JCPhoenix

Huh didn't know P1 and P2 were SMT games. Good to know. I've tried at least one entry in the SMT side and just could not get into it. Don't even remember which it was. I get they're both dungeon crawlers, but I don't think I'm a fan of the more old-school SMT-style games.

I've only played P3 Portable and Persona 4, on PSP and Vita respectively (though I also have these on Steam now). I have Persona 5 (also Steam), but I've yet to start it, since I have quite the backlog to get through. Including P3 and P4!

I got fairly far into P3P before stopping, while I didn't get as far into P4 before stopping, then restarting, then stopping again (though I got a little further than the first time). My last attempt must've been during the pandemic, so not that long ago. It's not necessarily that I didn't enjoy them; I just have a thing with JRPGs where I intend to take a short break...which often turns into years-long breaks.

P3P was more enjoyable than P4, IMO. P4 just seemed really slow at the start, while P3, I felt had much better pacing. If I'm remembering the correctly, the latter just dropped you straight in to the weirdness, and it just kept going, where I felt like P4 had more lulls in the action.

I don't mind the school stuff, though I'll admit it's not my favorite thing in the world. I do try to make an effort, rather than just breeze through it. I do hope to one day complete both of them and then get to P5. I very much enjoy their visual styles and music. I also like games that take place in the modern world, so the series is right up my alley.

For something like Civ or Stellaris, I'd count "completion" once I've won at least one game. Because, ideally, I've shown some mastery of knowledge, skills, and mechanics that allowed me to win. I don't need to play and win as each leader in Civ or every race/trait and combo in Stellaris to say I've completed it.

This is similar to how I'd view "completion" in open-ended games like Cities:Skylines or Banished. Having played a city or town for several hours, was I able to keep the residents alive, stabilize the city if there were any issues, and also grow and develop the settlement for a significant, though arbitrary, length of in-game time? If the answer is Yes to all of these, then I've "completed" the game. I've understood how things work in the game. Doesn't mean I have to understand every nuance or know every little trick. But I know enough that things are going well and largely continue to go well. And every time I start a new map, things tend to always go well.

Earlier this year, I stopped playing Eve Online for the nth time after mostly playing straight through since 2019. Because I viewed my time during this last 4-5yr stint as "complete." I achieved practically all the goals I set out to do: join a major alliance, join massive PVP fights, engage in smaller PVP fights, make money that I ever had before, buy and fly ships I'd never used before, learn how to explore and navigate wormholes, try out specific types of industry, play with IRL friends, own and run my/our own station, and more.

In all of these, "completion" obviously doesn't mean I'll never go back. There's always more to do, new things to see. But for now, I am satisfied with my progress, experience, and understanding. I'm no longer a noob.

I use it since I subscribe to Proton for email. It seems fine. I used to use Windscribe -- or rather still do since I have a lifetime subscription -- but I tend to alternate between the two services these days. Proton seems to have tons more servers though. I've torrented on both and have had no issues with either.

I thought alcoholism would be it. And someone would be at least making money off it (sans bootlegging).

We're being flippant, but god, what a waste of human potential. Absolutely pointless war.

It is. Additionally, my co-worker who made the comment is like 33-34. I'm 37. Another person on the committee is 40. HR is like 64. So it's not like we're a bunch of young guns ourselves lol. We should want experience, and with experience tends to come age.

But yeah, I getcha on the management thing. I'm technically a manager, but I don't have any subordinates. Because I told them, they're going to have pay me way more to become an actual manager with direct reports, especially since I'd lose my non-exempt status. To make me exempt, they'd need to make it worth my while. We're a non-profit, so we already get paid crap (though benefits are excellent).

My work is in the process of hiring someone to replace me since I'm headed to a new job. After a recent interview, a co-worker on the hiring committee made a comment on Teams, "His age seems OK."

Uhhh, maybe we shouldn't be talking about age in hiring decisions. Especially on a written medium. Pretty sure that in the US, age discrimination laws starts at like 40yo, including hiring and firing. That interviewee seemed to be over 40yo, which is probably what prompted that comment.

Not that I think the candidate will sue us if we don't hire him, but it's just unnecessary risk. And I don't even work in HR or legal; rather I'm in IT. Surprised HR didn't say anything about that comment.

The idea is that people will be willing to pay a recurring fee to use Alexa if it can do more advanced things, like perform multiple commands without the user having to say "Alexa" repeatedly, be more conversational, and manage smart homes more intuitively. Amazon is considering charging $5 to $10 per month for generative AI Alexa,

I don't know if that's worth $5-10/mo. I use Google Nest products at home, mainly to control lights. And yeah it sometimes annoying to be like, "Hey Google do this...Hey Google, do that...Hey Google, do whatever..." But at that point, I usually just use the Google Home app or a specific IoT app. And that's free.

I've been working through a replay of all the original mainline Ace Attorney games, via the trilogies on Steam. Played these all on DS/3DS back in the day. I just finished Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, and now I've started Spirit of Justice, the last game of this second anthology. Love this whole series. Can't wait for the release of the "Investigations" spin-off games in September!

Otherwise, still playing FFXIV. I started Dawntrail, but I haven't gotten too far into it. I put a pin the MSQ (Main Scenario Quests) a couple weeks ago and just kinda left it there. I have enough other things to work on. Class/Job leveling, finishing up some Alliance Raids/Normal Raids from Endwalker, trying to suck less while healing on Sage, and whatever else side stuff I find.

I figure that it's gonna be at least a few months til the next big content update, and at least two years until the next expansion, so what's the rush? I'll get back to the MSQ eventually.

I'm sure they do, but I feel like even on r/datahoarders, I only ever see people talk about masses of HDDs, tape drives, or cloud storage.

Worst controller? Eh, I have controllers I don't like. N64 controller. Original Xbox controller. Dreamcast controller. But are they the worst? Idk. Maybe I just didn't have a whole lot of experience with any of those (didn't own any of those consoles).

Maybe the Wiimote. Like I get the idea, but as a dedicated controller, meh. Same with the Switch Joycon; maybe even more so. I have a Pro controller because the Joycons just don't cut it. When they're attached to the Switch, they're OK, but not as individual controllers.

You could also add toxic glue. It’s edible! Probably only once though.

This is now going to be added to some LLM-generated answer in the probably near future.