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Congrats!

[Please use properly marked spoiler tags when appropriate.]

Since people chat about anime on the server a lot, I thought it'd be neat to have a general thread for anime discussion that doesn't fit anywhere else. Everyone is still welcome to make other threads for specific stuff, but sometimes having an ongoing thread already in place feels cozy.

Please use properly marked spoiler tags when appropriate. Spoiler tags are formatted as follows:

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[spoiler=Star Wars spoilers]Jar Jar is Luke's father.[/spoiler]
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Glad that's out of the way. Anyway, all I've been watching lately is DBZ Abridged and a little bit of One Piece, but when I have time again soon I'm hoping to start a more serious series. Has anyone seen anything lately they'd recommend?

Even more minor: the arrow next to "Attachments and other options" beneath the post text box looks like it should point downward to indicate that it can be expanded.

The text beneath the log in box has some formatting issues, visible in both Firefox and Chrome.

French toast.

Huh, the font is part of what put me off of Aquarelle. It's kerned pretty tightly and I find it hard to read in the topic summary, which I refer to a lot when I'm writing replies.

Scratch is a good skin and definitely my second choice. (Aquarelle is nice but I just can't use such light themes when given the choice.) What really draws me toward Yorky, aside from the colours, is how slick and distinctive it is. The other two are very traditional in how they present the forums, and while those traditions have good reason they somehow put me off a little. Maybe it's because I'm newer here than Valkyrie, but Yorky feels more uniquely "CalRef" than the others.

Oh, I forgot about Soul Calibur somehow! 2 and 3 were probably the fighting games I put the most hours into outside of Smash. When it gets cheaper I'll probably get VI and see if it feels the same.

Tastunoko vs Capcom

Oh my god someone else owns that! Well I think I have TvC2 but still lol

I don't think it ever got a sequel, since nobody cared about it half as much as the Marvel vs. Capcom stuff. Shame, since it had such a striking style.

It's less wanting to train to incredible levels that puts me off of most games, but that feeling of having absolutely no idea what I'm doing or how to find out. It's the same feeling I get with RTS games: the idea of learning where and how to start learning is intimidating and exhausting, so I end up moving on. I didn't do that with SC because the single player modes were so involved, but most fighting games just have generic campaigns with boring AI.

This is a great idea! I've always kinda liked fighting games, but I don't think I've ever gotten seriously into one outside of Smash Bros. I've got a few Street Fighter games, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Tekken 2, one of the BlazBlues, but I always end up playing them for a few hours and then shelving them. I think it's the intimidation of having to learn not just the gameplay system but the meta and strategy.

What fighting games do you play? Are there any you recommend as being more accessible for newbs?

One more really minor one: it'd be nice if the path at the top of each page (e.g: Calamity Refuge -> General Discussion -> [Thread title] etc.) were fully visible without using a dropdown.

That looks a lot better, and handles the long thread titles well. Thanks!

I don't know if you plan to actively support non-default themes, but it'd be nice if the spacing on Yorky's "recent posts" sidebar were a little more even.

So many new faces over here! Welcome, everybody! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone is interested in doing together here.

It's so weird, as soon as I poke my head in here again I get this rush of nostalgia for times passed. Structured discussions. Forming entire thoughts more than half a sentence at a time. It could be fun to get back into this habit. I actually did a bit of journaling today for the first time in a couple years, and it got me thinking about missing longform conversation.

Let's all find games to play together sometime! I don't know what people are into these days, but I'm sure we have some common ground somewhere.

I made a new one that doesn't immediately make terrible, confused decisions. Those come later.

That would be fun. Once I finish setting up a nation I'm happy with, I'd participate in some capacity.

This is a great thread. I missed this kind of content.

I couldn't break it down by year, but I made a loosely linear timeline that starts from 1996 (when I was first old enough to meaningfully play games and remember things) and stretches through the present. There are probably a few missing and a few included that are of less importance, but every game here has a story behind it, and I might someday write at length about a few of them.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)
Humongous Entertainment games (Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish, Sock Works, etc.) (PC)
Mega Man 2 (NES)
ToeJam & Earl (Genesis)
Snow Bros. (NES)
Mendel Palace (NES)
Twisted Metal 2 (PSX)
The Dukes of Hazzard: Racing for Home (PSX)
BattleTanx: Global Assault (N64)
Banjo-Kazooie (N64)
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (PSX)
Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense (PSX)
Magic: The Gathering (TCG)
Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN)
Animal Crossing (GCN)
Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Return (PSX)
Tony Hawk's Underground (GCN)
Sonic Adventure 2 (DC)
Shenmue (DC)
Pokemon Channel (GCN)
Road Trip (PS2)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2)
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GCN)
Goldeneye (N64)
Soul Calibur III (PS2)
Guitar Hero II (PS2)
Earthbound (SNES)
Portal (PC)
Team Fortress 2 (PC)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
The Dig (PC)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2)
Mirror's Edge (360)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360/PC)
Digital: A Love Story (PC)
Katawa Shoujo (PC)
NieR (360)
To the Moon (PC)
Freedom Planet (PC)
Mother 3 (GBA)
Donkey Konga (GCN)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (DS)
Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)
Secret Little Haven (PC)

She unfroze. The reflex had only lasted a heartbeat, but before she could set to moving the pink worm of a tail was disappearing into the ground.

Rats.

The sight of an escapee was rare; few creatures short of the beasts could outclass the huntress, and on any other such occasion she would have set about shouting down the coward. Today she was silent, ears twitching. Her third eye produced a map while she took stock of her surroundings: the deep woods sprawled ahead of her in several directions; her favourite tree was back and to the left, at the edge of the border; the humans spread out just beyond it. This noise didn't come from them. It was somewhere to the right, not near the tall shelters, well away from the sheep and close to the ground. The map dissolved, devoid of data.

Three kilograms of brown and black zigzagged toward the rising chorus of bleats. She burst into the clearing, past the shelters and toward the paddock between the herd of agitated humans - her meows were inaudible amid the clamor.

"What was that?" "Thunder from cloudless-" "I can't see!" "Where's Ancel? Has anybody seen-" "-could it all come to-"

She knew before she reached the front of the crowd. There was no forgetting that scent. Bitter. Destructive. Nostalgic. The shouts grew frantic as she finally stole a glimpse through the frontline, just in time to see the black air plume out and over the southern woods.

Hello! My name is Natalie. I have extensive experience moderating and managing a number of communities in other corners of the web, and I'm excited to help Luca in any way I can to cultivate a positive environment here. I hope everybody will feel comfortable being here and reaching out when they need anything.

I have a bunch of hobbies I've done at some point - writing, gaming, drumming, some other stuff - so I'll just be around chiming in and trying to make friends.