Ron Jeremy

Haven't heard any commotion outside or anything. I won't lie, I was half-expecting crazy people to be running down the street naked firing their guns off into the air or something.

Too long tired, didn't watch. Well, since they are decomposing, how do they not fall apart into a puddle of putrefied flesh when they try to move? For one thing, their stomach acid would burn through their rotting flesh, leaving their organs exposed. Their organs would stop functioning entirely. Even if they could move, they would be actively being decomposed by maggots and microorganisms.

We're giant walking sacks of meat. What do you think? However, how exactly would eating for a zombie go? Their guts are rotting. They cannot digest.

12:05 here, no end of the world. However, I just got back inside. This crazy homeless man bit me! He drew blood, even! If I didn't know better, I'd think he was trying to eat me. Must be shaken up by the whole mess, since I'm feeling really cold, can't stop shaking, and, oddly, I'm kinda hungry.... Obviously, I'm kidding and the joke is I'm implying a zombie apocalypse is starting. @, I must've been typing slower than I thought.

2 minutes until the 21st in my time zone. Now that I'm probably gonna be posting again, the world's gonna end. Just you see.

@, @, I'll admit, it's kinda nice seeing people saying they acknowledged I was gone and stuff. Not in a "I'm egotistical and think I'm the spit" way, but a "People remember me" way. And I guess a lot of the time, I'd lurk... but not feel like I had anything to add to the topic. Now that I'm back "into" posting, expect some Roopian text walls in some threads over the next few days.

I've been fine. Haven't been active on the forums for... well, shucks, been what? Three months now? Probably more. Tryin' to change that.

Gotta say... why are you so afraid of being judged? Is it really that horrible if somebody gives you a weird look? If they hate somebody for buying something, that's their problem, not yours. I've waltzed in and bought pony toys without worrying about it. And I'm a bearded 20-year-old lardass! At least I'm honest about it. Besides, if you're really going to fret about it, don't worry. I figure people would either not care, or assume you're buying it for your sister / other young female family member.

*pops in awkwardly* Oh, hello General Chat Thread. It's been a while. :3

I enjoy games spread across many platforms. It's hard for me to have a favorite gaming console. But, if I absolutely had to choose, my choice would have to land on... ...The SNES. Why? The fact I grew up with one might have something to do with it, but I'm going to try to take off the so-called "nostalgia goggles" to say why. It is a solid piece of hardware. It isn't finicky when it comes to accepting a cartridge as long as everything is clean. It's controller is the most comfortable, natural controller out there if you ask me. There's a reason the vast majority of controllers made since it was released resemble SNES controller. It had both amazing first-party games and third-party games. It is home to some of the greats, such as Earthbound, Megaman X, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country 1-3, Super Castlevania IV, Zombies Ate My Neighbors... I could go on. It has something for everybody. Many of the games on the system, especially the best games, have aged really well, when you consider the hardware limitations. For example, to this day, Megaman X still looks great. Kirby's Dream Land 3 still looks great. It came out at a time where the technology was perfect. 2D sprite-based graphics were at their current peak. It did what it said it would do and did it well. Unlike systems like the PS1, which were trying to do something (In the PS1's case, 3D) before it was possible to do it right, it knew its limits. Well, by it, I mean developers. It's an amazing system, but it's not sentient. And that is my reason for the SNES being my favorite gaming console. However, PC is best gaming platform, but it isn't a console.

Been hearing all about this fiasco throughout the internet today. Nauseating, them getting away with such blatant lies. It's like a move you'd expect one of those sleazy lesser "free to play" MMO companies to pull, but worse because right off the bat, those who got gypped by it are out their money. I just hope those involved can get everything sorted out, and that the whole thing doesn't end with the money they still have being dumped into a Swiss bank account and the fat cats disappearing off the map or something. As far as I know, nopony on my friends list or anything bought the game, so at least there's that.

Old news, but still cool. Kind of an example of what I always say with technology: The more bells and whistles they slap on it, the more delicate it gets.

So, the seventh Humble Indie Bundle is out. As usual, pay-what-you-want, paying above the average gets you more games. For those of you who don't know, the Humble bundles are bundles of indie games (and soundtracks, etc.) that you choose the amount you pay for. Being an asshat and paying a cent is technically possible, but, well, that's asshat behavior not nice. Stuff in this bundle: Snapshot, The Binding of Isaac + DLC, Closure, Indie Game: The Movie, Shank 2, and the soundtracks. Paying over the current average gets you Dungeon Defenders and Legend of Grimrock. Personally, I have an overflow of games I hadn't played, but seeing Shank 2 in the bundle after I loved the first one so much was enough to nudge me in the direction of buying it. I'd say this is a solid bundle. Don't know too much about the other games, but, well, I could definitely suggest buying this one, because, well, you know how much I love The Binding of Isaac. I have a grudge against Trendy Entertainment and Dungeon Defenders, but that's a different topic altogether. Main thing is, I thought a thread notifying people of this would be a good thing. Post your own recommendations and such!

