Moneymunkie

I'm not quite familiar with the Rio Grande river and what lives there but couldn't this cause a lot of issues for the wildlife in the river as well? Like if anything is migrating up and down it couldn't the barrier just block them from doing so?

Exactly! I think someone else on another thread when trying to explain the fediverse to someone used how e-mail works as a comparison and it just made it click and make sense for me! It's going to be my go-to way to explain it to someone now.

Fishing is pretty interesting to discuss in terms of a game mechanic in terms of enjoyablity since it seems like a very marmite "you love it or hate it" sort of deal and seems to pop up in lots of games. Some people love it precisely because of its slow-paced, chill nature. I quite enjoyed it when I played some of the MMO's that have a fishing profession as a pretty low energy thing to do when I wanted to focus on talking to guildies or doing some other thing in the background.

Think I joined and made a fursona around 2018 but I'd thought they were pretty neat ages before. I think I took the plunge since the community appeared to be very friendly as was quite LGBT positive and I was looking for somewhere to make some friends. Went to a meet at the city closest to me and then boom, here I be :D

Oh god, now theres a bunch of guys in red coats out there and they're throwing hands, THEY'RE RUINING MY PETUNIAS

Yeah I was pretty much a mega lurker by the time of the great migration, just using Reddit more as the most tolerable site I was willing to put up with compared to the others rather than out of love for it. Was pretty much itching for something new and better and well here I be now :p

A counter-point to this I would make is that the prescence of microtransactions can be a pretty hostile design choice with regards to folk who may be more vulnerable to it. Think people who have problems with impulse control, kids who don't know any better and buying a ton on their parents credit card or someone with a gambling addiction. One could argue that they could do certain things to mitigate the risks, like using parental controls for kids, to prevent them making purchases without their parents permission. But why should this be a thing they have to be dealing with in a game they've already paid $70 bucks for? It can be quite exclusionary if someone feels they can't trust themselves with not splurging too much and have to avoid these games like the plague, even if they would otherwise really appeal to them.

And it also feels like when people talk about the option of buying a cosmetic with real life money, that its a decision thats made in a sort of vacuum between the player purchasing the item and the game. But when you add a multiplayer game into the mix, you introduce a social pressure that can be quite a powerful motivator to pushing someone to make that purchase. An example off the top of my head would be with Fortnite, where theres been times when kids who have all the cool skins and emotes rag on those who are still playing with the default stuff you start out with, which could pressure people to make a purchase they otherwise wouldn't have.

Combine that with a lot of other little tricks that these storefronts use like making you only able to purchase in-game currency in a set number of quantities, that will more often leave you with a tiny bit left over to prod you to wanna purchase more so you don't waste the leftover currency. Or using "FOMO" with limited times to buy certain items and I'm just kinda left with microtransactions feeling pretty gross and manipulative to me.

Anyway me ranting on my soapbox over haha, but for a little extra food for thought on the topic, I'd highly recommend watching Folding Idea's video on the subject as it relates to Fortnite which has been pretty formative for me on the topic

I wouldn't necessarily say excited myself, it feels more bittersweet. On the one hand it like sucks for folk on a personal level who might have really enjoyed being part of a certain community, or all the work people have put into moderating, posting content or their work on a third party app is just going up in smoke in a snap.

But on the other, it feels like sweet sweet delicious karma for the stupid bullshit Reddit's leadership have done over the years and getting to see the birth of something new and better to come out of the ashes. Hopefully this place sticks around because its felt like a breath of fresh air honestly.

But we need the sacrifices else how will line go up? :(

Pull a little silly and just keep slighty moving the buoys further up the river every night and see how far they can get before someone notices

Awwww man not another head shot, I've only gotten over the headache from the last oneeeee ;w;