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Fruits of the sea posted:Will the company's policies pit me against my kid as I try to manage her online experience?: Unsure what you mean. Company policies are rarely enforced Anyway, I'll stop posting about this here, it's a frustration I have with many online games and services aimed at kids.
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Oct 9, 2023 19:27
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doctorfrog posted:there's at least some corporate consideration over this: how can we keep the kids generating money for us, while giving parents the minimum opportunity to disrupt that activity
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Oct 9, 2023 20:20
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Good-Natured Filth posted:One of my coworkers years ago told me how he grounded his 9yo daughter for "accidentally" spending $1000 in a weekend on Roblox. Any game that allows that to happen is a hard no for me. Regardless of potential parental controls, the company is aware of the predatory practices they have in place that are specifically targeting a demographic that is going to spend more money than they should on stupid poo poo. making sure this post isn't missed because the message of "never give this application your credit card number" feels like an important one. you can buy robux at the grocery store in like $10 increments, when they ask you to spend money on roblox (which will certainly happen) that's the option you'll want to go with.
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Oct 9, 2023 21:14
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Also works on adults. Putting a gap between a purchase and your credit card helps you go "idk do I really want to resub to FFXIV"
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Oct 9, 2023 21:55
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It’s so insidious though. My friend told a story of his kid playing some fall guys-esque puzzle server with friends and it’s tuned so only about half the people can complete it, so you have half a group waiting for the other half who are getting messages like “feeling frustrated? skip ahead to the next level and catch up with your friends for $5” while their friends are telling them to hurry up. There’s no way to avoid it except for a group ban coordinated by parents because all it takes is one to talk about it to the rest in school and suddenly they are all playing or wanting to and if you say no you’re literally causing conflict with their peers and the kids will find some way of sneaking it anyway, like at a friend’s house Bhodi fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Oct 12, 2023 |
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Oct 12, 2023 12:26
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Bhodi posted:It’s so insidious though. My friend told a story of his kid playing some fall guys-esque puzzle server with friends and it’s tuned so only about half the people can complete it, so you have half a group waiting for the other half who are getting messages like “feeling frustrated? skip ahead to the next level and catch up with your friends for $5” while their friends are telling them to hurry up. Look at the scrub loser with the default avatar!  .
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Oct 12, 2023 12:47
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I let my daughters play Roblox but as was mentioned earlier, I make sure to be invested in what they’re doing so that nothing sneaks up on me. Something which I don’t think has been mentioned yet is that you can (and should) make a “junior” account which stops access to all of the violent / horror games. The horrors ones can be surprisingly icky for what is ostensibly a kids’ platform. I have my own account and use my phone to play games with my kids. We play Adopt Me a lot, which is very child friendly and is one of the better quality games (although that’s not saying much). It is riddled with micro transactions like everything in Roblox but none of them are *needed*. My kids sometimes ask to spend some pocket money on Robux which I allow, and I’ve got my financial details locked up tight so they are extremely unlikely to accidentally (or otherwise) buy any themselves. The term “obby” is a good one to search for too, as it’s short for “obstacle course” and there are loads of child friendly ones out there. Another genuinely really good game is Scuba Diving At Quill Lake. I spent an evening playing that once my kids had gone to bed because I wanted to unlock everything, to my shame. Pet Catcher (2?) is also one we play together which is fun. Don’t get me wrong, there is a LOT of scope for spending virtual currency in every game, and some of the games are not really kid appropriate. However, you can limit those issues fairly easily. You could also do what I’m trying to do and learn to make your own game for your kids to play! Happy to answer any other questions here via PM - might as well find some use in my status as semi-reluctant semi-enthused parental Roblox dude.
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Oct 12, 2023 16:46
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AlMac posted:Something which I don’t think has been mentioned yet is that you can (and should) make a “junior” account which stops access to all of the violent / horror games. The horrors ones can be surprisingly icky for what is ostensibly a kids’ platform. Thanks, I forgot to mention that. Important detail, so quoting!
