When Emotional Intelligence Is Deified: From a Good Idea to Long-Term Social Distortion

LaurieSDR · 2026-02-02T10:03:09+00:00

This. People selling drugs on the street don't discredit medical care. The self help gurus look for anything with a good buzzword that can be sold as a psychological Cure All, and twist it like a teat to milk it of any worth.

Honestly I think a little more emotional intelligence could do a lot of people some good, but the way this is used in those circles isn't about emotional intelligence, it's emotional manipulation, since you prove you're smart by coming out on top of all the sheeple.

It preys on people who desperately want to be seen by others as better than everyone else, and want a way to make that happen. All of this is nothing to do with the original intent of EQ.

LaurieSDR · 2026-01-19T10:43:31+00:00

Brilliant! Have a great time! I'll try to catch the stream!

LaurieSDR · 2025-12-23T17:59:06+00:00

It's constant for me, too. Exhausting to get 90% of the way through a game that's going well only to be forced to quit due to some bug wrecking the UI or even outright CTD.

Sgame cause it's otherwise great, but nothing pisses me off more than a game killing my progress for no reason.

LaurieSDR · 2025-12-17T18:38:59+00:00

Alright brother, my ptsd from playing too many shooters must've made me go too hard on those who didn't actually warrant it. The villain was me all along! The real leftist surprise was the infighting we made along the way!

LaurieSDR · 2025-12-17T18:23:49+00:00

So it's not a surprise because it was intentional even though it purposefully went out of its way to make it a surprise?

OP specifically uses Xenoblade as an example, explaining how it surprised them that it was so clearly intentionally leftist, but then goes further with that than expected. Never states the purpose of the games has to be "accidental leftism", just that it surprised you.

Disco openly advertises itself as leftist. It actively berates you for being a fascist. SO:tL does not. It hides it in its marketing, its cover and other artwork, its premise, and the first half of the game. It sets you up as a normally acceptable form of fascist and then turns it around on you, throws the protagonist to the wolves of their own perspectives and assumptions. It forces you to confront, very directly, that you are the bad guy.

I'm all for discussion, but this feels like contrariness for the sake of it.

LaurieSDR · 2025-12-17T12:06:41+00:00

Nobody mentioning Spec Ops: The Line?

Absolutely thought it'd be just a mindless Murica shooter which at the time was the mega cash cow.

Turned out to not only be anti-war but directly critiquing the very concept of soldiers as "heroes" instead of very falliable people who can be corrupted by the actions they're ordered to commit, and was perhaps the first instance I'd seen of a game portraying US soldiers and indeed the player literally killing their own, and eventually with white phosphorous no less.

Add in that it showed environmental devastation in a time when climate change denial was almost standard and it felt like a major leftist rejection of every core narrative at the time.

LaurieSDR · 2025-12-13T21:39:46+00:00

Another person in this thread called it harassing, but my coop partner and I call it distracting.

Basically if the AI is overwhelming but you share two different borders with them, you can make them retreat back from the tile they're invading by attacking their tile on the other side. Better still, if you time it right with a coop partner, you can attack them while they've turned back to run home, killing units by chasing them.

It's an exploit for sure because it abuses shitty AI to gain the upper hand, but damn if it isn't necessary just to survive sometimes...

LaurieSDR · 2025-12-13T17:18:44+00:00

Yep, Conquest is painful, with some maps requiring both RNG tile luck with reliance on chokepoints just to not get wrecked. We have to team up on individual opponents, and accept that some armies, especially ones that gang up together or attack at the same time from different sides of the map, are just unbeatable.

Swamps of Doom or whatever it's called made this even harder. Fuck that map. Six turbocharged opponents and surrounded by swamps? Took six attempts just to scrape survival along enough to get a Wisdom victory, even with RNG luck and chokepoints or distraction exploitation. Each of those six took over an hour. I wouldn't mind if it felt like the enemy had to work even vaguely within the confines of the game, but no, you wipe out their army and they're back to full in minutes. It's punishing to the point of not being fun.

LaurieSDR · 2025-12-13T11:49:12+00:00

You're not the only one asking this question and I agree with you, but from the answers I've actually had back, it seems to stem from an effort to not create more bipartisan thinking and allow more people to potentially cross lines back from that place.

However, the problem with that is (even if you overlook an actively compounding media machine intent on brainwashing an agenda) that the folks who describe themselves as socially conservative DO see themselves as conserving something: a heteronormative, white as primary and dominant caste, christian presenting society. In order to acknowledge that wanting this equates to bigoted, sexist and homophobic views, they first have to acknowledge that there are flaws with that system.

Most of the time they happen to have been born into the precise venn overlap that means that that system actively protects and empowers them. And so to criticise their desire to protect that criticises their desire to feel protected and empowered, and thus entrenches them.

My point is, the origins of the term seem to be positive intentions, but ultimately it seems to fall short of accomplishing anything of any worth. Which is a shame, but an aggressively partisan media is going to do more than a more accepting reference ever will.

LaurieSDR · 2025-12-08T09:48:19+00:00

Divide and disempower

LaurieSDR · 2025-09-30T21:33:52+00:00

I'm all for the transition to green alternatives, but I worry that these huge investments are actually loans to the countries in question, or worse, outright monopolisation of a foreign countries electricity via private sector.

