Shamelessly borrowed from bikobatanari.art/posts/202… who also provides context on where this trend originated.
Please tell us your name and its origin.
A couple of years ago I was trying to come up with a username. The kind someone else might have created in high school and stuck with for the next 20 years. I was looking for something that could represent me, wasn’t already taken everywhere, and wasn’t directly associated with my day job or anything I’ve done previously on the internet. Not entirely sure how I stumbled on the word, but “Contrariwise” was an instant hit among friends.
Please tell us the site name and its origin.
I think I found TheWizardly through one of those “help me think up a domain name” services. It was around the time that the “wizard ponders orb” meme was going around, which I loved, and it was the driving force behind presenting myself as a random internet wizard.
If you don’t mind, please tell me your date of birth.
I do mind.
What does the site deal with?
Whatever I’m thinking about at the moment. I have a bad habit of responding to simple questions with an essay. Sometimes I think it makes sense to just publish the essay instead. I use my blog as something like the intersection between what very small amount of value I used to get out of Twitter, while also still being able to get lengthy when I want to. My experience is that people are busy and they mostly don’t click links, so posting links to a blog from a microblog is a great way to make sure your blog never gets read. Having one stream that does both is, I think, the best I can get while still being respectful of other peoples’ time and attention.
Please tell us your recommended content.
There’s not much of a backlog to look at currently, but if you don’t know me you might enjoy thewizardly.com/now/ which is perpetually out of date, but I think a rather good snapshot of my interests. If you also like some of those things, you might like my posts in general.
Is the content you are working on a hobby? Are you an aspiring professional (or already a professional)?
Let’s call it a hobby? I try to keep work entirely out of this stream. It’d be neat to make some money doing some of my hobbies someday, but I’m also not trying to turn any of them into “jobbies.”
Do you have any off-duty activities related to the content you are handling?
(In the context of Japanese society this question is asking if I do things like vend at conventions related to my hobbies.) Short answer? No.
Please let us know if there are any people or works that you are aiming for in the content you are handling.
(In situ this question is basically asking if I’m aspiring to emulate anyone.) No. I’m striving for authenticity. Not, like, “branded authenticity.” Actually just my real answers, thoughts, and perspectives. One of the reasons why I want to detach this identity from “real me” is that it allows me to be more real in every way that matters. The day job requires a brand. It requires emulation. This is more “me” than most people who ever meet me are likely to get.
Do you have a set update frequency and update time for your site?
I’m trying to post roughly weekly, just to build and maintain the habit. I don’t kick myself too hard if it I miss it.
For what maximum period have you stopped updating?
Since starting this blog, I think at most a couple of weeks. However I’ve gone “radio silent” on the internet for periods of years in other places.
Would you like to get more visitors?
Yes, but only inasmuch as I always want to attract more of my tribe. I want more visitors who are legitimately interested in the kinds of things I talk about.
Are you happy with the feedback on the content?
I’m happy with all positive, constructive feedback. Reasonable people should be able to disagree about some things, and I’m not particularly interested in the kind of vitriol that’s standard in other parts of the internet. It’s like we forgot, culturally, that it was possible to walk away and not say anything.
What do you think about typos and broken links?
When I notice them, I fix them, but mistakes are the touch of a human’s hand. I fear the world where no mistake is permitted far more than someone judging my typo.
Do you accept requests?
I think this is probably intended for someone who has an artistic output. My artistic output is primarily words. I think I’d take a suggestion on a topic to write about, if I thought I had anything to say, but I don’t think I’d take commissioned writing work.
Are there hidden pages?
Not intentionally! I think I might have toyed around with some plugins on my host that are still technically enabled, but I haven’t hidden anything with the intent of it being found.
Do you have another site?
Several! All defunct. Haven’t figured out what to do about that.
Do you allow links? If so, please let me know if there are any conditions.
Certainly. I would prefer if links stay within the IndieWeb. I won’t be entirely crushed if I end up linked somewhere out on the Commercial Web, if the end result of that is meeting more of my tribe.
Did you have any experience running another site before starting this one?
I’ve been running sites since the days of Geocities and Angelfire. It’s probably for the best that I couldn’t remember where any of those were, though. No idea if I’m in the big Geocities dump. Probably?
What inspired you to create this site?
