Hot takes

[PrismRed]

Yeah it’s definitely not my place to say anything there. My bad. I’ve had weird luck with finding people with similar interests, in which I can say that commonalities are one thing, but staying in touch is far trickier than one might think.
I have a hard time keeping in touch with my younger brother, but he did invite me to see a movie together on Kuwait’s Independence Day last month.

Funny thing for me is almost all of my closest buds have very different interests than I am, opposite attracts maybe? Same with my sister too, we're like night and day but we're extremely close.

I'm not really a hot take kinda guy, but:
I hate putting ice cubes in a drink.
Sure, they make it more icy (pun intended) and all that, but then they melt after a while and ruin the drink.

Where I'm from, there are lots of places where if you order a cold drink, they will give you 2 glasses, one is just the ice cubes, the other one is your beverage, usually chilled as well. You can pour the drink to the ice glass at your leisure, or vice versa.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I'm not really a hot take kinda guy, but:
I hate putting ice cubes in a drink.
Sure, they make it more icy (pun intended) and all that, but then they melt after a while and ruin the drink.

This is why some cocktails are using a cold marble or metal sphere or cube or they cut the ice into a specific shape for an even melting.



Speaking of the other subject I'm legitimately tired of people screaming "Overrated" towards popular things and inversely "It's so underrated!!!!" for semi-obscure ones (even if they're not obscure/niche at all).

The current paradigm in online discourse has taken a direction I don't like. Sometimes something can be popular for a good reason and something can not reach a popularity because it's not as great as it seems to be by the fans.

For the same reason I tend to limit myself with those internet buzzwords.

 

[PrismRed]

Speaking of the other subject I'm legitimately tired of people screaming "Overrated" towards popular things and inversely "It's so underrated!!!!" for semi-obscure ones (even if they're not obscure/niche at all).

The current paradigm in online discourse has taken a direction I don't like. Sometimes something can be popular for a good reason and something can not reach a popularity because it's not as great as it seems to be by the fans.

For the same reason I tend to limit myself with those internet buzzwords.

Eh they don't know what they're talking about.
Remember, the only rating that matter is the one you make in your own head, don't let anybody take that from you.

 

[fake-kun]

This is why some cocktails are using a cold marble or metal sphere or cube or they cut the ice into a specific shape for an even melting.



Speaking of the other subject I'm legitimately tired of people screaming "Overrated" towards popular things and inversely "It's so underrated!!!!" for semi-obscure ones (even if they're not obscure/niche at all).

The current paradigm in online discourse has taken a direction I don't like. Sometimes something can be popular for a good reason and something can not reach a popularity because it's not as great as it seems to be by the fans.

For the same reason I tend to limit myself with those internet buzzwords.

Conversely, I'm tired of people accusing anyone with even a slightly unpopular opinion of being a "hipster" or a "contrarian".

 

[Deleted member 1816]

Speaking of the other subject I'm legitimately tired of people screaming "Overrated" towards popular things and inversely "It's so underrated!!!!" for semi-obscure ones (even if they're not obscure/niche at all).

The current paradigm in online discourse has taken a direction I don't like. Sometimes something can be popular for a good reason and something can not reach a popularity because it's not as great as it seems to be by the fans.

For the same reason I tend to limit myself with those internet buzzwords.

I don't even think they know the true meaning of these words.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Funny thing for me is almost all of my closest buds have very different interests than I am, opposite attracts maybe? Same with my sister too, we're like night and day but we're extremely close.

Online and irl, my closest connections are always people I share little in common with. And people I avoided the hardest are ones I felt were too similar to myself.

This is why some cocktails are using a cold marble or metal sphere or cube or they cut the ice into a specific shape for an even melting.

That’s one shape of ice I wish gets served here. Alcoholic drinks don’t exist here, the “bars” here go by the Italian definition, meaning a place to chill (although ironically they’re stylized after Texan chains like chilis) . I understand those ice shapes exist to preserve quality or for presentation. Neat knowledge.

