TavisNamara's recent activity
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Comment on Kevin McCarthy fails on first US House speakership vote in historic loss in ~news
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Comment on ‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’ swimming past $1.5B global today to become no. 1 WW release of 2022 in ~movies
TavisNamara Link ParentLooks pretty, action-packed, 'exotic'... I'm not sure there's anything more to 'get' for the generic movie-goer.Looks pretty, action-packed, 'exotic'... I'm not sure there's anything more to 'get' for the generic movie-goer.
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Comment on Kevin McCarthy fails on first US House speakership vote in historic loss in ~news
TavisNamara Link ParentJust to provide an update: We're now up to the sixth failed vote after a night away, the House is adjoruned... until 8 pm for some reason at which point they might do yet another vote? No idea. In...Just to provide an update:
We're now up to the sixth failed vote after a night away, the House is adjoruned... until 8 pm for some reason at which point they might do yet another vote? No idea. In any case, all three votes today were practically identical, with 212 Jeffries, 201 McCarthy, 20 for whoever they bothered to put up against McCarthy, and 1 voting "Present" (which technically lowers the threshold for 'majority' to 217 in the current setting).This is becoming even more of a mess as things go on.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway Thread: Holiday 2022 in ~games
TavisNamara Link ParentThanks! ROUNDS, huh? Never heard of it, but... Looks interesting. I'll give it a try soon.Thanks! ROUNDS, huh? Never heard of it, but... Looks interesting. I'll give it a try soon.
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Comment on Interactive xkcd comic about gravity in ~comics
TavisNamara LinkI get the feeling I'd be at this for days if I wasn't careful.I get the feeling I'd be at this for days if I wasn't careful.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway Thread: Holiday 2022 in ~games
TavisNamara (edited )LinkHello, all! Got a quick giveaway for all of you. Grabbed the Jingle Jam 2022 pack and had a few left over after activating all I could, so here's the deal. The way the keys from this particular...Hello, all! Got a quick giveaway for all of you. Grabbed the Jingle Jam 2022 pack and had a few left over after activating all I could, so here's the deal. The way the keys from this particular bundle work is that they're on a timer, for whatever reason. Which means you need to activate them before the 31st. So pick one (1) of the following, I'll toss you a code, and then they won't go to waste.
Steam keys. First come, first serve.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
Plague Inc: Evolved
Fury Unleashed
Epic Battle Fantasy 5
DeponiaEdit: Well, never found someone to give Deponia, and by now the code's supposedly dead. I got several more spread around, though, and that's what matters. Enjoy, all.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway Thread: Holiday 2022 in ~games
TavisNamara Link ParentOooh, look at that... Been looking to get Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, so I'll ask for that one, with the bonus number being... 52.Oooh, look at that... Been looking to get Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, so I'll ask for that one, with the bonus number being... 52.
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Comment on Fandom buys TV Guide, Metacritic, GameSpot and other brands for about $50 million in cash in ~games
TavisNamara Link ParentNot just extremely good SEO, but they hold your SEO hostage if you ever try to leave. They'll keep dominating the search results because they keep using all the stuff you put years of hard work...Not just extremely good SEO, but they hold your SEO hostage if you ever try to leave. They'll keep dominating the search results because they keep using all the stuff you put years of hard work into building
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Comment on Fandom buys TV Guide, Metacritic, GameSpot and other brands for about $50 million in cash in ~games
TavisNamara LinkOh fuck no. That means Fandom now has Gamefaqs by the balls. Of all the old, infinitely valuable data repositories out there, Gamefaqs is unrivaled in the depth of knowledge on old video games,...Oh fuck no. That means Fandom now has Gamefaqs by the balls. Of all the old, infinitely valuable data repositories out there, Gamefaqs is unrivaled in the depth of knowledge on old video games, and has remained relatively unscathed since the early days. With Fandom taking charge... That's... Not good. That's very not good.
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Comment on Embracer Group, parent company for a vast and expanding roster of studios and publishers, goes on a spending spree buying up Middle-earth Enterprises and more in ~games
TavisNamara LinkI don't trust this to stay sane. While Embracer has, in the grand scheme of things, remained relatively decent compared to other media conglomerates, such impressions are almost always skin deep...I don't trust this to stay sane. While Embracer has, in the grand scheme of things, remained relatively decent compared to other media conglomerates, such impressions are almost always skin deep and fall apart rapidly once the seams start to show. With the HUGE number of companies Embracer has consumed in the past 3 or 4 years, this could be wild.
