f13.net

Ten years later, I've finally decided to redesign f13 and with it will come a slight change of focus. Specifically, MMOGs and commentary about that particular industry are being put out to pasture. Simply put, there's nothing left to say about them. We've kicked our heels and yelled as much as I can personally handle and a decade later, with barely any innovation, I'm bringing that era of bullshit to a close. Instead, we're going to start doing something we should've done years ago. We're going to focus on using what little, valuable time we have on promoting good gaming experiences. The majority of content, post the redesign, will be short reviews of games we loved for one reason or another. In addition, periodically we'll do interviews when we have questions worth asking. Commentary will become rare, and only be posted when there's something of actual value we have to add. Our process for the bulk of the content will go as such:

1. We will request copies of games we are interested in from companies. If we're not interested, we're not even going to look at them.
2. If we like a game, we will post a short (200-400 word) review explaining why you should play it. Or why we think it is worth looking at. The studios that are lucky enough to have made a game we truly enjoyed will possibly receive a sort of certificate from us saying "Congratulations on making something entertaining. Keep doing that."
3. If we don't like a game, you will never hear that we even played it, at least not on the frontpage. I am considering getting some letterheads made on nice paper so I can handwrite a scathing letter to developers explaining to them that we are sorry their game didn't make it to the frontpage, but they should be creating fun experiences instead of crap.

The reasons for this change, as hinted above, is that we're a website of people older than the average gamer. The majority of us have careers, not just jobs. Lots of us are married and have little time left for actual gaming. That allotment of time should be spent playing the best games available. In addition, we all have to wade through an absolute mess of shitty games in order to find the good ones. We'd like to make that a little less painful. We'd also like to let some of the "hidden" gems bubble to the surface. In addition, the majority of news, commentary, and reviews on the web are just filler trash. Finally, I think developers and designers making good games deserve better than a mass-marketed metacritic number (even if that number helps sales).

Basically, curating a collection of "good" games is grip more appealing than yelling at dinosaur-shaped clouds that keep making the same shitty games. So we're going to do that. We will allow user submitted stories through the contact page.

Other things you should know before you ask questions:
1. The forums will not change in any meaningful way. The logo in the upper left will likely be the only noticeable change.
2. The frontpage will still feed into the appropriate forum.
3. Things like my RG/Ultima rant will still appear from time to time but I'll likely post them directly to the forum.
4. Staff will remain the same.
5. The old frontpage will still exist, so nothing will be lost. I won't be converting it all to the new CMS, but there will be a link in the archives or about us page to access it.
6. When I review games, I might actually start streaming. If I do this (hopefully others will do this as well), I will have a stickied thread in the PC Gaming forum giving an expected schedule as soon as I decide when I'm playing a thing.

Here are some rough mockups of what we'll be looking at for the frontpage and some of the supporting pages:



These are rough mockups, some things may change and it may look a little different, but it should give you an overall feel for what's going on.

FINALLY, there will not be a traditional donation drive this year. We don't have any server fees as last years paid for 2 years of the server. I am, however, going to be spending a whole mess of time on this, so I'm opening up the donation period starting now as I still have no job and some money to pay rent and such would be rad. Some of you may be thinking "well, dumbass, you just dumped a bunch of money into Hex" - I did (and didn't - despite previous commentary - sell cards to do so). It was a gift because some people want me to run the guild in it and know I'm super broke. Consider it an earmarked donation to f13 - of which we had a few last year and are ALWAYS allowed, obviously. Anyway, here are the levels (slightly increased from last year except the first one, because grief titling people was a joy... a painful joy). Oh, and there is no level above $150. Coloring peoples names is a pain in the ass and should be more unique than common.

$0-$49: You get nothing except the feeling that you just threw money into an endless sink.
$50: The staff at f13 will grief title you. No mulligans.
$100: SEND ME A PM FOR APPROVAL BEFORE YOU DONATE AT THIS LEVEL: You get to grief title yourself. Submit your grief title, I will get back to you shortly on approval.
$175: SEND ME A PM FOR APPROVAL BEFORE YOU DONATE AT THIS LEVEL: You get to grief title someone else. Submit your grief title, I will get back to you shortly on approval.

Thanks for your dollars. ^_^

I'm hoping to launch this with content some time in September. Questions?

EDIT: Here's the donation link, I'm a moron: DONATION LINK (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9272671)

So, if it gets your blessing, there's not going to be a "f13: All Hex, All the Time" subsite?   :grin:

Can we (the non-staff but somewhat long time lurkers) submit articles for publication?  If so, game-related only or other stuffs (political, etc.)?

Most of my hex content will actually be through my Magic testing site (drecktech). If the interview goes well today, the stream will be attached to that as it will completely replace MODO for my online card gaming. As in, I will liquidate my fucking MODO account. So, no, the Hex thing was AWKWARD coincidence and appeared out of nowhere. I was talking to staff about the redesign before I knew Hex existed.


We'd like to keep it to gaming stuff. But any long-standing member can submit whatever. We will, however, possibly follow up and play the game ourselves and decide whether or not you (or whoever) are right. We're just become more focused, not less elitist.

I think RK needs his own reviewing column.

My only question is what defines 'we', I'm assuming all forum denizens, not just staff although this raises some questions about how these games may be distributed.

I'm not sure what you're asking. Yes, I mean "we" as in the staff of f13. Actually disseminating a shitload of games to users would be a logistical nightmare.

In addition, random forum members (no offense intended here) don't really hold any cachet with most gaming companies. When I ask companies for games, they tend to think *I* will be reviewing the games.

ALSO, I NEED TO ADD THIS:

If a game is in playable form - whether it's called ALPHA or PREALPHA or BETA or whatever, it's fair game.

Developers need to stop putting games out there that aren't meant to be judged.

We can still do BIIFs in that section though right?

But is it Fun might just get folded back into PC/Console gaming. The regular gaming forum is more responsive than that subforum and I'd like more discussion to happen in those topics. But I don't know yet. For most that would be a negligible change. That forum gets very little traffic.

My thought is that Steam makes thing very accessible and easy for the average forum wanker (like myself) to review. I'd like to see a place for that remain somewhere with a defined structure. BIIF may not have been the best place, but I still think it's important to give people a place to put their thoughts in a template of sorts. Discussion and speculation usually happens long before a game, and large threads can make the actual reviews or post-release opinions from people that actually played the game hard to navigate.

That is reasonable. I will reconsider a structure for that as this progresses.

If I were to paypal you $49 and then $1, could I avoid a greif tittle?

Anyone can paypal whatever they want and just PM me to not have anything done to them.

If Signe sends you $49 and a few minutes later I send you a buck will you grief title her?

Deep down, I want to say I would do that.

But I wouldn't.

Also, that's weird.

That covers it, it just wasn't clear whether we meant the wider forum community, or just the staff. Ta.

I wish I had a platform by which to easily acquire and give away games if it makes you feel any better. Though, for Steam-distributed indie stuff, I may poke companies for keys if I want more people playing a thing and do the normal POST IN THIS THREAD HUR HUR contest type thing.

That makes sense; like Paelos I was wondering how this would sit alongside BIIF and other discussions that are generated by non-staff forum members. I think the overarching theme of the redesign sounds good.

Two people asked how much my rent was, so I'm just posting it publicly. It's $1k a month. If someone pressed hard on what my personal goal was for the donation drive, it would be $3k which would cover 2 months rent and food/etc for those months.

I'm pretty open about shit like this, so feel free to ask.

So I really like the ideas and the third spoiler is my favourite and I'd like to help as much as possible so I sent money.  Maybe I'll get Samprimary or Paelos write something awesome and sign my name to it and you can use it in your new webamagaformazine.   I already have a greif tittle and it's kind of sweet and I'm terrified of what a different might say.  I had onebefore, like a decade ago or so, and it wasn't awful either but some of the ones other people have now are just so fucking confusing.  I'll  bake bread and send it to you if you run out of food.  Don't forget that cactus, violets, nettles and other people's picnic baskets are edible.  I've been using this site so long, I can't imagine it not being here.  And although I fear change, I'm really excited to see what happens with this. 

I think it's near impossible to emulate your writing style.   :grin:

For a while I was playing a kender character in a D&D game that happened partly in person and partly online.  When speaking in character, and ESPECIALLY when writing in character, I would always try to channel Signe, because she is the most kenderish person I sort of know (and I mean that as a compliment).

I think it might have permanently warped me just a little bit.  

:heart:

The September release date, folks, is an estimate. I'm operating under the assumption I'll be able to take the time to do this properly because of donations. If those don't come then about 50 other things factor into the timeliness of this. I would like to get it done sooner rather than later.

Looks like a cool idea. I like the front page mock design.

Looks good.

We are 3.3repeating% of the way to my soft goal.

Aaaaaaaaand 6.66666666666666666666666666666667% of the way there. Bravo. More pls.

