Oh, I've been doing that. This is a hot topic on the big gold-making Discord server, and there are over 10,000 people in there (and that's just English-speaking players who even know about and opted-in to said Discord server).
A friend had a bunch in her kitchen when I was housesitting and I took one home. First started using it in my air fryer to get rid of gunk without scraping up the finish, but now I use a set all over my kitchen. For all I know they've been around 20 years and I never knew. Dirt cheap, too.
No discussion? In the past few days you've commented in !games@lemmy.world and !technology@lemmy.world, two of the most active discussion communities on Lemmy. And you're getting it here.
You also don't have any posts in over three weeks and 13 in total over five months. People, if you want more active niche communities, you need to contribute to the discussion. You're not going to be able to passively, endlessly doomscroll here. That level of content may never arrive, but there's still plenty to build. Sure, it could be easier, with duplicate communities all over the place and defederation on the rise. For now, use Lemmy Explorer to see where the activity is and help us build those smaller communities.
What are some examples of niche communities that are declining?
Granted, I've only been here since the reddit migration, but after a short chaotic period, I've only seen growth in the communities I've been an active participant in.
As long as it's a one-time thing I can't get too annoyed by it.
I just hope it doesn't turn into a frequent thing, and it's hard not to be skeptical when the token/battle.net credit system has only become more restricted over the years.
No, Blizzard makes an extra $5 a month on any subscription bought with gold.
This seems intended to create an extra hurdle for people managing a large number of accounts in the hopes of making that kind of operation less profitable.
I don't know how it would be for active watching, but I had a girlfriend that liked to read or do some light work while I played. She was absolutely captivated from time to time by Shadow of the Colossus. There's something about the momentum and the music, I think.
Atelier Totori. Part of a very chill/cozy series about young girls crafting things with alchemy.
I enjoyed the story. It was a bit more emotional than I was expecting. I like games like this that get deep into the crafting, but the UI/UX was kinda brutal. I'm going to keep trying more recent games in this series, hoping to find one I liked as much as this one, just more friendly to tinker with.
The space elements were a big part of the marketing. I knew better than to expect atmospheric flight or anything but simple space combat, but intra-system travel being only done in menus and the space sections being put in small lightboxes with planet renderings was rather shocking. That's 20th-century stuff. It's especially bizarre given how much of the Bethesda magic has leaned on roads in the past, and there aren't any roads outside of cities. Even the cargo runs are 100% in menus, without talking to a single person.
Starfield only getting one nomination--and in a category it has no chance of winning--is not at all what I would have expected going into this year.
I don't know if that speaks to how nuts this year has been for new releases or to how much Starfield fell short, in light of the fact that its player counts on Steam are starting to fall below Skyrim.
It doesn't have to be better. Just competitive enough to have some legs. Hearthstone is why WotC finally started transitioning away from Magic Online.
But I get it. I love MtG myself (and as a Limited player, I don't actually have any real suggestions for improvement with the game itself, we've been eating so good for years now), but it's too expensive. The publisher is scummy. None of that is changing anytime soon.
Tangentially, if fans passionate about properties this old genuinely want to act, they should be actively fighting for copyright reform. Both of the properties we're discussing here would be public domain by now under a macroeconomically-sound copyright regime.
I don't think I've ever really liked the way Metacritic does it. GameRankings was my go-to for years (RIP), but I've preferred OpenCritic for review aggregating since they started up.
There's a lot of churn in video games criticism right now, and this year in particular highlighted some issues I have with how some outlets are doing things with their reviews. Things like rushing to press without finishing games (even just 20 hours in some cases), and omitted technical performance/bug discussion. I was enjoying The Washington Post's game section but that got shut down. Eurogamer and Gamespot were previous favorites of mine, but they seem to have changed their criticism style and I'm not a fan of what either are doing.
I do have some PC outlets I still like (PC Gamer and Rock, Paper, Shotgun for anyone else reading), but I can't say I have an outstanding favorite otherwise at the moment. I pretty much just browse OpenCritic and pick out reviews at the extreme ends of the score spread and some random ones in the middle at this point.
I try to do the patient gamer thing too, as I'm always happier with games that have been polished (and they are cheaper). The threads in those communities are great for finding games. The Fediverse has one at !patientgamers@sh.itjust.works although it's still not super active yet.
Against a massive multimedia empire, supporting a competitor is far likely to induce change anyway. Unfortunately, that requires real action, and not just complaining about it...
I've been nibbling at these recently (although in my case it's a replay). I'm a little bummed that no one ended up finishing the same-gender romance mod for this version of ME3 but otherwise I've been having a great time with it. I still think ME2 and ME3 are among the best RPGs I've ever played.
The Citadel DLC is still the best DLC I've ever played in any game, by a mile.
Oh, I've been doing that. This is a hot topic on the big gold-making Discord server, and there are over 10,000 people in there (and that's just English-speaking players who even know about and opted-in to said Discord server).