Just working. All of my family is quite a ways away from me so I’ll get a nice paycheck out of the deal. Thankfully I work from home and have a job where unless something explodes I can screw off all day, so I got to call my family and play video games all day.

I think part of it is that for a westerner to confront the fact that overpopulation isn’t an inherent issue, we have abundant resources to handle a huge population, then they’re forced to confront that it’s an issue of resource allocation. And when that happens westerners are programmed to start screaming about commies the same way that they imagine dirty peasants used to scream about witches. So for the last god knows how many years anytime western media has a narrative that needs to confront the issue of resource allocation they skirt the problem by saying there are too many people and that’s the real issue. That and the implied racism of saying the problem is overpopulation is killing two birds with one stone, so it’s a narrative that stuck around in western media and became a convenient misdirection.

Somehow it’s still not the scummiest thing that PayPal does. Close though.

Depends on the game and how familiar I am with its mechanics. When I start a new game I have to feel it out first before I can autopilot while listening to something.

I can mindlessly level characters in WoW Classic (my favorite thing to do, the endgame can be fun but us usually really toxic) because I’ve played WoW off and on for 20 years so I don’t have to give it much thought. Honestly can’t do it without a podcast or audiobook anymore. Also Elden Ring, I “clear the map” of all the smaller dungeons while listening to stuff, but like WoW I love starting fresh characters with a new build and honestly doing it without listening to something is boring.

I also like ARPGs like Diablo 3. Diablo 4 Is more miss than hit these days, but can be fun. Path of Exile never really grabbed me, but I’ll probably give PoE2 a shot soonish. A recent one if found is Wayfinder. Is a wonderful little action RPG that I’ve really enjoyed playing recently. It started development as a live service title but because of some nonsense they retooled it and released it as a fully offline action RPG with tons of collectibles and up to three player coop.

I also like 4x games once I get used to the mechanics. Stuff like Civilization, Age of Wonders, Stellaris, Endless Space & Endless Legend. Usually I’m just doing runs to get specific achievements or try out a silly build idea. I pause whatever I’m listening to sometimes if things get tense and need some micromanagement.

I play Warframe too sometimes, but that’s a bit more dependent on what I’m doing in game. It’s really the only looter shooter that’s ever stuck with me so there aren’t really any other games similar to it I play. Most others are unforgiving but Warframe you can make really tanky builds so if you space out listening to something for a minute it’s not the end of the world.

That all being said I’m lucky, I have a bullshit job where I can play games a lot during the workday so I play a ton of stuff while listening to podcasts and audiobooks.

I’d say that he replaced himself with a Zuckerbot but stapled his face on it to try and seem less like an alien than Zuck but the creep is so obviously on industrial quantities of amphetamines these days. Every interview he’s given that I’ve had the misfortune of witnessing he’s gnashing his teeth and jittering constantly. Dude probably hasn’t blinked in 5 years.

I’ve been playing a game called Wayfinder recently and been having a blast. The game has been on a long journey, it started out as a MMO-lite dungeon crawling action RPG, but the publisher, Digital Extremes of Warframe fame, pulled out as the publisher and left the devs Airship Syndicate high and dry. So Airship Syndicate went back to the drawing board and dropped all the MMO aspects and just released the game as a offline action RPG that can do up to three player co-op via P2P so no servers involved. The developers, Airship Syndicate, are refugees from Vigil and a lot of the team that made Darksiders 1 & 2. They made the LoL Ruined King game, Battle Chasers, and Darksiders 3.

Also since they dropped the MMO aspects there are no microtransactions! You can unlock everything by just playing the game, which is filled with all sorts of cosmetics and things to unlock. They have a supporter pack up that they did in partnership with Critical Role if you feel like throwing some extra support at the devs, but that’s the only MTX other than an old founder pack that you can’t buy anymore. But since they dropped the MMO aspect game is totally offline now you can use a save editor to get all the founders pack stuff if you want.

I’ve been quite hooked so far. The art style is wonderful, this glitzy neon drenched steampunk-ish fantasy that takes some obvious inspiration from LoL/Arcane and WoW but really has its own flair that makes it distinct.

Combat is pretty straightforward third-person action RPG. There are big outdoor zones with lots of little secrets and puzzles to find, but most of the game is running randomized dungeons or killing bosses. The dungeons have a surprising amount of secrets in them so you’re rewarded for looking around and exploring instead of just plowing through and ignoring everything. You choose from characters with 4 abilities and a pretty wide range of weapons with their own ability. There are lots of stats customization which makes it play a lot more RPG than you’d think at first the more things you unlock.

Story is pretty good. Good voice acting with funny and serious side quests and NPCs that aren’t just pop culture references really give it some heart and soul. Some clichés, but little to no action/horror movie logic where characters act like idiots for no reason.

It’s got a lot of legs if you like the combat and enjoy collecting new cosmetics and gear. Personally I love games like this when I’m listening to podcasts or audiobooks.

It’s not without its issues. It plays on Steam Deck, but is pretty choppy ant times and I sometimes get frame rate drops on PC, but my rig is starting to show its age. I’ve heard the PS5 version has more performance issues, but I play on PC so I can’t confirm. The occasional bug crops up, but I haven’t run across anything game breaking. At worst I’ve had to come back to a quest later, but usually a reload fixes things.

Anyways that’s a big rambly pitch for my surprise favorite game this year. I haven’t given much thought to TGA yet, but I am super excited for Monster Hunter Wilds next year.