[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

[Lifeless]

I miss cheat codes.

Now they are just unintentional bad programming rushed to production and found by the internet in ways that makes 99% of the game players groan.

Imagine a world where you have to ship a completed product. Ah memories.

[Jemolk]

I miss cheat codes.

Now they are just unintentional bad programming rushed to production and found by the internet in ways that makes 99% of the game players groan.

Imagine a world where you have to ship a completed product. Ah memories.

I mean, to be fair, it frequently didn't happen even then. Severe cut content problems and all that. It's just that we don't remember any of the games that this process rendered mediocre, only the ones that survived it well enough, or the ones that turned into memorable absolute disasters. Gothic is an obvious example of one that lost quite a bit to time limits but wasn't completely crippled by them. Gothic 3 is an example of a game that only became worth playing because the players did what the developers no longer could.

Games have always been rushed to production. Especially when there are large companies behind them demanding overwhelming returns on their investments to ensure quarter-over-quarter profit growth. The big difference as I see it is that in the past, with games being a smaller market, large corporations weren't so intent on saturating everyone's perception with their presence. But if you ignore the AAA space, and focus only on indie games and similar, we might actually be in one of the best times for good video games. Enthusiasts have always made better games than bloated corporate machines who view them only as a vehicle for profit, and said enthusiasts have a ton of excellent tools now.

[Hermes_]

Golden eye 64 had all kinds of cut content.....

[vandertroll]

Golden eye 64.. Ah the golden days!

[Janky_as_heck]

Please go listen to the interview and tell me what you think (not about my interviewing skills, about their answers lol). Same for the episode, we're open to improvement tips and suggestions

[Ulka]

Please go listen to the interview and tell me what you think (not about my interviewing skills, about their answers lol). Same for the episode, we're open to improvement tips and suggestions

Im in the middle of it and Im loving it

[Janky_as_heck]

Please go listen to the interview and tell me what you think (not about my interviewing skills, about their answers lol). Same for the episode, we're open to improvement tips and suggestions

Im in the middle of it and Im loving it

Awesome! Feel free to let me know of there are any other people you feel should be interviewed if they'll reply to us haha

[RxPhantom]

Please go listen to the interview and tell me what you think (not about my interviewing skills, about their answers lol). Same for the episode, we're open to improvement tips and suggestions

Link?

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Please go listen to the interview and tell me what you think (not about my interviewing skills, about their answers lol). Same for the episode, we're open to improvement tips and suggestions

Link?

With all due respect, it's on the main page.

[RxPhantom]

Please go listen to the interview and tell me what you think (not about my interviewing skills, about their answers lol). Same for the episode, we're open to improvement tips and suggestions

Link?

With all due respect, it's on the main page.

I eventually figured it out, but it didn't say "Interview with Hiromi Cota from the WotC diversity team," it just said "interview with Hiromi Cota." I didn't know who that is or why I should care. I also didn't know that janky was affiliated with Nexus in an official capacity.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Link?

With all due respect, it's on the main page.

I eventually figured it out, but it didn't say "Interview with Hiromi Cota from the WotC diversity team," it just said "interview with Hiromi Cota." I didn't know who that is or why I should care. I also didn't know that janky was affiliated with Nexus in an official capacity.

Whoa there, I just told you where it is, not passed judgment on your observational skills. I also cannot speak to how well or not it is labeled.

As for janky, yeah, they pop in here occasionally for feedback, etc. If you go back to viewtopic.php?f=24&t=11&p=185408# (page 161, look for dirk talking about streaming and start there) you can see the beginnings of janky's increased presence among us. I guess that must have all transpired while you were away though.

[RxPhantom]

With all due respect, it's on the main page.

I eventually figured it out, but it didn't say "Interview with Hiromi Cota from the WotC diversity team," it just said "interview with Hiromi Cota." I didn't know who that is or why I should care. I also didn't know that janky was affiliated with Nexus in an official capacity.

Whoa there, I just told you where it is, not passed judgment on your observational skills. I also cannot speak to how well or not it is labeled.

As for janky, yeah, they pop in here occasionally for feedback, etc. If you go back to viewtopic.php?f=24&t=11&p=185408# (page 161, look for dirk talking about streaming and start there) you can see the beginnings of janky's increased presence among us. I guess that must have all transpired while you were away though.

