Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

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@Ravix Will this fit? probably not, I did it throughout the day/night/morning. I'll do a 1/2 if needed.

Did you always feel that way with open-world games?

• This will sound funny but LitteBigPlanet was my first game and everything was cardboard, even the player home was a box. I didn't know what gaming was and I already liked cardboard boxes so it was one big comfortable fit. There were stickers too and those levels were so small. It lacked some of the dimension other games pride themselves on but you don't miss what you've never had, to me it was perfect. Then I played Minecraft and every direction was open so I lived underground for a while in a bunker and didn't go far, it was easy to get lost and at night there were monsters. Subnautica wasn't bad because it deliberately obscured the draw-distance, if anything it made other people anxious. Far Cry was mixed, the world was populated with so many distractions that it became easier to focus on small sectors, Outlaws was so bad I got motion sickness and turned it off. I do want to try it again. Ubisoft open-worlds are easier I think because of the bloat, those distractions are everywhere and make me less likely to feel the depth of the actual map. Infinite Wealth was really tough, the map was really small but there was no where to stop and breath, it was packed with NPCs.

I did wonder if after a while I could try a new open-world game and go right to exploring, it still takes hours or days to leave the starting area. My first base in Palworld is right next to where you spawn day one. It's nice and quiet but that's twice now where it's happened. For games like Fallout 4 someone did sit with me, their job was already to sit around and watch people. There are definitely worse assignments. With my Partner it's less distant, I can just sit on the floor by His chair and game while He does paperwork, has a drink etc, I only finished Everybody's Gone to The Rapture because there was the encouragement to keep going, I wanted to delete the game, He didn't. It became a lesson in not giving up. Afterwards we visited the real countryside.

Red Dead Redemption 2 wasn't solo either, for most open-world games actually. They usually aren't bothered by the story/game, it's just a job. When I said People offline were taking notice of Kingdom Come Deliverance that's what I meant, it was probably an interesting game to watch. I think they were more invested in the story of Red Dead Redemption 2 than I was. I wanted the flowers and the animals, they were into the Cowboy thing. There's a fascination there like I said before because we do hunt, gunsling, and certain other things. With Palworld People are in and out of the room but as long as I don't go too far there's very little turbulence. I do plan on one day seeing the whole map, I've been playing it for two-years and there are still biomes to visit. I noticed it happens with DLCs too, those new regions add a new uncertainty and reset that previous comfort factor so they remain unplayed.

That's also why I like FromSoft, you can farm so close to home, get strong and beat the odds before you get to the destination. Death Stranding was a tough one, it could be why I played the second one for a couple of hours. It had more draw-distance, better visuals. That's my biggest fear about PS6 and beyond, the more realistic those worlds look the harder it is to want to play them. Just think of how many people could be on Miami Beach in Grand Theft Auto 6. Red Redemption 2 really pushed realism in innovative ways. I remember with Five I sat in a car listening to music for the first couple of hours then drove around the block and rinse and repeated until I was ready.

I do think it's possible to condition agoraphobia onto a person though and I've seen hints of it in other people too, part of it is a genuine concern for security, the rest is a clear distinction between this world/that world. One of my earliest memories is seeing The Lion King and the 'Everything the light touches is our Kingdom. What about that shadowy place? That's beyond our borders. You must never go there' the quote matched what I'd been told in real life too, and still am today. I understand the need for safety, but it does shrink the world map significantly. The difference with the map in a game is that there's the opportunity to try to beat those odds, I've lasted two-minutes on a real street and not beaten that record but with a game I can eventually last two-hundred hours. It's still the same feeling of fear even if it's pixels, but it's also opportunity.

