What grinds my gears!

[Stupot]

It sounds like they’ve rebranded Cheerios.

[Mandle]

It sounds like they’ve rebranded Cheerios.

Hahaha

[Danvzare]

What grinds my gears is the recently announced title for Amazon's Middle Earth series.

You know it must have taken a large committee months to settle on a name as stupid as "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."

There is no other possible explanation for such a cringe-worthy and redundant title.

Wait what... is it based on the game by Naughty Dog?
[imgzoom]https://project2612.org/thumb.php?551[/imgzoom]

By the way, it's a fun game. Although crushingly difficult. You can easily lose during the tutorial fight.

[TheFrighter]

What grinds my gears is listening that John Badham' Saturday Night Fever (1977) is a movie about the crazies of disco-music.

Obviously the disco-music is the main ingredient, but not the only one.

It's a story about the intolerances, the women's emancipation, the failure of religion and other importants arguments. A musical drama indeed.

And to spit it all, Bee Gees are not so discoful as billed.

_

[Snarky]

When people count "Ready, set……… go!" or "One… two… three…………………… go!" with an extra long pause before the go-ahead, as if the purpose of the count is to build suspense by letting you know the "go" is coming but not exactly when, instead of to help you anticipate exactly when the "go" will come.

Almost but not quite as bad is when the pauses between the count are ridiculously long, so that it becomes almost impossible to follow the rhythm with any degree of precision.

[heltenjon]

When someone asks for help in the Hints and Tips thread, but puts the entire question in Spoiler tags. Then you have no idea if this is the same place you are stuck yourself, and must risk either asking something someone else asked before, or unintentionally reading about something occurring later on in the game if you reveal the spoiler. And you don't know if you can help, either, unless you have completed the whole game.

[eri0o]

When someone asks for help in the Hints and Tips thread, but puts the entire question in Spoiler tags. Then you have no idea if this is the same place you are stuck yourself, and must risk either asking something someone else asked before, or unintentionally reading about something occurring later on in the game if you reveal the spoiler. And you don't know if you can help, either, unless you have completed the whole game.

Hahahahah I thought it was just me. 

[Blondbraid]

There are too many damn thumbnails that depict disgusting boils, skin rashes, q-tips full of earwax, and other similarly disgusting things on online websites.

Even if they are thumbnails for whatever clickbait health solutions are meant to cure those things, I still don't want to see that explicitly depicted on a giant thumbnail
when scrolling by news articles on my phone (and even AdBlock and clicking "Stop seeing this ad" hasn't kept them from popping up).

Just what kind of disgusting people come up with such abominations?

[Mandle]

When people count "Ready, set……… go!" or "One… two… three…………………… go!" with an extra long pause before the go-ahead, as if the purpose of the count is to build suspense by letting you know the "go" is coming but not exactly when, instead of to help you anticipate exactly when the "go" will come.

Almost but not quite as bad is when the pauses between the count are ridiculously long, so that it becomes almost impossible to follow the rhythm with any degree of precision.

Hahahaha! I had never thought about this before. I think I grew up with teachers who always did the pause thing and that conditioned me to do it myself. I never stopped to think that the real reason for the prompting is to get the participants reasonably prompted to start the race at the same time.

I guess we are also conditioned to do this by movies and tv shows where the pause is there to create suspense for the audience.

Like the whole "time slows down" trope just before the race starts and we see the intent faces of the runners in close up.

[Stupot]

People who whisper. It’s not cool. It doesn’t matter whether or not you are actually whispering about the other person in the room or not. If you are whispering to someone else and there’s another person in earshot, then you are a monster.

I’m not a paranoid person (usually - though I have my moments), but today two colleagues whispered something while I was going about my business. When I turned around, they looked a little shifty. Were they whispering about me? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t actually care. The fact that they whispered loud enough for me to hear that they were whispering at all is just rude.

[Mandle]

Putin. That is all.

[Reiter]

Here comes a double-billed mastodon post!

Some time ago, I wrote a piece that I did not publish before greater events made it obsolete, but I shall share its bones nonetheless for I think they are interesting.



The new Lord of the Rings thing is perfectly fine. Let us abolish the culture war.

Much have been made about the casting decisions for Amazon's recent expedition into Tolkien's works. As always, it is generally a lot of shouting and very little hearing. Frankly, while I am generally unimpressed by half-hearted measures presented as grand reforms, I have no wish nor heart to complain this time. Amazon made a big, expensive film production in 2022, that is what happened. They felt required to, as is the phrase, reflect how the world (America) actually looks like. It is no doubt for the best. It is an American production which will reflect American problems and attempt at an American solution.
It appears to be pretty well done, all together. It takes liberties, but well within reason, and the production company have not draped it in the stuffy air of righteousness and piety that can accompany such things. I do not think even Tolkien would have had much heart to complain, given the circumstances of the production. It is quite fine.

What I loathe, however, is the representation of this general shouting as a new front in the “culture war”, a most detestable phrase. One that makes culture and disagreement about culture utterly insufferable and, much worse, makes a mockery of war.

One can feel very strongly about culture and the multitudes that it contains ('Rule Britannia!' STAYS in the bloody proms and that is that!!!), but it is not war, and evoking that frightening spectre when discussing culture brings nothing but trouble and indignity. Say, if you disagree with me over the last night of the proms example above, I may believe that you are wrong, but we are not fighting, and we are most certainly not at war, and our disagreement can never be brought to the level of war. It is a very powerful incantation, and it has no use nor place if we mean to be civil and discuss a cultural matter. It is a magic that is wasted on cultural disagreements, and spoils them by raising the temperature well beyond the limits of a healthy discourse.

