Other Random question of the day

[Macintot]

Serious answer: A D&D convention. There's a lot of people around here interested in trying Dungeons and Dragons, but none of them know each other, and they hardly meet each other because there's almost nowhere to actually hang out.

Cheeky answer: Seminars on correct use of emergency services, with such speeches as:

• Pseudoseizures: We know when you're faking
• Why you shouldn't wait until midnight three days later to call for your abdominal pain
• Chest pain won't keep you out of jail

Every community needs these, really

 

[AlexneushoornTheGreat]

Random question of the day:

What's the weirdest thought your brain has produced while you were trying to sleep?

 

[Unknown mask]

My one was 'What is next weeks events' I mean how am I supposed to know that.

 

[AlexneushoornTheGreat]

Random question of the day:

Is there ever such a thing as a utopia?

 

[Idea]

Not until Christ returns.

 

[Unknown mask]

I don't know the answer to that one, we will just see what comes.

 

[Macintot]

There was actually an interesting experiment done on this in the 1960s: A man named John B. Calhoun created a bunch of rat and mouse "Utopias" by giving them unlimited access to food and water. At first, things went well, the populations boomed due to the resources. Then, once the enclosures became overcrowded, the rats essentially went crazy. The males displayed deviant behavior ranging from social isolation to cannibalism. Infant mortality rates skyrocketed as high 96% because females either died during pregnancy, died during childbirth, or refused to take care of their young. The rats essentially drove themselves to extinction.

The societal collapse was coined as "behavioral sink" and the experiments have been used to show the possible outcome of human overcrowding. Here's a wikipedia article on it.

So, to answer your question, it would seem utopias aren't possible according to this experiment. Even if we had all the resources we could ever want, we could/would destroy ourselves from the inside out. Personally, I think no matter how good we make a society look from the outside, we can solve the issue of human evil. There will always be people who do horrible things to other people, and no amount of free resources or technology will change that.

 

[Macintot]

It's also worth mentioning that utopias are subjective: A perfect society to one person may be a ideological nightmare to another. That's why, for example, politics are as virulent as they are. Each side is pushing for their ideal society, and often those visions are mutually exclusive.

Also fun fact: Utopia literally mean "nowhere" in the original Greek. It's a combination of the words Ou (not) and Topos (place) and was coined by English author Thomas More in 1516.

 

[Jannah]

View attachment 888133

It's also worth mentioning that utopias are subjective: A perfect society to one person may be a ideological nightmare to another. That's why, for example, politics are as virulent as they are. Each side is pushing for their ideal society, and often those visions are mutually exclusive.

Also fun fact: Utopia literally mean "nowhere" in the original Greek. It's a combination of the words Ou (not) and Topos (place) and was coined by English author Thomas More in 1516.

This is very true. I know for a fact that my idea of utopia would be dystopia for my political opponents (especially since my idea of a utopia includes not having capitalism).

 

[AlexneushoornTheGreat]

Random question of the day:

Merry Melodies or Silly Symphonies?

 

[Onmyoji]

Can't say I'm very familiar with both so I can't choose between something I don't know and something I don't know XD
I guess I remember skeleton dance which is from Symphonies. And I recognize a few characters from Melodies. But that's the extent of my knowledge about them.

 

[AlexneushoornTheGreat]

Random question of the day:

Do you feel like some game companies rush out games unfinished on purpose?

 

[Jannah]

Random question of the day:

Do you feel like some game companies rush out games unfinished on purpose?

Absolutely. It's so they can sell DLC later on.

 

[Macintot]

I didn't really think that was something people debated, considering how often large companies release games that are buggy or missing content and then send out patches later. E.G. No Man's Sky or Cyberpunk 2077, The War Z. There's plenty of other examples.

 

[RogueJumi]

Do you feel like some game companies rush out games unfinished on purpose?

Of course they do. AAA game companies are more concerned with shareholder interest than their products, and pumping out garbage games as quickly as possible with bloated advertising budgets drums up enough interest to get those preorders and first day orders to increase sales, which increases faith in the company and builds stock.

 

[Unknown mask]

Random question of the day:

Do you feel like some game companies rush out games unfinished on purpose?

Well come to think of it yeah, to get more game products out, making new interesting ones which would earn more money for the company but some aren't even that good.
I had a game which crashed on the day I got it while playing it then after that it wouldn't switch on or do anything.

 

[Cosmo]

Yea, isn't just AAA developers that do it though as much as people like to focus on them. Small developers and indie developers do it constantly too. At least indie developers tend to be upfront and admit its an alpha build and don't pretend its the finished product.

Done for all sorts of reasons. For AAA companies, lets them skip time consuming QA and polishing, cut corners on development, get a nice boost in their quarterly earning reports as well as gauge interest in the game to see how much more time and money they want to invest into it or if they wanna take it out back and give it the Ol' Yeller treatment.

For many indie/smaller developers, its a means to get more income to either finish a game, expand on their ideas, just get it out so they can tweak it a bit and move onto the next project they wanna do. Even some of my favorite games have done this like Mount and Blade: Bannerlord and Rimworld.