Speaking of the other subject I'm legitimately tired of people screaming "Overrated" towards popular things and inversely "It's so underrated!!!!" for semi-obscure ones (even if they're not obscure/niche at all).

It does harm conversation quality a bit I agree. Especially when it’s a game that’s rated finely, or just a way to go against the grain or seen special. As a gta fan, I sure get annoyed when someone thinks they’re reinventing the discourse wheel by announcing their dislike for a mainstream series that’s already disliked by ton of anti-mainstream folks. Not to say being mainstream elevates you above hate or criticism, but that should go without saying.

The current paradigm in online discourse has taken a direction I don't like. Sometimes something can be popular for a good reason and something can not reach a popularity because it's not as great as it seems to be by the fans.

For the same reason I tend to limit myself with those internet buzzwords.

Same here. We can have a more constructive discussion by avoiding terms that lack a consensus that everyone can agree on. It eliminates the risk of derailing the debate into something that the person who originally started the discussion was not and likely will not have interest in discussing. I tend to dislike pausing an interesting discussion about a particular topic because someone got weirdly irritated over word definitions.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Conversely, I'm tired of people accusing anyone with even a slightly unpopular opinion of being a "hipster" or a "contrarian".

That's an issue when there are people who are being contrarian for the sake of it (and feeling like they're being unique/smarter than others) instead of forming their proper opinion.

I too have preferences that aren't like the majority but I don't do that just for the sake of originality or acting as I'm better than others.

Sure, you can never be sure of someone's intention if they're being honest or not but sometimes people throw too often the term "overrated" to the point it's getting repetitive and boring.

Instead of shutting down popular things why not talking and promoting unpopular games and media? It would be more productive and healthy for people than acting pessimistic and complaining about something getting popular because some niche things can gain popularity over time.

I don't even think they know the true meaning of these words.

Like many things on the Internet unfortunately.

I could even say that sleeping is overrated because people need to do it.

It does harm conversation quality a bit I agree. Especially when it’s a game that’s rated finely, or just a way to go against the grain or seen special. As a GTA fan, I sure get annoyed when someone thinks they’re inventing the discourse wheel by announcing their dislike for a mainstream series that’s already disliked by tone of anti-mainstream folks. Not to say being mainstream elevates you above hate or criticism, but that should go without saying.

GTA has been criticised by mainstream media because of the violence back when III came out. There were discourses about the "danger" of video games because of GTA (after Doom and Mortal Kombat).

My only issue with VI is that the franchise (and Rockstar) hasn't evolved that much after GTA IV but this is a different subject.

Nowadays it's apparently "cool and hip" to spit on Skyrim because of how Bethesda is nowadays.

"Anti-mainstream people" should spend more time elevating niche and obscure things instead imo.

Same here. We can have a more constructive discussion by avoiding terms that lack a consensus that everyone can agree on. It eliminates the risk of detailing the debate into something that the person who originally started the discussion was not and likely will not have interest in discussing. I tend to dislike pausing an interesting discussion about a particular topic because someone got weirdly irritated over word definitions.

If someone use the terms "normie" or "overrated" I find that they're not trying to have a constructive debate and want to shut down people for liking popular stuff...

That reminds me of that pic with either Lisa or Kirby about "hating popular things doesn't make someone more interesting".

 

[fake-kun]

That's an issue when there are people who are being contrarian for the sake of it (and feeling like they're being unique/smarter than others) instead of forming their proper opinion.

I too have preferences that aren't like the majority but I don't do that just for the sake of originality or acting as I'm better than others.

Sure, you can never be sure of someone's intention if they're being honest or not but sometimes people throw too often the term "overrated" to the point it's getting repetitive and boring.

Instead of shutting down popular things why not talking and promoting unpopular games and media? It would be more productive and healthy for people than acting pessimistic and complaining about something getting popular because some niche things can gain popularity over time.

You're literally doing exactly what I complained about. You assume that people with unpopular opinions hold them because they want to be contrarian, not because they genuinely believe them.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Nowadays it's apparently "cool and hip" to spit on Skyrim because of how Bethesda is nowadays.

