Does Japanese even know how to gamble?

[Don]

Since there's nothing interesting to read lately I tried some of the gambling stuff Japanese put out. So one of the arc is about the 1 card poker which is basically war, but there's this device that gives you an idea of the range of the card opponent has (the opponent can also use it). So the protagonist had a 6, and the indicator shows the opponent has a card in the range of 2-7. The base bet is 2 million, so the guy raised to 4 million hoping the other guy would fold, but the opponent raised to 6 million and, after some stupidly long amount of psychobabble the protagonist determined his opponent must have a 7 and folded. It turned out the guy had a 3. But seriously? There's a 85% chance he won't lose. That's like folding with pocket aces because someone raised you (and not even a big raise) before the flop! This seems to be several tier below "I learned this from the Internet". I wonder if these gambling manga is like Billionaire Girl where someone lost all their money in one activity (in the case of Billionaire Girl, daytrading) and decided this was the only way they can win. If they did a special of Austin Powers versus these guys, that'd be an battle of epic proportions, except I think in the Japanese case they actually thought these guys are good at gambling.

[Replay]

I don't know how much I care about the op, but I'm happy that you took the focus off my whistleblowing. :> The Southerners here are awfully riled up about that ISIS thread!

(P.S. Also remember Don, when you read a manga, your protagonists and antagonists make choices dictated by the plot. Not reality. Not the actual odds. Writers write things that favor narrative over numbers.)

(P.P.S. Hi this is Mental!)

[Shrinweck]

The Southerners here

[Don]

There are all kinds of crazy in fiction but that read like it was written by someone who thought Austin Powers was a blackjack legend.

Then again, I decided to look up Austin Powers on Youtube and sure enough, some guys thought staying on a 5 and dealer having a K showing was a great move.

[bovine]

Nothing derails Don.

[Replay]

Nothing derails Don.

After all the political drama, amen to that.

If the world descends into nuclear chaos one day, Don will still be here, angry over the plot of the latest anime or game he's playing, surrounded by skellingtons, and wondering why he can't get any responses to his critiques. :>

[kali o.]

Nothing derails Don.

After all the political drama, amen to that.

If the world descends into nuclear chaos one day, Don will still be here, angry over the plot of the latest anime or game he's playing, surrounded by skellingtons, and wondering why he can't get any responses to his critiques. :>

Yeah...you've grown and changed

Go apologize. You can even make your own thread for it. Chop chop.

[Replay]

Go apologize. You can even make your own thread for it. Chop chop.

In what alternate universe are you living in where you possess any kind of power to actually use the imperative voice with me?

You just made a "joke" about how you're upset that only one person got shot to death in Canada's latest terrorist attack.

Who owes whom any kind of apology?

[Replay]

It's funny, too - because this is the one thread that I didn't even try to address you. Yet you still "engaged" with me here, kal.

You like to talk about mixed messages - well, you deliver them in spades. You don't want to have a conversation...except when you do, and you think you can score some kind of publicity points out of it.

I'm just starting to wonder if the entire board is sick of it. I'm sick of it, for sure. I actually wanted to stay on topic here. And you don't seem to be drawing the support that you once did.

[Shrinweck]

Actually Kali's been pretty easy to deal with lately. The one time I did clash with him turned out that he was basically right in the end, so, well, I hate to say it but I just don't think you're speaking for the board when it comes to us being sick of him lol

We've been getting along really well lately. We keep it to stupid shit these days because having sincere, drawn out, emotionally draining arguments and debates on the internet is pretty stupid. And now that we're no longer teenagers and in our early 20s, we've discovered better things to do.

Here's something that I haven't seen done here in years: bringing baggage from one thread into another. Hint: that wasn't kali. (edit to clarify - he didn't do it first at least :D )

Also apologies to Don for further shitting up his thread. I may deserve my title but my derails tend to at least lend themselves to a flow in the discussion.

