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Should be subtitled, The Internet's Slow Inexorable Descent into the Torment Nexus.

Starfield being a dud would certainly be a factor, I'm sure.

AAA gaming is fucking cooked, IMO. There are so few big titles I give even the remotest of a shit about. OTOH, I'm also into my 3rd playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077, which will probably end up at 80-100 hours (my others were each over 100 hours long). I absolutely never replay RPG/Story-heavy games, especially ones that consume this many hours. And yet, I'm happily doing it with this one. So my view of the quality of game experiences might be a little neon-colored lately.

I've replayed Cyberpunk probably more than any other RPG as well. I think for me it's because the world is so immersive and the gameplay is so fun and I enjoy trying different builds and stuff.

Useless link: How to monetize your blog.

Starfield being a dud would certainly be a factor, I'm sure.

AAA gaming is fucking cooked, IMO. There are so few big titles I give even the remotest of a shit about. OTOH, I'm also into my 3rd playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077, which will probably end up at 80-100 hours (my others were each over 100 hours long). I absolutely never replay RPG/Story-heavy games, especially ones that consume this many hours. And yet, I'm happily doing it with this one. So my view of the quality of game experiences might be a little neon-colored lately.

This thread is 3 years old and Zwift is still my game. The warranty replacement Kickr Bike is still going strong, but itself had the handlebars (and associated buttons and wiring) replaced under warranty.

It's progressing like MMOs do. Another 50 XP levels were added and the world was expanded (I'm level 79/100).  The HUD changed recently. I'm still in the same club (guild equivalent). I've got to know some of my teammates very well, as we chat on Discord during races.

I'm racing my third season of Zwift Racing League, along with more than 36,000 people around the world. I'm a Category C racer now (was B the last time I posted). After a long holiday last year I fell to Cat D and it took months to work my fitness back up.

I had also done a thing called Flamme Rouge Racing's Tour France, which was 9 days of racing and 1 rest day. I did it all on very little sleep while working a full-time job, looking after a child and hosting a visiting aunt, and discovered what happens if you do that kind of thing on too little rest. My body rejected the whole thing and I couldn't even produce any cycling power above beginner level for three weeks before the holiday (which was well-timed).

This time round it's more of a struggle to move up through Category C. Basically I need to put in more hours, which I haven't got, so I'm taking my time and enjoying being able to win some Cat C races.

So basically I've spent three years exercising in an MMO and that doesn't look like changing. I'm quite fit now. But for as long as I enjoy racing it's not a way to lose weight... it just requires you to eat and eat! I'm 91kg and I'd like to be 80kg. I managed to lose 6kg earlier this year on a diet while just riding, not racing, but I gained 4kg again when the racing season began.

I took another pass from start on this recently and I'm enjoying it more--somehow it hooked into me better.

Might be that Starfield alone is making me feel sour, I dunno.

I gave up looking for gender clues a third of the way into the first book; it's clearly very deliberately undefined.  Even after the crew has seen Murderbot's face they don't slip into any masculine or feminine pronouns, which means either they're all really diligent about not assuming gender (it is the future, after all) or its human features are so perfectly androgynous that it doesn't read as either.

I've only read the first three but I definitely thought of Murderbot as female. I'm not sure I could point to anything on the page to justify that.

Started on the "Murderbot Diaries" series; I got the first one as a birthday present and it just rotated into my reading queue.  My recommendation is: check it out!  Nice easy read (I'd almost call it YA-ish), has a very classic sci-fi feel.  Wiki has plot synopses and all that.

There are six more books in the series and once I finish the first one I think I'm gonna put library holds on the rest and binge em all in a couple weeks.

I haven't read the most recent one, but I have enjoyed all the prior books.  I guess they are making it into a TV show and casting a male as the lead.  It is what it is, but I always pictured the main character as looking female with a female voice... maybe cause I read the Cassandra Kreshnov (joel shepherd) books first?

I have been reading the Wandering Inn which is an online book, but you can get the kindle or audio book from Bezos.  It is kinda like Legends and Lates in that it is pretty uplifting, some bad things happen, but after reading so much dark/bleak fantasy and sci-fi it is pleasant to read something where overall good shit happens.

https://wanderinginn.com/