I love Wandersong so much. I’ve tried to put into words what makes this game different to every other game. It usually goes something like this.

Nearly every game is about winning. Some are about plumbers leaping their way to the flag pole. Some are about gun-wielding heroes shooting everything. Those are pretty obvious examples of games where the primary emotion is Fiero (the feeling of pride after accomplishment). But even games about cozily pushing blocks, or doing skateboard tricks, or running a successful shop are also predominantly about fiero.

Now, I agree that not all games are about this one emotion. Horror games feature fiero, but are mostly about exploring fear. And there are lots of games that explore other emotions as their primary goal. But the vast majority of games are about winning and the emotion of fiero.

Wandersong is about happiness and not fiero. It makes that perfectly clear in its opening moments. The protagonist is made (painfully?) aware that he is not the hero. The Bard goes on to have several conversations with other characters about happiness. The plot largely revolves around increasing happiness. And, in terms of gameplay, in almost all the places a typical game would offer players chances to feel fiero, this game offers the player opportunities to experience happiness instead.

If you’re looking for it, it’s clear that the game is occasionally working to prevent fiero and present happiness in its place. The game frequently puts the player in situations where there is no opportunity for them or The Bard to “win”. Instead, they have the chance to help or to be helped. And sometimes even when things turn out well, it’s despite The Bard and the player failing at their goal.

It’s a unique game made with tons of love and I treasure it. I would recommend it to anyone with a heart.

So, obviously that’s crazy and we’re all here to dunk on this person.

But also, I want everyone to know that Gatorade sells their product as a powder as well. One container of powder makes something like 24 bottles of Gatorade. It’s super cheap, and way more environmentally friendly. Thank you for your attention

Yeah, you’re honestly way out of line here.

Being correct is not a virtue. Other people are not impressed by how correct you are, or by how great a job you’ve done in correcting others.

Knowing more than others is not a virtue. Literally everyone knows less about some things than others; there is no super genius that is right or most knowledgeable about everything. For that reason (and many others), lack of knowledge is not a good reason to treat someone poorly.

You obviously care about the mechanics of clear communication. I believe that you can be better than this, that you can keep in mind why we communicate, not just how. You obviously know a lot about certain topics as well. I believe you can be better at how you demonstrate your knowledge. This time you showed off your knowledge to shame someone else. Maybe next time you could show off what you know by sharing it with someone in a helpful way.

Then people really would be impressed.

Can the controller go diagonal?

Aw, that was such a sweet time in video game history.

I get that my performance will change depending on whether I’m expecting a test or not. But I think if my car has its breaks slammed, it’s going to stop in less than 9m starting at 30km/h, regardless of whether it’s expecting it or not. It’s the stopping distance that I’m feeling is larger than it should be.

A couple questions. Is the stopping distance in this diagram the distance the car travels after the driver has completed their reaction time and started hitting the breaks? And where does the value from this distance come from?

I wouldn’t have thought to ask you before. A lot of times people just post things they find online that impact them in some way. But you seem to have a lot of knowledge that goes beyond just seeing this image.

And, anecdotally, I was driving late last night and an animal jumped out into the road ahead of me. I would like to avoid hitting an animal just as much as hitting a person. But I didn’t immediately slam on my breaks to stop the car as quickly as possible. I gradually squeezed that break pedal until I was rapidly slowing. So maybe my assumption about stopping distance is wrong. Maybe the car can stop faster, but when driven by average people it doesn’t, simply because average drivers don’t stop optimally.

And looking at 60km/h, that’s 17m/s and they are claiming a 43m stopping distance. That would be like hitting the breaks and your car just slides on the pavement for 2.5 seconds, traveling the distance of an Olympic swimming pool, before stopping. That’s only reasonable in the worst possible driving conditions. Or maybe with an enormous and heavily loaded vehicle?

Or maybe I’m being too optimistic here? Maybe these are numbers from actual accidents and in real life people hit the break slowly at first and stuff like that?

I’m trying to figure this out too. Those distances seem really suspicious. At 30km/h, I’m pretty sure I can stop my (admittedly small) car in less than 1 car length. Maybe half a car length, something like 2m? Way less than 9m.

I’m honestly having so much fun getting out in my neighborhood and completing quests

I get that you’re being practical here. You’re not technically wrong, and the people who are disagreeing with you really are arguing points of nuance.

But they aren’t wrong either. That nuance matters in certain contexts.

You can pick this hill to defend. Or you can learn something that you didn’t know about the people in your online community, and probably your IRL community too.

Embrace learning something new. It will almost never be a waste of your time.

These are called “aptroynms” and Wikipedia has a great list of them and also inaptroyms. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptronym

Yeah, my time on Beehaw is almost always pleasant. I really love seeing people arguing in the comments of a post and inevitably after a few exchanges they go out of their way to de-escalate tensions and recognize each other as people. Real conversations, real differing of opinions, but maintaining respect for people.

Thank you for this

I actually laughed out loud for a bit. This one really got me.

Yeah, that’s exactly my first thought while reading this. If I rewrote the list of achievements above to sound like I was claiming they all happened to me, and then posted it to twitter, it would be indistinguishable from most other “🙄 that happened” posts.

People will be saying similar stuff about Taylor Swift in 100 years; by definition being legendary means being unreal.

How is it I’ve been alive this long and I’ve never seen this joke made before?! It’s so simple and obvious after the fact, but completely new (to me) and a delight. Thanks!

I suppose it depends on how good of a writer you are.

Some writers can say things we all know so well that it’s like we’re finally understanding it for the first time. Some writers have a knack for delivering facts or prose with the perfect dose of humor; it’s not what they say, but how they say it that is valuable.

I suppose the question of what merits a book has is more complicated than just “does this book push the envelope of human knowledge”, huh?

I have a couple of books by Zach Weinersmith and they are entertaining and interesting.

I believe you’re missing the point of this book. I also believe you’re being a bit of a prat. I don’t know, however, if those two things are connected.

Thanks for this. It’s been on my list of games to play for a long time.

I totally get that the joycons are really different than what you’re used to. I’d like to urge you to give them a decent shot though. There is something indescribably comfortable about lounging on your couch with your arms in any position you want while playing games. It just feels luxurious. Sometimes I’m leaning back with one arm behind my head, sometimes I’ve got one hand on my lap and my other resting on my dog nearby. It just feels good.

Ah yeah, that soundtrack!