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Also yeah I think whoever mentioned it earlier was right, cthulu is somewhat lower on the eldritch horror chart. Like he's the silver surfer to some greater being's Galactus.
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Sep 24, 2017 07:06
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Glagha posted:Also yeah I think whoever mentioned it earlier was right, cthulu is somewhat lower on the eldritch horror chart. Like he's the silver surfer to some greater being's Galactus. He's not even that. He's just the child of two way more advanced beings. Cthulhu's only a Big Deal because his existence on Earth is constantly low level influencing all of humanity. He's like psychic Godzilla. And yes Lovecraft is a huge racist and a lot of his stories have racist-rear end poo poo in them. Luckily it's all also public domain and we've had decades of people filtering that stuff away from his original viewpoint.
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Sep 24, 2017 07:15
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Blockhouse posted:He's not even that. He's just the child of two way more advanced beings. I want to say he's a high priest of some kind, and while he's immensely, incomprehensibly god-like, he pales in comparison to Shub-Niggurath and Yog-Sothoth. Lovecraft's one of my favourite authors, but oh boy did he have issues. Race, class, penguins, seafood... the list is long and oddly varied.
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Sep 24, 2017 07:20
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Whilst they do filter that stuff away, I just personally have never found a fear of the unknown to be all that compelling. People see the "What might be out there" and fear that it will be alien and inscrutable. I see it as full of hopefuly potentials. It's me. I'd be one of Lovecraft's witless dabblers in science and the beyond.
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Sep 24, 2017 07:23
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Kokoro Wish posted:The big twisty horror in that one? The dudes wife, you see, was actually... A NIGRESS! holy poo poo I just pissed myself
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Sep 24, 2017 07:36
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There was a rather infamous gif of a MLB game glitch where your custom dude got turned into an indescribable mass of tubes and holes that resembled flesh, smoke, and hair. And the animations still worked, so it blinked, somehow. I figure that's what HPL was going for.
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Sep 24, 2017 07:41
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A lot of writers would give their right arm to be "afraid of penguins" the way Lovecraft was. Lovecraft is one of the few things that ever happened in American literature. Houellebecq's essay on Lovecraft is always a good read.
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Sep 24, 2017 07:58
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Kulkasha posted:There was a rather infamous gif of a MLB game glitch where your custom dude got turned into an indescribable mass of tubes and holes that resembled flesh, smoke, and hair. And the animations still worked, so it blinked, somehow. Here, have a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoPE3VCxs1o
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Sep 24, 2017 08:10
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Wamdoodle posted:Here, have a video: What in the Jesus 
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Sep 24, 2017 08:55
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Wamdoodle posted:Here, have a video: This is a new level of nightmare fuel.
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Sep 24, 2017 09:51
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Improbable Lobster posted:Lovecraft was afraid of regular penguins Kokoro Wish posted:It's actually a light novel series, but this is probably what you're thinking of. Personally my go-to lovecraftian moeblob is Cthulhu's magical girl daughter Cthylla in Chaos Code. Her ultimate attack is calling her dad. Chev fucked around with this message at 10:26 on Sep 24, 2017 |
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Sep 24, 2017 10:18
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Chev posted:Read his descriptions of elder things and it'll make an odd sort of sense. I actually played through Saya no Uta for all paths and you know what? It was actually a pretty good story.
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Sep 24, 2017 10:48
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Wamdoodle posted:Here, have a video: Oh my god, oh jesus, I wasn't expecting it to be that bad. It's a trypophobia nightmare with pubes!
