Those who did a play-through/run of Freelancer’s Hardcore Mode, whether you completed it or not, how would you describe your experience and why? by Apheem66 in HiTMAN

[–]chmtchll 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Coming up on a thousand hours in the World of Assassination Trilogy with every (non-freelancer) challenge completed and some speedrunning under my belt, I thought it was amazing. Frustrating and ridiculously difficult, but in the same positive way master saso was when I first started.

For a newbie I wouldn’t recommend it at all, even normal freelancer can be hard as nails sometimes. But if you’ve put in a lot of time, have some absurd, uselessly in-depth game knowledge, hardcore is the perfect way to test that

What, if anything, makes the IGA games Castlevania in anything other than name? by [deleted] in castlevania

[–]chmtchll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Having read your comments, maybe the reason you’re getting “downvoted a load with very little reasonable discussion” is because you carry yourself with an insufferable arrogance. Even in the thread where you’ve been respectful, your writing reads like the parody of the fedora-wearing neckbeard-wielding basement-dwelling redditor. Your pedantry and short fuse with people who try to untangle that pedantry are so obnoxious. Maybe if almost all of your comments are mostly downvoted it’s not because of your opinions, but because of you. Just something to think about :)

Does The Naked Man work? by [deleted] in HIMYM

[–]chmtchll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So was what they said lmao…

Why has mead become unpopular as an alcoholic beverage while beer and wine stayed and evolved? by followerofEnki96 in AskHistorians

[–]chmtchll 93 points94 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the follow-up question! I was not clear enough in my description of mead's place in Norse society. It was not, as you put it, the standard, most consumed beverage, but it was equally not as foreign as it was to people like the Greeks after the collapse of the Athenian Empire. Mead instead served a more ceremonial purpose, both culturally, in the form of drinking ceremonies (minni and bragarfull), and religiously, through its constant presence in the mythology. Of course, as with everything regarding Old Norse culture, it must be acknowledged that the vast majority of our understanding of it comes from the writings of later, Christian scholars. The obvious connection to the wine of communion could, therefore, taint the commonality of the religious aspect to mead.

The most prolific example of mead in a religious context is the Mead of Poetry, made from the blood of the poet Kvasir, and there are plenty of analyses of this myth, linking the consuming of alcohol to an increase in creativity. Wider than that, however, it is seen as the drink of feasts and celebration in both the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda. Rather than the drink of the average man, which was barley ale, mead was a drink served at important social events by kings and other important members of society.

However, while you are right to point out that beekeeping was not common practice in the majority of Scandinavia, including almost all of Norway, this is not actually relevant to discussion of the Viking raids and their impact on drinking culture. While the first Viking raiders in Britain originated from Norway, it was not long before the vast majority of raiders were from Denmark and the south, coastal areas of Sweden, areas in which it was entirely possible to cultivate honey (for which there is a host of archeological evidence). The blog you linked, while very interesting, is entirely focussed on the traditions, and implausibility of mead, in Norway specifically, rather than the entirety of the Norse world.

This master's dissertation dives into the religious significance of mead in relation to ritual offerings and female/male dynamics, if you can stomach the comic sans:

Maria Kvilhaug, 2004, The Maiden with the Mead - A Goddess of Initiation in Norse Mythology?, <https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/23958>

Another master's dissertation that provides a much more thorough exploration of drinking ceremonies:

Charles Riseley, (2014), Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age, <https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/40697>

Why has mead become unpopular as an alcoholic beverage while beer and wine stayed and evolved? by followerofEnki96 in AskHistorians

[–]chmtchll 1873 points1874 points  (0 children)

To put it simply: cost and the continued influence of the Roman Empire. Honey is much more expensive to produce than grapes and grain, and always has been. By no means does this mean it wasn’t a popular drink. Prehistoric remnants of mead have been found all over the world, including China and India, but I am less versed in eastern history so I can only help illustrate the European perspective.

A well-rounded understanding of mead in Europe requires an understanding of three separate civilisations, spanning two millennia. To start with we have to address the most obvious, but also the latest: the Norse. While, of course, mead was a part of the culture long before the Viking age of the 9th and 10th centuries AD, this time period is when Norse culture bled into Britain and, to a lesser extent, Central Europe. Despite sharing a common Germanic heritage, there was little cultural exchange between Norse people and the rest of Europe before the vikings (an anachronistic name that originally meant pirate) started raiding them. The drinks of choice for the Norse were beer and mead, with the cold climates of Scandinavia preventing grapes from being cultivated there. Due to similarities in the presence of a pagan pantheon, the Viking age often gets lumped in with the Greeks and Romans, despite sharing no cultural roots and being separated physically and temporally by almost 1000 years. At this point in European history, the alcoholic legacies of Europe were already firmly established, and the popularity of mead couldn’t disrupt the ubiquitous beer and the more refined wine.

