Having people use me for their own self satisfaction

Finding out a “friend” is trying to hit on someone I liked after expressly telling them to stay in their lane, as they were very loose in their commitment to a relationship.

Attempting to have a relationship born on open and honest communication, to which it gets misinterpreted which leads to a situation where I would have been more forgiving if they told me about it before deciding to do something rather than tell me the next day about it.

Having one’s decision to accept something, feel bad about it and then come back to that the person and in accepting them again have them brag about something, double back on it and then try to make their own terms to try, with a time limit, to smooth over the offense - basically being tone-deaf to how I was feeling

Being promised something repeatedly, put up with a lot of non-sense, then with the promise in sight, asked not to participate as I watch the dream die in front of me

Being told I do not qualify for a bonus because I was “legally” employeed a month too late and only qualify at year 3

Having someone drag me into a social situation (a group chat room), then then proudly brag about something good they did with someone who I abhor

Working my ass off and my fellow employee taking it easy ( like sitting in the lunch room easy)

Repeatedly reporting a problem and because of the problem having a knock on effect on work efficiency, leads to another problem, that then the managerment is eager to gaslight how it can be a problem. A problem mind you, that the regional manager asked why their aren’t enough people and that I should insist when I am alone - which the manager would never want to have it reported or bother to properly resolve.

Going into an interview with one of the interviewees showing an attitude of such disinterest that I feel it would have been better to walk out as they clearly show no interest

Having to deal with someone dumping me for an ex( maybe not dump so much as having fallen for someone and then being thrown away after I could not serve a purpose), the moment I mentioned I felt a bit jealous, to then realise that I was only an attempt to get back at the ex for what they did(infidelity), which I did not take well made worse by working in the same place and having said person rub it in my face,essentially, how they are going back out

This then got worse when she showed a bunch of people where I lived which made me, I guess, put me in a dangerous mindset as I felt my actions were putting my family at risk and the “monkey brain” response was wanting to remove that risk. That got directed towards writing an inflammatory letter to her, which the little bitch of a boyfriend came with 2 of his friends to threaten me at work. He threatened violence after work, I got excited, followed by a self realisation of what the hell and proceeded to have a panic attack as tried to come to terms how excited I was getting at the thought of wanting to go out in a blaze of anger and glory.

People telling me they understand, when their actions repeatedly and clearly show me that they, in fact, do not understand

Asking someone to politely, at first, not doing something - like leave crumbs in the margarine (vegetable butter) or margarine in the jam, have it ignored and continue to do it

Using a electric kettle and only pouring enough water for themselves, as the water quality leaves residue in the water and requires it to be thrown out, and in my case given a wipe, when the water is too low. This leads to having to use the kettle twice

Being told to meet someone at a club, be an idiot and wait 4 stupid hours in the cold and rain outside waiting for them, telling me all sorts of bullshit, while they were in the club the whole time

Being told I was an equity employment - I guess for the Americans know it as D.E.I, and told I would basically be stuck at the position I will be applying for. A few years later, I am in essense doing work outside of speciality for the lower position pay, which the company was transistioning towards, I hate it because they are doing everything they can to “extract value while cutting costs” and pushing that narrative and then when I do not perform to satisfaction be rhetorically asked if do I not want to be promoted - which I know is just a bs ploy to try make me work harder because I will never be promoted.

Having my personal social information be discussed behind my back without asking permission - example having someone tell my parents above my relationship with someome in high school.

In high school,telling someome to leave me alone and they repeatedly violated that space, made worse when my parents allowed said person to come near when I expressly displayed in action to not want to engage with them. It ended up with a emotive kangaroo kick when they pushed to far and me going for a very angry through bushes to avoid being followed.

I do not know if all this qualifies, but that is all I can think of off the top of my head, I am willing to amend points that do not meet criteria

Seems I got a fairly good idea from your answer and OPs post.

Seems VP1 is more optimistic in its outlook by comparison as your companions seemed to have already been qualified to be tested to join the ranks for Ragnarök. But seems to place more value on an individual character as it has effect on the meta-narrative value.

