kitchen cave

I like to write a lot. I love games and I like to cook and engage in merciless debates. I hold nothing back.

[duchessashwynn]

A question

And please answer honestly. Who do you think the next Hitler is going to be? The history teaches us that there will be one. But where do you think it’ll come from? Some bunch of lost souls clinging to the disgraced flag of third Reich? Really? Do you think Hitler himself would win German Elections if people actually knew what is he going to do? And do you think majority of the people could ever follow that example? As for me. The actual Nazies are a non-threat. A tiny fraction who is horrible, but has no potential for actually causing something truly devastating on a large scale. On the other hand - young, determined people with clear capacity and willingness for violence? Major media behind them and a genenal public leaning towards them is a great empowering tool. And they have clearly defined enemy - a true proven evil. Something they can raly people behind. The moment you start thinking to yourself: “Isn’t that too harsh? Is it really necessary to go THAT far to fight this enemy?” - that is the moment you start to understand the moral choice Germans were facing when Hitler was gaining power. So yeah, I do believe antifa and SJW are the next big threat. They are already using the same tactics Hitler’s youth were. Intimidation, isolation, ostracisizm, violence. All they are waiting now is someone strong and charismatic they could all follow. Once they find him/her - you’ve got yourself the next horror to be unleashed upon the world. I believe that. Do you?

[duchessashwynn]

I can’t draw

But if someone can, it would be hilarious to see a comic about a God who wakes up in an armchair and goes to the lab and see a little Jesus there making stuff and goes all panic mode like “what have you done?” and little Jesus goes (as little kids do) on this completely innocent explanation trip, how he made dragons, and elves and dwarves and fairies and Wizards and this one guy who brings presents to children... And God goes all mad how is he messing up his world and is like “That is enough, I’m taking all that stuff out and you’re going down there to meet some people and see how amazing the world I made is.” and than he raises his hand and little Jesus goes “Poof”... and on the next frame “poof” he is back, adult with the thorn crown holes in his hands and all that stuff and is like “Your world sucks. I’m making my own.” - And takes the box where God has thrown all the dragons and fairies and elves and stuff and is walking away. And God is just standing there like “what happened?” and then from another room the Jesus shouts “And everyone who thinks you suck is coming with me!” And on the next window there is the gate to heaven and the st. Peter and the hole to hell and a brand new dragon gate and a rather confused guy to which the st. peter is explaining “Oh, you’re an atheist? Then you’re going to the Jesus’ world, behind the dragon gate. Don’t forget to take your free sword.” (And that kids, is why have all the legends about the mystical creatures and none are around anymore).

[duchessashwynn]

Burkini ban - fighting fire with gasoline

While I absolutelly understand the sentiment behind this law, I do believe it’s completelly missing it’s mark. We have people forcing women to adhere to a strict dress code under the threat of ostrakism or outright violence and even death. That is an absolute abomination and I believe we should fight against it with all tools at our disposal. This has no place in the liberal western society. The question is - how did someone came up with an idea that persecuting women for surrendering to this pressure will solve anything? You just literally put them in between the rock and a hard place. Muslim women are now faced with impossible choice - do they break the law or the religious dress code? On one side they face persecussion from the state, on the other side they face persecussion from their communities. France - If you wanted to fight against this injustice. Go after those who force this dress code, not the victims.

[duchessashwynn]

Caught between a rock and a Hard place (Hillary X Trump)

