site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   3289 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 16, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

What are some irl parallels to the pleasure of a horror game “save room”?

Off topic but merely finding the save room is not enough to ease my fear. Fake save rooms are in some games. I need to save, then double check the load data to feel at ease.

A little bit of a generational gap I feel sometimes is when I watch streamers/YouTubers playing singleplayer games with multiple save slots using one and exactly one slot for one playthrough, overwriting the previous save each time, without consideration for how they might want to re-load a previous save to get to a better state or that that one save file might corrupt itself and force a complete restart. Then I remember that modern games are overwhelmingly made such that it's impossible to lock yourself out of significant content or to soft-lock yourself by having too low-HP or something, and that corruption on modern SSDs/HDDs is so unlikely that the expected value of using staggered/rotating saves is negative from just the extra time wasted for no gain.

But I can't break myself out of such habits. Even today, the risk of such things in modern games on modern hardware aren't zero.

I usually rotate between 3 saves nowadays, but of the few times I didn't bother making one than one save I dearly regretted it. It was playing the PS1 version of Final Fantasy Tactics. The game is great and allows you to be very flexible with your team and characters, building them how you want and fighting how you want with them. But there's a fight at some point, which you're not told about in advance, before which you save but that does not give you the ability to go and grind to respec, that forces you to play as your MC in a duel with a very strong enemy.

So if you built that character in a way that is unable to beat that duel, like if you built him as a support class, as pretty much anything but a melee fighter, as a spellcaster, or as anything too squishy, go and load back a previous save game. Hope that you have one far back enough that you have the opportunity to respec the MC into something that can. I lost like 40 hours of game maybe because of that? Apparently it was made a bit easier in the PSP version, and then given a way to back out and go respec in the 2025 re-release. But the PS1 original was a harsh lesson in save game rotation, considering how late it happened in a long game like this.

It was playing the PS1 version of Final Fantasy Tactics

It probably says something that you didn't even need to finish your explanation after that; I knew exactly what you were going to be referring to.

It is notorious, yes. It's an example of terrible design in a game that's otherwise a masterpiece, because up to that point the game gave you both the ability to solve problems creatively and to go back and grind some more if you find yourself out of your depth. But here it suddenly took both from you without warning in a save setup that can easily lead to a doomed save game. I'm not sure but I think the PSP remaster added a warning to rotate saves before you locked yourself in.

I don't know about the PSP remaster, but I'm pretty sure they did something to fix it in the latest PC remaster.

If a game gives only 30 save slots, you can be sure I'll use every single one.

I recently played thru FF7Rebirth and Mouse: PI For Hire (both around 7/10 experiences; former is not worth the hours, latter is barely worth the few hours which were needlessly extended with boring writing) each of which limited one only to 30 or 50 saves, so I had to juggle jumping to different save slots by the last ~1/3 of the game. I just started MGS: Delta (played 3 on PS2 back when it came out, 2x), and I'm already 10 saves in thru the prologue, and I'm dreading this one having a limit as well. It's maddening that any game made these days doesn't have the save limit as "as many as the drive will store" and decides to put in some artificial limiter, as if it were a live service game that depends on arbitrary limitations for monetization.

Finding genuinely cold aircon in a European/NYC summer.

Getting to a rest on a rock climbing route.

Hiking several miles through a blizzard to sit at the fireplace at a cozy pub with a pint or a highball.

Probably the closest real-life analogue to this for me has actually arisen when travelling. Unexpectedly finding some relaxing, quiet café or corner in a noisy and chaotic foreign city really captures the sense of transient respite that save rooms attempt to induce. It's like stumbling into your own personal little refuge.

Daily-life things like "going home after work", "taking a shit on company time", etc are just a bit too humdrum and pedestrian to capture that kind of feeling. I find that things tend to stop being stimulating the second they get folded into a routine, and envy people who don't get habituated to things as quickly as I do. Experiences I used to treat as sacred quickly become profane with exposure.

Slipping into dry socks after walking in wet ones.

Walking out of the perpetual humanitarian / kafkaesque /eldritch catastrophe that is your home to seek refuge in an orderly, clean, polite and productive 9h at the office.

Booking a conference room at your company's office to do a video interview with another firm.

Sitting down on your own shitter in your own bathroom after a multi-day work trip or a long day outside.

t. saving the game rn

In college you need to scout for multiple "save room" bathrooms around campus that are reliably clean and empty. I had three scattered across forgotten floors of engineering school buildings plus one in the law school library basement.

A bathroom with a lock.

A cafe at a skiing resort. The teas I've had after a skiing for an hour or two at those places were something I haven't been able to recreate myself.

Or a restaurant at a top of a mountain.

