Week 12! Here we've got this week's user-voted record: Heart of My Own by Basia Bulat!

Taken from @cfabbro's pitch:

I would like to nominate Heart Of My Own by Basia Bulat, a Polish-Canadian folk singer-songwriter. I absolutely adore her and think she is criminally underrated even here in Canada. Oddly enough, she did get a chance to do an NPR Tiny Desk Concert a number of years ago though, which was amazing.

The Youtube playlist for the album is a bit broken but both Spotify and Soundcloud have the whole thing:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6KCtZck76UV1ym4mthQOWH
https://soundcloud.com/basia_bulat/sets/heart-of-my-own

Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the artist, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with Heart of My Own. Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and comment at any point in the week!

If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on most platforms here.

Tonight we are having our weekly game night.
Recently i've been in love with Mottainai. Specially playing with my SO.

Lisboa and Agricola are still my favorites.

What are your favorite games right now?

Hello Tildes, one common thread that I've noticed in a lot of the threads I've been browsing under ~hobbies and ~creative is that it seems like a lot of folks are looking for new hobbies and things to get into.

To that end one great hobby I've picked up somewhat recently is playing and collecting board games. To some of you, the term 'board game' likely inspires thoughts of old school board games like you may have played in your youth (Clue, Connect 4, Shoots N Ladders, Monopoly, Stratego) "Modern" board games can certainly still be as simple as some of those, but we are actually in a sort of second golden age for board games right now.

What I mean by the above statement is that quite recently (the last 5 years or so) Tabletop and board games have really become popular again, to the point where if you live in a major city there are most likely several places to buy games, and likely even a couple of places you can go to just hang out and play games that belong to the store. Between that, and the popularity of things like Wil Wheaton's TableTop on Youtube, both major game companies as well as small independent folks are creating more and arguably better games than ever in the past.

Now - to the actual subject of the post title. The games I'll list below vary from things most people have heard of or played (Cards Against Humanity) to somewhat obscure, but they should all be pretty easy to find, and very easy to pick up and get into. I'll try to include as much relevant information for each of them (Price, Number of players, Game type etc) and a brief description of what the game is like to play.

If anyone has any other suggestions to contribute please do - One of the best parts of the hobby is the community aspect and finding new games to play.

Let's start with something popular, but not quite ubiquitous yet -
Cards Against Humanity: (3-Unlimited(?) players, $25 Base game + Expansions, Play time Varies based on player count and house rules, ~1hr is a safe bet, but can be made shorter or longer by adjusting rules)
Cards against humanity is a NSFW card game described as 'a party game for horrible people' on the box, which is pretty accurate. Gameplay consists of one player (The judge) playing a black card from the top of a deck with a sentence on it such as "I drink to forget ______" after which the rest of the players will play a white card with things like "My ex-wife" or "Random Erections" or "A bigger, blacker dick" written on them. Once all of the players have played their white cards, they are shuffled, read aloud, and the "Judge" decides which of the white cards is their favorite, awarding a point to the player that played that white card. This is a great icebreaker game because it pretty much forces everyone to get outside of their comfort zone and get weird with it. There are many expansion packs, which are generally themed, but some are just general. These include more cards to keep things fresh after you've played through the originals too many times. - Note: Not recommended for Family Game Night.

Cthulu Dice (3-Unlimited(?) players, $11, Play time ~5-10 minutes):
Cthulu dice is what is called a "micro-game" it consists of just a single plastic (or metal, if you want to dent your table) die with some symbols on it. It's a variant of the old "put and take" game with a bit of a cthulu twist to it, this kind of game is great because it's simple, portable, can be taught to new players in minutes, and also makes a great drinking game. You can also add house rules or look up other variants to keep things fresh

