dragontology
@dragontology@retrofed.com
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
Currently playing Animal Crossing New Leaf Welcome Luxury. Balance the economy (buy price == sell price), makes fishing easier etc.
Also like Legend of Zeros Triforce of the Gods. Implements fixes from later versions, restored cut content, and adds some common sense features. Fixes the inventory. Lets you change directions while running. Stuff like that. Based on Zelda 3
- Comment on Is it possible to not know who a famous person is? 2 weeks ago:
I know who The Weeknd is (and how to spell his name — it always irks me that it’s missing a letter, but it makes his name more memorable, because it makes one think about how it’s different). I’m not familiar with his music.
There are people in the world who don’t know who a lot of famous people are. Consider someone in Europe who knows quite a bit about association football (called soccer in the US, but they just call it football). In the US, you might know David Beckham was a soccer (sorry, *football*) player. You might even know what team (sorry, *squad*) he was on, but you might not know too many more. Someone in Europe might be able to name ten footballers off the top of their head, maybe tell you what position they play and who they play for.
American music and movies are pretty much known everywhere, but it’s also kind of regional. I’ve moved around a lot, and I’ve met people who swear up and down they never heard of bands I grew up listening to. They’re objectively famous, they sold many millions of albums, they were on MTV, but it’s possible to have just missed them. Same with movies and games.
- Comment on Is The Last of Us just The Walking Dead with but with mushrooms? 2 weeks ago:
As for The Walking Dead, I agree the show sucks. I haven’t read the comic books. Where it excels is the first two Clementine games. They’re adventure and “Choices Matter” games (much like Life is Strange), so they don’t really appeal to TWD fans who want more action. The first one involves a convict being taken to prison for murder when things go sideways, and he meets a little girl who is expecting her parents to come back Any Time Now. (You can guess what happened to them, and you’d be right.) She becomes the protagonist of the next two games, but I still haven’t played the third one. Despite having a little girl as a main character, the first game is gory enough. In the second game, Clementine is a bit older, maybe 12-13. In the third game, she’s a mother, she has a little boy to protect. Anyway, the games only show Hershel and Glenn from the show, and only briefly. You never meet Rick or the others. It’s strictly a spinoff, and it’s the best TWD media I’ve experienced.
- Comment on MOUSE: P.I. For Hire releases on Steam 2 weeks ago:
If it fully supported Linux, there would be a Tux (penguin) icon next to the Windows flag on the Steam page. And then I would have said “Requires Windows or Linux,” or I would have worded it differently.
Yes, I’m the odd one who put his money where his mouth was when Microsoft started to really go downhill. Not many people can say that.
- Comment on MOUSE: P.I. For Hire releases on Steam 3 weeks ago:
Yes, that’s the one. I love the look of both games, but I recognize that Cuphead is beyond my play ability. Gorgeous game though!
- Comment on MOUSE: P.I. For Hire releases on Steam 3 weeks ago:
I can run Steam Deck verified games on my Mac? How? (I don’t think I can, I think you just missed that I have a Mac, not a Steam Deck.)
I didn’t look for Steam Deck verification, I just looked at the OS flags above the price. They have them for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- Comment on How does James Bond run and fight in suits? 3 weeks ago:
Everything James Bond has is tailored to him; why wouldn’t his suits be the same? Same with his mundane gadgets having all kinds of secret features? Same with his suit. I just assume it’s a bespoke suit that is cut very well and has secret features like everything else he uses.
Or: he can make video calls on a watch in the 1960s and mobility in a suit is where you draw the line??
- Comment on MOUSE: P.I. For Hire releases on Steam 3 weeks ago:
Art style looks cool.
Requires Windows. My computer can’t run that (by choice, also by design — it’s a Mac). So that’s a red flag I can’t ignore.
Anyway, it feels like this game has been coming for years. It doesn’t help that it looks somewhat similar to that other retro cartoon bullet hell game I can’t recall the name of right now. That game doesn’t interest me though; this one tentatively does if it has an easy mode or the difficulty is fair.
- Comment on Are there any good protest songs from the past few years? 3 weeks ago:
Not exactly what you asked, but I think it’s important to note how old protest songs are still so relevant. I listen to a lot of 1980s music (in fact, presently playing my 80s playlist, just went from Tiffany to Belinda Carlisle) and older music.
Listen to the 1971 song Won’t Get Fooled Again by British band The Who. I’m sure most of you have heard it. Listen to what he said 55 years ago and imagine it was written this year, and see how relevant it is.
- Comment on Are all billionaires and fortune 500 companies famous? 1 month ago:
Mars family is pretty private, not much is known about them. The people behind M&Ms, Dove, Milky Way, 3 Musketeers, Snickers, and a few others. I think they make the best mass marketed chocolate in the US. They’re owned by the Mars family (it’s actually their name) but very little is known about them.
- Comment on What was the first game you ever bought ? 1 month ago:
Bought for me: the NES deluxe kit with console, controllers, light gun, and Mario/Duck Hunt.
I first bought Super Mario Bros 3 as in, with my own money.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
Because they’re not computers, they’re media devices, like Xbox and iPod. They’re not meant to be open.
