I hate everything you like
- Thread starter Jason Waddell
- Start date
Dom Harvey
Contributor
How have I not given Stephen Fry as an answer already?
Hmm... is he that well known in America? I really hadn't heard much of him before I moved to Belgium, may just be my perception. So the answer may just be that you're one of the few Brits / Euros on here.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
He is in nerd culture. Love QI
CML
Contributor
even my philistine brother loves himself some jeeves n wooster
CML
Contributor
The holiday season might be the worst. I mean, unless you’re a small child; then the months of November through January are the best. You have no school, no work, and there’s snow everywhere. At the ages of 7-10, the average day for me on those months was either: // I'm going to try and write with a vernacular jocularity because I learned how to be engaging and have a "voice" in creative writing classes, which also taught me to talk about myself when I have nothing else to talk about.
New Year’s resolutions really make a lot much sense as an institution because by the time you’ve made it out of the holidays alive, you’ve gained fifty pounds. While this is a great coping mechanism, that still doesn’t stop you from wanting to die. If only.
With this in mind, I’ve set up some handy Magical resolutions for myself for next year. I mean, I didn’t go on any benders this year, but it’s always good to have a plan. Because my prose is, like a gibbering Dostoyevsky, roughly one-half qualifiers, I realize that it is awful, but because I realize it is awful, it is no longer awful and you cannot criticize me for saying "I mean" and "basically" ad nauseam to buy me time, as if this were a conversation between us at a demented family Christmas dinner, before unleashing epic platitudes that make you want to go talk to our Downie uncle instead.
There are a sickening number of Magic articles published about how to get better at the game. Naturally, they are written by someone wholly unqualified to do so, purely as a way to churn out some content so that they can keep grinding store credit for whatever site is gracious enough to allow them to do so. See? No harsher critic.
With that in mind, here are some of my screw-ups from last season’s Theros Sealed PTQs, in the hopes that putting them out into the world will keep me from committing too many more blunders and thus be forced to post them on the internet. Aren't you interested in me and my self-awareness? I am a seducer on the order of Casanova, the Marquis de Sade, and Kibler.
This is a big one for me, if you’ll allow me to toot my own horn here for a minute. Every other month or so, I will get a message on Twitter asking if I still write. This is more than fair—coming off of 52 FNMs, a weekly column in which the article went up every Friday whether it was ready or not, I wrote a whopping 23 articles in 2013, and for some reason, it feels like I wrote even less than that. It may have something to do with the fifteen minutes I spent grunting this yule log out. By the way, did I mention that I play FNM every week? It may not be the heyday of CFB with Magic TV, the fat Canadian converting Bonfires into igloos, and Woo's cult of personality ascending faster than Kim Jong Un, but damned if they don't look up to me there.
For the near future, at least, I’ll probably be discussing a lot of Standard, the PTQ grind, and the life of a grinder. And when I say grinder I do mean the sandwich. Put me in and get shit out -- too bad I'm less consumable and perishable, huh?
New Year’s resolutions really make a lot much sense as an institution because by the time you’ve made it out of the holidays alive, you’ve gained fifty pounds. While this is a great coping mechanism, that still doesn’t stop you from wanting to die. If only.
With this in mind, I’ve set up some handy Magical resolutions for myself for next year. I mean, I didn’t go on any benders this year, but it’s always good to have a plan. Because my prose is, like a gibbering Dostoyevsky, roughly one-half qualifiers, I realize that it is awful, but because I realize it is awful, it is no longer awful and you cannot criticize me for saying "I mean" and "basically" ad nauseam to buy me time, as if this were a conversation between us at a demented family Christmas dinner, before unleashing epic platitudes that make you want to go talk to our Downie uncle instead.
There are a sickening number of Magic articles published about how to get better at the game. Naturally, they are written by someone wholly unqualified to do so, purely as a way to churn out some content so that they can keep grinding store credit for whatever site is gracious enough to allow them to do so. See? No harsher critic.
With that in mind, here are some of my screw-ups from last season’s Theros Sealed PTQs, in the hopes that putting them out into the world will keep me from committing too many more blunders and thus be forced to post them on the internet. Aren't you interested in me and my self-awareness? I am a seducer on the order of Casanova, the Marquis de Sade, and Kibler.
This is a big one for me, if you’ll allow me to toot my own horn here for a minute. Every other month or so, I will get a message on Twitter asking if I still write. This is more than fair—coming off of 52 FNMs, a weekly column in which the article went up every Friday whether it was ready or not, I wrote a whopping 23 articles in 2013, and for some reason, it feels like I wrote even less than that. It may have something to do with the fifteen minutes I spent grunting this yule log out. By the way, did I mention that I play FNM every week? It may not be the heyday of CFB with Magic TV, the fat Canadian converting Bonfires into igloos, and Woo's cult of personality ascending faster than Kim Jong Un, but damned if they don't look up to me there.
For the near future, at least, I’ll probably be discussing a lot of Standard, the PTQ grind, and the life of a grinder. And when I say grinder I do mean the sandwich. Put me in and get shit out -- too bad I'm less consumable and perishable, huh?
