CaptPretentious

@CaptPretentious@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gaming Pet Peeves⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Actually, what you said unlocked a memory. Though I don’t know if it falls in line with the Gameranx video (I’ll have to go watch that) or your sentiment. But the ‘Players need that catharsis and pay off for all their efforts or else it inevitably starts to feel pointless rather than fun.’ immediately made me think of the first Shadow of Mordor game. It was a great game, undone by a QTE final boss.

  But yeah, so many of these games just don’t go anywhere. To your point, the live service games. It’s not 100% with what I intended, but I feel it ends up in the same area… I’m spending all these hours… what am I accomplishing? What’s the point of all of this? It’s just endless padding with endless travel time, side quests, and anything that requires you to wait real time for the quest to progress. Dailies in WoW, were my WoW killer. Some people saw it as “easy gold”; I saw it as non-content meant to drive daily engagement but not actually accomplish anything in the game. It’s all just padding for extra “engagement” or to make a game seem bigger than it is (or should be).

  I’ll break down some of the issues I had with the games I listed for better context. And I’ll front this with, I know you don’t have to do side missions. It’s more like, you realise instead of giving you a tight, compact story that’s well crafted, they spent too much time padding it out so it appears to be a bigger game. CP2077, the main story is absolutely dwarfed by all the side content. The main quest line is like… ~35 missions? There are like 70+ “gigs” and the same for “side missions”. The main story is the thing you do the least. With missing mechanics, I can’t help but think it would have been more interesting if it were done in a more linear fashion like Deus Ex Human Revolution. Instead of a giant city that’s mostly empty boxes (the buildings aren’t buildings) and padded out with side quests. Skyrim, the thing that killed it for me, was just how pathetically easy it was to become the leader of the various groups/factions. It felt so unearned. I can only take being handed “wins” left and right because I’m the fucking chosen one… before it’s just dull. It was Medieval Idiocracy. I could have just started learning spells and they’re ready to give me the college because I’m the smartest person they’ve ever seen. Brawndo, it’s what Dragonborns crave. And Hogwarts, walking around the castle, was the best part. It felt magical and alive. Some of the puzzles were fun. But the classes were boring tutorial sections, and the main thing you do in the game is LEAVE Hogwarts to go do unspeakable things in non-descript burrows and dungeons scattered all over the place. That game has 15 main quests, 21 side quests. 95 Merlin Trials…

  The tl;dr: An easy way to look at it, CP2077, Hogwarts, and Expedition 33 have similar playtime for just the main quest (per howlongtobeat.com, ~26-28 hours). But how it feels to play the game is drastically different. One had a story to tell and a point to get to, and it does that. The others made a world with a whole bunch of other stuff to do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gaming Pet Peeves⁩ ⁨⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Alright, I’ll limit it to just pet peeves.

  Tutorial sections that just suck. Some don’t explain enough, others treat you like you’ve never played a game in your life. Or, when they interrupt you to explain a mechanic in great detail, but it’s too much of an info dump, and you’re just left wondering wtf they just said. One game that I really liked how they did it was BG3. There’s a tutorial, but you can also turn it off on future runs. Worst tutorial I think I’ve ever seen was Xenoblade 2.

  Games (and really any consumable media) that just don’t know when to end. There are very few games I’ve completed, mostly because I get bored. The game overstayed it’s welcome and I’m done. The grind isn’t worth the final boss fight or whatever is at the end. Generally, it’s because games (especially RPGs) think grinding is a “fun” mechanic when it’s more of an imbalanced game. Take, for example, Expedition 33, not once in that game do you need to run around grinding levels. You can successfully go through the entire game, only going to each stage once. Fucking fantastic. But then you have games that just went too far with things. Some games, like Skyrim, CP2077, (especially) Hogwarts Legacy, I only know the ending to those games because other people beat them. Ex33 I got 52/55 achievements (just need to win the gestral games and find whatever record I missed). I beat that game entirely in 74 hours. My first run of BG3 (53/54 achievements, only missing the bard one, because I think it’s boring), first playthrough was maybe 120 hours (currently over 700 due to multiple playthroughs). Skyrim… 146 hours… 27/75 achievements. CP2077, 133 hours, 18/57 achievements. Hogwarts sits at 50 hours with 19/45 achievements (that game should be a 20-hour game at most).

