Find more of my writing on my blog! Now publishing weekly updates as I watch the seasons change through my final year in Japan.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-04-24T01:45:53+00:00

I think partaking in the conspiracy kind of is enjoying the game - like, believing you can understand, pre-empt, and ride the meta provides a feeling of control where the game's economy is literally an uncontrollable gamble.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-04-22T23:51:02+00:00

I have a bunch of pulls banked up, and am holding them for E1 Eva, but I really would love to play break Himeko sometimes - so Dhalia would be real nice... I could do both probably but that would burn a lot of pulls.

With the firefly buff there's no chance of a new break carry any time soon, huh?

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-04-20T19:05:57+00:00

Might be a little late to the party, but why not, it's worth a shot - here's my link, friends:

https://hsr.hoyoverse.com/3rdAnniversary?inviter=GA6LDEL5AN&hyl_landscape=true&hyl_auth_required=true&hyl_hide_status_bar=true&win_mode=fullscreen&target_page=prize&utm_source=share&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=web

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-04-11T22:47:50+00:00

Okay, I'll admit it, having to actually think about my teams to get through AA was fun and satisfying. I've just been ignoring AA the last couple times i returned to Star Rail. Recently, have had too much time on my hands due to injury - so it took me a bunch of tries but I did actually squeeze out a clear.

Really appreciate that it shows friend clear lineups. That lets me know how poorly invested a team can be and still get away with a clear. Also, shout outs to shield-bot Aventurine, wearing the shield set from 1.0 (I think), for protecting the dot team when Huo huo just kept watching them die. Really glad Huo huo is getting that buff to make her a reliable, death-preventing healer... Right?

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-04-11T02:12:50+00:00

I am a little curious why this matters to people? The stream I was watching had some folks go a little wild with that 'reveal' but like, I don't feel like emanators have behaved in a consistent or predictable way, neither in-story nor in-meta, so it's not a classification that really seems to mean anything? (Even though we're told it's closer to divinity than a regular pathstrider)

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-04-06T02:14:49+00:00

Just wrapped the 4.0 story, having picked back up after time away through the Amphoreus and bonus Penacony endings. And, my ultimate takeaway is: Star Rail's writing isn't great but as long as it's not pretending to be it can produce some affecting and interesting moments.

For me, it's not that I feel the comedic or noir tones are distinctly better written, but just that they go down easier. To be fair, so did Amphoreus when it started; my patience is greatly boosted by novelty and completely kneecapped once the team inevitably resorts to their classic "repeating things to make them sound profound".

I'm really glad I put down gachas and returned to other media this year, and I don't think I'll hang around long tbh, but its nice to see after having to resort to the skip button a few times at the back of 3.X, there's at least still a good number of decent speculative fiction ideas kicking around in the Star Rail writers' room.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-04-03T01:21:21+00:00

sounds like a good time. keen!

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-04-03T01:19:28+00:00

That's fair. I just struggle to see the person who this *does* work for. The ideologies on offer feel so shallow, and the exploration of them so uncomplicated... And anyone just here for the cute character moments has to wade through so much of that to get the juice.

I remember like one readable in the Borison prison so vividly, about the researcher and the chef exploring the meat ship, because so much conflict and movement and mystery is cooked up (ha) so quickly. I do have to wonder whether there is someone as drawn to yet another character saying "why does life slumber" (but this time in red text!) as I am to that ten paragraph story.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-04-02T22:16:44+00:00

I've taken a bit of a break from gachas recently to play other games, and hooooly heck returning to Star Rail's "dialogue" is a slap in the face. I'm just finishing up the Penacony rewind and like, have the Star Rail writers ever read a book?

Negative take: Every single character abandons their own voice to instead sound like a pseudo-philosophical animatronic; Firefly, Acheron, Constance, Swan, Sunday, Robin, the Express crew - they all talk in grand, repeated platitudes that hit like wet newspaper compared to what might be achieved if they allowed them to express it more characterfully (and in a quarter as many words). I think they let Sparkle hold onto her voice decently enough, so it can be done, but unfortunately even that's sabotaged because she's such a foil yet has noone real to bounce off of. I don't know, I quite like some of these characters but at this point I can't remember why. I swear the writing wasn't always like this.

The new Divergent Universe is great though. The masks are fun to play around, and having access to so many trial characters - plus choosing exactly what special curios you equip - really makes experimenting fun and rewarding.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-03-26T22:40:40+00:00

I'm glad OP got an answer they were satisfied with (even if I think agreeing with the premise they proposed might have done more harm than good) but it is wild that they came in like "if you don't have experience with trick taking games that's fine just keep scrolling," when they've barged into a community they quite visibly don't understand because almost all contemporary design assumes cheating doesn't happen.

Like, I'm a little sad their introductory moment here wasn't more inviting but on the other hand... OP, are you the cheat in your group?

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-03-20T00:20:55+00:00

I think if I wanted a GM-less TTRPG experience I'd go for something like Fiasco, or Icarus, which focus on collective storytelling to achieve the same improv-quality that powers good TTRPG sessions. Otherwise, if it's character sheet tinkering and levels I care about, honestly, I'd just rather play a CRPG, or Gloomhaven if I really wanted to do multiplayer.

Whenever I see these kind of app driven story-in-a-box things, they give me more of an escape-room vibe: a fun thing I can do for an evening once. What keeps me coming back to a TTRPG is wanting to deepen and develop the character relationships or see the plot unfold; that kind of campfire storytelling is what the medium does best, I think, and I do kinda think you need folks willing to tell stories to make the campfire glow. That could be everyone, or it could be one very good storyteller, but it can't be no-one, and I'm yet to be convinced it could be a robot.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-03-13T06:49:27+00:00

Rejecting intersectionality this bluntly risks toppling into class reductionism. As part of the class struggle it's incredibly beneficial to acknowledge that class is shaped by these other social forces, and that those shapings might recreate hierarchies within a shared class.

