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Topic: SimCity is back, gaming is dead, RIP gaming. (Read 212164 times)
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Rendakor
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Posts: 10138
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"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
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rk47
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Posts: 6236
The Patron Saint of Radicalthons
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But is it fun? 
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Colonel Sanders is back in my wallet
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Yoru
Moderator
Posts: 4615
the y master, king of bourbon
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I got into the beta and managed to play two sessions over the weekend. It's okay. I enjoyed my two one-hour sessions.
However, between the one-hour time limit and the lockdown of anything beyond the very very very early game, it's hard to say whether it'll have any legs. It's basically a nice little boutique suburbia simulator. There's a bunch of frustrating interface stuff if you're OCD about minmaxing or beautifying your cities, and the always-online crap is ridiculous.
I've got it on preorder, but I grew up as a huge SC2000 fanatic, so don't take my recommendation without a lot of salt.
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Merusk
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Posts: 27449
Badge Whore
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While the picture post is a bit ranty, banning the guy for it is excessive. Continuing the lesson that you shouldn't buy EA games, ever.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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While the picture post is a bit ranty, banning the guy for it is excessive.
I saw it as more of a 'helping a guy with his convictions' kind of thing, now he doesn't have to deal with evil drm. Because nobody gives a shit what you think. Buy it or don't; and save the panty-wringing for your little drm hate drum circle jerk.
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tgr
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Posts: 3366
Just another victim of cyber age discrimination.
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I definitely see how "give people an option to play offline, or at the very least make sure your servers can actually handle the load, or you will get bad reviews and you will lose sales" is "panty-wringing" and a "little drm hate drum circle jerk". 
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Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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Paelos
Contributor
Posts: 27075
Error 404: Title not found.
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What's the service being offered in their always online requirement? If there is no service or advantage to the consumer, it shouldn't exist, and EA should suffer the consequences of their poor decisions.
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CPA, CFO, Sports Fan, Game when I have the time
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tgr
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3366
Just another victim of cyber age discrimination.
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Well, it does supposedly have "multiplayer" and "passive interactions with other players", but I don't quite understand why the fuck I would want this as a minimum requirement in a simcity game, or why I should want to "passively interact with other players" in the first place.
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Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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Malakili
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Posts: 10596
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Well, it does supposedly have "multiplayer" and "passive interactions with other players", but I don't quite understand why the fuck I would want this as a minimum requirement in a simcity game, or why I should want to "passively interact with other players" in the first place.
Yea, you can have friends in your regions building other cities and there are elements of trading utilities and so forth, this is their "big thing" but it doesn't sound like something I want in a Sim City game. I sort of like what I see in terms of aesthetic and so forth, but I'm going to pass on this one. I can always reinstall Sim City 4 if I really get a hankering for Sim City and be perfectly happy with it.
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Merusk
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Posts: 27449
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That has some interesting possibilities, actually. My city has extra sewer/ electric capacity, let me try and sell that at a price per citizen to another city online. Real municipalities already do this, so why not virtual ones?
The problem being that real municipalities have to deal with real-world physical limitations, while random_internet_city can always just search for a guy with a lower rate. They can ignore Florence_City who demands unincorporated_townie pay a premium.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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tgr
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3366
Just another victim of cyber age discrimination.
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Don't get me wrong, I have no problems seeing the possibilities in that particular feature, I just don't think it should be mandatory, and I don't see why they can't just let people play offline if they want to play offline.
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Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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tmp
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4257
POW! Right in the Kisser!
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While the picture post is a bit ranty, banning the guy for it is excessive.
I saw it as more of a 'helping a guy with his convictions' kind of thing, now he doesn't have to deal with evil drm. Because nobody gives a shit what you think. Buy it or don't; and save the panty-wringing for your little drm hate drum circle jerk. He doesn't circle-jerk about evil DRM and how he won't play because of it. To the contrary, he says he doesn't mind it as long as they can actually keep their authentication servers up so he can play when he wants to play. Which frankly isn't too much to ask for and the ban in response is far more of a "Fuck you" kind of thing.
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Merusk
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Posts: 27449
Badge Whore
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Don't get me wrong, I have no problems seeing the possibilities in that particular feature, I just don't think it should be mandatory, and I don't see why they can't just let people play offline if they want to play offline.
Because game companies are convinced that they are losing billions per year to piracy. Don't ask me how they'll deal when people just stop buying their games altogether. Probably convince themselves that somehow the dirty Pirates are to blame the same way the RIAA did.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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Rendakor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10138
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After the tutorial, I'd tried to do the 1 hour cities but kept disconnecting so I just gave up. Between the always-online crap and the stupid Sims voices I'll probably be giving this a pass at launch.
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"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
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Yoru
Moderator
Posts: 4615
the y master, king of bourbon
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Don't get me wrong, I have no problems seeing the possibilities in that particular feature, I just don't think it should be mandatory, and I don't see why they can't just let people play offline if they want to play offline.
