Thank you for creating non-fiction!

I think just meeting? Why don’t they meet on discord? This is all very confusing

Well, if you’re feeling philosophical I think you’d first need to address your presupposition that life has or is meant to have any meaning whatsoever.

Like, according to who? And how did they determine that? Would you be sad if it turns out there isn’t any underlying meaning?

Quit six years ago now! More worth it than I could have believed

Thank you for created wired headphone content!

Thank you for personally attacking me!

Well, you can hardly call it “uncontroversial” if “so many people” so strongly disagree with your absolutist characterization of an entire medium of art, right? It seems to me to be quite divisive in fact

But I’m intrigued by this, you consider not only games but also shows and movies to be childish indulgences? I think a more reasonable assessment would be that they have the capacity to be such. But what people want to communicate to you is that through these mediums, they’ve experienced powerful artistic catharsis that has improved their lives, and yes, even connected them with and strengthened their relationships with others.

Sure, a child may have all the time in the world to rot their mind in Fortnite. But there is an artistry to experiencing a craft, just the same as there is an artistry to crafting it. Investing in your capacity to be critical of cinematography, as opposed to simply letting the film flash before your eyes. Eventually you learn to tell the difference between reality tv and great works like Twin Peaks.

If you think these differences are simply not present in the medium of gaming then it’s no surprise you touch the nerve of people who have invested in the craft.

In summary, it’s inconsistent with the lived experience of countless millions of others for you to propose that “appreciating a painting” is a valuable use of an adult’s time, but “appreciating interactive art” never can be, and should be discarded as childish.

And as an aside, whether someone only plays games with no other pursuits to the point where their life falls apart is not really relevant to the discussion. Yes, of course that is a terrible and childish way to ruin your life. It would be equally terrible if you stayed up all binging Netflix and lost your job as a result. Once again the issue here is your perspective broadly, and how you are trying to justify it. Not the medium itself.

As a final aside, I’m (obviously) a gamer myself, as well as a multi-instrumentalist. I find creating music and playing games to be similarly enriching. The high level discussions I have with participants between the two mediums are equally thought provoking. It is a great blessing as well that games are so thoroughly intertwined with music, giving me a lot of carryover between the two pursuits.

This is however, essentially the limit of what I can manage to sustain dedication to as an adult. I would also love to get into painting, and read two novels a week, and watch all of history’s greatest films, and train for a marathon, and sail around the world, and so on. I have confronted the fact that, having only one life, I will only ever dabble in most of those things, if I am lucky enough experience them at all. But I would never think to myself that the things I have chosen to invest in primarily are inherently superior to the things that bring other people fulfillment. Entertaining thoughts like that would make me feel very childish

Yeah that’s part of what makes games specifically so valuable. It asks a lot of you. You have to meet it where it’s at. You have to muster the energy to be able to appreciate it even when life drags you down. Otherwise you can’t progress.

I obviously don’t know you, and reading books and investing time in your family is obviously great. But to anyone generally, I would say be careful and make sure you advocate for your time and energy. It’s very common for people to fall into a loop of passivity. The audiobook is on in the car but their mind is elsewhere. They endlessly scroll algorithmic slop on their phone without it ever actionably enriching them. They turn on a show at the end of the day just to tune out.

If your life is already full of the experiences that make it worth living, great! Again, I don’t know you. But irl, what I see most often when people complain about not having time for deep passions is that their job drains them, then their responsibilities drain them, then they lay, crushed, letting images on the screen flash by them as the days turn into months. Then somehow years go by and they’re left without the memory of ever living them.

In the midst of this, many people adopt the belief that they’ve simply aged out of participating in deep passions, and the way life slips through their fingers is just the way life is. This is a difficult belief to weed out once it has taken root. Ironically Outer Wilds specifically is a great way to confront this mindset lol

The real issue here is actually just your opinion of games. You consider games to be “sit around dick around” time wasters.