If we send you the $50, what's our time frame on getting tittlified?  :why_so_serious:

PS I sent you $50 from my D3 ill-gotten RMAH gains.

I don't commit to time frames (on rewards). Sooner than last time though. That took too fucking long.

8.3333333334% of the way to the soft goal. =D

And.... 33.33333333333333334% of the way there.

Can't do math. We are precisely 25% of the way there.

Also, a couple people have asked - yes, the donation drive is normally in September. But I want to have this done by September. Sorry for having it early. I know that's awkward. There will not be another one this year.

I would personally be interested in knowing (somehow) if a game was tested and not reviewed (because it was shitty).  That way I can easily avoid the mistake of buying something that didn't merit a review. 

I am currently toying around with having a sort of hidden reject page that people can bookmark. Or having an invisible link. I would like to list it somewhere. I just don't want it to be easily found by people who visit us.

28.03333333334% to goal!  :drill:

I love invisible ink.  I can just never find any!

Can't we just call Paelos "So adorable you'll cry mommy tears"?  How did ghost become orange?  Is he off his sell by date?

Do it like kickstarter, every game reviewed starts out being linked to, if the review turns sour you just remove all links but leave the page up.

You could make it very subtle, such as have the name, end-of-test date and then review date.  If there is an end-of-test date and no review date, there's our answer.  

We are very purposefully avoiding shitty reviews taking up any space. Maybe I'll scan the letter I send companies about their crappy game and link to them all from a list you access via a π symbol in the bottom right hand of the page.

Who likes bad movie references? Anyone?

Me.  Welcome to Mozart's Ghost!

Also: redesign looks/sounds interesting.

Also, I haven't started working on the actual redesign yet - so if you want to make suggestions and have me address them. You still have a window where changes can be made without extra work. As in, let's talk about this now.

Edit: Also, we're still $2200ish short of the goal. Page 2 reminder that there's a donation drive in effect. /dancesforsparechangesortof

I like the general idea, it might stand out as something different. Mock-ups are nice and clean - stick with that feeling.

I definitely agree with Ghost, that I think the community would appreciate a way to know what games didn't make the cut.

An Easter egg full of bile.  I like it.

28.515% of the way to the soft goal.

Wait a second.  Does that mean people around here are going to have to start being positive?   :oh_i_see:

Naw :drill:

Look, this whole thing boils down to the following:

We don't want people to waste what time they have. We want people to play better games.

That's it.

Just the writers.

The poor bastards.

I don't know about anyone else, but if I get a game to review and it sucks, I'll probably vent my spleen about it on the forums.  Unless there's a rule against that.  Which I can't envision being the case.

Nope. These forums ain't press.

30.1% of the way to my soft goal.

Can't go wrong with beige, it's a great colour imho.  :grin:

I would toss some money in but I just signed a contract to buy a house and so can't float anything extra right now (besides, I never figured out what to give myself as a grief title from last year, heh).

I like the new concept. I still think the site needs a Samprimary comic area somewhere.

32.28666666667% of the way there.

Sweet.

Do we get horse armor if we donate?

The horsiest armor in all the land.

You might want something on the front page that succinctly conveys what the site's mission is. It's almost not like press, it's more like a seal of approval or award or something. The current design doesn't get that across.

Similarly, I would suggest creating a badge that a game that makes it can have on their site.

Just my probably-useless advice. I look forward to sending in a game and having you not review it. :)

34.43333333333% to goal.

Raph, I feel like we need to update your title.

36.04766666666667%

38.455%

I'll donate more if you'll find a way to fix the Daft Punk link.   :awesome_for_real:

Uh oh. Why? I do still develop. Have been developing. Honest.

He means your Metaplace title.

Also, feel free to have your company donate to our new cause. I might put up a page of developers who approve of our methods.

Just sayin'

My new company is funded out of my pocket!

If I donate, won't that mean that your journalistic integrity will be called into question?  :oh_i_see:

Not even a little. Here's the donation page:

39.74966666667%

41.357666666667%

There is a possibility I will put up a $500 stretch goal to buy a decent scanner and take the time to set up a special page for GAMES WE REJECTED. We'll see how this thing goes.

Edit: My handwriting is hilariously bad, so this is likely worth doing. Need to find a good place to order letterhead paper from also.

Probably need more than a page.  Might need to restrict it to a credit-roll type thing.  Sir Game Not Reviewed On This Site.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/85916/sir_not_appearing_in_this_film.jpg)

Yea, the list could get long. I might have to save the hand-written letters for really egregious shit where the developer almost certainly had to know how bad their games was AND MOVED FORWARD WITH IT ANYWAY.

I like the idea of an F13 SEAL OF APPROVAL.

With a big ole stamp.

I will find ten bucks to throw at you somewhere. I'm being bitched at about money, but I've been here long enough I feel guilty for sucking up content and not contributing. Badass idea btw.

God help me, I am letting you grief title me.

You also just paid me back for SWG.  :drill:

Hardly, you think I personally got $50 from you for SWG? Fat chance!

Time is money.

Shitty reviews, or reviews of shitty games? (stay away from this one!)

You including things like World of Tanks, MWO etc in that category? There's a lot of them about now and outside of the F2P/ding-grats aspects of them they often have some good gameplay to them.

Anyway, I just got paid for photographing some handbags, so have some of that :)

Yeah, are you going to ignore all MMOs as a rule, or simply choose not to focus on them? 

Anyway, sounds like a cool idea, best wishes for success.  I will have to consider a donation.  My wife already things I am mentally disturbed, and her finding receipts for the F13 Hookers and Blow fund is challenging to explain.

Just sounds like the staff's not going to do MMO commentary articles like they used to back in the old days. They aren't going be prohibiting discussions about them, and when something good does actually come along I imagine they'll review it like they would anything else. The fact that schild is focusing so much attention on Hex right now shows that he's not going to ignore a potentially good game just for having MMO'ish aspects.

My tuppence worth, if this is going to be a thing, you really need to put a limit on how soon f13 can decide whether something is good.

Otherwise you are going to end up with a list full of  hellgate lifetime subscriptions, diablo 3, swg twitch posts, and heaven knows what else.

Declaring robot jesus, then noticing something is actually a piece of shit two weeks later is just how f13 rolls.

Did anyone ever go out of their way to write mmo articles since this was waterthread?

I just looked in the forum-where-articles-go and I don't think there have been more than about 10 in the last decade.

If I'm not mistaken, all hype here for Hellgate, D3, and SWG NGE was pre-release. If schild is getting games from the publishers for the purpose of reviews, he'd probably be playing the game more or less in the condition it will be in come release, and he'd be bound by the same embargoes as other reviewers, which typically means no reviews published until release day.



There have barely been more than 10 front page articles in the last decade if you take away all the BiiF crossposts.  Most of the stuff in the News forum amounts to copy-pasted press releases with a couple lines of commentary. There's a handful or MMO related articles, and a handful of games journalism sucks articles. I wan't to say that just about every interview schild has done here has been with people involved with MMO's.

44.525666666667% to soft goal.

All that hype was in fact pre-release.

Also, congratulations on naming 3 items over the last 10+ years, Eldaec.

COMEON, REALLY? REALLY? THREE? Is that it?

(it's all I can come up with also - so uh, what's the complaint here?)

I'm sure it won't happen again.

Although the dry-humping over the card game is pretty funny already.  :awesome_for_real:

Oh no you didn't....

Vistaprint is good.

If only the upgrade from Pro Player to GK wasn't hanging over my head. (Along with the added expense of my 3 week old daughter!)

Poor schild :(

No, this is full-force. Dry humping doesn't even begin to describe Wagic: Online.

This should be a Kickstarter campaign to get more attention.  :grin:

Naw. Too much work.

anyway, let's not get off point - $1700 and change to go!

Edit: Or $2200 until I buy a scanner and get letterheads made up. I will let people vote on which letterhead I will use. All letters will be written with the most pretentious pen possible, a pen type-a. They will likely include crude drawings.

Buy a Fujitsu scansnap. Best scanners on the market for scanning documents.

Well, ain't buying shit yet.

Donations are slow moving today, so as a reminder - I also accept old Magic collections. Anyway, still $1700 and change to go.

47.23852% of the way there!

UnSub writes a good annual round-up usually. Though he's not "staff" - simply a contributor.

2013 punch & pie sent

49.836% of the way there!

Thanks for saying so. I still do that, but just put it up on my blog.

But Schild is right about MMOs being a dead scene. There's been the burst of "live in a virtual world and play with millions of others!" enthusiasm that has tapered off as people realise they don't like second jobs and other people suck. Plus a decade of very big, very obvious failures. There's an estimate that only 20% of video games actually make a profit; MMOs compound this issue by requiring a lot of investment and hype to get them to launch stage, so that when they fail they can take down a lot of people with them.

