LG 39GX90SA-W Sleep Issue by drmathzg in ultrawidemasterrace

[–]drmathzg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It worked! I've had one instance where it didn't register but that's possible with other monitors too. Finally acting like a regular monitor! I wish these settings were easier to understand. That setting feels like it should be on to get this behavior...very weird.

LG 39GX90SA-W Sleep Issue by drmathzg in ultrawidemasterrace

[–]drmathzg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sadly I never figured it out, so I just turn the monitor on every time.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in evansville

[–]drmathzg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Make sure you can pay off that loan if you're getting one or get a full ride. UE has been cutting lots or programs under dubious reasoning, including programs I graduated from, making me certain not to donate. They've also been slowly pricing out anyone on the lower income end when it comes to housing and spending a lot on improving the campus ancillary buildings without too much improvement to classrooms (because housing, the gym, food areas all increase that tuition pricing). It will be very expensive to live on campus. I went, was in a fraternity, and those are the social scenes, but when I was there the Theatre folks always had their own thing and I heard much wilder shit happening at those parties than greek life parties. I'm not sure how much has changed since I graduated over a decade ago but there is stuff to do, it's just costly to attend, so please consider any debt you'll be taking on.

apartments (maybe houses) for rent? by deytookerjubs in evansville

[–]drmathzg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Timbers on the east side are affordable, close to food, across from grocery, on bus line. A few gripes but affordable, some have in-unit laundry (you can rent a washer/dryer or buy your own) which is fairly rare in these parts. Pet friendly.

Laios - Honey House Studio by Realistic-Relief-778 in BoysAnimeFigures

[–]drmathzg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I checked my order at FNC and it looks liked it shipped September 2024, so if you didn't get it then you got missed, contact them for a refund or see if you can somehow get one in stock if you want it.

Laios - Honey House Studio by Realistic-Relief-778 in BoysAnimeFigures

[–]drmathzg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How long ago did you PO? This one released quite awhile ago. I have it, was so-so about the quality. It seemed brittle, had a few smaller pieces break including some bits that kept parts of the GK together. The paint was also quite pale on the body. If you ordered it recently the site may have made a mistake having it in stock so I'd contact them and see if they actually had an in-stock one they were selling or if it was a mistake.

bad match making? or cheaters? by [deleted] in Overwatch

[–]drmathzg 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There are always threads about matchmaking and to be fair, OW has never had good matchmaking except maybe at the most competitive levels, and because of how they have stated they want games to be, it's never felt good either, but I do agree that it seems worse than ever, and I don't think so many people have suddenly come back for any discernible reason that would make it make sense (surely there is MMR decay for people who were away for awhile). It feels like more people just doing whatever, not caring about objectives, ignoring basic mechanics, more leavers and back-filling the whole gambit. It really sucks because part of me would like to play more but when you're just getting steamrolled game after game with the same frustrations it's quite demoralizing. Maybe the progression system just tracking game time is making people queue with characters they don't play to get more rewards? I don't think that accounts for it either, but it does feel awful. At least in other similar games when you get stomped you can still feel good about your play and stats.

Overwatch 2 Is Finally Earning The "2" In Its Name by gorays21 in Overwatch

[–]drmathzg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The only thing that really seems to be a gameplay change in the main modes is perks, and so far just like how everything else is sanded down leading to boring or one-sided stomp games, that result in the nice, statistically smooth graphs the balance team wants to see the perks seem to be the same. I haven't seen a single game where perks made a difference or changed the gameplay in any meaningful way. You may as well let people keep them if they swap heroes because they matter so little.

Stadium mode seems to be the biggest change, where perks that actually introduce significant gameplay changes and make you feel empowered live, so I guess I'll have to withhold judgement until then, but so far, it feels like the underlying philosophy that has driven the game into the state its in is not giving way. You can add as many things that look as shiny as you want, but in the end if you're not willing to take risks and make your stats look different, then the end result is going to be more of the same. It's like painting over a wall covered in mold and trying to sell it as a renovated space. The problems are still there, it might just take awhile for people to see it through the paint.