I do know that CotP deals with some pretty heavy topics of the reality of the period and I did appreciate that rawness to it as it helped sell the setting and provide sufficient investment to see how far the rabbit hole went.

I have only played Covenant of the Plume - not sure that falls in the franchise - and I recall that game was grounded in human politics and the exploring the personal stories of the characters one interacts with.

It seems to be a more personal journey as the characters that one has access to and what type of story arc one plays is decided by the decisions one makes through the story and having to weigh the value of human life against a backdrop of colourful characters.

Seems the games are similiar in concept and design with some differing gameplay mechanics

Reading that, seems you were fortunately not traveling too fast, as I can imagine traveling along, the sudden stop, falling over face first into the packed snow and just sort of enacting an image of your one foot being propped like a hand trying to pull excalibur from the snow.

I understand that

It was years between the robbery ( headed back home after spending time with my then girlfriend) and the attempted assault ( work decided to have me work around that area) and I would always be uneasy but trying not to look like a too easy a mark again while thinking of “what if” scenarios as it feels like one’s intution is on a fine tuned edge being alert for anything that seems suspicious.

I guess it could be described as practical fear

After the attack, I was insistent and since then do my utmost to keep as far away from that area as possible.

I will admit, I also felt apprehension like how you might have felt like when I started posting details

I was paranoid as I was robbed in that area before to which I froze, but the police were around then and arrested one of the suspects.

The paranoia part comes from thinking that they might have wanted revenge as I ID’d and provided a statement that allowed it to be prosecuted ( got a call from a prosecutor) for the robbery.

So the immediate thought was if it was payback, as they said nothing through the whole ordeal, but realistically, if it was they would have not run away so quickly or took advantage of my poor positioning.

The most rationale thinking in hindsight is that it was a bunch of meth-heads were looking for quick score and by me escalating they decided for a quick and dirty robbery instead.

That area where I used to work is dangerous and I know I got really lucky considering considering the type of incidents that do happen there

Reminds me of what a friend told with his grandfather when he was cutting wood for a carpentry project with a handheld wood saw, it slipped out of his hand and, I guess on instinct, tried to grabbed before it fell, if I recall he got some nasty lacerations from catching it on the blade before switching it off.

So I can only imagine what it might feel working with something that cuts before you can even register the damage. That was a close call, especially with the momentum of your movement could have done some irreparable damage to your hand.

Also lucky that that the impact of the fall didn’t cause any other damage to your legs as it took the impact like a champ from the momentum of the flip and sudden stop if I am assuming it was something like a 1-story distance from the deck to the ground?

Thank you for the clarity

And that must have been an experience to say the least, feeling the “edge of death” with every foot step

That is scary to think of having no control for who knows how long and when coming to a stop and realise that you missed the worst part of it at the end.

Thinking on it, must have been an experience - knowing something worked just enough to remind one of how much it protected them.

I am not knowledgeable about the ballistic resistance of a helmet, but to me that seems like a quality helmet to be able to stop a bullet in its tracks - especially if it was a caliber higher than a pistol, I make the assumption.

That is like the opposite of something out of Final Destination

That was lucky that you didn’t react yeah

Reminds me of when I was in high school playing rugby and I ended up in a position where I was on the ground. As I want to get up, I barely see someone running full speed backwards towards me and in the time I saw them and turned my head to brace I got blunt metal togs slamming against my head.

The outer most tog ended up hitting me just on above my eye on the bone along my eye brow with the other togs going up towards my hair line.

In my case, reacting saved my eye ball

I played it a long time ago, but still recall how the way of open fist and closed fist symbolized I guess concepts

Closed Fist, was a philosophy selfish desire and domination with the ideal of only the strongest getting to make the rules

Whereas open fist was selflessness with the ideal that one’s strength is only as strong as the weakest link

The morality was binary choice with the environments changing somewhat accordingly, but I recall it having a more noticable effect on the “kung-fu” you could learn and it was an interesting mechanic to try and match one’s fighting style to the philosophy one follows.

