I dunno how I typo'd "and" as just "an" twice, once on mobile and one on a keyboard but hey.

and I'm sure some dweeb might be like "oh those are okay but the difficulty mods aren't because, because uhh erm" I don't care man. I'm choosing to fight in the war on modders on the side of modders even the easy mode mfs, we're on the same team. I don't agree with 'em but they're rolling w/ me.

Like, hell, I've never played xcom unmodded. idgaf about Firaxis's intended vision if the intended vision means shitter UI an cameras. Wow I cheated my experience by highlighting units by color, cheating myself of the artistic intent of sifting through shitty menus or whatever.

so I think like, conflating game cheats with artistic skill "cheats" is so disingenuous. Modding as a culture should be kept alive an encouraged.

The article straight up admits (in a handful of annoying paragraphs) that they didn't give a shit about the intended vision of the final boss. On one hand, lol, on the other hand go off I guess. I'm just happier that games exist culturally in a place where modding at all is cool.

Like, I agree on principle that making a game easier does exactly that, the whole "you cheated not only the game but yourself" and whatever, I just find people who harp on that point to be exceptionally annoying and missing the point.

Like, if you're one of those guys who rags on people for using a difficulty mod but you load up a dozen mods for any other game but think "these ones are ok", it's hyprocrisy. There is no sanctity in modding. If you change the game, you change the experience/intent.

I find that to be respectable as opposed to like, AI shit. AI shit cheats yourself AND others. Mods just (knowingly) cheat your own experience of the default game. We call 'em cheats for a reason. and idgaf if anyone cheats a singleplayer game.

I saw someone trying to conflate using AI to generate art to using difficulty mods in games because you're skipping "the process" or whatever and on one hand, kind of. Like yes, if you mod a game, you're chopping up a part of the process in experiencing the original work, but -

if you feel personally antagonized because someone doesn't like your blorbos that's a time to reflect, be curious, or just ignore it. I like hearing about what people like and dislike whether it aligns with my preferences or not. if you're getting heated over ice cream flavors, it better be jokingly

and despite bluesky being a better environment than twitter, that kind of attitude didn't leave with it, or even tumblr. there's still a "let people enjoy things" attitude and people forget that applies mostly to like, targeted antagonism, not people just. expressing that they don't like your thing.

that said, I don't think disliking things is bad. I think liking something so much leads to the same kind of blindness in reverse. I dunno how many times I've seen people state polite but divisive opinions ("hot takes") on media that get blasted with non-argument rebuttals by angry fans.

this is also the source of most self-critique and concern, the more you make your thing, the more you're going to worry that it's "contrived" because you are responsible for and witness to its creation. how convenient is it that everything you want to happen in your story happens? it feels weird.

if you hate something all you need to do is call it contrived, it's free. every story, every image is contrived, it came with being created. not to say that you can never call something contrived, but if you DO, then i expect convincing reasons. it's not an argument on its own.

ouugh feels so good to get into bed after a bus ride there, 5 hours of games, and a 5 mile walk back home in the rain (understandably busses don't run at 12 lol). chat w/ friends about my experience and make a lazy bowl of mac and cheese to cap it off 'cause i cant be assed to cook. i am sooo cozy

Snoozing at questing, upgrading, and combat halfway into part 2. I didn't wanna click a single damn button again in that game by the time I was done. Some days I consider it genius, and some days I'm like damn they really made it like that, huh? Videogame complimentary vs videogame derogatory

I got kinda big brained about it tho and not that I'm the only one to think this (it seems obvious to me) but it's like, an overall gameplay loop designed to be kinda tiresome on purpose. Which is cool imo but damn they succeeded.

I just wanna replay the first darkest dungeon again, I just don' know if I'm ready to commit at least 30 hours to a new run. I haven't played it with all expansions before, and I also haven't played black reliquary...

in these games, their generated level design has nothing to do with being like rogue, but they do demonstrate why I don't necessarily hate meta progression as a whole. somewhere along the way we forgot what this kind of design actually meant (even red hook themselves tbh..! dd2 is... something.)