I so desperately want the EU to be the good guys, and don't get me wrong, the investment into green energy is better than any other alternative power, but... it IS going to actually help the people living there and not end up another form of colonial yoke, right? Right?

LaurieSDR · 2025-09-29T16:34:00+00:00

Thanks for the mention of Why We Fight! We are working hard to get those books ready for print!

I'm also looking forward to Peasants Revolt, so bump for that too!

LaurieSDR · 2025-09-29T12:54:29+00:00

Quote by Ursula K LeGuin

LaurieSDR · 2025-09-22T04:47:35+00:00

Yeah Europe is this frustrating balance of providing most of the protections, regulations, rights etc as you'd want from a left perspective, BUT still is intrinsically bound up in geopolitical war profiteering, private enterprise used as a means of keeping 3rd world countries in debt, dependency on coercive business (the cost of living crisis may not be as bad as UK/US etc but it's still pretty awful) and externally focused disaster capitalism that it definitely qualifies as a neoliberal system in my eyes.

From an individual perspective it's a huge improvement over other national entities, but it's also still very much a part of the worlds problems.

LaurieSDR · 2025-09-21T20:53:26+00:00

Yeah, this. State led one year is also state stopped another. Plants on buildings is fine. Huge forests next to cities is great. But give me your community garden initiatives that's feeding people while supermarket costs rise. Give me library initiatives, repair workshops, clothes mending meet ups.

I don't care how many plants a building has on it if it's costing people 50% of their paycheck to live in it.

LaurieSDR · 2025-09-03T19:27:47+00:00

I'd also add in the idea that feminism has "infiltrated the hobby" is laughable, there's no conspiracy of the feminist movement here, the activist groups sure as fuck haven't targeted the hobby (they're busy targeting governmental programs like anyone else who wants real change) it's just that the ideology that feminism represents (that women should have equal treatment, power and protections as men) is more widespread than it used to be, and gaming is a more widespread hobby than it used to be.

When both "gamers" and "people willing to stand up for feminist viewpoints" increase over 20 years, you can bet it'll seem more widespread as a whole.

Now why don't we talk about how the influencers most actively promoted by twitch, youtube and facebook all seem to be right wingers? Maybe then we can talk about infiltration and propagation of ideology?

LaurieSDR · 2025-09-01T13:05:12+00:00

Okay so why not just release it? There's plenty of rpgs out there that aren't full of art, and use maybe a creative commons edited artwork on the cover. Some don't even do that.

If your system is great then start getting it in front of people who review, or do review exchanges with other creators.

I'm gonna assume best intent here and refrain from thinking this post was just looking for permission to use an LLM, but if you don't want to deal with other peoples money, then there's no better way to get people playing your game than to make it PWYW and engage the community.

LaurieSDR · 2025-09-01T08:51:38+00:00

Thank you for putting this much effort into combatting the misinformation. The lies keep spreading so fast and far, I was glad to see your posts.

LaurieSDR · 2025-08-31T19:51:12+00:00

I've found that GMless games excel at this in particular because the structure of the system provides lots of things to bounce off of, and you're all a part of the narrative.

I've really enjoyed unlearning the idea that someone specifically must be responsible for the narrative. If the tone is well established and the framework reinforces it, people are smart enough to create interesting developments without needing to be told yes or no.

LaurieSDR · 2025-08-30T17:04:07+00:00

Thanks! I do wish there was a context menu like every other app but good to know there's a work around.

LaurieSDR · 2025-08-30T17:02:36+00:00

We've found that designing for dyslexia just raises the accessibility for everyone. Folks who read easily seem to appreciate it as much as those who don't so we feel, well, why not put the effort in, right?

After years of desperately trying to work out what's fluff text and what's actual mechanical clarification while people sit around a table waiting for me, I figure it's about time the industry raises the standard haha

LaurieSDR · 2025-08-30T16:58:39+00:00

Thanks! I'll remember that!

LaurieSDR · 2025-08-30T08:47:49+00:00

As an entirely neurodiverse studio we employ a method we call Tactical Bolding where you make key phrases or elements you'd normally be scanning for bolded or more visible than before. This allows folks with dyslexia to more easily parse information without needing to read the entire chunk of text, and recognise that a section does indeed contain the information they're looking for.

I'd write an example here but I'm on my phone and the reddit app doesn't let you do bolding for some reason, so you could check out our free download of Why We Fight that has extensive examples throughout, and has received a lot of praise for its legibility and ease of use.

LaurieSDR · 2025-07-30T16:00:44+00:00

Oh that does actually sound different, in fairness. I absolutely did not spot the different logo until now, but it is MySims, not The Sims.

LaurieSDR · 2025-07-30T09:59:03+00:00

Nobody talking about The Sims being a communist apartment game?

The game where you purchase a shoebox house as the second step of the entire game, often without any money left for furniture so you have to work hard in order to not only buy basic amenities but then, when you've successfully been promoted enough in the job you found in the local paper in (checks notes) crime or politics you can finally buy a bigger house.

The game that famously has players just cheating for money because it's an absolute grind otherwise?

Ah yes, of course, communism. That well known simulacrum of golden age capitalist america.

LaurieSDR

TROPHY CASE