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Sep 24, 2017 11:02
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I feel like saying lovecraft is racist is one of those things that is like...well, yeah we know. If you aren't comfortable with his works because of how he was in life, then that's fine, and if you don't like his works, that's fine, but it always seems like any time discussion of his works come up, someone always ends up rolling in with "hey he's a racist shithead too" and I feel like it doesn't really add anything to the discussion because at this point I feel like most people know he was a racist shithead. Also, he had plenty of stories that weren't racist, like off the top of my head I don't recall any racism in the color out of space, cool air, or pickman's model, and in the walls of eryx had a specifically anti-racist stance to it. I feel like it does a disservice to someone who has undoubtedly influenced an entire genre of horror to write off his entire library of writing as being racist. I'd say that the story he ghost wrote for Houdini was definitely racist though since the idea of it was that it was allegedly Houdini being tricked by a scary Egyptian man who was actually maybe possibly an ancient pharaoh who was still alive because reasons and Houdini ended up in a tomb where he tried to escape and he saw a bunch of cultists and they were all praying to and worshiping this horrifying hairy, 5-headed, 5-horned monstrosity of a creature and Houdini was so struck with fear by the creepy Egyptians and their dreadful beast god that he could do nothing more than stand in awe and stare at it, paralyzed with fear, until he noticed that the gigantic creature he had been staring at was just the foot of something much, much larger, and he was basically staring at the foot of a sphinx
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Sep 24, 2017 11:29
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FirstAidKite posted:Also, he had plenty of stories that weren't racist, like off the top of my head I don't recall any racism in the color out of space, cool air, or pickman's model, and in the walls of eryx had a specifically anti-racist stance to it. I feel like it does a disservice to someone who has undoubtedly influenced an entire genre of horror to write off his entire library of writing as being racist. He's pretty much just a straight up general bigot really. In the Colour Out of Space and other stories, like The Dunwich Horror, it's more a haughty superiority of the educated white man over the poor country-folk (who are also immoral and sometimes conspire with swarthy waterfolk, don'tcha know). There's also the constant inference that those who seek understanding are in-fact idiots working beyond their purview. It's sentiment that runs deeply through all his work and is actually at the core of his fear-of-the-unknown/other style of horror. That other have dissociated it from that in their own work is fine, but when talking about Lovecraft specifically, it's all-pervasive. vvv: He was infact so racist that he caused other racist peers of the time to become less racist. Kokoro Wish fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Sep 24, 2017 |
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Sep 24, 2017 11:41
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Guy from a hundred years ago was a racist, news at 11.
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Sep 24, 2017 11:51
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Let's get back to Tomb Raider crypto-rape. It's shocking that Lara is only sexually assaulted once, despite meeting legions of violent men, and even then it's somewhat ambiguous. Are they saying that women are safe everywhere? That this only happens in Japanese rape forests or whatever that location was?
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Sep 24, 2017 12:43
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Gobblecoque posted:Guy from a hundred years ago was a racist, news at 11. There are in fact multiple layers of being racist and Lovecraft had his racist slider turned all the way up. It's worth talking about so people don't forget that you should probably not emulate the life of a guy who was terrified of women and people who weren't white (or let's be honest, anyone who wasn't him period) even if you think his stories were really really good. You'd think this wouldn't need to be discussed but if the last couple of years have proven anything it's that people are masters at missing the point on poo poo like this. Though like I said when you're talking about Cthulhu or Dagon or Deep Ones or what have you I don't believe you're talking about inherently bad or racist concepts as long as you don't have, say, a cult of black people with bones through their noises have bonfire cult parties like in the original stories Luckily Lovecraft could never control what anyone did with his work at all because he died alone with no estate to govern his work and let any of his writer friends use his characters if it meant they'd like him more so if you want Cthulhu to rise from the deep in your story and bellow "WHITE PEOPLE ARE COMPLICIT IN A SYSTEM OF OPPRESSION THAT PROFITS OFF THE MARGINALIZED" you totally can. And honestly where's that horror game?
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Sep 24, 2017 13:01
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The uncomfortable truth about Lovecraft is that his racism informed his writing in very visible and well-studied ways, so it's not something you can easily disassociate from the ethos of the man himself. You have to accept that the same elements that made Lovecraft a terrible bigot also contributed in some part to making his mythology interesting.
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Sep 24, 2017 13:10
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exquisite tea posted:The dude made of corpses that looks like a tree. if you mean the one reborn that's well after the lovecraft stuff takes over the story. i can't imagine just not finishing the best game ever made.
