Fwiss

The fifth annual Cirno Day will be here in a little over a month, I just realized.

The most recent games have all had Sonic as the one and only playable character, though, and Lost World, while it has a lot of potential for multiple characters, doesn't seem to have any indication of it happening. Not to mention that SEGA seems to love to let the fans know every character that's going into a game before it's out.

Ah, anime. My life, my love. Partially. I've seen a lot of anime in my life, but I've probably read more manga. Strictly in terms of anime, the ones I've watched in the past few years and rather liked were: There were also some western, but nevertheless eastern-styled visual novels: Digital: A Love Story, Analogue: A Hate Story, "don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story." It'd be foolish not to include the famous 4chan visual novel, Katawa Shoujo, which is of surpassing quality despite what some might expect. Dischan has developed a demo of Cradle Song, which I'd like to play once it's out. So that's basically my immediate experience with Japanese literature and such.

They're very easy to find, especially on the massively-popular filesharing sites. Like, ones with movies about them. Edit: With ships.

Haha, "I'll skin you alive." What a fun-loving phrase. Sadly, there are reports there are switch-pressing puzzles and irritatingly-placed badniks in the game. It looked kind of promising with its acrobatics, though. I hope SEGA understands that players like the maniacal power of immediately and skillfully killing every badnik in sight with some fluent mechanics.

A few gameplay tips about Touhou: First, practice. It took me a few months to be able to 1cc Touhou 8's easy mode consistently. Maybe I'm just bad, I don't know. Second, stream. Streaming is a technique described by some as "be where you weren't." Essentially, move left or right very slowly, then move the other way very slowly. If you don't know what to do, do this, as most enemies aim straight at you. Bosses generally have either attacks based on your location or "static" attacks, which are the same no matter where you are. Generally, there's a minor static element in some attacks. By the way, ever tried to play Touhou music? It's pretty tough.

Can't you just And you're dang right grown men have a right to cute things!

"Hmm there's a little eraser in the editor. I think I'll press it without reading the tooltip."

Maybe it was panting, like he flew in here and boy are his arms tired.

This generally happens when you cut and paste, though it is slightly more common in jpegs because of compression artifacts. What is usually happening is that that stuff around the character isn't the same shade of white, e.g (254, 253 , 252) instead of (255, 255, 255). I know for a fact MS Paint can't counteract this without manual editing (which really isn't that hard, generally only takes a few hours straight, but as you observed it doesn't look as good). Now I'd think there'd be some setting in Photoshop's fuzzy select tool to set a threshold or theta-value or whatever you call it; basically a value that defines at what color it should stop selecting (such that lower thresholds select only around pixels with less deviation from those around them and higher values select pixels with more deviation in color). If you can find that setting (if it exists), you should be able to tweak it and find the right threshold value you need so that you get no white-looking outlines around it. Disclaimer, I have never worked with Photoshop. In GIMP, I know for a fact this tool and the setting is there. P.S, Shadow: You might want to try out Paint.NET as a replacement to Paint. It doesn't have the long, complex structure of GIMP and Photoshop, but it's much better than Paint. It is also just about as easy to use as Microsoft Paint. Some of my personal favorite features of it are gridlines and the ability to move the cursor in precise, single-pixel increments using the keyboard.

Well, looks like LoL's official language is now some binary language consisting only of "TSM!" and "Snapdragoooooon!"

The modern Archie comics world hasn't really seen an adaptation on the big (or little) screen. I mean, there was SatAM and AoStH, but they're ancient, and the Sonic comics world is a different beast now. At the same time, the Sonic game universe, which is not very cohesive at all, is more easy to make into a film. While there are a myriad of advanced persistent threats to fight against in the comics, the games universe is simple and has basically everything solved as each game wraps up. A movie based on the comics universe would sort of have the actually take place at a certain time during the comics, almost surely between arcs. In other words, I'd say it's a bit tougher to make a "Sonic was doing the usual Sonic things WHEN SUDDENLY..." kind of story in the Archie universe than it would be in the games universe. That said, it's definitely possible to make a coherent movie based on the comics universe, and personally it would be a whole lot more original than one of the games, because the modern Archie comics universe simply hasn't been seen outside of the comics.

