An Open Letter to Off-Topic

[The White Hunter]

Goddamit, stop making everything about anything about Queen. I'm tired of all the Spiderman and Ed, Edd n Eddy threads. All this posturing and non sequiturs just makes me Want To Break Free!

We've already had that one!

Oh well, the show must go on none the less

 

[Calibanbutcher]

Well, there are certainly worse ways to make your presence known than having a kick-ass theme play as soon as you enter a thread.


The sacrifice of Daystar? Well certainly, but how?
I am quite partial to the ole vulcan-sacrifice-ritual, but I wouldn't object to an all out burning-at-the-stake-ritual either.
Or do you prefer the tried-and-true just strap him to an altar and stab the everything out of him method?

Also, can I get a badge too, seeing as I was the one who managed to change the fun police into the FUN! police?
Hurray for badges...

Kick-ass entry indeed. I'#m on a Queen binge now D: up to "Who Wants To Live Forever".

You are the honorary General of the FUN! Police. It is our duty to enforce fun by whatever means possible, that is our burden and our justice.

Then that is your way and the way you must walk. It may not be an easy one, but I shall bestow upon you a theme to carry you into battle.
It's german, so your enemies will be afraid of you.
But it's about defending fun from the armies of boredom.
I do believe this to be the most appropriate theme for the newly formed FUN police.
Lyrics:
A hard fight lies before us
but we are not afraid
we ride into battle and laugh
in the faces of our enemies.

We stand together, a thousand man, brothers in metal
fighting for the holy purpose
the false funs fall

The batlle rages like never before
and now the men's choir:

We are defenders of true nonsense
Warriors in black-pink-gold
Death to false nonsense
Your happiness is our pay
Defenders of true nonsense
With a laughing hard we go into battle
Death to false nonsense
Because those who have the fun have the power

We shall win or die
true heroism
We shall be the bane of our enemies
and ride onwards to glory.
The battle
it turns night into day
and in the fire's glow
the men they fight unwavering
Victory will be ours
the battle rages like never before
and now the men's choir

CHorus

Oh God's of happiness,
Gaudin, Ulkor, I am your son
my life is in your hands
I kneal before your throne
The defender of faith I am
of our religion
the true nonsense's victory
is my mission
so I look up to you
and now the men's choir
Chorus



Ein schwerer Kampf steht uns bevor,
doch fürchten wir uns nicht,
wir reiten schnell und lachen nur
dem Feind ins Angesicht.
Wir steh'n zusammen, tausend Mann, Brüder in Metall!
und kämpfen für das heil'ge Ziel:
des falschen Blödsinns Fall.
Die Schlacht, sie tobt wie nie zuvor,
und nun der Männerchor

(Chorus Wir sind Verteidiger des wahren Blödsinns
Krieger in schwarz-rosa-gold
Tod dem falschen Blödsinn
Euere Fröhlichkeit ist unser Sold
Verteidiger des wahren Blödsinns
Mit lachendem Herzen ziehen wir in die Schlacht
Tod dem falschen Blödsinn
Denn wer den Spaß hat, der hat die Macht (Macht!)

Wir werden siegen oder sterben,
das wahre Heldentum,
wir bringen unserm Feind Verderben
und reiten in den Ruhm,
die Schlacht,
sie macht die Nacht zum Tag,
erhellt den Feuerschein,
die Brüder kämpfen unverzagt,
der Sieg wird unser sein,
die Schlacht sie tobt wie nie zuvor
und nun der Männerchor

(Chorus)

Oh Freudengötter,
Gaudin, Ulkor, ich bin euer Sohn,
mein Leben liegt in eurer Hand,
ich knie vor eurem Trohn,
Verteidiger des Glaubens bin ich,
unserer Religion,
des wahren Blödsinns Siegeszug
das ist meine Mission,
so blicke ich zu euch empor
und lausch' dem Männerchor

(2xChorus)
Verteidiger des wahren Blödsinns
Tod dem falschen Blödsinn
Verteidiger des wahren Blödsinns
Mit lachendem Herzen ziehen wir in die Schlacht
Tod dem falschen Blödsinn
Denn wer den Spaß hat, der hat die Macht (Macht! Macht! Macht! Saft! Macht! Sauerkraut!)