I just noticed I can see my old base from my new one and vice-versa, so even now I haven't gone too far. It's a kind of automatic restriction, subtle enough that it didn't register. With Everybody's Gone to The Rapture, I found a phone-box and waited in there while I mustered up what was needed to venture out there. Skyrim wasn't too bad, I wasn't alone either and so much of the world was covered in snow so it felt like home. For Oblivion I stayed in the Imperial City for perhaps two-weeks. It was more like The Sims, I talked to shop keepers, robbed them as they slept and bought everything I needed. Living that way helped me gain experience in speech, borrowing, stealth and I glitched through the gates to use the Mage's tables/etc so there was magic too. At first I tried to climb over the gates but it was all invisible walls. I found if I paralyzed myself by potions I could fall through walls. I even joined the Dark Brotherhood and killed a man in the city, it was very accommodating. Then when I did leave the city, I haven't got the words.

Fenyx Rising was a lot like Palworld, same art-style too, I didn't have much trouble there, I remember with Fallout 4 I ran back inside the vault and spent at least a whole day waiting and looting. When I watched the television show it was easy to relate with the character, my Girlfriend said so too and she didn't even know it was based on a game. It's two extremes of being out of the loop, she was too, or not interested in the latter.

I actually haven't played Bugsnax but did Stray. Stray was less about 'oh I'm a cat', I was already able to access that. What the game did offer was seeing the world with that kind of specific traversal in mind. The world was full of colours, I don't recall needing any dialogue just mew mew, Palworld has no dialogue either, just text. I think Stray offered a unique perspective/mindset to most people. Perhaps it was a temporary vacation for the mind. I don't know if people know how to do that in real-life, other than meditation. It doesn't normally come with a switch, mine didn't either, now it does. It's sort of like how you mention overthinking, it looks like overthinking because more times than not thought isn't all that relevant or present so overthinking is actually normal thinking, it just doesn't look like it. Thought evaporates and all that's left is tactile affection/feeling wanted, there's mainly just the other Person and others sort of fade in and out of view throughout the day, week and so on. Perhaps it happens with video-game addiction too?

I was offline for a week recently and that was one-week of that constant shift. It's like slowly rebooting a computer. I remember once seeing new Plus+ games, going on that mental vacation and then the next day 'oh more new Plus+ games', I'd lost weeks and not registered the passage of time at all. In any other situation that would be dangerous but I can easily go days and only suffer a light fogginess which eventually lifts. No one offline is fazed so there's nothing to interrupt or cause those walls to come crashing down. You know how you should never wake a sleep-walker? it's just like that, a kind of slow safe return. Almost like a submarine. If you surface too quickly there's the risk of structural failure, decompression sickness and so on, the mind isn't all that different. It takes a lot of trust and strong Someone to safeguard that system, I'm lucky.

And that skyscraper is going to be Epic, yes?

• I'm not sure, I hope it at least takes days, or even a week. It's a low population area, other than a couple of sea Pals the game hasn't got much it needs to render in and fifty Pals (in a base) is usually the limit for PS5 before it starts to struggle. It's a great location, sunrise from the front, sunset from behind and full panoramic views. I'm assuming the AI will raid from the front, the water is more shallow. Speaking of. I accidentally shot a merchant while typing this and of course got wanted stars like Rockstar games. The idea is to flea or die but this happened beside my base.

The soldiers were taken out by my Pals and the really strong Pals the game sends to kill you and remind you to play fair? they got stuck in the lagoon, it was a 2% chance to catch one. It worked, they are ridiculously strong. It's like catching an attack helicopter in Grand Theft Auto. He also has rank four lumber/transport/cooling and rank three handiwork, and forty-percent more items drop. I managed to catch the merchant too, he's in the Pal sphere right now. Earlier I caught a very elusive and strong Relaxaurus. He has rocket launchers and they are deadly. Cute too, he's a big blue dinosaur. I saw Thank Goodness You're Here but haven't tried it yet, it has an easy platinum but I haven't been thinking about trophies at all lately. The last time was (checking) March, which was Control. Kingdom Come Deliverance was about the journey/the now, not the reward. If the PS5 is right it's actually been three-months since I'd gamed much at all, Palworld was the return, I can't really remember those months, I'm not sure what I did instead.

