Lurker > GanglyKhan

Amazon is just American Temu at this point. I've genuinely started using eBay more often.

What we're all thinking

I agree. A lot of Gen IV and beyond felt really half baked. But I also think the older design art style and simplicity added to the charm and staying power of the original 151. Gold and Silver were also fantastic and felt like a natural extension of Kanto designs. As much as I love Hoenn, that's where things started to go wrong with the designs and quantity.

inb4arguments about magnets and ice cream

Honestly man, if you've played one, you've played them all. I don't say that in a bad way either, but if you're already enjoying the series, just go for whichever one catches your eye.

I will say that Dragon Quest Monsters is definitely worth checking out

Always save an offline copy of anything you're interested in

They're really nice when they're not insane about it. My HOA is very casual, they just mostly care about your yard not being a mess and snow being cleared. They don't care about paint color or how many wind chimes you have or any of the usual crap.

Realthuddydrumz posted...

I try to watch the sunrise most mornings.

That's nice, I should try that.

I think a key difference is that a human is still behind all that CGI work. I get that a programmer is behind what an AI model spits out too, but that's not nearly the same.

What I do find funny is how people will rag on AI for "stealing jobs from artists" but they'll be fine with synthesized instruments instead of viewing it as "stealing jobs from musicians."

The whole AI topic is just exhausting, I wish it had never gotten to the point that it's at now.

I use these terms loosely and don't mean them pejoratively, but you're the outsider trying to change the culture of a very solidified, pre-existing "in group." Your best bet is to do as they do for a time and find your groove in that setting before trying to introduce what is perceived as "outside influence" to the group.

People want to see that you're one of them, in a way.

Sarcasthma posted...

Hey man, you know I'm really okay.

But when I'm in my car, don't give me no crap

I was just thinking about how unremarkable EEAAO was the other day lol I don't think it was bad though, but I couldn't really recall any highlight moments either.

Parasite was incredibly good and was a bit of a social eye-opener to watch in theaters. Lots of people were laughing throughout the film, which I thought was insane lol That movie was so tense.

Damn_Underscore posted...

XP was plagued by viruses, I don't know how anyone can long for it besides nostalgia

Not my fault someone thought that a 26kb file titled Outkast - Hey Ya.exe was a legit download

Baba Is Wet

doshindude posted...

Skyward Sword was the breaking point for me. I was INCREDIBLY hyped for the game pre-release, but it ended up being one of the biggest turds in the Zelda franchise.

You can tolerate being let down that much only once.

It's funny how Skyward Sword and Skyrim both came out and ruined their respective series on the SAME DAY.

A miserable pile of memes!

MrMelodramatic posted...

Mostly this.

except Star Wars. Broke my heart one too many times

Congrats on being one of the few fans to break free lol

I just listen to the game's music. But if it's like a musou game or Vampire Survivors, I'll listen to a podcast

Haha Sliver Queen go brrrrr

KingInBlack posted...

It's also because it costs money to print them out, while a digital ad costs nearly nothing.

Server space and web admins etc; etc; It definitely costs less or they wouldn't do it.

bachewychomp posted...

because we now live in a world where people want that escape, and the better alternatives are dwindling.

I highly disagree with that part. Anyone can go turn off their devices, take a walk, and go join some rec league or a club nearby. Everyone lives somewhere and has access to social activity with others. Whether or not they wish to put in that effort is another question, and now to highly agree with the rest of your point, yes, the endless consumerism culture has made the majority of people docile.

I think part of the "wanting the escape" is ironically tied into the constant consumption. Things like the news and social media are another, third, form of consuming, which expends your time and emotional and mental energy far more than it does your wallet.

It's not easy to get out of that consumer mindset, but honestly, if the eventual answer is a slow decay of the mind and community, who cares if it isn't easy?

Lokarin posted...

I miss when the ads were also the coupon...

I remember those little coupon reels that would be in the aisle lol Now it's all digital so they can track your shit and literally change the price in real time just for your transaction. Nooooo thanks.

I like an audiobook when the person narrating it sounds like an actual storyteller and puts in a lot of effort. Storytelling and reading a book aloud are not the same thing.

Very 2004 coded topic, I like it

This is the genuine crisis facing the world right now, and I mean that sincerely. If people all suddenly realized that and followed through with never buying any new media, entire economic systems would crash over night, it would be absolutely bedlam.

man101 posted...

Most of my playtime over the past five years has been indie PC games with graphics that cover the whole spectrum of stylized to intentionally retro looking. Because at the end of the day it's a game and it should be fun to play.

Same here, glad to know there are others like that on this site.

GreenKnight127 posted...

As sad as this might sound, being hyped for stuff can sometimes keep people alive.

You always need something to look forward to. A reason to keep going.

Even if it's as petty as some form of entertainment, that's still something.

I remember when I was younger, sometimes just the release date of a video game, a book, or a movie, was enough to make me yearn for the future.

Marking my calendar. Dreaming about it. Imagining how I hoped it would turn out. Coming up with my own ideas around it. Just sparking my imagination and giving me joy.

If you have gotten to a point in your life where you arent hyped for anything...I'd be a little concerned.

I believe this can get dangerous because it's very easy to turn your life into series of anticipatory events around simply consuming media. At some point, a person needs a life work and some kind of higher meaning or calling, or else their entire life is just going to be spent spending money on things to fill a void. Yes, I detest gacha games.

I do get your meaning though. Something like the Switch 2 coming out helped to keep me excited for the upcoming weekend but that was it, I had to find new things or remember to work on larger goals after that initial hype had faded.

