Desbreko

[color=#4B0082]For the most part I think it's because the lighting in my room sucks something awful. (The black and white pic worked in my room because it was supposed to be dark, but still took some photo editing.) Or maybe just because I'm not very photogenic unless I'm doing something weird. . . . Both are likely.[/color]

[center][img]http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/9281/otakutiesround2desbreko1xy.jpg[/img][/center] [color=#4B0082][b]If you could combine two animals, what would they be, and why?[/b] Okay, imagine this: You take the body of a cobra and give it the big, hairy legs of a tarantula spider. (Increased in size to match the snake's body, of course.) This thing would look absolutely [i]hideous;[/i] a freak of nature, the kind nightmares are born from. Why would I create such a monstrosity? Because snakes and spiders are two commonly hated animals and I love seeing people get all squeamish whenever they're brought up. A spider-snake would be double the fun, right? Yes, it's a twisted little pleasure of mine, I know. But I can't help it. :catgirl: [b]If you had to film an action movie, what location in the world would you think would suit the most exciting action scene ever? (In other words, where would you film it?)[/b] I'm not big on movies, so this is kind of a hard question for me. I've always enjoyed action movies set in urban locations, though, so I'd probably go with a big city. (Sorry if that's a little vague, but I don't really have a particular city in mind.) A lot can happen within a city's landscape, due to large buildings, various forms of transportation, subterranean sewers and subway tunnels, etc. Especially if the movie is less than realistic, like The Matrix or Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children; those both had some great fight scenes that I enjoyed a lot. [b]Let's say you ruled a country. Whether your economy prospers or not is up to you. In otherwords, you can be a harsh ruler to your people or a kind one. But what of food? Do you vary in vegetation and agriculture? Do you have a large marketing system? Perhaps some world wide food industries were founded in your nation. The question is, how do you run your country's food situation following those guidelines? This takes more thought, folks. You can choose to make your food of plenty or not. What's it going to be?[/b] I'm a big fan of free markets and letting people mind their own businesses. There wouldn't be any regulations on what could and couldn't be grown/raised in my country, except of course for harmful drugs and the like. We'd grow what we could profitably and import what we couldn't. I don't think the government (in this case, me) really has much place in regulating food supplies. Unless food is scarce enough that people are starving, that seems a little too much like an evil dictator kind of thing. Of course, given suitable growing conditions within the country, I'd have to encourage the growing of coffee and tea. They're not exactly food but they're two agricultural products that I enjoy more than any others. Having the opportunity to get locally grown and roasted/dried coffee and tea each day would just be too good to pass up.[/color]

