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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2569 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 22, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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So, what are you playing? What are you reading?

I've been playing Civilization 5 over the last week. I finished a game on the second highest difficulty. :) Science victory. I let my embittered rival have some nukes to his population centers before we left this planet. I'll probably leave the game installed and play another campaign in a month or two. I've never tried a faith-first route. Might play Ethiopia or the Maya.

I'm reading five books these days. Usually I stick to one of them for a few days and then mix it up. Three books on finance, one on memory (Charan Ranganath's very recent book), and a Dostoevsky. Enjoying them all.

Not reading, but listening to Shogun. Definitely going to watch the show later as well. In case you haven't yet, absolutely read Shogun. It's a masterpiece.

I've been playing Salt 2, which seems like a single player Sea of Thieves. Relaxing and pretty, but there isn't much crunch.

I've got to get back to finish Pacific Drive (I'm about 70% through the campaign), but I've kind of lost interest.

I did a replay of Dredge, which seems to have had a few tweaks since I last played; basically making resources you need to upgrade your ship much easier to find (I'm not sure how I feel about this). I still think its overpriced with only 10-12 hours worth of content.

I've also had a fun time following the Dragon's Dogma 2 controversy. AAA game with performance issues and surprise microtransactions (mtx) that were revealed only at release due to a review embargo, leading to review bombing. I'm kind of really against micro-transactions after major streamers CohhCarnage and Asmongold verbalised how it enshittifies games. The short version is mtx incentivises Devs deliberately making the game's Quality of Life worse so that the mtx can provide QoL relief. In other words, making a problem on purpose and then selling a solution.

Have to wonder whether their short sighted attempts at money grabbing pay off or if they are just plain bad decisions. Why not delay the game for a month to improve performance? Why not refrain from pissing people off with a mtx? Review bombing is probably not enough to tank sales completely, when most people are aware that review bombing as such as happened. I think Steam puts up a disclaimer about review bombings. But it probably puts a noticable dent in sales anyway.

Been playing Backpack Battles, the most overtly shape-rotator game since Tetris.

You buy items and backpack slots, fit together your swords and items so the right things are touching for synergy and watch as your character battles it out with other players online. It's an autobattler where all the gameplay is inventory management.

I'm currently hate-reading Drama Is Her Middle Name, by Wendy Williams and her ghostwriter. I'm only one sentence in so far, and it's already so bad that I can't believe she needed a ghostwriter. Here's to hoping the sequel, Is the Bitch Dead or What?, is better.

I've started a new game of factorio, this time with the mod overhaul Industrial Revolution 3, which is more focused on distinct tech levels, and the difficulty of the game comes more from building the factory itself than building tons of science packs that needs to be burned up.

I'm reading Heretical Fishing. Its a cozy/silly isekai story.

What are the finance books? Anything interesting you’d recommend?

Statman's Finance for Normal People. Klarman's Margin of Safety. Pysh's Warren Buffett's 3 Favorite Books.

They're all pretty good. The first one gives insights into various wants, errors, and biases. The differences between the mythical rational person, and the actual human being. The second one is a guide to becoming a value investor. The third one I haven't got very far into, but it gives some idiot proof explanations into what business, shares, etc actually are, and goes from there. As I read a few chapters in it I remember thinking that this is stuff kids with rich parents probably learn growing up, but lots of people don't.

I made a separate top level comment before reading this, but I am currently playing some 4D Golf.

Finally got rolling with Baldur's Gate 3. I had started it up when it came out and I just didn't really enjoy the mechanics, largely because I don't play anything tabletop and was thinking of it as a tactics game more in line with something like XCOM with spells. That's not how the game works at all! When I restarted, I settled on just building a barbarian to limit my options with regard to incompetence, enjoyed it decently, learned the systems better, and now find that I like it pretty well (at the start of Act 3).

That's not how the game works at all!

How does it work?

It's a slightly gamified version of D&D 5e. An accurate representation of the roleplaying game, but it diminishes how fun it is. (The lack of simulataneous turns is the real killer.)

A bunch of Helldivers 2. Great game, the content just can't come out fast enough. The players failed an overall campaign goal and have thus been banned from sex (this makes perfect sense in context, trust me).

Sadly I've been hit with a double whammy of both Rimworld and Total War Warhammer 3 receiving massive updates, which consequentially has broken anywhere between the 500-600 mods I can't live without. Play vanilla? I'd rather die.

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