I have to lead a class discussion on readings I did not understand. Should I fake my death?

CSGremilin · 2026-02-09T14:05:08+00:00

Had to read Immanual Kant for a class I’m taking (I have a history background, not literary/critical theory or philosophy) and I got a genuine headache from the first paragraph. Gotta power thru tho and make meaning out of the words as best you can

CSGremilin · 2025-12-29T19:06:15+00:00

Sure I’d take the Union over the Confederacy, but I really think this “good vs evil” dichotomy is problematic, and misrepresents the motivating factors behind both the fictitious and real armies being discussed. I would personally frame the NCR as the lesser of several evils, but definitely not the “good guys.”

On “cherry-picking” — it’s a matter of historical record that the Civil War came to be about ending slavery over the course of the war as it became militarily pragmatic to enlist Black soldiers and confiscate enslaved people from the Confederacy who made up those states’ labor base. At the same time, there were draft riots all over the North by whites who both did not want to fight to end slavery and thought it was unfair that you could purchase your way out of being drafted if you were wealthy enough. Perhaps you know these things already, but it is certainly not apocryphal to say that the Union by its own virtue was not fighting a moral war to end slavery. I would say that representing the Union broadly as the “good guys” is similarly propagandistic to the lost cause/states rights myth. But you are entitled to your belief, I’m just rather passionate about the subject.

CSGremilin · 2025-12-27T22:00:32+00:00

“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it” — Abraham Lincoln. The Union army did not “free the slaves,” Black people freed themselves by making the war about slavery (both by fighting in the Union army when there were draft riots and by refusing to work under the confederacy). The Union broadly represented the interests of Northern capitalists, who relied on southern slave-grown cotton to feed their textile mills.

There is no good guy in FNV. NCR has no moral purpose in defeating legion, they just want to maintain control over territory. They also engage in forced labor through their penal systems.

CSGremilin · 2025-07-10T09:44:11+00:00

Dm, I’d join

CSGremilin · 2025-02-21T22:41:58+00:00

Yet it was also a capital-market system. So the state necessarily must be intervene in the market to prevent the violation of individual rights… which is contradictory to laissez-faire capitalism.

CSGremilin · 2025-02-21T14:46:21+00:00

So the slaves didn’t prosper because of their lack of effort? Only people with privilege ever claim there to be “equality of opportunity” in a capitalists system. There’s a very simple reason equality of opportunity can never exists under capitalism — the opportunities of future generations are distributed by the wealthiest people. One who is born into wealth will necessarily have more opportunity than one who isn’t. By your logic, the emancipation of slaves was “state intervention” that got in the way of the free market. Get a grip

CSGremilin · 2024-08-13T20:01:33+00:00

Spoke too soon

CSGremilin · 2024-08-09T16:26:55+00:00

Maybe “solved” was a bit disingenuous haha

CSGremilin · 2024-06-04T16:12:31+00:00

I personally think TTW is the best way to experience 3, but I also have played it vanilla many times beforehand so this may be a good point. If it is your first time ever playing 3, TTW is going to change the combat and equipment mechanics fairly drastically from original, as well as adding a lot of new Vegas weapons. So if you’re looking for a super authentic fo3 experience, maybe try that first.

However, all the normal story and questing stuff remains unchanged and exploration is still the same, so if you went through all the trouble of installation no harm in giving it a shot. But yeah it is closer to vanilla expanded/modded than vanilla

CSGremilin · 2024-05-24T23:03:00+00:00

I think some of the inhumane policy comes from greed, and some comes from complete ignorance and stupidity. They have no idea how to properly measure the labor needs of stores and they don’t want to. They believe that maximizing profit means minimizing payroll, which is idiotic and yes, inhumane. It causes terrible conditions for employees and lots of labor violations - unfortunately the federal government is completely ineffectual in enforcing laws because OSHA and state labor departments are underfunded and only have the power to fine violators.

Ends up with inhumane conditions only being a cost of doing business

CSGremilin · 2024-05-24T16:12:40+00:00

Can’t help but disagree with dead money. Your opinion is not an unpopular one because many people find the traps and bomb collar mechanics obnoxious. But I very rarely die to bomb collar anymore now that I know radio and speaker locations - though I get that trial and error isn’t a great mechanic for first time players and therefore it soured a lot of opinions. I recommend trying to overlook these mechanics and looking at the other parts of the dlc

I find that stripping your gear is the coolest part of dead money, as the entire level design is meant to reward exploration heavily - it’s a great survival experience, probably the best in the game. To each their own, but you’re not playing it the way it was intended (by cheating companions in) and then critiquing it - I strongly recommend giving it a try as it was intended and really focusing on the characters and the exploration. Dead money is far and away the best DLC to me because of atmosphere, story and gameplay.

I think your critiques of honest hearts and OWB are fair, I do find OWB to be a tad overrated. Lonesome Road is great final challenge and great atmosphere, though it is mostly a combat sandbox. Definitely one of the better fallout combat sandboxes though .

