I love Wandersong so much. I’ve tried to put into words what makes this game different to every other game. It usually goes something like this.

Nearly every game is about winning. Some are about plumbers leaping their way to the flag pole. Some are about gun-wielding heroes shooting everything. Those are pretty obvious examples of games where the primary emotion is Fiero (the feeling of pride after accomplishment). But even games about cozily pushing blocks, or doing skateboard tricks, or running a successful shop are also predominantly about fiero.

Now, I agree that not all games are about this one emotion. Horror games feature fiero, but are mostly about exploring fear. And there are lots of games that explore other emotions as their primary goal. But the vast majority of games are about winning and the emotion of fiero.

Wandersong is about happiness and not fiero. It makes that perfectly clear in its opening moments. The protagonist is made (painfully?) aware that he is not the hero. The Bard goes on to have several conversations with other characters about happiness. The plot largely revolves around increasing happiness. And, in terms of gameplay, in almost all the places a typical game would offer players chances to feel fiero, this game offers the player opportunities to experience happiness instead.

If you’re looking for it, it’s clear that the game is occasionally working to prevent fiero and present happiness in its place. The game frequently puts the player in situations where there is no opportunity for them or The Bard to “win”. Instead, they have the chance to help or to be helped. And sometimes even when things turn out well, it’s despite The Bard and the player failing at their goal.

It’s a unique game made with tons of love and I treasure it. I would recommend it to anyone with a heart.

Yeah, you’re honestly way out of line here.

Being correct is not a virtue. Other people are not impressed by how correct you are, or by how great a job you’ve done in correcting others.

Knowing more than others is not a virtue. Literally everyone knows less about some things than others; there is no super genius that is right or most knowledgeable about everything. For that reason (and many others), lack of knowledge is not a good reason to treat someone poorly.

You obviously care about the mechanics of clear communication. I believe that you can be better than this, that you can keep in mind why we communicate, not just how. You obviously know a lot about certain topics as well. I believe you can be better at how you demonstrate your knowledge. This time you showed off your knowledge to shame someone else. Maybe next time you could show off what you know by sharing it with someone in a helpful way.

Then people really would be impressed.

Can the controller go diagonal?

Aw, that was such a sweet time in video game history.

I’m honestly having so much fun getting out in my neighborhood and completing quests

It’s okay to disagree with people. You’re being a dick while disagreeing with people, though.

I get that you’re being practical here. You’re not technically wrong, and the people who are disagreeing with you really are arguing points of nuance.

But they aren’t wrong either. That nuance matters in certain contexts.

You can pick this hill to defend. Or you can learn something that you didn’t know about the people in your online community, and probably your IRL community too.

Embrace learning something new. It will almost never be a waste of your time.

I appreciate you.

Third vote for Silverbullet here. I’m really enjoying using it.

These are called “aptroynms” and Wikipedia has a great list of them and also inaptroyms. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptronym

Yeah, my time on Beehaw is almost always pleasant. I really love seeing people arguing in the comments of a post and inevitably after a few exchanges they go out of their way to de-escalate tensions and recognize each other as people. Real conversations, real differing of opinions, but maintaining respect for people.

Thank you for this

My coach used to tell the story of a really promising track and field athlete who might have had a serious shot on the world scene, but quit to play in his band called The Barenaked Ladies. I never fact checked that, so I have no idea if it was true or not. But it stuck with me because it made me think of all the people who might have been incredible in one field or another who just never gave it a shot.

That’s exactly what I did!

I think the important difference in this case is like the difference between a human enjoying a song that they hear being performed vs a company recording a song that someone is performing and then replaying that song on demand for paying customers.

Yeah, that’s exactly my first thought while reading this. If I rewrote the list of achievements above to sound like I was claiming they all happened to me, and then posted it to twitter, it would be indistinguishable from most other “🙄 that happened” posts.

People will be saying similar stuff about Taylor Swift in 100 years; by definition being legendary means being unreal.

How is it I’ve been alive this long and I’ve never seen this joke made before?! It’s so simple and obvious after the fact, but completely new (to me) and a delight. Thanks!

I suppose it depends on how good of a writer you are.

Some writers can say things we all know so well that it’s like we’re finally understanding it for the first time. Some writers have a knack for delivering facts or prose with the perfect dose of humor; it’s not what they say, but how they say it that is valuable.

I suppose the question of what merits a book has is more complicated than just “does this book push the envelope of human knowledge”, huh?

I have a couple of books by Zach Weinersmith and they are entertaining and interesting.

I believe you’re missing the point of this book. I also believe you’re being a bit of a prat. I don’t know, however, if those two things are connected.

Some advice that is related to polyamory, but not dating apps.

Do your polyamory homework before creating a dating app profile. There are a lot of emotional pitfalls that people in the same situation have fallen into. I thought I was ready when I went down that path. Looking back on it now, I really should have taken more time to untangle my life before.

Thanks for this. It’s been on my list of games to play for a long time.