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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • I’ll probably always think that Tetris is the greatest video game ever. The inherent dramatic arc that comes with watching the blocks stack up is tension directly within you the player, not you watching tension unfold for characters on the screen. It’s different every time, even if the shape of the arc is similar, because you improve as a player. It’s the kind of emergent involvement the most designers could only aspire to create.

    That said of course Shadow of the Colossus is also a favorite. That one probably feels a little more obvious, but I’m okay with that.






  • It gives space to do servers based on specific interests if you want. I’m part of a game development server, and my “Local” tab has people on my server often talking about, and showing, things that are related to game development. And I can still follow anyone from any other Mastodon server too.

    If you’re into video games, film, maybe a specific genre of music, you can have an instance dedicated to that. (It might already exist.) It’s like a virtual neighborhood, or forum. Remember forums? Those were nice. They cultivated a sense of community which made people a little more responsible in their attitudes, it feels like. Maybe that’s just nostalgia, but I like the server I’m on. It’s got friendly people I can talk to without feeling the need to fill my follows with them.



  • I’ve often wondered if it was an age or even time thing. I’m 44 and I noticed at some point years ago I was getting more reluctant to click buttons and try to figure things out on my own. That’s how I learned everything as a kid and became the typical family IT guy. I had to relearn that curiosity and the willingness to learn things in that fashion, which I think shrank just from disuse. I’m not in IT, but I’ve seen that reluctance grow in other people too.

    I wonder if rising to certain levels (or just gaining support staff to help with things) contributes to not doing small things. Then that can lead to an increased reluctance to do other small things. (Just out of no longer feeling comfortable with them.) I hadn’t thought about it, but it makes sense to me.









  • I actually used Mint for about a year a decade ago, and really liked it then. What made me switch back was the gaming. That said, I hear gaming on Linux has just gotten better and better; just like people in this thread are saying. Whenever I get around to putting together a new PC I’ll probably either dump something Linux on this one or dual boot myself. Sadly I don’t expect Activision to really support it. But hey, Lord knows I’ve been wrong before. (And yeah, printers are often kinda universally assholes though; that we all know.)


  • I’d love to make the move, but there’s a one-two punch of: I play Warzone with family. I think anti-cheat there is only going to get worse. Second? I already get caught with the fiddly bits of errors on Windows sometimes and spend too long searching for answers. Any time I see that on Linux it looks like I’d need years more of active learning new problem solving to reach my current level of comfort.

    I’m at that “is it worth planting the apple tree now that I didn’t plant 20 years ago?” thinking.







  • Yeah, I was there. I’m 44. I loved all three games and played them on release (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim.) I don’t want to oversell it. It was game of the year almost everywhere. Famitsu even gave it a 40/40. Maybe their first Western game reviewed as such? I remember that being a big deal. It was very well loved and very popular. A co-worker I knew who mostly only played Madden was sheepishly admitting he not only was paying it, but really loving going around picking plants for recipes.

    But the skill system caught a lot of guff, which I recall being an issue some people had. I definitely remember the skill system being a thing that made a lot of people angry.

    A lot of the other things were complaints you’ll find in other TES games, but people think a new game should’ve changed these things. For instance, there was the normal physics issues we get in a 3D TES game, which being the third game in a row, was adding up for some people. Then cities (and some buildings in cities) require loading was hated by some people who considered it old fashioned. Especially once a mod came out that got rid of that for cities. Also, the popularity of mods was instant. Not just people trying to add content, but initially a lot of that was people replacing models, and really talking shit on their modeling and textures.

    Yeah, it got a lot of shit. But those people were playing it too. These are fellow gamers we’re talking about. People absolutely complain.