I'm not really invested in the series, but I've noticed that it's gotten a bad reputation over the years.

Of course you got the usual culture warriors bitching about the politics and forced diversity, but I've also seen normal people criticize it for being cringe.

In terms of Let's Players: In one hand, you got people like Jackscepticeye who's invested in the story, but in the other, you got Joseph Anderson who's picking the story apart.

There's also video essays about it as well. Uricksaladbar comes to mind with his analysis on Chloe. I also know about "Centrist in denial" MangaKamen doing a whole series dunking on Life is Strange which usually caters to the anti woke crowd (Like he usually does) who despises those games and seeks validation for their hatred. It just feels like a huge gamble looking for analysis videos because there's a chance you get valid criticism and good quality analysis or someone grifting towards a right wing audience.

Is this series that bad, or is the hate overblown? Maybe it's just mid?

People bitch and moan when "politics in muh videa games!!!!" Like its not just the writers or authors having opinions and worldviews and wanting to express said worldviews. Like, Another Crab's Treasure is extremely explicit about its politics, bordering on Disco Elysium explicit, and it's still a banger, probably one of the best indie games this year. Would rather have a game say something, anything profound, than just be a boring game that says nothing. Imagine how lame Wolfenstein would be if its both sides'd the fucking 3rd Reich. Keep politics out of games? More like keep authors from using their first amendment rights to use fiction as a vessel to share their worldveiw. Maybe this is why the Muskrat wants to use AI to make games, AI doesn't have a bias (At least, not until the neo nazi freaks get into it), it can't say anything to upset incels, it just makes lifeless slop.

Looking to see if anyone knows of any guilds or communities playing fresh classic wow, willing to play any server or faction. I see a post here from a few weeks ago that seems to have fizzled out, hopefully not an issue to ask again.

The year is some time in the far future, and America has descended into an era of warlordism. Every piece of furniture and tool is stripped and fed into the war effort. Wood and metal become fortifications. Mechanical and electric parts are forged into guns. Cars are fashioned with armor and mounted weapons.

Different factions have differing ideologies, but rarely are they ever but set dressing over the logic of feudalism. The warlords speak of past great theorists and leaders without understanding their content or context on more than the most shallow level.
The game would be low poly and cartoonish. Something like Unturned. Despite the bleak nature of the setting, the tone would be more satirical and absurd. A bit like Team Fortress 2?

The player may work for any warlord they like, taking commands from them. The commands would have them capturing strategically important important infrastructure, such as powerstations and factories.

Fortifications such as barricades and sandbags can crafted and placed down. Any furniture and objects found can be broken down and fashioned into whatever serves the current needs of the war.

I'm not committed to any particular engine, so I'm happy to work with whatever everyone else is most comfortable with. I'm mostly hoping to find programmers who can put together the base systems and modellers who can make more complex models for items.

Welcome to HelluvaWobbly! It was born out of an attempt to organize campuses in upstate NY during the height of BLM. Now, it is mostly a gaming server aesthetically based on the radical labor union known as the IWW. We play video games, talk politics, and share memes. We are playing Helldivers 2, Deeprock Galactic, Garry's mod, Minecraft, Baroutrauma, and party games like Overcooked, Unrailed, and Stick Fight.

Hope to see you in the union hall!

https://discord.gg/sVbCZqjM

When this link dies, DM me for a new one.

Anyone play? Come set sail in the nice warm waters of Europa with me

For whatever loose definition of "indie" you want to use, haha. I just think it's nice to support smaller developers with funky ideas - there's a few fun ones I played recently:

Scarlet Hollow: Horror visual novel/rpg. There are a lot of actually meaningful choices and customization, and the art is amazing. I really liked the characters as well, they feel realistically flawed and like they react naturally to how the PC interacts with them.

ARCO: Tactical turn based bullet hell rpg? I think? The storyline is really cool, you play as a few different people in a fantasy version of Central/South America that's just on the brink of colonization. There's a free demo too!

