Unpopular opinions go here

[CleverNickName]

I'll take your summer if you don't want it.
....
What I've lost patience for is most of what comes between those two things: the rain, the damp chill, the wind, the rain...and did I say, the rain?

Me, October-April:

Me, otherwise:

 

[Aldarc]

You already said it: "it's a fairly relaxing and charming game."

My hardcore gamer friends make fun of me for playing chill games like Stardew Valley and Spiritfarer. They prefer to spend their time in high-octane, action shooters like Call of Duty or Halo, and they don't really see the point of farm sims. They get too bored, too quickly. All they ever want to play are action games.

But for someone who lives with anxiety and ADHD, games like Stardew Valley are a great way to calm down, compartmentalize, and organize my thoughts. It lets me set my own tasks and accomplish them at my own pace, and rewards me in very small ways (optimized farm yields, friendship with NPCs, etc.) There is no pressure, no need to perform to an arbitrary standard. I don't have to worry about disappointing the group, or failing a mission, or "looking like a n00b" or whatever. I just water my crops, flirt with Abigail, and go fight some slimes.

Don't get me wrong, I play a lot of different kinds of games--including first person shooters and action RPGs. I have over a thousand hours in Skyrim and Subnautica, and hundreds of hours in Halo, Resident Evil, and Doom. But I can't play them for hours at at time. There's only so much RAAAAH SHOOT IT KABOOM AUUUGH THE ENEMY IS AT OUR GATES AAAAAAH BANG BANG BANG that I can take before I start rolling my eyes.

I was actually debating a post where I would put forth the idea that there are a lot of video game genres that TTRPGs have barely begun emulating, including the genre of "cozy games" to which Stardew Valley belongs. There is even an upcoming cozy game MMO called Palia, so it's moving out of the realm of the single-player expierence. But maybe one of the closest to a cozy game TTRPG off the top of my head is maybe Wanderhome.*

* Edit: Oh! And also Ryuutama!

 

[Pedantic]

I'll take your summer if you don't want it.

Failing that, give me two feet of snow and I'm happy as a clam.

What I've lost patience for is most of what comes between those two things: the rain, the damp chill, the wind, the rain...and did I say, the rain?

Looks summer isn't perfect, but I was lied to as a child about winter and I've never gotten over it. This book gave me deeply unrealistic expectations:

That pernicious pig on the cover watches her neighbors get ready for the impending "big snow." They bake pies, and gather books, and light fires, and after watching their preparations she wanders home as the snow begins and sees them happy, with warm snacks and reading materials as the world shuts down under the quiet snow.

The world does not shut down, I have to drive in that miserable sky slush to work and am expected to be a normally functioning human being, instead of a blanket wrapped lump safely cocooned at home and stuffed full of pie. How anyone is expected to do that while cold and wet with the threat of death and traffic lurking everywhere, I will never understand. Summer is unpleasant, but doesn't have the same potential for misery.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Among my several near-death experiences, I’ve experienced both near-fatal hyperthermia and hypothermia. Because of the latter, my fingers are still unusually sensitive to low temps, more than 40 years later.

And I will STILL choose cold weather over hot weather. Every. Dang. Time.

 

[Scribe]

Among my several near-death experiences, I’ve experienced both near-fatal hyperthermia and hypothermia. Because of the latter, my fingers are still unusually sensitive to low temps, more than 40 years later.

And I will STILL choose cold weather over hot weather. Every. Dang. Time.

As I lay here in bed, sweating, I must agree.

 

[Celebrim]

I was actually debating a post where I would put forth the idea that there are a lot of video game genres that TTRPGs have barely begun emulating

There are only so many aesthetics of play that TTRPGs can really serve strongly. "Cozy games" are as much about things like Sensation (sensory experiences) and Abnegation (achieving flow state or zoning out) as they are about Narrative or Exploration, and as such they are going to be really hard to produce the experience of in a TTRPG.

 

[Celebrim]

Looks summer isn't perfect, but I was lied to as a child about winter and I've never gotten over it. This book gave me deeply unrealistic expectations:

You must live in the North or somewhere else snow is common. In the South, everything really does shut down for a snow. Of course, that might happen once every 3 years or so, but snow is a big deal and people for the most part don't bother to go out in it. It was a bit of a culture shock going North and everyone just ignoring snow entirely.

 

[Aldarc]

There are only so many aesthetics of play that TTRPGs can really serve strongly. "Cozy games" are as much about things like Sensation (sensory experiences) and Abnegation (achieving flow state or zoning out) as they are about Narrative or Exploration, and as such they are going to be really hard to produce the experience of in a TTRPG.

Ryuutama and Wanderhome say hello. So it's clearly not impossible.

 

[deganawida]

You must live in the North or somewhere else snow is common. In the South, everything really does shut down for a snow. Of course, that might happen once every 3 years or so, but snow is a big deal and people for the most part don't bother to go out in it. It was a bit of a culture shock going North and everyone just ignoring snow entirely.

Our roads aren’t built for snow, and no one even sells snow tires here, either.

 

[MGibster]

Diablo is just a fancy version of Gauntlet.