Demakes are so interesting. They are more constrained than coming up with something new for an old system, but, seemingly because they use IP people are already familiar with, they can leave more unsaid/unshown and just implied, and still have it be cohesive.

That was a really good one, I can see why it’s your fave!

Oh man yes actual time dilation as a core mechanic of the game sounds awesome. Disorienting as hell, but awesome.

I bet a game like that could be used for therapy, too, like in a big way… let people live out where their life is headed, or the life of someone they’d target for hate crimes or whatever. Let them struggle. Maybe they’d come out wanting to make some changes. That’d be cool af. I’d totally playtest that. Repeatedly. And end up like time-frozen Jessica after she wakes up 😜

That sounds like x-files, and I’m not super surprised lol

Ooh, I’ll have to look into that book, thanks!

Yep those all count :) I’ll have to watch those episodes again! Same with the black mirror one, those are all good but man I gotta be in the right mood for ‘em… lol

It’s honestly a wildly broad category, so kinda no wrong answers.

There’s all sorts of things that count. A picture with game hud elements to imply gameplay, videos of whole fake games, books that mimic play through guides that describe how to play games that don’t exist.

There’s even fake video games that are just one cover art picture, and a sound track that implies how levels would be played.

Ooh yeah that’s a good one, I have a big long think about that every time I read that book.

I love BMO 🥹

Oh man, I get into everything, especially if someone presents it to me with enthusiasm. I love learning about new stuff, and super bonus if it alters my perceptions or broadens my horizons :)

Oh, I don’t remember that one, I’ll have to watch it again!

Get a friend/friends to split the costs and items with you. Most stuff comes in multiple packages, so it’s pretty easy to split this way. If you have an uneven number, split so the person who is likely to use it faster gets more.

I’ve done this before and it works very very well to keep costs down for 2+ people who don’t live together. It probably won’t cover everything you want to buy but it dramatically reduces the “omg I’ll never eat all this” feeling.

Oh that’s exciting! I hope he loves it as much as I did!

I can’t speak for the revised version, but the original was super engaging when I was a kid (probably got it around 95 or thereabouts, so somewhere in the 6-8 range), but not so serious or complicated as to distract from the whimsy. It’s also educational in a natural language way, which I feel is better for developing interest. It’s not difficult to read.

It’s one of many things that led me to a deep intense curiosity about the world around me!

I didn’t have any of those but I DID have a copy of The Way Things Work by David Macaulay, which is an exploration of mechanical concepts demonstrated with adorable illustrations of mammoths. Kinda similar presentation, according to my search.

I should get a new (old) copy.

Strong smells, especially campfire. Cannot stand the smell of campfire. Gives me headaches and makes me super sneezy.

I don’t have AC, and it’s legal to have campfires in town in private yards, which means I have the joy of being uncomfortable nearly every nice night for half the year. If I open windows for the nice breeze, my house stinks of smoke, if I keep the windows closed, it stays hot. Can’t win because people are selfish af.

People should not be allowed to burn shit in town, regardless of the fire spread risk. It negatively impacts other people who have zero say. I don’t have asthma, but if I did I’d probably just die living here.

And nobody else thinks it’s a problem because they LIKE having fires now and then. It’s the same mentality of not putting limits on rich people because they wouldn’t want limits on themselves if they get rich.

I would consider dev mode in rimworld to be cheating in a “technically it is” sort of way… spawning infant thralls that are then adopted by my colony, or spawning whatever activity site I choose are definitely not how the game is supposed to work. The mods are sort of also cheating I guess, tho most of them are content heavy… there are definitely several hacky mods in my list, like minify everything.

But while it’s cheating in a technical sense, it doesn’t impact anyone and it’s teaching me a lot about how video games function, which I find more entertaining than completing hard-coded objectives. It’s the first game I ever put a lot of mods on, and between troubleshooting and testing stuff, it’s been nearly as illuminating as rendering lag that adds each texture layer individually starting from low poly (my ps4 is having some major lag issues I’m trying to sort out, and horizon zero dawn is fascinating for this rendering issue, so so many layers! And then to realize it usually gets processed in real time! 🤯)

As for cheating in multiplayer, it hasn’t come up in decades. WoW was the last multiplayer game I played, and I stopped that when whatever the third expansion was came out. So like 2010 or so?

Maybe the pitch is to sign all your shit over to them in your will and this is the last stage of the presentation

Probably would have worked better if she hadn’t abandoned the metaphor and swapped to another one.

She went with whatever she felt would be most impactful for the message portion, rather than the whole thing.

It seems disingenuous because it is. It’s not a coherent thought. At best it’s a bunch of unrelated thoughts crammed together. Probably based on what she thinks will hit. As sound bites.

So don’t feel bad not trusting it; it’s not even internally consistent. Even if you agree with part of it, a stopped clock is right at least once.

OTOH, arguments at the speed of thought, with zero option to not participate, would probably resolve quickly.

For example, how often have you talked yourself into/out of a huff, in the shower? Granted it’s just you, but that internal dialogue is powerful.

Now imagine you aren’t separated from other people and your inner debate is you versus a cacophony, but one central idea rises from the noise and takes on one side of the argument in your head so you aren’t arguing against yourself. It still probably feels like arguing against yourself. And you’ll probably lose because one side of yourself knows a lot more than the other side.

Then assume that thoughts aren’t limited by speaking speed (they might not be for you, but they feel like it if you think in words like many people do. This isn’t an inherent limit to communication because you can process thought faster than a string of words can be strung)

Thanks :) I see other countries and how they accommodate people who can’t or won’t or don’t want to drive, and I seriously die a bit inside because solarpunk could be everywhere, it could have, and should have, been here! And instead it’s only places I can never live (too disabled and/or unskilled to emigrate) with the places I can live being wildly opposed to making life even the slightest bit better.

At the same time, I’m genuinely thrilled that that’s a thing at least somewhere. Jealousy notwithstanding, I’m intensely happy for areas that aren’t actively hostile to non-car transit. It all has to start somewhere to prove it works. Trickle-down solarpunk :p

My local thrift shops are packed with books for stupid cheap. A wide variety, too.

Maybe try that and have a happy medium? Not buying something new, but saving something from a landfill.