Xcalibur

I think it helps to separate art from artist, and both from the culture wars.

The mods here are reasonable. I think they're a bit too strict when it comes to trolling/flame threads, which are fun to me, but I understand why others object to that sort of thing, and naturally you have the right to curate your own space.

This is why I support emulation, especially of old games: the best way to secure data is redundancy. As Gez said, back in history, redundancy was achieved by monks & scribes laboriously copying down content, which is the only reason we have stuff like Beowulf. Fortunately, modern tech is labor-saving, and allows for far more efficient copying & transmission of content. It's up to us to employ it to keep creative works alive into the future. As Gez also pointed out, much of the content we have from the ancient world is fragmentary. With the exception of the Bible, many classic texts have only a dozen sources or so, copied centuries after the originals. Who knows how much cool stuff from antiquity is lost to the sands of time? And so, if games have enriched your life (and they probably have if you browse a place called doomworld), then it's your responsibility IMO to chip in to preservation, and pay it forward into the future.

TempleOS is a brilliant piece of work. It's best understood as a research OS, an experiment trying out new ideas and priorities, and doing some very cool things that even Linux/Unix didn't think of. Terry Davis is a fascinating yet tragic character, I was there watching his whole internet saga unfold. If only he couldn't gotten the mental help and stability he needed, but alas. RIP, but he left us with an important legacy. There was work on an expanded version of TempleOS called Shrine. Haven't checked on it lately, but that may be what you're looking for.

Hexen is one of my favorite games of all time. I guess I'm a sucker for games that mix genres, especially when there's a dark atmosphere (also true of Faxanadu & Pathways into Darkness). I still remember being 11/12 delving into this on n64, and being spellbound. The hub system, post-apocalyptic medieval world, puzzles, FPS, it all came together brilliantly. Yes, it can be cryptic, but as Shepardus says above, people complain too much about that. I for one like when games let you figure things out on your own, as opposed to neon signs & hand-holding. That said, even I got temporarily stuck a few times, but always got myself unstuck -- pulling up the map on Guardian of Steel, jumping down the waterfall in Dungeons and seeing what would happen (as opposed to warping away, as you're trained to do at that point), searching around and smashing a certain suit of armor (I believe that was in the Swamp), and so on. The hub system was a great innovation, tying levels together and opening up new parts of them, and so on. It also did some cool new things with the Doom engine. On both of these points, Hexen has had an important legacy, which even its detractors should acknowledge (or haters, that's the cool way of saying it). I don't expect everyone to share my tastes & preferences, but you shouldn't lose your objectivity either. Of course, it's not perfect either. To agree with Shepardus again, enemy variety really is rather lacking, there should've been not just more enemies, but also more uncommon enemies like the Wendigos (I believe they're only used in Hub 1 and in Hub 5's Vivarium (Mage-only for the latter), they should've also appeared in Menelkir's Tomb for all classes IMO). Also, while I wouldn't remove the centaurs, their invulnerable state (holding up their shield) really should be shorter, so they're not such a grind. As an aside, it's cool how different classes get different crowds of enemies. Maybe adding another weapon to your arsenal would've helped; and the Cleric's mace should be de-nerfed. Anyway, this reminds me, I should get back to the Hexen articles on Doomwiki. I kinda sorta wrote the book on this game by writing/rewriting all the walkthrough content -- nothing against the old content of course, it had an endearing style and I was strongly influenced by it, but my version is much more comprehensive.

I consider myself a guest in this community, and we haven't really interacted. However, I'd like to say: you're not the only one to go through ups & downs in this crazy life thing. We all have our own battles, not all of which are visible or apparent.

Lol @ the brony avatar. anyway, I use what I call the "keychain" strategy for passwords -- I have several passwords memorized, and cycle through them for most logins, with 1 or 2 unique passwords.

