Be advised; this thread is not for serious in depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
Friday Fun Thread for October 14, 2022
- 70
- 9
What is this place?
This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a
court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to
optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.
The weekly Culture War threads host the most
controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are
appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy;
if in doubt, post!
Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts.
You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.
Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
New post guidelines
If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it.
A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts
such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a
submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).
Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or
significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.
If in doubt, please post it!
Rules
- Courtesy
- Content
- Engagement
- When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
- Proactively provide evidence in proportion to how partisan and inflammatory your claim might be.
- Accept temporary bans as a time-out, and don't attempt to rejoin the conversation until it's lifted.
- Don't attempt to build consensus or enforce ideological conformity.
- Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
- The Wildcard Rule
- The Metarule
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I've played Trails in the Sky 1 and 2, and about a third of 3 before getting bored of it, since it's very different from the first two. I haven't played the other series in the franchise, since I was originally planning to play them all in order, but at this point I don't think I'm going to go back and finish trails in the sky 3. If I do skip ahead, where do you recommend as a new entry point?
I would probably skip to Zero. You will miss some context if you skip Sky 3, because some of the plot in Zero is a pretty direct follow-up to what characters were up to in that game. But you can probably infer what you missed, and be ok. Zero is actually a pretty self contained game overall (unlike Sky FC with its giant cliffhanger), but the characters are a lot of fun and it's needed to set up Azure (which is probably the best game in the series).
If you want, you could also skip to Cold Steel. That's what I did when I first played, since we didn't even have fan translations of the Crossbell games (or Sky 3) at the time. You will have some times (in CS2-4 especially) where the game will reunite you with some of the Crossbell characters and it won't mean much, since you didn't play through those games. But the overall story doesn't rely on playing the Crossbell games to be able to follow what's going on.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link