Recent Posts

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Off Topic / Re: Concerning rise in political dogwhistles and rants being thrown around the forum

« Last post by Belmontoya on Yesterday at 02:27:33 PM »

I don't have to do anything. It's already started to fall apart. They've shot themselves in their own foot -with a nuclear weapon- and now have to deal with the fallout.

Sounds pretty serious.

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Off Topic / Re: Concerning rise in political dogwhistles and rants being thrown around the forum

« Last post by Eric Roman on Yesterday at 10:14:07 AM »

Having been born at the start of the '80s, I’ve witnessed enough history to notice something very strange happening ever since America hired an Internet Meme as a President who wound up spending A LOT of effort on a microblogging website seeding our present Culture War.  (Better here than overseas, right?)

Since then, the battle for Civil Rights revived in a huge way, affecting everything from gender expression to colorwashing our escapism as some kind of concession for never representing the rest of the crayon box. 

I was born into a time and place where organic diversity came with the territory, so this recent push comes off as disingenuous, especially where box offices and streaming are involved: "Don't like this thing that isn't marketed towards or appeals to you?  You must hate ::Topical Group of People::!"

(On that note it also became trendy to demonize White People and, as I am Not Apparently Hispanic Enough, there are ways I’ve had to navigate this fucking bullshit, not to mention the ongoing threats towards friends and family.)

It has long been my policy not to air personal business on this forum, but to clarify my context I’m making an exception: I’m recovering from a relationship in which the entire spectrum of such “well-meaning” sentiments were distorted and weaponized in such a way as to cost not just one of my dearest friends but the love of my life. 

As a casualty of the Culture War, any time I come across any sort of reasonable critique or joke in passing relating to my pain, I cannot help the smirk.  After all, finding the humor in one's own agony helps; I've made great light of it since the restoration of my intellectual freedom. 

That is the place my recent thoughts on Sonia Belmont's significance and delayed reaction to the chipshot came from. 

I apologize if my remarks have added to your unease.  During my annual glances here I’ve lurked across many of your threads and thought about chiming in some advice and encouragement regarding your troubles, alas I’ve been too preoccupied against such efforts.  I was oblivious to your sexuality until you sounded your concern; as far as I knew, you're a fellow talented artist.

I have always judged people on their character, not their cover; for some claiming to be bastions of "justice" and "equality", I've learned this isn't enough for them--it's even considered dangerous.

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Off Topic / Re: Concerning rise in political dogwhistles and rants being thrown around the forum

« Last post by X on Yesterday at 09:52:57 AM »

I just want to know how serious you think this is.

Serious enough that it caught my attention. Ghostbusters 2016 was what first made me aware that there was something going on and it just kept snowballing from there. Besides I posted the video for BLOOD MONKEY as to answer her question.

So what is it that you think should be done to eliminate the "wokeness" in the media?

I don't have to do anything. It's already started to fall apart. They've shot themselves in their own foot -with a nuclear weapon- and now have to deal with the fallout.

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Fan Stuff / Re: Castlevania collection

« Last post by JR on March 20, 2023, 08:42:46 PM »

Um, okay?

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Hardcore Gaming 101 / Re: What game(s) have you been playing lately?

« Last post by JR on March 20, 2023, 08:31:42 PM »

Played through River City Girls recently. I didn't really like it in the beginning since it just seemed really clunky, but it got a lot better as I got more moves. Not a bad game, although the dad humor gets a little old after a while. Okay, it's not really "dad humor," per se, but it's corny as hell. Well, except for Billy Lee. That gave me a chuckle. I'll move on to the sequel if I can catch it on sale.

I also played the first Hotline Miami, and it was okay. It was frustrating, and I felt like I wasn't doing things the way the game wanted me to, but it was fun.

But my console gaming has slowed down to a trickle. I've been sticking mostly to arcade games in the basement.I'm always looking for ways to mod those.

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Off Topic / Re: Concerning rise in political dogwhistles and rants being thrown around the forum

« Last post by Belmontoya on March 20, 2023, 07:44:32 PM »

To me the individuals aren't the problem. It doesn't matter who has what under their pants or whatever so long as they're decent human beings. The problem is that there are those whom are misguiding others on purpose for specific agendas (political and otherwise) and they're dragging the innocent down with them. People who simply want to live their lives without all the garbage that has been forced down our throats are unfortunately being targeted as well. And this whole thing should never have gotten so out of hand (heavy-handed at that) or even started in the first place. To me a person's physical identity isn't important. It's what's inside their hearts/souls that matter. The human body (however it might look) is nothing more then a set of clothes we wear during our life here. Then we throw it away when it's time to go home. That's all physical identity is. It's never truly important as the soul that wears it.

BLOOD MONKEY@ Try not to feel discouraged by what's been going on. Live your life to the best of your ability and pass up that political trash if it comes your way. You are who you are, not what you are. Don't let anybody else with negative intentions say otherwise. And in case you don't know what woke is here's a video that explains it. Both what is was originally and what it has now come to represent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhRC6PQbCDo

X I watched that video and it said exactly what I've heard a hundred times.

It's very simple to me. In a capitalist society literally every business usually does and is free to push it's agenda on you however they want. They can even disguise it as real news. That's nothing new.

