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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   3986 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 19, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Is there anything I as an individual can do to push back against Flock cameras or broader mass surveillance in the US?

Reading 1984 as a sixth grader I was horrified by Big Brother and the authoritarianism illustrated in the book and always felt that if those things came to life it would be right and imperative to fight against them, and every year I’ve seen more and more authoritarian overreach that disturbs me.

I do not vote as I believe it’s a massive waste of time at best. I am not fond of solutions such as “call your congressperson” or “show up to your local council and demand change” because these are similarly time wasting activities in my opinion.

I am frustrated by the acceptance of the public for these technologies with terrible implications for the present and the future. I don’t want to break the law in order to fight them and don’t want to become more of a target, which seems inevitable if you want to speak against it publicly. I feel very disappointed in people around me and the modern west when I realize the state of mass surveillance today.

Is there anything I as an individual can do to push back against Flock cameras or broader mass surveillance in the US?

The most effective thing you could do is advocate for massive increases in human policing. A cop on every corner, with DA's willing to charge all plausible cases, and judges willing to seriously hold people accountable, even juveniles and minorities. Reopen the asylums and confine the mentally ill who serially refuse to take their meds.

Flock cameras are tolerated or even desired almost entirely due to the (often accurate) perception that too much crime goes unpunished. Once we're all living in a low-crime high-trust society again, people will be much less willing to trade their public anonymity for security.

That's by design. High-trust society does not need overlords. Low-trust society does, because it's the only hope peaceful people have against random violence and petty warlords. It all works towards the same goal.

You should vote.

The cost is not actually that high: a few hours a year, right?

The benefit is, of course, abysmal. It gets better for local elections. I suspect you could push it further by spending more time and effort signaling your single-issue status. But on its own your vote is near worthless.

More importantly, it is a good categorical imperative. You should vote because people similar to you should vote.

I mean, you should vote. But if you want something higher impact, volunteer with local campaigns that oppose flock cameras. Many local elections are nonpartisan and people are simply lost as to who to vote for; a door knock or a phone call can replace the all important (R) or (D).

More importantly, if the politicians are aware of your campaign and it size and influence they'll be more likely to sway on that issue. Even if you don't swing the election, the threat that you could maybe nudge the polls a bit will make both candidates more likely to want to curry favor with you on your issue.

Flock's strategy specifically revolves around grooming political candidates and running through executive branch work, so there's not a ton you can do on that side short of making their candidate contributions more visible and highlighting some of the company's sketchier spends. Rossman's been doing that a bit, albeit to mixed result, but that's a lot better than most. And destroying the physical cameras is less than useless; in some cases Flock ends up paid twice, but regardless they've got to have a replacement budget, just because building deployed cameras to be resilient is a loser's game.

The more... esoteric versions require looking at past successes, and with the caveat that I'm operating solely from public discussion:

Baltimore has a massive distributed camera and recording system, first in its class, combined with a massive shotspotter deployment, and... it's completely useless, and that's a policy decision. Video isn't stored for long to start with, the camera selection went heavy on PTZs and then set them up in an intentionally unfocused (literally and figuratively) sense, the privacy and compliance training means no one who's actually trying to solve serious crimes can get into the system, a few dozen other problems. Downside: it's only a past-facing decision: making it into the privacy nightmare opponents paint it as is a sub-million USD and sub-year project. But you can't undelete data (in this case). But you're stuck with Baltimore mayors to do it.

Carpenter and progeny, and courts willing to draw it to its most maximal ends. It's an ad-hoc general free-floating right to privacy, it's only really useful for the guilty, even its successful cases have a 'first hit's free' problem, and it's not exactly principled, but it covers any privacy question you want so long as it's nontrivial, and it has some bipartisan support.

And destroying the physical cameras is less than useless; in some cases Flock ends up paid twice

Sure, but on the limit some level of destruction will work. Will your city council replace the cameras 4 times each? 10? At some point it will be untenable. Flock is happy to replace the cameras and bill the city according to the "Camera Protection Plan". The city has some limit on what they will spend.

I saw this while renting a car in Greece. There are speed cameras everywhere, like literally every couple of miles on some stretches, but apparently repeated mass sabotage of the cameras eventually made the program too expensive to operate, so only a handful of thr boxes around the country ever actually have cameras in them at any one time, and they have to be moved frequently to stay ahead of the good samaritans. You're generally safe to ignore all the "cameras" you see, because 99% of them are just empty boxes.

Though this might say more about Greek state capacity and Mediterranean laxity than anything else.

At the limit where the city will go bankrupt from it sure, but below that level you're unlikely to convince the city not to put cameras to protect from crime by going on a property crime spree. Your actions will likely justify putting more cameras to try and catch you vandalizing the cameras.

Not bankrupt but merely feeling the fiscal burden of replacing cameras. And yes, they'd try to crack down on camera breaking.

If you're not already aware, Deflock is pushing back against this issue specifically. There are also local groups in various areas, maybe there's one near you or you could start one yourself?

always felt that if those things came to life it would be right and imperative to fight against them

Now you're realizing there will be no fight. Good and kind citizens would just vote everything in, to protect the children, preserve the peace and fight the terrorists. And people who warn about the dangers are just insane fearmongering extremists. Who you're going to fight - a concerned father that thinks his teenage daughter spends too much time on tiktok? How are you going to fight him? And when he votes in the regime that can disconnect you from the internet if they don't like what you say, how your fight is going to look then? Are you going to murder all those kindly cat ladies from Kids Guardianship Bureau that would disconnect your account for exposing children to dangerous ideas? Reading 1984 as an adult is much more scarier, when you understand how this actually works...

You can shift public opinion to get other people to vote/go to council meetings/become elected officials by using techniques from public relations/propaganda. That is how Edward Bernays shifted the public perception around smoking to increase the amount of people that smoked.

Locally, I noticed that people seem to be able to stir up the issue on social media to get enough people to show-up to the council meetings to get the Flock contract not-renewed, but it kind of seems like a shell game where the government will quietly shift to a similar provider when the public pressure cools back down again when people inevitably switch their attention/efforts to other things.

Flock is pretty expensive for cities and seems to have trouble clearly showing an impact on violent crime reduction. It is often hard to beat the financial argument, with equity/privacy being a great excuse. Without ceding the privacy grounds, I would suggest critiques based primarily on efficacy/cost.

That argument only works until it doesn't though. An efficient surveillance state is worse than an expensive one, and I'm wary that any argument fronting cost will merely incentivize companies to figure out how to do it cheaper. Then, even if you haven't technically ceded the privacy argument, the balance of interests on the thing you were primarily talking about has now flipped and it looks like you've lost the argument. Never lead with the point that's standing on a shaky foundation that might collapse out from under you at any moment. Even if it's not technically load-bearing, it will be publicly seen as such.

Is there anything I as an individual can do to push back against Flock cameras or broader mass surveillance in the US?

As individual, fully legally (we are all law abiding citizens here)?

The effective altruist way: if you have high paying job, grind extra hard and donate the money to some trustworthy and effective organization fighting for privacy rights (no idea if there are any).

The less effective but more altruist way: drop your job and other obligations and become full time agitator for the cause. In modern world, it means shitpost on the internets (so far, AI will soon replace these jobs).

donate the money to some trustworthy and effective organization fighting for privacy rights

Ah, this is a good idea, I don't know why I didn't think of that myself. I'd love to know if anyone here who knows of any good places to donate for this sort of thing. The other night I did a little research on the topic and the ACLU had a long screed against Flock cameras but I know the right generally dislikes this organization. I'd be happier donating to a neutral or bipartisan org instead if anyone can recommend one.

The Institute for Justice filed a federal lawsuit that I believe is currently on appeal, and likely has more in the pipeline. They're basically a libertarian ACLU focusing on property rights and economic freedom. They probably also have a way to donate directly to their Fourth Amendment/surveillance work if you want to laser-focus your contribution, but I think they're pretty unobjectionable from a conservative perspective in general. They mostly go after governments for making it hard to start small businesses.

Can anyone explain the whole KDS - Kimi Derangement Syndrome that is going on? I kinda got the hype around deepseek - something that cheap to be that good. But Kimi i don't understand. It is quite expensive and it seems that no one is doing something interesting with open weights models once they are released from the labs. So what gives?

Some of it's just reaction to the marketing talk: there's a lot of people who haven't run Kimi, or only have run it through OpenRouter, who treat it as Fable equivalent because the benchmarks were good, and a Fable version that can't 'go away' is politically meaningful for the broader open-source movement. Whether they'll actually use it is a separate question.

It does also somewhat reduce the maximum cope levels for anti-AI groups. There's a theory that the 'real' cost of frontier model inference is being subsidized by orders of magnitude, and having the weights makes the upper bound of actual inference costs limited.

A lot of the open model uses aren't something you'll hear about in public. The strongest arguments are for rolling your own inference server are those environments where you can't publish anything, after all. And even if they're only a few steps behind, a lot of 'success' from an open-model is natively less interesting than the 'original' accomplishment from a frontier one, simply because if someone using Kimi K3 to disprove the Jacobian Conjecture literally today it's could plausibly not be independently discovered. Lower-profile stuff like the ThinkingMachines Inkling model put this on the table, but Kimi is at least close to frontier capabilities in ways that Inkling just isn't.

I think the more interesting stuff is happening with the lighter-weight models, stuff in the 100B-250B parameter range. But there's more value than just the dollar/outcome metric.

What I meant is that when llama dropped people went crazy with it. It spawned a whole ecosystem. Now china releases amazing open source models and it is like shouting in the void.

Ah. For Kimi K3 specifically, the weights haven't even been released yet, so it's basically just a (paid) preview mode. The mega-parameter models are also pretty much impossible to tune as an individual or small organization, and even the 200B-1T range is expensive. Model merges in this range mostly haven't worked, to the limited extent they worked cross-family to start with.

Most of the community ecosystems are focused more on the <50B range. Some of the lower visibility is just fragmentation, or the base models being good enough for a lot of purposes, or technical limitations (MoE models are much nicer to low-VRAM users, and also much harder to finetune), but there's just some awkward side effects of the highest-profile models being way outside of home enthusiast use. That said, Qwen3.6 got a massive amount of attention for that lower-range, and I'd expect any 3.8 <100B model gets similar focus.

And a lot of major providers have kinda settled on things as 'good enough'. NovelAI's highest-end model is a GLM-4.6 finetune at 355B param, which is great and all until you look at the release dates.

The movement toward tool use also makes things weird. There's no "here's an opencode project" sharing environment like there is Huggingface or CivitAI, for both obvious reasons (the LLMs can build it themselves... if you know enough to ask them the right questions) and technical ones (opencode has terrible project design and doesn't really distinguish templates from content as an intentional choice). But they do genuinely offer really strong ways to customize an LLM to your use case. So that's probably drawn a bit of the focus away from some of the finetunes.