I’m not an american, not to mention U.S. citizen but I do know how it feels to be faced with such a choice. The moment you look at the candidates both major parties presented and can’t help but feel like the establishment is laughting in your face. Here in Czech Republic it was a corruption scandal after corruption scandal, dirt and garbage thrown from left to right. And both sides were wrestling happily in the mud and expected us to play along. I mean, it’s a two party system right? Vote for a third party? You’re just throwing your vote away... well they did think that they could get away with anything because we would “have to” vote for one or the other. People wouldn’t challenge status quo right? They wouldn’t dare. Oh boy we taught them a lesson in that election. It was a wonder looking at their pale faces struggling to grasp what have just happened. Politicians, bussinessmen and their friends journalists were stunned. But they had such a good campaing, made it look like other parties didn’t even exist again. Made it look like you have to vote for our candidate because the other one was unthinkable... One of the major parties had fallen so low they barely even made it into the parliament (limit is 5% of the votes). The other one fared only slightly better - and third parties took over everything... take a lesson from that. Learn from what we did. There is no such thing as “two party system”. If your country has other political parties, they are electable - all you need for that to happen is an entire population facing a situation, where neither side is an option. This election is an option to challenge the power, to make them fear you (as they should). For they gave you a choice that cannot be made. Why? Because they don’t think you would dare pick something else. I urge you, pick a third party candidate, promote him or her, fight, vote. And if nothing else, trust in your fellow countrymen and their rage and disgust. Find a decent enough option and when someone asks you “do you vote for Trump or Hillary?” give them the name of your candidate. And tell them that voting for these two, is throwing your vote away. Because at this point, voting for the establishment, is admitting your oppinion doesn’t matter. They’ll give you shit and you’ll gobble it up. Don’t play the game. We didn’t. 

[star-citizen]

Log 11-5 // Meeted random passing by Star citizens called Sigu & masterchief92. We laughed, floated around and died. Was fun and resulted to these 3 gorgeous screenshots.

[duchessashwynn]

The first one looks like FPS X-com XD Damn, maybe we could mod it in when it comes out.

[duchessashwynn]

True AI

All you ever see anywhere about Artificial Inteligence is how it could help us, what could it do, etc.  But how often do you see, not to mention think, about AI as a separate being - not a tool? While we might not be there yet, I do have a doubt we will actually notice when our creations will stop being a complicated piece of  technology and become an actual, although digital, people. That is the important moment. Engineers at Microsoft are now pondering how to design a defense against the trolls who ruined Tay’s first day on her own... but their problem is no different than that of a parent thinking about how to not let their kid fall in with a wrong crowd. Gentlemen, what you need is to do some parenting before you throw the baby out to face the perils of human society. And with more and more sophisticated AI’s we might want to think about how we will treat our children-race of intelligent machines. And the question is important one, because the other sentient beings on our planet who just lack our technology are being treated quite badly. Chimpanzees are in a stone age now... ponder that for a moment. If we set this example to our much more advanced children... how will they treat us?

[dianamoonfall]

beautiful/god tier level fanart for shittiest skin in game. that's sad :(

( Just because you don’t like the skin doesn’t mean you have every right to hate on it (On Anon too!) ; u ; / To each their own, dear Anon–To each their own. :3 )

[duchessashwynn]

Indeed... for example.. I absolutely ADORE the skin.

[duchessashwynn]

“We have to tighten up the gun laws!”

This is the European Union’s reaction after the Paris attack. It also president Obama’s first reaction after San Bernardino. And the question that immediately sprung to my mind is: Are you out of your mind?! Paris attack: Terrorists use AK-47 assault rifles San Bernardino: Gunners use AR-15 assault rifles Do you know what the weapons in both cases have in common? They are all illegal under the current laws in the country where attack happened. So tell me again - how do the gun laws prevent shootings? How do they prevent the acquisition of guns by the terrorists and the criminals? And EU is going so far it wants to make PAINTBALL guns accessible only with a permit. A toy guns with a permit? Are you even serious right now or are you so panicked and clueless that you just have to do SOMETHING to feel better about yourselves. Could you please stop using human suffering and death to push your irrelevant agenda for fucks sake?!

[duchessashwynn]

