Random Thoughts

[El Pollo Guerrera]

A random thought: has anyone tried hooking up the old Laser Tag gear to a couple of remote control drones and had an aerial dogfight?

[Ceir]

What the hell is going on with the sudden influx of laxative and "regularity supplement" commercials? I just saw one ad that mentions poop about 12 times ("pooping is powerful"...WTAF). I swear this stuff only started over the past year or so...the ad in question only started running in this area about a month ago.

(muse #1: "Someone was out of ideas at a deadline and let their eight-year-old on the Teams call.")

Y'know, now that you mention it, I am picking up on a lot more...ah, digestive health commercials. Although that could be because if I'm using the TV for background noise I tend to leave it on one of the retro channels; nothing I actively have to pay attention to, and I know the commercials are pretty much going to be triple-I - Insurance, Incontinence, and Identity Theft. And far less political junk.

Random tax:
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack jumped over the candlestick
Holy Moses, cleared just by a wire
Look out Jack, your pants are on fire!

[Dreamstalker]

What the hell is going on with the sudden influx of laxative and "regularity supplement" commercials? I just saw one ad that mentions poop about 12 times ("pooping is powerful"...WTAF). I swear this stuff only started over the past year or so...the ad in question only started running in this area about a month ago.

(muse #1: "Someone was out of ideas at a deadline and let their eight-year-old on the Teams call.")

[Ceir]

I, too, watch a lot of LPs. Sometimes the schtick is that the LPer(s) deliberately don't pay attention to the objectives or controls, and then go ham doing whatever. Achievement Hunter is known for doing that, talking over instructions or interrupting people trying to give the instructions, and then yelling at someone (usually Matt Bragg) for doing a bad job explaining it. It's part of their routine.

I did find it amusing when Markiplier was playing Power Wash Simulator, and for several installments of his LP, he didn't know that you could rotate the nozzle of your power washer. Despite the controls being displayed on the loading screen (a loading screen that you have to click off, to start the levels). Mark blamed the developers for not making it clearer-- despite the fact that he was pretty much ignoring the loading screen-- and doubled down on blaming them when they released an update which put tutorial pop-ups in the game to teach you the controls, especially when the patch notes from that update called him out specifically (without actually naming him) for it.

Yeah, if it's a schtick it's a schtick, that's one thing even if it's not one I particularly enjoy (I basically quit watching Game Grumps stuff because that became their schtick). Blatantly ignoring things is another. Genuinely missing things, that's yet a third, and it's far more palatable to my tastes.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I watch a lot of Let's Plays. And I thoroughly get that playing a game is hard enough on its own, let alone trying to make entertaining and coherent commentary at the same time. However...

I find it frustrating enough that I quit watching a playthrough if the player blatantly ignores information and then blames the game for it. Again, game and commentary are hard to do simultaneously - but there's a difference between just missing something, that can be funny as above; and willfully ignoring something, then calling it a glitch or bug when they screw up the very thing they ignored.

I, too, watch a lot of LPs. Sometimes the schtick is that the LPer(s) deliberately don't pay attention to the objectives or controls, and then go ham doing whatever. Achievement Hunter is known for doing that, talking over instructions or interrupting people trying to give the instructions, and then yelling at someone (usually Matt Bragg) for doing a bad job explaining it. It's part of their routine.

I did find it amusing when Markiplier was playing Power Wash Simulator, and for several installments of his LP, he didn't know that you could rotate the nozzle of your power washer. Despite the controls being displayed on the loading screen (a loading screen that you have to click off, to start the levels). Mark blamed the developers for not making it clearer-- despite the fact that he was pretty much ignoring the loading screen-- and doubled down on blaming them when they released an update which put tutorial pop-ups in the game to teach you the controls, especially when the patch notes from that update called him out specifically (without actually naming him) for it.

[Ceir]

On a completely different note...boy, Weird Al's 'Yoda' sure hits different after the sequel movies, dunnit?

[Ironclad Alibi]

... Again, game and commentary are hard to do simultaneously ...

With the video editing programs available today it is easy to record the game play and add the commentary afterwards.

[Ceir]

I watch a lot of Let's Plays. And I thoroughly get that playing a game is hard enough on its own, let alone trying to make entertaining and coherent commentary at the same time. However...

It's always funny to me when a player who is not used to 360* physics plays something like Kerbal Space Program or Outer Wilds - watching them learn that Forward, Up, Back, and Down are different things, and that things like gravity and momentum exist. ("Why is the autopilot braking -now-?" *turns it off, promptly crashes* "I had that lined up perfectly!" *missed the 1km+/sec approach speed*)

And I suppose it makes me a bad audience, but I find it frustrating enough that I quit watching a playthrough if the player blatantly ignores information and then blames the game for it. Again, game and commentary are hard to do simultaneously - but there's a difference between just missing something, that can be funny as above; and willfully ignoring something, then calling it a glitch or bug when they screw up the very thing they ignored.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

After years of hearing it, something mentioned on "M*A*S*H" struck me as odd enough to check, and I found a 'continuity error'...

On the episode where Hawkeye is mean to a paralyzed soldier (it's psychosomatic, caused by fear), Hawkeye says "in his (the soldier's) eyes I'm just left of Godzilla".

The Korean War was between 1950 and 1953. Godzilla first appeared in 1954.

Marvel Comics used to give out "No-Prizes" when fans noticed continuity errors, maybe I'll get a "MeTV No-Prize"?

[Ceir]

According to my brain at three this morning, if I were ever on TV it would be in an infomercial as the guy who nearly offs himself cutting a tomato the Old Wrong Way or whatever.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

To me... the DoorDash commercial with Snoop implies that he spends his free time and money on throwing parties for family and friends.

The DoorDash commercial with Katy Perry implies she lives in a plastic fantasy world where she needs people to dress up like food to dance with her.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Not magic, just some 3d geometry and chroma-key.

But it is magic. As in: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke 1962

[Nunavut Pants]

I know someone who used to work for the company that did those.

They know the camera locations to a very very precise spot, and can calculate instantaneous fields-of-view very quickly. That's how they know where to put the lines. Having the lines obscured by the players instead of having the line go on top of them is done by a chroma-key process (like green-screen) that is not as "picky" in what it replaces.

Not magic, just some 3d geometry and chroma-key.

[Deserted]

I also wonder what else on 'live TV' is computer generated...

The thing for hockey games where the puck gets a comet tail when it's passed or shot at high speeds.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I wonder how they do the 'lines of scrimmage' graphic that comes up in football games... the line where the ball is and the line the ball has to cross so the team can get another 1st down. They fade in before the play, they move with the cameras, and when a player crosses over the line it's blocked but still 'visible' on the field. I wonder if there's sensors in the line markers on the sidelines that beam a signal across the field that the computers in the production truck pick up.

I know that in MLB the ads behind the batters are just green-screens and the ads are thrown in by computer.

I also wonder what else on 'live TV' is computer generated...