They're too big and expensive to do fun things with. You could quantise or frankenmerge or finetune the llama 7b models at home, and get features and performance that the big American companies wouldn't give you because it made the lawyers and wokes and little old ladies sad. Good luck trying that with Kimi K3.

I think many people form an emotional bond with a model that happens to communicate on their wavelength. For me I particularly enjoyed talking to gemini 3.1 pro and gpt 4.1, even though there are more intelligent and truthful models out there. But those models are also great at gaslighting me. Once I asked a question to both 3.1 and gpt pro and thought 3.1's answer was sooo much better. But then I asked someone who worked in the field, who told me that gemini was mostly wrong.

Anyways back to the point less sophisticated users who buy into the hype are liable to mistake this smooth communication as a sign of exceptional intelligence. It's not.

Kimi might be the strongest open weight model right now but that title changes hands frequently. By no account is it leaps and bounds above its competitors. Some very noisy people just like the model.

Can anyone steel-man the Argentinian position re: the Falklands (Malvinas)? I got into a few heated arguments with an Argentinian women during my course about them, and the Argentinian position doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Argentine never actually had sovereignty over the islands, nor does the local population want them there.

International law wise, I don't think there is a case. The political reason is part sovereignty (not wanting a stronghold of a foreign power near your shores, kind of like Cuba in the times of the Soviet Union) and economic (by having the island, Britain gets a chunk of fishing rights and offshore drilling that would've been Argentinian otherwise).

The emotive reason (the one that really matters to most people) is sort of a sunk cost fallacy: we fought for them, and our people died for it, so it's sort of a disrespect to their memory to give up the claim, nevermind that the war was started by an illegitimate and unpopular military government.

It's also gotten more salient recently due to a couple of reasons:

  • The football team took up the cause as a part of their rallying cry, and since they won the world cup they're basically heroes.
  • The left wing is very third worldist, so a faction that would be anti-conflict instead took up the cause as anti imperialistic.
  • The right wing has become a lot more online, and there is a sense that the UK no longer deserves to hold the islands (due to their ongoing political crises)

So while before you could reasonably claim to not care about the islands and not be laughed out of the room, nowadays Milei gets flak for having expressed his admiration for Margaret Thatcher a decade ago.

That being said, I don't think anything will come out of it in the short term, and in the long one it'll be settled with some sort of shared ownership deal, that maybe phases the UK out eventually, if anything.

Well geographically it seems to make sense. The current population of the island is 3k-ish English-speaking people who consider themselves to be British, so it's a non-starter politically.

What I don't get is, why doesn't Argentina send over a couple of poor struggling families with their adorable kids who just want to work as fishermen or ranchers or something instead of warships and soldiers. Just a couple get established, then a few more families come over, and they bring their extended families over too. Call anyone who objects racist. Next thing you know, presto, a simple majority of the population now wants to be Argentinian, and they can make a good case to take over the island without a shot fired. Even if you think the whole Great Replacement stuff is a "baseless conspiracy theory", what's to stop any interested party from doing it on purpose? At such a low population, it wouldn't take all that many people.

The Brits are wise to that strategy and there are significant restrictions to immigrate into the Falklands.

Insert obvious crack about the British being wise to that strategy on small islands across the Atlantic, but blind to it at home?

I didn't want to be glib, but yes.

It's impossible. Argentina loves pointless territorial claims. I present to you the Beagle conflict, in which Argentina demanded three worthless frozen islands in the Beagle Channel from Chile. First the two countries agreed to ask Queen Liz 2 to decide. She gave them to Chile and Argentina threw a hissy fit. Then they agreed to ask the fucking Pope. John Paul 2 gave them to Chile and Argentina threw a hissy fit again. Then finally Argentina got trounced by the British and finally decided having a mortal enemy across the Andes wasn't worth it.

You can't hold any ideology other than Rationalism if you believe only opinions that are justified by rationality. To hold any other ideology you must be willing to hold stupid, irrational opinions that might actively hurt you. Only an irrational opinion can be a costly signal that you hold the ideology, and being willing to look irrational is a relatively low cost symbol.

To be an Argentine Patriot one doesn't worry about the Steelman of the Malvinas, the Malvinas are Argentine because to be an Argentine Patriot is to believe the Malvinas are Argentine.

Otherwise one would run into the situation where another Argentine claims the Malvinas and you are there saying, well rationally according to international law it's a nuanced issue. Which isn't very patriotic of you.

The Argentine claim further functions as a signal that they, as Argentines, are allowed to make the claim even if they have no intention of following up on it. No one can stop them from saying it. This is a petty form of pride, but a valuable one. What kind of cuck refuses to insult his opponent because it is "irrational?"

IMO I think a lot of it is just that the Malvinas are basically the only war Argentina has ever fought. The early wars for Independence etc were when there were few people in Argentina and barely skirmishes. It’s the only war they’ve fought posts mass migration to Argentina so it’s basically the only thing they can talk about in their military history.

Geographically though it is there’s. And within 50 years it probably will be Argentinas because England is declining. Though this may depend on Trumpism and Milei’s long-term alliance. Their claim to it on geography is probably stronger than a bunch of Italians to Israel.

Argentina fought in multiple wars, but the Falklands/Malvinas are just the only recent one- they fought in the triple alliance, for example(the South American world war).

Yea but Argentina was tiny then. 1.8 million people. That was before any semblance of modern Argentina. Wikipedia does say 18k? Argentina casualties which is a semi-real conflict.

I think it’s seem fair to say real Argentina didn’t occur until the late 19th-early 20th century immigration waves. It’s even more extreme than pre-post Ellis Wave migration in America.

You're right that Argentina doesn't have a legitimate claim to the islands under standard liberal international relations theory, but there are other theories of international sovereignty. The Argentinian position is straightforward: Look at a map. They consider the Southwest Atlantic Ocean to be Argentinian. They also claim the Antarctic Peninsula.

The anticolonial aspect shouldn't be underestimated either. Under a strict interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, the United States should have opposed British recapture of the islands.

Ah, the pretty borders theory of international relations, never to be underestimated.

It's pointless barely-justified jingoism of the sort that is very common in Latin America. But because the Argentines are white people behaving like Slavs and the counterparty is Britain, it's newsworthy.

What do you carry in your pockets every day?

For me, it used to just be my keys, wallet, and phone. When I started to consider concealed carry, I realized that I had a pocket knife and pepper spray that I never carried around even though it's really not much more cargo than what I already had, and I just need to build the habit. I don't have the pepper spray oriented in a way that makes it very easy to get out and use, but the pocket knife has already been quite useful; at work, cutting off zip ties or opening packages is useful. At July 4th, other people handling the fireworks were asking to borrow my knife quite a lot. The knife you bring with you is a lot handier than the knife you leave at home! Even a dull one.

I also bought an OLight Mini 2 for my keychain. Pretty nice, though I think it's only really come in handy once or twice so far. It seems to be marginally brighter than my phone light, and a lot quicker to bring to bear. It was cheap.

Things I have considered:

  • A telescoping baton. Like the pepper spray, I was considering it for dog defense, mostly, but apparently it's legally questionable to carry one and actually ever use it in a self-defense scenario. I wonder if one would be useful for anything else.
  • A lighter. I don't smoke. When lighting off fireworks for the 4th, I was using someone else's long lighter for lighting grills, and it was very unreliable, bad for what we were trying to do which was synchronize 4 different mortar tubes of fireworks at once. I thought that if I had my own lighter, I could have just used my own and not been as frustrated.
  • A multitool. These are commonly carried, but I don't know if I would use most of the functions or not. Many people swear by them, though.

A multitool. These are commonly carried, but I don't know if I would use most of the functions or not. Many people swear by them, though.

The funny thing is, you have to start carrying it to find uses for all the tools. Lots of things you used to do the hard way, or not do at all, are suddenly easy, you find reasons to use it. Tightening a screw that you saw was loose might ordinarily be a task of running and getting a screwdriver, and you might just figure it'll be fine, now you just do it. Pliers make all kinds of things easier. You become Leatherman Guy by carrying the Leatherman.

But then, when it comes to EDC I'm also a fanny pack guy, so maybe take me with a grain of salt.

Okay, I might have to get one now. I can already think of several times I could have used a small screwdriver in quick access...

I came across a "Keyport" at DEFCON a few years ago and have been fully converted.

It's a customizable Swiss army knife.

The way I use it is to turn my handful of house keys, a Yubikey, and a Moca tool (all purpose low profile bottle/box opener/measure that gets through airport security) into a compact carry. I've also added a slim USB thumb drive that I can use to boot a Linux live image or show anyone a DVD rip of Hackers in a clutch situation.

They have a wide variety of fun attachments.

I just think of mine as a kind of universal access device.

+1 for the Linux thumb drive. I think I'd go with "Johnny Mnemonic" for the movie file alongside it, though. Cool product!

In pockets: Knife (Leek), wallet, phone, keys.

On belt: G19

I don't bother with much else, unless it's specifically a political protest.

A Glock guy, huh? The concealed carry guys I know either carry a Sig or an M&P (and you can probably guess the specific model of those guns). When I start concealed carrying, it'll be the CZ P10-C. Despite its cheapness, it seems to be one of the more reliable guns I have, and I can shoot it decently.

There's guns I like a lot better than Glocks, subjectively. But in terms of the whole package, aftermarket, reliability etc. the glocks are just too ubiquitous. It's cheaper and easier to run multiple guns in multiple holsters with various magazines etc. Plus they're dead simple to work on, and I shoot them as well as anything on the duty market. Do like Walthers and Caniks, even M&Ps aren't that bad.

I shoot my Frankenglock (Grit Grips frame with OEM internals, Brownells Complete G19 slide) pretty well, even though it had quite a few problems at first. Maybe it just had to be broken in, maybe it needs some more oil, maybe it didn't like Winchester white box. I think I need to put a lot more rounds into it to be comfortable with it. I don't really like the trigger, but everything else about it is nice, I seem to shoot it better than most other guns somehow.

I'm probably going to make another gun-related thread in the Wellness Wednesday thread. I had a power outage last night and it made me contemplate my power outage readiness, or lack thereof.

Glock triggers are among the worst factory pulls in that class, and the stock shoe is pretty bad. But they do smooth out well at high round counts and the shoe is easily replaced. Learning the Glock trigger was much easier than full double-action-only snubby triggers. When people shoot my battered old carry gun, they think the trigger is great for a Glock, but it's just a shoe and fifty-two thousand rounds. Most expensive trigger job in history.

I tried the S&W M&P Shield 9mm at first, but I hated it. Racking the slide and loading the magazines was so hard, and there were too many buttons I didn't know how to use.

