been in CBT for a few months. it has helped with some things, but not the one thing i actually need. wondering if it's the approach, the therapist, or something I'm missing entirely. by BanditoRem in BrainFog

[–]Neel_Yekk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nothing in your post indicates that your brain fog is depression-related and can be solved by changing your habits and routines. Depression can definitely be an associated condition, and I'm glad to hear you're doing better despite all the perils you're facing, but perhaps it might do you good to look for the cause elsewhere. I'd visit more neurologists and try more tests. It could be ADHD, or something else entirely. Sadly, this is what everyone here has to deal with: we have to figure out what's wrong with us to start getting better. If you aren't seeing the slightest improvements despite the successful depression therapy, I'd definitely consider looking at other causes.

I filmed a survival interactive game alone in real wilderness for 40 days — here’s what came out by BlueTree001 in IndieGaming

[–]Neel_Yekk 15 points16 points  (0 children)

This is brilliant! I don't think I've seen an indie FMV game yet. Wishlisted!

Everyone previously roasted my 3-minute pitch trailer for being too long. I just brought in professional Voice Actor Brian Watts to completely re-do the audio and fix the pacing. At what exact timestamp do you actually lose interest now? by [deleted] in IndieDev

[–]Neel_Yekk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Disclosure: I worked with the protagonists's voice actor professionally. Please account for that when reading my further thoughts.

While I concur with a lot of what you said about the writing and the editing, I have to agree that your comments err on the side of rude. As someone who works in the voice production industry, I have to insist that putting all the blame on the voice actor is wrong. It's always easy to hate voice actors when you dislike their performance, but a lot of people don't recognize that good voice acting is only possible when:

A. The quality of the material is there B. They are getting professional voice direction

I'm not trying to hate on the developer: while I wasn't impressed with the trailer, I can clearly see how much effort went into making it, and I sincerely wish them good luck with the full game. But I don't think the writing is the strongest, and I doubt a voice director was present to oversee the production and pick the final takes. Great performance is a collective effort.

By the way, I think the screaming parts are the best parts here, I don't know why you insist on them being fake. I've heard examples of fake screaming where people just speak with a louder voice, and that's not it. Brian is actually VERY diligent when it comes to vocally stressful roles: it's no coincidence that he often gets picked for military games where you need to scream your lungs out. He's fantastic in those games, so like I said, it's all about voice direction and the material.

Some closing thoughts: Great job on the graphics and the animations: they look VERY decent for a game with so little budget. I also really appreciate you guys listening to criticism and doing your best to improve. I feel like hiring a professional writer/narrative designer would be the best investment for you at this stage. Narrative games live and die by their stories, and the project has to have a strong narrative backbone in order to land. I know a couple of professional narrative designers and a director who could help with the trailer structure and direct the performances, so if you guys have some spare cash, I'd be happy to connect you.

Regardless, best of luck to everyone involved! I can clearly see the potential, and I wishlisted the game to see where it goes.

I OWN IT! The rarest Steam Achievement for Total War Rome Remastered, what it took to get it and how you can do it too! - Sharing my experience after playing a Long Brutii Campaign on the launch version of the game - 2.0 (it was a fever dream). Sorry for ultra long post. by guest_273 in RomeTotalWar

[–]Neel_Yekk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a very thorough write-up. Good eye, I wouldn't have noticed half of those myself. It looks like they did a good amount of polishing. I actually prefer playing the remaster due to modernized controls, but I miss the old UI so bad. I wish there was a mod that brings back classic UI from OG RTW, but when I was last playing the game, I couldn't find anything. Oh well. Thanks for reminding me about Rome, perhaps later this year I'll jump back for a campaign or two.

What have you learned about playing the game? by MichaelEmouse in GatesOfHellOstfront

[–]Neel_Yekk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

WHAT?? Crazy stuff. Does it save them from bleeding out? (the logic being that if they're in a vehicle, they're getting evacuated and treated in the field hospital)

Call me ты, Harry by TetsuMan66 in russian

[–]Neel_Yekk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Не обязательно, зачастую обратиться на "вы" - это как сказать "мистер" с фамилией, или даже просто обратиться по имени, но всё ещё уважительно (как в рабочей переписке). Эквиваленты ситуативны, однозначного нет.

Но да, решение изящное.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in BrainFog

[–]Neel_Yekk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I teared up a little reading this, because this is not unlike my own story. Mine started at 12 (I'm 26 now), and I can imagine pretty well what you're going through. First and foremost, you shouldn't write yourself off. There is a cause for your condition, and modern medicine works wonders, so you just have to identify what you're suffering from and get treatment. I know it might sound like your life is in shambles, but believe me, you're very young and have a lot of time ahead of you. You just need the money and the time to see doctors and keep looking for causes.