  Games that don’t really respect your time. This one, Nintendo does a lot. Actually perfect example is Breath of the Wild. It’s a giant fuck off world that’s mostly empty, peppered largely with the same enemies throughout the whole thing. You have a weapon mechanic that encourages you NOT to fight (just get some good weapons and head off to exactly where you need to go). The cooking is bullshit, no recipe book, no making a bunch of something, a stupid cutscene every time. And the entire poop joke… like getting 20 for a poop joke would already be too much, but collecting 900 with (IIRC) no fucking way to track them… Or the fact that the way Nintendo expects you to get arrows is to grind out rupees to buy them. And the exploits used to get arrows or rupees quickly, in a single player game, they actively tried to patch out. That’s just one game, Nintendo does this on SO MANY GAMES, which actually pushed me to “fuck Nintendo” and I didn’t buy and won’t buy a Switch 2.

  Some games are combos of these. One game I really like, but I always hit a wall is Satisfactory. Once I get to trains/aluminum, it’s just not fun anymore for me. I work 40-80 hours a week (sometimes I work 5x12s and 8ish hours Sat/Sun)(only sometimes, usually closer to 50 hours a week)… so all the extra planning and time to making a factory… like I just don’t have the fucking time. Same thing with Dune Awakening. The first zone was the best. Getting your first Orni wasn’t too bad, but it was already starting to push it. Having to fucking pay taxes in a game… Oddly, it was about the time I was farming up aluminum, I quit that game too. Maybe I have a pet peeve with aluminum in video games…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft AI CEO pushes back against critics after recent Windows AI backlash — "the fact that people are unimpressed ... is mindblowing to me"⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  And with the help of Valve, it’ll continue to get better. Hoping companies like EPIC also take note and really start adding things to Unreal to really push Vulcan and Linux. Like, I don’t want a monopoly or anything, but if big companies make big moves towards supporting Linux, others will follow. ( I know Unreal supports Linux, I’m talking like actively pushing tech, support, pushing for games to be compiled for linux, pushing for native code and not needing compatibility layers, etc.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google CEO: If an AI bubble pops, no one is getting out clean⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  you can fail upwards, con people and still get out filthy rich.

  Only if you con the poors. If you con someone who’s rich or “powerful”, then you get punished.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Clair Obscur’ Leads The Game Awards 2025 Nominees With 12 Nods; ‘Silent Hill f’ Has Four Nominations⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You didn’t really offer any insight as to why you moved on…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Refrigerator ads are finally here!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I hate this mentality.

  “You did a thing, you knew what was going to happen” is victim-blaming. It’s increasingly hard NOT to buy a device that has some bullshit tech pushed into it, or AI pushed into it. And I’d bet there was nothing on the sales floor about eventual ads.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam Hardware [new Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and VR headset Steam Frame, coming in 2026]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I believe this is their third VR headset.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's a recent game you've tried playing that isn't worth the hype?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I played this with two friends. The progression system is just awful. So we got through the full campaign once and it was fine honestly. Then we were kind of hyped to try going through it again, it was all right definitely harder. And then the third time around we just gave up cuz it was clear that they’re just wasn’t that much game to play, and the enemy is just become bullet sponges and you either grind endlessly to try to level up and gain unknown amounts of power if its power at all.

  Intermultiplayer sessions we did have a few epic moments won’t lie. But the cost just wasn’t worth it. And those thin offset the issues that we had.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's a recent game you've tried playing that isn't worth the hype?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Did you play it solo or with people? I found the game to be fairly dull solo. It was better with people but the loot system still allowed a lot to be desired especially if you played with greedy people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I was going with Beetleborgs

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google pulls the plug on first and second gen Nest Thermostats⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh how kind of them! They force disconnect an appliance but give you a coupon to buy the latest model.

  And the newest model is different how? It’s a thermostat after all.

  Whole reason I got one was because of the promised savings (never saw any, from the learning, just bullshit offers that allowed the electric company access…).

