@nyanuri
*finds and bites onto a carrot and brings it to hyr*
Nya nya... nya... ny... Wait a minute, I'm not a cabbit!

@nyanuri
*transforms to catboy*
Nya *does a flamenco dance because that's what male Mi'qote do*

@Terxbor yeah I saw your character. I play FFXIV too ^^ my highest level character is a lalafell though.

@nyanuri
Nya. Mine is a Hyur. Level 50. I haven't played in a while.

@Terxbor same.

@nyanuri
I did love playing the game, but augh the monthly fee. If they had a pay for non-consecutive HOURS option, I might still be playing.

@Terxbor that would be an interesting model. But yeah $15 a month is pretty steep for a vidya game.

@nyanuri
The pay-to-play era of Ragnarok Online had that option. It was I think 20 hours over six calendar months for $10.

@Terxbor Raganarok online... sounds familiar, but I don't think I've ever played it.

@nyanuri
It... Wasn't that good, in hindsight. Grind heavy even at the very beginning.

@nyanuri
In another topic, do anything cool today?

@Terxbor I've just been playing Terranigma ^^ I really like snes games

@nyanuri
I was basically raised on the 2D Nintendo era of video games. I think I mentioned I was born the same day Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan.
One game in particular, R.C. Pro-Am for the NES, triggered my eternal love of video games.

@Terxbor a racing game?

@nyanuri
Yeah. My memory claims it was the first NES game I didn't instinctually know how to play, that I HAD to read the instruction manual for. And once I figured out how, that part of my life was set.

@Terxbor i used to love reading game manuals. the more complicated the better!

@nyanuri
I love a good manual as well. I read them for all my games... but not anymore because modern manuals SUCK.

@Terxbor most physical games don't even come with manuals anymore. Probably because developers just assume their players have internet access. But board games on the other hand...

@nyanuri
Battletech's manual sucks as well... mostly because there's a bunch of them.

@nyanuri
Which reminds me... I really should design some cards for the TCGs I was designing a while back. Enough to make two decks each.

@Terxbor designing a tcg huh? are you thinking of selling it to a game company?

@nyanuri
If I did sell one, I'd know which one I'd want to sell it to... assuming they'd be willing to do it as a LCG like Netrunner. (The company, Victory Point Games, doesn't do TCGs.) The other would have to go to a video game company; the mechanics pretty much demand computerized rules enforcement.

@Terxbor netrunner is so good! And that's really cool. Do you design games for a living?

@nyanuri
I'd like to. I've wanted to since about 1990. That and game programming. I do have something kinda released on https://formedras.itch.io ... it requires an Xbox controller per player, and it needs a lot of work.

(Oh, by the way, here's a link for my favorite game from VPG: https://www.victorypointgames.com/darkest-night-second-edition.html )

@nyanuri
I don't own a copy of Darkest Night myself, and certainly not 2E which is new from last year. I played it only twice, but I LOVE it. (Both plays were at VPG's former headquarters in Costa Mesa, CA.)

@nyanuri
Related question: have you heard of a game journalist/designer/developer named Alan Emrich?

@Terxbor maybe? the name sounds really familiar. Who is he?

@nyanuri
He's best known as the guy that coined the term 4X in a preview for Master of Orion, which he subsequently assisted in late development for. He also was the early design lead for MoO3, I think, before something happened and he got kicked.
For me personally, he was a teacher at The Art Institute of California — Orange County (used to have great teachers; all other staff SUCKED ASS and prevented the teachers from doing their jobs right).

@nyanuri
He was the single best teacher at that school, probably. Then he got canned for not having a Masters degree.

@Terxbor rough. How long did you study there?

@nyanuri
A little over two years... during the second year, I started being bullied relentlessly by what used to be a friend... a girl that I had a huge crush on.

@Terxbor oh ☹️ I'm sorry to hear that

@nyanuri
If you think you'll be ok hearing more, I can talk about it. I don't really need to myself. I've gone through it many times over in my mind, and I've gotten partial, indirect closure. It still affects me, due to mental health...

@Terxbor yeah. If you feel like talking about it I can listen.

@nyanuri
I don't NEED to, but I always feel like talking about it. (Even with both you and Batty, I still have a strong need for validation... probably because I keep getting the opposite from those physically around me.)

The girl suddenly started being super-mean to me... to the point I had to just start avoiding her.
She used that against me: she'd just start talking to people I was already... forcing me to leave.
I lost so many friends...

@nyanuri
I managed to keep other friends... but any chance of real social growth was dead. One friend didn't know the girl and considered me her favorite person (besides Jesus). One was burned by her, though the effects were mitigated by his own popularity. (I've since lost him to another bully, his girlfriend.)

@nyanuri
I still don't know why she did this to me. She never gave a reason. Ever. Even after I told that female friend that the girl was a good connection to school staff. (In front of her, by the way. My friend needed to talk to someone specific.)

Then another friend... she started doing it to me too... no good reason, she's just a sadist. (No, really, she'd admitted that multiple times before and even said it was why she started bullying me.)

@nyanuri
One day... being bullied, I lost control of myself and attacked that second bully. Got suspended for the quarter. Never went back.
I was planning on dropping out anyway, because I went for programming but the school wanted to teach was art. (They said I'd get a good programming education. Complete lie.)