My expectations of Bethesda, since Oblivion, has been as a mod platform.

Gimme a new engine with updated graphics and great mod support and let the community does what it does best.

Front Right: Keys, wireless earbuds, active nicotine packet container.

Front Left: Eckster Wallet, spare nicotine packet container, phone.

Back Right and Left: Utility Spots, used as needed.

Right Pocket Watch Pocket: CRKT CEO knife, if off the clock, THCa pen (legal in my area)

I don’t find myself “engaged,” I find myself wanting to spend money for something that will bore me the next week.

There is a reason I’ve mostly played single player games for the past decade.

I was tired of the “seasons” and micro transactions when I just wanted a story. If the story was good, I’d be ok with purchasing an expansion upon it. I remember my first expansion pack, Warcraft 2, played over a phone line. It felt worth it.

For more modern games, The Witcher 3 DLC felt like proper expansion packs. I have no bad feelings about those.

But just adding a few cosmetic items? Fuck off.

Wait and Bleed in my ass.

I mean, if I’m dating a girl (I’m married now, and not looking to change that) I’d be curious about her pussy resume.

More so to know if they carry any sort of VD. Mutual STD testing should be more common, in my mind. Doesn’t help for drunk hook-ups, but if you’re looking to get into a real relationship, I feel it should be more normalized.

People don’t get tested enough, I’ve been safe, but I should have been in a mutual testing situation in the past. Nothing happened to my dick, but this girl got around - I found out later. Wouldn’t have minded as much if I knew she had a clean bill of health, but that was never ascertained.

To people worrying, I got a vasectomy at 24. The incision site and the rest of my genitals got infected. They tested for STDs first (I was clean) and it was just was a general wound infection that took antibiotics. But the fear, man, the fear.

We live in troubled times, the planet is overheating at a rate that it might affect my life more than being more uncomfortable in the summer. And that’s Texas summers at that.

There is an island of plastic refuse in the ocean bigger than some countries.

I saw the home computer come to the living room and the internet be birthed.

If you were to ask if I was jaded as a kid, already? Yeah. Around 7 years old.

It isn’t getting better. Corporations claw for more and more at the expense of the people and the planet.

I hope the younger generations can lead the charge of change, but for me… I don’t have the time or energy to play games most days, let alone change the planet.

And for those who will say, “Aren’t you just part of the problem then?” Sadly yes, I am. I try to make changes when I can, but I fear changing the small environment of my home will not be enough.

To be fair, the vast majority of Russian troops were also cannon fodder.

Not to mention, it is entirely possible to get home from work, play, and then realize you are now late for work.

Its just engaging on a level that most modern game’s can’t hope to achieve.

Hell, I’ve installed a game (old), then installed mods, then resolved all the mod issues, then launch it to realize I don’t actually want to play it.

Factorio? Mods are easy, and vanilla is enough to keep someone occupied and happy if they lack internet or something.

Its light weight too, it costs me virtually nothing to install it on anything that can run it.

I’m not a dev, but I do some scripting. Mostly in a windows environment professionally, linux for personal reasons.

That being said, AI is great for getting a bulk outline of a script done, and you just gotta tweak a few things.

You still have to know what you’re doing, but it expedites things.

In my southern portion of the US, I find it better to just let shit slide. Never know who is armed with two short cannons, a .38 snub, and the reason for their lifted truck that has never seen “off” roads.

As a Texan, I concur. I’ve talked about it.

It either falls upon deaf ears, or it’s quietly agreed to and pushed into the background so as not to cause waves.

When polite discourse doesn’t work, it leaves people looking for alternatives to talk.

Sadly, being humans, violence inevitably is proposed at some point.

I don’t condone violence, but Martin Luther King Jr. made a salient point, “A riot is the voice of the unheard.”

The grand experiment that was America is crumbling before our eyes, and I am unsure if we as Americans can make things better without it getting worse first, and ultimately becoming something else in its place.