[quote name='Raiyuu]Des. I know it sounds tempting. But is free chocolate worth [i]them[/i'] knowing where you live?[/quote][color=#4B0082]That's the question going through my mind right now. . . . It's a tough one. :animestun[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I have to recommend Animal Crossing: Wild World, especially if you've never played AC on the GameCube. Initially, you can put hours into the game while you run around town all wide-eyed, discovering everything you can do. Then, once you're all settled into your village, it's great both for playing a few minutes at a time and for longer stretches if you want to tackle a larger project. My personal favorite is landscaping my village and getting things looking nice a neat, or you can design patterns, draw constellations, and so on. . . . Lots of stuff to do. And if you have access to a wifi connection you'll be able to visit my and others' villages. ^_^[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Desbreko's Nifty Fifty 2007 nominations. Now in alphabetical order! [b]What is it?[/b] [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/member.php?u=27884][u]Aaryanna_Mom[/u][/url] [b]Why was it nifty?[/b] As cool as it is just to have a member's mother join OtakuBoards and become an active poster, Aaryanna_Mom also adds new insight or a new point of view to many threads she posts in. It's apparent that she can see more than one side of an issue, and though she speaks her mind and stands behind her beliefs, she always argues in a non-abrasive way. Even if you don't agree with her, it's hard not to like her. [b]What is it?[/b] [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=54890][u]Asiaphilia, or Count to Ten Before You Post, Please.[/u][/url] [size=1]by Sara[/size] [b]Why was it nifty?[/b] You could tell just from the title and author that this was going to be a great thread. And it was. Poking fun at asiaphiles is always fun, but even better was poking fun at someone overreacting about asiaphiles. . . . The mental image of Papa Smurf dressed as Darth Vader and choking a Naruto cosplayer also helped. [b]What is it?[/b] [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/member.php?u=101][u]Charles[/u][/url] [b]Why was it nifty?[/b] Charles is an all-around awesome person and does indeed have some nine years of backlogged niftiness remaining. But regardless of that he'd have earned my nomination anyway just from the past year. On top of everything else--which includes Otakupedia--he's helped out a lot by rejoining the staff and helping to clean up Play It (now Hardwired) when I couldn't find anyone else for the job. [b]What is it?[/b] [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/member.php?u=7699][u]DeadSeraphim[/u][/url] [b]Why was it nifty?[/b] Some might consider his sarcasm inappropriate or his one-liners spammy at times, but DeadSeraphim realizes better than most that this is, after all, simply an internet forum and that few things here should be taken too seriously. For those who can take a joke, he can be a pretty cool guy. Despite some differences in opinion between us, he's remained a good friend of mine for a number of years now because we both realize it's pointless to argue over frivolities. [b]What is it?[/b] [url=http://desbrekofanclub.bravehost.com/][u]The Desbreko Fanclub[/u][/url] [b]Why was it nifty?[/b] Formed by Aaryanna, SunfallE, Mariskah, and indifference, the Desbreko Fanclub is a fanclub dedicated to myself. As if the four of them weren't nifty enough on their own, they decided all on their own to band together under the grand banner of Desbreko. This increased their niftiness exponentially, resulting in an uber-niftiness that rivals the best OB has to offer. [b]What is it?[/b] [url=http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3857/goldstar2jo7.gif][u]The Gold Star Award[/u][/url] [b]Why was it nifty?[/b] More prestigious than the Nifty Fifty, more subjective than the Otaku Awards, and more mysterious than the "Deal With This Member" Thread. What is this ominously shiney award? A gold star of some kind. How do you win? That's what makes it so mysterious. Can [i]you[/i] achieve a Gold Star Award? All signs point to no. [b]What is it?[/b] [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=404][u]Secret Staff Yaoi Lounge[/u][/url] [b]Why was it nifty?[/b] The Secret Staff Yaoi Lounge has been surrounded by mystery and intrigue for years, with few knowing whether it's simply a myth or if it actually does exist somewhere within the depths of OtakuBoards. And those who do know aren't saying anything. It's like OtakuBoards' own fountain of youth; everyone wants to find it but, try as they might, no one has been successful.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Being an anime board, I think we should follow Japanese tradition for Valentine's Day. As such, all you girls around here should give me chocolate come the 14th. It's a great idea![/color]

[color=#4B0082]I already beat it using the Ordon Sword by accident, since I didn't notice I had switched out from the Master Sword at some point before going through the dungeon. Everything took twice as many hits as they should have and I still never ran out of soup. When I play through again I think I might try using the Ordon Sword the whole way through, except where the Master Sword is absolutely necessary.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Rachmaninoff already mentioned another place to get rare chu jelly, in his middle paragraph's spoiler. That's the only place I had found it myself. As for the Magic Armor, it's both completely overpowered and unnecessary if you ask me. Overpowered because of the absolutely ludicrous number of rupees in the game and unnecessary because the game just isn't that hard. Other than a couple rooms in the Cave of Ordeals (those ice spearmen are cheap bastards), I only ever use it to drain rupees so that I don't have to leave treasure chests unopened. They could've made better use of that third tunic slot. Twilight Princess was actually the hardest of the 3D Zeldas for me, though. I breezed through OoT with zero deaths on my record (and I was only 10 years old at the time!), but TP actually managed to kill me a few times. OoT did have its difficult parts, but overall TP was harder--especially considering how much better I am at the games now than I was when I first played OoT. But all of the 3D games are still cake when compared to A Link to the Past and the other early 2D Zeldas. They really need to fix that with the newer games. :animesigh[/color]

[color=#4B0082]It's funny, 'cause this thread went off topic talking about how the other thread went off topic and now they're both closed. :bellylol:[/color]

[color=#4B0082]You can find the answer in the [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=53703][u]Suggestions & Feedback FAQ[/u][/url] at the top of this forum. Please look in there. Thread Closed[/color]

