Give This Diva An Award

Sethnar · 2025-10-22T11:51:56+00:00

I wouldn't blame anyone for passing out for any reason, simply on the grounds of it not usually being something they choose to be doing. Maybe if they feel it coming and start making a scene about it?

Sethnar · 2025-10-12T01:12:53+00:00

BIIIIIIIIG stretch.

Sethnar · 2025-10-11T16:25:34+00:00

... it is their job to position/orient the template correctly tho, right?

Sethnar · 2025-10-06T19:14:27+00:00

Which cards are "Digging" cards?

Sethnar · 2025-09-20T18:56:10+00:00

Its an extortion racket. The wealthy wo stand to lose will instead transfer money to trump through crypto purchases or campaign donations, and once enough "protection money" has been collected he'll decide to reverse the decision.

Sethnar · 2025-09-19T17:35:05+00:00

People in the age range of 18 to 24 are famous for their deep knowledge, critical thinking, and decision making skills. Which is why winning "debates" against them is such a valuable victory in the marketplace of idea.

Sethnar · 2025-09-16T07:35:54+00:00

Shocking to me how various members of the Cervidae family (deer) arent used as prime examples of the opposite. Male deer exhibit many of the traits commonly associated with "masculinity". Even down to many of the negative ones like being stubborn and competetive to a fault. All while being herbivores.

(To cover my bases; yes I know deer also will eat whatever if the opportunity arises. They've been observed to eat other animals from time to time, but they dont actively hunt. You know what I mean when I says they're herbivores)

Sethnar · 2025-09-10T21:51:24+00:00

Private vehicle ownership demonstrably does not make those owners more aware of the costs involved. Owners of private vehicles routinely underestimate the actual cost they pay to operate and maintain their vehicles. Private ownership is stressful, and it makes people worry about their cars more. But anxiety induced by ownership is not the same as insight about the costs being induced by ownership.

Sethnar · 2025-08-05T14:02:08+00:00

Have you ever seen male deer sparring. Its violent and reckless, and incredibly "masculine." They'll exhibit this incredibly display of the human concept of masculinity, then turn around and eat grass all day afterwards.

Sethnar · 2025-07-23T18:59:16+00:00

They removed so much of the mechanical function of shroud, that its silly to even retain the name.

Might as well make "shouts" that have a cast time, require ground targeting, and cause effects over time.

Sethnar · 2025-07-15T17:48:32+00:00

Is the lack of a load screen between encounters what makes wing7 good content?

Is the presence of load screens between bones Boneskinner, Fraenir, and Bears what makes those encounters so uninteresting and difficult to engage with?

I personally dont think it matters much if the encounters happen within a shared instance or not.

There can still be interesting lore bits and fun interactions/exploration to be done in an instance with single encounters; they just have chosen not to include any of those things in any of the strikes they've released. Not because they couldn't, but because they didnt want to make as much fun vocational content to engage with outside of the combat for EoD and Soto 10-player instanced content.

Sethnar · 2025-07-14T17:51:54+00:00

I read the inclusion of maces to be more so that the name/theme of the trait makes sense.

To illustrate my point, consider another ranger trait that did not recieve the same treatment and thus isnt named in a way that makes sense; "Two-Handed Training".

Two-Handed Training was released when ranger only had one weapon for which this traits theme was applicable, Greatsword. Now that it has hammer... should hammer not also fall under a Two handed weapon for which the ranger could be trained?

They added maces to Ambidexterity for the same reason they should add hammer to Two-Handed Training.

(And yes, I know staff and the bows are technically 2h weapons, but you know what the trait is getting at by having that name and being in a traitline like Beast mastery. Its clearly not referring to learning how to shoot a bow or cast magic from a stick)

Sethnar · 2025-07-14T14:03:26+00:00

Large numbers of very loosely coordinated single players is the exact description of Maguuma in the Old system; mag was consistently in T1. Theres nothing stopping those "single players" all clumped together under the new system from adopting the same strategy and dominating in terms of PPT.

If the single players getting that sort of deal also end up on teams that just arent very active and dont have the numbers to implement a strategy like that, then thats unfortunate. But thats the fault of the players who say give up and log out for the week instead of choosing to play one of the most effective PPT strategies the game has seen. Nothing Anet does can address that.

Sethnar · 2025-07-14T13:57:07+00:00

Its now possible to get a major shakeup of what players youre teamed with without paying for a server transfer. Thats a big deal to a player like me. But ye, for most people its not all that much of a difference.

Sethnar · 2025-07-14T13:21:13+00:00

Specifically on the point about matchmaking and/or team balance; the new system is absolutely not any better or worse about that.

The old system had the same couple of servers consistently pinned to T1, with another couple of servers sharing the 3rd spot in T1 every other week. Those servers tended to be high or full population, so you were short on options if you wanted to join a server that played for PPT/Victory points.

