I never fall for hype, never pre-order. life is good
I stopped watching movie trailers years ago. Now, my friends just tell me, “Go watch this movie,” and it’s made for an amazing movie-watching experience.
For example, I walked into the theater to watch The Lighthouse without knowing anything about it.
Movies are so much better when you have no idea what to expect.
Also great when reviews don’t predetermine your expectations
Did that with star wars ep 7, 8, 9. Of course there was stuff I didn’t love but I didn’t walk away from the movie feeling robbed.
Oh, no! They’ve fallen for the “don’t pre-order” hype!
I’ve only bought a couple early access games, but in both cases I played the demo long enough to justify the purchase price.
“Spore.” That video with Wil Wright showing it off was incredible. Ordered it from Amazon. CD key was no good. EA didn’t give two shits. After over a week of dealing with them via support tickets and calls, I gave up and just returned it.
Meanwhile, my friend pirated it, played through the whole thing, and said it was just ok.
How did spore make it into this list twice?
It was kinda like the launch of No Man’s Sky. Tons of hype, failure to deliver.
I would also kill for a fun engaging evolution style game. I’ve never found something I like but I gave up looking after the let down from spore. It’s actually when I stopped playing video games so many years ago. I actually pirated the game recently to see if my disappointment was unjustified so I’m happy to see it listed multiple times here. If theirs ever a great evolution strategy role playing type game that comes out I’ll try video games again but the disappointment from spore really hit me and I’d also need to see compelling gameplay from a real person to ever give one a shot again. Just typing this out makes me realize how silly it all sounds but spore was such a disappointment to me that I quit playing video games all together.
I’ve seen a few but none of them have really been great. They tend to focus on the microbe phase but don’t really do it well. I think Spore killed a genera that didn’t exist yet and should be given a second chance.
Thrice now, at my time of reading, rofl.
Renting. An inescapable financial burden.
Not necessarily. All else being equal, mortgage + property charges + maintenance + tax is usually quite a bit more than rent. The issue is that renters almost never save or invest that delta, they spend it.
Depends on where your at.
My mortgage doesn’t go up every year, but rent always does! I now pay significantly less than the average rent in my area. Fun times.
“Wait? The world isn’t the US?!”
You’re missing the value of property going up over time
And the fact that those payments are technically going to yourself and the ownership of your own equity.
And the fact you need tens of thousands of moneys to buy a property, versus whatever rent is.
There’s these things called banks. And many states have first time homebuyers programs that will help with the down payment.
I basically bought my first (only) house for 0 money down with first time homebuyers stuff. Ya I had to pay mortgage insurance for a while but my mortgage payment is less than what it would be to rent the same house by like, a lot.
Renter-brain. Kinda like a horse that’s been trained to believe it’s tied to a post so you only gotta drape the reigns over the post and they think they’re trapped.
And renters miss the fact that by intelligently investing the renter’s dividend that I mentioned they could usually make a much better return than they can by investing it in their own property. Almost none of them even save that money, let alone invest it smartly.
Anyway, this debate is boring. Everyone is entrenched in their views.
Did you fall for it because it was hyped or because you couldn’t afford to buy?
Sometimes it is hyped because of the “freedom” aspect.
In some countries, it’s not even a bad idea because there are a lot more renter protections.
Yeah I “fell” for it cause I can’t afford a house/don’t have parents that can help with a down payment. But seeing how much shit my homeowner friends have to deal with makes me honestly pretty grateful not to be a homeowner.
I know there’s downsides, but I don’t want kids and am locked in at COVID pricing, so I don’t really care for purchasing anything either.
3D printer (FFF).
Didn’t start out too bad. I knew I was having issues but tried an upgrade I shouldn’t have done (because complexity). Upgrade was mostly done too, issue was fan wiring/firmware. I stopped with it there many years ago, so now it’s all dusty.
On top of all the variables/tuning/test prints, equipment/material cost etc. I also just don’t want to sell anything like I once thought I might.
Yeah I’m glad I waited as long as I did and purchased the best I could out of the box.
The amount of tinkering the old Creality at work has needed over the years…
I wouldn’t have lasted long with that at home.Super happy with our Bambu. It just prints nicely and just works every time.
