CuriousCat Archive Page 112 of 202

  1. ... you DO understand that some soldiers never see combat right? And that some don’t do war crimes?
    And weren’t you the guy who said that you’re tired of sweeping generalizations being applied to entire job occupations?

    in response to I think a better slogan is "Protect Soldiers, Destroy the War Machine" as it's often the case that the military exploits the poor and desperate by offering a path to financial stability.

    I didn't say they all see combat. But they are troops for the express purpose of seeing combat.

  2. Are the Colonial Marines meant to be unsympathetic? Should they be?

    sympathetic but inept

  3. Do fewer people write about adventure games than other types of games?

    yes

  4. If we had equal opportunity bigotry instead of racism, would that be better?

    you mean, if it were common to have nonwhite cops racist against white citizens, loans denied to white citizens on the basis or race, prison sentences that over-punished white people because the jury has racist nonwhites on it, POC-run corporations that show a significant pay gap for white employees, and so forth?

    if there was equal opportunity bigotry and ALL bigotry came with the same social repercussions, I suppose society would be somewhat more equal. we'd still have a white supremacist country simply because there are more whites than any other race, and I suppose assholes who say "my bigotry's ok because really everyone's racist" would have better arguments. that would be annoying.

    while that's interesting to think about, it's not going to happen. race was invented to privilege whiteness. it doesn't run on the same rules as other races. there is no way to create equal opportunity racism.

  6. Can you put a price on your dreams?

    yeah $7 plus shipping and handling

  8. How would you describe the perfect salad, to you?

    a fruit salad with no melons or citrus

    probably some rainier cherries

  9. What's your favourite genre of science-fiction?

    I don't have a favorite subgenre, I just want it to be good.

  10. If you could take credit for any novel that has ever been written, which would you pick?

    I would claim to have written all of In Search of Lost Time, because I could make up quotes whenever I felt like it and it's not like anyone could tell I was lying.

  11. ContraPoints talked about how she was attracted to some right-wing talking points in that past. Did you ever feel the same way?

    Not... really? When I was younger I felt greater skepticism of lefty stuff - I thought no one would ever work if not for capitalism, I thought feminism was fine but just don't take it TOO FAR, I thought you could be racist against whites, I thought it was okay to use homophobic slurs so long as everyone knew you weren't *really* a homophobe, etc. etc.

    You'll find that a lot of conservative rhetoric is more about attacking the Left than defending the Right's policies. It's a kind of "conservatism of the gaps" - we don't support racism, we're just against every single anti-racist policy you present! So, in that sense, I had absorbed some conservatism, but never consciously.

    Do keep in mind I was raised in California by liberal parents, so being a Democrat was kind of the default.

  12. How much hiking do you do? How much hiking equipment do you have?

    I have two legs and a go get 'em attitude

  13. I think a better slogan is "Protect Soldiers, Destroy the War Machine" as it's often the case that the military exploits the poor and desperate by offering a path to financial stability.

    in response to How would you feel seeing the slogan "Respect Soldiers, Destroy the War Machine"

    why are we making efforts to "protect soldiers" rather than making efforts to give the poor and desperate viable alternatives to becoming mass murderers for the war machine? seems, if it's a thing we gotta work on, there are better ways to expend the energy.

  14. You don't need to, but others definitely want to, for a myriad of reasons. I'm just thinking that decoupling the idea of supporting the troops and going to war all the time would be useful for lefty goals, so arguing that supporting the troops means bringing them back home seems helpful.

    in response to How would you feel seeing the slogan "Respect Soldiers, Destroy the War Machine"

    troops don't really serve a purpose other than to go to war, though

  15. favorite pie?

    in response to Do you prefer cakes or pies?

    toss-up between cherry and pumpkin

  17. Do you think you might at any point be interested in making a video and/or video series about how bad actors enter leftist spaces and how we can effectively recognize and respond to them? This has been a consistently hot topic and I would be interested in your take

    It's an interesting subject but I'd be coming to it pretty cold. I'm not sure how to research it, I haven't worked with leftist organizations who've had to deal with infiltration, and I'm not entirely confident in saying which leftists on the internet are grifters and which are just assholes with bad opinions. So, if information comes my way, or I realize something that illuminates things for me, maybe? But, otherwise, I think there are people better qualified than me to talk about it.

  19. How would you feel seeing the slogan "Respect Soldiers, Destroy the War Machine"

    why do I need to respect soldiers?

  21. How do you reconcile the belief that it is important to care about the world with the belief that it is also harmful for your mental health to care about a world you can barely affect?

