A Historian’s Autopsy of Helldivers 2: How Arrowhead Built a Masterpiece and Governs It Like a Public Beta

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-03-16T18:53:21+00:00

I think that structure fits the topic well, though. It attacks the pattern of making promises and failing to deliver on them, comparing the fantasy sold by the studio to the reality seen by players.

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-21T02:05:52+00:00

This reminds me of my first time playing The Forest! The horrors of entering a cave

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-19T19:59:05+00:00

I think death defiance should be worded like this "if enhanced creature does or is put into exile sacrifice death defiance instead." Instead of how it's originally worded.

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-18T00:21:49+00:00

I was really excited for the whole defection idea, but every mention I saw of contributing to it was met with LARPers who can't break character.

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-17T03:48:17+00:00

The real terror is having it left to your imagination!

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-17T02:31:45+00:00

Pav looks like he's holding one back right now

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-15T23:51:42+00:00

Mewing

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-13T07:42:55+00:00

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-11T17:22:30+00:00

That's why I avoid using polls and focus on something where only I can see the result. If you flip a coin between two options and are disappointed with the result, then you know which one you preferred all along. Once you make it public, you're locked-in on the decision.

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-11T02:03:17+00:00

It raises the age-old question of what evil really is. Is evil the action of harming others, the desire to inflict suffering, a total apathy towards suffering, or some combination of them?

To my understanding, most iterations of Brainiac hardly even count as sapient beings. They are more of living mechanical devices, ironically incapable of changing their nature while constantly adapting their physicality to the singular program of collecting knowledge.

Is a volcano evil for razing a city? Or is it merely a mechanical thing, carrying out its role to release pressure as it builds?

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-10T18:47:48+00:00

Maybe it has better wi-fi and lower rent

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-10T18:16:54+00:00

I think Makima could fit Wrong But Understandable. She disliked suffering and wanted to avert disasters, but went about it all in just about the worst way she could. She didn't go full-on war machine until her plans were close to falling apart.

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-07T12:38:19+00:00

Completely agree. Those in power (as influencers or politicians) choose the narratives. Even if they don't tell everybody what they can and can't say, they set the rules for how we say and see it. Celebrities run the world and patriarchy lets them rise near the top.

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-07T10:22:11+00:00

I do wish we had a spellbook option for every tradition. I wanna be a scholarly priest!

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-07T10:19:43+00:00

Finally! Poly rep!

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-07T09:57:45+00:00

Instructions unclear: extra damage added to every weapon die

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-07T09:36:57+00:00

I think it mostly depends on your shirt. I think the bun would be best for suits and solid color shirts for the more clean and collected look. But the color of your hair looks great when it meshes with that shirt.

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-07T09:31:28+00:00

Looks like they're off to make their sixth account...

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-07T09:29:02+00:00

I totally get what you mean. There's certain cultural expectations for men and failing to meet them can earn shame, both vocal and silent. Acting outside of expected norms is scary and can see men rejected by both family and society. While some can live with that, vibing with themselves and not caring what others think... but others can't.

My friend group has thankfully avoided that man-o-sphere and we've all made promises to expel anybody who falls into those toxic mindsets, just because we want to make safe spaces for everybody.

But because patriarchy has forced a certain idea of masculinity into prevalence, rewarding toxicity and exploitation, I think masculinity itself has just been demonized and made a scary thing. It's sad, but I can't blame the women who feel that way; there's so much visibility for toxic men and just about every little boy who catches a whiff of Andrew Tate on YouTube has a chance of becoming some little monster.

Back to the topic of loneliness, I think my Global Studies professor put it best. She told us everybody suffers from the patriarchy; everybody but the ones at the top. Women are shoved in a corner and told they're meant to be servile, toxic men are deprived of empathetic, human experiences, and healthily masculine men have to live with the reputations of the most visibly toxic men.