Before people get mad at me for having a Bambu: I bought it before the UA changed and it’s in LAN mode with no internet. Hardware is great even though the company is a little shady these days.I’ve had a 3D printer about a year now. I’d say I’ve gotten my money’s worth: I’ve printed generally useful things that aren’t just gimmicks.
But I also think I’ve been pretty lucky - there are some problems that I just don’t have the patience to deal with right now, for example some materials just don’t adhere to the bed. But I haven’t had anything fundamental that would make me really pissed off.
I could have totally seen myself in the same position as you if I ended up with a dud printer or something. It’s getting a lot better but it’s certainly not an instant plug-and-play device for most people.
It’s gotten a lot better in the last year or so. There’s a whole new class of machines that solved those issues and aren’t nearly as difficult to operate.
Prior to a year ago, I’d say 3D printing was a hobby meant for someone who was into robotics, and programming, etc.
I run a repair shop, and now I see all sorts of children printing stuff, and it’s easier than it ever was.
Sure, but that doesn’t help me now.
It doesn’t install a better auto-level sensor or tool-changing on my printer. It doesn’t give me a good print bed (one I bought was damaged by prints) or even just a newer control board. I’m not even going to buy a slicer key, I don’t want to spend more money on this nor do I want to think about it.
I’ve already acknowledged that some of this was my hubris and I would likely still be printing had I just stuck with what I had. Maybe someone could even help me get back there in exchange for/using my spare parts, but I live in nowheresville w/no car and don’t know anybody so that is not happening.
I feel you, my first printer was garbage, my second one was SLOW, the one I bought last year is fantastic and it was cheap. You still have to go through some of the processes like bed leveling but new ones have some sensors that tell you where it isn’t level and adds a height map to the print to compensate for an uneven surface. It prints in 1 hour what took my old printer 11 hours to print. Most slicers are free and don’t require a key or payment to access advanced features. FDM printing is probably as user friendly as it’s going to get.
On the flip side, FDM printing isn’t super useful. You can make a bunch of random stuff but it’s mostly just nick nacks. Resin printing is way more useful but also way less user friendly. I plan to dive into resin printing this year because I’ve been doing 3D modeling and want to make miniatures and stuff for wargames, dice, and dioramas.
Either way, it’s absolutely useless if you have no use for it.
The Fediverse (turns and exposes bare back)
Foam mattress promising to be extra firm. It arrived in a convenient little roll, but 6 months later, it is absolute shit. Fell for the marketing and now my back is paying for it.
Which brand? My IKEA Morgedal (now superseded by some other name) has been incredible.
Go hybrid
Try flipping it.
With foam mattresses, you need to look at the density of the high-resilience foam (HR foam) that they use. Generally the higher it is, the firmer the mattress will be and less prone to sagging.
It also means it will be a lot heavier and difficult to move around. If the density info is not provided, you can just look for ones they claim are for people who are heavier than your own weight.
I bought a Douglas one and I’ve been incredibly happy with it. My sleep quality improved quite a bit, and almost 2 years later is still going well
Oh I still love mine after 5 years. It’s medium firm, so maybe an extra firm one wouldn’t have held up as well.
I’m really glad I couldn’t afford a Tesla back when the Model 3 came out because I probably would’ve bought one.
Things I actually fell for… mostly video games, but it’s not the end of the world. Mostly it made me much more discerning with new purchases.
I have this weird habit of buying the less popular but arguably better thing. I went with windows phone, a nook instead of a kindle, an zune mp3 player, and a Mustang MachE instead of a Model Y. That last choice might have been the only one that ultimately paid off.
I miss my Zune. It had a great trackpad for scrolling. I had the 8gb model that was about the size of a granola bar. It felt like amazing, futuristic tech!
I pre-ordered Brink.
Omg I remember watching those youtube trailers on repeat as a kid. It looked so cool and made so much sense to combine parkour and fps. Never got to play it though :/ I don’t think I have ever been as hyped for anything after Brink.
I’m gonna be wild here and say Brink actually was fun as hell to play, but what killed it was it being so jank and being lacking in content. The parkour and gunplay was a ton of fun
I agree; my regret comes from the fact they just killed the game instead of fixing the problems that would have made it even more fun.
Tarkov.
america
Humble Bundle. Twice now, I’ve subscribed for a month and forgot to unsubscribe until after I got billed for the next month.