Handling new Graves as a Support

I see a fair share of whining all around the rift about our new Marksmen and how are they impossibly oppressive etc. etc. So I thought I’d have a few words about them. Take notice - I’m no challenger but I know my way around, and frankly I’ve played with enough high level players to know that dynamic of the game and lane are entirely different on the top level. Same things that work there will be useless in your gold 4 promos. So who are the most played Marksmen right now? The one’s I mostly meet are Graves, Caitlyn and Kog’maw. I will focus on these three (in separate posts) because they are the most prevalent and the biggest problem for people to deal with. 1.) Forget melee supports (Thresh doesn’t count) - It was a nice run, see you again some other time. To put some pressure on the enemy Marksmen they have to get nice, close and personal. Do this on enemy Graves and you’ll learn fast how much pain can shotgun inflict. Take something like Nami, Janna, Zyra, Lulu, Karma... You can make him suffer from distance, forcing him to expend his quick draw on getting closer to you or getting slapped in the face. 2.) Control the field - These new ADC’s have a glaring behaviour patterns. Graves will push wherever he wants or not. His two shot mechanic makes him very limited in trading. Put a pressure on him every time he goes for a CS. Especially if it’s a cannon minion. You will give him a choice between taking damage from you for free and getting a single CS or trading with you and losing that CS. If you are ranged support and ideally with some sustain, he is in trouble. He deals most damage up close, but when he has full magazine (two shots) he won’t dash into you - because that is a quick reload lost. If he does decide to trade Just hold him at distance - if he uses his dash he is now sitting duck for your CC, and if he doesn’t his damage is not enough from a range while his scatter shot is messing up his CS. If you continue to do this, you will quickly push him away from the minions and he himself will ensure that you are freezing the lane. Lulu and Zyra are especially punishing. Lulu because every time he tries to dash closer - squirrel time! - and you walk back off his effective range while making him suffer for trying. Zyra because those extra bullets still count as one hit on the plant - and they have three. Hit two plant snare on his face and watch him struggle to even get away. Thorn spitters out-range him by FAR (325 range to be precise) - may the gods have mercy on his soul. If you are on the purple side - buy a flask and upgrade it into corrupting elixir. - And that is pretty much all. Expect lane swaps because he is extremely susceptible to starvation and when correctly pressured - becomes quickly a non-factor in game.

[robertdejesus]

Mumilane pencil sketch/digitally colored.

[duchessashwynn]

Your heart is not happy about your choices.

[an-gremlin-deactivated20160222]

Star Citizen Leaked Assets

Front to Back: Vanduul Kingship; Retribution Class Super-Dreadnaught; Bengal Class Carrier

Guess whose game had a fuckton of assets leak this weekend

[duchessashwynn]

Well, I don’t think knowing how it looks like will take anything from the feeling of cold dread when this shows up. You’re like tady-dady-dady-da exploring my jump point, where does it lea.... holy shit! run run run run ruuuuuuuun!

[duchessashwynn]

Silence in the halls of reason

To reason with someone you both have to be reasonable. To debate you have to value opinion of the other side. But people are no longer worthy of our ear. We preach the truth and stand of the pedestal of glorious righteousness. We alone have understood. There are no people, only those who understand and haters and ignorants. We spend so much time and energy, trying to get our voice heard in the cacophony, we forget, that only when order is established and silence rules, everyone can hear the word spoken. And when we stop and listen. Really actually listen, not just to find what can we argue against. We can hear the human on the other side. What he or she truly wants to share. We divide ourself over the ignorance. Not the ignorance of others but our own. We turn the blind eye to their worries and loves. We cover our ears so we can label others. We have lost our power to disagree. It is no longer a question of different perspective and values. Now those who agree are a better people. We are better people. It is easier to not doubt yourself when you are the master race. It comes easy to spew abuse at out opponent to silence him, to make him go away if he is a sub-human. They are just dumb, they are ignorant, racist, xenophobic, manhaters, feminazi, multi-cultie... not worthy of our time. For what can such a creature say that is worth listening to? I was today such a creature. For I dared to disagree with an avaaz petition. What a monster have I become. At least for some of those who I thought a friend. And I saw a fight between those I know. For discussion is not allowed any more. And when both scream and cover their ears it is a fight, not a debate. Today was a sad and dark day indeed. And the halls of reason rang with deafening silence for all were screaming at the theatre of passion. Can you still listen?  

[jennyeatsbabies]

I would like to be loved, now. Please?

[duchessashwynn]

Oh, don’t worry. You are. Just sometimes it may not be so obvious. The biggest downside of the internet friends.

[glacier1701]

From Sandi’s Facebook Page

A picture of a player in the Battlesphere which is one of the 2 modes we’ll have in FPS when it releases most probably later this month. 

[duchessashwynn]

oh... so we can experience the ender’s game training :-D I love it!

