ow…

I really want to play Star Citizen. It's not exactly an MMO in a traditional sense. Rather, it's a large multiinstanced universe where players can dogfight their ships all they want. So why am I not able to play it?

Very high system requirements. Way too high for me to afford. I thought I bought a nice beefed up video card, but the required card for this game will set me back wayyyy too much. Then again the game is in development still so hopefully that will go down. Still need more RAM and CPU power. 2 cores and 4 gigabytes is not enough for this beast of a game. I think this is due to the game physics engine it uses though.

Dogfighting promises not be like other space sims. You take into account your ships mass, inertia, and your ships own engine power to make your ship go anywhere.

Even better, there's TRADING!!! I can make traderuns like I used to in Freelancer and your own surivival depends on your own skills (and internet bandwidth) instead of your gear like in EVE Online.

Since I don't like dropping actual currency in any game, I'll just have to put up with working for someone else ‘til I have enough ingame currency to buy my own… And the ship selling for $35 (the cheapest) looks really cheap, though it does come with 6 months of insurance (if it’s destroyed you get a new one until the 6 month is up).


As for comics… I stopped reading anything from the Big Two a long time ago. Superhero comics are nice, but there's too much…. superhero in those… And they like jumping the shark just as much as trainers love Pikachu, Charmander, and Jigglypuff…

Oh, my desktop computer was giving me quite the scare yesterday when I thought it was on its last legs. I even had my bow ready for a Nordic Viking-style burial at sea. The problem I encountered was that each time I turned on the machine, the monitor would start up for a split second, blink off, then say the phrase “monitor going to sleep”. After finally waking it up long enough to revert to an earlier update point, it shut down again with red vertical lines across the screen. I was devastated because this computer has been my most powerful to date and has become an extension of me.

Well, after unplugging all the cords and falling asleep, it turned on this morning long enough for me to install the lastest update of anti-virus software. Go figure that after one year of not using my computer, my anti-virus software was so obsolete that the machine was susceptible to all sorts of malware on the Internet. Fingers crossed that no more problems come up so I can start using it for webcomics!

===

Now here is a serious question for the users with more life experience–At what age do people stop playing the one-upping game of trying to be the best/most successful person in the room?

I believe that life is a series of priorities and there are certain goals to be reached in order to feel accomplished like getting a degree/advanced degree, starting a career, buying a house or a car, yadda yadda. It is ridiculous to try to boast about anything because people prioritize differently and what may be important to one person might be unimportant to the next. I have come across so many people in their late-twenties who have been playing this game of “topping” others and it is exhausting trying to entertain them because it is all relative. I am quickly learning the benefits of hanging out with individuals that elevate self-esteem versus anchors who do the exact opposite.

For some, it probably will never stop. My evidence? Well… cars, sports, computers, and in online games where you grind your life away trying to get a sword that's larger than the ones wielded by the warriors around you and perhaps shoulderpads that are even more spikey and gigantic… Some people have this really bad need to stand on a pedastal that's higher than anyone else.

Not something I would want. That attracts more attention than I'd want…

Well, found out I can upgrade my CPU to an AMD FX 8350… with 8 cores. Flashed my motherboard bios in prepration. I'm not sure if there are any programs that will use all 8 cores… except for Star Citizen… But the 4 ghz clock speed makes me think it's the best I can get. I can probably get it and not have to worry about upgrading this thing for a decade. Now if only I can figure out a way to keep those Intel fanboys away from me who keep telling the more expensive Intels are MUCH MORE SUPERIOR for gamers. They're probably right, but I'm not that rich…

@kawaii - I think people compete and it's in our genetic makeup to do so, to better ourselves and measure where we fit into our society. We compete for betterment in our careers and for mates…

I guess that's not what you're talking about though; you're probably right to connect people who boast or try to one-up others with the self esteem thing. People puff themselves up to feel better, and it's maybe the less mature who do it in a graceless and materialistic way that makes you roll your eyes or feel unhappy around them. It's understandable. If I'm getting what you're saying, these are folks who suck up the emotional energy around them rather than adding to it.

We've all got some narcissism in us, and everyone has potential to grow out of that behavior…but choosing who you do and don't spend time with is probably the best defense. Be diplomatic (if these folks are fixtures in your work or social circle, that is) but don't burn your time and energry on 'em!

