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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 17h

Part of me doesn’t wonder if the GOP doesn’t do this deliberately. They fear monger about like… relatively sensible legislation. Which makes the dems go “holy shit no! We’re not like that. We’ll never do that. Please vote for us because we won’t do that.”

GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 17h

Oh… for a second I thought this was another case of the Dems talking about all the big dreams they’d work on if they won big, which we know by now would never happen.

But no it’s a Republican stumping harder for the left than the Dems actually do.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 19h

Thune: "If the Democrats had won the majority, they probably would've tried to nuke the filibuster. And then you'd have four new senators from Puerto Rico and DC, you'd have a packed Supreme Court, you'd have abortion on demand ... "

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 17h

Honestly I think it’s deliberate. In-game instructions are kept vague—which can be charming. But provided the skill floor it results in much ado about a much easier task than what it seems.

As much as I want to keep going, I’m recognizing it’s taking a toll on my mental health.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 18h

Part of the problem with a history of gasslighting is that I have so much internal self-assurance, but this incredible mistrust of my own perspective that I doubt myself more than I am confident.

TL;DR I have no fucking idea what’s going on.

Reposted by GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 18h

Part of the reason I don’t like the difficulty in Silksong (where I don’t mind it in other games, Hollow Knight included) is that it’s redundant. There are already mechanics that encourage the player to repeat the world—the in-game economy of rosaries already functions to present all of these themes

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 18h

It’s like expecting Fury Road when mass audiences faun over Marvel movies. Maybe this just isn’t the medium I thought it was, and the get gud gaming really is about bragging rights, and not about the use of difficulty as a component of narrative. I don’t know. I’m tried.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 18h

I don’t know. Maybe I’m the problem. Maybe I’m foolish for trying to look for narrative value in game mechanics, and should just read stories instead of expecting the kind of interactive narrative I’ve only really gotten from a few games.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 18h

The theme is perfectly clearly articulated by the very economy of this world; the skill floor says nothing that the use of rosaries does not already communicate. The difficulty adds little more to the narrative.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 18h

Coupled with the shells for the tool mechanics, the amount of farming you need to do is astronomical. You pay rosaries for benches that disappear after you use them—you lease rests, where they should be permanent, so the mechanical language says.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 18h

Part of the reason I don’t like the difficulty in Silksong (where I don’t mind it in other games, Hollow Knight included) is that it’s redundant. There are already mechanics that encourage the player to repeat the world—the in-game economy of rosaries already functions to present all of these themes

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 18h

No. No I was not even remotely close. I was exploring areas way outside of where these characters were and would have continued throwing myself at mini bosses at a massive disadvantage to absolutely no use.

Lack of clarity, leading to challenge without reward. I just wasted 4 hours.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

I mean come on… I’m looking up a guide to “Infestation Operation” because I’m just so sick of wasting my time dying and trying over again. This is too much like real life. I don’t need this message.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

(Which undermines the aforementioned point of gameplay mirroring the theme. The game is demanding its players subject themselves to the toil it is trying to tell them is exploitative. Whilst not really affording any mechanical solutions. The game itself is the antagonist.)

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

The responsibility component here is that to promise a reward, without offering reward, feels like it is actively fostering addiction, and exploiting addictive personalities. And that’s the problem I have with “get gud gaming” is that the whole culture seems to delight in enduring stress.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

There’s “challenging”

And then there’s a 5-minute walk back through a horde of hostile mobs and environmental hazard with no rest or recovery, to find something you don’t know where it is, when taking one point of damage means “well I may as well give up” kind of “challenging.”

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

I just… wish I didn’t have to waste so much time to engage with something like this.

Just read Kafka. You get the same message without the cortisol.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

Whereas I found bloodborne so compelling that I was actively investigation the game regardless of whether I was stuck or not.

With Hollow Knight, though, Team Cherry leaves the heavy lifting to the audience. And there’s a point where I think it’s to show off rather than demonstrate.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

Because I’m only really choosing to read into this because I’m stuck on this fucking parasite and getting so bored while playing the same part over again that I’m wondering why it’s so difficult.

And if I didn’t have that, I wouldn’t be reading into the game.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

TL;DR… I’m getting to an age where I really don’t want to get gud. I just want to be able to analyze a narrative. And depending on difficulty as a means to keep people engaged with your story through repetition isn’t… a great narrative device. Give me something within the story to make it compelling

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

Because there’s no indication that the reward of completion will really be worth the stress you’re putting your body under. And that is a real effect that happens as a result of this kind of skill challenge.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

Theres a sunken cost principle there. Folks spend money on this shit—especially unemployed and disabled people who are looking for that dopamine drop in a game which seems gleefully designed to withhold it. As much as I respect a theme… there is irresponsibility there.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

And if that is the theme, then it’s done brilliantly. But I feel like it is undermined by the act of charging any money for the game at all. :P

I know people gotta eat… but if you want a bold artistic move, Spread the word for free.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

At this point I don’t wonder if the “point” of the game is to stop playing altogether. Fuck off the mountain, forget the pilgrimage, and go outside. Because the rewards of the game—like that of the citadel—are not worth very much at all.

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

I suppose the game is about faith. Because Hollow Knight established a high bar, folks are gonna go into this with the assumption of depth. They’re going to zealously hold on to that idea, and keep fighting regardless. Toil and labour… for what? A pittance of rosaries?

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GlitterFaun (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ @ntherrgott.bsky.social · 19h

Which is ultimately the problem with criticizing a game for this when this theme is clearly articulated in the plot. Pilgrims die or give up before they reach the peak. And this is mirrored in the plot and world building. Folks playing this game may give up before they get there.

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