Done it successfully for a single month many times, so overall I’d still say I’m ahead, lol
I always immediately unsubscribe. Can always resubscribe. (I never did.)
Yeah, I should subscribe, redeem, and unsubscribe in one session…ah well.
Apple Vision Pro. It’s an amazing technical achievement. But they should be pushing out tons of immersive content to keep it interesting. It’s otherwise a great tech demo that isn’t ready for prime time. This might be different if I traveled a lot, but I stay home mostly and just use my Mac.
VR in general, there is no killer app, no thing that makes VR worth the cost. The peak of VR is probably Beat Saber. I have a quest 3 and I just use it to watch TV in bed without disturbing my wife. It’s nice having a giant video display but not useful for most people.
There are great VR games on PC. Problem is Meta flooded the market with their standalone headsets that can only play very simple small games, and shifted the perception that that’s what VR is.
You can use a quest with steam VR, it’s not as jailed as people think but without linking to a PC it is pretty content poor. There are good games for VR but nothing that really screams “This is worth the extra $300+ to get a headset to play it”. At least not to me, someone who had a Vive and currently has a quest 3.
Absolutely you can use it with a PC, what I’m saying is that most people don’t, and also because of that companies release Quest exclusive games that are bad. Just recently Civilisation VII was announced for VR. What an amazing game it could be, but just look yourself: https://www.meta.com/en-gb/experiences/sid-meiers-civilization-vii-vr/5781689118524197/ Even in the official store images, it looks atrocious and nowhere near what the flat version looks like (and how it could look on PC). And then people will see that and think this is what VR has to offer.
I got an Index in 2019 and I’m using it to this day, definitely got my money’s worth of gaming in that time.
The killer VR app for me is golf games. GOLF+ and Walkabout Minigolf. It’s a great way for me to keep in touch with my parents who live in a different city. It’s like a better version of a phone/video call every once in a while (and at $350 with the better headstrap, it’s not too expensive for a present)
Ironically this is where the Quest absolutely destroys the Vision Pro, which doesn’t have any VR golf (or even minigolf) games as far as I can tell.
VR headsets are basically multiplayer golf simulators to me. Which makes the Vision Pro a golf simulator that doesn’t have golf.
VR had such a bright future around 2014; between VRChat, tech demos of VR browsers, big players like MS and Sony getting into VR, and generic hacks to port old games to VR, it seemed obvious that companies were going to start re-releasing old games in VR (since you couldn’t run modern AAA games) and most every app would support VR and multiple users to make better use of the network effect.
Except instead 99% of games released for VR were just underwhelming tech demos and the only people who pursued creating a metaverse were short-sighted, rent-seeking, cryptobro parasites.
Simracing with VR is quite nice, tho. You’ll never get that level of immersion with screens
Gold coins. I bought at the all-time high.
Isn’t the all-time high now?
The all-time high so far
Diablo 3
At launch yeah, Reaper of Souls changed it into a really good game. I spent $100 on Diablo 4 and definitely regret that.
Path of Exile 2 blows the pants off Diablo 4
I keep getting lag in PoE2 for no reason. Everything will be running smooth and I’ll suddenly have a half second delay on inputs. My computer is better than the recommended specs so I can only assume there is some optimization they need to do still.
PoE1 blew the pants off Diablo 4 even with its feature bloat.
There is currently an issue with game sounds in PoE 2 that causes unusual lag.
You can make it somewhat better using in game settings by changing “channel count” to low.
To make it a LOT better, go to (in windows) documents\My Games\Path of Exile 2 -> poe2_production_config.ini and under [SOUND] change as many options to “false” (NOT 0, which turns the volume off, but still accesses the sound files) as you can tolerate.
GL!
Thank you, i haven’t even made it past act 1 because if this. I’ll try the sound stuff tonight.
How did Reaper of Souls fundamentally make the game better? I never played it other than the open beta back in the day. I see this all the time though.
I’ve heard this too, but never had the desire to get back to it
At this point I’m done with blizzard. I haven’t played one of their games since D3. My backlog is large, and I have other studios I trust to deliver more, AND the studio culture at Blizzard, I just don’t see the need
Many people commuting in the Bay Area… “My Telsa.”
