The Introduction Thread! 🍺

[Drathnoxis]

Not to take your concern with traditional musical notation lightly, but I offer a couple questions: given that an octave is 12 semi tones precisely, why is a conventional scale (irrespective of key, provided it's major) comprised of, sequentially, two full tones, one semi-tone, three full tones and a semi-tone (and equivalent analogue for minor keys) while a sequence comprising full tones only sounds 'off' no matter how you cut it? And given the C-major centrism of notation (I won't go into how a lot of wind instruments are constructed with transposed tuning, that's a 'logical' mess of its own), why do the black keys have a set consensus in label? This then leads into not all steps on notation being full tone, E-F/B-C being what they are. There's a whole lot of maths in tonality that I'd seriously need to brush up on, but the pattern within scales still confuses me. Also, quite why they settled on 'C' being the central key really screws with things. Like why not 'A'? *shrug, to the extent that hearing A-B-C-D-E-F-G in a musical setting makes no sense, I'm so inured to the 'logic' of C-D-E-F-G-A-B.

Specific to the clefs though, SupahEwok's pretty much gone through the core reasoning and IMO, it makes more logical sense now than it did when they started using them primarily because of the finger marking aids for beginners (back in the baroque/classical era, it was a 'do what I do' sort of a gig, as music was a trade with apprentices and journeymen unlike now). Typically, in the early months/years of learning, the right hand does not play below middle-C and the left hand does not play above it. The fingers of the right hand are counted 1-5 going up the scale and left hand is counted down, so the placement of middle-C as being one clef line above the bass clef and below the treble clef for a meeting point of the thumbs makes it a perfect place to be. Perhaps a trick is to realise that the bass and treble clefs can be read in unison as a single clef of 11 lines (middle-C falling on the 11th line in the middle that isn't represented), I didn't learn it that way, but it could help as an additional possible explanation. Thus, having a central point of reference within a symmetrical medium for notation makes hand-crossing in keyboard playing a lot easier.

When's all said and done, musicians are nothing if not closet mathematicians(!)



Which begs the question: who came up with the tenor clef and honestly thought it was a good idea?(!)



Thanks!

Good lord man. I just said I can barely read sheet music, I have no idea what you are talking about. I push the black and white buttons and noise comes out.

On a entirely different topic, never knew beer mug could be part of a url. That's weird, and would be pretty tough to type in manually.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Good lord man. I just said I can barely read sheet music, I have no idea what you are talking about. I push the black and white buttons and noise comes out.

LOL, no worries, got ahead of myself a bit. Just that there's a lot in music notation and conventions that make little sense (apparent or actual) when you stop and think about it.

Just watch and feel (like me) woefully inadequate LOL

On a entirely different topic, never knew beer mug could be part of a url. That's weird, and would be pretty tough to type in manually.

Huh, just noticed it and... well, huh(!)

 

[morsomk]

1. It was a random nick from an online game that just sort of stuck.
2. I think it was through Yatzhee's video reviews that I found the website and I kinda liked the other content at the time. Plus, finding another video game news website was alright.
3. Favourite has always been a weird thing for me, since you can have multiple favourite things within one genre due to multiple reasons. But this is supposed to be simple, so here goes.
Video Game: Witcher 1
Movies: Too many to count.
Music: Anamanaguchi, Tyr, Kendrick Lamar
4. The name morsomk is almost the exact same as the norwegian word for funny.
5. It looks more sleek than the last one and the post writer is way better than the last one.

 

[SupahEwok]

1. I needed a username to play Runescape with my friends back in middle school. It was the norm back then for folks (or at least kids) to pick something and stick a lot of numbers at the end to make it unique, and I recognized that as a terrible system for making your name recognizable and communicable. I thought a good username needed to be simple, yet stupid enough that nobody else would have thought to pick it. At the time, I'd just played through Lego Star Wars with my brother, and had had great fun with the unlockable cheat code that turned the poo that Ewoks fired from slingshots into proton torpedoes that annihilated everything, including usually the one who fired it. So I came up with SuperEwok. I started using it as my go-to username across the internet, and at some point ran across a website where it wasn't available, so I modified it to SupahEwok and it reached the stupidity critical mass necessary to be completely and utterly unique wherever I went.

