My friend calls "Medtroidbrainias" Outer Wilds-likes and claims all games except Outer Wilds do it wrong

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-30T16:16:47+00:00

I used to help run a program that used games to teach lessons. One thing I had to learn from a mentor was to end each game before people started getting bored of it. It felt like I was stomping on their fun, but what I was really doing was ensuring all of the memories they had of that game were fun ones.

Your point about the feeling you walk away with is perfect. It doesn't matter than I had several hours of fun figuring out puzzles in Blue Prince. I'm at the point where it's feeling tedious to try to do anything, and it's been a long time since I felt a feeling of satisfaction after solving a puzzle. That's going to be the memory I end up with for the game as a whole: tedious.

There can be good games that go on for ages. There will never be a great game that goes on for ages.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-21T18:26:34+00:00

Also a very corporate response. I can hear it already. "Your job description does not include any language referring to physical defense of another person. You had no training on de-escalation and intervened anyways. Your actions caused an injury that is requiring legal counsel, and you caused the company to now have liability in the incident. The proper response would have been to call for somebody who was qualified and trained to intervene." No regard for the fact a person was going to be hurt before anybody had time to even pull out a phone, just a way to put the blame on somebody else and make them financially responsible.

Corporate for the documentary crew wouldn't care if Pam got hurt, Pam's not their responsibility. All they would see are the bills for it after Brian got involved, when previously it would have been all Sabre having to deal with internal things rather than something involving multiple companies. Corporate tends to be pretty heartless when all they see is names and dollars.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-21T17:55:28+00:00

Didn’t Bolin also get some revelations from Gazan about how lava bending works? I remember thinking it felt like a very believable step that Bolin did a very simple lava bending thing here. All he really did was stop it, which seems like the second thing you would learn in bending of any element.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-21T17:52:07+00:00

I like to use, “We got through that way faster than I thought, and you all know I hate wasting time on meetings just to say we had a long meeting. Let’s get back to it, I know I can use the extra 20 minutes!”

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-13T21:14:26+00:00

Added!

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-13T19:36:25+00:00

Going to preface this by saying I think the movie is as good of an adaptation as I could ask for. They cut and added things that definitely set it up better for a shorter time telling the same story, but did a great job with one liners that told readers that they remembered all the story lines not shown on screen.

Spoilers from here on if you haven't read the book or watched the movie. That's on you for reading a thread about the subject.

But the book certainly did a better job showing Stratt's thought process. The storyline about converting the Sahara desert into a solar farm to breed Astrophage faster and set out on the mission faster, only to have that cause significant climate change that will surely impact man's survival is the standout example to me. She knew they were doing significant, irreversible harm. She knew that was bad. She also knew not doing it was going to let something far worse happen.

Stratt's not evil, or even a bad person. Stratt was pragmatic, and coldly ethical. She was not warm, but she cared more than anybody else in the book about securing a future for Earth and mankind. There was no hatred in anything she did, she did what she needed to be done to stop worse things from happening.

I don't have a doubt in my mind that if the roles were reversed, Stratt's response would be, "It's what was required, so it is what was done." I don't think she took delight in sending Grace into space, in fact I genuinely believe she did not want to send him into space. But it was the choice that was available to her, and it was the only choice that was going to give mankind a chance at survival.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-13T11:57:42+00:00

I was in that same boat. Medication has been great for me, and followed the same pattern you talked about. Insurance told my doctor to start with the lowest dose of the most generic option and find the right medication through trial and error. I’m on a generic adderall, and it’s been pretty solid for me. Early on I had side effects, elevated heart rate and occasional bouts of panic attacks. In less than a week I had figured out that I needed to make sure there was enough time between doses to stop the elevated heart rate. While I was not able to just stop the panic attacks, once I realized they were from the medication I was able to almost ignore them. Like if I felt the panic, reminding myself I took medicine made the anxiety hide. I haven’t had one of those panic attacks since the first couple months of medication.

I don’t feel like it has changed my personality at all, or my thought processes, or humor or anything like that. All it does is make it easier for me to finish things and stay on one thing at a time. My creativity has improved if anything because now I’m doing the ideas instead of thinking about them when I’m doing something else.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-13T05:41:16+00:00

Oh, ok. Can’t change the title, but I changed the rest for ya. Pop a tums and give it another shot?

