culturedleftfoot's recent activity

  2. Comment on Let's build a playlist! in ~music

  3. Comment on Do you get bored? in ~talk

    culturedleftfoot
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    It seems that distraction has replaced boredom for the newer generations. I don't remember when last I was genuinely bored either. If I had to guess it would have been somewhere in my tween or...

    I think of my students now, with phones, and wonder if they ever experience boredom anymore because they now have unlimited individualized high-interest content available at their fingertips 24/7.

    It seems that distraction has replaced boredom for the newer generations.

    I don't remember when last I was genuinely bored either. If I had to guess it would have been somewhere in my tween or early teen years, simply because I would have been more likely to be in situations where I had little to no autonomy. Since then, recognizing my own agency doesn't allow me to be bored, but that has less to do with keeping myself stimulated (external emphasis) and more to do with appreciating the here and now (internal emphasis). In fact, any mention of boredom in a dating profile, for example, is a red flag for me. I think adults who complain of being bored are most likely boring themselves, and I steer clear.

    This is the currently pinned comment on a YouTube video it feels like I find a way to refer to on Tildes every chance I get:

    I remembered this video a few weeks ago and finally got around to watching it again. The sequence following 23:15 strongly reminded me of a Cioran quote and since I don't remember it being in the game I wanted to share it.

    "A zoologist who observed gorillas in their native habitat was amazed by the uniformity of their life and their vast idleness. Hours and hours without doing anything. Was boredom unknown to them? This is indeed a question raised by a human, a busy ape. Far from fleeing monotony, animals crave it, and what they most dread is to see it end. For it ends, only to be replaced by fear, the cause of all activity. Inaction is divine; yet it is against inaction that man has rebelled. Man alone, in nature, is incapable of enduring monotony, man alone wants something to happen at all costs — something, anything.... Thereby he shows himself unworthy of his ancestor: the need for novelty is the characteristic of an alienated gorilla." - Emil Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born

    4 votes

  4. Comment on Ghosting isn't as cold-hearted as it seems, say psychologists — but people still hate it in ~life

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Speaking as someone who has ghosted before and never been ghosted, it's also immature, cowardly, and disrespectful. The only acceptable reason to ghost someone IMO is to avoid/escape a likely...

    Speaking as someone who has ghosted before and never been ghosted, it's also immature, cowardly, and disrespectful. The only acceptable reason to ghost someone IMO is to avoid/escape a likely violent and abusive retaliation.

    46 votes

  5. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2024 in ~games

  6. Comment on What slow-burn game is worth the time? in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Well, that depends on how you look at it. Which is what the game is about, ironically.

    Well, that depends on how you look at it. Which is what the game is about, ironically.

  7. Comment on US Soccer fails to deliver in ~sports.football

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    The stereotypical American cultural bias against soccer is essentially a remnant of anti-immigrant sentiment, as well as a form of social pressure to assimilate. However, like any kind of...

    The stereotypical American cultural bias against soccer is essentially a remnant of anti-immigrant sentiment, as well as a form of social pressure to assimilate. However, like any kind of xenophobic rhetoric, it doesn't make much sense - tons of Americans like hockey, and hockey is basically soccer on ice, with sticks. If you can follow one, you can follow the other.

    As far as boredom - there's a language barrier, so to speak, with getting into any sport, because as an outsider you don't understand any of the context. When people have an interpreter who is able to explain what's going on to them, they get into it. I saw the most unlikely group of middle- to-senior-age guys get into the Women's 2022 Euros, because there were enough other people following it when it was on that they could ask the occasional question and follow what exactly was happening. They ended up looking forward to the games, and the USA wasn't even in the tournament.

    The generations that have grown up with internet access and have exposure to people and cultures beyond their borders do not view soccer with any of the same hostility that previous generations did, even if they aren't all dreaming of being the next Ronaldo or Messi... yet. Franklin Foer's How Soccer Explains The World is a worthwhile read on the topic.

    1 vote

  8. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2024 in ~games

  9. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2024 in ~games

  10. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2024 in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    It looks like you're good for Night Call, but Celeste and Inmost have both been claimed. Anything else caught your eye?

    It looks like you're good for Night Call, but Celeste and Inmost have both been claimed. Anything else caught your eye?

  11. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2024 in ~games

  12. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2024 in ~games

  13. Comment on US Soccer fails to deliver in ~sports.football

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    Long may it continue! Beyond my own taste for schadenfreude, I hope the US takes at least another generation before it becomes the powerhouse that its economy almost guarantees it will become....

    Wondering what folks outside the USA think about our situation

    Long may it continue!