That wasn't meant to read as hostile. I'm sorry. I just saw janky talking about the interview, and didn't realize until the commander stream last night that he was part of Nexus. On a mildly related note...

Nexus only has six patrons! Six! This place is awesome, and has so many dope features! If you are reading this and in a position to give even a little bit every month, do it! Please!

[TheAmericanSpirit]

@RxPhantom it's cool, tone is always hard to parse online. As for patronage, I'd love to get me some blue bolded text but student loans, rent, and "gainful" employment limit my discretionary expenses. I should have the student loans killed off by next year, so I think then will be my chance to pay back what I feel I owe to this forum.

[Janky_as_heck]

I eventually figured it out, but it didn't say "Interview with Hiromi Cota from the WotC diversity team," it just said "interview with Hiromi Cota." I didn't know who that is or why I should care. I also didn't know that janky was affiliated with Nexus in an official capacity.

Whoa there, I just told you where it is, not passed judgment on your observational skills. I also cannot speak to how well or not it is labeled.

As for janky, yeah, they pop in here occasionally for feedback, etc. If you go back to viewtopic.php?f=24&t=11&p=185408# (page 161, look for dirk talking about streaming and start there) you can see the beginnings of janky's increased presence among us. I guess that must have all transpired while you were away though.

That wasn't meant to read as hostile. I'm sorry. I just saw janky talking about the interview, and didn't realize until the commander stream last night that he was part of Nexus. On a mildly related note...

Nexus only has six patrons! Six! This place is awesome, and has so many dope features! If you are reading this and in a position to give even a little bit every month, do it! Please!

Thanks for the feedback, I'll have to check to see if podbean (which is the host site) will allow me to adjust the title

[5colorsrainbow]

My point is that Magic is overwhelmingly white unless they're on an 'Asian' plan like Kamigawa or Tarkir, or the 'African' part of Dominaria (Jamuraa) etc.

And I think the majority of non white representation lore wise comes from Asian culture. And from what I understand it's from a fetishized place, the recent war of the spark anime versions, then strixhaven japanese mystical archives japanese special versions and now this it has been too much I guess. And there are plenty of problems in the strixhaven representation itself, specially in the Killian, Ink Duelist and Dean Ambrose portrayals. It's super weird how they are focused on the japanese aesthetic and have been problematic lately.

I'm from Brazil. South america recently had back to back player of the year, perhaps the greatest single player in the games competitive history is from Brazil. We have a massive scene and have 0 representation in cards, it feels like its a bunch of white folks geeking over europe and some parts of asia and forget the rest of the world

On the pre-beat for New Capenna Blake explained the Japan only promos and products. The Japanese trading card market is bigger and different in what sells well, so they been making produces to both help magic stand out as well as doing produces they believe wouldn't be successful in other markets.

And of note Teyo is latino.

[duducrash]

And of note Teyo is latino.

Just because some art director told they wanted a "latino" character. Gobakhan has no connection to any of our many many cultures. It has no nutritional value

[TheAmericanSpirit]

And of note Teyo is latino.

Just because some art director told they wanted a "latino" character. Gobakhan has no connection to any of our many many cultures. It has no nutritional value

Right on. I'll believe WotC's good intent is more than an empty platitude when South America has equal access to magic products, instead of being continually slighted in distribution and market expansion.

[5colorsrainbow]

And of note Teyo is latino.

Just because some art director told they wanted a "latino" character. Gobakhan has no connection to any of our many many cultures. It has no nutritional value

So we should only have non-white planeswalkers characters from planes where its strictly based on those cultures? Like do you feel this way if they had an asian or black coded character that was from Zendikar or Strixhaven or that Koth is from Mirrodin?

Personally I think thats a bad mind set to have when magic has planes thats are not as tied to the cultures they are based on. I certainly would love to see more than Ixalan explore latine culture but we don't need full planes when we could be seeing latine characters on more planes.

