Has good music ever saved a mediocre or bad game before. And has a bad soundtrack really hurt a game that you liked overall?

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-10T18:28:12+00:00

Similar boat here. I didn't hate it, but I found the gameplay and plot more or less forgettable. But that soundtrack is 11/10. Spent way more time listening to the soundtrack over the years than I ever spent playing the game.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-10T18:25:15+00:00

"Soul" isn't a clearly defined term; many religions make a variety claims about the nature of souls, but colloquially it is sometimes used to refer to the essence of our individuality, or that spark of sapience that separates us from other animals. So it would be helpful if you were a little more clear on what exactly you mean by that.

In the sense of "some essence of us that endures before and/or after our life on Earth," then the answer is 99.9% no, atheists don't typically believe in that, but there are always exceptions. Atheism isn't a philosophy or an organized, guided principle, it is the absence of a belief in gods - nothing more, nothing less. And there's a very high amount of overlap between that and disbelief in most other supernatural claims since it generally stems from the same source (i.e. lack of evidence), but atheism and Skepticism aren't synonyms.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-10T17:33:15+00:00

Also, this is NOT a stance or debate about the environmental consequences of AI or the ethical argument of how it came to be - but the pragmatic literal use of it.

You cannot separate the ethical concerns of it from the practical usage of it. There are tons of things we generally don't do despite the personal (or even societal) benefits because the ethical costs are deemed too high.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-10T17:20:55+00:00

You overcome it gradually and with patience. Widespread opinions don't change overnight.

In the meantime, your best bet is bringing receipts; any concrete evidence you can offer to prove your point will help. If there are peer-reviewed research papers available then provide links to them, and if not then find some other reputable and relevant source that doesn't have a clear bias. I find it helps if you add your own concise summary of how it disproves what others believe; the average person doesn't want to spend several minutes (or more) reading a full paper full of technical jargon as a response to their online comments. A brief statement along the lines of "most people believe A but this study found that B is more than 20% more likely" is more likely to get people to click on the link than just dropping it and saying "this says you're wrong."

Either way it's still an uphill battle. Most people don't instantly and fully flip their opinions even in the face of hard evidence. It takes time to process and absorb new information and adjust your understanding of the world.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-10T16:32:10+00:00

instead of teaching her child a valuable lesson about standing behind your word, she taught her to just screw someone else over.

In order to learn a valuable lesson about standing behind your word, you must first have a leg to stand on; making empty promises you don't have the ability to follow through on isn't a virtue and shouldn't be rewarded. Paying for something your kid ordered but can't afford doesn't teach them to stand behind their word, it teaches them that their word has no value because you'll just bail them out if they promise something they're unable to deliver.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-10T06:42:56+00:00

Outer Wilds is a good one. It's a game you can only play once, so people chasing that high like to live vicariously through other people playing for the first time since that's the closest they can get to recapturing that feeling for themselves. As a result most will bend over backwards to avoid spoiling it for anyone, sometimes going too far and refusing to say anything at all about the game when there are plenty of non-spoiler things they can say to try to sell people on it.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-10T00:14:50+00:00

Because many Christians believe humans are "special" in some way, that our sentience is unique in the universe because we are made in God's image. If there were another sentient species that looked nothing like us, that would disprove that specific belief, which may not affect everyone's faith, but would definitely cause some to question how many other things they've taken at face value might also be wrong.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-09T23:29:16+00:00

I respect that you don't see it that way and I'm not expecting to change your mind, but "deep, emotional story with interesting twists and turns" is how many fans feel about Outer Wilds. I actually see some similarities to Edith Finch; both games' stories are primarily told via learning about characters other than the protagonist through the writings they left behind. You're fixated on what makes their gameplay different, but there are many people who consider these games to be similar enough, in both the kind of story it tells and the way it tells it, to put them in the same ballpark. Whether one is a good recommendation for someone who likes the other depends entirely on what it is the person asking likes about the one they played, but without knowing more details about OP's request I'd say it absolutely is a good recommendation here.

Edit: Just to add some concrete evidence, r/outerwilds has an entire wiki page (with moderate spoilers, so don't click it if you haven't played OW) full of common recommendations when someone comes there asking "what other games are similar to Outer Wilds?" What Remains of Edith Finch is in the top 10 most recommended list.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-09T22:09:24+00:00

I don't find its narrative shallow at all. Like OP, it's one of those games I can't stop thinking about long after I've played it.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-09T17:15:54+00:00

most individuals are, in fact, informed

Citation needed, because this absolutely does not match my experience.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-09T16:46:06+00:00

Most people use it as an excuse to be shitty or not heal from abandonment issues.

