In the end, there is something of a cost vs benefit ratio to factor in, combined with how much a person can reasonably maintain without it adding up and becoming a time consuming or chaotic mess.
Plus, there's just the natural drift as peoples' goals and interest shift over time, and no longer sync up with that of friends and acquaintances.
That, and because anti-leftism at this point is extremely decentralized and Internet-bound. And pretty much as "grass roots" as you can get, because the majority of it spawns from just how many people are simply sick and tired of their bullshit.
No leaders or spokespeople, no corporate backing. Etc. Which is likely why they've simply resorted to branding anti-leftists as terrorists, extremists, and/or goaded by "foreign agents".
It's insane when you think about it. A begrudged sentiment within the broad and common populous, is considered xyz solely for not having any money, leaders, or authority behind it. And their crime? Disagreeing with the leftist narrative and not wanting to go along with their plans.
Edit: Trump being a populist of sorts though, is the closest to a leader they can identify.
Leftists have been rehashing such strawmen for 10+ years, and it's hilarious how dramatically out of touch and inaccurate it is.
Also reminds me of those alleged polls that tried to claim that both political extremes "don't understand the other side at all". Time and time again I only see how accurate this is when we're talking about leftists. Most people who actively hate leftists as far as I've seen understand their motives and reasoning quite well.
Certain hardware like monitors and mice have reached a peak-level of affordability and quality in the last... 3-8 years, give or take.
Monitors were in a weird spot for a while, where it seemed just out of reach to min-max for optimal quality, but some newer and reasonably cost effective tech-innovations seem to have address a lot of those issues.
It probably also helps that consumers have been adopting 4k enough to broaden the market so that 2k displays can slide down to the mid-tier on price, while sacrificing very little on display quality (at least for the majority of gamers).
The Tie Fighter TC has been surprisingly sufficient to cover most of the needs of a remake. Although I do wish the X-Wing Alliance engine's netcode wasn't so dated. Not exactly something you can easily address with hooks and wrappers.
It's sometimes a little bit of both. There's often a fair bit of tunnel vision going on, just sort of goes hand in hand with such angst.
Parents can also sometimes be a little more heavy handed towards kids with regards to religion when they first learn that their kid is moving away from religion. Which is understandable, but also liable to spark some conflict and eventual resentment.
I can rarely get through a New Yorker article, just because of how much sheer fluff there is in the long lead up to "getting to the point". And the overall writing style.
I did note that the article leads up with a classically more extreme example, someone who grew up with Evangelical parents.
Regarding smugness and atheism. From my own experience, this sort of comes hand in hand with younger people, when they're still a little angry and rebellious, usually towards their parents. Some will cool off after a while and gain a more balanced and sober minded perspective while others just continue to obsess over it like self indulgent brats.
I think the algorithm the game uses for RNG is also a bit broken iirc, which is why there's a few mods that try to include solutions to specifically address it. For both games iirc.
Also reminds me, another odd issue the games occasionally seemed to have was something where it seemed like RNG results were somehow stuck in buffered memory or something. So if you loaded up a save in the middle of a mission (in the 2nd, couldn't do that in the 1st iirc), RNG results would get extremely lopsided.
Heck, look at STALKER for example. The story in of itself is... well, kind of interesting in a lore kind of way, but not especially engaging most of the time.
What is engaging however is the kind of shit you run into wherever you go. And it's not like a haunted house carnival ride, with linear jumpscares along a linear track either.
All of which makes up the basic setting and overall gameplay experience. The story in actuality only ends up serving as some kind of context for what's going on.
I think another thing too is that story faggotry meshed well with how big studios tried to present trailers and footage for upcoming games at things like E3. It's a bit easier to convey than trying to show off satisfying gameplay loops.
I think it depends on how that exposition is handled in the game too. The old adage of "show don't tell" is probably truer in games than for almost any other medium.
The things you see and observe within the game world can do far more to deliver a story than the vast majority of dialogue in a game. The game world is the number 1 key to immersion. And things that try to force you out of that game world like cut-scenes can be some of the most immersion and experience breaking elements in a game.
I definitely agree with regards to the bloat. Like on paper, it seems like it makes sense. Get more people doing a wide range of legwork, should provide results very quickly. The reality though is that structure, communication, delays, logistics, etc etc. bog the entire thing down, all while ramping up the costs over a longass period of time for a company.
Also, if I remember right, I think there is a slightly less organic reason for why some companies have been overbloating their employee counts. I don't remember if it had to do with investors and stock value or laws governing requiring a minimum x number of employees to be considered a y-type of company.
Not something that's specific to game companies, but a lot of tech companies in particular.