Well, I'm a bit late in posting this, but I want to see what you guys think about the massive surveillance by many major world powers (most prominently the United States, but also Canada, the UK, and Sweden). Surprisingly, much of the surveillance exposed by the leaks which started in June was already accepted as a given by the Internet community. For example, it has been well-known that an infrastructure has been in place for the United States' National Security Agency to wiretap all traffic which goes through United States Internet Service Providers, (which in my opinion is more serious than the recent revelations). We now know, however, that all phone metadata is being taken indiscriminately and for an unlimited time by the U.S, and that the NSA had the ability to obtain information from inside services such as Google, Facebook, Hotmail, and Skype, bypassing many encryption methods we hoped would protect from the earlier ISP-level wiretaps. I was wondering what you guys thought of all this. Is it right for these governments to violate the human right to privacy for the sake of stopping whatever it is they are fighting at the time?

That's more of a thing on the mind, though, than life. Though so far it appears consciousness is unique to life. Actually, what you're talking about is similar to the China Brain thought experiment, where basically a bunch of people make a simulation of the human brain (each acting as a neuron). Would the brain created be said to have consciousness? Another interesting AI thought experiment is the Chinese Room thought experiment, where a person has an algorithm to converse with someone perfectly in Chinese, yet that person executing the response does not actually know Chinese at all, basically meaning that something which passes the Turing test may still not actually conscious. I believe the idea that something that is not a human brain can have consciousness just like a human brain is called functionalism.

Human technology is basically what is keeping us in stasis right now. It can be said that one of humanity's distinguishing traits is its strong resistance to evolution. The sad fact about that is, though, that our competitors are usually one step ahead of the game, because our technology is primitive. We probably cannot hope to stop certain diseases by technology alone. On the cutting edge of our research is nanotechnology. On first glance, this seems cool, like we could "beat the system." Realistically, though, a cell is much, much more complex than any nanomachine we can hope to make. Cells are more durable, much, much more intelligent, and simply better than nanobots. Heck, most of them are more complex than our cars. This is a pretty simple reason: cells have had much more of a development budget. Cells: hundreds of millions of years at least. Human technology: tens of thousands of years In addition, cellular development models are simply the best ones we've ever known: a complex genetic algorithm called evolution. Every living cell participates in this development model (most humans do not even attempt to contribute to medical development). So we're quite obviously outclassed by this system we call life. It's running circles around us and developing new ways to survive, often at our expense, even as you read this. Well when I phrase it like that, it kind of feels like humanity would want evolution to be a lie. Oh, what are your opinions of the whole Oparin hypothesis? (The one that deals with how life can be spawned from nonliving matter).

I don't play League of Legends, but I did watch the LoL tournament with my friends, who do play League of Legends, at Major League Gaming Raleigh last year. It seems like a very interesting game, and many of the players are very cool. What, Siren?

This is actually a good example of the Natural Selection mechanism of evolution. At first the red ship were selected for because of the red bushes, but as there were less red bushes and more green bushes, the frequency of the green-wool allele increased, assuming the original green ship didn't die out before it reproduced. There was clearly also so kind of selection pressure working on the bushes as well, to make the number of green ones overtake the red ones (perhaps a change in the composition of atmospheric gas also changed the amount of each type of color light that was let in. Perhaps the predators mistook the red bushes for sheep and attacked them, maybe killing them. The latter possibility would be more interesting to watch over generations as predators who target the red sheep will eventually be overtaken by predators targeting the green ones, causing perhaps more death of more green bushes, causing the reds to once again become the more common type, which will affect the predators, and so on in this cycle causing some kind of freaky dynamic equilibrium. Then we'll all have to study game theory and realize that neither the red or green sheep are necessarily "better" or "more evolved" than the other, which leads to the possibly-uncomfortable realization that a human is not "more evolved" than your run-of-the-mill streptococcus bacterium or even a monkey; they just have different survival strategies). The change in bush color could be perceived as the will of a higher power, but it is more likely a natural phenomenon, which might also be judged to be the will of the Gods until we finally find something deterministic driving that phenomenon, or the one driving that one, etc. That something which triggers evolution is called a selection pressure. Basically, no selection pressure = very little change in allele frequencies in the gene pool. Relevant to this is the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which basically says that when a selection pressure acts very strongly, evolution happens much more quickly. These bursts can be nonliving, such as the beginning or end of an ice age, a meteor impact, a volcanic eruption, or unusual solar activity, or they can be living, such as the emergence of a new species or virus (though these usually are triggered by nonliving factors, such as how certain diseases not normally present in one ecosystem are allowed to survive due to temperature changes). That's not to say that evolution doesn't happen at all when these events stop, but it happens at a much slower rate. There are constantly selection pressures even in modern society (disease, ability to stay sane while following the law, and apparent reproductive fitness), but essentially humans are in a period of stasis right now, though developing pandemics and climate change (which will exacerbate those pandemics) may soon change that. Diseases generally aren't enough to cause new species to emerge, though. Maybe a zombie attack, I'm not sure. Of course, there is heavy selection pressure on ecosystems both here in developed and undeveloped countries. Deforestation comes to mind first here, except in this case it is not really something plants and animals can ever adapt to, so that entire category of life seems to be taking massive losses compared to microscopic creatures in the area. Even in developed countries, there are some very serious new selection pressures, such as the migration of certain more aggressive plants and animals which take over ecosystems and out-compete the local species. If you live in the southeastern U.S, you might notice the kudzu all around. It is an example of a selection pressure, in this case caused by migration of humans. (For those of you who haven't seen it, here's a picture.) I have to say, though, I'm not as fired up about the whole Creationism/"Intelligent Design" vs. Evolution debate since many Creationists are starting to acknowledge "microevolution," which, while still incorrect, is much better than the previous stance of impeding scientific progress. There is no longer much argument about whether things like MRSA are caused by certain practices or some kind of divine retribution. That isn't to say the arguments aren't entirely inconsequential, but there's generally much less reason for evolutionists to fear creationists, at least in terms of scientific progress.