I needed a place to be able to get thoughts out of my head but which also would allow me to interact with the IndieWeb and Fediverse.
When was this site established?
2023/10/31.
Do you have any celebration plans for the opening anniversary?
I don’t think so! I probably won’t even make note of it, if I notice.
Do you keep in mind events such as Halloween and Christmas, seasonal changes, and social trends when updating?
Not even a little bit. Honestly I sometimes forget to keep those things in mind in day to day life.
Do you use SNS?
(“SNS” is the shorthand term that the Japanese use for “social media”.) Basically, no. The closest I get is this blog’s federation to the Fediverse. You can follow me on Mastodon! I have an account on BlueSky that just reposts everything I post here, to make it easier for people to follow me there until they get ATProtocol fully up and working.
Please tell us why you dare to run a website in this SNS era.
Because the slow web was a better web. And the small web still is, where it exists and you can find it. Computers are a miracle. We taught sand to think by hitting it with lightning. But that doesn’t mean every invention that followed was a net positive for society. I don’t think social media actually helps anyone, and I think I’d have a pretty high burden of proof to change that prior.
Is there anything you keep in mind when running your site?
Be honest. Be clear. Be kind. Nobody’s ever changed their mind because someone yelled at them.
Is there anything that remains in your mind while running the site?
I have a set of principals for engaging with the internet. I’ve never written them down. I probably should. It includes not having any kind of intentional tracking on this site. It might be kind of neat to know how many people see it, but I can’t preach with one hand that people shouldn’t be tracked and then track them. I know that there are services that do a more respectful version of tracking, but I think the correct amount is none. For me and also for everyone else. We should not have opened this pandora’s box.
Do you have any problems with site management?
No, I pay micro.blog to do all the hard stuff for me.
Do you ever get embarrassed about content you posted a long time ago and delete it?
I wouldn’t say I’m embarrassed. There’s definitely stuff I posted when I was young that is, how they say, “cringe” by modern standards. It’s probably cached in Google and the Wayback machine, if you knew where to look, but I don’t. I have never once, in my life, tried to search myself on Google. I think it’s probably the correct position, and I’d recommend it to everyone.
Have you ever thought about quitting the site?
Not this one, but I’ve basically “quit” others when they stopped making sense. Some of which were lost forever, which is a shame.
Do you have backups or other measures in place in case your site suddenly disappears?
Not yet. I’m not invested enough that I think it would be a catatrophe. At some point I know I’ll need to set up some kind of archival solution for this site.
If you were to die tomorrow, would you leave your website behind? Do you want to delete it?
I think I’d want to leave it. I suspect there are people that would come here, read what I typed, and they’d hear it in my voice. And for a short period of time I’d still be there. I think a piece of us lives on as long as we’re still remembered and thought of. It would be real cool to be the kind of person that people think of long after I’m gone.
Are you okay if your family or real-life friends and acquaintances see your site?
That’s probably 90% of who’s seeing it.
How much of a difference do you think there is between your online image and your real-life personality?
Less than you’d imagine. Authenticity is part of the goal. The only place I’m anything other than exactly who I am is work.
What kind of people do you want to visit your site?
Interesting weirdos. Kind people with strong opinions about making the world a better place and realistic plans for achieving it.
Are you registered for searches or rankings?
I think I applied to be listed in an IndieWeb / Personal Blog list, but I never followed up and I have no idea if that ever happened. I could probably get listed on Google but I think it’s pretty unlikely I’d ever rank on any searches so it’s not high up my list.
Are you part of an alliance?
(This is the Japanese equivalent of a webring.) No. I don’t actually know how much those ever worked, if I’m being honest. Someone out there probably used them a lot, but I didn’t. Maybe if I found one that really seemed align with my kind of weirdo I’d get hooked up, but I’m not actively seeking that out.
Please tell me the service or server you are using.
They do everything I think I need, at a completely reasonable price.
Do you use templates?
The site layout is a template through micro.blog. I don’t use any templates in my post content. I’ve thought about it, for something like a weekly review post. Maybe I will at some point.
How well do you know the languages used to create homepages, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP?
I’m fluent in all of those things, but prefer not to do it. I haven’t written a line of PHP since probably 2006? HTML, CSS, and JS are all more recent, but I’d rather not unless I absolutely have to.