"Anti-mainstream people" should spend more time elevating niche and obscure things instead imo.


I

Funny you mention this. I plan to complete Skyrim for the first time after I’m done with AC Mirage, a game I’m playing to see how accurately it portrays us. I liked AC1 so I gave decently high hopes.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

You're literally doing exactly what I complained about. You assume that people with unpopular opinions hold them because they want to be contrarian, not because they genuinely believe them.

Have I ever assumed this about you? You're allowed to like things that aren't popular I haven't said you couldn't.

On the other hand some people online like to say "this is bad because people don't know what's actually good" which is not elevating intellectually.

I remember that I liked watching the LOTR movies quite recently because for a long time I had that subconscious feeling of shame for enjoying something extremely popular and for a long time I avoided anything mainstream for the sake of it.


On the Internet there's a ton of contrarians that wants to feel smarter, it's a natural human behaviour that has become amplified by the Internet, its anonymity and echo chamber culture where people are agreeing upon each others for calling something trash without any form of debate nor talk about why something may be overrated.

I think that it's going against any kind of healthy discourse and debate to act upon them.

I am saying that as someone that mostly doesn't care about modern AAA games and spend most of their time on retro and indie games (especially the retro inspired ones) while not implying they're better than anybody else for liking obscure and semi-obscure games but would rather promote them than complaining about popular AAAs for the sake of it.

In short I think it's better to simply say "Oh, I'm not fan of Popular Thing" than saying "Popular Thing is overrated trash and the fans are blind followers" while saying "Unpopular Thing is nice, you should try it" instead of "Unpopular Thing is so underrated, too bad people prefers playing Popular Thing instead".

Funny you mention this. I plan to complete Skyrim for the first time after I’m done with AC Mirage, a game I’m playing to see how accurately it portrays us. I liked AC1 so I gave decently high hopes.

I could do the firsts AC games if I have time but I've never been really interested in them.

On the other hand even if TeS V Skyrim is less of a RPG than their predecessors it's still a nice first person action RPG/Open World Adventure game with a nice theme.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Have I ever assumed this about you? You're allowed to like things that aren't popular I haven't said you couldn't.

On the other hand some people online like to say "this is bad because people don't know what's actually good" which is not elevating intellectually.

I remember that I liked watching the LOTR movies quite recently because for a long time I had that subconscious feeling of shame for enjoying something extremely popular and for a long time I avoided anything mainstream for the sake of it.


On the Internet there's a ton of contrarians that wants to feel smarter, it's a natural human behaviour that has become amplified by the Internet, its anonymity and echo chamber culture where people are agreeing upon each others for calling something trash without any form of debate nor talk about why something may be overrated.

I think that it's going against any kind of healthy discourse and debate to act upon them.

I am saying that as someone that mostly doesn't care about modern AAA games and spend most of their time on retro and indie games (especially the retro inspired ones) while not implying they're better than anybody else for liking obscure and semi-obscure games but would rather promote them than complaining about popular AAAs for the sake of it.


I could do the firsts AC games if I have time but I've never been really interested in them.

On the other hand even if TeS V Skyrim is less of a RPG than their predecessors it's still a nice first person action RPG/Open World Adventure game with a nice theme.

I couldn’t get into AC either. I explored the areas in it that are relavant to my interests, but nothing beyond that. I don’t find the stories interesting enough to go through all the missions.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

My other hot take for this thread; YouTube chefs suck.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Maybe I'm not communicating properly (I'm not a native English speaker) but I'm not trying to antagonise anyone with "unpopular preferences" whatsoever.

But it's just that I'm getting a bit tired when people todays want to "recontextualise" gaming and tell things like "Ocarina of Time is actually not a good game" as much as I prefer 2D Zelda and still think that no game should be "untouchable", you can still point legitimate flaws but to say that this is plain bad is just being dishonest.

