Weird & Wonderful Web

[deanb]

 

This goes up to 8K if you can run that. Apparently took a fair while to plan, produce and edit (over two years all told).

 

More info here:

http://www.rustadmedia.com/

[Mal]

Videos about geology. A bit cheese but it has nice production value to them. There's only two episodes so far but I like what I see and hear. Science communication is a much needed thing.

[Mister Jack]

 

Watch those microaggressions, Link.

[Mal]

Originally from 2014 and it kind of fell under the radar on Japanese Twitter until now.

 

DORAAAAAAAAAEEEEEMOOOOOOOOON!

[Hot Heart]

This is very weird in a NSFW way.

 

 

 

This is wonderful.

[deanb]

 

This is a pretty cool short film about the "Generator" project that went to the Arctic with Cmdr Hadfield last year. Some nice shots from it (which as the film notes, scored them more nice shots from the helicopter guys).

[CorgiShinobi]

https://www.reddit.com/r/place/

Currently taking part in the Darth Plagueis meme mid-right. It's actually kinda interesting as a social experiment and it appears the time begins to double after a while before you can place another pixel.

[deanb]

Holy shit that's advanced a lot since I was on yesterday. There was a smallish segment of rainbow flag, a sort of shadow of a penis in the centre, and the "blue corner" was much smaller smaller, and not invaded by purple. Oh there was also a start of a Mario pixel art, just the head and shoulders at the time and that was kind of it for pixel art. (which browsing, it's just to the south east of Ness.

I'm actually quite surprised that given how Reddit can be at times that not only the Rainbow flag expanded, but there's a giant trans flag running through the full thing too.

Man it's pretty cool compared to usual Reddit stuff.

 

edit:

 

[Mal]

It honestly reminds me of the earliest days of Minecraft. The ground get littered while the underground get excavated and the sun get blotted out from the creations from the users. What Dean has there is the earliest stages where it's just color cancer but it has now evolved into art filled spaces.

[TheMightyEthan]

Here's the final result:

My sole contribution was to place a single red pixel in the blue corner.

[TheMightyEthan]

And a timelapse of the full 72 hours:

 

[Thursday Next]

I like the bit around the 40's where Germany moves to occupy France...

[deanb]

Then creates the EU. But yeah Germany moved fucking fast compared to most other things on there.

 

I add some of the Win95 taskbar at the bottom (it'll be the one after Pornhub I helped lay groundwork for). Also changing "PCMASTERACE" to "PEMASTERACE" and "PCMRRSTERACE" and "PCMASTERACF" and so on. Which seemed to be a past time of many others too

[Mal]

The EU part was a nice touch but yeah, that expansion into France. The Germans will never catch a break for that.

I cleaned up parts of a Sith Legend that the Jedi will never tell you, BABYMETAL (it's a mixed relationship with them) and Berserk. Overall, it is really surprising just how cleaned up it looks. All the spaces got well used one way or another.

[CorgiShinobi]

I helped build, maintain, and defend Darth Plagueis. I tried doing my own thing below it when it was just a collection of random pixels, but eventually a subreddit for a K-pop group built a banner.

Outside of that, I added a little to Aku, but didn't defend it. I helped build the Steven Universe and Overwatch logo. However, eventually the Norwegians and Swedes got into a pissing contest and began expanding. I was up with others trying to maintain the Overwatch logo, but it was slowly dying. I guess a compromise was made where r/Overwatch could have the logo if Torbjorn was a part of it. Unfortunately the Norwegians cleared out a few Gems before this was finalized.

It's for the best its over because it became a contest of bots and it was getting oddly political over pixels.

[Thursday Next]

20 hours ago, deanbmmv said:

"PCMASTERACE"

Ugh... I really fucking hate that term. As if game culture wasn't toxic enough without throwing in lowkey Nazism.

[Mal]

As with a lot of things on the internet, PC Master Race is pose to be tongue in cheek but then people within and outside took it seriously. Naturally, those who took it tongue in cheek are not going to bother to wrestle back the name with those who takes it seriously (some do and band up to preserve a community. God bless them). It's generally just isn't worth the time and god damn, it's a leisurely activity/hobby.

And yeah, politics in games or any form of media is cancer. Some combinations are just bizarre too...

[Thursday Next]

That's exactly my issue with it though. The idea that casual Nazism (or indeed sexism or racism etc.) can be just a bit of fun. The people who use it tongue in cheek are helping to erode the stigma of Nazism. It's not just a games thing, I'm similarly uncomfortable with terms like grammar-Nazi too (I'm not perfect in this regard and I'm sure that a search through my internet history will reveal an inappropriate use of the term myself, we all make mistakes). 