When operating your site, do you ever pay attention to the number of accesses and update frequency of other sites?
Not at all. I try not to measure myself against others.
Please let me know if you have any recommendations for sites or books that support site production.
Look at the source code for sites you think are doing something cool, and see if you can figure out how they did it. Don’t steal their entire layout and style, that’s what we call Not Cool, but the best way to learn in my experience is to figure out how someone did what you’re trying to do.
What is your working environment (devices, etc.)?
Laptop: 2023 Apple Macbook Pro with M3 Pro.
Monitor: An HP 4K monitor, whose exact model number I don’t recall.
Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3.
Keyboard: WASD 104-key w/ custom keycaps designed to look like an old mainframe terminal.
Please tell me where and when you usually work.
I work from home full time, from my tiny office filled with cool books.
Do you often listen to music, radio, etc. while working?
Sometimes. I’ve been listening to music the entire time I’ve been writing this post. Frequently I need to interact with people, and I find that I need total silence for the deepest thought-work.
Is there a drink you often drink while working?
Coffee!
Do you think you will still be using this site in 10 years?
Statistically speaking? No. But I hope that I’m still an authentic participant in the small and indie web movements.
What is your ideal site?
No JavaScript of any kind, for any reason.
Please let me know if there is anything you would like to do on the site in the future.
I’m still trying to figure out what this site could be, and I think playing is half the fun. My guess is as long as I keep trying new things, then I’m doing the right thing.
Please give me one last comment.
The internet is only as good as we make it. Don’t cede ground to the corporate overlords. Be actively working to build the world you want to live in.
I back a lot of things on Kickstarter. Like. A lot of things. Especially during the annual ZineQuest, where indie TTRPG creators are encouraged to take a chance on the small, wild ideas that sometimes grow up to be Something Big.
At PAX Unplugged I had the chance to speak briefly with one such creator, and they asked me what I looked for when I was deciding to back a project, so this post is written to them. Well. Also you, you’re reading it. Hi! But mostly to them, and anyone else who might at some point want to try to publish a TTRPG supplement.
What I’d like to do is go through each of the projects I’ve decided to back in the 2024 ZineQuest and explain why, exactly, it caught my eye. Plus a couple I decided not to back but want to promote. I won’t be punching down and talking about anything I decided not to back. That’s feedback that might be useful to those specific creators if they ever asked for it, but I don’t think it’s generally helpful to publish as a list.
First, A Rubric
Essentially I’m asking myself three questions:
Do I think I would ever play it? (Medium-likely.)
Do I think I could convince my friends to play it? (Almost impossible.)
Do I think I could pilfer it for ideas or mechanics? (Most common outcome.)
Sometimes there’s a few extra points tossed in for “I think this idea is really cool and I want it to exist in the world,” but you can’t optimize for je ne sais quoi.
Things I’m Backing
Blister Critters – I don’t think I’ll ever convince my friends to play this, but the art and idea are unique, the presentation is outstanding, and it’s entirely unlike the canon of TTRPGs I already own. This is the game I expect people to be copying in ZineQuest 2025.
Shadow over Gloomshire – Five words in the project description were all it took: “dark fantasy and gothic horror.” This falls into the category of things I’m not sure will be directly useful to me, but I want more of it to exist in the world.
The Lair of the Skateomancer – I really want to see how the skateboard is implemented as a magic item, and I’m interested in the skatepark themed lair. It seems just ridiculous enough to work.
Radish Quest – The art is half of what sold me. Half of the remaining half is that I’ve backed another project from this creator before and been happy with it. The remaining half-half is the all-in dedication to the bit in the project description. Radishes.
The Wigmaker’s Fingers – A heist where you steal a prosthetic finger. Everything about the way this is packaged makes me want to know more, and the samples of the layout on the book look great.
Cartograph - Atlas Edition: A Mapmaking TTRPG – I’m interested in the mechanics. Like many TTRPG nerds I someday wish to publish my own world as a supplement, and I’m usually interested in systems that I think could help me develop that world.
I Crave The Loop – Curious to see how the mechanics work, plus the name and idea are clever.
The Details of Our Escape – Mostly I want to see how the domino mechanic works, but the art also looks compelling.