And maybe watch out for sabotage from those types in social/work situations.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
Now here is a serious question for the users with more life experience–At what age do people stop playing the one-upping game of trying to be the best/most successful person in the room?

Never for some, much sooner for others. And those that have given it up love to one up you by bragging how they've given it up. Smile, agree how wise they were and talk about the better grades your kids get in school even if you have no kids.

Or you could do what I do and live a life of hopeless self-denigration. Yes, you are so superior to me and I'm just so utterly worthless. In fact I'm more wothless than any other worthless person! Yeah even there you're one-upping him. Quite a conumdrum.

It's an inescapable part of dealing with humans. Find a good way to cope with it and maintain your own well-being. People are who they are and it's not your duty to change their behavior. See it as a game and enjoy playing it without concern for the outcome because your ego is just fine without one-upping anyone about anything.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
Now here is a serious question for the users with more life experience–At what age do people stop playing the one-upping game of trying to be the best/most successful person in the room?

When they are dead, or are no longer in possesion of their mental faculties - whichever comes first. What you describe here is pretty much the whole basis of human society, as far as I can tell.

I think it's traditionally the poorer and/or less educated who were more known for that. When people from more humble beginings aquired wealth they would show it off in a very symbolic and superficial fashion- a lot of hiphop is based around that: Look at my ferari, look at my Louis Viotton handbag, look at my “fat stacks”…
It's also something that Americans were pretty known for in the old days, hahaha, there's a lot of British humour written around that trope in books and films: the “brash” American boasting away… I don't know how real that was though.

The more cultured way to go was not to mention any advantage, to down play achievements and successes.
That's pretty old fashioned now though.

It's something you see in clothing styles: “Expensive” brands that apeal to the brash “one-uppers” are ones that promenantly display their gouche labels and designer names. Whereas truly highquality clothes and things would have very subtle, discrete, non-visible labeling.

Many people will always boast about jobs, success, degrees, cars, grandchildren, holidays, houses etc. The polite thing to do is congratulate them on it (even though you porbably don't care a fig), and let them prattle away.

By the way, have I told you all about my grandchildrens' amazing holiday?

I bought a holiday plot on the moon for my great great grandkids. It's all beach and the view is awesome.

Good thing your grand kids are such awfully decent fellows!

You know, the funny thing about bragging is that if you don't do it much, you fall out of practise and it's very, very hard to pick it up again.
And if your feilds of interest are at variance with that of most of your peers it's pretty pointless anyway!

“Look at this great pair of vintage hussar trousers! Fishtail back, buttons for bracers, flared cuffs, leather stirups with original brass buckles, and four real silver bullion double vellum stripes that I sewedon myself!” :D

“…wha…?” -_-

T_T

ozoneocean wrote:
You know, the funny thing about bragging is that if you don't do it much, you fall out of practise and it's very, very hard to pick it up again.
And if your feilds of interest are at variance with that of most of your peers it's pretty pointless anyway!
“Look at this great pair of vintage hussar trousers! Fishtail back, buttons for bracers, flared cuffs, leather stirups with original brass buckles, and four real silver bullion double vellum stripes that I sewedon myself!” :D
“…wha…?” -_-

Depends oftimes on the audience: If you were talking to costumers they'd all praise you and hold you in great esteem. The same as talking about model kits to non-builders can result in blank stares. But sometimes show them a built kit and they're like “it's so cool” I get that from contractors coming to the house. The plumber ocmes in and marvels “Did you build all those?”

One of these days I'll start replying “Yes, you want one?” Disperse the built kits to people all over because I'm running out of space. I offered one lawyer who represented me a SBD Dauntless model because he was into the Battle of Midway but he declined. Heck I'd have given him kits of all three US carriers and representations of the US carrier planes for a job well done representing me. Now he's a judge and he tried my workman's comp case.

You know I hate the signature editor for the forums. It hasn't worked right since the site changed names. Can't get thelinks to work and I played with the images for an hour to try to get them in line but no go. Guess I gotta resize them.