So I got a hammerless S&W Bodyguard 38 Special next. Much better! It's so simple; there isn't even a safety! The single button is for unlocking the cylinder, and then you just push a rod to remove the rounds.

Most people look at me weird for carrying a revolver in the age of semi-autos, but it's just right for me. Besides, revolvers have a noble history; American police officers were using them well into the 80s (as seen in Lethal Weapon) and Korean cops still use them (as seen in Squid Game).

I carried a Smith Airweight for a decade, so I know why you're carrying a revolver. Does it have to be the Bodyguard?

Out of curiosity, exactly how many rounds have you fired in that gun?

Two boxes of 25. I don't go shooting very often.

Well, hopefully you never need it.

Another of my acquaintances carries a double-action only revolver. His arguments for them make sense to me. It's pretty fun too shoot, too. I prefer autoloaders, of course. They're cheaper and hold more shots and the manual of arms are pretty familiar to me by now, and I wouldn't be surprised if certain autoloaders were actually more reliable than most revolvers. But if I carried a revolver, I think I'd want something with a little better accuracy than the snub-nose he's got. It kind of goes all over the paper, no matter who's shooting it.

I was considering it for dog defense, mostly, but apparently it's legally questionable to carry one and actually ever use it in a self-defense scenario.

I've pondered getting one of those novelty 12" baseball bats to carry when I'm running as a dog deterrent. So far, the aggressive dogs who have come after me have been deterred by the rocks I've picked up (amazing how even obnoxious dogs recognize what it means when a human bends down to grab a rock), but there is bound to be one eventually that isn't deterred by that.

If the baton would be taken as evidence of ill intent, maybe the bat would signal that you’re planning a comedy sketch?

Proof I'm on the way to the littlest league.

I'm confused, are there not leash laws where you are? Are dogs running around free the way they did in the 70s?

It's a rural area. Loose dogs with bad attitudes running around the countryside are a Thing.

amazing how even obnoxious dogs recognize what it means when a human bends down to grab a rock

Love this

Wallet, phone, keys.

The latter used to have a small folding leatherman but I always forget to put it back on after flying. There’s enough stuff on there as it is. The tiny scissors saw much more use than the blade. The tiny screwdriver probably saw less, but was indispensable when it did come up. One time I actually needed the file to take a plastic nub off of something.

If I’m going somewhere remotely outdoors, I will usually bring a 2.5” folding knife.

Car key, a separate bundle of keys for everything else, wallet, phone. It all fits well enough into cargo pants pockets. When I wear other kinds of legwear, I usually take only what I intend to actually use.

But then again, I carry a backpack to work and to hikes. I drive a car pretty much everywhere. And the backpack and car contain a host of other items. Which of those containers it is depends on plans, but the following items are usually within reach:

  • Swiss pocket knife, beverage opener edition.
  • Leatherman multitool.
  • Hunting knife (no I don't hunt, hunting licenses are too expensive, the knife is a heirloom).
  • Hat.
  • Mud pants.
  • Hygiene kit, including toilet paper, trash bags, a few diapers and toothbrush and toothpaste.
  • A book. Regularly switch that one out.
  • Backup shoes.
  • A hoodie in summer, a thick jacket or blanket in winter.
  • Binoculars.

Of course, this being Germany, I go unarmed. The big knife is buried deep in the glovebox, where nobody grabs it by accident and no policeman sees it when I reach for the car's papers, and is practically inaccessible without a flashlight and the grim determination to go spelunking so deep one might as well start in the engine block. But grandpa used to have it in the car, and I'll be doing the same.

I just don't go anywhere where I would think myself well-advised to be armed. Just about the best I can do in this country, and thankfully still somewhat easy to do here in the countryside. Otherwise I might need to step up my martial arts game.

The items you listed sound sort of close to what you'd call a "bug-out bag" a.k.a. a "three day survival kit" if you stocked just a few other items. Nice.

True, but I doubt I'll be bugging out anytime soon. Hell, around here, I wouldn't even know where to bug out to. You can't just go innawoods; the entire region is covered with a dense network of towns, villages and hamlets, and any woods here aren't wilderness either, and are highly frequented by hikers, bikers, dogwalkers and whatnot.

Those items are really just my "Car breaks down in the middle of the night and the phone battery is empty" kit.

Bottle opener. I do live in Wisconsin though.

My sister gave me a bottle opener that I carry on my keychain. I've gotten more use out of it than every other gift she's ever given me combined.

  • Right pocket: Wallet; keychain with house key and bedroom key; keyfob for my car

  • Left pocket: Phone; keyfob for my mother's car

bedroom key

Why does your custom home have a bedroom lock?

Keyfob for my mother's car

Does she not need it? Why carry it?

Why does your custom home have a bedroom lock?

(1) The new custom house is (still) not yet complete. This key is for my bedroom in my (mother's) current house. My mother directed me to add locks to that house's bedroom doors several years ago, in preparation for a several-weeks-long visit by her annoying mother.

(2) The new custom house's bedrooms have locks (and solid doors) for privacy.

Does she not need it? Why carry it?

Her car has two keyfobs—one for her and one for me. I actually don't remember why I decided to carry the spare keyfob around all the time, but I can think of two justifications: (1) If both of us are away from home, and the house is burglarized, then the keyfob will not be stolen. (2) If both of us are away from home, and she locks herself out of her car and calls me to come and unlock it, then I can drive directly to her rather than needing to stop at the house and pick up the keyfob.

It might make sense if the plot of land you live on is measured in acres. I don't see how an EDC fixed blade would be useful in a usual urban or suburban environment.

I live on a farm and carry a fixed blade when I'm around the property but it goes back in a tool box when I'm done. Most of my fixed blade knives are marketed as utility or work knives and have plastic somewhat ergomic grips and often chissel ends instead of points though lately I've been using one of the Japanese Hori form knives that double as a passable trowel and have other useful geometries on them. Most of the time its one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092MX1M91

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DN11ZTT3 <- more this one lately

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6WJJWMB - this general price point, about $15, is the sweet spot for a work/utility knife imo. Something you don't intend to be harder on than needed, but thats just the life this knife is going to lead. Walmart occasionally gets decent low end ones in stock too.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N44CY0L - I got introduced to these knives through the scuba knife line. Scuba/diver knives are generally batter value for money. Than a lot of the tool-knives in the same range. This company has a decent system of interchangable blades. Once I had the diving knife with the handle geometry I like then you can get new blades for about 65% the cost of an entire knife.)

My everyday carry off the farm is the same keys, wallet, phone with a tiny multitool keychain that seems popular. My only unusual addition is a 4" brass pocket slide ruler for quick dimensional measurements of items in standard sized, like bolt heads and tube ODs etc.

You can often get higher quality carbon steel knives, that you have to maintain yourself to prevent rust, at lower prices than the various stainless variety. Knowing how to sharpen them correctly is also needed to really get value from carbon steel.

I think I've seen some people online (not on this site, pocket knives don't come up much) say that fixed blades are better. It kind of reminds me of the old 2DS vs 3DS arguments I've seen. With the old 2DS, you eliminate one of the major structural weaknesses, the hinge. On the other hand, the display itself is exposed, so it could wear out more easily over time. I imagine the same could be said of pocket knives. But to me, it seems a bit impractical; you'd almost certainly need a holster/pouch on your belt for a fixed blade knife, right? Otherwise, you could put your hand in your pocket and cut yourself, or the blade could be dulled by just cutting your pocket up every day. I think the argument for fixed blade knives is best in the case of outdoor, camping, wilderness survival contexts. At least, I think that's the context in which I saw people advocate for them.

I hate feeling weighed down or like my pockets are bulging, so usually just phone/wallet/keys. A revelation for me was a credit card shaped multitool I can slide into my wallet. It's got a bottle opener, flathead screwdriver, holes to fit various sizes of hex bolts, and functions as a short ruler/straight edge and phone stand. It's not great at any of these things, and doesn't have a cutting edge, but it's nice to always have a bottle opener and little screwdriver on me. And it doesn't take up any extra room in my pockets or have to be removed to fly.

Depends on where I'm going and if I'm taking my messenger bag with me. At most I carry:

  • left pocket:
    • travel card
    • debit card
    • earpods case
    • keys
  • right pocket:
    • phone
    • pocket knife
    • work ID

When I have pockets: cell phone in wallet case with ID and credit cards, small toys my children have left behind, wrapper, receipt. When I don't have pockets, I haven't been carrying a purse lately, so everything except the phone, which is in my hand, stays in the car.

My car has many and varied wonders within it, including a knife, I believe.

A phone. Earphones in their case. A vape. Liquid for the vape. My hopes and dreams in the rear pocket, so I can sit on them.

I recently reported on a series of stabbings that took place in Dublin at hip hop concerts, and a recurrent sentiment I've seen expressed by multiple people independently is that a person who brings a knife with them to a gig probably fully intends to stab someone at said gig, and the fact that they were carrying a knife on their person should be judged evidence for premeditation.

I cannot fathom why anyone would carry a knife with them to a social occasion. If I was hosting a party or barbecue and someone brought a knife with them (without a good reason, like they were coming straight from work), I would mentally strike them off all future guest lists.

EDIT: I got a lot more pushback on this than I expected. Give me credit lads, at least I can laugh at myself.

I had something to open or cut at work a few years back, so in front of the owner, I asked my manager if I could borrow his knife. Keep in mind I didn’t know if he had one on him, but he has a Texan accent.

The CEO looked at me with an expression of incredulity, as if I’d grown a third ear and she just noticed it.

Well, without a word, my manager grabbed a Swiss Army knife from his pocket and handed it to me. She looked at him with an even more incredulous look.

It was the single most sitcom moment ever. I could practically hear the laugh track.

I lost my (full-sized) Swiss Army Knife, a gift from my uncle, to a TSA bin shortly after 9/11. Intellectually I know it was foolish of me not to adjust more quickly from "knives are useful and a bit nerdy" culture to "nobody would need to carry a blade unless they're premeditating an attack" culture, but if I'd realized the former culture would eventually become unfathomable I think I would have resisted adjusting even longer.

I recall some of my elders' generation reporting similar feelings, after the statement "my classmate brought a gun to school" no longer primarily implied "I want to go hunting after class too!" Like, even if this is a change that needs to be made for safety's sake, there's definitely something being lost along the way.

I recall some of my elders' generation reporting similar feelings, after the statement "my classmate brought a gun to school" no longer primarily implied "I want to go hunting after class too!" Like, even if this is a change that needs to be made for safety's sake, there's definitely something being lost along the way.

There was absolutely something lost along the way. Imagine* living in a place where one could have a gun rack in a pickup's back window with a rifle in it parked at the high school. Not only was no one concerned about violence at the school, it was so safe that no one would break into the truck to steal the rifle.