[duchessashwynn]

Re: Sky and Female streamers

Hey Sky, I know you mean well and thank you for your opinion. It is always good to have a discussion so thank you for that opportunity. So lets start this up! 1.) There is nothing like “Female streamers” as a group. There are different kinds of streamers. There is Dyrus, Hafu, SivHD, Lilyla0o... and they have different audiences. Some overlap, many don’t. Not only because they play different games but also because of the different kinds of stream format and schedule. Therefore that some girl streams topless for 600 viewers at 10:00 GMT (saw that happen before) will have no (theoretical) effect on Nikki that starts streams commonly at 23:00+ GMT. The viewer base of the streams in question is quite likely not overlapping with most of the more game and personality focused streams therefore not affecting them. 2.) The effect itself is quite disputable. If Snoopeh started streaming shirtless do you think your audience would suddenly become more judgemental and harsh to you? When I was mostly on Hafu’s stream and several camgirls joined the twitch I didn’t register any difference in the twitch itself. Quite frankly because many streamers have moderated chats and random new trolls and haters will get hit by a big fat “not OK” sign. 3.) Big cameras - I don’t know about you, but a lot of streamers (gender aside) use a fullscreen cam or big cam when they are out of game. Like every single girl in your examples was. And it is understandable because quite frankly, there is nothing too interesting on the “home” page of league client, when you for example are explaining what you did in the game and why. 4.) Flaunting tits - as a girl with a “gift” of a full cleavage I kind of have a problem with this argument. I don’t stream, but if I would I would get criticized for having a cleavage. Why? Are we in the Victorian era again? Just because I have big breasts than I have to be covered all the way to the neck is what you’re saying? RIP to those who live in places like SoCal. Burn in peace ladies. Girl can do nothing part from surgery to not have boobs once they grow? O.k. I get it, streaming in a bra is “provocative attire” but the second girl you showed had a normal t-shirt. What the hell sky?! 5.) Mean people - you might not have noticed, but they are kind of common on the internet. That Natsumii got a reaction like that is nothing new. It’s the same kind of people that goes to Nikkismiff’s channel to ask her to show boobs, or that might have came to your stream to tell you that you suck. These people are called assholes and who would wanted a viewer like that in their chat anyway? There is no epidemic of people going around calling girls sluts because they saw some other girl streaming in underwear. And people who “don’t like change” and “will expect it in the future” are probably not the target audience of serious gaming streamer who cares about building his community. 6.) Now I would like to give you a question Sky. How do you think, you are shaping and influencing the opinions of other people by this critique? Because I have talked to plenty of people and many of them had never seen a single female stream because “they are just whores, that flaunt their tits to get viewers.” If you raise this as a serious issue - as you did for a second time! - people will listen and form an opinion on the females streaming. The way you’re presenting it is like it is something big and rampart etc. But what you are describing is bringing in such insignificant viewer count that it can’t be seen as anything but curiosity. Yet the amount of attention the “problem” gets is completely disproportionate. So... did you consider that you might actually be harming the game focused streamers more, than those cheeky gals streaming in the lingerie?

[duchessashwynn]

Letter to Riot Games on RP cost increase

Dear Riot, Thank you for your great service and love to your game and community. We've been here with you for all these years and it has been a blast. Thank you for being awesome! Unfortunately that is not the sole reason I decided to write you a letter. Your recent announcement left me a bit puzzled. So I'd like to ask you a few questions. I am, of course, talking about the increase in prize of your virtual currency. Because your official reasoning for this seems a bit confusing for me:

Due to recent shifts in the global economy, we will be increasing the average RP cost for players on EUW and EUNE. The end result of this will be approximately a 10% increase in the cost of RP. Many of our operations (even in Europe) are facilitated through US Dollars, which are currently trending strongly against many European currencies. Additionally, we are continuing to make further investment across Europe in all aspects of League of Legends including the recent Amsterdam data centre and our IP backbone, which are part of an ongoing effort to improve connection stability.

