From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

Play:

Oekaki Puzzle (PS1) - this again. I should probably return to the
15x15 or 20x20 puzzles for now, the earlier puzzles are a bit on the
easy side. But I also kind of want those easy ones done, so, yeah.

Want:

Nothing.

Bin:

OT, but - a bit of randomness elsewhere on Usenet. I read a number of
other groups still, and sometimes I'll consider making a post, then
think better of it - which may mostly be the right move, but also
means I end up making very few posts. So this time I saw a post,
thought "oh hey I know about some related things, maybe I should
mention that stuff" and managed to prompt some fairly defensive
behaviour that gave me "are we the baddies?" vibes. Oh well.

-Rus.
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From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

In article <P%7AM.509186$Y_%7.310743@usenetxs.com>,
Russell Marks <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:

Play:

Sparkylinux (PC) - My old gaming laptop is, if we're being honest, a
crap edu-spec thing that was barely able to run Steam, much less any
software written after 2005. I went and updated the OS, all the kernel
bits, and finally put the latest Linux build of Steam on it. Weirdly now everything runs much better than it did before, which I'm chalking up to
the compatibility improvements that have happened mostly for the Steam
Deck in the two years since I bothered to power this silly thing up.

Sega Megadrive Classics (PC) - Just a little time with the first Sonic
game, because that's something I don't have enough copies of on enough platforms. It's not ideal to play with the number pad and keyboard, but
at least it seems to emulate at full speed now.

Namco Museum Arcade Pac (NSW) - I have all these games on other
platforms as well, but this cart is mostly for the kid. He discovered
arcade cabinets for the first time over the weekend and has decided that Galaga is the most awesome thing ever in the history of awesome things,
and nearly made a mess on the floor when he was told that these games
were also available at home.

Want:

Nothing.

I'm sort of in the same boat, but I do have a lot of wants queued up
from before. I should probably play things I own first.

Bin:

OT, but - a bit of randomness elsewhere on Usenet. I read a number of
other groups still, and sometimes I'll consider making a post, then
think better of it - which may mostly be the right move, but also
means I end up making very few posts. So this time I saw a post,
thought "oh hey I know about some related things, maybe I should
mention that stuff" and managed to prompt some fairly defensive
behaviour that gave me "are we the baddies?" vibes. Oh well.

I have a theory about that. Decent people will always seek to avoid or
tamp down conflict. But because disagreement is how social media farms engagement, interaction online seems to drive away decent people. This
is why everybody reads Twitter, but only a few thousand seem to ever
post there (and everybody else is perfectly happy to stay out of the
path of implied, metaphorical milkshakes and hand grenades being
thrown). For all that we might miss the positive aspects of it, Usenet
always had this negativity floating around in the background, and quite
a few posters lived for that thrill of subversion and aggression. I wish
I knew how to fix that.

Expenditure:
-----=-----

Balance forward - $3,016

Namco Museum Arcade Pac (NSW) - $28

Total to date - $3,044

-KKC, who has too much to do this week.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

Namco Museum Arcade Pac (NSW) - I have all these games on other
platforms as well, but this cart is mostly for the kid. He discovered
arcade cabinets for the first time over the weekend and has decided that Galaga is the most awesome thing ever in the history of awesome things,
and nearly made a mess on the floor when he was told that these games
were also available at home.

:-)

I have a theory about that. Decent people will always seek to avoid or
tamp down conflict. But because disagreement is how social media farms engagement, interaction online seems to drive away decent people. This
is why everybody reads Twitter, but only a few thousand seem to ever
post there (and everybody else is perfectly happy to stay out of the
path of implied, metaphorical milkshakes and hand grenades being
thrown). For all that we might miss the positive aspects of it, Usenet always had this negativity floating around in the background, and quite
a few posters lived for that thrill of subversion and aggression.

That probably doesn't apply in the case I was referring to (at least I certainly hope not), but a good point generally.

-Rus.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

On 7 Aug 2023 at 16:23:27 BST, "Russell Marks"
<zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:

Play:

Pikmin 4 (Switch) - Still a delight. One tiny snippet of information
that is only revealed at the end of the day meant I had to go back to
the first area an extra time to get that one very last treasure... but I
did get to buy the treasure proximity meter which *very* kindly applies
to the scouting drone as well as to your player character. I would not
have found that last item otherwise, as it was buried to invisibility.

Sea of Thieves: Monkey Island (Xbox, PMG) - Gus and I finished off the
first episode, which is also delightful as mentioned previously, then
scuttered around for a while trying to trigger episode two. Which isn't
out for another two weeks, turns out. Dang! So we retired as Mighty
Pirates for the time being.

Want:

Nothing.

I think this is still the case. Orrah intends to lend me FF16, so I'll
play that once our paths actually cross. I'm actually more tempted to
get into FF14, not for the MMO play but because it's now up to something ridiculous like 100 hours of single player narrative, generally
considered the best in FF canon (or at least since 6), all for free.