  Guess it’s back to the tried and true mercury thermostat.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Great Depression: Part Deux⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I have had 1 week off the whole year. I have some PTO coming up. I feel guilty using it (even though I shouldn’t).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The concept of teen superheroes is stupid and boring⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Some comics are going to translate better if you can go R. Like if you want to portray something truly cruel, dark, painful, tragic, I feel like you’re not really going to get that on anything less than an R. Like DC’s Identity Crisi. Or you could just look at movies that did come out like Logan, or Deadpool. If there’s a Peacemaker film you probably would want that rated R.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Elon Musk says he needs $1 trillion to control Tesla's robot army. Yes, really.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You forgot to mention, that was was fired from PayPal(?) for being incompetent.

  And the engineers he hires are either not that great, or (more likely) are having to play fast and loose due to unrealistic expectations. Like the original hyperloop demo that was setup years ago for a competition, instantly rusted and was secured poorly. It’s since been destroyed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Any advice for me a guy turning 18 yo old??⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Who you are now, isn’t likely who you’ll be in 6 years. You’ll change a lot over the next few years as you become an adult. Legally, becoming an adult is the difference of a day. But actually maturing into an adult takes time and effort. Yes effort, you’ll meet plenty of adults who cling to their highschool self.

  I don’t know if alcohol is still placed on a pedestal like it was in my teens, but alcohol isn’t that great. It’s an expensive poison humans can sorta metabolize. It can taste good, but moderation is key. The point isn’t to get drunk. As an adult who can drink anytime I please, is generally would rather just have water.

  Now is a great time to get into a fitness routine.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It was about the goal, not the how.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sony trying to warn the player they're settling for a lesser horse⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Hold on, that’s a real photo? I thought it was a joke or someone!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spokesperson⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I think you mean '99

  Due the storm of ‘Bawitdaba’, ‘Only God Knows Why’, and ‘Cowboy’ being released that year and Napster.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  My first homelab server is running unRAID. No real complaints from me. It’s been running for years no issues other than the crap hardware it runs on (i7-3770, 32GB RAM). I have some file shares, docker, and some VMs. The UI makes it really easy to do stuff, especially if you don’t want to have to research and manage everything.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘My buyer’s guilt is insane. It’s $1,300 on trash’: the adults addicted to blind box toys like Labubus⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  To me, it is a false equivalence. Sport cards are based on people. Though I’d give you, they could just be bound by team and year instead of being random. But like, when Ken Griffey Jr.'s rookie card came out, no one could have guessed what would happen there.

  And MTG is a game that’s constantly evolving. Here, I think the randomness was a planned mechanic that helps keep the game balanced and interesting (or it did like 30 years ago when I played). Might be a different story now, but doing a broken meta deck just was far less likely. Getting an assortment of colors encourages, especially new players, to try different approaches since each color (again, at least in my day) plays very differently.

  But these blind box things are largely made to just be a fad. They’re created, hoping they’ll catch on with a demographic, to generate money… and landfill waste. You can go into a card shop and buy/trade/sell sports cards, or game cards (MTG/Pokemon). After the hype for these blind box toys, there’s no more demand. They create scarcity for the sake of driving sales. They employ psychologists for this type of stuff. These aren’t like the coin machines back in the day, where you could actually see the toys. They know that if you could see what was there, sales would tank.

  Sports cards are a piece of history, a physical note of what was for a given player at a specific time. MTG/Pokemon are games. In both cases, you could just collect, but there’s more to them. But with the blind box toys, they’re just physical loot boxes. They exist only to be collected. Much like Beanie Babies back in the day. Or literally anything that’s ever called it’s a collector’s item or an investment… It’s just garbage. But now, they add in a known addiction mechanic to it, and target kids and AGGRESSIVELY advertise. You can call them all dumb, sure, that’s fine, I haven’t collected MTG or baseball cards in 30 years because I share a similar sentiment. And I’m not ignoring the tactics, the card games, or sports cards also employ… I do think they could change, and should change, but they won’t. But I believe they are less predatory, but not above criticism or review themselves.

  In 5 years, is anyone going to care about a Lububu? No. Does anyone care about the crap my mom collected in her youth, no. But the things she liked to collect, when she walked into a shop, she could see what they had and buy exactly what she wanted. No tactics, just dumb things she liked. Same when I collected Amiibo. I could see what I was buying.