They're also free to hire whoever they want and to write whatever they want with their IPs that they own the rights to.

So what is it that you think should be done to eliminate the "wokeness" in the media? Where does this go beyond you complaining online and not buying a ticket to Captain Marvel?

Do you think the problem calls for government intervention?

I just want to know how serious you think this is.

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Off Topic / Re: Concerning rise in political dogwhistles and rants being thrown around the forum

« Last post by X on March 20, 2023, 05:54:46 PM »

To me the individuals aren't the problem. It doesn't matter who has what under their pants or whatever so long as they're decent human beings. The problem is that there are those whom are misguiding others on purpose for specific agendas (political and otherwise) and they're dragging the innocent down with them. People who simply want to live their lives without all the garbage that has been forced down our throats are unfortunately being targeted as well. And this whole thing should never have gotten so out of hand (heavy-handed at that) or even started in the first place. To me a person's physical identity isn't important. It's what's inside their hearts/souls that matter. The human body (however it might look) is nothing more then a set of clothes we wear during our life here. Then we throw it away when it's time to go home. That's all physical identity is. It's never truly important as the soul that wears it.

BLOOD MONKEY@ Try not to feel discouraged by what's been going on. Live your life to the best of your ability and pass up that political trash if it comes your way. You are who you are, not what you are. Don't let anybody else with negative intentions say otherwise. And in case you don't know what woke is here's a video that explains it. Both what is was originally and what it has now come to represent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhRC6PQbCDo

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Off Topic / Re: Concerning rise in political dogwhistles and rants being thrown around the forum

« Last post by Belmontoya on March 20, 2023, 01:13:03 PM »

It hasn't been all over the place but I've noticed it creeping in, mostly with the word "woke". People complaining about virtue signaling, those sorts of things. Words that have no meaning other than to exist as a shorthand for saying something more offensive but bannable. Do the people using the word "woke" even know what it means, or the history of how it came into being used like it is?

It's concerning and with such a small community it feels almost threatening.

I'm a transgender woman. I've been a part of this community for a long while and felt accepted for what I was regardless of what I've identified as at the different points throughout my life. The world outside is getting a lot scarier for people like me, people are trying to convince the world that people like me mean them harm, many seem to believe we're part of some massive organized movement. Laws are being passed because of it that have already done direct harm to me. I'm not involved with politics. I have no agendas to push. I'm trying to enjoy my life, and more importantly, since I'm posting here, trying to just enjoy being a Castlevania fan around a group of people with a similar interest. But now it's getting harder to even have that without seeing little reminders of the real world harm happening to me.

I don't want that sentiment to creep into this community that I've been a part of for almost 10 years now. Things like this always start quietly.

Hi. I've noticed this too and I agree with you 100%.

Know that not everyone here has been brainwashed by this weak and fabricated right-wing agenda.

You are as welcome here and in the Castlevania community as anyone else.

As someone who has been around this forum for nearly 20 years, it's embarrassing to me that you even had to wonder if you were welcome.

A lot of us here keep quiet because we don't want drama. But I would say to those people to take a look at how gross it's getting when certain people no longer feel welcome here.

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Off Topic / Concerning rise in political dogwhistles and rants being thrown around the forum

« Last post by BLOOD MONKEY on March 20, 2023, 11:11:06 AM »

It hasn't been all over the place but I've noticed it creeping in, mostly with the word "woke". People complaining about virtue signaling, those sorts of things. Words that have no meaning other than to exist as a shorthand for saying something more offensive but bannable. Do the people using the word "woke" even know what it means, or the history of how it came into being used like it is?

It's concerning and with such a small community it feels almost threatening.

I'm a transgender woman. I've been a part of this community for a long while and felt accepted for what I was regardless of what I've identified as at the different points throughout my life. The world outside is getting a lot scarier for people like me, people are trying to convince the world that people like me mean them harm, many seem to believe we're part of some massive organized movement. Laws are being passed because of it that have already done direct harm to me. I'm not involved with politics. I have no agendas to push. I'm trying to enjoy my life, and more importantly, since I'm posting here, trying to just enjoy being a Castlevania fan around a group of people with a similar interest. But now it's getting harder to even have that without seeing little reminders of the real world harm happening to me.

I don't want that sentiment to creep into this community that I've been a part of for almost 10 years now. Things like this always start quietly.

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Fan Stuff / Re: Castlevania: Legends - Transfusion

« Last post by X on March 20, 2023, 09:52:54 AM »

To me the biggest issue with Legends was riding the coat tails of SotN, rather then have Sonia stand fully on her own (story-wise and some other things). And that the game itself could have been better designed along with slightly better graphics and music composition. But there was also IGA's intervention that got the game removed from cannon for several reasons. A) at the time he didn't care for strong female lead protagonists, and B) it interfered with what he had planned for his future story-telling. We got LoI after Legends and I can see a bit of Sonia in Leon (design-wise). To me at the time it felt like an on-purpose dick move. The DoS hack (Dawn of Dissonance) gave us a much better story for Sonia to work with, despite her whip being too short (again  ), and her being a bit under-powered and taking way too much damage too easily. But from what I can see darkmanx_429 is using the exact same sprite set of Sonia that was used in Dawn of Dissonance for his game. It's a really good sprite set after all so my compliments to the maker