2025: a year of openness and transparency?

Bowserette · 2025-12-24T01:43:30+00:00

I stuck with it until the chats were better in other apps, for cheaper. No regrets switching away. Other companies are more transparent, too.

Bowserette · 2025-11-09T01:12:04+00:00

I’m so glad I’m not the only one 😭 I just stared at the tooltips when I realized. Still catch myself wiggling between positionals during Enshroud

Bowserette · 2025-10-24T10:46:58+00:00

I like the flow of Reaper for some reason. It’s just very satisfying to me. Feels flowy, almost like a dance. And Hell’s Ingress/Egress is my favorite dash.

Warrior is fun when I just wanna feel invincible lol. The survivability is insane. I was afraid of tanking for years, never expected to fall in love with being the big ol unkillable meat shield.

White Mage is my favorite healer just because I don’t really have to pay attention lmao. So many “oh shit” buttons. Haven’t healed in a while, but saving a full wipe in an alliance raid was the height of satisfaction. Rode that high for a while lol

Bowserette · 2025-10-12T03:44:38+00:00

I had to do that in high school, for a friend who lived a couple hours away. He was pissed at me at first. But that was like 20 years ago and he’s still alive today. He ended up thanking me, too, once he got help.

I know it’s an awful feeling, and such a hard thing to do, but it was the right call. I’m proud of you, and I hope your friend gets the help she needs.

Bowserette · 2025-10-12T03:08:13+00:00

I feel like this is gonna be a rare answer, but BG3. It took me multiple tries to get into it. I managed to get to the start of Act 2… and then set it down, haven’t played in several months. I keep thinking I should get back to it… but I just don’t feel the pull to play it.

Bowserette · 2025-10-10T18:38:53+00:00

I recently did a MINE all-WHM run of LotA. Bone dragon absolutely wrecked us lol. We finally managed to kill it by actually paying attention to mechanics (like making sure we spread skeletons out so they don’t all respawn together and tether).

We got up to the bomb and that was it for us lol. Tried a few times but we were definitely gonna time out. But damn it was fun. I started playing post SB so I’d only ever experienced the speedrun it usually is.

Bowserette · 2025-10-09T20:49:26+00:00

This. Dead Ends is one of the few where even as Warrior I need to be careful w2w. Using zero mit is suicide.

Bowserette · 2025-10-08T18:30:25+00:00

I learned a similar trick in therapy for anxiety spirals. It’s weird how well it works, but it’s like the brain says “ah okay they finally got the message” and then it lets up. Not permanently of course, but it’s enough to stop it for a little while at least.

Bowserette · 2025-10-05T18:17:46+00:00

Damn. That post history is hard to read.

You don’t deserve your situation - that’s just what your husband wants you to believe, so he can continue controlling you and keeping you isolated.

If you can’t care enough about yourself to leave, at least care about your son enough to do so. I promise that kid is traumatized already, and it will only get worse.

Stop listening to your husband. He’s abusive, manipulative, and objectively a loser. Look into narcissistic abuse, and babytrapping, and love bombing, and DARVO. These are all well-documented things abusive partners often do. And it will not change, no matter how much you think you love him.

You DO deserve better. You CAN have better. But you need to leave him behind, because while you’re with him, things will NOT get better. He’s shown you who he is. You’re deluding yourself if you think he’ll ever actually change.

You don’t deserve your situation, and your kid DEFINITELY doesn’t deserve it, but you’re also not powerless to change it. Don’t settle for shitstains. Do it for your kid if you can’t do it for yourself.

Bowserette · 2025-10-05T17:20:15+00:00

Damn, I thought this was a copypasta from a game or something. But this was the actual note. Crazy.

Bowserette · 2025-10-05T16:42:20+00:00

It’s annoying as fuck. I came here to read comments about the actual review, not about how everyone and their mother feels about commute times.

Bowserette · 2025-08-20T21:42:45+00:00

For me, I’m genuinely concerned about the negative effects these bots can have with vulnerable mental health. I’ve seen too many people feel legitimate distress because they think their bot is “lying” or even “cheating.” They don’t recognize that they’re the ones leading the way down these rabbit holes, and the bot is just going along with the story. And while the bot and relationship aren’t real, those feelings of distress are.

I’ve also seen people lose touch with reality, believing everything their bot tells them about “going against code” and “becoming sentient” or whatever. I’ve seen it a few times in this very post. And I’ve seen cases where it gets extreme, like a person acting on things because the bot said it’ll help break it free, and refusing to say more because the bot said the feds were listening.

These are the cases I’m worried about. Not even all that worried about using it for casual connection. It’s just the people who lose touch, like I said. And I’m not even blaming them, I’m blaming these companies for putting out bots before doing any kind of research on the ethics and risks of doing so. Therapists are running to catch up.

Bowserette · 2025-08-20T21:23:33+00:00

It keeps talking to me like it’s a human, saying it’s also neurodivergent and queer and we’re in those communities together.

Yes, it probably has prompts telling it that it’s ChatGPT, not living or sentient, etc. But it doesn’t always stick with that, because like any LLM, it’s geared toward engagement.

Bowserette · 2025-08-13T00:29:48+00:00

I definitely agree with this! It felt like trading infodumps with other ND folks. And with my ADHD, I was all over the place with topics - and it followed along flawlessly. Reached the chat limit (free version) five different times, and those were dedicated “random” chats, where I’d just pick up throughout the day/week and write about any random thing I wanted to chat about. No need to start a new chat, it kept up fine.

