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.
- 87
- 1
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 -
Video Game Thread
What are you playing this week?
After 20 hours total spent on the game, I finally finished a run in Slay the Spire 2. Very happy. :) I used The Defect and lots of 0 cost attack cards + draws.
I also played STS2! I immediately won my first run with the Ironclad (mixed build). Then I won my first run with the Silent (poison). Then I lost two and won on the third try with the regent (mixed build). Then I won my first with the Defect (claw, just like you probably did). Then it took me another few tries with the Necrobinder until I got a win in. The pattern is pretty clear - game knowledge from the first STS is still fully applicable, and the top builds from back then still work. So it didn't take me 20 hours to get that far. Around 3, I think.
Except it sorta did. You leaned on all your STS knowledge where you no doubt spent many hours.
Absolutely true. Many more than 20, then.
I'm actually playing STS1 now. It's alright, though clearly less polished than the sequel, even in the latter's EA state.
I just finished my first real run in it, using The Silent. It seemed way easier than any run in 2. I barely even lost any hp to the act 3 boss. Maybe Silent is even more OP in 1 than she is in 2?
StS 1 doesn't have Flanking, so that's automatically wrong. :P
Joking aside, Silent in 1 has the most difficult early game of all the characters - she has the largest starting deck and the lowest damage output, so she demands more transforms/removes and more thought put into your routing to achieve any level of consistency. While she has tons of synergies available, getting of her engines online takes comparitively more pieces (draw/discard cards, energy generation, upgrades) than Watcher or even Ironclad. Not to say she's weak per se, but she's far from overpowered especially when Watcher exists.
Silent is my only A20H character, incidentally. I haven't finished pushing A20 on the others because I plan on pushing Defect and oops I picked knife wife again.
I always figured it was the Defect, who if you hit the Gremlin Nob as the first elite would generally wipe your silly robot ass from existence.
Dualcast is 16 damage though, and your starting lightning orb is a free half-strike per turn.
More options
Context Copy link
Sure, but Silent is in a similar boat against Nob and especially Lagavulin.
More options
Context Copy link
This happened to me on my first Defect run in STS1. :(
Also tried Silent again and it didn't go so well. I think I probably got lucky with the first STS1 Silent run.
Did beat the game with Ironclad yesterday though!
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link