2. I am one of the very few people active on the Escapist nowadays who never really followed ZP. Sometimes I'd watch a video, but I never really got into it. I actually found the Escapist through Shamus Young, as I followed his blog before he started making a comic for the site (I forget which came first, his column or his comic). I didn't create an account until 2010, I think for a quiz or to start commenting on articles. I would sometimes lurk in the forums, but was too shy to really participate in them until the Wild West was opened, I think that was 2016? I became an active poster in there since I didn't have to worry too badly about unexpected social norms (part of my shyness is that of the couple forums I'd tried before, I'd been burned bad by the existing userbase because I had mistepped on common forum etiquette I hadn't known about, like not looking for existing threads before creating a duplicate one). When that closed down I became semi-active on the rest of the forums.

3. As my ability to have more nuanced appreciation for things has increased, I've found it harder to hold onto favorites. As far as influential goes though, the Baldur's Gate games were highly formative for me, being my first PC games back in the early 2000s. Fire Emblem (before Awakening, which was my big break with the series) was also near and dear to my heart, to the point that I'm planning to make my own game based on the formula. Turn based, narrative RPGs remain my bread and butter, even if I do still play occasional action games and shooters and RTS's.

I don't follow TV or movies as avidly. Legend of Korra is a favorite not necessarily because I think it's great, but because I admire what it tried to do (I don't think I could get myself to rewatch it today). The early DC Animated Universe started by Batman: The Animated Series was a childhood favorite.

4. I have an undergraduate degree in geographic information science and surveying, which gives me a broad skill base in modern analytical geography and tech-focused physical measurements. I'm the guy who could measure out your property (or construction site) to within a couple millimeters, digitize the data and reference it to real world coordinates, and add it to a database that lays out a city/county/state/country. I am currently in grad-school doing a Master's focusing on the use of aerial scanning, either from photography or a laser, for measurements and mapping. Thought it would be a shortcut to a job flying aerial surveys, but a friend who graduated told me a couple of months ago how he became his company's chief aerial surveyor within 9 months because that's how in demand those skills are, so I hit a "fuck it" point with some frustrations with grad school and have opted to drop out after this semester. That was before Covid-19 shut everything down so... I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point. Ennui!

 

[Smithnikov]

1 It's a tribute to my older brother (RIP). He loved the original wave of Deathmatch FPS play and this was his handle on Duke Nukem 3d and Quake.
2 Pretty much just followed alongside Yahtzee Croshow, though I will point out I was a fan of his original Fullyramblomatic site.
3 Just the top 3 of each
Movies: Aliens, Dawn of the Dead 78, Streets of Fire
Shows: The Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan version), The Young Ones, Ash Vs Evil Dead
Books: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, The Cthulhu Mythos tales of Robert E Howard, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Games: Doom 1993, Jagged Alliance 2, Shadow of Rome
4 I'm an old fart in the gaming world, though those of my era prefer the term "Grognard." Grew up on arcade machines then the first wave of Atari, Colecovision, and their bretheren. Also tabletopped since about 87, though not with Dungeons and Dragons, it was TSR's sci fi game Star Frontiers that got me started. Miniatures wargamer since 1992 also, but I got out of playing Warhammer games just before 40k exploded in popularity ( I mainly did Space Hulk and Epic scale 40k). I'm beginning to burn out on many things lately, though, and it's harder and harder for any of these things to hold my interest, though I can still be a pitbull with the few things that remain in my heart.

 

[thebobmaster]

1. I was quite young, and was thinking of the most generic name I could think of. I came up with Bob. So, as the most generic name I could think of...the Master of Bobs, if you will.

2. Years ago. I first joined up in 2007 on the forums, but I believe I had been watching Zero Punctuation prior to that.

3. Video games...that's a very tough one that changes from time to time. I'll say the Mass Effect trilogy for now, as that is the one video game series that I actually have a poster from hanging on my wall (it's a customized poster of Tali, for the curious).

Movies is a little easier, but only a little. If I had to name the movies that have stuck with me the most for the right reasons, it would be a tie between The Shawshank Redemption and The Usual Suspects.

My favorite shows basically depends on what I'm watching. Right now, RWBY and My Hero Academia are the two that I am quite enjoying.