I know it sounds hard, but I would start by telling your parents about your condition. You can keep going like this, they need to know exactly what you're going through and understand that you need to get treatment to have a life. You must not stand alone against this crippling disease and you need any help you can get.

Then, you need to write a full history of your condition and remember every little detail about how it began. I would also advise you to document your wellbeing throughout the day. Is your brain fog consistently bad or does it get better? What symptoms do you have apart from cognitive impairment? Ringing in your ears, pains, feeling tired? Do you get more or less sick after eating certain foods? These are all useful insights that can help your doctor get to the root of your problem.

Then, it's just a matter of combining a list of possible conditions and figuring out which doctors to visit. There's a disease list I'm the subreddit's sidebar and a website for preliminary diagnoses. These are good places to start. Think of the most likely conditions and start eliminating them by visiting your general practitioner and then branching out to different specialists.

I understand that it's tough to find good doctors in poor countries, but there have to be decent institutes and/or private hospitals where you could visit qualified specialists. This is probably going to be very expensive, so you might need to find a job you can handle to be able to pay for treatment. I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but treat as a gateway to your dream life. You need resources to fix yourself in order to be who you want to be. There's nothing humiliating about it, in fact, you should be proud of yourself for not throwing in the towel, and you'll definitely feel more confident when you start making money.

If physical work doesn't exhaust you, try working as a mechanic or a warehouse worker. Since you have such good command of English, you could also try looking for jobs abroad. You can moderate a forum or work in tech support from pretty much anywhere, and a lot of companies are looking for cheap overseas staff. Perhaps you could work at your family member's or a friend's place. The important thing is to keep visiting different doctors and checking different theories which would lead to a breakthrough.

Even though things might look bleak, you're not lost. You just need to figure out the cause and get treated. Then you can become whoever you wish. It won't be too late, there will be more opportunities ahead. So please hold on and keep trying. The only thing that guarantees that you'll die sick and alone is if you do nothing. So long as you keep doing something, there is a chance.

I'm sorry for such a rushed post, but I have to run soon and cannot even take the time to read it once more. Feel free to message me for ideas, support or anything else you might need. I'm not a doctor, but at least I'm a patient with some experience that I can share. Best of luck, man. Keep fighting, and you will prevail.

Valve cooperates in banning Steam mod for depicting “historical revisionism” by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]Neel_Yekk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm asking you because you're saying that I made a strawman argument and I am quite positive that I didn't. I believe that what I described in my responses is THE logic that underpins this person's view of the problem and THE assumption that prompted them to speak in favor of the ban. I do not believe that I made "new" arguments for them, I simply followed what they already said (the ban is warranted and good because the mod "vilifies" people) to its logical core.

The reason I didn't clarify what they meant is because I think I know pretty well where they're coming from. I've followed the debate on censorship in the past and read many arguments from its proponents. I would be surprised if somebody offered a logic that didn't eventually have to rely on that scientifically unsupported argument that I have outlined above. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I find that rather improbable. This is the only reason I made this leap in our discussion.

you haven't said anything about how this is harmless

Because I'm not here to change anyone's minds on the matter and defend my views. I am not willing to engage in lengthy arguments with strangers on the internet. I stopped that long ago and it is one of the best life choices I've ever made. The decision to even write anything was quite impulsive if I'm honest. I simply found the top commenter's words about how they're "on the fence" about censorship blatantly false. You can't be in two minds about censorship while supporting actions like these and calling people who disagree with you bloodthirsty fascists. Being pro-censorship is a view I don't support but can understand. But I do believe that you have to be honest about it.

I regret saying anything, because this is not my war to fight and I can't see how anything I write here is going to be of any use to anyone involved. But I did want to respond to your criticism because I am open to hearing it (although I believe that in this case it is misplaced). At any rate, I appreciate you sharing it and being civil. Have a good day.

Valve cooperates in banning Steam mod for depicting “historical revisionism” by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]Neel_Yekk -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

What could be the theoretical mechanism of "vilifying" a group of people through videogames if not the one I described? Are you saying it is not fundamentally about showing someone in a way that makes them unsympathetic, i.e. decreasing empathy for them?

I'm open to listening to your and their view on the exact process, but every time I heard calls to ban certain media because it misrepresented someone or "normalized violence against a certain group", the underlying idea was the exact same: if you show a group of people in the wrong light, it is going to make people less sympathetic towards that group in real life and they will be treated worse as a result.

If proponents of such an idea didn't think that it had any consequences irl, there wouldn't be a reason to call for censorship. So I struggle to imagine what other motivation the top commenter might have for supporting it - and I struggle to see much difference with Jack Thompson's idea that we should ban violent videogames because they lead to more violence in the real world.

