Reality vs Adventure

I agree; the main character, NPC's, story is all a bit cliche. But for me it's a change of pace with an enjoyable consolidated map, stealth opportunities, and video gamish graphics ironically is what I'm enjoying right now. It's a bit of a break from the intensity of other games. I'm enjoying the fighting and riding the Caragor. I've only completed half the storyline and it's just one of those fun quick plays. There's a lot I can criticize, like the block of cheese character. I'm just waiting for every female NPC to just throw themselves on their knees for the main character as that's what is typical in this fantasyland of a hero protagonist. It's a strange refreshing corny change of pace. lol If that makes sense. But riding around the Caragor with the music playing just pumps me up and I ride around and kill everybody. I think some of the abilities are fun too.

I don't think multiplayer games is what this topic is really about. There have been other discussions on VGR about introverts, anxiety, social problems etc. I find my own self becoming more isolated because I am surrounded by shitty peers. If I was surrounded by cool people similar to me, I would be a cool mother fucker. But instead I just don't get along with others because I'm different. I tried to make sense of it. I was born year of the goat, and month of pisces. That is a double whammy. It's probably superstition, but I think I was born to be fucked up.

My beast, oh my beast...Attack!!!! I control you...I need to brainwash orcs to build an army. I need to brainwash brainwash brainwash brainwash brainwash brainwash. To build an army. They are savages, so brainwash them and let them die... Is this morally right?

Let's start this off with some Caragor Riding...OK Enough. I am a huge fan of the movie series. I'm lost where to start in this series but started with jumping straight into Shadow of Mordor. This music helps me focus...Focus on your limbs and blood. You think you live in a land of kings and queens? You honor all absolute power? Then why the fuck do you fight Sauron? My beast...I love you. Caragor Riding....My beauty. Fight with me.

I'm playing Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor and here is music that pumps me.........Caragor riding.......What? Caragor riding? Oh shit......The beat

With every update in technology, consoles will continue to release to keep up. If consoles end in their line, then technology has reached its maximum potential. If technology renders consoles obsolete like VHS tapes and music tapes, then there will be something new that has evolved. Sony makes tv’s and speakers, so they could start integrating it in all their tv’s. And tv’s could become extra smart. 😉

This is all opinion based obviously comparing modern games to retro. But why 1999? What was so special about that year? What about the 80's classics? The modern epidemic I can agree on is how games are released unfinished. And that is all part of the epidemic of internet dependence. Back then you couldn't update games so it had to be finished. As far as creativity, a lot of focus is definitely on realism and maybe the time consumed for that and memory space takes away from the story and cut scenes. But not always. And it's not like every older game had such magnificent storylines. The strength of the old days was easy access user friendly gameplay. The strengths of today are portraying fantasy environments in a realistic visually appealing way, with much more freedom to explore. My preference actually is a graphical detailed presentation. Maybe the Covid era created a feeling of stagnation in gamers. But if the whole modern era of gaming is stagnant then I take that as a creativity problem. Maybe people don't play the right games because my mind is blown away in the work put into the games I play. Our world is growing, the gaming industry is growing, technology is growing, internet speeds are getting faster. The modern epidemic could be online multiplayer games and transactions. It could be the virtual reality where people get groped and verbally attacked virtually of course. I see VR about to take a blunt hit in just how toxic online activity can be when you have more and more interaction with others on a level far more personal than console and computer games. But is gaming the epidemic? Or is it a societal media epidemic where gaming is caught in the crosshairs of all the hostile people out there who promote and indulge in hate? I don't really game online so I don't interact in that environment. By fawning, does that mean spawning? Like mass producing just to sell something for the year? I agree that could lose quality. What exactly is considered creativity though? Something new and captivating? What would break the stagnation? We are currently in a paradigm shift where realism is the ultimate inevitability, replacing the standard creative elements. Sometimes even I think well, they could have left off some of the realism stuff so I can have more user friendly gameplay with a bit of ease. But it's inevitable because as technology increases, so does the realism. The faster speeds, memory, developers will no doubt keep taking advantage and keep pushing us further and further into realism. Art history has shown that events in the world usually affects creativity/art. And you never know, in this paradigm shift towards reality could easily be affected by chip shortages and other events that diminish resources. And that could lead to a movement towards retro gaming once again as developers try to utilize less technology and less memory space and slower speeds, and to supplement less graphical quality why not design new modern retro games of different render modes to play in.