Courier - Repacked – The description reads a lot more like a solo board game than a TTRPG to me, so I’m curious to see what that’s about. It also claims to touch on some interesting ideas, like building a base, and I want to see how that’s implemented. I’ve always liked the idea of the players being able to make a home, but I find a lot of the mechanics for doing that in traditional TTRPGs to lack depth or interest.
Valhek’s Guide to Treasure Hunting – At $3 the PDF falls squarely into “why not” territory. It only needs to have one interesting monster or magic item to feel like I’ve probably got my money’s worth.
8-BIT THEATER THE ROLEPLAYING GAME – Many hundreds of years ago I was an avid reader of 8-Bit Theater. Honestly I’m just glad Brian Clevenger is still out there, doing his thing. This is somewhat me just kicking some money to a creator who brought me a lot of joy a very long time ago. It mostly doesn’t matter if the product is any good. But it looks like it probably will be, if nothing else, pretty funny.
Bookwyrm: Loot some books! – Much like Valhek’s Guide, the $4 entry price for a PDF of random tables is enough to get it a “why not.” The concept is cute, and I could probably make use of it in a campaign somewhere.
Cult of the Morach: An Old School Adventure – Mostly interested to see how the encounter clocks function. That’s something I’ve done before, and I think it can be a useful way to pace events that happen whether or not the players are paying attention. I’m curious to see if there’s a better way to do it. The adventure itself looks like it could also be interesting, but it’s for a system I don’t play, so it’s probably going to serve as inspiration and not be something I ever use directly.
Milk Bar: sci-fi roleplaying in post-Soviet Poland – Once again looking at the base building mechanics, although the setting is also wholly new to me. I didn’t know what a Milk Bar was before. The physical edition and layout also looks fantastic.
Dimday Red TTRPG - Nodus Zine 02 – I backed the original Dimday Red kickstarter in ZineQuest 2023, and I think the world is an interesting one. Mid-apocalyptic catches me in much the same way post-apocalyptic would, but it’s a relatively unique take. Stories rarely linger in the middle of the world ending.
Mystery Under Magi-Mart – I think this might be a fun thing to run as a Line Entertainment [E]nforcer at PAX.
The Tower - A System Agnostic Puzzle Dungeon Crawl – This hits a few highlights. It’s a puzzle/riddle dungeon and it’s system agnostic. The kind of thing I’m likely to be able to slip into any campaign where it might be useful. Too many supplements want to give me more monsters, but I don’t really need more monsters. I have too many already. A good puzzle that players might enjoy solving is hard to come by.
DNGN CLUB: Relics Remastered Vol. 1 – A kitchen sink of the author’s best ideas. Some of the samples are evocative. I’m curious to see what can be pilfered.
Sentai & Sensibility RPG – If you have never wanted to be simultaneously both the green Power Ranger and also Mr Darcy, then I’m not entirely certain that we can relate. But if you have, now is your chance.
Thrifty Trades of Fey – I’ve backed just about everything Gametee have ever made and been delighted by all of it. What particularly caught my eye is the use of an origami fortune teller. I want to see how they make use of it as a mechanic.
Things I’m Not Backing
These are projects that I’m not getting for one reason or another, but I think they’re cool and maybe you’ll be interested.
Field Agent Handbooks: Observancy Dept. 1924–28 – This is a cool idea, but I know to my teeth that I’d never make any use of it. The idea doesn’t seem to be pilferable. For the right person this would probably be a lot of fun, I’m just not that person.
Tiny Fables – The art on this is gorgeous, but it’s for a system I don’t play and don’t think I’ll pick up. The examples make it seem like it would be difficult to adapt any of it to the games I do play.
Back at home safely ensconced in my office, wearing the slanket, and it’s time to talk about Hawaii. This is going to be something of a journal post, while also exploring some thought processes out loud. Apologies in advance if that’s not your thing!
How Did You End Up Going to Hawaii Anyway?
Medium story short, it was originally a work trip. Having never been to Hawaii, or indeed to any “tropical” or “island” destination, I tacked on a short mini-vacation the weekend before the work portion. Then the work part got cancelled, and my “mini” vacation was non-refundable. So, okay. I guess I’m going on a short trip to Hawaii. No plans, no friends. Just me and the island.