I think the refresh of f13 is a good idea, although I'm still hoping some of the snark sticks around. The "Your Life Is Too Short To Waste Time Playing:" page will be a start.

51.4% of the way to the soft goal. Yay team!

52.02033333333% of the way there.

So what do you think about UO PvP, the HAM system, EverQuest, and Shadowbane?

All of that pales in comparison to the reason WAR really failed.

Question:
How do we not make this site review not just another filler reviews floating around in the webs? I believe some people have blogs, vid-reviews, Angry Joes, Unhappy Video Gamers etc. What sets this site apart actually? I think 'But is it fun?' is already done. Some contributions are made, it's dried up, but maybe it'll pick it up again.

I'd write more BIIFs if the subforum was more active but most posts only get a handful of replies. On that note, will there be a way for members to post reviews in the new format on the front page and such? I'm not looking to score free games, just wondering if there will be an option for the non-staff members.

People will be able to submit game reviews through a contact page - I think I'm going to make less fields required and add an optional username field so we know who submitted the review :drill::

I think I prefer to buy my own games and post a review, if it worries schild so much about his dev relations.
Writing impressions has that fun factor to me. Kinda love/hate relations with devs. Maybe it's schadenfreude when you want crap games to be trashed - but surely it's fair when good ones are given fair shot not just because they're AAA?

Users can submit reviews to (maybe) have them posted, or to suggest that the staff play them? Your post implies the former while the image, the latter.

Wait, I'm worried about dev relations? That's adorable.

I meant users in the forums will understand they can submit reviews to maybe get posted. Non-regular users will have to suggest things.

Basically, I'm not posting publicly that people can submit reviews, you all will just know better.

Ahh alright, thanks.

 :awesome_for_real: Let me see how much I can donate.

u giev 1,000,000 krw keke la ^_^~

I shall pledge over One Thousand Czech Koruna!

There should be a site easter eggs donation tier.  Call it the someone wants to pay homage to cheesy praetorian symbol from horibad movie tier.  Personally I want the konami code to re-skin the site as kotaku or something but even if that would flypass the site admins taste test I can see that as being a somewhat time consuming "upgrade" to pull off.

edit - I haven't been to kotaku for several years and it's blocked at work so maybe it has gotten better, feel free to replace kotaku with "seizure inducing overly cluttered asian themed gaming site with a neon color palette".

Well, I hear Crescente left.

57.663% of the way there!

I'm jewish (well, jew-"ish", HAHAHAHAHAHHA HOOOOOOOOOOOO), I don't know anything about Easter Eggs.

Because reproductive celebrations have a lot to do with Jesus.

They don't, but jews don't even fake celebrate Easter. During that period we celebrate the escap^h^h^H slaying of the first born children of Egypt. In addition we eat shitty food and sing creepy ass songs and be general weirdos. It's a LARPing holiday mostly.

Whereas Christians send their children out into a field to find shitty fun.

59.2% of the way there!

Most people here didn't know you when they had to take the devs you "chatted" with away to the funny farm wearing straight jackets.  It was beautiful.  I swear, some of those devs loved you for it, too.  You have a knack for saying the most horrible sounding things to someone without making it personally peculiar.  And it's fun to watch!

Since it's been started, I'm visualizing a virtual dreidel which can net you a "prize" consisting of a negative review or sample from the Hall of Shame.

Wrong jewish celebration.

If your game sucks we replace your water with blood and fill your house with locusts.

That is also fine.  Sounds like a "no" on any hidden things.

More like, I figure this thing will take me a few weeks to a month to do in a way that makes me happy. I asked for donations to cover that period. If you have an interesting stretch goal in mind, throw it out there.

A dreidel is a bit over the top though.

That idea has my head spinning.

I am looking forward to giving the site redesign a whirl.

The number of people donating $49 is staggering. Should've made the name level $75. Whoops.

Some amount to go. Paypal isn't updating atm.

Oh, I did $50 but want to keep the self chosen title I did last year.

That's fine. I'll be messaging people when this shit closes in a few weeks about what they want to do.

60.48% of the way there!! =D

Most of us stopped when WoW came out and everyone realized that no one wanted GOOD MMOG's that tested the boundaries - mostly because there weren't any MMOG developers who either gave a shit or could hire a team competent enough to do anything innovative without shitting the bed on execution. WAR was the last hurrah for MMOG's around here, honestly and nobody had been writing about the medium for years before that because it is a wasteland of me-too and face-fucking 5-star incompetence.

64.04% of the way there!

If you change "messaging" to "massaging" and change "when" to "before", I bet you'll double the dosh.

 :heart: the new logo. Nice font.

Thats the original f13 logo font.

65.0963% of the way there.

About 10 people have complained about the Hex kickstarter sapping them, so I might extend this out a month. But if we're approaching $3,000 I'm going to start setting aside the time to work before it's done. Thanks to everyone who has donated!

I can pitch in maybe that far out, but we're frickin strapped.  Decided to push through my last year of school out of pocket instead of loans, that 4k I spent for classes on Sunday HURT.  I can drum up a bit in a few weeks though.

Should never have changed it then.

67.0283% of the way there!

Ok, 200 Zloty is now yours.

Dziękuję.

Replace "Hex kickstarter" with "wife mental instability" and that's my excuse.

Are we there yet?

Nopeeeee.

I would have just done $50 then.  If I had the option to let you pick it but be given veto rights I might have bumped it up.  I kind of like having a bazillion posts without getting a grief title though.  It's an accomplishment in itself.

bump

lol its stickied

I smell a new grief title in the making.

We all get griefed eventually, title or not.  :why_so_serious:

I knew that if you knew I didn't want a grief title I'd get a grief title...

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/85916/you_so_funny_clockwise.gif)

But did you know that I knew that you knew that?  Clearly I can NOT give you the grief title that is in front of me!

Surely we're there now?  And don't call me Shirley.

78.2238333333333333333333333% of the way there. Keep it coming (but to the poster above, thank you!)

Fake Edit: We're not there because I hadn't gotten shit since yesterday.

Donated again to lower the ratio between money spent on a non existent card game versus a site I actually read and use most every day.  Now I have to go choose an actual charity to donate more money to so that I don't feel so bad about my video game spending.

I'm an actual charity at the moment (fo' rizzle, the human fun).

In other news we're somewhere around 80% of the way there. My paypal account is all out of wonk because of fucking Hex and I'm too lazy to do the proper math right now.

So. Let's call it 80.00000% of the way there. So $600 to go to the soft goal.

As a TOTAL aside from the donation drive - it has been requested that I stream Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (when it releases).

I would be happy to do so, but only if someone donates it.

1. I ain't payin for a game I won't finish or sink hours into on my own.
2. That shit scary.
3. That shit scary.

Edit: I can request a copy from the dev, but since I won't be reviewing it, I'd feel bad for asking for a copy.

Rolling the dice, avoided a grief title last time.

Did I forget to give you one last time?!

85.707% of the way there.

Damn, I go away for a week and look what I come back to.

So we can blame you?   :oh_i_see:

87.083333333% of the way there!

What horrors have you wrought?!!!!  :mob:

^^

$49. I know I could avoid a grief title if I donated more, but this feels like a tradition now  :grin:

Skint.   :heartbreak:

That puts us like 89% of the way there. I'm tired of taking it to the nth decimal. However, thank you so much for your support!

moar plz, the rest of you.

Threw a couple of bucks in the hat. Wasn't much, I know, but I'm currently living out of my meager savings (and co-funding/founding a small indie startup at the same time o_O).

Money sent.
Grief at your leisure.

I've also thrown $50 in your virtual hat. I've been a registered user since 2005 and I have already missed the last donation drive so not giving anything this time would have felt wrong ;-)

Based on this morning and yesterday we are at 93% to the soft goal.

Edit: Every $50 accounts for 1.67%. I should've just been doing easy math to begin with.

You only got 49 from me, I rather like being in the Terracotta Army.  :awesome_for_real:

bump, mildly past 95%.

We're like $200-$300 from the soft goal. Thanks so much everyone. This week I will be working on the redesign. When I take breaks I'll be looking for grief titles or talking about Hex. Monday and Thursday I'll be unavailable midday. If you want to ask anything or make any suggestions I'll be on Steam all the time the whole week outside of those days.

Thanks again!

Whatcha doin on Monday and Thursday? 

I'd like to join you guys as well, along with Flight and others I heard about you guys via the the FoH/Rerolled forums.

Backed at Grand King

Wrong forum for that, hombre.

Despite not quite hitting the goal, I'm about 75% done with the redesign. =D Decided to plow through it before Hex gets released. This was the correct decision.

So, the redesign is *basically* done. However, it's going to get seeded with content and hopefully a backlog before it goes live. So the live date may be September still. Also, even though we never actually hit the goal, I will be working on custom titles in the upcoming week or so and shotgun the whole thing out like last time over the course of a day. If I can't figure out who an email address is attributed to, I'll mask it and post in this thread that I need a name attached to something.