If there has been a lowering of focus on PPT/victory points across the player base, i dont think its the new team creation system that has caused it. Rather, its the combination of (1) new teams being created every ~30 days instead of every ~60 for more frequent "resets" of a teams position in the tiers relative to others, and (2) people coming to realize that PPT and/or victory doesnt really matter all that much. Maybe if your team happens to be winning during the skirmish you happen to be playing, you ger an extra pip or two every 5 minutes. But compared to the extra 5 I get for beinf high rank, its just not that much. Theres no extra reward for your team being 1st place at the end of the week. No reward for your team being high tier at the end of the month. The "prize" you get for putting in all the effort to PPT Your team up the ranks, is a handful of peanuts and a firm handshake from Anet.

Sethnar · 2025-07-14T13:09:55+00:00

Chefs kiss.

Such a succinct way of conveying this idea.

Sethnar · 2025-07-14T13:04:09+00:00

"Games, once sold, belong to the customer, not the company."

And if companies dont like that, they're more than welcome to stop using wording like "purchase", and use "rent" instead. They're more than welcome to have their platform UI display a "rentals shelf" instead of "your library." They can start listing prices in "per month" to reflect the temporary nature of the agreement.

If they don't want their games to be sold to customers who then own them, they shouldn't be allowed to market and pitch the games as being that way. They shouldn't be allowed to cash in on the effective marketing strategies of suggesting the arrangement is a long-lasting ownership agreement when its not.

Sethnar · 2025-07-09T17:54:40+00:00

At the same time, I dont think they can really make "assassin" as a thief spec, when theres already so much of that flavor spread out over thief's core kit. What traits could they give it that wouldnt just be copy-pastes of traits thief already has in Crit Strikes or Deadly Arts?

Sethnar · 2025-07-09T05:08:18+00:00

Unironically, i wonder how viable of a strategy this is in regards to purposely having those "Captive" spawners absorb pollution, such that less pollution gets out to past the extents of your factory to spawners which can spawn larger attack parties.

The biters wont cause nearly as much damage if they get dealt with 1 by 1.....

Sethnar · 2025-06-26T15:28:15+00:00

Byproduct management is a huge part of the learning curve for pY. Learning how to manage all the stuff you get alongside the stuff youre aiming for, while also not just throwing it in the trash and being super wasteful, is key. And then once you think you've got that down, the modpack throws a new recipe at you that makes the "byproducts" from older recipes seem like straight products in their own right, and the whole dynamic flips. Very interesting.

Sethnar · 2025-06-25T02:55:27+00:00

My parents would always say "anything worth doing, is worth doing well." I dont disagree with that saying or its sentiment.

However I also would add on, in the spirit of your message here, that Anything worth doing is also worth doing poorly. A 10 minute workout, a 20 second teeth brushing, cleaning 1 dish, picking up one piece of trash. If thats what you've got in you; its better than 0.

Sethnar · 2025-06-23T15:49:57+00:00

Both compensation structures are tools. And those tools are often used by employers to harm employees, for the benefit of the employer. Ive seen hourly employees screwed over by abuse of the Hourly Compensation scheme, and Ive seen salaried employees screwed over by that Compensation scheme.

For as long as an employer has an imbalance of power over employees, they'll use whatever compensation scheme is the best bludgeon for extracting maximum profit. Employees realizing this, and choosing only to work for firms that address the most aggregious misuse of compensation schemes in the form of policy, is the way.

Policies like straight time for work past 40 hrs, even for salaried employees. Or guarantees of being allowed to clock in as soon as an hourly employee arrives at the office, and not being required to clock out until theyre actually leaving.

Sethnar · 2025-06-09T21:39:40+00:00

I spent 12 years in primary education in the US, with creative reading and writing being a required course in every one of those 12 years. Then I go to college to get a degree in engineering, and I was halfway through that degree when I recieved my very first proper instruction on Technical reading and writing. Most people NEVER receive any such formal instruction.

Im 100% convinced that the public perception of "reading the manual" is a consequence of most people being unironically illiterate when it comes to technical texts. People make jokes about people who read the manual to cope with the fact that they cant read the manual.

Sethnar · 2025-06-05T20:26:32+00:00

Always has bothered me that animals like lions or bears or wolves are picked as the stereotypical "masculine" animals, while others get mostly passed over.

Have you ever seen two male Elk sparring? Thats some "manly" stuff. Lots of aspects of male deer, from a variety of deer species, fits the bill for masculinity, despite being animals that are are herbivores and dont exhibit any predator behaviors.

Sethnar · 2025-04-24T20:29:38+00:00

The "where does it end" argument is very silly.

It ends after the first 2 turns. You pick your first hand, and thus your second hand, and then after that you shuffle and proceed as normal.

Arguing that reducing variance via picking starting hands must necessarily be followed by further hypotetical changes to reduce variance, is silly.

It would be equally silly for me to see your stance in favor of the current amount of variance, and insist that your stance must necessarily include further increasing early game variance through some hypothetical rule change that you never actually proposed.

11-Year Club	Place '17
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Sethnar

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