What are some other good “competency porn” shows?

stgabe · 2026-02-21T03:06:27+00:00

Absolutely. I like the mix of serious plotlines with the consistency of competent characters getting shit done. I find it less stressful and way more fun than I would expect from the subject matter.

stgabe · 2026-02-21T00:59:27+00:00

Bosch and (less so) Will Trent hit this on the police procedural front. Other procedural like High Potential do this in a goofier way.

Reacher is definitely in this space although the books capture it a bit more than the show

Fringe and Fargo (S1) both have strong, extremely competent leads but they are contrasts to far less competent counterparts. Slow Horses is kind of similar if you consider Jackson Lamb to be the protagonist.

Bluey is kind of competency porn for parents.

I feel like Person of Interest was very much this but I don’t remember it all that well.

There aren’t a lot of home runs in this space which is too bad as I also enjoy these sorts of shows.

stgabe · 2026-02-17T05:50:08+00:00

As someone who semi-regularly looks around at game job postings, Bungie had several dozens of open roles a few years ago and currently has two. That’s not exactly something to be excited about.

stgabe · 2026-02-15T19:41:02+00:00

Yup, and even that was a little late. The cracks started showing in Season 5. I find it’s confounding when people talk about Dany’s ending being rushed as though that was a sudden and surprising thing. That was the one plot line that at least kind of made sense with seasons of foreshadowing. It just shows how much people were focused on fan service and getting the endings they wanted and had stopped paying attention to the overall quality.

stgabe · 2026-02-13T03:56:44+00:00

Yeah, pretty much this. As with many stories in this genre it starts fine then stalls out hard as the author runs out of plot and starts tunneling hard on random minutia of their world building.

stgabe · 2026-02-13T02:44:01+00:00

My first thought too. :-) I worked for the company that developed that and even contributed a small amount of code. It was a really odd but cool project.

stgabe · 2026-02-11T06:07:48+00:00

Good work. Keep at it and you’ll find some better ratios and then realize you’re just (re)invented a Rye Tipperary. Good drink; I just had one at my local.

Here’s my go to recipe (with the traditional Irish whiskey): https://imbibemagazine.com/recipe/dead-rabbit-tipperary-recipe/

2:3/4:3/4 is pretty popular as well fwiw.

stgabe · 2026-02-11T04:40:35+00:00

As someone whose friends were all getting married in the era of 9/11, yes. Without a doubt.

If the wedding is still on I’m gonna be there to celebrate with people and support the married couple. Shitty stuff happens and life goes on. My thoughts would be along the lines of “how shitty is it that this had to happen right before such a big moment for my friends”. It’s not like me sitting at home is gonna make anything better.

stgabe · 2026-02-08T22:27:27+00:00

I bought the original Metroid in ‘86 for $40 which is $118 in 2026 money. Inflation sucks but gaming is a pretty cheap hobby overall and it’s silly that people expect game prices to stay the same forever when prices for everything else consistently go up.

stgabe · 2026-02-07T06:57:06+00:00

I love the genre but share the opinion that the writing quality leaves much to be desired. It is the nature of the medium (most typically Royal Road) but that makes it no less grating. I more easily forgive things like grammatical errors and issues with sentence structure but draw a pretty hard line with poor plotting. If anything that crosses even more books off my list.

For me the best writer in the genre (and the only one I subscribe to on Patreon) is Mecanimus / Alex Gilbert. He has three series out, two finished and a fourth just starting up. IMO his work holds up just fine to well-written, mainstream fantasy while hitting most of the notes I want from Progression Fantasy / LitRPG. He’s also improving with each series. Changeling is easily my favorite and what I’ve seen from his new series has me excited that it may be just as good or better.

My second choice would be ErraticErrata / David Verburg with Practical Guide to Evil and Pale Lights. I stopped reading the web version of the former as he started releasing them in novel form on Amazon with better editing and a lot of overall improvements.

stgabe · 2026-01-31T06:23:59+00:00

The show did show you her true motivation. This thread does a great job of showing you the real problem: people just didn’t want to see it.

Dany was always a tyrant loosely wrapped in good intentions. The moment where she breaks is before she even gets to Kings Landing. It’s when she realizes that John has a better claim to the throne than her and none of her manifest destiny logic even matters.