Oh, Mordor and War got me confused cause the names are the same almost. So Shadow of War is a sequel. Damn, think I’ll get that one.

Playing Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor. I attempted it in the past but got sidetracked. Game is a bit addicting and I’m enjoying it. Wasn’t there a new one coming out? That’s what got me wanting to play this one but now it’s not coming out? I must of saw something else.

This is a lot in one topic but they all correlate together and I don't see how discussing each topic separate is possible. This is a big topic that will look at how current events can define the future of the USA. This is the crossroads, and all Americans hold an urgency that is extremely critical in shaping which direction this country takes. These are the moments history will remember like our independence from Britain and the Civil War. There are dark forces in this country who are actively working toward a dictatorship with theocratic abridgment of governance. These midterms actually have boosted my confidence in American voters. They see the clear and present danger from Trump and his acolytes who keep talking about the big lie, stolen elections and election fraud. Americans have had it and it showed in these midterms. Most of the candidates that Trump endorsed have lost their election and even crazy Kari Lake lost her bid for governor which was the final straw you can say. And even now, she refuses to accept her loss and claims fraud in the Arizona election. Donors are even dropping Trump now. Republicans are in a sort of civil war of which direction their party needs to go in. And Americans have really done a good job navigating all the republican attempts at making bills to suppress voters. Even though republicans eliminated a lot of polling sites, decreased early voting days and times, Americans turned out to vote early in record numbers. It's not like they had much of a choice, but great job for expressing your right to vote while you still have it. After the elections, republicans have stated that young women and the younger generation Z came out in force to support democrats. So what is the republican solution? Now they want to raise the age to vote so as to block younger people from voting democrat. They want men to hurry up and marry women so as to block women from voting democrat? Yeah, just marry a woman and control her vote. Geesh. Are republicans going to pass a bunch more bills after these midterms to even further reduce polling sites, early voting days and times? Republicans did win the House but democrats kept the Senate. The GOP kept talking about a red wave that would wipeout the democrats all across the country, but was more like a trickle because Americans voted for democrats all across the board. The republicans were running on crime, inflation, and immigration while painting blacks as the crime syndicate; and inflation is a worldwide issue that Americans were smart enough to call republican's bull. Immigration, just more demonization of immigrants. Republicans have always had plenty of opportunities to make immigration policy and they never do. Democrats were on the defensive as usual with low president approval rating, running on democracy and civil rights, especially women's rights due to abortions getting banned. Republicans really need to place some of that blame on their conservative majority Supreme Court who engaged in the culture war by reversing Roe V Wade creating havoc for women's personal rights and helping motivate people to not support republicans. Now that republicans have the House, their only intention is to investigate Hunter Biden and impeach Joe Biden. After all their complaint about inflation, crime, and immigration they have a chance to make some policies, so we will see if they are just all talk and America is watching for sure. And they demonize the DOJ and FBI for investigating Trump who has taken classified documents which he has already admitted to. And that traitor having all those documents? No telling what he did with them. Trump currently is in a state of defeat and I think he is finished even though he just stated he is running for president again. Commence the republican civil war. That leads me to some extremely important issues relating to this Supreme Court. Where do I even begin. We currently have a 6-3 conservative super majority in the Supreme Court thanks to republicans and their shady tactics blocking democrats from being able to put in a justice under Obama's presidency. And these 9 justices have lifetime tenure with absolutely zero oversight or any checks and balances. How could this happen? We should know by now never to trust that much power in man. This was bound to happen I guess. And yes, corrupt is what they are. Since conservatives became a super majority, they have repeatedly taken on cases relating to our civil liberties and elections and they favor republicans every time. They have blocked the right of citizens to sue police if they weren't read their Miranda Rights. They have blocked citizen's rights to sue