That said most planes really seem to only range in European, African and Asian coded characters when they are more diverse and it would be awesome to see other folk, such as people from latin american cultures pop up. I like Teyo for this since it means we don't need to have a Brazil or Mexican inspired plane to get a latine character and its a shame they haven't taken the chance on newer planes like Ikoria and Strixhaven that are more genre based than cultural based to feature some. Teyo is a nice start and I personally like him as character, but that is so far all he is, a good start on something wizards need a lot of work to improve.

[duducrash]

And of note Teyo is latino.

Just because some art director told they wanted a "latino" character. Gobakhan has no connection to any of our many many cultures. It has no nutritional value

So we should only have non-white planeswalkers characters from planes where its strictly based on those cultures? Like do you feel this way if they had an asian or black coded character that was from Zendikar or Strixhaven or that Koth is from Mirrodin?

Personally I think thats a bad mind set to have when magic has planes thats are not as tied to the cultures they are based on. I certainly would love to see more than Ixalan explore latine culture but we don't need full planes when we could be seeing latine characters on more planes.

That said most planes really seem to only range in European, African and Asian coded characters when they are more diverse and it would be awesome to see other folk, such as people from latin american cultures pop up. I like Teyo for this since it means we don't need to have a Brazil or Mexican inspired plane to get a latine character and its a shame they haven't taken the chance on newer planes like Ikoria and Strixhaven that are more genre based than cultural based to feature some. Teyo is a nice start and I personally like him as character, but that is so far all he is, a good start on something wizards need a lot of work to improve.

Two things are relevant in my opinion to this post

Strixhaven has asian representation and its deeply %$#% up. I suggest looking up online, there are asians discussing their feelings on Dean Ambrose and Killian.

Second point is the culture. It means nothing to me that an executive said "make this one guy look latino" and doesnt move a finger to incorporate any of shred of any of our cultures. There is no feature based on our culture, Teyo could be a naga planeswalker and it would be the same. It is strickly performatic in the laziest way possible. We have limited access to WOTC product and have produced back to back POTY recently. When GPs were a thing we as a continent would get one MAYBE two a year. It would be filled with folks from all over sudamerica.

What makes Teyo latino? He comes from a desert plane that rains crystals and monks protect the people with geometry magic. There is no latino culture, aesthetics or nothing. Its just how they decided to draw him to virtue signal.

But thats not the point, Im not here claiming for a sudamerica set. Just saying the deveopment is soemwhat creepy while repeatidly fetishizing specifical cultures and in particular aspects of those cultures that are clearly seen from a white weeb POV while constantly ignoring a huge part of their playerbase.

[DirkGently]

I mean, even if it's extremely low impact I think it's still positive to have more diversity in character representation. Of course that doesn't cancel out bigger picture things like card availability. Although I don't think PVVD existing is necessarily a great argument that SA is being underserved - theoretically the best player could come from anywhere. The question is how much overall demand there is, and I don't think WotC is handing out those numbers so there's no way to be sure. Not saying it's not happening, but personally I'd want to see more concrete evidence before coming down firmly on a particular side. In general I assume anything a company does is in an effort to make more money, so if they're stiffing SA my intuition would be that there's a monetary reason behind it.

Anyway, that's not what I actually wanted to talk about. I'm almost 100 hours into Elden Ring and...it might be the best game of all time? Definitely feels like the longest. I can't get over how huge and dense the world is. I'm already excited to start my next playthrough trying different strats, and I'm still not done with this run.

[duducrash]

Although I don't think PVVD existing

Check who won POTY right after Paulo

[5colorsrainbow]

Two things are relevant in my opinion to this post

Strixhaven has asian representation and its deeply %$#% up. I suggest looking up online, there are asians discussing their feelings on Dean Ambrose and Killian.

I do know about it, I personally don't discuss it outside of friends from that community as is a complex topic and I don't feel like its my place nor respectful to talk on and instead listen and echo the many asian folks where unhappy with how it was handled.

That also has nothing to do with my point as well. I bring up Strixhaven as an example of a plane that isn't based on a real world culture* which could be used to help get away from "only seeing non-white characters mostly on non-white inspired worlds".

*Its based USA college culture but I won't called Strixhaven "USA".