It is just as pointless and dangerous as declaring war on things and thoughts. Wars on drugs, poverty, terror... A powerful spell, but one that will always fail in the end. It is a frightening, thundering flood, a vast force that demands all that you have and all that you will not do. Mars will not be denied, and Mars ought not be so carelessly evoked where he does not belong.



This is what I had written, the day before the war. Mars would indeed not be denied, and now the flood has begun.

There is a lot of war-time grinding to share. From the thieves and fraudsters propping up this little tyrant to the spreading miasma of defeatism and lotus-eating, but I must start small. Such as the violence done on the innocent letter zulu.

In the Russian empire, the latin letter Z is being pressed into the service of tyranny.

It appears to have begun as an IFF procedure, for the ill-fated detachment Z during the invasion. Sprayed onto equipment to mark them as friendly forces for marauding jabos and helicopters. It has bemused the world, stencilled on the hesitantly advancing vans and lorries of a bungling army. Now, however, it appears to be germinating into a symbol of support for the war and for the tyrant.
Some who rally to the Z claim it is the symbol of Russians who are not ashamed thereof. A most peculiar banner, for in taking the symbol of heeresgruppe Z, its adopters are proudly claiming to be incompetent, brutal and cruel. If that is what one wants to be, then things such as shame and dishonour is so utterly alien as to be pointless. Their shame and pride alike thus made worthless.

However, to my mind this symbol now fulfils its original purpose â€" identification friend or foe. Those who cry zulu are certainly no friends of yours, mine, nor indeed any of the free peoples of Europe. Thee behind the Z; we are not, strictly, foes, but we are no longer friends. Living unfree liberates one from responsibility for the crimes of the dictator who asks not mind nor will, but holding the Z high is a pledge of support for this criminal war, it is agreement and ultimately culpability. It is not a matter of shame, it is a matter of war, and saying loudly that your neighbours deserves not their rights.
It is vexing because I am terribly fond of that letter. It is a good little letter, most underemployed. It has very harmonic lines. To see it reduced to a bastard child of the hooked cross to shore up the failings of a dying autocrat is infuriating. I cannot bear to see it tainted by villainy. And yet, of course, it is such a tiny little thing of a vast and soul-revolting crime, that I feel ashamed to be made so wild and heated over it.

Damn that wretched, shitty little villain. For greater and for smaller and for the puniest, like the violence done on my dear little Z. Lord knows where it will all end, and for so little. And yet, all things must end, and one would wish this ended sooner rather than later.

The Ides of March are coming. Let us wait, and let us hope.

[Mouth for war]

Putin. That is all.

I second that!!! Hate his guts!

[cat]

All game ideas seem to have been taken already 

Some time ago I was thinking about making a game where the screen is completely black and you have to navigate solely by sound effects. When I was pointed to this excellent game.

Then I thought about digging up my old game "Steamsquares" again (does anyone remember?) and giving it a complete revamp with also a new name and thought "well, Sliding Pipes would be nice!" so I googled it and there is exactly this game https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.gamees.qcpipes&gl=US (of course, I could argue that my first game version was released in 2009, but still...)

[Pax Animo]

All game ideas seem to have been taken already 

I feel the same across all arts, it's very rare to come across something unique these days.

[Snarky]

   If only I had unknown utterances
   and extraordinary verses,
   in a new language that does not pass away,
   free from repetition,
   without a verse of worn-out speech
   spoken by the ancestors!
   I shall wring my body for what is in it,
   â€" a release of all my speech.
   For what is already said can only be repeated;
   what is said once has been said;
   this is no vain boast of the ancients' speech
   that those who are later should find it good.

      â€"Khakheperraseneb the scribe, c. 1900 BCE

[cat]

Haha, so true 

[Danvzare]

All game ideas seem to have been taken already 

That's why I never try to think of anything original, but instead try to take inspiration from others.
I find it better to look at art in the same way as writing an academic paper. Find your sources and improve upon the foundations they've laid.

[Pogwizd]

All game ideas seem to have been taken already 

Yeah, I know what you mean. But this also reminds of all the horror games, both commercial and hobby ones, that are being released every day. There are literally thousands of them, and to me they all look pretty much the same. The story/dialogues often make little to no sense, whatsoever, and in all of them you walk about some dark areas with a flashlight that needs to be charged every now and again. Having watched dozens of them, I couldn’t believe how similar they are. But then despite all that, people still love them and want to play them. I think that what am trying to say is every time I dwell too long on the fact that I can’t come up with anything original, I think of the horror games. Maybe if the formula is right, it's ok to stick to it.

[Pax Animo]

All game ideas seem to have been taken already 

I think of the horror games. Maybe if the formula is right, it's ok to stick to it.

I personally believe it comes down to what's trending at the given time. Survival/horror has been trending amongst indie game players and generally within the teen gamer age bracket for quite some time. Indie devs can knock up these games pretty quick which is evident due to the sheer volume of this genre product on the market.

As devs it's going to be situational to what we want to achieve, if your looking to make an easy buck then you'll be following closely on what's trending and focus your efforts on that particular genre whether you like it or not.

As for the hobbyist dev, you're going to be focusing on what you personally want to create and allowing your inner creativity to truly flow. In my opinion this is where we're going to possibly see something unique been created.