Favorite pieces of media (Games, movies, music etc) and reason
I'm inebriated and trying to drum up some activity and brotherhood here so I'm taking the easy route out. Also I made this so I can post what I want lol.
Personally one of my favorite games is FFX, for an unconventional reason. My older brother recorded his whole playthrough on VHS for me to watch as a younger one when he was away at college and that really stuck with me as a demonstrable, physical, "this person is your family and cares about you and will always have your back" thing. I mean the game itself is also one of my favorite FFs, but I think that's really why it cements itself in my memory. Family.
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Dark Souls for the social commentary of how humanity functionally works & the notion of “don’t go hollow” with the game as a metaphor for depression and mental illness.
Humanity is a resource. By having humanity, the game is easier (like your resistances are better), you look physically healthy, and you can interact with other players, for good or bad. You can link up with your friends or be invaded. You can also play without humanity, without other people, but the game is harder in both systemic ways and experiential. Bosses are often easier when someone can split enmity/aggro.
“Don’t go hollow” is a funny phrase that comes up a lot. In a sense, it sounds like “don’t be depressed,” but I understand as “don’t give up.” When a tree is hollow, it’s a shell, with the outer layer there but the inner core or soul gone. When a video game character is put on the digital shelf, because you gave up, took a break, forgot about the game, etc., they can become “hollow”. Character players without a character are empty & inert. No one is controlling the character. So when I hear “don’t go hollow” I hear don’t leave the game, keep trying, you can get through this. It’s helped me stave off suicidal ideation because I don’t want to go hollow in real life.
See I LIKE the dark souls games and series and etc, I'm just not very good at them. I don't like the "drip feed you story through item description" thing though. That's also a way of looking at humanity I never thought to think of...Mostly I just died lol. Though I suppose that in and of itself says something.
And also it's very important to do whatever you can to stavw off those ideations. I've been there, scars to prove it. I'm sorry it took me so long to reply but if you ever need anyone to talk to, I have your back. Even if you just want to shoot the shit :)
If I have to pick an absolute all-time lifetime favorite game, I would have to take the coward's way out and give 2 related answers...
SanFransisco Rush 2049 and Toy Commander for the Sega Dreamcast.
Those were the 2 games my brother and I grew up playing, we sunk thousands of hours into each and would make up our own imaginary game modes and just fart around and try to 100% the games.
I still have our original Dreamcast and the original game disks. Technically my brother has the DC right now because he was unemployed for a couple months not too long ago and got into Toy Commander speedrunning lol
Just the memories associated with these games, they're so close to my heart. Recently I've been leaning more on my family for support instead of trying to fight the good fight alone, so I've been hanging out with my brother a lot, and we still make references to these games even ~20+ years later.
Plus, I can still pick up Rush 2049 and have a grand ol' time. Toy Commander doesn't hold my attention as much anymore, but him and I still play together occasionally when I am at his house.
I haven't heard of those but I'm so glad you have a good support system with your brother like that! Honestly some of the best times I've had with games haven't been because of the games itself, it's been with the people I've played with. I've also got a brother I've been waking out and existence with. Memories are gold and I wouldn't give them up for anything.
Don't game much, last was the Mass Effect trilogy - neither an rpg nor an fps... still entertaining.
I avoid series as they'll binge my weekend away, but am watching Severance.
Movies and books 99% scifi, on the latter the Revelation Space novels by Alastair Reynolds are great, on the former i like the weird factor like strange days or Nirvana.
Fucking love the mass effect series, one of my favorites. I haven't read many books lately because my attention span is almost nil but I watched The Ark (up on peacock I think) and it was pretty decent.
I have a few to add to this list.
My favorite long-term hobby has been gaming. I've been gaming for about 30 years, and I've probably played over a thousand games. Out of everything I've played, there is one game that I still think about regularly: Spec Ops: The Line. I played it once, about a decade ago, and the reason I really loved it is the way it presented the idea that even when you are doing your best to do the right thing, from another's perspective, you are wrong, evil, and an enemy. They took the idea that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" and turned it into a video game. Plus, the white phosphorus sequence has lived rent-free in my head ever since I played it.
When it comes to books, one of my favorites is a book I could not finish: The End and the Death: Volume II by Dan Abnett. The book is so well written that it oozes the bleak atmosphere of its setting to the extent that it made me uncomfortable. For context, this particular book is the 11th in The Horus Heresy: The Siege of Terra. This is part of the Warhammer 40k universe. I've been a long-time fan of the lore and spent years watching videos on this topic. I loved it so much that I started reading the books that depict the most iconic event in this universe, the Horus Heresy. I went through all 54 numbered books in the Horus Heresy and the 9 mainline books that cover the Siege of Terra, but The End and the Death: Volume II broke me. I just could not finish it. When I started the books, I already knew the lore and how it concludes, but after two years of getting to know the characters, I found it very hard to watch them march toward the end. The reason I love the Warhammer universe is how it depicts transhumanism. You've got all these incredible, powerful, incredibly smart superhumans who fail because, while they enhanced their biology, they left their humanity behind and aren't able to connect with others. And it all started with the God Emperor, who, as a child, realized that his uncle had killed his father. That single event planted a seed in his mind that led him to believe that humanity is not capable of leading itself and needs a strong hand to help it reach its true potential. Then he spent over 30,000 years scheming, plotting, and doing everything possible to guide humanity. But in those 30,000 years, the God Emperor gained so much power that he became more god than man, and with each passing millennium, more of his humanity was lost. And that was his—and humanity's—downfall. In the end, because he lacked human qualities, he was unable to connect with his own sons, and their daddy issues caused some of them to turn against him and bring ruin to everyone. Warhammer 40k is, on the surface, a story about superhumans fighting hell itself, but deep down, the real story is that this hell was brought about because they lost their humanity.
I would also like to add a movie to this list: Everything Is Illuminated. It's the story of a young Jewish American who wants to learn more about what happened to his family during and after World War II, so he travels to Ukraine to figure some things out. Why I resonated with this film is one of the secondary themes—specifically, the idea that there are moments when you have to carve out a piece of who you are in order to survive an incredibly difficult situation. I had to do this multiple times in my life, and each time I thought, "Will letting this piece go help me move forward or break me?" I always wondered how much a person can cut away from the things that make them who they are, and whether it is worth it. Everything Is Illuminated does a good job of highlighting that part.