Next up - Dixit (3-6 Players, $30 base game plus standalone expansions, Play time ~30-45 Minutes):
The gameplay of Dixit is somewhat similar to Cards Against Humanity with one player acting as a judge, but from there things get different and rather interesting. Whereas Cards Against Humanity has cards with absurd, obscure, or obscene sentences or words, Dixit has cards with pictures on them. The pictures are generally bizarre, surreal, and kind of whimsical art (Like these examples: https://i.imgur.com/VHtISAZ.png). The way the game is played is the "Judge" player will select a card from their hand and say a single word or phrase that describes something about the picture on the card (It could be a color, an object in the picture, the way the picture makes you feel, what the picture makes you think of, anything that makes sense really) and then plays the card face down. The other players then try to select a card from their hand that matches the judges phrase as best they can in order to fool the other players into picking their card instead of the judges. Once all players have played their face down cards, they are laid out and all players vote on which card they think is the original one played by the Judge, Points are handed out accordingly. Similar to Cards Against humanity, the expansions for this game are additional packs of cards, often following some loose theme to freshen up the game. Most of the expansions contain enough cards that they could be used to play the game standalone. This is a great game to play with people of any age or maturity, it can be as clean or as dirty as the people playing the game but is just generally always a good time.

For the next few games, the actual mechanics of gameplay can get pretty complex, and so rather than explain what the gameplay is like, I'll just link a relevant episode of TableTop for anyone who is interested enough to check them out.

Red Dragon Inn (2-4 Players, $35 Plus Expansions, Play time ~30-60 Minutes) Unfortunately, no TableTop of this one, I can expand if there's interest:
Red Dragon Inn is a game about what the adventurers from DnD do during their 'long rests' at the inn. It's intended to be a drinking game, with players assuming the roles of characters at the inn ( The base game comes with a Wizard, a Rogue, a Priestess, and Warrior ) and are given decks of cards containing context-sensitive actions and abilities. The goal of the game is to be the last person at the inn that isn't broke or passed out from injury or alcohol. The three main resources tracked are a characters health, sobriety, and coins and various cards can affect each of these in various ways. There's also a gambling mini-game that is a lot of fun. The expansions come in 2 types, main releases which consist of 4 new characters (later ones, 4+ seem not to work as well with the earlier ones, and may do better as standalones) as well as single character decks that aren't included in any of the main releases.

Tokaido(2-5 Players 3+ preferable, $30 + Expansion, Play time ~45-60 Minutes):
Tabletop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pipFRzGYgdk

Tokaido is a bit different than the rest of the games on this list so far in that it isn't explicitly competitive. At its' core, Tokaido is a game about seeing who can have the best vacation. Each player assumes the role of a different traveler (each with their own benefits and abilities) and proceeds on their way, trying to stop at the different available locations in such a way that they end the game with the most points (how points are scored is kinda complex, Watch the TableTop for this) but it tends to be a nice, low stress game as there's few ways to really 'attack' other players. There is currently one expansion out for it which introduces some new mechanics and does a good job of freshening up the game for players who have had it a while.

The Resistance/Avalon/Werewolf/Mafia and similar games (Many players, ~$15, Price varies, Play time ~30 minutes, depending on the variant):
Tabletop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_QRczGzXqw

The Resistance and similar are games about lying to your friends and trying to convince them that you are somebody that you're not. Or maybe they're games about telling the truth and trying to get people to believe you, that all really depends on the cards you draw. These are some of my favorite party games to play in a big group because it can really show you who among your friends has the best poker face. Games tend to go pretty quick so when a player is eliminated it's generally not a big deal (this can sometimes not be the case if the group is way large). Of the different variants I've played, Avalon is my personal favorite of the different variants due to the interesting mechanics that the additional roles bring to the table in this one.

