=== ANCHOR POEM ===
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 @user-883 
 
 whoa cool 🤩​
 
 Dragon Warrior was the first game I ever played. When I was ~5 years old or
 so, my mother bought a gameboy color for me with two games before we went on a
 plane ride. I don't even remember where we were going, but the fact that she
 knew that a portable video game console with two games (Dragon Warrior
 1&2, and Super Mario Bros Deluxe) would shut my autistic ADHD ass up
 enough to be respectable on an airplane makes me realize how much she saw me.
 Thank you, mom, I love you
 
 Anyway I was the eldest "brother" (I'm trans lmao jokes on you, family in the
 past) so if anyone deleted my save I would kick their ass :D
 
 It still happened once or twice and I did not, in fact, kick their asses,
 though I wanted to. Shame. Missed opportunities I guess
 
 Though to be fair it's not like anyone in my family ever expressed the
 slightest interest in anything I was into. Not like they'd want to play games
 because it was something they wanted, oh no - they would only do it to be
 close to me. Whatever >.>
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=== SIMILARITY RANKED ===

--- #1 fediverse/3704 ---
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 Growing up, I started with 3 video games - Super Mario Deluxe, Dragon Warrior
 1&2, and Asteroids. For the gameboy color. Then, a year or two later (what
 felt like forever), Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time.
 
 Classics. I was so lucky. Not because it was more expensive than my peers, but
 because I had the right games.
 
 Others joined later, Tetris, Mario Kart, Star Fox, etc... But having so few
 that were so good for so long made me adore them. I would play for about an
 hour a day, any more would cut into my imaginative play-time.
 
 I did not dream of games. But I craved their moments.
 
 These days, I play games for so long that I dream of them. In my most
 vulnerable moments I treat them like my baseline state, rather than a
 prescribed appointment of delight.
 
 I miss wandering around without thinking of my objective. The games seemed to
 change, rather than progress. They felt alive to me. I never beat them,
 because I didn't need to.
 
 I'll raise my kids the same way, if I ever having any...
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--- #2 fediverse/4733 ---
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 One of the first video games I ever played was Dragon Warrior 3 for the
 gameboy color.
 
 The game starts with god asking you about yourself in a dream. This was the
 first time I heard the word "gemini" - At one point, she asks if you are M or
 F.
 
 Me, being a child, thought she was asking if I wanted to go "medium speed" or
 "fast speed" and I'm like, hell yeah I wanna go fast
 
 that's it
 
 that's the whole reason I'm trans
 
 at one point in the game I became a queen of a faraway land
 
 and I couldn't leave the castle without the guards saying "no no miss you
 can't leave, it's too dangerous for a battle-hardened adventurer dainty flower
 like you to leave"
 
 (I think they say you have to renounce your claim to the throne if you want to
 leave but I would rather fucking die)
 
 so I never got farther than that. Sorry world, but I didn't end up slaying the
 demon king, I sorta just walked around the palace and cried because it felt
 like the game was over.
 
 kids, amiright?
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--- #3 fediverse/2138 ---
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 as a baby, I would sit and stare at the clouds. My parents took me on plane
 trips, and so I'd watch them as I drifted through the air.
 
 It was wonderful. Many hours of this are present in my baby-hood, the part I
 can't quite remember.
 
 But my parents do.
 
 I'd play with small, perfect toys, and I'd cry to myself when I lost them. To
 myself, of course.
 
 I'd also play video games. The first game I ever played was Dragon Warrior on
 the Nintendo Gamecube Color. Alongside Super Mario Deluxe.
 
 It was a blessed childhood. Or so it seemed to me. Things went wrong, as they
 always do, but a child's narrative doesn't often have room for the specifics.
 Swept along by the nature of fate, they have NO idea what's going missing.
 
 They still play, of course they play, in their strange new realities.
 
 They play because they are children, and children play.
 
