Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

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@psmr I've only read the articles on here, I was never allowed social-media, it's a very traditional upbringing. I first saw what Twitter looked like in an article on this site and it looks like all people do there is use it as a bridge to insult Developers and spreading craziness. I'm sure it has some positive sides too, but like Facebook I don't know what people do on there or why. It's fifty-fifty when it comes to really understanding a lot of articles here, especially when they get heated and all kinds of 'facts' enter the conversation and because I know nothing about those 'facts' things blur and I go somewhere else. I don't know what josef said in one of those articles but it was enough for them to vanish, I don't think that should happen. It's okay to disagree with something without coming down on the other person like a wall of bricks, the forum was better with them here, the site as a whole.

I've never been in the general populace before so it's still all very alien but I don't think the physical versus digital topic is helped by people bringing all kinds of crazy topics into it, all it feels like is a hijacking, then the real issue gets left off to the side. Nor will I ever understand anyone wanting to give away their ownership rights to something they paid for. Vinyl was mentioned too but because none of those people collected vinyl they didn't understand that a game even digital can be bought, for music there are much less options and audiophiles not only want to own their music. They want the best quality and because music unlike gaming only focuses on one sense, the others follow, from the ear to the heart. There's so much cross-contamination of the topic, meanwhile Sony continue to do what they do behind the scenes. I think you have to wake-up one day and realize a major part of the world is now your enemy to understand that in-fighting is entirely pointless and that the only way to forge ahead is to combine efforts, strength and intelligence. People are calling it a war without thinking strategically, it's all so reactionary and some assume (wrongly) that all they are is collateral, there is strength in numbers. Some people like RJ get it, Th3solution obviously too, some never will.

Personal ideology was never learned, it was instilled and sometimes it results in a kind of blunt outlook on life or a situation but I think the difference comes from a willingness to listen, learn and update those beliefs. This site has been a big part of that. Games too. Like I was telling Sarge I prize open-worlds because they are personal tests, it's exposure therapy for agoraphobia. The bloat helps because it offers a careful set of guidelines and limits, it's less suffocating, just like real life. I travel weekly and see nothing because the world just becomes render distance, the difference is a game and all of it's bloat offers a way to push the boundaries and visit that mountain, that forest or point of interest. It might be funny but I hid inside an English phone-box in the game Everybody's Gone to The Rapture for the first hour or so. There was no bloat, no real map, just a very realistic English village and I could only wall hug my way through it for so long before I hit a field. When it's an Ubisoft game the bloat acts as a natural boundary, it's subtle progression and it helps to move further into each world because each bloat/base/sector means my character is also getting better prepared/geared to handle those more high level areas. I see life the same way only it's never a solo excursion, in a game it can be.

I'm not sure who puts pressure on Developers to follow certain guidelines or ideas, I always thought they had that freedom until I talked to one of them. He worked on an MMo and was really good with creature designs. He had so many ideas and one day was told they were just going to reuse his older designs and paint them a different colour, he started losing work and quit. He did hint at some of the politics but because of an NDA couldn't say much. From what I could tell it was marketing.

I'm not ignorant of the world, even if I've spent so little time in it but I do know if Spiderman is telling bad guys they must be Trump supporters that something is wrong. I think had I not gotten into retro games I'd only see one side of the industry and of the history, for some games it's like night and day. I do understand times change but that one line in Spiderman crashed any escapism I'd felt up until then. I'd lived in New York and already had that 'this is a little too real' feeling but once Trump was mentioned I wanted to delete the game. Things escalated even further when I got to Little Odessa (a part of New York that I liked) and saw it had been completely changed to mirror 'the now', all it did was make feel excluded from a digital world that I should have felt connected to.