BEar in mind that this is quite a rough translation, I do hope it manages to convey the meaning of the song though.
And now I shall retreat for tomorrow I need to rise early.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Goddamit, stop making everything about anything about Queen. I'm tired of all the Spiderman and Ed, Edd n Eddy threads. All this posturing and non sequiturs just makes me Want To Break Free!

We've already had that one!

Oh well, the show must go on none the less

Like I have the time to comb through all of the Queen videos in this thread! And where do you get off telling me what Queen videos I can and can not post? What are you, some sort of savior of the universe?!

 

[The White Hunter]

Snip

Onwards and forth, into the mouth of hell we shall march and they will know that there can be only fun when I lay justice upon them.

Like I have the time to comb through all of the Queen videos in this thread! And where do you get off telling me what Queen videos I can and can not post? What are you, some sort of savior of the universe?!

Hah xD

And no, I am no universal saviour. I am an officer of the fun police. Here to enforce fun. I'd trawl through queen ideos but I'm hard pressed to think of more right now.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I've never really listened to Queen before.....

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Snip

Onwards and forth, into the mouth of hell we shall march and they will know that there can be only fun when I lay justice upon them.

Like I have the time to comb through all of the Queen videos in this thread! And where do you get off telling me what Queen videos I can and can not post? What are you, some sort of savior of the universe?!

Hah xD

And no, I am no universal saviour. I am an officer of the fun police. Here to enforce fun. I'd trawl through queen ideos but I'm hard pressed to think of more right now.

Less of a King of the Impossible and more of an untested Prince, I take it? Ya don't belong here if you can't even be bothered Fighting for Survival.

 

[Therumancer]

I think the trend really started with people like Anita Sarkeesian exploiting the left wing sentiments in the gaming community to spread chaos and troll with faux-issues. That's kind of what got a lot of the less socially liberal people going and becoming more vocal.

Argh, I don't want to fuel any negativity in this thread... but even had to register just to say my piece on this.

Sarkeesian is one of the few people who's actually serious about calling the gaming industry out on its misogynic tendencies. What she's doing is great, and it's needed. She's not "trolling" or "spreading chaos". And honestly this just seems like an attempt to "blame" feminists / women for MRA types going on a hate-trolling crusade against them on these forums.


On a lighter note...

KITTYFROG!!!

http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu169/punk-o-matic1/cute-kitty-frog-costume.jpg

I'm sure you believe that, but many people, including me, do not. This is why she represents such a divisive issue when she comes up. While not "nice" there was a lot revealed about her by hackers and such when this all started and showed her to be a pretty reprehensible person. Then there is the entire current issue of what she did with all of this money people sent her, as the "promised series" is pretty much the same exact quality of video that she was doing beforehand. It seems that she largely pocketed the money and just kept right on doing what she normally did anyway. You look at her first "Tropes Vs. Women" video and compare it to her old stuff and it's not like there is any real improvement. Even if she wasn't a troll, which I personally believe she is, the whole cry of "Hey Anita, where's the money" is pretty valid. Of course going by some of the reveals about her when this all started she's pretty much exactly the sort you'd expect to pocket the money.


At the end of the day though, as far as I'm concerned the games industry doesn't have any misogynistic tendencies. To claim otherwise is pretty much trolling at this point, especially with the examples given. To put things into perspective, people scream that things like the trailer for "Hitman: Absolution" are misogynistic, when they aren't even remotely so. Basically today we have girls doing all the same stuff guys are in games, and where you have action girls beating up dudes (Heavenly Sword and the like) you also have them acting as the bad guys where they are taken down by guys. Our hero in "Hitman" takes out a bunch of hardly-defenseless women in over the top costumes, and it's no differant than if a girl had done it to a bunch of dudes in outlandish attire. The only reason it's an issue is because trolls can get attention from liberals by screaming "it's Misogynistic!" and the mere suggestion of an "ism" or "ist" sends corperate entities into defensive conniptions. The point of making such complaints is specifically to get attention and watch the chaos.

