Eh.

Without the unique boss designs and gameplay mechanics, the world looks and feels like every other Souls, but with more pixels. Not bad, but not strong enough on its own.

Red Dead 2. Law killed my horse in Valentine, so I decided to walk and hitchhike back to Clemens Point. I wrestled a bear, found the plague village, blew up a KKK gathering… just regular old west things.

The early STALKER games are also nice, if you’re into that sort of atmosphere. Nothing beats the feeling of sitting in the rookie village next to the world’s most mediocre guitarist.

Perfectly reasonable to be attracted to physical traits or customs (clothes, hairstyle, body modifications) that are typical for a particular culture or ethnicity.

The problems start when attraction is contingent on belonging to a particular ethnicity.

I’m generally leaning towards progressive or left-wing ideas, but with a few exceptions.

• While I support the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, I believe that DEI initiatives are highly susceptible to exploitation because of the widespread and largely uncritical public support of the concept (or even just the abbreviation) with little regard to the implementation; and by tokenizing ethnicity, gender, and identity, it is at risk of doing what it was meant to prevent.
• I believe that law enforcement is a deeply flawed system to say the least, but ultimately necessary because the alternatives are lawlessness or ineffectual systems. This is of course colored by my European perspective where guns and driver’s licenses aren’t handed out like candy.
• The “tolerance is a social contract” mentality is hurting society. A person who experiences rejection and exclusion from progressive communities for voicing “intolerant” opinions will not be interested in reconciliation, and will inevitably fall in with a more radical group where they experience acceptance and belonging, where they will never be exposed to different ideas and their views will never be challenged. Integration should be sought whenever reasonable.

The last point is especially important to me. I grew up in a fairly conservative environment, and it took me a lot of conscious effort to un-learn my prejudices and learn acceptance. But whenever I get downvoted and shouted down for voicing an opinion that aligns with conservatives, or simply isn’t “leftist” enough, it makes me want to distance myself from “leftist” ideology and adds to my disillusionment.