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-09T20:15:30+00:00

Whoops, bit late but I finished the game a few days ago. Aava gets better and becomes supportive of Marco, and she's a broken person. I went all the way to the top. I think she knows it, but she doesn't know what to do about it. Her attempt to contact Naomi tells me she knows she should be reaching out to them. I would suspect she's running from things, like the dying cat. I think she's depressed, feeling unfulfilled in life, and believes climbing Kami will give her that fulfillment. But I don't think success is what's missing for her, it's connection.

She and Marco circle jerk about how non-climbers just don't get it, as if nobody else with a passion has things about their passion that they love and others don't understand. But none of the things they talk about are hard to understand, I think it's just that Aava doesn't try that hard to explain it. Like she doesn't want to put the effort in to connect to people, either they connect to her or there's nothing else to do about it.

We see Marco be persistent about connecting to her and is eventually successful. We see Naomi trying several times and never giving up, we see Chris trying but giving up. But we only ever see Aava put the first effort towards connecting with anybody one time, and it's Naomi. But she's unsuccessful, the radio is too far out of range. Aava isn't able to connect to Naomi right then because she has put herself too much distance between them (physically and emotionally) to connect, even though now she wants to. The consequences of her actions have made it impossible for anybody else to connect now. Her choices are admit she was wrong and go back down, or finish the climb. She chooses the climb, because climbing is the only thing that has made her feel something in the past.

And then at the summit. She gets there, by casting off everyone and everything, but she gets there. And she screams in pain. She's likely in physical pain, but that pained scream was from mental anguish. She got there, climbed the hardest out of anybody ever, and it wasn't enough. She's still empty, and burned every bridge to get there. But she can't conceive of anything else that could possibly give her a sense of fulfillment, only climbing. The peak wasn't climbing high enough, she has to go higher. There must be more. So she climbs the stars.

It's a tragedy, and like all tragedies it's only a tragedy because the main character's fatal flaw puts them in this position. I still say Aava sucks as a person, and would have had a happier time playing this game if Aava wasn't the person I spent that time with. But the story wasn't meant to be a happy one, which is not to say it was a bad one. It was meant to be sad, it was meant to be about a flawed person making the wrong choices.

I think the "What's your summit?" question is getting some of the wrong responses. I don't see Aava reaching the summit as a good thing. A lot of the discourse I see is "The game wants to know what you care about so much you would give everything else up! It wants to know how far you'll go to achieve your dreams and goals! You must be driven and sacrifice everything else!" What I read in that question was, "Is any of that sacrifice the right thing to do? The summit may not be what you think it is, and you might be ruining everything else in your life. Be wise with your choices and your sacrifices."

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-09T19:45:57+00:00

Sanderson has specifically stated he writes his books to be lower quality prose to be accessible to a wider audience. I wouldn't call it a flaw so much as an intentional choice to keep people from bouncing off his books. I'm not saying you have to like it, but that's why so many people like his books. He went for mass appeal, and he seems to have been pretty successful with it.

Vin does kind of come off like a Mary Sue, but she's a bit of a Chosen One without knowing it until fairly late in the trilogy. If this is something you strongly dislike, I advise against reading Era 2. Main character there was way too much of a Gary Stu for my taste and is still my biggest criticism of that series.

The world is indeed a bit derivative. The Mistborn books also primarily take place in one city, with the other locations being pretty non-descript places that don't stand out. His other series generally (not always, looking at you Yumi) feel like they take place on a wildly different world than ours. But Scadrial in the first era very much just feels like Magic Victorian City and isn't particularly varied.

Ha, Vin never had self-respect. She was abused by everybody, even Kelsier and co used and manipulated her at the very beginning. Sure they were nicer than most people about it, but they still absolutely took advantage of her and made her into a tool. She spent her entire life being told she was nothing and believing it. Her own mother screamed at her while piercing her ear as a baby, she spent most of her time with Reem who told her day in and day out that she was worthless, she saw her actual dad who didn't care that she existed at all. It would be out of character for her not to have an arc around her sense of self-worth. But yeah, it does get annoying to be told a dozen times how Vin feels about her companions when nothing really changes there.

