General Discussion

[Kerr]

No I haven't, I think I was in England once when I was really little, but I don't remember it. So I'm looking forward to it, I hope everything pans out with friends and schedules and stuff so we're able to go. Love to get the chance to visit Germany & America one day too.

(Kerr just so happens to leave when he's most pivotal to an RP)

Gah, I hope not.

high school french class war flashbacks

Bad memories of speaking french? You mean you aren't just Gambit from X-Men?

[Aarah]

Also, Beta seems so upset...maybe you can use that suitcase again and take him to camp with you.

You say this as if this wasn't the plan from the start.

Ohhhhh. So that's what the suitcase was for!

[Unionhack]

high school french class war flashbacks

Bad memories of speaking french? You mean you aren't just Gambit from X-Men?

I feel like I should be offended by this.

[The SheoDovah]

I may go to America one day though it would be the cost that is a major decision along with the entire visa process for tourists at the time. My first holiday as an adult is likely to be within England. Yeah, i'm 24, never had a holiday. I know. *gets out the world's smallest volin* It is likely to be me venturing into the wastes known as the north to see my father. Ireland is likely to be the first external holiday as i've got relatives over there.

I've been to france plenty of times in my youth(more of a hopping on a ferry with my nan when I was a kid and not getting off.) and once on a school trip. That trip is sadly the only happy memory I have of school related stuff. I was bullied a lot and my confidence was pretty much destroyed by the time I reached 16. That and had no friends, grades were likely to be utter crap. Then I rebuilt my life at the age of 16 and as much as my self hatred wants to have me believe, I've pretty much came back from nothing. Kinda went on a bit of a rambling there. By god, I'm the Abe Simpson of the forum! *cries*

But to the topic at hand, provided, that Europe doesn't make it an utter pain in the backside or the UK does that, I'll probably go to France, Spain for the food. Germany, maybe. I'll be honest, i've not really thought where I really like to go as i've not had the chance. That and it costs £70 for a passport! £70!

[Aarah]

Whereabouts in France did you go? Paris?
I'd like to go there - never been.
You've only been an adult for six years, so that's not long to have never been on holiday.
(Depends who you ask, I suppose. Some people go on one or more holidays a year).
I've not been outside of the UK since becoming an adult, but before then I've been to some island off the coast of Africa (was only one year old though), a Greek island, Russia, and Australia.
I would like to go to Vancouver (British Columbia in general), Seattle, France, Austria, Iceland and Norway.
(Is it obvious a don't like hot places?)
Would also love to see Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.

[The SheoDovah]

Sadly, i've blocked out most of my memories of school and can only say it's northish france.

I probably will go to Paris at some point and yes, I will do a selfie in front of a cheese shop just for mild amusement purposes on here.

[Aarah]

Sorry to hear that.

I hope you do get to Paris someday. Though be advised, do not drop a Babybel off the top of the Tower - at that height it could really hurt someone.

[The SheoDovah]

Are you implying I would do such as thing? Please, I would do the British thing and use a teabag and some british cheese. Then get arrested, charged with starting a war and really end up wishing I used a scone as well.

[dremorababe]

Sorry about that.

Did you pick pretty daisies in France though?

[The SheoDovah]

Don't know. 99.9% of my time at school is bad and i'm glad i've forgotten so much of it, almost all of it. All I know is that the trip was decent and it was in france.

I feel like Jarl Balgruuf and I have something in common now.

Yes, my efforts to bring TES in here continue. You can't stop the TES express. Unless you get Southern rail to run it then that will stop it but then i'll get the TES bus and if that stops, the TESplin and then the TEScopter and then the TESplane ending with the MechaTES.

[dremorababe]

Todd Howard needs to adopt you

[The SheoDovah]

If he did, we would get the best TES ever and UESP would randomly be chosen to get first dibs on all of TESVI coverage. Randomly.

[dremorababe]

That would randomly be the best thing ever. My kids would love to see that.

[The SheoDovah]

Fallout 5 would be the best Fallout and Doom VFR would be renamed to F**** Doom on ****** V*****R. With such editions available: ******* steroids edition, ***** you edition etc.. Basically Doom is one angry sweary game. Doomguy is even more angry. I would force a correction of Dishonered to Dishonoured.

Seriously, why is there not a Doom edition that is over the top with it's swear? It's violent as heck, it may as well start having rude editions. It's probably for the best I will never work in marketing.

[Unionhack]

Doom wasn't all that controversial because it was preceded by Mortal Kombat by almost 3 years. The media had already had their fun with cursing and wanton violence in games, after that it was pretty much fine.