Sneak preview of the visual look of the redesign:

(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3802/9155131550_20985a8895_z.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/71957441@N05/9155131550/)
f13 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/71957441@N05/9155131550/)

There's a Schild Rd on Rt 6 going between Tillamook and Portland, Oregon.  I keep meaning to take a pic whenever we pass.  I'll remember next time!

What about those us us (me) that find negative/critical reviews helpful?  Nearly every game review spins things in such an ass-kissing light, that f13 was my only bastion for critical analyses. 

Any thoughts?

If you don't see it, it's shit.  Saves you time.  Unless you like wallowing in shit. :oh_i_see:

One man's trash is another man's treasure.  Particularly with the spectrum of tastes around here.  I've played several of the games that got glowing reviews here and wondered what the fuss was.  I've also enjoyed games that many here considered trash.  

I enjoy hearing impressions.  If a game is crap, I'd like to know why it was deemed crap.  Some reasons will make me avoid the title while others are of little concern.

Short version: There's a big difference between "You're wrong!" and "You're wrong and here's why..."

I like negative reviews that actually tell what is wrong with the game (and why it's still worth reviewing)instead of just saying everything's awful (if everything is awful just say that and don't bother doing the review).

I honestly don't spend enough time with bad games anymore to give them any sort of critical analysis. Played Akaneiro recently. If I were to review it, I'd give it like a 3/10 because it feels like running through molasses. Doesn't make for a very long or interesting review because I have no other opinion of it to give. Oh, I suppose also I feel bad for people who kickstart something that ends up being pay to win.

I think writing up a game and giving it a 3/10 rating because "it feels like running through molasses" is a perfectly acceptable review for f13.  More like that, please!

No.

Can we at least get a list of games that people have previewed (and the previewer)?  Would the previewer be willing to respond to a PM about their experience? I think that would be great.  Many times just hearing a 10 sec synopsis from someone with an opinion that I respect is enough to save me $50.

Ehhnnnnnnnn. ERHHGHGGNNN. MAYBE.

We plan on having a list of shit we didn't review somewhere. It might be worth attaching a 1-2 sentence reason we didn't like it enough to review it to that list.

I think Nebu and Signe are right. It's not about giving bad reviews. I see your point of simplicity, but the version of just not listing rejected stuff there creates obscurity. Did they look at it? What happened?

In addition, I can tell from experience that I may not like something that Schild likes in games. Him dismissing something may not be why I would. We're so much more mature and differentiated as a forum now that I feel that we could fill in some gaps. If something ends up on the scrapheap list, maybe one of the users can pick up the game and review it on their own. That list needs to exist though.

The list will exist, we just didn't plan on fully commenting on the games. Now I'm waffling about adding a small space for comments.

If Nebu will only PM people that he respects, I'm fine with it. :why_so_serious:

A 1-2 sentence reason for tossing it would be plenty.  I think we know each other well enough to read between the lines.  Thanks for at least giving it consideration.


I respect you, Yeg.  I think you're wrong most of the time, but I still respect you.   :why_so_serious:

Control scheme awful, didn't get past stupid tutorial with talking hat.

That's pretty much all I'd need.

Well, shit.


Curious of a scenario where someone failed a game with a one-liner that would make you want to give it a try?

I hate most strategy games and this was no different. Boooo, no stars.

Shit, that's a whole review concept right there:

One sentence, can only be about a game you instantly hated or simply stopped playing, make me interested in trying.

There's a few people here I'm pretty sure could pull it off. Haemish in particular.

I am not one of them :grin:

Haemish, Ironwood, and Samprimary can say volumes in a single sentence.  It's a gift.

That was the original intent behind noisegrid.com. Instant opinions about games in either direction. I like it more as a static thing on f13 though.

I've decided to do a weekly / bi-weekly article once this relaunch happens focusing on both board games and video games on Kickstarter. I will be ignoring any other crowd-funding platform because they are all has-been shit. If a Humble Bundle or anything else is going on at the same time, it'll be mentioned in the article. I feel like the hype machine has spun out of control on the whole crowd-funding "thing."

I will (not) call the article Massive Chalice.

However, I will deliver.

Edit: Full disclosure, one of my hobbies is reporting shitty games (in both sections) that will clearly never see the light of day as "This is not a project."

I look forward to it taking its place beside the subforum for "The Schild Chronicles '06". It's like foreseeing the empty chair of Tiny Tim.

It's a column that's based on interesting / hilariously bad things being on Kickstarter or elsewhere in gaming. It's like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHtRnOXXZ0w

Except not entirely like that, obviously.

Edit: Man, that was 7 years ago. Rice recipe still good. Cave Story still good. Schild chronicles did not come back in 2007. That part was a straight lie.

There will still be these here forums where everyone says stuff and whatnot?

f13's new title should be

"I'd rather be a  :pedobear: than play mmos"

I threw $50 down the drain...if nothing else I've helped some admin's raging cocaine habit.

What?

I think he might be a priest.  Let us pray he doesn't know what a  :pedobear: is.

The "happening" you say?  :why_so_serious:


This is the true Untold story of f13.net



Schild is jewish, is there something he's not telling us here? :cthulu:

I think it's time for a dose of F13 RED PILL MOTHER FUCKERS  :ye_gods:

f13. 13 - the legal age in japan IS 13. f13 has a big NIS following.
f13 = cult of  :pedobear:

The Terracotta Warriors Tribe

One Eric Schild. The God child. Internet badass, non-conformist jewish royalty. NIS SUPER FAN.  :hello_thar: Texan, MTG world champion and suicidegirls connoisseur and HAIL BANE. Keeper of the cyst. Weeaboo and non-hipster.


Haemish "I've seen some shit" MacLennan the uwe boll undertaker. A tragic tale of 2 levels too many, former POW survivor of the island of doggy death in north korea's lineage 2. Dogs are animals, cattle = animals. The goyim is the jewsish term for cattle/non-jews. Grinding doggy death = Slaughtering animals = slaughtering cattle = slaughtering non-jews in north korea's Lineage 2 with accomplice one Eric Schild.  :eek3:


Slayerik, morals enforcer and he is the law. Slayerik's story about shadowbane and morals was to prepare us for what to expect in the comming days. Never trust a minotaur.  :cry:


Paelos. Bipedal monkey and lurker population regulator. Offspring of the humans breeding with animals epidemic in the end times.  :sad_panda:


lesion. Slain in the revolt of hellgate london lifetime subscribers quarantine,  :mob: body discarded in the remaining camps/mass grave sites of Everquest 1 as to not contaminate others. Only to be resurrected by the god child, One Eric Schild.


Queen Signe of England. Lures unsuspecting drifters and orphans into her den of lies. Her den is filled with the stuffed devils that once roamed the planes. Conspires secretly with voodoolily on who to target as their next victim.  :rock:


Righ. "In the future, all will be NEET".  :google: Former Google-fu quantum physicist and transhumanist. Pioneer of the technological singularity due to being a high ranking google-fu grandmaster sifu.


Voodoo "Finnuh, munnuh, muhfuh" lily. Speaks entirely in ebonics riding a 7-headed beast of revelation with 10 horns  :cthulu: while delivering deliciously unhealthy snacks to an already overweight population.  :eat: Conspires out in the open with signe on who to fatten up next.


WindupAtheist. Still plays UO, runs 18 consecutive accounts which bot ore for him to resell to chinese human trafficking farmers. ERPs in furcadia and second life on the side for bitcoins.  :yahoo:


Cheddar. Joined a colony of furries who still play Everquest 2 and Vanguard. Patented the fabled "noob sauce" a mysterious sticky white liquid, only available upon special delivery to fellow furs.  :eat:


The rest of the members of the f13's crew ship remain missing, status UNKNOWN.  :tinfoil:


Tribe of The Homer


Az. Killed in the Ultima Online purge by the minority group of pks he was trying to assist, his tormented spirit unable to leave the realm still stays in purgatory to his IPY UO shard keeping it online and continues to haunt his past wtfman homebros.


Mother Fuckers who are crazier than me


HRose insanity driven smelly foreign hermit,  :psyduck: abandons mmos, stockpiles books. Books? More like printable media for when the happening occurs and we lose access to the internet. Also stockpiles weed cigarettes.


Sir Bruce the Exiled.  :psyduck: Perma Banned from every known internet website and gathering event. Once stuck a traffic cone up his ass. Also a furry. Monitors every mmorpg player to ever exist for his private collection.