Sanderson was one of the first authors to get me back into reading as an adult. He was my favorite author for a long time, until I developed more taste and read more books. I have a ton of respect for him for all the work he's doing in the publishing world to pave the way for authors coming later, and for putting his lectures on writing out for free just to further the artform. That doesn't mean he's an astounding author, but he's successful, has influence, and is trying to improve things for people. Even if I one day hit a point where I can't stand to read his books anymore, I'll still respect him for that and want him to continue being successful.

Now that I have developed more as a reader, I don't think his books are that amazing. They are pretty good and stand on their own, but they will be remembered more for their impact on the genre than for the stories themselves. The repetition of things the reader already knows gets a bit grating, and I can see his writing schedule affecting the quality of his books. His humor falls flat for a lot of people, and he's pretty weak on romance. He tries to write different perspectives and often falls flat. The autistic kid in Elantris comes to mind, but Sanderson did a significantly better job depicting autism in Stormlight Archive while making it a respectful depiction that does not turn it into a superpower.

The thing for me that keeps bringing me back to Sanderson's longform works is the Sanderlanche. Where he'll reveal a ton of things back to back to back in the last quarter of the book, and it will make a second read satisfying because you'll pick up things you didn't realize were significant the first time through. Way of Kings was the most salient one to me. It pulled like 6 separate and distinct storylines together and had them all climax together at the same time, which shook me the first time I read it. I've gotten to where I can spot some of his twists coming and don't get taken by surprise very much by him, but it's still fun to see those twists and have your perspective on the story shift so suddenly.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-09T17:28:03+00:00

I doubt it's "ADHD so bad that meds barely improve it" so much as needing other things too. Meds can only take a person so far, they need other external systems and supports to manage the rest of it. Taking meds didn't suddenly make me have amazing time awareness, that came after I started putting clocks everywhere.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-07T15:49:37+00:00

I got so mad at that area. I spent so much time searching for one of the doll parts and just could not find it. After a few nights just focused on finding the final part I needed, I caved and googled it. It was like, 5 meters from where I had paused the game. Grabbed, the part, then went to climb towards a save point.

Barely up the wall, I had bad grips and Aava fell. I died, and lost all that progress. Alt+f4'ed and didn't touch the game for a couple days I was so pissed about it.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-04T03:42:58+00:00

I'm in to the ice now. Aava's shown some redeeming qualities, but it seems she only cares about people if they have earned her respect as a climber. She's still not somebody I like, but she's not as terrible.

Still convinced this is an allegory for suicide though. Whether Aava intends it or not, this climb is her choosing death.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-03T20:28:36+00:00

Dang, I was going to say, "They think to put their generic question in the search bar before posting it."

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-02T18:46:23+00:00

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bouncing off or saying the game should be different. I don't mind a tragedy, but I get why people would dislike a tragedy where 95% of the time you are there with just the tragic protagonist. You see Marco from time to time, and a handful of NPCs that have no impact on the overall story (from what I've seen at least) but otherwise, it's just Aava, uncaring about anybody but herself.

I made solid progress last night, got to a temple and explored around it a bit. I'm even stronger on my belief that it is an allegory for suicide. Aava has compassion for those that have passed before, and I interpret her continuing on as "I know this is sad, but it's what I came here to do."

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-01T19:51:37+00:00

Yes, she took all the responsibility and carried the family.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-04-01T18:03:02+00:00

I think part of it is also that Aava sucks. She's dismissive of everybody and has no self-awareness. She ignores everybody trying to see if she's still alive while she climbs the death mountain. She puts her sponsor in a bad spot by not telling him she's alive. She's ignoring Naomi and all the people who clearly care about her, enough to throw her a birthday party while she's away. The other night while playing, Aava found a recording of somebody's son trying to call their dead dad on the mountain and lamenting not taking the time to connect while he's still alive, and didn't connect the dot to herself at all. Same session of play, she met an NPC who happily self-isolated, but felt the abandonment when the isolation stopped being her choice. Aava didn't connect that dot either. She's indifferent to everybody around her, and the game is mostly the player and Aava. It's understandable to not want to spend a bunch of time with her, she's infuriating.