Oh yeah. When I was a kid we would ski at a place that had a small lodge all the way at the top of the mountain. Had to take two lifts up, could barely see or hear anything with the wind sweeping up the snow, you’d be cold and exhausted then enter a cozy lodge with a fire, wooden benches, freshly cooked curly fries… somewhat paradisal

I’ve heard some pretty good things about a hit of heroin.

When I researched this some time ago, a lot of heroin users would describe the high as being tucked into a warm bed after a long day of walking in the rain.

Someone once asked me what falling in love for the first time felt like, and I described it as “what it feels like to use heroin.”

Never having taken any opioid, I was just guessing for rhetorical effect. But if that’s accurate, I wasn’t far off.

To be fair, though, “you’re my addition baby” is the province of love songs and fuck sonnets since the invention of modern pharmaceuticals, so it’s not like I invented it. I notice nobody has yet described their lover as their methamphetamine, although I’m fairly certain the sensation is similar. “I’d rot out my teeth because of my singular obsession with you and lack of dental care” isn’t, you know, exactly a Shakespeare sonnet, though maybe it kinda rhymes with 130.

(Did people before opium came to the west use alcohol as a reference point? “You’re like fine wine” doesn’t really parse as a romantic phrase to me, and the process of alcohol intoxication sounds more like a metaphor for a bad hookup, of which I’m sure the drink has been the cause of many, than it does a burgeoning romance. “It’s fun while it lasts but I’m throwing up in the morning.”)

“You’re like fine wine” doesn’t really parse as a romantic phrase to me, and the process of alcohol intoxication sounds more like a metaphor for a bad hookup, of which I’m sure the drink has been the cause of many, than it does a burgeoning romance. “It’s fun while it lasts but I’m throwing up in the morning.”)

The comedian Sam Morril had a bit where he said that sex in a relationship is like a baked salmon darne, where you feel nourished and satisfied afterwards, having eaten something that was healthy and good for you. Whereas casual sex is like a takeaway kebab or burger, where you are absolutely loving the experience in the moment, but then feel disgusted and ashamed of yourself immediately afterwards.

Whereas casual sex is like a takeaway kebab or burger, where you are absolutely loving the experience in the moment, but then feel disgusted and ashamed of yourself immediately afterwards.

Off-topic: do people actually feel disgusted and ashamed after eating take-out?

I get that people say this so it must somehow be true (even if a meme, it's too popular to just be made up) but of the thousands of burgers I've consumed over my lifetime so far I have yet to identify one I was disgusted with myself for eating.

Is it just that it's a product of an industrial kitchen system, and industrial kitchens are bad because reasons?

Do people really order two number 9s, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra dip, a number 7, two number 45s (one with cheese) and a large soda, then consume it all themselves in one sitting?

Have I missed the mythical past, or never having visited the southernmost US states, never knew a world where fast food meals were more than 1000-1300 calories on the regular?

Or is it something else I can't see?

do people actually feel disgusted and ashamed after eating take-out?

Depends on what kind and how much.

I'm a big fan of that burger assembly meme, where healthy bread, lettuce, onion, tomato, cheese, and beef get put together and suddenly get labeled unhealthy instead for no apparent reason. Yeah, you could do with a lot more of the fiber and low-glycemic carbs in the lettuce+onion+tomato and a little less of the high-glycemic carbs in the bread, and if you're topping beef with cheese maybe that's more than one meal's worth of fats, but balance it out later and you're probably fine.

But it's real easy to get that burger with a huge side of fries and a large coke (and if you're not frequently in the US recall that here "small coke" means "large coke" while "large coke" means "a quart of diabetes"), and that combo can push you over the line from "fine meal" to "disgusted and ashamed after".

never knew a world where fast food meals were more than 1000-1300 calories on the regular

Even 1000-1300 is a lot for a lunch, and a Big Mac combo gets you straight to 1170; you can get to 1360 just by going from medium to large on the fries and soda, even though the burger itself is only 580.

I guess the other parts of "disgusted and ashamed" are:

  1. Fast food often kinda sucks. My wife's burgers probably aren't much healthier than McDonalds' (the extra onions and mushrooms might have helped, but a quick sauté in salty burger grease fixes that right up!), but they're about the same nutritionally for far higher quality. If I just go to Burger King, even if either way I can afford some extra calories (I can't), it still would have been much better to spend those extra calories on something worth the expenditure.

  2. Fast food is really fast. Burgers with avocado and fresh-grilled Hatch chile slices are not something we're going to make every day, or every week, at home, but if I want something 40% as good I could have it any time by swinging by one of many convenient drive-thru lanes. Making it so easy to indulge makes it too easy to over-indulge.

It’s the bread/bun, condiments (ketchup, mayo, mustard, and whatnot), and side(s) (e.g., fries) that are the culprits. Cut those out, and ground beef + cheese + toppings are decently solid.