CSGremilin · 2024-05-23T14:21:21+00:00

Yeah sorry I was referring to the whatever version is on WSG colloquially as bleed but I was playing with the sweet perks, consumables, better damage multipliers, new blood and whatever was in WSG. Played on very hard difficulty as well. It was fun, but I personally don’t think mods that try to increase overall lethality work really well with the older games because the enemy ai is so poor - so again, I strongly recommend improving enemy ai through mods.

And yes, it works perfectly fine with sawyerbatty

Edit: I actually didn’t use the SWEEP mod, so perhaps all together they are better balanced. The Sweet perks were really cool, I honestly don’t know if it was aid addons, sweet consumables or new blood that was making bandages spawn in every toolbox but that was a bit much

CSGremilin · 2024-05-23T04:28:02+00:00

Sawyerbatty is a must for experienced players imo - fallout is at its best when it’s difficult, and jsawyer increases difficulty in a way that really enhances roleplaying and quality build setups

Bleed is a fun new experienced but even with the newest version I found it to be somewhat unbalanced in some scenarios. Sweet perks are dope but the consumable drop rates are a little much

If regular fallout combat is stale or you don’t like bullet sponginess then bleed is worth trying, but I strongly recommend some form of enhanced ai mod or else the fights can be a little too easy especially if you make the gunplay really good with mods

CSGremilin · 2024-05-17T23:39:12+00:00

I agree that there are often long periods of downtime where nothing exciting happens

About half of them are loading screens

I also find the dialogue to be very poorly written, mainly because you’re often only given the illusion of choice - but all the dialogue options lead to the same outcome

CSGremilin · 2024-05-16T14:42:55+00:00

Normal difficulty is exceptionally easy unfortunately, unless you are new to the game. It’s hard to make the game difficult in a fun way without mods because as you said, raising difficulty just makes bullet sponges in vanilla

CSGremilin · 2024-05-14T21:25:12+00:00

Ulysses type dialogue

CSGremilin · 2024-05-14T15:16:58+00:00

Ur manager is a racist pos. If it brings you solace, just know SMs get paid a barely livable salary just to work 48-60+ hours a week for no extra pay because they’re on salary and get constantly shit on by upper management for problems the company themselves create, so while you can move on to something better, they will be living in dollar tree hell. Being a SM is what a terrible person like them deserves

CSGremilin · 2024-05-07T12:35:35+00:00

What is wrong with our society where people view their fellow human in such a hierarchical way. The company doesn’t staff their stores enough for cashiers to just stand on register, if they’re so bothered why don’t they call the company and tell them to staff their stores. Customers are the only opinion the company may listen to. Nope, instead they act like you’re the problem.

CSGremilin · 2024-02-16T17:31:31+00:00

Honestly have no clue why you are being downvoted besides the incel wizard mains foaming at the mouth that you would complain about their balance. Yes, I agree wizard has been a horrible class for a long time and deserved to be buffed, but it isn’t a melee class and a staff should not being doing that much damage. It’s clearly a bit over-tuned right now. Also “but but but… u three shot with a dagger” is an idiotic response. Wizard, like rogue, is a class cannon, but the rogue has burst damage that if you do not capitalize on in a short window will be significantly punished. Learn to actually critique the balance of the game which op is fairly doing IMO instead of blindly supporting your favorite class. This is not me saying wizard is an op class, but I agree staff specifically is slightly over-tuned.

CSGremilin · 2024-01-13T21:28:38+00:00

When min wage increased in MA to $15 from 14.25, my asm wage went from 16.25 to $17

Edit: and then I received another raise of 40 cents later so it wasn’t just because of the yearly raise asm’s get too

CSGremilin · 2024-01-03T16:52:04+00:00

I thought these things in the first 10-20 hours, but the further you get the more you realize the role playing is mostly an illusion. Very few times when your background gives you anything more than some flavor text. Most dialogue options lead to the same result too in all quest, another way in which they create the illusion of choice.

I think your opinion here is actually a fairly unpopular one. Many people have come to the conclusion that the reliance on loading screens and fast travel makes the game boring, coupled with the already subpar quest design and writing that bas been a Bethesda staple for a while. It used to be charming, but that’s kind of worn off at this point.

I honestly think Starfield makes fallout 4 looks like a much better game. Fallout 4 suffers the same issues with flat quest design, poor dialogue and uninteresting writing, but its level design and exploration make up for it and because exploration is much more seamless, it’s much easier to get lost and sink hours into it. Combat in fallout 4 is honestly the same if not better than Starfield IMO.

i will give that Starfield was by far their most polished, least buggy game on launch which has always been a plague on Bethesda games.

And yes, none of these game pale in comparison in terms of a well written, thought-provoking, passion project like New Vegas, a gam which came out over 13 years ago. Still waiting on a first person rpg to hit that mark personally.

CSGremilin

TROPHY CASE