cobysev
@cobysev@lemmy.world
- Comment on Sean Connery in 1964 (on the set of Goldfinger) and Thomas Brodie-Sangster in 2024. Both age 34 in their respective photos. 3 days ago:
Sean Connery also wore a toupée ever since he was in his 20s. Dude went bald early and hid it from the world until he was an old man.
- Comment on How does one figure out what to do, after getting out and done with high school? 1 week ago:
I joined the military while still a senior in high school. I left for basic training literally 2 weeks after graduating. I figured it’d be sometime cool to experience for a few years while I figured out what to do with my life.
Turns out the benefits were too good. I ended up staying for a full 20 years before qualifying for an official retirement and pension. I retired 4 years ago, at 38 years old, and have just been sitting around my house enjoying some solid “me” time.
Every time I think about going back into the workforce, I think about all the drama the civilian sector has to deal with. In the military, everything was organized. All your rules, procedures, protocols, etc. were written down and everyone had to follow them. We were all on the same page.
The civilian sector is a bit like the Wild West compared to that structure. Not to mention, I had job security while serving. I’d sign up for 4-6 years of service at a time and I literally had to be thrown in jail before I’d get “fired” during that time. Which gave me freedom to speak my mind at work more often. In the civilian sector, I have to watch my tongue at work.
So here I am, currently 42 years old, and I still don’t know what to do with my life. I’m just living each day as it comes and going with the flow, investing my time in interests and hobbies. I have plans and projects in my life, and I’m slowly working toward personal goals. But do I have my whole life mapped out? Not in the slightest. Heck, I don’t even know what I’m doing next week.
- Comment on How important is owning your own video games to you? 1 week ago:
How important is owning your own games to you?
Let me put it this way: I have nearly 5,000 games on Steam. It’s the one source of media I have no problem investing money into, because I agree with how Valve is providing the service.
It’s convenient, user-friendly, and easily exportable. I can go anywhere in the world, download my games and save files, and pick up where I left off. Which has been made even more convenient with the advent of the Steam Deck.
If I paid for a game, it’s in my library forever. Even if it gets removed from the Steam Store. And the regular sales/discounts ensure I can afford to have such a massive library. I would be severely in debt if I paid full price for my entire library.
If/when Valve loses Gabe Newell and the new CEO prioritizes profits over customer satisfaction, I will gladly switch to pirating and hoarding my own games.
I’m very much against subscription services and I firmly believe in owning everything I drop money on. I don’t play console games anymore because they’ve all been pushing subscription services, and with Sony in particular trying to push for people to not own games anymore? Fuck PlayStation.
This is also why I won’t use Epic Games. Their predatory business practices and poor customer service shows what a terrible company they are and I refuse to support a business that degrades and exploits the customer experience for profit. I will gladly pirate any exclusive they keep off the market, or wait until they show up on Steam in a year or so.
If everyone voted with their wallet, Epic Games would be forced to confront the fact they need to make changes to compete with the online gaming market, or go bankrupt.
- Comment on Works every time 3 weeks ago:
My favorite is, “Are you subscribed to my OnlyFans?” Not only stops the conversation, but they’ll avoid you for the rest of the night.
- Comment on fedi is freedom 4 weeks ago:
In certain communities, some people are known for posting specific types of content regularly.
For example, I started a series of essay-style video game reviews in a games community and they were pretty popular for a while. But I’m not updating them nearly as much as I used to, so I’ve just become another anonymous member on Lemmy now. Which is fine, I’m doing it for me, not for any Internet accolades.
Which reminds me, I should probably make a new one of those. It’s been a while.
- Comment on fedi is freedom 4 weeks ago:
I post based on what makes ME happy. And maybe based on some recommendations from whatever small audience enjoys my stuff. I don’t give a shit about algorithms. If my stuff doesn’t become popular overnight, oh well. If I lose followers because I don’t post regularly, whatever. I enjoyed making it anyway and I’ll continue posting whenever I personally feel motivated to do so.
Future archivists can find my various content and enjoy it all in one sitting, but I won’t be pressured by corporations to keep pumping out sub-par content just to keep an algorithm going so they can make ad money off me.