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Comment on Reddit launches NFTs in ~tech
TavisNamara LinkThere's an ongoing crash and they chose now of all times to release it. Tonedeaf, absurd, very nearly insane. Even aside from the simple fact that the blockchain has zero practical uses that...There's an ongoing crash and they chose now of all times to release it. Tonedeaf, absurd, very nearly insane. Even aside from the simple fact that the blockchain has zero practical uses that cannot be better addressed by pre-existing tech that's safer, more easily managed, and vastly easier to set up, this is just the worst possible time to try this nonsense. I'm still using reddit here and there, but every day that passes I feel less and less inclined to return, and their adamant refusal to ever fix things (like the freaking video player, for goodness sake, they can set up a blockchain scam but can't fix a video player?!) while constantly rolling out ideas nobody asked for, nobody wants, and which end up being a net negative for the site's enjoyability, usability, and more... It certainly isn't helping.
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Comment on California imposes sweeping ban on pumping river water in San Joaquin Valley, Bay Area in ~enviro
TavisNamara Link ParentIt absolutely is insane, horrifying, ridiculous, wildly destructive, and altogether a very bad thing to pump so much water into the maintenance of golf courses. It is also by no means the biggest...It absolutely is insane, horrifying, ridiculous, wildly destructive, and altogether a very bad thing to pump so much water into the maintenance of golf courses.
It is also by no means the biggest issue, generally speaking. No, that would be agriculture. Of the totality of water used in California, on average, half is for environmental purposes (essentially, it's water they either just let flow freely or redirect to key locations for environmental protection purposes- yes, they count that as 'used'), then 40% is for agriculture, and the remaining 10% is for urban usage.
From there, you also have to consider that individual water use isn't necessarily the biggest part of the data involved here- I couldn't readily find the breakdown beyond "10% urban". But some types of manufacturing use more water for a single large-scale factory than a city of millions for day-to-day use (particularly semiconductors and such- those require INTENSE amounts of water for cleaning, etc). Once you consider all that, even a luxurious golf course is relatively insignificant... Though it's still an incredibly wasteful and environmentally destructive abomination.
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Comment on Twitter accepts buyout, giving Elon Musk total control of the company in ~tech
TavisNamara Link ParentThat's because they ARE trying to provide cover for bigotry. Freedom of expression (what we in the US usually refer to as "free speech") doesn't include bigotry. Or hate. Or death threats. Or...That's because they ARE trying to provide cover for bigotry. Freedom of expression (what we in the US usually refer to as "free speech") doesn't include bigotry. Or hate. Or death threats. Or misinformation.
It is the free exchange of ideas. But there are no ideas in hate- only hate. There are no ideas in death threats- only death threats. There are no ideas in misinformation- only lies. Misgendering someone, or calling them the n-word, or the r-word, or the t-slur, or any of a hundred other things doesn't contribute to anything. It's not an idea- it's bigotry. None of it has any inherent value. In fact, it has negative value, as bigotry, death threats, misinformation, and so on damage the existing conversation and drive valuable ideas away. By allowing those negatives to thrive... Well, yeah, you always get 8chan. Or Parler. Or the far right subreddits. Those zones never actually have a conversation going on unless they get tricked into it. It's always the most echo chamber of echo chambers with nothing but vitriol and violence as their core tenets.
In some cases, those who speak out for "free speech" are just unaware and uninformed. But I don't have the slightest hope of that for Musk because he paints himself as a "free speech absolutist"... While union busting, as well as severely limiting workers' speech, customers' speech, trying to shut down the free press, directing his fans to edit wikis, cutting contact with companies in retaliation for their speech, hiding business details, and more. He, as well as Tesla, has been taken to court over a huge variety of different issues directly related to free speech, and the only times when he's been in support of speech is when he gets to call an innocent man a pedophile.
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Comment on I need help with gender options in my game in ~lgbt
TavisNamara LinkGenderfluid person here. First thing: While some people may be a little disappointed if you don't go beyond he/she/they, there's not many who will be genuinely angry about it or anything. If you...Genderfluid person here.
First thing: While some people may be a little disappointed if you don't go beyond he/she/they, there's not many who will be genuinely angry about it or anything. If you can just text input for the he/him/his/himself equivalents, that'd be practically ideal, but it's not a major problem if you do otherwise. Unfortunately, there's no perfect option here, and what you can at least try to do is insert a tooltip that can give some kind of reasoning or something if you really want to stick to those three to make... Something work. I don't know what's going on in your head or in your programming and how that might change things. But, assuming you want to keep the options limited and don't want to give the player the option to choose anything within the program... Let's look at some other stuff, starting with the names.
Second thing: The names. Alice/Alan/Al feels, to me at least, like two masculine and a feminine. Maybe Alay/Alè, if you really want to hold to AL-something? Not really sure on that- there's a lot more possibilities here to look through, and names are ultimately a lot subjective.