doctors who overprescribe narcotics leading to addictions. They have allowed private religious schools to get public funding which is hacking away at the Establishment Clause put in place to separate religion and government, and the court has sided with a football coach to pray in public while on school grounds in a game, leading to potential problems like making students feel pressured to pray around the coach. They are taking on the Affirmative Action case and we all suspect they plan on getting rid of it. Makes you wonder, why would our Supreme Court take this case all of a sudden? Then there is the Roe V Wade case they overturned allowing states to ban abortions. These justices have even said they want to take a new look at gay marriages. Luckily, democrats and republicans alike voted to pass the Marriage Equality Act both in the House and Senate to codify gay and interracial marriages so that this Supreme Court cannot leave the decision to the states. Now on to elections in relation to this Supreme Court. Oh boy. The court has already allowed extreme racist gerrymandering for republicans which is unconstitutional. But who am I to say right? I'm not a SC justice. There is one extremely important case that will define what direction this country goes, whether it remains a democracy or not. Whether we continue to have free and fair elections or not. That is the Moore V Harper case the court will hear in early 2023. Republicans are pushing for this case because it allows them to have independent state legislature. What the heck is that? Independent state legislatures allows them to be able to do whatever they want in elections without any oversight from the constitution or the state's supreme court. What? No oversight from the constitution or law for elections? States will be able to go against the will of voters and choose whatever electorate they want who didn't even win a vote and have them represent the state for elections. That is not free and fair elections lol. When you lose the ability to choose who represents you, that is tyranny. So after all those bills suppressing voters, and gerrymandering, now we have come to this finale, the Moore V Harper case set to eliminate free and fair elections. And I have no doubt this abomination of a court will side with republicans on that case. It gets worse. The justice Clarence Thomas needs to recuse himself from the Moore V Harper case because he has definite conflicts of interest due to his wife Ginni Thomas who is an active election denier! A freaking election denier advocate is a wife of a supreme court justice! You don't know the half of it. Ginni Thomas was recently indicted to the Jan 6 Committee who has been investigating the capital attack. Even while on the stand Ginni still promoted election lies. Ginni was also an advisory council for Turning Point Academy along with election denier Mike Lindell pillow guy on the board. Turning Point Academy, also supported by Proud Boys, is a fascist far right MAGA election denier academy trying to create an education system and recruit teachers to take over the education system of the country. Turning Point Academy is extremely racist and bigoted in every way. They got busses of people to go to the Jan 6 capital attack and one of their members was arrested for assaulting police. Ginni Thomas, wife of a Supreme Court Justice was on their advisory council? These nut jobs are going to make a decision on our elections? There are several conservative justices of the SC who are part of the Federalist Society, which is a far right group that wants to integrate religion into government. Talk about more conflicts of interest. Amy Coney Barrett used to be a real life religious Handmaid. There were religious advocates that would wine and dine the justices Thomas and Alito over the years dubbed the Operation Higher Court and funded by Don and Gayle Wright who had an office directly behind the Supreme Court. WTF??? https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/08/religious-right-supreme-court-00044739 To sum up, we made it through these mid terms with a positive note, only to have darker days surface with the Moore V Harper case and a corrupt and incompetent Supreme Court to make defining decisions in this country for the rest of their lives and our lives with zero oversight or checks and balances. But American wants to move on without Trump and that is clear, leaving republicans scramble for another idol they can cling to. Will they let go of their culture war and zero policy and become more moderate to start helping all Americans? The way they immediately go on a revenge tour in the House makes me believe otherwise. Maybe by some miracle the Supreme Court will not favor republicans in the Moore V Harper case and keep free and fair elections for our democracy. But I'm afraid they are hell bent on bringing religion into government to have a theocracy and that case will allow it emboldening republicans even further for a dictator. But America is awake. We see exactly what is going on. That much I'm confident about.