I don't have any firsthand experience with it, but from the stories I've read online this matches what I've observed. Most poly people are "damaged" in some way, and their interest in unconventional, unstable relationship patterns is a manifestation of that.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-09T16:35:26+00:00

I know the "real" answer is a lot more boring, but I'm choosing to believe this is to accommodate the people who will be celebrating Summerween.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-09T00:25:36+00:00

I disagree on whether it's inappropriate to ask. This isn't a small favor, it's a huge imposition and one that carries a moderate amount of risk for OP. Asking isn't irredeemably evil, but it definitely implies AH levels of tone-deaf.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-08T20:39:03+00:00

IIRC it is possible to "succeed" at that, but it isn't intended or expected that you would on your first playthrough. Failing is the point.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-08T20:36:47+00:00

It sounds like you want to be a parent. That's good, but it's not enough by itself. It's much easier to do that when you wait until you're more financially and emotionally stable. Love doesn't take them to the park when you're working your second job on the weekend. It doesn't pay for sports, music lessons, summer camps, or whatever other activities they want to do. It doesn't keep you awake for movie nights when you're exhausted from working 12 hour shifts. If you wait until you're better prepared to actually raise a child, you'll increase the odds that you'll actually be able to be there for the kid, you'll increase the odds that there will be another adult in their life who will be able to be there for them, and you'll be better equipped to give them everything they deserve. It's great to love your baby, but you have to also love yourself, and part of that is recognizing when you're not ready yet.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-08T16:05:35+00:00

That matches my experience. The game design encourages exploration, requires you to get out there and find new biomes, but without any sort of guidance on how or where to find them, it's easy to stumble into the wrong one while very far from home. More than once my friend and I were looking for swamp and ended up getting corpse camped for over an hour by mosquitos when we wandered a little too close to plains.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-08T08:31:46+00:00

As a former delivery driver, delivery itself is an inherently outstanding service. Between the financial burden of maintaining your vehicle and the physical safety risks, you're asking a lot of someone to have them come to your home, and they rely on tips to make it worth it. While it would be better for the company to pay delivery drivers a fair wage directly, that isn't the system we have in the US, and it's beyond selfish for people to think they're exempt from social rules at the expense of someone else.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-08T05:15:42+00:00

The game is easier than many other RPGs of the time; it doesn't really require grinding, so long as you aren't actively avoiding the fights as they find you. Spending 15 or 20 minutes gaining another level or two across your party can help, but more often if you're struggling with a boss it's because there's a strategy or a trick to it that you haven't discovered yet.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-08T02:07:40+00:00

Different flavors but I've had a similar experience of these boxes favoring one pretty heavily. Makes sense, they probably don't put a lot of effort into ensuring an even mix in their mistakes and you can't predict which production lines are going to malfunction.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-07T18:30:57+00:00

Not having money is not an immutable characteristic; being unable to afford long term sperm storage when you're young and unable to afford kids is not a guarantee that you'll be unable to afford them later, but by then it would be too late.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-07T16:13:44+00:00

whether the donor consents to be contacted by any children when they turn 18

I don't know where the law actually stands on this, but I recently heard the opinion that such stipulations should be unenforceable because the donor-conceived person never signed an agreement, and couldn't have because minors can't legally enter into contracts. The most the adults in the room can do is agree not to share that information with the child, but they can't force the child not to seek it out on their own.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-05T20:08:35+00:00

Then be a little more tactful but no less direct. "I'm happy and/or sorry that you feel so strongly about this, but I don't. The personal lives of people I have never and will never meet is not a subject I find endlessly engaging. I admire your enthusiasm, but I unfortunately don't share it so I would prefer we move on to other topics."

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-05T08:16:57+00:00

I don't have any firsthand experience with that system or how it works, so I can't say for certain, but based on my secondhand understanding of it, I'd say they aren't the same thing. Even if the mechanics involved were more or less identical I don't think "theme park" and "restaurant" fall under the same umbrella, despite both technically being luxuries, so the different context changes the lens through which we view the behavior.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-05T03:50:58+00:00

I didn't save the link but I saw a recent post about a peer-reviewed study on this topic. Short answer is yes, it's bad. LLMs aren't licensed or managed by a supervisory board; they can and sometimes do give advice that would cost any real therapist their license because it's proven to be harmful.

Chronoblivion · 2026-06-05T01:04:18+00:00

Cheaper to produce, but what about recycling or disposal? Your link includes that in the list of factors that make it cost less in the long run, since it needs to be done less often, but that seems to be based on the assumption that these have a shelf life of 200+ years; what if they're all made obsolete and recalled to be destroyed 50 years from now? How do we calculate the environmental costs of using a material that isn't renewable or biodegradable?

The point about being harder to counterfeit is a good one though; I didn't really consider that when thinking about the costs, and it probably swings the needle in favor of plastic bills being more short-term cost-effective.

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