Third thing: Adding a way to change names/pronouns mid-run sounds like a really good idea to me. Sometimes people realize they're trans later in life and may be uncomfortable coming back to a save file that misgenders them when they had the option otherwise, and sometimes, for the rare handful like me, it just changes because it's an annoying little social construct that won't sit still. Being able to change it on the fly shouldn't be overly taxing on you (I hope), but will be very meaningful to the few who use it.
Fourth thing: You've already hit upon one of the big things I wanted to call out, but I'll restate it. If someone wants to use "Alan" and "She", that's her choice. Sometimes gender is a complete mess, and there's no need to restrict that. Thanks for being supportive of that.
Fifth thing: Is gender actually important to this in any significant way? I get the feeling this isn't going to be heavy on character creation, and this isn't necessarily 'me' that's in the game, so there's a few options there that I think you could think over for it. Some might take more careful scripting, but are still functional. The option of just... Removing the concept of the player's gender from the game. Give them a set of names to work with, and connect no gendered concept to any of them- no one ever refers to you by he, she, or even they- it's always "you", "Alan", "my rival", "Captain", and so on. This could take a LOT of work, and may come off a little stilted if you don't do it just right. But there's also just the choice of... Making a definitive character. Not every story needs to be a self-insert. Then it becomes the question: What do YOU want from YOUR story?
Sixth thing: In line with the tooltip idea explaining your reasoning above, could you do as FluffyKittens said in this very thread and leave the pronouns/names/etc., as a plaintext config and have the tooltip explain how to edit that file should the player desire to use neopronouns, or use a mix of pronouns, or whatever?
Thanks for thinking of us in the first place, by the way. Even just being willing to ask is a really, really good start.
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Comment on Nuclear waste is safer than you think in ~science
TavisNamara Link ParentAnd that's stuff from '78. It would take multiple consecutive acts of god to breach a cask.And that's stuff from '78. It would take multiple consecutive acts of god to breach a cask.
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Comment on Anyone can defeat Goku now in ~anime
TavisNamara Link ParentThat's certainly fair, though I should point out that anyone making a reasonable, honest debate on the question (Rather than the all too common angry tribalism) would have to acknowledge the...That's certainly fair, though I should point out that anyone making a reasonable, honest debate on the question (Rather than the all too common angry tribalism) would have to acknowledge the gimmick of characters like Saitama. That is, the stronger their opponent, the more certain that opponent will lose. The more bravado, the more confidence, the more world-shattering consequences, the easier they'll be taken out. It takes a completely inconsequential threat- such as, say, a single annoying mosquito- to defeat a joke character like Saitama.
Which tends to be why characters like Saitama are dismissed in these conversations, because they don't really count, because you have to be too weak to win.
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Comment on Anyone can defeat Goku now in ~anime
TavisNamara Link ParentYeah, this is a good, short summary. I went into the idea a bit more in a reply of my own, but the basics of it is just as you said: It's lazy writers, or writers who just want their personal...Yeah, this is a good, short summary. I went into the idea a bit more in a reply of my own, but the basics of it is just as you said: It's lazy writers, or writers who just want their personal favorite to be the superultrabest, etc. Dozens and dozens of writers over what's rapidly approaching a century of Superman have made him equal to the Japanese "joke characters" the likes of Saitama and Arale, who are literally unbeatable because it's funnier that way, but without the point being the humor- instead, the point is... Being the best.
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Comment on Anyone can defeat Goku now in ~anime
TavisNamara Link ParentHonestly? The Japanese equivalents do exist. It's just always the wrong ones being chosen. You wanna give Superman a fair fight? Or, hell, have Superman get his ass beat almost instantly? Pick...Honestly? The Japanese equivalents do exist. It's just always the wrong ones being chosen. You wanna give Superman a fair fight? Or, hell, have Superman get his ass beat almost instantly? Pick someone who doesn't have limits. Go for Saitama from One Punch Man. Go for Arale, from Dr. Slump/Dragon Ball. Go for the characters for whom physics is a joke they laugh at.
But even then, it doesn't necessarily work the same way for a few key reasons: Goku is the same Goku as Goku was in 1984, give or take a few details. Superman has been replaced, rewritten, reworked, remade, reshaped, and reimagined so many times that there's literally dozens of him. Modern Goku would barely need to raise a finger to beat the Superman seen in the first ever comic. But that was 1938. And if you compare 1938 Superman to 1984 Goku, Superman wins without even trying.
Superman started stronger, started more than four decades earlier (and thus has had four decades longer for power creep to make him grow in power beyond the gods), has passed through dozens more hands (Toriyama has basically always been on the edge of things, if not directly involved, and everything has always been intended to be at least somewhat similar to what Toriyama would have done, whereas Superman's creators were disconnected from him so early it's hardly worth mentioning that they created him), and more.