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Oct 12, 2023 17:00
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My sons play Doors which I allow because its interesting watching them play what is basically a roguelike with very tame jump scares (and they have the game practicaĺly memorized by now)
WaltherFeng fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Oct 12, 2023 |
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Oct 12, 2023 17:15
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:Hi all, not sure if this is the right place, but looking for a Sparknotes style breakdown of the themes of Mr Men, particularly Mr Tickle. Haven't tried reading it yet but I know it's pretty old so I'm worried the language will be difficult I love Earthbound and it's nostalgic as hell for me, and reading something so aggressively "Earthbound is a baby game" is also legitimately nostalgic because it reminds me of some of the reviews in magazines at the time that dinged it for its "little kid" graphics and that overall had the really heavy "you're a cool mature TEENAGER now this magazine has mild profanity and some '90s attitude better not let your lame rear end LITTLE BROTHER read this" vibe
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Oct 12, 2023 18:59
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garfield hentai posted:I love Earthbound and it's nostalgic as hell for me, and reading something so aggressively "Earthbound is a baby game" is also legitimately nostalgic because it reminds me of some of the reviews in magazines at the time that dinged it for its "little kid" graphics and that overall had the really heavy "you're a cool mature TEENAGER now this magazine has mild profanity and some '90s attitude better not let your lame rear end LITTLE BROTHER read this" vibe If you're reading something dismissive of Earthbound into my posts that's on you. I'm making fun of the idea of it of all games requiring a mod that lowers the difficulty. It's designed to be played and beaten by small children, that's not an insult to the game Lunchmeat Larry fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Oct 12, 2023 |
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Oct 12, 2023 19:53
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Oh for sure, I'm pretty sure that in the original Japanese release they intentionally avoided kanji expressly so little kids could play it. I don't mean to come across like I'm offended or anything, just that it unlocked a really specific memory that I forgot I had.
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Oct 12, 2023 21:02
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Lies of P Unlike many other Souls-likes, the item that teleports you to the last Stargazer does not cause you to drop your "souls".
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Oct 14, 2023 14:12
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Bahamut Lagoon? Didn't see it on the website.
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Oct 15, 2023 04:13
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AlMac posted:Something which I don’t think has been mentioned yet is that you can (and should) make a “junior” account which stops access to all of the violent / horror games. Except for some reason searching for clowns or similar brings up 50000 depictions of Pennywise which I assure you can cause an absolute shitfit
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Oct 15, 2023 06:59
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doctorfrog posted:Thanks for the reply. I know this one is an odd question, but it's one every parent should ask themselves, and it's one they only figure out way after they let the wolf in the hen house. But I'd bet there's at least some corporate consideration over this: how can we keep the kids generating money for us, while giving parents the minimum opportunity to disrupt that activity? Come post about it here! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4031577&pagenumber=2&perpage=40 It's a thread for talking about gaming with your kids.
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Oct 15, 2023 16:52
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Lead out in cuffs posted:Come post about it here! Thanks for this!
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Oct 15, 2023 18:00
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Any tips for Cryptark as its free on Steam this weekend and seems fun?
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Oct 21, 2023 18:46
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Danger - Octopus! posted:Any tips for Cryptark as its free on Steam this weekend and seems fun? IIRC (been years since I played it) - not much, feel free to plug & play.
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Oct 22, 2023 20:57
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World of Horror: - Have a look at the achievement list under Extras before you begin. All achievements unlock something, and there are two good store unlocks for getting a total of 20 and 25 achievements, so checking the hints for ones that look easy and getting them out of the way early will help out quite a bit. - Click around the graphical bits in the different areas of your apartment at the beginning of each run. There's a bit of hidden funds and a chance for a useful item if you know where to poke. It's only once per run and always the same two spots, so once you've found them, you're set. - The order you do your mysteries in matters a lot. The fights you do later in a run don't get any stronger (except if you get a certain random town modifier, and even then it's just an accuracy debuff.). Once you learn which mysteries have nasty unskippable bosses, you can do those later so you have more time to level and gear up. - Always remember to bathe between mysteries, the free stamina/reason recovery adds up, especially if you find an empty bottle to fill up early on. - While running away from a fight adds 5% to the doom timer by default, if you have to rest repeatedly to recover from a slug fest you weren't prepared for you can end up adding a lot more. Knowing when it's better to flee it can save a run. Random Hajile fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Oct 23, 2023 |
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Oct 23, 2023 08:45
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Just started Disco Elysium now that it hit PS Plus Extra, and a couple questions: There are a metric gently caress-ton of info-dumps from talking to people, reading random books/magazines I see lying around, etc... How much of that do I need to actually remember? Like, so many names of other countries/towns, old kings/rulers/generals, different factions in, like, two or three different wars...there's n o way I can keep it all straight. I'm just not sure if at some point there will be a conversation with a choice that depends on me remembering that Captain Doofus was the commander of the Faction-This-Fellow-Hates and I should insult him, or something. Money. I read a few posts here and reddit about getting "soft locked" because you don't get enough money for the room, though maybe a recent update changed that? I begged enough from a few people (mostly Miss.Money-Bags on the docks) and got a few extra dollars from finding change and returning bottles, but I BARELY got the initial debt and then enough for the first night. I know I'll unlock more of the map and talk to more people, but should I be more gung-ho about selling stuff I don't think I'll need, like clothes who's bonuses/look I don't care about? Or maybe I should be begging even MORE?
