AceTKen

joined 1 year ago
MODERATOR OF
[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I generally don't talk about it, but because you asked, I have seen a lot of anime and hate most of it. I have seen Hellsing, Hellsing Ultimate, about 9/10 of the OG run of Fullmetal Alchemist, a lot of Ranma 1/2, Serial Experiments Lain, Akira, some Death Note, La Blue Girl, some tennis one I can't remember the name of, Castlevania, a few Studio Ghibli movies, Attack on Titan S1 & 2, random episodes of Samurai Pizza Cats, all of One Punch Man, Interspecies Reviewers, Slayers, some DiC Sailor Moon, some early Pokemon, and a few Dragonball, YuGiOh, Digimon, and Naruto episodes.

I don't count early GI Joe or Transformers even though they're technically anime, but I didn't like those either.

Of those, I liked Interspecies Reviewers, about 1.5 seasons of OPM, 1 season of Castlevania, and Hellsing Abridged (because it's fucking hilarious).

Here's a random top 10 of reasons:

  1. Anime has a horrible habit of having a great premise, a lot of repeated setup, and then zero payoff followed by a new season escalating with the same. In short, great at premise, poor at developing it into a story. And endings? They have no idea how to end a series except for fighting bigger bad guys...
  2. And that's IF they can even be arsed to finish a series. I'm aware of the timeframe dynamic between manga and anime. It fucked over Game of Thrones too. Maybe we just agree not to start a show before the source material is done?
  3. Much of the animation looks abysmal and the "serious" ones seem to have an awful habit of just... panning over a background or frozen characters in a scene for fucking ever to fill time. I made note of this during Serial Experiments Lain to my friend who was making me watch it and it basically ruined the show for him. It completely wrecked the pacing and was done CONSTANTLY. There were 45 second pans (which I would start audibly counting after 10 seconds) while the main character just monologued "I'm 12 and this is deep" bullshit that was nearly completely disconnected from the plot. There was no reason to do this. Even recent shows like Castlevania did this.
  4. Shit just happens that doesn't make any sense in context of the world they've set up. This is endemic from anime I've seen. Anime fans think that randomness is "creative" instead of just "throwing shit at a screen because the writer had a fever dream and it doesn't matter at all if it makes any fucking sense". Spirited Away is basically just this. No, randomness is not creativity, Katy the Penguin of Doom.
  5. They're just a different set of tropes than American cartoons, many of which I find to be nonsensical, twee, or cringe-inducing. Bloody nose when you get a boner trope, I'm looking at you.
  6. I fucking hate Japanese voice acting (and often for the most part the Americans who dub it, especially in kids shows). This started when Sailor Moon came over and I wanted to kill everyone in the immediate vicinity whenever most of the characters spoke. That shrill panic screaming that was in SM and Pokemon was awful.
  7. In the same vein, I also can't stand constant "reaction sounds". Someone saying something mildly surprising that you should have easily realized 10 episodes ago isn't an excuse to stare blankly and make an "AH", "OH", or "UH" noise (sometimes followed by a small choking sound) roughly four hundred times per episode. Humans don't do this.
  8. They make movies that just do random shit and don't have anything to do with the show (if not outright contradict the show). Dragonball is especially notorious for this.
  9. A really weird number of them throw in Nazis seemingly at random, appropriate time and setting be damned. Need a bad guy? Fucking Nazis!
  10. I am constantly inundated with friends that like anime telling me that I should watch whatever their new anime obsession is despite it conforming to 3/4 of bad things on this list because obviously I just haven't watched the right anime.
[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

But they are portrayed differently and there are entire threads about how "modern audiences" don't like the American Pie way.

The three things you mentioned there in The Boys were not for titillation, they were played for humor or shock as was the (overwhelmingly) male nudity. And the actions are mostly done by the bad guys. A butt shot of a Starlight body double in the most recent season isn't comparable and is a stinger to someone being raped. Sex and sexuality is portrayed poorly and as kinda gross throughout.

American Pie had a scene for titillation and the actions were carried out by the protagonists. Sex and sexuality is portrayed as fun, nothing to be ashamed of, and a normal part of life.

The OP is correct. It was never about not being able to reference creepy sex practices by bad people. That was never off the table.

Things are different now, and I would argue in a very unhealthy way.