- Comment on Talking to new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and CCO Matt Booty — "This team has brought it back before, and I'm here to help us do it again." 2 months ago:
Yeah, it’s not so much gamerscore as it’s gamer history. So if you look at my gamerscore, the actual number of points doesn’t really matter, but you can see I’ve been gaming on Xbox for like 20 years, I’ve played so many games, you can judge me as a gamer based on what I’ve played and how far I got. It’s not fair to mistreat a person based on gaming preferences, I’m just saying you get a clearer picture. So on mine you’d see a lot of RPGs, action/adventure games, point and click adventures (Dontnod/Telltale stuff), and Metroidvanias. You wouldn’t see many sports games, racing games, or simulation games, and that would tell you things about me as a gamer.
Of course, I’d been playing video games for about 20-25 years before I ever heard the name “Xbox,” but that’s not tracked.
We could get into how achievements are just a stupid collectible for gamers, but are used by Microsoft to monetize anonymized gaming metrics to inform publishers how their games are played. Not all of them care, and this service is part of what Microsoft charges ~30% for, it’s not an extra service. Some do, and most famously to my knowledge, it’s why you didn’t get an evil path in Fallout 4, because an overwhelming majority of Fallout 3 players went for the good karma achievements. Fallout 3 gave you achievements at levels 8, 16, 24, and 30 (the cap), but it also noted your karma level (good, neutral, or evil). And at each level it was like a stupidly overwhelming win for good, so they assumed most players didn’t want the evil option. I mean, they did give you a couple evil factions to work with (the Institute if you were scientifically evil, and the Brotherhood of Steel if you were militarily evil), but ultimately your character is a good person.
- Comment on Talking to new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and CCO Matt Booty — "This team has brought it back before, and I'm here to help us do it again." 2 months ago:
She doesn’t have no gamerscore, she has like 1200 because her account was set up like a month ago and she has some token achievements she probably didn’t earn.
It’s not about the amount or how much. Phil Spencer had a lot because he was a gamer and an exec. He was one of us, more or less, he played games and he liked working in gaming. I don’t agree with all of his gaming opinions (in fact, mine are fairly uncommon, so that just comes with the territory).
I have a pretty high amount just because I’ve been gaming since before most people here were born. So I’ve had an Xbox account for something like 20 years. I’ve only really gone after a few achievements. Mostly I just play. Over time, that builds up. I’ve worked longer hours than a lot of people, in jobs most people are too good to do. “Work hard, play hard” may be a cliche, but I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t do recreational drugs, and I don’t engage in extramarital affairs. I’m not a woodworker or a gearhead — gaming is my hobby. It’s what I do to relax at the end of the day, if I have time. If I don’t have time for a more “serious” game on the Xbox, I fire up my Switch and dick around on my Animal Crossing island. I’ve already rolled the credits (several times, long story, AC fans get it) but it’s somehow fun to just run around and talk to animals and catch bugs and shit. Either way, it’s what I do and I’ve been doing it for a long time.
I just think someone who’s been playing games for years would make a better executive of a company’s gaming division than someone who’s never picked up a controller. LOTS of people play games. If someone never games, that says to me they don’t like gaming — and they possibly don’t like gamers. It’s not a good look. Especially juxtaposed with the rise in AI and Microsoft bringing an AI exec in to run Xbox. It’s not a good look at all.
- Comment on Xbox Co-founder Says Microsoft is Quietly Sunsetting the Platform 2 months ago:
Meanwhile, their biggest competitor is either Linux or UNIX. That is, if you accept that macOS “is UNIX.” It’s been UNIX certified for a couple years now, but it’s UNIX in name only. While Steve Jobs’ NeXTStep was based on UNIX, NeXTStep was also vapourware. Still, it became OS X which became the macOS we know and love (or hate) today. But the truth is, it’s UNIX 3 certified, which is a decades-old certification, and it only just barely makes that. So it’s a thing Mac users brag about. “A UNIX system! I know this!” Jurassic Park meme. And then of course there’s Linux. And of course Windows has the Linux subsystem. Still, non-*nix is going the way of the dodo, just like Win9x did when Microsoft realised WinNT was the future. First with the tranwreck that was WinME, but much more importantly with WinXP. And NT was good, but its time is up (or will be soon).
- Comment on Talking to new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and CCO Matt Booty — "This team has brought it back before, and I'm here to help us do it again." 2 months ago:
To literally any Xbox gamer reading this: how do you feel about having a higher Gamerscore than the (new) CEO of Xbox?
Mine’s not worth bragging about, but I’m sure it’s over 100k. That used to mean something. Now it just means Xbox has been around for 20 years and you’ve played a lot of games on the platform. Either you platinumed 100 games, or you played a lot more (including Arcade titles which were capped at like 200-250GS, IIRC). I actually only have like five platinums. Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Oblivion, Skyrim… maybe one other? (Bethesda games are easy to platinum.) (Yes I know platinum is a PlayStation term. We all know it means to get all the achievements.)
Achievement I’m proudest of? Rockband 2, Bladder of Steel Award. Complete the “Endless Setlist II” (all 84 songs on the disc!) without pausing or failing at any difficulty other than Easy, on any instrument. I did it on Medium Vocals (easiest way really). Regardless of instrument or difficulty, playing the ESL2 without pausing takes 6 and a half hours. It takes longer if you fail, obviously, but once you fail, you may as well stop, since you’re out of the running for the achievement.
Until AI can game for you, I don’t think Sharma is going to get 100k GS, or do something like the Bladder of Steel Award that requires more than just casual interaction with a software title.