What's a "Moral Compass Cricket Thingy"?

[Moonface]

Aww, I'm sorry about that.
Did you ever have one in mind prior to whatever stopped it for you or was it just something you never gave much thought to ever?

[ShiraNoMai]

Have you ever heard of the latest Digimon anime, Digimon Ghost Game? It's relatively new (still airing), and actually seems quite interesting.

[Maniakkid25]

I have, and I know absolutely nothing about it aside from a Vibe Check meme involving the new Digimon. Other than that, I'm completely clueless as far as plot details go. I don't watch a lot of TV shows anymore, so this shouldn't really be surprising.

[Moonface]

I don't watch a lot of TV shows anymore, so this shouldn't really be surprising.

How come? Just none on that catch your eye?

[Maniakkid25]

Just more interested in video games. I still watch Youtube a lot, but just not proper shows or movies. Karo's been struggling to get me through the Avatar Serieses (both of them), to give you an idea of how up to date I am on TV.

[Moonface]

Just more interested in video games. I still watch Youtube a lot, but just not proper shows or movies. Karo's been struggling to get me through the Avatar Serieses (both of them), to give you an idea of how up to date I am on TV.

Ah. I know you tend to play World of Tanks or FF14. Are those the only two games you tend to play or are there others?

[Maniakkid25]

I float around games a lot. I just play what my interest guides me to at the moment. Been playing a bit of Project Wingman, which is basically Ace Combat with the serial numbers filed off (by the devs own admission, it's a love letter to the series), and Master Duel, which is just straight up PVP Yu-Gi-Oh. I have phases of playing a specific game almost religiously for several months, and then take an extended break from it. It's just how it goes...

[Moonface]

Ah. What game would you say you go back and forth from the most often?

Also did you play any of the newer Ace Combat games or did you drop them at some point and eventually switch over to Wingman?

[Maniakkid25]

I've played Ace Combat 6 straight through and I'm about halfway through 7. It's been a minute since I've played 6, so I have no comments on that story, but as far as 7 goes, based on what I know happens later in the story, if I was in Trigger's position (Trigger is the PC of that game), I'd be RIGHTEOUSLY pissed off! Just absolutely furious! I also wouldn't call Wingman a replacement for Ace Combat, but it is a fun arcade flight sim on its own that just heavily leans on Ace Combat conventions.

Probably World of Tanks and Dark Cloud 2 lol. And I'd weigh Dark Cloud 2 higher on the simple fact that it's my second favorite game of all time, where as World of Tanks has gotten...well, let's just say I don't see eye to eye with the devteam anymore.

[Moonface]

...where as World of Tanks has gotten...well, let's just say I don't see eye to eye with the devteam anymore.

Is that due to the invasion of Ukraine or something else?

[Maniakkid25]

Oh no, nothing like that. In fact, the studio has famously fired its longtime creative director for supporting the invasion, as is currently in the works of moving their head office out of Belarus.

No, no, Wargaming has come under my ire because, aside from just having a love-hate relationship with the game, their game design decisions have sometimes come off as...greedy (*cough* ISU-152K, Object 252U, and Nameless, to name a few). Needless to say, one of the most common accusations thrown at the game is that it's become Pay-2-Win, and given some of the absolutely broken vehicles that you can only buy with real money, I'm inclined to agree.

[Moonface]

Ah. I had heard about that ruckus that came about due to their director and whatnot, but it was the only negative thing I knew about them so that's why I thought it was possibly that even if the studio as a whole responded well.

Oh, I see. I've played games like that where paid items were added, but are horribly balanced compared to the non-paid items. It always sucks because it's clear the developers do it on purpose to try and force more sales of the items.

Here's a random question: what is the top image in your signature from? XD

[Maniakkid25]

I truly don't know lol. Karo put it in there the last time we swapped accounts, and I just haven't had a reason to remove it lol.

[Moonface]

Ah, I forgot you guys did that. XD

Since you seem to know a lot about history (or at least certain aspects of it going by the WW2 posts you made yesterday), is there anything that's happened in history you wish we knew more about? Like the facts weren't all recorded or maybe it's obvious what was written was biased/edited, etc.

[Maniakkid25]

Things that I wish we knew more about...

Robert Johnson immediately comes to mind. The most important Blues musician of all time, and we only barely managed to reconstruct the last decade or so of his life (granted, he died at the age of 27) because he was a black man in 1930's America.

The full text to the Epic Cycle. You know the Iliad and the Odyssey? The Ancient Greek Epics? Yeah, there's like, 9 of them, all relating to the Fall of Troy, and the only reason we know anything about the others is because we got lucky, and managed to find a manuscript that summarized the others.

Where the hell Punt is. It was a major trading power with Ancient Eygpt, and no one knows for certain where the hell it is because no one wrote it down in a surviving document. After all, it's Punt! Everyone knows where Punt is! (Think about that the next time you see a cake recipe calling for eggs and milk)

The history of music before the 9th century or so. While we do have surviving records of music study, Western Music proper has been lost before the 9th century, where we start to see Plainchant (or Gregorian Chant). Thousands of songs that will never be heard again, lost to time.

And even going back to World War 2: the true losses of the German Armed Forces. There is a distinct and known unreliability to their records, because equipment losses were only counted if the equipment could not be recovered or repaired. So, as an example, if a German Division had 35 damaged tanks, and all but 4 of them were repaired, then the report will only say "4 tanks damaged". As such, there is a massive underrepresentation of German losses across various battles in WW2, endemic through all the fronts they fought on.

This list could go on, I'm sure, but those are just the things I can immediately think of. But most of all that I wish we knew more of is the personal stories. At every event in history, there are dozens, hundreds, or thousands whose stories are forgotten. What they thought, what they said, and what they did can never be recovered from the ever onward march of time. I wish we knew more of these stories, untinged by retrospective knowledge or biases. I just want to know what John Smith of the 314th Batallion thought when his Batallion was chosen to go Over the Top in World War 1.