[color=#4B0082]The trick to the rooms with the masses of ChuChus is to kill one of the red or blue ones before they get absorbed by the purple ones. If you can get a bottle of red or blue chu jelly it's like a free potion mid-way through the cave.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Due to the merging of the video game and computer help threads, this one is being closed. Please post in the [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=56239][u]new thread[/u][/url] if you need help with something.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Yeah, I wouldn't expect something that big to happen overnight. And, of course, I'm willing to help out with the changes. Though I start school again on the 22nd, so I might be a little busy getting things ready next weekend.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I guess since things are headed that way, I might as well post the forum layout I've been tinkering with. Multimedia/Entertainment - Anime Lounge - - Manga Workshop - Hardwired - Music, Movies & TV Community - Community Events - Otaku Lounge - Game Room - Suggestions & Feedback Creative Works - Adventure Square - - Arena Underground - Art Studio - - Art by Request The category/forum list is pretty self explanatory at this point I think. I basically took Shy's proposal for The Arena, swapped the games forum for Art Studio, and put the audio/visual entertainment forums into one category. I think this would create better defined categories by putting forums of similar subject matter together, rather than having the "everything else" category that Arts and Entertainment is now.[/color]

[quote name='Crazy Kev']GCN: Resident Evil 4. The graphics, game play, you name it, were awsome!...Plus I'm a huge RE fan! (Why am I surprised that I'm one of the only people that chose a game other then Zelda: Twilight Princess.[/quote][color=#4B0082]Probably 'cause Resident Evil 4 was released in January 2005. :p[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Actually, this would've been considered a quality thread in the General Discussion forum of version 3. . . . James is still around, Cera is around (now known as Sara), Transtic Nerve seems to post sporadically every few months, and Ginny and BabyGirl are sadly no longer active. Myself, I think I remember you a bit, though I wasn't around for the v2 upheaval. Anyway, yes, "I'm back" threads tend to get closed along with introduction threads. We'd love to have you stick around and start posting again though.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Well, "maturity" and "mature content" are two different things. I hate using the same word in both cases but there seems to be no good substitute. Obviously low quality RPGs will get the same treatment regardless of whether the filter is in effect or not. But, when generous amounts of swearing are called for by the type of characters present in a quality RPG, are we going to have any sort of system set up to let people know about that before they jump into the thread, like the ratings were supposed to do? The question pretty much boils down to whether we're going to replace the ratings with some other system or simply drop them, in the event that the swear filter remains disabled.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I've been thinking the same thing. PC/Mac has had a whopping three threads posted in during the last week, and the forum's threads would be right at home in Play It anyway. The Web Site Workshop, I think, could just be deleted or merged with PC/Mac before the merge with Play It. I have some thoughts on reorganizing the forum categories, which would take care of the resulting one-forum category Hardwired. But I'm sure those would cause a bit of a stir, and this thread is more specifically about the Arena, so I won't go into them here unless Jeh wants me to. Anyway, after taking another look at activity levels in the Square and Anthology, I'm liking Shy's latest setup. But before anything can even remotely come close to being settled on, there's a couple things that I think need to be decided on. First, will the swear filter be in place or not? Personally, I don't particularly care if it gets put back in effect since I don't use many obscenities in my writing, but I do realize it can limit the kinds of characters and stories which can be portrayed effectively. Second, if the filter isn't in place, are we going to take any steps to differentiate, separate, or otherwise restrict threads which contain large amounts of swearing? Or other mature content for that matter? A lot of forum structures and concepts have been presented but it doesn't seem like we've really gotten anywhere because everyone has different ideas about the answers to these two questions.[/color]

[b]Update: 01/09/07[/b] [list] [*][b]Categories Added:[/b] Cardcaptor Sakura [*][b]Avatars Added:[/b] Cardcaptor Sakura (39), Death Note (2), DNAngel (2), Final Fantasy (14), Full Metal Panic! (6), Inuyasha (1), Nature/Wildlife (1) [/list] [color=#4B0082]It's been a while, but there still wasn't very much to add this time around. And the CCS avatars are from me, by the way.[/color]

[center][img]http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1802/otakutiesround1desbrekopm8.jpg[/img][/center] [color=#4B0082][b]What's your favorite hobby?[/b] I'm a gamer and, as such, I play video games. A lot. It's not an entirely anti-social hobby, though. I love getting together with friends to play multiplayer whenever possible, or playing online with other people. I can delve into single player games pretty deep, as shown by my obsession with the Zelda series, but the best times are always when I've got some friends around for the ride as well. [b]What do you think your best personality trait would be?[/b] Probably the best thing about my personality is my generally friendly and helpful demeanor. I'm almost always willing to help people out with anything I can (within reason of course) without expecting much, if anything, in return.[/color]