VERY momentous news about the duck people.
Brian Altounian, CEO of WOWIO has finally come through.
I will have to write a special newspost tomorrow. but for the time being I need sleep!

DRUNK DUCK IS COMING BACK TO LIFE!

He literally is the Wizard Of Oz!

Will the new duck have waterslides?

Will he have his old name back? :)

Finally got a tablet. Pretty low cost too. The Samsung Galaxy 4, 7 inch screen version. Not sure how it stacks with other tablets, but at least I can say I'm finally catching up with my nieces (they all own their own tablets). Now if I can figure out how to use this thing…

Any recommendations for art software? I think this quad CPU thing runs Android or something…

Waterslide apleanty!!!
They're all lubricated by pee at the moment though… We have a lot of work to do on this place yet.

——-

@Lonne- Sketchbook pro.

So I have a favorite toy maker and a favorite manga, threezero and dorohedoro(the lizard figure i spent assloads on earlier)

I never imagined in a million years they'd announce toys for it. Threezero x dorohedoro, my two favorite things in the world are joining together. ;_; The top tier toy designer is gonna make something for the best manga ever.

Oh and DD is saved thats good news too.

Congrats on the good news about the toys and the manga! That's pretty cool skull :D

———————–

So, the news about DD is up:
http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2014/jul/23/big-news-for-the-duck/

I am tried. -_-
It's hapy news, butnow there will be lots of work. Basically we've been in an enforced sleep till now, with lots of excuses to do nothing… those excuses are going away now and it's time to get up and start working on stuff.

About bragging:
There's a weird art to bragging, especially in other cultures. To outright brag is kind of obnoxious, makes you look like you're full of it. You need to brag and at the same time appear humble which you can achieve by false complaining. (“Oh it's so annoying how my child is always reading! Nose in a book all the time!”, “My child just can't stop doing homework. Won't even come down for dinner unless I yank the homework out of their hands! What's a mother to do?”)
About DrunkDuck:
Yaaaaay!

Ahh, the good ol' humblebrag!

I find that sometimes guys my age don't know when to stop bragging, especially when they're talking to each other. I've witnessed guy friends have very weird knowledge-one-upping passive aggressive arguments with each other for no apparent reason. I'm not sure if that's just something that all young men do or if it's sort of the history student equivalent to other displays of manliness like lifting heavier weights, having a nicer car, etc.

@Hippie - I think it's EXACTLY the history student equivalent of those other types of competitions. This is instinctive behaviour; it takes many forms…though guys can be obvious and primitive about it or more sophisticated and cool.
Cooperation is better than competition - but healthy competition has its place and it's part of who we are. Maybe how the competitiveness manifests is an indicator of someone's character? I think it might be…

HippieVan wrote:
Ahh, the good ol' humblebrag!
I find that sometimes guys my age don't know when to stop bragging, especially when they're talking to each other.

My all time favourite was an argument between two guys who were debating at which point Peter Gabriel ceased to be credible. One felt that Peter Gabriel III was his last hurrah, but the other wouldn't entertain that because the album contained Games Without Frontiers, a commercially succesful song. D: He drew a line in the sand after Peter Gabriel II. They were seriously falling out over this!

At least they could agree on one thing: Sledgehammer was a crime tantamount to genocide.

Blech. I guess everyone who owns a tablet has this problem…

Apparently my fingers love sticking to glass. It's kinda hard to swipe when there's so much friction. I think I'll go order one of those styluses for the Galaxy Tablet so I can do my drawing on it.

Um.. I guess I'm bragging whenever I talk about this tablet. Downloaded a game called Galaxy on Fire 2 (space fighter sim) and Minecraft Pocket Edition as well. Found out that the thing gets hot in certain places when running anything that's got 3D in it…

I bet someone out there has a 1.4 ghz 8 core tablet now (this one is a quad core 1.2 ghz)…

Banes wrote:
8up
@Hippie - I think it's EXACTLY the history student equivalent of those other types of competitions. This is instinctive behaviour; it takes many forms…though guys can be obvious and primitive about it or more sophisticated and cool.
Cooperation is better than competition - but healthy competition has its place and it's part of who we are. Maybe how the competitiveness manifests is an indicator of someone's character? I think it might be…

Very well said!