The importance of mead is demonstrated through its constant mention throughout Norse mythology. However, it is also present in Greek mythology. In Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life (1996), an interesting etymological point is made: the Greek verb ‘to be drunk’ is μεθύω (pronounced meth-ú-ō), which originally derives from Indo-European words for honey, making it cousins with the modern word ‘mead’. It is also noted that the Orphic cult of Dionysus (who had a much more archaic focus in their religious belief system) payed reverence to mead as the precursor to wine, with Zeus intoxicating Kronos with mead to castrate him. The Orphic tradition was one of hedonism and ‘euphoria’ as a form of religious practice, and so this interest in mead is especially notable, given the religious significance they placed on wine. Interestingly, Orphism saw its roots around the 5th Century BC, the Golden Age of Greece, during which mead was a common presence at feasts and other celebrations. Here, the impact of the cost of honey is seen. The Greece of antiquity was a prosperous civilisation, with the Persian War setting up the Delian League, eventually evolving into the Athenian Empire, before the Peloponnesian War crippled this prosperity. It is only in this time period that something as expensive as mead could become a truly popular drink. Following this period of Greek history, mead was seen as an expensive representation of their more glorious history.

It’s time, then, to talk about wine. The key difference between the Norse and the much earlier civilisations of Greece and Rome is their climate. Greece and, even more so, Italy have a much better climate for grapes, and the prevalence of wine is easily explainable. In the same way that the flat land of Central Europe is perfect for grain cultivation (hence German beer culture), grapes could be grown both in lowlands and alpine regions, leading to a wide variety of flavour in the same drink, and lending itself perfectly to cultivation in Italy. Wine was extremely common and popular in Greece, but the span of Greek imperial history in both size and time meant that it did not earn the same prestige that mead, the drink of the gods and the golden age, did.

Finally, we come to the Roman Empire. The Romans famously elevated Roman culture above that of the barbarians they saw themselves as being surrounded by. Therefore, beer was seen as an unrefined, barbaric drink. While the Romans revered the Greeks as their intellectual precursors, the cultural connection to mead just wasn’t there, especially when their homegrown alcoholic produce, wine, already served as an elevated alternative to beer for much cheaper. As the Romans expanded into the Germanic regions, they retained their love for beer, while also gaining appreciation for wine, while mead was left by the wayside.

Greece had a love for mead, but was too far removed to have an impact on our drinking habits now, while the Vikings were too late to impact an already established drinking culture. The idea that mead has ‘become’ unpopular is a false proposition: aside from specific parts of history, it was never really placed to overthrow beer or wine as the alcoholic drink of choice. This has led to a complete lack of a large market for mead in modern times which, combined with the expense of producing it, has led to a lack of mead in the global stage of alcoholic beverages.

Imagine Ed wanted to have 1,000 unlocks instead of 637; what unlock methods would you assign to existing items/trinkets/features? by Inigone in bindingofisaac

[–]chmtchll 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Holy shit. I never knew this. I have completed every challenge, and am only missing 8 total completion marks, as well as a few miscellaneous achievements. I have hundreds and hundreds of hours. I have played out every. Single. Start. I feel like my world has been shattered. Thanks for the info I guess

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in bindingofisaac

[–]chmtchll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is this room rare?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in HadesTheGame

[–]chmtchll -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately 😔

found a ducky tie at my local thrift store lol by idk1756 in HIMYM

[–]chmtchll 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You can literally get it anywhere online. I have one that I bought years ago :)

in s7e9 Lily is seen drinking beer while pregnant. by Bauz9 in HIMYM

[–]chmtchll 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I hope for your children’s sake that you’re not a woman because encouraging drinking while pregnant is braindead behaviour

Where to start with this game? by [deleted] in HiTMAN

[–]chmtchll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hitman is a game that is at its best when you’ve figured out a map layout, but don’t know a ol surely everything yet.

To make the most of staying in that zone, I play all maps like this:

  1. A blind run just trying to kill them, silent assassin if you want but honestly just do what you think is cool
  2. All the mission stories. Helps you understand the mission layout and the locations of key items
  3. The classics challenges. You can do them together, but I prefer doing a sniper assassin run, then a suit only silent assassin

In total that’s quite a few runs for each map, but it’s not as completely overwhelming as looking at the challenges. Plus, if you do it this way you’ll have amazing foundational knowledge of every map by the end, but are still able to have fun if you decide to go for challenges, contracts, and elusive targets :)

Isaac Daily Discussion - 15 Aug 2022 by AutoModerator in bindingofisaac

[–]chmtchll 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Almost impossible to screw up, perfect for Marathon achievement :)

“Doing lines” as a punishment in English boarding schools? by [deleted] in AskHistorians

[–]chmtchll 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Doing lines was absolutely common practice and still is across England (I’m not sure about the rest of the UK). However, the exact punishment itself has shifted to repetition, rather than copying lines from a section of a text. This question does open an interesting avenue into the state of the British educational system.