That makes alot of sense. Also, the "just right" amount of difficulty varies between players, so it makes sense to have different game modes (easy, medium, hard). Some like to push it to the limit with kaizo hacks, which I'm fine with, but that will always be a niche interest, because most people can't get into such extreme challenge (myself included). An example of a good but difficult game is Battletoads. I've actually 1cc'd it, and it was alot of fun, with all sorts of variety, different ideas, control schemes etc. but man, it deserves its reputation for being relentless. The Japanese version is watered down quite a bit and is much more accessible. Ideally, Battletoads would've combined the Japanese & American versions into two different difficulty modes. American Battletoads is at the high end of difficulty without being kaizo, and some ppl enjoy that, but others would rather have a chill experience. So, there should be something for everyone. Other than that, the only time "git gud" really applies is if the game is perfectly well-designed, and the player is just being lazy with a short attention-span. That applies sometimes, but not all the time.

exactly what @ChopBlock223 said. Don't get me wrong, WP isn't that bad, but it's mediocre and biased, with people gaming the system all the time; overall it lacks excellence and reliability. They're also not forthcoming about their financial situation. And as I said, there are archives/mirrors of its content, so the whole thing can easily be rebooted under different management, which I think would be the best way to resolve its issues.

It was an interesting time period, because more people were online with better connections than in the 90s, but it wasn't as conglomerated as it is now. As Chopblock was saying, Wikia/fandom is a great example of the downside of this, where organic communities get shat on by slumlords who only care about spamming ads. What makes matters worse is that those slumlords are the Wikimedia Foundation, which also runs the mediocre and pretentious Wikipedia, which means they already have a source of income, on top of rich donors, but that doesn't stop them from panhandling. Sidenote, please do not donate a cent to Wikipedia/WMF, it's trash for this and many other reasons. I wish I could deplatform it, then it could be rebuilt from an archive/mirror. Anyway... /b/ was never good, but 4chan really was a major nexus of internet culture, and imageboards had a certain insane creativity you couldn't get anywhere else. Underneath all the shitposting, there were gems. But still, it's funny to me how people act like browsing the *chans was the greatest thing they ever experienced. The rise of big tech censorship, the culture war, and moral crusading has definitely made the internet less chill than it used to be. Social media tends to have an amplifying effect, and also tends to bring out the worst aspects of people and culture. I found my way here via doom wiki. I've said it before, but much props to the people here for declaring their independence from Wikia. I started out writing content on the wiki, but migrated as soon as I learned of the fork. With some difficulty, I've been able to revert most of my Hexen walkthrough content on the Wikia, replacing it with much more basic walkthrough from strategywiki. My wikia content covered the last two hubs, and it's now on the fork; I also rewrote the first three hubs exclusively on the fork, so that's something.

true, but force of numbers tends to even this out. Highly controversial topics tend to be split down the middle, while quality content from either side tends to be mostly likes, with partisan dislikes still being a minority. It's trash that pisses off everyone that gets buried in dislikes. lol yea, I was thinking this topic seemed a bit dated.

As usual, corporations/powerful entities demand special protections, and the people aren't allowed to express themselves, which goes against the whole point of the internet being an interactive medium.

Wouldn't call these excruciating, since I tend not to take on tedious bullshit challenges. But my highest gaming accomplishments: Getting 1CC on Battletoads, NES, US version, no warps. Getting KO & 1st round TKO on Mike Tyson in Punch-Out!! 1CC Turtles in Time (SNES) hard mode. 1CC original Castlevania on NES. No cheating or savestates for any of these. In case you're not familiar, 1CC means One Credit Clear, meaning you're allowed to lose lives, but you beat the game without using a continue.

I'm not a progressive myself. In fact, a few years ago I pissed off the regulars here by debating about political issues in my typically stubborn manner. That said, people naturally have different values and inclinations, and both Left & Right, innovation & tradition, have something to offer. As for you OP, the real issue is not stuff you hear out there, but the dark place you're in right now. You can't fix the world, but you can fix yourself.

Super Breakout, Atari 2600. classic stuff