*I don't have to imagine it, I did live in and attend HS in such a place. Only the 90s, and yet a totally foreign country now.

At home it would be very surprising if any of the men in my family were at a BBQ and did not have a pocket knife to be honest. I have one in my cargo shorts almost all the time.

I have a lovely walnut handled folding knife in my pocket right now in fact. Unless I know I am going somewhere they are likely to screen for blades/weapons, it will be with me everywhere I go.

I did grow up culchie to be fair so maybe there is an urban/rural divide here.

You'd be put off by someone carrying an Opinel or Buck folding picket knife?

I guess a man can't even give a little boy a useful knife any more.

Opinel

I assume you mean a No.07 or No.08, which are the most popular EDC sizes. The former of which is right around the 3 inch limit for locking folding knives in more restrictive US states.

But, I like to imagine you are referring the No.12 which has a 5 inch blade and 11 inch reach. Might count as a dirk in some states. I'm sure it would still be horrible to deploy, since it has the same mechanism as the smaller ones. I suppose with something that large you could use it as a club if you don't have a free hand to work the mechanism.

Yes, absolutely, I would.

I cannot fathom why anyone would carry a knife with them to a social occasion.

My good man, all I can say to that is don't set foot in the United States. I can't remember the last time I attended a social occasion where somebody didn't have a blade on them. That's not even getting into guns.

I live in the US, and there's only been one time I can think of when someone had a knife at a social event. I can't say it's common in my experience. Bringing guns is completely unheard of.

That's wild. I work at a few venues where weapons are banned for basic common sense reasons (trip hazards, flammable gas, etc), and even there I clock at least a dozen people with poorly concealed pistols each night. Knives are so common we literally have the equivalent of a coat check at one place.

I imagine it can be uncommon in some areas in the same way that some people might not know anyone who owns a truck. As for the guns, though... the point of concealed carry is that it's concealed. You almost certainly have been around random civilians with guns and you just didn't know it. Unless you're in some hell state like New York or New Jersey or something.

In Texas concealed carry is often enough not concealed very well.

The majority of states allow permit less open carry

Well yeah, of course you won't know if someone has something but conceals it. I think it's fair to count that as evidence in my favor though, because there's no way to distinguish "someone has X hidden" from "someone doesn't have X" when comparing casual experiences.

Then you'd wrongly judge me and most other adult men my age. Yes, I have a knife clipped to my pants. No, I've never stabbed anyone or planned to do so.

This premeditation mind reading is certainly something.

If I was hosting a party or barbecue and someone brought a knife with them

How big of a knife are you envisioning here? This is my daily carry and no one I know would blink at me taking it out during a bbq to cut open a stubborn package (although I do live in a small town in a rural area of a red state). It's not as if I'm hauling around my grandfather's WW2 Kbar knife (if only I were that based).

I guess I'm experiencing culture shock. In Ireland, the only people I can imagine carrying around a knife like that would be drug dealers or aspiring drill musicians (but I repeat myself).

Maybe in the South but in rural Northern Ireland most of my family would be carrying a folding pocket knife at pretty much all times. There's always a good use for a knife (folding, blade under 3 inches generally) in the countryside. Maybe with a few other attachments but often just the knife itself is useful enough. They'd also have larger ones for specific purposes, but those wouldn't be usually carried.

I suppose I should have said "in urban Dublin" rather than "Ireland". I can imagine lots of entirely legitimate reasons someone living in the countryside might have to carry a knife around with them.

Aye, it's fair to say it would be a bit more unusual in Belfast, unless you are a tradesman of some sort. Or just handy.

Right. The one person in my immediate social circle I can imagine showing up to a party with a blade would be my cousin who does landscaping work. But even if he did, I'd much rather he leave it in the van, especially if he's going to have drink or drugs taken (which he almost always will).

Pocket knives/pen knives are useful, you never realise it until you need to cut something and realise you are not in reach of anything like scissors etc.

People used to routinely carry knives because they'd be cutting up their plug tobacco to put in their pipes. Those days are long, long gone though!

I see people smoking pipes quite often, but it's been a long time since I saw someone (other than my grandfather) using one to smoke tobacco.

Folding knives are extremely normal for Americans to have in their pockets for opening boxes and the like; even if it's technically illegal nobody cares outside of the sorts of places that already have metal detectors.

Then again, this is the country where a day long class and a background check entitles people in most states to carry a firearm anywhere they go.

Then again, this is the country where a day long class and a background check entitles people in most states to carry a firearm anywhere they go.

And some states don't even require that. Up to 29 states now that allow concealed carry with no permit.

Every single man in the world carries a knife.

I cannot fathom why anyone would carry a knife with them to a social occasion.

I carry a small multi-tool on my keychain, and other than having to remember to remove it before air travel or large venue events with metal detectors, I've never stabbed someone with it in the almost two decades I've carried it. The closest I've gotten there has been on myself. Also useful as a screwdriver and small pliers. The knife on it is maybe two inches long and would be a very ineffective weapon. I know folks that carry a full-size multi-tool around, too.

Hopefully you wouldn't kick me out of your social occasions, but I suppose standards for edged "weapons" vary a lot by country: it'd be legal here for me to concealed carry a firearm many places I go, but I don't.

What day to day tasks does this help with? I have a swiss army knife somewhere but there never seemed to be anything to do with it, so I'm curious about what I could use it for.

I realize this is a common cultural difference even within the United States, but there's a lot of relevance, anywhere from opening packages to cutting zip ties to prying out heat-set inserts to breaking open containers to stripping cable to trimming plastic nubs.

My uses are a little more common than most people -- I carry the cheapest tantoized blade possible because I've had to derivit aluminum plate in the field enough that it's a parlor trick -- but still, I work in a field with soft hands.

I try not to carry to public events like a concert, but I'll admit I've had to throw mine away a couple times because I just forgot I had it on me and went to a venue that banned them.

What is "deriviting"?

Sorry, typo. Removing rivets, generally from joined plates. If you ask a mechanic, the 'right' way to do it involves a properly matched good quality drill bit, but if you have a good knife or even a wood chisel (and don't mind permanently damaging the knife/chisel!) you can get almost all aluminum rivets out with just the heel of your palm, and some steel rivets out with a good hammer.

Is the tanto shape more conducive to this?

Yeah. You need a flat or mostly-flat edge a little wider than the rivet head; anything too curved will slip over the rivet, and anything sharp will dig into the surface of the plate instead. And they are much stronger, which matters more with decent quality knives than walmart-grade ones (440j isn't brittle, I'll give it that), but since you're using a knife like a chisel on metal, you want every bit of redundancy you can get.

While there's a few other cases the tantoized shapes make sense (uh, mostly leather or upholstery work?), for most cases I wouldn't recommend it.

tanto points are significantly stronger than a lot of other point styles. In addition, tanto-style blades are frequently chisel-ground, which is worse for cutting but better for this sort of thing.

I assume "de[-]riv[e]ting".

I read it as removing rivets.

opening packages, breaking down cardboard?

I see. I'm used to using kitchen scissors for that.

Are you my wife? She'd rather spend five minutes futzing with scissors to open a package rather than five seconds with a knife.

A pair of sharp scissors held open is a knife. In any case, I'm not criticising, it had just never occured to me before.

Yes, a knife with a blade for a handle. I severely chastise people I see using an open scissors as a knife.

More comments

In my experience, a lot of people who carry knives are used to spending time outdoors. When you're out in the woods, in a field, etc etc, then having a tool on hand (even if it isn't the best form of said tool) is super valuable.

It probably gets most of its use cutting boxes, zip ties, those infuriating plastic clamshell packages, and once or twice has cut and stripped copper wire. Often enough that it's worth carrying around, but not used daily, and not always at home where I know where the scissors are. I can't undo zip ties by hand.

Yes, I see. Thank you for explaining.

I think "social occasion" is doing more definitional work than "knife" here. "Concert" is very different from "barbecue." If a bunch of my buddies came to my house to grab a beer I wouldn't be surprised or shocked if one had a knife, if we went to a concert and one of them had a knife I might find it odd.

@FtttG was saying he wouldn't accept a knife at a house party or barbecue. I think that's pretty extreme and I hope if he ever visits the US, he keeps in mind a culture difference here. Folding pocket knives are just generally useful for opening stuff. I used mine to cut some cheese for a lunch we were having, too.

I agree that taking a knife to a concert or something like that is a bad idea, but in defense of knive-havers everywhere, stuff you get in the habit of carrying every day is very easy to forget that you have with you. I went to a baseball game on the 3rd and had to think to myself "okay, baseball game, no knife". If I already was in the habit of carrying it every day for multiple years, it probably would have been easy to forget.

I think it's important to teach the youth that knives are tools more than they're weapons, and alcohol is a social lubricant more than something to binge in private. I have a bunch of little (but very sharp!) knives in my elementary classroom I inherited from a previous teacher, and I don't let the kids use them very often, but I do want them to see adults using tools that require care to be safe. That's actually one of the art standards, learning how to use tools safely. I think it's a Scouting requirement as well.

I lost my best knife when I accidentally took it into a federal building in D.C. a few years ago. To their credit, the security officers offered to let me turn around and leave with it, but I was miles from the hotel by then. I’d even reminded the rest of my group to leave their knives at home or in the hotel, but my mind was overcome by force of habit. I’m still annoyed by it to this day.

You should've just quickly buried it in their lawn.

You're right, I misread OP. I'm downvoting myself.

Mrs. FiveHour was once deeply embarrassed when the courthouse security took my leatherman off me at the metal detector when she asked me to come in and hang a picture for her.

Mrs. FiveHour was once deeply embarrassed when the courthouse security took my leatherman off me at the metal detector when she asked me to come in and hang a picture for her.

In urban courthouses in my state, trying to bring a gun into a courthouse will get it confiscated and the bearer will likely be charged criminally. In my rural area, they tell the person to take it back to their car. It's no exaggeration to say everyone here carries, and they carry so often they forget they're carrying.

Yeah I had the same happen although it was at City Hall. They said they were supposed to dispose of it, but luckily the security guard was a nice guy and held on to it for me unofficially until I came out.

Seconded. When it's part of your daily carry, it doesn't always register that it won't be allowed quite everywhere you go.

I did manage to convince an NHL stadium to let me coat check my knife at the customer service desk, once I gave them my business card and explained that I made these for a living.

A multi tool or Swiss Army knife that's small enough to fit on your keychain, fair enough. I'm talking about a knife that's long enough to be used as a weapon, which the OP explicitly stated his is. I misinterpreted, apologies.

While not exactly a bayonet, a typical multitool could easily be used to stab someone to death. And to me and most people I know the blade on a multitool is easily the most useful tool on it, by a lot. So your being ok with someone having a knife is dependant on them also having less useful tools stuck on it?