    I don't think no longer caring about the world is good for one's mental health, either

  22. I'm not asking in bad faith, and I apologize if I came off that way.

    I've never had any interest in declaring a piece of media "good" or "bad." I approach works as complex things that can have good or bad elements, and I think it's important to dissect what does and doesn't work. that's the way I talk about media in my videos and it can be a little disheartening for people who watch my stuff to ask me "okay but does THIS thing make it bad?"

    I don't think recycling the misogynist damsel-in-distress trope will singlehandedly sink a movie. but it weakens it. I don't think it can be done well anymore. whatever subversion or deconstruction someone might do has been done, over and over. it may not be employed maliciously, but its still a crap trope, and, even if it weren't sexist, it's still *lazy*.

    but, please, try to engage with media in a more complex way than "thing good" vs. "thing bad." or, at least, don't ask me to tell you whether thing bad. it's just not how I look at things.

  23. Think you'll ever bring up the third?

    in response to Thoughts on memetic food debates like "are hotdogs sandwiches?", "does pineapple go on pizza?", and, of course, The Tomato Question, "are tomatoes a fruit?"

    "is a hot dog a sandwich" and "is a tomato a fruit" are both openings to talk about how definitions are complex, especially in defining aspects of culture rather than, like, natural laws or molecular structures. they are interesting subjects on their own and also useful as metaphors for other things you want to talk about.

    "does pineapple go on pizza" is just an opinion. all I can say is "yes" or "no." haven't found a way to get a video out of it.

    but the answer's yes btw.

  24. Thoughts on memetic food debates like "are hotdogs sandwiches?", "does pineapple go on pizza?", and, of course, The Tomato Question, "are tomatoes a fruit?"

    you know I've done videos that talk about two of these at length, right?

  26. Do you ever get bored with the artifice of language or do I just need to get laid

  27. Why you didn't respond to my second question about mathematics? Are you afraid to admit you were wrong?

    u got me

  30. Is a game inherently bad or sexist for simply using the Damsel in Distress trope?

    can't tell if question is in bad faith or not

  32. is curiouscat a part of your job?

    in response to At what point is a thing a job?

    it's not NOT part of my job

  33. Would kinks be as sexy if they were called konks

    only for a very specific type of person, who is me

  34. Isn't it naively hopeful to call it "late" capitalism?

    in response to At what point is a thing a job?

    late capitalism is a stage Marx predicted where we see the features we are seeing now. there is no rule about how long the stage lasts, or, indeed, if it will end.

  35. Revelations is a very lovely Tapping On Everything experience with a Myst fanfic stapled to it, and it’s unfortunate that while VR is becoming the prime place for the Tapping On Everything genre, Cyan has ignored Tapping On Everything in their own VR work.

    in response to Opinion on the Myst series?

    Guess it's cuz Ubisoft made Revelations

  37. At what point is a thing a job?

    we're living under late capitalism. EVERYTHING's a job.

  38. Do you know if LucasArts ever tried doing a Star Wars adventure game? Seems like that's a shoe-in for a hit.

    in response to What would have done to prevent the death of the adventure game?

    The story is that Hal Barwood was planning one, but it required a lot of 3D sets at a time when 3D was still fairly new, and Grim Fandango was already in production. I don't know if that means the company felt the games would be too similar or if it was that most of the 3D modelers were occupied, but it never came together, and soon after LucasArts stopped making adventure games.

  39. How many takes do you do when reading a script? Which video did you have to rerecord the most?

    I'm pretty comfortable with my writing style and delivery at this point. Many lines only get recorded once, and usually lines I read a few times are ones where I misspeak or mispronounce something. Why Are You So Angry probably had the most re-recordings, since I was often rewriting and re-recording segments mid-edit because I needed to phrase something differently or add something I felt was missing.

  40. Have you played starship titanic? I always thought it had some of worst examples of things people point to for bad adventure games. But also that kind of worked for an adaptation of Hitchhiker's Guide in a few ways? An indifferent universe that doesn't care about you a jot and kind of defies any attempt to understand it

    the universe of Hitchhiker's Guide is funny to read about but you'd never, ever want to spend time in it

  41. What would have done to prevent the death of the adventure game?

    I mean, this gets into the whole question of whether adventure games ever really "died," per se. Because, even during the "dead" period, adventure games lived on as indie games, kid's games, casual games, and European bargain bin games. These were all targeted at specific, dedicated audiences and budgeted appropriately. I think if companies like Sierra and LucasArts had contented themselves to just target the adventure game fan and not attempt broad market appeal, and made fairly inexpensive games that innovated with design rather than graphics or engines, they could have carried on as a sturdy niche genre.

    But maybe the math didn't work out for that. Maybe the margins on that kind of product just weren't feasibly until digital distribution.

  42. Which Delany book would adapt as a game?

    Babel-17 lend itself to rad mechanics

  43. Are there examples for you of media where historical accuracy was not *necessary* per se, but you recognized something inaccurate that really bothered you?

    in response to For example?

