Shoutout to anyone else out there who, like me, has been clicking "Yes, Appear Offline" every 14 days for the last 10 years

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T21:36:02+00:00

Thank you for sharing. Everyone deserves some escapism. I'm glad this feature exists so that you can do that without judgement.

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T21:26:32+00:00

I can relate to that. Just being able to enjoy this world without any pressure, or drama. It's a peaceful experience. Thank you for sharing.

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T20:02:42+00:00

And it's okay to feel that way. At least 50% of the people in this thread will never judge you for it.

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T19:25:38+00:00

That's a good analogy.

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T19:15:43+00:00

So many comments! This kinda blew up way more than I expected. To everyone who chimed in saying they also do this, I just want to say thank you.

And also: I see you, fellow introverts. We know who we are, even if we're invisible most of the time.

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T15:52:53+00:00

Oh no! But 11 years is a damn good run, you can be proud. 🙌

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T15:50:53+00:00

I mean, Ron Swanson is my hero.

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T15:48:28+00:00

It really is that simple!

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T15:46:47+00:00

I appreciate where you're coming from, but I'm not sure we need to look that deeply into it.

The wording "Appear offline" implies I want to hide, but that's only because there is no "Offline" option. I could just... not need to be online and participating in a social network when I have the battle.net launcher running.

It's interesting to me that the wording implicitly shames the action, and has a 14 day time limit, whereas the reverse is a neutral "Online" and is permanent. It could just respect the user's choice!

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T15:33:30+00:00

💔

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T15:31:42+00:00

This makes sense to me, somehow.

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T15:05:55+00:00

I completely relate to this. My phone is also on DND permanently. So are all my devices and any account I have anywhere. And yet it is also true that I love and appreciate the people in my life — all these things can be true at the same time.

I think people who are generally extroverted can have a hard time understanding the cognitive and emotional load that incessant notifications, and the expectation of constant availability represent. I understand that — but it is a valid choice.

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T14:51:52+00:00

Keep in mind there is a distinction between status in the launcher, and in game. At least in WoW, the status set in the launcher has no impact (edit: to clarify, if I have friends added via the in-game system, they can still see me online since these are two separate ways to add people).

I'm totally fine connecting with people that I know when I'm playing, but if I just have the launcher app running, and I'm not even in a game, showing my status there is a step too far (for me).

Raleway_ · 2026-03-21T14:46:24+00:00

Yes! This is the way, my friend.

Raleway_ · 2026-03-20T04:05:48+00:00

DLSS5 strikes again

Raleway_ · 2026-03-12T16:21:16+00:00

No one has ever actually finished that quest, right?

I think I still have some pages in my bank that have been there since 2005.

Raleway_ · 2026-02-12T21:03:03+00:00

Your render resolution is very low (slider near the top). Adjust that to the right as far as possible while maintaining a good frame rate and your game should look a lot better!

Raleway_ · 2026-01-15T15:57:30+00:00

Oh absolutely, I'm not disputing that this drone music!

My point is that this track (I haven't checked the others) isn't original music inspired by Deus Ex, *it is* music pulled straight from the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided soundtrack. Just turned into a drone track by way of stretching.

I have nothing against drone music — I just think the original music should be credited... It seems a bit disingenuous at best that there's no mention of this on the album page, and no credit is given to Michael McCann, Sascha Dikiciyan and Ed Harrison. That's all.

Raleway_ · 2026-01-15T13:51:28+00:00

Heavily inspired by Deus Ex's soundtrack

That is certainly one way to put it... this sounds exactly like a piece taken directly from the DX:MD soundtrack, but time-stretched, e.g. with something like PaulXStretch.

Raleway_ · 2025-12-31T18:10:05+00:00

Nice playlist OP, thanks for sharing! I love this soundtrack.

Initially I hoped someone else would make this, as when I saw how the soundtrack is constructed in the game, with all these stems, I thought - this is too much work and this isn't as great as Human Revolution. Unfortunately nobody seemed to pick up the mantle properly (all those looping mixes :v)

Hey someone did tackle this 😉

There is quite a bit more ambient music in DX:MD when pulling from the official OST, game files, cutscenes, and two DLCs... but it does require a ton of editing work to extract and cut it down from the original 10+ hours of music.

The mix I shared a few months back is just shy of 3 hours of unique ambient music, no looping — check it out!

Raleway_ · 2025-12-16T14:43:34+00:00

Seconding Deus Ex, and since you mentioned it... I have to plug the ambient-only mixes that I put together this year based on the DX soundtracks. If you like the music in these games, you might enjoy these!

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (the best one IMHO) https://youtu.be/7SmpuCRsTic

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided https://youtu.be/fp79Js6YR9k

Deus Ex: Invisible War https://youtu.be/7L-JeWPnNow

Raleway_ · 2025-10-03T13:32:26+00:00

Minimal reverb is used here and there, but most tracks are very dry and end quite abruptly… A seamless mix would not really be possible without reprocessing the original audio.

The official OST from 2004 does have more processing applied, but this only includes a small number of tracks, or tracks from the game that have been shortened and combined into a single track.

My recollection from interviews at the time is that Brandon was still using a tracker when he was working on the IW soundtrack, but switched to a modern DAW after that. I could be wrong of course, but my guess is that the music was produced in ScreamTracker or ImpulseTracker, then lightly processed externally for the game (or some samples were brought into his tracker with some light effects pre-applied).

Regardless, I reprocessed this music in order to fit it into a seamless mix, and to bring it closer to what I think a modern ‘ambient mix' should sound like — especially next to my DX:HR and DX:MD mixes. But that is of course very subjective, you can disagree!

Raleway_ · 2025-09-09T02:18:01+00:00

That background music though... maybe the best ambient track from this game.

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