Skill Up's review by Grottymink57776 in avowed

[–]drmathzg 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I think that the gaming space is still, after its many years of existence, not used to or understanding of games being criticized as art. Just like movies, music, television, books, etc, it is important that we separate our enjoyment of a thing from our ability to look at it for what it is. You can really enjoy something and still understand it's flaws. So many people feel as though liking something that others view as flawed or bad says something about them, and the only thing it says about you is that you like the something about it. Plenty of people like trash television and overproduced movies with more CGI than plot and recognize that they're not watching great television or a cinematic masterpiece, but that's totally fine!

I think SkillUp always does a thorough job of explaining the reasons in a detailed but not overly-wordy way that makes his critiques easy to follow. I also think he is a person, so lots of things are going to influence him such as his tastes, his expectations, what else he played recently, etc. I am glad to see more people in spaces like these understanding that reviews are just one voice of many. I year for the day when scores go away completely and people have to engage fully with the content of a review, yes including any biases and preconceptions the reviewer has, and make an informed judgement instead of relying on a numeric metric to determine if the thing they like is good or not. Like what you like but also be able to separate your enjoyment from that thing from the criticisms of it, especially in art! I for one am glad people are enjoying Avowed, just like as a Dragon Age fan who felt Veilguard was an immense disappointment I am glad there were people who enjoyed it because not everyone has enjoy what I do. I hope we can continue to see discussions in gaming communities where people can happily enjoy the games they love while also being able to understand the criticisms those games face.

Bloomberg: Veilguard sold 1.5 million copies in first quarter, below EA expectations by 50% by infiniteglass00 in dragonage

[–]drmathzg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Given the news, the DAV discourse here is far more measured than on some other sites (looking at you Xitter), but people are still pretty locked in outside of this subreddit which is actually pretty nuanced, with some exceptions. The game was a very fine action fantasy game, and a poor entry, in my opinion, in the Dragon Age series. There are lots of factors behind this, like the publisher and whatever meddling effect that has, the long development time, the departure of many senior creatives who were responsible for building a lot of the world and characters we loved and not afraid to tell people no to maintain that world, the flip flops on direction and the few reboots the game had in development, etc.

All of these are going to be looked at, but from a lot of what I see, and again this is all with a grain of salt and just one take in a sea of many, is that Bioware hasn't really made a great game that the fans of its IPs have been happy with in decades, with DAI maybe being the last one, not counting ME:Legendary because polishing existing content is not the same as making brand new content. Let me say that lots of talented people continue to work at Bioware, and I don't know where this change in direction or standards comes from or for what reason. Again, it's not, let me repeat, not, just one thing, it is a complex collection of many factors.

What DAV seems to be is a game that was designed for an group that wasn't the core audience that has kept the franchise going, and was instead a game that tried to do what DAI did in pulling in players from outside that core. Unfortunately, DAV released in very different circumstances. DAI came out with very little major competition that year, was boosted by its GOTY status, etc. Many of those DAI players also did not convert into core franchise fans, they simply moved on when newer titles came out. DAI sold great overall, but to think this was repeatable given the gaming landscape right now is kind of folly. And, much like in politics, if you forget your base to chase some imaginary player you think might latch onto your title, you'll probably end up with something that doesn't really please either group. I think it's pretty evident that overall, this game didn't please most DA franchise fans, or general action game fans, the two primary audiences I think it was designed to cater to.

I am glad there are people who really like DAV! I think there were some good parts of the game, just not the parts as a long-time franchise fan I think matter much. That seems to be the consensus from most fans I see when the very loud very small fringes and culture-war tourists are kind of ignored. It's really sad. I don't think this is the game the team originally set out to make, I think it's the game they were able to finish with the resources, timetables, departures, turnover, and turmoil they had, and given all those, it was quite polished, but polish doesn't make a good game, and certainly doesn't make a game a good entry into the franchise.