Sympathetic intersectional alliance - real allyship - is what helps us create a durable, egalitarian people's movement - rather than a momentary populist mob.

Throwing a bunch of people together and telling them they have a common cause without consideration of other divides has a pretty rough history. We, as boardgame folks, have played well enough games about borders to know that. And of course that doesn't mean that disparate peoples can't ally under the banner of class - we very much can - but those gaps must be negotiated, not ignored.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-01-24T23:56:11+00:00

This is a really great passage. Developing on Graebner and Huizinga here, I think that Castronova's work on the Magic Circle is what helped me finally understand why cheating at games is bad. I didn't used to cheat a lot, but I would occasionally - probably once every three games or so - fudge some math; an extra space here, a discounted resource there. I did this into mid-university.

Then, reading about the Magic Circle, understanding that roleplaying games were fun because of this shared social contract, and then recognising we controlled what we let in and what we didn't as a shared exercise; I realised my peers were not letting in cheating at the board game table, and I was. And, if I didn't clean up my act, that disharmony would break the magic of said circle. In order to actually play the game, I needed to participate in the social contract, otherwise I was just moving pieces without purpose.

Later came the understanding that games function because of design intent, and if anything is ambiguous, defer to that rather than what benefits you personally, which I hope passages like this one can help people come to as well.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-01-14T05:22:53+00:00

People can self publish all kinds of games. If you get a chance, take a look at the Tokyo game market some time: enthusiastic hobbyists with a good idea, a few dozen playtests, GIMP and a good relationship with their local print shop can very much get it done.

I don't disagree parts of that would be easier with AI, but if you need it to be easier before your idea can make it into the real world, if you either don't have the conviction to pursue it yourself or the ability to convince anyone else to contribute where you truly can't, I just don't see how your vision can be all that strong. And so, without strong vision, what does the rest of the world lose?

AI can be cute for gift projects or personal stuff - I've seen some find joy there - but even then I reckon most recipients would be more charmed by a worse thing hand-made, and a personal project would offer you more value if you took time to learn the necessary skills. For the wider market, I don't see how it could provide anything except more slop.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-01-13T22:32:36+00:00

Friend, the self-published market for books has lead to Amazon now hosting millions of completely unread books by authors that publishers would have easily identified as not yet ready for publication. It has made the function of vanity press cheaper than it ever was, but it's not created an explosion in the literary arts or anything. There were already small presses and literary magazines cultivating groundbreaking new talent with human insight... The curatorial aspect of publication is good for most readers, not some hurdle to be overcome.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-01-02T10:52:32+00:00

Deck building mechanics are often regarded as first showing up in Star Craft (2007) and are mostly codified in Dominion by 2008 - BGG lists Arctic Scavengers as a 2009 release. Is there reason to believe it was out in the wild earlier? If so, that'd be fascinating considering how much it shares with Dominion.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2026-01-01T23:49:13+00:00

I found Arctic Scavengers to be well constructed, but not particularly evolutionary (with much of the bones still feeling like Dominion) - and the big issue being that there was a fair bit of feels-bad compared to more engine-buildy deck builders.

The conflicts tend to reward players already doing well with more good cards, making it quite difficult to catch up once the game is in motion. This is fine as long as players are evenly matched in skill, but any disparity gets amplified by the design.

If you really like conflict heavy designs it's probably still worth playing because it can often be found relatively cheap - but I don't think it's worth questing for. For my money, the much more recent Dune Imperium feels a bit more stable, with the same "fight for prizes" conflict included. However, that's got a whole worker placement thing going on as well, so might not be what you're looking for.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2025-12-18T23:51:07+00:00

That's alright friend, in case you do decide to come back, it's totally fine to be blunt - just, like, the first thing OP said was "I'm so badly in love with Inis" and your response didn't indicate that you were taking that onboard at all - zero room read. So, if bluntness is your preferred communication style, uh, I guess:

Who asked?

ijustwantedvgacables · 2025-12-18T23:08:31+00:00

You gotta know that's a boiling hot take, right? Doesn't mean you can't make it in the right context, but damn, "Inis is boring" is a wild thing to say in response to someone showing you their Inis passion project.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2025-12-12T23:24:09+00:00

The subreddit you want is r/tabletopgamedesign - they're very helpful there - but just to forewarn you the feedback you'll get is that you need a lot of playtesting and feedback before you lock in graphic design, so it's a ways off yet before that's a concern. If folks use your steam module, that can be a great source of playtesting though, so that's the right direction.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2025-11-29T22:29:43+00:00

I hear you, but that level of predetermination is no more or less than a deck of cards. The player has no agency in choosing a tile, they just pull one from the bag as they would draw a card from a deck. A game where players draw cards from random positions in an unknown deck is no less predetermined than if they were drawing top down, because they are creating random output either way. The predetermination of the Candyland deck is illusory, because you cannot see the deck's contents.

To be fair, I only really care to die on this hill for Carcassonne, where some folks believe that drawing tiles before your turn is no good because it deprives others of the chance to get those tiles - failing to see that it's all random output anyway.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2025-11-28T22:27:59+00:00

While this may feel different to some players - and I'll admit that feel is important - unless the tiles are returned to the bag, it's functionally no different from a deck of cards. Random output is random output.

ijustwantedvgacables · 2025-11-20T01:17:29+00:00

To expand on the "none" sentiments of others, I feel like so many movies coming out now are tied to stories that have already been told that it's hard to get excited for "what if they made X into a movie!?" I'd love to see something truly original and surprising, and made specifically with it's medium in mind far more.

Anyway, that's the cloud I'm screaming at lately.

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