[quote name='Sandy']I wouldn't want to sound like a nay-sayer here, but I'm worried about the practical side of having such a "backroom". To my knowledge, at this moment there are no active RPGs in the Adventure Square that would be so "mature" that they would need to be isolated from the others. It would be a place with very few threads anyway, if only the games that had real excessive mature content would go there, thus questioning the whole need of such a subforum (as fascinating as the idea of having a forum called "The Theater" with a "backroom" sounds).[/quote][color=#4B0082]Well, it's not so much about isolating threads that are more graphic than what we see now, it's just to create a better alternative to the current ratings. I imagine anything that actually deserves an M rating now would be put into the Backroom and, being a sub-forum, it wouldn't require a ton of activity anyway.[/color] [quote name='Sandy']What comes to Anthology, profanity or misuse of ratings have never been a problem there (as proven by Lady Asphyxia), and having a "backroom" there would be even more pointless than in RPGs, in my opinion.[/quote][color=#4B0082]But there [i]are[/i] stories which make full use of the current M rating, so we're going to have to do something with them. And getting rid of ratings in Adventure Square but leaving them in OB Anthology would just be a huge mess. Whatever system we end up going with, it should apply to the Arena as a whole.[/color] [quote name='Sandy]Aside from creative writing, Anthology is also a place for [I]discussion[/I] about literature, so where would those threads go? To the Music, TV and Movies forum? [/quote][quote=Desbreko][color=#4B0082]it would be like a public forum where anyone can go to tell or [b]discuss[/b'] a story (the OB Anthology part)[/color][/quote][color=#4B0082]The discussion threads about literature would fit into the Forum just fine. It doesn't have to be a story or whatever else written by an OB member for it to be discussed in there.[/color] [quote name='Sandy']Also, the threads in the Underground have nothing to do with the threads in Anthology, so I would definitely keep them apart.[/quote][color=#4B0082]It's not a perfect match, but given the lack of activity in the Underground, I don't think such threads can support their own forum either. Alternately, they could be placed in the Theater alongside the main RPG threads, but my reasoning for putting them in the Forum is that Underground threads are basically the same as discussion threads in Anthology, only about RPGs. Keeping with the "public forum" idea, it's a place where people can go to talk about their RPGs the same as they could talk about other written works.[/color]

[QUOTE=Charles]I like your take on the idea Desbreko, but if we're kind of revamping everything, do you think it would be possible to have people responsible for providing ratings or allowing rated M RPs into the "mature" board? Even when it comes to film ratings, there's an official, objective board of people who decide what rating a film deserves. It's the same with video games and music. I think it helps when someone seperate from the project looks at it and decides what rating it should have. I also think this would stop people from putting 90-99 percent of all RPs in the mature board. Otherwise, I like where this is all going.[/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]I figured it would fall to the moderators of the forums, and ultimately the category moderator, to decide what goes where, based on whatever guidelines are set up. They'd have more time to manage that, since there wouldn't be any rating-related stuff to deal with anymore, and they'd probably know what's going on in their forums better than anyone else. If something didn't belong in the mature board they could move it to the normal one and vice versa.[/color]