I hate it when people say "something dot deck" or write something.dec. Cmon, just say "the something deck". There. Just getting it out. Actually I think I've vented this one somewhere before.
I kind of enjoy this vernacular, which I guess justifies your posting in this thread.
Don't MTGO decklists also save as .dec?
David Bowie is constantly out of key and is the worst part of The Labyrinth.
Big words from a small man!
(please don't think I'm serious) By the way man, your avatar is some serious-looking shit. Whenever you post I'm like "oh man, there's something serious going down"
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Can someone explain the appeal of FF7? I don't see it at all.
I think the graphics hit this uncanny valley sweet spot where they're just real enough to look fucking awful, but not unreal enough to be excusable.
I've looked at the plot and systems too, and they seem kinda okay. I guess. Plot seems insufferably whiny though. I also think there's more design space in the FFTatics system of the thing that teaches you spells being weapons, rather than just stat sticks (materia), since you can have the cool idea of shitty weapon teaches super amazing spell.
And I don't believe for a second It's a big environmental thing, no way this many nerds with huge PCs on all night long every night are that huge hippies.
I think the graphics hit this uncanny valley sweet spot where they're just real enough to look fucking awful, but not unreal enough to be excusable.
I've looked at the plot and systems too, and they seem kinda okay. I guess. Plot seems insufferably whiny though. I also think there's more design space in the FFTatics system of the thing that teaches you spells being weapons, rather than just stat sticks (materia), since you can have the cool idea of shitty weapon teaches super amazing spell.
And I don't believe for a second It's a big environmental thing, no way this many nerds with huge PCs on all night long every night are that huge hippies.
I gotta say that FF10 skill grid was one of my favorite mechanics ever, and I spent most the game just looking over it and plotting out my upgrades meticulously because I refused to grind sections for extra levels. Choosing which direction to take Khimari was really fun too.
On a side-note, I once prototyped a cooperative board game that used the FF10 battle system. The basic idea was you had a party of 3 characters and had to progress through some quest line with finite resources, and the skills that you had were very timeline oriented, e.g. the attack 3 turns from now does double damage, with the idea of creating very tactical thought-intensive battles. If you all die it's just game over and you start again from the beginning and try not to be such fuckups the next time around.
On a side-note, I once prototyped a cooperative board game that used the FF10 battle system. The basic idea was you had a party of 3 characters and had to progress through some quest line with finite resources, and the skills that you had were very timeline oriented, e.g. the attack 3 turns from now does double damage, with the idea of creating very tactical thought-intensive battles. If you all die it's just game over and you start again from the beginning and try not to be such fuckups the next time around.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
10 did have a really nice combat system, and I really liked the whole "Certain party members are good against certain mobs" mechanic. It's just such a damn shame the aesthetics plot and acting were so god aweful 
The sphere grid was interesting, and once you got the hang of it it worked, but I feel there could have been a bit more choice (since technically everyone can actually just unlock the whole grid, so technically all choices are temporary) and it needed a big bump in conveyance. Basically everything about that grid was reading: What does this cell do? What does it require? What benifits does it get me? All by reading, and everything non-text on screen is meaningless symbols.
Like would it hurt so much to put a sword icon on the cells which increase attack? or color them red?
13 apparently has a similar system. EXCEPT:
-the path is totally linear
-classes have a whole bunch of mandatory irrelevant cells (strength for casters etc)
-Your progress in the grid is capped until you beat certain bosses (and you apparently reach these caps LONG before fighting said boss)
-Every character can get to every other classes's spot on the grid, BUT only 20+ hours into the game, so you won't bother because there's no point in starting over leveling up.
The sphere grid was interesting, and once you got the hang of it it worked, but I feel there could have been a bit more choice (since technically everyone can actually just unlock the whole grid, so technically all choices are temporary) and it needed a big bump in conveyance. Basically everything about that grid was reading: What does this cell do? What does it require? What benifits does it get me? All by reading, and everything non-text on screen is meaningless symbols.
Like would it hurt so much to put a sword icon on the cells which increase attack? or color them red?
13 apparently has a similar system. EXCEPT:
-the path is totally linear
-classes have a whole bunch of mandatory irrelevant cells (strength for casters etc)
-Your progress in the grid is capped until you beat certain bosses (and you apparently reach these caps LONG before fighting said boss)
-Every character can get to every other classes's spot on the grid, BUT only 20+ hours into the game, so you won't bother because there's no point in starting over leveling up.
You take that back! Best. Film. Evar.
The film was good. The writing in the songs was excellent. The music in the songs was excellent. His voice was just always slightly out of key. I can't remember where I heard this, but it rang SO true when I first heard it: "Why did David Bowie write songs that he's incapable of singing?"
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
I liked FFT a lot, but I hate extraneous content and was trying to get through it without doing any side battles, but I eventually got to some boss fight that seemed completely impossible at my characters levels and got really frustrated.