Hot take: I don’t “get” Spirited Away. Like I appreciate the art and animation, but the story and characters are a confusing mess to me. I’ve heard the explanation of “it’s a critique of Japanese society”, and looking back on it I can see the symbolism, but if you need additional context for the story to make sense, then I don’t think it’s a very good movie, at least I don’t think it deserves universal acclaim if it only makes sense to one specific culture.

Well, self awareness goes a long way, so you’re on the right path. Lots of people get crotchety and cynical by focusing too much on things that are outside their control. Focus more on areas of your life that you can influence, and learn to enjoy your life for what it is rather than what it could be.

Honestly, if you’re the type of person who’s prone to this, disengaging from hyper cynical social media platforms (yes, including Lemmy) is probably another good idea.

My dad used to be super into politics and consumed rage-bait news on TV and social media a lot, especially during the height of covid. Once he unplugged from all of that there was a noticeable shift in his demeanor and I would say that he’s significantly happier and more content now.

Civ V/Civ VI can all be played entirely with a mouse. Very fun, too.

If you’re looking for a good JRPG, I can’t recommend the Persona series enough. I hate traditional JRPG’s but I love Persona and have dumped literally hundreds of hours into P5/ P5 Royal. I know it’s not pixel art, but the art style is very unique and fun to look at.

If you are willing to pay a bit extra in shipping (and trust a rando online) I’d be happy to help ship you one from the US.

I haven’t found anything personally that I want to play that I can’t play as I play a lot of indie games and singleplayer games. Proton is pretty incredible. YMMV though. If you play games that heavily rely on mouse and keyboard and twitch reflexes, or any game that has strict anti-cheat/DRM, you might have a suboptimal experience or not be able to play it at all.

As someone who owns both and a PC as well, yes. Playing my steam library in bed is incredible. Also, if you have a larger library, it can be cheaper to just buy a Deck than re-buying everything on a different platform.

Downvotes are critical, in my opinion, especially for recommendation posts. It’s a good way to combat astroturfing and let genuine discussion rise to the top.

Isn’t Spyro owned by Activision now?

Wtf, I thought this was a critically-acclaimed movie.

I know a lot of women who have played sim/management games like The Sims, Zoo Tycoon, Stardew Valley, etc.

A lot of this comes down to the actual survey questions that were used. If the wording of the survey questions was “Have you ever played…” as opposed to “Do you regularly play…” for example, then the numbers could be quite skewed.

Idk where I originally heard it, but “learned helplessness” is definitely an epidemic among the average population. With how easy it is to just look stuff up these days, you have to be actively going out of your way to avoid picking up basic skills like these.

Weapons, armor, equipment, upgrades, etc. in single-player games that have effects that have tradeoffs or very niche use-cases are unfun. I can understand it in multiplayer competitive games where balance is important, but effects like “provides 20% more defense versus <specific enemy type>” or “increases range, but decreases damage” just deflate me when I get them in games. If I’m spending time playing a game, I want to earn things that make me objectively better as I progress. Developers of modern games seem waaay to preoccupied with holding back and not allowing things to be “broken” in games where it just doesn’t matter.

The four horsemen of the video game Google search apocalypse are Fandom, IGN, Polygon, and GameRant