Picture is of “Front Mission” (1995). I’ve never played or heard of it, tbh it is just taken from the Wikipedia page for tactical RPG.

Agree with Gordon Freeman 100%. I might also suggest the Guide from Terraria and the CS:GO player models. Maybe also the player character from Noita, the goat from Goat Simulator, Quote from Cave Story.

These ones may be more niche, but for me personally I would also add Guy Spelunky, Princess Remedy, and Worm (Worms Armageddon).

In 10 months, Dark Souls III will be 10 years old

I’m gonna pretty decisively say “no”.
By the very nature of memes, you don’t know if they are talking about real events or just joking, you don’t know who created it or their biases, and you only get an EXTREMELY simplified perspective & information. You are also limiting the news that you see, maybe missing out on something important in favor of something funny (not to imply that we should maximize the amount of news we see).

I disagree with your point B about memes, that they don’t ask you to pick a side. I feel like memes are often more biased than traditional news. Even in cases where news is extremely biased, you can be aware of the bias and judge them consistently because they are not anonymous.

It’s tough having a high IQ. Most people don’t understand the world and the flaws of humans, at least at the level I do. As such, I find it hard to connect to other people. Most people are morons. I feel deep sorrow in knowing the direction the world is going and that the inhabitants of the world are mostly idiots.

…

Why do so many people (in this thread) unironically feel this way? “Intelligence” is a socially constructed and often useless idea that includes and excludes many things seemingly at random. For example, chess is often thought of as something that’s very intelligent, but skill at chess is (just like nearly anything else) based on practice & experience. Just because you’re good at chess and did well in school doesn’t mean that you alone can understand the problems in the world at a deeper level than an average Jo.

Everyone should read “What Is Intelligence, Anyway?”, a short excerpt from Isaac Asimov.

I’ll paste the part I think is most important, but the whole thing is worth reading:

Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I’d prove myself a moron, and I’d be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an arbiter of such matters.

This also reminds me of something I realized recently: 24 hours is NOT the amount of time it takes for the Earth to rotate 360°. Because the Earth (assuming North is “up”) rotates counterclockwise and orbits counterclockwise, each day is slightly more than 360°, probably close to 361°.
So if we assume a year is about 365.25 days, Earth actually spins 366.25 times. One rotation is just kinda “eaten” by orbiting counterclockwise.

I only know Japanese, but it is 親指 (oya yubi) which means parent-finger.

Why don’t YOU?

God Loves Uganda - about the impact of American Christian missionaries from megachurches on the people and politics of Uganda. It’s from 2013 and is in desperate need of an update, but it’s still very good.
The Punk Singer - documentary about the life and music of Kathleen Hanna, pioneer of “riot grrrl” punk feminism. I love the music and vibes, and Kathleen Hanna is also just a really interesting [real-life] character.

A lot of quotes from the Batman Dark Knight have become pretty common lingo or at least widely recognized, like “not the hero we deserve but the one we need” or “you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” or even “some people just want to watch the world burn” or “it’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message”, maybe also popularizing the whole “immovable object vs unstoppable force” etc.

For me it’s tied between Dark Souls (2011) and Universal Paperclips (2017)

I don’t believe I misrepresented anything, I never said that the currencies or battle passes were paid. OC asked if people would recommend, and I think I wouldn’t recommend because I didn’t enjoy it and I described the reasons I didn’t enjoy it, which as I said in my comment were aesthetic complaints (rather than monetary or gameplay or anything).

My objection is based on vibes because I think vibes and aesthetics and artistic direction are important to me, and those are the grounds on which I don’t like Deep Rock Galactic

Yes I know. I just mean that the multiple currencies is something I didn’t like and is a downside of the game for me. Not only because I think they are not fun to collect, but because they aesthetically remind me of pay-to-win currencies and it’s a slight ick. As they say in the article, they deliberately copy elements from other games to add to their own. That’s cool, but I don’t like the specific things they copied: battle passes and multiple-currency upgrade trees.

I personally would not recommend it. I’ve played ~20 hours with friends. Despite being a simple co-op game, it has these seasonal battle passes and multiple currencies that I would expect from something like Fortnite / Call of Duty / pay-to-win mobile games. That’s mostly an aesthetic gripe because it doesn’t directly effect the gameplay, but I’m not a huge fan of the gameplay either. Combat is really imprecise/messy, which I’m sure is the point but I can’t get behind it. May be worth to play with friends, but I would not recommend it solo at all. What I can say I really like though is the 3D map tool for the randomly generated caves 🤤 beautiful 3D map

Nightmare Kart
https://youtu.be/t7nGTQZJiSw
https://youtu.be/QwcVSTkZf-k

I’m never sure where to draw the line with metroidvanias. Does Dark Souls count as metroidvania? or Link’s Awakening? Cave Story?

Minecraft - mouse tweaks, Alex’s Mobs, The Bumblezone
Morrowind - I forget what it’s called, but the one that adds the mainland
Risk of Rain 2 - any character by Enforcergang. Especially classic sniper and rocket

It was so roundabout and specific that I couldn’t possibly remember the details, but there was apparently a certain baseball player who got an unbelievable score, which was in some way both a holy number and statistically impossible.
They knew all the details and connected it to the player’s own questioning of religion, but I thought it was absurd. Somebody, somewhere, made a very specific play in baseball? Doesn’t sound that unbelievable.

I’m extremely skeptical that tens of millions of people, a huge percentage of the working population, make any significant income from TikTok. Do you have a source for that?

All my games with over 100 hours playtime. Outside of those, probably Minecraft which must be over 2000 and some console games, maybe a couple Zelda games and Persona 3 FES at 100-200

edit: if you’re looking for recommendations, I definitely say Spelunky 2. Try to go for all the achievements and it’s a super difficult grind. Probably the hardest game I’ve played but very rewarding