That's one example that can be an issue. For some games such combinations manage to be quite fun, but then for others it can be rather detrimental. Also depends to some degree on how far they go.
Darksiders 2 for example I feel went way too far on implementing loot and itemization, to the point where it became a chore I really didn't want to keep dealing with all the way throughout the game.
Shadow Warrior 2's another example that comes to mind. It was maybe a little overly ambitious with its implementation of dynamic/procedurally generated map elements, and might've gone a little over the top with some of its weapon customization/crafting (which was almost good in a lot of ways).
Now I will also point out, that I actually did enjoy both of these games a fair bit. Shadow Warrior 2 in particular I might almost praise. But both games end up dragging on a bit, with a lot of clunk and repetition dragging them down, becoming nearly a slog to try and finish.
Part of it I think is when the amount of time that you devote to side mechanics (like crafting) drastically exceeds the amount of time and effort you invest into playing through the actual game. Which is even more annoying when the payoff for that side-investment is rather meager and ends up only adding a tiny bit of additional fun to the primary gameplay.
Graphical emphasis goes back to the early days of gaming. The Sega Master System was at least partially advertised for its hardware and rendering capabilities compared to the NES.
Yet at the same time it not only had a much much smaller lineup of games to offer, it didn't have the kind of punch of big, enjoyable, audience pleasing hits like the NES did.
What really changed was probably that the limits for graphical fidelity has slowly moved from being a hardware hurdle, to how much time and work must be invested in producing the assets and art itself.
Plus, because of how much more modern hardware's capable of, you have greater complexities when it comes to applying that art. IE, more and more objects and decor that can be included in a scene, to try to bring it closer in line with what we might see in reality. Which then requires tools (or a fuckton of time) to streamline the process of actually placing all of those objects and decor throughout every scene/map/space in an entire game. It just really adds up.
I've asserted this multiple times, it's not even so much that there's too much emphasis on graphics, it's feature creep and gameplay bloat that is more often the problem with a lot of these games.
Where complexity becomes stacked to the brim with so much extra fluff that it quickly becomes more like a job than a game for the player. Especially when that stack comes packed with rather tedious mechanics that really suck out a lot of the fun from the whole experience.
A lot of studios and publishers assume this is what players want, especially if they're aiming to pump up those player numbers to appeal to investors. And admittedly quite a few players players assume this is what they always want too. More features can make a game look more "meaty" and complete, and worth their coin. And in some cases it's a totally fair expectation. But it's not always a fun and practical one in the end.
I think another part of it is how some sorts just can't wrap their heads around why they feel "out of place" in life, and start drinking the Kool-aid because they can't come up with any other answer to their unanswered riddle (and because that's the popular "answer" being pushed by various institutions these days).
Meanwhile, the real answer could be any number of possibilities. Unresolved psychological hangups, lifestyle and habits, health related anomalies, actual brain issues, being a major recluse, etc etc.
And in some cases I wonder if degeneracy might be more of a symptom or an outlet than the outright cause.
It's definitely used by a fair number of ethots, but that only encompasses a small portion of its actual user-base.
Generally, it seems like it's ended up as the "younger hipper" Facebook. While Facebook's more or less reserved for "boomers" now.
Tis a strange and silly place. It certainly has some interesting features, and I "generally" like the UI design, but it has a lot of weird oddities and quirks too.
As for how people seem to use it, I get what you're referring to. On first glance a lot of it looks rather showy and pretentious, and in many cases that's almost all it is for the individual using it.
On the other hand, I think some are using it that way to both present for themselves, and to others, that they're out enjoying a life filled with adventures. Which to some might seem a bit shallow and artificial, but very well might be at least a little meaningful, in the right context. And as with all things, some sorts of people just have to take it an inch further.
Slightly off-topic though, but am I the only one that finds it disjointing with how modern social media and messaging platforms show that messages have been read by the recipient? It's not something I've been used to with almost any form of online communication before.
While Straczynski wrote like... 90% of the episodes iirc, I think he hired some weird, VERY lefty sci-fi writers who ended up being too lazy to write as many scripts as he'd expected them to. I think one was a mega feminist if I remember correctly.
S2-S4 in particular are what make it a glorious ride.
It's kind of funny how part of the reason for the faster and more dramatic pacing is because at one juncture they really thought they were going to get cancelled soon, so Straczynski really wanted to advance the story and get it going.
You should see the comments on Resetera regarding the arrest of Telegram's CEO. Leftists are without any kind of consistent sense, logic, or rationale beyond affiliations and whatever serves their personal interests.
That's why they're perfectly comfortable with giving away everyone's rights, just so long as they're handing the keys to someone on the left.