Red Strings Club: Cyberpunk bartending/revolution simulator. I really love this so much, you get to do a little minigame to mix drinks, and it has one of the few Grey Morality Sci Fi Choices(tm) that I felt was a genuinely interesting moral question.

Any recs for where to buy an Xbox Series X? Is pre-owned a good or bad idea? Etc. Happy to read your thoughts.

After seeing the most recent gameplay demos of Avowed, I’m actually looking forward quite a bit to it. It seems like a really fun, small in scope, deep fantasy RPG from the GOAT Obsidian. It’s giving the vibes of a cozy adventure game with fantasy skin if that makes sense.

I’m genuinely looking forward to it so much, it’s feeling like it’ll shape up to be similar to Skyrim in the sense of it being a really immersive first-person fantasy RPG set in an established universe with really cool lore, albeit with stronger writing than Skyrim via Obsidian being at the helm.

I just kinda wanted to talk about it and see what other people might be feeling about it, I’ve got a really good feeling in my gut about it.

Let me know if you've heard this before:

• "I don't mind if [Insert Real Life Issue Here] is depicted in media as long as it's written well"

• "I hate it when stories become preachy and talk down to their audience, just tell us a good story"

• "I want good representation, not ones that are forced down our throats"

All of these and their variations stem from a place of wanting to see good quality writing, yet somehow it always boils down to complaining about diversity and politics and if you call this out, they'll accuse you of straw-manning and misrepresenting their arguments.

It's disappointing to see because these complaints about "preachiness" and "shoving down throats" just ruins conversations surrounding any piece of media. It also makes me a bit insecure because I want to try my hand at writing, but seeing these kinds of complaints just pressures me to be perfect or else I'll get dogpiled on. I also had doubts when it came to writing advice surrounding these topics because I'm wary about whether or not the person giving the advice is speaking from a reactionary standpoint and I just don't want to waste my energy listening to someone complain about politics in media.

I know I should just be myself and ignore bad faith actors/misery-addicted consumers, but I just wish these kinds of discussions would be more productive and help me understand things a lot more for the future.

Anyone still playing civ V? I never got to play many late games in Civ V with other players and when I did they always chose freedom. Would anyone be interested in getting back into that game.

Sorry, I know this is more about a TV show, but since it's based on the game...

And to be clear, I'm not talking story-wise. "She" is obviously alive. Almost every main character has a happy ending. Somewhat.

But politically, it feels like the show has ended on such a....liberal tone?

Like, imagine you're a Zaunite who's lived their entire life there. The top literally doesn't care about/hates you and barely does anything to minimize your suffering after decades of oppression and humiliation, which is shown almost everywhere in season 1.

Then, after the attack on the council, it sends enforcers down to GAS you and your loved ones just so they can find ONE blue haired 'terrorist'.

And in the end, they be like: "Omg, you guys, these evil invaders from the outside threaten our existence, please fight alongside us 🥺👉👈", which you do.

And then? You mourn your dead together and you get ONE seat at the council?!?!? What else? Like, what the hell?! Will Caitlyn be prosecuted for obvious war crimes?! Will Vi still be an enforcer after she's fought against them most of her life?

No mentioning of Zaun getting fresh air, or Piltover sharing their wealth and technology, AFAIK. Barely anything is shown that demonstrates a chance for peace. More like a bandaid, that's it.

Someone on r/arcane replied that it still shows that change and a start are possible, and I mean, I agree. But it feels like a bad/not good enough start to address all the injustice we've been shown the past 17 episodes.

Kinda reminds of the debacle with Avatar:TLA and season 4 which never was and would have shown the deeper consequences of dismantling the fire nation's evil leaders.

Still a 9.0--9.5 show 👌, one of the best with strong character-driven narratives and beautiful animation+music.

Am I exaggerating/being too woke or does anyone agree?