Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
No bio...
User ID: 214
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
5d ago
I just read the first chapter of Most Evil Trainer and it was promising. Should I have been looking on SB for fics this whole time?
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
5d ago
That’s promising then. The Mewtwo POV chapter was such a cool way of doing the concept of AI in the box that I can probably cut the author some slack. It was just when Bill came to lecture you about AI safety that I lost it. Is there anything else in a similar vein you’d recommend?
I've been reading the fanfiction Pokemon: The Origin of Species on and off recently. It's a rationalist take on the Pokemon setting in the same vein as HPMOR, if you aren't familiar. It's had some good ideas and moments, and can be delightfully brutal, but I just got to the chapter that introduces Bill and was put off by the author dropping a bowling ball on my head about AI safety, with lines ripped (cited?) almost 1:1 from Big Yud. It feels almost... quaint? But more tiresome than anything else; this isn't a new topic for anyone who had read a lot of Rational fiction or blogs.
Moreover, it's made me apprehensive about the direction of the story and unsure if I want to continue. I enjoyed rationalist concepts applied to the Pokemon world, and the author trying to make real various concepts and moves in the game. I'm not interested in it turning into another AI/ending death story... which seems like where the author or main character wants to go given recent events in the story.
Has anyone else read this fic? What were your thoughts. I'm only on chapter 37/143 myself, so I won't be able to talk about events far in the future.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
7d ago
We've had the same issue with Hlynka
Funny in hindsight, given that OP was revealed to be a Hlynka sockpuppet recently. Not sure if you saw.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
17d ago
How are gender relations in China, in your experience? We have a lot of issues and stories like this in the West, though South Korea always seemed the most insane to me in terms of complete gender relation breakdown.
Also, welcome to the Motte. I would love to read about more Chinese culture war skirmishes like this, and I'm sure I am not alone in that. These stories tend to not make their way to the English side of the web often.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
4mo ago
I would have agreed with you only 5 years ago. I used to browse /tg/ a lot, but the quality on there has steeply declined. Very few stories are posted there any more, and all discussion threads are derailed by posters spamming NoGames or accusing other posters of being Bumpfag. I can't speak to the other boards, but that one used to pump out so much iconic content and has been reduced to a shell of itself.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
4mo ago
They were hacked by a Soyteen from Soyjack.party, as @Eupraxia said, not a state actor. The hacker restored the /qa/ board, which is where their site culture originated from and whose deletion caused them to move. This KF thread has a good overview on what their site culture is about. It is... weird, so be warned, but very funny if you enjoy schizo humor. They're well-known for raids of other imageboards, so this type of hack is only unusual for its scope.
This rDrama thread has more information on the hack and here's showing the hacker posting about how they did it.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
5mo ago
I was wondering if you were going to link to that Kulak piece as I read your comment. I haven’t been able to unsee that trope and ponder its meaning in each case I see it ever since reading it.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
5mo ago
Stranded in Fantasy is one of my comfort reads. It's a quasi-gametale written on /tg/ about a group of ordinary humans who get portaled into a fantasy world. It's not a power fantasy like most isekai-type stories; the characters have nothing to start out with and must struggle to survive. It's extremely comfy and the characters, while flat, are fun and care about eachother.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
9mo ago
I have so many thoughts. Dana White taking the mic and thanking Adin Ross, Theo Von, and Joe Rogan felt surreal. Trump scooped up a lot of young men's influencers into his camp this time, while the Harris campaign didn't even seem to consider the option. Barron Trump has been advising his father to go on the podcast circuit before the election, and it seems to have paid off. Those memes about Barron secretly masterminding Trump's win in 2016 seem to have come true, eight years later.
How much did Elon, Rogan, RFK, etc. getting into his camp swing this for him? I'm thinking those were critical endgame winds for Trump. Hell, how much of this was made possible by Elon buying Twitter?
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
9mo ago
Trump is on stage giving the speech now. AP has called Pennsylvania. Unless Alaska somehow doesn't turn out the electoral votes, it's over. What a ride this has been.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
11mo ago
Your friends' scenario is probably my single biggest fear in life. My cousin is disabled in the same way, and it destroyed my aunt's marriage. She'll spend the rest of her life taking care of her, and then her oldest daughter will inherit the job once she dies. She is in her thirties and has the mental capacity of a third grader, has a host of health issues, and will never be independent. The whole situation is a nightmarish black hole that there is no escape from. It's hitting especially close to home as I'm nearing my late twenties and have been talking children with the woman I'll be marrying. If it were fully up to me, I would terminate a pregnancy if our child were to have some kind of developmental disability out the gate, but she has a Catholic upbringing and obviously does not feel the same way, so I'll just have to roll the dice when we have ours.
I do want to push back on the part about social opportunities, though. I recently went on a trip with with my parents, girlfriend, two of my friends, one of their girlfriends, and their parents. Our families are close, and we met by me becoming friends with one of the sons in middle school. As we became friends and hung out after school, my parents met his, and befriended them. Now, years and years later, my parents know dozens of people in the area purely through that initial connection. I think, if you live in the suburbs, one of the only ways to build a functioning social network in your middle years is by having kids and connecting with their peers' parents. Obviously this can only really happen once they get a bit older though. I know you're more of an urbanite, so I'm not sure how much this would apply to you or your brother.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
11mo ago
I walk everywhere I can, and have gotten by without owning a car for the last several years. In the last four years, I've lived in both a spread-out suburb and a denser, quasi-urban area. In my experience as a dedicated pedestrian, the majority of motorists I encounter are very deferential and mindful, stopping when they don't need to or waiting much longer than is required at a stop sign when I am approaching a crossing in order to let me through. Almost every cyclist I encounter is the exact opposite, refusing to slow or turn for anyone. It's on you to get out of the way or have the cyclist shoot you a death glare for not showing them sufficient deference. They are a massive hazard and nuisance on the sidewalks. Part of that, I'm sure, is due to lack of dedicated biking lanes, but I think cyclists have a cultural problem that makes them extremely unlikable, and not just to motorists.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
1yr ago
I’ve emulated Fire Emblem games from the SNES, GBA, and GameCube on PC and it was very smooth in all cases. You get access to save states if you’re interested in that, so it’s arguably a better experience. I recommend using a gamepad with a decent d-pad if you’re going to play the older games though, as it’s ergonomically preferable to doing it on your keyboard.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
1yr ago
Nintendo is overrated in the way Disney is overrated — brand power and nostalgia do a lot to sell and market their games. That said, look at the AAA gaming scene over the last 5 and what developers are left that haven't devolved into slop mills pushing out incomplete, buggy, soulless games? Nintendo, From Soft, maybe CD Projekt depending on how charitable you want to be towards Cyberpunk. Nintendo holding onto their reputation for this long speaks to something beyond nostalgia.