It's the same reason why some people are wanting to change art and media history by saying things such as "actually what you think was good isn't actually good". It's almost like a form of gaslighting if I understand that term correctly.

Sure, taste and context can change the perception of something but even in a void games like Ocarina of Time (sorry for using the same example) are still enjoyable despite their age. I mean I have 0 nostalgia for MGS on the PSX yet I've genuinely enjoyed playing it when I did the game on an emulator a decade ago (which meant the game was already over 15 years old).

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Maybe I'm not communicating properly (I'm not a native English speaker) but I'm not trying to antagonise anyone with "unpopular preferences" whatsoever.

But it's just that I'm getting a bit tired when people todays want to "recontextualise" gaming and tell things like "Ocarina of Time is actually not a good game" as much as I prefer 2D Zelda and still think that no game should be "untouchable", you can still point legitimate flaws but to say that this is plain bad is just being dishonest.

It's the same reason why some people are wanting to change art and media history by saying things such as "actually what you think was good isn't actually good". It's almost like a form of gaslighting if I understand that term correctly.

Sure, taste and context can change the perception of something but even in a void games like Ocarina of Time (sorry for using the same example) are still enjoyable despite their age. I mean I have 0 nostalgia for MGS on the PSX yet I've genuinely enjoyed playing it when I did the game on an emulator a decade ago (which meant the game was already over 15 years old).

I think you’re fine.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I think you’re fine.

Thanks. I didn't want to sound rude to someone who pointed out something about me.

I don't want any conflict on this forum, just a healthy debate between adults (well, I assume most of us here are) and I'm not antagonising anybody specifically.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

I'm not antagonising anybody specifically.

That’s where we differ, I’ll antagonize any ambassadors of kingdom hearts.
I’m being facetious obviously, but one day I do plan to go into detail about my critiques.

 

[miguk miguk]

RE Village felt like a former alcoholic returning to his bad habits. 7 had to ignore a bunch of previous stuff and make the stakes somewhat smaller, and for the most part, it worked. 7 did A LOT of the heavy lifting when it came to the gameplay of the series after all that transpired in the identity crisis the series had ever since OG RE4, which dare I say is repeating itself now that they redid nearly every classic game so it played like RE4. Might as well get a re-re-remake of RE1 at this point, lol.

Not to mention the Bakers were sooooo much better as villains than the Four Lords. Also Miranda might be up there with Simmons as the dumbest villain the series has ever had, and we're talking about Resident Evil, so think of the ground that covers.

RE1-3: Grade school through high school. The good old days.
RE4: Starts college. Seems to have an actual promising future.
RE5: Drops out of college, becomes alcoholic, starts using racial slurs regularly.
RE6: So f***ed up on the sauce they give a giraffe a beej. (Look at the logo; can not be unseen.)
RE7-8: Recovers from alcohol, but switches to meth with the occasional speedball.
RE2-4 Remakes: Mostly clean and sober now, tries going back to college.

 

[Naltic]

I think One Piece is the worst of the Big Three, mainly because of the horrendous pacing that makes one unable to enjoy the story. I ain't saying the story is bad, but having to watch 1100+ episodes of a still image and waiting for something to happen just makes one not even care about the story. Hell, the story could be the greatest of all time, downright better than any made. Ever. But I will never know because who can bother watching that much and that long? Honestly, some people say to just endure it since the story is good but nah, I just can't get into it and I would much rather watch other shows that aren't as horrendously badly paced as One Piece is.

 

[Gorse]

Speaking of fighting games, I think we're in an absolute poo age of fighting game character designs. Compare, say, Street Fighter 4's characters:

Ooh, look at them! They're colourful (even with a limited palette), they're wearing interesting clothing that other characters don't, and they've all got unique silhouettes. Even though they're all making similar poses and have similar expressions, you can tell that Dudley's a gentleman, and that Juri Han is mischievous and snarky, and that Rufus is a loudmouth. Even when they're not really "attractive", they have strong designs that make them appealing and fun to look at. The shading and distinct outlines make them look like 2D illustrations come to life. Talk about good character design! (And yes, I know Dudley is from a SF3 sequel, but work with me, here.)

