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i now have a doctorate, what happened

EDIT: i just disabled my signature

congrats!!

I started thinking about this place recently, it sounds weird but I'm not even sure I feel much nostalgia over it - like obviously I do and I have memories and people I miss but in general I still kind of feel....pretty much the same as I did when I was on IRC and stuff. I'm 30 now too (hhhhhhhhh) but I don't look it or feel it so life has just kind of continued as-is for me, I never went through like a growing-up period. I travel more, wear cooler clothes and do more interesting fun stuff with friends but I still feel like I'm just one level of self-awareness away from unironically using 'xD', that face was an absolute workhorse back in the day. if the rawr-ing 20s actually happens I'm busting it out again, I don't even care

also yeah rip avril, an angel taken from us too soon xox avril 2.0 is fine I guess, we make do.

Welcome!! Some of us are still around, but I think the Discord is more active.

Also I'm like, near certain we'll get a steel type Eeveelution soonish. Steeleon. I mean, it's gotta be - we had leafeon and glaceon so I don't think we're going to get any surprises.

the real hidden nostalgia gem on this forum is going to your profile and checking out the pre-made avatar gallery. Limp Bizkit, Korn, Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne (rip), Dido, Eminem...all the latest chart toppers are there.

Jeff Kaplan quit Blizzard a few weeks ago, midway through Overwatch 2 development that's not a good sign, seems like most of the Blizz old guard are leaving.

As much as I'd love Overwatch 2 to pop off I think it's gonna flop. I've been playing Overwatch since release and after 900 hours or so I think I just want it to be over. I always return for the events to grab more skins but it's a drug I can't quit. I was a Mei main and got joy from freezing people, spamming the "Hi!" command when they expected the icicle to the face and then freezing them again when they thawed out - rinse and repeat until they slowly run out of health. Now it's become a chore, I don't think the game will ever reach 2016-2017 levels of hype again.

Do you mean that red port on the far right? If so, I've wondered what that was for a while!
Edit: As it turns out, my speakers are plugged into that one. I only noticed it on the picture when I saw it on Amazon. My dad was the one who put my pc together. That's why I didn't know.



My keyboard only supports 6.35mm, so I'll have to get a cable like this.

First of all, if you want to save some money and you already have a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable (They often come with wireless headphones if you have any of those lying around) you can use one of these:

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/lynx-gold-plated-headphone-adaptor-3-5mm-stereo-jack-to-6-35mm-/924996

You just screw it on the end of the 3.5mm and you can plug it into your keyboard.

As for your Line in/Line out...that's a bit confusing. Red normally is the line in, and green will be the line out...You've probably seen it on loads of desktop PCs. This pic might help you figure it out:



For what it's worth, this isn't a strict guide on where things should go. Give or take a few differences, most of those 3.5mm ports on your PC are pretty much the same. If I were you I'd just try plugging your keyboard into all of them, chances are your sound card software will pop up on your PC when you do to inform you that you just plugged something in. From there you should be able to figure out which one is the correct port to plug it into (It'll probably pop up and tell you that something is plugged into the microphone in or something to that effect).

The best way of doing this would be to get a USB Audio interface like the focusrite scarlett, but you could just use a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cord to go from the line in (Microphone port, normally red) on the PC and the other end goes into your Aux Out/Headphone port on your Keyboard (with the 3.5mm -> 1/4" jack adapter).

Together that would probably cost no more than a tenner, a tenth of the price of a USB audio interface but it's true the output could be noisy. If you're looking for something to record more professionally (or if you plan on slowly getting better and putting them online or something) then the USB audio interface is the way to go.

Definitely, I know people have been asking for it for a while but I'm on board with the idea now that Pokemon needs to have its BOTW moment. IMO Pokemon has always been an 'open world' game to some degree, certainly it felt like that in the Gameboy days. I think the Wild Area is the future of the game and the DLC is hopefully GameFreak starting to realize that.

It was very barebones though, some of the bugs(???) made the game feel really lazy. Fishing in spots in Motostoke city shows a battle scene in the countryside..small things like that definitely grated on me, especially when you consider this is the highest grossing media franchise ever.

I'm still here. Forums are definitely on the way out, but I try to inject some activity into them. The format of making long posts and having discussion in one place fills a different niche from just chatting on Discord, nobody wants walls of text there. I have a job and stuff but I'm still pretty much the same, that's just 8 hours of my life to fund travel, gaming, music, cons etc and other stuff I do. I'd post more about Pokemon but S/S hasn't really captured me in a way that has kept me coming back to it unfortunately, I think that's the same for a lot of us. Smaller games like Pokemon Snap might be the direction we all go in now.

So at 9pm UK time today we finally saw our first glimpse of the Sony Playstation 5 and its new titles. For those who haven't seen it, check it out on Twitch or YouTube. For those who have seen it, what did you think? Is it the peak of modern console design or just a giant modem lookalike? Are you excited for any of the games? I thought the new Oddworld looked pretty good, modern yet faithful to the original without dragging it kicking and screaming into the 2020s. Stray looked pretty interesting, a game about a cat in a cyberpunk world and then there were some landmark franchises - Gran Turismo 7 seemed to emphasize its campaign mode so presumably we're not gonna have a game as reliant on online play as GT Sport and Horizon Forbidden West looked positively beautiful. Unfortunately no price yet, I'm assuming they'll quietly announce that as to not kill the hype train straight away. I know a lot of people will also be hyped for new Ratchet and Clank too, I never played the original but it did look pretty slick.

So with the dust settled and Sword and Shield have come and gone and we're approaching DLC season I figured now would be a good time to hear thoughts on S/S. Did you like it? Hate it? Where did it stack up in your overall ranking.

