My step-parent has always been referred to by their first name. I was like 9 when they got married so… it just felt better than the alternatives.

My mother was always either mom or mother, I prefer mother now. She died in my early 20s, so I can’t discuss all my neglect-based trauma and get closure, and I deal with that by using the colder, less affectionate moniker.

My sperm donor (father) never really made an effort to be in my life so I don’t refer to him as anything most of the time. Doesn’t come up.

As for extended family, I don’t have much experience there either but my grandmother was nana, and my aunts and uncles are all title followed by first name, so uncle bob, aunt Cindy, that sort of thing. Cousins get dicy, because some of my cousins are my parent’s age. Anything iffy is just first names.

I’m super into this. All of it. I don’t think it’s one thing but several and that makes it more compelling, because I’m honestly not super sure. Because I’m not familiar with any of it. It’s like reading about OS behavior on systems I’ve never touched.

You seem to be referencing a few people or channels or something, could you provide some links to their content so I can watch it? I’m genuinely interested, and I have enough time on my hands to go searching if all you can give me is a link to the creator. This sounds like exactly the sort of phantom goodness I want more of.

Demakes are so interesting. They are more constrained than coming up with something new for an old system, but, seemingly because they use IP people are already familiar with, they can leave more unsaid/unshown and just implied, and still have it be cohesive.

That was a really good one, I can see why it’s your fave!

Oh man yes actual time dilation as a core mechanic of the game sounds awesome. Disorienting as hell, but awesome.

I bet a game like that could be used for therapy, too, like in a big way… let people live out where their life is headed, or the life of someone they’d target for hate crimes or whatever. Let them struggle. Maybe they’d come out wanting to make some changes. That’d be cool af. I’d totally playtest that. Repeatedly. And end up like time-frozen Jessica after she wakes up 😜

That sounds like x-files, and I’m not super surprised lol

Ooh, I’ll have to look into that book, thanks!

Yep those all count :) I’ll have to watch those episodes again! Same with the black mirror one, those are all good but man I gotta be in the right mood for ‘em… lol

It’s honestly a wildly broad category, so kinda no wrong answers.

There’s all sorts of things that count. A picture with game hud elements to imply gameplay, videos of whole fake games, books that mimic play through guides that describe how to play games that don’t exist.

There’s even fake video games that are just one cover art picture, and a sound track that implies how levels would be played.

Ooh yeah that’s a good one, I have a big long think about that every time I read that book.

I love BMO 🥹

Oh man, I get into everything, especially if someone presents it to me with enthusiasm. I love learning about new stuff, and super bonus if it alters my perceptions or broadens my horizons :)

Oh, I don’t remember that one, I’ll have to watch it again!

Depends heavily on the comedy for me. I have an entire folder of stand up specials, and I really enjoy a lot of it, but I lean heavily away from political and broad social commentary, and toward personal/anecdotal and more nuanced stuff.

I want my comedy to be silly, not offensive. If you are going to be making racial/minority stereotype jokes, they better be about your own experience as that race or minority. That’s the one and only way they even could be funny (tho most still aren’t). If you are going to punch down or across, not interested. If you hit yourself, or punch up and get a fist full of shit for doing it, it might be worth watching!

There’s a HUGE amount of really shit standup out there, though. Punching down, shock comedy (especially shit like rape jokes, sexism, etc), that sort of thing. It’s a shame really because you have to wade through it to find good stuff. There’s also an absolutely absurd amount of totally vapid brainrot comedy that could also go extinct, imo, but at least it’s not actively harming anyone, I guess.

You mean we could have seen these memes before?

Oof yeah I saw those comments in the wild…

I don’t blame them for dropping the banhammer considering their instance rules and how strictly they enforce them (even if I don’t necessarily agree with some of the enforcement).