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@Ravix This could be number 2, it's the next day and time-zones are a little weird again.

As for The Guest, I may as well ask what your favourite horror movies are, as i'm pretty sure you are an avid horror enjoyer?

• You know what's really weird, I do love Horror movies but can't face Horror Games. I think it's the repetition that a movie affords. I started off watching movies to help with English, I'd watch them in one language, then another, mix in subtitles and it worked. With Horror it meant knowing each jump-scare and beat before it happened. Sort of like how I may have said I've seen Phantom of The Opera live over one-hundred times. At first that performance was extremely overwhelming, even the first couple of minutes with the auction and all of the sudden bangs. Now I know it inside out, I can anticipate those bangs and know every instrument. I'm on first name basis with the cast too. I think also spending time on sets and getting that inside look at the industry helped to dilute Horror. I remember Metonymy sharing some screen-captures of a Horror film he'd been making and he was really surprised that I knew what lens was used just by the pictures. It's sort of like watching a movie but not seeing the actors and instead seeing it as it's being made, I understand practical effects, lighting and so on, but the emotional blindness removes everything else. With Horror my mind knows it's not real, only the jump-scares work. After hundreds of movies you build that natural anticipation.

With a game it's one-hundred percent an unknown, you assume the role of the character and undergo all of the scares/etc. People probably watch Horror for the thrill, and play Horror games for the same reason. I watch them for something else, Horror was a genre that really influenced cinematography. If you look at The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) or Nosferatu (1922) they were both groundbreaking for their time, it's a genre that spawned whole new lighting techniques. It's also a kind of time-capsule, no other genre captures the fear or anxiety of the time like Horror does. Whether it's a fear of Communism (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) or The Devil (The Exorcist) it's always been used to reflect those current fears. Get Out is a good recent example, it centers on racism, a real threat to people. After Nine-Eleven Hollywood was flooded with movies that weren't necessarily Horror but were saturated with the fear of terrorism and of other nations. I saw it myself with Russaphobia and Netflix, I stopped watching it for months. It was being used as a political tool to create fear. There is an element of propaganda to some Horror movies too, They Live is a perfect example and judging by some comments I've read online and the strange Folks I've met on encrypted networks I can definitely say there are people who believe in those conspiracies. Especially when they use cinema as an example of 'proof'.

When I watch those movies I'm constantly learning about those fears, about why people felt that way at the time and often follow it up by reading into each event. Something like Nightmare on Elm Street is more awkward, my night-terrors are very specific and I can relate to dreams not being a place of safety. I don't think I register other peoples fear outside of movies, it's too intermingled with the concept of respect. I can't tell which I'm seeing anymore. If you take genre as an art-form Horror definitely rates up there among the highest. Tom Savini was a war photographer in Vietnam and he took those experiences and used them to create effects for Friday the 13th, Dawn of the Dead, From Dusk till Dawn and so many others. You'll find that a lot with the genre, Guillermo del Toro grew-up seeing Devils, monsters, and a lot more in his dreams and in his room, he was terrified to go to sleep so he started keeping journals and drawing those creatures, now he puts them in his movies.

That's what del Toro saw as a child, it's from his sketch-book. So many Horror Directors had similar experiences, it was cathartic to get those things on film, by directing the shot they controlled the fear and ultimately gained power over it. Which is why I paint, but no one ever sees. I don't know how much Lovecraft you've read? He too was plagued by nightmares and was constantly terrified, I get it, I jump when there's a breeze or grab the nearest weapon if someone drops something. I'm not afraid of the monster I'm afraid of people, which is probably why some of my favorite movies are ones with monsters. Pumpkinhead especially, he's a vengeance demon with purpose, he's the embodiment of an eye for an eye and I respect that, therefore I'm not afraid of him. In that context the monster is necessary. It's a lot like how I see the West/East. In the West justice is more subdued, really bad people get treated humanely, in the East we unleash Pumpkinhead on them. I'm struggling to think of a movie monster I didn't like or even relate to, most act within their nature. I think I understand them.

