Search engines, I guess. No I won’t elaborate, mostly because I have no confidence.

It’s definitely the former.

When something like that happens, I automatically assume it’s on mute or frozen, so I can’t get those kinds of masterpiece moments. I wish I could trust art as much as you.

If anything it’s the internet that’s the problem.

Back in the day all it took was making the effort to show up and giving a firm handshake. Now there are thousands of applicants and about four or five jobs.

Guys, we’re losing big to mobile devices. Although I’m glad Australia is still going strong at 12% desktop computer.

Nowadays I mostly, unexpectedly, draw the line at whether the product is good. I haven’t really trained my mental ethics muscle because frankly most of the unethical stuff just isn’t high quality.

Often I use ethics not as a “line” but as a proxy for the quality of something. In a world where we’re bombarded with too many choices boycotting is more of an advantage than disadvantage.

In the rare instance when something is good and unethical, like meat, it becomes a case-by-case thing. In the case of meat I stay away from pork (because that’s the most inhumane) and obviously I don’t touch any American meat.

EDIT: The topic here was work. Which is a tough one because we’re basically not given a choice on jobs. I would never do a job that actively makes the world a worse place, but I would work for a for-profit corporation … except my quality argument still carries over here. For-profit corporations are horrible places to work.

Specifically I don’t like how time travel can render all the events of the narrative mute, and also because I just can’t imagine beating a chronomancer in combat (and the antagonist is a chronomancer according to the marketing).

If it’s just a maximum of 10-seconds of time travel then that’d solve both those issues.

I’m into discovering those unexpected hidden gems, but I’m also into those recommendations and those Zachtronics or Bennett Foddy games. Combined with my limited time … I think I’m gonna have to “kill my darlings” … and of course I can’t even imagine doing that which is probably why I’m so stuck in life.

Like in any game period? Big claim and you’re probably not interested in backing it up, but I’m curious.

Nothing major, just that combat is the default mode of operation for most games, especially AAA games. So I generally trend away from games that are built around combat.

IDK, trailer had a good deal of combat—just thought to give you a heads up in case you care about the combat.

I’ll play the demo eventually, so I’ll probably find out how I feel then.

I don’t get the joke, but it’s funny nonetheless.

I added it when I saw someone praise that the trans-flag shirt gives you extra damage with bricks. Last-minute addition and probably going in my “closer-scrutiny” pile along with Tiny Glade and Dollmare.

I pick up all games on sale, basically. Neva especially I probably won’t get unless it goes down to $5.

Dungeons of Hinterberg is in my “only because they have demo” folder. I’m not a huge fan of combat in games partly because combat as a gameplay mechanic is conceptually uninspired and partly just because I don’t really get the thrill. Dungeon’s of Hinterberg seems like a story thing first and foremost though.

I’ve played a lot of the demos, but either I’m still undecided on a lot of them. After playing the Tiny Glade demo, I put it in my “undecided” folder and then moved it to my “want” folder. I don’t do well with structureless games but Tiny Glade really seems like one of those must-haves.

Tiny Glade is definitely gonna be one I need to think more about.

I’m gonna dual-boot Bazzite and OpenSUSE once I get through a few games. I don’t trust Bethesda to not accidentally give me a VAC ban for using Linux, and there are three Itch io games I want to play first (Horror Vacui, There are Ghosts in these Stalls, Spookware, Corpse Ocean)

Are y’all trying to lure me to the dark side (i.e. hermit life)?

But Tactical Breach Wizards, I played the Next Fest demo and enjoyed it but removed it from my wishlist because they took down the demo. More than games that just never put out a demo, a game that puts one out and then consciously decides to take it down, those tend to be bad more often than not.

They put the demo back up so now it’s back on the list. Not a fan of complicated time-travel plots, I’ve been burnt before with them, but I’m intending to give it the benefit of the doubt.

These are just the ones released this year. Next year there’ll be more. And there are games from last year I haven’t gotten to (and the classics on top of that). Leaving the list too big means I miss a lot of them and the ones I do play would be based on gut instinct.

Perhaps at this point there’s no better option than gut instinct, now that I’ve exhausted basically all other criteria. I guess there are more fundamental questions I should be asking myself about how to handle the post-scarcity world of art.

Yes, I am looking to remove as many as I can. Although not just based on what people have played but also what news people have heard about them.

A Short Hike wasn’t on the list. It was a “Short Trip”. I played A Short Hike on Epic and didn’t really vibe with it.

Animal Well was in the group of ones I am most likely to play, although I don’t really enjoy metroidvania (I’ll give it a shot anyway though).

Thanks anyway. Not a lot of useable advice but I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

I was gonna respond, but after realizing you’re going out of your way to be unnuanced about this I had second thoughts. I looked into your profile and of course you’re pro-Russia.

Another one for the blocked list.

Cash requires you show up in person to do crime.

Privacy and security are in conflict. I think privacy of thought and privacy of association are important (so social media and messaging) but privacy on where you spend your money leans a bit too far into the privacy side of things.

I admit crime can be a good thing. Piracy for example. But if you’re doing crime for money rather than just for the love of the craft, that’s where I draw the line.

Monero is used mostly by criminals. Crime and porn are basically the only reasons you’d want an anonymous crypto-currency, unless even the online stores you visit (not just the contents of your order) are of privacy concern.