I'm specifically picturing a multitool small enough to fit on a keychain, and I have a hard time imagining how something that small could be used to kill someone. How long would the blade on something like that be, two inches?

Most "US" multitools are based around the gerber style, which usually ends up around a 2.5" 'primary' blade. You'll see Swiss Army keychain knives that closer to what you're thinking and are someone common (if considered very much a 'for kids' product, especially Scouting), but the last time I've seen one of the multi-tool-but-tiny versions was well before COVID.

They may be more common on the coasts; New Jersey and Massachusetts have much closer norms around >3 inch knives than the midwest or southwest does.

So no Leatherman? The "standard" one has a blade a bit under 3 inches.

I guess it comes down to expectations. While a Leatherman could in theory be used to kill someone, it's hardly optimised for that purpose, and my default assumption if I saw someone carrying one would be that he uses the various tools on it (including the blade) for his job. I would certainly find it surprising if I invited someone to a party and they showed up with a multitool, but that might just be a reflection of the circles in which I move (there are no electricians, plumbers or other tradies in my immediate social circle). I would probably ask him why he carried it with him, if only to satisfy my curiosity. It wouldn't be an automatic "you are no longer welcome in my home" thing.

But if someone showed up to a party I was hosting carrying a knife (just a fixed blade, rather than a multitool), my immediate assumption would be that they were a drug dealer. I think this assumption is an entirely reasonable one in Dublin.

...What? I didn't say how long my pocket knife is. I have a "Magnum" Boker knife that says "440A" on it. It's a cheap shit knife.

I know you didn't say how long it was. As I said I was under the impression that you started carrying your knife as an alternative to carrying a gun, and therefore assumed it could be used as a weapon.

But looking at photos of that model, it certainly looks like the kind of thing I'd look askance at someone for if they brought it with them to a party.

I will keep this in mind if I ever have to account to foreigners for my knife. Nobody at the party cared, the house I was a guest in didn't care, my uncle found it useful enough to ask me to borrow it a few times because he left his at home, and a ~13 year old boy bragged to me that he had like 20 different pocket knives at home, which his father attested to as true. I think it's generally a good thing to have. If you wanted to murder someone here, you'd really want to use a gun anyway.

Yeah, I guess this is just a major cultural difference between urban Ireland and the US.

If I was hosting a [...] barbecue

Don't all men eat using only their personal dagger? The fork was invented by Italians.

You use cutlery at a barbecue? La-di-da Mr. Frenchman.

LMAO. Real men pluck meat from the fire with their teeth.

fire

Does your widdle tummy goes ouchy and achy from eating a bit of raw meat?

Actually, no. Chicken sashimi is surprisingly good, and I could eat thin steak tartare for days.

Funnily enough I was at a country house party once. The hosts were very grand but not always very aware of prosaic detail, and they'd cooked a delicious pheasant. Now, I'd had a few glasses of wine and it took me quite a while to actually look properly at my plate and realise that the inside meat was dark purple: they had put it in the oven without defrosting it properly, and the inside was entirely raw.

I remember thinking, If I make a fuss about this, I will humiliate myself and my poor hosts who have been very nice; on the other hand I've already eaten half of this and I've either got food poisoning already or I'm not going to. So I ate the rest of it. Not one of us said a word.

No food poisoning, either :P

I cannot fathom why anyone would carry a knife with them to a social occasion.

...Like, a pocket knife, not a fixed blade?

Maybe you can provide an example of what you're referring to by a pocketknife.

a 3-to-4-inch blade with some form of locking mechanism.

I actually don't routinely carry a knife any more, mostly because I work from home and am not usually anywhere but at my home, which has knives like these scattered across most interior surfaces. But anywhere I go, my prior would be that 50%+ of the men I see, and no few of the women, are carrying one of these.

The women too? I live in a rural area, and I think I might know one woman who regularly carries a pocketknife. Of course, like you say, the majority of the men do. I’ve been both gently chided and ruthlessly mocked for not always carrying one.

Well, gosh, I really am experiencing culture shock now.

This thread really could use a link to the "that's not a knife" scene from Crocodile Dundee.

Also this seems like a good question to add to the next user survey.

Or better yet.

I once attended a pre-wedding party carrying a knife/multitool.

The company managing it was so bad that I was the only one with a bottle opener on said multi-tool.

I got alot of good attention because of it.

Harmonica
Music

A likely story.

I can understand being disinvited for that.

At last, someone who understands where I'm coming from.

What if they keep a swiss army knife in the car or in their backpack?

In the car, fair enough. And even a Swiss Army knife would be far less objectionable to me than some of the specimens people are sharing here. But I can't imagine a Swiss Army knife would be a whole lot of use in a self-defense situation, and OP explicitly claimed that was his reason for carrying one. I misinterpreted, apologies.

Wrong, I never said that. I said the pepper spray was for self-defense, and the telescopic baton was a contemplation along those lines as well. The pocket knife is, as I said, useful for opening stuff or cutting zip ties off or cutting cheese or whatever. Knives are not good for self-defense. I guess in an emergency, you could use it on an attacking dog if the pepper spray didn't work, but you're already bitten by then.

I guess I must have misinterpreted you. From this:

When I started to consider concealed carry, I realized that I had a pocket knife and pepper spray that I never carried around even though it's really not much more cargo than what I already had, and I just need to build the habit.

it sounded very much like you started carrying around the pocketknife as an alternative to carrying a gun. My apologies if I got that wrong.

I guess I worded it poorly. From the concealed carry classes I took and the videos I watched, they emphasized getting into the habit of putting it on every time you left the house, because the gun you leave at home is of no use to you. The more I thought about it, I realized I had a couple things that I also had wanted to carry with me for ease-of-access but never got into the habit of doing so, even though they were easy enough to take along, certainly less burdensome than a compact pistol.

That makes more sense, thanks for clarifying.

As a knifemaker who finds them incredibly handy to have, I think you're painting with far too broad a brush.

I'd give someone carrying a knife a questioning look, but wouldn't worry past that. As you can see from this thread, some men have strange hobbies. I'll live in peace, as long as it's not a machete or a Bowie knife.

I know we have a bunch of Catholic Church nerds on this forum. So I want to ask you all about the current relationship between the Church and China. What is the life of a congregant/decon/monk/nun/priest/bishop like in China? To what extent does the church exist above ground with the CCP's approval and to what extent does it exist below ground? To what extent is it oppressed?

Effortpost please :)

The current status is that there is an above ground church. Officials(clergy etc) in the above ground church are legally required to be members in the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, a communist front group which picks bishops and disciplines priests for hewing too close to Catholic doctrines the CCP doesn’t like. Non-Chinese Catholics are generally agreed to be dispensed from mass attendance inside red China and the Vatican does not impose penalties on the CPCA.

China also has an underground church about which virtually nothing is known except that it was stronger when John Paul II let them consecrate underground bishops to replace the ones martyred. There may still be underground bishops being consecrated in technical violation of canon law; the Vatican is supremely uninterested in excommunicating them. Most Catholics in China attend underground services at least occasionally(unlike in the gulf countries, underground priests are largely local) but underground church only Catholics are agreed to be a minority.

Edit to add- in Conservative Muslim countries, the underground church usually uses nonresident priests who say masses in private. Red China is unique in having a theoretically aboveboard structure to go along with it; the soviets tried to have this but failed and tended to lapse into persecution. To read about the experience of a Catholic priest ministering under persecution in the Soviet Union, With God in Russia by Fr Walter Ciszek is generally agreed as the best account. Nothing of the sort has been published for either red China or the gulf countries.

the Vatican is supremely uninterested in excommunicating them

Unauthorised consecrations are a latae sententiae excommunication, so failing to publish the excommunications doesn't mean that people are not excommunicated (and given that we are dealing with the most observant Catholics, this probably matters). That said, it is entirely plausible that the Church has secretly authorised these consecrations.

In practice, that is not how it works- excommunications are publicized as a judgement that the extenuating factors don’t apply. The lack of publication of excommunications serves as a judgement that whatever reason they have for doing it(in this case, almost certainly persecution) is good enough to dispense from the law.

Lone cranks doing crank things under the radar is the reason for the látame sententiae cannons, when high profile behavior goes unpunished it can be assumed to be judged not excommunicating.

I’m no expert on Catholicism, but IIRC the church still has in-the-vest bishops in China.

I mentioned this in another thread, but I finally have a gaming PC. I am far behind on gaming. The newest console I have is from 2012. I never had a gaming PC. I am open to any games of any genre from the last 30 years. I love RPGs, but open to anything. Bonus if it’s cheap.

Buddy, you are in for such a treat. If you are serious about anything from the last 30 years, you are in for a firehose of fun you can scarcely imagine.

But first, install Linux Mint, or CachyOS, or whatever your preferred form of Linux is. Microsoft Windows is over, and your computing experience will be much more pleasant (not to mention faster and more responsive) with any of the popular Linux distros. They all run windows games virtually out of the box these days.

Since everyone else is focusing on new trash from the last 10 years, let me offer a broader prespective.

  • StarCraft (1998) - I still think this might have one of the most finely honed RTS campaigns of all time. Just flawless.
  • Quake 2 (1997) - I consider this the peak of a form of shooter that died for a long time post Half-Life. It's all about rule of cool in the level design, and enemy attack patterns you can actually anticipate and dodge. Fun weapons too.
  • Might & Magic VI (1998) - Possibly the best Might & Magic ever. First one that didn't constrain movement to a grid, massive open world, tons of quests and loot, so many fun ways you can upgrade your characters, including quests for advanced classes. Might & Magic VII is better in some ways, some people liked that you got a castle. I never cared for the fact that the story put you on a deadline.
  • Half-Life (1998) - The FPS that completely redefined how FPS were made. Environmental story telling at it's best, and IMHO better than it's sequel.
  • Baldur's Gate (1998) - I replayed this a few years ago and absolutely adored it. A relatively low power AD&D powered RPG. It's a tight 10-20 hour experience with a little bit of everything you could possibly want in an RPG. See Icewind Dale if you want more of a dungeon crawl experience, and Planescape Torment if you lean more story and role play heavy.
  • Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns (2001) - My love for this game is inexplicable. Just a very unique take on an RTS. Kind of a left field pick I will admit.
  • Max Payne (2001) - The game that invented bullet time! And more or less set in stone the way Remedy Entertainment made games and told stories from this point on. If you like it, you'll probably like everything else Remedy made (Max Payne 2, Alan Wake, Control, etc)
  • Morrowind (2002) - Another possible high water mark for the Elder Scrolls games. Massive, and alien, open world. No level scaling in the world. Hits are determined by stats and not timing or player skill like later games. Probably the last pure RPG in the series before Oblivion moved it more in an action direction.
  • Arx Fatalis (2002) - A dungeon crawl RPG in the spirit of Ultima Underworld. Just you, an underground labyrinth, and whatever you can scrounge along the way. I never actually beat it now that I think about it.
  • Tron 2.0 (2003) - Probably a better sequel to the original movie than what we actually got. I remember really enjoying it, but it's been forever since I last played it. Another left field pick.
  • Painkiller (2004) - The first FPS where bunny hopping wasn't just a thing you could do, but actively required to handle the raw quantity of enemies, as well as get to certain areas. Fucking love it. Can't speak to the sequels though.
  • Darwinia (2005) - An indie game before indie games were really a thing. It changed a lot over the years. I still have an old CD-ROM copy with gesture controls and all sorts of nonsense, since that was hip at the time. I think if you get it now of GOG or something it has more traditional controls. Sort of an RTS? Sort of a god game? You'll see.
  • Titan Quest (2006) - Do you like action RPGs? Probably one of the last best ones. Then THQ went out of business and they all formed a new game studio and made Grim Dawn, which is also pretty damned good.
  • Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War (2004) - I always found the campaigns for this game underwhelming, but the Dark Crusade expansion had a really fun campaign mode for all the playable factions. Something like 8 of them I think? It got a little out of control.
  • Sid Meier's Railroad (2006) - I never liked train games. Maybe this isn't even a very good train game for the people that really love train games. But it worked for me.
  • Legend of Grimrock (2012) - An old school grid based, real time dungeon crawler RPG, in the style of Dungeon Master. Strongly recommend.

