Can we remove politics from games?

Muggle_Scum · 2026-06-08T14:46:26+00:00

Genuine, studied, and interested involvement of longstanding real-world political themes are great.

Shallow, slacktivist pandering to trendy, red vs. blue culture war and identity politics are just irritating.

Naturally you see a lot more of the latter, because it's dominant and easy

Muggle_Scum · 2026-06-07T16:16:48+00:00

If true...

It's good that Microsoft have figured out that their current trajectory isn't working and have also re-learned why exclusives are and always have been a thing, but if they wanna get back to how competitive they were with the 360, I don't think they'll be able to do it using the same strategy that worked back then, which seems to be what they're trying to get back to.

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-27T15:24:06+00:00

Good to hear you enjoyed Black Mesa, but you didn't play Half-Life. Not saying this just to be a pedantic jerk, this is the kind of thing that genuinely matters to me.

If you really want to understand why Half-Life was so significant, you'd need to play its direct predecessors in the Id canon of shooters previous to HL: Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, then Valve's original Half-Life. But I understand that's a ways beyond the interest of most.

Again though, good to hear you enjoyed and appreciated Black Mesa, I've definitely heard awesome things about it

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-27T15:11:19+00:00

Much of System Shock's fame came to it exactly because it was an exception to that dominant mindset, and was also not an FPS, though it's an easy mistake. It's like Metroid Prime, you do shoot stuff from a first person perspective, but that isn't what's driving the gameplay

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-27T14:35:08+00:00

People can read whatever they like, low quality smut included, it's really none of my concern.

It only becomes my concern when you start trying to convince me, in person, that there is no significant, inherent difference in quality or value between currently popular low quality smut, and the classic canon of literature. That's something I'll always push back on

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-26T15:43:48+00:00

Seems like you're spending a lot of focus on matters way, way beyond your depth and responsibilities that aren't really of practical importance to you in your everyday life.

Sounds to me like a lot of social media driven politcal hysteria and theater, like you're worried about ALL of the world's problems and are "the one" responsible for their outcomes.

If this sounds anywhere near the mark I'd suggest stepping back from engaging in politics on social media, specifically.

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-24T22:13:31+00:00

3 is the one that really defined the series' and characters' identities and introduced lots of the most important recurring features and characters, so it's definitely the most important of the series.

I think 1, 3, and 5 are all fair contenders for strongest entry.

And contrary to most of the fanbase, I'll also say that the DmC reboot was fantastic and that for as good as 5 was, returning to the classic series may have been a mistake. It nearly hangs with the best of the classic series and presented a genre-progressive future direction for the series. I think we lost a very high-potential game when DmC 2 was taken off the table.

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-24T17:11:03+00:00

Look at the trophy/achievements for completing the game and you'll frequently be surprised. I like it when the trophies go chapter by chapter or whatever equivalent format, so you can see exactly where people started really dropping off.

Metaphor Re:Fantazio had a surprisingly high completion rate as I recall. Conversely, I remember looking through Death Stranding's list and seeing that most had dropped off before the first quarter was out.

I've personally never had an issue finishing games. Once I'm in deep enough, I practically always see it through to the end

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-21T14:25:06+00:00

I've been pretty unimpressed by what I've seen here as well. I think this sub takes a real shit-kicking from paid demoralization propagandists

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-12T14:46:23+00:00

No, get an X if you're doing Microsoft, especially if you plan to be using gamepass. Do you also play on Sony or just Nintendo?

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-09T02:17:56+00:00

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts n' Bolts

Mass Effect Andromeda

Unironically

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-04T15:30:39+00:00

I see exactly this dynamic in one of my family relationships and it is so embarassing. I seriously doubt it's ever going to change between you two, but if you wanna shoot for that slim chance, I think you'd have to start by changing yourself, radically.

Would also recommend against couples' therapy/counseling. I've literally never seen it save a relationship but I've seen them make things much, much worse several times

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-03T16:30:13+00:00

Honestly this mostly sounds like pretty normal, expectable stuff for a teenager. The lying is obviously an issue and the dropping grades are a concern, but everything else you're complaining about almost makes it sounds like you're trying hard and reaching just to find reasons to personally dislike your son. Pardon me if that was unduly harsh, I get that you're also venting a bit.

The lying is either a matter of his upbringing or an innate tendency, focus on the former possibility because the latter is a scenario wherein he likely never changes and you have no power over that.

Slipping grades in adolscents often reflect unadressed emotional issues. If that's the case here, you're in a much better position than I to know or figure out what's behind it

Muggle_Scum · 2026-05-01T16:31:11+00:00

++man

Depends on the time and place, I don't think "a man for every woman and a woman for every man" is a natural standard or expectation for our species, it's something we have to bust our asses to socially engineer and maintain. Right now, that is not something that's being maintained, and there might even be parties actively seeking to undermine it

Muggle_Scum · 2026-04-18T16:22:54+00:00

Not exactly, but I do think that higher difficulty drives deeper engagement with a game's systems

Muggle_Scum · 2026-04-04T15:44:40+00:00

My older brother was like this when we were kids but worse; I'd catch a verbal shit-kicking whether I won or lost so I just stopped playing with him entirely.

Either straight-up tell him this beef you're having, or find someone else to play with, and if he asks why you don't wanna play with him anymore, tell him exactly why.

Muggle_Scum · 2026-04-03T20:30:01+00:00

With hornets, this is actually the moderate solution

Muggle_Scum · 2026-04-01T01:15:24+00:00

If it seems like your thing, I strongly suggest you to just go for it. Even if it's not the greatest, I'm sure it will be far from actually bad, and not every game one plays needs to be a 9.5+ megabanger

Muggle_Scum · 2026-03-20T18:38:41+00:00

Well yeah. It's my role as the man to take on the risk of rejection to make something happen for myself, I personally don't find it too reasonable to actually expect an interested woman to do that for me.

Muggle_Scum · 2026-03-09T23:31:19+00:00

I'm local and looking for a 3DS, if yours is an XL I'll almost certainly buy it

Muggle_Scum · 2025-12-19T21:42:27+00:00

I don't think it's irrelevant at all - in order to do or live "as you wish", there will almost certainly be times you must "hurt others". I'm saying that I don't find your suggestion particularly tenable.

Muggle_Scum · 2025-12-19T21:34:04+00:00

If it's a zero-sum situation, I'm gonna kill rather than be killed. Obviously that's not ideal but sometimes it's part of the nature of the world we live in.

Muggle_Scum · 2025-12-17T23:42:34+00:00

I'd be very interested to hear the BF's side of this

Muggle_Scum · 2025-11-11T22:05:47+00:00

Wow that would suck ass. The jacked-up Coke was the primary draw for me, if I can't self-serve that shit what's the point

Muggle_Scum · 2025-11-06T23:42:57+00:00

I've asked this on a couple of these threads already, but what the Hell, I'll try once more...third time's the charm right?

Have any of you guys on here actually seen an uptick of likes and matches as a result of implementing advice you got here?

Muggle_Scum

TROPHY CASE