I was taking a rook around and taking a bunch of pieces out. Found someone else making moves and antagonized them for a bit before moving away. I guess they followed me, because as I was taking out a back row on one board, the rook ambushed me as I took out a knight.

I tried MH Rise demo on Switch back when it came out, and it felt like I needed 3 thumbs to play it.

It doesn’t matter how bad it was, it doesn’t justify or excuse the shithead behavior a lot of players are directing at individuals who worked on the game. As I stated in another comment, there’s a difference between saying “this game sucks” and personal attacks on individuals.

There’s a difference between being unhappy about a game and making your voice heard to the studio/publisher responsible, and singling out individuals who worked on the game to harass. This happens a lot with voice actors being targeted because people don’t like their performance, despite them just doing what the voice director told them to do.

There’s also a difference between saying “I don’t like ____” or “this game sucks” versus “I’m glad you got laid off, serves you right” or straight-up death threats. Just like the VAs, the development staff were working at the direction of the lead/director, who were possibly working at the direction of the publisher, so directing vitriol towards individuals is likely not productive, on top of being cruel. You are certainly allowed to make your opinion heard, but don’t be an asshole about it.

I think as long as these extra packs don’t replace work done by the devs on staff, it’s fine. Here are some things to consider:

• While it’s not specifically gig work, many studios already hire contractors to work on games while in development, just to terminate the contracts after launch. This also isn’t unique to the games industry, as companies in many other industries regularly hire contractors for a specific project or duration.
• If these content creator and modder packs stopped being sold, they won’t automatically equate to content being produced by the studio instead. The staff may be working on other DLC or expansions, after-launch support, or moved to another project.
• The studio may decide to stop officially developing for a game, but community-made packs could be a way for them to add additional content.

I used to play Warframe, and the studio, DE, would regularly add skins that were designed and voted on by the community. The studio still produced their own cosmetics, so it was cool to have additional skins and also support designers in the community. Ultimately, I think we should look at these on a case-by-case basis, as we’ll probably see some studios doing it “right”, while others may lean a little too heavily on modder work.

There’s a local barcade that’s good times. You get to drink local craft brews and play arcade games and pinball. They had Time Crisis 2 last time I was there.

As far as light gun shooters, your best bet is probably VR. I can’t personally make any recommendations though, as I don’t have a headset.

It was certainly there, but more common in cooperative games. Also, Overwatch is/was particularly infamous for its toxic community. While I didn’t play them myself, I’ve heard a lot of stories from competitive games back in the day where you could host your own lobby. Being a shithead back then could get you banned from any number of private communities, so you needed good behavior if you didn’t want to be an outcast.

I started with World, and put hundreds of hours into that and Rise, plus their expansions. I tried the GU demo on Switch, but it felt too clunky.

The thing that hooked me was the first large monster you hunt, Great Jagras. He’s a pushover for any hunter with even a slight amount of experience, but for me as a new player, it was an epic battle and I certainly didn’t expect that much intensity that early in the game. I also liked how even after you had a monster on “farm status” a hunt could still easily go from good to bad if you weren’t careful. It emphasized that these monsters were incredibly dangerous, and even seasoned hunters could be in trouble if they get too cocky. It also helped keep farming more interesting as you needed to pay attention if you wanted to be successful.

Overall, I like the… world, in World more, but the gameplay mechanics and combat more in Rise. In World, the maps were larger, with more detail and felt more alive. I also liked the tracking aspect, and was disappointed that aspect didn’t make it to Rise. It felt like you were actually hunting your target, instead of just sprinting to their location on your doggo friend and beating them up like in Rise.

I’m definitely looking forward to Wilds releasing next year.