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Inexplicable Humblebrag posted:i am saliba irl Post/username combo on point
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May 29, 2020 11:05
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| # ? May 31, 2024 18:53 |
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:Neither am I, the question was rhetorical. Though I don't know if I'd agree that the text doesn't include the failings of the person. Without passing judgement on the veracity or extent of the accusations against Kennedy, the narrative and gameplay of CS is very much about a brilliant, special individual attempting to achieve personal goals by using and destroying people. At least that's how I play, maybe it says more about me? I'm the exact opposite, coddling my precious babies and using summons for anything even remotely dangerous. Yes, even Saliba. Not that that stopped me from burning through their lives to kill a Long for my Name ascension.
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May 29, 2020 11:19
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There’s probably some kind of parallel to draw between a simulation of being a cult leader and its creator, who turned out to be an untrustworthy malefactor
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May 29, 2020 11:42
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:Neither am I, the question was rhetorical. Though I don't know if I'd agree that the text doesn't include the failings of the person. Without passing judgement on the veracity or extent of the accusations against Kennedy, the narrative and gameplay of CS is very much about a brilliant, special individual attempting to achieve personal goals by using and destroying people. At least that's how I play, maybe it says more about me? I'd agree that in the context of what we know now the text itself feels...uncomfortable. But let me put it this way, if you played Cultist Simulator before that, was it ever your understanding that the protagonist was a good person? Brilliant, special, sure, but also selfish, immoral, even evil, right? I don't think you can read Cultist Simulator as an endorsement of abusive manipulation, whereas for lots of Lovecraft's works you cannot read them as anything but an endorsement of racism.
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May 29, 2020 11:45
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Yeah, I think that sounds right.
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May 29, 2020 12:41
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Alexis Kennedy posted:The core theme of CS is the gradual revelation of the sublimely monstrous beneath the safely mundane.
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May 29, 2020 21:58
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After 3 attempts I got my first exile obscurity victory. It's actually pretty straight forward. Don't get greedy, and don't worry about setbacks too much. I ended with 30 years to spare. I never manage to create obscurity through challenge but still build up my obscurity through special events, wiping out trace with contacts and going to remote location. False trail is a beautiful thing and if you time it right and have some luck it'll allow you to farm in a location for close to 10 minutes. Though without the ability to generate obscurity staying in one place for long isn't nearly as valuable.
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May 30, 2020 13:36
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what did exile change? seems the same to me.
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Jun 1, 2020 02:11
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a fatguy baldspot posted:what did exile change? seems the same to me. It's entirely self contained, so if you don't play the scenario itself you will not see any difference.
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Jun 1, 2020 02:27
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pedro0930 posted:It's entirely self contained, so if you don't play the scenario itself you will not see any difference. how do i play it?
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Jun 1, 2020 02:33
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a fatguy baldspot posted:how do i play it? Go to "mods & DLC" in the main menu and click on play under the dlc there. The specific wording might differ slightly but that's how. You can also get it after ending a normal game as well.
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Jun 1, 2020 02:34
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I played through exile and after getting my poo poo pushed in a half dozen runs, I started to figure it out. But with a lot of dissatisfaction. - I get the need to be on the run all the time. But it’s almost the converse of regular cultsim, where you’re expected to slowly build your army. The pace and constant movement, with the ticking clock of your limited years is a different kind of stressful. - Some of the chances of reckoners are bullshit. Quietly sitting in a town with no traces still has a 10% chance a minute to spawn recliners. And when reckoners appear, there is no way to counteract them except move out. - The only way I’ve found to generate funds without spending years seems to be underworld connections, forge, and warehouse counterfeiting. This sucks, because you always need funds to move, which means you are burning years constantly. To be fair, because it’s so painful to send money ahead it’s almost never worth having more than a few cash on hand. - There doesn’t seem to be nearly any lore. All locations, relics, and people have very little character - Cheap way to cheese the later game that became necessary: If you have at least one obscurity, you can set worm setting on, and hold it. If you never set the card down without the game paused, reckoners will never do anything but look for it, giving you time to skip dodge. And the Obscurity (or stack) if you had one come with you, meaning you can indefinitely hold off even under bosses and your foe just by playing keep-away with the obscurity All in all, I’m glad to have a little more cult simulator, but this wasn’t really what I was jonesing for.
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Jun 1, 2020 03:34
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If you have no trace there's a 50/50 chance (my estimate, not sure what the actual chance is) the recokoner will leave on his own every cycle.
