campfire
26d ago
Haven't touched video games much these last few years but Civilization has had a special place in my heart since my parents got me Civ IV for my 8th birthday. Now the first looks at Civilization VII are out, and I'm sort of disappointed. The graphics are the best in the series so far (as you'd hope) but there are lots of baffling game design decisions being made here. The biggest change by far is that you no longer play with one civilization, the game is divided into thirds and each involves you playing as a different civ. Your cities (well, 'settlements', of which cities are only one type) and units carry over but other than that all the civs are reset to roughly the same development level and you choose a different civilization lead by the same leader. This is strange and immersion-breaking, especially when you can choose to transition from Egypt under Hatshepsut to Mongolia if you have enough horses. I actually think this model has some potential but they'd need a LOT of civs to make it work while also changing the player's leader and they'd have to limit you to civs that have actually controlled the same area through the ages. If they pull this off it could address the snowball effect that's plagued the late games of the previous entries. Also, the current UI is terrible and looks like a cheap mobile game. There's time for them to make adjustments and it could be a good game after an expansion pack or two but this might be the first time I don't preorder an entry.
But now I'm in the mood for some historical strategy and role-playing. How does Crusader Kings III work? Last time I tried it I'd get 10 years into a game and build up my economy at a snail's pace and then someone who had a claim on my land would invade me with an army twice the size of mine and I'd be dead.
campfire
30d ago
Generally, no, quite the opposite. What it’s good for is putting me to sleep because I’m more focused on the fictional conflicts than any problems irl. A coworkers recently told me he was surprised I could watch House of The Dragon to relax before bed, considering how violent it can get. But it works as a sort of reverse-escapism for me, my life seems so much more comforting when compared to medieval barbarism.
campfire
1mo ago
Great recommendation, reminds me of Ken Jennings Kennections for Mental Floss.
I’ve always thought American game shows are overly simplistic. My quizbowl friends and I in high school would watch University Challenge together. Much less serious is the Big Fat Quiz of the Year.
Random thought but it seems like game shows are much more regional than other media. Americans do like British TV and vice versa but we never seem to watch your game shows, and the rest of the world seems to have no idea how Jeopardy works.
campfire
1mo ago
I was referring to separate threads not just top-level comments. I’ve been meaning to make effort posts on Georgism/Land Value Tax, various topics in philosophy of mind, my thoughts on the sociology of religion.
campfire
1mo ago
I’d like to, there are some topics I have in mind. But where exactly do I post about them? Right now the main threads are focused on culture war, health & wellness, personal projects, questions, fun, and small-scale questions. What if I just want to share my thoughts on an issue without making a top-level post? Or is the bar for top-level posts not actually that high? Seems few people actually take advantage of the ability. Relegating all the top-level posts to one of the weekly threads seems like a holdover from the days of Reddit where it helped us not get banned, but doesn’t seem like there’s much of a reason for it now.
campfire
1mo ago
Any advice someone could give you depends on what exact disability you have, any chance you could elaborate? Especially considering this is a throwaway
Definitely, I’ve commented on it before but it has a rare combination of people who are smart, intellectually curious, intellectually honest, and have a high openness to experience. And it’s largely this way thanks to the Bay Area Rationalist writers cultivating an audience with these qualities. If you advertised your forum as being a place for smart, curious, open-minded people, it wouldn’t attract nearly the same caliber of users.
I’ll second @bolido_sentimental ‘s idea that it should be used for more general purpose discussion. It’s sort of arbitrary that the Culture War Thread is the site’s main weekly thread. Even if it did start as a more CW-oriented version of the SlateStarCodex subreddit, the userbases have noticeably diverged and many people here are well-informed on topics outside the CW, and most of the broader CW discussions have been had. I think the Maker’s Monday is a great start, enjoyed reading about the projects people have been working on.
campfire
1mo ago
matchmaking
What, like setting people up on dates? Is this a common use case for Discord?
Say you and I are the only two people on Earth.
Level 1: I know the sun rises in the East. You know the sun rises in the East. However, you might erroneously think I believe the sun rises in the West.
Level 2: I know the sun rises in the East. You know the sun rises in the East. I know you know the sun rises in the East. You know I know the sun rises in the East. However, you might erroneously think I believe you think the sun rises in the West.
I personally would consider it common knowledge at this point. But I can imagine a situation where, for example, you tell me to watch for the sunrise, and you have to clarify that you mean the East, because you think my understanding of you is that you believe the sun rises in the West. This wouldn’t happen at Level 3.
Level 3: I know the sun rises in the East. You know the sun rises in the East. I know you know the sun rises in the East. You know I know the sun rises in the East. I know you know that I know the sun rises in the East. You know that I know that you know the sun rises in the East.
campfire
1mo ago
How much useful/well-curated information is on Discord servers that isn’t available or as accessible on websites and social media?
campfire
2mo ago
What has your experience been with SSC/ACX or SSC-adjacent communities in your area? What are your thoughts on the future of the scene at large, online and offline?
Went to a local informal ACX meetup recently and was pleasantly surprised by the group. The members were all interesting in their own way: most had niche intellectual interests they could discuss at length (including ones they had written about on their substacks or elsewhere online), some had studied at elite universities, others had met many in the greater Lesswrong-Bay Area rationalist scene. At 25 I was one of the younger members, but not the youngest, and everyone was <31 (in this meetup at least). This got me wondering about the state of the rat/rat-adjacent community (side note: is there any sort of official name for this space? I think most of us are familiar with the scene I'm describing here but I'm not sure what to label it) at large. Do meetups happen regularly in your area? What's the turnout like, and are you regularly seeing newer/younger members joining? Has anything interesting come of them: like a business/organization started or the groups achieving any sort of collective goals?
I've always found it interesting how this space manages to naturally attract smart, open-minded, and intellectually curious people. And it does so because (I think) reading LessWrong/SSC selects for these qualities in a way that an open forum that sells itself on fostering them probably wouldn't, such a place would probably just revert to the median subreddit-level discourse. I've seen comments suggesting it's on the decline. For example: that this site's weekly threads get less activity than the subreddit's did at its peak. I guess this site in particular will struggle in the long-term to find new posters to replace the ones that leave or just post less frequently without Reddit to promote it. At the same time, I wouldn't, for the reasons I described, want to just advertise it to the masses. But the SSC subreddit doesn't seem as active as it once was either.
Related question: are there any new/younger writers in the space? Scott recommends Ricki Heicklen who graduated from undergrad in 2019 but she hasn't posted in a while.
Your mistake is that upon drawing a gold coin, you concluded you’re equally likely to have drawn from 1g1s and 2g. The latter is twice as likely as the former. Interesting that more people would have understood this if the numbers were 100s, 99s1g, and 100g.
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