Some monsters aren't even trying to involve themselves with people. Rawhead Rex was just trying to sleep and someone disturbed his slumber, most monsters want to be left alone until humans trespass where they don't belong. Or like Godzilla we create them. There's an old Soviet saying that I live by, I have it engraved, it's 'if you fear Wolves, stay out of the forest'. Most situations of Horror can be avoided by leaving people or monsters alone, I know I'm not going to wander into their domain so I don't feel any fear from them and even if I did wander there's a chance we'd find common-ground. I do with bears, wolves, big cats, I've been around a lot big wild animals.

It's not that easy with people, they are incredibly complicated and all societies install some for of fears, biases, needs and wants, even hate, if someone hates another religion so much and they are willing to carry out a mass tragedy on innocent people? I think that's real Horror. I really liked Drag me to Hell also, again it was about actions and consequences. She did that woman wrong and suffered the consequences. In England curses are only a thing in African communities but if you go to Eastern Europe it's very normal. I think we fear the monster less, our roots aren't as urban and there's a connection to that other, it makes us incredibly superstitious too, we learn to respect the dark and harness is as an ally. I saw the same thing in Mexico with Santa Muerte. I don't fear that figure or deity, I understand She offers protection but my Partner doesn't want giant skeleton statues in our home. I don't think I ever learned to fear that other. I have (checks) 552 books on Hauntings, 221 on Demonolgy, 92 on Exorcism, 366 on the study of Parapsychology and the Paranormal, 496 on Witchcraft, but those are conservative numbers, it's been years since I've catalogued newer editions and those are only the ones I've read. A lot of that is down to that same superstition, traditions and respect of the unknown. I see it more as traditional reverence and less as modern thrill-seeking.

Thinner is a really good example too. It was Stephen King novel made into a movie with Robert Burke (Robocop 3) He plays a lawyer who accidentally runs a Romani lady over and what follows is revenge. He starts to lose weight overnight and it's so bad that it almost kills him. His business is affected, it was all down to his carelessness and arrogance, I liked that one. So I'd say Supernatural is a genre I like, Paranormal is often mistaken as the same thing but it's not. With the Preternatural it's more about study, a good example is the movie A Dark Song (2016)

It uses the Abramelin ritual from the actual Book of Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. That's old Enochian Magik, the Preternatural rarely makes it's way into cinema because people don't understand it. Though the wave of Exorcism movies do count because there's such a focus on Good/Evil. I'd count Hereditary too, the Director came at it through the eyes of an Occultist and that's extremely rare. I put it down to his Jewish roots, there is so much mysticism and Occultism hidden in books like the Sephyr Ha-Razim and the Zohar. There are also frequent parallels with the Kabbalah. Hereditary was the first movie I saw to get the Occult right and A Dark Song the only one I saw to get Magik right, not Witchcraft, actual Magik. It's a really good movie, an almost visual representation of what an initiate goes through in real life. You could walk into an Occultists home and not know they practice, if you knew the signs you would and it's not at all like Hollywood we keep it very subtle. The same for Masonic rites and memberships, I didn't know I was a Legacy until I was offered membership in that female wing of that particular Lodge. It was a really interesting revelation, most of the men around me were Masons and I had no idea. The female wing focused on charity, fostering ethics and morals and were all much older because it's mainly wives of Master Masons, rarely daughters. Either way I said no thank you, robes aren't flattering and they didn't like Metal, Video-games or much of anything.

I fear this conversation may descend into one where we both don't understand each other, but it is still worth having, I think 😄

• It's certainly possible and may have but most people's biggest fear is the unknown, something intangible, I prefer to study that something, then I no longer fear it.