How do you remind yourself to brush your god damned teeth?

Playing as an insect would be really interesting. Imagine the graphics involved on a micro level of things all humans are curious about and even disgusted/intrigued. Fighting an insect on the large screen. You don't even need to create monsters; on that level, they're all monsters realistically. Oh my gosh, now picture a roach. Hey play as a roach if you want. Make it a Skyrim character. "Hello" antennas flailing.. "Welcome to my abode" Agggghhghh

Ubisoft servers suck straight up. They have an extremely poor server. They are standing there with a cord phone saying, hey y'all come join us. And it is worrying because they want to initiate Infinity which will break their servers. Infinity is supposed to be a sort of gateway to easily access the AC series. Nobody is clear how that will work. It's sort of a homepage or map that is always updated. That is the scary part. So the 'online funeral' won't die. It will be transported into Infinity. That's my take on it. Most likely though it will only include the most modern games of the series. And multiplayer will be a part of it too. It will still offer single player AC games as we know it to be. Just beware, the servers no doubt will crash all the time.

This is dedicated to Watch Dogs Legion and the warrior within. I first heard this song playing that game and it stuck to my heart as I explore a city controlled by authoritarianism in a dystopian extremism. My warrior is forced out of me. An innocent college guy wanting to do something in life. Caught in a war I never saw coming. But the warnings were there. I look around at all the chaos and try to use whatever skill I have to help others. But the war against my humanity is too strong. I am forced to fight. I wanted to read that book, and now I am learning how to kill. I am forced in war. The silent war. The passive war. This isn't getting tattoos with hatches and run through a field. This is technology controlled by corporations. How does one man fight that? Fuck it. I have no backers. I'm on my own because everyone else is controlled by their brain chip. So I break. I break. I swing at the ghosts, I hate you! I have no power. I swing at the ghosts. I have no power. I swing, I have no power; I swing I swing swing. This isn't a battlefield. This is a death pit. I fell in a fucking death pit of authority. Authority. AUTHORITY. Do as I'm told. They string me to a tree because I questioned things. I wiggle. I gasp. This is war. In war we have to know our arsenal. Mine is that drone that has just shot the head off the garroter. I just wanted to read that book I think about as I collapse on my knees. I'm pissed. I pick up the garroter's weapon and just swing it around like I'm on a beautiful green hill ready to drain red water through its streams. I lost myself in a good way. I tasted real warm blood as I went ballistic on my captors. I will never be the same again after tasting that blood. I want fucking war. I want to tear it all down. I always wanted to read that book. I'll fucking write my own cause I don't care anymore. I'm a warrior, forced through oppression. It feels good. It feels really good to be a warrior. I look up at the drone and wish I were up there instead of bathed in human blood.

Love is war, humanity is war, we are all in a war. Come on! Let's see the fight in you!!! WAR! Stand up and be strong. Fight! Fight!

I dodge the blade. You are so sharp. You keep swinging and I dodge. I was forced to fight you. You gave me no choice. I flipped off my helmet cause I'm all in it. I'm gonna fucking kill you. Everyday you give me hell. I fight back. You think you will have a kingdom here? No. You won't control me. I would rather die. I fight for man. I fight for woman. I fight for the poor. You think you are above me? I didn't grow strong just for you to hold me down. I will fight to the end. I throw off all my gear. It's all skin and blood. I don't need protection. My spear is aimed right at you and I will plow right through you. Because I stand for mankind. I'm tired of the games. I will fell your wall. I will dethrone you. I will stand before you and hold my strong weapon in my hand. I offer you love and not war. Honor it or fall.

Those principles should be clear. And we had an Inquisition from principles. Even honor, I have learned that destroyers of humanity hold honor. Integrity, it's all a sham. What makes the best warrior facing all these things? Honor, pride, righteousness, vengeance, sociopathy, order, savior. What makes the best warrior? Skill is redundant. Heart is everything. Forced to fight without a good cause makes a warrior careless. A warrior with a cause is strong. A warrior with a protective cause is even stronger. A warrior defending righteousness, irrefutable, righteousness, will fucking win no matter what as his dead body protected the good. Your death is a win. Honor. True honor, not what those fakes try to sow. Honor. True honor.

That's exactly what I have been trying to say here. And nobody paid any attention to it. Can a mod please link this? Under VR forum

Satire Them small cities are the sun down town cities. They will lynch anyone. The sheriff will get an extra roast for every head hung. That's crime in the country. The crime you never hear about. I live deep in the country. Deeper than any green you ever seen. The woods is by backyard. The farm is my front yard. Every pig headed hillbilly mother fuckers resides in these here parts. They see you and wanna hang you. Every boy you see, they want to kill you if you aint holding a mirror in their face. Cause all they see is a pig. Worship the pig.

This is great debate and everyone should get in on this. Puzzle vs strategy.

I am pleased you are stretching my mind a bit further. I am not familiar with the game, so I have to ask, do the chambers in Infinifactory offer different rewards for each way you solve the puzzle? If so, that is strategy. (Invent and optimize) that sounds like strategy too. But I see exactly what you are saying how puzzles can be solved more than one way, and we have a good debate going on here. In video games, usually the puzzle is a fixed objective even if you have multiple solutions to get there. It's not really the objective, but the outcome. Try a 1,000 different ways to solve a puzzle and the 1 and only outcome is the same. That is what a puzzle is. A strategy offers different solutions for different outcomes.