ToyDork

Yeah, that's a pretty good take, fair enough.

It used to be that way. That last gen was literally the LAST gen. Xbox is a digital platform, Sony is moving towards being the budget gaming PC for families, Nintendo has made the Switch 2 a redesign and screen upgrade that's (hopefully) cheaper than a Steam Deck.

I won't make any bets, but the console wars seem to have ended (unless Xbox vs. Steam Deck becomes a selling point).

Agreed. I don't share his opinion but I respect and understand it. The game needs an expanded map, with new goals that take in new directions? Well it does have limits currently, though I'm satisfied with what it provides me. Plus modding is likely to take this game places as long as CDPR stick to their guns.

Tbf, this may be symptomatic. In real life, medieval "cities" had less people than many modern "nothing exciting ever happens here" rest stops. You may have reached a legitimate logistic limit of the time period.

I had my life ruined by my former psychiatrist and I didn't go out there to replace psychiatrics as a career. This company is a fucking dumpster waiting to catch fire.

As a tech geek and an artist (writer), I wholeheartedly agree. This is purely for the benefit of investors, not the craft.

Even then, cars are simply unattainable. Houses and apartments more so. A computer is the most expensive thing many 30-somethings own, they can't afford to not live with their parents when there is literally a housing shortage in Canada, and the United States doesn't offer health care insurance if you get an inconvenient tumor or have terrible genetics.

We are 30 year olds with a college degree but no job experience competing with 20 year olds who have a college degree and can work an extra 10 years before they get paid pension.

The next time I go somewhere where there are anti-homeless benches, I'm destroying the spikes if possible, and the fucking bench if not. I will fight it in court. It is cruel and inhumane, I will not tolerate that level of arrogance by whatever rich fucks decided they want to feel superior at all times, even if I have to burn down an entire downtown district in protest.

Edit: I will emphasize an unspoken but warranted assumption. I don't want anyone dead, I just want to destroy billions of dollars that have ultimately only become something rich people get to use.

This. It's one thing to say wokeness is a problem if you live in California or Southern Ontario, it's another to say wokeness is bad in Texas or Manitoba. There are people out there so consumed by hate that they want innocent people to suffer simply for not conforming, and it doesn't matter who you are because there's a brand of extremism for that. People are tired of discrimination, period. They're sick of being told this is not a dream, of bowing to a Neon God that devours songs, devours innovations, devours even evil and fear by devouring our emotions... This world destroyed itself. Don't you get that? I feel more at home in a city where "Last night's body count lottery [sic]" was 30 people because if I met a person and they died, people cared enough to hire someone to avenge them. In a hyper-capitalist dystopia. I feel more fear from a goddamn invincible anomalous lizard than I fear the day my dad dies because I will kill myself when my parents are gone regardless. I can't live without my only support net.

And I especially love worlds that are what everyone wishes. Tet was a hero to me, because he rescued the protagonists from a world that didn't value them at all. Hinobi is not evil to me, even as a relatively shady megacorp, because they've owned their mistakes. Why buy a car if you can buy Forza Horizon 5? Why go to Oxford or an Ivy League or CalTech if you could go to Hogwarts?

Reality is the Matrix, not escapism. It always has been, it just looked like there was a more real world ruled by a God-Machine race about 30-15 years ago. It's way overdue people start realizing that what changed is that now we're living in The Matrix Ressurections, that not only is our reality mostly fake (money, power, fame) but our fiction is more fulfilling because it's a Matrix that we are aware we're in and that we can do as we please in, while actual reality only offers hollow, empty promises aimed at enriching the rich even more.

I'm not saying we should give into our vices like it's nothing. I'm saying we deserve to be allowed to dream and not be told we are unworthy of happiness for being average, or worse, for being mentally disabled. Or worse than even that, for daring to have a unique opinion. If I have to have entire fake worlds on call to feel like I even have the 10-15 years of job experience I need to be employable IRL, I will. Because I'll never get that experience now. I and my entire generation are unemployable, because a few fucking bankers robbed our parents and then lied to our grandparents that we were lazy.

Lazy? Or realistic? Math doesn't add up, assholes. We will never have anything because of the rest of you, you deserve to watch us play games while the world burns.

It's not "can't", it's "usually don't want to as teenagers". Teenagers are easily addicted, and everyone reacts to each drug differently. Sadly today's teenagers generally play only hyper-casual video games because they played Angry Flappy Farmville Mafia Crush as toddlers before moving on to Raid: Gacha Impact of Clans.

There are gamers that play multiplayer but single player games aren't the problem. The fact that people can't afford to live in reality at age 35 because they don't have 10 years of work experience because nobody was hiring when they had just earned their degree and their student debt was literally a hard 'no' to declaring bankruptcy? They lost work experience in their field during the prime of their career because of 2008, that's irrepairable. People would rather buy a new car in Cyberpunk or a new house in The Sims because the real thing is unattainable to an entire generation. Generation Z has their life ahead of them. The real iGeneration doesn't. We didn't get the chance to prove ourselves until our bodies had wasted away and our experiences in the workplace were the same as they were fresh out of college.

That's if you could afford college at all. Most of us, myself included, weren't that fortunate. My younger brother went to college on BOTH of our college funds because I could not make use of mine.

Oh, fuck. Hope they had good insurance.

EDIT: Just heard yesterday about Allstate cancelling a bunch of policies just before without warning. I'm no conspiracy theorist but that glows like radioactive bullshit. To those who lost their homes? Don't let them win. Fight them in court, tooth and nail, bankrupt them if you have to. You may be incredibly wealthy and some of you may not be good people, but if YOU can have your home taken away unfairly... ANYONE can.

All irl sunsets have looked like Vaporwave since 2017 for some reason, I swear I'm not making this up.