I also fundamentally disagree that politics can (let alone should) be separated from entertainment. Any artistic work is going to be laced with the politics of its creators.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, removing politics from games is impossible.  What "removing politics" really means in practical effect is removing controversial politics.  But if you're removing all controversial politics then you are necessarily supporting/reinforcing (intentionally or not) the current political/social/economic order, which is itself a political statement.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

I agree that removing politics ain't happening. But I also don't agree with removing politics you or I may consider controversial or offensive or simply disagree with.

[TheMightyEthan]

2 hours ago, Saturnine Tenshi said:

But I also don't agree with removing politics you or I may consider controversial or offensive or simply disagree with.

What do you mean by this?  I mean, I agree those things shouldn't be banned or anything, but if a consumer doesn't want to support a product that supports politics they find problematic I don't have an issue with that.  I may think they're dumb for finding a particular thing problematic, but it's their money and they're entitled to spend it how they want.  Similarly they're entitled to criticize a work for its politics.  It's then the creator's prerogative to decide what to do based on that feedback, whether that is double down, do nothing, or try to appease them.

Edited April 5, 2017 by TheMightyEthan

[Saturnine Tenshi]

I'm okay with that. Not okay with people only singing that song when it applies to what they feel is acceptable.

[TheMightyEthan]

I still don't really understand what you mean though.  When do people do that?  I mean, clearly people tend to only defend things they find worthwhile/defensible, but the only way people would be "only singing that song" when they agree with it is if they were calling for stuff they don't like to be banned.  I don't see people doing that.  Am I just missing it or is that not what you mean?

[Mal]

10 hours ago, Thursday Next said:

That's exactly my issue with it though. The idea that casual Nazism (or indeed sexism or racism etc.) can be just a bit of fun. The people who use it tongue in cheek are helping to erode the stigma of Nazism. It's not just a games thing, I'm similarly uncomfortable with terms like grammar-Nazi too (I'm not perfect in this regard and I'm sure that a search through my internet history will reveal an inappropriate use of the term myself, we all make mistakes). 

I also fundamentally disagree that politics can (let alone should) be separated from entertainment. Any artistic work is going to be laced with the politics of its creators.

I'm fine with it because since they usually take some aspect of Nazism (or anything for that matter) and show its absurd roots.

And I should clarify about politics in entertainment. I'm fine with it if is woven within the artistic work itself. It's the tangents that happens in the communities that gets cancerous since this is the internet and it comes from the full political spectrum. Some of these tangents may be legit but it grinds whatever discussion to a halt as people go back and forth or double down. Then of course it is kind of everywhere, especially on the bigger sites (more activity=more possible discussion). Also happens on sites with an usually narrower political spectrum at which point some people are just jerking themselves off of which then some other people turn it into a circlejerk.

[Thursday Next]

Yeah so, on the politics front. I don't generally agree with people calling for a legal ban on anything. Unless it is inciting hate or unlawful, have at it.

However, I do agree that people should be allowed to ask e.g.: Hideo to change his stance on gender politics issues like Quiet's attire; or to take issue with DoA Beach Volleyball being objectifying as hell.

I also think that if the publishers or developers then listen to that criticism and choose not to release a game or to edit a game, then that is fine too, similarly a retailer may choose not to stock it, also fine. They are making a choice to listen to a criticism and change their behaviour.

As Ethan says, they could choose to stay the course or double down instead of changing, and I am fine with that as well, even if it is a direction I disagree with. The point is that the discussion should happen, people should listen, and then they should choose to change (or not) their development, selling or buying habits in accordance with their own morality.

As to communities. I think the issue comes when people misunderstand or misuse terms like censorship and freedom of expression. Femfreq for example, is not attempting to limit free speech, or to ban stuff. She is instead, using her freedom of expression in an effort to make others look at games in a different way, and (I guess she hopes) change how they freely express themselves as a result of being persuaded by her. People who are anti Femfreq and other political critique are essentially saying that the industry must never change, new ideas are not welcome and that any effort to introduce them is a form of oppression.

 

Regarding Nazism, I see your point, that there can be a victory in ridiculing them, but I think that presupposes that everyone is in on the joke, when generally speaking, there are a fair few people who are clearly not troubled by a duality of meaning and will take the terms at face value. I suppose my issue with it is that it is used not within a closed group context so that its intent is and will remain clear, but that the phrase is so often tossed out, without context so that it is not clear that the intent is to ridicule those who think themselves superior by birth (or platform choice). Then again, I suppose this is a danger with all satire when stripped of its context. Poe's law, and so on.