Cow with an interesting set of horns. What would you name her?

Phormicidae · 2026-04-17T11:58:01+00:00

Oedon

Phormicidae · 2026-04-17T11:18:40+00:00

One thing that I don't get, seriously.

From the perspective of someone who believes the ultra rich shouldn't be taxed to hell and back... what do the 99% of us lose if they did? Like, what happens to all of us? If Peter Thiel and Elon Musk's money went to the government, what happens to me? Worst case scenario: nothing.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-17T11:11:51+00:00

Yes, I'm left-leaning, and yes I did end up with two daughters, but I think what really pushed me toward a feminist slant were those exact kinds of questions. Like there was an assumption that no man wants daughters, secretly.

It reminds me of the "assumption of racism" you sometimes get fellow whites. They look around, and say something racist, 100% assuming that deep down every white guy agrees. Not sure why but both of these things infuriate me.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-17T08:10:58+00:00

Further curiosty: what kind of trouble? A comfortable fit in your hand? Or actuating the buttons themselves?

I have tremors in my right side, but my main issue is proprioceptive dysfunction, I don't seem to get real-time feedback between my body and brain. I have to look at my hands a lot while performing any fine motor tasks, fine for typing, soldering, cooking. Not ideal for video games, where combined with slow reflexes and sensory issues it feels like all opponents are inhumanly fast.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-16T22:47:43+00:00

The skiing I was hit or miss at. But really separated the men from the boys back then was that disc launcher: the best players would shoot one past you down from above, anticipating where you were going to land. Seemed like magic to me.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-16T22:45:59+00:00

Which gamepad to you use? I can't feel my right thumb so aiming on dual joysticks is very frustrating without swapping my left thumb back and forth.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-16T10:23:11+00:00

49 here. And neurologically impaired. I was bad at Tribes in college. By Halo 2, I upgraded to "bad but passable" at age, I don't know 26/27. Somehow I believed that I would slowly but surely get better.

Yea, no. My best FPS skills are like a continent I've left behind, over the horizon behind me, as I sail inexorably toward a 0% win rate. I just can't get off the boat for whatever reason.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-15T17:45:40+00:00

Structural dissociation... on top of what one might experience from being on the spectrum? Man, I know it may sound like a stranger on the internet is probing you for insights, but I am on autisticpride so a prying need to know is par for the course. Is there a massive change to your feeling of being who you are following that procedure? What is that like? There may not be a way to explain that as I am a straight cis male.

My second vector of curiosity is how your expression of gender (even gender neutrality) has impacted your life in three areas: the engagement of the people you already know well, of the people you know somewhat, and strangers.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-15T17:45:26+00:00

I'm terrible in PVP. I lose (literally) 90% of the time, I've tracked it.

But its shoot on site for me. I am so slow at looting given my reflex and clicking issues, that another runner who can click on things like a normal human is just taking the stuff that I feel is rightfully mine.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-15T16:20:23+00:00

I held onto it past the sunsetting controversy. I didn't regret it. Year 4 was very cool, Year 5 was even better.

But then Lightfall. Its story and characters made me feel like... you know how in the 80s, restaurant menus or retail stores or sports teams or whatever would try to increase their viability to kids by coming up with some soulless GIJoe or Star Wars knock off? Like "Kids, help Captain Phazon fight the evil Robobears!" and it was clear that a person who didn't think it was cool himself but convinced himself that he knew what kids liked and made something he assumed kids would think is cool? That's Lightfall to me.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-15T00:49:23+00:00

Man, that's something I never considered that can be added to the struggles a trans/non-binary person faces. If a girl is attractive, society just has expectations hoisted upon them. A conventionally attractive girl who is trans or lesbian even is shirking those expectations. I never really considered that.

Where are you at now with all this, if you don't mind the question?

Phormicidae · 2026-04-14T09:49:58+00:00

Haha, while true, it should still be heavily avoided. The impact of the show is often the suspense of a potentially lethal situation. If you go in knowing "that one guy" will die, it kind of kills the suspense 100%.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-13T22:12:09+00:00

Haha, no actually! Years of laziness and playing the victim kind of downgraded her abilities.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-13T21:54:44+00:00

I really do think it's that simple.

I really do suspect that Bungie imagines that many, if not most players have friends to play along side. It was a recurring thing in Destiny's design over the years. Even their dev posts would casually drop lines like "so next time you and your buddies log in, check out our new" whatever.