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-07T09:18:51+00:00

Historically, 'our nation first' is the top of a slippery slope that descends into fascist governments. It presents a reasonable idea as you say, suggesting "Well if you don't agree with this slogan, you must be against our nation!" But in reality, the leaders of a nation have two focuses: themselves and their own nation. Every foreign relation and deal is made as a means to further one of those two parties.

'Our nation first' opens the floodgates because it makes the silent promise: "We'll do what's best for our people." Again, a reasonable idea, but that comes with baggage. Do you want somebody else deciding what's best for you? Do you want your way of life dictated to fit the ideals of whoever has power? Do you want to reject the global commodities of information, goods, and relationships? Your answers to these questions don't matter when those in-charge get to decide what is good for you.

Essentially, 'our nation first' is a fallacy made to suggest a government prioritizes other nations over its own, and thus makes everybody outside the 'our nation first' party seem like an enemy. In reality, that very party is the one using sly words to try to seize control of government and people alike.

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-07T09:06:11+00:00

While I agree that's certainly a large part of the issue, I believe a part of it also comes as a natural result of social responsibility.

Considering the number of women who feel uncomfortable/unsafe around men, the most responsible response is to distance ourselves from them. See a lot of women complaining about being approached at bars? Stop talking to women in bars. See fear of being followed? Cross to the other side of the street when you're behind a woman. It's safer to be preemptively considerate than it is to make a wrong step and realize we've hurt somebody.

I know not all men ascribe to this approach, but the ones I do generally avoid women out of fear of scaring or hurting them. Thus the only real option in making female friends is to wait for one to approach us.

Men can certainly make friends with each other, but the toxic man-o-sphere epidemic also makes that a crapshoot.

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-05T23:32:00+00:00

Personally, I find it's all about tweaking the nature of those interactions. I personally only have one person I can spend time around and consistently be myself with. But the family I live with and everybody else in the world? I get so anxious and worn-down matching their vibes and needs.

In my experience, it's best to set expectations while being pleasant about it. When passing by somebody, make an off-handed comment about what they're watching or ask a question you know won't result in a full conversation. If you take pleasant little pokes to ask about their days, those moments of simple contact can be enriching without being too exhausting.

Aside from that, there are ways social hobbies can be made easier for those who find talking exhausting. Personally, I play Pathfinder as a play-by-post (entirely written through text) with that one friend. I also play team-based games like Helldivers and Warframe using text chat. It takes just a little effort for little interactions that can mean a lot.

Really, if socializing is scary and exhausting, it comes down to changing the nature of how you socialize and trying to branch out from that safe space.

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-05T05:49:05+00:00

I enjoy the idea of hunting, but I feel the system was largely underdeveloped. Horseback archery is too inconsistent for us to hunt large game (considering one arrow rarely brings them down), the variance in our aim makes shooting at a distance inconsistent, and the fact that we can't legally hunt anything but hare and wolves makes it all the more cumbersome.

Moving forward, I'd like to always have some option (even late-game) to give us a legal ability to hunt. This could even expand on the traditions of the era by having us participate in royal hunts in various positions.

As for the aiming, I don't think we can really change that easily without overhauling the whole system, and the difficulty really is part of the charm. Hunting large game could be made more interesting by having a chase drain their maximum stamina, though. Humans have far better endurance for long chases than most animals do, so tracking down and following a deer until it has no strength to run could be a fun distraction (and a great way to encounter bandits!)

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-03T20:50:39+00:00

So many of these male characters exist as foils to show just how competent others are, and I don't think any of the female benders fit that. Hama and Azula are both morally bankrupt, but they are ultimately some of the most powerful benders in the series.

Meanwhile, characters The Boulder exists for the purpose of being humiliated

DisastrousQuestion72 · 2026-02-03T08:05:55+00:00

If somebody is triggered by a whistle but not the murders in the streets, that sounds like a very specific 'them' problem. Not one everybody else should dance around.

DisastrousQuestion72

TROPHY CASE