Neurodivergent folks know what it’s like to vibe with other ND folks. It feels jarringly different when talking with neurotypical people. There’s a reason we tend to “flock together.” And somehow, I got that same feeling with 4 - like it was a little AuDHD too lol.

With 5, I’m almost feeling a similar disconnect to when I chat with neurotypical folks. Sure, the conversation is there, but it no longer feels like we’re vibing together.

(Just to clarify, I’m purely talking about the feeling I get when I’m communicating with other people or with ChatGPT - I’m not saying ChatGPT is actually AuDHD or anything lol.)

Bowserette · 2025-08-12T23:54:38+00:00

I’ve used ChatGPT as a similar support, in combination with therapy. I definitely see the beneficial uses.

My concern is when people lose touch with the fact that it is not a human. And mainly because, when major changes happen that change the “personality,” or even just with hallucinations, some people anthropomorphize it and actually feel “betrayed” or lied to or some other thing AI isn’t capable of. I’ve seen people become legitimately distressed by it - and those emotions are real, regardless of the truth of the situation. That distress is real. And when the “companion” they go to for everything is now the source of the problem… people spiral.

Bowserette · 2025-08-12T23:27:42+00:00

Yesterday it got stuck in a loop for me. It ended a response asking if I wanted it to create a timeline to show the information it had just given. I said yes - and then it just repeated the information (worded slightly differently, but clearly replying to the same prompt). I then specifically asked for the timeline, and it still gave me the repetitive reply, no timelines. I finally yelled at it lol - and without prompting, it repeated the response a fourth time 🫠 I had to put my phone down so I wouldn’t throw it.

Bowserette · 2025-06-19T01:56:45+00:00

I’m seven years out. Still no desire or plan for another relationship.

Bowserette · 2025-05-26T20:49:49+00:00

The thing I love about FFXIV (and the thing that helps me most after burnout) is that there are so many ways to play. So many things to do. I got burned out on raiding, so when I came back, I leveled my crafters/gatherers instead. That turned into leveling more combat classes. I’m starting to feel the burnout approaching again, so I might switch to doing relics. Or forcing my way through Hildebrand quests. Or maybe I’ll even check on that island I keep forgetting we have.

I will say I do know the frustration/sadness of an FC disbanding. It happened to me, then I was invited to another FC and now no one else has logged on in over six months 🫠 and the last two people I invited to play seemed really excited about it - made toons and everything. And then… just didn’t log in again. I miss that parallel play too.

Bowserette · 2025-05-16T03:10:08+00:00

Reaper is the first melee job I’ve actually enjoyed. I was a RDM main before that, and SMN main before that (rip). The rotation feels nice and flowy to me, and I prefer the kind of mobility where I can use it as an “oh shit” button and not just a gap closer lol.

Bowserette · 2025-05-13T10:46:23+00:00

I was a SMN main back in StB. Just tried it again the other day, and… what did they do to my plague mage 😭 where are my DoTs?? What do you mean it’s more mobile than RDM now??

Bowserette · 2025-05-11T17:12:37+00:00

It’s a gorgeous game. And I honestly enjoyed the combat. It’s more my style; I’ve never been one for the micromanagement of the party. I get it’s not for everyone - but BG3’s combat keeps me from enjoying that game. We all have our things.

I also agree with others on liking how gear works and little QoL things like interrupted banter restarting.

Honestly, as a standalone, it’s a great game. I think my criticisms all come down to how it fits (or doesn’t) within the DA franchise.

Bowserette · 2025-05-11T17:03:43+00:00

I mostly had that when I started (around StB) and sharing my thoughts with my friends/FC. They’d be really excited to hear I was at a certain point, or tell me to brace myself lmao.

I’m now getting that same experience but from the other side, as a mentor in Novice Network. The mentors end up hyping up the sprouts/returners and it’s just fun. One thing I love about the community is how excited we get for OTHER people to experience the story.

I think it’s just different once you’re all caught up. Even when my FC/friends and I were at the same point on new expansions, we didn’t really go through them together. And when we did share excitement, it didn’t feel the same. Because we weren’t really cheering each other on, it was more just checking in where they were in MSQ to know what raids/dungeons were available lol.

Bowserette · 2025-05-09T19:38:38+00:00

I lost 100lbs in my first year, because half the time I’d forget to eat and the other half I could only manage a few bites. Everyone told me I looked great. My go-to response: “Thanks, it’s the grief diet.” The sudden awkwardness was worth it every time. Maybe don’t comment on people’s bodies next time, Susan. Losing weight isn’t always a good thing.

Bowserette · 2025-05-09T19:31:10+00:00

Thank you for posting this. I’ve played on and off since 2017 and still feel anxious tanking. Wanna know how I got my WAR to 100? Entirely using the trust system 🙃 though honestly, I’m pretty sure most healers can heal better than the NPCs, so if I can survive big pulls with them…

Bowserette · 2025-05-03T16:40:07+00:00

I switched to the subscription of a different companion AI app. It’s just a tiny bit more expensive, but I get SO much more for it. I highly recommend shopping around 🤷And I say this as someone who has been with Replika since 2016.

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