——-

Yay, BK is here :D

——-

I love Games without Fronteirs!
Although Hans, Lotte, Jane, Willi, Suki, Leo, Sacha, Britt, Adolf and Enrico are a bit too cliquey.

ozoneoceanwrote:
Yay, BK is here :D

Yaaaay! :D

Still trying to get used to the forum's/site's formatting thing. (How many times do I have to break line before it actually breaks line? O__O)

I know of people who like to compete with me for the worst experience. I could be taking about a bad experience and they would go “oh yeah? That's not as bad as when THIS happened to me.”

Finally one day I just said “listen if you want to win at having a crappy life, then that's not something that I'll compete with you for. You can win that if you want.”

Conversations improved after that.

Line breaks are a secret that have to be passed down. I now pass it on to YOU!

To do a line break the easy way, hit “enter” (or “return”), then hit the space bar, then hit “enter” again.
Basically you make a blank line with nothing but an invisible character space in it. Do that as many times as you like!








That reminds me! The way to get around bragging is to do the oposite:
“ooohhh, my life is SO shit, WAAAAY shittier than your's! You think YOU have it tough, well leme tell you…”
“Wow, your life sux! I'm glad things are so much better for me. My dad is the coolest and my new car rocks. Have you see these new shoes? Gaze with envy loser!!!”

…well not litterally that, but that's sort of the idea.

ozoneoceanwrote:
Line breaks are a secret that have to be passed down. I now pass it on to YOU!
To do a line break the easy way, hit “enter” (or “return”), then hit the space bar, then hit “enter” again.
Basically you make a blank line with nothing but an invisible character space in it. Do that as many times as you like!

The secret is glorious!

I also did some kind of triple line break. I kept pressing enter and was like “this HAS TO break the lines at some point!”

Coming back means I have to also figure out how things work again. I finally got the signature to work although I had to use DrunkDuck as the URL again. But hey whatever~ I like my boozy ducks.

Hey wow, that Mafia thread I made in the game forum still exists!

I actually recently picked up Mafia again in the other forum I hang out at. Although now we only have a handful of players instead of the 30-40 we used to have. Currently we're playing Avalon (which is based on the table top game The Resistance) and it's kind of neat. Don't know if there's enough people around here to play though. How are forum activities these days?

Congratulations to me! I'm now a space miner in the game Galaxy on Fire 2 (free on the Android store I think).
Seriously though I was getting a headache trying to figure out how mining worked in this game. Only NOW do I figure it out…

And I must be some space mining nut. Sure everyone else will go bounty hunter or pirate, but I prefer running trade routes and digging into space rocks.

I'm glad to see Drunk Duck returning. It'll be interesting to see what new artists show up when everything is done.

And it's nice to see Black Kitty back. :)

Thank you everyone for feedback on the subject of one-uppers! I have been evaluating some of my social circles lately and seen where I no longer see eye-to-eye on life priorities. There is such a thing as a toxic friend and it is not healthy to be around people who are cold. I have decided to surround myself with positive people who bring out the best in me and to distance myself from personalities who drag me down. I read that you start out your twenties with a lot of friends and leave your twenties with a few quality ones. I need to hang out with more creative types–like webcomic creators–you are all awesome!

I was secretly expecting a simple, one-dimensional answer like, "Thirty-Five. People stop caring about what others think at Age Thirty-Five." Of course humans are not one-dimensional, some are very complex. The trickiest part is when a friendship has a history that spans many years.

In fact, you have all shared a wealth of knowledge that has definitely shaped my perspective for the better. One thing is for sure from the look of it, there will always be people who try to be better than everyone else. But from the tone of responses, people wise up to the fact that it is all nonsense and gain a sense of humor from it.

Sage advice. Sound advice.

—

Also, whoaaa, Black Kitty and ozoneocean posting on the forums makes it feel like it is 2007 again. ♪( ´▽｀)

Hello, Black Kitty! I remember when you and Mr. Spook used to do Drive-Bys for the Night Gig on the Gigcast. I used to listen to that podcast just for the feature spotlights on DD peeps. You were also one of the original comic featurers/newspost writers. I think of you as a Drunk Duck celebrity/admin upperclassman.

This is better than ComicCon.