@jodokus_k: Well said, and I'm with you on most of your post (I didn't think the PC principal season was very funny). South park makes fun of everyone, no matter their religion, creed, politics, or race. GB just seems to have gotten so pc that anything society deems offensive (which may as well be everything) is just indefensible to them, even if it's a joke. I'll say that Jeff and Dan (maybe Rorie) seem relatively unscathed by it, and also just because I disagree with them vehemently on political correctness it doesn't mean that I dislike them. Quite the opposite.
I'm glad South Park still makes politically incorrect content. I'm sick of everything having to tiptoe around jokes because someone might get offended. They make fun of everyone.
I will say the last couple seasons just weren't that funny, though. I also wasn't very interested in the new game, but every time I've seen any game play I giggled and it actually looks pretty fun. Think I may get it when it's a bit cheaper. Soooo much other to play right now.
Except that dong IS still another word for weiner. Just happened to be that guy's name, too.
Edit: He wasn't seeing the part about the guy being from China. Just that his name was Dong. I'll give you that it's juvenile and he should very thought about it more, but the fact still stands that it wasn't racist at all.
@sankis: He wasn't laughing at it because it's Asian. He was laughing because dong. That's it. Doesn't mean he dislikes, hates or thinks his race is superior to Asian races. It just means that dong is another word for weiner. Should he have maybe paid a bit more attention to the flag the name belong to before committing to giggling like a kid about it? Sure. But he didn't fall into racism in any capacity because he giggled about it.
@onemanarmyy: yeah I'm pretty tired and misheard them. Gonna delete that last bit from my comment. I took Brad saying that games should probably be shaved down of the extra fluff as sorta kinda defending it. Apologies.
I'm really not into games as a service. If EA (who has trashed every single franchise and studio of theirs that I liked except Battlefield and DICE) and other big companies stop making AAA single player experiences, then I imagine another company will come along and step in to make them. I don't like indie games much, either, so if single player games disappear then I guess I'm done with modern gaming.
I don't care about Overwatch. I don't care about Rainbow Six: Siege. I don't care about Anthem. I don't care about Destiny. This list could go on forever (though I do like a few mmos). I'm sure there are millions like me, too. If single player disappears, we will just stop playing new games. Like I said, though, I'm sure in the lack of big budget AAA single player games someone else would take up the mantle.
You guys know you're gonna get a million messages on table top and d&d lol. I've always considered ANYTHING played on a table table top, or analogue. Magic the Gathering, D&D, Poker, Monopoly... Everything.
In regards to D&D, yeah the dungeon master must have a good grasp on most of the rules (I've been a dm since 3rd edition came out). If something happens that the dm doesn't know the rules for, then he or she should know enough about the rules to be able to wing it and use a placeholder rule, so to speak. Example. "I want to grapple the big ass ant and bring it to the ground." Dm doesn't know the exact rule, but knows that the strength ability usually governs stuff like that, so dm says "ok you and the ant roll the d20 and add your strength modifier to it. If you get a higher number the ant is grappled to the ground. If not, then he isn't." This keeps the game rolling instead of spending 15 minutes looking for a rule in a game that's slow already.
Speaking of slow, there are ways to speed it up. Already have the outline of the game or map you want to use written down, have all of the monster info written down in front of you... Things like that.
In regards to making up the game, absolutely most games (campaigns) are made up. What I do is build a world for my players to be in, then make an outline of things I want to happen story wise, to nudge the players along in the world with those plot points until they finish my campaign. I give them the freedom to do *almost* whatever they want, as long as they don't stray outside the outline I have made up.
A lot of it comes down to knowing what your players like. My group likes hack n slash, random loot, and dungeon crawling with a sprinkle of role playing. So I make big dungeons filled with traps, loot (random from tables I've made), puzzles and riddles, and interesting combat challenges. There's a bit of roleplaying before and after the dungeon. Some groups I've played in prefer it to be 90% roleplaying.
There were also games that helped me understand the game and rules. Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights. Sorry for the long comment, but hope I clarified for people confused about D&D. And yes it gets nerdy, but part of the fun is taking your friends out of their comfort zone and them being someone else.
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