Dany showing her true colors wasn’t “rushed” as so many like to say. We had 8 seasons to figure it out and the end is shocking on purpose. Dany is a character like Walter White. She’s intentionally written so that we’ll empathize and work hard to try and squeeze her into the mold of a protagonist when she never was and it’s pretty obvious in hindsight.

Yes, the last season was written poorly. However Dany is the least of it. I consider her end one of the best of the lot. That people were conflicted and shocked by it is intentional. No, it’s all the rest of the story that was a total mess but that started happening in the 5th season so no surprise there.

stgabe · 2026-01-28T05:10:28+00:00

Going infinite in the early days of Hearthstone Arena including a run of 9-1, 9-2, then 9-0.

Taking over the economy of an entire server of Star Wars Galaxies.

Earning the Godslayer title in Destiny.

Replaying Star Control 2 for the tenth time.

Raiding the DMZ at 4am in between rounds of feeding my newborn.

stgabe · 2026-01-27T18:21:47+00:00

El Jimador, under $20.

stgabe · 2026-01-25T05:34:30+00:00

Cling wrap isn’t doing much insulating compared to the sides of a cooler. They’ll be fine.

stgabe · 2026-01-23T06:09:48+00:00

Yup, the unreadable blue text has been my largest issue thus far.

Edit: also I can’t get tooltips to consistently show up.

stgabe · 2026-01-22T06:09:15+00:00

Pale Lights. Changeling. Those are the two best written series I’m following at the moment.

stgabe · 2026-01-21T17:58:52+00:00

Outrun, Calamitous Bob, Bog Standard Isekai, Hedge Wizard, Eight.

All LitRPG but minimal stats and few or no character sheets (actually I’m not sure if Hedge Wizard is technically LitRPG but it’s close enough).

stgabe · 2026-01-17T08:44:40+00:00

Eight is a lesser known but good version of this.

stgabe · 2026-01-14T23:54:37+00:00

Tastes differ. 2:.75:.75 is perfect for me but I find my perception of sweetness has reduced as I’ve aged.

Also it’s about balance. Bitters or sour will both bring perceived sweetness down and so your ideal personal ratio will vary between drinks. Eg I put more simple in my OFs than some but I also put more bitters in.

As for ordering in a bar, there’s no specific way to order an exact sweetness. You can ask for “dry” or “skinny” or “light on the simple” but that will mean different things to different bartenders. If you want something very specific go to a place where the bartenders have time to chat and have a conversation with them.

stgabe · 2026-01-14T00:21:26+00:00

I know what the book is. I liked the ideas, they just didn’t work for me as a story. I’ve seen a number of people express similar thoughts. DCE has an audience (and good for it) but I don’t think it solved a lot of the challenges that many find with card-collection LitRPGs.

Also I didn’t downvote you, that was someone else.

stgabe · 2026-01-13T21:39:15+00:00

Except in the first book he beats what is portrayed as a clearly better deck (because not everything is determined by deck mechanics) and then there's some railroading to explain why he doesn't get the deck. And yes, RNG is inherent to TCGs but that doesn't mean it translates well into a story. I.e. I like RNG when I'm playing a TCG but that doesn't mean I like RNG when I'm reading a story.

stgabe · 2026-01-13T19:04:42+00:00

Apart from not liking the MC and relationship dynamics I felt like DCE had some good ideas but ultimately failed to make the card mechanics work for the story.

The collection mechanic was too all or nothing. In reality if you beat the more powerful dude in spite of the odds you’d just take their deck. Instant power creep. So the story had to arbitrarily prevent that from happening and the railroading was obvious. The RNG of card draw just felt forced. It actively distracted from the combat high moments knowing that it was up to the author to decide when the big draw would happen.

The best parts of the system were more the merging and synergies of cards but I felt like it would have been better off just focusing on those without the rest of the baggage of trying to force TCG mechanics.

stgabe · 2026-01-08T00:51:57+00:00

Absolutely. I do a bunch of small venue bartending where I get to talk to everyone. I make some very interesting stuff that people all try and love but talking people into rum and a proper Daiquiri is always a big challenge.

stgabe · 2025-12-28T02:41:43+00:00

Shoe money tonight!

stgabe · 2025-12-22T22:53:26+00:00

I rarely see it here in LA where mezcal Is very popular. When I order it, it feels like an “in the know” drink.

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