With honey the youtuber was actually the victim, so I wouldn’t judge them too harshly for that one. Small channels don’t have the flexibility to pick whatever sponsor they like. They’re just trying to get by.

Making a second comment to answer your actual question:

For me it’s when technology is very uniformly high tech. So for example in the real world technology advances but it doesn’t advance everywhere at the same speed. There might be high tech versions of things in cities while you still find old or ancient equivalents out in the countryside (or just both types existing alongside each other all over). I really like it when SciFi can capture this nonlinear pace of technological advancement.

If you read books, check out Embassytown by China Mieville. As far as I could tell the point of that book was to envision a truly alien species and how diplomacy would work with them. Super interesting book and unlike anything else I’ve read in scifi

The biggest responses I’ve ever gotten by far have all been asking for alternatives to popular tech. 😏

I thought I already responded to this, but thank you!

I think the reality is no one knows what will work, and that’s why it’s important to try things.

It’s good to suggest new things too, but who are you addressing when you say maybe it’s time we figure out new things? I’m frustrated with the old ways too, but to do new things requires organizing and community building around a new idea. I don’t think it’s very constructive to hand wave at the internet and say “we should do something new” without any suggestion or effort to plan something.

Organizing isn’t my skill set either, so I think it’s important to support what does come along even if it isn’t the ideal thing we’d like to see. Nitpicking every effort for not being perfect will drain energy out of the participants, and it’s good people are trying things. Just my 2 cents.

No worries, and thanks for the reply!

Maybe she just wasn’t thrilled to be married to a deranged psycho 😨

What’s missing from start? I don’t actually use the start menu much so not sure I would miss anything anyway.

The first one, the icy one, is just alright. It gives you another area basically that’s about as much content as the 5 base game areas. The new one the iron rig is pretty fun, though I thought. If you really like dredge I’d say get both.

This is a good overview though I wouldn’t know how to do the specifics like get pro (I have 10 home), or deactivate all the infringing stuff.

What’s the UK trick? Is that just a better version or something?

Have you succeeded in making things less crappy? I’ve been debating the upgrade for a while and I’m basically hoping this is possible by the time I do it. I already use shutup10 on win10, but I wasn’t if win11 kneecaps it somehow or not.

One example I like is Dredge. If you took away inventory management from that game, you would basically destroy its whole economy and progression system. It would also get rid of the interesting way they make having tons of equipment mean you can’t carry as much at once, creating a tradeoff.

I think one thing people get mixed up is the limitation side of a limited inventory – which is often a good thing for creating choices, tension, and pacing – and the physical action of sorting and arranging an inventory. This second one is a perfect place to streamline in my opinion because while the limitations on inventory create meaningful choices, having to spend a while rearranging your stuff to fit something in is very rarely good gameplay. You might already be making this distinction, but I wanted to clarify that just in case.

Inventory size/weight capacity is essentially a resource to manage, and I’m a big proponent of resource management in games (and this is coming from a designer who tried to get rid of and streamline resources for years – it has some major downsides).

It definitely works for some games to do it that way!

That’s interesting about the stamina. I agree that having to constantly start and stop sprinting isn’t a great solution and it’s never felt quite right to me either. The only games where it feels like it adds anything are ones where running out is dangerous. For general exploration it’s kind of a chore.

Great points! I think you’re spot on that a streamlined RPG would benefit from easy inventory management. I’ll have to learn more about the armor and weapon system you talk about cause I’m curious to hear how it works.

This explains a lot because I hate gambling

They are, you’re correct. I don’t think it would work in every game either. Inventory management can be a powerful tension and choice device and getting rid of that isn’t always a good thing.

Extreme inventory QOL often just turbo charges hoarding behavior and makes individual items feel meaningless. Just pop it in the bag, who cares, it’s all weightless anyway!

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes easy inventory is great, but I think inventory management gets a worse response than it deserves a lot these days.

/rant

Also don’t drink, can confirm.

Do nwn 1 first please (way better game IMO)