[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't know if it's the one you're thinking of, but this guy does motion comic stuff and makes fun of superheroes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWBpBjdp8Hg

[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It looks like I will be nearly the only dissenter here. I didn't care for the game.

PROS:

  • The music and sound design were completely appropriate and fit the world.
  • An initially interesting story setup.
  • Some of the planets have a SUPER cool premise and are a joy to explore.
  • The DLC adds some much-needed (albeit mild) horror elements.

NEUTRALS:

  • Achievements are implemented, but are mostly for irrelevant side activities. Do you like using a guide to figure out how to get all the achievements? Well, you will have to.

CONS:

  • This is not an adventure game, this is a puzzle game first and foremost. If you are not down with figuring out hundreds of vague Dark Souls-style lore blurbs scattered all over in order to work out how to solve environmental puzzles to progress, do not get this game.
  • In the same vein, if you are not down with having a loop end before you're done exploring an area only to have to trek all the way back there and go through everything all over again in case you missed something, do not get this game. This could be partially solved by having the logs you find on a planet permanently NOT GLOW any more after you had read their chain, or maybe a ship notice letting you know there were undecyphered texts on a planet still. I had to re-tread an astounding amount of ground just to make sure I wasn't missing something.
  • When your ship directs you to a planet that you need something from, the navigation on some of them is so obtuse that I found several places I could not find again even after dozens of visits to their planets. A map or better signposting would alleviate this.
  • The characters were deeply forgettable, and you are constantly inundated with dozens of gibberish alien names so unless you follow a lore guide or take notes, you're not going to figure out who did what. And speaking of...
  • The story has a veneer of "pretty good sci-fi" but is told quite poorly. You will beat the game, get the incredibly lacklustre ending that doesn't close out the story in any way, and watch one of many lore explanation videos that will make things click into place. The fact that the lore videos have SO MANY HITS is endemic of the fact that this is a narrative poorly delivered. You will find the lore in random order. If spread over multiple sessions like I played, this will mean you will not make some absolutely needed connections.
  • Many things do not make sense within the context of the world and there is no reason for them to be happening at the time except for the hand-waving "It's a video game" excuse, which breaks immersion. Why only now is sand being moved from one planet to another at the beginning of a cycle? Why only now is one planet being broken by lava? These (and other that I can not speak about due to spoilers) are not explained - the systems have existed for ages and would have (and should have given the environments they set up) occurred before this, but because it makes for a more interesting setup, it all happens now.
  • The controls are... an acquired taste at best. Look at many of the negative reviews; many state the controls as an issue. There is a reason for this, even though I did become accustomed to them over time. I swapped to a controller and it was less bad. The keyboard and mouse controls are abysmal.
  • I played the final build after the DLC came out, and even this far in development, I had some severe bugs. Controls would get "stuck" and force a game restart, achievements didn't unlock correctly, etc.
  • I wound up quitting because I didn't know what to do next and didn't care to watch yet another video to figure it out. There were hundreds of text logs that may or may not have been useful, and no idea how to find what was missing to help me progress without consulting guides, and it became too much. I eventually realized that I was just throwing time into a hole with nothing to show for it. It genuinely felt like it wanted me to give up and I couldn't help but oblige. I just... stopped. I hated it. I kept doing the same thing over and over and eventually felt that I wasn't enjoying anything. I hate the very concept of repetition as a game mechanic unless executed well; this wasn't executed well.
  • Despite quitting, I have seen all the endings. The real ending is legitimately nonsense and is basically an appeal to emotion while leaving the reality of the universe behind. It abandons the premise with what can only be described as a narrative hug that does essentially nothing, but presents the veneer of "feel good." It is nothing. It is empty. Everyone but me loves it for this, and I can't figure out why.

CONCLUSION: Meh? I really don't understand the adoration people have for this game. It's a mediocre non-combat roguelike with about 3 hour of content they've spread over 20 hours. It feels very much like a case of style over substance. This game genuinely makes me sad. I really wanted to like it, but... ugh. It feels like work.

[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

They are? Where? I mod a Community and I've never seen anything that isn't explicitly for Admins that can see them.

[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca -1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

For my community ( !actual_discussion@lemmy.ca ) I would adore this as long as it's available to Mods of the community the downvotes are in and Admins of that instance only. It should absolutely not be visible for normal users.

We are hit with downvotes nearly every time we post a new thread on anything even remotely controversial so it would really help us filter out people who simply downvote to bury the thread and contribute nothing whatsoever to the discussion.