4. Erm...maybe the fact that I'm autistic. Not because I really think it's something to brag about or harp on, but it's about the only really unique thing I can think of about myself other than even more personal information that I don't really feel about getting into.

I'm also hyper-flexible in about all of my arm joints.

5. Haven't had a lot of experience with it, but so far it seems to be working quite well.

 

[Alienware]

1. What's the story behind your username? I have an Alienware computer and I love it.
2. When did you start following The Escapist? About a year ago but I just recently decided to make an account with the new forums.
3. Favorite video games, shows, movies, etc? Video games: League of legends, farm simulator, CSGO & CS:S. Movies: Lord of the rings. Star Wars. Tv shows: Suits, The Sopranos, Lost, 24, entourage.
4. Any cool facts we should know about you? Yes, I am Canadian
5. Any feedback or comments about The Escapist V2? Love the new forums, It's why I decided to make an account.

 

[Bernzz]

1. Way back in primary school, a friend nicknamed me "Bern-zee", I spelt it out "Bernzz" for my online handle and it turned into the one syllable thing it is today.
2. My old V1 profile says I joined March 27th, 2009. I was following the Escapist earlier than that though, ever since my attention was drawn to it by way of the Zero Punctuation review of the original Left 4 Dead.
3. Favourite video game by far is Metroid Prime, as my avatar would indicate. Others include the Pokemon series, Advance Wars, Halo, Fallout/Elder Scrolls... it's a big list, I'll stop here.
4. Interesting facts about me? Uh... none I can think of. Pretty bog standard person.
5. Seems a lot more fluid than the old forums. I don't mind it so far!

 

[Caramel Frappe]

1. When I was in college, it was quite stressful. Especially math class, my head hurts just trying to solve math problems and the requirement to get an AA degree is doing college algebra, which I will likely never, ever use in my days of living. So there was a McDonalds / Starbucks down at the plaza, and caramel frappes would always cheer me up. So I decided 'heck, why not just name myself after my favorite drink?' and wal-la.

2. December 10th, I came across it thanks to Yahtzee and his hilarious videos. As time passed, I became more and more immersed with the community within The Escapist. At first a lot of people didn't really like me, or thought my friendly nature was 'fake', which I don't blame them- it's easy to put on a friendly face. But eventually, I made good friends, made a name for myself, and became a working hand in The Escapist's line of work (Badge Hunters, Avatar Smith, Escapist Ambassador of several years, Tutor on how Groups work, Community Sub Manager for a bit, ect.) Granted, I have made mistakes and I have done some things that i'm not proud of (The worst one was making the thread "Why do people hate America?" cause oof that thread). With that said, i've grown over the years and came to be more mature, and aware of my actions.

3. I'm a die hard Dark Souls veteran, or the Soul Series for that matter (Bloodborne, Demon Souls, Sekiro, ect.) I also love League of Legends, Dead by Daylight, Elder Scrolls Online, and so forth. I used to love Dead Space until EA butchered the third game, sooooooo yeaaa ... as for movies? Avengers: Infinity War and End Game were amazing, but my all time favorite movies are The Dark Knight and Joker (2019).

4. I'm just a guy who's gifted in creating avatars and loves roleplaying with good stories & characters. I'm passionate about animals and have a taste for certain anime, not to mention i'm a masochistic hence why I love hard / challenging games like Dark Souls or veteran dungeons / trials in ESO. It's just my nature to overcome what I deem is impossible, because the reward for completing it is all too satisfying to me.

5. LOVE the fact The Escapist is revived, it brings joy into my life and quite a lot of nostalgia. With that said, I would very much appreciate a Roleplaying Forum, because that's where I spent most of my free time on The Escapist doing. Made some amazing friends there, and has helped me stay sane over the years of graveyard shifts and difficult days in my life. As for anything else? Probably displayed badges like how the old Escapist did it, allowing people to see the achievement you earned by 4-5 picture boxes of said achievements.

 

[Fieldy409]

Hey man I've finally turned up here. How do I be a legacy guy?

1. I'm Fieldy because its what people call me in the real world because my last name is Field.

2. It was zero punctuation I came for of course! I'm 31 now, so I was watching Zero Punctuation videos back in high school that was a long time ago...