Developers have a responsibility to the player and to the community, they shouldn't take sides nor should they need to. It's an industry that once gave me that something, a way out from that certain something else and room to grow too. Now I dread buying new games, I don't really know what lurks beneath the surface and that is genuinely worrying because I do want to support an industry that's given me so much joy and growth but not at the expense of funding or contributing to something that I can't agree with. The feeling I get when I consider the current games industry is of a pawn and not a player, nor even a purchaser, it all feels a stripping of rights. I keep returning to 'just because I can doesn't mean I should', I never thought I'd feel that way about it. You are saving yourself a lot of unnecessary stress by keeping that distance. The first couple of days were organized, petitions etc, now it's so mixed and impossible to tell where it will be tomorrow, or why.

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@psmr In the spirit of honesty, you aren't so far off the truth. Not so far at all. I was sent to England for education (which after three-weeks was done for, I'd had zero experience with other children but for one. Now I'm still being home schooled, Tutors etc) and to represent my Families interests but we aren't Oligarchs. We share the same eco-system and lifestyle, but we're older than that and didn't need to plunder our own countrymen to get to where we are but in my experience everyone is painted with the same brush. I will say this, Russian men wear many hats, my Father was no different. As a rule I don't discuss money, but as they say hammer, nail, head and you got it first swing.

Most of the Oligarchs in London went to the UAE after our SVO with Ukraine, when we go to the UAE it's just to visit for business. We didn't have to run, they did. The world became a very different place for a lot of people after the invasion, I see it more as people are only now experiencing the world I was raised to expect and quite frankly it all came to pass, my Father was right about everything. It's a return to the old Empire, it's that thinking, stripping rights of common people, without them even realizing it. Closing the Nation off from the rest of the world and demonizing certain countries and their allies, this is why we're still fighting, people believe it.

What ultimately removed me from the social side of the PSN was that word Oligarch. Before then it was 'cool' to have selfies with my President and I did have a lot of friends. Every one of them turned on me within that first hour and I was on my way back to Moscow fast, it didn't matter that commercial flights were grounded, I've never even been allowed to try a taxi so I don't need to say more. I've had years to come to terms with a lot of things, I'm at the point now where I won't shoulder the blame for something I had no hand in. I've nothing to really say about Ukraine because I'd rather listen to what they have to say about it themselves. I can learn from those people, feel something, I can't from a second-hand source.

To most people that word Oligarch speaks volumes right? 'fudge you kat' trust me I've heard enough of it to fill a small phone-book. People think they understand the mindset, the lifestyle and the intent. I see it like this, I get to experience 1% of the world, everyone else gets the full 100%. There are a number of reasons why but gaming really is a kind of key for at least trying. That said the social side of gaming except for this site is completely dead to me. The moment it happened I was playing No Man's Sky, flying my usual colours, I was raised to be a Patriot and gaming was no exception. Even Palworld tonight, right now. It's ingrained like stone.

I started seeing ships in zone flying blue and yellow that day (No Man's Sky) and knew something was after happening. My Partner walked into the room and told me we'd done it, gone over the border, and soon after my PSN was flooded with 'fudge you kat you did this', he deleted my contacts and we left. Every phone, my PSN and Xbox were scrubbed, those friends just evaporated and I never got to tell my side of the situation. I'd like to have but it's not my place to rock the boat, it just is what it is, that day was no exception.

The one friend I did have left fled Russia because she was gay. We were friends for years, offline especially and I'm technically gay but because I also like men 'it's fine'. The last message I got from her was very casual, as if everything was fine. We were in Switzerland preparing for more peace-talks and she was in an airport getting ready to flee. I never heard from her again. That's the reality right now, I did and do like people but the media and other sources painted such a picture that I'm never allowed to have Western/outsider friends again. In a way I do understand it, in another I don't. I think the trust we had is gone, and the trust that was there was already so small, now I'm constantly dodging key-loggers just to talk to people on here. I stay three steps ahead with virtual networks/machines, dual operating systems even on my phones because if I don't then this site is also gone. I have friends on various encrypted networks, they help, their ethics supersede politics, religion and race, they see people for the humanity not the association. It's not something I can contest, it's how my People live, it's how we've always operated and outsiders/friends were a foreign concept until I moved to England.