Ketchup and mustard? I guess those have too much salt if you really go wild with them, and too many ketchup brands also lean on a corn syrup crutch for flavor, but mustard and even the worst ketchup are still mostly blended plant bits in vinegar. You're right about mayo, but that's the only popular condiment that's more than a rounding error in calorie counts.

More comments

Fast food is really fast. Burgers with avocado and fresh-grilled Hatch chile slices are not something we're going to make every day, or every week, at home, but if I want something 40% as good I could have it any time by swinging by one of many convenient drive-thru lanes. Making it so easy to indulge makes it too easy to over-indulge.

It's a good point but burgers are not the best example -- my burger-making strategy these days is:

  1. heat pan
  2. scoop 1/3 lb beef with measuring cup
  3. slap in pan
  4. squish with flipper
  5. flip after 2-3 minutes
  6. wait a couple more minutes then add cheese
  7. put on bun with mustard, butter and whatever veggies

If I'm at home it's pretty much the fastest easiest thing I can make, and probably at least half-way between your avocado burger and the fast food one; if I'm not at home obviously stopping at a restaurant is faster, but a burger is probably the easiest, fastest fast food to make for yourself in the universe.

One thing is that the flavourings used in a lot of fast-food get absorbed into the mucosal lining of the mouth, so that e.g. for me McDonald's leaves a particular aftertaste for hours afterwards. It's not terrible but if you get carried away and eat too much and feel a bit bad about it anyway, the lingering aftertaste can definitely produce a more 'disgusted' response.

Are you familiar with the meat and three? These are restaurants. Diners, if you will. They sometimes have burgers, and the burgers will be typically on a buttered and toasted bun, with a bit of mayonnaise that even a person like myself who for years despised mayonnaise can tolerate, some crispy lettuce, ketchup, maybe a firm tomato slice, a medallion of red onion, and of course a burger patty, but with proper ground meat shaped as a patty. Calorically I'm not sure, probably a lot. In my view these are the best burgers to be had anywhere. But even if the place doesn't have burgers it will have hamburger steaks. These are not the filler and spice heavy Salisbury steaks one not from the south might imagine, but, again, big patties of meat well salted and peppered and cooked to a Maillard reaction and served with probably sauteed onions and a brown gravy beside, again probably, a mound of white rice. This or fried chicken, stewed chicken with dumplings, a tender gravied pork chop the promise of which once extended my mother's life briefly, or a chicken fried steak with white pepper gravy. These are the meats. Sometimes beef stew or tender pork ribs or maybe meatloaf. The three would be the sides, popularly understood as vegetables but often including something un-vegetable like such as a rich macaroni with cheese, dirty rice or just boiled white rice, a baked potato with butter or sour cream or both, mashed potatoes with gravy, creamed or kernel sweet corn, etc. True vegetables might be green beans cooked with pork fat, collard greens (also cooked with pork or bacon fat), black eyed or field peas, pinto beans, fried okra, sliced tomatoes or sweet Vidalia onions, or just cornbread, either in muffins, slices, or shaped like a stick. You order a meat and three sides. You drink cold iced tea, either sweet or unsweet or half and half. You have a small cage of Tabasco or other hot sauces, ketchup maybe, mustard, etc. I miss these places. They're even better at breakfast but I'm already damn hungry and my train just stopped.

It varies. I don't remember ever feeling disgusted or ashamed of myself after eating McDonald's, or a burrito. If I get a really cheap takeaway pizza (Domino's or Apache), the first few slices will taste like the nectar of the gods, but by the time I get to the end I will feel full to the point of nausea, and will regret having over-indulged. I often get the same feeling after eating a burger and chips from the chip shop, or a kebab and chips. I remember one New Year's Day I bought a kebab and chips to treat my hangover, and felt so full afterwards that I was practically bedridden for the rest of the day.

So yes, there are absolutely certain kinds of fast food that will make me feel gross and remorseful afterwards. The same is true of casual sex: I have had sexual encounters which I regretted immediately afterwards (and equally, casual encounters that I didn't regret).

A good argument for making casual sex taboo again. Or at least informing people that it doesn't live up to the hype.

Well, speak for yourself.

Airport business class lounge?

Probably not any more. I think you need the lounges normal people don't even know exist.

To me the 'save room effect' of a business or credit card lounge is less the peace and quiet, though a lot of non-Big-3 lounges still do have that vibe, but that you've made it through the commute/check-in/TSA, know when your flight is leaving, and no longer have to think about anything urgent in that time block (conversely, if you're in a rush and just trying to eat in the lounge, even a quiet one doesn't feel peaceful at all...).

Yeah. That too. And though the 'riff-raff' may have flooded the lounges these days, they're still a lot more secluded than any other place in the airport, no?

Finding an open public restroom when you're on the verge of shitting your pants.

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