They aren’t. That’s an easy scapegoat. Influenced by Russian propaganda, sure, but we’re all influenced by propaganda. The vast majority are ordinary citizens, who are as convinced of the righteousness of their beliefs as anyone. Dismissing them, en masse, as bots and trolls isn’t helpful.

The fact is, many of them have very valid points. Where they need to be fought is, very specifically, when they encourage non-voting. There’s no good argument for non-voting, and it’s easy to defeat them there.

Every time you vote, you are granting the rich permission to continue to fuck you regardless of who you voted for.

And do you think that, by refraining from voting, you would somehow deny the rich that permission? That’s probably why all the openly corrupt, unapologetically authoritarian politicians go out of their way to ensure everyone is able to cast a ballot, right? Because they know that, the more people vote, the more permission the rich will have to fuck everyone. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for your enlightened contribution here.

Lol, they’re mostly variations on “idiot” and “fash”, with a smattering of more positive and/or specific ones.

Unless a game looks right up my alley, “mixed” and below is usually an automatic skip to the next thing in the discovery queue.

Yes, I have them tagged as “agent provocateur”

I’m also on the spectrum. Sometimes I think the spectrum is so wide as to be functionally useless for describing behavior. I feel like my comment maybe implied that I think less of people that feel compelled to 100% games, which is not the case. I just have different compulsions.

I’ve been gaming for over 30 years, and probably have thousands of games in my digital library. I don’t think I’ve gotten all of the achievements in any of them. I tend to predominantly play rpg’s, and other games with a strong narrative bent, and I try not to peek at the achievements, so as to avoid spoilers. I appreciate when the developers hide them, so it isn’t an issue.

I’ve seen many people argue that achievements have had a net negative effect on gaming, and I tend to agree, but I don’t really have strong feelings about it, since it typically doesn’t affect my experience very much.

I enjoy seeing the little achievement pop-ups, especially when it’s a rare one, but I almost never go out of my way to get any. Don’t see the point, tbh. I’m not interested in playing the game in a way that’s less fun for me, just to check an utterly meaningless box. I guess you could reasonably argue that every goal in a game (quests, completion, exploration, what-have-you) is meaningless, but achievements have always struck me as particularly hollow.

I mean, the first one was good. It was all downhill from there, sadly. The second was decent, but suffered from a ton of re-used assets and a dumbed-down combat system. By the third, it seemed like they were trying to make a single-player MMO, which just made no damned sense to me. Never played the 4th. Maybe I’ll get it for free at some point and check it out.

I agree, and my comment probably ought to have been directed at OP. I just see you around a lot, and while I obviously empathize with your frustration, I think this line of argument is counterproductive.

I feel like people blaming Harris, and those blaming the voters are talking past each other, and it isn’t at all productive. Just like China and the USA can both be bad, it isn’t an either/or situation.

I understand the frustration from both sides, and I’m also angry at all the dipshits who advocated for non-voting or voting third party in the face of obvious fascism, but I’m sick of seeing this same damn slap fight in every post. We should be focusing on the future, not bickering about the past. If we’re going to build a coalition to defeat fascism—which is desperately needed—we can’t spend our energy relitigating electoral failures, and castigating the disaffected.

Yes, Harris was a flawed candidate, running a misguided campaign. Yes, the people who didn’t vote for her are responsible for our current situation. We have to move on to what we’re going to do now.

I mean, at least you always have those supple wrists to fall back on.

I hope more people do follow this advice, though. It’s always a joy to discover people’s little passion projects. They make life richer for the rest of us.

Currently working on an Ubi-style game set in Middle-Earth. Maybe my niece and I will be the only ones to enjoy it, but I’m ok with that.

Ayy, was about to comment the same thing! I love The Flophouse, and try to proselytize for it when I can. It sits comfortably atop my podcast pantheon.

It’s not the fear of ceasing to be—that can sometimes seem downright inviting—it’s the fear of how my death and subsequent absence would affect the people who love me. That’s the only thing that’s kept me going when things have been bad.

Just in the interest of cheering you up a bit, I’d like to point out that many people simply refuse to click on YouTube links. Personally, I have no desire to engage with video content, especially when it’s shared with little to no context. It’s not out of laziness, but more out of a conviction that far too many people have outsourced their thinking to random vloggers, and believe that posting a link to their favorite video essay lends credibility to their argument.

I got such a kick out of this, thanks be to you!

Also, I wish that was a two-way street.

That would be nice! I understand that everyone probably feels entitled to comment, given the amount of US-centric content one is bombarded with, and the shit-show our country has descended into.

Still, I see a disturbing number of upvoted comments that are just anti-Americans (i.e., not disparaging the government, but the citizenry). Shitting on people for where they were born is as valid as astrology, and nationality is not a good indicator of moral fiber.

That sucks! I’m sorry. They really ought to moderate it better.

I’ve read comments to this effect for years, and the only time I see objectionable shit on Steam is in reviews for intentionally political meme games like the recent one about putting up flags in the UK. Typically my only exposure to the forums is when I’m looking up obscure puzzle solutions, but the worst comments I ever see are just stupid or unhelpful. I imagine it’s worse for big multiplayer games, but I tend to avoid those, so maybe that’s why I don’t see the problem.

I always downvote any post or comment that complains about downvotes, especially when the commenter claims that downvotes are somehow proving their point. This is probably the only exception I’ve ever made, because you’re right.