Europeans got it right; work when you want to, take a few months off in the summertime to go travel/fishing/relaxing, and your business will be open whenever you’re available. That’s the philosophy I live my life by.
- Comment on What is the most common stupid question you hear/see? 1 month ago:
It’s actually an extreme counter-response to the Vietnam War. Americans didn’t believe we should be involved in that awful war, and they blamed military members for it. They assumed military members could just quit and walk away if they didn’t agree with the war, so anyone who was still serving was assumed to be pro-war. And thus, they were treated like shit by the public.
The truth is, a lot of people were drafted against their will for that war. Most didn’t want to be there, but were threatened with prison if they refused to go. Then the war itself was a terrible and traumatizing experience for most of them, if they even survived it. THEN they come home to ungrateful Americans who blame them for the war and treat them like garbage for serving. It led to a ton of PTSD, homelessness, and suicides amongst veterans.
When the Iraq War kicked off in 2003, even though Americans didn’t want us going to Iraq and had no idea why we were going there in the first place, they had learned from history that the service members themselves had nothing to do with it. They were stuck in their enlistment, forced to go wherever the government told them to go. And there’s no quitting; you either finish your 4-6 year enlistment, or you break a law and go to jail. That’s pretty much the only way out.
So Americans started treating military members (and veterans) with extreme respect, to counter the terrible behavior towards them during the last ugly conflict we didn’t want to be involved in. And it kind of took on a life of its own. And yes, the government did encourage the behavior too.
I appreciate not being spit on, cursed at, or attacked by the citizens I served. But at the same time, I don’t need to be on a pedestal. Most military members don’t see conflict in their careers and are pretty much indistinguishable from office workers. We show up to work, do whatever the job entails, then go home. If someone earns the Medal of Honor or a Purple Heart, then by all means, raise that pedestal! They earned some accolades! But the rest of us? We’re pretty much just normal people doing normal jobs. You’d be better off praising Janice for her TPS reports.
- Comment on This Far and No Further 1 month ago:
They’re likely saying that data collection/analysis on customer’s eating habits is getting to the point that they can almost predict when you’ll be hungry, and the next step is to deliver food to you before you even order it.
If you order a burrito at 11:30 every day, their goal is to have a burrito delivered to your door at 11:30 every day, without you even ordering it.
Which honestly, is kind of terrifying. I don’t want a company knowing my habits so well that they predict what I want and then order it without my consent.
- Comment on What is the most common stupid question you hear/see? 1 month ago:
I don’t want to call it a “stupid” question, because most people just don’t know this. But when I was serving in the US Air Force, if my service ever came up around civilians, it was almost guaranteed that the next words out of their mouth were, “What planes do you fly?” It was such a common occurrence, it was a running joke amongst us Air Force members.
Only 5% of the Air Force are pilots. The other 95% work in career fields that either directly or indirectly support those pilots. We have doctors, lawyers, electricians, police, accountants, cooks… You name it, we likely have a similar career for it.
I personally worked in IT. I fixed computers for 20 years, usually in some cold, dark server room deep in the bowels of a facility. (Sometimes underground even!) I was about as far removed from the airplanes as one could get. So despite my 20 years working for the Air Force, I know absolutely nothing about planes.
Also, it kind of bothers me when people thank me for my service because I didn’t do anything. I’m no hero. Anyone could’ve done my job. Heck, I deployed with Marines once and they told me, if shit hits the fan, to just duck under my desk and let them take care of it. Even in the Air Force, we’re told that Security Forces (our version of military police) are the ones trained to handle combat with enemy forces and to get out of their way if anything happens.
When I was deployed with the Marines, my Marine boss told me once that she hopes to god that she never sees an Air Force person with a rifle in their arms. That means the planes are down, the Marines are dead, and the base is overrun. She said we are the absolute last resort to defend against enemy forces. So if we come under fire, she asked that I hand my weapon to the nearest Marine and then go take cover.
- Comment on Check out my peen 1 month ago:
- Comment on Feels Like 2016 Was When It Started 1 month ago:
2016 was the year that a bunch of celebrities started dying all at once. The world has never been the same since.
- Comment on Take the pledge! 1 month ago:
He does not, sadly. He lived a pretty wild party life for many years that got him addicted to heavy drugs, and he became a gay prostitute for a while. He completely disappeared for a handful of years into some creepy sex cult and popped up again when he was rushed to the ER one day. Almost dying in a hospital was the wake-up call he needed.
