Phunter

Now that you mention it, I was a soccer ref when I was 15. You’re right, it probably varies by state. I guess “child labor” is a pretty broad term that could include delivering newspapers and processing chicken on a factory floor.

According to a couple news stories I’ve seen pop up from time to time, we have child labor in the US too. It’s not legal and the children are usually the children of illegal immigrants. Maybe it’s sort of the same deal over there i.e. desperate people doing desperate things despite the norm.

Unfortunately this one

Cocaine and Abel by Amigo the Devil

I experienced few bugs in Sekiro, so I can’t comment on that. The buggiest/jankiest experience I’ve had with a From game was DS1 and that stuff did frustrate me to no end.

The difficulty spikes you speak of for Owl 2 and Demon of Hatred are kind of the point (you didn’t mention it, but Butterfly 2 as well). Those are optional story-focused bosses where everything is cranked up to 11. They are “challenge mode” encounters. This applies to Demon of Hatred especially. It’s basically a DS boss in Sekiro. The boss mechanics and combat mechanics clash with dissonance. It makes it challenging, but in a rather frustrating way because few other encounters are like it (maybe headless to a small degree?). You’re basically taking a test for a subject you didn’t get to study for so you have to learn on the job. It is definitely the fight that took the most attempts by a wide margin. Conversely, the final boss is the opposite: the culmination of all the things you’ve been taught put on dazzling display. It’s your final “performance” if you will.

None of this is to say the skill ask of the player is not demanding, because it is. The patterns required to respond during enemy aggression is different than a Soulslike, but I think it’s still in the same neighborhood. “When the enemy/boss does X, I do Y”, the difference being in Sekiro the strings of X and Y are much faster and there’s far more of them. If you don’t like that variation on the theme, well then that’s it… You don’t like it! There’s nothing wrong with not liking something. And I know some players describe an event while muddling through where something “clicks” and they suddenly “get it” and then enjoy it far more (this applies to all From games). But it’s possible Souls games will click for you and Sekiro simply will not.

Preface: I have played through DS1 multiple times, DS 3 multiple times, Elden Ring multiple times, and Sekiro twice. I love all these games to bits. I tried DeS, and while I found it fascinating, I came upon it too late and did not feel like proceeding as I have been spoiled by later titles.

Sekiro is beloved due to its very tight design. It asks the player to excel at a handful of specific skills rather than presenting a wide array of options and going “well some of this ought to work for you if combined correctly”. Is either approach better than the other? Subjective. But it’s easy to see why one or the other could appeal more or less to individuals.

That being said, with a narrower band of skills to sharpen comes more constrained encounters. Sekiro is (chiefly) a game about one-on-one combat where nearly every attack can be deflected. “Parry” really is the wrong word for the primary defensive option in Sekiro. Even attacks that are telegraphed with the big red “watch out!” warning actually CAN be deflected (though perhaps you’d be a fool to try). The game is clearly trying to get the player into the groove of trading strikes. You attack until sparks fly, the enemy disengages, or winds up an attack unhindered by your strikes. Then you are met with the defensive challenge: here is one or more attacks with different timings and potential responses. It is now up to the player to answer with whatever they feel is most effective. This may be deflect, block, dodge, jump, mikiri counter, consumable item, or shinobi prosthetic tool. You may find more than one answer fits and therein lies the player’s ability to be creative.

I would argue being creative within a more limited set of constraints does not necessarily diminish the quality of satisfaction one could experience. Being able to master - or at minimum become proficient with - a difficult set of skills despite constraints could even be argued to be far more satisfying as there is less opportunity to find some cheese in the massive toolbox that you would otherwise have access to. And it’s not like the toolbox you have in Sekiro is as small as some detractors seem to think. However, it is much smaller and focused than other titles… especially Elden Ring.

And this is me only talking about the combat. All the other aspects of the game are very well designed too, but I’ve said enough. Also, critics tend to focus on the combat anyway.

Not too long ago I got into a fairly short argument online with some friends. It killed my work productivity for the day because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And it even popped back up a few times later on in the week. It suuuuuucked.

My old Honda just won’t die. I get an oil change every once in a while. And the battery has crapped out a few times in the last decade but that’s it. I hear safety features have come a long way so maybe I should upgrade just for that. I get the feeling that I’ll certainly miss the old Honda so I’m dragging my feet.

I’ve used Dvorak for years now (15 or so?). I find it far more comfortable for typing in English than qwerty. You don’t have to reach as much to type common words because all the common letters are on home row. The less common a character, the farther it is from comfortable use. And it has a nice bouncy feeling because you often switch hands after one or two key strokes. When I have to use qwerty, I find it very uncomfortable to have to “spider” around with one hand for clusters of letters as I type.

Now, the REAL downside of Dvorak in my opinion is that every shortcut, hotkey, and keybinding in the universe is designed for QWERTY layout. Playing a new game? Don’t forget to re-map every key except M and A! Careful not to miss any! Game doesn’t let you map a key to “comma”? Looks like you have to switch to QWERTY to play this game (and type in chat with it blegh)! Re-mapping is a huge pain and all the convenience of learning something like Vim is overshadowed by the keys getting scattered all over the place. I’m fine living with an awkward CTRL-C and CTRL-V, but for most people I can see why they wouldn’t bother.

tl;dr: DVORAK > QWERTY for typing in English, but it comes with annoying drawbacks

There definitely seems to be a lack of regulation and/or enforcement. If your headlights are so out of whack that they endanger other drivers, then we’ve completely lost the plot.

1. Dave’s Killer Bread, wheat or seeded
2. Thick layer of Skippy peanut butter, smooth
3. Strawberry preserves

Cut it in half and serve with a glass of milk.

This is basically dessert.

Same. 😔

Maybe I’ll come back to it someday when I feel like troubleshooting more.

Anyone playing PvP games should be very familiar with hindsight bias.

No surprise parties for you then

Chili crisp and peanut butter. Good on rice and vegetables. Sometimes I add some teriyaki sauce or hoisin sauce for sweetness.

Love me my Amish butter log. I put that baby in the freezer and carve out little chunks for use during the week.

Microplastics.

Yay, I’m a homo!

A lot of people don’t understand that you can be critical of a political candidate while still supporting them.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Super Metroid

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

Chronotrigger

Advance Wars 2

Psychonauts (maybe that’s too new idk)

Luckily, you don’t have to be good at something to enjoy it.