I mean I love space, from sci-fi to more realistic. I played a lot of Kerbal Space Program. But I don’t love grinding. I did plenty of that in Warframe but only because the core loop and mechanics feel good and the unlockables are kinda fun. Absent that kind of engagement, no way. KSP requires planning maneuvers but at least there’s time warp and no threats except your own mistakes.

What’s so good about Elite Dangerous? I hoped to enjoy it but bounced off pretty quickly.

Another for Warframe. About 4000 hours over maybe 5-6 years and I think I only ever paid like $12 for some starter platinum.

Since that’s free-to-play, here are runners up:

• Satisfactory - 850 hours and counting, bought for maybe $20.
• Forza Horizon 4 - got the premium pack for $20 about 6 months before EOL and put almost 750 hours into it.
• Elden Ring - 650+ hours so far.
• Terraria - 450+ hours, what a deceptively huge game.
• Skyrim - Endlessly replayable with mods, 300+ hours.
• Witcher 3 - explored everything, Heroic says 150 hours but it could easily be more.
• Fallout 3 - hundreds of hours, explored everything.
• Kerbal Space Program - 250 hours, got it for like $16 way back when.

Well they dropped the full set (base + expansions) from $20+ to ~$5.

I played a lot of the original BoI release, but eventually got burnt out on roguelikes and never felt compelled to pay a premium when it was redesigned on a new engine for Rebirth. But at $5, sure, why not. Good Steam Deck title.

Or “Stop Renting Games” since we only get a digital license on most platforms that can be revoked.

EDIT: I need to watch the (looong) video linked below by MagnificentSteiner as this may be wrong.

My partner has been learning a tiny bit of Welsh on Duolingo so this got a giggle out of her 🙂

Heh,I learned this one the hard way. Thought I was safe because I cooperated and provided them all kinds of info, and I was rising up through management. But nope, they didn’t give a damn about loyalty or anything, they just wanted a fresh slate and cut all kinds of people.

So it’s like a mystical artifact of the computational Big Bang? You deref a pointer to the very beginning of Unix time and bam, suddenly you’re styling like Richard Stallman?

The placement of the labels is a bit sloppy but I think it tracks. The character in the middle (int*) is pointing at int, then the one on the left (int**) is pointing at the middle one (int*), etc

What I want to know: what is that shirt and where do I get it?

Oh wow I haven’t seen that in aeons haha

Still not my thing but I guess that makes sense, and I haven’t seen one with a story. Thanks.

Sure. But what exactly is that commentary? To me it feels super cynical, like “Look, people are suckers and you don’t need to waste effort on story and gameplay, they’re happy to just mindlessly click buttons”.

Progression and tech trees are my favorite parts of rpg games.

Oh I like those very much too. They serve as a reward for playing the core game and unlock further choices and complexity so your skills and particular playstyle can expand.

Good incremental games distill that part to a fine, highly concentrated progression liquor.

Uh, no I would argue that they boil away everything interesting – narrative, gameplay, choices, skill, problem solving – and what’s left is naught but the kind of task 1960’s neuroscientists would set for rats with electrodes implanted in their crania. How is that appealing whatsoever?

I can’t really disagree with any of that. But I did enjoy playing back in school, and then women’s Olympic soccer is way better to watch than men’s IMO (they play hard, and don’t fall down and fake injury at the lightest bump).

Huh? That’s like saying you love a shitty drug. You’re not enjoying a story or developing any kind of skill, you’re just raising your risk of RSI for a dopamine hit. What am I missing?

Basketball. It’s practically the same game as soccer and hockey without the interesting constraints (no hands, or play on skates). I won’t deny that it requires athleticism, but then it has the non-skill requirement to be freakishly tall. If you’re not biologically tall, well too bad, that’s a huge handicap you have basically no hope of overcoming.

And NBA games are the worst, it’s always tied like 100-100 until the last 1-2 minutes which is where all the interesting plays happen (between a half dozen fouls) and the actual outcome is decided. The rest of the game you can often just ignore and not really miss anything important.

Not a single title, but any incremental “clicker” game. What’s the point? Seems like “hurr durr number go up”.

Similarly, any game that’s more than a little grindy, where the grind isn’t a fun gameplay loop in its own right. e.g. I played Warframe for years, and the core gameplay feels great. But if it wasn’t for that I would have likely hated the game due to how repetitive it gets just to collect tedious resources and upgrade your gear.

Oh? I’d be delighted for me to be wrong and you to be right on this.

Good luck! I couldn’t hold out and I hope I don’t regret it too much. The game is already good but I’m trying to give useful feedback so it’ll be even better for everyone later.

I only see one other reply to your comment, and I’m not sure it’s making these assumptions. Maybe you could point to the ‘backlash’?

Regardless, I already said I think you’re right in the grand scheme of things and shared my input. But I didn’t write the original comments you were responding to and have no need or desire to defend those.