He’s been through rehab and recovery and as far as I know, he’s working a pretty normal office job now. I’m good friends with his family, so I see him every time he’s passing through town. And he still asks me if I’ve pooped that day.
- Comment on Take the pledge! 1 month ago:
This reminds me of my high school days. In health class, we were taught that a healthy digestive system had at least one bowel movement per day. Throughout the course, we were also encouraged to promote generic healthy habits with our friends, family, and classmates; basically help each other stay accountable with their health and nutrition.
One of my friends took this to heart. He started going up to people - literally anyone - and asking in a concerned tone, “Did you poop today?”
If they gave any answer besides “yes,” he would go off about all the health benefits associated with a daily bowel movement and what kinds of healthy foods and exercises would assist in having one. He would even offer to provide moral support from outside a bathroom stall if they needed it.
We all got a kick out of how deadpan and serious he played it. When the teacher asked him to knock it off, he insisted he was just concerned about promoting healthy habits, then would ask her if she had also pooped that day. To a room full of teenagers, there’s nothing more hilarious than asking a teacher if she’s pooped. No matter her response, the whole room was rolling in raucous laughter.
It’s been over 20 years since then, and every time we meet in person, he still greets me with, “Did you poop today?”
- Comment on Why is the approach to nudity and sex in films and tv so vastly different between the US and Europe? 1 month ago:
The Federal Communications Commission. It’s a US government agency that regulates all communications broadcasts (TV, radio, Internet, satellite, etc.).
- Comment on Is this true? 2 months ago:
Minecraft: Story Mode was actually pretty popular. It was basically a story-rich RPG set in a Minecraft world.
- Comment on Day 759 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing 2 months ago:
Control is one of my favorite games! I’ve really wanted to review it here, but I wanted to review Alan Wake first, since they’re tangentially connected. And you kept playing Alan Wake and posting about it, so I didn’t want to add more Alan Wake content to this community at the same time. It’s my goal to keep adding new content, which is why I generally don’t go back and discuss games I’ve already reviewed once.
I remember the game being short […]
Short?! I’ve played for 36 hours and still haven’t beaten it! Granted, I stopped playing when I got stuck on a boss fight and didn’t want to grind endless mobs to level up for the fight. Then when I did return, I decided to just start the whole game over because it’d been so long since I last played, I forgot what was going on. So I have two half-played game sessions on Steam.
Also, I got absorbed in the details of the game. Something about it scratches a particular itch for me so I love just exploring every nook and cranny and collecting every little bit of lore I can find in game. I love the world of SCP, and this game is based on the overall concept of it. I especially like how this game retcons Alan Wake into an anomaly that The Oldest House is tracking.
- Comment on Games with singleplayer campaigns that let me fight/kill nazis? 2 months ago:
Ah, maybe I’m getting my pop media confused with actual history. Hitler is obsessed with the occult in many films and video games.
- Comment on Games with singleplayer campaigns that let me fight/kill nazis? 2 months ago:
Interesting note: Zombie Army is actually a spinoff series from the Sniper Elite franchise. It was originally called Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army, but they dropped the lengthy title when the third Zombie Army game released. There are 4 of them out now.
Sniper Elite focuses on a sniper behind enemy lines during WWII. Despite creating unique stories and events for you to play, its overall setting is somewhat accurate to real life history.
Zombie Army, however, is an alternate history where Hitler released zombies as a final solution when he knew he was losing the war. These are supernatural zombies, as real-life Hitler was obsessed with the occult. No virus plague zombies here.
The two game franchises don’t have much to do with each other, but they started out under the same franchise title.
- Comment on Amazon thought it would be a good idea to not include subtitles in a film made entirely with sign language. 2 months ago:
if a movie or TV show had subs we had to take turns reading it out loud
I do this for my wife, because she spends most of a film on her phone.
She’s listening to the audio and can mostly follow what’s going on by glancing at the screen and reading subtitles every now and then, but if there’s a foreign language with subtitles, or a text description (Paris, 11 AM or 10 years later, etc.), she’ll miss it and then be completely lost.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to pause a movie and give a quick recap to get her caught up with the plot.