 How beautiful, the stories they learn from each song. How cherished, their
 feelings derived from affection. Hy heart longs for them, as a bird yearns for
 her un-nested.
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--- #4 fediverse/3722 ---
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 @user-1218 
 
 playing one of my 4 gameboys, reading some of my books or journals, using
 their own brought devices, playing with my cat (she's not sociable but if you
 don't mind her claws she can fight and that's kinda fun) watching something on
 the TV, talking with other people, making / eating food, um... sleeping... and
 "sleeping"... idk what else tho. Drawing? Getting stoned? I have lots of bad
 edibles.
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--- #5 fediverse/3578 ---
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 It's so sad how some of the best games ever made get glossed over because the
 fun you remember is the friendship and fantasy you felt rather than the game
 itself
 
 time marches forward, and culture changes to no longer fit the old tools quite
 right. Plus they look like PS1 graphics ewwwwww look at those muddy textures
 and blocky bits arranged into triangles and meshes! how dorky, how retro
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--- #6 fediverse/1187 ---
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 @user-883 
 
 I'm 29, and I had Pokemon Silver growing up. However I bought it used, and the
 battery was worn out or something because it wouldn't save! But still I played
 that single game for months on my gameboy color, trying to see how far I could
 get. I had a level 40+ Totodile (or was it Crocanaw? I forget) and
 unfortunately one day I took it on a 30 minute car ride, expecting the battery
 to last at least 30 minutes, but unbeknownst to my child self there was
 construction on the way, which turned it into a 4+ hour drive. I couldn't
 believe it! The battery died, and I lost my save file... I was heartbroken. T.T
 
 Next time I played, I learned a lot. I actually read some of the dialogue
 text, and learned you could use pokeballs to capture pokemon
 
 I was so dumb I was using a single character to get through the game. What a
 n00b.
 
 Anyway when my mom heard about my tribulations she bought me Pokemon Gold,
 which I played quite a bit less. I was focused on other things you see, like
 Dragon Warrior Three. Alas.
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--- #7 fediverse/2063 ---
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 "No I haven't played that PC game before. Do you want to watch me play it for    │
 the first time? We can have a laugh and eat cheetos as I die to the first boss   │
 a hundred times. Maybe next time we'll get tacos and then perhaps we'll find     │
 that we're spending so much time talking about things that we never really got   │
 a chance to engage with the game. Until next week of course, when we'll          │
 definitely spend more time playing. Maybe even with friends? I know a guy        │
 who's into this game but I never really played it with him - maybe we could -    │
 oh yeah sure totally we'll talk about that next week."                           │
 "or maybe we'd unlock the secrets hidden in the narrative, and learn cool        │
 lessons we could share with one another. Like two 12 year olds playing Ocarina   │
 of Time together, working through each boss. "let me try this time" "yeah that   │
 one got me too" "ah so close" "YEAH DUDE you nailed it" "this part is kinda      │
 scary ngl" "wait shit when did we use that health potion"                        │
 old hardware forced us into a different experience compared to z                 │
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--- #8 messages/740 ---
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 had a dream that we gamified all work and then put them into one single
 mega-game so whenever you wanted you could work on an arbitrary project and it
 would spin up a new game and take your inputs and use them to accomplish
 whatever was happening
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--- #9 fediverse/3909 ---
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 I don't really like singleplayer games
 
 sometimes a multiplayer game is too much effort to play with extra players,
 like Factorio where like anytime I'd play with other people they'd just kinda
 fuck off and do their own thing (whatever, I wanted to design a factory
 together, not play singleplayer together >.>)
 
 sometimes a multiplayer game has no players, RIP
 
 sometimes a multiplayer game has incredibly skilled players who shit on noobs
 and don't teach, RIP
 
 and sometimes a multiplayer game has no IRL friends that are into it,
 (personal RIP then)
 
 ... anyway, games are fun and we should play more of them. I wish I didn't
 have so much time to waste, but hey I guess that's where I'm comfortable, so...
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--- #10 fediverse/4835 ---
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 sorry for posting so much, I was trying to put on a show for my girlfriend
 
 "hey check out how many posts I can make in a 2 hour timeframe"
 
 by the way if you want to start talking to someone, just start playing the
 same game they're playing and see if they reach out.
 
 doesn't matter if you feel like it
 
 just fuckin' do it
 
 if they want to talk to you they might play a game you really like
 
 (but I get boooooored of games, I don't wanna play the same 200 all life
 long!!)
 
 ugh okay fine you can have as many games as you want, just... don't buy too
 many
 
 (how many is too many?)
 
 um. use your best judgement.
 
 (how much does a dollar cost?)
 
 ... okay I'll get you one every once in a while.
 
 (neat!)
 
