That’s fair. I still don’t like it—I think lots of people will assume it’s called that because of Threads—but I don’t have any better ideas. ¯\(ツ)/¯

Why not fediverse? I’d argue that Threadiverse is far from a neutral term; it implicitly ascribes ownership of all these spaces to Meta.

I was listening to a podcast yesterday—I think it was The Flop House— and one of the hosts talked about how part of the struggle involved with making any kind of art is getting through the phase where the quality of what you’re able to create doesn’t measure up to your taste. It’s pretty discouraging when you work hard on something and it just isn’t anywhere near as good as you think it should be. Maybe it’s trite, but it resonated with me.

Well, it’s inaccurate. Fiction does not require unrealistic elements. There’s just scads of fiction out there—across multiple genres—that’s set in a real time and place, and doesn’t involve anything fantastical.

Yeah, I just finally picked up Cyberpunk a month or two ago. Great game—I thoroughly enjoyed it—but it doesn’t have the breadth of, say, BG3, where you’re missing out on a ton of content based on the choices you make. I could do a new Cyberpunk playthrough and like, do a melee build instead of ranged, but there’s no real story-based impetus for replaying it imo.

That’s a pretty tough comparison, to be fair. I can’t think of any other comparable RPGs with as much built-in replayability as BG3. And even in BG3, you’re stuck with the brainworm plotline, much like Johnny Silverhand. There’s just a lot more depth to the various paths you can take.

This generational bullshit is all made up by marketing assholes. None of it is legit, it’s all a distraction from the class war we should all be waging.

It is terribly crowded. And there isn’t enough shade, or places to sit. Still, at least some of the rides are really well done, have air-conditioned lines, and are of decent length. I went to Knott’s berry farm a month or two ago, and I’d say that was worse. Terrible food options with insane markups—like, at a cafeteria-style bbq place, a single beer costs $16.50. And we waited for over an hour in the sun for what felt like a 30-second ride (This site lists it at 1:02, but I’m skeptical).

Tons of 'em! Comedies, in particular, tend not to have guns. I watch a lot of UK light ent, particularly panel shows, which fit the bill.Then there’s sci-fi (if you’re cool with space guns), and shows set before guns were invented (other weapons may make appearances).

Yeah, it didn’t really make any sense that they turned into Vulcans and somehow also acquired a Vulcan education.

I had a lot of fun with Eve Echoes for a while, but the steady catering to whales and multiboxers sucked the fun out of it for me. I just want to fly around with friends and blow shit up, without spending exorbitant amounts, or running my own personal fleet.

I’ve yet to shell out for any trek merch, excepting games (ok, one time I bought a bootleg darmok and jalad shirt online, but they’d misspelled tanagra on it, which was a bummer). I did thoroughly enjoy Resurgence on PC, though. You’re basically playing through an episode of Trek, post-Dominion War.

You shift perspectives from scene to scene, alternately playing as the newly arrived XO of a science vessel, or an enlisted engineer. It’s well-written, with believable characters, and lots of weighty choices. It’s mostly talking and doing science and diplomacy, with some action and the odd stealth section. I, a random internet denizen, recommend it.

This is heretical. Obviously, you have to save all your consumables for some hypothetical future encounter, as is tradition!

Interesting! Never got a snes growing up; my parents thought we played the nes too much, so it eventually went into the closet, and I transitioned to pc games. Looking at the screenshots, it seems to be a completely different game.

I think the pc version is still worth playing, for Tolkien fans that are willing to put up with a bit of jank.

I recently started replaying the 1990 Interplay LotR game, which I have fond memories of playing as a kid. I also discovered they made a sequel which I never played, but intend to!

It’s a top-down, party-based rpg with turn-based combat, and a fairly robust keyword-based dialogue system. Pretty clunky by today’s standard, but it’s chock full of loving detail. There are a number of deviations from the books for the sake of gameplay, but it’s quite faithful to the spirit of the text.

You can find it on various abandonware sites, and apparently someone’s also rewritten the engine!

I was disappointed by Fetish Locator; I wasn’t into any of the included fetishes, so I rapidly got to the end, and missed all the content. Got an ending screen suggesting I should go back and try something, but like, no thanks! Still, at least it was free!

I enjoyed the episode, but I agree that the documentary framing device seemed to preclude any serious discussion of the ethical problem, like you’d get in the 1701-D’s conference (briefing?) room. Instead, we got a lot of Pike saying “Orders is orders!”

We’re not privy to Pike’s communications with Starfleet, there’s little nuance to any discussion of the issue we do see, and the Lutani get so little screen time, they’re practically 2d.

I liked the novelty of the format, and I generally enjoy the way SNW mixes things up. I do think it often leans too far into style, to the detriment of substance.

I enjoyed Elite Force, but it’s more actiony than I want my Trek games to be. My favorites have always been the ones that try to put you into an episode—Judgment Rites, ST: 25th Anniversary, A Final Unity, and Resurgence. I think the adventure genre is a much better match with the franchise than strategy or action. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the direction they’re going with this Voyager game.

He really lost it when Daphne ran off, poor man. First that awful collection, and now this?

Thanks for doing the legwork on that! I’m not familiar with the manga, and I immediately thought of the song.

I know someone with this vanity plate!