Mantergeistmann
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User ID: 323
Mantergeistmann
10mo ago
There's been something weird about writing in media (and gaming) for a while now, and i wonder how much of it has to do with graphics and effects. As they become more and more of a budget, and the writer therefore becomes a smaller percentage, people start thinking that the writing doesn't matter (rather than seeing it as a high return place to spend your money, since doubling the salary and getting a better writer would be a small percentage of the overall cost).
Mantergeistmann
10mo ago
I mostly agree, but Plato's death seemed to me to be a righteous way to go.
Mantergeistmann
10mo ago
The only thing inaccurate about the scene in Down Periscope where the guy stretches a string across the engine room, and it sags as they dive? He states that you wouldn't see it on a nuclear sub, which is wrong. I'm pretty sure every submarine is designed to compress under water pressure, and combat subs don't dive nearly as deep as exploratory subs.
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
I have a bit of a weird stance on vigilantism. I think it's morally justified... as long as the vigilante immediately turns themselves in, pleads guilty, and accepts the punishment meted out by the court. That allows for redress of extreme injustice by someone with sufficient conviction to accept the result of their actions, but prevents an endless cycle of retaliatory extrajudicial violence.
In theory, at least. I'm sure it's a terrible idea in real life.
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
It's also based on a play, and reimaginings of plays in different settings/aesthetics/cultures is a time-honored tradition... as is (sometimes) colorblind casting.
Maybe related: nobody had an issue with Boromir being black in the LotR musical.
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
What makes my blood boil is when all the same people who came up with concept of appropriation and wrote articles like the above turn around and carefully, deliberately do exactly the same thing. And now it’s okay because it’s the right people being erased.
For instance, suppose they made a set of Marvel tie-in MtG cards, and Nick Fury (notably played by Samuel L Jackson) was white. I have a hunch there'd be a ton of outrage... despite my understanding being that there's precedent for Nick Fury to be white.
Management isn't for everyone - I've known a few engineers who thought they wanted to be managers and then noped out and went back to being an IC, and are far happier for it.
Personally, I'm not management, but I've been in a position to be responsible for everything but salary, and have good visibility/insight to my management, and I found W. J. King's "Unwritten Laws of Engineering" helpful - particularly, in this regard, the section on management.
As far as I can tell, the biggest difficulty most technical managers I know have (aside from no time due to meetings) is hiring the right people, and enough of them. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that hiring and personnel development is their top priority... even if they have to fight tooth and nail against their own HR departments.
I will be brutally honest here, though: based on what you've written, I don't think you're the sort of manager I'd be interested in working for.
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
Was it a permanent hiatus ending, or an actual plot conclusion ending?
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
I like my local pileated woodpecker. Comes to the feeder and yells.
Recently, I saw a few waxwings. Never seen them before in person, so that was cool.
Bird I know we have locally, but I don't see as much of as I'd like: plover types (killdeer, etc).
Bird we don't have locally that I'd like to see: woodcock.
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
Leinenkugel's solid, but i was thinking of something targeting the "cocktail in a can" demographic.
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
the hard times were going to create strong men
I'm pretty sure that's been fairly strongly debunked.
Mantergeistmann
4hr ago
The present ruling population of Israel mostly moved to that territory in the late '40s, and from the start has continued violently expelling the ancestors of present Palestinians from their homes to acquire their land for themselves.
My understanding is that prior to the '40s, said present ruling population (or their ancestors) had themselves been violently expelled from their homes, in some cases by the present Palestinians/their ancestors, or other related groups. It feels odd to me to acknowledge the Arab/Muslim claims on the territory and ancestral lands while pretending all Jews are interlopers. Kind of like if we recognized England as "Ancestral Norman land".
Mantergeistmann
24d ago
I believe the reasons are "Moldova is dealing with a Russia-supported separatist region, which makes it a prime target for action."
Mantergeistmann
24d ago
You're thinking that it might be a case of, "if we're going to he accused of genocide for asking civilians to leave a combat area, we might as well commit some anyway to make it worthwhile?" Or more of a "just be less careful" sort of thing?
Mantergeistmann
9mo ago
So far, the only "woke" thing I've encountered is that character creation lets you do whatever the hell you want regarding genitals/build/voice, but it's a pretty high magic setting, so whatever. I certainly haven't seen any "current day" topic stuff, and I'm not expecting anything as unsubtle as "Tiefling Lives Matter" to be a dialogue option, if that's what you're asking about.
Mantergeistmann
10mo ago
Wasn't Macedonia's change a result of international politics rather than internal? I.e. Greece took issue with it?
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
Right, so why can't we say something like "Making the characters look like a sampling of New York City's elite isn't the worst thing, they still kept the plot, characterizations, and language" for LOTR?
I mean, if they set it in NYC, as an updated cyberpunk LotR, where the "Ring" is a USB with StuxNet or something... that might be pretty awesome.
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
Wasn't it an explicitly religious hobby group? I recall "reverent" being a part of the Scout's Oath or whatever.
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
I mean, you certainly couldn't play Counter-Strike without someone saying quite an awful lot about your private life. And your mom's private life, too, for that matter.
Mantergeistmann
29d ago
Having been involved in the sausage-making for DEI-mandated changes to video game art in the past
I would love to see an effortpost on that sometime, if you're up for it.
Mantergeistmann
29d ago
The admin building wouldnt be the same as your username, would it?
Mantergeistmann
1mo ago
The problem is that we can not build them in the USA. Out of the last 4 units we tried, two of them ran up construction costs approaching $30 billion before they threw in the towel and got canceled. The other two at least got built, but again, with a cost of some $30 billion. It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 3-5x as expensive as wind or solar.
We can’t talk about nuclear without acknowledging that the USA, as a country, can’t build nuclear anymore. Anyone who who even tries goes bankrupt. I don’t mean there is a lack of political will, though there is that. I mean we don’t have the manufacturers, contractors, designers, or financial sponsors that know how to do it. It’s really sad.
If I recall, the MIT study on the matter even straight up said that it's not the cost of the nuclear portion that drives up the price, it's the general construction and horrible project management of the rest of the site.
Mantergeistmann
1mo ago
I'm finding it very interesting how the Democratic party usual suspects are getting hit by their own supporters
Is that a Yemen flag there underneath the Palestinian flag, with a Trans flag in between? I guess they're... supporting the government over the Houthis?
Mantergeistmann
2mo ago
she's anti-Semitic, the goblin bankers* are Jewish caricatures!
I think that argument has been quietly dropped since Oct 7. Its very difficult to argue that *she's * dog-whistling by setting the goblin uprising during a year when something bad happened to a Jewish community elsewhere in Europe, but that chanting a slogan used by an openly genocidal group isn't an anti-semitic dogwhistle.
It will, of course, still be vaguely remembered on the internet that of course she's been proven to be anti-semitic and that the details don't matter, but that's just the way things always work. (And, as an aside, that sort of thing really pisses me off in a general way - that the accusations are bunk, but get forgotten and stick regardless)
I mean, has there ever been a gaming boycott that has worked? I'm not even sure the limited "no pre-orders" campaigns have ever worked.
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