There are other complications too, but a lot of that is a consensual lifestyle choice and very Adult so I can't elaborate. The politics and that generational something, that's all automatic and reinforced daily. Talking to 'normal' people is like taking small intakes of air, fresh mountain air. I see that as real luxury, having all of the games in the world isn't luxury that's convenience and none of it matters when you are the only one playing them. One day people who champion digital only will realize this too, they will have access to everything and know the value of nothing. I haven't played a game with anyone since 2022, and not seen the non State news in eight years. I have no idea what's going on out there unless we're part of it.

My theory is that we're cut off (children of certain People and Families) because if we have the power to change things and we know that things need to be changed then perhaps we grow a conscious and do something about it. I see that as empathy and empathy is lacking in my world, but I see it on this site when talking to people like Tjuz and Ravix. I didn't even know what equality was until they explained it, or sexism, it's entirely possible to shut the world out when the walls are high enough. That's why modern gaming is such a culture shock and shock to the system, I don't understand modern thinking in those regards because I was never shown how, I'm decades behind in that area of thinking and I'd probably turn someone's hair white if I told them my views on a woman's place, visit Russia you'll understand, it's not new and old Families like mine never changed because we've never had to, business and economic expansion is the only exception.

I'd love to keep supporting the industry and I do buy a lot of games but like I said I no longer know what I'm supporting. If what I saw in Spiderman/Little Odessa was seen by Someone offline and they clocked what I did that game would be deleted, I'm sure of it. I don't think people understand Patriotism unless they've had to live it, I said a couple of weeks ago that I can't see through propaganda anymore. It's true I can't.

You seem like a genuinely nice person. Josef was too and I saw how you both interacted. Josef and I had something in common, we were from somewhere different, we lived under different laws/belief structures. I understood their part of the world, others might not. No one here (public-ally) really identified with or related with their part of the world. Most people here seem to be English or American. I could have said nothing to you and allowed your suspicions to grow but then you might get the wrong idea and think all I care about is money, I don't. I'd rather be honest with people, transparency is also a luxury, one I'm not afforded offline.

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@psmr Sorry that's how I type, it's bits then pieces during opportune moments because like I said I'm not supposed to even be talking to people and like Tjuz saw People wander in and out to make sure I'm not doing something I shouldn't be (though I am right now on another network, that friend saw what I posted here and wanted to say some-things, out of care, I talk to some people from this site privately too but again very discretely) The alternative is to allow everyone and everything to be shut-out, lose some of that empathy, gain a lot more ignorance and learn nothing of real value from life. I truly believe we are here to learn, knowledge can go with us, things can't. Education becomes a lot more important than most shiny things, and many things do/experiences/truths educate a person, even trivial things.

Gaming was/is the main way I've learned the value of money. I watch day one prices, sales, discounts and it provides a reference point that I can understand. I've only ever held actual money once, like I told Tjuz it was and still is a really weird experience. I'm still learning to count because there was no reason to know numbers, a lot of those really basic things that people don't even think about, I have Tutors for those, I do want to learn something more than piano, cello and ethics/morals. I'm supposed to be baking for the first time soon with a friend from one of those encrypted networks. I imagine we'll do it over Telegram or Signal, I'm told I'll get to do the recipe parts and obviously she'll do the rest. You can laugh but I've had some practice from cooking simulators, those are some of my favorite genres.

People don't realize that jobs for women in Russia aren't just separated by class/station, but by gender too. We had three-hundred banned jobs, it was to protect reproductive health. Fire fighters was a big one, so I played fire-fighting simulators, construction too. Train and truck drivers that's newer but because of that SVO/change to the whole Nation rights like I said are being removed and there is a push to once again restrict more jobs. It's currently one-hundred. Gaming is something that's allowed me to explore things that class and gender will never allow. I spent three-hours digging one hole in Construction Simulator, it felt better than any platinum.