I share a lot of your criticisms of Breath of the Wild though. They spent so much time on the (admittedly amazing) world design and physics engine that dungeons, loot, enemy variety are all undercooked. Something I've noticed about it is that the non-gamers I know absolutely adore the game. They love the freedom and playing around with the cool physics system to see what you can do. More traditional gamers I know get tired of the copy-paste content after trying to play the game like a traditional Zelda and wind up much more negative on the game.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
1yr ago
Fantastic work, though the sections on how Gerard manipulates procedural outcomes on Wikipedia to turn supposedly neutral, fact-based articles into hit pieces fills me with dread. This same kind of malicious citogenesis was used in the Kiwi Farms deplatforming saga back in 2022/2023 to turn the Wikipedia narrative on them into a one-sided hit piece, with journalists citing conjecture and laundering it into a Reliable Source. I assume anything controversial on Wikipedia is written this way now, but I don't think the average person does.
You're on a roll with this niche you're carving out for yourself. I'm excited to read about the next bizarre rabbit hole you decide to post about in 4-6 months.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
1yr ago
2015 is Current Year, so we're in Current Year + 9 at the moment
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
1yr ago
I remember this post of yours where you floated psychoanalyzing the mindset of rational fiction after finishing Worth the Candle. I’d be interested in hearing what you had to say about the genre based on what you’re saying here.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
1yr ago
I largely agree, but he is currently facing a wrongful death lawsuit by Anthony Huber's father. I imagine he's going to be hounded by very well-funded civil suits for a long time as revenge for getting off. Still, this is a far shot from state prosecution or murder.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
1yr ago
I don’t believe it’s been covered here, at least not recently. I’d certainly be interested in hearing about it.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
1yr ago
PF2e looks really fun. It seems like it was made by and for people tired of 5e's lack of crunch. What do you plan on playing?
We're all on Virtual Tabletop as well. I don't know if it'd be my first choice, but there are a lot of advantages to it over in person, like presentation, handling rolls, etc. If a campaign takes advantage of the online tools I think the switch is worthwhile, but when the GM doesn't do that it always feels worse than in person.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
1yr ago
Anyone playing any tabletop games?
I'm a year and a half into a heavily modified 5e campaign I've been running. It's going well, but I've been itching to be a player in something longer than a oneshot for a while now. Two of my players have talked about interest in running Traveller and Cyberpunk 2020, respectively. My fingers are crossed on at least one of these panning out, as I've been itching to play something that isn't 5e for ages.
Lewyn
I am at the center of everything that happens to me
1yr ago
Very true. I didn't prioritize Kawakami and even skipped Chihaya in my first run because I was so peeved about getting scammed by her, and this time around knowing who to prioritize made things go much more smoothly for me. Jose and Ryuji's reworked instakill make it trivial to farm money and XP. I'm not complaining too much as I like having the money to fuck around with Persona crafting, but I wish there was a way to only get the money so I wasn't overleveling the content so much.
The scenes introducing the new characters could be awkward, but I can accept why they had to be inserted in like that. Maruki was handled much better than Yoshizawa so far, and I agree with you that her scene in the casino was goofy and makes zero sense. For me, all of the followup phone conversations tacked on to every confidant or how the Phantom Thieves start a new groupchat every day to gush about how evil their current target is wore very thin.
Makoto was one of my favorites originally, but she really gets on my nerves now. She becomes the main character once she joins, and I wish the game didn't feel obliged to pretend that Joker is the leader since she it's so clear that she is. The way the Phantom Thieves are so thoughtlessly cruel to Mishima rubs me the wrong way too, since the narrative never acknowledges how hypocritical it makes them look. I still love Haru, Ryuji, Yusuke, Akechi, and my favorites from the first time around though.
I have high hopes for the new semester. I was spoiled ahead of time on the direction it takes and it seems quite interesting. I did follow a guide to make sure I wasn't missing any of the triggers for it, though.
Haha, I fused Izanagi and Kaguya in the early game before I realized how busted all of the DLC personas were and dropped them. It's a shame, because they have cool designs, but it feels like cheating to use them for combat or itemization. If they were a bit weaker it'd feel better to use.
My main squad is Jack Frost, Pale Rider, Titania, Seth, Bugs, and Alice. I'll say that having the means to keep personas you like relevant past the dungeon you fuse them is a great mechanic. Theorycrafting their movesets to cover every situation and going through the steps to get the builds online scratches a certain itch. I'm thinking of adding Metatron or training up Kaguya now that her ability isn't gamebreaking, but they won't be necessary to finish.
I’m hoping Ascent of Ashes lives up to the hype I have for it. Getting another real time with pause colony sim would be a dream come true, especially if it’s more focused on exploration and combat than Rimworld
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