Sociopath Community

Buttered Toast said: 

Definitely cool; I like the aesthetic.  There hasn't been any games I've seen that really capture that in a playable way.  There might be elements here and there, but not fully immersed like that though.

Not game related, but reminds me of:

 That's a sick show. Don't like some episodes but those ones are good. 

I went looking for tilt shift games and saw Fantasian Neo Dimension. ( You probably saw this already )

I remember seeing them working on this years ago and I was disappointed that it was only on Apple Arcade. They built the world by hand and digitized it. I think they should've used more detailed character models, but more importantly make it so the lighting cannot see the characters, then add a 2nd set of lights that only see the characters. That way they can correct how the characters look in each scene in the same way we composite layers in feature animation.

I don't have those platforms but I do have a Switch Emulator I used to play Link's Awakening, but damn. I can't get into something that takes forever to complete. I need a game where I can hop in, play for awhile and go. Something with less story. 

https://www.youtube.com/@roosterteethanimation/playlists

This might be stretching the concept of "video game" (video + game) but it was a weird experiment, a toy that you could "play" with the show.

I had the white Jet. The VHS tapes were better than the show if you wanted to play, pretty good quality action animation 

I miss this MMO for its style and uniqueness.  Its playerbase died off the way a lot of subscription games did back then.  Then it went Free to Play and did other strategies, but its doom was inevitable already.  Really unfortunate.

Spyro's music was definitely ahead of it's time, offering trance-like ASMR Binaural Beats before it was even popular: 

lol I forgot they actually had a contest for this shit. 



The winner actually got their name immortalized in a special spot in the second game. 

Tom Brier wasn't a video game pianist, he was a sight reader.

One like him is extremely extremely rare.....

 How many sight readers are there like Tom Brier ?

Gemini said:

While there is no official headcount or exact database of world-class sight readers, musicians who can sight read exactly like Tom Brier are extraordinarily rare—likely numbered in the low hundreds worldwide, and perhaps only a handful who do it in his specific style.

To understand why a player like him is so uncommon, it helps to break down how traditional sight reading differs from Brier’s specific "superpower," and who else operates at that elite tier

There are thousands of professional pianists—especially collaborative pianists, studio session musicians, and orchestrational conductors—who can flawlessly sight read complex classical scores or orchestral reductions on the first try. However, Brier combined three distinct skills that rarely overlap:

1. Blind Leaping (The Ragtime Problem): Traditional sight reading relies on keeping your eyes strictly on the sheet music. Ragtime and stride piano feature continuous, rapid left-hand leaps across multiple octaves. Sight reading this at full tempo requires a flawless, absolute spatial map of the keyboard purely by feel

2. On-the-Fly Arranging (Approximation): When Brier read a video game track, he wasn’t just reading the notes. He was reading a basic melody, mentally calculating the chord structures, and improvising a complex ragtime arrangement over it in real-time.

3. Aggressive Tempo: Most elite sight readers will slow a piece down on the first pass to ensure accuracy. Brier famously attacked pieces at full performance speed immediately.

In Summary

If you define "sight reader" as someone who can play standard classical music perfectly on the first try, there are thousands of elite professionals.But if you define it as someone who can look at a flat, non-piano piece of music, instantly translate it into a blistering, rhythmically chaotic, high-tempo stride masterpiece with zero hesitation—you are looking at an elite fraternity of fewer than a few dozen living people. Brier was truly a generational anomaly.

The Evo Tournament in Last Vegas. 2004

These tournaments have prizes as high as $31,000 for first place.

In 2004 the top 3 were...

1st. Kenji "KO" Obata

2nd. Diego

3rd Justin Wong.

In 2004 the prize money wasn't that much, 2-3 grand though I don't see why not, that whole room was filled with tournament members.

The most iconic match in history is Justin Vs. Diego, where Diego did a full parry on Justin Wong using Chun Li's super move. At the time no one really knew this was possible. 

Performing this is insanely difficult and not even Diego can do it at will. There's a time of luck with timing involved there.

The full match. I like this capture better. It shows how Diego's score passes Justin's with style. Points mean nothing unless a statement like this is made.

Diego had 0 health left, and super moves can penetrate defense if blocked. It was all or nothing. Room went nuts. I imagine that community is tired of seeing this video, and know other performances, however, if someone pulled this yet again while in a tournament, it'll make it's comeback and reclaim it's throne as a fantasy play.

Anyway. If you're a geek you've seen this. But it was I who posted it in the nerd thread and not you.

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In Toronto we had a tournament with various fighting games. I signed up for Soul Calibur 4. $20 entry fee. Street Fighter III was the big game. It's whatever

So I'm grouped with the SC4 players. Very diverse group. White people, Black people, Asian people, indian people etc. There was a little chinese girl with a pink backpack. Shiny black hair trimmed to her neck like Dora. I was thinking heh, I'm gonna smoke that cutsy. Then she says to me "Hi, are you from the forum ?" What ? What forum ? 8Way. I'm thinking damn, cause if you know SC, the movements uses all 8 directions of a D pad or arcade stick for movements and moves in general.

Everyone who joined the SC4 tournament knew one another from online. They are were Forum members meeting one another for the first time, and they're asking who I am. I'm thinking shit, I don't think I'm gonna beat these ppl.

I got smoked by a little girl.

As for the big Tournament Street Fighter III. The guy who won.... Is the guy who threw the damn tournament. Like it arranged the whole thing, the venue. Get a bunch of nerds to brings TV's and consoles. throw money in the pot winner takes all. 

That guy who won SFIII was a G. Like damn. He had to win. He rented the venue. Surely some of the pot went into the organization itself, but he walked away for a fat stash. And he looked bored. Like he really wanted the really famous fighting gamer to show up. It's actually quite impressive seeing people like that even though he came off and disappointed in the turnout.