Let me just say I hope that you didn’t take offence as I didn’t mean it that way. It’s late for me (on a school night) but I will give your edit the time it needs tomorrow, once I’ve worked my way through my schedule. As I say, I genuinely didn’t mean any offence.

• I hand on heart mean it when I say no offense taken. One-year ago perhaps two, then maybe I'd logout for some weeks. I've gotten to talk to a lot of different people, I call them normal but after talking to Ravix I see there is no normal (he's unique) It sort of softened some kind of blow that previously would have meant I leave. With those three-weeks of schooling it was children from mostly Saudi Families, they were sent to England to be educated, their way was 'stay away from her or you'll end up in a suitcase', they were children, I was too and children can't help but say those things. It took Adults doing the same thing for something to click.

Russia has always been closed off, we all descended on London en-masse and quickly changed the face of certain industries. People weren't happy about that, I understand the, not hate, but close to it. I understand it because I was always told 'we don't trust X Y and Z, so neither can you'. I saw being sent to England as punishment for fudging up on the PSN, all of those things people warn their children about online, that was my first experience with the hobby. That's also what got me ejected. My Father hit the roof and destroyed everything, all my games, so one day it was 'I live here it's my homeland, it's safe' the next 'where in Hades am I and why'. It took a very long time until I came to terms with that choice, but I learned to like the English, the French too (though for some reason people don't? even Americans have said it to me) It's a sense of humor that I'm slowly grasping. One thing I'll never understand is racism, I was never given that. The attitude is we'll do business with anyone, but I hear there is a lot of racism in the world, I look for it in comments but it's hard to detect. Or it's not there.

If someone had preconceived thoughts about people/a country/a society? those thoughts had to come from somewhere, and again I can't and won't blame someone for having an opinion. I know I'm not a bad person but I can walk out of this room and into a couple of rooms away and are those People good? put simply no. Is the person who's going to wander in on the hour and check on me a good person? their military history might say otherwise, yet they'll show me something else. A different hat like I said, they all wear them.

I don't think we get to choose Family but we do get to choose what we do with what we're handed in life. For me it took losing someone really close to me, seeing why they were taken, greed. From what I've seen some people can never have enough and they'll do anything and hurt anyone to get it, I sleep at night knowing I'm not capable of doing those things. If I was I wouldn't be talking to you right now, I'd be off doing something reckless and at someone else's expense. Instead I prefer to follow the rules, appreciate those guidelines and strictness, believe my Partner doesn't want me to go down that path either, and just try to breath like everyone else.

I just couldn’t help but piece youre posts together in the way that I did (& with my admittedly limited knowledge of the USSR following its fragmentation) maybe it come off a little flippant. I judge no-one, which is why I tend to get triggered far to easy when people judge me tbh.

• I think you used your intuition and hit a bulls-eye, there's truth in everything. I had to say something, I'd rather as I said try to at least represent myself, and not the System. I was born into something much bigger representing me, I think it removes individuality. A lot of Russians of means in England fall into that category, especially in London. The problem is that we don't mix, there are obvious security concerns but not being able to break-out of that mold means rumor/cliches and wild guesses are allowed to flourish. Mumbai and Sao Paulo were the biggest wake-up calls for me. What I saw there couldn't be hidden, in London it can. I've never left certain area-codes, I know the world is bigger I see it all the time but sometimes it feels a lot smaller because that other 99% is a no-go area or a red road. Google too was banned but I like to sneak onto street view to go for a walk into places like Brixton and virtually have a look around, I like bus-driver videos and train driver videos too, Youtube has lots. Some people post walk-about videos too, there's pause button for when things get too much. I've only managed two-minutes on a london street, I'm trying to beat that record, it's very noisy out there. There's no pause button for all of that traffic, people, I don't know how people do it, and daily too.

