I miss that feeling a little bit. My undiagnosed-ADHD highschool self with like 18 characters hovering around level 20, never maxing one out because the ~30-40 slog was real, just chatting up strangers for fun while hopping around various towns’ mailboxes and occasionally actually doing game content. (Remember when Barrens chat was a meme for basically being like the /b/ of WoW? LOL)

… And it didn’t feel like impending doom or that I was somehow wasting my life away. It’s just what I did after school and that was alright.

It’s how I met my wife though, so it all worked out. :)

I could go on for days but WoW’s peak was a neat way to build social skills while being behind an avatar kept you from being too vulnerable.

I feel like online gaming now has gotten so anti-social and that the mere fear of potential toxicity just has everyone locked up and suspicious; Afraid to talk to anyone they don’t already know. Thanks to, what, basically Discord? Game chats are completely dead.

I remember trying Guild Wars 2 and thinking every other player might as well just be a bot because nobody interacted. :(

Ragnarok was so weirdly awesome. I loved how unique it was and somehow the jank was charming. The sprites and job tree were fantastic too, and I could listen to that music all day. :D

On Play store:

“Demo: Single IAP unlocks full game.”

Wow THAT’S rare to see on Android. I’m giving that a shot! 😁 Thanks!!!

So I feel like Spelunky needs to be mentioned here. I haven’t played it in ages and need to give it more of a chance, but a lot of people love that one.

That’s cool! Always cool to read when someone finds an entry point to broadening their gaming horizons!

I’d highly recommend

• Enter the Gungeon
• Nuclear Throne
• FTL

The top two are fun frantic top-down shooters where you can feel yourself getting better between runs, barring terrible RNG luck of course. (But fighting against the odds is cool too.)

FTL is just a very “tight” experience. I’m sure other games have perhaps improved on its principles but it’s focused and knows exactly what it wants to be.

All the Deus Ex games go for ridiculously cheap and are such a great fun-per-dollar ratio IMHO.

Yes, even Invisible War, if one embraces its weird consoley quirks. XD (bias: I enjoyed it on my OG Xbox back in the day. Universal ammo is so stupid though.)

Still gotta play Mankind Divided. I hope they finish the series one day. They absolutely nailed it with the iconic aesthetic, and Adam Jensen is just so freaking cool. :)

After a while I finally picked up Parkitect. I’ve been having a blast with OpenRTC2 lately, and everyone says if you like Rollercoaster Tycoon, Parkitect really follows that idea.

Still burning through the old school games, but I’m excited to play this one! Especially with workshop support.

Also catalog filtering. I wish GoG had a search filter half as good as Steam’s!

Absolutely. I’ve seen plenty of devices where self-repair was an “eh” afterthought at best.

Apple offensively attacks your attempts to fix the thing you purchased yourself with your own hard-earned money. They’re positively evil.

Which is why it’s so annoying watching all the other mainstream companies feel compelled to just ape them in every way.

Point 2 is incredibly frustrating. That the ewaste problem has become so much better understood and yet the trend is to keep creating more of it.

I think Pine64 is making Bluetooth earbuds, but like their other stuff it aims to be super hackable and fixable. Wish that was the norm instead of solvent welding.

Workplaces ban possession of Bluetooth headphones? Yeesh, lofi beats in one ear is the only thing that kept me from strangling some people as they took 15 minutes to explain “I can’t send an email and I forgot my password and I lost my phone what do I do.”

Half the appeal of Bluetooth earbuds (without the silly stems) was the secret agent appeal of giving your brain something to fixate on in stupid jobs where you stand around all day.

Unless it’s literally around dangerous machinery or something I guess?

Anyway sorry this isn’t antiwork but still lol. I like my Bluetooth earbuds, but I think headphone jacks should be standard too.