Now, look at SF6's new characters:

What the fuck are these monsters. They look ugly, they look ugly, they look ugly! They look ugly because, in addition to having the most brutish, uncanniest faces and body types imaginable, they've just been given some weird fucking accoutrements.

Why does Marissa's mouth spread across the width of her face, literally extending past her eyes? Why does Luke have a unibrow and a comb-over? Why does Manon have massive gorilla hands (measure the tip of her forefinger to her wrist), and her hair looks like it's been photoshopped on a layer in front of her head? And they all have silhouettes that match existing characters, too – Marissa is Zangief, Manon is Chun-Li, Luke is Ryu/Ken. That isn't very original.

I don't know. All post-2015 fighting game characters look ugly as shit to me. (I sorta thought this about SF5, too.) Do the fans like this? I know it's only 35-year-olds+ playing this genre anymore, so are they kind of ugly-ing them up for millennials or something? Hoo boy, do they not make me want to put 15,000 hours into the game + 3 years' worth of paid online + a ticket and lodgings for EVO, that's for sure! I'm sticking with the French Bread pixel-art games about Fate characters.

 

[PrismRed]

Speaking of fighting games, I think we're in an absolute poo age of fighting game character designs. Compare, say, Street Fighter 4's characters:

Ooh, look at them! They're colourful (even with a limited palette), they're wearing interesting clothing that other characters don't, and they've all got unique silhouettes. Even though they're all making similar poses and have similar expressions, you can tell that Dudley's a gentleman, and that Juri Han is mischievous and snarky, and that Rufus is a loudmouth. Even when they're not really "attractive", they have strong designs that make them appealing and fun to look at. The shading and distinct outlines make them look like 2D illustrations come to life. Talk about good character design! (And yes, I know Dudley is from a SF3 sequel, but work with me, here.)

Now, look at SF6's new characters:

What the fuck are these monsters. They look ugly, they look ugly, they look ugly! They look ugly because, in addition to having the most brutish, uncanniest faces and body types imaginable, they've just been given some weird fucking accoutrements.

Why does Marissa's mouth spread across the width of her face, literally extending past her eyes? Why does Luke have a unibrow and a comb-over? Why does Manon have massive gorilla hands (measure the tip of her forefinger to her wrist), and her hair looks like it's been photoshopped on a layer in front of her head? And they all have silhouettes that match existing characters, too – Marissa is Zangief, Manon is Chun-Li, Luke is Ryu/Ken. That isn't very original.

I don't know. All post-2015 fighting game characters look ugly as shit to me. (I sorta thought this about SF5, too.) Do the fans like this? I know it's only 35-year-olds+ playing this genre anymore, so are they kind of ugly-ing them up for millennials or something? Hoo boy, do they not make me want to put 15,000 hours into the game + 3 years' worth of paid online + a ticket and lodgings for EVO, that's for sure! I'm sticking with the French Bread pixel-art games about Fate characters.

What bothers me the most is Luke don't wear shoes.

 

[moonbits]

new game design bad, old game good
Rufus looks fucking stupid either way

 

[Gorse]

new game design bad, old game good

I think moonbits just won the thread.

 

[ATenderLad]

new game design bad, old game good

I think moonbits just won the thread.

Look, I tried to get your name on the trophy, but my engraving guy wouldn't haggle with me. Please send me your address and keep your eyes peeled for a package!

 

[moonbits]

Since Gorse brought up SF I'll follow it up:

Guilty Gear's visual design and theme have taken an absolute nosedive since Xrd. While technically impressive it doesn't look even remotely as cool as XX. The music in particular is the most painful one.

 

[Gorse]

Guilty Gear's visual design and theme have taken an absolute nosedive since Xrd.

I actually had Guilty Gear in mind for that post, too. The most recent game looks way worse than the older ones. I don't really think any currently-active fighting game series looks good at all.