Tech and Social Science | Humanist | Avid Sci-fi Reader | Apolinario Mabini stan

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • I have several!

    Disco Elysium: I played Disco Elysium at a dark time in my life and seeing the protagonist hit absolute rock bottom and begin to cope with his myriad problems throughout the story amidst how fucked his situation (and the world’s) was resonated with me a lot. I could go on a lot longer about this game, but it definitely changed my perspective on life and the world.

    Mr. Robot: What starts out as a story about a hacker and the ethics of technology ends up as a look at personal trauma and coping mechanisms. As someone in tech who’s dealt with a lot of mental health issues throughout my life, I (and my sister) saw a lot of me reflected in Elliot as well.

    A lot of similarities between those two pieces of media, lol




  • This is the first time I have heard of FATE and that is interesting! From what I’m reading, it’s highly free-form, with stuff normally associated with characters or the setting being referred to as aspects (like some kind of adjective or attributes of a programming class), which can be called upon to give bonuses provided you have enough fate points). The free-form part comes from the aspects being basically anything related to the characters/setting at hand. I guess it does put a lot of onus on both the DM and the player to collaboratively figure out how to find creative solutions to problems, but in a way that isn’t mechanically restricted.

    From what I’ve seen from the suggestions so far, rules-lite/abstract helps to mitigate some of the rube-goldbergy-mad-contraption-tzeentchian-ness that seems to be inherent in rpgs (and probably human nature lol), but not by “restricting” players in a strictly defined box of rules. Rather, rules-lite systems allow for the rube-goldbergy-mad-contraption-tzeentchian-ness to feel less like breaking the system and more like building the system (within reason and the DM’s judgment), which is huge. So either that or a heavy narrative focus seems to work well in theory.


  • Oh don’t get me wrong, I play D&D and love it as well haha

    I was just curious about other systems and how their approaches to rules, balance, and storytelling affect how players play as well (and DMs DM), seeing as there’s a myriad of different systems each with different goals and mechanics. I haven’t played any other system on the tabletop, as my group hasn’t really tried playing other systems yet (only crpgs based on other systems, plus me reading manuals and rulesets because why not)

    I can see how a rules lite system would prevent random pushing of the system until it breaks type of gameplay, ala PbtA games. Plus with more emphasis on crafting a narrative vs focusing on the best combination of stats/skills/interactions, there’s less incentive to turn the mechanical knobs until something ends up broken.








  • Does abandonware count? If yes, then absolutely lol

    My childhood was spent playing abandonware because our home pc wasn’t strong enough for modern games at the time, so this is basically just reliving that while getting paid lol.

    If abandonware doesn’t count, there’s still enough stuff that’s ended up in the public domain to make it worth it (books and movies).



  • You and me both. Also means giving up certain comforts, but that’s kind of the point. Maybe that’s why the secular monastery doesn’t exist- it’d be a huge sacrifice for those who would participate in it and still require some cooperation/consent/aid from others in the community/society (as much as self-sufficiency would be ideal). I’m thinking about how much people (and governments) already don’t want to fund universities which give tangible benefits, and how much worse it’ll be for secular monasteries.

    But hey, I also want this, and it’d be interesting to see what insights would come from a place of thinking unconstrained by the trappings of modern society.

    (Or it could basically just be libraries and being a librarian but more extreme lol)



  • Prior to my health and endurance being absolutely wrecked in the past year, I used to run. Ran as hard as I could through the fields near where I lived until my legs would die, all in the chase for that runner’s high; but when it did hit, it was good. Nowadays I can’t run as much, so I’m still trying to find new outlets, one of which has been messing with my selfhosted setup, another being writing paragraphs on lemmy lol.

    Also, certain video game soundtracks evoke feelings of catharsis and calm for me, so there’s also that.


  • I kind of have the same thing! We have hearing tests at my place of work and the tests show I have above-average hearing, and it does translate outside the tests as well. It’s really nice to be able to hear the intricacies of music for instance.

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t translate to speech, and I often struggle to comprehend what people are saying, and it gets even worse when it’s in something that’s not my native language… It’s like I can hear the sounds people are making, inflection and all, but I can’t quite form what the entire thought is.




  • I echo this sentiment so much. A lot of folk my age or older like to place the blame on the younger ones for issues beyond their control (like generations before them lol) but I do see the younger ones being a lot more outspoken about issues. I feel like its up to us older generations to ensure that they can actually achieve those dreams and make a change, rather than just blindly criticizing them.