Other/Unknown

SimuKaren. Once made a pass at One Eric Schild whom gentlemanly responded to the haggard wench with a swift backhand, loudly proclaiming. "Too Old!"  :hello_thar:


Horsemen of the Apocalypse


Smedley. Self proclaimed and convicted Pigfucker. The first human to actually breed with an animal, the act first took place around the release of the NGE and CU, a sign of the end times and HAM.  :eat:


Richard "royal dick" Garriott. Never actually left the planet and was actually hooked up to a prototype oculus rift that runs the only working version of tabula rasa 24/7  :Love_Letters: with dreams of grandeur conning people out of their delicious money bags on kickstarter. Genitals are also hooked up to a fleshlight version of the oculus rift.


Jeff "Tigole half-jew Rogue" Kaplan. Bringer of the apocalypse.  :evil: Jewish royalty and anti-christ. Complained in an interview that the 1% myth of top mmo players only enjoying endgame content didn't exist and that 1% was a number just picked out of the sky. This video has since been removed and pre-dates the Occupy Wallstreet Movement. Weaseled/Jew'd his way into lead developer of the New World of Warcraft Order with a golden ticket. Has no regard for his animal crossing addicted mother and openly supports the suffering of non-jews. Was controlling things behind the scene when hiring managers were told not to hire World of Warcraft players. No jobs = no economy = NEW WORLD ORDER.


Furor.  :rock: Tigoles right hand man. The go-to guy for slaying the leaky goys. Masquerades as a paladin in order to ruin the lives of others legally from inside the law. How does one slay the monsters that are protected by the laws they make?


The Oracle


Raph Koster. Homeless aspiring conch player and freegan oracle.  :geezer: Recent reported sightings take place during moonless nights along the shores of the north west, once spotted he ceases to play the conch and assumes the hiding rabbit position of flattening his ears as to ward off predators in order to appear invisible. Known for making unintelligble noises, grunting and likes to dress up like a giant frog. He gains and loses weight based on the moon phases.



Other terms you may need to know, it could save your life in the coming days.


Poopsock. Jenkem = a schedule 2 drug substance aka fermented feces for inhalation in african countries. Schedule 2 drugs = pharmaceuticals/vaccines. AUTISM.
Poopsocking is the number 1 leading cause of autism.  :eat:


Catass. Garfield. Processed food. "Hungry for a hotdog?". Lum the mad. Diabetes epidemic.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/1800
Catassing is the number 1 leading cause of diabetes.  :eat:


diku mud, dick mud, butthurt, /pizza, population control.
diku mmos are concentration camps for man children!  :eat: :woot:


Waterthread, more like WaterBOARD
QuartertoThree - the time the "happening" will occur.
Corpnews, more like CorpJEWS.


f13 was a glimpse into the future. To condition you for "the happening" a world of disappointment, suffering and pain. Only the true internet warriors of f13, one Eric Schild the savior of mankind and Haemish "Goyim Slayer" MacLennan can lead us through "the happening" and rebuild our society.

f13 was never about mmos, it was for preparing us for the end of the world.

be praying... be praying... be praying...

the schild is silent...
(http://imageshack.us/a/img13/2279/wjd0.jpg)

I second the above post.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/Rendakor/weebayhuh.gif)

I like that we dialed the crazy up to 11.

Also, I regulate lurkers? REGULATORS! MOUNT UP!

What the hell ?

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39720/animated%20gifs/RB7BhB6.gif)

Don't be mad because you got left out.  :why_so_serious:

 :oh_i_see:

I've never had "me" distilled into a pedophile, Jew, leader of "men."

This is uncomfortable.

I'MNOTFROMENGLANDGODDAMIT!!!!  Other than this GLARING error, that was SPECTACULAR!!!

Well then.

 :ye_gods:

That was 'It puts the lotion on its skin' kind of creepy.   

Is someone selling schizophrenia door to door?  :ye_gods:

I don't have a gif for this.

We've now reached a new milestone.

Time to panic.

What was that?

There are names in there which should be better left unsaid.  And coming from a 50 post unknown, raises that post to pure stalkerville.

I think we should let him review games with rk47. The ensuing vortex of weird would suck us through the looking glass and into the timecube.

Would that even be safe?  Exploring the unknown depths of the universe is all fine and dandy, until you realize you left your towel at home and your screwdriver is out of batteries.  Or something.

I agree on the condition that Mr. B picks the games.

I like where this is going. :popcorn:

Ho.  Lee.  Fuck.   :awesome_for_real:

Preserving for posterity :awesome_for_real:

OK, seriously. Whose alt was that  :uhrr: :ye_gods:  :pedobear:  :facepalm:

Looks like one of the heavy hitters has finally shown up.

Whoever he is, he needs Grunk Strength Meds.

Well, whatever it is we need to encourage it. 

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/82533/qpT3m.gif)

i don't even...

Heh, I read that and figured it was someone you guys all knew from LtM/waterthread/whatever coming out of the woodwork. Not by that name I guess.

There seems to be some precedent in ye olde posting history... (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=20133.msg867387#msg867387)

We've been burgled.  By BuzzFeed.

Thank you for preserving it, Trippy.  :heart:

(http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/3319/zj98.gif)

You should post more.

Is Kermit the Frog I dress up as? Or something?

I haven't figured out how to put a capo on a conch. (<---- only suitable for denizens of the guitar thread).

I should really read this thread more often.

How indie is allowed? Just 'indie' on Steam, Indie freeware, or ROM-based indie gaming as well?

For example -- Fan-made sequel to Super Metroid in the form of a ROMHack changing everything about the game, beautiful custom art, arguably a better experience than Super Metroid itself. Would/could that make the front page?

And will it only be new releases, or could, say, some awesome indie game from 2008 (or earlier in 2013!) make the cut?

Have a link? Because that sounds awesome.

http://www.digital-mantra.com/eris/

(http://digital-mantra.com/SMetEris.PNG)

The trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7ri-Ak429o

(can we not embed YouTube videos anymore?)


Make sure you use the headered Super Metroid ROM when you patch it.

(IMHO this is the easiest ROM patching tool: http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/ )


Along with Metroid: Super Zero Mission (a huge and wonderful reimagining of Metroid Zero Mission on the Super Metroid engine) and Metroid Redesign (the godfather of the fan sequels, the one that proved you could make something on par with the original, which keeps all the same graphics and gameplay elements as the original Super Metroid, but with a much larger and much more complex world), Eris is universally acclaimed one of the three best Super Metroid fan sequels ever completed. And since it's using the Super Metroid engine itself, you never feel like you're playing some crappy facsimile. This is a 2D metroid game on par with, if not surpassing, what Nintendo could put out.

They're also much bigger. Eris is the baby of the bunch, with a world map that's "only" double the size of Super Metroid's. Zero Mission and Redesign are more like 3X, and the space is used expertly. I'd estimate ~20 hours of gameplay minimum for Eris, ~40 for Redesign and Zero Mission.  And that's before you get into elaborate sequence breaks and speedrun techniques that can be performed if you're an expert on the game.

To give you a sense of the size, here's a map of the original game:

(http://snes1990.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/map.gif)

And here's a map of Redesign:

(http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/4527/1705513-1.png)

I think it would have to be something that could be obtained and enjoyed in a traditional manner.  This appears to be crab meat.

Sweet and delicious but encased in an obstinate exoskeleton?

Exactly, plus a low yield of meat in proportion to total volume and effort.

I didn't see a 100% update did we ever hit the goal?


77.902830948% to September

We're not at 100%. Somewhere around 92ish%. Doesn't matter, design/web work is basically done. We want to seed it with content before going live, hence the December date.

Edit: I mean, I'd LOVE to hit 100%. Or even higher. That'd be rad, but I've put the time into it (and am going to put a bit more in) already.

Donation incoming.

Rad, thanks sir!

Seems the way to go these days is with a youtube channel full of video reviews.

That's the current trend, but I personally dislike video reviews of games because it's usually somebody just stream-of-consciousness blathering for fifteen minutes while they fuck around playing the game.  Written reviews are superior IMO because if they're overly wordy I can quickly skim for salient points.

Video reviews fucking blow. Period.

Anyone with a real life doesn't have 15 minutes to sit around and watch video reviews. 

There are some video reviewers that I consider good enough to sit around and watch (although usually it's in a window while I'm doing other stuff).  Namely:

1) Red Letter Media.
2) Shut Up and Sit Down.
3) Zero Punctuation.

All of those have excellent editing, which is what makes them watchable.  99% of people making videos do not have any video editing skills.

Thanks for the Shut up & Sit down recommendation. Surprised it never got mentioned in the board game thread.

I try to mention it whenever anyone mentions Tabletop, because SU&SD is an example of a GOOD board game review show whereas Tabletop is kind of painful to watch.

Geek & Sundry is everything I hate about nerd culture.

If it didn't have Felicia Day behind it, would you care?

Would anybody care?

Easy question: It wouldn't exist.

It's a completely commercial thing. While I hate video reviews of nearly anything, SUSD is one of the more watchable things (still barely watchable imo).