[The SheoDovah]

I know but mods like Brutal Doom really gave Doom it's reputation for being violent and i think, was used by ID Software as a reference. Doom 1 isn't very violent but i can see it being considered a lot back in the day. Doom 2016 is how a franchise can go back to it's full glory. Unlike, Duke Nukem. *glares at said game*

Interestingly, Bethesda owns probably the biggest icons in the FPS genre. The game that started it, Wolfestein or most notable one and Doom. Granted, we almost ended up with call of battle doom but turns out doing Doom as Doom on steroids is quite the good idea.

If Bethesda the publisher can do this, i wonder what other icons from the 90s can be bought back from the depths of crappiness.

Doom 3 was meh.

[dremorababe]

I've only played the demo for the latest DOOM. I enjoyed it. No Bethesda bias here, promise. But I don't really mind violence. I started playing Mortal Kombat at a really young age (and I'm perfectly normal, I promise again!) so s'all good.

[The SheoDovah]

But didn't you uppercut a man's head off his body the other day? I could have sworn you ripped out the spine of a retail worker then tore someone else into two pieces as well.

[AKB]

Doom wasn't all that controversial because it was preceded by Mortal Kombat by almost 3 years. The media had already had their fun with cursing and wanton violence in games, after that it was pretty much fine.

This is a good point, and we're seeing it now with games pushing for nudity and the like as more standard. I think the break down between the film industry and the game industry is rather interesting, where with film almost all bestsellers were PG-13, but in the gaming industry, you see a bit more of a turn towards higher ratings. Not a drastic amount, but there's more of it.

[Unionhack]

Snip snip DOOM snip

Not very violent? It was released in 1995 (Not counting the shareware versions from 93). The game is almost as old as I am. They pretty much made it as violent as possible for the graphical capabilities of the time. Brutal Doom doesn't exactly count seeing as it was released in 2010 and made with technology available in the day.

This is a good point, and we're seeing it now with games pushing for nudity and the like as more standard. I think the break down between the film industry and the game industry is rather interesting, where with film almost all bestsellers were PG-13, but in the gaming industry, you see a bit more of a turn towards higher ratings. Not a drastic amount, but there's more of it.

I guess with games like San Andreas and Modern Warfare 2, they're realizing that they can sell a lot if they embrace grittier themes and controversial levels of violence; I think this trend might be on the down-swing though, given that the two most popular games in the world right now are arguably League of Legends and Overwatch, both of which are vibrant and pretty cartoony.

[Kestral]

Kanye West

Yeezy Yeezy. Yeezus himself. Let's talk about the world's greatest rapper alive for a moment.

Now, I know what you must be thinking.

Ugh.

Kanye West?

Uuuuugggghhhhh.

That [&@%!] from the Grammys?
That [&@%!] who married Kim K?
That [&@%!] who can't stop talking about himself?

Yes. That Kanye West.

I need everyone to take a moment to appreciate this guy. Regardless if you like Kanye. Regardless if you like rap. Regardless if you even like music, you need to take a moment to appreciate this guy right now. The most influential name in rap, and one of the leading influences in all of music and even culture itself. Yes, that Kanye West. My goal isn't to get you start bumping Kanye West, but maybe to at least appreciate him.

This post is for you if you think any of the following:
I used to think the same thing as you. Now I don't.

• I don't like rap. It's just a bunch of guys pretending to act tough and promoting a bad image.
  Rapper are certainly well known for how much they like to toot their own horn. It would be criminal to admit anything else. Here's a line from Jay-Z:

  Lost thirty mil so I spent another thirty -- cuz unlike Hammer 30 million can't hurt me!

  Or maybe another rapper, Pusha T.

  If God had an iPod I be on his playlist.

  Or maybe from Ye himself.

  Does he write his own rhymes, well sort of, I think 'em
  That mean I forgot better [&@%!] than you ever thought of
  Damn, is he really that caught up?
  I ask if you talked about classics, do my name get brought up?

  You have a point, you're not wrong, but the spirit of rap isn't boasting. Not at all. It's putting your soul on a track. There are plenty of rappers who don't talk about themselves, look at the soulful MF Doom for example. Doom is a rapper raised in New York but born in England who started rapping after his brother done. Give Accordion a listen and tell me that rap can't be soulful. I would share a Kanye song here, but I go over some choice tracks in depth.
  
  But this is about Kanye West. He'd be a hack if only talked about himself. Here's him rapping about how much he loved his late mother, Donda West. Or him talking about one of him many inner conflicts.
  
  If you cant' appreciate rap because you think it's just boasting on a soap box, give it a listen. Acknowledge that, and let it go. You won't get passed your hung up if you don't give it a shot.
• Kanye Who? Talk to me again when's contributed half as much to music like The Beatles or Led Zeppelin.
  I know, I know, this is a strawman straight out of /r/lewronggeneration but I hear this a lot. Some people feel like rappers like Kanye West adds nothing to music as a whole. Music doesn't work like that though -- each artist has their own effect.
  