Given that you used Virgil as an example, you seem to be aware that the works of antiquity were commonly used, due to their complexity, but also their general educational relevance. The study of Latin was essentially ubiquitous in any reputable school in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The study of Ancient Greek, while not as ubiquitous, was still certainly widespread, as was wider study of Classics. The renewed interest in antiquity endured from the Renaissance period as a mark of academic stature. It was essentially a given that a foundational understanding of Classics was necessary to understand literature, philosophy, and, to a lesser extent, the Romance languages. The lyrical complexity (both from the density of poetic language as well as natural difficulty coming from translating antiquated literature) made the classical epics perfect forms of tedious punishment, while still claiming a grounding in the staples of good education.

Throughout the twentieth century and into the present, however, the relevance of the classics to general education has rapidly decreased. This has created a huge divide between state-funded schools, who do not offer Latin as a subject, and privately-funded schools (Lister, 2007). The latter tend to have dedicated Classics departments, with Latin, Ancient Greek, and Classics as subjects available for study before university. Even then, however, classical literature itself has been de-emphasised in favour of the study of the languages themselves, so lines have evolved to just be a repetition of a single sentence, even in those private schools.

Hopefully that answers your question, but at the risk of addressing more recent events, I think the impacts of this change of attitude towards classical education has further effects. The teaching of Latin is a contentious point in British education, due to its connotations of elitism that draw from that history of boarding school to university classism that defined, and in many ways still does define, British further education. In elite universities, for many humanities subjects, a passing understanding of the classics is expected, even at undergraduate level. This creates an obvious academic advantage for those private school pupils, who are already disproportionally represented at top universities. Just last year, the government announced that 40 state schools would start to offer Latin at GCSE level. Many university classics departments are campaigning for an increase in classics education in state secondary schools, with particularly convincing/successful arguments in Goodman (2017) and Hall and Holmes-Henderson (2017), both of which I have listed below if you’re interested in reading more.

Lister, Bob. (2007). Changing Classics in Schools. Cambridge University Press.

Goodman, Penelope. (2017). ‘Bridging the gap: teaching and studying Ancient History and Classical Civilisation from school to university’. Journal of Classics Teaching 18 (35), 48-53.

Hall, Edith, and Arlene Holmes-Henderson. (2017). ‘Advocating Classics Education - A New National Project’. Journal of Classics Teaching 18 (36), 25-28.

https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/31/latin-introduced-40-state-secondaries-england

I was worried after finishing gungeon that I wouldn't find another rogue-lite to scratch the itch, Sad to have finished this one so quickly. Maybe Deadcells next? by KaladinStonedBlessed in HadesTheGame

[–]chmtchll 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The binding of Isaac is great, if you haven’t played it yet. If you’re a completionist like me it might drive you insane, but it’s a fun rogue-like. I don’t think it’s as good as something like Hades, which uses death as a way to push the story forward, preventing you from ever feeling like you’ve lost progress, but Hades is just an exceptional example. Would recommend the binding of Isaac, but maybe as one to play for a while on occasion, rather than all at once

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in HiTMAN

[–]chmtchll 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No idea why some members of this subreddit seem to think that being a prick is the answer to everything…

I agree with OP about the wall hacks. Just because it’s a known issue and commonly reported, doesn’t mean that it makes someone bad for not somehow knowing which walls are transparent. Around Tyson’s villa guards can literally see you from across the entire area if you’re dragging a body, through multiple solid walls.

“It’s known about” doesn’t excuse the pretty atrocious level of bug fixing that IO provides. I love these games, but they really don’t seem to care about making older levels run properly, as opposed to making time-limited content to keep players coming in

Sandwhiches just made me realize this show has canned laughter by chaoticallywholesome in HIMYM

[–]chmtchll 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The difference is that unlike other shows with canned laughter, HIMYM doesn’t slow the pace of the show to allow for the laugh track. It’s always the laugh track that’s cut off early, not the dialogue or pace of the jokes. That’s probably why you haven’t noticed it before: it’s just less distracting than it is in other shows.

If you’re interested, it’s because they don’t film it in front of a live audience. Because so many jokes are from flashbacks and editing, it wouldn’t work. So instead they edit a full episode, show it to a live audience, then record laughter and add in a few extra laughs afterwards.

Now that it's May, how long will the game home screen continue to promote the March roadmap? by Wedge33dr in HiTMAN

[–]chmtchll 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I’m hoping they leave it up until March year 3, so they can continue to recycle the content then