3.Favourite game has to be Doom Eternal right now. I might have new game bias but I think it's going to be one of the games I revisit for a long time after this.

4.Cool facts? I've donated blood more than 50 times and I've done outdoor rock climbing once.

5. Feedback? I don't like the dark blue colours for the background but it's okay.

 

[JoJo]

Hey man I've finally turned up here. How do I be a legacy guy?

Try this thread:

Legacy Users - Get Your Badge Here

Are you a legacy user from the original Escapist forums? Reply to this thread with a link to your account on the original forums and we'll make sure you get your badge!

forums.escapistmagazine.com

 

[Agema]

1. What's the story behind your username?
Ancient Greek term for an elite guard unit. I play a lot of wargames.

2. When did you start following The Escapist?
Er, 2010. Or around then anyway.

3. Favorite video games, shows, movies, etc?
Favourite game Lords of Midnight by Mike Singleton; favourite book - Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake; favourite film - 2001: A Space Odyssey Dir. Stanley Kubrick.

4. Any cool facts we should know about you?
Nope. I've never been cool.

5. Any feedback or comments about The Escapist V2?
Yeah, I don't seem to have a legacy badge - I think I might have signed up the wrong way.

 

[JoJo]

5. Any feedback or comments about The Escapist V2?
Yeah, I don't seem to have a legacy badge - I think I might have signed up the wrong way.

You can get the legacy badge by request in this thread:

Legacy Users - Get Your Badge Here

Are you a legacy user from the original Escapist forums? Reply to this thread with a link to your account on the original forums and we'll make sure you get your badge!

forums.escapistmagazine.com

 

[Zykon TheLich]

1. What's the story behind your username?

Okey doke...

It's after Xykon the Lich from order of the stick. I joined the escapist on a different account and then asked for a ban a few years later to get away from the internet for abirt. I had Xykon as my avatar back then. When I decided to come back I had forgotten my password and had no idea which email account it was on, plus wanted to leave my old acount behind me, so I made a new account with a slight nod towards my former escapist self.

2. When did you start following The Escapist?

Sometime in late 2007 Before the Dark Heresy Special Edition was released. Can't remember what the old Black Industries forum was called, but a fairly amenable troll called Desmond showed me ZP and it went from there.

3. Favorite video games, shows, movies, etc?

Civ IV, Dawn of War 1&2, Bethesda FPRPGs

I guess I used to like CSI, NCIS, Top Gear, Mock the Week. Also Aliens, Ghost in the Shell, Terminator, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Shogun Assassin.

4. Any cool facts we should know about you?

I was once driven to the county line by the Sherrif of Wessex and banned from the county for a month. It is my proudest moment to date

4. I make music.

Wow, that was so deliciously early 90's it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside

 

[ChaosPhill]

1. What's the story behind your username?
   • Phillip is my name, so Phill for short. The "Chaos" part comes from my favourite way of dealing with things. Why do things like normal people do when you can make life difficult for yourself? At least it's never dull!
2. When did you start following The Escapist?
   • I've been watching The Escapist content on YouTube for roughly 8 years on-and-off. Can't remember how I started (most likely ZP), but it hardly matters anyway. I'm a member now on YouTube, which is awesome because I get to support the awesome content with my local currency!
3. Favorite video games, shows, movies, etc?
   • Video Games -- Skyrim, ESO, Kingdom Hearts 2, Pokemon: Ruby, Threes!, The Room Series, Rocket League
   • Shows -- 30Rock, The Leftovers, Bojack Horseman, FLCL, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Westworld
   • Movies -- 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dogtooth, Battle Royale, Blade Runner (old and new), Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Johnny Is Nie Dood Nie , The Lobster
   • Music -- Iglooghost, Mitski, Glass Animals, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Son Lux, Kero Kero Bonito, Death Grips, Max Richter
4. Any cool facts we should know about you?
   • Got my BA(Hons) in General Linguistics. I love linguistics, but it is only really viable as a career if you intend to go into academia. I might get my Masters eventually, because I still love linguistics, but right now I want to do other things.
   • Currently studying game design. Looking into maybe combining linguistics and gaming for my future Masters. I know there are some academics doing it, it's just very niche.
   • Don't think any of this makes me cool, but thought someone would find it interesting.
5. Any feedback or comments about The Escapist V2?
   • I've never really used V1, so can't comment on how it used to be, but I'm enjoying V2. Nice clean interface! I love the dark blue colour scheme.

Anyway, looking forward to interacting with y'all here

 

[Kyrian007]

Username... the alpha part was a mispronunciation of an old DnD character's name. The numeric part was because apparently someone had already signed up as Kyrian.

First escapist... It was the Tabula Rasa ZP episode. A friend showed it to me. I joined the forums a while later.

Favorite stuff... Fallout series, weird west stuff like Deadlands and Hard West, other oddball rpgs like palladium's bts or rifts.

Cool facts... I work overnight in a news room so I hear some bizarre and awful things all the time. Its where I get my sunny disposition. I'm a genXer, hence the old man Masaoka avatar.

V2... good work guys, it looks great.

 

[Ghostrick Dorklord]

Now I feel slightly awkward about not introducing myself first thing. Might as well get to that.

1. I'm actually a big Yugioh player and I've used a lot of Yugioh inspired usernames in the past. This one in particular is actually kind of funny. There's a card named Ghostrick Angel of Mischief but when it was first introduced it had one of the most silliest translations. Because its Japanese name was actually a pun on Darklord it was translated as Ghostrick Dorklord to keep the pun. People were on the fence on it but the localization ultimately went with Angel of Mischief. I really loved the original translation so I'm keeping it alive. lol

2. Back in 2009? That's during a time when I graduated from high school and really didn't had anything to do. I was more of a lurker back then since The Escapist had a lot of videos to watch. I just never really said anything too much until now.

3. I think I have weird taste. I love more narrative based games like Odin Sphere, Persona 2, and Doki Doki Literature Club (if that counts) but I do like games when they're really fun like Yakuza 0 for example. I used to be into the fighting game community so I still play a lot of fighting games like Blazblue, Darkstalkers, and recently Granblue Fantasy Versus. In general I love survival horror, JRPGs, and them fighting games. As for shows I guess anime counts? But I don't think anyone really shares my taste because I really like slice of life shows more often than not. I will say Revue Starlight is my favorite anime, at least the moment. And I love horror movies, if not having horror elements in general. My favorite movie ever is The Thing (1982) because it just fascinates me so much. I also really love The Crow but that's because I'm such an edgelord. lol

4. I tend to overthink and overanalyze things. I can't seem to turn my brain off at all so yeah. I also am trying to form my own band with me being the lead bassist but its slowly becoming a thing. I used to be an artist and a writer but due to my laziness I don't much of that anymore however I am trying to bounce back into things. And I do want to become a video game critic at some point or just a critic in general. I feel like I see things from a different perspective from most so I do want to share my insight with people. I guess I'm sort of a renaissance man in short.

5. Hmmm... I don't think I got any interesting feedback to give. I do think the forums do look nice if that means anything. I am glad to be on a forum though because I prefer the layout of one over regular social media.

 

[Drathnoxis]

It's after Xykon the Lich from order of the stick. I joined the escapist on a different account and then asked for a ban a few years later to get away from the internet for abirt. I had Xykon as my avatar back then. When I decided to come back I had forgotten my password and had no idea which email account it was on, plus wanted to leave my old acount behind me, so I made a new account with a slight nod towards my former escapist self.

Huh, I never knew that. What was your name before?

1. I'm actually a big Yugioh player and I've used a lot of Yugioh inspired usernames in the past. This one in particular is actually kind of funny. There's a card named Ghostrick Angel of Mischief but when it was first introduced it had one of the most silliest translations. Because its Japanese name was actually a pun on Darklord it was translated as Ghostrick Dorklord to keep the pun. People were on the fence on it but the localization ultimately went with Angel of Mischief. I really loved the original translation so I'm keeping it alive. lol

Nothing to do with the utterly fantastic Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, then. Huh.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Huh, I never knew that. What was your name before?

scumofsociety, avatar below

 

[Drathnoxis]

scumofsociety, avatar below

View attachment 71

Sorry to say, I don't remember you from those days. Though, the forums were extremely active back then and I was still new.