Qis's recent activity

  1. Comment on Portland, Oregon, is ground zero for violent culture-war clashes. And it’s spreading in ~misc

    Qis
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    I had to stop listening to behind the bastards because I struggled to interpret his paraphrasal presentation of the biographies he's reading.. I can't tell how he chooses what to emphasize, at...

    I had to stop listening to behind the bastards because I struggled to interpret his paraphrasal presentation of the biographies he's reading.. I can't tell how he chooses what to emphasize, at all. Sometimes it's so everyone can make jokes, but I was confused too often

    3 votes

  2. Comment on Hyperbolica devlog #6: Pushing Unity to it's limits in ~games.game_design

    Qis
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    Someone here raise your hand and I'll pass you a steam copy of hyperrogue, an interesting and deep roguelike game set on an infinite hyperbolic 2d plane.

    Someone here raise your hand and I'll pass you a steam copy of hyperrogue, an interesting and deep roguelike game set on an infinite hyperbolic 2d plane.

    5 votes

  3. Comment on Star Trek: Lower Decks - S02E01 "Strange Energies" in ~tv

    Qis
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    Yeah, not many of these people seem to belong to the cultures described by the earlier series. They seem to have their hearts in the right place, but too many dialogues bog down into little...

    Yeah, not many of these people seem to belong to the cultures described by the earlier series. They seem to have their hearts in the right place, but too many dialogues bog down into little recitations about pettiness. When was the last time you revisited the original animated series? I think it holds up quite well. It would be very nice if a more contemplative animated show could be attempted again. A nice balance could be struck between TNG-era pacing and the benefits of animating your scifi, I think.

    4 votes

  4. Comment on How the founder’s toxic culture tore apart Fullbright, the studio behind Gone Home in ~games

    Qis
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    If you liked Gone Home so many years ago, try the much less adolescent Dear Esther!

    If you liked Gone Home so many years ago, try the much less adolescent Dear Esther!

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Iron Eyes Cody - The Distance (2016) in ~music

    Qis
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    This group goes by Fever Dolls now and my favorite of theirs is Adeline.

    This group goes by Fever Dolls now and my favorite of theirs is Adeline.

    1 vote

  6. Comment on The Lighthouse (2019) was made by nerds, and it's awesome in ~movies

    Qis
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    Nope! I watched this in a theater on release day and turned against it halfway through. I could not fathom why these men were so terrible at handling their work, the setting, their dialogue with...

    Nope! I watched this in a theater on release day and turned against it halfway through. I could not fathom why these men were so terrible at handling their work, the setting, their dialogue with each other. As far as I could tell just a couple of brief conversations about boundaries could have set them up for success. The monologues are great and I appreciated the visuals but I feel like on the whole the movie was a kind of insensitive joke about how men struggle to ask for help when they need it..

    my partner and I debated over which of the birds were practical fx vs trained birds vs CG, tho. if someone here watches the movie would you please compile a list of shots where there are birds and we can discuss which birds are birds

  7. Comment on Writing a best man speech for my brother’s wedding, any advice? in ~talk

    Qis
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    The above advice sounds good but God if it feels like a bland formality. Do something weird and interesting like instead of a speech write a horoscope or recite a recipe or stand on your head!

    The above advice sounds good but God if it feels like a bland formality. Do something weird and interesting like instead of a speech write a horoscope or recite a recipe or stand on your head!

  8. Comment on I have decided to be more prolix in some situations in ~life

    Qis
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    Super helpful! I'm a talker and it drives some people up the wall but there's no denying that more chatter accelerates social returns like compound interest. Keep up the babble and you'll put...

    Super helpful! I'm a talker and it drives some people up the wall but there's no denying that more chatter accelerates social returns like compound interest. Keep up the babble and you'll put people at ease so much sooner.

    4 votes

  9. Comment on Eric Whitacre - Water Night (1995) in ~music

    Qis
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    My chorus butchered this piece one season! I loved this style.

    My chorus butchered this piece one season! I loved this style.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Leaked emails show crime app Citizen is testing on-demand private security force in ~tech

    Qis
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    Fuck this fuck this fuck this!! Thuggery and fear mongering!! Absolutely reprehensible use of technology and utterly corrosive social posturing!!

    Fuck this fuck this fuck this!! Thuggery and fear mongering!! Absolutely reprehensible use of technology and utterly corrosive social posturing!!

    13 votes

  11. Comment on Esoteric tabletop gaming rules review in ~games.tabletop

    Qis
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    Calvinball was an extremely formative example! I am ambitious and brilliant and will tackle that divisive philosophical and linguistic question in the cleverest and most obscure and arcane way I...

    Calvinball was an extremely formative example! I am ambitious and brilliant and will tackle that divisive philosophical and linguistic question in the cleverest and most obscure and arcane way I can imagine!

    I will check Invincible Sword Princess, I do like unique and abstract rpgs.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Esoteric tabletop gaming rules review in ~games.tabletop

    Qis
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    I'm with you. It was an exciting and novel moment for games. This is a coincidence, but this week I have finally recycled my completed copies of risk and pandemics legacy seasons 1 and 2. Today I...

    I'm with you. It was an exciting and novel moment for games. This is a coincidence, but this week I have finally recycled my completed copies of risk and pandemics legacy seasons 1 and 2. Today I will also finally trade away my unused copy of Seafall. I have however kept my nearly unplayed copy of Friedemann Friese's monstrous 504. My reaction to the first waves of legacy games was probably the driving force in my renewed interest in campaign games like Gloomhaven and the 7th Continent.