Meh she's just an actress who hit it big with the nerd culture niche. I don't really begrudge her that, or the guys from Big Bang, or anybody that exploits it.

That's fine but I can't take her seriously.

Thank the gods you guys outed her as not a "true" nerd.  What are bases this off of?

She's actually extremely talented as a violin player, and she's a valedictorian who went to Texas on full scholarship after turing down Julliard. She's no dummy. However, she fell into the actress trap at an early age, and after failing to get a continuing part for 6 years (other than on Buffy), she latched on to nerd culture and never let go.

Frankly she's cute enough and she plays games. The rest is just exploitation, and she's smart enough to do it. She's not talented as an actress, any more than the 1000s of people who try it, she just knows her niche. Honestly, I sort of wonder what would have happened if she stuck with classical music.

No one actually cares whether she's a nerd or not.

Edit: She's a talentless hack that is just accessible and attractive enough to market to a small subset of mildly sperged out nerds that fawn over things like Dr. Who, Wil Wheaton, Joss Whedon, and NPH. It's a class above fat kids that where backpacks in the shape of anime characters' heads.

Edit 2: Also, for the few of you here that love them some Dr. Who and Joss Whedon, there's no reason to get all DEFENSE FORCE over this, you know precisely the sort of nerd I'm talking about. The type that stands in line for 3 hours at comicon to get an autograph of a b-rate actor. The type that thinks Catan is some sort of holy grail of board gaming. the type that has a fucking phone booth hanging off their keychain. Maybe a cell phone dongle of Eliza Dushku's noggin.

Whatever, dude.  She's hot and Tabletop is like my favorite web series. And it's not just a phone booth it's a TARDIS...jfc.

Even though you think you haven't, you probably just hit a little close to home for many of the people on this forum.  :why_so_serious:

FULL DISCLOSURE:

I'm double-pissed about motherfucking Felicia Day because she and rogue's gallery of sperged out numbskulls have attached themselves to Magic. AND THEN attached themselves to Day[9], who is better than the lot of them - because Magic has no good casters and Maro has the worst fucking taste in everything in the history of the goddamn universe.

Marketing wise, probably good for the game. People-wise, the people who are about to play Magic are going to make me flip my goddamn shit.

That's an easy question. She would be a nobody in a sea of amazing talent. Instead a bunch of nerds on the internet are talking about her and debating whether or not she is one of us.

She has probably made more money doing the small recurring roles on the handful of shows that she makes appearances on than she would have made her entire life as a musician. I am sure she worries about our approval of her all the way to the bank.

No one is debating whether or not she's "one of us." There isn't an "us" to debate about. It's like, not a concept that exists.

Edit: Also, my gripe isn't even "this shit is bad." My gripe is that people think it's good. I'm OK with people liking terrible shit. I like all SORTS of terrible shit. I don't make excuses for it. Half of my blu-rays are terrible fucking movies with no redeeming value that I could watch on repeat. I like tons of shitty books and games. TONS. But I'm self-aware enough to know they blow ass. The subset of geek culture that Geek & Sundry, Tabletop, and such exists in is full of people that AREN'T self-aware enough to know those things are shitty. THAT part bothers me.

You sound a little delusional about the group you are a member of... :why_so_serious:

Schild is like the nerd equivalent of wine snob. He deludes himself to believe he has better taste than everyone else so he can look down on them.

I just made an edit to make it clear that it isn't about actual taste in things, it's about being self-aware enough to know when you like something shitty, stupid, and insipid.

After reading your edit, I agree mostly with your point of view.

I'm terrible at explaining my point of view the first time through. Terrible.

Edit: If anyone ever responded to "Why do you watch that Felicia Day shit?" with something like "I enjoy guilty pleasures that are ethereally-accessible and fuckable" I'd be like "More power to you." Instead they're all like "HUR HUR TARDIS OH GOD DON'T YOU WANT TO MEET THE DOCTOR WHO WANTS TO WATCH BATTLESTAR HURF DID YOU PICK UP THE MAGIC 2014 STARTER BOX I'M GOING TO GRAND PRIX KANSAS CITY BECAUSE FELICIA DAY IS SIGNING MY UNGLUED CARDS DURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR SLOBBER"

cross-genre rants

You do realize that's akin to the whore's defense?

I think less of her because she set aside her one true talent. That's all. And just listen to her play, she's very very good.

:awesome_for_real:

Whatever, she's kinda hot. The Guild was kind of interesting, but not good.

However, The Big Bang Theory is a fucking pox upon our houses and it needs to be fucking nuked from orbit by a Hand of motherfucking GOD. It pains me every time I have to cut someone up for even bringing that shitstain of a show up in conversation, and every time I have to pull out Ye Olde Nerdcarde to break it the fuck down for people how FAKE that show is.

Yes, I KNOW it's just a show, but for the fucking everfucking fucklove of the fuckgod's sake, that show tries SO hard to be "nerdy" it hurts me and I find that show to be personally insulting. I consider myself to be pretty fucking nerdy, but if one of my good friends somehow turned into Sheldon (whose name I had to pull from Wikipedia, TYVM) I think I would have to cut their motherfucking head off with the skeleton of a frozen trout, out of compassion.

FUCK.


PS: Sorry, I had a really bad day at work with some crazy fucking people, wasting crazy amount of my motherfucking time.  :drill:

/exhale

I've known several Sheldon-esque guys over the years. I actually find it a little uncomfortable at times when I see that show, because those were not healthy people.

It cuts close enough to the bone to be relatable at times to people's perception of nerd culture, which is where the money is. They get to comfortably laugh at nerds from the comfort of a couch.

Big Bang Theory is just Friends in modern clothing. It's actually one of the least offensive things I've seen on TV in years. Also, Kaley Cuoco is so smoking hot I don't even know how someone could be more angry at Big Bang Theory than they are at Felicia Day and her crew of nerdsploitive jackasses.

Felicia Day isn't like, on real TV; Big Bang Theory is. I knew she'd done The Guild but I don't think I've seen her in anything else.

Haha. Only f13 can turn a donation drive re-design think tank thread into a conversation about nerd-sploitation culture; while simultaneously nerd-boner-ing out over whether or not some lanky semi-sexy pseudo nerd is fuckable.

You guys are awesome.

This has been mentioned here several times in the past and ignored. Much as it just was.

Yes, what you see on BBT is what the population as a whole thinks of folks who do silly things like drop $70 on Steam after they're 30 or who would ever drop $250 on an internet card game that isn't poker. The HERF BLERF scorn Schild just rained down on those guys with Tardis keychains is the same sort of Blurf the rest of the population looks at anyone in this very large umbrella. Including Felicia Day. Deal with it.

I'm laughing really hard because I know a bunch of people like this who I have to struggle not to make fun of on a daily basis.

To be fair, I personally don't care if the rest of the world puts me under the same umbrella. I'm just a big fan of stepping away from the people standing under the part of the umbrella that has FRAK written on it in Klingon. Or worse, Tolkien Elvish.

Does she not play anymore, or just not make a living doing it?  While it's important to do work you love, working on the thing you love most is a way to kill the magic.

She stopped playing for the most part and only picked it back up after about 7 years off. I think she burned out on it because it was so much a part of her drive to college.

How about "because there is a limited offering of material that cover the subject matter", I think we have all been exposed to "real life" ridiculous guild drama before, the show + personal gaming experiences is what made it work (ie the show really can't stand on it's own).  Sort of like the old ImaNewbie comics with UO, it wasn't some great work of literature for the masses but read in conjunction with your own personal experiences with the game it was gold.

Actually, no, not "only f13" can do this, nearly any group of spergy nerds on the Internet can dig themselves a nice deep hole full of self-righteous froth over 'fake gamer girls' and objectification.


There is maybe no more cutthroat thing you can get into than professional symphonic music. Imagine the young star QB who has to wait for the prior star QB to slow down before he can take his job, only instead of it happening when the prior star is in his mid 30s, you have to wait for him to die of old age. It's a brutally competitive world, auditions are murderously stressful, you have to put everything else in your life on hold just to practice enough to get there, you don't get to pick where you live, and I can't blame anyone even a little bit for burning out on it; I've been near enough to it to know.

Wait, are we actually debating this?

I mean, I suppose one could debate her nerd credentials if you REALLY wanted to...but I mean, really -

She's not bad looking.

Strazos, "she's not bad-looking" + having a penchant for geeky things is how she got the job in the first place.

I don't think anyone was calling her fake, at least I wasn't and if I did, whoops. I don't think she's fake. She just has shitty taste.

As for objectification, well, an ugly girl ain't getting that job.

I don't disagree at all. However, she then chose to switch to the cutthroat world of professional acting where she has little to no talent. While the commitment to practice isn't anywhere near as tough, the amount of competition is even more absurd. It just seemed like a simple sellout, and while I don't begrudge people selling out, it bothers me when they are actually talented in something else. It seems a waste.