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Jun 1, 2020 03:56
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Dalaram posted:- There doesn’t seem to be nearly any lore. All locations, relics, and people have very little character Can't help feeling like what's the point after reading that. There must be people who like this and other AK stuff primarily for the gameplay, but I mostly just want more words.
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Jun 1, 2020 04:07
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Sinteres posted:Can't help feeling like what's the point after reading that. There must be people who like this and other AK stuff primarily for the gameplay, but I mostly just want more words. There's a lot of lore though, at least not any less than the other DLC.
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Jun 1, 2020 04:15
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pedro0930 posted:There's a lot of lore though, at least not any less than the other DLC. It's just not handed to you in the form of specific cards. Mostly.
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Jun 1, 2020 04:22
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pedro0930 posted:There's a lot of lore though, at least not any less than the other DLC. Oh okay cool. I have the perpetual edition, so I'll have to give it a shot one of these days. Honestly I kind of wish he'd just write fiction, and felt massively trolled when he announced he was writing a book but it was about his experiences in the game industry instead of that.
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Jun 1, 2020 04:22
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I finally got around to playing Exile. It’s good and flavourful, and it sucked me in for another week or so. Possibly says something disturbing about the human condition how satisfying it is to play these “spin the plates” games. The lore is doled out in snippets and through context as usual. What it covers, spoiler free: - When in history this is all taking place - Criminal underworld of the cults - More context for some of the patrons - A sense of place for the various cities - Some more bickering between certain Hours It’s more frustrating than base game, but also in some ways a better emergent story generator. An example gameplay loop would be: - Arrived in Tirana - Spent a year running a faith healing cult - Took part in a crime caper to get an artefact - Attracted the attention of pursuers - Betrayed a revolution for cash - Fled one step ahead of an assassin Eventually it gets stale but there’s enough variety there to keep it interesting until you’ve visited all the cities, and there is some metaplot around who your character is and the kind of demimonde of bottom-feeders in the cultist sim world.
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Jul 18, 2020 00:40
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So, AK's new game is out, Book of Hours: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1028310/BOOK_OF_HOURS/ Not sure if we have a thread where people are discussing this game? Anyways, it's the same deal as Cultist, buy now get 10% off and all future DLC free. So far it's pretty good. If you enjoy AK's writing, well, there's a lot of it. There are tons of doodads to pick up in the house and you can literally examine all of them and get a snippet. BoH is more relaxed as there doesn't seem to be upkeep to your life. You can experiment and look at things at your own pace without dying of fascination or starve to death. Mechanically it is similar to Cultist, you are primary trying to figure out what action can generate what resources, and try to combine enough to improve your cards.
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Aug 21, 2023 01:01
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Did anything further happen with him being accused of being a sex pest? Or is he just kinda trying to hope we forget about that part?
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Aug 21, 2023 01:44
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Solis posted:Did anything further happen with him being accused of being a sex pest? Or is he just kinda trying to hope we forget about that part? the latter, it was pretty well confirmed when failbetter cut ties with him
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Aug 21, 2023 01:50
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yeah im not really sure i can voluntarily give him money knowing how unrepentant he is
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Aug 21, 2023 01:54
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I have wanted to play Cultist Simulator for a long time and Book of Hours looks really interesting but I don't want to give AK money 
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Aug 21, 2023 02:40
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Yo ho ho
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Aug 21, 2023 04:36
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Solis posted:Did anything further happen with him being accused of being a sex pest? Or is he just kinda trying to hope we forget about that part? not exactly http://weatherfactory.biz/what-actually-happened https://weatherfactory.biz/the-rarer-action/ https://weatherfactory.biz/failgate/ this is his account of things. the second and third posts make it pretty clear there's a lot of bad blood between him and Failbetter which at the very least suggests anything they say (particularly employees who joined after he left, which is most of the studio at this point) is worth taking with a grain of salt. as for buying the game, I'm going to step on this landmine and say that having a consensual relationship with a junior and non-specifically making someone uncomfortable at some point (which is what the allegations boil down to) does not put you up there with the Blizzards and Ubisofts of this world, or even the spate of other abusive 'indie' devs that were being reported on at the time. even if you think it does, the guy has apologised, has had his professional reputation shredded, has been shut out of the game dev scene (his 'studio' is a 2-man operation with his wife) and this game is probably not going to even come close to the (modest) success of Cultist Simulator due to the lack of publicity. up to you whether you think that balances out the stuff he's allegedly done, but I don't think it'd be fair to say he hasn't faced any consequences and is just lying low. for what it's worth, Book of Hours is pretty good - the UI is a bit fiddlier than cultsim, but the removal of the constant time pressure makes it a much more chill experience, and the atmosphere and writing are wonderful.