Then you have others like Paradox which release large, but empty and barren games, and then drip feed in DLC to fill the game out [Because Paradox bases its business model on making money from large amounts of DLCs over a large amount of time, lower effort + larger time frame].

I think the last game I bought that was polished and finished, from the get go, was Total War Warhammer II.

 

[AlexneushoornTheGreat]

Random question of the day:

If you were a boss in Cuphead, what would you transform into during one of the phases of your boss fight?

 

[Unknown mask]

I would transform in to a gaint cup of tea, that is like cuphead but very big.

 

[Macintot]

(C'mon, man, you gave me ideas. It dangerous when I have ideas.)

I think I'd be a D&D-themed boss. For the first three phases, I'm standing behind a DM screen in the background and summoning monsters "minibosses" for cuphead to fight. Which monster you fight is randomized, and each monster counts as one phase.

Monster Ideas

Spoiler

• A red dragon that flies in a horizontal figure-8 pattern across the screen
• 2-3 kobolds that take turns jumping in wide arcs across the screen
• A Peryton that moves toward the upper corners of the screen before dive-bombing to the opposite corner. (Movement similar to the dragon, but a pause before moving diagonally and faster diagonal movememt)
• A gelatinous cube that shuffles along the floor and shoots bones upwards as projectiles
• A drow assassin that leaps from platform to platform following the player
• 2 wizards that stnd at the bottom corners of the screen and shoot fireballs at the player

I start out looking fully human, but as the fight goes on I'd start to look more monstrous and send more hazards during the miniboss. During the first phase I look fully human, and the player only has to worry about the miniboss. During the second phase my teeth turn into fangs and my eyes merge into one large eye. Dice also sometimes roll across the bottom of the screen and can damage the player. During the third phase six eyestalks sprout around my head and occaisonally shoot damaging beams at the player, on top of the dice still rolling across the floor.

After you kill the third miniboss, my head detaches from my body as a beholder and disintegratest thefloor, causing the player to fall into a cavern below. The final phase is like a reverse bullet hell, with the player having to continually jump down from platform to platform while the stage scrolls up, being careful not to fall off the bottom of the screen or be carried off the top. I (as the beholder head) chase the player downwards, usually staying in the upper corners of the screen. I shoot eyebeams at the player, use my eyebeams to disintegrate platforms, and occaisonally charge downwards. Firebolts shoot horizontally from the screen as well. Once you manage to kill the beholder, congrats! You've beaten the level.

 

[AlexneushoornTheGreat]

(C'mon, man, you gave me ideas. It dangerous when I have ideas.)

I think I'd be a D&D-themed boss. For the first three phases, I'm standing behind a DM screen in the background and summoning monsters "minibosses" for cuphead to fight. Which monster you fight is randomized, and each monster counts as one phase.

Monster Ideas

Spoiler

• A red dragon that flies in a horizontal figure-8 pattern across the screen
• 2-3 kobolds that take turns jumping in wide arcs across the screen
• A Peryton that moves toward the upper corners of the screen before dive-bombing to the opposite corner. (Movement similar to the dragon, but a pause before moving diagonally and faster diagonal movememt)
• A gelatinous cube that shuffles along the floor and shoots bones upwards as projectiles
• A drow assassin that leaps from platform to platform following the player
• 2 wizards that stnd at the bottom corners of the screen and shoot fireballs at the player

I start out looking fully human, but as the fight goes on I'd start to look more monstrous and send more hazards during the miniboss. During the first phase I look fully human, and the player only has to worry about the miniboss. During the second phase my teeth turn into fangs and my eyes merge into one large eye. Dice also sometimes roll across the bottom of the screen and can damage the player. During the third phase six eyestalks sprout around my head and occaisonally shoot damaging beams at the player, on top of the dice still rolling across the floor.

After you kill the third miniboss, my head detaches from my body as a beholder and disintegratest thefloor, causing the player to fall into a cavern below. The final phase is like a reverse bullet hell, with the player having to continually jump down from platform to platform while the stage scrolls up, being careful not to fall off the bottom of the screen or be carried off the top. I (as the beholder head) chase the player downwards, usually staying in the upper corners of the screen. I shoot eyebeams at the player, use my eyebeams to disintegrate platforms, and occaisonally charge downwards. Firebolts shoot horizontally from the screen as well. Once you manage to kill the beholder, congrats! You've beaten the level.

So basically, Baroness von Bon Bon with a D&D theme. I like it.

 

[AlexneushoornTheGreat]

Random question of the day:

If you and your family were The Addams Family, how would your neighborhood react?

 

[Macintot]

Our closest neighbors are like a block away, so we should be fine.

 

[Onmyoji]

No one would notice

 

[VXNTAS]

Although our neighbors are all really close, I don't know if they'd ever get to see us? We spend most of our time inside. Though I think some of the yeehaw neighbors would freak out, lol.