Worth getting into? Absolutely. It can be very cheap, too.

Where to start? That’s the trick question. It will depend on whether you start with console or PC, the latter having a much more extensive catalogue of games, plus emulation of older systems.

My personal recommendation is getting a PC, it doesn’t even need to be a gamer one, anything that isn’t a piece of shit and was released in the past 4 or so years will do good for playing low end games and emulate anything up to N64 and possibly Dreamcast games (2003 and earlier). You can use a variety of console controllers on computer, so it’s fine. Whe searching for ROMs, be sure to have uBlock Origin installed on your web browser.

If you have any friends, talk to them, see what they’re playing or would recommend you to play. If you don’t, download steam and download demos of games that look somewhat interesting to you. Check GOG as well, it tends to have some older PC games as well, plus demos and whatnot.

Try out a variety of genres. It’s possible one game of a certain genre might not “click” with you, but another might.

Bluesky has brand recognition (founded by the same dude as Twitter), more people and “feels like twitter”, in the sense of what you see, more than mastodon. Also, news outlets seem to be migrating there.

Mastodon (and pleroma, misskey, etc) is seen as a place for weirdos and techies, with “nothing interesting going on”. Several people mentioned this already one way or another, but that most servers/instances are “specific” about whatever means that people will feel that they might miss out on something by choosing the wrong server.

Game Boys are usually regarded as durable as hell. There’s even one that withstood bombing during the Gulf War (1991)

There’s also Unilever and Pepsico and their several brands to make people think there’s a choice

Microsoft has had several country govt’s dependent on their software for decades now (mostly Windows and Office, but also Azure lately). They were also deemed “not that bad, actually” by the courts for their 1990’s fuckery, so I’d say they’re the first dystopic megacorp we got.

The funny thing is that a lot of those problems are better attributed to society/culture/education than genetics or biology, since it’s people that vote/support other people. Unless you can somehow breed out psychopaths, and whatever makes people willing to sacrifice the collective for personal gain, from the human species, eugenics won’t do shit.

Are you still using the original HDD it came with, or did you change it? I have an old All-in-one, 2012 Celeron with 2GB RAM which was supposed to be my nephew’s first computer, I installed Xubuntu 18 on it, everything works fine, even some online video watching, but dear lord the R/W speeds are atrociously low, which makes starting up any program a small test of patience.

Amaranth that can grow on sand and be watered with seawater

Edit: ops, only animals? Make bees able to break down any kind of sugar into honey

That I remember seeing, Encyclopedia Dramatica. That shit made sure to document every disgusting shit that has ever “graced” the collective mind of the internet, like 2 girls 1 cup, zippo cat, 1 guy 1 jar and other shit. Me and my stupid morbid curiosity in reading it at least got me smart enough to avoid actually watching any of those videos.

They also had a shock page with extreme scat, goatse, prolapse and whatever else you can imagine that could shock people.

1. Any law, except this one, may be subdivided into smaller sections;
2. No law may alter the first law or this law;
3. Now, let’s get to business: …

Everything bad going on in the world can be blamed on hedge funds and rich people. You can call it bullshit, but everyone knows it’s true. Literally everything, be it criminal waves, climate change, wars, racism, sexism, UFO sightings being covered up, the drug epidemic and other problems, all of it is entirely the fault of rich people. This is a literal, indisputable fact. Here are some sources:

[1] https://www.forbes.com/2023/10/11/how-rich-people-are-burning-the-world-for-profit

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/2021/hedge-funds-harassment-campaign-against-clean-energy

[3] https://www.reuters.com/2022/08/rich-families-destroy-environment

[4] https://www.apress.com/2024/04/09/individuals-richer-than-entire-countries

[5] https://www.theeconomist.com/2023/12/12/hedge-funds-profit-from-middle-east-devastation

The best shaman weapon

Dunno if that will work in every country, but in Brazil, an easy way to get a discount for your home internet is calling and asking to cancel your line. They will offer a deal. I’ve heard, but have not tried myself, that if you refuse this first offer, they will later attempt a second, better offer.

Learn internet pirating skills. Nowadays it’s mostly about knowing which sites can be trusted and having patience. Or just download telegram and look for channels and groups, I suspect it’s a lower risk of being caught even in the USA without a VPN, though that may change soon.

Do some 10-15 second stretches often, every 2-4 hours or so. Can help with localized pains and in keeping them away. Physiotherapy and all that.

Skyrim. I know, it’s been re-released a dozen times now, it’s buggy as fuck, etc etc, but fuck me if it isn’t an enjoyable game, even without mods.

Fallout New Vegas. It doesn’t treat you like mr savior of the universe, you’re a (un)lucky nobody caught in the middle of a power struggle. No essential NPCs, you can kill everyone you come across.

Age of Empires 2. Old as fuck, still enjoyable. Thank god the remaster lets you play with higher screen resolutions.

I think most people that enjoyed SupCom1 didn’t like SupCom2. The first game was leagues better, imo. There was also Planetary Annihilation some years ago, which was much simpler, then an expansion and I dunno how different that one plays.

Wildest as in…?

I finished reading Maldita Guerra, which is the current de facto book detailing the Paraguay War (1864-1870). Francisco Solano López, Paraguay’s dictator at the time, is possibly the worst thing to have happened to the country. The fucking psycho established a cult of personality (saint figures in churches were removed to put photos of him), the only newspaper allowed to print was always cheering on how great and perfect he was, plus a secret police to ensure nobody would dare rise up against him. Oh, and the population was incentivized to denounce anyone that didn’t show enough love for the president.

To make matters worse, there was no real justice system. If you were accused of treason or conspiracy, you were as good as dead, no recourse. Oh, and López’ head was deep inside his own ass, any war reports that showed difficulties or stated losses from the Paraguayan army were rebuked and the person could end up dead for giving the bad news. The fucking asshole willfully ignored facts while giving orders to his army. He could’ve wiped the Triple Alliance’s forces when they began the counterattack, but his “strategic genius” was composed of himself and nobody else.

Sorry, I ended up with Snake

Under current copyright law in the USA, we’re talking about Super Mario Bros becoming public domain around 2075. A number of games will no doubt remain known, one way or another, much like some very old movies remain interesting and known, but a good portion will fall into the bin of “meh, who cares”. I mean, a huge number of games are already almost entirely forgotten.

Art thou a Renamon connoisseur?

On point 3, some of the local card players I know are ditching MTG for Vampire Eternal Struggle or Flesh and Blood