Well, except she actually managed to get cast in a few things in Hollywood. I say this not having heard her play, but everyone has their ceiling; it's entirely possible that she was just not quite good enough to have much of a shot at a real orchestra job, while still being good enough to get that full ride and make people outside that rarefied world go 'wow, you're really good!' There are tiers below major orchestras, of course, but for some people it can be hard to accept topping out at the musical equvalent of AAA ball and having to make your living on lessons, etc.

I was too lazy to find my ceiling, so you can save your non-respect for me instead.  :grin:

Judge not, lest ye be Judged.

I'm completely failing to understand how people in the group mentioned in the first quote are any worse than mildly sperged out nerds who are concerned about Internet celebrities attaching themselves to Magic the Gathering or Starcraft 2 commentators.

 :roll:

Get serious, you want to trot that out in defense of Felicia Day?

When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.

Oh please.

She's really not that cute.  I don't see what the fuss is about.   :oh_i_see:

What the fuck am I reading?

I don't know, Yeg.  I googled Felicia Day and I STILL don't know who she is. 

(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp4koem6dR1qi60odo1_500.gif)

I rather like The Guild, I watch Tabletalk if its a game I'm interested in and if the book is really tacky or interesting looking, I'll toss Vaginal Fantasy on in the background. I guess I think of it like I do Dr. Who. I like it fine, but I can't see why people get all exercised either way over it.

So what does Felica Day have to do with the redesign?  Is she going to be on our background images?

Yes. Every goddamn page.

I'm okay with that :awesome_for_real:

Finally, we can apply the Ginger Pubes Template.

TLDR: Some people say: Unless you're like me you can't be a nerd/geek, doubly so if you're attractive and a public figure. Also Paelos demonstrates even more ignorance about how easy it is to make a living being 'creative'.

I'm looking forward to the redesign.

You've trolled better than that before. C+ effort at best.

I was being serious. Though Ingmar already went through the reasons so I just had the cheap shot left to me. :(

I guess I could add that acting, while no less cutthroat, is much larger, and doesn't require you to be 'good' (a stupid term - as entertaining isn't just determined by believability) at it to get ahead. You might not think she is a great actress, but she's certainly managed to do a decent job so far. Even if we think it's crap.

Also maybe she just doesn't love playing music enough to make it a career. Lots of people are good at stuff which they don't necessarily want to spend their life doing. She certainly seems to have been very motivated in pursuing an acting career.

All that needs to be said is, as an actress you've heard of her.  As a musician you never would have.  Therefore she found a career she was more successful at, no matter your opinion of her ability at either.

If you measure success with the financial yardstick.

That's because I'm much more interested in MMOs than classical music.

Anyone who is going to measure success by 'what a few nerds on the web think' is doomed from the start. I doubt she has much money, but that doesn't mean she doesn't life her life!

She went in to acting, she's measuring "success" by finances and name-recognition.  Therefore, more successful.

Well, this thread sure got interesting. I guess the good news is that it reminded me to catch up on Zero Punctuation, and I'm going to look at Shut Up Sit Down as well. I don't mind the odd episode of Tabletop, but more so I can see how the games actually play, mechanically. Wheaton is okay, but Felecia herself does a bit too much of the "I'm a girl!" eyelid-battling, so she tends to annoy me. As for how legit her gamer-cred is though, it makes me laugh and think of Aisha Tyler's Gamer Manifesto, or whatever the fuck it's called.

I don't think anyone in this thread questioned her "gamer cred" -- I think we're all smart enough to know there's no such thing.  It's the "I'm a girl!" that grates on some, as it does on you.

I really don't care all that much about Felicia Day beside her red hair and my redhead fetish, but generally Nerd culture should be about inclusion, not exclusion.

Why does anybody give a fuck who calls himself a nerd. Do we really need purity tests? People spend money on dumb shit all the time, especially here. She is just one more outlet to spend that money on, shes that "cute girl next door" gone internet. If its a big surprise to you that works, you don't know all that much about heterosexual human males.

Personally I rather give my money to Schild on the promise he'll never sleep with me, but thats just me.  :awesome_for_real:

From the academic side of things BBT seems pretty accurate to me  :awesome_for_real:

Also, I love that show, but not as much as I loved scrubs, not even close.

I hear this exact sentence quite a lot, and every time I wonder if the person has ever actually met any nerds.   :awesome_for_real:

Including somebody so that you can make fun of their even weirder hobby is inclusion nontheless!  :grin:

'[subculture] should be about inclusion!'

"Except for those people who like [variation of subculture]. Fuck those guys."

A nice conceit, but I can't think of any nerd topic that's ever sustained an inclusive culture. All I ever see is that the first period is when the rules for being considered <nerd of topic X>, everyone's invited. But once there's rules, it becomes like any other stupid religion or political party, with made up shit specifically intended to let the masters continue their dominance and using exclusionary tactics to keep out the non conformists.

I try not to take most things too seriously though, because especially nerd culture stuff, it's all made up shit. All of it isn't worth anywhere near the angst some people put into them, especially when that effort generally links in some way to exclusionary practices.

You guys keep using 'nerd' when you mean 'geek'. I've started interacting a lot more with the San Francisco techie/burner/maker community a lot more in the last couple of years, and they're gloriously 'nerdy' in every sense you can possibly imagine -- Ph.Ds in theoretical physics or neurolinguistics or whateverthefuck in spades -- and yet also gloriously inclusive in every sense (gender, LGBT, socioeconomics, fame/status hierarchies, you name it).

It's only when you move from "my claim to fame is building prototype UUVs for humanitarian relief missions" to "my claim to fame is a series of very angrily argued message board posts about Firefly" that you get the lack of inclusivity many people are noting here.

Being geeky is fine, it's wonderful even, so long as you can layer it as gravy on top of an otherwise happy and functional life. But geeks who aren't nerds or something else first and foremost, who are all about geekiness as their main thing tend to be The Worst. Because someone who's first and foremost a geek tends to be someone who hasn't done much with their lives, and as people who haven't done much with their lives age, they tend to be all about whinging about others as their primary form of identity-construction.

So, sup with the redesign?

I had shit that had to get done on Sunday, had planned to wrap things up then. Pushed it to tomorrow-ish. I want to dig into the rest of it this week. Including titles.

That inclusiveness you're experiencing has a lot more to do with San Francisco than it does with nerds, geeks, dorks, or whatever. You don't have to look very far to find examples of Ph. Ds excluding and/or harrassing women at conferences, etc.

People can obsess about nerdy TV shows and still be open friendly nice people. Stop making stupid generalizations.

Also: I'm sure there are heaps of arseholes in SF too.

Way too busy thinking about the impact Fudge will have this season.

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/40386/Macros/whyunowork.gif)

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/82533/headbongos.gif)

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/85916/orange_tux_dance.gif)

(http://images.uncyclomedia.co/uncyclopedia/en/4/49/Schwartz.gif)

(http://i.imgur.com/07QhQpl.gif)

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11780032/gifs/howisalad.gif)

(http://i.imgur.com/ZZWGy.gif)

(http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/nazi-Germany.gif)

To update you all, new frontpage is completely done. Just working on content now.

Titles are in progress, like last time, they'll hopefully all pop up in a chunk. :drill:

Not related to the redesign, but did I just never notice before that the buttons to remove or lock a thread are present in threads I started or is that some sort of recent error or something?

It's schild fucking up the permissions for the new Hex group. Fortunately it only applied to the threads you created.

I've had that for a while. Scares the heck out of me whenever I notice.

haha i'm the worst

People are going to start seeing their new titles appear tonight!

So this is what having a front page feels like.

yea its weird i know

we're going to keep adding shit soon, I just didn't want to start fucking with too much in case stuff broke

Looks good. None of the pictures work in the reviews / donate / etc. pages. But you probably know this.

Typo on the about page, "Behind it you can donate an individual amount of sign up for a small monthly donation."

Hope to see more content on a regular basis. Are foozles allowed to submit reviews for approval?

I like that the content is responsive unfortunately the banner doesn't have a mobile version and the navigation completely disappears in the mobile view:


This should probably be the very first thing you would want to fix....

edit - I am curious are the articles going to eventually go on forever like some gamer version of pinterest or is there going to be a max # displayed per page?  Personally I think hitting people with 16 or so on the initial page load then doing the twitter infinite scroll ajax thing would be pretty cool.

edit2 - Stay away revealing critical information on hover, this is not friendly with touch screen devices at all and is completely at odds with the path of responsive mobile content niceness you had going on.  As it is now on a phone or tablet you need to actually go to each article (aka click on the pretty picture with no words) to see what it is about.  The hover to see description thing needs to go asap.

Image problem is a remnant of moving the CMS shit. It worked on the test site, it'll get fixed.