[QUOTE=Lady Asphyxia][size=1][color=DarkGreen][b]1. [/b]Perhaps I'm reading the wrong threads, because I don't see a huge profanity problem. [I [i]may[/i] be reading the wrong threads, so please provide examples of these if you have them.] When I first read this thread, my first instinct was to see what sort of real level of swearing there is, statistically. So I searched it. The 's' word appears in 1121 posts in Adventure Square. The 'f' word appears in 463 posts. The 'a' word appears 132 times. The 'c' word appears 14 times. That's a total of 1730 posts that have the four most-used cuss words in them. Let's put that into perspective here; there is [b]149,465 posts [/b]in Adventure Square. That's about [i][b]1.15% [/b][/i]of posts that contain cussing. [/color][/size] [center][size=1][color=DarkGreen]Then I wondered if perhaps it was only reading the posts that had swearing in them, not the number of times it appears in [i]each[/i] post. But I checked them out a little bit. People rarely use the same swear word more than twice in a post. In fact, it was rare for me to see it more that once in a post. [/color][/size] [/center] [size=1][color=DarkGreen] So I must admit that I was a little shocked to see that profanity was suddenly seen as such an issue. [/color][/size][/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]Those statistics are a bit misleading since Adventure Square contains threads dating back to 2001 and the beginning of v3. So there's a few years worth of posts in there where the profanity filter was enabled, which is included in your figure for the total number of posts and skews the comparison. But I do agree with you, Asphy, I haven't noticed all that much gratuitous swearing either. I don't think re-enabling the swear filter is really necessary, and doing so would severely hinder any RPG in the vein of Kill Adam. As I see it, the actual content of Adventure Square isn't so much a problem, it's what is perceived to be the content because of all the unnecessary M ratings. As has been said, a majority of the RPGs with M ratings would be perfectly fine with a PG rating, yet people use M as a cover, "just in case." This situation isn't inviting for someone looking for a clean RPG to participate in, even though they most likely wouldn't have a problem with half of those M rated RPGs, so neither is it at all accurate. The root of the problem here, I think, is how people are using the ratings as a cover since that's what lead to the current situation. Any changes made need to address that problem, and while removing ratings altogether and slapping the filter back in place would do that, I don't think it's the optimal solution. We'd be back to square one (haha, get it?) and after a while we'd get people complaining about the limitations of the filter again. That's an endless loop right there which only ever accomodates one side and I think there's a better way to deal with this. After reading through the suggestions in here and taking everything into account, this is the forum structure I've come up with: Epic Theater -- Auditions -- Theater Backroom Herald's Forum -- Forum Alcove Names would end up being whatever (though I think name changes would do the place good if things are being reorganized), of course, but we'd have two main forums in the Arena. Epic Theater and its Auditions sub-forum would basically just be Adventure Square/Inn as we know them today, sans thread ratings. The swear filter would remain disabled to allow for minimal use of language and threads would basically have something like a PG rating by default. The Theater Backroom would be another sub-forum, not displayed on OB's home page, that would house mature RPGs. M would basically be the default for threads in there, and people would not be allowed to create RPGs in it unless they actually plan and make known within its Auditions thread that it's going to feature mature content. The benefits of this setup are that it removes the perceived need for a "cover," to make sure your RPG doesn't get closed for over-stepping its rating, while still allowing for the same level of creative freedom as now. If an RPG's content goes beyond what's allowed in the Theater, the thread can simply be moved into the Backroom and continue as before. I think this system will be a lot more user-friendly than the thread ratings and provide a more accurate description of what's actually contained in the threads. Of course, different people do have different opinions on what would belong where, so the choice wouldn't be left completely up to the moderators' individual discretion. Like with the thread rating descriptions now, we'd have specific guidelines posted in a sticky to show what exactly belongs in the Backroom sub-forum. These would take some discussion to hammer out, but I think it would work. The Herald's Forum would be a combination of OB Anthology and Arena Underground, while also providing a place for the forum games which currently go in Otaku Lounge now. As the name suggestions, it would be like a public forum where anyone can go to tell or discuss a story (the OB Anthology part), meet to hammer out details for their "play" in the Theater (the Arena Underground part), or simply gather for a public game. I think these three aspects would combine well into a single forum a lot better than combining Adventure Square with them, since the number of RPGs would swamp other threads like Asphy mentioned. The Forum Alcove is pretty much the same as the Theater Backroom, but for mature stories and the discussion threads for RPGs in the Backroom. The same rules apply to it as the Theater Backroom. As for the issue of people using swearing/gore/sex immaturely, just to do it, I don't think that's something that has a cut-and-dried solution. We can separate the type of content into categories, sure, but quantifying how that content is used as either "mature" or "immature" is a lot harder and depends even more on personal opinion. It's certainly not something I'd want to try and enforce as part of the rules, so I think the best we can do is just toss them in the Backroom and let them have their shits and giggles.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]It might mean you're no longer my favorite. Think about that.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . . 2006, that is. My "summer of Guild Wars" was pretty damn awesome, since I basically just sat around and played video games (mainly GW) the whole time. But then starting college after twelve cushy years of homeschooling kind of sucked. I'm still doing good, but school actually requires time and effort now. :animecry: As for 2007, I don't really have any special plans and I've never been one for resolutions. But I do want to try and get out and do stuff with friends more often than this past year. I spend way too much time holed up in my room.[/color]