#nano.rant

[pixl-pawz]

if you ever wanna know how fake capitalism is... 

target was steady selling tamagotchis and a couple months ago, took them COMPLETELY away. no spot for them in the store; they didn't even show up when searching on their site that they even carried any tamagotchi products. i assumed this was bc of the tariffs situation and it affecting asian provided goods to the States so i was ever so slightly sad about this bc i was regularly checking their tama stock for the limited edition seasonal shells i've been collecting (so far i have 2 out of 4 and haven't seen the Summer shell ANYWHERE) and target has been the ONLY location that i've seen have the stained glass seasonal shells at all in my area.

but since i don't regularly shop this store for anything else, i learned a week ago they were stocking tamas again. i thought either maybe it was just select stores or maybe they just temp took the stock away, again, bc of tariffs situation (tho that wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to me either way) but i visited my closest target store a few days ago and lo and behold, they do indeed have some tamas stocked again. two new full boxes of tamas, tho for some reason priced at $6 rather than their usually regular price of $20. i thought, surely that's a mistake. they didn't have any shells i particularly cared for so i left the store empty handed.

then a couple days later, i started seeing people posting about getting tamas at target for ONE. DOLLAR. i was like, holy shit some people have all the luck (including someone who managed to find the Summer shell.. for $1 ; w ; ) but after seeing multiple people reporting the same thing i was like okay.. what exactly is going on. apparently, tamagotchis have been discontinued (to be sold?) at target (surely, the gen1/2/3s/ are not ENTIRELY discontinued cos the shells that were there were newly dropped for the summer) so i decided today to go check out wtf is going on.

sure enough, they're so discontinued in the stores that they don't even ring up in the system so the cashiers are manually pricing them. unfortunately, my cashier wasn't as generous and made me pay TWO dollars a tama but that's still a hell of a lot better than $20 or even $6. funnily enough, we either have some vigilant scalpers in the area or chronically online collectors bc out of the two full boxes that was there just a few days ago, only two individual tamas were left. i hadn't intended on being greedy and buying out the stock if they indeed were only $1, i would have left at least a couple of each shell color bc i wasn't intending on buying them for my collecting but purely to trade later if anyone had ever wanted said shells and had something i would want in exchange but seeing as how there was ONLY two left, i bought the both of them.

but yea, anyway. capitalism is fucking fake bc they can just make and price things whatever the fuck they want whenever, the money amount DOES NOT matter to them and while i always knew this was the case cos DUH, it's just slightly baffling to see it in action. i'm also quite annoyed about this BECAUSE of the few that i HAD bought at 'full retail price' when, apparently, it wasn't even needed (and also slightly jealous someone found the limited seasonal stained glass Summer shell for.. ONLY A DOLLAR ; W ; ) but yea. eat the rich and shit.

[pixl-pawz]

i don't wanna put a damper on anyone else's fun or enjoyment of the new tamagotchi paradise but i got a few gripes about it

(tho, i'm still enjoying it unlike some people i've seen just absolutely shitting on it on reddit bc it's not like previous iterations of tamagotchi models.. to which i say, go back and play your other models then? kinda sucks to be a person who doesn't have any of the more advanced models and finally having a 'new gen' one and everyone hates it bc it's not xyz)

it takes ENTIRELY too much effort to dial zoom in and out and i'm not sure why they made this choice to require so much turning to zoom in and out when it's kinda crucial to taking care of the tama. (other than zooming out to planet but that's the time display either way) but it's not like the dial is really easy to accidentally turn if it's in your pocket or in a case or whatever so i don't know why they didn't allow for less turning to zoom, especially when it DEFAULTS to zoomed all the way out so even going to check your tama for a second you have to zoom all the way back in to cell mode to check it's stats. it's quite annoying. (even more so if you have a crocheted case on it bc it makes it a bit difficult to turn the dial)

to piggyback off of that one, i kinda wish the timeout time was either longer or required you to push a button to tell it to turn off bc i literally cannot stall for a second or two when taking care of it or it'll back out of menus i'm in or turn off completely. sometimes i just wanna sit and watch my tama bop around for a bit but the device desperately does not even want to be turned on and i feel like that kind of defeats the purpose of even having the device if the screen turns off almost immediately.

my third annoyance is... far.. too.. many.. confirmation prompts. don't ask me if i want to feed it this or that, just feed it to my tama. why are you asking if i'm sure i want to enter whatever code, yes obviously or i wouldn't have spent all that time scrolling to put in the 8 chara code in the first place, just go. why did they choose to put a game demo animation screen, another? kinda demo screen (i feel like? feels like there's two screens before it gets to..) and a 'how to play this mini game' screen on the mini games? i appreciate rules being upfront but i mean the manually explained how to do the games WITH the tama, why couldn't they have done that with the other mini games? (or, i don't know if it would have been possible, a 'playing for the first time how to play demo' and then stop? it's really annoying to have to press a button THREE TIMES just to get to a mini game. especially when these are the money grinding games so it takes so much longer to grind for money.)

i'm also confused why the mini games are separated. or why there's even a dial button. the mini games could've gone with the tama games, the sitter could've gone on the tama screen, the shop could've gone on the field screen, the cell research stuff could've gone on the cell screen, the user info and settings could've gone on the planet screen.

the whole thing is just overall very unintuitive to the point i'm like did anyone even beta test the fluidity of the usage of this device? cos it feels like such a hassle to navigate and get around with. even if ONE of these above things were changed, it'd be an overall much better experience but bc they wanted to be a little quirky with it, i guess, it's like such a struggle remembering where everything is + getting to it before the screen shuts off. as fun as i'm having with it, it feels like i spend most my time scrolling back and forth through menus trying to find things rather than getting to play with my tama.

[pixl-pawz]

alright guys. we seriously need to reign it in as a society i'm being so fr.

i am fairly certain.. that WALMART. HAS PAYWALLED SOME OF IT'S SELF CHECK OUT LINES. YOU HAVE TO PAY WALMART. TO DO THE JOB THAT THEY SHOULD BE PAYING EMPLOYEES TO DO. WHAT ARE WE FUCKING DOING FOR FOR REAL?

i've already been irked that they have a PLUS program to pay a subscription to get cheaper groceries or whatever the fuck (and should be illegal cos food should be free but now u can pay double for food accessibility? uh?) but NOW WE'RE MAKING PEOPLE PAY TO WORK FOR THEM? we have go to stop. stop paying these companies to DO THEIR EMPLOYEES WORK FOR THEM. you wonder why all the employees are on food stamps that work for walmart? this is why. bc they're making customers pay to do the work they should be paying their employees to do.

this is like me learning that unemployed chinese college grad students are paying to pretend to do jobs in pretend office spaces like what? WHAT?! STOP PAYING FOR NOTHING. YOU'RE JUST GIVING MONEY AWAY TO BILLIONAIRES?! if u got money to toss away, give it to me, i could use it.

[pixl-pawz]

bruh. new gen ac players and cozy game/acnh youtubers/influencers are so obnoxious.

a QoL acnh update happens FIVE YEARS after the game's popularity has dropped off into the sewers and everyone's already jumping to make clickbait react videos 'OMG U GUYS NEW ACNH UPDATE?!?'

woopie they added an item that was in NL (for sw2 only) and ability to clean up the island a bit easier. plus some save files that everyone was BEGGING for 5 years ago.. wowee they're really feeding us /sarcasm

imagine if they had added that stuff when people were playing and wanted it then. maybe the game wouldn't have dropped off a cliff into oblivion like it did. also, everyone realizes this is to quell everyone BEGGING for a new game already, right? LOL that prolly means that new game ain't coming out for another 10 years. (which is fine by me cos i've done my time waiting for new AC games anyway but these new players expect IMMEDIATE new games and CONSTANT updates like they're playing a crappy mobile app)

[pixl-pawz]

man. some people just really do not deserve art or games.

people are flipping the fuck out bc witchbrook has been delayed again. sad, yea, it sucks. i was looking forward to playing that game soon. should they be taking this long to get a game out? i have no idea, i'm not a game dev, i assume it takes a lot of time and work to do, especially one that's narrative heavy.

everyone's saying they think they're silksong where people will wait forever for the game to come out and still hold the same hype about it. (which is HILARIOUS bc half the people who got silksong day one NOW BITCH ABOUT the fact that silksong is too hard and they can't play it or it's not enjoyable to them so like? how is that a good argument AT ALL. if anything, that more solidifies the fact that the devs of witchbrook SHOULD be taking their time on it.)

but also, half the comments i'm seeing are like 'welp that's it. this game is dead to me now.' so lemme get this straight. you want good, well developed games, that aren't using AI slop (tho some people seem all to happy just to slurp down that slop juice and praise that shit for some reason? like literally zero thought and effort put into but okay), you want devs to stop releasing things half done, full of bugs and needing extensive fixes later way after release or putting out DLC immediately after release but when a dev DOES take the time and say hey actually i don't think this is quite ready yet, we have to take a bit more time to make sure this is done as well as we'd like it to be to release it... you suddenly don't want to play it anymore.

you don't deserve games. go figure out how to develop your own game if you think it's so easy to make a good, solid, not full of bugs, well narrated, perfectly designed game. like, it's ridiculous how much people want instant gratification at the expense of creators' well being.

also, someone made a very good point of 'well i guess i'll go play some of the games on my massive backlog until it's out' EXACTLY. EVERYONE HAS LIKE 5 MILLION GAMES THEY JUST HAVE SITTING AROUND TO PLAY AND DON'T PLAY THEM. GO PLAY SOME OF THE GAMES YOU'VE ALREADY BOUGHT. NOT TO MENTION, PEOPLE HYPE UP A NEW GAME THAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR AND THEN THE SECOND IT COMES OUT, EVERYONE PLAYS IT FOR A WEEK AND THEN NEXT WEEK IT'S IMMEDIATELY FORGOTTEN AND THEY'RE ON TO THE NEXT VIRAL HYPED GAME. WHAT DO YOU CARE IF THE GAME COMES OUT THIS DEC OR NEXT DEC?

NOT TO MENTION. I'M FAIRLY CERTAIN HALF THE REASON SILKSONG WAS SO DELAYED WAS BC OF THE BULLSHIT UNITY DID TO EVERYONE AND THEY SWITCHED ENGINES? (i could be wrong about that) BUT IF SO, HOW DO YOU KNOW WITCHBROOK DEVS DIDN'T ALSO SWITCH ENGINES? IN WHICH CASE EVERYONE HAD TO LEARN A NEW ENGINE TO DEVELOP THEIR GAME ON? fuck me, man. everyone who whines about art or games should just be permanently banned from ever seeing another piece of art or purchasing another game. selfish assholes.

ANYWAY, i'll wait forever for a game if it means the devs get treated properly and get to take the time to curate their game properly and put out the best possible product they want.

[pixl-pawz]

lol my mom just told me a story that, if true, is so 'the brain cells are not connecting' i almost want to believe it's not real. i only say IF TRUE bc mom is a facebook rotting gen x and believes most the shit on there despite the fact i keep telling her facebook is full of bots and ai gen'd shit for rage/engagement bait for whatever reason but she doesn't listen to me.

but she was saying how there was an.. ai... contest or award or some shit and the winner used someone's real photograph to generate their piece and upon finding out the winning piece used someone's real photograph (of an animal, not of a person) they were disqualified... for using a real photo to genAI something.

yeaaa uhm. do y'all know how ai databases are made? E V E R Y T H I N G that is ai gen'd.. is trained off of people's real shit. what in the dissonance is happening.

[pixl-pawz]

saw this and thought yea, idk why other countries always shit on (usually, specifically)america for using dried spices, trying to paint us as 'so lazy we can't cut an onion or peel and dice garlic'

like first of all, cutting onions is a MISERABLE experience that i haven't learned how to do without suffering still and secondly, i love the taste of onions but i ABSOLUTELY ABHOR the texture of them cos i'm autistic and have a lot of food sensitivities. i much prefer just sprinkling some flavor powder on my food to make it taste better than suffering with cutting a Suffer Bomb veggie and then also hating the texture of it (unless it's fried with potatoes).

also, garlic is annoying as hell to use fresh and the ADHD in me also just wants to get food as quickly as possible so again.. powder form is nice and easy and i still get yummy flavor on my food.

not to mention, the hate on not using fresh food feels almost ableist in a way cos there's lots of people who can't hold a knife to do precision chopping and dried foods/spices are more accessible to them (i, myself, have weakened hands from crocheting, drawing and gaming over the years of my life and it can sometimes be difficult for me to even cut food with utensils without pain so i will often just tear my food by hand rather than make my hands/wrists hurt). but pls, keep whining how lazy and unhealthy americans are for using conveniences that everyone around the world has access to and likely ALSO use but y'all wanna pretend like you don't use them/you're better than us for 'not eating fast foods' and 'not using dried/convenient foods'.

[pixl-pawz]

man;; i have such a conflicting relationship with the game sky: children of the light..

i played the two embers season last min yesterday and finally watched the cinematic preview that's been available for players (who aren't on the switch) and THIS is the kinda stuff that makes/made me love the game in the first place when i binged it for months after discovering it during a really bad time in my life and finding comfort in the charm and whimsy of the game.

it honestly feels like there's a really creative and dedicated team behind the game that has a desire to create a good game/enjoyable story plot but they're trapped and locked behind a company who's greed and disregard for players' experiences are obvious, leaving many long-term players jaded and ultimately causing many to start leaving the game/be less dedicated to playing often or being social in the game.

i would LOVE to keep supporting the game if it kept outputting quality content like what was in two embers part 1 but unfortunately, i think this is one of the many downsides to live service games; there simply is not enough time for devs to upkeep a good quality to an ever growing, on going game so the bugs become more and more frequent and the quality of season content is often a hit or miss due to not having enough time to develop them better.

i felt at odds the entire season of whether or not i wanted to pay for the two embers season pass bc i felt the fomo urge to have a Memento from a season tied into their anni and their animated project but i also felt i couldn't justify paying for a pass where i wasn't overly excited about the cosmetics, even the Ult ones and was met with lazy customer service when i had tried to buy a previous season pass recently but the option was broken on PC and apparently had been for months and instead of FIXING IT to make buying IAP accessible for their available platforms, was told to just buy it via mobile version (which i cannot do bc my phone is old and full and the game is too large to download).

on top of that, IAPs are getting ridiculously expensive, they're paywalling new areas of the game now via special capes, which is annoying, AND they're even now making features that aren't even accessible to all players (adding a cinema that had no possible way of functioning for switch players) while also basically trying to milk the animated project preview for as much money as possible (doing a pop-up event in LA? idr where for people to pay for a showing of the FREE content in the game vs putting it on youtube for people to watch who don't have access to it even tho they are players of the game.)

it's just overall kinda depressing bc i love the general concept of this game, of the story, the dedication the creative team puts into it and so far the animation looks like it's going to be very good. it's just sad to see it all wrapped up in a big ol' fomo/greed blanket bc this is the kinda thing that i would be a HARDcore fan of years ago before everything turned into 'gotta consume it all and as quickly as possible' when fandom things lasted years and years.

i think i'm just gonna casual play, not spend anymore money on them bc i've already spent a lot and i don't generally like paying for live service anyway for when the inevitable server shut down happens (losing all that money, for what? i only justified paying for this one for the experience bc it was helping me through depressing 4-5 years ago) and just make my own fan merch of things bc their fomo merch selling is inaccessible to me as well. i've already been wanting to crochet my own skykid and accessories anyway.