Welcome to rainyland, where rain rains and it's rain. Rain.

^I understand what you're saying, and I kinda talked about it in my previous comment. It's just, before the existence of "achievements", games kept interest by giving you new content instead of a number increase and a dialog box. Examples would be: In Donkey Kong Country 3, the bonus coins aren't necessary to "beat" the game, but if you choose to go for them all, you can access more levels (Krematoa). There are also the banana birds, and the DK coins. If the game were released today, on the Xbox or something, the bonus coins would be achievements and the Krematoa content would be DLC. tl;dr: Achievements are still a substance-less way of keeping the player's interest. The better alternative is giving extra content for playing the game. Like comparing fast food to real food: The fast food is quicker to serve, but real food is more filling.

Honestly, I agree with you. Once you adjust the system for your eyes, you really don't get these infamous headaches people say you do. Mario Clash is a great classic that not a lot of people get to experience because the platform gets a bad rap.

@Lens: I get that some achievements are good because they encourage the player to play in a way they may not originally. But that is still skimping out on content. What about when games used to encourage you to play differently by giving you new weapons, armor, characters, etc. for doing so? A perfect example of this is The Binding of Isaac. It does use achievements, but it also rewards what you achieve by giving you new items randomly added to the levels, new bosses, new characters to play as, and more. Sure, achievements are a carrot on a stick, but they're a styrofoam carrot on a stick when compared to better methods of extending a game. @RaccoonBL: I really don't see gaming as "just to beat it". I was just saying that there should be in-game reason to complete the game instead of a dialogue box and a number going up on a profile. Otherwise, what I said to Lens applies to your argument as well. Overall, I'm not denying that achievements can be used well. I've seen them used well. I'm just saying that they seem like quick-fix to add extra content with minimal effort. Also, when it comes to the point people buy otherwise-terrible games because their achievements are easy to get (Lost: Via Domus anypony) then yeah, people are obsessed with achievements. Not saying everypony does that, but still, throwing that out there.

In recent years, gaming has seen the addition of a now-popular feature: Achievements. These are goals you achieve in the game that give you out-of-game points, and a notification. Many games, more realistically, most games released via mainstream means have these achievements. Many gamers work to earn these achievements, feel satisfied when they hear that audio cue and see that number go up. They play games, do things they would not ordinarily do (such as kill a large number of enemies via unorthodox means) to earn that satisfaction. They like the ability to brag about having more points than other players, and these players boast about these points. I ask this question: why? I aim that question toward the entirety of achievement systems. Why do these exist? Let’s dive into what I have to say on the matter. I see achievements as little more than “junk food”: Throwing a bunch of “mayonnaise (achievements)” onto a “hamburger (the game)” to make it more “filling (add the illusion of more content)”. It’s lazy game design: Instead of giving the players unique enemy patterns, intricate level designs, they just make you kill 100,000 lesser river trouts while doing the watusi in a pink tutu to inflate the game’s completion time. They also represent the growing lack of patience that is a pox onto gamerdom. Just beating the game isn’t enough: They have to get an achievement for something mundane or ridiculous to feel “satisfied” for playing the game. When did playing the game stop being fun enough? When did finally beating Dracula stop being good enough? When did blowing up the Icon of Sin become insufficient? Why do so many people need to have a message pop up every once in a while to manipulate them into finishing a game? A carrot to lead us through is normal: That’s what the end is. However, why are most modern gamers so impatient they need a line of Reese’s Pieces to get them to play the game? I play games because I enjoy them: Not because I want to stroke my ego by getting points. That is how other gamers should be. They should actually enjoy the game, instead of seeing a game as just a procedure to increase an arbitrary number. Take a game like, say, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest for example. In that game, you go through stages, find secret bonus barrel minigames, and find the hidden DK coin in each stage. The satisfaction of finding these, as well as progressing through the main game made it fun. If the game were made today, there would be achievements for making it to each level, clearing each level, getting bananas (1,000, 5,000, 25,000 then 100,000), getting bonus coins, DK coins, killing 1 of each enemy type, beating each level while jumping backwards, spending five minutes as Diddy teabagging Dixie by rapidly pressing Down, you get the idea. As always, interested in hearing others’ opinions on this.

Good to see another person with a game collection. Game on, man. Game on. /) Just curious, why do you have two copies of Majora's Mask? Is the one you took apart one that broke?

@Twiliscael, you may want to get that looked at. It really isn't as impressive as it looks, I think. There are a bunch of the games that are in pretty poor shape, due to getting them at garage sales cheap and such. Maybe tomorrow I'll put up a list of games. inb4 I get called one of those mentally unstable hoarder people.