Posts by _LS_

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I guess I am a theist, if that is the term. I still believe in the Christian God but I can't see eye to eye with organized religion and of course with people just trying to get under your skin because you don't think like they do.

Given your specification that you believe in the Christian god, I think you might be more appropriately termed a Christian who doesn't participate in organized religion. “Theist,” while technically referring to anyone who believes in a god, is typically used to refer to people who believe in a deity, but not in any specific conception of one.

At least, I think that's true. I actually don't have internet as I type this, so I can't double check my work on that. Not that it matters anyway. The term you use to describe your beliefs is much less interesting than the content of the beliefs themselves. Reducing a subject like metaphysics to categories is boring.

So, first off, thanks for really laying some stuff bare, Kaynil. I realize talking about this stuff on the Internet can feel vulnerable.

What does your worship look like? The act of going to church and participating in a group is such a huge part of the Christian culture I'm familiar with. What does it mean to be a Christian who doesn't organize? Is there an active component to your faith? (A regular bible study, or regularly caring for the poor?)

If you don't mind delving into your childhood a bit, what is it like growing up with influences from Jehova's Witnesses, Catholicism, and Pentacostal sources? Those are all very strong minded beliefs systems, none of which like each other much in my experience.

If I may ask, what was the simple stuff you started to resist when the cracks first started forming?

I confess, I often just assume people are atheists these days. The sort of folks I tend to deal with usually are in my experience.

Ocarina of Time's water temple was hard.

Man, even last time I played that game, I thought "Well, I'm an adult now. Certainly this won't actually be challenging THIS time."

But naw, man. It's still a confusing maze of a dungeon.

Quote from Sardonic Pickle

Yesterday, while packing, I came across our copy of Mario Galaxy, and considered whether or not I should keep it out for a few weeks so I could play it before we move.
But I decided to pack it instead because I'LL NEVER JOIN YOU.

On topic, while packing my SNES games, I found that I really don't own many SNES games. It's a bummer. I want more SNES games.

I started playing World of Warcraft again.

I found a free private server that does its best to emulate the vanilla experience. It's everything I've ever wanted.

Holy shit these are actually pretty funny.

"Titanium walls, totally zombie proof."

It's funny, I actually just watched that video a few weeks ago, and I completely watched it again when you posted it.

I wonder what a good super mario movie would have looked like. Live action, with 1995's special effects. It's difficult because Mario has an inherently cartoon-y feel to it, and cartoons pretty much never translate into live action well. Either they make the mistake of the Mario movie, and everything is so far removed from the source material that it doesn't really connect. Or, they make the mistake of the Flinstones movie, where everything looks just like the cartoon and, thus, looks uncomfortably out of place with the flesh and blood actors.

Perhaps a better plot would be:

Mario and Luigi are plumbers. Plumbing is a tough job, sometimes they are sad.

Mario is on a plumbing job, and falls into a large pipe. He falls out in a strange, colorful land.

He meets Princess toadstool, and her muppet-like Toads. (Perhaps she's a human who fell into this hole a long time ago?)She explains that they're being harassed by this evil monster named Bowser.

Mario is out of place. He kinda wants to get home, but he's intrigued by how important he seems to be in this world. He's like John Carter of mars. The strength he developed in the human realm makes him super-strong in the toadstool kingdom.

Now, personally, I like the idea that Mario and Toadstool don't have a romantic relationship. But in this movie, I think Toadstool should be suspiciously like Mario's perfect woman. Perhaps there's a scene with Luigi earlier where he describes his perfect woman, and Toadstool oddly fits the bill.

Occasionally, we cut back to Luigi in the real world, worrying about what might have happened to his brother.

In the course of his adventures (after some appropriate character development) Toadstool is kidnapped.

Mario faces bowser, who is never shown in full. We only get closeups of his face and tail and such. Also, bowser doesn't speak, he just roars. Bowser is a dragon, not a character.

Mario defeats bowser, perhaps by luring him onto a bridge, then cutting the bridge.

The movie ends with Luigi finding mario, and talking to him through a warp pipe. They have a heartfelt moment together, and Mario decides to stay in the Mushroom Kingdom. The two brothers have a tearful goodbye, and Mario kisses Toadstool.

We are left to wonder: did mario really travel to a magical land (as all the children in the theater would clearly believe), or was the whole thing a vivid hallucination brought on by head trauma? One where he gets to have the kind of exciting life that being a plumber didn't offer him, and meet the girl of his dreams? One which, in the end, kills him?

Now that there are some people actually posting on the forum, I'm looking forward to being more active again. Also my D&D game got canceled because the referee got into a fight in the streets of Toronto.

Like, come on, right? Bro knows we need to finish our quest.