  Kanye West is influential for many reasons. I'll try to list some.
  • Kanye West was one of the first rappers who didn't market themselves off a criminal reputation. Most rappers when Kanye West broke into the scene had bad boy reputations -- they paraded themselves as gangsters or drug dealers. Notorious B.I.G.
    rapped about slinging crack. 2Pac was in a gang himself. Hell, Eminem, the first influential white rapper, was involved in crime. Kanye was different because he didn't market himself as a gangster. His first album was called The College Dropout, a far cry from BIG's Born 2 Die or A Gangster's Paradise. Kanye struggled to get features and even published because he refuse to brand himself as a [&@%!]. Kanye even talks about this in College Dropout. Because of Kanye, the perspective on rap changed. It wasn't a gangster's genre of music anymore like it was in the 90s. After Kanye, we got rappers like Chance the Rapper, Childish Gambino, or even the entirety of Odd Future. That's significant because without Kanye, the genre would have struggled to brush off a gangster persona. How do you think a rappers like Macklemore or Drake are even given the light of day today? 2Pac was killed over his rejection of gang culture, but today Kendrick Lamar is praised for it.
  • Musically he's talented and that goes a long way. Kanye's signature style is to take old soul music and use it in his music. A prime example of this Gold Digger where he samples Otis Redding. Another example is Bound 2 where he samples several soul artists. Or even Blood on the Leaves where he uses an old civil rights song written about lynchings in the American South. Kanye's style has been replicated and reused across music now -- it's suddenly cool to take older music, chop it up, and sample it. Kanye is the godfather of that style.
  • He's inspired and his work shows it. Each of Kanye's albums is a piece of work that he's put his soul in. The College Dropout is him breaking into rap and struggling with that persona. Graduation is him rocketing into fame and the real effects it had on his character. 808s and Heartbreak came at a time where he was almost suicidal -- his mother died and he went through a serious break up. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was written at his personal lowest -- after he was told by some of his closest friends to flee the US with no friends in sight. If you listen to Kanye with even some context, you might appreciate it more.

Now onto Kanye West. I want to show you some tracks throughout his career that might change your opinion of Kanye West.

Hidden:

YouTube Link

Hey Mama.
The one thing that Kanye West loved the most in the world was his mother, Donda West. Kanye was inspired by his mother's unbreakable attitude and her devotion to her children. Kanye West takes a 5 minute track to appreciate his mother on his sky rocket to fame. This is actually pretty uncharacteristic of most rappers, who usually don't take a moment out of their time to talk about their mama.

Hidden:

YouTube Link

Diamonds from Sierra Leone.
This track is about what it says on the tin -- blood diamonds from Sierra Leone. A blood diamond is a diamond mined in a war zone, usually Africa, and sold at the profit of slave holding war lords. Kanye West is a man who loves jewelry, so much so that he's gone to some ridiculous lengths selling his own. The conflict in Sierra Leone disturbed Kanye West deeply, because he had to come to terms that his tastes affects other people.

Hidden:

YouTube Link

Runaway.
This is perhaps Kanye West's magnum opus. Runaway is a 9 minute track where Kanye comes to terms why his past relationships failed -- himself. He also comes to term with the media's perception of him -- a self aggrandizing [&@%!]. Keep in mind that it wasn't just the media saying that Kanye was as an ass at this point. Other rappers, musicians, and fans alike called him as much. Barack Obama, the famously taciturn and diplomatic former president, said so himself, on camera. I understand, Kanye West is kind of an ass. He's kind of self obsessed. It takes a certain kind of humility for someone to acknowledge that and come to terms with it -- he doesn't fight with anyone on that point. He knows what he's like and knows how it affects other people. This is why I like Runaway so much, because it truly shows Kanye West in reflection. If you have half an hour to spare, I recommend you take a moment to watch his 30 minute film based on Runaway.



I love Kanye West, and maybe one day I can awkwardly ask the man himself for an autograph or a shake his hand, but that's just me. I think most people would like Kanye if they gave him a chance, there's something in his discography for everyone really. When I drive friends, they laugh at me playing Kanye West on the stereo, but I always notice them enjoying the beat or talking about his lyrics. No joke -- you can probably find something you like yourself.

[Lord Timster]

Doom wasn't all that controversial because it was preceded by Mortal Kombat by almost 3 years. The media had already had their fun with cursing and wanton violence in games, after that it was pretty much fine.

afaik the so-called "Satanic imagery" and the

Spoiler:

Nazi soldiers

in the secret levels were the real sticking points with Doom 1&2.

Wait no, the real controversy here was the film. omg. Just NO. D:<

[leroybrown]

Kestral you're an [&@%!].

[dremorababe]

My cue to leave the GD

[Aarah]

You know what's weird? Using words in text that you never use in real life.
I've just noticed that I use the word 'folk' on here a lot, but I never say it in real life (at least, not that I'm aware of).