Gop is like a clock where only the minute hand is stopped and the hour hand is flapping all over. Sometimes it’s kind of correct, but not for the bigger picture.

Reminds me of the “Last Call Cats” art set that I really like.

Not finding the original but here they are in coaster form https://arnamiller.com/products/drunk-cat-coasters

Looks interesting. I didn’t really like convergence when I tried it, and the randomizer wasn’t as fun as I hoped for me.

It says it’s easy to install too, even on Linux. Anyone done so?

I think that’s the one I have. They don’t make them like they used to. The Logitech controller I had in like 2008 lasted for ten years. The new one’s right shoulder button stopped working after like two.

The good news is they honored their warranty and sent me a new one for free.

But then the left joystick stopped going all the way up+left.

But then honored the warranty again! That one is still kicking.

So the lesson is: keep your receipt if you buy Logitech.

Edit: it works fine on Linux (pop!_os) too.

I also don’t have much patience for “it gets fun later I promise!”.

Guild wars 2 will scale people down for earlier levels, but the majority of content is aimed at the level cap (which hasn’t changed since launch ten years ago).

I don’t know how long it would take a new player to hit the cap. With friends, I think you could get to the cap via crafting in like 30 minutes if they spot you the resources.

I think a lot about the guy I worked with that said he was going to Palantir. We were like “but what if they have you doing awful things?” He was like, big shrug. He was always friendly to people in the office, but I guess that’s as far as it went.

Have you talked to a lot of tech workers? I feel like there’s a set of left wing ones, a larger set of libertarian types, and an even larger set of people who are shockingly ignorant of politics and history.

Nice! I got the new expansion but haven’t gone far in it yet. I played around with ritualist (my favorite from gw1) but reaper might still be my true love.

But I love that it’ll all just be there when I get around to it, and I can still have fun doing old content. The wizard tower convergence is a recurring favorite of mine.

I was always a guild wars fan, in part because there’s no subscription fee.

Guild Wars 2 is still going. They do expansions every so often, but it’s been almost nothing but horizontal growth. No new level caps or gear tiers. Just stuff like “as a necromancer, you can summon spirits to fight for you instead of getting a death powered scythe” trade offs.

Is this the latest form of a passive-aggressive insult to “win” an grammar argument?

Ok, I apologize because reading that back that sounded extremely passive aggressive but I did mean it sincerely. The sentence quoted seemed natural to me, but I could imagine someone whose native language was something else might find it odd. I butcher pronouns in French all the time (though I’m nowhere near fluent).

Did you reply to the wrong message?

So you mean this section?

I taught at a place called Bowdoin College for 16 years, and during the last of those there was a student in attendance you’ve perhaps heard of.

This didn’t even register as unclear or unusual. Obviously “those” refers to years. Are you a native English speaker?

By contrast I found it refreshing compared to the usual 6th grade level found online and in the news.

Sure, but that seems like a separate, closely related, topic.

I was mostly objecting to the idea that souls games are just memorizing and pushing buttons. That accusation could be leveled at most single player games, but people seem to mostly bring it up to denigrate souls games.

Multiplayer often has less memorization though, as you say.

Yeah, that archetype of player is annoying, but I think it might be just a loud minority.

Still on my phone so this might be a little limited.

I can imagine some situations where it could be sure, but most of the times it isn’t and the times it isn’t isn’t worth the effort for me. It just makes the game less fun for no conceivable benefit most of the time. The backtracking Im describing here is essentially filler (the type I don’t think most people like).

So when it is not filler, should you be disallowed from skipping it? Who is to say what the benefit is? Does the design intent matter?

Of course everyone should be able to complete every game. I can’t even think of what point this could be leading to except the obvious absurd idea that people should be expecting not to be able to enjoy the things they purchase.

This is a big disagreement. I don’t think everyone should be able to finish every game. They should be able to work the controls. If someone made Calculus Souls I’m just not going to beat it. I’m not good at math. I don’t expect them to give me the answers or add in an Arithmetic mode. If it’s there, fine, but that’s gravy. That’s like getting a second game for free.

Did you ever read the book House of Leaves? It’s great. Unreliable narrators, unconventional layout and use of form. Several friends of mine bounced right off of it. “Can’t read this”, they said. I wouldn’t say they were gatekept. I wouldn’t say the author is ableist because they didn’t also provide a linear narrative, without all the footnotes. I accept that not everyone is going to finish that book. Even if they paid money for it.

My dad bought a big jigsaw puzzle once. Loves puzzles. Couldn’t do this one. He put it back in the box and never finished it. He didn’t say it was an accessibility problem. It would never occur to him to ask for, like, the backs of the pieces to be numbered

People routinely accept that things will be hard, and maybe they can’t beat them. Maybe they could with more practice, but it’s not worth it. This is not a failure of the game or toy.

That’s what a lot of these discussions feel like. Someone made something interesting and challenging, and people want it changed. If you take all the footnotes out of house of leaves, you get a very different, much reduced, result.

I think the idea here that you seem to be putting out is that there is some point at which a players choice to change the difficulty is no longer valid, and I don’t think any such point exists. Let people do what they want, and give them some reasonable defaults that you’ve actually tested for/think blend well.

Well, earlier I said something about tuning difficulty down to the point of triviality, and you said that was a straw man.

But look, I’m not against options in games (assuming everyone playing gives informed consent. Unilaterally cheating is not okay). I just think the framing of it as accessibility in the same way that subtitles or changing controller inputs is dicey. “I think this would be more fun” is a fine, subjective, argument. “This game is ableist” is much shakier.

Of course, if you’re not saying lack of options is ableist but having them makes the game more fun, then I guess we violently agree.

Well, with the footnote that I do believe some people would ruin their own fun by turning the difficulty too high or low, but that’s not my business, and could be a net zero when compared to people not having fun with the available options. (But like for real when I was a kid I briefly ruined Diablo by cheating myself all the cool items.)

And the thing I was waiting for in real life has occurred. No more editing! Post away!

Right. But I think that applies to both. Lots of options and ways to solve problems, not just memorizing and following a recipe.

You have tons of options you can think of and you can solve problems in a bunch of different ways

Is this describing Baldur’s gare or elden ring? Because it seems to apply to both to me

I think our assumptions are not shared, so arguing more isn’t going to be productive until that’s straightened out.

When you say difficulty settings, I think of lowering enemy effectiveness, raising player effectiveness, and removing consequences for bad play (eg: permadeath of characters). Is that what you mean?

You mention less annoying backtracking. Can you imagine a game where the “annoying back tracking” is fulfilling an important role (eg: resources attrition, encouraging revisiting areas)?

If so, is there a threshold beyond which is too much? If there’s a slider that adjusts enemy damage, should it go to zero? If no, how do you decide the limits? What about the players who want to exceed them?

It seems like you have the assumption that everyone should be able to complete every game. Is that correct? Is that true for all media, or only video games?

I would write more but I’m on my phone and almost to my destination.

Dark souls would be a very different experience if the monsters weren’t threatening and there were no setbacks for defeat. People believe the experience is important. Accepting that defeat is only a temporary setback and you can just try again is a significant experience, and if you make the game trivial you won’t achieve that.

isnt difficult in a sense that you have to think a lot but rather that you memorise what moves the boss has and press your buttons fast enough.

I see this a lot, but that wipes out like most games. Baldur’s gate you just click on stuff. Tekken you just hit buttons. Tetris is just moving blocks around.

Also you often don’t rote memorize the moves. People play by reaction or without knowing exactly what’s coming.