Mad respect my dude. Got any recommendations? ;D

I'll give my two cents for the classic CoC, and the shockingly good story of The Last Sovereign.

Games that I can immerse myself in. Things that do it for me are:

• A full and developed open world that has a compelling atmosphere to it. The kind of thing where you find yourself pausing to gaze across the scenery.
• Tantalizing mechanics or systems. The kind that draws your mind to 'building' even when not playing, that will cause you to unwittingly spend hours tinkering with, and gives you mirthful glee when you put it all together and can savor its power.
• Interesting story. One with tasteful complexity, good pacing, and exciting developments. The kind of story that compels me, let alone anyone is a whole separate question of its own.
• A canvas or foundation to allow me to develop identity and investment in my character/role. Playing a specific character can also be good, if that character is compelling.
• Core gameplay mechanics or loops that are fun in and of themselves. The kind that, were the game an alpha or proof-of-concept with no "game" beyond the graphic-less, progression-less minigame, you would still find yourself enjoying your time.
• Fulfillment of a compelling fantasy. Being a FEROCIOUS DRAGON, or an UNSTOPPABLE SPACE MARINE, or an ALMIGHTY GOD, or even just a simple human living a comfy life and being able to experience the breadth and limits of that fantasy.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

I'm glad they're taking their time, but whew! I'm getting worn out waiting this long.

For me on either side the sentiment can be summarized by moments of "holy shit. That just happened..."

Plans going perfect, plans going awry, shocking acts of RNG, excellent performances of narrative or improv.

I 100% agree and just wanted to build off this comment if that's alright.

Another side of this is hedonism vs fulfillment. There's nothing wrong with enjoying hedonism, so long as one isn't harming themselves or others in the process. But living purely to satiate one's hedonism tends to lead to a sense of hollowness or unfulfillment.

In addition to letting go of non-destructive hedonistic shame, it's important to take time to introspect and find what brings a person genuine fulfillment.

'Investors disliked that'

Meanwhile, Fortnite money havers chasing Steam money with nothing to show for it. 😂

The only thing that's getting me is the server instability. I assume those waters will eventually still, but in the meantime reloading and dropping replies is really aggrevating.

Casual player who enjoys the gameplay, but is mostly here for the story. Currently unsubbed since Endwalker, but I still hang out with FFXIV friends and am super hype for the supposed next expansion announcement in the upcoming fan fest.

As an old gen 3 fan, I recently played Black/White 1 for the first time and I see why multiple friends of mine called it peak Pokémon. It's the latest game that retains the same 'feel' in my experience. I bounced off of Sw/Sh and the Sun/Moons. Something just didn't hit right as a fan of the older games. My only complaint with B/W1 is that I'm not a huge fan of the starters, but there were a lot of mon in that game (the whole region is 100% new Pokémon BTW. No carryover from other regions/gens) that felt like they fit.

Progression through practice works best in settings without any sort of enemy scaling. Is an area too dangerous? Go to a different area and level up. Come back to that dungeon later.

If the world has any sort of difficulty scaling it should use a progression through achievement system instead. I.E. exp for completing quests and defeating enemies.

I'm fine with either, and only want there to not be any PtP + scaling dissonance.

I'm a fan, but even I can admit that they can be fairly 'typical fantasy saga'. What kinds of videogame stories do you like?

Start your first session by rolling initiative.

I've found the whole meet and greet song and dance of the classic tavern intro to be incredibly awkward, stressful, and unhelpful for establishing the game save for highly skilled and experienced DMs

Opening the first session mid-goblin attack though? Instantly engaging, diverting, and an excellent platform to introduce our heroes.

I'm lukewarm on it. By my measure, the critical flaw in the monk's design is stunning strike. Any discussion on the monk that I've had has invariably been pulled to that singular ability.

It's an incredibly swingy ability that only costs one point. As a result all monks need to weigh all their point-cost abilities against it, and in combat either the monk is a mediocre contributor or they undermine the whole encounter by disabling key actors. SS was nerfed, but I'd like to see a version where it was removed entirely and it's power was distributed throughout the class.

A key compromise that I think would be healthy is to transplant stunning strike into a subclass. That way players who enjoy that playstyle can opt for it, and DMs who dislike running games for those builds can disallow them at their table.

As for all the other details, I'm uncertain. There are some improvements, but it's hard not to see the system bending over backwards and straining to fit around stunning strike.

It might be that they've given up on the visuals and are now making all the changes all at once. They're ripping off the bandaid overhauling their site and are banking that the damage will be recover in time.

With the current state of dissatisfaction from the community, now might be a good time to plow through and make all the changes that are already undesirable for the old user base.

Maybe even more of these big changes to come? More popcorn for the Fediverse I suppose.

This was exactly where my mind went.

Like... sure. I can see the merit of an article titled "Top 10 reasons not to drive your spaceship through a star." But I think we're a bit far off from that. 😆

Yup. Cats can get pretty warm. The rumble feature is pretty nifty, but don't grip too hard or they'll hurt your fingers.

All the interviews with Tod during the Starfield showcases supported this. He even implicated that it might be his last game before retiring.

I have this amazing antique expandable table with leaves. It's perfect for big game nights, but I don't have a place of my own that I can host people at, let alone move the table out of storage. 😆

Someday I'll be able to host big game nights with it.

How flavorful were the potatoes inside? Did the bacon flavor actually sink in?