That's probably enough for now. Have fun.

Great list. Surprised not to see Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (1999) on the list, given that you've listed a lot of strategy and some other Sid Meier.

If @samesies wants to catch up on recent gaming history, it's probably worth playing a couple of "modern military shooters" to get a sense of what Doom 2016 was a reaction against and return to. Maybe add a modern boomer shooter too.

There's also a bunch of good remakes out these days, which might be a good way to pick up games you missed that might not run as easily. Many of LucasArts' classic adventure games now have remastered editions that run on modern machines. I'd recommend Day of the Tentacle, Secret of Monkey Island 1 and 2, and Full Throttle from that set. I think System Shock 1 and 2 got decent remakes if you want to play through some pretty influential first-person horror.

Speculative not-necessarily-recommendations: Brutal Legend, Oni, maybe one of the Hitman games?

How well does Tron 2.0 run these days? I never could get my pirate version to launch on my machine when I was a broke student.

Great list. Surprised not to see Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (1999) on the list, given that you've listed a lot of strategy and some other Sid Meier.

SMAC is a funny game to me. Very much a direct sequel to Civilization II specifically. So much so that, IMHO, you almost need to have played Civilization II first to have gotten you feet wet with the mechanics, before SMAC turns them up to 11. It's also from that era where you really probably should read the manual. Preferably all 200 pages of it. You could probably get by with wiki articles or modern strategy guides, or even watching youtubers tell you how to play. But that just all feels suboptimal to me.

I also haven't played it in forever, so it's just not really top of mind for me.

All true. I think I just have a soft spot for the worldbuilding and the faction leaders, and how much depth there is in there if you want to chase up all the references.

Alpha Centauri's writing is fucking incredible, but the gameplay is sadly outdated, with a lot of annoying micromanagement (units are supported by their home bases rather than by the faction as a whole, air units must return to a base every other turn or crash, etc.).

I don't mind the micro, but there are a bunch of balance issues which really detract from the depth, even without the expansion.

(Standard terraforming is supposed to be stronger but more time-consuming - and polluting - than forests, but forests are too strong for this to work. Condensors' bonus to their own square is too strong, so nobody ever uses their interesting rain effect in favour of simply spamming condensors everywhere. Air power is kinda OP. And there's an ICS problem later in the game because of the Hab Dome limit and then the one-unit-per-turn limit binding excessively-hard.)

Morrowind has some level scaling. It is just handled so well you'd never notice. More likely to spawn tougher monsters and more likely to spawn better random loot based on character level. But also lots of fixed items and all named npcs are fixed.

Sid Meier's Railroad (2006) - I never liked train games. Maybe this isn't even a very good train game for the people that really love train games. But it worked for me.

Still my favorite train game by far (unless we're counting Factorio). Hard to get it to work now though.

Railroads! is fast-paced, fairly intuitive, plenty of variability, and a full game doesn't take too long. It's just fun in a way that I mostly don't find other train games to be. I think because it's optimizing for gameplay instead of trying to be a realistic simulation.

Also, and this is big, industries actually set up near their input resources! One of the things that drives me crazy about, for example, Transport Fever 2 is that there'll be one brick factory and one source of stone and they'll be on opposite sides of the map and it can take literally years to get a shipment over. Oh, and then there's no market for the finished good anywhere nearby even once they're made. The placement just makes no sense. TF2 gets around this by making every shipment worthwhile to deliver, more or less, which isn't how things work!

Railroads! instead encourages the player to prioritize the placement of high-value lines to make money quickly, and then invest that surplus in developing more complicated supply chains and industries. While also managing stock price and heading off opponents, of course.

Finally, there's just enough maintenance/upgrade pressure to scratch my itch, without it becoming a sprawling nightmare to manage like TF2.

The only real complaint I have about Railroads! is that the train table mode has no option for restricting town growth, so instead of setting up a picturesque little train table it always ends up as sprawling cities.

Welcome to the glorious PC master race. Protip: Steam is the best way to buy and play PC games. Always wait for a sale; never buy games at full price.

My recommendations:

Protip: Steam is the best way to buy and play PC games.

You forgot GOG.

Cursed Treasure 2 Evil Evolution Bundle ($1.46)

Worth noting that it's a remake/rebalance for a flash game, and you can get those for free https://flashpointarchive.org/

Very strong agree with the top pick. Civ IV and SMAC are the best games in the Civ franchise, and Civ IV is a lot more accessible to new players. I am happy to defend this position if anyone wants to argue it.

Coming out strong with Civ4 at the top.

Finishing weak with MtG Arena. (Free) you say, but I object.

If you're open to using Steam, I strongly suggest checking out Humble Bundle on a regular basis. They offer pay-what-you-want game bundles with higher donations unlocking higher tier bundles. Thanks to them, I have almost as many games as books.

Man, you are in for a great time.

The two PC game digital storefronts worth using are GOG and Steam. GOG began its life selling classic games without DRM (Good Old Games), so it is very relevant to your interests. Steam can’t make the no-DRM claim, but it’s shown a level of ethical consistency uncommon in its space and its collection is enormous. I buy from GOG where I can and from Steam the rest of the time. The Steam sale (now copied by GOG) is a plague on the hobby; some vintage games will have appropriately discounted baseline prices, but many games will be left at their original retail prices so that the sales look more impressive and trigger more fear of missing out. Caveat emptor.

For older games – anything before the mid-aughts, say – I strongly recommend skimming the manual; it’s usually available with the game as a PDF. I have have had friends bounce off some truly excellent games because they couldn’t figure out one or two U.I. elements that were clearly explained in the manual. If that feels like an imposition in 2026, remember that it usually spares you from the tedious tutorials modern games use for the same reason.

Some of these you may have played on console, but I will recommend them anyway.

Role-playing Games

Diablo 1 [1997] (GOG)

Diablo is a real-time dungeoncrawler based heavily on the turn-based roguelikes that came before it. It’s a blast of a game and a polished jewel of a design. GOG sells it together with its third-party DLC Hellfire, which is fun but not as polished. I recommend going without the DLC for your first playthrough.

I haven’t included Diablo II on this list because I feel it hasn’t aged as well, but it is also a great game. I haven’t played the later sequels that are online-only.

Fallout 1 [1997] (GOG, Steam)
Fallout 2 [1998] (GOG, Steam)

Fallout is a top-down RPG in the classic style, set in a retro-future post-apocalyptic wasteland. The worldbuilding is great, the atmosphere is great, the whimsy is on point, and the mechanics are solid. Read the manual for this one. Fallout 2 is also very solid, but I feel like it’s stretching the limits of the design, particularly in the endgame; if you enjoy the first, it’s absolutely worth playing.

Neverwinter Nights 1 [2002] (GOG, Steam)

The AD&D computer games of the late 1990s have an excellent reputation, but I have not played them. This game was my first in that subgenre, and it’s based on 3rd edition D&D. It has its share of worn and cheesy tropes, but that’s why you play this kind of game, and it has enough new storytelling to keep things interesting. But NWN is very grindy by modern standards, and that holds it back in our era. It’s a charming classic, but some will bounce off.

Knights of the Old Republic 1 [2003] (GOG, Steam)

KOTOR is a Star Wars RPG that uses an adapted version of the D&D 3e rules that dominated the tabletop RPG market at the time. It’s not the ideal ruleset for Star Wars but it’s serviceable, and the characters and the writing make the game fantastic. It’s also pretty grindy; play it anyway.

Knights of the Old Republic 2 [2004] (GOG, Steam)

A more reflective, and perhaps jaded, game than KOTOR, KOTOR II makes a good sequel. It was also rushed out the door, and it shows; play it with the restored content mod (TSLRCM).

Neverwinter Nights 2 [2006] (GOG)

Another classic fantasy RPG, NWN2 benefitted from a newer engine than the original. In addition to the usual RPG wanderings, you find yourself in charge of a keep, preparing it for the climactic battle, which roots you more deeply in the setting.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion [2006] (GOG original, Steam remaster)

The Elder Scrolls series is legendary for a reason. This game’s predecessor, Morrowind is a great game that oozes character; and as someone playing years later you don’t have to suffer through the half-hourly crashes to desktop that plagued it at release. But, as immersive as we found it at the time, Morrowind has gotten rougher with age.

Oblivion filed off most of Morrowind’s rough edges, but it introduced one new one: level scaling. The level scaling in Oblivion is bonkers. The remaster updates player character leveling mechanics but not level scaling. But PCs get mods! If you like this style of open world, exploratory, first-person RPG, I very much recommend playing the remaster with a series of mods by PushTheWinButton: Ascension Remastered, Balanced NPC Level Cap - Remastered, Simple Creature Level Cap, and Balanced Unleveled Rewards - Remastered.

Mass Effect 1–3 [2007–2012]

Mass Effect is a stellar series of shooter-RPGs. You may have played them on console. The first game has more classic RPG mechanics, while the second and third favor more shootery mechanics. While the series is excellent overall, its ending is controversial and, in my humble opinion, somewhat disappointing. It’s still absolutely worth playing.

I don’t give store links here because, while you can buy the game on Steam, you have to install and play it through EA’s storefront. EA is as slimy as Valve is ethical. I still have memories of playing ME3 and being regularly kicked out of the game without a save because my Internet connection flaked out. I would dearly love to play the series’ remaster, but I won’t buy it at this point unless I can get a DRM-free version – mighty unlikely.

