Those first two are so true. I got around to Elden Ring recently, and I realized that losses I’ve taken and not sweated and how meticulously and carefully I approach each situation have been influenced by all the games that came before. I’m (relatively) kicking the crap out of it because I know how to play Souls games now because the series has been teaching me these exact things all along. I’ve offed quite a few bosses first try, and damn it feels good. It’s such a great series for giving you a sense of power through perseverance and awareness, rather than just grinding up the XP to trivialize everything like most other RPGs. Miyazaki really did strike gold with the formula. I hope there are way more Souls games coming in the future.
BoC are pretty good, but I’ve bounced off every album since MhtRtC which I listened to an obscene amount of back when it came out. I didn’t hate them, just none of them grabbed me like their first.
The SH-101 is a great synth. Which I don’t own, but that rubbery, wobbly analog sound is fantastic.
A lot of “Voltaic Fauna Bodies” explores the theme, though there are some other, algorithmically generated melodies and things in there, too.
I make music, but it’s not really music anyone would want to put on at a party, so I don’t tell anyone about it. There’s nothing more awkward than standing there trying to explain to someone that what they’re listening to is a chord progression played with each note slightly out of phase such that rather than distinct chord changes, you just get an overall impression of it as time progresses while they screw up their face in confusion and disgust. Not that everything I make is a conceptual experiment, but that’s inevitably what someone will put on if they discover my music.
He wasn’t a scammer. He fell on hard times. I bought a few things before that from him without issue.
It sucked for me, yes, but I’m a foreigner in Korea who has hardly mastered the language. Taking him to court would have been a huge hassle for me and probably involve hired translators. I’m not even entirely sure it’s possible given the legal system here isn’t exactly friendly towards non-natives. The apology was more than I expected.
I ordered a “boutique”, made-in-Canada guitar pedal off a website here in Korea. I’d ordered a few things from the same place before without issue. This time, the guy jerked me around for two years with all kinds of promises. I called the cops when he stopped communicating and the website disappeared. The police found him, and I got an apology over the phone, and that was it. It hardly seemed worth taking him to small claims court over $300. I ordered it from somewhere else and it showed up in a week.
My favorite niche communities have come to Lemmy, but they’re very inactive. Which is good and bad. There’s much less filler content, but less substantial content as well. It’s nice not having to scroll through miles of junk to find the good stuff, but I do wish there was a little more good stuff.
Overall, I think I’m glad for the change. I wasted a little too much time on Reddit for sure. Here, at least I can pop on and see that there’s nothing new I’m interested in and do something else rather than scrolling through all that filler to find a nugget or two.
How on Earth does one spend 557 hours on Final Fantasy VI? I’ve finished it at least a half-dozen times over the years since it came out, and I doubt I’ve spent that much time with it. And at least one of those sessions I got everyone to max level and taught them every spell in the game. I suppose I have not taught Gau all the possible Rages, but doing that sounds insufferable.
Edit: Are replies broken? This was a reply to a comment, but it showed up as a separate comment.
The swings.
Some of my fondest memories are of swings. Not just from childhood either. I vividly remember an intense session in university, and another from only a few years back was special for a variety of reasons. And now, my daughter is just old enough to really start appreciating them. I don’t think I’ll stop swinging until I’m incapable.
I just finished Trails in the Sky SC at just over 90 hours playtime. I didn’t even 100% it. I have to admit. I didn’t even much enjoy the first half or so. It mostly ended strong, but I was starting to get a little sick of kicking the same bad guys’ asses over and over only to have them declare they’re not even using their full strength in the post-fight cutscene before they mysteriously disappear to inevitably come back later.
Not for everyone obviously, but I developed a synthesizer habit some years ago, and right now is probably the best time ever for a beginner to get into it. Korg’s Volca series, Roland’s Aira compact, teenage engineering’s Pocket Operators, Arturia’s Microfreak, and Elektron’s Model series are all affordable and a great way for a beginner to start making some cool-ass music. Beware developing a habit though. It only stays affordable so long.