I get really anxious even talking about it but it's a good thing to sometimes put yourself in those uncomfortable situations, what I said to you tonight was one big uncomfortable situation but for the right reason. So are those Youtube videos, walking simulators too, though terrifying.

The friend who pointed out Kyle's reply (I didn't see it, they messaged and explained his sense of humor) has also been teaching me a lot of internet culture and memes. I find it funny that so many of the in Soviet Russia memes are often so accurate. So when you mention fragments of information I understand where you're coming from, I experience your world in a really similar way. I was on this site for one-year before posting, it was deliberate, I quietly watched and learned, like those Martians at the start of War of The Worlds except I was trying to understand people here for a positive reason. I didn't randomly find this site, that same friend mentioned above did. She said I needed to see a real gaming community and not what I experienced on the PSN, I was ready to shelve the hobby completely. Instead I've gotten recommendations, seen peoples passions, learned a lot about what seems trivial to everyone else, I'll leave it there. I've been online too long and also some words are escaping me. Just know I honestly felt no harm was done, I like your honesty and I'd never blame someone to go off intuition of stereotypes when the subject/topic is so closed off to begin with. I do it with the world all the time, ponder, wonder and assume, some of it has to be accurate, at least in some minor way.

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I really want to get a couple of sealed/brand new PS1 1995 stick-less controllers off eBay. They go for around $200 a pop. Plus i need a memory card, composite cables(For my 27" CRT) and power adapter, and of course...games. I've got a loose copy of Mega Man X4, and that's it for now. I've got no real desire to go CIB for any PS console, other than for some of the 95/96' PS1 long boxes.

It's never the same though that's for sure. That initial PS1 launch magic i felt, which was in full spaids, back in 95' just a day or two after it released was truly something else. It managed to capture that awe and wonder, just that excitement and next generational power in tune with NES & SNES before it. Sony however hasn't been the same since. When the PS2 arrived, it was a black box with bright blue accents, with a regurgitated boring DualShock controller(except it was instead all black with Analog L3 & R3 buttons), and so many of the games were void of color. They opted for a more desaturated look to appear more 'adult like'. Which was the polar opposite of What dreamcast was shooting for. PS2, imo is when video games lost their smile. Dreamcast was anything but. It oozed magic and it's launch titles looked better than PS2's(Go figure, Dreamcast is superior in ways) and more games on it ran it 60fps.

I mean really, It's wild how radically different Sony felt as a gaming company in the early 2000's with PS2 vs PS1 in 95/96. PS1 felt like it's own wierd unique thing that momentarily co-existed perfectly amongst SNES, Genesis & Saturn before blasting all 3 into the stone age. People were saying "What's a PlayStation!? That's so weird!" I remember getting my hands on the controller for the first time at my local MicroPlay, and it was just so bizarr for it's time. Just as it was for NES, then moving on over to the 3-button Batarang styled Genesis controller, and especially the SNES pad which felt almost intimidating.

But back to the PS1(95) controller...With it's detached styled D-pad, handles, Shape based multi-colored neon button accents, 2 extra shoulder buttons and bright light grey exterior screamed 'this is the future'. 1995 PS1 was a 10/10(With the OG stickless controller) in the looks department. Dreamcast(Plus it's controller & VMU) has to be my personal favourite in terms of 90's console aesthetics, followed by NES, SNES, PS1 and Genesis(Model 1)

But ya, PS1 just had it's own identity, vibe and personality about it, as did Saturn, SNES, GEN, TGFX, GameBoy & NES before it, which doesn't really exist anymore with modern consoles which generally try to be as basic, effecient and none intruisive as possible. The days of being ballsy, taking bold risks and being outlandishly creative in design are long gone in the world we live in today, and this obviously isn't exclusive to video games. Look at Mcdonalds for exmaple. It's a soviet corporate boxed husk of it's former self. devoid of personality, charm and flare. It's completely lost it's identiity.