Day 1 - Wednesday
I like going places, don’t mind flying, but hate airports. The American airport experience is designed to maximize suffering at every touchpoint. With an 8-hour direct flight basically all of Wednesday was dedicated to the trip. Here I want to shout out to American Airlines’ premium economy, which made the experience significantly more comfortable. I’d say it’s roughly equivalent to Alaska Airlines’ first class. The seats alone are worth the price of admission.
When I stepped off the airplane, however, I felt the first moist slap of Hawaiian air and… Well. Have you ever heard of Paris syndrome? The short version is that Paris is nothing at all like how it’s presented in the movies, and when some people experience it “in the flesh” for the first time the delta between expectation and reality leads to a bunch of negative symptoms.
I can’t say it was exactly like that, but expectation definitely didn’t match reality. I can’t explain why it never occurred to me that Hawaii would be hot and humid, but it’s not what I was prepared for. Mentally, physically, emotionally, financially. In retrospect the fact that I even wore a hoodie now strikes me as hilariously unprepared. But also I didn’t even bring a pair of shorts.
So I caught a Lyft to my hotel in Waikiki, turned the air conditioning as low as it could possibly go, and ordered L&L on a delivery app. Wednesday was a write-off. I was asleep no later than 8pm Hawaiian time, though I think it may have been much closer to 6:30.
Day 2 - Thursday
I woke up at 6am local time on this and every other day of my trip. No alarm. Apparently that’s just when my body has decided it’s time to get up these days. Side note to myself I wonder if there’s something useful I could do with that information WRT my work schedule? Something to think about.
Breakfast at the hotel. Perfectly acceptable. Usual hotel price gouging for usual hotel quality. Then I set off to explore. I decided to head East first because Maps showed a nearby Point of Interest, the Stones of Life.
Continuing in that direction for a mile I saw most of the sandy parts of Waikiki, a couple really nice parks, and some chickens. Getting away from the hustle and bustle of “the strip” was nice, but I drenched my shirt through with sweat due to the humidity. On my way back I stopped at the ABC Store and picked up some coconut water before spending the majority of the day in my hotel room to enjoy the air conditioning and a book.
Dinner was a tour of spam musubi from just about every place I could think of to get one. L&L remains the gold standard as far as I’m concerned.
Day 3 - Friday
Once again up at 6am I decided to strike out West and see the other half of Waikiki, including a tour of the Royal Hawaiian mall. I found a local malasada place and brought them back to my hotel’s (not yet open) beach bar, where they were greatly enjoyed. I watched a series of three catamarans beach themselves, which was shocking and unexpected the first time but which I now gather is a fairly common way of parking there. Still wild to see a 30’ boat ram itself into the beach at what feels like much too high a velocity.
Heading back from malasadas I picked up the local transit card, something I do most places I visit, and I made use of that for the afternoon by heading to a local hobby shop. Pretty much everywhere I go, if there’s time, I’ll hit up the local hobby shops. Sometimes there’s interesting things there. Nothing grabbed my attention this time, but the trip back went by Iolani Palace so I hopped off the bus and took a look around. The only way to go in was a paid audio tour, so I didn’t. I love to wander at my own discretion but mostly don’t enjoy being lead around. The grounds were still spectacular.
I think this might have been the night I had the fish sandwich for dinner at the hotel’s beach bar. The fish itself was great, but every other decision the chef made was questionable. This is a theme that would repeat both times I ate a meal at the beach bar. The virgin riptide, essentially a minty pina colada, was amazing.
Day 4 - Saturday
Up and out and on the bus, I decided to visit Byodo-In Temple which remains the highlight of the trip. Somewhere in the multiverse there’s the version of me who figured out young enough that it was possible to just… Go become a monk. Probably that version of me is the best version of me. The only thing I did not love about my time at Byodo-In was the behavior of other tourists. Be respectful.
Back on the bus and off to the island’s other hobby shop. They didn’t have anything I’d be interested in, but I’m always glad to see small businesses making their dream work. And they recommended a local Thai restaurant on the windward side of the island that had the best panang curry I’ve ever eaten, which was also the best thing I had on the entire trip.
In for a penny in for a pound I caught the bus again and rode it all the way around the northern tip of the island, a 2.5 hour trip that left me in North Shore around mid-afternoon. The whole town has surf bum and artsy jewelry aunt vibes. I grabbed my first and only shave ice of the trip at Matsumoto’s and would recommend everything about the experience to anyone stuck on Oahu and looking for a place to go.
