brin_bellway: forget-me-not flowers (Default)
Brin ([personal profile] brin_bellway) wrote2019-10-14 10:33 am

Comment and Link Roundup: October 14, 2019

Had to postpone last week's backups because my laptop had enough on its plate, so here is a somewhat larger roundup.


Comments on my own posts:

[none this time]

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Comments on other people's posts:

(Note: this post is subject to a formatting glitch. The last post is still last, but all *other* posts in the thread are in reversed order.) [Tumblr; Wayback] (OP by [tumblr.com profile] icarian-arts) Today in "memes that came to people in visions": accidental tips on phone customisation.

[Tumblr; Wayback] (OP by [tumblr.com profile] femmenietzsche) The social acceptability of the word "bitch".

[Dreamwidth; Wayback crawling forbidden OP apparently later turned crawlability on] (OP by [personal profile] yvannairie) The complicatedness of musical taste. [three comments]

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (OP by [personal profile] yvannairie) Pokemon Go identity logistics.

[Tumblr; Wayback] (OP by [tumblr.com profile] thisismycursed3rdblog; addressing [tumblr.com profile] itsmaledict (Halloween alt of [tumblr.com profile] itsbenedict)) Just how many twists can we put into enemies-to-friends-to-lovers?

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Links:

[FiveThirtyEight; Wayback] (by Ben Casselman; h/t Scott Alexander) As a 25-year-old part-time student in a certificate program at a school that prides itself on its *high* acceptance rate and who has never lived on-campus, I really feel this article.

[Tumblr; Wayback] (by [tumblr.com profile] doctorbeth) Adorable stuffed-animal clothing.

[mild cw: war] [Tumblr; Wayback] (by [tumblr.com profile] the-battle-lesbian; h/t [tumblr.com profile] consumptive-sphinx) Shaun Keenan does some excellent art of dinosaurs in (relatively) modern contexts.

[BBC News; Wayback] (can't find a byline; h/t Matt Levine) The best roundabouts in the United Kingdom.

[cw: abuse] [The Outline; Wayback] (by Joanna Mang; h/t Scott Alexander) I remember Shakesville, though I was never a regular reader: it was too intense for even 2011!me to handle. (And I say this as someone who was once among the top 5 most prolific commenters on Ana Mardoll's Ramblings.) I disagree with Scott's assessment, though: to the extent that Shakesville strikes me as less terrifying than it did before, it is only because I have since met people whose goodwill is not conditional on staying in the good graces of Shakesville's ilk.

[Raph's Website; Wayback] (by Raph Koster) A postmortem of the MMO Star Wars: Galaxies. I never played it and am not sure I've even heard of it before, but the series is interesting nonetheless.

(although why one would deliberately create a world in which everything decays I do not know; decay is the worst part of the real world and I for one would rather not have it in my escapism, especially not in such a...well, *inescapable* manner)

Laugh rule:
[Sputnikmusic; Wayback] (by SowingSeason)
traits not necessarily suitable for a band that regularly references animals and shouts hey! an average of nine time per song.

(I finally got around to listening to this 2015 album recently. Very solid album, only a couple of duds. (Whereas with My Head Is an Animal I only liked about the first half.) My favourite was "We Sink", because I am predictable and also it is pretty.)


Bonus: a few selections from my recent bookmark-tidying.

[Dreamwidth; Wayback] (by [personal profile] deird1) The Vegemite Effect. (A memory: "This food tastes of lies," I say, waving around a piece of food from the Chinese buffet when I'd been *told* we were going to a steakhouse.)

[Tumblr; Wayback] (by [tumblr.com profile] thatsnotwatyourmomsaid) Hello, you must have found my camera!

[WordPress; Wayback] (by Chris Witham) Welcoming new zombies to the collective.

[K.B. Owen Mysteries; Wayback] (by James Thurber) Viewing Macbeth through the lens of murder mysteries.

Laugh rule:
[Bandcamp; Wayback (while for *best* results you'll need the audio, Wayback *will* at least get you the lyrics)] (by Brooke Abbey) Let me tell you the story, as sad as it's true...

[personal profile] contrarianarchon 2019-10-17 05:34 am (UTC)(link)
>>Raph actually links to a 1996 paper on the Four Types of MUD Players.

Richard Bartle (the author of that paper) is also the author of my early-2000s MMO design textbook - he was very prolific/influential in that Era of MMOs and MUDs.

(I am Explorer>Socialiser>Achiever and little to no killer. I think that paper underestimates the effect of other people on making a virtual world interesting to explore though - in general he seems stuck on moving through space as the vector for exploration)

>>[Long explanation about Flight Rising economic dynamics]

Thank you! I had gotten to "Boolean's very rare, must have much cash" from looking stuff up when you've mentioned them previously, but the specific trading scheme you have there was not something I was familiar with.

(Also let me say, that whole scheme is *really* cool and I think highly of you for being able to do something like that, even in a video game. Good job!)