Me: “Is this Big O?”

It is.

I always loved the mystery that this show managed to capture when I was a kid. Especially catching an episode here or there on cable TV. It often meant missing key plot points or not understanding how everything fit together. Watched it through as an adult and I still really like it. I won’t spoil the ending, but it’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen. Not that it’s over the top, but the absurdity of it is something I still reference to this day.

Also the phone ringing to tell you the name of the next episode is burned into my brain

I’ve got to recommend Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. One of the most legendary games in the series for its sheer amount of content. It might feel a bit dated if you’ve played World or Rise, but still good

If you really want to play games on the classic devices, consider checking out IPS screen mods that add a backlight to most models of gameboy. I’ve also seen rechargeable USB-C battery packs mods people install

Not sure why “stop shooting me” is where it is. I only played like 10-15 hours of Lethal Company, but I never once saw a gun in the game. In DRG, on the other hand, every dwarf has multiple voice lines about being shot by their teammate

In the US, the names vary a lot by location. Even which grades are included can change based on the local population and how they choose to organize it. My wife and I went to school in the same state, maybe 45 minutes apart, and we did not have the same names or grade delineations.

For me, pre-school and kindergarten are each there own thing. Grades 1-3 were “elementary school”, 4-6 were “middle school”, 7-8 were “junior high”, and 9-12 were “high school”. We called them this based on the actual names of the school buildings. But even by the time I was in junior high, they started moving the 4th grade classes to the elementary school, so I’d assume kids in my own home town might say 1-4 is “elementary”. We didn’t have a “junior high” building. Grades 7 and 8 were still part of the “middle school”, but based on the changes in curriculum and the fact that they were held on a designated side of the building, it was colloquially referred to as “junior high”

Wow! I used to use DSL for fun on a pen drive that was literally a pen. I used it to host a wiki I was working on for a personal project and I just thought it was cool. This was probably in 2008 or so. I just had my old Surface crap out on me the other day because the drive is fried and part of me was thinking of just booting into DSL. Then I remembered USB drives have come a looong way since the aughts lol. Still really cool to see this!

The image wouldn’t load for me but your transcript was perfect, thank you

Single player is fun if you like to play survival crafting games alone. “Pokémon with guns” is not actually a very good description. It’s a monster capturing game, and the creatures are cartoony like Pokémon, but it’s a third person survival crafting game. No turn based elements or choosing monster move sets or anything like that.

It’s more like Ark with Pokémon instead of dinosaurs

I remember traveling through some random town on a job with a work buddy many years ago. He was always a bit of a goofball and I loved his zany humor and offbeat jokes. For example, he would say things like “wrong number” after hanging up a long phone call that was clearly with a client or family member.

Anyway, we’re driving along and he points at someone walking down the street. He says to me, “you see that guy right there?” Sure, I say, what about him? And in a completely deadpan tone he answers, “you’re never going to see him again.”

We sat in silence for a beat and then both laughed. What a card. But I think my brain actually changed that day. I started seeing strangers and passers-by as entire people with families and goals and problems instead of extras in the background of the scene. Every time I make an honest, simple mistake it made me realize that everyone is capable of the same thing. That not every idiot in traffic is just some idiot. Not every difficult customer is just some asshole. It seems obvious, but that moment really pulled that way of thinking into the front of my mind and I’ll never forget it.

Anyway, it was after that that I learned sonder was a word, and it applies perfectly

I think I know what you mean, OP, but it seems like most of the comments think you are just complaining about people saying “thanks” at the end of an email, or in general.

So forget email for now. This is an in person thing or instant message. Ending an email, even a short one, with “thanks” is fine and normal. But if you message me “please update that ticket. Thanks.” It has a more aggressive tone than you might have meant. It feels like you aren’t asking and so the “thanks” comes off as fake or even sarcastic. Maybe also a bit dismissive or distracted. Like this isn’t a conversation or even a request. I’m telling you what to do and walking away. It’s a bit terse. You’re not even giving me a chance to reply. If you say “please update that ticket” and I say “sure thing” and then you say “thanks”, the tone is much different. That doesn’t sound bad at all.

Again, email is different. Emails are meant to be send and forget. The thanks at the end can even be read as a “thanks for reading”. I think OP is talking about something different, and I agree it feels bad when someone talks to me that way.

As for your actual question, OP, I can’t say I know why they said it that way, but I’d guess they mean no offense, like most people are saying. It could be a second language thing or they really are too distracted or busy to wait for your reply. They don’t want to get into it, they just want to check off that someone is taking care of that one thing

Monster Hunter is a great example of a series with quality sequels. They always add some new, interesting mechanics, trim the fat from the previous iteration, and add new content while still keeping the core gameplay exactly the same. There have been some exceptions, but generally every MH game before they split the dev teams had been an improvement on the last. Even when they cut the swimming from 3U to 4. It was a system that most players didn’t enjoy, and 4 had so many great new additions like mounting that it hardly felt like anything was missing.

That said, one of the main criticisms you’ll hear from players is the “ultimate” edition being the same game with just some new hunts tacked on. Or even that the base version isn’t worth it and the ultimate version is the “real” game. Nowadays they do expansions instead, which I think players generally find more palatable

Granted, I haven’t played the original Dragon’s Dogma in like 10 years and I’m watching this on a small phone screen, but if you told me this was DD1 footage, I would believe you. I really don’t see the difference. That said, DD1 also looked awesome and I did enjoy it for the most part… I think it was just missing something to be truly great. I’m just not sure what that is. Back then, I thought it was multiplayer. As a huge Monster Hunter fan, DD felt like a great competitor or rival (despite both being from Capcom) and so I just thought multiplayer was a no-brainer. Now, though, I really appreciate single player experiences more and more, so I’m not sure that was really it. Maybe it was the Pawn system just didn’t do it for me or maybe it was that the quests didn’t flow.

Either way, I think I’m excited to give DD2 a try. The classes in DD1 were very cool, especially the advanced classes. Looking forward to see what this game has to offer

Not sure what you mean, but it sounds like you just don’t care because it doesn’t affect your choice. I wonder how you will feel if one day your party’s candidate finally crosses your line

“There is no choice.” “You do not have a choice.” Classic catchphrases of a healthy, functioning democracy

Me at 4am laying in bed thinking about exactly how I’m going to divvy up the $100M I’m left with after taxes in an imaginary lottery win

I’ve been watching some GPW3 gameplay, but I also would probably not be able to play it lol. I just beat Jedi: Survivor yesterday. I waited a while to pick it up because of all the performance issues and it really did run like crap, but at least I got it on sale and it was still quite fun.

I’ll probably either go back to Sea of Stars, which I only played for a couple hours so far, or maybe I’ll play The Messenger, which I bought at the same time in a bundle.

Also, with the release of the Rivals 2 Kickstarter, I’ve been playing a bit of Rivals of Aether with friends. It’s one of the greatest platform fighters out there, but I feel like it’s still very underrated

You could check out Freedom Planet. It didn’t quite do it for me, but it has a decent fanbase

Thank you! That was bugging me. Glad it’s fixed

Notice that Q14 still allows for commercial tournaments but only if they acquire a license first. This is something Nintendo has been pushing since at least last year. That’s the debacle that killed Smash World Tour and the hill that Panda Global died on.

Not saying I agree with it. In fact, it’s so stupid, but there is still a path forward for now if Nintendo continues to give out those licenses. The real question is, what absurd rules will TOs need to adhere to in order to get a license?

I’m using a different app, but I wholeheartedly agree. They all seem to have this feature and I have no idea why. There are multiple ways to get back to the top that are nearly as easy and this happens by mistake way too often. Not sure who first decided this should be the standard, but I absolutely hate it