Talk about whatever you're currently reading here. If a conversation about a specific book springs up, the mods can move those posts into a new thread. =D

My sister got me "Mistborn" for my birthday, which I really enjoyed. But now I'm done with it, and I decided I ought to try and read some of the hundreds of books I own that I've never read, so I've been reading Star Trek Voyager: Mosaic by Jerri Taylor. It's...honestly it's a struggle to read it at all. I love Voyager, so you'd think that a book in the Voyager universe written by one of the show's showrunners would be good. But Taylor is an awful writer. Perhaps her skills are better suited to television, which requires a whole different kind of writing. But she seems to be downright incompetent when it comes to writing a novel.

I started playing Tony Hawk 3 on the Gamecube the other day. First time I've played a Tony Hawk game since the original.

It's really fun. I feel like the Tony Hawk games created an entirely new genre of gameplay. The same way Minecraft created a new genre. Unfortunately, the genre Tony Hawk created pretty much died with the Tony Hawk series.

Sonic games could actually learn a lot from the TH franchise, I think.

I beat the game a bit ago, by the by. I eventually got a better handle on the controls, but I maintain that the game is sloppy. Primarily in the way it combines various elements.

The levels are pretty well designed. They're classic mario with new twists, which works for me.

The powerups are also pretty well designed. They feel 'right' for a 2D mario. The right blend of new mechanics that don't sacrifice the simplicity of the gameplay.

But the two elements don't work together at all. I love sliding around on the shell, but never once in the whole game did I ever find an area where I was really able to use the shell. More often than not, I died more easily with the shell than I did without it. And the super giant mushroom thing? Fuck that noise. In the first level, the test level, everything is set up for you to use it. But you almost never get that powerup again, and when you do, what good is it? Half the time I used it I ended up getting completely stuck because there wasn't enough room for giant mario to move around, and he couldn't smash through walls.

It feels like the guy in charge divided the team into groups, shouting "Alright, this is NEW super mario brothers, so we need NEW STUFF! NEW NEW NEW!" But then none of the groups actually talked to each other, so their new pieces don't fit together. It's the kind of mistake I'd expect from someone throwing money at a problem (Mario is stale) rather than coming up with a real solution.

...does using the stylus to control everything ever get less awful as you get used to it?

Agency is a powerful motivator in games. Most games have always had two end states, success and failure. Star Fox added a a third end state to every level: the partial success. It was just enough extra possibility to get us way more engaged than we would have been in a linear progression, BUT, it wasn't so many possibilities that we were affected by choice paralysis (a flaw in many modern games). Nor did it affect the quick-paced, linear nature of the gameplay.

Linear gameplay with nonlinear progression is a really great combination.

So, we all know this game is the best in the series, and that it is damn near perfect. But everything has flaws, and everything can be improved. So what are some issues with Link to the Past?

1. While the game does encourage a sense of exploration, much of what you discover becomes pointless on a second play through. There are caves and holes with nothing better in them than a few rupees or some health. (Although it could be argued that discovery is only fun if exploration sometimes fails to produce anything interesting.)

2. The fairy pools are useless. (See point 1.) Aside from the two who upgrade your items for you, all they do is restore your health. I never really find that I need more health than can be found under bushes and such.

3. The invisibility cloak and the blue cane are pretty much identical, and they both use up MP so fast that they're almost useless.

4. The Skull dungeon (Dark world, 3rd crystal) is one giant "fuck you" to the player. Some parts of it are actually really interesting and well designed, like the fact that it has numerous entrances, or the fact that the final enemy in the dungeon is in a completely separate area. But the constant stream of wallmasters is frustrating. And, worse yet, huge portions of the dungeon have no purpose whatsoever. They're just there to waste your time. If you know what you're doing, you can skip 50% of the dungeon.

5. The dash function is so integral to the experience of the game, that on any replay, it's incredibly frustrating to not have them prior to finishing the first dungeon.

Ho shits bruh!

Twinrova was pretty great.

Arghus because he's just so satisfying to kill.

Moldorm, because even after beating LttP a dozen times he can still challenge me sometimes.

Honestly I like just about every boss in LttP except the giant eye in the pile of slime. That guy is disappointingly easy.

The Iron Knuckle miniboss in OoT is really fun.

@The Inhaling One , @Edward_Stryfe , @Link , @Sardonic Pickle , this contest is still open and you still have a shot at a picture of me as a baby.

I'd like more information on how you expect the "Mature" and "Recurrent" prefix to be used, for clarity's sake.

What kind of threads might be Mature, but not against the rules?

What kind of threads might be Recurrent?

That shits a bummer, yo.

Quote from Edward_Stryfe

But won't you help out a no-monitor pleb? D:

No I will not.

Also, it's very impressive the way you navigate and interact with the forum without a monitor. That's pretty cool, yo.

It's difficult for me to find any real flaws in A Link to the Past. I can come up with nitpicks, but it's close to being a perfect game from my perspective.

Ocarina of Time interrupts your first attempt to open a door by forcing you to sit through an explanation of door opening by Navi. Navi in general is a pretty damning flaw of the game, often interrupting play at strange times and for no good reason. Then there's Kepora Gaebora who does the same thing, only longer, and with fuckin' annoying tricks to force you to listen to him over again if you weren't paying attention.

Ocarina of Time is great, but its got a lot of problems.