To put things into perspective, if those who complain about sexism in gaming were to be belived, we should basically be going back to the "old days" where women were treated as untouchable objects on pedestels. Guys would not dare strike a girl, and thus fiction would have to contrive a way for any "bad girl" present to be confronted by the hero's love interest so you could get around the issue of a dude doing violence to a girl. We've moved beyond this due to demands about such tropes being "sexist" and now we basically see people complaining about it. It's intentionally a no-win scenario, which is why trolls flock to it, since they can call anything involving it bigoted and get attention.

Even arguements about "Damsels in Distress" fall flat, when you consider that even that is pretty equal oppertunity. Trolls will mention every time a girl needs to be rescued because it will get attention. This entirely overlooks every time a dude needs to be rescued in fiction. Face it, not everyone is a tough combatant, some people are victims that need to be rescued, it's not sexist when it happens to be a girl. To use Anita's latest video for example she goes off about a Martial Artist needing to rescue his girlfriend from a gang of thugs (like there is something impractical about a non-martial artist having a martial artist boyfriend). This overlooks how in some games like oh say "Bad Dudes" the entire game is based around the same basic thing, but your out to rescue The President Of The United States, it's elegant plot set up is "The President has been kidnapped by Ninjas, are you a bad enough dude to rescue him?" which kind of nukes the entire complaint since even that far back we were hardly seeing things being "one sided". Sure maybe we had more damsels needing to be rescued than presidents, when a person was even the objective, but it was a little more balanced than credit is being given for, and really a lot of this comes down to people claiming that there is a modern misogynist trend in video games, more than claiming that there might have been one back in the day, and really that kind of involves doing things like trying to get attention by picking on the trailer for "Hitman: Absolution" or the recently annouced "Cyberpunk 2020" game where "OMG, the berserk killer cyborg being taken down by an equivilent of the AD Police is female... obvious sexism!" is the extent of the arguement.

Even when people want to talk about "overendowed" female characters, it's a joke because heroes of both genders tend to be physical ideals. These characters aren't really all that differant than what female creators make themselves in books, artwork, etc... Some girl with breasts bigger than her head is no worse than some dude with arms bigger around than his neck, it's just that attention can be gained trolling about the former. These beefy dudes are also sexually oriented as well, after all while a lot of girls don't go for the "muscular" types, most do, which is why things like "Chippendales" make a fortune, and guys pump iron at the beach to show off (and get lucky). Someone like Marcus Fenix is probably worse than Lara Croft when you get down to it, if he took off his shirt he'd probably be built better than Arnie was when he won "Mr. Olympia" (as pretty much the most beautiful male body in the world). People argue girls get anarexic, but the flip side is arguements about boys turning to 'roids to try and look like these masculine ideals for the same reason. The problem isn't the imagery being sexist or dangerous, it's a problem more with parents not being willing to tell their kids to get a F@cking grip and seperate fantasy from reality. The fact that some people can't should not in any way ruin the fun for the rest of us, and anyone trying to make a political or social issue out of this kind of thing in either direction is a troll, fully worthy of ridicule.

 

[Fappy]

Holy crap, we managed to make it to page 5 without a flame-war breaking out! I'm proud of you guys. I really am.

Wish I had the time to respond to everyone's quotes, but there are a lot of them >.>

 

[Fappy]

You know, I've seen a lot complaints about the femrm flame wars. I think we're seeing the start of a social shift, something that will grow more pronounced in the coming 2-3 years, with the internet just leading this development. Despite the vitriol, I've gotten a lot wiser through these discussions and I can only expect that others have experienced this too.

The fact of the matter is that people seem to disagree on some pretty important issues and this disagreement brings a wave of cognitive dissonance. That is by it's very nature uncomfortable and this leads to hot emotions and sometimes even reaction images.

They tend to get locked, but the fact that they go up to 20 pages in just a day or three also shows people's interest, demand, for these subjects to be discussed. I can understand it to be annoying if you don't care, but is it really all that hard to ignore these threads?