Heck, we made it a rule to not downvote unless the user is not adding to the discussion, and that it should not be used as a disagree button. People generally ignore this, however.

That or just add the moderator option to disable downvotes for Communities. It would be an incredibly handy toggle.

EDIT: For an example as to why it should be implemented, see this post you're currently viewing where I give reasons, how it's been impacting us, some alternatives, and people hit the "fuck you" button with zero discussion and that's all. This is the problem.

[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 month ago (4 children)

A trash heap where it fucking belongs.

There isn't a thing that you can put ketchup on that a good BBQ sauce or hot sauce isn't better on. I will die on this hill.

[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I've reported hundreds of these stupid things because I use guides somewhat regularly. I think they've deleted like four? They do notify you when they take action, but it's incredibly uncommon.

[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Looks like what I'd want to use, but to reach broad support it needs a Windows client as well.

[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago

I am as confused as you are by this comment section. She's also given statements that are anti-genocide as well. You can be opposed to multiple shitty things.

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submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by AceTKen@lemmy.ca to c/actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This weekly thread will focus on the word "Woke" and its meaning, use, and misuse.

Some Starters (and don’t feel you have to speak on all or any of them if you don’t care to):

  • What does the word mean to you?
  • Is it applied correctly or incorrectly?
  • Is it even applicable any longer?
  • Do you feel that Conservative media misapplies it, and is "everything I don't like is woke" an appropriate sentiment or simply uncharitable?
[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago

Well, it's definitely more wrong , so there's that.

[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago
  1. Thanks for the memories.
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This weekly thread will focus on words, their import, and their use / misuse.

With respect to the late, great George Carlin.

Some Starters (and don’t feel you have to speak on all or any of them if you don’t care to):

  • How do you feel about political (or forced) movement of language? For example, pro-life and pro-choice being two sides of the same issue because nobody wants to identify as "anti-"anything.
  • What are some words that are nebulous, but everyone "knows" the meaning of?
  • Are there any manipulated words that annoy you?
  • Do you find any common patterns with how words are used by various groups?
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submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by AceTKen@lemmy.ca to c/actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This weekly thread will focus on getting other people to watch movies we love, but others may not have seen or even know about.

In order to make a recommendation or two, simply let others know an appropriate amount about a movie and why they should give it a chance.

If you want to deeply discuss one, please remember to use Spoiler tags where applicable!

Some Starters (and don’t feel you have to speak on all or any of them if you don’t care to):

  • Great bad movies
  • Hilarious garbage for a big group movie night
  • Best genre movies
  • Underrated films
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submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by AceTKen@lemmy.ca to c/actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This weekly thread will focus on the phrase "The Cruelty Is The Point", which may take some explanation.

Frequently on Lemmy (and elsewhere), I see the phrase in comment threads. In my experience, it has been referencing any policy that is contrary to a Liberal or Leftist belief that the thread discusses. I have found the phrase when discussing trans issues, housing, taxes, healthcare, abortion, and many more.

This does not mean it doesn't exist elsewhere, it is simply where I see it since I spend much of my social media time on Lemmy. If your experience differs, please let us know!

Some Starters (and don’t feel you have to speak on all or any of them if you don’t care to):

  • Do you believe this? If so, why?
  • Is it true / false in some or all scenarios?
  • Is it with certain groups or regarding certain things?
  • Do you feel that speech like this is conducive to fixing societal issues?
  • Is what is considered "kind" always the best course of action?
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submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by AceTKen@lemmy.ca to c/actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This weekly thread will focus on Protests, both effective and ineffective.

Over the past 15 years, we've seen more protesting since the 1960's in North America. Some feel they are needed, and some feel they are wasteful and silly.

Some Starters (and don’t feel you have to speak on all or any of them if you don’t care to):

  • Have you ever taken part? What was it and why?
  • What protests have you felt have been effective or ineffective?
  • If you feel they are not effective in general, what would you rather people do?
  • Have you ever had your opinion swayed by any form of protest? Please note that this could be either to the side of the protesters or away from their cause.
  • How would you try to ensure a successful protest?
  • Do you feel that violent protest is mostly uncalled for? If not, how do you know when you need to escalate things?
  • Just for fun, what is the absolute worst protest you've ever heard of?
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This weekly thread will focus on work and work culture.