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Sep 24, 2017 13:24
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I finally got around to finishing Oxenfree and... I thought it was just okay. I could see what they were going for with the chance to interrupt dialogue, but it was inconsistent as to if Alex would actually interject or just wait for the other characters to finish their lines, so the flow of conversation often felt kludgy. More crucially, I felt as if the various themes of the game never really came together into a cohesive whole. I was waiting for a scene that would thematically unify the paranormal elements with the current storyline, but it felt like the game was eternally one sequence short of actually saying something. I thought the option of going back in time to save Michael's life totally undercut what I identified as the major theme of the story, which was learning to let go of old hatreds, deal with loss, and move on with one's life. That's a very common message in coming-of-age stories that you can totally betray here, and in fact doing so is seen as a positive. Also, the game is talky. VERY talky, and at times the voice direction just feels like actors reading from a script. Allowing more quiet time to soak up the environment and very good music score would have been a positive. I probably sound overly negative but I thought Oxenfree was still cool for the $5 I spent on it, I'd just rank it behind all my other favorite games about disparate millennials from rusted out towns who encounter supernatural happenings.
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Sep 24, 2017 13:30
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Groovelord Neato posted:if you mean the one reborn that's well after the lovecraft stuff takes over the story. I don't finish most of the games I play tbqh unless they're under 10 hours. The biggest game I've played this year to completion was Horizon Zero Dawn, and if I'm not 100% into a title that size it's unlikely I'll ever complete it.
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Sep 24, 2017 13:36
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exquisite tea posted:The uncomfortable truth about Lovecraft is that his racism informed his writing in very visible and well-studied ways, so it's not something you can easily disassociate from the ethos of the man himself. You have to accept that the same elements that made Lovecraft a terrible bigot also contributed in some part to making his mythology interesting. I agree with this. I just feel like it's beating a dead horse that whenever the subject of lovecraft comes up, it always feels like someone is derail it, whether intentionally or unintentionally, into a discussion of his personal beliefs and his bigotry instead, which would be fine if there were anything new to add other than "lovecraft is a weirdo and a bigot"
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Sep 24, 2017 13:50
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Yeah, it's not the massive truth bomb it's presented as. Even people with only a passing interest know he's racist for chrissake.
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Sep 24, 2017 14:10
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Groovelord Neato posted:i can't imagine just not finishing the best game ever made. Totally doable if you burn out on chalice dungeons early imo.
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Sep 24, 2017 14:46
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never was a fan of those wish they had spent the time on another area in the game proper. bloodborne is probably the game that does the lovecraft stuff best because of the insight system. you gain insight from seeing and defeating bosses and if you gain enough of it you can see things that are only revealed later on (after you defeat the first lovecraftian boss). and you're more susceptible to frenzy (which was called insanity in the japanese version) the higher your insight. i'd love to see a game that took that to the next level where it unlocked new unseen areas and poo poo but also made you more vulnerable the more you knew.
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Sep 24, 2017 14:49
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Even the insight mechanic in Bloodborne isn't fully realized since while the effects of getting enough of it is cool frenzy is encountered so rarely that there's almost no penalty for having it maxed out. Except for the like five times you run into one of those singing brains or something and you just insta-die. Not the best balance. e: I guess it makes Mad Ones spawn too but big whoop. Blockhouse fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Sep 24, 2017 |
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Sep 24, 2017 14:57
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It also expanded enemy movelists and spawn rates: the scarecrows with the scythes in the forest don't spawn until you have like ten insight iirc, and the Church militants with the lanterns change to be carrying horrible eyeball lanterns that shoot projectiles.
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Sep 24, 2017 15:19
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Yeah but I don't feel like any of that stuff was actually additional challenge. Maybe the scarecrow guys but the church dudes shooting stuff is actually easier to deal with than them just swinging at you.
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Sep 24, 2017 15:26
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Bloodborne's true ending is a pretty brilliant inversion of lovecraftianism.
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Sep 24, 2017 15:52
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Kulkasha posted:Bloodborne's true ending is a pretty brilliant inversion of lovecraftianism. I dunno, turning into the thing you fought against is pretty lovecraftian.