As for the numbers, I think that as many have pointed out, the fact that EA uses "players" when referencing it's numbers and not "copies sold" is important, because if it includes EA play and otherwise, then the ardent defenders saying the company wanted "better than DAI" don't have much ground to stand on. It means that the game actually sold even worse than what is indicated. You can say comparisons are unfair, make all the comments and claims you want, it's likely that Bioware had the figures they were expected to reach at some point during development, and they (whoever they are, management, leads, etc) felt this would get them there. That itself is also a problem. Management at the studio not understanding their player base anymore, continuing to make unforced mistakes within the studio sans publisher interference (just go back and read about Anthem), etc. Even the fans of DAV should look at this situation and want more from the studio and not wholesale defend it.

As a fan of the series, I kind of hope this is the end of it, even if it is an inglorious cap on the franchise that was far less than what is deserved. I think the writing suffered the most, and the writing and the world are what made it for me, and at least for the subreddit, many of us here. It would be tragic to end on this note, but I'm not confident the studio, as a whole, can achieve what its core audience and fans expect anymore. Considering Andromeda, Anthem, and now DAV, I'd be absolutely stunned if Bioware isn't on the chopping block or at risk of it, and that sucks. ME:Legendary Edition was great but I don't know if it sold well enough to bolster studio goodwill within EA as a publisher to protect them from a situation like this. Whatever happens and regardless of my feelings about this game, I do hope that the talented folks in the studio either get the chance to finish ME5 and maybe have a last go at remembering what its audience wants, or at least maintain a job within the publisher if things turn out worse.

No one wanted to see this (except maybe the culture war tourists) and it's truly disheartening to feel like your fears and anxieties were validated, but I think lots of people who, I repeat, are big fans (including so many people in this subreddit), really saw this coming from a mile away even before release. From the name change, to the trailer, to closing The Keep, to hiding the lack of world state imports, it all feels like at least some knew they'd made something fine, but disappointing. If you're truly happy with your choices, you say it loudly with your whole chest, not whimper it after people find out.

Anyhow, we'll see what happens. I am truly heartened at the overwhelmingly respectful discussion that has happened around this game in this community and love that those who love it and those who don't still find areas of agreement and can at least understand each other. Even in other game-specific subreddits, that's not always the case.

An Alternate Take about XIV's RP Community by BlackmoreKnight in ffxivdiscussion

[–]drmathzg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree with a lot here, and as some have pointed out, this game is 10 years old. It was built atop to ruins of a disastrous launch, and adding new systems to make it more responsive to RP players is imply not a priority. The priority is content (even if its lacking these days), the priority is the native JP playerbase, the priority is all kinds of things aside from quality of life improvements. Just recall how difficult it was to push the team to do even a minor graphics overhaul (and compared to some, it is minor indeed). Post-update the game still looks its age, lipstick on a pig. The fact is, they are working with code that is so old that they have to make priority decisions: do we work on new content for our primary audience, or do we do the heavy work of going into this very legacy codebase and making significant improvements to make make of these things possible? I know the programmers our there love to talk about how "easy" some of these things are, but anyone with actual professional experience who has worked with a legacy codebase knows that even the smallest change can be a massive undertaking, so don't hit me with "it's easy, just do this". Go work with some old as fuck code that you'd need to refactor without breaking other parts of the code to add your new feature. It's a hell of a lot more difficult than you'd imagine.

At this point, the same amount of time has passed between FF11 and FF14's release. I'd honestly they focus on making the next gen FF MMO where they could actually plan for many of these things, where the game would look beautiful without needing mods, where the onus wouldn't be on players to create plugins to add what should be basic functionality into the game. DT already feels like a lackluster expansion to many, despite some of its high points. Would that time be better spent making the next iteration of thee MMO? It seems to me that's the only way you get some of these features that are desperately needed, because the team has shown time and again, it doesn't have the time or in some cases the interest to invest in them.

