Samesies. I think it didn’t help that I played the sequel first. It’s just really damned dated. Some older games age really well, but NWN did not.

Yeah, I don’t worry too much about my GD builds being “end-game viable”, I just like finding combinations that are fun to play, and there are enough unique item sets and abilities to keep me entertained for a while. I’ll check out Last Epoch—looks like it might be up my alley!

Have you by any chance played Grim Dawn? I really enjoy the mechanics and aesthetics of it, and I’m wondering how PoE2 compares. I don’t think I’ll ever be in the market for Diablo 4; the P2W cash-grab of Diablo Immortal really soured me on the franchise.

Someone call Tom Bombadil!

This is something I do, so I’ll take a crack at it—though, bear in mind, it might be total bullshit.

It’s a defense mechanism. Many popular things are—in my estimation—objectively terrible. Every time something utterly devoid of merit (and often actively detrimental to the public good) is generally agreed to be a popular sensation, the connection I feel to my fellow human beings takes a hit.

I want to believe in people—in society. But I’m clearly a judgmental sob. So maybe by avoiding the popular things, I’m trying not to further my own alienation.

I think that you’re probably right. I also think I may be projecting a bit, and conflating my country’s apathetic embrace of fascism with my own executive dysfunction. Seems all of a piece. Anyhow, thanks for the words.

The big caveat there is that knowing things doesn’t change the world. Scads of people are acutely aware of the problems facing society—maybe more than at any time in history. Vanishingly few feel empowered to do anything about it.

I’m not pro-ignorance by any means; education is the silver bullet. But we urgently need to find better ways of translating our spectacular surfeit of knowledge into individually actionable mechanisms of social change.

I can see how it’s easier to fuck someone than to actively listen and (at least pretend to) empathize with them. It’s easier to go without the former than the latter, as well.

Trust you to bring such a granularly appropriate reaction gif. 'Preciate ya, ummthatguy.

Never occurred to me before, but a legally recognized opposite day would be like the purge.

Baba was probably the worst contestant they’ve ever had. I was hoping to warm up to him over the course of the series, but he brought precious little to the table. Jack was fine—a bit disappointing in light of how obviously excited Alex was to have finally got him on. Loved the other three, top marks for them!

Wasn’t a huge fan of the pub quiz. Loved the goose, and all of Andy’s prize tasks. Found Alex’s blatant efforts to tilt things Jack’s way kind of off-putting. Ignoring Baba’s obvious running in the maze task was disappointing. Glad Andy won, look forward to seeing him on CoC.

That’s too bad. No autosave you can load from before it started? I love KC:D; it’s one of very few story-based games that I was motivated to play through more than once. I had a quick look, but I couldn’t find any mods that let you pause that section and come back to it later.

I really enjoyed Theresa’s DLC, but it can be an unwelcome change of pace if you’re not ready for it. There’s certainly no shortage of people that have had this issue, but it looks like the only fix is to power through it or load an earlier save. You do get a nice Skalitz shield from Theresa when you finish it, at least.

Yes, I’d put this right up there with Daisy May Cooper’s apoplectic rage at Richard Herring failing to recognize her hippo!

Every single article about “gen x” this or “gen z” that is 100% bullshit. Stop reposting this garbage.

Yeah, it’s too bad it’s only 200 million, and only “X”. All the billionaire-controlled, black-box content algorithm social media sites are a cancer on humanity. Nobody’s freedom is being impinged upon by banning them; they’re the private fiefdoms of oligarchs, who blatantly wield them in service of their own agendas. Banning them is the sensible thing to do, and I can only hope that other governments follow suit.

H.E.B. store brand toilet paper is like that. Haven’t seen any other companies do it.

My impression of r/menslib, formed when I was subbed there several years ago, was that it catered to people with more money than problems. The discussion there was never about real issues.