    I was FURIOUS at the end of The Majestic where Jim Carrey gives the House Un-American Activities Committee an impassioned speech about democracy and human dignity so they just LET HIM GO without him answering their questions! Like you could've dodged the fucking Red Scare by pulling a Frank Capra.

    Fuck off, Frank Darabont!

  45. Aside from being able to die or not, how would you sum up the difference between LucasArts and Sierra adventure games?

    One of the biggest differences is LucasArts tended to have you go from point A to B to C, where Sierra tended to plop you into a single location that you would unlock more of over time but you were still traversing the first locations over and over again.

  46. Opinion on the Myst series?

    Myst is good, Riven is one of the best adventure games of all time, Exile is the Jurassic Park III of the series but Amateria is wonderful, Revelations has much to recommend it but some of the puzzles are TERRIBLE, haven't played End of Ages.

  47. Top 5 Non Lucasarts?

    in response to Since we all know number 1 - there's a whole video with three arguments about it - what's no. 2-5 in your Top 5 Lucasarts games?

    Top 5 from LucasArts Contemporaries (In No Particular Order)
    - Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
    - Riven
    - The Last Express
    - The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
    - The Longest Journey

    Top 5 from After LucasArts Stopped Making Adventures (In No Particular Order)
    - Tales from the Borderlands
    - Kentucky Route Zero
    - Thirty Flights of Loving
    - Outer Wilds
    - Life is Strange

  48. In your video about word "cuck", you say that whites took credit for mathematics. What exactly do you mean? As a math major, who happens to be Asian, I am kinda baffled at idea that white people "take credit" for mathematics. Most of math I studied was "invented" in Europe. ( I don't want to get in the philosophical details whether math is invented or discovered). Of course basic algebra and arithmetic have origins in Asia, but that doesn't mean that white people didn't make huge contribution to mathematics in the last two and a half thousand years or that they "stole" math from Asians. And of course historians of mathematics agree that basic mathematics were invented simultaneously in Asia, Europe and Africa. So this moment irked me a little bit.

    the more technically accurate statement is that many of the foundational principles of mathematics came from the Middle East and that white people erase these contributions, but the point that contributions from all over the world are regularly claimed by Europeans is nonetheless accurate

  51. Do you have a video where you draw a distinction between "plot agency" and "character agency"? At first I thought that was from Dan's video on Jupiter Jones, but I just rewatched that & that's not it, so now I'm wondering if it's in one of your videos, which are not Dan's

    not exactly, but are you thinking of this video?

    https://youtu.be/R943_eAvnWw

  52. For example?

    in response to How much do you feel historical accuracy matters in art if at all?

    Historical accuracy is not terribly important in a medieval adventure. Historical *inaccuracy* in a story about, for instance, the Kennedy assassination is downright irresponsible.

    But, even then, accuracy only matters in the places where it's relevant. If you get the details of the assassination wrong, leading people to draw inaccurate conclusions about whether or not there was a conspiracy (looking at YOU, Oliver Stone), that's very bad. But I don't super care if you get the make and model of Kennedy's car wrong.

  53. Are there any unions for community managers or content moderators?

    not sure why I'd know that, being that I am neither

  54. Same question, except replace what with who, where, when, why, and how.

    in response to What's the next Co Vid

    WHO is the next CO-VID: there is an answer to this question but it's a spoiler

    WHAT is the next CO-VID: I realize I misread the original question as "when" and didn't answer this, the real question, but I'm not telling.

    WHERE is the next CO-VID: currently in a Google Doc. the audio was briefly in Audacity but I discovered the program had recorded from the onboard mic instead of my Snowball so I have to re-record.

    WHEN is the next CO-VID: when it's finished

    WHY is the next CO-VID: well, I had reason to talk about the 90's and then realize how complex talking about the 90's actually is, and it just kinda spiraled out from there

    HOW is the next CO-VID: not doing so great, honestly. I've been kinda burnt out lately. had a mini-staycation over the weekend that was really nice, but I came back with no enthusiasm for what I'd written and I'm trying to get it back. been procrastinating by writing a different script, because that's what I have energy for and any work I do on it now is work I don't have to do later, so at least the time isn't wasted.

  55. What was the last game you played that gave you an immediate "𝘰𝘩 𝘨𝘰𝘥 𝘰𝘩 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨" reaction when you realized what its central mechanics were? (e.g. for me this was Baba Is You)

    Figuring out how to land on the quantum moon in Outer Wilds.

  56. Anything much to say on D&D, or nah?

    I find TTRPGs conceptually interesting but haven't really played any.

  57. Since we all know number 1 - there's a whole video with three arguments about it - what's no. 2-5 in your Top 5 Lucasarts games?

    Oh you simple, simple child.