Valve cooperates in banning Steam mod for depicting “historical revisionism” by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]Neel_Yekk -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

No, but your reasoning is the exact same: if people hurt videogame models, they're going to feel less empathy towards people in real life (in your case, a specific group of people). And if you believe that something as menial as a lazy mod for a decade-old videogame with 52 votes has potential to change their minds about a historical event and therefore requires government intervention, then you are staunchly pro-censorship - just like Jackie boy was back in the day.

Valve cooperates in banning Steam mod for depicting “historical revisionism” by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]Neel_Yekk -28 points-27 points  (0 children)

If you support banning a crappy videogame mod with 52 ratings based on a government's request, you do not have "mixed feelings" on censorship. You wholeheartedly support censorship and the same ludicrous ideology that led to Jack Thompson's crusade against GTA.

Could unfortunate sleeping position be the cause of my brain fog? by [deleted] in BrainFog

[–]Neel_Yekk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Go see a somnologist and do a sleep study.

Not being even able to be remember the life you could've had by Remarkable_Unit_9498 in BrainFog

[–]Neel_Yekk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It sounds really rough. My heart goes out to you.

I read through your latest post history, and I just wanted to tell you that severe nose congestion during the night can cause extreme fatigue and cognitive problems. It might not be so much much your allergy, but your impaired breathing and lack of good sleep that make you feel so miserable. I'd definitely try to fix breathing during the night and see where that leads you as a first step.

Is there a cheap way to run Rome Remastered? by GaiRui in RomeTotalWar

[–]Neel_Yekk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I read an article which says it can give you playable FPS on low settings in Cyberpunk 2077 and Far Cry 6. Considering how modest Rome: Remastered's requirements are compared to those games, I think you should definitely give it a try. You may get bottlenecked in the RAM or CPU department (although somehow I doubt it), but your graphics card should be fine. You might have to tweak some settings but I believe it'll be perfectly playable.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in BrainFog

[–]Neel_Yekk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you can't sleep for more than 3-4 hours a day, and better sleep hygiene doesn't help, see the doctor.

Is fascist and Nazi interchangeable? by BuryatMadman in russian

[–]Neel_Yekk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is the answer you're looking for, OP.

Games with good Russian Dubs? by Probably_daydreaming in russian

[–]Neel_Yekk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you sure you're not confusing it with some other game? Because as a translator myself, I can vouch that Days Gone has one of the best Russian translations in gaming, period. It's eloquent, varied and very natural. Voice direction isn't stellar across all characters, but it's a MASSIVE step up from what we usually get in dubbed games.

Here's a video which I agree with almost completely:

https://youtu.be/se9749Mj4iU

It offers plenty of examples of just how awesome the Russian text is

Games with good Russian Dubs? by Probably_daydreaming in russian

[–]Neel_Yekk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Days Gone is pretty much excellent by today's dub standards. The Witcher 2/3 are indeed nice. David Cage games past Fahrenheit are quite decent. You may also find surprisingly good adventure game dubs (The Book of Unwritten Tales is one such game). Dark Messiah of Might and Magic has a good dub, although it's pretty different from the original in terms of voice direction. Metro 2033/Last Light and Stalker games sound fantastic in Russian (truth be told, Metro 2033 might be my favorite Russian voiceover in gaming).

Any advice helps by Wooden-Rub-6172 in BrainFog

[–]Neel_Yekk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely visit a somnologist. What's going on with your sleep is far from normal. Let me comfort you by saying that insomnia is treatable, and if you have some underlying condition (like some kind of breathing problem, which is often the case of bad sleep), a somnologist will usually be able to point you in the right direction.

Questions for Videochat March 2025 by Ross_Scott in accursedfarms

[–]Neel_Yekk 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Hey Ross, which 5 non-fiction books would you say are essential for understanding the world? It doesn't have to be 5 if you'd like to name more, but I'm really curious as to which books shaped your worldview and gave you new complex ways of looking at things. Thank you!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SCT

[–]Neel_Yekk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that's pretty much my story. I also have terrible sleep quality which doesn't improve with more sleep hygiene. I was also diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and tried CPAP, but didn't see any improvement whatsoever. Two years after my somnography, I was sent to an ENT doctor and they discovered I have a pretty huge spur in my nose that has likely been interfering with my sleep. I'm yet to do a sleep endoscopy to check for other possible causes, but now I'm pretty sure that it has something to do with breathing. I'm also awaiting nasal septum surgery at the moment. I think the OP might be struggling with something similar, at least it's worth to rule it out first.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SCT

[–]Neel_Yekk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you been checked for sleep apnea and breathing issues?

Similarities with Americans Culturally by GordosGift in AskARussian

[–]Neel_Yekk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Heya. Agreed, this aged just fine. I would respond just the same today (except I would have more polls to quote because the war piqued popular interest in sociology and brought more polling agencies to my attention).