[Replay]

I hate to say it but I just don't think you're speaking for the board when it comes to us being sick of him lol

Nor do I think you are, Shrin. But hey, I'll give you one thing - certainly anyone who's stayed probably gets along better with him than I do. You may enjoy the vibe - personally, I don't come here and see the healthy and vibrant Shrine I remember. Post count is a fifth of what it used to be. Most of the people whose company I enjoyed over the years - G-Man and Tort and Lestat - have left. Others are clearly on extended hiatus; I see Kupek and KluYa post more often on Facebook than here.

We've been getting along really well lately. We keep it to stupid shit these days because having sincere, drawn out, emotionally draining arguments and debates on the internet is pretty stupid. And now that we're no longer teenagers and in our early 20s, we've discovered better things to do.

Contrary to what you may believe, I don't come in looking for arguments.

I post information, and then I get the shit verbally beaten out of me because it's information that conflicts with what you hear on your television sets and news site headlines.

It may behoove you to look at some of the comments that I get that spark the ones that seem to have given me an antisocial reputation here. I don't think some of you really realize how abusive you get with me simply for bringing up things like 9/11 or ISIS.

Here's something that I haven't seen done here in years: bringing baggage from one thread into another. Hint: that wasn't kali. (edit to clarify - he didn't do it first at least )

Why are you busting my balls on this?

If this community loves kali's leadership style - more power to you. I can't love it. He's been profoundly nasty to me here over the years.

No doubt I've given as much as I've gotten at some points; but I've extended the olive branch on others - only to have it snapped in half.

[Shrinweck]

I would hardly call it leadership. And you confidently imagining you can speak for us as a community at all is insulting in its own way. This is a place where we converse about things that come to mind. The fact that you think that we're being lead at all just seems weird to me.

If you don't see your comments as argumentative then that's clearly just you not know what tone you write in. You started posting here and immediately just started playing into the idea that we're victimizing you. I would suggest that you should stop handcuffing yourself and throwing yourself upon the train tracks. You should know that people are going to react negatively to weird ideas about 9/11 and ISIS because that's a natural reaction to have to those things.

I'm busting your balls on that because you go around acting holier than thou and you really don't deserve to. You weren't even 10 posts deep before you were getting into it with us again. You blaming us for ALL of that is the epitome of a lack of self-awareness. You came here after not posting for years and had zero interest in doing anything but engaging us in long dead threads with information that had little to do with the flow of the conversation. If you want to know why I showed no respect by posting joke images, it was because I perceived a lack of respect in you returning in that fashion.

I never knew KluYa, but Kupek stopped posting here the second he finished his PhD and got to resume his work with IBM. Not that I like speaking for him, but I don't think him not posting here is a result of the community. I think it's the result of him beginning a new job and throwing himself into it completely. I think it's the result of finding a replacement in his life for the time that used to go into this place. There was no falling out with him. I think we all enjoyed his posting. I don't recall anyone ever earnestly butting heads with him in an overly negative way. As for posting more on Facebook, I don't really know why that has anything to do with him posting here. He left a lot of friends behind when he moved away from us at Virginia Tech. I imagine that he enjoys keeping up with them to a certain degree.

People move on. This place isn't dead because the community sucks. The inactivity isn't because we can't stand each other. It's because we have actual jobs or girlfriends or wives or children. There's just better shit to do. And recruiting active posters just isn't something that really happens any more. If you want a return to the days of old then we need to get teenagers in here. That just sounds god awful to me.

[kali o.]

In Mental's addled mind, I am the leader and have conspired to pit folks against him in a bid to strip him of all credibility and connection to the very community he crafted out of friendship, love and his rib. That you are blind to this obvious conspiracy speaks to just how stupid and wilfully ignorant the rest of you are

On a far more important note....what was I right about?!

[Shrinweck]

That you are blind to this obvious conspiracy speaks to just how stupid and wilfully ignorant the rest of you are :D

On a far more important note....what was I right about?!

