site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2380 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 11, 2023

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.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

You couldn't get me to build a retro pc or play old games on it for love and money, I'd wager because when I was a kid, I had no choice in the matter, being stuck with a frankly ancient pc till my late teens, so instead of nostalgia it provokes more of a sense of impotent rage at all the good games I simply couldn't play at the time.

If I had a dollar for every game I saved up to buy with my literal 20 cents a day of pocket money (which I saved by skipping lunch) and I ended up being unable to run on my system because they were too demanding or needed an online activation, I'd be able to buy them all again on GOG.

It wasn't that terrible when I was a kid in the 90's. Especially the early 90's. Basically right up until Quake came out, system requirements, and what was considered playable, were fairly loose. Doom could play on just about anything, although a 486 was best. Which to put in perspective, you could get in 1993 and still be playing games reasonably well in 1996. Plus the DOS VGA era has a massive catalog of quality games you could almost never exhaust.

After Quake all bets were off. The race for 3D from 1997 to 2000 obsoleted computers so damned fast. A P233 MMX from 1997 could barely run a 3D game by the end of 1998. The first generation of 4MB Voodoo or Nvidia cards from 1997 were only barely supported by most games in that same timespan. It was fucking terrible.

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


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats