The vent section redux

[bartholen_v1legacy]

A few months ago there was a thread called the Vent Section, which is pretty much what you think it is.

No, it's not about actual vents.

This is a thread for letting out all your frustrations and pent-up anger, whether it be over minor annoyances, colossal existential crises, and anything in between. It's good to let it out every once in a while.

This has been eating away at me, and I can no longer stay silent about it: Game Grumps. Dear. Fucking. God. Do I despise this series. It has to be the hackiest, laziest, least-effort-put-into 1,000,000+ subscriber channel I've seen on Youtube. The fact that it has over 3 million subscribers is rattling my very understanding of the universe. Granted, most of this is derived from their Dark Souls 3 playthrough, but looking at how their other videos aren't much longer either, I wouldn't think this is entirely a mischaracterization.

As a gameplay series it's shit: They're not good players, they don't do any interesting challenges, themes or special conditions unlike, for example, Lobos Jr, just play the game (badly, I might add). As a Let's Play it's shit: the episodes are too short for them to get anywhere in one episode, and the constant commentary drowns out whatever audio experience one might hope to extract from the game. As something to listen to in the background it's shit: once again, the episodes are too short, and most of it is just the dudes laughing at their own jokes and focusing on the game instead of covering news topics or audience questions. Even as a "har har derp dis is funny" (ie. the Pewdiepie/Markiplier school of humor) game series it's shit: there isn't any editing, visual gags or even a reaction cam. It's just short videos of shitty, unedited gameplay with two dudes talking over it. Which might be fine, even in short 10-15 minute bursts, if the commentary were in any way worthwhile. But it's not. I have no idea how this shit has gained an entire fandom and fail completely to see its appeal in any way. I hope that with this random outburst of petty bitching I can finally stop clicking on their videos in a futile attempt to try to find the tiniest bit of understanding as to why they have such a massive following. It's shit piled on shit piled on another pile of shit, creating a universe-altering meta-pile of shit, and it fucking sucks.

Ugh. So anyway, let loose with all your random anger.

 

[Queen Michael]

The entire "feminists don't hate men" debacle. Look, I'm a feminist. I voted for the Swedish feminist party in our latest election, and I read feminist books. But I get annoyed when somebody says "People need to stop thinking feminism is about hating men!!!" Mate, nobody says or thinks that. They just claim that in practice, feminists hate men. And while that's not true, it's definitely true that some feminists hold a clear aversion to men in general.

And honestly, I feel that some feminists just don't think about how they come of. If you only talk about men to complain about all the horrible things men do, or to support men who want to do traditionally feminine things[footnote]Let me stress that I fully agree some dudes do horrible things to women, and it's absolutely fine for men to do traditionally feminine things.[/footnote] then obviously you'll seem like you feel all men are horrible except for the ones who want to be like women.

 

[Barbas]

It annoys me that I may not be able to see the Bovington Tank Museum, or go to a range day to fire off some pistols, rifles, SMGs, shotguns, machine guns and grenades. I rather like firearms and tanks and their inner workings. Propeller-driven planes, too, which saddens me because you don't see many around these parts. I saw a Spitfire once, doing lazy figure-eights overhead somewhere in England. I don't know where, there seem to just be vast stretches of English countryside that you can just pull the car over in and go "well where the fuck is this place on the map???"

 

[Barbas]

. . . Mate, nobody says or thinks that . . .

Speaking from experience, at least one person did. I think it might be the result of feeling threatened somehow, silly and slightly coddling though that sounds.

OT: "When the Danny replaced the JonTron, that's when GameGrumps died."

 

[Saelune]

...Wow, way to have the exact opposite opinion of me about Game Grumps and Lets Plays in general. Admittedly, Game Grumps is far lower in entertainment quality than it was, but not for most of the reasons you gave. I recommend not watching it if you don't like it. I despise Pewdiepie...so I don't watch it. Makes no sense to try to force it until it somehow works out.

 

[TakerFoxx]

Unashamed Grumps fan here. Been one of those subscribers for years now, watch at least two episodes a day, and think Dan is better than Jon. So y'alls can...just go about your day I guess.

As for venting...uh, customers who don't answer their phones really piss me pff?

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

...Wow, way to have the exact opposite opinion of me about Game Grumps and Lets Plays in general. Admittedly, Game Grumps is far lower in entertainment quality than it was, but not for most of the reasons you gave. I recommend not watching it if you don't like it. I despise Pewdiepie...so I don't watch it. Makes no sense to try to force it until it somehow works out.

I don't have a problem with Let's Plays in general, I just personally don't see the appeal (I buy maybe 3 new games a year, so I usually just rely on reviews and play the game myself if I deem it worthy of purchase). Maybe it's my unfamiliarity with the format, but Grumps doesn't fit my impression of a good Let's Play: the episodes are so short, filled with commentary unrelated to the game and they make progress so slowly that I don't find it useful in that regard.

 

[Saelune]

...Wow, way to have the exact opposite opinion of me about Game Grumps and Lets Plays in general. Admittedly, Game Grumps is far lower in entertainment quality than it was, but not for most of the reasons you gave. I recommend not watching it if you don't like it. I despise Pewdiepie...so I don't watch it. Makes no sense to try to force it until it somehow works out.

I don't have a problem with Let's Plays in general, I just personally don't see the appeal (I buy maybe 3 new games a year, so I usually just rely on reviews and play the game myself if I deem it worthy of purchase). Maybe it's my unfamiliarity with the format, but Grumps doesn't fit my impression of a good Let's Play: the episodes are so short, filled with commentary unrelated to the game and they make progress so slowly that I don't find it useful in that regard.

I don't really watch for the gameplay. Most of the time I just listen to them when I play my own games. That was the initial main draw when it was Arin and Jon, since they rarely even played a game for more than a few episodes. Since then though, they have become...lets playier, but I think that hinders the quality. Watching Dan play Zelda II after pre-playing it so he would know what to do really ruined what could have been a funny series, even if they didn't beat it.

Maybe try Jon Era episodes?

 

[Saelune]

Ok, Grumps aside, if you cancel plans, TELL THE PEOPLE INVOLVED! My god, I have been sitting here, not doing anything, waiting for people to show up to find out only because I checked Xbox that they were all on there playing ARK cause we were not all meeting up. I have anxiety issues, and waiting for people definatly stresses me out, but even more so when they aren't showing up.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

My computer graphics class. FUCK that class. This is the FOURTH time I have to take it. First time, I dropped halfway through because it was insane. Second time I passed it, but just barely. THEN because my yearly GPA was 0.11 under their standard (2.0) due to "reasons", I had to retake it a third time just a few months ago. I outright failed it and suffered from total burnout. Now I'm taking it as a summer class with a condensed schedule and it's again driving me nuts, although slightly LESS, since I now have a good Teacher Assistant in the lab portion who actually EXPLAINS to us what the various bits of code do instead of "here's some useless vague slides, google the rest" like most of my other TA's have been. Although the lab goes from 9:30 to 11:00 PM and I have a 1 hour commute both ways. :s At least it's worth it.

And speaking of the "reasons" above, FUCK that Databases Class summer 2 years ago. I was dealing with a depression (First breakup a few months prior, holy crap it broke me), so I was already operating at maybe 50% ability. Then, my team goes "ok, you three make the website portion of the project". When it needs PHP, and none of it was taught to any of us at that time and we had to try to learn it on our own. In a condensed summer schedule. And one teammate did all the website work on his own, didn't let us help, didn't set up a code repository so we couldn't work together well, AND when we DID finally get some stuff done for the site, there were various "reasons" why our work didn't get included. Now, roll around to the project demo, where said teammate goes "I have no idea what my other two teammates were doing". Teacher didn't buy what we said and told us "Looks like SOME PEOPLE didn't carry their weight and will get marked down". I passed, but barely. And if that had not happened, if I had passed with a C or C- like I was going to, my GPA would NOT have been 0.11 under their standards, I wouldn't have had to repeat classes and I would LITERALLY be done my degree now. But because of this one incident, I am now at least one extra year behind, maybe more because of it. *shakes fist at sky*

And finally, FUCK judgemental moronic pricks in general. Or don't, you'll likely get the "RAGE" STD. Seriously, why are people STILL getting all pissy about who likes what games and willing to engage in flame wars? Why do people hack and ruin other people's experiences "just for lulz"? Why are there people out there who STILL think people being trans is a big deal worthy of hate? WHY are there still people out there who bully and hate people? And WHY are some of the people supposed to be fighting said bullying as bad as the bullies they fight? Just...WHY?! Can't we just reach some kind of mutual respect for one another? It's not rocket science, people! AUGH!

*lets out a long breath* That was good. Let's do this again sometime.

And no, I'm not going to rage about my ex, thanks. Yes, she did something dumb that I won't forgive. But I don't blame her for leaving if she wasn't getting what she wanted, and in the end, I grew a hell of a lot from the incident. I now have an actual backbone and I've grown so much more comfortable with aspects of myself I didn't used to like, AND I've since met a LOT of awesome people. Seriously, I would never have joined that Cthulu larp if I was still with her, and that's the highlight of every month for me.

 

[Dizchu]

"Vegan jokes". You know the ones. The ones that you've heard a million times but every person that says them thinks they're the first. Now I'm all for making fun of stereotypes, there are a few funny vegan stereotypes like the whole "teenager watches Earthlings and becomes a vegan for about a week before caving and buying the biggest KFC bucket available" thing, but there seems to be this idea that vegans are delusional, puritanical, can't keep to themselves, etc. As if veganism is merely a dietary choice and not a response to a world of unsustainable food production, excessive fast food and obesity, hypocrisy when it comes to people saying "go eat your twigs vegans, I've got bacon to fry" who would never be able to stomach watching the inner workings of a factory farm.

I mean I guess vegans can get preachy but it's no less "preachy" than people speaking up about any other kind of injustice or unsustainable system.

(By the way I'm not even a vegan so keep that in mind before you have a go at me)

Spoiler

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

"Vegan jokes"

BAC-

Spoiler

Well played.

OT: I concur, Game Grumps started speeding downhill after Jon left.

There's nothing really that annoys me aside from student life and the promises it gives. I thought it'd be more like a place full of experimentation and people really passionate about studying and whatnot, but in reality it's a whole bunch of kids not knowing where their life is headed, getting wasted weekly whilst acting like bellends, failing to sort their lives out.

It's a bit frustrating being that one guy when I don't want to be that one guy, I mean, I enjoy house parties and going clubbing with mates, but fuck me if it isn't boring. Add to that, everyone is so reserved that it makes my secondary school full of roadmen look welcoming (probably cause it was to be honest).

Also people supporting anti-establishment candidates piss me off a bit, as do people sympathetic to PRISM. No buster, someone wanting to take on Wall Street does not represent someone wanting to dismantle the United States Government body, the CIA's regular engagement with foreign bodies or US hegemony. Stop pretending like the establishment is such a simple issue.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I am pissed off with worthless country for electing someone who I am almost sure is mentally disturbed for president. People who I thought had more sense, too. I have always wondered if my inability to learn how to speak my native tongue or appreciate my country's art and culture was due to colonial mentality, but no, it really is because my country is fucking hopeless and I can't wait to migrate somewhere else. Or alternatively, seize control of the country and get rid of literally everyone in government.

You guys have watched the John Oliver on the "Trump of the East", right?

 

[FPLOON]

Wait... Is Barry even doing his job, then?

OT: The more I play Splatoon in Ranked Mode, the more I REALLY starting to hate "Connection Errors", which have plague me from reaching the next [pending] rank more times than losing wired/wireless connection with AT&T... Now, I can understand the penalty of losing connection when it's coming from your end, but if it's not, I should not have to lose up to 20 points in something that wasn't even on my end this time!

Other than that... uh... any "news" related to Trump? We already had a roast on that guy!
http://movietvtechgeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/kasha-david-sent-home-on-rupauls-drag-race-2015.gif

 

[Ryallen]

I don't know if I've talked about this before, but there is no word in the English language to describe my hatred for The Asterisk War. Digibro did far too good a job of telling me exactly why this show is so god damn terrible, and now, from no real provocation, I just start hating it again and can't stop thinking about how terrible it is for hours on end. A show that not only mindlessly follows the trends but also insults the viewer's intelligence while doing so? One example is that the show tells us everything and shows us nothing. THAT IS WRITING 101 AND THE FUCKER THAT WRITES THIS SHIT GETS AWAY WITH IT. You do NOT tell us that this is a fight to the death, you SHOW us people getting their shit pushed in metaphorically and LITERALLY. Half of the contestants should have died against that vampire *****, but instead nothing happened. That fire explosion should have incinerated half the crowd, but nothing happened. The crowd should have booed whenever Protagonist spared anyone, but THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN. Another thing that bothers me is THE FUCKING BADGES. ARE THEY HOLOGRAPHIC? ARE THE PHYSICAL? ARE YOU JUST THAT TERRIBLE AT WRITING? I just... I can't... Not only do I hate that this shit got published, animated, merchandised, renewed, AND greenlit for localization, but I hate that people genuinely think that the story isn't complete shite. That they actually say that it's good. That they like the characters, that they are engaging, and they can't wait for the next episode. I hate people like that.

Another thing that I need to get off my chest is some asshole that I thought I was friends with. I stopped being friends with him when I found out that he was a white apologist. As in, he apologized that all white people are racist. As in I'm not kidding, he posted something that declared that all white people are racist. Not "racially driven", not "racially restrictive". Racist. That was the word used. I can't make this shit up. He shared two things on Facebook that really pissed me off. One was a string of tweets made by somebody who seemed really salty that he asked out a girl and he got shot down because he was black. The guy goes off on a tangent, stating that all white people who aren't attracted to black people are racist. And the jackass I thought was my friend then proceeded to defend him when I called this tweet out on its bullshit. Then, the second post that he made, about a month later, was talking about how all white people who don't like being called racist are, in fact, racist. That... that doesn't... I don't understand the logic there. I read the thing twice over and couldn't make heads or tails of the logic. Anyways, that's when I unfriended him and stopped talking to him. Which made it all the more awkward when I saw him at my place of employment, but luckily he was only visiting and I was able to get away scott free. But, yeah. He seemed smart enough until I read that and I just lost all respect for him afterwards.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Group projects.

Motherfucking Group projects.

My last... month has been near-living hell because of the sheer, mind-boggling incompetence of my University group. The project - a video representing the LDC in a global warming mock debate. Pretty straight forward, everyone talks about one country and then we discuss the LDC's opinions as a whole. Nice and simple, right?

Well, first of all, NONE of them communicate. I sent emails for three weeks without response. Got them on Facebook to use that messenger improved it slightly, with me actually getting a response about... 1/3 of the time. After two weeks of trying to organize a group meeting to discuss what we needed to do, finally managed to get one together last week (the video was due this week, btw) - and one of 'em didn't show. Said she was sick. Whatever, I'll tell her what to do later. Tell them what we're doing - 2 minutes on your country (since the rules are 3-4 minutes max) then 1 minute each on the LDC position. Suggest PowerPoint, but they're keen on Live action so, whatever, insist on meeting Thursday so we could film the video.

Thursday rolls around, they all showed up this time (a rarity), only for one of 'em to fuck off for a half hour because she saw a friend. When she shows up, start organizing to film - only to discover NONE of them brought notes or anything. Then they go 'oh, we're filming something? We should do a powerpoint instead'. Resist urge to strangle. Tell them to give me their Audio files and PowerPoint files seperately by Saturday night.

Saturday night rolls around. I get one lot of things on time - Audio files and Powerpoint NOT separate, which is a pain in the dick - and get no response from the others until 11 o'clock at night. Sent a good half-dozen messages until I get a response, apparently ones laptop broke and the other was having family issues. Whatever, maybe tell me this shit earlier *before* I threaten to tell the tutor. Get another set of Audio + Powerpoint slides at 2am (thankfully separate). Hear nothing from the third. Say 'fuck it' and do what I can with what I got.

Except, the audio quality is fucking awful. Like, 'recorded in a wind tunnel' awful. And there's too much. I ask - repeatedly - for 2 minutes on a country, 1 minute on LDC. I get 8 minutes on their country and only their country, with so many unnecessary slides. So now I'm stuck editing this monstrosity to try and bring it to any level of decency. Takes way too long and is still bad, but whatever, I submit it and it's done.

...then the 3rd group member sends me her shit, out of the blue, no explanation. Great. Now I've got this shit to deal with. Send a message to the tutor going 'what the fuck' and he sends one back going 'well, you can either re-submit without mark deduction or you can be the bad guy'. Yeah, thanks, that's exactly what I wanted. Find out this group member ALSO didn't do her work properly (12 minutes of Audio! How the fuck do you get that from 2 minutes? HOW????) so I send her a *polite* email saying 'rerecord your shit of you're fucked'. She re-records it, I edit it down to reasonable levels and done. Resubmit. Problem solved. Well, until next week when we have a physical presentation to have, where I end up strangling the three of them at the same time (and make it a graphic analogy of what First World Countries do to the Third World Countries financially, because hey, might as well make a murder topical).

Hell, I'll be honest, even if we fail I'll be happy, since I'll get to watch these three fuck-bags fail with me.

And like... this isn't even the worst group work I've had at University. I've been at Uni for 6 years, and I've had 1 good group. Every other time people don't listen, don't do the work, lose the work and don't tell me they did so until the course coordinator sends me an angry email, don't communicate, fuck around instead of having appropriate meetings... it's like I just attract all the people who are fucking useless at the most basic of tasks. I'm legit going to start asking tutors and coordinators if I can just have an extra essay instead of trying to herd the idiot cats that are group members. Fuck, I'll do the group work myself, this shit just isn't worth the stress and drama anymore.

 

[Phasmal]

I recently watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and let me tell you this: anyone who argues that Rey is a Mary-Sue can fuck right off.
Being aware of those arguments before watching the film, I was waiting for her unbelievable competency to appear, and then it never did. I really did enjoy the film, though. I guess I'm just more than a little irritated that there's dude's getting their panties in a bunch because a female character is deemed too capable by doing... pretty much what a male protagonist would do in a movie.

UUuuuuuugh.

 

[Neverhoodian]

People who park their shopping carts right in the middle of the aisle, making it impossible to squeeze by either side. Hey assholes, I've got things to do, none of which are "loiter in a store all day." You aren't helping.

 

[MCerberus]

There's an intersection leading out of work that has a long light for turning. So when I get there, without fail, there's some clown opposite to me not using their blinker. And in front of me, there's someone not using their blinker. So about half the time, because they're both idiots, they sit there, wanting to turn left but assuming the other has the right of way. Then all the way home down a 4 lane road, all the slow people stay in the left lane, only to cut off people when they need to exit.

Then there's another left turn. This one has those pressure sensors so if no change is made, the light cuts the arrow short. People either sit there, thumb-in-ass only to dart when they get honked at as the light turns yellow, stop short so badly that the intersection thinks there's not 40 cars lined up to turn, or take the turn slow enough that the intersection believes there aren't any cars. Side note: did you know you can make a smooth turn from a stop by not riding the brake taking up the time 5 normal cars could have gone then accelerating during the second half? They don't.

And the people who use blinkers but only after they've begun to turn. Especially if they slam on their brakes to make it.

Additionally

Other than that... uh... any "news" related to Trump? We already had a roast on that guy!
http://movietvtechgeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/kasha-david-sent-home-on-rupauls-drag-race-2015.gif

The fact that Trump and Larry the Cable Guy got a roast.

 

[Parasondox]

Trump. Oh, I don't care for the guy and not angry at him. I am annoyed at the news coverage of him. The news are doing it for ratings and profit and it's hurting America. Seriously, the more attention you give something, the more bigger the issue gets. They keep asking, "how is Trump gaining popularity?", Well it's simple.

YOU TALK ABOUT HIM 24 FUCKING 7 AND BROADCAST EVERYTHING HE DOES!! He is playing a game plain and simple and he is winning. News media!! You are fueling this!!!!!!!!!