- Comment on Civic duty 2 months ago:
I was exempt from jury duty while serving in the US military, but at one particular base I was stationed at, they put me on a list of potential jury members for any military trials held in the area.
My boss got selected to sit in on a trial, but I never got called. He was super excited about it. He said it was a fascinating case and he couldn’t wait to spill the details once the trial concluded.
To this day, I’ve never been called on. I kinda hope it happens one day. I’m retired now and have nothing better to do.
- Comment on Random Screenshots of my Games #68 - 007 First Light 3 months ago:
It does require a one-time connection to the Internet for a day-one patch before you can play it, but after that, you can enjoy the whole campaign offline.
It does disable some features of the game if you’re offline though, like the tactical simulation mode is inaccessible (since it’s a challenge ranking system with the community). I read that some cosmetics and in-game challenges are also disabled. But if you’re here just for the story, you can enjoy it without an Internet connection.
- Submitted 3 months ago to games@lemmy.world | 3 comments
- Comment on If Steam were to shut down tomorrow how much money would you have lost in total on games / DLC ?? 3 months ago:
More true than you know. Valve won’t allow you to transfer accounts to other people, so your account is legally dead when you are.
- Comment on If Steam were to shut down tomorrow how much money would you have lost in total on games / DLC ?? 3 months ago:
Nice! Glad to know I’m not the only person sinking ridiculous money into my gaming habits. 😅
- Comment on If Steam were to shut down tomorrow how much money would you have lost in total on games / DLC ?? 3 months ago:
According to SteamDB, $18,181 over 18.6 years. I’m sure that number will be much higher when the Steam sale is over, since it pulls data from current game prices.
- Comment on Poll: Will you buy GTA 6 when it launches on your platform? 3 months ago:
I can’t vote because of my VPN… but I’ll wait for a sale before purchasing Grand Theft Auto VI. I don’t agree with spending $70+ for a game that I might enjoy for a handful of hours. No game is worth that price to me. I firmly believe in voting with my money, so I won’t support the industry that keeps inflating game prices.
Plus, I never buy games at release anyway. No game seems to be perfectly polished at release now (unless it’s been in early access for over 5 years) and I’d rather wait and let others find all the game-breaking bugs and get them patched first.
I remember a time when games were strictly offline. A new game released and whatever flaws it had were just part of the experience forever. Game studios were especially careful to ensure their games were as close to perfect as they could get.
Now with everything connected to the Internet, game studios just release a messy pile of code and drop day-one patches to make it semi-playable, with the expectation that gamers will find and complain about other problems that the studio can patch out later. There’s no more pride in making a quality game anymore, it’s just pushing garbage as fast as possible and fixing it in post.
I’ll wait maybe a year or so until Grand Theft Auto VI drops to $20-30 during a Steam sale and then buy it. I have plenty of other games to play in the meantime; I’m in no rush to experience it.
- Comment on Game suggestions: Downvote any game you've heard of before 3 months ago:
Ah, I haven’t even met any bosses yet. That’s probably why it’s so slow. I don’t even have engines yet.
- Comment on Game suggestions: Downvote any game you've heard of before 3 months ago:
I’ve been playing this game. It’s enjoyable, but it took way too long to get started. I was already several hours in before I was able to build my first base/ship and get moving to new islands. I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I spent a lot of time just wandering and exploring. I still feel that way, several hours into the gameplay.
And even then, it just feels very slow paced. Like it takes forever to do anything in the game. On that note, flying between islands is also very slow. I don’t know if it’ll pick up with later advancements to ship engines or something, but it’s kind of mind-numbingly slow where I’m currently at. It could use some fast-travel options so I’m not just leaving to make a sandwich while my ship flies to the next island over.
I tried to get my friends into it so we could all base-build together, but none of them had the patience to get a character started. So I’ve been playing it solo and hoping it’ll get better in the later game.
the devs are continuing to put significant work into the game, and it’s in a good state now
It’s actually been a while since I played it. I should probably pick it up again and see if the game has improved.
- Comment on and what?! 3 months ago:
*Naked Snake enters the chat*
- Comment on and what?! 3 months ago:
Spoiler, but yes.