 ... anyway so yeah use steam if you wanna get in contact with someone,
 sometimes it's just nice to say hi, yeah, like "hey how ya doin' okay ttyl"
 just catchin' up with the gals
 
 helps because you can sense changes in their demeanor
 
 (why does everyone always have an agenda)
 
 because they're secret agents duh. And I'm
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--- #11 fediverse/1990 ---
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 When my family would go on roadtrips, I'd hide under a blanket in the front      │
 seat with my laptop and power inverter just to hide from the glare.              │
 My mom would play audiobooks, usually fantasy stories, and my sisters would      │
 watch their portable TVs. Like, dvd players that you could carry on top of       │
 your lap. Not laptops, but little purpose-built devices primarily intended to    │
 be used to watch DVDs, or rather movie files that were printed on a disk.        │
 And yes, it's disk, not disc, thanks for asking.                                 │
 anyway it was pretty nice I have fond memories of jugging a gas-station snack    │
 while also swapping circular cartridges - most games required the game's CD to   │
 be inserted in order to play the game.                                           │
 which is just... a nonsensical restriction if you think about it hard enough.    │
 I mean, like, can you imagine if you needed to insert your windows disk          │
 anytime you wanted your computer to turn on? Just... write the disk              │
 information! To disc! Save it so that you never need the crude piece of          │
 plastic again! Then pass it to your fr                                           │
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--- #12 fediverse/1239 ---
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 growing up I frequently bought this magazine called "101 PC games" - it had      │
 101 video game demos on a disc taped to the front. It was the coolest thing I    │
 owned.                                                                           │
 each edition had a different set of demos - there were over 14 published! That   │
 means a minimum of 1404 video game demos available. Unfortunately, I only had    │
 a few copies. Now they are precious to me, though I've long since lost the       │
 discs. I can't seem to find a link or barely a reference to it online, so I      │
 can't help but feel it was defining.                                             │
 I was given a taste of many experiences, but very few of them really resonated   │
 with me. The others were good games, and I played them from time to time, but    │
 my favorites were always my home.                                                │
 I had some full games, so I knew what I was missing, but still I looked out      │
 for cheats. sometimes the writers would leave a hint or a clue to the solution   │
 to a puzzle in the demo, just incase it was hard to continue. I dunno, I loved   │
 it and it was special to me.                                                     │
 I wonder if you can send radio waves through the earth? Like                     │
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--- #13 fediverse/2172 ---
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 @user-570 
 
 I mostly spent my time on Reddit, which was much more isolating than IRC. I
 think I must have been drawn there because it felt like home - I was
 homeschooled on a farm, and Reddit kept me at the distance of an arm.
 
 it's funny, sometimes meeting a trans girl can make things "click". And
 sometimes being friends with one helps you work through things that you just
 can't tick
 
 [off your list of things to work on]
 
 habits you can kick? idk sometimes rhyming lies, and you have to break rhythm
 or pentameter or whatever.
 
 anyway I've always worn pants. I do dresses on special occasions, but dresses
 are hard(er) to ride a bike in. Plus, no pockets, and purses are easily
 stolen. At least with a pocket you can feel someone slip the exact same model
 as your phone into your pocket when you're least expecting.
 
 ... hypervigilance strikes again...
 
 I first transitioned in... 2014ish? I think? I don't really remember because I
 had so many more interesting things going on.
And the people around me were always more intersting to me than me.
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--- #14 fediverse/4586 ---
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 I just got the strangest urge to play Neverwinter Nights. Haven't thought
 about that game in years. Gee I'm sure glad I have the technology to check
 that game out. Sure glad I have the time to use the technology that I have to
 check that game out. Sure glad I have the tools and the know-how to use the
 technology that I have the game that check out. Sure glad that wage labor
 slavening hasn't struck my particular part of the peninsula yet. When those
 colonialisms come around the riverbend I'll handle it, trust me they can't get
 past me. I'm stronger than ten men. No sirree, you can count on me, it's just
 a flesh wound or some such thing.
 