If that’s all it is to you then yeah you’ll naturally find yourself moving on as basically anything else will be more fulfilling.

Games to me are a form of art which have the power to change lives. A medium I’ve been continuing to develop an appreciation for my entire life, alongside other pursuits such as music. As life gets hectic into adulthood I’ve found that games are far more meaningful to me now than ever before.

And I’m not sitting around looking for time to kill. I make time to play because of how restorative and life affirming it is. Games like Citizen Sleeper, Spiritfarer, Outer Wilds, To The Moon, Slay the Princess, Hollow Knight, Eastward, Arctic Eggs. Some experiences stay with you forever, expand the depth of your empathy, and steer your heart towards kindness.

I don’t know what’s gonna happen to you if you try to crank out endless rounds of Call of Duty to the point where it interferes with you taking your dog to the vet. But I’m 100% certain all working adults would benefit from engaging with meaningful art regularly. Be it games, books, film, etc. Whatever strikes you.

Well over 300 hours in BotW here, loved it. It feels a lot more “grounded” in comparison to totk, which feels a lot more “sandboxy” at times. Both great games, just different vibes

I would also say, there were a TON of times in TotK where they riff on previous things from BotW. A lot of the enjoyment I got was the subversion of expectations. In the lead up to the game we all thought they just copy/pasted the map to save time but they actually did a TON of work to it, and it’s very interesting and nostalgic to retread over places that have changed so much.

I would guess your best bet is playing them in order, altho it’s probably fine either way

Extremely strange to see RFK and the “make America healthy again” “movement” be presented in a way that seems to suggest they have some legitimacy and are part of the “wellness community” lol

But I’m not surprised at all to learn they’re pushing to have these worthless, privacy invading devices installed on everyone. It strongly aligns with right wing messaging. Take total personal accountability for your health, and do it by giving as much money as possible to big tech!

Thank you for cultivating the vibe!

Oh my god they even posted the prompt and explicitly told it not to be skeptical of the post lmao

Thanks for mentioning the context, that thread is wild. High probability of getting deleted at some point I’d wager. There’s something so poetic about the way these hucksters all adopt such a condescending attitude towards people who bother challenging them

Edit: checked back, they’re still at it lol. Huffing and uttered the line “Enjoy your little aquarium of illusions” in response to what we see in our post here lol

OOP also bragged about “leading a group 1.5k strong” where people share their experiences but didn’t want to elaborate further. It is in fact linked at the bottom of their blog, and is a 4 month old subreddit with maybe 8 posts from people other than OOP

Thank you for subscribing to Slorp! Slorp is now Bonto!

Thank you for creating slurs!

Omg beautiful merch, I can see myself wearing it it is very cozy :>

If I found a nice looking one for free I’d take it and use it as a table, I don’t think I’d pay much for one though

That’s no problem. The official description of Bioshock directly from the developers is

Deadly weapons in one hand. Brutal powers in the other. Fight for your life and uncover the mystery or Rapture in the remnants of this utopian city gone wrong.

This “genetically enhanced” first-person, single-player shooter is loaded with some of the greatest, most modifiable weapons to ever blast their way into video games. Explore a living world and take control by hacking devices, commandeering security turrets and crafting unique items critical to your very survival. Make meaningful, mature decisions, that culminate in the grand question: do you exploit the innocent survivors of Rapture or save them?

Other than that, what do you mean about the horror tag being different in context? There’s only one horror tag on steam. People tag the games if they feel like the tag is appropriate. If you want the further context, you come to discussions about it such as this one

I hear that, yeah it’s kind of in-between. If someone asked for a horror recommendation you’d probably think twice about it.

But at the same time, if someone said “I absolutely do not want a horror game” then you’d also be thinking twice, right?

I think it’s fair to call it a blend. Not too heavy on the horror but it’s there. Plenty of games are like that. Sorry people tried to fight with you about it lol, some people get bent out of shape too easily