They have a bunch of features like the "global market" that you could lazily assert to require always-online connectivity. You can sell stuff to the world and buy stuff from the world; the latter seems somewhat important when bootstrapping a whole new region. Of course, you could always just update the prices whenever the thing got online and not lock out people with bad internet connections or business travellers laid over in airport lounges that cost £4 per hour for shitty wifi, fuck YOU Heathrow. In short, it's DRM with some strawberry lube slathered over it. The problem is that they're selling it as an Icepop and people are calling 'em on that. Stealth Edit: I'm still buying the fucker, because I have a burning need to see my childhood ruined or something.
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Ingmar
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Posts: 19280
Auto Assault Affectionado
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For me, the multiplayer connection stuff actually makes the title much more interesting. With prior Sim Cities I always just kind of staggered around directionless until I got bored and made Godzilla smash everything. Adding that other layer of interaction sounds more interesting to me.
EDIT: The idea that someone else might actually see what I make is a big part of that. Much like how Minecraft is about a thousand times better on a multiplayer server.
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« Last Edit: January 28, 2013, 02:20:18 PM by Ingmar »
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The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT. Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
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MrHat
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7432
Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
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For me, the multiplayer connection stuff actually makes the title much more interesting. With prior Sim Cities I always just kind of staggered around directionless until I got bored and made Godzilla smash everything. Adding that other layer of interaction sounds more interesting to me.
EDIT: The idea that someone else might actually see what I make is a big part of that. Much like how Minecraft is about a thousand times better on a multiplayer server.
Why couldn't they have made the multiplayer stuff asynchronous? Similar to what they had going with Spore where your creations are put online, and the game brings in that stuff. So you'd have your City shared with your friends. Your 'exports' or what not now interface easily with your friends without having to always be online.
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Numtini
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7675
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Is the online aspect integrated into the client or do you need to have the origin app running?
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If you can read this, you're on a board populated by misogynist assholes.
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Bzalthek
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Posts: 3110
"Use the Soy Sauce, Luke!" WHOM, ZASH, CLISH CLASH! "Umeboshi Kenobi!! NOOO!!!"
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For me, the multiplayer connection stuff actually makes the title much more interesting. With prior Sim Cities I always just kind of staggered around directionless until I got bored and made Godzilla smash everything. Adding that other layer of interaction sounds more interesting to me.
EDIT: The idea that someone else might actually see what I make is a big part of that. Much like how Minecraft is about a thousand times better on a multiplayer server.
Why couldn't they have made the multiplayer stuff asynchronous? Similar to what they had going with Spore where your creations are put online, and the game brings in that stuff. So you'd have your City shared with your friends. Your 'exports' or what not now interface easily with your friends without having to always be online. Nah, can't do that. Spore ended up doing pretty poorly because pirates and pirates. If the Online interaction was more heavy handed and intrusive, it would have been so much better because that's anti-pirate technology. Electrolytes. It's what plants need!
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"Pity hurricanes aren't actually caused by gays; I would take a shot in the mouth right now if it meant wiping out these chucklefucks." ~WayAbvPar
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tgr
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3366
Just another victim of cyber age discrimination.
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I find it quite funny that people are actually, unironically, still surprised by this. Some of the comments are "well great to see this video coming out a few minutes after I've bought the game" and "well, it'll pass, it won't last forever, it worked in the end with diablo". Beaten spouse syndrome, anyone? 
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Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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rk47
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6236
The Patron Saint of Radicalthons
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thanks for supporting the game guys, enjoy the day 1 server error 40. You make it all happen! those who bought this, you brought this on yourselves. i have no pity to give. 
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Colonel Sanders is back in my wallet
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Kitsune
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2406
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Given that EA for the last couple years has been blatantly putting games on the shelf that are nothing but a box with a mousetrap inside, a hole cut in it, and 'INSERT PENIS HERE ->' written beside the hole, people don't have any excuse for the result at this point.
EA is making shitty games with shitty DRM on their shitty Steam competitor and trying to con people into buying shitty RMT because 'the market demanded it'. Stop buying EA games, idiots.
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tgr
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3366
Just another victim of cyber age discrimination.
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I wonder just how long it'll take for someone to make an "offline" version of the game.
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Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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luckton
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5947
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Like Mass Effect 3, Dead Space 3, and a few other titles, I'd love to get this game. But EA is just too much these days. Such a shame :(
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"Those lights, combined with the polygamous Nazi mushrooms, will mess you up."
"Tuning me out doesn't magically change the design or implementation of said design. Though, that'd be neat if it did." -schild
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Ceryse
Terracotta Army
Posts: 879
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It somewhat amazes me the number of people who bought the game. SimCity online, brought to you by EA just screams 'FAIL' to me, as a massive SimCity fan. Gamers have no one to blame but themselves for the shitty products and services they receive, unfortunately.
