T w e n t y S i d e d

I put off writing this week’s entry to the last minute, because FoxMaster was going to release a video about programming updates to the AI Lara ‘bot. But it’s getting pretty late in the day, so I guess that’s going to have to wait. I’m pretty sure the major topic of discussion is going to be what he had to do to make the ‘bot capable of solving the doors in Midas’ Palace. Rather than finding *the* switch that opens one specific door, the central puzzle room of Midas’ Palace has FIVE switches that have to be set to a specific pattern for EACH door, one at a time. I presume the ‘bot probably wasn’t capable, even after hours of gameplay, of “deducing” this logic…although it had some of the tools already at its disposal. But that’s a more complete discussion for another time. Plus, I’m betting the second application of this kind of AI/gameplay is going to be Resident Evil HD Remaster…so I’m watching for that to appear. But this week, I’m going to continue with my return to World of Warcraft.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Two Weeks of World of Warcraft in 2023”

Paige Francis He/him

We’ve done a lot of talking this week about mental health. I’m pretty sure everyone who contributes here has issues they can share and talk about, and thankfully we live in an era where that’s the norm instead of something unusual. I’ve been working on my own problems for a few years now, ever since my family finally convinced me to seek therapy in dealing with what turned out to be a decades-long battle with severe depression. After developing the tools that help me observe and detect my own problematic and triggering behaviors, I learned that it was very important to avoid any sequence of actions that, over the course of a few weeks, could lead to me engaging in repetitive actions and activities day after day. “Getting stuck in a rut,” as most of us would say. Months ago I had fenced off certain activities that might be problematic, one of those, as is pertinent to this story, being MMORPGs.

However…a few months later I find myself dealing with a different set of difficulties. A major contributor to my depression is a driving desire to be accomplishing something. A lack of productive activity wears on my nerves until I essentially “lash out” and try to do whatever I perceive as the most beneficial thing that I can do RIGHT NOW…whether it’s actually useful or not. After a recent exercise in futility fueled by this manner of desperation, one of my kids pointed out that “accomplishing something” can mean a lot of things, like watching a television show you’ve been meaning to watch. To be fair, this is a point my spouse has tried to make many times, but for some reason it clicked this time. I started getting caught up on Star Trek. Years ago I quit watching during the Deep Space Nine era…something about the show just never jived with me. But I’ve always wanted to watch Voyager, and even Enterprise. While I’m still not too sure about Picard, Discovery seems fascinating…all the hate initially directed toward the show actually caused me to shun it for a while. Strange New Worlds has piqued my interest since it was announced. And most importantly, I was convince to try Lower Decks, and I absolutely love it. I just finished Series One. And as soon as I can find it, since Paramount Plus dropped it, I want to watch Prodigy.

These are comfort TV shows, even considering I’m watching new content. I know Trek. I love Trek. And the older I get, all the little things about what’s canon and what’s best…it just doesn’t seem nearly as important. (NOTE: does not include the Kelvin timeline, regardless of what I like {Karl Urban} and don’t like {J.J. Abrams is a bad movie maker don’t @ me}. And Star Wars is a different matter entirely.)

But apparently getting my comfort TV show itch scratched opened up a few doors, and a desire to play my favorite comfort video game rushed to the surface within a day or two:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mental Health and Comfort Games”

Paige Francis He/him