As an outsider some gaming communities can appear incredibly toxic. I'm sure some of that is a deserved reputation, but I'm also aware that maybe there's a bit of generalisation going on, and that some communities are lovely but unrecognised.

So I thought I'd ask Tildes: which gaming communities do you like? And why?

(As always, feel free to interpret this question how you like. And, again, I suck at tagging so I'm grateful for any tagging edits. I do read those to try to learn.)

Hello everyone,

As I've previously mentionned in a previous comment, I'm getting back into PC gaming after 3 years with a simple laptop. I would be grateful if you could share some recommendations! Here are a few details that I think can help you:

• Looking back, the genres I like the most are
  • City-building games (Cities Skylines, SimCity 4, ...Rimworld?)
  • Tactical shooters (Arma 3, Insurgency)
  • First-person role-playing shooters (STALKER, Fallout 4)
  • Atmospheric indie titles (INSIDE, Kentucky Route Zero, Night in the Woods, Oxenfree, What Remains of Edith Finch)
• I don't tend to like competitive multiplayer games, I get easily frustrated about my lack of skill.
• I'm mainly aiming to catch up with what I could have missed these last couple of years. But if you think there's an ""older"" title I'd like, tell me anyway.
• I've already got my eyes on Control, Cyberpunk 2077, Outer Wilds and The Outer Worlds

Phew! I hope I haven't reduced the list of candidates too much

For at least a year I'd been rather disappointed with Fortnite. It kept appealing to the lowest common denominator and the game that I fell in love with in the end of season 2 (which is almost two years ago) kept changing for the worse. It became less of a Battle Royale game and more of a playground where you never knew what you were gonna get. It kept getting worse through the seasons and I played it less and less. So during season 9 I was only barely hanging on - and once season 10 launched with even more proverbial bullshit, I finally decided to uninstall the game. That was in the beginning of August and I never looked back for a second - I was done with it!

With Chapter 2 however (season 11), it's back to basics. The many weapons have been trimmed and there are only very few left - and none of the crazy ones. It's simpler and easier to navigate, and all the vehicles and movement mechanics have also been scrapped almost entirely. There are no more hover boards, ATVs, golf carts, airplanes, jump pads, rifts, etc. There's a harmless boat, and that's it! So when I saw the trailer for this new version of Fortnite, I reinstalled the game immediately. I've played 9 games now and this is the version I fell in love with - if not better! It's so good in its simplicity. The mechanics with building and whatnot have stayed the same, but the gameplay itself is much improved. It went from chaotic and action-packed to feeling more like a survival game. And the aesthetic of the new map is also just beautiful.

I'm no game reviewer but I thought that this overhaul of a pretty massive game is worth talking about!

Edit: not to mention the marketing stunt they pulled before launching this new version of the game was insanely clever. It made headlines all over the world, they even talked about it on the evening news here in little ol' Denmark!

• Choose any game from your backlog.

• Play the game for at least 15 minutes.

• Tell us how your introduction to the game went, and how you felt about it.

• Decide whether you're going to continue playing the game past your introduction, or whether you'll put it aside for good.

Meta: I make a lot of "ask" posts, but I've been thinking more and more about something like "task" posts or "event" posts. This is the first in a few that I plan to try out to see how they go over with the community.