The bus trip back was another 2.5 hours, this time across the center of the island. In total I spent about 6 hours on the bus on Saturday, for a total daily cost of about $7.50. Not bad when you otherwise have nowhere else to be and all the time in the world to get there.
Dinner was a sushi roll and a big plate of fruit from the ABC store.
Day 5 - Sunday
My last day on the Island, I walked back to the malasada place to get another, and spent my day idling around the hotel. In my room as late as I could, and then on the veranda.
The flight back home was to be a redeye. I’ve only ever been forced into an overnight flight two or three times in my life, each of them miserable, and this was no exception. I can’t sleep on my back, which means I can’t sleep. Earplugs, eye mask, pajama pants. I did everything I could think of to try to improve the experience, but there’s no getting around how miserable it was.
Landed at home around 6am Monday morning (today!) drove the hour and a half back from the airport, and then crashed and slept late into the afternoon.
Final Thoughts
So was it worth it?
No. Absolutely not. I went lots of places, did lots of things, because that’s a better use of my time than being mopey about it, but make no mistake. My initial thoughts about Hawaii still hold. I don’t understand the person who willingly goes there, we’re optimizing for very different things in our life.
I hope to spend the rest of my life at latitudes greater than 35°. North or South. I’ll suffer through a long flight if New Zealand awaits me at the end. But the tropics aren’t for me, and I hope never to be back.
I’m about to say something you might find shocking, so before I do I want to make two things clear:
This isn’t a complaint post. The purpose is not to vent.
I actually consider this a positive and optimistic thought process.
Okay. Ready?
I don’t like Hawaii
I’ll wait a moment for the outrage to subside.
Nothing at all against the residents or people. I’ve traveled a lot and my experience is that people, broadly, are kind and welcoming.
I’m here, right now, as I type this, having breakfast under an umbrella in Waikiki, and I have realized that this place is my definition of hell on earth.
And here’s the kicker, I think that’s a good thing. I’ve never been more happy to be unhappy! So I thought it would be worth unpacking what’s up.
Travel Preferences
I’m a creature of the cold climates. I originated in the Pacific Northwest, and I crave nothing so much as a cool drizzle in a quiet forest.
January should be the depths of winter in Hawaii. It’s presumably as cold as it gets around here. To my tastes it’s too warm. Not just too warm, but simultaneously too humid. I’ve been in a place that is both warm and humid enough times to realize that I always find this experience miserable.
If it’s going to be hot, I want it to be dry.
If it’s going to be wet, I want it to be cold.
If it’s going to be hot and wet, I want it to be Disney world.
I’m willing to tolerate the climate for Disney. It’s an exception that proves the rule.
I’ve realized something I probably should have figured out a long time ago. My idea of paradise isn’t a tropical island with a fruity drink, it isn’t sand, it isn’t the ocean.
Paradise is a cabin in the woods, plush rugs, a roaring fire, and snow outside the window. It’s Estes Park, CO in February. It’s Walden Pond.
I’m having a miserable time, but I’m actually happy about it, because now I know something important about myself. And now I’m excited for all the trips I can plan with that knowledge in mind.
I’ve played Stardew all the way through to completion twice. I’ll probably play it again someday. Many of its best ideas are now fully dispersed into the cozy sim game ecosystem, but few games really do it as thoroughly and as well. I have basically two notes:
Stop trying to make fishing mini games. They don’t work. I would be tempted to say nobody likes these, because nobody I’ve met likes them, but everything is somebody’s thing so I’m certain that somebody out there lives for the incredibly bland experience of staring at a screen waiting for a pixel to change. Seriously. Stop it.
I’m not really a fan of the relationship mechanic where you have to go talk to everyone once a day, or remember when characters’ birthdays are, or remember what their favorite gifts are. I’m less critical of this one than fishing, because I fully admit this is just my preference whereas I think fishing minigames are a true blight that should be stricken from the catalogue of game mechanics.
This is by far my favorite cozy sim game. I love the macabre setting, I love the mechanics. You don’t spend nearly as much time keeping the namesake graveyard as the title might lead you to believe, and I think that’s the source of some of its less favorable reviews, but if you’re willing to set that aside the mechanical process of playing the game is a delight. My one complaint is that the UI/UX are a bit cumbersome playing on a controller, but that’s it. Otherwise 10/10, perfect game.