Second point is the culture. It means nothing to me that an executive said "make this one guy look latino" and doesnt move a finger to incorporate any of shred of any of our cultures. There is no feature based on our culture, Teyo could be a naga planeswalker and it would be the same. It is strickly performatic in the laziest way possible. What makes Teyo latino? He comes from a desert plane that rains crystals and monks protect the people with geometry magic. There is no latino culture, aesthetics or nothing. Its just how they decided to draw him to virtue signal.

What makes Koth black when he comes from metal world or Kaya when all we know about her world is the sky is "broken" or Linden when her world is based on fairy tales?

This kinda swings back around to what @RxPhantom was saying, why should we only see a latine character from a latine plane or the latine part of a plane? Does Teyo as a latino planeswalker have to come from a latine inspired world, why can't he come from world that doesn't have a huge cultural bias?

I get why you might not like Teyo as representation but I personally liked him as a latino magic player and rather see wizards trying have their characters be more diverse than having character like Teyo being another caucasian or a non-human.

But thats not the point, Im not here claiming for a sudamerica set.

You said

We have a massive scene and have 0 representation in cards, it feels like its a bunch of white folks geeking over europe and some parts of asia and forget the rest of the world.

I took that as you meant by lore which is why I brought up Teyo. I apologize if you meant in being able to get cards. As DirkGently we don't have any hard data to show one way or another what the deal is and I only know what Blake had talked on why they are making certain products for the Japanese market.

[duducrash]

I understand it is a business and understand they are looking to make money. I understand they make a bunch of money out of fetishizing certain aspects of specific cultures. Still think its %$#% up. When we are literally seeing the expression "waifu tax" applied on why a certain version of the card isnt particularly expensive compared to others I in no why believe its "representation" its a bunch of American, mosty white and mostly male people designing cards. They dont particularly care about good representation they care about packcrackfanatic69 opening as many collectors boxes as they can… and they found a gold mine in exploring this particular aspect of japanese aesthetics.

It just sucks to see a community love the game so very much, take it to the highest levels it can be taken to and see it completely relegated by WOTC




This is interesting video fron when the tolarian community college visited our GP. It is a pretty limited POV, he stayed here a couple days, hung out with creators and still got to see some of the hardships we face. I live in a city with a bit more than 2 million habitants I guess we have like 5 bigger stores and some small ones that are more hobby focused than magic. Stores that have specifically a cEDH community, spike stores etc. I play 1 pre release per set most of the time Several times it got delayed due to product not getting here on time. Now bear in mind this isnt a middle of nowhere store or city. Big store, big city with a weekend filled with pre releases. Until secret lair streeght fighter we were unable to legally purchase Secret Lair products, we had to use services to do so. Sealed product is both scarce and super expensive, our pro scene isn't limited to Paulo, in fact he isnt even the first brazilian to he the world champion is awesome, mosty because with so few events and so little care by WOTC and competitive play (and I say this before the world ended) meant getting a spot at the PT was harder. I am trully amazed by how many Latinos got to the higher stakes of magic with so little WOTC attention.

I planned to put this somewhere in the middle of the message but didnt find a place, people here are very passionate about magic. In the mid 00s my city didnt have a store so the competitive scene would hold events in a Chinese restaurant. Magic breathes here because of the people that love the game and how far they are willing to go to keep it alive

[Hermes_]

my one question is: Who does the distribution down there or is it direct from WotC/hasbro?

I ask because IIRC there was an issue with D&D 3.5 down there due to some issue with the distribution.

[RxPhantom]

@duducrash: I was finally able to find something about Killian and Ambrose, and it seems like a tough spot. On one hand, it is a negative stereotype that probably didn't need to be explored. On the other, some things achieve stereotype status because they can often be true to life. Can plenty of Asian people relate to that parenting dynamic? Yes. Did we need to see that in Magic with Asian characters? The consensus seems to be 'no.'

@5colorsrainbow, what I was really trying to discuss in that post wasn't even named characters, but rather the other ones that do so much world building for the set, the nameless creatures that populate every world. Did you know that Return to Ravnica had, and I mean this literally, a token black person? The only non-white human was the token that Precinct Captain made. In looking over some newer cards, they are doing a better job with this kind of stuff, but not a great one yet. They seem clueless about Latinx people specifically, not to mention anyone who's not ultra-fit and impossibly good looking.