    1. LOOM
    2. Grim Fandango
    3. Full Throttle
    4. Secret of Monkey Island
    5. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

  60. A strange question: any FAQs that, despite not beong yours, believably *could* be?

    List of Self-Referential Easter Eggs in Early 90's LucasArts Games

  61. How much do you feel historical accuracy matters in art if at all?

    depends on the art

  62. Do Republicans want to repeal the ACA because they hate Obama, because they're being bankrolled by insurance companies, or both? Which do you think is influencing them more overall?

    Both, but moreso because they believe that the right to live should not be considered a right but a reward for generating wealth for your boss.

  63. Is it possible it is a trained reaction, you've noticed so many flaws in so many works your brain has taught itself to deal with it in the most efficient way possible, like mindlessly turning off the lights to a room somebody's still in because normally there isn't, and ergo normally you always flick off the lights when you leave a room?

    in response to I wasn’t trying to say they are mutually exclusive, more that there can be some cognitive dissonance there I guess, with the need to not let your noticing of the bad ruin your enjoyment of the good. This can maybe be tiring.

    oh for fuck's sake, no

  64. So this is what the Disco Elysium Thought Cabinet is!

    in response to How important do you consider subs count to be?

    [constitution check: passed!]
    Something like that.

  65. I wasn’t trying to say they are mutually exclusive, more that there can be some cognitive dissonance there I guess, with the need to not let your noticing of the bad ruin your enjoyment of the good. This can maybe be tiring.

    in response to But watching media does tend to involve overlooking some things sometimes. Like for some people the ableism in Fury Road was a dealbreaker, others kind of enjoy the rest of the film anyway.

    Seeing that something I like has problems does not cause cognitive dissonance for me, because I don't go in with the expectation that it, or any media, will be flawless. And seeing those flaws, and having reactions to them, does not take extra energy, because it's a largely automatic process.

    I don't really understand how it works for you, I guess.

  66. What do you do in parties?
    A) Engage in small talk
    B) Eat/Drink
    C) Poop
    D) Destroy the foundations of non-philosophers' belief-systems

    yes

  67. https://youtu.be/dr8aRR3Xt4M
    What is this?

    if you have to ask, you'll never know

  68. But watching media does tend to involve overlooking some things sometimes. Like for some people the ableism in Fury Road was a dealbreaker, others kind of enjoy the rest of the film anyway.

    in response to Doesn't exploring whether or not something is problematic not all the time get a bit exhausting?

    I don't cotton to the idea that enjoying the movie and critically engaging with the ableism are mutually-exclusive. I love Fury Road. I also wrote about its ableism and whitewashing.

  69. What game have you spent the most hours playing?

    Nuclear Throne, easily

  70. If you could speak to any animal, which would you pick?

    toss-up between dolphins and ravens

  71. Are callout and cancel culture the same thing?

    in terms of where the terms began and what they originally implied, there are differences, but culture at large uses them interchangeably (or, rather, has replaced "callout culture" with "cancel culture")

  72. But what does the *anarcho* term denote? Is it the more extreme version of the following term like communist or capitalist? Or just a wordy indication that it Is a contradiction to capitalist/communist terms?

    in response to Different anon but what is the meaning and differences between both anarcho-communist & anarcho-capitalist?

    anarcho- means anarchist. the commonly-understood forms of communism and capitalism are both operated by governments. anarcho-communists believe in communism without formalized governments; anarcho-capitalists believe in capitalism without formalized governments.

  74. How important do you think symbolic woke stuff is?

    I've seen memes where the exhausted guy complains about lack of systemic reform in a tidal wave of diversity stuff, but that seems unfair. It's not like those people control the government. While that's unfair, I do wonder how important stuff like changing Columbus day to Indigenous People's day really is.

    For me, changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day is one of those things that is so, so obviously the right thing to do, that if we can't even do THIS obviously right thing, how are we ever going to do everything else?

  75. I also think this “breadtube is too lib!” discourse is ridiculous and you're DEFINITELY not a lib, but your citation of Chomsky left me a little intrigued because he's overwhelmingly viewed as a part of the liberal-friendly left?

    Even *I* who am a fan of Chomsky don’t view him as an example of strong leftist beliefs.

    I ponder what made you think that quoting Chomsky would make you be seen as more far-left, since the people who call you a shitlib probably call Chomsky a shitlib too lol

    Also, if you think that citing *Chomsky* is a step too far I wonder what are your thoughts on quoting... I don't know... Lenin, for example.

    I said Chomsky because he seems to be a go-to for a lot of leftists I know. The fact that there is argument over whether Chomsky is "left enough" is, itself, evidence that he has become a kind of left signifier, enough so that most of the Left is expected to have an opinion on him.

Anon commented:
Ian replied: