Dion

Music Appreciation Thread

@Altered Tundra It's Chinese but don't let that stop you from loving the track. Next person rate:

@Altered Tundra

Tracer is Gay - the question is who cares? Bussiness does.

@Hank McCree and Hanzo just scares me because it goes full Brokeback meets Samurai and that's just a scary combination.

Hider

I'm actually just really really scared of homosexuality if you were to ask some of the forum members here.

Truth be told I think the only thing that bothers me about this entire situation is that it feels like they're using homosexuality as a parade horse to show how progressive and cool they are (seemingly) and if anything I consider that more offensive to homosexuals and bisexuals than anything. So in turn the entire thing is dependent on their intent.

MSI Laptops for gaming and other use??

So I've been thinking about buying a powerful laptop, and I was wondering if anyone had personal experience with them. I'm in the military and I'll be in need of something more portable than my gaming desktop that I currently have. I don't trust people around my belongings, and just because you may serve the country, they still are thieves and other things.. haha. Also I was wondering if it was worth it to get a SLI laptop? (Dual graphics card)

Give me some thoughts and feedback!!

@ZayZe

So, I'm an avid gamer myself and I have had experience with both desktops and laptops. Currently I'm running on a rather average Acer. Here's my specs (from the sticker, if you want the actual specs feel free to ask and I'll get them for you but they're not that impressive.)

AMD Quad-core A6-6310 ('Up to 2.4GHZ' but detection programs cite 2.0GHZ.)
AMD Radeon R4 graphics
8GB RAM
1TB HDD

Not really anything worth a tonne, but I can run some of the less intensive games (for example, CSGO runs rather well).

Here's my first advise. Don't get a laptop purely for gaming. Get a laptop for mobile working platforms, and then see if it's worth it to invest into a working laptop that might play a game or two well. As mentioned before: laptops are always, always worse than desktops. I'd rather take a desktop with slightly worse specs than a laptop with ultra specs.

Reason being that in a year I can replace the shitty specs in my desktop with ease, where as with the laptop you're investing in another laptop already because you cannot switch parts on a laptop. It's virtually impossible.

You're not looking to compare a computer against a laptop. You're looking to compare a 4000$ laptop against a 1000$ desktop in year 1, then looking to compare a new 4000$ laptop against 500$ parts in year 4, etc. It's just a shitty investment, economically.

---

Now on to part two. If you do decide to get a laptop, get an external HDD. I cannot repeat this enough but keeping your laptop tidy and neat and low-memory usage is much more important for a laptop than for a regular desktop. Use an external HDD to store your games. Preferably get a second HDD to store work related stuff or business related stuff or personal stuff. Keep the laptop as clean as you can.

That goes for desktops too, but it goes double for laptops.

---

I've never ran into problems with my laptop myself, no things like overheating, or strange things happening. So they're not unreliable. But the catch is that if a part breaks, again, you're not looking at a 800$ replacement, you're looking at 'does it fall under my warranty? No? Shit, now I have to buy a new 4000$ laptop.' simply because you cannot replace parts on a laptop. Ever. Well, you can do it, but it'd void the warranty instantly and there's a very very large chance to fuck it up. Just don't do it.

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

@Hillan are you gonna post for Ira soon ye fuck

Tracer is Gay - the question is who cares? Bussiness does.

@Keyguyperson I mean I agree with what you're saying mostly, the question I have for you is; hasn't Tumblr increasingly been fetishizing male homosexuals too?

@ClocktowerEchos I don't really care. I barely play the game, I have no connection to Tracer (tbh, think she's a tad annoying) but what is increasingly annoying to me is the way a) the agenda is being pushed where being 'socially aware' is a PR stunt and b) the way homosexuals treat this like some big victory where as in reality homosexual couples have been a thing in videogames forever, and nobody ever gave a shit.

No, they only like it now because, uh.. idk, fandom?

I am a bit curious who everyone else would have made gay though, and how that would have been any less scummy.

@BrokenPromise

I'd make Winston gay. I mean, it's a homosexual giant talking sentient gorilla, what is there not to love about that?

For a more serious homosexual character I'd probably make McCree gay, and do it from the start. A) it has that brokeback appeal, and B) give him voicelines commenting on Genji's ass in that spandex ninja suit. That'd be fucking hilarious.

Something even the 'whiny straight cishet males' could have a giggle about.

Hell probably same for Tracer - if they made it humorous and included in the game rather than some outside thing that doesn't affect the game at all (not even voicelines, for example 'Hey Tracer, your ass is looking mighty swift in that suit' 'Uhh, thanks, but I have a girlfriend, Torbjorn' or something) which made it seem like some strange agenda. I'm sure nobody would've given a shit then.

What games are you playing lately?

@Wade Wilson Just make sure to get the G2A insurance in case the key don't work.

What games are you playing lately?

@Wade Wilson Probably the only game that portrays post-apocalypse in an honest way, outside of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Try G2A - kind of a grey area but CSGO and other CS's are extremely cheap there.

Tracer is Gay - the question is who cares? Bussiness does.

@BrokenPromise Yes, I agree with more or less everything you said. The reason that this move in particular was somewhat annoying (to me) was because I strongly doubt that making a huge deal out of it is beneficial to the LGBT movement. It's like screaming 'GUYS. LOOK AT THIS CHARACTER. SHE'S GAY. HOW.. HOW UNIQUE IS THAT!!!!' and portraying homosexuals as if they're some commodity, something super special, where as in reality most homosexuals are, well, regular people.

Of course she is still a regular person (as far as we can expect that from an Overwatch hero, but she's quite normal compared to some other characters) but on the business meta-end of this all, she was portrayed as a super special character because she was gay. Which led to me making my point: if you wanted to cater to social awareness and not PR stunts, you would've made the character homosexual without the added poo-ha.

@Dannyrulx 1. Yea.

2. IDK son, Ana fits the list of being a real milf (as opposed to Mercy, who looks like a schoolboy fantasy milf). Also, I suppose pairing her and Pharah would be slightly niché. But as we know, these fandoms aren't particularly opposed to breaking taboo's like that.

Never the less, I don't feel like this particular point makes the release of her being homosexual any less screamy and pandering. Trust me from a business perspective I totally understand what they did, I just don't think it's this social awareness thing that they have portrayed it to be. Catering to shippers =/= awareness, catering to shippers = more support for your product.

3. I don't really know, they are still equally masculine, each and every one of them. And Junkrat and Roadhog most certainly do get shipped by the fandom and I can totally see why. They just match up. Which to me is even bigger proof that they didn't make this decision for the sake of LGBT awareness but simply to earn support and/or money.

Also this kind of goes against the things they did with Tracer - Tracer has a girlfriend that is not at all involved with Overwatch Program? So why can't they make someone for Soldier outside of the program? I think they didn't because male homosexuality is still a bigger no-no than female sexuality ever was or will be.

Tracer is Gay - the question is who cares? Bussiness does.

So as of the 'important' revelation that Tracer is gay, I've wondered just what the importance of the revelation is. Seems like there are angry videogame players (people who are not part of the 'fandom' but rather just play the game) who are angry that their (favorite) character is suddenly gay, but on the other hand also LGBT people who are thrilled to have representation.

Seems wonderful innit.

I think we can all agree that being mad over a character you like being gay is rather stupid since A) that character is fictional. What were you hoping for, to bone that fictional virtu-puss? And B) the artist ultimately decides what sexuality (if any) the character has. So already we can assume that those that are angry are mad for either a stupid reason, or a reason entirely different.

And that reason is, in my opinion, the same reason why LGBT people should be dissatisfied with the execution of this otherwise good thing. Cause it seems very much like the inclusion of Tracer as an LGBT character was done not to promote the values of diversity (getting along and such) nor to show of representation (that would imply the game was meant to show off all sides of society, which would be a nice argument if it weren't for the fact we have a sentient talking gorilla walking around, or the robot shooting orbs at people left and right) but rather as a business end idea implemented with a positive PR spin.

My reason for thinking along these lines is that they chose Tracer, who has acted as a flagship for Overwatch more or less since day one. So clearly, her gayness would have a large impact and (in theory) a larger reach. Now this is not really all that bad I guess, since it's entirely possible she was designed as a gay character, and then later on, the decision was made to have her be the figure head.