This has been a back-burnered issue since COVID came and upended many workplace traditions worldwide, but I'd really like to hear about what you all think about it!

Some Starters (and don't feel you have to speak on all or any of them if you don't care to):

  • What is the ideal work / life balance? Right now, the worldwide average is 5 days per week, 8-5 PM. Is this too much / too little / just right?
  • With productivity skyrocketing and wages falling, what would you like to see to fix things?
  • Would you accept less money and shorter hours?
  • What would you feel minimum wage should do to adjust?
  • Do you feel that the current resurgence of Unions is positive or negative?
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

No, it's not a joke. I'm frustrated and I'm probably not choosing my words carefully.

This community has had steadily falling engagement - our last 3 weekly threads have had a grand total of 1 (excellent and well-articulated) response, and the number of topics not generated by myself (or the other mod) since the inception of the community has also been 1.

Very few people want to actually talk. From what I've seen, the masses want the same things that they wanted on Reddit:

  1. Memes
  2. Articles they don't read (but will bitch about endlessly) that reinforce their opinion
  3. Angry responses to someone (who may be trolling) that reinforce the current politics of the reader (that they couldn't have given a fuck about a few years ago until it became heavily politicized)
  4. Shitty easy jokes
  5. Personal politics circlejerking

I hate that I can see a hundredth point-free meme post and view 200 replies on it. I hate that it's just the same talking points being strawmanned over and over again in every thread. I hate that any point outside common groupthink is downvoted to oblivion and buried instead of discussed.

The reason I'd like to back away from Lemmy seems to be the same reason I started this community: we need more people who can articulate points, and less downvoting, but it doesn't seem to be getting better.

Maybe one day, but today is not that day. Lemmy needs to mature in more ways than one.

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submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by AceTKen@lemmy.ca to c/actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This weekly thread will focus on current political divisiveness occurring nearly worldwide. I'd post links, but I feel that everyone knows what I'm speaking about.

This issue has been especially prevalent in American politics as of late, but it is felt nearly everywhere.

Some Starters:

  • What do you feel has caused it? Add proofs if possible.
  • Once caused, what has added to it and why?
  • What can be done to ameliorate the issue, if anything? On a personal scale or a national one.
  • Can it be remedied or is civil war the only option?
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This week’s Weekly discussion thread we will focus on Activism, both positive and negative.

Here is the definition we will be using, so please make sure your argument matches.

Some starters:

  • What would you classify as effective forms of activism?
  • What are ineffective forms of activism?
  • How does a group know when their mission is achieved? What if the mission is ambiguous or changes over time?
  • Do you feel they stop too early or too late?
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submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by AceTKen@lemmy.ca to c/actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This week’s Weekly discussion thread will be trying something new. We'll be focusing on the age old question "If you could change one thing positively in the world what would you change?"

Difficulty Level: (Pick your difficulty, let us know what you picked, and stick to it)

  1. Go wild.
  2. You can't harm others.
  3. The change has to be somewhat realistic or believable.
  4. If I could convince 1,000,000 people right now, it would work.
  5. If I could convince 100,000 people right now, it would work.
  6. Souls Mode: If I could just get motivated, I could do this myself.

(Also, let me know if these "fun" weeks are welcome here, or just stupid)

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submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by AceTKen@lemmy.ca to c/actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This week’s Weekly discussion thread will be focused on Linux. I know that Lemmy is VERY biased towards Linux and FOSS, but I'm curious what non-technical people feel about it and what your thoughts are.

Some starters:

  • Have you used Linux? If so, what was your experience like?
  • Would you run it as your primary system? Why or why not?
  • What would it take to get you to do so?
  • Do you feel it's a solid option?
  • Are there any changes that you'd think would benefit consumers and aid with adoption?
1
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by AceTKen@lemmy.ca to c/actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
 

Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion. You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This week’s Weekly discussion thread will be focused on Capitalism / Economic Systems. Here is the definition we will be using so everyone can use the same terminology. If your argument does not use that definition, we ask that you reframe so that it does so that everyone can work within the same framework.

Here are some questions that should help kickstart things:

  • Is capitalism effective? Is it good, or as evil as some Lemmy instances will have you believe?
  • Are there better alternatives, and why are they better?
  • How could we realistically move toward those alternatives?
  • Is there anything you do not understand or would like to discuss about Capitalism / Economic Systems?
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