BladeOfCreation

It's weird to say, "watching people play video games is an important part of my life." But it is; Giant Bomb is important to me, and I've shared that love of GB with multiple people over the years. (It's not actually weird. At least, it's not any weirder than sharing a love of, say, cooking shows.) When I introduce people to GB, one of the sort of disclaimers I have to make is something like, "Yeah, I know it's almost all dudes, but it's not a boys' club thing." It's video games, so I think seeing half a dozen dudes on camera is gonna make people wary, and there's plenty of good reason for that wariness. Having someone else's voice represented on the team isn't necessarily gonna make or break it, but it can affect how people enjoy or relate to thing. All of this, worded imperfectly as it is, is just to say that Jess getting laid off is a bigger loss than just losing someone who makes content here. It simultaneously erodes faith in the brand and limits a portion of the potential audience.

I think this is the difference between liking aspects of a thing, and being a fan of a thing. I like some anime, but I also dislike certain ubiquitous tropes in anime so much that I do not consider myself a fan of anime in general. I feel like I'm reaching--or have reached--that point with Star Wars.

There's enough Sonic stuff out there to enjoy, but if you enjoy less than half of a given franchise and you think the newest stuff is middling at best, are you still a fan? I don't know. I don't write the dictionary. What are words?

@sombre said:

I mean, Ricky Gervais is a piece of shit, as James Acaster so brilliantly points out. But I'll be honest, Gervais is the only currently-performing Brit comedian like that that comes to mind. I could name half a dozen American ones. I am extremely picky when it comes to comedy, and I have no patience whatsoever for wealthy people who get tens of millions of dollars per comedy special complaining about their voices being "silenced." And that is a whole lot of what American comedy is these days.

There's other stuff out there. Hasan Minaj has two incredible comedy specials on Netflix; maybe check those out.

If you're a casual Star Wars fan, I can see why you might find Andor boring and not stick with it after a couple episodes. If, like me, Rogue One is your favorite Star Wars movie, you might give it more time to hook you. I like turn-based RPGs, and I know that any class that casts spells is going to be pretty boring to use in the first few hours.

This sort of thing depends entirely upon personal preference. There is no "rule," and we're more likely to give more time to genres that we already have an interest in.

Incredible, 10/10 thread, no notes.

No. "Musou" has a meaning in the context of games. If you told someone you were getting them a new musou game, and you got them this, they would rightfully feel misled.

Between Babylon's Fall, game delays, Overwatch 2, and Pokémon, I feel like this could be two categories: Hottest Mess (Game) and Hottest Mess (Industry). Like the difference between Best Graphics and Best Looking, you know?

Great work on putting this all together and compiling it in a way that makes checking into each Hot Mess easy with links and everything! I think I'm leaning towards Tommy Tallarico.

So I never played an Armored Core, but I love mechs. So I'm down for that.

Inject Hades 2 directly into my veins.

I love me some BioShock, so Judas is a must.

The utter failure of any type of physical security at The Game Awards is my write-in candidate.

So I don't remember my completion age, as I finished this a few months ago. I just want to say that if you're like me and you hit a skill ceiling with this game and progression became impossible, the easy mode that they patched in a few months ago is great. It makes you feel like a total badass, and you can basically brute force your way through the boss fights if you lack finesse. I played through the whole game twice and got both endings in one afternoon.