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Miasma
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5283
Stopgap Measure
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Came to thread to find out whether or not to buy, question answered. I haven't been keeping up and didn't even know you have to be online. There are semi-useful reasons for blizzard pulling that with diablo and even then I wasn't happy about it.
I was pretty damn dubious about buying it just because they try to clip you for another twenty bucks to get graphics for different cities right from the start. Plus I don't like running origin.
Man I would love an up to date city sim though.
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Yegolev
Moderator
Posts: 24440
2/10 WOULD NOT INGEST
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Probably a lot of Sims crossover. Those people are just sick.
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Why am I homeless? Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question. They called it The Prayer, its answer was law Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
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koro
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2307
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Even beyond the obvious "lolqueues" problem, there's a lot about this new SimCity that just really turns me off.
There's a lot of relatively pointless simulation going on, like every single individual citizen in your city having their own daily schedule, where they leave their home, drive (or take public transportation) to work, go in to work, leave for lunch, go back, then head back home. The only practical application of this is letting you click on an individual person or vehicle and watch through a zoomed-in chase cam as it goes about its day. It's a nice novelty, but novelties wear thin, and the "daily schedule" thing can actually have some gameplay consequences.
Crime is actually reduced or stopped by a physical police presence; police cruisers leave the precinct, drive around on patrol, stop crime where they see it, and change their routine to respond to calls. That's all well and good, but when the game's AI routines fuck up, as they're known to do? You'll have a conga line of police cruisers driving in circles around a few blocks, following each other and not doing any crime preventing. As a result, crime in the rest of your city skyrockets. Plop down a new power plant or sewage treatment facility? Enjoy not having any power and those backed up sewer pipes until people get hired for the place (hiring seems to be done only after the building is built, and not during construction like nearly every real-life business does) and finally move in to start working.
You can apparently exhaust the actual city building portion after a couple of hours, and management becomes largely a non-issue not long after, if you've got even half-decent planning skills. So what do you do after?
The only other real thing is to go and try to build a Great Work. To do that, however, you need a lot of actual raw materials. Metals, consumer goods, things like that. So how do you get them? Well, you can buy them straight from manufacturers like real businesses do... but the real answer is "gather them yourself." But Great Works require so many materials that multiple cities in a region need to work together to get the stuff done.
That's cool and all, but there's a problem: Due to the level of simulation that each individual city is running, if you switch to working on another city in the region? Every other city not being actively controlled by another human player stops. Completely. No money is generated, no citizens come into your city for work, pollution they generate stops. If you're working with a few other people to build something, and one person stops and never returns? Sucks to be you, that city's locked out for good.
On top of that, due to the extremely tiny and confined nature of each city (all perfectly square, all no more than 4km²), each city in a region must specialize into something. One city mines ore and smelts it into metal, shipping it to another city with enough storage to hold it all for the Great Work. Another city drills for oil, or operates consumer electronics plants, etc.
The game turns from a goofy city planning, development, and management sim into a combat-less Anno Lite, where you're managing fucking trade deals and constructing supply chains.
The worst part is, there's some stuff the game does that I actually really like! The ability to upgrade individual buildings to increase their effectiveness or give new things they can do (like expanding a police precinct's patrol car fleet or building on an expanded jail) is pretty great and helps reduce the somewhat ridiculous amount of redundant buildings you had to build in older games. The way power, water, and sewage flows is really cool and natural, and power outages affect the places they should affect.
But ugh, it's all just such a big mess.
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tgr
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3366
Just another victim of cyber age discrimination.
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In other words, it's more or less making exactly the same mistakes as CitiesXL, except I think CitiesXL didn't stop simulation entirely.
Oh well.
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Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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Paelos
Contributor
Posts: 27075
Error 404: Title not found.
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CPA, CFO, Sports Fan, Game when I have the time
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Khaldun
Terracotta Army
Posts: 15189
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Actually, I love the idea of a SimCity built entirely on autonomous agents--that's an approach a lot of "artificial society" simulation research has been turning to and it is both interesting and fun. But the EA DRM/always-online junk is a huge barrier to this thing not sucking.
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Reg
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Posts: 5281
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I'm sure glad that I didn't get sucked into pre-ordering. I learn, ever so slowly but it happens eventually.
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tazelbain
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6603
tazelbain
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Actually, I love the idea of a SimCity built entirely on autonomous agents--that's an approach a lot of "artificial society" simulation research has been turning to and it is both interesting and fun. But the EA DRM/always-online junk is a huge barrier to this thing not sucking.
The geek in me loves this idea. The cynical gamer in me hates the idea of babysitting dumb AI.
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"Me am play gods"
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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I hope some game design expert comes in now and tells us how we don't need better AI. Because fuck you.
I could pick lint off Iolo's sweater but he'd still be walking into a corner and spinning in circles.
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