It’s hard to know what to even say about Animal Crossing. I feel like if somehow you don’t already know this game is for you it probably isn’t. It’s at its most fun if everyone you know is also playing, so there’s a huge incentive to get the new game when it first comes out and play it with your friends. The long tail of being the only person you know still playing Animal Crossing doesn’t pass the vibe check. If you haven’t played New Horizons yet, now isn’t the time to start, but keep an eye out for announcements of a new version and hop on the bandwagon early for maximum enjoyment. Minor quibbles include:
I wish they would focus on fewer, higher quality interactions with villagers. Having 100+ possible shades of animal person that only share 16 possible sets of dialogue doesn’t do much for me.
New Horizons was needlessly punishing about the rarity of some furniture spawns. I got bored and gave up before collecting some of the sets I wanted for various rooms. There’s only so many days I’m willing to launch a game and not see any new content. I realize there’s a limit on the total amount of content they could ever include, but there are sets I know for a fact existed in the game where no piece ever dropped for me, while I had seen 5+ repeats on the ones that did.
On the face of it, Valheim is a game I wouldn’t expect to enjoy. And if I had played it solo, I probably wouldn’t have. However, in concert with someone who actually enjoyed the combat mechanics where I was mostly free to tend my garden and organize storage chests I had a lot of fun. This could be a good game for you if you either don’t mind the combat parts or can get someone else to do them.
For what it’s worth, I prefer modded Minecraft. It’s at its best as a playground for ideas and mechanics that aren’t quite enough to be a game on their own. I haven’t played since probably 1.12, and I think they’ve made the combat sweatier in ways I would not enjoy, so this has fallen in my ranking to near the bottom of things I might recommend. Ask me a decade ago and it likely would have been the top. It’s hard to recommend a specific modpack, because they change frequently and I’m now several years out from having looked, but the place I’d start today would be to see if Direwolf20 is still kicking around. Whatever he’s playing.
Games That Sometimes People Think I would Like But I Don’t Because They’re Too Sweaty
It’s not for me. I’ve tried maybe 2-3 times, and I don’t enjoy the mechanics. I also think it’s sweaty. Terraria is Minecraft for people that want harder combat and more things to kill. No shade if this is your game, but it’s not mine.
This is Terraria in space. I don’t like it for all the same reasons, despite the fact that it’s in space. I usually like space, but space won’t save a game I don’t otherwise enjoy.
That’s it. That’s the list. There are other sim games out there, cozy or otherwise, but I don’t feel the need to comment. Possibly I haven’t had the chance to play them. Possibly I know I wouldn’t like them for some of the reasons I’ve already attributed above.
I’m not really looking for recommendations for games at this time, I barely have any time to play them and I’ve committed to not buying anything new until the backlog is clear, but hopefully this helps someone figure out what to play next. Or at least what not to play next.
I’ve been away from home the last two weeks, give or take, smushing some personal travel together with some business travel to minimize my “suffering per airport hour” statistic as much as possible. If work’s going to pay for me to go somewhere, I’m going to try and get a mini-vacation out of it. I’m home for what feels like seven seconds, before heading back out on another mini-vaction-turned-actual-vacation next week.
What started out as the pre-vacation of a work trip became a vacation-vacation when the work portion of the trip got cancelled but my hotel was non-refundable. So now I’m going to Hawaii, and I know this is going to sound like crazy talk from someone who barely manages to sound sane most of the time, but in a perfect world I wish I weren’t. It’s a long flight for a relatively short stay in the fanciest and most expensive hotel I’ve ever personally booked on my own dime.
At least it’s all pre-paid.
I’m planning to use it as a chance to relax on a beach, like I’ve always said I wanted to, combined with my first quarter check-in / personal retreat. I’ll be barely just one month into the Year of Scales and Arpeggios, so I’m not entirely certain what a check-in will look like. But hey. Beach.
Other Updates
I finished DAVE THE DIVER. Once I turned on the accessibility setting that removed frantic button tapping, I found it a lot more approachable. I hope this trend of accessibility settings to turn off the parts of games I find obnoxious continues.