But consider also that the inclusion of LGBT characters was hyped up since the reveal, and with the approach being more of a hyped up game release than an actual release of information (which would've come unannounced, much like say patch notes, or a video released on their channel or something similar) it seems like Blizzard wanted to reach a large part of the community (both those that play the game and the fandom, who don't necessarily play the game.. at all) so as to make sure that everyone knew about it.

So that already seems to me like they made her gay because, well, diversity. It also made it feel slightly tacked on in the sense that the character doesn't really need a sexuality in order to function.

Her gayness won't affect her in game accuracy.
Her gayness won't affect her in game ultimate.
Her gayness won't affect her in game .. anything.

So what even is the point of going through the trouble of giving her a sexuality? I don't really see the added value here except for diversity, and the way it was done makes it seem like diversity for the sake of business PR and not for social awareness.

The fact that they opted for diversity is not good or bad in my eyes, it's the intent behind it that decides whether it is good or bad, at least in my eyes.

Like when we had that Harry Potter theatre show, and they casted a black Hermione. I don't really consider that pandering because as J.K. Rowling herself said (she was involved in casting IIRC) the woman was chosen for her acting capability, not the color of her skin.

This doesn't feel the same way.

Furthermore, I wonder why they didn't opt for other characters. Making Zarya be gay would be stereotypical and somewhat insulting, but it might've been interesting to see male characters be represented as homosexual. Why?

Because to me that would've shown a genuine support to the cause - female homosexuals do not quite face the same level of abuse as male homosexuals especially in gaming because there are just very few homosexual men in gaming, like the community itself. It'd have made a far greater (and believable) point if they made McCree gay for Genji or something.

Instead it seems to have been the case that they made a conscious decision to make the flagship woman a homosexual - her being a lesbian limited the fallout from the mostly male heterosexual in-game community (who likely don't care as much), her being a lesbian and thus gay improving the vision of the largely LGBT fandom. Or just the LGBT community in general (people not even involved in the game have probably taken notice, no?)

And to me that again signals a business decision, not a social awareness decision.

---

Now why is this an issue to begin with? I don't think the fallout from the community was big, at all. Overwatch is a gigantic game, with a gigantic community, and those few threads on Blizzards forums were hardly representative of all players (and I can say with moderate security that I am also sure a lot of them were sarcastic..) and I think most people do not actually give a fuck about the sexuality of the character (let alone are aware of it).

Now here's where I have to admit I am not sure what I think on the issue - it depends entirely on the intent and naturally I do not think Blizzard will openly admit they made their flagship character gay for business purposes. So I am left to make a judgement on what I feel were their motives.

If they honestly made her gay for social awareness - I don't really care, don't play the game enough to care, and don't have any real connection to the character, so good on Blizzard for representing homosexual characters I guess. I wish they had made a big a fuzz about Symmetra being autistic - that went largely under the radar, nobody gave a fuck about it, nobody really talked about it.

If they made her gay for business purposes, which I do believe they did, I feel like that's somewhat questionable behavior. For starters, that meant that a characters' gayness was used as a commodity to increase support of a product. Second off, it feels like forced diversity, which in turn feels fake.

And if anything the LGBT community should be upset at that if that is the case - after all, you are people, not tokens to be used as 'fun quirky characters' that you can use at your whim and will to enlarge the popularity of your product. Not that I intend to tell you how to feel - but that is more or less what it is. You are being used as a business commodity - really, you're not seen as anything other than a source of popularity to be exploited. A fandom to pander to. And if they made this decision as a business decision and you are still satisfied with their choice - congratulations, you're a bit of a cop out.

So in conclusion, you could really say that the entire discussion is more or less entirely based off of the thought of whether or not they did this as a way to show social awareness, or as a PR/business move. And if it was the former, you kind of have to question why they did it the way they did it, no? Because in the end it shouldn't matter if she is gay or not - so why parade it around like some show horse? Really makes it seem like 'look at us, we're so progressive'.

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

<Snipped quote by Buddha>

thanks cunt. was that so hard?

@Angel Eyes

actually yes since i never use discord and have no idea how it fucken works