SLASH'S PROFILE

Speaking only with people who agree with you is more comforting, but if you want to encourage people of your point of view, you have to open yourself to difficult conversations. You don't have to agree with people with opposing viewpoints, but you should be willing to try and critically understand where those views come from, without making assumptions & with real discussion, so that you can better discuss why those viewpoints might be harmful.

Easier said than done, of course, and it's hard to have that kind of energy - plus... some viewpoints are just outright dangerous or nearly illogical.


FWIW, Harmonic, this isn't unique to just you;; there have been a lot of people on RMN with more conservative views and the conflict is not uncommon.

author=Craze

Red_Nova
I think we need to be more active in the Row 13 forum. It's been dead way for too long.

give me the row 13 forum as craze's domain and i will make megathreads every 13 days to discuss important aspects of gam mak and gam play, including essays #makermntalkagain

look it's been a long time since we had a heated & argumentative game design thread, and I think it's time we address the pros and cons of random battles again

Mystic Messenger...... I expected a goofy game about dating anime boys but now it's really funny and well-written too!?

I agree that artistic degrees are currently impractical and bad investments from a financial perspective; however, I think our society undervalues the contribution the arts provide. We tend to vastly underpay and undersupport most artists (outside of superstars, which are relatively overpaid) and generally dismiss or demean artist professions in favor of more "tangible" jobs that result in new technologies or mass-produced goods, often in a corporate environment.

I'd argue that writers, musicians, game devs, designers, painters, cartoonists, etc. could use a little more love and support financially than they're getting right now, and provide an important role in our society.

Of course, this is coming from an indie game dev on an indie game website, so...

(EDIT: The KKK (and the WBC) are bad not only because of the outright harm they cause, but because people pay attention to them and listen to them. They have influence. They are frightening to the people they condemn, and can sway average people closer to their viewpoints, even if the average person doesn't actually put on a white hood.)


Yea, I mean, racism and bigotry are one of Trump's noticeable criticisms, so it's pretty obvious it's going to be a talking point. But, hell, we could switch to discussing another topic of criticism, such as increasing military spending!

Why the hell do we need to increase military spending? We don't need more war-power and I'd rather not just have it sitting around. We don't need to make more nuclear weapons - we have more than will ever be usable. We already spend a ton of money making way too many outdated tanks - so many that higher-ups in the military are even saying it's a waste of our spending and so many that we're buying more storage facilities so the tanks can sit there and do nothing (or occasionally selling them overseas at a loss). We have the world's most powerful, all-encompassing Navy. If we want to change our military strategy, we should be redirecting our current funding from this traditional (outdated) hardware to research new technology, new reconnaissance, etc.

A lot of the reason we're spending money on the military is because it keeps jobs around - military manufacturers don't want to go out of business. I would argue, though, that we'd be better off spending that money on national infrastructure. We could use that money we've been spending on the military to build new roads and bridges, repair our existing highways, repair schools and public buildings, etc. This would not only create or keep a bunch of jobs, but also provide way more immediate and noticeable benefit to our citizens.