Anyways, PS1's inclusion of the memory card(First of it's kind ever.) and it's crazy fun neon splattered memory card UI/menu screen and game icons, the boot up theme and visual of the PS1 logo. Straigh up mesmerizing and that impactful. Can't believe it's been nearly 31 years now since it came out.

These days, PS is void of any personality. Sure, at least the PS5 isn't another predictable black or white box, and Sony tried to make it look like 'something'. But as is, at least with the PS5 fat & Slim, they're hideous. They looked like they crawled out of a futuristic doctors office. Sterile & soulless for better words. Topped with depressing soul sucking UI music that sounds like funeral music for dying robots(Thankfully it can be turned off), and represnts the sounds of a dystopian dead future. lol I mean really, there's nothing that stands out, at all, about Sony or Nintendo's UI these days, or with their basic console logo's (All black or White), with Sony just replacing the number using the same exact all black or white Spider man font & PS logo, but without any color. It's all oh so corporate, predictable. Doing the bare minimum, while also in fear of being intruisive to 'adult' gamers.

Ok, enough about PS5 looking and feeling like a dead decipticon. I'm trying to think of what PS1 games i want to rebuy, and if they hold up beyond the 32-bit sprite based titles, which are typically timeless.

• Rayman
• Resident Evil 1 - (So revolutionary for it's time. Sorry RE2, you just didn't live up. )
• Jumping Flash!
• ESPN Extreme Games - (underrated fantastic launch gem)
• Mega Man X4
• Mega Man 8
• Tomba!
• Ridge Racer
• Battle Arena Toshinden
• Gex
• Poy Poy
• In the Hunt
• Street Fighter Alpha 2
• Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
• Heart of Darkness
• Castelvania: SOTN
• Bust-A-Move 4
• Silleoute Mirage
• Pandemonium
• Strider 2
• Wild 9
• Point Black 1&2
• Project Horned Owl
• Elemental Gearbolt
• Tomb Raider
• Skull Monkies
• Harmful Park
• Allundra
• DonPachi
• Buster Bros. Collection
• Mega Man Legends - (I didn't really care for this one at the time, but i wanna give it another chance)
• Skelaton Warriors
• The Raiden Project
• Off-World Intercepter Extreme
• Mortal Kombat 3
• Um Jammer Lammy
• Parapa the Rappa

Here's an old beat up long box 1996 copy of RE1 >

Believe me, i have a funk ton of experience with PS1, spanning from 95' - 2000. But so many of the games just don't stand the test of time with those pre-dreamcast 32-bit 3D polygon blockyness in full effect. It looks souless at times, at least the stuff that strives or shoots for realism. NES, SNES & GEN's library are far more timeless. Regardless, Playing PS1 on a good Sony 27" consumer grade CRT TV with composite cables is THE way to fly to get that legit PS1 mid to late 90s experience, with a good 2.1 speaker system. Some people do prefer S-Video and HD Retrovisions component cables as well.

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@psmr I forgot about the time difference between where I am now and GMT, that's actually something that goes out the window too, time. I had what's known as chronic jet-lag for weeks recently. I know I lost two-days this week but it was a lot worse than that. If you've ever seen Fight Club there's a line that's something like 'with insomnia you are never awake or never asleep', and he pointed to travel as the culprit. It really is like that, or was before someone came and we worked through it. She mainly works with athletes, they too travel but need to be in top physical and mental shape, there's a lot of pressure there for them, pilots too. She told me for my age it was the worst case she'd ever seen, my short-term memory was fractured , so I slowed down. I couldn't really game either, other than Palworld it had been November since a game really clicked and everything lined up to actually enjoy the experience. I have a lot of hobbies but gaming is the only level playing-field I've found, people from all walks of life game. If you play for example Resident Evil you'll have an experience, others might have a very similar one, discuss it even. I can't talk about gaming to a skater, or to a fencer, they don't care about it. Their one hobby is everything to them, it's not a casual commitment. I don't compete in either but I do understand the discipline. No one in my offline talks about gaming, but by the same token gamers don't care about fencing, for me it's about finding that somewhere or something to at least share some of the experience.

