My kids are 3 and 1. (Feel old yet? Some of you read the post when my oldest was born)

I remember that. How are they doing?

Just 1, you diva.

"It is a sad day in America when those who harvest the body parts of aborted babies escape consequences for their actions, while the courageous truth-tellers who expose their misdeeds are handed down a politically motivated indictment instead," Black said."

Just lol.

Well will you look at this.



http://siterankdata.com/sep7agon.net

Solonoid is a she?

Hey now, I'm right here.

Lol at Turkey's.

Update #3. As much as I would like to just farm the same boss a few times and get my soul memory up to 1 million and bypass the Shrine of Winter, it just isn't feasible. I'm over 800k souls short and From designed the game in such a way that there's hardly any ascetics in this part of the game. Just have to continue normally, I suppose.

After killing the Sentinels and leveling up some more, I went back to Majula and headed for Huntsman's Corpse. Fighting the Forlorn NPC invader was one of the hardest parts yet, as NPC's don't exact follow normal combat rules (cancelling during any attack, jumping attacks that are capable of doing full 180s in mid air, poising through everything whenever they feel like it). But we won and continued onwards. I set Creighton free and cleared out the area (including the dark skeleton cave) so I could summon him for the Skeleton Kings boss fight. Easy fight, but Creighton decided to go wreck the main bosses rather than focus on the little skeletons so that I had to fight a number at once. All good though. We looted the shit out of everything in Harvest Valley, killed the lizards and took down Covetous. A very near  death experience followed when I ran up the stairs and one of the assassin's dropped down behind me with another in front. Two hits and I nearly bled out. Managed to run back, heal and take them out. I also upgraded my bow now and bought a bunch of arrows to play more of a distance game. Next off we ran by pretty much everything and fought Mytha. Easy fight as always, even though she stuck around the poison which heals her throughout the entire fight.

Current situation: just made it to the first bonfire in the Iron Keep. Mace +8, Estoc +6 and shortbow +5. Soul level 55 with 20 Vigor, 20 str, 15 dex and 15 adp. Currently trying to decide whether I should go through the Keep or go back and take on Rotten, as he should be considerably easier. I also went into offline mode to have a look at the death counter in Majula and praise the lord, because it still says 0 deaths.

So, do I go to the Keep or backtrack for Rotten?

Those are terrible comparisons. You can't equate movements that already saw a lot of success in other parts of the world or history and that pertain to topics like women voting to a movement that literally goes against one of the number one primal urges of our species. A global and absolute choice of all people to pursue the extinction of our race is in no way comparable to some of those examples that you linked. They're fundamentally different and you know that. People cared about those things because there were large groups of people who were systematically discriminated against by the establishment and who united for their cause in a way that it affected the entirety of society. As unfortunate as it might be for you, such a basis just doesn't exist for anti-natalism.

Even if you're right, simply saying that it's never going to happen doesn't make it true.

You're right. Of course, I don't know with absolute certainty that it won't be true. There's always a chance. But seeing how your philosophy is so extreme and rejected by well over 99% of all people, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that it won't become mainstream or generally accepted any time soon.

It seems like this statement is merely a trembling mantra rooted in wishful thinking. You don't WANT it to catch on--so you say it repeatedly, in hopes that it never will, because surely it never will. You're scared of it, whether you're willing to admit it or not. And that's okay, I guess, but it doesn't lend your outlook on the philosophy any credence or merit or... anything, really.