Western media just functions differently, too. That passing through dozens of hands thing is a lot more common in Western media than in Japanese, and often leads to the most overpowered characters as each new hand in the mix becomes all the more devoted to their favorite hero being the strongest instead of their favorite hero being what they were originally intended to be. So Batman becomes the superultramegaextramastermind of geniusness who can totally out-plan a literal god who could obliterate him in an instant because he's just that smart, we swear. Superman becomes... The literal god who could obliterate anyone in an instant because he's just that strong, we swear. The Flash becomes so fast that time itself has no meaning, reality is fiction, and he can totally beat Superman because he's just that fast, we swear. And so on and so forth, forever and ever, everyone beating everyone else because they all want their favorite character to be the superultrabest, and then any outside media that doesn't represent a joke character whose baseline starting strength is "literally unbeatable" (Arale, Saitama, etc.) physically cannot compare, because they have a cohesive identity.
And that's why Superman beats Goku. Because Goku is a better, more sensible, more soundly made character, with a set list of abilities and a power level that makes sense in-universe... And Superman is "the best, dude, trust me".
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Comment on Humble Stand With Ukraine Bundle in ~games
TavisNamara Link ParentAnd now it's done. "This bundle was live from Mar 18, 2022 to Mar 25, 2022 with 473,614 bundles sold, leading to $20,720,580 raised for charity." Twenty million dollars!And now it's done.
"This bundle was live from Mar 18, 2022 to Mar 25, 2022 with 473,614 bundles sold, leading to $20,720,580 raised for charity."
Twenty million dollars!
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Comment on Anyone can defeat Goku now in ~anime
TavisNamara LinkI've always found the Goku v Superman idea truly absurd. It's not a fight. It's never been a fight. In order to be fair, you have to play by death battle rules- the strongest official version of...I've always found the Goku v Superman idea truly absurd. It's not a fight. It's never been a fight. In order to be fair, you have to play by death battle rules- the strongest official version of each character competing.
And there's no possible way for Superman to lose that, because Superman has been so comically, absurdly, impossibly, over-the-top powerful that the best Goku could ever do is a stalemate, and even for that you'd need a Goku that's so far beyond the strongest Goku we've ever seen it's absurd. Without the use of Kryptonite- a weakness Goku not only doesn't know about, but, as per his character, would never utilize even if he did know about it, Superman is stronger. It's what they said in that Death Battle: Goku can surpass any limit. But that's the problem: Superman isn't a limit to be surpassed. Superman, at his peak, has no limits. He's so fast he can time travel at will. He's so strong, he can knock out godly and invulnerable beings while mostly dead, never mind while at full strength. He can control his heat vision with such precision he can deactivate psychic abilities by manipulating your brain- and do it so carefully that you'll fully recover in a day or two. He can create a hurricane by breathing out. His brain functions on such a ridiculously fast level that he can read and, with his heat vision, rewrite computer programs as they function. That's not a level of ability you can compete with. It's a fucking joke. Goku still, however tenuously, toys with the theoretical limits of reality- Superman hasn't cared about reality for decades.
The only way Goku can win is to do things his character would never, ever do. When the lives of literally everyone he ever knew, and the very existence of his own planet, were on the line, he still fucked around and waited to make sure his opponent was at full power so he could fight them at their best. More than once. The use of kryptonite, or destruction of the sun, or any other action of the likes of that are things he would never do because then he'd be fighting a weaker opponent instead of the full-strength logical impossibility that is Superman.
Yeah, I've been paying moderate attention to it, and it's been... An absolute unfathomable clusterfuck. It's a garbage fire inside a bigger, garbagier fire. Every couple votes McCarthy and pals say "We made a deal, and it's a perfect deal, and it's going to work this time!" and then they run the vote and it's either just as bad as or actively worse for them than the previous.
They finally adjourned for the night after the eleventh vote failed with practically identical numbers yet again. In fact, McCarthy is down from the beginning of the day, because one of the Republicans had to leave for a doctor's appointment or something and won't be back for days. His opposition has been steadfast and hasn't budged an inch, both on the Democrat side and on the far-right side.
Based on the discussion going on right now, which sounds worryingly similar to literally everything they've been saying for the past three days, I predict yet another failure tomorrow. At least one.
Fun fact: With the 11th failed vote, this is now tied for the 5th most failed votes for Speaker with the 17th Congress, which succeeded on vote 12. If they fail that one and secure 5th completely, the next move up the rankings would be at the failure of the 21st vote, as the 16th Congress succeeded on vote 22. The numbers after that get... So much worse. Just so, so much worse. Success on 44, 63... and 133.