Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
- 149
- 1
What is this place?
This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a
court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to
optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.
The weekly Culture War threads host the most
controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are
appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy;
if in doubt, post!
Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts.
You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.
Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
New post guidelines
If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it.
A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts
such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a
submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).
Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or
significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.
If in doubt, please post it!
Rules
- Courtesy
- Content
- Engagement
- When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
- Proactively provide evidence in proportion to how partisan and inflammatory your claim might be.
- Accept temporary bans as a time-out, and don't attempt to rejoin the conversation until it's lifted.
- Don't attempt to build consensus or enforce ideological conformity.
- Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
- The Wildcard Rule
- The Metarule
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Absolutely! I've been playing the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection that just came out and the game there most were waiting for was Marvel vs Capcom 2 (MvC2)
The main selling point of MvC2 was its gigantic roster (like 50 characters). Competitive play over the like 24 years the game existed identified that there are like 5 actually viable characters. That meta is stronger than in other fighting games, there is only one competitive player known to be able to beat it and yeah, he's been playing 24 years so no one's catching up to him. Other than him, forget about situations like happened at EVO this year for SF3 Third Strike: forget about a cheeky Hugo or Elena making it far into the finals.
The community had to create the norms to resolve it. Picking a meta team when your opponent signaled he was not going to play a meta team makes you an asshole in the eyes of the community. People have to purposefully play suboptimally and run low tier teams otherwise the competitive meta sucked all the fun out of MvC2.
The ratio system has helped keep MvC2 interesting. You have to resort to banning characters or super arts in 3S to mix things up.
More options
Context Copy link
That's really interesting. Good on the MvC2 community for not letting the fun die from the game!
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link