You really are missing the entire point here with those broad assumptions. I don't care if it catches on. I really don't. I know that there is no way that this philosophy will become the norm in my lifetime. Thinking otherwise and assuming that somehow, a philosophy that receives virtually no support and the vast majority of people (outside of some groups on youtube and Reddit where the same people talk to themselves on topics and videos that hardly even break a 1000 views) don't even know about will suddenly convince billions to go against one of our primal urges is pretty delusional. And that is why this doesn't scare me. Why I honestly don't give a damn whether or not it catches on. Because it doesn't affect me one bit. I will very likely have children. My girlfriend and I would like to have them some day. And I know that the same goes for millions of others. Our society is based on that and will continue that way for years to come. There is no imaginable way that anti-natalism will even make the tiniest impact for decades to come. And if it ever does, I will be long dead and will probably have lived a life with children and a family, not even caring about efilism in the slightest. It is an ideology that attracts very few people outside of the miserable ones or the outcasts. One that is too extreme and unconventional for most people to even consider. And that reality is why your philosophy doesn't scare, bother or worry me at all.

"But I've never heard of this author, and he doesn't appear to be very popular--this philosophy will never catch o--"

Sure, sure. Please, feel free to keep telling yourself that, if it makes you feel better.

The fact that you linked the only actual academic book on anti-natalism that I happen to know of is kind of telling. The fact that it hasn't even received 40 reviews in a decade kind of is too. And so is the fact that most people on the references page are long dead, don't support anti-natalism for anything other than practical reasons (environment, legal wrongful births) or are more or less nobodies. Even looking at book compilation sites, I can't find more than a dozen books on anti-natalism (and that number includes general books on nihilism tying in with anti-natalism and such).

The only person who's trying to make himself feel better is you, Verb. I don't care about your philosophy. And the truth is that the incredibly vast, vast majority of people out there don't either. I mean, a few dead philosophers and a handful other notable references (which apparently include "free culture cartoonists", for what merit that holds)? A very small number of extremely obscure books and articles that no one outside of a very small group of people that care about the academics of the morality of life cares about or would ever read? I'm sorry, but that is about as far from a convincing argument as you can get. People don't care and they likely never will. Unless something major happens (drastic overpopulation that forces us to stop having children or all die, for example) which has absolutely nothing to do with the moral and ethical ideas behind anti-natalism, this won't catch on.

And I'm not saying that because I'm "scared" or because I'm trying to convince myself that a negligibly small fringe philosophy might somehow threaten me (which it doesn't). I'm saying that to be honest with you. People don't care about this. Gay marriage happened because of millions of gays that were being discriminated against. Black rights movement happened because millions of blacks were still treated as second class citizens. Women's suffrage happened because just about half the population in developed countries was denied a right. Anti-natalism won't happen because procreation is a primal drive that has shaped and directed our society, species and lives for hundreds of years, and because the only people who take issue with that make up less than a fraction of a fraction of a single percent of the global population, who are not united, have no platform to spread their ideology on to the masses and is little more than something that a handful of philosophers talk about while the rest of the world carries on carrying on, dismissing it as equally unimportant as the other thousands of philosophical and ethical questions.

I'm not here to discuss anti-natalism with you again. If anything, this is some good advice to you. Unless something directly affects a large group of people, you're not going to have it go mainstream without a much better basis. You need to step out of the shadows of obscure academic philosophic publications and people making cringe material on youtube. What you need is an actual movement. Someone eloquent and capable of spreading the message. High quality video productions going viral. Public action at schools and whatnot. Otherwise, this isn't going anywhere beyond being a fringe philosophy adhered to by a handful of "famous" people (like some lawyer trying to bank on wrongful birth and a free culture cartoonist) on wikipedia and an extremely small reddit community that hardly breaks a thousand views on videos that are considered major in their field.

Quote from: Flee on January 24, 2016, 05:40:48 AM

Quote from: A Cheese Potato on January 24, 2016, 04:23:31 AM

Hah yeah, don't want your death run to be spoiled by the damn drop in Majula of all things

Question though, where did you get all of those ascetics? I know you come across several of them through normal play, but 30 is quite a bit. I'm trying to think of a way to get quick and easy access to a bunch of them for Rotten. This might be a pretty big issue. Not many ascetics I can get to without playing through most of the areas I'm looking to avoid.