    Beyond my own taste for schadenfreude, I hope the US takes at least another generation before it becomes the powerhouse that its economy almost guarantees it will become. Football is already going down a dark path with the financial stratification of European clubs; if there is any justice in the universe, the US will suffer continued disappointments until it reckons with the many changes needed within its infrastructure from the ground up, as @Power0utage alluded to, instead of it becoming a Major League big-bucks success story.

    It's also useful for the rest of the world to have something they can use to help Americans have some measure of humility. I have an American friend just shy of 50 years old that has become a big soccer fan within the past couple years, largely due to exposure through me. He's had to overcome decades of his own cultural bias against the sport, and yet we've had so many conversations after USA games where I had to explain both football's global history, as well as its historical context in the US, in an attempt to soothe his wounded ego. He's had real trouble overcoming that "USA #1!" entitlement, as if they have have some preordained right to just big-dick their way into supremacy now that he's paying attention.

    IMO a lot of his pain comes from watching/reading US soccer media, which has to compete for attention with the NBA, NFL, etc., and all the hyperbole ends up feeding unreasonable fan expectations. USMNT players simultaneously aren't really as bad or as good as they're made out to be. Performances are about where they should be. They've maybe even overperformed in the past 20 years.

    4 votes

  14. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2024 in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Indie games FTW! If you like the Indian influence in Raji, you might also be interested in Indivisible, which I should have had in my original list, really.

    Indie games FTW!

    If you like the Indian influence in Raji, you might also be interested in Indivisible, which I should have had in my original list, really.

  15. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2024 in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Sure, but... have you not heard of Celeste before? If you have, I'd like to give you a game that is totally new to you as well.

    Sure, but... have you not heard of Celeste before? If you have, I'd like to give you a game that is totally new to you as well.

  16. Comment on The Steam Summer Sale 2024 is live (runs June 27 - July 11) in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    I picked up Lumines Remastered for $4.50, along with Disco Elysium for $4. It's been a good week. I have very little interest in multiplayer gaming. So, naturally, I'm going to recommend 3...

    I picked up Lumines Remastered for $4.50, along with Disco Elysium for $4. It's been a good week.

    I have very little interest in multiplayer gaming. So, naturally, I'm going to recommend 3 multiplayer games I've enjoyed:

    1. Helldivers is on sale with all DLC for $10.
      (This is the original game, not the popular sequel that came out a few months back.)

    I'm happy that Arrowhead has seen such runaway success with Helldivers 2, as fans of the original were hoping and dreaming of a sequel for years, and it's mostly turned out to be everything we wanted. However, the chaos of sharing one screen was a big part of the magic and humor of the original, and I personally think HD2 can't quite recapture that after moving to 3D. The formula is necessarily a bit different, and evidently quite good; I don't know if I've seen a more intense 1st- or 3rd-person shooter. But I'll stick to HD1. I've got north of 500 hours on it, and will drop back in every few months and play a few rounds with randoms.

    1. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is currently $6.

    The official trailer is corny. This vid makes a believer out of anyone who sees it.

    1. Tetris Effect: Connected is currently $20.

    That might sound like a lot for Tetris, but as a Tetris outsider for all my life, I think it's worth it. I have long envied the Tetris jedi among us, and this is the first version of the game I've come across that felt like it was designed to help me get to their levels and put me in a flow state. It has a few different multiplayer options that are almost all fun (apart from when you log on at the wrong time and can only get matched up against those damn jedi), and it has a great soundtrack as well.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on The Steam Summer Sale 2024 is live (runs June 27 - July 11) in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Wow. I quite liked Super House of Dead Ninjas in theory when I first played it about 5 years ago, but it didn't have great controller support. It looks like that's been fixed since, so I might...

    Wow. I quite liked Super House of Dead Ninjas in theory when I first played it about 5 years ago, but it didn't have great controller support. It looks like that's been fixed since, so I might give it another go.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on What slow-burn game is worth the time? in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Not quite. There is no invalidating your experience, and if we aren't on the same page about that by now, the rest probably won't come across properly. Sorry to disappoint.

    Not quite. There is no invalidating your experience, and if we aren't on the same page about that by now, the rest probably won't come across properly. Sorry to disappoint.

  19. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2024 in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Looks like Braid was claimed twice before you, but ElecHead is all yours! If you've ever heard of Aliensrock, he gives it a 10/10.

    Looks like Braid was claimed twice before you, but ElecHead is all yours!

    If you've ever heard of Aliensrock, he gives it a 10/10.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2024 in ~games