I doubt SEGA has the resources to make a Sonic film, and there is already an OVA and a CG/live-action hybrid fan-film, and wait, isn't there also the Sonic Boom TV series in the works by one of the My Little Pony dudes at this very moment? If they made a movie, it would be interesting to see either 2D or 3D art styles, but the 3D art style has been less explored than the 2D for Sonic, so it would be more original and new-looking. Also, I just realized Locke's avatar fits that last post way too well.

My Steam account is http://steamcommunity.com/id/fwiss/, or you can just search for Fwiss. I also have an Xbox Live account, EpixAura, but I don't really get on there much.

Crypt96, all the games you listed are awesome. The Medabots game for the GBA (Medabots, the RPG, not Medabots AX, the fighting game) was a very good game, too. So if you're looking for an RPG (a game genre which, if done right, works well on the portable platform), you check it out. Hehe, remember when game systems ran on non-rechargeable batteries and didn't have a backlight? Those were tough times.

mrsnippy: Hmm, I never noticed that with Mario. I always thought Nintendo had kept Mario under a strict, slow release schedule. Recently, things have gotten hectic in the Mario release world. There have indeed been a huge amount of Mario games in the last few months. If SEGA keeps up with their Project Diva series, Hatsune Miku could almost be considered their character. Of course, Miku is really Yamaha's, but SEGA would do well to associate itself with the Vocaloid instruments.

Maverick: Great gif choice, I love my Shingeki no Kyojin. But yeah, Megaman in Smash 4? YEAH. Super Mario 3D World looked pretty nice, too. And Mario Kart 8, which I assume will be coming out for Windows 8. With the new Sonic and Mario games coming out for the Wii U, it looks like fun. The PS4 doesn't look bad. The Xbox One is something that's bad even in theory. Even if I did have a blazing fast, constant internet connection, the Xbox One would still seem stupid. Its only possible redeeming feature would be low prices for games, built-in connect, and Skype. However, console Skype and Kinect aren't even a plus for some people; e.g people who don't want Microsoft logging everything and possibly DRMing videos based on the number of people in a room. However, it looks like Sony is requiring around 50 bucks a year for online play for the Playstation 4, which was the main turnoff people had with the Xbox 360. I don't plan on getting a PS4 or Xbox One unless they have some dazzling - very, very dazzling, games. I wonder when the Steam Box will come out.

Oh man, a music thread! Right now I'm listening to the great soundtrack from Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni, by a range of artists. Classical horror is amazing to me. As far as anime music goes, does anybody listen to Yuki Kajiura (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, .Hack, and most recently Sword Art Online)? Of course, I listen to western bands, too. Iron Maiden and Bullet for my Valentine, Three Days Grace being a few I picked out of these previous posts as being pretty darn good (Iron Maiden is the only one I've listened to even recently, though, along with a Touhou remix band heavily inspired by Iron Maiden, Iron Attack!). My favorite western band right now would have to be Machinae Supremacy. Of course, I check OCRemix religiously. Game and Anime soundtracks are my musical sustenance.

Eizzoux, you didn't provide much information about the game, except for a few screenshots and a video, which doesn't adequately explain the game. Many people don't know what Sokoban or Boulderdash even is, so try to be more descriptive. It looks fairly old. Is it still actively updated?