Finally - Betrayal at the house on the hill (3-6 Players, more is better, $35 plus expansions, Play time ~60+ minutes )
Tabletop (Part 1 of 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MINNKyE4fjs

Betrayal is my go-to example of how great a modern board game can be. It's a moderately complex game, but don't let that scare you off - after you play it once you'll get it just fine, and setup is relatively quick and easy compared to a lot of the other sort of "DnD Lite" games that exist (Lookin at you here, Arkham Horror!). The game consists of players exploring rooms in a spooky house, building out the map as they go from a stack of game tiles with rooms on them. The rooms will have different effects and trigger different types of events as the players explore through the house collecting items and discovering 'omens'. These 'omens' tie into the whole point of the game implied in the title, the "Betrayal". What this translates to in real terms is that for the first half of the game, all of the player characters are cooperating, trying to help each other get as many useful items and to position themselves in the house in such a way that when one of the other players inevitably fails the 'omen' check and triggers the 'haunt' and begins the second half of the game that the non-betrayers can survive and/or escape. Survive and/or escape what you might ask? That is one of my favorite parts about this game, in the base version there are over 50 different scenarios depending on a bunch of different factors. These scenarios can be everything from demonic possession, ghosts, werewolves, 'the blob' and many other creatures, monsters, and horrific situations and do an absolutely fantastic job of giving the base game a TON of replayability. On top of that, they released an expansion for the first game (Widow's Walk) which introduced even MORE scenarios, as well as new rooms and an entirely new floor to the house, as well as Betrayal at Baldur's Gate, which has similar gameplay but takes place in that universe.

I could really keep going all day, but I think this post has gotten well long enough. Let me know in the comments what games you guys play and love, or if you want to hear about some other kinds of games (There are too many to think about even coming close to touching on all of them: Deck building games, Dice building games, Pandemic-like games, Classics like Catan, Ticket to Ride, Dominion, Milles Borne etc etc etc)

The world needs more positivity. Do you have any positive stories from when you came out? Or maybe any positive experiences from being openly queer in general?

^{If you're still in the closet for whatever reason, that's perfectly alright!}

I have used a Nest (gen 1) for many years and recently switched it out for an Ecobee 3 with 3 additional room sensors.

The Nest worked as advertised and I was happy with it. I moved my thermostat location to a higher-traffic area of the house and used Nest Sense to have it automatically determine if I was away. All in all, I was pleased. The only reason I switched to Ecobee was so that I could use my Nest in another home and try something new.

The Ecobee is pretty much the same as the nest. They was you schedule temperatures is to first create Comfort Settings and then you schedule when they should run. It's a little less intuitive than the Nest, but it accomplishes the same task. The additional sensors are a nice touch but I find they are too sensitive. My ~50 lb dog can trigger them, which can run additional air conditioning when I wouldn't otherwise want it to run.

Host: Shinya Takahashi

3DS Announcements:

• Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn - Available 2019
  The 2010 Wii game comes to Nintendo 3DS. Includes all stages from the Wii version plus additional abilities, new Devilish Mode (a time attack mode), and new minigames

• Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey - Available January 11, 2019
  Added Bowser Jr. story

• Luigi's Mansion - Available October 12
  The original Luigi's Mansion is coming to the Nintendo 3DS with a new 2 player co-op mode. If both players ows the game one will play as a green blob version of Luigi. If only one own the game the second player will be able to use Download Play and challenge bosses.
  4 Amiibo are compatible with the game.

• Yo-Kai Watch Blasters - Available now
  Free content coming later on Spetember 27. Adds Moon Rabbit Crew to the title screen, with bonuses for linking save datas, new missions, new areas, new Yo-Kai to befriend, and new boss.

Switch Announcements

• Luigi's Mansion 3 (working title) - 2019
  A new game in the Luigi's Mansion series

• Splatoon 2 update, Ver.4

• Mega Man 11 - Available October 2
  8 bosses.
  New double gear system, you can slow down time or powerup your attacks.
  The two Mega Men Amiibos are compatible.

• Mario Tennis Aces update - Available September 19
  New characters: Birdo (all around), Shy Guy (Technical), Koopa Paratroopa (Technical) and Petey Piranha(Powerful). Can be acquired by playing online
  New updates coming until next June
  New mode: online only Co-op Challenge, available for limited periods of time. Will unlock in-game rewards such as new outfits, different color schemes and more.