As I stated in the OP I am really not at all opposed to the existence of these threads. It's important to be informed after all. I'm just naively wishing that people would be more open minded and pleasant when engaging in super cereal dialogue.

 

[Fijiman]

Holy crap, we managed to make it to page 5 without a flame-war breaking out! I'm proud of you guys. I really am.

That's because most of the people who have posted in here are the fun people who know the rules and really want the place to be fun again.

 

[The White Hunter]

I've never really listened to Queen before.....

Well you have now. This thread sure saw to that.

 

[Chromatic Aberration]

There is only one way to respond to this thread at this point: mildly inebriated....

Anyway....

And here I thought that it was due to me kidnapping all the top physicists in the world, chaining them up in my basement and letting them build the ultimate doomsday device for me.

MUAHHAHAHAHA! YOU THOUGHT YOU GOT ALL OF THEM??? THINK AGAIN! MY ARMY OF SUPER SQUIRRELS EQUIPPED WITH DEATH-RAYS WILL SOON OCCUPY THIS WEBSITE. AND WHEN I'M FINALLY IN CONTROL OF NASRIN'S CATS, THE WORLD WILL BE MINE. BUAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!

Then that is your way and the way you must walk. It may not be an easy one, but I shall bestow upon you a theme to carry you into battle.

Not quite yet Grasshopper. There is still a lot you have to learn before you can carry your flag into battle. First, you must meditate on the nature of existence....

 

[RipRoaringWaterfowl]

Actually I guess we could build it in to the whole escapist expo thing but it'd probably end up being just one weird lurker wearing nothing but a towel hoping to get sex-murdered by Daystar whilst Yahtze gives a thumbs up.

Challenge accepted.



OT: Fappy, shut up, nobody loves you, nobody cares, your entire life is objectively terrible.

...

...

At least, that's what Sass told me.

>_>

I disagree on all points, I love you Fappy.

I say that to everyone.
It's my way of saying I love you.

But you never said that to me...

...

[HEADING=1]Why won't love me Sassamcdonaldsfrass![/HEADING]

Because you took my spotlight away from me what with your derails and having fun thing.
I'll be damned if I'll love someone who is a spotlight stealer!

I can change, I can become a hate-filled goblin like you, just give me a chance!

...You've got two days.
Two days, Daystar.

Time to get to work...


I feel the hate growing.

Ban this sick filth! XD

OT: Everyone, everyone, just calm down. Calm down. Calm down. CALM DOWN!

IF YOU DON'T, WE'RE STIL GOING TO BE INSANE!!!!!!

... just calm down!

 

[Dr. Cakey]

Snip

Other than the first two sentences and the last, I disagree with possibly everything you said. However, this is not the thread for that, so I'd like to give you this:

I know this thread has mostly devolved into music videos and stuff, but I think I have a solution: any time someone posts a thread generally deemed to be one of "those threads", someone else must posts an anime recommendation thread. That should frighten just about everybody off, even more than punting the threads over to R&P.

Now I will post the opening to Carnival Phantasm as bait to make people read my post.

 

[Vegosiux]

I'm not going to argue the point, since I know a lot of people will want to disagree with this on general principle....

I disagree on ungeneral principle!

And I disagree with your disagreement on a Major Principle!

Mine hasn't been promoted far enough yet to be a general one and all.

 

[Lionsfan]

Dear Off-Topic,
snip

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we have a lot of users who have to share their thoughts on the situation, even if they don't know the facts/whole story.

For instance, I've been reading through the Adria Richards threads, and I've lost count of how many posts referenced "can't believe those guys lost their jobs".

Now I know it's only a small thing, but if you can't even be bothered to check the facts, and find out that only one guy was fired, then you're really just speaking out of your ass at that point. And that's what I think a lot of these posts are. A few people start an argument, then someone else quotes a selective part of a post, and someone else disagrees with that snipped portion of the post, and it goes on from there, complete with other idiots just jumping in with no understanding of the facts of the story

 

[Fijiman]

Are we just going to be posting a bunch of fun/happy songs in this thread now?