Erm, the Borg would like to remind you that cubes have been a thing for a bit.

I mean, the US put out the game America’s Army as a recruitment tool.

Passably decent multiplayer shooter for its time. Good enough to kill some time with.

I’m a gamer, and I do…

Then again, I’m mostly excited about using CUDA cores for cracking hashes and the like, lol.

I felt that way about CyberPunk 2077 and CDPR.

CDPR hadn’t let me down. Yet. Ultimately, they redeemed themselves, sure, but at launch… whew, there were issues.

Game companies CAN redeem themselves. Business wise though? Its hard to recoup that kind of shaken faith in investors, board members, etc; let alone the people you’re actually trying to sell to.

There are so MANY fucking games out there these days, that I’ll look at something new, and decide I don’t like certain elements of the gameplay, and just move on.

If a feature looks more frustrating than fun? I’m good, thanks.

I’ve played hard games on the hardest setting for the challenge. I’ve also played “easy” just to get drunk and enjoy a story.

If it isn’t fun though? Then what am I doing here?

I already spend 8+ hours a day on the computer and hate it, but at least they pay me.

Honestly, igniting it is the hard part.

Well, and putting it out…

Making though? Pretty simple.

I rocked long hair from grade school to my mid 20s.

Then, a lady friend (platonic) sat me down and had a talk with me.

The thinning, now seemingly always greasy, strands of hair was not a good look. Like, don’t visit a playground or I would be arrested on site lol.

So, being a metal head there are two main options, or at least were at the time. Long hair. Or take bare clippers to it.

So, I did.

That first winter fucking suuuucked. Still to this day, I tend to rock a hoody in cold weather, and toss my hood up to cover my head for warmth when outdoors.

Sometimes I let it grow out for about a month before taking clippers to it again, out of sheer laziness. A month of growth, from shaved, isn’t much in the way of hair, but temperature wise it is very noticeable.

Linux is the key there.

All your complaints revolve around Windows.

That being said, if you don’t want to fuck with computers any more than necessary, that route won’t be particularly pleasing until Valve can release their OS and Launcher updates, assuming they keep things user friendly.

Linux gaming is leagues better than it was 20 years ago. Still hard to beat a fresh Windows install (key: fresh) and most certainly a console when it comes to ease of use.

I don’t go back to straight Debian, but generally something Debian-based.

By that, of course, I mean Kali to continue my on-again-off-again pentesting studies… I know there are other platforms, but that is where I’m comfortable.

Sadly, my daily driver is fucking Win11 (gaming rig). Why? I work in IT, and MS is killing Win10 so I’ll have to support shitty Win11 soon enough, need to know its quirks to support it. I do miss my Linux build for gaming though.

I’m on W11 with my daily driver.

I don’t like it. I didn’t like it from the start.

So why?

Because W10 will hit EOL sooner than later; and I have to support that shit professionally.

Doesn’t matter that no one is testing or building applications for W11, no security patches mean any employer worth their salt will switch over to W11, despite not having the infrastructure to do it.

Admin VS IT. I’m nearly 40, and that story is older than I am.

I’d also add a lifetime subscription to Nexus, that alone can add so much life to so many games. Hell, if I’m checking out a game, I see what kind of mod support it has first.

Or do they not offer that anymore?

I think I got it way back when for $50 or so.

Reminds me of the DOS days of my youth.

fdisk does not stand for friendly disk.

I’ll admit, I haven’t watched it. Nor do I intend to. And I tried to allude to CDPR doing… something to explain it.

I’ve seen too many decent games ruined by hype trains, so I do my best to avoid them and form my own judgements.

I tend to be a lore nerd before a min-maxer in games, though that wasn’t always the case.

The “best” build isn’t always the most enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE theory crafting ridiculous shit - but if you trounce all your enemies, conquer every social interaction, and breeze through the game… where is the adventure?

Hell, the BEST DND player I’ve played with lasted three sessions. Second Edition. Gnome Fighter with 3 INT. He was, sadly, too dumb to live. But man, I enjoyed every session with that character. Barrel of laughs, and his “idiocy” could be really ingenious. Dangerous to everyone around him, friend or foe, but he got results.

Sadly, he re-rolled with a more optimized character. It survived, but it was not nearly as much fun.

The Trial of Grasses is kind of a defining moment in a witcher’s life.

Thats really my only beef at the moment with the choice, but I’ve been awake for over 48 hours so I’m not thinking too clearly at the moment.

I picked up Veilguard because I enjoyed Origins and Inquisition. The second game… at this point, I don’t think I took it right and its my problem and I need to give it another chance.

I’m still very early into the game, but the only “woke” thing I’ve seen so far is variable gender identity during character creation.

You want to play a “woman” who looks masculine, with atypical male traits, even a penis, and a deep voice? You know what, I’m glad the option is open to people. It doesn’t vibe with me personally, but I’m glad that people I care about can make a character that is “them,” because who hasn’t made themselves in an RPG at some point in their life, best they were able.

Again, I’m early to it, but that is all of the “woke” shit I’ve seen.

For the record, I have friends and family in the LGTBQ+(whatever, doesn’t matter) that I support.

I don’t want hate in my heart, and I’ve worked very hard to overcome some biases that came from my more “southern” upbringing. Hell, one of those biased views from the past is now openly trans, and I was the only family member they talked to because they couldn’t talk to anyone else.

I’m imperfect, as all humans are, but it isn’t hard to fucking TRY, just a little, to realize that someone else’s self image and happiness doesn’t affect mine other than what pronouns I use to refer to them. Fuck, its not hard. Just don’t be a dick.

Yeah, TNO is absolutely an individual character you happen to be in the shoes of.

Without spoiling anything, the game IS TNO’s story.

If that doesn’t interest you, best of luck in your refund request.

That being said, I’ve only gotten around to getting one tattoo in my life - The rune of torment.

Oh fuck me, I’m still studying to red team basic computing.

I take it you’ve never had to log into a printer with an AD account before?

Yeah, I went out to 32 characters once. Until I needed to work on a printer.

I’ve thought of this, but don’t have the wherewithal to actually make a project come to fruition.

I’m also not a lawyer, but I’ve read multiple articles on this, and it doesn’t seem like any legal violation. Corporation got lazy, didn’t confirm where 10m in royalties went and under what circumstance, and got burned.

Finally a corp gets scammed by the common man.

I say good on him.

We live in troubled times, the planet is overheating at a rate that it might affect my life more than being more uncomfortable in the summer. And that’s Texas summers at that.

There is an island of plastic refuse in the ocean bigger than some countries.

I saw the home computer come to the living room and the internet be birthed.

If you were to ask if I was jaded as a kid, already? Yeah. Around 7 years old.

It isn’t getting better. Corporations claw for more and more at the expense of the people and the planet.

I hope the younger generations can lead the charge of change, but for me… I don’t have the time or energy to play games most days, let alone change the planet.

And for those who will say, “Aren’t you just part of the problem then?” Sadly yes, I am. I try to make changes when I can, but I fear changing the small environment of my home will not be enough.

Please don’t I barely understand subnetting as it is.