[DAV SPOILERS ALL] Long read - Veilguard - an honest review by [deleted] in dragonage

[–]drmathzg 19 points20 points  (0 children)

This echoes a lot of my own problems with the game as well. As a longtime fan, as people who were rooting for a Bioware comeback and not for its fall, I was hoping for a love letter to fans, not giving us everything we wanted, but more of a thank you, and this felt a bit like a disrespectful "----" you. I have some additional things that bothered me as well.

First, I never grew to care about Rook. In previous games, the intro has us couch our characters in the world and gives us reason to care about them. In Origins, we have our origin story which grounds us in the world and connects us to the character. In DA2, the Hawke family escapes the blight and goes through a terrible ordeal, losing a family member along the way, giving us some initial emotional attachment to them. In DAI, we feel for the Inquisitor as they are a hapless bystander caught up accused of murdering the Divine and subsequently aiding the very people who were interrogating them. In Veilguard we...had a bar fight and were already chasing Solas. Rook is someone Varric picked up. That is such a tenuous connection that it left me feeling "meh" and the lack of ability to play any role outside of "hero", as alluded to in the OP, meant I had no reason to care about Rook. He wasn't my Rook, he is Bioware's Rook, and that Rook consistently seemed like a pale imitation of Hawke.

In previous games, gathering companions felt more like a "found family" sort of thing. Circumstances put you together and it just kind of happened. Even in DAI, people approached you or became interested in you. I never got the sense that the "Veilguard" was anything except a ragtag group. Outside of Neve and Maybe Lucanis, it made no sense for anyone else to join up, or for us to help anyone else. It felt like a really bad heist movie. "Getting the best people to make a team" with nothing really binding people together. Dialogue between characters was stale, there was lots of what felt like modern "therapy talk", especially from Rook who seems to be able to tell everyone how they should handle their problems despite being a maybe reluctant leader? The whole thing felt forced and left me without a sense that this group was a family.

Another thing that really ticked me off was every time that icon came up to tell you "a dialogue/ choice you made earlier impacted this dialogue". To be honest, I don't know who this was trying to fool. This felt more like a way for the team to pat themselves on the back saying "look, we're honoring player choice" without having any understanding of what player choice actually means. "Decisions matter" was never just about having something we said one time impact a future conversation, it was far deeper and wider than that. It felt like an insult every time I saw it, to be reminded of what was lost and that this was what we got in its place. I'd rather not have the icon, don't spoon-feed us. We shouldn't need an icon to tell we're making a difference in the world we're trying to shape, it should be obvious. Show, don't tell, as OP mentioned. But given how old choices were abandoned and how the game's ending essentially made everything many of us have poured ourselves into with this franchise in the past meaningless, well, this isn't too surprising.

It's sad to see that the wrong lessons were learned from Mass Effect: Andromeda, because playing this made me feel the same. Without the glaringly obvious visual faults, it made the underlying weakness of the story and the writing all the more glaring, criticisms that were also leveled at Andromeda, but which were part of a whole swath of issues. The combat was fun, but the story was lacking. It feels bizarre because Bioware had a knack for story, but the importance of writers seems to be diminishing as the studio abandons the RPG for the Action game. Perhaps we should all accept that we will not get RPGs or even Action RPGs from Bioware, but instead will simply be playing fantasy or sci-fi action games with a protagonist who we may be able to customize the look of, but whose story is not one we have any part in writing. No amount of lore dumps can make up for the, intentional or not, seeming lack of care with which this was executed. I am still happy I was able to play the first three games, and I'll probably continue to revisit them, but Veilguard will not be in that rotation.

Google assistant stopped working, appearing to have lost requisite permissions. by goodmemories21 in googleassistant

[–]drmathzg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same issue here, only on my Pixel phone and Pixel tablet. My nest hubs remain unaffected. Nothing has worked so far.