Fallout 3 [2008] (GOG with DLC, Steam w/o DLC, Steam with DLC)

Fallout 3 proved that it is possible to make a first-person game built on the Oblivion engine feel like Fallout. This is actually a pretty big coup, and it’s a solid game. It feels like a soft remake of the original in some ways. It also fixes Oblivion’s level scaling issue. While it’s not as good as Fallout or Oblivion, I recommend it.

Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4 came out as sequels to this one. FNV is a beloved fan favorite, but – heresy! – I don’t enjoy it as much. Fallout 4 suffered from being tied into its new base building subsystem, much as Oblivion suffered from level scaling.

Dragon Age: Origins [2009] (GOG)

This is one of the all-time great CRPGs, and if you haven’t played it yet, you absolutely have to. Mandatory. Buy it now.

At release the greatness of the game was compromised by EA’s sliminess. It was packaged with a voucher for a day-one DLC that could only be redeemed once, requiring online activation of your game – using the disc as proof of purchase was still standard then – and bringing down the value of resold copies. You would also encounter a questgiver at your camp, and when you tried to accept his quest he would upsell you on another day-one DLC. The GOG version has all of the DLC and none of the DRM. I heartily recommend it.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim [2011] (GOG, Steam)

If you are an RPG fan, you doubtless know what Skyrim is and have probably played it. It further streamlines and consolifies the game design, so it feels weaker in some respects than Oblivion, but it’s still a very solid game.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution [2011] (GOG, Steam)

The original Deus Ex was groundbreaking, but time hasn’t been kind to it. This action RPG prequel is a lot of fun and supports different playstyles. If you enjoy it, its sequel Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is worth looking into; it’s a little weaker but still a quality game.

Pillars of Eternity 1 [2015] (GOG, Steam)

This may be the best CRPG ever made. It more or less resurrected top-down RPGs as a genre. Its worldbuilding is excellent (not perfect but excellent), and its mechanics build on the old D&D CRPGs. It manages to feel classic and fresh at the same time. Timeless.

The expanion takes place mid-way through the main plot, which causes some awkwardness with level progression. But the expansion’s also excellent, so I recommend playing it at the appropriate point in the story.

Do not skip this one.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire [2018] (GOG, Steam)

Deadfire is a sequel worthy of the original. It wasn’t the commercial success its predecessor was, partly because the publisher insisted on voicing all the dialogue this time, which adds greatly to the atmosphere but cost an enormous sum. It’s a fantastic game, and IMHO all the DLC are worth it.

Because Deadfire didn’t make bank, and because the studio is now owned by Microsoft, we may never see a Pillars 3. They did make a first-person action game called Awakened. It’s okay, but the marketing led people to expect Skyrim, and it wasn’t anything like Skyrim, so it flopped. MS recently canceled Awakened 2 in favor of putting the studio on another Fallout game. Meh.

Cyberpunk 2077 [2020] (GOG, Steam)

Think 1980s-retro-future Skyrim. It’s based on the Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop RPG of the 1980s, with its timeline pushed forward to 2077 and partly (but not fully) retconned to better agree with subsequent real history.

The suits pushed this game out before it was ready, but the studio has put in the work to overhaul it multiple times since release. (Alas, one of the overhauls introduced a version of level scaling I don’t care for; you can’t have everything.) It’s great now. The expansion is also solid; its starting quest has some QuickTime-event-style sequences I find annoying, but once you get through that the expansion opens up like the base game.

Baldur’s Gate 3 [2023] (GOG, Steam)

BG3 is a very solid, well thought out CRPG in the classic style – very well made and worth your time. Some people treat it as the seminal RPG of our era, and I wouldn’t go that far, but I sure wouldn’t skip it. Remember the jump ability or you will miss parts of the map.

Adventure Games

Quest for Glory I–V [1989–1998] (GOG, Steam)

This is a series of adventure games with RPG elements. Each one is set in a different place based on a different culture, but the protagonist is carried through the whole series. I heartily recommend them.

The first two games are a hybrid of text adventure game with graphical adventure game, using a text parser to accept commands and showing the results on screen; but the series also includes a first-party remake of the first game with the 2D point-and-click engine. The third and fourth games are point-and-click adventure games in the classic style, and the fifth is 3D-rendered.

I think Quest for Glory is criminally underrated, and I encourage everyone who likes adventure games or RPGs to pick it up. If you are put off by the need to use a text parser and EGA graphics for the second game, there is a fan remake in the style of the later games available on the Internet.

The Secret of Monkey Island [1990] (GOG, Steam)

Monkey Island 1 is a masterpiece of an adventure game. It’s the funny and adventurous story of Guybrush Threepwood, who wants to become a mighty pirate and ends up discovering the secret of Monkey Island to vanquish the ghost pirate LeCheck.

I haven’t played the remake, but if I did I would opt for the classic VGA graphics.

Monkey Island 2 and 3 are fun, but they don’t rise to the level of the original. I didn’t care for the fourth one, and I haven’t played any of the others.

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary [1992] (GOG, Steam)
Star Trek: Judgment Rites [1993] (GOG, Steam)

These point-and-click adventures deliver on the promise of feeling like an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. They are a bit more challenging by my lights than Monkey Island or Full Throttle, and they don’t reach the same height as classics. But they are a lot of fun.

Full Throttle [1995] (GOG, Steam)

Another masterpiece of the classic adventure-game era, Full Throttle is the story of Ben, a biker who has to solve a murder and prevent the last motorcycle manufacturer from switching to minivans. As with Monkey Island I haven’t played the remake, but I would play it with the classic graphics.

Grim Fandango [1998] (GOG, Steam)

Grim Fandango is the noir adventure of Manny Calavera, who is trying to work off his sins in the afterlife as a grim reaper and travel agent. Working against a rigged system, he ends up unintentionally perpetrating an injustice himself against one of his clients, and he pursues her across the afterlife in four acts trying to set things right.

The original game had awful controls. I am told the remake’s controls are better.

Esoteric Ebb [2026] (Steam)

This is billed as an RPG, but I consider it an adventure game with RPG elements, like Quest for Glory. Its mechanics are loosely based on D&D 5e. Each of your attributes has its own personality, and the ones you are strongest in will give the most input in your internal dialogues, which can be hilarious. It has good worldbuilding and good writing; surprisingly for a modern game featuring politics, I can only sort of guess at the maker’s own views.

Strategy Games

Master of Orion 2 [1996] (GOG, Steam)

MOO2 is a sci-fi 4X game that was made at the right point in history to have a good balance of simplicity and complexity. It does suffer a bit in the late game, as micromanaging your planets gets tedious (but essential).

Heroes of Might and Magic 2 [1996] (GOG)

HoMM II is a fantasy turn-based strategy game with armies led by heroes who have some RPG mechanical elements. HoMM III is also excellent.

Civilization 3 [2001] (GOG, Steam)

The first three Civ games share the same, increasingly refined, design. This is the apex of that original design, the spiritual granddaddy of 4X games, including those that preceded its third incarnation.

Civilization 4 [2005] (GOG with DLC, Steam w/o DLC)

With Civ 4, the series started overhauling the original design and adding depth and complexity. The gap between Civ 3 and Civ 4 is much larger than the gap between 2 and 3.

Personally I bounced off Civ 5, and I haven’t played the later games.

Stellaris [2016] (GOG, Steam)

Stellaris is in some respects the great, great grandchild of MOO2. I skip over Galactic Civilizations 2 because, while that game was great, I think Stellaris does most of what it does better.

This is a space 4X game where different species can have very different playstyles. The core design has been radically revised several times through updates, for good and for ill. The DLC on this one are pretty hit-and-miss; I would read reviews before choosing which to buy.

Crusader Kings 3 [2020] (Steam)

A grand strategy game with RPG elements, CK3 is far more accessible than CK2 was. You don’t play a nation or a single immortal ruler; you play a dynasty. Interpersonal diplomacy is important, strategic marriages are important, and of course warfare is important.

Your ruler’s personality isn’t just a source of bonuses and penalties, or even just a source of events. Decisions that are out of line with your ruler’s personality cause stress, among other things, so you have to choose between the decisions that best suit your realm and those that best suit you personally. Raising your children (and your vassals’ children!) correctly will pay dividends.

The DLC on this one are pretty consistently excellent. I know I like the game, so I just buy the season passes; but, as with Stellaris, there are a lot of DLC.

Miscellaneous

Lemmings [1991] (Internet Archive)

Lemmings is a classic puzzle game. Lemmings will walk out of one door, blindly walking forward on the side-view map, and it’s your job to get them into another door. To do this, each level gives you a certain number of particular commands you can give individual lemmings, like “dig,” “block,” or “explode.” It’s a true classic.

You can download it for free from the Internet Archive, but as it’s a DOS game you will need to use DOSBox to play it on a modern PC. You can play in your browser too, but I would download it.

SimCity 2000 [1993] (GOG)

SimCity is the classic series of city builder games. SimCity 2000 added flexibility and depth to the classic game. I haven’t played 3000, so I can’t comment on it. The most recent games all went online-only.

SimCity Classic is available on the Internet Archive, and it’s a charming game in its own right; I don’t know whether it’s a legal copy or not, but I can’t find it on GOG or Steam.

Tropico [2001] (GOG, Steam)

This sim game makes you the corrupt dictator of an island banana republic. You can play individual missions with particular goals, or you can play random maps. You build up your economy and your people’s quality of life, play the Russians and the Americans against each other, thwart coups and insurrections, and try to squirrel as much cash as possible away in your Swiss bank account before the clock runs out.

I would say that Paradox gaming (Stellaris and CK3 from your list) is a different hobby to the rest of PC gaming. I love it, but I don't have time for it.

Paradox write giant sandboxes trying to capture as much as possible of the feel of a particular strategic era. (Medieval dynastic politics for the Crusader Kings series, early modern politics dominated by incipient Westphalian states for the Europa Universalis series, the horror of industrial-age warfare in the Vicky series, the truly global scale of WW2 in the Hearts of Iron series.) The playtimes start from 30 hours and can go beyond 100 if you play a large empire from the earliest start date to the final end date.

A bunch of RPGs from various subgenres that I have enjoyed playing:

  • Clair Obscur - French JRPG
  • Disco Elysium - no combat, lots of talking
  • Tyranny - the best Baldur's Gate-like from Obsidian
  • West of Loathing - a great Weird West-themed RPG
  • Ouroboros - an RPGMaker game about sequence breaking. Pity it has porn in it
  • Skyrim - open world dicking around
  • Fallout: New Vegas - probably the best 3D Fallout, needs a bunch of mods (Viva New Vegas)
  • Dragon Age: Origins - the best Baldur's Gate-like
  • Planescape: Torment - naff combat, lots of talking

Puzzle games:

  • The Witness - takes one mechanic (draw a path through a graph) and cooks it twenty different ways
  • World of Goo
  • Patrick's Parabox - the cleverest iteration on Sokoban
  • What the Golf?