I think like I told Tjuz there are a lot of misconceptions with certain lifestyles and I don't blame anyone for making them because what glimpses I've seen of social-media, those lifestyles are held up as some kind of perfection, no limits. I think the reality is that we're assets of our Families, that's how I'd term it and how an American in a similar situation worded it to me too. Our countries were very different at least outwardly, but when it's that insulated existence the similarities seem to be there, regardless of geography. For example in Britain you have the law of the land, it keeps things balanced, prevents all out chaos. We don't have that, it's something else. It might be to hard to understand. It's certainly hard to word but it doesn't matter what country I'm in, it's sort like having residence in an Embassy, that building exists in a physical sense but in another is removed from the rest of the district. I can't elaborate there but I do know with Tjuz and Ravix I had assumed certain things and had one-million questions for each.

They assumed too. Travel is a good example. To most people it sounds like vacations, to me it's become a lot like waking up and walking from one room to another, it's not the same home or building but my mind can't really tell anymore. Check-ins like Die Hard 2 and other airport movies, they don't exist, it's automatic, here one moment and somewhere else the next. Skylines do change, the weather too, but as a whole nothing 'really' changes. It's more like a kind of set-dressing, people have a job/role, they do it, I know they are there and vice versa but there's rarely anything else there, no dialogue. I joked recently that perhaps someone runs ahead with a paint-brush, what I see of the world seems so clean and presentable. Mumbai and Sao Paulo weren't, it became 'look over here, not there', I still don't have words for that kind of divide. I didn't know people went without and I hadn't had philanthropy instilled at that age, I think a lot of things, the basics, and exposures come from actual schooling and when you remove that completely something is lost.

I tried to learn from people on the PSN, and got nowhere. On encrypted networks we don't really discuss life, the Syrians and Egyptians on Telegram were the exception. I'd been to their countries so many times and had only been shown one side of that reality. They spoke freely there, I'm not all that accustomed to the surface-web for those same reasons. It took talking to certain people on here to see how different certain things really are. With England it's like living in a country for many years but never really knowing the place, and I think that's because a country is about the people, not the place itself. That's kind of what I've been doing here, I know England from a physical sense, limited of course. The people though they are missing from that. Tjuz didn't even know that members only restaurants are a thing, a city like London caters to that kind of system. I know the public exist obviously, but a lot of that becomes render distance. Especially if you see how fast cars drive in Moscow, that's something people get confused over when they visit. They think police because they see lights/etc, it's not. They don't experience the blur.

In London it's different, things aren't a blur, it leaves a lot of questions. I couldn't even figure out why people walked on both sides of a sidewalk, that was a strange one. I thought everyone had one specific place to be, I wasn't aware of casual strolls, but people do it. You even mentioned walking quite far, I've never walked anywhere alone before, it's terrifying thinking about it. Which is why that phone-box in Everybody's Gone to The Rapture was my base of operations for that first one-hour or longer, I'd probably hide in a real English phone-box too. I think some of it is trying to see through that blur and understand those shapes, people, bring it all into focus and then carefully understand what I'm seeing. Games absolutely allow for some of that, Developers build so many living breathing worlds, I'm sure it's not exact but there are enough similarities there for it to be a start.

Which is why I said Developers have a responsibility to remain neutral, Sony shouldn't be lobbying politicians and regulators. The first time I heard gaming being mentioned offline was overhearing a conversation. One company was moving away from their 'investment' and into the energy demands of A.I. farms. Three-days later this site announced major job losses in that same studio. That particular firm were the main investors and when they pulled out, the studio suffered. It was the first time I saw business penetrate gaming, it wasn't the last. The UAE is a perfect example. I love the hobby but it's becoming such magnet for greed. I don't want to see people priced out of the hobby, it could happen.