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Oct 24, 2023 17:13
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I’d say don’t stress too much about trying to memorize what all the geopolitical stuff is outside of the game map. The setting is fictional and very weird in some ways but it will click eventually, just let the game wash over you. Immediately, what would be helpful for you to know is that (these aren’t big spoilers but hiding anyway) the game takes place in a neighborhood called Martinaise, in a district called Jamrock, in a city called Revachol, that tried to have a communist revolution and failed. You enter the story after all that drama happened, and you are a police detective trying to solve a crime in a neighborhood where the police have no de facto authority There is a “reality lowdown” quest an NPC will give you that explains a LOT of the rest of the setting, it’s a text dump by design. That softlock is gone now yeah. If you can’t afford the room when you need it, the game will give you a backup option (it will make you, the player, feel bad, but you can keep progressing)
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Oct 24, 2023 17:23
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The main thing to understand about Disco Elysium is that failure is never bad; it's just different from success, and often more entertaining. If there is some trivia check, it's going to rely on passing an Encyclopedia roll, and never on your memory, but even if you do fail that just means you have to take a different approach.
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Oct 24, 2023 17:26
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DrBouvenstein posted:Just started Disco Elysium now that it hit PS Plus Extra, and a couple questions: The game only lasts for a few days so if you embrace your inner panhandler and collect bottles/cash when you can then you can make your rent pretty well, especially if you already got the money from Joyce. As for the details, remembering it is nice but you don't have to know more than the high concepts. Generally if you know the alignment of the factions in the game then you can sus out most conversations. Moralists are hardcore centrists and who you work for, communists are the failed revolutionaries from the war, and there's various racist/fascist groups that you can identify easily on sight. The only truly important "lore" person is probably Delores Dei.
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Oct 24, 2023 17:30
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ultrafilter posted:The main thing to understand about Disco Elysium is that failure is never bad; it's just different from success, and often more entertaining. this is true of dialogue/etc but not really true of like, failing to unlock a door or notice an interesting mural or climb up in area. in those situations you just fail and have to try again later with more skill points.
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Oct 24, 2023 17:30
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This is not the kind of game where you have to be the perfect detective who has to know everything to get the best results. Enjoy the world-building, don't worry about an impromptu quiz show popping up. As for having a room to stay in: On day 3 you have access to more areas, one which has a free shack you can use. You need to talk to a nearby NPC to get the key. Kim has some re-confiscated wheels that you can pawn off. You might need to be near his vehicle for him to offer you them. I don't remember needing the wheels for anything else later on. There was a third suggestion here that I edited out, because there was something about it I didn't know. Mierenneuker fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Oct 24, 2023 |
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Oct 24, 2023 17:32
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ultrafilter posted:The main thing to understand about Disco Elysium is that failure is never bad; it's just different from success, and often more entertaining. Still haven't gotten around to going back to it. Knowing that I can just keel over because I looked at something is a little infuriating, but at least knowing that that can happen will put me in a better place when I finally do return.
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Oct 24, 2023 17:48
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theshim posted:I started DE a while back and I failed a check and died about an hour in. I had not saved. I was not entertained. It can happen yeah. It’s a good idea to keep your health topped up for this reason imo, some of the longer conversations can have multiple opportunities for damage (especially if you’re doing a fascist run, where you take morale damage every time you say something racist) and it’s definitely annoying to get caught off guard by that.