    (Plz excuse rapidfire series of namedrops, heh..)

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Esoteric tabletop gaming rules review in ~games.tabletop

    Qis
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    Maybe I am specifically processing my feelings about legacy games. I have a friend who finds them grotesquely consumeristic. He sees no reason why the cardboard components of a game should dispose...

    Maybe I am specifically processing my feelings about legacy games. I have a friend who finds them grotesquely consumeristic. He sees no reason why the cardboard components of a game should dispose of themselves and I mostly agree with him. I was thinking about outsourcing some of those dynamics to a component that you were going to eat anyway -- and experiment with continuous data rather than the rinky dink arithmetic of small discrete numbers.

    1 vote

  14. Comment on Esoteric tabletop gaming rules review in ~games.tabletop

    Qis
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    I hope this makes sense -- Games like the one you have designed here are the dominant archetype. I have dabbled with rules like "whoever is in second-to-last place wins" or "the game ends if any...

    I hope this makes sense --

    Games like the one you have designed here are the dominant archetype. I have dabbled with rules like "whoever is in second-to-last place wins" or "the game ends if any player's score lags too far behind the others" or "pass your turn to any player except the player who has had the most turns," etc. I noticed that these kinds of conditions give rise to puzzles which progress to completion by eliminating possibilities until only one result remains: a finished game. Secret scoring conditions or limited communication (in my opinion) barely forestall this narrowing of horizons..

    I think my goal is to capture some of the energy of the set-up stages. I like the anarchic aspects of deciding who gets to play with which color of pieces, and rules that require some interpretation and negotiation and trust (e.g. "The youngest player goes first." We ask: who is the youngest player? How do you know? Discuss. I would include a card that suggests that anyone who has brought a birth certificate to the table has ironclad evidence; then I would include a card that suggests how someone might forge a fake birth certificate using only a hand of poker cards; then I would include a card which incentivizes other players to turn a blind eye to blatant counterfeits; then I would try to build a contest between the supporters of contradicting sets of counterfeit documents..

    1 vote

  15. Comment on Esoteric tabletop gaming rules review in ~games.tabletop

    Qis
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    A legal play and a treat, I hope. DM me your favored flavor and address for delivery.

    A legal play and a treat, I hope. DM me your favored flavor and address for delivery.

  16. Comment on Esoteric tabletop gaming rules review in ~games.tabletop

    Qis
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    Psh, I'm sure you could engineer a way to split papa's nachos into more than one hundred parts. I think it is wrong to convince someone that they should hold one hundred cake tokens somewhere in a...

    Psh, I'm sure you could engineer a way to split papa's nachos into more than one hundred parts. I think it is wrong to convince someone that they should hold one hundred cake tokens somewhere in a box in their home when you were already given a perfectly functional understanding of fractions. Get out those scissors, I say. Or maybe prepare a larger cake? Cheapass Games had the right idea when they realized they could skip mailing dice and tokens and instead count on players to provide functionally infinite supplies of components.

    Yes, this could be described as a somewhat pointless minigame -- such is cake. It does shake out pretty consistently though. We might play a tic-tac-toe game together despite full cognizance that the outcome is likely to be a draw. My project is to cobble together many rules like this into a package which will be playable and decidable.. it is esoteric..

    1 vote

  17. Comment on Esoteric tabletop gaming rules review in ~games.tabletop

    Qis
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    Haha, I might have linked this page instead but yeah. And I think a lot about nim games. Maybe you are right and "be fair" is more confusing than it is colloquial. I was just thinking that it...

    Haha, I might have linked this page instead but yeah. And I think a lot about nim games.

    Maybe you are right and "be fair" is more confusing than it is colloquial. I was just thinking that it would be interesting if something happened when the condition arises that there is not enough cake left to alter which player has had the least.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Esoteric tabletop gaming rules review in ~games.tabletop

    Qis
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    I don't know yet.. would you like some cake? We have one cake and you can have some of it but do not finish it.

    I don't know yet.. would you like some cake? We have one cake and you can have some of it but do not finish it.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on Esoteric tabletop gaming rules review in ~games.tabletop

    Qis
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    I think most of those scenarios should be negotiably legal given the above phrasing. And I am very attracted to infinitesimal remainders -- I have not seen any truly asymptotic behaviors in a...

    I think most of those scenarios should be negotiably legal given the above phrasing. And I am very attracted to infinitesimal remainders -- I have not seen any truly asymptotic behaviors in a modern board game and I think it would be fun and interesting if players were tasked with conceptualizing/notating one.

    I may make a note of the phrase "in one sitting", than kyou..

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Esoteric tabletop gaming rules review in ~games.tabletop

    Qis
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    No context is missing -- this is as fragmentary as it appears -- yes ttg is my preferred abbreviation for games.tabletop. I think this gives a workable policy for managing a cake. I am hoping that...

    No context is missing -- this is as fragmentary as it appears -- yes ttg is my preferred abbreviation for games.tabletop. I think this gives a workable policy for managing a cake. I am hoping that another part of this game could make reliable references to how much cake yet remains such that whatever number that generates could never be Zero.

    I am also hoping that it is sufficient instructions for playing a game with these rules but no cakes. If I sent you a game in the mail with no cakes included, perhaps you could still follow these instructions by just imagining a cake?

    edit: someone has tagged this as a "ttrpg" thread but I really do mean just a euro-y tabletop game like catan or canasta rather than a roleplaying game.

    1 vote