This basically puts into words what I meant about the 'tone' of how Replay writes his posts. It's why I extricated myself in the ISIS thread before I got involved in anything. I just don't come here to argue with someone who's in a position where he thinks he knows everything and I know nothing. Also I don't come here to argue about how Jewish I am or to defend the state and region I live in, but I got put into that position instantly, as well.

I was making a reference to our Mass Effect 3 argument. In the end, Bioware did fuck that shit up. Still think it's a good game and a strong franchise, but what a middle finger to the fans. It didn't need to be happily ever after, but fuck.

[kali o.]

I was making a reference to our Mass Effect 3 argument. In the end, Bioware did fuck that shit up. Still think it's a good game and a strong franchise, but what a middle finger to the fans. It didn't need to be happily ever after, but fuck.

Oh ya, I remember that. I don't let myself usually get angry about inconsequential shit, but holy fuck...the Indoctrination Life Preserver fans desperately clung to...it drove me nuts. Specifically, that people were believing Bioware would ship a game without an ending rather than admit they simply fucked up the ending (and to be fair, it's not like the rest of the story in ME3 is sophisticated...or even sensible).

Now as a piece of fanfiction, I like the Indoctrination theory. That would have been superior. Bioware still sucks though...and they can show whether they are even worth paying attention to anymore on Nov. 18th. I *want* DA3 to be non-shitty...but I am...less than hopeful.

[Shrinweck]

DA3 HYYYYYPE. I just want an RPG time sink. Bioware at its shittiest is still a decent time sink compared to basically all RPG manufacturers. And now we've completely derailed the thread. We might as well start talking about how Zeus likes Dexter more than Breaking Bad at this point.

[Replay]

Usually I'd be quite happy to respond to both of you within a reasonable period.

However, these conversations can't hold a candle to a conversation I'm having over at Gawker right now.

And that's what I mean about this community slowly dying. You have a hard time keeping even my interest. This site has about one-tenth the post traffic of my personal blog, at this point.

I'm sure it's enough to make you long for the days when you could count on keeping me hooked in for hours, kali - so I will apologize for that, if it's an apology you're seeking. Weren't those the times, back in the day? Sound! Fury! Upheavals! (Actually, I didn't love any of it; but even that seems preferable to this level of post traffic.)

Really - if this works for you all, go for it. I'm happy to have been involved in the creation of a community that brings people pleasure - even if most of those people hate my guts now and would be saying "good riddance" if I ended up dead in a ditch.

I really only came back to keep tabs on the lies about me, and to see whether or not I had to take any kind of action to get them removed.

For I don't love having a community spreading lies behind my back that I am a "terrorist"; who would? I've been a peace activist since 2002. I was out with a candle that year for those I knew would die in Iraq; sadly I didn't light nearly enough candles, it seems.

Thankfully for me, kal - your opinions have no legal weight, and very few people are paying attention anyway. So I don't feel the need to do anything about it all. I'm just sadly shaking my head at what it's all come to.

[Replay]

By the way, Don - sorry your post got threadjacked.

For what it's worth, you are incorrect; the Japanese are seasoned and inveterate gamblers. Ask a pachinko parlor.

[Replay]

In Mental's addled mind, I am the leader and have conspired to pit folks against him in a bid to strip him of all credibility and connection to the very community he crafted out of friendship, love and his rib. That you are blind to this obvious conspiracy speaks to just how stupid and wilfully ignorant the rest of you are

On a far more important note....what was I right about?!

See, this is the kind of willful abuse I'm talking about.

As I recall, I did attempt to apologize to you after our fight several years ago, via private messages.

I got a response akin a verbal version of the rioters who threw a brick at Reginald Denny's head - something about the "war of words", and then more abuse.

You've loved cruelty and mockery for years, kal.

I'll "man up" and give you the (second) apology you want when you "man up" and admit that you regularly respond callously to stories about death and suffering, and turn a blind eye to those who ask you for any kind of personal compassion yourself.