Understood, I hope you get to identify the locations. I’m not sure I have the brain power to start something like that. If I do, or find a community, I’ll reach out and let you know.
You may also want to check some of the online Asian food stores / distributors. Sometimes you can find things like that. I know Boksu Market (not affiliated or promoting, just mentioning) has a lot of interesting snacks. Not sure they have exactly what you are looking for though.
I'm actually a new'ish gamer. I did a little Final Fantasy 14 but didn't get into it. I read about this a little and decided to give it a try (it helped it was on a massive sale on the PlayStation store). This will be the game I will probably be playing for a really long time.
The random quests and wandering around are the best parts IMO. It amazes me how much time I can waste walking around going "what's behind that building (or rock, or hill, etc.).
go-go-go mentality that everything must be achieved as fast as possible the video linked above talked about that relative to WoW. it seems like a pretty common thing... getting through the game backlog as fast as possible to say you "completed X number of games" in week / month / etc.
a lot of toxicity or other people you I think that's probably the biggest barrier to being social. not wanting to deal with toxic players is a huge thing from what I have read (Lemmy, Reddit, etc.)
fair, but I'd argue no one can go back in time with out any consequences. even OPs first bullet could have consequences through "meet the man and musicians". did we not learn anything from Back To The Future 😀
MMO games turned into a singleplayer game sort of the vibe i get now but, your other advice makes sense. again, i think the guild thing is interesting but, didn't want it to turn into a job. the free vs. played is an interesting comment. as i progress, i'll see how that turns out.
the thing with voice chat, TBH, is i'm not sure if i'm hearing people or if it's "in game stuff". in TFD the other night i hear "i need help" but i had no way of knowing if it was a person saying it or some in game thing. i'll have to pay more attention to that.
appreciate your perspective as a long time MMORGP player, this was helpful.
This is also interesting, thank you! I will look into this!