I started playing Roots of Pacha. This is the most time I’ve ever spent on a game that I wouldn’t recommend. It’s a prehistoric Stardew clone, and while it has some interesting ideas I think it fails to execute on the best of them while retaining the parts I like least from the overall genre. I tried to refund it after my first hour of playing and was denied because I had owned it for too many weeks. If I could go back, I’d still get it refunded. Nevertheless I’ve somehow managed to spend almost 40 hours on it? A lot of that time I think was me waiting to see if it would pay off on its premise, and I’m now deep enough to say that no it doesn’t but I might as well see my investment through to the end of its story.
I’m also back on Fallen London, which is great. If you, too, would like to be stolen by bats, I’m looking for friends to infest with rats.
I’m currently watching Tales from the Crypt for the first time as an adult. It almost entirely stands up all these years later, and I would put it in the pantheon of one of the best shows ever made.
Somehow someone let me sign up to be a Librarian for Hardcover which mostly entails updating the details of books. I don’t anticipate this being a major ongoing commitment, but I’m detail-oriented and plan to at the very least update the books that I’m personally reading and tracking. If you’re looking to not be on Goodreads anymore, the app and community and vibe are all excellent.
As part of the Year of Scales and Arpeggios I find myself needing to keep track of new things in new ways. The problem is that tracking things, like naming them, is hard. Maybe it’s less hard for people that don’t suffer from perfectionism. It’s hard for me. The ideal system is one which tracks itself, but those are few and far between and rarely support the other principles that matter to me.
One of the things I want to improve on is how much time I spend on my hobbies. To be clear: it’s currently not enough. I would like to spend more time on my hobbies. But I’ve got a lot of other things competing for my time, and that means left to my own devices I won’t naturally spend more time working on the things that I want to work on. So I’m tracking it. Currently the form of that tracking is a daily tick box in my 2024 Hobonichi Techo Cousin. Pro: it’s flexible to my needs. Con: it’s hard to remember to look in the planner.
I suppose I could talk about planners in general, the problem being that I absolutely adore the tactile feel of paper, but I don’t find it very useful to try to manage my mostly-digital life with mostly-analog tools. There’s occasionally value in enforcing the gap, and I think that I think better “on paper,” but I know that trying to move my calendar or todo list to paper would be foolhardy at best and catastrophic at worst.
So, better or worse, I’ve got a paper planner that I mostly don’t use for traditional planning. But it gives me room to explore the space. Maybe these checkboxes are the path forward, maybe they’re not, but they’re much easier to change if I figure out something better than if I doubled-down on an app-based solution that would only ever work “how it works,” and likely require me to test 3-5 different apps to find the one that worked the way I needed it to. In my experience, apps are rarely a solution to any problems. They are frequently the problem I’m attempting to solve.
Last week’s boxes were:
Up by 8
Morning planning
Apple rings
40K
Reading
Sleep
I’ve already reworked that to:
Awake on time
30 minute walk
Hobby
Reading
Asleep on time
Most days I want to be up by 8, but not all, so generalizing the check makes it easier to set up my planner each week. A checkmark for whether or not I closed all my apple rings is somewhat redundant, since I can look that up at any time. Much more useful is to track whether I engaged in the behaviors that lead to the desired result. “Hobby” remains to be seen if it meets the need. The main hobby I want to do more of is Warhammer 40K, but it’s not my only hobby and there are nights where I have commitments or obligations that consume the time I might otherwise spend. I suspect that one will change again, even though I don’t yet know how I’d change it.
Reading deserves a special call-out. Arguably, it’s a hobby, but it’s one I’ve struggled to maintain to my own satisfaction for nearly 20 years. In high school I was voracious, not least of which because I was often ignoring the teachers. I wish I had something approximating Goodreads data for how many books I used to read, but subjectively I’d estimate a 2x-3x over my best year as an adult. I’ve had the best luck setting aside time before bed to read, so that’s what I’ve done again, and that’s what I’m tracking. And then, to make sure I don’t accidentally forget to sleep because “just one more chapter,” I track that I lay down to sleep on time. Midnight, for the curious.
I like that paper gives me the freedom to try to figure out the best way to track this. And it’s a physical object in the world that’s harder to accidentally forget to update. Most importantly it’s a place to start. Starting is often the hardest part.