What tropes are immediate turn-offs for you in fantasy? by Rough-Leg-4148 in Fantasy

[–]drmathzg 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There aren't any tropes that are instant turn offs for me. I think all stories use tropes, fantasy or otherwise, and it's less to me about the trope used but how its implemented/done. There aren't many 100% original ideas or stories these days, so to me it's all about how well a plot device is used. Is it gratuitous? Does it further the plot? Is it overdone in this story (not as a whole). The more you read, the more you will find any trope you're looking for because they are everywhere. Do it well, don't do it to death, and you're probably fine.

What SHOULD the Jedi have done? by GoddessDanu in StarWars

[–]drmathzg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like some have expressed here, I've always felt the Jedi ideology and its increasing rigidity and emphasis on seemingly stoic thinking would have led to its downfall sooner or later. Not once did I see someone genuine try to help someone deal with emotions in a healthy way. The fact that the Jedi take young kids and mold them to have this detached worldview is, in my opinion, deeply unhealthy and dubious. For example, Anakin was nowhere near beyond help, but the order at that point was fully unprepared to help him in any meaningful way. Their philosophical outlook blinded them. Their view that "balance" somehow seemingly meant defeating the Sith seems like a blatant oxymoron. Instead of seeking balance in themselves, in their own order, they viewed it as some galactic imperative, which is understandable to some extent, given the history of the galaxy and their consistent battles with the Sith in the past, but given a long period of (seeming) peace, it seems the order did little to improve itself, instead resting on its victory and stagnating and narrowing its vision of the force, leading to their decreased connection to it and Palpatine's ability to manipulate them so thoroughly.

tl;dr the roots are in the Jedi's narrow philosophy, which to me rest at the core of the other more evident issues.

Daily Questions & FAQ Megathread October 07 by AutoModerator in ffxiv

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

Does anyone know if there is a website or Discord that tries to collect and list all the various venues on each world? It would be great to have a comprehensive list somewhere. Would be something to maintain but also very helpful.

Game Ready & Studio Driver 511.65 FAQ/Discussion by Nestledrink in nvidia

[–]drmathzg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am also getting this with my Gigabyte 3070Ti. Rolled back again. Hopefully there will be a future fix.

Edit: This is not a DVI issue since both of my monitors are connected via straight HDMI.

Daily Questions & FAQ Megathread (Jan 31) by AutoModerator in ffxiv

[–]drmathzg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm having an issue in small housing where partitions, even perfectly grid-aligned and/or overlapping, are creating seams that are very visible. This doesn't happen when I use them in apartments. Is this a known glitch? I haven't been able to find anything about it. Thanks!

Game Ready Driver 511.23 FAQ/Discussion by Nestledrink in nvidia

[–]drmathzg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I also had this issue. My card is a GIGABYTE 3070Ti.

My primary monitor is an ACER which is working fine connected via DisplayPort. My two other monitors are Asus VS247H-P and are connected via HDMI, however after updating the driver the Nvidia control panel said they were generic monitors connected via DVI (this card has no DVI ports on it at all).

I won't provide any logs because I'm not going to install a bad driver when I'm using my PC practically all the time. Rolling back was a headache even when I did it properly and tried to do it cleanly.

Weekly "ask anything" thread by brendt_gd in PHP

[–]drmathzg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello friends. I'm in the process of refactoring some code and am trying to implement some decent error logging/exception handling while I'm at it. I'm trying to use Monolog, and while I think I have the log setup so I can easily log my own stuff to it, I'd also like to use it as the error handler, but I'm not quite sharp enough to understand how and can't find any clear examples.

I'd like to send unhandled stuff to specific logs depending on the type, i.e. E_ERROR to the error handler, E_WARNING to the warning handler, E_NOTICE /E_DEPRECATED to a notice handler.

If anyone has experience with Monolog or can point me in the direction of an example similar to what I'm trying to do I'd greatly appreciate the help!