 (nuts, I dropped my raspberries)
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--- #15 notes/running-with-rifles ---
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 this game is what we are missing
 thank goodness for that
 for if this is missing in our timeline
 we'll be better off at last
 we can have games, stories, and practice wars
 but none of them are precious
 precious implies worth
 they are worth nothing but entertainment
 no problem solving utility
 nothing of value
 save for perhaps the spatial awareness and strategization that comes
 from being a part of such a deadly ba-lance.
 
 anyway game time teehee just for me, don't worry about it I'll show
 you why it's a HORRID THING
 that won't be coming to our shores, no siree
 
 bye
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--- #16 fediverse/2126 ---
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 There was this great game growing up called Neverwinter Nights 2 - I never       │
 really played it, but it was renowned for it's map-editor functionality. You     │
 could join a person's "game", when really they were in the editor window, and    │
 they could BUILD THE GAME RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. It was like, computer skill     │
 performance gameplay improv. It was beautiful.                                   │
 I did, however, play a Warcraft 3 mod with all the same ideas. Except, it was    │
 ONLY IN RAM. YOU COULD NOT SAVE.                                                 │
 so it was a lot simpler, and O M G it was the coolest thing ever.                │
 I played it like, twice though. Nobody ever hosted it, nobody ever showed me     │
 how.                                                                             │
 I tried to play it single-player, but I couldn't understand the mechanics. Not   │
 simple enough for me, I guess.                                                   │
 I couldn't help but think how many cool games a person could make if they        │
 could do that with the Warcraft 3 editor itself.                                 │
 Because I did work with that, a lot, which was NOT in RAM, but instead stored    │
 to the hard drive.                                                               │
 Hard drives which I've since lost, of course, but drop me in and I know ho       │
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--- #17 fediverse/4880 ---
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 I remember being a game design student before "indie games" were a real thing
 
 they were like... flash games, y'know. just like, junk content, like memes or
 whatever.
 
 I had a passion for them, and I bookmarked the most well developed of them all.
 
 I probably played hundreds of games, no clue how many. Maybe even thousands, I
 did it for what felt like years.
 
 since like... age 7 until 11 or 12
 
 there's nothing that can compare to it today. maybe itch.io but they're more
 involved typically. increases the barrier to enter, plus they cost dollars.
 
 we used to make this stuff in our spare time. where did all our spare time go?
 
 ah, right, that's what happens when you actually invest in computer education.
 you have kids running linux on their laptops. you get flash game designers.
 you get soldering junkies and electric engineers and networking and dev-ops
 security system facilitators and various other computer related things besides.
 
 ... what was I saying? oh yes when you invest in education, there's more to se
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--- #18 fediverse/3234 ---
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 │ CW: ritz-is-fucking-stupid-I-guess-oh-whoops-cursing-mentioned │               │
 └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘               │
 my understanding is that anyone with my IP address could make my heart bleed     │
 due to a hardware vulnerability on my motherboard. Though you might have to      │
 get past my decrepit ancient linksys EA 3500 router from 2012 first.             │
 unrelated, but does anyone want my IP address? I don't have any remote           │
 backups, so if you hate me now would be a great time to show me how despised I   │
 am. Alternatively you could try searching for anything evil to ensure that I     │
 can be trusted. You're gonna find mostly video games and source-code that I      │
 didn't write though. But also all my notes in directories that are               │
 non-standard, meaning you'll have to look around a bit. I leave little notes     │
 everywhere I go, so that I can remind myself how to do things in the             │
 directories I revisit months later. It's so weird how sometimes the things I     │
 wrote stop working after a while even if I didn't update my system lmao          │
 what is it with artists and self-immolation? "I never thought I'd actually di    │
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--- #19 fediverse/1184 ---
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 @user-883 
 
 whoa, cool! So with one of these you can flash any ROM you want onto the
 cartridge and it should play any GBA/GBC game you uhhh legally own and have
 pulled the ROM from? If so that's pretty neat
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--- #20 fediverse/6105 ---
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 call me crazy but I believe that man pages should contain terminal command       │
 line flags and instructions for their usage and... not much else. There should   │
 be a separate document which explains other things, like the history of the      │
 software, the personal diary of the developers, expected implementation          │
 use-cases, donut recipes, film recommendations, and player strategy guides for   │
 some of their favorite video games. not even this one, just... other games.      │
 "here's how to beat pokemon yellow with exactly 14 pokemon" or however many it   │
 takes idk I don't play pokemon much or even at all, really, though I did when    │
 I was younger just a bit, not much, just enough to have played the game a        │
 couple times to see how it was minus the cherished moments when I spent curled   │
 up in the back of the car playing gameboy games or seen pictures of the          │
 roadtrips I sped-past as I raced to explore the whatever and get home all in     │
 one motion as if I was executing an impossibly long dance improvizational        │
 living style. also cat pics and po                                               │
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