sometimes I talk about video games. RIP kbin.run
That’s a good example. You simply can’t grasp optimal choices or know possible events and outcomes before going through it a great deal of times, and it’s likely that you’ll get killed too fast to experience much if you start on normal. You definitely end up switching to normal as you improve, learn, and unlock, but it really benefits and smoothens the learning curve to start easier.
Playing on easy doesn’t mean you don’t want to play. Or at least, that’s not my personal experience when I put games on easy, which is not always.
I’ll throw out two examples. Age of Empires 2. I suck ass at real time strategy, so I put the bots on easiest. What this gives me is the experience and feeling of building up my faction, gathering resources, making upgrades, feeling later like those upgrades were smart (which I wouldn’t get on harder difficulties as my actual poor choices would backfire and punish me), and then I get to conquer my enemies with my large army.
I still got to build something up from nothing, create a satisfying army, utilize what I made to conquer. I got something out of it that I wouldn’t have if I played on normal. I would’ve struggled and likely lost. I might’ve just as likely actually risen above the challenge and came away with a more satisfying, but hard fought win, but I have challenging and hard fought wins at work every day. I don’t need that in a genre I’m only a tourist in at home. I have Monster Hunter for that.
I put Gundam Breaker 4 on easy, the combat is satisfying on a surface level, but too precise and finicky as the challenge rises. I enjoy the combat still, on a smaller scale, but I moreso enjoy acquiring gear and making a Gundam that looks a certain way. The things I enjoy more about the game are facilitated by easier combat, I can get to those parts more easily, but still enjoy the combat.
Shit, I was gonna say three way tie between Spirited Away, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and 21 Jump Street, but if I count what I’ve watched at school then National Treasure wins lol
It’s really the kind of game that either requires a significant in-game tutorial and very long ramp up (and you’re right, even with all the info in the current tutorial it’s not all inclusive) or it requires someone to bounce questions off of, which is the far superior way to learn, even though it’s far less accessible.
Once you’ve learned it, though, I actually don’t think it’s all that complicated, it’s just such its own beast that someone coming from nothing would have a hard time wrapping their head around the whole loop and all of the systems, but once you do one time it’s like riding a bike.
The pause menu in Rise is if you press start, it’s the bottom option on one of the menu tabs, it’ll only show mid mission, so trying to find it in the village is pointless. But if you found a workaround that works too.
Also, yes, the free game breaking gear with no clear indicators is fucking stupid. I understand why it exists, but it trivializes the experience for so many new players due to the way its implemented that I think it should never have been created. I get wanting to get to end game fast if you’ve done it before, but the consequences are absurd.
Why continue if you hate the trend? Either way, I think Kanye’s living ego would destroy the planet, let alone the lions
Periphery’s “Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal”
Big ups for Everything You’ve Come to Expect
I love this series. First played 4 Golden on the Vita, and it was really something that connected with me. I loved the combination slice of life and intriguing mystery, and the characters and voice acting really drew me in. It took me years to actually finish that game, and I’m about halfway through 3 Reload and 5 Royal as well.
However, biggest thing we need to mention here? The soundtracks. Holy fucking shit, these games have the best OSTs I ever damn heard, as someone who plays bass and loves acid jazz and other adjacent music every game hits the spot in different ways.
I think reading this post halved my brain cells.
Music: my dad was in a hard rock band in the 90s and got me into a lot of rock and post grunge, then I got Guitar Hero and it was all downhill from there. Decided to pick up bass guitar because it was the less popular guitar instrument and I liked to be very slightly non conformist, and I just kept at it.
Video games: my mom bought me a game boy color, which I loved, then she let me use her Windows XP home machine, and I tried tons of free to play MMOs, private server world of Warcraft, then Half-Life 2 and Garry’s Mod when Steam became a thing, and that was all downhill from there.
Extremely unique way to find that you enjoy learning mechanics and systems.
You start breaking into people’s houses, and while living in their walls you slowly automate their homes for them.
My previous bass guitar had one of its machine heads snap off, and I had rehearsal that same day, so I looked online at the used instrument stock at local music stores and found a bass guitar used that was a very unique, discontinued model that I’d been essentially dreaming of for a while, and happened to be there.
What I probably should’ve done is replaced the machine head, which would’ve been a very quick and cheap fix, but I instead bought the new bass and then took it to use at rehearsal. Now it’s my daily driver and I’m very glad I got it.
Edit: I fucked up and fixed the comment, somehow it double posted instead of just editing.
My previous bass guitar had one of its machine heads snap off, and I had rehearsal that same day, so I looked online at the used instrument stock at local music stores and found a bass guitar used that was a very unique, discontinued model that I’d been essentially dreaming of for a while, and happened to be there.
What I probably should’ve done is replaced the machine head, which would’ve been a very quick and cheap fix, but I instead bought the new bass and then took it to use at rehearsal. Now it’s my daily driver and I’m very glad I got it.
I’m not sure, but honestly in the interest of having the highest chance to meet someone since your happiness is important, I would use reddit for the amount of people in the pool, then just leave after that lol.
Aside from meeting people at work, Ive only manually made friends twice. Once I found a hobby store that was near enough where they ran dungeons and dragons groups that were low pressure, so I was able to jump in and get taught and it was a good time!
The other was that I used reddit’s “gamerpals” sub to find someone to play with. Went through maybe three clunkers and actually ended up playing with a dude that I still play with weekly and is my friend.
Unironically I’d love a “Lord of the Rings Extended Edition” version of his book. There are a lot of smaller details about some of the things he worked on that I would’ve loved to hear expanded on, but yeah, there’s just TOO much
I listened to the audiobook, if that counts, but Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s autobiography. When I started it I was like “holy shit, this is 25 hours? Dude must be milking it”.
Turns out, he actually glosses over a lot, he’s done THAT much in his life, and his drive and ideologies are inspiring. He was raised dirt poor without running water, was in the Austrian military, became a world class bodybuilder, a real estate mogul, a movie star, and a governor.
Just a riveting life’s story.
I’m married now, but I was always a fan of the cheesy stuff, like going bowling or mini golfing. Some of my more memorable dates were extremely simple, like sitting in a car with the seats laid back listening to music and just talking
Well, yeah, you’re technically right. Humanity will never have the default restraint and compassion to stop turning words into slurs, though. So we have to police it. Same reason we have… The police at all. People can’t police themselves. We need systems and rules to do that for us.