kfwyre's recent activity
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
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Comment on Questions for ~books on self promotion in ~books
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Comment on Humble Choice - May 2026 in ~games
kfwyre (edited )Link ParentI changed up the order so Native was up top and all the Platinums were together, for cleanliness and rhetorical purposes. The Native is actually Nordhold, though that might not actually be true...I changed up the order so Native was up top and all the Platinums were together, for cleanliness and rhetorical purposes.
The Native is actually Nordhold, though that might not actually be true since Steam says it only has Windows and Mac support. Might be a case where it had a Linux build but that has since been deprecated?
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentThis game was entirely new to me, so I looked it up and it’s, quite oddly, only on the Nintendo Switch and PS4. I’m used to something being exclusive to one or the other, but both at the same...This game was entirely new to me, so I looked it up and it’s, quite oddly, only on the Nintendo Switch and PS4.
I’m used to something being exclusive to one or the other, but both at the same time? Seems odd that they would go through the trouble to port it but only for one system.
That said, I’m admittedly not nearly as in tune with console releases as I am with PC releases, so maybe this is more common than I think.
Your writeup is great, by the way! I went from knowing nothing about the game to feeling like I have a really solid handle on it because of how well you described everything in it.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentIt's probably the game that has the most misleadingly high skill ceiling that I can think of. It doesn't seem like the kind of game that would have considerable movement tech to it, but not only...It's probably the game that has the most misleadingly high skill ceiling that I can think of. It doesn't seem like the kind of game that would have considerable movement tech to it, but not only does it have it in spades, the later levels also demand that you use it to its full extent.
I wandered in wanting a fun, cartoony collectathon, and I ended up stopping the game because I wasn't sweaty enough to master the complex sets of precisely timed inputs required to do everything it was wanting me to do.
Great game, though. I don't fault it in the slightest for being better than me.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
kfwyre (edited )Link ParentI'm pretty sure automation games are #2 on the list behind ADHD for causes of time blindness. Not sure what it is about them specifically that does it, but I think everyone who's played one has...I'm pretty sure automation games are #2 on the list behind ADHD for causes of time blindness. Not sure what it is about them specifically that does it, but I think everyone who's played one has had the same experience of looking up from the game at a real-world clock and going "wait, it's WHAT time now?!"
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentI know I've said this before, but I love your commitment to screenshots! Also, I definitely do NOT miss the days of having a dozen (or more, in this case!) verbs in games, especially because those...I know I've said this before, but I love your commitment to screenshots!
Also, I definitely do NOT miss the days of having a dozen (or more, in this case!) verbs in games, especially because those days overlapped with games having moon logic. It turned getting stuck in a game into a horrible combinatorics problem where you had so many different verbs that you could activate on so many different spots with so many different items, etc.
Half the time I'd stumble onto the right thing to do, I wouldn't even realize I what the correct solution was because I was just autopiloting through options. Wait, did I look at the door while holding the stick? Or was it the frying pan? And was I speaking to the door?
Was the verbage surface area sprawling in this game, or was it tighter and easier to progress through?
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
kfwyre (edited )Link ParentWhen you first mentioned Atmasphere being chill, I was like... "should I tell them?" I didn't want to harsh your truly wonderful mellow, but I definitely have memories of it that match the...When you first mentioned Atmasphere being chill, I was like... "should I tell them?" I didn't want to harsh your truly wonderful mellow, but I definitely have memories of it that match the difficulty spike that you described. Of course, this also means that I can share in appreciating just how much that 100% completion means! Fantastic job!
Your writeup of Not Tonight 2 is excellent and makes me want to play it, though I only have it on Steam and I've sworn that off for the month, so it'll be one that I have to come around to later. I only hope for this country that it is less salient and relevant when I finally do (though I suspect it'll be the opposite).
Also I'm seconding Bendy on the choice. It's got a cool art style, and we can't leave @Wes hanging!
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Comment on Questions for ~books on self promotion in ~books
kfwyre Link ParentNo need to get it to me! I have no qualms with buying a copy myself. Romance novels aren't usually my reading lane, but I love the idea of supporting indie authors, especially those that are...No need to get it to me! I have no qualms with buying a copy myself. Romance novels aren't usually my reading lane, but I love the idea of supporting indie authors, especially those that are married to awesome Tildes members!