  I’m hoping I’m making sense. Just because one thing is kinda sketchy, doesn’t mean it’s fine for another thing to be completely sketchy because “people are just having fun”. It’s not fun when someone goes into financial ruin and you pivot to “well, that was your choice,” because that’s now how addiction works.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨how do school shooters know how to use guns?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I shot my first guns in kindergarten. My uncle’s handgun and my grandpa’s shotgun. Lived on the farm, it was just normal. But it was just in the farm, supervised of course. The moment my cousin and I were old enough we were in a firearms safety course so we could go hunting. Hell we used to help make ammo (just reloading shells).

  Guns are really simple to use. Reloading for most guns people will ever encounter outside the military is simple. You got the safety switch and the trigger and it’s really point and click at that point. I tell you the hardest part is learning how to hold it correctly. We’ve all seen videos of people holding a gun wrong and shenanigans ensues when they lose control of it. imgur.com/gallery/shotgun-fail-odC6s

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You're still talking about this?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And from reports, that really hurt!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Aged like milk⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I am. It’s a reality of humanity. Most of us would like peace myself included. But to have peace, you have to be able to defend it. You can’t be passive. It’s kind of the idea of why you would have military, people ready and willing to fight to preserve the peace from those that end peace.

  My great-grandfather wasn’t exactly sad when he helped take down the Nazis. And I’m not going to be particularly sad when taking down a neo-Nazi. Sorry, they like to be called maga now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"Very dramatic shift" - Linus Tech Tips opens up about the channel's declining viewership⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh Linus is a giant child.

  He once got pissed off, because they got called out by an actual scientist. They were creating videos promoting fake products. Then they played victim and pushed it instead of, ya know, taking the high road.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's been downhill since 2020⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I came here to say the exact same thing. 9/11 changed the US forever in a bad way.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨No brainer⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The door might not be, but what about the person? Pretty sure most adults are more than 7" thick from sternum to spine. If you’re back is only moving 7" forward you’re going to end up in the door.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  In the Midwest where there is vast amounts of nothing when you would leave someone’s house its very common to be told ‘watch out for deer’. Those bastards will come out of nowhere.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I have tomorrow off :)⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Could be Flexo!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This CEO laid off nearly 80% of his staff because they refused to adopt AI fast enough. 2 years later, he says he’d do it again⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Today, I ran into a bug. We’re being encouraged to use AI more so I asked copilot why it failed. I asked without really looking at the code. I tried multiple times and all AI could say was ‘yep it shouldn’t do that’ but didn’t tell me why. So, gave up on copilot and looked at the code. It took me less than a minute to find the problem.

  It was a switch statement and the case statement had (not real values) what basically reads as ’ variable’ == ‘caseA’ or ‘caseB’. Which will return true… Which is the bug. Like I’m stripping a bunch of stuff away but co-pilot couldn’t figure out that the case statement was bad.

  AI is quickly becoming the biggest red flag. Fast slop, is still slop.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Shit's getting real⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Don’t worry, they’ll be just as hypocritical as any other virtue-signaling group. Bees make honey, honey bad. But they’ll act like pollenators aren’t needed for crops or something. Or ignore that beekeepers will take their hives out to farms to pollinate various crops, like avocado. Or that bees seem to, on some level, understand that they have a great deal going. They’re not trapped in the hives; they could leave at anytime but don’t. And their honey production is higher than that of wild bees. And they have a higher survival rate because the beekeeper ensures they’re safe from predators, or from the elements, and from disease. Every beekeeper I’ve ever seen absolutely love their bees.

  But the fun part, is not all vegans think like this. Because it’s a “contentious” topic among them. For one, why does anyone care what anyone eats? Like, as long as it’s not cannibalism, I don’t give a shit. But vegans, from what I gather, will “rank” themselves to other vegans to see who’s more vegan than the other. It really reminds me of the “church ladies”. The type who judge you for not being churchy enough, who brag about how much church they go to, how much they “do for the church”, a “higher than thou” mentality. Some vegans are closer to vegetarians, with just additional restrictions. So just like any group, it’s not all… it’s just a really loud minority that tries to speak for everyone.