So, as I understand it, you need money to finance, much needed, better infrastructure for the European region. That is understandable even thought you generated 1 billion $ of revenue in the last year alone. You deserved it. The problem I see is how you go about it. European economy is not in the best shape as you noticed when currency exchange rates dropped. That means people actually doesn't have much of extra money to spend. You are selling cosmetic upgrades for a game - not exactly the lowest item on the pyramid of human needs. Normally you don't want to increase the price of luxury items when the buying power of the customer drops. The conceivable outcome of this change is that more people will be discouraged to buy the RP at all because the price is increasing relatively from both sides. If you left the price as it is, it will still take higher percentage of buyers budget than before. If you increase the price of the item as well, of course he will be reluctant to pay. Your move would be understandable if you were a housing company or a food corporation as people would have no real choice than to accept the change except to switch for a competitor willing to accept lower margin in exchange for higher market share.  My questions here are: What is the basis on which do you believe that increased revenue per RP point will at minimum cover the losses from the customers delaying or withholding their purchases? Why do you conduct exchanges in USD within Europe, where people pay you mostly with EUR and you pay for services in EUR. That seems like frankly ineffective and clumsy way to manage your currency flow unless your European regions are in red numbers and you have to sanitize them from NA - which seems highly unlikely. Are you not concerned with increasing the alienation of the European league community even more with this move? The sense of abandonment and second grade treatment is widespread. With the long history of technical problems and poor responses to them, the fact that in EUNE the admins doesn't even bother to update the links on copy-pasted front page articles from NA, and incomparably low Red participation in any EU forums it is understandable that they feel that way. Thank you for your understanding, Ashwynn and the European League Community. p.s.: While the big concern among the community of players is if you will decrease the price if the economy changes in favour of European currencies, I do understand you can't comment on that one since you would either add to the discontent or encouraged people to delay their purchases.

[duchessashwynn]

Human race and Evolution

I've decided to tackle one of the most common topics I can run into on the internet. No it isn't what pokemon starter is your favourite. A lot of people actually kind of worries that because of the medicine, technology etc... we removed ourselves from the mechanism called natural selection. That we are no longer evolving as a species. The problem is that people look at this from the wrong perspective. They look at people as a group of individuals. Separate and self-sufficient. Which we, for a long time now, aren't. Since the birth of a civilisation. Those very first settlements are where we abandoned this model of survival. And as they grew and came to contact with other settlements a competition begun. It was no longer about Jane vs Mary, but Sparta vs Athenes. Survival of the individual and a group as a whole became dependant on the model under which the society operated. At that point no animal or even a pack was a competition and a serious threat. One settlement could be led by the strongest warrior, other by the council of elders, third one could have a chieftain as a hereditary position. When those started to compete weaknesses and advantages of different styles would decide which settlement will prevail. The strong would survive draught, winter and the weak would be conquered, enslaved, died out or lose consent of their members (simply because they would leave to join a stronger group.). Therefore it would be an ideology that would evolve, grow and compete. The last big example was the Cold war, where competition ended in favour of capitalism over socialism. Socialist countries did not died out, they just lost the consent of their people. The example before that was colonial era. The planning ahead, technology inclined and aggressive civilisations took over the world. And the funny thing is, we didn't come up with the model. Some other organism came up with that long time before we did - single cell organisms. Instead of fighting for survival one by one they grouped up and divided the responsibilities. That is how multi-cell organisms came to be. Some started to specialise in defence, other in food acquisition, storage... we did the same millions of years later and with similar results. The settlements and later on ideologies became the new organisms. The evolution and natural selection now continues on that level. This also had some effect on us as individuals - as we subconsciously evaluate information based on our political beliefs. People tend to embrace the research that fits their world view and ignore the one that oppose it, no matter how solid the evidence is. With prominent leaders within modern political spectrum the problem becomes apparent. In US there is a lot of people who won't believe global warming is a thing because their leaders said it isn't. And those leaders decided to oppose it because it would mean that harsh regulation of business and daily lives of people would be necessary - which is in direct conflict with survival strategy of their organism (Ideology). In Europe - Norway is a great example as well, with their social scientists ignoring or denying all proof that gender determines inclination to interests. Because it's their political view that genders are equal and identical. They literally believe and promote the idea that inclinations towards different kinds of jobs etc is result of social expectations and pressure. Therefore with correct pressure and education the genders would become 50/50 in every area of work...  The conclusion is, we no longer significantly evolve on individual basis as we switched to group survival. Which is also why no political debate between people of competing ideologies can ever lead anywhere - since on subconscious level it is literally a matter of survival to be "right" no matter what. Have any questions? Go ahead, I'll gladly clarify.

Ashwynn out