Misc:

  • Aquaria - a very pretty underwater themed Metroidvania
  • Borderlands 2 - the best looter-shooter
  • The Wolf Among Us and Tales of the Borderlands - the best cinematic VNs
  • Hotline Miami 1 & 2 - top-down ultraviolence with a great soundtrack
  • Just Cause 2 - the best Just Cause
  • Limbo - a puzzle platformer
  • Portal 1 and 2 - the most famous first-person puzzle games
  • Talos Principle 1 and 2 - the best first-person puzzle games
  • RiME - the prettiest third-person puzzle/platformer
  • The Stanley Parable - the best metagame
  • Supraland - the best first-person puzzle/platformer

the best cinematic VNs

You've compiled a top-notch list in general, which makes the omission of (Telltale's) The Walking Dead here especially odd.

Don't like zombie games.

Fair enough. IMHO this one is worth making an exception for, but I don't really have a good way to convince you of that. In hindsight it's insane that Telltale never just turned Episode 1 of the first season into a free demo.

Cities: Skylines 2 (build cities) Mini Motorways (draw road networks) Freeways (draw highway interchanges)

I'm surprised you play other genres.

Don't forget that Bridge Constructor technically is in the same genre. Civil engineering is an extremely broad category.

Relevant incomplete webpages that I made years ago: 1 2

I noticed that error, and also expected that you'd be here to correct me before I could get to amending it. In return, I can recommend Dyson Sphere Program as something that might be to your taste. You might even learn to build that Space Elevator that's your true calling. To code.

I remain in hopium-huffing mode, not game-playing mode.

(I will take this opportunity to note that Dyson Sphere Program, Factorio, Captain of Industry, etc. are industrial engineering, not civil engineering. But I am interested in them.)

Suggesting Dark Souls 2 over DS1, DS3, Bloodborne, or Elden Ring is so crazy and conspicuous that it might be bait. Explain yourself.

Dark Souls 2 is the only game in the "Soulsborne" ""series"" that I've actually played. I have significant nostalgia for it (without DLCs) on the PlayStation 3 a decade ago, and years afterward I accumulated 300 hours of playtime on PC.

  • I've never felt much need to try Dark Souls 1 or Demon's Souls when Dark Souls 2 is so awesome already. (I think my brother and I did also have those two games on PS3. I don't remember why I didn't play them at that time. Maybe I preferred to spend all my time on Dynasty Warriors Gundam 1, 2, and 3.)

  • It is my impression that Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring are "rollslop" in comparison to the more methodical gameplay of their predecessors.

  • As for Bloodborne and Sekiro, I prefer rolling to parrying.

You're in a rare window to have only played DS2, and I guess you're in the small but lively camp of DS2 defenders, while most consider it the black sheep of the series (though it does have its virtues and great points). For what it's worth, Elden Ring's big combat innovation was to get past to rollslop so that rolling is more strategic and timing based rather than spammy like in DS3 and Bloodborne. I highly recommend all the games, but you might like Elden Ring the best.

Emulators

It's been a long time since I've emulated anything. Hell, I don't even think I have a torrent client installed on any of my machines these days. How, ah, concerned should one be about malware and such when it comes to ROMs these days?

I am extremely far from an expert on the topic, but I believe that many emulators automatically verify the ROM's checksum against trusted checksum databases like No-Intro, and will warn you if no match is detected.

I'll add a few split up by (non-traditional) genre:

  • Simulations: Interact with systems that are complex enough that you can't hold them in your mind, and require abstraction
    • Factorio, Kerbal Space Program,
  • Puzzles: Interact with systems that are simple enough that you can hold them in your mind, but require optimization
    • Opus Magnum, Portal,
  • Short term, single goal progression: You have (about) half an hour to improve and grow your character before facing the final challenge. Then you start again from (almost) nothing.
    • Slay the Spire, Binding of Issac, Hades
  • Cozy: low pressure, nice looking, slow paced with gentle progression and practically no consequences for "failure".
    • Stardew Valley, Book of Hours
  • Story: Explore a world with a character, and do things in it
    • Fallout (probably New Vegas, but the rest too), Cyberpunk 2077, Skyrim
  • Nostalgia bait: The same as the old games you played, but newer.
    • Xenonauts, Endless Sky, Stardew Valley

Going to list my favourite lesser-knowns, all puzzle games;

Blue Prince, Chants of Senaar, Case/Rise of the Golden Idol, Strange Horiculture/Antiquities, Seance at Blake Manor, Return of the Obra Dinn.

Since nobody seemed to mention it yet, I'll toss in GTAV. It's still technically impressive, good-looking, funny, and welcoming to just screwing around with the world. Lowbrow, perhaps, but it was not the incredible long-lived success it has been for no reason.

I heartily recommend all of these! Although I think you meant Case/Rise of the Golden Idol (even if curse always feels appropriate).

I'd also add my favorite game, Outer Wilds, as well as The Witness.

D'oh. I was away from my PC while typing so I was going off memory. Thanks!

I give my highest recommendation to Valheim. It’s hitting 1.0 in a couple months, but do not miss this. I was in a very similar position as you a few years ago. New gaming pc after not gaming at all for 10 years.

If you’ve followed gaming trends at all you’ll have seen the whole survival sandbox genre explode in popularity. Valheim was one of the catalysts for that. It’s by far my favorite in the genre because it’s carefully designed. Boy just a bunch of shit thrown at the wall or giving players exactly what they say they want. I think the design of that game is a good example of “video games as art”. Certainly more so than the typical narrative I’ve slop that gets bandied about with that term.

WhiningCoil mentioned lots of good ones.

I would add Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (2003). If you've managed to avoid the spoilers all this time, you're in for a huge treat.

I'm going to immediately suggest a few "gold standard" games, since you missed them the first time around. They're all older, but either have staying power or inform a lot of newer games.

  1. Portal 2
  2. Divinity original sin 2 (or baldurs gate 3 if you prefer dungeons and dragons)
  3. Spec Ops: The Line
  4. Fallout: New Vegas
  5. Skyrim
  6. Deep Rock Galactic
  7. Terraria

You missed Dark Souls!

My favorite RPG in a long time is Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. I've just started my second playthrough (hardcore mode this time), and it's the single most immersive game I've ever played. Historical authenticity is the core design principle baked into literally every aspect of the game, from world design to dialogue to the combat mechanics. The world is an absolutely beautiful, painstaking recreation of early 15th century Bohemia that you can get lost in for hours exploring, hunting, gathering herbs to make potions. The combat is intuitive but difficult to master. The side quests are well written and feel organically integrated into the world in a way I've rarely seen in RPGs. Lots of different ways to tackle problems. Mostly refuses to inject modern cultural norms where they don't belong (one obnoxious essential NPC aside), to the point where it's one of the only pieces of contemporary media set in the pre-modern era i can think of that actually takes the religious convictions its characters should have seriously.

I made so many damn potions. I got all the feats for potionmaking and made a ton of groschen selling them.

It felt fun to "stay up all night" ingame, working for my economic enrichment.

Hollow Knight is absolutely must play, though potentially you already have it on your console. It is every bit the equal of Super Metroid. Its sequel, Silksong, is better but also not as perfect.

I am now vaguely hoping you're unemployed for a whole year. Can't imagine getting to experience so many of these the first time.

You've seen many amazing recs, some I think are overrated.

I'll just drop The Homeworld Remastered Collection which is on sale for $3.49. The collection has essentially 4 games (HW1 and HW2, then the remastered versions of each).

The single player experience is really what you're looking for. While the remastered version has some mechanical issues, it does have some major QoL upgrades and is gorgeous. There's nothing else like it as far as I'm concerned. Enjoy!

https://youtube.com/@Warlockracy

This guy does medium to long reviews (30 minutes to 2.5 hours) of most popular RPGs that have been released in the last 20 years, and many that you will never have heard of unless you grew up in the USSR or former republic thereof, or you somehow learned Russian to get into their indy dev scene. Most of the titles mentioned here he's reviewed.

It's such a wide universe that it's hard to really just dump a suggestion without any feelers for what you'd be interested in. Going off of RPGs and with a fairly wide variety

Path of exile(1 or 2): Diablo style top down click to move loot game with near infinite complexity and a deep market economy. Both games are popular and continue to have near quarterly large patches. It's an overwhelming amount of complexity that people either love or hate. poe 1 is free and poe2 has a $30 buy in until the end of the year when it goes out of early access. The buy in gets you store credit which you could use to buy stash tabs(good or organizing your loot) that apply to both games.

Baulder's gate 3: basically dungeons in dragons as a single player adventure, extremely well received. If you're at all interested in the dungeons and dragons experience this is worth a pick up.

Hades 1 and 2: this is a rogue lite(a genre where you start essentially new games repeatedly with random powerups to try and beat the story, lite means there are inter-run power ups and like means no inter-run powerups essentially) with good RPG themes, great if you like a quick self contained run game that leaves you wanting to play just one more.

slay the spire 1 and 2: sts1 kicked off a whole genre of turn based rogue likes. It's a card game in the rogue lite style.

Blue prince: Another rogue lite at a slower pace where you explore rooms and try to get deeper into an ever changing house as you piece together a neat story.

Clair Obscur: expedition 33: A French JRPG with great atmosphere, not really my type of game but really well received.

Doom: It's doom!

Factorio: Ok, not much of a role play game but you're on the motte, you'd probably like factorio. Build a factory to turn stuff into stuff you need to build a bigger factory.

Hogwarts Legacy: If you like harry potter then it's a very competently made RPG in that game. The game play isn't anything to write home about but it's an RPG set in hogwarts, what more do you want?

Binding of Isaac: Perhaps the GOAT of Rogue likes, old but holds up.

That's what I find scrolling through the last couple years of my steam library. I'm sure I've missed some. If you have any games you've particularly liked in the past or mechanics you're interested in I might be able to refine the search a bit.

There are a lot of games I could recommend, but seeing as how I have 3000 hours in Factorio I have to go with that one. It doesn't click for everyone, but when it clicks it clicks.

I accidentally posted in another thread and found this in an old tab, so sorry for the delay!

Guild Wars (the first game, not the MMO) got an update recently. It’s cheap, it’s a couple hundred hours for all three campaigns, and the gameplay is decent for its time if you don’t mind it feeling clunky by today’s standards. Real time, but more tactical than action. Skill system inspired by deck building games (eg you have a ton of available skills but can only carry 8 at one time). Stories are functional.


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