Bin:

OT, but - a bit of randomness elsewhere on Usenet. I read a number of
other groups still, and sometimes I'll consider making a post, then
think better of it - which may mostly be the right move, but also
means I end up making very few posts. So this time I saw a post,
thought "oh hey I know about some related things, maybe I should
mention that stuff" and managed to prompt some fairly defensive
behaviour that gave me "are we the baddies?" vibes. Oh well.

This week in my fairly common role as a Discord moderator (I tend to
just hang out being useful, helpful and personable and the locals keep
making me a mod - happened six times now) I had to work out how to
disrupt a loose team of annoying disruptors to one of my groups. They
weren't nazi-affiliated or anything, just they'd start whanging out
animated gifs in ostensibly useful channels and drowning out the purpose
of the Discord with "funny" crap. Tried asking nicely, no dice. Next
time slapped them with 10 minute restraining orders, which amusingly
puts an "I HAVE BEEN TIMED OUT ON THE NAUGHTY STEP" clock icon against
their usernames. Two came back with apologies in DMs, two just settled
down and have been no trouble since, but one was all I HAVE BEEN
DISRESPECTED so she got a "stop kicking the back of the seat in front of
you or you'll be silenced for a week". Seems to have worked so far, and
we got some positive feedback along the "yay we can actually talk now"
lines from a couple of people. Which was nice.

It's amazing how little it takes to stand up to an annoyance and get
them to stop sometimes. Glad I took those "how to be a good manager"
conflict de-escalation courses.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
I am always a bit unhappy when I spot a bit of text that
made perfect sense in my brain but on passing through
my fingers turned into a word salad suggesting that
someone had jammed an ice pick into my head and
stirred while I was typing. -- James Nicoll
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:

On 7 Aug 2023 at 16:23:27 BST, "Russell Marks" <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:

[...]

means I end up making very few posts. So this time I saw a post,
thought "oh hey I know about some related things, maybe I should
mention that stuff" and managed to prompt some fairly defensive
behaviour that gave me "are we the baddies?" vibes. Oh well.

This week in my fairly common role as a Discord moderator (I tend to
just hang out being useful, helpful and personable and the locals keep
making me a mod - happened six times now) I had to work out how to
disrupt a loose team of annoying disruptors to one of my groups. They
weren't nazi-affiliated or anything

Ah. For the record I should just be clear here that I was casting
*myself* in the role of saying "are we the baddies?", in a purely
abstract and non-uniform-wearing sense. It might not have been the
most sensible reference to use in this case.

Glad I took those "how to be a good manager" conflict de-escalation
courses.

That certainly seems like it could be useful. I think my problem is
that, while I'm not lacking in empathy, I have a tendancy to *try* to
be dispassionate and logical - and this only really works out if the
other person does the same, which is not common in my experience.

To be fair, I can see how being on the receiving end of me arguing as
if I'm playing a Phoenix Wright game could get tedious. :-)

-Rus.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

On 8 Aug 2023 at 10:44:14 BST, "Russell Marks"
<zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:

Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:

On 7 Aug 2023 at 16:23:27 BST, "Russell Marks"
<zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:

[...]

means I end up making very few posts. So this time I saw a post,
thought "oh hey I know about some related things, maybe I should
mention that stuff" and managed to prompt some fairly defensive
behaviour that gave me "are we the baddies?" vibes. Oh well.

This week in my fairly common role as a Discord moderator (I tend to
just hang out being useful, helpful and personable and the locals keep
making me a mod - happened six times now) I had to work out how to
disrupt a loose team of annoying disruptors to one of my groups. They
weren't nazi-affiliated or anything

Ah. For the record I should just be clear here that I was casting
*myself* in the role of saying "are we the baddies?", in a purely
abstract and non-uniform-wearing sense. It might not have been the
most sensible reference to use in this case.

Oh, unlikely - hard to be a baddie by just bringing in facts. It's
probably either something much-previously-discussed or you just happened
to hit someone at a defensive time and others joined in shooting the
messenger, mobs being mobs.

Glad I took those "how to be a good manager" conflict de-escalation
courses.

That certainly seems like it could be useful. I think my problem is
that, while I'm not lacking in empathy, I have a tendancy to *try* to
be dispassionate and logical - and this only really works out if the
other person does the same, which is not common in my experience.

To be fair, I can see how being on the receiving end of me arguing as
if I'm playing a Phoenix Wright game could get tedious. :-)

I find the quickest de-escalation is to either not follow up or "Oh,
maybe. Anyway..." and moving on.

Who cares about being right on Usenet before? You've posted the facts
up, they stand alone and are either correct or not. Arguing about things
you consider facts is purposeless.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"I think man is the most interesting insect on earth, don't you?"
-- Marvin the Martian
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