I recall open-fist felt more disciplined and “soft” in its impact whereas closed-fist had a more viseral feel with the intent to cause harm and show superiority

Although the choice was either open or closed fist it did leave a stronge impact on how different the ending sequence played out which at the time was something I really felt impressed with as the difference in tone during the last moments - showcasing that both paths can achieve the goal.

I think Mass Effect probably had its early roots, in regards to morality system, from Jade Empire with influence from KOTOR as well.

Tldr:

Having too many cultures that have not established a “market share” in politics makes the, people who run a country, job harder as it has to contend with dealing with the potential of new cultures forming and the inevitable culture clashes that follow as differing values and ideals will demand different things.

It fractures and dilutes points of control which encourages politics to try ensure loyalty though aligning itself with views of the majority.

End tldr

Unironically, Stellaris is probably a decent example of the thought experiment played out. Unless a species is built with ideals of the intergration and/or has its proper foundation set then it can quickly spiral out of hand as you have to deal with " a hunded voices asking for one thing".

It is far easier to control and secure a foundational majority based off of one species as it can be more easily guided towards an established outcome.

Adding too many “outsiders” has the potential to cause an imbalance and a shift in thinking which then requires a new paradigm to “herd the sheep” as it were, while still trying to maintain a standard that the base species has become accustomed to.

If it not carefully controlled, it can potentially lead to a fracturing of opinion and thoughts which is a lot harder to manage and “guide” as one runs the risk of isolating one group and in doing so opening up the potential cascade of problems if the ignored minorities builds up steam which then forces leaders to contend with trying to figure out a way to maintain control over the many species bases while still doing it in a way that causes the least amount of disruption to their control.

CDDA, takes awhile to get comfortable with the controls, but it does scratch a certain itch once one can get setup and start to test one’s luck in search of the good stuff.

One has to make their own objectives for it though otherwise one can sort of just get to a point and not know what to do. But getting to a point where you can just walk into a city and be the most dangerous thing there does have a certain charm to it considering the journey getting there. It certainly rewards exploring though as one can find all sorts of craziness hidden away waiting to be found.

I know it is cliche to say but it took me the longest time to really knuckle down and play it, but boy once I did - I basically started up another playthrough right after to see what I missed and the shift in perspective when I played a different type of character was interesting to say the least.

So started as a skeptical intellectual who had to pull themselves from a sorry cop to a regular cop and approached things logically with a touch of eccentricity and pangs of regret and then compared to a wishy-washy communist with fascist leanings (which characters called the character out on) psychic superstar cop with an alias he truly believed was his name and I enjoyed and saw a completely different side of the game which was unexpected.

I cannot speak on the rest of the series, but I have played devil survivor 1 and 2:

Devil Survivor 1 does have a bit of a difficulty curve that can take one by surprise with the first major boss and it is like priming the player towards what to expect but its story I personally enjoyed.

Devil Survivor 2 is lighter in tone, well compared to the Devil Survivor 1, but I felt it was a smoother experience - doesn’t feel as tightly packaged but it does compensate with having a better presentation and provides choice in a lot clearer manner.

I liked Devil Survivor 1 story better but enjoyed Devil Survivors 2 gameplay more

First thing that came to mind and I see others are here are of the same mind with platinum trauma response.

So leaves me to wonder how far are we from the cyberware then?

Mass Effect - I see there is a legendary edition with all the content bundled in one package

• Mass effect 1: Is slow in the beginining, then opens up after the tutorial, although the secondary content feels like a grind one can find a lot of lore in between it all. Outside of the Golden path the environments and a lot of the combat feels samey, but the story really comes together well in the last moments

• Mass effect 2 : The game is streamlined a lot, better environments and the character and crew stories steal the show and everything comes together in the ending again, although your choices are a lot more meaningful in the way the final mission plays out

• Mass effect 3 : The culmination of the Mass Effect triology, even with the hits and misses the highs are high and the lows are low. The ending although improved on from what it came out with is serviceable now - although not going to harp and kick on that dead horse.