Random non sequitur posts catch-all thread

Grenn wrote:

Sometimes I'm a little bummed that people have forgotten that Rick Astley also sang "Together Forever" which I think is the superior song. Then I remember that it's not the 80's and it doesn't affect anybody and I should get over it.

As someone who recently interrupted the Diablo 3 thread here to make sure that everyone knew that it was Tiffany and NOT Debbie Gibson who covered the song "I Think We're Alone Now", I can relate.

It send fire up my spine when people refer to amazing 80's bands as one hit wonders.
And there are a host of 80's bands where everyone plays the higher charting song when their other songs are so much better and diverse.
After some future decade they will probably believe Madonna was a one hit wonder. And the funny thing is they will remember her as the "material girl" but only remember the songs "express yourself" or "ray of light"

Listen, I was in my late 20s when I went to a party attended by youths, and heard someone say, while listening to 'Higher Ground,' "Oh man, is this Usher?" and I nearly killed myself.

OMG!

The annoying thing about liking punk music is the bit where you get older, and songs you rocked out to start playing in supermarkets and shoe commercials.

fenomas wrote:

The annoying thing about liking punk music is the bit where you get older, and songs you rocked out to start playing in supermarkets and shoe commercials.

Hmmm... I need examples.

Also I want to say up front that Blink 182 and Goldfinger are not punk. Please understand, I’m not accusing you of saying they are, but many people get that confused.

The only example I can think of is Sailor Jerry’s rum using The Misfits’ song, Where Eagles Dare in a TV ad. Congratulations, Jerry. It worked. I was inspired to buy a bottle of your horrible tasting overproofed rum. But never again.

fun fact: Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony were in some of the William Shatner Priceline commercials:

The music and Eddie Murphy’s laugh make the first Beverly Hills Cop.

RawkGWJ wrote:

Hmmm... I need examples.

The music and Eddie Murphy’s laugh make the first Beverly Hills Cop.

"I ain't fallin' for no banana in the tailpipe!"

I know it's an inevitable side-effect of the society we live in, but stuff like that is as jarring as that Mercedes-Benz commercial soundtracked by the Joni Mitchell song.

I think all car commercials should just be Mathew McConahay driving around while contemplating life’s mysteries.

Ozzy Ozbourne tunes peddling Sonic or Dairy Queen is also a highlight :0

Yeah.. also nothing takes the shine off punk music like when the band members start seeing each other. (looking at you dead kennedys...)

Artist’s gotta eat too y’all.

For some reason I was drawing a blank on punk songs used in commercials. Now I’m remembering a time where Buzzc*cks’ What Do I Get? was ubiquitous in all kinds of ads.

While that song is a perfect choice for commercials, I’m glad that I am no longer subjected to it in short bites along with some douche-bag announcer voice spouting marketing propaganda. I would love to hear the Buzzc*cks’ song Orgasm Addict in an ad; especially the part where he simulates having a cum.

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My random nonsequiter:

I saw an ad for a jigsaw puzzle and I mistook the puzzle’s image for a pinball table. Now I want a jigsaw puzzle of a pinball table. One of the Star Wars tables would be awesome.

I cannot for the life of me find the Watch Dogs 2 thread, so I'm dumping some thoughts in here.

No one really talks about ludo-narrative dissonance these days, but Watch Dogs 2 is my new poster child for it. What you're doing and what the game tells you you're doing (and why) are totally at odds with one another.

You play as Marcus, a member of an Anonymous-style hacker collective called DedSec, who is ostensibly working to take down a company called Blume, which is a sort of combination Facebook and Google that also powers a city-wide surveillance network. DedSec is taking down Blume because Blume has enabled a horrific surveillance state where everything anyone ever says or does is used to exploit and manipulate them.

That's what the game says you're doing, anyway. What you're actually doing is using your hacking skills to... exploit and manipulate everyone you encounter in order to fulfill missions that are mostly about settling scores with people who said bad things about DedSec. So far, I've seen very little done by Blume or any of the game's other companies that is nearly as intrusive, dangerous, and unconscionable as what Marcus and the other members of DedSec do.

Sometimes, the game directly condemns mechanics that it encourages you to use. One mission has you tracking down a gamer who SWATs people. "No one likes swatters!" one of your companions tells you. But one of your abilities? SWATing. You frame people for crimes and call the SWAT team down on them because they're standing in the way of a collectible t-shirt you want. Or if you don't want to involve the cops, you can frame people for betraying a gang and have them gunned down in a drive-by.

The game is constantly pressing you into using lethal force and causing mass destruction. You can use stealth in a lot of side content, but the main story missions really like to set you up for showdowns and car chases where you're almost certain to kill someone. There's one mission where you go up against a Nest-like smart home company (because they said bad things about DedSec, natch). In the course of the mission, you'll steal a truck full of equipment, gun down or run over security guards as you escape, then go on a car chase through San Francisco where the best way to escape pursuit is to blow up gas lines, manipulate traffic lights to cause accidents, and remotely send cars careening into one another or into pedestrians. In the end, you discover a nefarious plot by the Nest-a-like to... sell people's data to health insurance companies who in turn raise people's rates for ordering too much pizza.