Oh I just had them from playing through the whole game per usual on NG and NG+, and I used all of them to basically skip the entirety of NG++ to just get to the spells I wanted and then called it quites haha.

From memory there are a few spots where you spend one bonfire ascetic and then the area that's reset gives you more than one, essentially farming them. Been ages since I played so I don't remember though sorry.

Looks like I might have to actually farm some non-boss creatures too then. >_>

Or probably just play through the game normally. Even if I use the one ascetic I have easy access to and farm Rotten twice, including consuming his souls, I'll still be like 700k souls short. I guess I'll just keep on playing normally for now. If I die, I'll do a new character and do no bonfire first on NG. Stack up on a ton of souls by the end and do no death in NG+ by bypassing Shrine of Winter.

Yeah that's true. I just found the Old Iron King easiest because I was on a miracle character, so even at those ridiculous NG tiers I was still doing decent damage with all my lightning spears

Yeah, neither are really hard bosses. I just think that Rotten is less of a risk for a no death run at least. Aside from his grab attack, none of his moves are particularly lethal and there's no real environmental hazards (the fire pits hardly do any damage). Old Iron King is easy too, but the hitboxes on some of his attacks (I'm thinking about the two handed fire punch in particular) are dodgy at best. A single mistake or poor hit registration might send me flying backwards down the hole in the arena for an instant death and RIP run.

Plus, getting to the King is also a lot more of a pain with a bunch of risks. Huntsman's Corpse with its many pitfalls, small edges and NPC invaders. Skeleton Lords with bonewheels (even though they're a really easy boss). Harvest Valley with poison, fire sorcerers, skeletons and those dark beasts? Covetous demon, the little assassin guys that can be quite dangerous, more fire sorcerers, another NPC invader and then Mytha. Iron Keep with two dozen Alonne knights, archers, lava, fire breathing minotaur heads and turtle guys. That's a lot of risk.

Rotten? Get cat ring, drop down the well a few times. Go through the gutter (only real danger are exploding mummies knocking you off or the big dog things) slowly with a torch. Down the ladder, sprint through Black Gulch after stacking some poison resistance and there you go. Still plenty of places where things can go wrong, but it's a lot shorter and there's no prior bosses as opposed to three for the King.

I just have to make sure I can survive the falls. I'll probably try it another account with equal HP first, no equipment other than the cat ring.

Quote from: A Cheese Potato on January 23, 2016, 06:05:07 PM

The easiest way I found to farm souls for the Shrine of Winter door is to just get up to the Old Iron King and then farm him with ascetics. He's easy as fuck and there's only one enemy between you and him if you get the closest bonfire.

I got him to NG+ 21 because I wanted to breeze through from NG to NG++ to buy the spells from Wellager and 100% the game

Iron King is the easiest route to take. But he's punishing if you slip up even once. That fucking hole in the arena I swear.

What about Rotten? I always thought he was the easiest boss out of the main 4.

Quote from: Flee on January 23, 2016, 02:33:16 PM

Quote from: challengerX on January 23, 2016, 01:30:19 PM

Quote from: Flee on January 23, 2016, 11:21:20 AM

Quote from: challengerX on January 23, 2016, 08:32:38 AM

You're above playing such a trash game.

Or maybe not :O

DS1 PVP is pretty much dead for me. I recently tried it again and managed to get 2 fights in an hour and a half. If it was still active enough for me to go and invade randoms on, I'd be back in a heart beat. But I gotta do something to hold me over until DS3 comes out.

What system are you on?

Xbox 360 is still active.

360 here too. Tried to invade in Burg, Kiln, Township and ran around the forest with the ring on for a bit. Not many results.

Forest was super active last time I played a few weeks ago.

We should duel

We should. I used to be somewhat decent at the game. Haven't really played in ages though, I'm rusty as hell.

Oh and being cursed doesn't count as a death, right?

Well, RIP run. Whirlwind attack OP. Strange, because I normally rare die to Sentinels.