For me personally it's not been great honestly. The game felt very rushed, story wasn't up to much and Galar as a region felt pretty gimmicky. New Pokemon were okay, but I'm not too into the 'obvious' Galar regionals. Regional variations were cool when they made sense with the environment (Exeggutor grows larger in Alola where there's more sunlight, makes perfect sense), but when we're putting a top hat and moustache on Weezing to make it ~british~ it starts to feel shoddy and uninspired.

Dynamax didn't leave much of an impression, we've come to expect a generational 'battle gimmick' and it's hard to invest interest knowing that it'll only stick around for as long as said generation. It was quite a visual spectacle though and some of the Gigantimax forms are quite cool. Overall I think most of my criticisms with the game is that template is wearing thin. Of course Pokemon has always been formulaic to a degree but it's starting to feel like the formula is taking over from the atmosphere of the Pokemon world at large.

It's not all bad news though, there were definitely some good parts. The Wild Area is super fun and while it's rough around the edges I think it's a great prototype for making Pokemon more open-world, which I think the franchise could really do with, it's a very good fit IMO. Camping with Pokemon and playing with them is very nice too, it's really cute seeing all the Pokemon interact. I feel like the concept of Pokemon Amie has gone from strength to strength since X/Y and making curry is surprisingly fun too. Customization has also been a plus, lots of clothes to choose from (even if a large chunk of them kinda suck), league cards were a really nice touch too. I wasn't keen on how sport-heavy Galar is but treating the league more like an actual competition with celebrities, sponsors and collectables makes a lot of sense and should carry across to the next games.

Thoughts from everyone else?

Mainly clearing my videogame and anime backlog. I'm trying to get to a point where I only play new games coming out and watch new anime series airing. The game backlog is going pretty well and there's less than 15 but the anime one is going to take some work, I've got hundreds and hundreds of series on that - many of which were added in 2008-2010.

Once I've done all that I can focus a lot of my time doing other things I've got lined up. As long as I get through stuff faster than I add it I should be able to gain on it.

Nanananana bat flu...or so we are led to believe. So the Covid-19 (AKA The Corona Virus) has arrived, hand sanitiser is flying off the shelves, people are panic buying, schools are closing, events are being cancelled (E3!!), some people are wearing masks and everyone is being told how to wash their hands.

How is it affecting you? Are you worried for your health or staying safe and cozy indoors until this all blows over? Where I live is apparently the 'Corona capital' (or was for a while) as we had the first few cases as well as some 'super spreader' so I probably should be more concerned but it's hard to care too much. I figure I'll either get infected or I won't, thankfully I think my work would be pretty lenient about it and I've got plenty of games to play and things to do if I have to isolate.

Anyone getting the new Animal Crossing? I'm sure there have to be some fans here, I've preordered my copy from GAME with the Tote bag. What features are you excited for? We can now move cliffs, waterfalls, bridges, having raised parts on our house and proper outside decoration plus craft furniture, get more customization options, sit on froggy chair and HAVE KNEES. Have you come up with a name for your island yet?

Awful result for so many scattered reasons.

1) Brexit. People still don't realise this is a bipartisan issue but the right wingers have latched onto it and turned it into us vs them. It really is 'destroy the country to own the libs'. It's such an obviously terrible idea regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum that it's just flat out stupidity. We don't have much hope of it being stopped now, but it's completely inevitable that we'll eventually rejoin, it's just stupid that we're going to have to endure years of pain first for literally no reason.

2) The election result is awful and bringing out all sorts of awful takes. The 'centrists' blame Corbyn for being 'Too left wing' and the Corbynites blame Brexit because it's the only thing that changed since 2017. The most important and overlooked thing about the election result is how each age group voted. We saw it with Brexit and we're seeing it again.

In 1983, 42% of 18-24 year olds voted for Thatcher, and only 33% voted Labour. In 2019, 56% of 18-24 year olds voted Labour and only 21% voted Conservative. Between two 'landslide' victories by the Conservatives, they've lost half of their young voters. This is completely unprecedented and goes against the old "As you get older you become more Conservative" saying. Basically, despite the GE2019 result, society is only becoming more and more left-wing. The talk of trying to get Labour to be more 'centrist' is pointless because the vast majority of the future electorate don't see them as being 'too left wing' in the first place. It's just delaying the inevitible.

In the end I voted Labour because I'd be furious with myself if I didn't tactically vote and caused it to split. Normally I'd be voting Green, Greens already hold 1/3 constituencies that make up Brighton anyway so it's never pie-in-the-sky. I'm just glad we live in a bubble down here and don't have to deal with all the right-wing nastiness that's emerging everywhere else in the country.

Dude's so messed up there's too many reasons to hate him, but if we're talking annoying it's gotta be the fact that he's teetotal & painfully boring beneath the thick subcutaneous layers of bigotry. If he drank his drunk tweets would be so bizarrely incoherent they'd at least be worth a laugh, if he went on some crazy bender we could at least step back, enjoy the trainwreck and maybe, just maybe feel a little bit sorry for him.

He doesn't like dogs or any other animals, doesn't really come across as a family man, he doesn't have any real opinions on music. Doesn't really seem to show any interest in movies, books, TV, art or anything else. Besides playing it he doesn't really show like an interest in Golf or any other sport. He's clearly not a foodie because he literally just eats McDonalds every single day. He sometimes vaguely engages with the lowest common denominator pop culture. He has no interesting backstory, no actual thought-provoking opinions that aren't just regurgitated Fox News soundbites. What's the dude's deal? Does he just stare at the wall in his spare time?