FUCK, AND I CANNOT UNDER EMPHASIZE, FUCKTHE IDEA THAT OC/CANONS ARE BORING. I GET THE OTHER SIDE OF IT: YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH EVERY LAST PERSON WHO WANTS TO PLAY WITH YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE PLAYING A CANON, BUT REALLY? YOU REALLY WANT TO JUST PLAY A CANON WITH ANOTHER CANON THAT'S THE FROM THE SAME SETTING?? C'MON. LET PEOPLE INDULGE! WHY ELSE ARE YOU PLAYING THE CHARACTER EXCEPT TO PLAY THE CHARACTER???? GUH.

FUCK, AND I CANNOT UNDER EMPHASIZE,  FUCK 

THE IDEA THAT OC/CANONS ARE BORING. I GET THE OTHER SIDE OF IT: YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH EVERY LAST PERSON WHO WANTS TO PLAY WITH YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE PLAYING A CANON, BUT REALLY? YOU REALLY WANT TO JUST PLAY A CANON WITH ANOTHER CANON THAT'S THE FROM THE SAME SETTING?? C'MON. LET PEOPLE INDULGE! WHY ELSE ARE YOU PLAYING THE CHARACTER EXCEPT TO PLAY THE CHARACTER???? GUH.

if i can be real, my most "controversial" character take is that what people actually want to be mad about is "character who cannot be touched by events/players/actions that the player isn't interested in" and they instead go "i only want to play with characters that are low-power/not the mc/not important characters." people can and should indulge in characters who are some level of power fantasy. and like! frankly? it's boring to play with "steve, local blacksmith." it's way more interesting to play with guilty-gear type energy where everyone is power-banded to be "cool and powerful and important but also can be hurt and be in danger and is affected by other people."

that and "if you tell me my character's figure means you don't want to play with me in serious rp you can drink activated charcoal for a week"

Utterly wild to me that Honkai Star Rail is getting high marks from mainstream reviewers. Even without the gacha nonsense, it's an incomplete story. You hit the end of the current content, halfway through a chapter, and it feels like walking into a glass door. There are a couple of high moments, and there is genuine artistry on all levels, but it is a wobbly experience and a 7/10 at best without the gacha elements.

People are mistaking grind for gameplay quality. There is a point where you have to grind for three days or spend stamina currency to level up enough to continue the story. That's shit design and very obviously psychologically exploitative. How can you review the game without calling that out?

If I ran a gaming news website I would not hire gambling apologists to write fawning articles on glorified slot machines but obviously IGN, Waypoint, and Kotaku have different priorities to me.

repeats mantra Must. Not. Engage. In. Disk. Horse. On. Bird. Site.

Anyways, your regular reminder that binaries are big and large false. Absolutism is rarely a thing that works in any field.