(Plus, sometimes I genuinely AM in the mood to swoon over a retired rugby player. XD)
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Comment on Pizza Hut reinstating the BOOK IT! program in ~books
kfwyre (edited )LinkEvery time I won a free pizza from Book It! when I was a kid, my mom would take me out to Pizza Hut and we'd have lunch, just the two of us. I was in a big family with lots of brothers and...Every time I won a free pizza from Book It! when I was a kid, my mom would take me out to Pizza Hut and we'd have lunch, just the two of us.
I was in a big family with lots of brothers and sisters, so alone time with a parent was genuinely rare. My mom and I would just sit and chat, sometimes about the book, sometimes about life. As a shy, nervous kid who, whether at home or at school, always had to share space with other kids, it was genuinely relaxing and wonderful for me to be able to spend time one-on-one with her.
I know the point of the program is to make pizza the reward, and I'm sure my kid brain was highly motivated by that, but looking back as an adult, I'm grateful that it helped me connect with my mom and associate the act of reading with the ability to take up some of my own space in an otherwise crowded (and often suffocating) world.
It's probably no coincidence that, to this day, I still prefer Pizza Hut to all the other chain pizza places (though it seems like they are much harder to come by). I certainly have more negative feelings about the idea of promoting brand loyalty among children, but I think there are far worse ways to do it than by encouraging reading.
Also, as a teacher who sees first hand just how difficult it is for reading to compete with other demands for kids' attention, well, I'm cheering for reading to get all the help it can get.
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Comment on Did wokeness leave us worse off? (gifted link) in ~society
kfwyre (edited )Link ParentThis frames the public as undeserving victims of aggressive progressives pushing LGBTQ issues, which is a right-wing canard. In the US, right-wing politicians and commentators have been heavy on...This frames the public as undeserving victims of aggressive progressives pushing LGBTQ issues, which is a right-wing canard.
In the US, right-wing politicians and commentators have been heavy on anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and policy since the rise of the alt-right, and it's accelerating drastically. Take a look at the graph on this page.
They attempt to hide this injustice by making it sound like they're defending the average person against a terrible enemy, but it's simply not true. They are the aggressors. The entire policy platform and social milieu of the political right in the US revolves around the idea of creating a sense of aggrieved victimhood in the dominant population by framing them as victims of minorities so that resulting perceived victimhood can be leveraged for political power.
Here's an excerpt from How Fascism Works by Jason F. Stanley that summarizes the concept:
There is a long history of social psychological research about the fact that increased representation of members of traditional minority groups is experienced by dominant groups as threatening in various ways. More recently, a growing body of social psychological evidence substantiates the phenomenon of dominant group feelings of victimization at the prospect of sharing power equally with members of minority groups. A great deal of recent attention has been paid in the United States to the fact that around 2050, the United States will become a “majority-minority” country, meaning that whites will no longer be a majority of Americans. Taking advantage of the salience of this information, some social psychologists have tested what happens when white Americans are primed with it.
In a 2014 study, the psychologists Maureen Craig and Jennifer Richeson found that simply making salient the impending national shift to a “majority-minority” country significantly increased politically unaffiliated white Americans’ support for right-wing policies. For example, reading about an impending racial shift of the country from majority white to majority nonwhite made white American subjects less inclined to support affirmative action, more inclined to support restrictions on immigration, and, perhaps surprisingly, more likely to support “race neutral” conservative policies such as increasing defense spending. Summarizing this research in a forthcoming review article, Maureen Craig, Julian Rucker, and Jennifer Richeson write, “this growing body of work finds clear evidence that White Americans (i.e., the current racial majority) experience the impending ‘majority-minority’ shift as a threat to their dominant (social, economic, political, and cultural) status.” This feeling of threat can be marshaled politically as support for right-wing movements. This dialectic is far from native to the United States; it is rather a general feature of group psychology. The exploitation of the feeling of victimization by dominant groups at the prospect of sharing citizenship and power with minorities is a universal element of contemporary international fascist politics.
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Comment on Humble Choice - May 2026 in ~games
kfwyre LinkNative Platinum Platinum Platinum Platinum Platinum Platinum Gold (that probably would be a Platinum if it had more reports) PROTON IS 🪄✨🔮MAGIC🔮✨🪄 Note: The ProtonDB page for Nordhold says it's...Native
Platinum
Platinum
Platinum
Platinum
Platinum
Platinum
Gold (that probably would be a Platinum if it had more reports)PROTON IS 🪄✨🔮MAGIC🔮✨🪄
Note: The ProtonDB page for Nordhold says it's Native, but Steam only says Windows and Mac support. Not sure what that's about?