People can submit stuff, but staff will informally vote on the game.


It'll be paginated, I have a personal disdain for infinite scroll when you hit the bottom of the page. I don't even like it in RES for Reddit. I'll probably have to work up something completely different for mobile devices. The responsive bits was a pile of ass. Optimizing for mobile on our frontpage isn't exactly a high priority because, you know, we don't actually make any real money off this shit.

Edit: The "critical information" you mentioned works on my Note II, you just don't lift your finger when you touch it. But, again, blehhhhh. Mobile devices. Like IE only more obnoxious.

Nice.

Fixed.

Yay. forums.f13.net finally goes to the forum homepage again!

I like it. Any chance of adding info about which platforms the reviewed games are available on, though?

We're in the future now!

Something up with the forum cookies? I have to log in every time I come here now, even when I set the session length to "Forever."

Delete your forums.f13.net cookies and try it again. Or use a different browser.

Having same issue that Haemish is having on Firefox, Chrome and iPad (opera).  Deleted cookies on Firefox, no change.  Had never logged in here with chrome, same issue.

Will there be a new forum theme? Or is this just the site proper?

I've had no cookie issues. Weird.

Really weird. Because this time I didn't bother logging in with Opera, I just clicked into this thread and now I'm logged in.  So maybe just the first page isn't picking up the cookie.  (And by that I mean either first page hit in a session, or forum.f13.net, not sure which. Or either. Sorry, not very helpful)

No new forum theme. We're stuck on this one forever and ever :awesome_for_real:

Tiny typo in the Spec Ops review: "It feels more accurate to say that it is a good thing that is a game" should probably be "It feels more accurate to say that it is a good thing that this is a game."

Otherwise: looking good!

Does this mean I now have to read the front page?

It does, doesn't it.

I typed it right.   :awesome_for_real:

I like the front page. I'm not sure about these titles promises  :awesome_for_real:

I click any of the forums from the home page and I'm logged in. It seems the cookie is just not reading on the home page of the forums alone.

I really like the new front page. It's nice to have a reason to visit it again, well done folks!

Also, looks fine on my Nexus 7.

Did something change about the signup process? Seems like spammers are getting through at a much higher rate lately.

Nope.

I like the front page. I look forward to more stuff on there as we go.

I also look forward to titles emerging.

As of Sunday, I'll have all my stuff moved and the old apartment locked and done with and be back with a completely solid couple days to tear through them. I have a notepad list running like last time but I like dumping them all in at once.

 :yahoo:

Are the forums going to be redesigned at some point?

Now that Hex out? Nope.

lol

I mean, the responsible thing would be to update them but theres no telling how much theme work would need to be done.

Also: Finished unpacking major boxes. Have a few hours of shit left to clean up and have some stuff being delivered tomorrow. Hoping to carve out a chunk of time tomorrow to work on this with a goal of getting it done thursday. Hex is not taking up my time, so lets not go and blame that.

Did you tidy it up?  The flat, not the redesigning. 

Nearly. Today was a clusterfuck. I posted about it in the Useless Conversation thread.

FOLKS, THIS IS SCHILD ON AN ACCOUNT WITH NO PMS (INSTEAD OF 4,441).

I can only decipher about half the people that donated for custom titles. Most of you put no comments in the box and didn't send me a message. Those of you who commented in the paypal thing or emailed me are being worked on RIGHT NOW.

If you donated, MESSAGE THIS ACCOUNT WITH YOUR REAL NAME SO I CAN CROSSREFERENCE IT.

I want to get everyone (that wants a title) but I don't want to reveal everyone that donated because half the fun is the discovery of the titles and figuring out where it came from.

TL;DR: Message me if you donated on the last go-round. Thanks.

Edit: Yes, I know, the plural of PM is PMS apparently. Good times, seriously though, follow the fucking directions in this post.（ಠ益ಠ)

Some folks asked where I'm coming up with titles since they got theirs. Basically, I read through nearly every single post a user has made. Which is why, though I've started the process, I'm only 6 names deep right now. When I say I need a chunk of time to do these, I actually mean that. I don't want it to be a shitty title. If you forgot you said something ridiculous or insane, well, your custom title will probably serve as a reminder.

In order, I look for the following:
1. Context (yes, I read the posts around posts that I like)
2. Humor (if it's not funny or interesting, fuckit, not worth a custom title)
3. Defining (how much it defines the user, or posting style, or whatever I'm feeling at that moment)

Basically, I spend wayyyyy too much fucking time doing these.

I like the tack you are taking.

It just makes things slow, and users like you with 20k posts make it a nightmare. Not in a bad way, it just takes an unbelievable amount of time. Which is why it's the first thing to get delayed when I have shit in real life to do.

Yeah I went back and read some of my posts from 2004.  :facepalm:

There's a reason I don't do politics anymore.

I figure that if your posts (and thinking) hasn't changed in nine years, there's something wrong with you.

I have gotten 5PMs, 2 from the same person and have 13 custom titles i'm working on. Surely there were more? Maybe? Comeon peoples.

Though, maybe there were only 13, a shitload of people requested no new title/no title change for those that currently had one.

Also, had more $49 donations than $50 donations, looooool

Yeah, I for one specifically denied you that dollar with a heavy heart so I can keep my Terracotta Army title. Maybe next year you should demand extra for people to keep the title. You would be rich.  :awesome_for_real:

"Title" is the thing in bold under the avatard; "Terracotta Army" is your "group".   :star:

Guess I could have given a dollar more then.  :awesome_for_real:

Brilliance.

I rather glad I'm not up for any titles then, because I honestly don't know what my posts would say about me if someone were looking for a common thread.  At least I don't have nearly as many posts to review as some of the spammers blatherers posters here.

2,000 is no small number though.. I've read through about 8,000 posts by the dancing monkey. He's currently the hold-up for six other people right now. Just going in order of donation received.

I haven't found that "right" post yet to trigger something.

I apologize in advance.

Don't apologize to me, I knew what I was in for, apologize to the other folks still waiting.

Sorry other folks waiting!

I suggest "always wrong about baseball"

You are just a big ole jerk  :why_so_serious:

This guy is prolific.

I think this belongs in the Politics forum.

I forgot to say something, but the custom titles... should be done. Should. Teleku, not sure what I'm going to do with you, the reason we ask for more for colors is because it takes *effort.* Let's talk about it some time.

Anyway, unstickied. My favorite is Bzalthek's.

Well that just demands a post to find out!

Edit: I am scared and confused.  So it's a success!

Edit2: Holy fuck, 2009.  I forgot I even said that...

Did I escape notice? Hmm.

No. You did not. You're a special case. I had something funny in the bag and then realized it wasn't quite there. I should've said "I'm done except Raph." Also, I have no clue where you're working right now.

At the moment, I am indie. Developing stuff on my own and doing consulting gigs and advising.

Oh, and something like "the only dev to put up with us for all these years" would do nicely.  :grin:

I was thinking more along the lines of, "It was only a theory."

 :drill:

You should have gone with it.  I don't think you'll top it.   :heart:

I can. And will. But it'll certainly be in that wheelhouse. I do like that Raph implied above that he makes games though. That was cute.

I thought Raph played guitar or something.

That's just a side thing. He's really a writer.

He is what they call a luminary.  Doesn't do shit, but lights the away for others.

Shenanigans. Not a thing. Even if someone managed to get that title.

He's that fish guy. He posts pictures in the aquarium thread, right?

WHAT?!? Next you are going to tell me Chief Fun Officer is not real.   :sad_panda:

The F is for Fear.

I actually LOVE "it was only a theory." Alas, that means you won't use it.

It's perfect.  I'm sure he'll use it.  It can't get any more perfecter regardless of your hairstyle. 

*Snork*

Did she go there ?  I think she went there....

Raph, this begs the question :  WHY are you still hanging around with all the abuse these fuckers heap on you ?

 :why_so_serious:

This isn't abusive. Trust me, I have seen abusive.

And of course, there is always the fish tank, guitar, and other similar threads. :)

Fish tank ?

(http://i.imgur.com/fK52uQm.jpg)
_{It was only a theory.}

I think that'd work pretty good myself.

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=19928.0

Grief avatars - a whole new level of griefing.

I've done grief avatars before. The problem is, we need to be able to lock people into avatars.

We really need a new forum (read: upgraded) so we can have badges and achievements. Would make donation drives so much fucking easier.

OMG, we have a fishtank thread. The mind boggles.

I know!  I saw it a couple of months ago and got hooked!  I'd love to have one but I think it might drive my poor little black pussy insane.

It was on page 1 too, so I'm not sure how you missed it.

Lets not discount the possibility
that im an arse.

It reminds me that I need to post new tank pics. :)

So I accidentally went to the homepage and realized the redesign actually happened.

Who knew.  Good stuff though.