site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2274 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 23, 2026

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.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Obviously the whole "Amelia" meme is very culture war-loaded, but this jocular rundown of the whole thing (containing 100+ memes) made me laugh so much that it feels more appropriate for this thread. (It caught my attention because Scott liked it.)

Side question, is there ever, in the history of EVER, been a game designed explicitly around trying to teach a player some "prosocial" (as defined by the developer) lesson, that has resulted in a meaningful uptick in that prosocial behavior?

To ask the question is basically to answer it.

But that actually makes the point that there is no UPSIDE to making such a game, it won't achieve the intended result, but significant possible downside if you accidentally give players something to rally around for mockery.

I think about games the same way I think about books. If someone can be reasonably sure what the moral you're trying to teach is, you're failing at it. Runescape is one of the best games for teaching people scam awareness, password safety, typing speed, and previously basic economics. It is so much more effective than a typing trainer precisely because nobody would ever think the devs were attempting to teach kids to type.

In that vein, I'm going to say Final Fantasy 14. There's definitely someone at that company fed up with internet culture trying to instill a little bit of Japanese courtesy in their audience, and with a thousand small nudges, they're doing it.

That's an excellent point, since I definitely learned some marketing skills from Runescape just as a matter of course.

And it only took ONE person convincing me to "Come to Wildy and I'll drop rune armor" to grok "oh, people will exploit your trust mercilessly when there's no consequences."

Final Fantasy 14

That one does have the rep as the sole 'non-toxic' MMO in existence. At least with any popularity.

It's far from perfect, but the big explosions in FFXIV I've seen are things like 'guild relationship problems' or 'rando loots the free company chest's gil stores', rather than the more standards Barrens chat or outright griefing. Even gameplay-focused pain points like someone pulling early on an S-rank or trying to sneak a newbie into an 'experienced' party aren't anywhere near as common as you'd expect compared to WoW, and casual play it's outright expected and player-enforced for people to be patient with 'suboptimal' play.

That said, I'm not sure how much in a result of the teaching -- though the number of times Bartle-style player archetypes show up in minor NPCs is pretty noteworthy -- so much as selection effects, Pavlov, and arguably Proteus Effect. If you put hundreds of hours into getting through the main story quest to current-game content (dozens of which are cutscenes!), you're going to be the type of person that wants to do that sort of gameplay. And for quite some time, that was really the only option. Even now, with paid level boosts and story skips, it's a non-trivial investment per character.

I'd also add that there are morals and explicit morals beyond the social ones. I don't think anyone could play GTNH, Factorio, Satisfactory, or even The Witness without seeing problems in the world as things to be solved, and it's as close to explicit as any Jonathon Blow moral could be with The Witness's true ending.

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


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats