Once again, I have collated a series of random thoughts on “stuff and things”, as the expression goes. All of which is published under the title “Thinking Out Loud”, which is a recurring blog post.

Finding Online Communities

If you want to buy a grapefruit spoon with an inlaid mother of pearl handle or 25Kg of exotic aquarium gravel, then a simple Google search (other search engines are available) will yield a multitude of results. However, the search engine does not fare so well with finding online communities. Many years ago I joined The LAMB (Large Association of Movie Blogs), which at the time claimed to be the world's largest movie blog directory/community. It was a useful website. From what I can see, this site is now partially dormant. New reviews are being posted but the directory service of other movie related websites seems unavailable. Hence I am looking for a comparable online community where I can share my film reviews and read other peoples. Trying to find one is proving quite difficult.

I find that a lot of online communities have migrated to Discord for obvious reasons. Subreddits are also still an important focal point for shared interests. However, Discords by their nature do not lend themselves to creating easily navigable and searchable archives. They are more about informal discussions. Subreddits have their respective gatekeepers who often prefer to keep user debate confined within their own managed environment. Third party links and external sources are not always welcome. Hence I prefer conventional websites that collate and aggregate content. The only problem with this is that it’s becoming increasingly rare due to the associated work and cost. In the meantime, I shall continue searching as I’m sure a suitable community is out there.

Gaming Homework and Fear of Getting Things Wrong

Something that came up while I was struggling to familiarise myself with Dragon’s Dogma 2. A matter that is now a major aspect of gaming culture. Specifically, the requirement to have to research gameplay mechanics, classes and builds prior to actually playing a game. YouTube is the dominant medium for this requirement. I found myself watching various videos with titles such as “10 mistakes you don’t want to make” and “the best classes and vocations” before I even created a character in Dragon’s Dogma 2. Do you remember a time when games had tutorials that explained their own mechanics. You may be old enough to recall when media shipped with a physical manual. Such days have long gone.

However, not only is it expected these days that you have to do research via third parties to be able to work out how to play a game, there is now a considerable “risk” if you don’t. If you just pick a class and gear based purely upon “that looks cool”, then you will damn yourself to the seventh circle of gaming hell and have a chronic case of buyer’s remorse. How the hell did we get to this place? A place where there isn’t scope to just have fun partially on your own terms. If certain builds and combinations of in-game gear lead to poor experience, why put them in the game? Everything seems so formalised these days with regard to gaming. Hence we get prevailing metas and if you choose to ignore them you’re effectively gimping yourself. This “process driven” ideology seems to be bleeding through into everything nowadays. It ruined TED Talks and is ruining YouTube. Where will it end?

Continuously Outraged Fans are Wearisome

The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power begins on 29th August on Prime Video. Captain America: Brave New World is released theatrically on 14th February 2025. What do these both have in common? The criticism and anger of outraged fans. Yes the vocal minority are at it again, shouting at clouds because a film or TV show has dared to do something that they don’t care for. Be it a question of representation or a matter of “creative adaptation”. It is an especially tedious foible of fandom and is often not just about likes and dislikes, but driven by other cultural and political movements. The matter came up recently in the documentary A Disturbance in the Force about the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. Writer, actor and director Kevin Smith had wise words to say on this matter. “When you have a bunch of people that love something and take it into their hearts, they claim it. And when these things don't behave the way we want them to, well, it seems like we've become a culture that doesn't know how to handle that”.

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