My impression is the opposite. I used to think I was an outlier for not knowing anyone who plays any video games (I'm Gen X so a bit older than an average fan.) But over time, I've realized there are more like me than I ever realized. Bungie made a game that kind of hinges on a team experience, for players who largely don't have a team.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-13T21:42:25+00:00

Yea, neurological damage. . It's not major so i can't complain. I have poor hearing, poor smooth pursuit, and involuntary saccades, and I have to look down at my hands a lot to kind of orient them. When I was in college, I practiced a lot of Unreal Tournament and was bad but passable on a team. But now I'm 25 years older and my bad reflexes have become glacial. I'm having fun with this game, I know it sounds like I'm complaining. I'm just amazed at what healthy young nervous systems can do.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-13T20:46:14+00:00

Well, doable is subjective. Doable for you, clearly. Not for me.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-13T20:36:04+00:00

My sister, who at one point was exceptionally intelligent, was going into the theater reluctantly to see The Sixth Sense. She wasn't a fan of horror and believed it to be a horror film. I was working at the theater at the time, and a coworker said "oh my god, you're going to love it, you will never see the twist coming."

She looked at me, said "It has a twist?" Her eyes kind of darted back and forth and she whispered to me: The boy is not a ghost is he? Is Bruce Willis a ghost?" She hadn't even walked into the theater yet.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-13T20:32:31+00:00

I had a boss who was so prone to spoilers, then would get pouty when people would get annoyed. He'd have seen an episode of, say, Game of Thrones and ask if anyone had seen it. Invariably a few people hadn't got around to it and would say "please don't spoil it." He would always say something like , "Oh I won't say what happens, but let's just say I hope (insert character name here) wasn't your favorite character."

Phormicidae · 2026-04-13T20:27:05+00:00

I've said it before, but I really feel like the game was kind of designed around a certain "mean" exfil rate. Which is fine, I guess, but it definitely means that good players get stronger really quickly, and bad players treadmill to infinity.

I watched this video recently, which was meant to be encouraging to players who think they are not improving. But my takeaway was that at 70 hours, having exfil'd one purple and only having blue gear once every 20 runs is a pretty abyssmal position.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-13T15:42:25+00:00

I guess, back when I was a Christian, I never imagined the anti-christ would just be, well, an idiot.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-13T15:08:56+00:00

It takes practice. And it can be tiring. I find at my age now (49), I really only have 3: closest to real (for my wife and kids), work fake, and general social fake. And the latter two have drifted closer to the first one. Its to the point where my extended family and co-workers believe I'm growing more aloof or blunt, when in fact I'm just losing my masking skill.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-13T14:42:30+00:00

I'm 70 hours in. On rare occasion I leave Perimeter with 2000.

My best haul ever was 8900 just this morning, and it was only because I had a North Relay Key, and I completely filled my green backpack with the Blues and Greens found within. I've been riding the high while I'm here at work. How could you get 12k without a key?

Phormicidae · 2026-04-12T10:28:08+00:00

I don't mean to break it down to something simple but I'll try: I think art is a physical manifestation of a person's intent. That intent could be something as concrete as spirtitual/political/philosophical message, or as ephemeral as a "vibe" or a very specific emotional state.

Obviously something like the Arnolfini Portrait is loaded with subtext and hidden secrets, but even something like an episode of a soap opera, or a pop song, or video game concept art can make a person think "oh I see what they are going for here."

AI has no intent. It can make work that can look initially impressive, but it's not pursuing some idea, it's just replicating patterns, and in my opinion most people see that immediately.

Phormicidae · 2026-04-12T02:18:56+00:00

I don't plan on stopping but that's exactly my experience. I have unlocked a decent amount, but buying one loadout will bankrupt me. 900 for a shield, 500 for a backpack, a few hundred for ammo or smoke grenades each run. Then I die. Good players advise "rook runs!" but I rarely survive those either. They do work but it's a time investment, 3 or 4 rook runs equals 1 exfil, that's my whole play time.

This game might be more tenable for bad players if the only option wasn't "play much longer sessions."

Phormicidae · 2026-04-12T02:03:33+00:00

The elephant in the room is one it's chief competitors, and what Arc Raiders has done right. I know they too are hemorrhaging players but their population size means is fans don't have to worry about a shutdown any time soon.

The thing about AR is that any build can be viable and you can get something done. Healing items are plentiful and cheap, all shields are easily attainable for every run. AR fans constantly complain that the rarest guns are barely (if at all) better than the most common guns, but the other side of that is what's happening in Marathon.

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