I miss when games were still developing as a hobby and a technology. 7 years used to mean the difference between Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario 64 (roughly). Now we just get diminished returns on games and systems that cost more than ever when realistically we could all still just be playing on PS4s if they would learn to optimize games better

Culinary vs botanical distinction. Peppers are also fruits, not vegetables. You can go even further and discuss dietary distinctions too. Some peppers are more closely aligned to citrus in terms of nutritional value.

No, but I have eaten sauce by itself after I've finished making it and it's still hot. Room temperature sauce my skin crawl lol

rjsilverthorn posted...

Where were you earlier? I've already had a bad day.

Actually it wasn't a super terrible day, just a fairly typical Monday at work.

Have a great day tomorrow!

Yeah, I'm talking to you!

4 or 5, usually all on the weekend.

Modern gaming blows outside of the ocassional extremely deep cut indie. And I mean INDIE indie, not Hollow Knight kind of stuff.

Anyway, as a result, I game a lot less these days and what little I do tends to be from my old collection. Slowly chipping away at FFXII and Fire Emblem 7 right now.

You gotta be pretty not smart to buy a smart fridge

bachewychomp posted...

I think it's fine advice to allow yourself to not know about every bad thing going on, but it's not gonna make most people's struggles go away. If you have a shitty job that doesn't pay enough to live on, or you live somewhere that makes it difficult to make friends, or countless other problems, those won't be fixed so easily

I'm totally understanding of that, but I do think a moderately sized group of American citizens need to take stock of the good they do have. Can't speak for other nations of course, but I feel it is probably similar in other developed countries.

If you got the time and money to play video games on the daily, things are honestly pretty good compared to idk, working in a strip mine in Africa being exposed to mercury every day.

kind9 posted...

Me? You'd be correct. I hate twitch. Is Pepe the twitch mascot or something?

No, but there's a lot of custom emotes that use him directly or as a template. It's transcended on its own to a different status than what most think of the character now days.

Life is pretty fucking sweet the second you stop going online and watching the news every day.

Once you make over $1M a year, you get a special tax ID
(I made that up)

:D

kind9 posted...

Cartoon frog for incels who think they're cute.

lil bro has never used twitch

man101 posted...

The only sport I follow is Strongman which is always a free for all format and generally speaking every participant is happy to see everyone else perform well and most of the fans enjoy it regardless of who wins. Any trash talking by fans on behalf of a particular athlete is almost always shot down by both other fans and the athletes themselves.

I'm sure there is a huge psychological difference there based on the structure of the event or sport. When it comes to team sports, there's already such a heavy shade of "us vs them" cast over the game. I think 1-on-1 sports or indirect competition sports (golf, lifting, bowling) don't as easily lend themselves to the same kind of thinking that huge team sports do. Humans are just tribalistic by nature, it's far easier to fall into a massive group based on where you live than it is to find a singular athlete you enjoy.

Lokarin posted...

if anything I think AI is a conspiracy to create power hogs to justify the expansion of power companies to offset losses from new green technology

I've never heard this before but it makes a lot of sense.

Flappers posted...

I get what you're saying but I simply don't have the privilege or options to do everything you probably think I should be doing. I'm fucking trying, okay?

I think you should just hangout in person more and be offline more, that was my entire spiel, honest. Just keep that up and the good times roll on in by themselves.

Revelation34 posted...

Ok so you'd rather be ignorant and ignore a link that proves you wrong. Reading is not hard.

I did read it, I disagree with it and you, you refuse to engage in any meaningful discussion rather than regurgitate and article that I already read. I'm not keeping a cool head and so I'm bowing out, have some tact please. A diagreement on a subjective issue does not equate to ignorance

hockey7318 posted...

God damn, you're older than I thought. Millennials may indeed be the first to take mental health more seriously and be open about it, but I'm guessing you just think that makes us snowflakes.

*shrug*

On the flip side, some people have definitely gotten sucked into being made to feel worse than they actually are. The road indeed goes both ways. It's fantastic that resources continue to grow and become easier to access, and at the same time, people need to remember that feeling emotions other than "happy" is normal and doesn't necessarily mean you have a mental health issue.

Revelation34 posted...

Read the link. They wouldn't have had any income in the first place.

Piracy defenders just make me too angry to continue to carry on this conversation.

Revelation34 posted...

You don't take anything if you download a game, you copy it.

And the developers don't see any income from that specific action, which is just ethically wrong.

angeleyes94 posted...

You will own nothing and be happy, you will eat the bugs, you will live in a pod.

What a brave and controversial thought, now actually say what you really feel instead of echoing some cheap battlecry that originated via 4chan

Questionmarktarius posted...

If you don't have enough faith in your product to produce a hard copy, I won't have any faith in it either.

Very strange hill to die on and also incredibly disinformed about how publishing works. Actual indie devs with shoestring budgets can't afford factory production time, much less the resources and logistics to sell their work physically.

Questionmarktarius posted...

or... "digital has no value to me"

A lot of things don't have value to me. Doesn't mean I go and steal because of that. Furthermore, the "experience" does have value. Why should someone get to experience something for free while others agree to a social contract? What makes them so special?

Revelation34 posted...

Copyright infringement is not theft. Going into a store and taking something is.

SinisterSlay posted...

Since you don't own the games, you can't steal them.
Piracy isn't stealing.

Both of these can't be true. You either do own games or you don't. If you have gamer ownership, then piracy is theft. If you don't have game ownership, then you still have idk, license theft or something to that degree.

Really I wish people would stop being shitty and just say what it is, "I like free stuff"