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Humble Choice - May 2026
May 2026's Humble Choice is now available with the following seven Steam games and one Battle.net game. Steam Page OpenCritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB Diablo IVNote:...
May 2026's Humble Choice is now available with the following seven Steam games and one Battle.net game.
Steam Page OpenCritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB Diablo IV
Note: Battle.net key88 66 / 74 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance 89 90 / 95 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum Crysis 3 Remastered -- 86 / 88 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum Heroes of Hammerwatch II -- 71 / 84 Win 🟨 Playable 🎖️ Platinum Nordhold -- 69 / 85 Win, Mac 🟨 Playable ✅ Native Rogue Waters 81 63 / 77 Win 🟨 Playable 🎖️ Platinum Cubic Odyssey 65 81 / 75 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum Mini Settlers -- -- / 85 Win 🟨 Playable 🟨 Gold Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?
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Comment on Tildes Survey #2: What country do you live in? (Results) in ~talk
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentBlue Maiden (played via Indie Pass) This game is another horror walking sim, though it's much more upfront about that than Vartio. It's got all the tropes you expect: dim environments, maze-like...Blue Maiden (played via Indie Pass)
This game is another horror walking sim, though it's much more upfront about that than Vartio. It's got all the tropes you expect: dim environments, maze-like corridors, a flashlight, unsettling sounds, jumpscares.
Plot wise, it focuses on a tradition that happens every 25 years where the blue maiden ritual must be completed in order to not enter the red purgatory (not the exact name, but I can't remember what it was).
Unfortunately, this one left me cold.
I feel bad for criticizing it, as it's another solo dev project and I want to encourage those, but I found the whole game to be unfulfilling. The exploration and puzzles are rudimentary and the lore is sparse. I saw it through to the end given that it's quite short (maybe an hour and a half?), but I don't feel like that paid off for me.
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Comment on Tildes Survey #2: What country do you live in? (Results) in ~talk
kfwyre Link ParentThose visualizations are excellent, Bauke. Outstanding work!Those visualizations are excellent, Bauke. Outstanding work!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
kfwyre Link ParentGood to know! And it’s quite possible that my issues with Donna were simply a result of me being bad at games. I’m legitimately terrible at most of them.Good to know!
And it’s quite possible that my issues with Donna were simply a result of me being bad at games. I’m legitimately terrible at most of them.
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Comment on Questions for ~books on self promotion in ~books
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Comment on Tildes Survey #3: What country were you born in? in ~talk
kfwyre Link ParentHey, that’s my idea!* No fair! Give it back! (Seriously though, please add me to the list. 😁) *This isn’t actually true. I can no longer remember who either suggested or did the first notification...Hey, that’s my idea!* No fair! Give it back!
(Seriously though, please add me to the list. 😁)
*This isn’t actually true. I can no longer remember who either suggested or did the first notification comment like that, but it wasn’t me. I just adopted the practice.
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Comment on Indie Pass, a PC subscription service for indie games to launch on April 13, 2026 in ~games
kfwyre LinkIf anyone's who's subscribed is feeling like trying something out: The game Aris Arcanum is quite beautiful and is very clearly trying to follow in the footsteps of Hades. I really like it....If anyone's who's subscribed is feeling like trying something out:
The game Aris Arcanum is quite beautiful and is very clearly trying to follow in the footsteps of Hades. I really like it.
Unfortunately, it's consistently softlocking whenever I get to the first boss. (Well, I think it’s first boss. It’s a red door after a shop.)
As soon as I enter the room, I get a black screen. I can still move my cursor, and I can hear sound effects when I attack/move, but other than that it just stays there until I Alt+F4.
None of the Steam reviews mention this, so I'm wondering if it's an issue with the Indie Pass build specifically, or if it's unique to me/my hardware.
If anyone wants to try out the game and see if you can actually get to the first boss rather than a black screen, that would be good information to have. Plus, I think you would like the game itself! I really liked what I played so far and am frustrated that I can't play more!
Gah, foiled again!
I must redouble my efforts and somehow find a way through the impenetrable armor of measured calmness.
Soon everyone will see the clamor of my ways and yearn for franticness. Everyone, I say!