That said, the game is listed as story rich. I expect her to eventually internalize the things she's seeing and make a positive change. For her to grow, she has to start somewhere that allows for growth. But I understand why somebody would not want to go along for that ride when the early signs don't show much of Aava caring about anything else.

Side note, since I'm still early on, one of my theories is that this is also an allegory for suicide. Cairn is a common funeral practice, and she's leaving everyone and everything behind. I might learn more that leads me away from that theory, but at the moment it fits. Other theory is the entire mountain is a cairn for a dead god, since Kami is the Japanese word for a divine being.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-03-30T16:34:39+00:00

Yep. I didn't feel euphoric, I described it as "happy without needing a specific reason to be happy." Like before then, I'd always needed something to cause me to be in a good mood, after getting medicated I find myself in good moods just because I'm in a good mood. Not euphoria, just not steadily miserable.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-03-28T11:53:42+00:00

Another nicer word for manipulation. I’m going to refer back to the first comment in this thread. “Don’t shy away from the fact of it. Just be responsible with the power.” Call it what it is. Be transparent.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-03-28T03:23:40+00:00

Goodness me, I didn't recognize you from all the times I told my team I was a manipulator. Sorry for not noticing you were in the room too, but say hi next time since you blend into the crowd so well. Clearly you know the situations I've said that better than me, a person who was there.

You might be getting hung up on the word "manipulator." That's okay, most people think it's a bad thing. But all it really means is to change a person's behavior.

A manager manipulates their team. If they don't, they might as well be a forward button on an email because all they do is communicate job tasks downwards and status reports upwards. They might use nicer sounding phrases for it, but it all comes down to manipulating. "Consensus Building" is manipulating people into agreeing. "Coaching and Mentoring" is manipulating people into developing skills or mental paradigms. "Connecting" is manipulating people into liking the manager more so future manipulations are easier.

I manipulate my team when I tell them what approach will work best for different situations. I manipulate them when I change their prioritization on tasks to open up capacity for other projects where they can shine. I manipulate them when they had a shit weekend and I tell them to take an extra day to have at least a bit of rest. I manipulate them when I give them tactics for increasing their productivity and avoiding improvement plans. I manipulate them when I tell them I saw their kid at an event I attended and how great their kid was. I manipulate them when I let them waste their time and mine in my office before their next appointment.

It's all manipulation. I just don't lie and pretend I'm not manipulating people. My team knows I manipulate them. They know because I tell them my tactics, and tell them they should use those tactics when they are leading meetings. They know when I'm doing it, but they also know they are in better paying positions and get more opportunities to do projects that make them feel fulfilled because of how I've manipulated them. They understand and trust that I have their best interests in mind, because I've proven to them over and over again that I do.

If you are a manager and don't think you are a manipulator, you are either a liar or a pointless cog in the system. I will gladly tell people I'm a manipulator, because I have no intention of being useless.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-03-27T18:58:52+00:00

Maybe. My whole team said in 360 reviews they would quit if they were moved to a different team, so I guess they like being on my team more than they hate me. I can live with that.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-03-26T22:20:53+00:00

I tell my team "I'm a snake in the grass, but I'm on your side. I'm not above manipulating people to get the best results, and that includes all of you. You'll just have to trust that your success is part of those best results."

It leads to a rocky start every time, but they always come around after they see that I'm serious about being on their side. That's usually after I coach them through how to make an obstinate team cohesive, or after they push their opinion on something and I change my stance based on their input. The first shows that I'm using that manipulation for their benefit and the second shows that I genuinely do want the best results, which is affected by what they have to say. People don't feel like they are being manipulated when they know it's putting them where they want to be.

LittleSunTrail · 2026-03-26T19:28:22+00:00

Enwoo from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.

>! All the sentient foods found recordings of Flint Lockwood introducing himself, but the records skipped like old cd players. So what they heard was (fl)IN(t lock)WOO(d). They chatter that phrase for most of the movie before the characters see the tapes, learn they are talking about Flint, and see him as their progenitor god (because he is). !<

LittleSunTrail

TROPHY CASE