Also, as near as I can tell, you're supposed to dislike the main villain because he does yoga and has a man-bun. They've done nothing else to establish his character.

The game is completely ridiculous. A lot of fun at times, especially when you're allowed to play with the tools you have and get them to interact in unexpected ways, but you have to really forcefully disconnect yourself from the world and story in a way that I haven't seen in other games.

People argued both sides in the thread, but my take was the same as you. I genuinely never got why the bad guy was bad, and overall it felt like the characters' biggest motivation was farming social media likes.

I remember that I first played it right after Far Cry 3, which had (or... attempted to have) a big twist that subverts the story's worst elements. And when WD2 got to the big "burning man" story beat in the middle, I sort of convinced myself it was going to do something similar, and the main characters were going to have this big "jesus we've been so shallow" moment, and the story afterwards was going to be wildly different. I still say: if it had done that, and pulled it off, game of the decade.

It was still crazy fun though. And a lot more lighthearted (in a GTA way) than either WD1 or WD3, which for me at least was a good thing.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

So far, I've seen very little done by Blume or any of the game's other companies that is nearly as intrusive, dangerous, and unconscionable as what Marcus and the other members of DedSec do.

Sounds like something that a deep state operative in the pocket of Big Blume might say.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Also, as near as I can tell, you're supposed to dislike the main villain because he...has a man-bun.

This is an entirely sufficient reason to eject someone from civilised society.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

No one really talks about ludo-narrative dissonance these days, but Watch Dogs 2 is my new poster child for it.

Heh, the hardest I got hit in the face with that was with the Tomb Raider remake.

Lara Croft: "I am so deeply traumatized by violence!"
Also Lara Croft: /duct tapes a claymore mine to a dudes face, kicks him off a cliff into six of his friends, shoots any survivors in the eye with a bow, goes on to horrifically kill another 125 guys
Lara: "SO TRAUMATIZED"

Prederick wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

No one really talks about ludo-narrative dissonance these days, but Watch Dogs 2 is my new poster child for it.

Heh, the hardest I got hit in the face with that was with the Tomb Raider remake.

Lara Croft: "I am so deeply traumatized by violence!"
Also Lara Croft: /duct tapes a claymore mine to a dudes face, kicks him off a cliff into six of his friends, shoots any survivors in the eye with a bow, goes on to horrifically kill another 125 guys
Lara: "SO TRAUMATIZED"

Yeah, that's a pretty good example, too.

For a good example of that kind of character arc done right, check out A Plague Tale. The first time your characters kill someone in that game, they're shocked and upset by what they've done. Then there's this slow, excruciating march through necessary acts of violence that ultimately inure them to their actions. By the time you're picking off soldiers of the Inquisition by swarming them with rats, you feel like it's something the characters would do. You also feel like the enemies deserve what they get, which is a pretty impressive trick.

Do y’all remember BlackBerrys? I bet you don’t.

RawkGWJ wrote:

Do y’all remember BlackBerrys? I bet you don’t.

IMAGE(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0059/8835/2052/products/Thornless_Blackberry_3_1024x1024.jpg?v=1605224102)

RawkGWJ wrote:

Do y’all remember BlackBerrys? I bet you don’t.

Please. Do you know how many RIM servers w/Exchange integrations I've done? Perhaps one of the happiest moments of my professional career was dismantling all that sh*t.

ThatGuy42 wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

Do y’all remember BlackBerrys? I bet you don’t.

Please. Do you know how many RIM servers w/Exchange integrations I've done? Perhaps one of the happiest moments of my professional career was dismantling all that sh*t.

I would like to know more about these RIM jobs.

Mixolyde wrote:
ThatGuy42 wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

Do y’all remember BlackBerrys? I bet you don’t.

Please. Do you know how many RIM servers w/Exchange integrations I've done? Perhaps one of the happiest moments of my professional career was dismantling all that sh*t.

I would like to know more about these RIM jobs.

I just laughed so hard I had a coffee spit-take all over my keyboard. Thanks for that!

FYI, quite a bit of that coffee spit-take ended up on my monitor and across other parts of my desk. Turns out a damp microfiber cloth was able to clean up both my monitor and my keyboard pretty effectively. Even some of the older stains I had on the monitor came right off. Hooray for small successes!

ThatGuy42 wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:
ThatGuy42 wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

Do y’all remember BlackBerrys? I bet you don’t.

Please. Do you know how many RIM servers w/Exchange integrations I've done? Perhaps one of the happiest moments of my professional career was dismantling all that sh*t.

I would like to know more about these RIM jobs.

I just laughed so hard I had a coffee spit-take all over my keyboard. Thanks for that! :D

You're welcome! Causing a coffee spit-take has been on my bucket list for decades. I spent more time than I care to admit crafting that language.

Mixolyde wrote:

I would like to know more about these RIM jobs.

The best place to get your asshole licked by a professional is Indeed.com.

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/3czFGD7/Screenshot-2021-01-05-145538.png)