Was gonna say this, too. I’ve known some people who assume what I’m saying before I’m done, and then go on to show they didn’t actually listen and didn’t grasp the point at all.

Don’t guess what people are trying to say. Listen to them. They’re telling you. You don’t have to guess. 😅

How much you wanna bet in around 6 months to a year there are headlines about them hiring loads of people to cleanup the mess.

Is this loss?

I felt the same way. I turned it to easy mode and enjoyed the visuals and story. Good riddance to the combat frankly.

See, CS is too far for me. Every weapon being a nearly instakill and no respawns just isn’t fun for me. I’ll give it to you that it’s even simpler though.

I’m not average I’m sure, but I buy 0 games a year at full price 😅

They’re a very pure and straightforward shooter experience with a lot of polish. I don’t think it’s that weird.

The level of monetization is totally unhinged at this point, but there’s a good game buried underneath it all.

“It” 🤔

Honestly cuter than actual labubu

I love the data callout so much. I wish I remember the article I read this in, but there was a researcher who said we’re living in an age of data-driven stupidity and that’s stuck with me ever since.

It’s not that data is bad in all cases, but data aggregation is inherently reducing fidelity of detail in the process. When you’re approaching human-centric issues, such as making something fun and meaningful, data really can’t help you that much. You’ve boiled the messy human elements, the elements most crucial to a powerful result, out of the conversation.

Having something suggest networking opportunities doesn’t sound like the worst, but only if it was suggestions in their own section of the app (and not bombarding you with notifications about it either). This implementation is truly god awful and I can’t believe anyone thought this was a good idea.

It comes from a good place. Make things have more quality of life. Makes things feel smooth and responsive. Don’t make things obtuse and confusing.

The problem is that while some friction kind of sucks (I don’t think many would want clunky movement or controls), lots of experiences get thrown out with the bathwater when this goes too far.

My philosophy is that friction needs to be seen as a tool. It does something to the experience, and it needs to be considered whether removing it will improve the experience, and if so, what is being lost in the process?

Yep, exactly. That’s the good use of lack of friction. The philosophy I have is just that it shouldn’t be seen as always good no matter what. It changes the experience to remove friction, so any decision to do so should be thoughtfully done with the experience in mind.

Hear hear! This is such a plague on games and media right now. I don’t blame developers that much, because lack of friction is super commonly taught in game design courses, and it’s not always bad. It can be done waaaay too much though.

I just came here to see if anyone could explain what a gaming SSD was lmao

Tbh I don’t think you should let insanity deter you from the podcast plan. That hasn’t stopped lots of other people, so why should it stop you?

Not the guy you responded to, but I also love hot sauce. I usually stock franks, yellowbird’s red jalapeño sauce (forget the name), and cholula or Valentina if I don’t feel like paying for it. I also had this really awesome green hot sauce from El Pato brand, but I haven’t ever seen it again. Hopefully someday!

You definitely shouldn’t put energy into a friendship if you feel like the other person isn’t interested, but be careful with this mindset. I’ve seen plenty of cases where this becomes such a fear and habit, that the person never reaches out to anyone, because they’re waiting to be talked to first as a test. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

Others are also busy. Others might also be waiting for you to reach out. If you want a friendship to happen it’s OK to initiate. People will often appreciate it.

I think this is a big problem even without evil choices. I really want to see more games explore things happening because you DIDN’T accept someone’s quest. Maybe something bad happens to them, or perhaps they resent you for turning them down and spread bad rumors about you.

Sadly like you said most of the time the choice in taking a quest is actually: do you want more content, or not? Not much of a choice at all.

I think that evil paths in games are often the least interesting, too. Usually it just means you kill everyone and/or fuck people over for no good reason. Like you said there’s no depth. You almost never have to face any growing consequences for your actions.

Real evil is usually greed and fear weaponized to enrich and empower oneself. It’s self-interested and often delusional, but to that person they are still the hero of their story.