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Oct 24, 2023 17:55
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theshim posted:I started DE a while back and I failed a check and died about an hour in. I had not saved. I was not entertained. Keep your health topped up. This isn't a game with combat where you save your healing items for when you need them. Also save to avoid the issue of not saving. Something that isn't immediately apparent is when you take fatal damage you still have time to heal
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Oct 24, 2023 17:57
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:Keep your health topped up. This isn't a game with combat where you save your healing items for when you need them. No, it's fine actually, you can just - Lunchmeat Larry posted:Something that isn't immediately apparent is when you take fatal damage you still have time to heal Uh, do that. Go ahead and save your health items until you need them, no point healing up in advance when sleep is a free heal and you might not take any damage before then.
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Oct 24, 2023 17:59
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Isn’t there some benefit to having full health/morale? I could swear you got some kind of bonus for it but I’m forgetting specifics now
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Oct 24, 2023 18:03
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:Keep your health topped up. This isn't a game with combat where you save your healing items for when you need them. Also save to avoid the issue of not saving. e: IIRC I tried to examine a body, got sick from looking at it, and I guess I puked so hard I literally died 
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Oct 24, 2023 18:08
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theshim posted:I died instantly (I guess the character I made only had 1 in whatever type of damage I took? I don't remember exactly and if you tell me "well duh obviously you shouldn't have made a character with 1 in anything" then kindly gently caress off and/or add that as a tip to the wiki) and had no healing items, it was literally the start of the game. That just means that you survived trying to grab your tie off of the ceiling fan, could be worse
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Oct 24, 2023 18:10
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theshim posted:I died instantly (I guess the character I made only had 1 in whatever type of damage I took? I don't remember exactly and if you tell me "well duh obviously you shouldn't have made a character with 1 in anything" then kindly gently caress off and/or add that as a tip to the wiki) and had no healing items, it was literally the start of the game. the wiki posted:Psyche and Phys are the less-safe stats to set to 1 because they (specifically the Endurance and Volition skills) give you your health bars; you heal when you sleep (in a bed) and also from some events, but that doesn't matter if you have 1 health out of a maximum of 1 and are thus entirely reliant on healing items auto-rescuing you from death. (You can improve your health directly with skill points though)
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Oct 24, 2023 18:24
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Almost 100% certain those tips weren't there when I first tried the game, but you know what, fair enough! I'm probably about to dive into BG3 but I really do want to get back to DE soon.
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Oct 24, 2023 18:31
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Ainsley McTree posted:Isn’t there some benefit to having full health/morale? I could swear you got some kind of bonus for it but I’m forgetting specifics now If you have damage in either, it can affect your stats and therefore your checks that call on those stats, iirc
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Oct 25, 2023 00:29
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Any tips for Returnal?
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Oct 25, 2023 00:35
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A Bystander posted:If you have damage in either, it can affect your stats and therefore your checks that call on those stats, iirc It occurs to me suddenly that there's a helpful wiki i could have checked and yeah that's it: "Every point your Health or Morale is below maximum is a -1 to Endurance or Volition checks, so it's a good idea to stay topped up on health/morale." I wouldn't advise that anyone stress over minmaxing that or anything, but something to try to remember I guess, especially in the later game where you tend to have more healing items than you need.
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Oct 25, 2023 00:43
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theshim posted:I started DE a while back and I failed a check and died about an hour in. I had not saved. I was not entertained. Exact same thing happened to me and it put me right off since it changed the whole feel of the game from explore and try stuff to be very careful because one wrong move and you're dead. I will go back to it eventually but I really didn't like discovering that in that way, so I guess that's my number one advice to new players.
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Oct 25, 2023 01:01
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It is annoying when that happens, especially when it happens after you haven't saved for a while (do smash that quicksave button if you can remember), but fwiw, catching back up in DE is usually faster than you think it's gonna be, since most of your time is spent making decisions and reading things. So if you already know what decisions you want to make and what the dialogue is, you can speed through the longer conversations pretty fast.
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Oct 25, 2023 01:08
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