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Aug 21, 2023 08:41
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well the sex creep says hes not a sex creep so perhaps the truth is in the middle
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Aug 21, 2023 09:01
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Endorph posted:well the sex creep says hes not a sex creep so perhaps the truth is in the middle glad we agree
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Aug 21, 2023 09:28
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Gato posted:glad we agree wtf
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Aug 21, 2023 09:31
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Gato posted:this game is probably not going to even come close to the (modest) success of Cultist Simulator due to the lack of publicity. up to you whether you think that balances out the stuff he's allegedly done, but I don't think it'd be fair to say he hasn't faced any consequences and is just lying low. not according to him https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1028310/view/3650783611414080475
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Aug 21, 2023 09:32
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Endorph posted:well the sex creep says hes not a sex creep so perhaps the truth is in the middle (I will be doing my own research on who to believe but this is a bad mindset to have. It's innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven Innocent.)
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Aug 21, 2023 09:37
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Malachite_Dragon posted:you're right, no one's allowed to defend themselves against allegations made against them. linking literally only his own posts as your 'source' and declaring everything fine is what i was making fun of, not the basic idea of someone possibly being innocent or being able to defend themselves
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Aug 21, 2023 09:38
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https://medium.com/@wastebooks/alexis-kennedy-71044efc0ecf for instance heres a post that directly contradicts kennedy's defensive articles, including some actual proof that contradicts things he said.
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Aug 21, 2023 09:50
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there is also a trick of linguistics and framing happening in kennedy (and his wife's) posts that does not condemn them but does seem, extremely suspect. namely that they focus a ton on consequences for them, harassment they received, without ever once acknowledging that literally anyone who accuses anyone of anything is also subject to a ton of harassment. i have acquaintances who were part of that wave of indie dev abuse callouts, some of them had to delete their entire internet presence. weird that somehow that doesnt enter into their rants about 'the power of cancel culture' and 'actually people calling out abuse are the true sexists.'
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Aug 21, 2023 09:56
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don't give AK money
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Aug 21, 2023 09:56
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also the fact that his huge ~expose~ was essentially him hiring a weird british tabloid guy to muckrake about all the women who accused him kinda sealed the deal. his stupid rear end "failgate" post is breathtakingly lovely
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Aug 21, 2023 10:39
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also all his 'why didnt they simply go to the police???' as we all know, getting cops involved always makes things better
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Aug 21, 2023 10:46
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yeah like if it was just the relationship like ok whatever but I personally have credible personal reports of him bein over the line as a matter of course that were shared with me at the time this all came out, and it fits with some of my personal experience of the man which was, I stress, not in any way inappropriate, but had a similar tone to how other people's stories started. I do think he genuinely believes nothing he did was sex pesty, but like, that's worse. neongrey fucked around with this message at 11:22 on Aug 21, 2023 |
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Aug 21, 2023 10:57
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Endorph posted:yeah thats what im saying, genius I was responding to a post asking if AK was just trying to hope everyone forgot about the accusations, to which the answer is pretty clearly no. he might even have been better off trying that, but he's defended himself pretty extensively and I think that's worth knowing Endorph posted:https://medium.com/@wastebooks/alexis-kennedy-71044efc0ecf the second and third articles I linked are him basically replying to this specific post and discussing the same emails. all I am saying is that Kennedy is alleging some pretty serious disputes between him and Failbetter unrelated to the sex pest stuff and that Failbetter isn't a neutral party in this. to reiterate, I am not saying that Kennedy has never done anything wrong - hell, he himself isn't saying that. personally I think his argument that this was a deliberate campaign of sabotage by Failbetter is pretty shaky. but I think the situation is messier than it was initially presented in the gaming press, and I don't think he's history's greatest monster and should never make another game again.
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Aug 21, 2023 11:09
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It's also worth bearing in mind that there's an active lawsuit between Kennedy and Failbetter that due to a quirk of their contract essentially hinges on the question of whether Failbetter acted with goodwill to both Kennedy and staff at the company. This is potentially why he directs his writings away from "was I a lovely abusive boss" towards "here's how Failbetter acted unreasonably and unfairly towards me and others". And it's entirely possible for both those things to be true, even if Kennedy wins his suit against Failbetter it won't mean the allegations against him were untrue.
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Aug 21, 2023 11:14
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Gato posted:to reiterate, I am not saying that Kennedy has never done anything wrong - hell, he himself isn't saying that.
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Aug 21, 2023 11:16
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