• Capcom Beat'em Up Bundle - Available September 18
  Includes Final Fight, The King of Dragons, Captain Commando, Knight of the Round, Warriors of Fate and two first-time console releases: Armored Warriors and Battle Circuit.
  4 player local and online co-op
  Pre-order available now

• New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe - Available January 11, 2019
  New characters: other than Mario, Luigi and Toad now you can play as Nabbit and Toadette.
  Nabbit doesn't take damage from enemies
  If Toadette powers up with a super crown she transforms into Peachette who can double jump, float slowly during free falls and get a boost back up when she falls into a pit.
  Includes New Super Luigi U. 164 courses between both games
  Single player Joy-Con, up to 4 player co-op.

• Katamai Damacy Reroll - Available Winter 2018
  Gyro controls, Hd Rubles, Joy-Con controller sharing

• Pokèmon Go Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee - Available November 16
  Secret tecniques replace HM moves. Only your Pikachu and your Eevee can use them. They can also learn certain powerful moves. Only them.
  In handheld mode you can use touch screen to pet your Pokèmon and change its hairstyle depending on how you've petted it.
  2 new bundle that will include a Nintendo Switch system with specially designed dock, Pikachu and Eevee style Joy-Cons, one digital copy of the game and the Pokèball Plus accessory.

• Diablo 3: Eternal Collection - Available November 2
  All Dlcs are included. Up to 3 players local and online co-op.
  Nintendo Switch exclusive: Ganondorf's armor.
  All Amiibos figures are compatible

• Super Mario Party - Available October 5
  New 4 player co-op mode River Survival
  You can connect two Nintendo Switch in the Toads Rec Room mode.
  Characters' specific dice block with alternate numbering.
  80 minigames.
  Single player modes: Challenge Road (play thtough a series of minigames and complete specific tasks)
  Online Mariothon minigame mode (challenge other players around the world with 80 minigames to choose from)

• Town (Working Title) - Availabe 2019
  Game Freak presents a brand new RPG set in one single village. Looks like story will be a major part in this incoming game

• Citis Skylines Nintendo Switch Edition - Available today
  Includes two DLCs: After Dark and Snowfall

• Daemon Ex Machina - Available 2019*
  Mech Game.
  You can change weapons on the fly and you'll keep them for the whole game if you manage to return them to your base. Long range and melee weapons.
  You can exit your mech to explore the field on foot. You can make enhancements to you human character and your mecha abilities will be augmented as well
  Up to 4 player online co-op

• Yoshi's Crafter World - Available Spring 2019
  New Yoshi game.
  Local Joy-Con Co-op

• Asmodee Digital tabletop games
  NOT A BUNDLE
  Full adaptation of best-selling tabletop games made by Asmodee Digital. They are the following:

• Carcassonne - Available December 2018
  3D maps, solo mode, 4 player local multiplayer mode. Game's famous expansions available as paid DLC

• The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game - Available April 2019
  Play alone or alongside a second player.
  Story driven quests

• Pandemic - Available March 2019*
  solo mode, 4 player local multiplayer mode
  Individually priced DLCs based on popular expansions.
  More is on the way: Catan and Munchkin

• Sid Meier's Civilization VI - Available November 16
  4 player local multiplayer

• Starlink: Battle for Atlas - Available October 16
  Exclusive missions for the Nintendo Switch with Star Fox, Peppy, Falco and Slippy from the Star Fox universe.

• The World Ends with You Final Remix - Available October 12
  Square Enix RPG

• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna - The Golden Country - Available September 21
  Go back in time with this Xenoblade Chronicles 2 DLC
  Owner of the Season Pass can already download this new content

• Warframe - Available November 20*
  Free to play co-op space ninja shooter game. Needs connections all time to play.

• Just Dance 2019 - Available October 23*

• Fifa 19 - Available September 28
  Available for pre-purchase tomorrow (9.14.2018)

• Team Sonic Racing - Available this winter

• NBA 2K19 - Available now

• NBA 2K Playground 2 - Available this fall
  NBA arcade game

• LEGO DC Super-Villains - Available october 16*

• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle Remaster Edition - Available 2019
  GCo-op action RPG, with new online multiplayer mode.
  New areas added in dungeons.

