I couldn’t stand it either, and I grew up with NES/SNES JRPGs and thought it would be right up my alley but for whatever reason the humor didn’t reach me in the slightest and I couldn’t be bothered to finish it.

More recently I tried Afterplace which also has a meta theme but the gameplay is more like a simplified Zelda and I really loved the writing.

Same here, I don’t drink a lot of it compared to many but I still try to take a month long break at least once a year to ‘reset’ so it feels good again instead of needing it to just get through the day.

I’ve had online friends I met in games who I’ve remained in contact with for many years well outside of the original game. Some of them I’ve met in real life as well. I’ve also run into many other ‘friend groups’ who hang out in their favorite chat app and jump around between games or other hobbies for whatever fits their mood. It seems common enough to me that it shouldn’t be that rare or difficult for anyone willing to put some effort and trust towards it.

Absolutely, just as you can wander into the wrong bar and end up in a fight.

Competitive games will definitely bring out the worst in some people though, but there’s plenty of co-operative and role-play games that can lead to good lasting friendships.

They certainly can be. Plenty of online games center around socializing. It might not be enough for those who need daily physical contact but it is far from an anti-social hobby.

Yeah I actually respect them for that since it means their employees never have to work on their day off even if something went wrong with the site.

Since I stopped using newegg for computer parts (and I really dislike amazon’s storefront for browsing) I started using B&H and have been pretty happy with their web design, prices and selection.

The time machine I invented already works. Unfortunately it only allows you to travel forward in time about 10mins. And it takes about 10mins to warm up but I’m sure with some funding I can improve on that!

I had the exact same thought. I get the intent, it’s a “hello fellow kids, we understand you!” but the fact that there are so many people in that situation to make it relatable is already depressing enough without making it sound like it’s the normal everyone should just accept.

City of Lost Children (1995)
A carnival strongman teams up with a young orphan girl to rescue his little brother from a mad scientist who kidnaps children to steal their dreams in the hope that it will stop him aging.

It’s completely nuts but the surreal visual style and editing makes it pretty fun to watch.

The problem with this is that they would have to be suspicious in the first place to ask for it. If they are already suspicious then the scam will likely fail anyway, they tend to only really work when the assumption of who they are exists and they get that by raising stress levels by claiming some kind of emergency.

I think any software the government funds the creation and maintenance of should be open source, but not all software government workers use should have to be. Lots of niche applications out there that wouldn’t be worth the cost to rewrite or retrain a handful of users.

When a drug company in the 80s scaled up production they accidentally created seed crystals that spread around the entire Earth’s atmosphere that prevented other companies from manufacturing a generic drug without it attaching to the seeds and converting to the patented drug.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearing_polymorph#Paroxetine_hydrochloride

But what about the theory of the large throwing stone that states those tasty radiated cockroaches are my dinner and not yours?

A classic! I do also love Simon Swerwer’s work on the official steam DF OST

The only problem with this line of thinking is that it empowers bigots to continue to subvert any character or symbol they choose.
I’d rather see those symbols used more often in ways that fight bigotry than to give in to that manipulation.

I was too young when I first saw this too. (I was in my 20s)

If you have trouble going to sleep then try falling asleep instead.

Even if you did find some way to fund and produce it, what corporate media empire is going to allow it on their network where more than a handful of people would ever see it?

You might only have ice-cold water during the spring if you’re near a river that just flowed down from the mountains but even most well water is going to be much cooler than surface temperatures.