives them some real-story by accident.
see: the way they’re already trying to turn “how did the White House council learn about/share info about Obama admin unmasking” into the story….
(which at worst is about an “unseemly degree of partisanship” in the sharing of information)
…. rather than the intentional unmasking of US figures caught up incidentally by surveillance – an actual crime
I think the whole “just throw shit at Trump and hope he blows up and derails himself”-angle is probably the single most plausible strategy. and hell, it will probably work.
But it does mark a new low in american politics, from already abysmal levels during the campaign season.
To this day, people still insist Hillary Clinton was unfairly tarred with an “email scandal”, rather than properly harangued for her utter failure to protect classified national security information and contempt for the law and established practices. So naturally, the unlawful dissemination of non-minimized intelligence incidentally collected* about a U.S. Person will end up becoming about Trump’s desire to hide the truth or some such homespun horseshit.
* = Much like how Clinton probably ran a private email server to hide information about her other shady/illegal dealings, but that is almost impossible to prove especially since the FBI let her people destroy evidence, it is also probable that Trump’s people were being reverse-targeted rather than just incidentally collected against, but good luck proving intent (as we know, when you are working for the establishment, not only does every crime require mens rea regardless of the black letter of the law, but since the government can’t read your mind, they obviously don’t know intent–good luck using this as a defense if you aren’t working for the establishment)
On Sunday, Senator Rand Paul golfed at Trump National Golf Club outside Washington D.C. with President Trump.
The outing came just hours after Trump tweeted that talks to rework the nation’s healthcare law were still under way.
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