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Sep 24, 2017 15:57
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poptart_fairy posted:Yeah, it's not the massive truth bomb it's presented as. Even people with only a passing interest know he's racist for chrissake. See I don't know that everyone with a passing interest does. Like if you've ever read him it's totally unavoidable, but if you just consume Cthulhu stuff from other sources that's been pretty sanitized of the racism. poo poo outside of that one overused quote about the unknown a lot of modern Lovecraftian stuff really doesn't have much Lovecraft. It's totally believable that some one with a passing interest actually sits down with Shadow Over Innsmouth and is caught offguard by the whole "actually the real evil was miscegenation." Y'know that or it's a cat named after a racial slur in a story that's just otherwise about some dude's horrible cannibal ancestors. That's not saying it's a truth bomb or anything, just it's understandable that it surprises people. The real truth bomb is that "uhhh unknown is the real horror fears" is bullshit because those stories are about powerlessness, the arbitrary forces of nature, and racism. Blockhouse posted:Even the insight mechanic in Bloodborne isn't fully realized since while the effects of getting enough of it is cool frenzy is encountered so rarely that there's almost no penalty for having it maxed out. I think that's kind of a consequence of it being a currency. They can't really penalize you for hoarding it without giving you a better way to dump it. Or well they could, but then it'd be a slightly different game.
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Sep 24, 2017 16:37
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Every time the Lovecraft is a racist thread pops up I recommend A Means to Freedom about the correspondence between Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. It shows how diametrically opposed the two were but also highlights on a universal story of tortured, mentally unstable young creatives trying to sell their work in a country that doesn't really care about you until you're dead.
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Sep 24, 2017 16:52
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IShallRiseAgain posted:I dunno, turning into the thing you fought against is pretty lovecraftian. the old ones are the good guys in bloodborne. humanity is the true monster.
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Sep 24, 2017 16:57
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If the child in the DLC didn't convince you of that I don't know what will.
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Sep 24, 2017 17:04
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Eh. Moon Presence is like a jealously possessive SO, and Oedon didn't give a poo poo what Mergo's birthing would do to the world around it. Like they're both wounded by losing kids, but Kos(m) and I guess Mergo are the only two really decent ones. Decent-sh.
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Sep 24, 2017 17:07
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TGLT posted:Eh. Moon Presence is like a jealously possessive SO, and Oedon didn't give a poo poo what Mergo's birthing would do to the world around it. Like they're both wounded by losing kids, but Kos(m) and I guess Mergo are the only two really decent ones. Decent-sh. The Moon Presence needs an emissary to maintain the Hunter's Dream, and Mergo's birth didn't gently caress everything up so much as the School of Mensis obsessively trying to make contact with it. The Great Ones themselves are largely benign, but meddling from the School, Byrgenwerth, and the Healing Church made everything go all apocalyptic.
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Sep 24, 2017 17:15
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Oxxidation posted:The Moon Presence needs an emissary to maintain the Hunter's Dream, and Mergo's birth didn't gently caress everything up so much as the School of Mensis obsessively trying to make contact with it. The Great Ones themselves are largely benign, but meddling from the School, Byrgenwerth, and the Healing Church made everything go all apocalyptic. MP still kidnaps people for its own needs. Gherman wasn't exactly super into being the host. Should have tried to recruit Micolash, he'd probably be into it. Also if Yharnam down in the chalice dungeons is any indication, Mergo didn't need the oopsy-doodle Mensis to gently caress things up in the real world. I mean poo poo the whole chalice dungeon thing is an indictment of the Great Ones. The Pthumerians were supposed to be their sleepytime guards and Oedon only intervened to knock up the queen, not to actually save them from collapse. edit: poo poo, Oedon's pretty much uniquely responsible for the shitshow that is blood ministration. 2nd edit: poo poo, lots of Bloodborne talk. Question for the thread, is Lakeview Cabin Collection any good? I'm trying to line up my horror themed games for October, and I gave it a try recently and was mostly just perplexed. Worth sticking with? TGLT fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Sep 24, 2017 |
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Sep 24, 2017 17:21
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Why hasn't there been a game similar to Cabin in the Woods? The closest thing I can think of is Ghost Master, but that was.. <googles> christ, 2003?
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Sep 24, 2017 18:09
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The_Doctor posted:Why hasn't there been a game similar to Cabin in the Woods? The closest thing I can think of is Ghost Master, but that was.. <googles> christ, 2003? I was thinking about that game the other day as well and yeah looking up how long ago it came out was quite, quite depressing.
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