• Final Fantasy XV Poket Edition HD - Available today

• Worlds of Final Fantsy Maxima - Available November 6
  New feature added: Avatar Change. It allows yo to transform into legendary characters from across the series storied history.

• Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon Every Buddy! - Available this winter
  2007's Final Fantasy Fable Chocoboc Dungeon returns
  You can now befriend all the monsters
  Joy-Con local co-op multiplayer

• Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age - Available 2019
  Comes to a Nintendo system for the first time
  New Speed Mode

• Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy X and X-2 HD Remaster - Coming to Nintendo Switch in 2019 separately

• Super Smash Bros Ultimate - Available November 2
  Isabelle (Animal Crossing) joins the fight!
  Hardware Bundle that includes a Nintendo Switch system with specially designed dock, a pair of Joy-Cons with the Smash Bros Symbol on them and a digital copy of the game.

• Animal Crossing - Nintendo Switch - 2019
  A new game in the Animal Crossing series

• GameCube controller adapter and GameCube controller Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Edition - Available November 2 while supplies last

Nintendo Switch Online membership

Begins on September 18 with the following prices:
1 month 3.99 USD;
3 months 7.99USD;
12 months 19.99 USD;
12 month Family Membership up to 7 people 34.99USD.
Includes 5 features:

• Online play, a variety of games is supported
• 20 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games. You can find the complete list here. New title coming up. Includes local and online co-op.
• Save Data Cloud
• Smartphone App. Incluses: voice chat in certain games, additional infos in certain games (e.g. Splatoon 2)
• Special Offers. No details, more to announce in the future.

NES controllers for Switch - Available for pre-purchase starting September 18 on Nintendo.com
59.99USD
Nintendo Switch Online membership and Nintendo Account are required for the purchase.
Left and right wireless controllers that you can use to play NES games with on the Switch. Recharge the same way as normal Joy-Cons.
Contrllers do not include Joy-Con functionality.
Orders are expeced to ship starting this December.

Some questions to get us started:

• Do you drink water? Does it taste like anything?
• Coffee or tea? What kind? Do you put milk in it?
• Do you drink the alcoholic beverages? What's your drink of choice?
• Do you drink the carbonated beverages? What's your fizzy drink of choice?
• Do you drink the fruits or the veggie or the smoothie? How you drink it?
• Do you make a Drinky McDrinky Drink, what is it, how do you make it so I can drink it?
• Does the word drink sound funny now?

I'm starting to see occasional collapsed comments when I open threads. The first time I saw one, I thought I'd accidentally collapsed the comment myself, but this one was definitely already collapsed when I opened the thread.

Is this related to the "tagging" system that Deimos discussed the other day? At the time, he said that "tags" wouldn't have any effect. Are these effects now working? What are the effects? Also, there was no actual decision about what the different tags would be, and what they would mean. As I said in that thread, I decided not to use these tags until: a) they were agreed and defined; b) they actually did something. I thought they were just placeholders for now. I'm confused.

Or is there some other feature operating here? For example, people keep talking about "whisper" comments, and I'm not sure if they're just fantasising about a feature they would like, or if it's something that's actually planned. Are these those "whisper" comments?

The new comment-flagging feature is in place and is starting to operate: some comments are being hidden based on tags applied by users.

The irony is that everyone knows a comment is hidden except the person who posted the comment. If someone's own comment is being hidden, they should know that. I assume that part of the motive behind these tags is to teach Tildeans what is and isn't acceptable here. If someone doesn't know their comments are being flagged and hidden, they'll just keep on doing what they're doing.

There should be some mechanism to advise a user that their comment is hidden - like happens when their comment is removed by the admin.

EDIT: It's not just about educating people not to post more shallow comments in future. It's also just letting them know their comment has been hidden, as a courtesy.