Is there anything you're into that no one or basically nobody is into?
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There's an Aztec city building game called Tlatoani. It's in early access, but has enough meat on the bone that it's one of my goto games.
Out of curiosity I checked Steam DB for active player numbers. I have discovered at any given point I am 10% to 25% of the given player base BY MYSELF. I am 1 of 4 people playing this game right now in the world. With the prevalence of the internet I always assume whatever weird bullshit you're into there's at least a thousand people talking about it; making memes outsiders could never comprehend. It's actually novel to fly under the radar for once.
What do you do that doesn't have a community associated with it?
There’s a lot of Robotech/Macross stuff out there, but I rarely see anyone post online about it, and I’ve never met anyone in person who even knows what it is.
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There's an Aztec city building game called Tlatoani. It's in early access, but has enough meat on the bone that it's one of my goto games.
Out of curiosity I checked Steam DB for active player numbers. I have discovered at any given point I am 10% to 25% of the given player base BY MYSELF. I am 1 of 4 people playing this game right now in the world. With the prevalence of the internet I always assume whatever weird bullshit you're into there's at least a thousand people talking about it; making memes outsiders could never comprehend. It's actually novel to fly under the radar for once.
What do you do that doesn't have a community associated with it?
I have a fair amount of things that are not exactly popular but its not like zero people are into it.
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There's an Aztec city building game called Tlatoani. It's in early access, but has enough meat on the bone that it's one of my goto games.
Out of curiosity I checked Steam DB for active player numbers. I have discovered at any given point I am 10% to 25% of the given player base BY MYSELF. I am 1 of 4 people playing this game right now in the world. With the prevalence of the internet I always assume whatever weird bullshit you're into there's at least a thousand people talking about it; making memes outsiders could never comprehend. It's actually novel to fly under the radar for once.
What do you do that doesn't have a community associated with it?
FoundryVTT, baby! Somewhere north of 70,000 downloads for a very feature rich virtual tabletop that you'd think more D&D / Computer Nerds would be into.
If you want to get even more bespoke, I'm the proud owner of a version 2 box of "Kingdom Death", a $400 boardgame designed in the spirit of Monster Hunter or Dark Souls. You play a primitive band of survivalists, hunting horrifying monsters for their body parts, in order to slowly claw your civilization's way out of a Lovecraftian dark age.
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There’s a lot of Robotech/Macross stuff out there, but I rarely see anyone post online about it, and I’ve never met anyone in person who even knows what it is.
I can't even fanthom this but it was pretty popular in the 90's. Maybe not as much anymore.
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I have a lot of obscure interests, but not as obscure as yours.
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Finding former Pizza Huts in North America. It's just such an iconic building design. There's a documentary out now on them, but I've been fascinated for almost a decade now.
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Meshtastic
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John le Carré novels. He was huge decades ago, but basically nobody knows the name now besides Boomers and genre fans.
Meshtastic
If someone could find an extra 8 hours a week, I would so make this one of my hobbies.
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Death metal. I’m pretty clean cut and tat free so people are really taken aback when I tell them one of my favorite acts is called Cattle Decapitation.
My wife discovered "Powerwolf" recently. Not death metal, per say, but I've yet to meet anyone else whose heard of it. Worse still, this lead her down a rabbit hole to Dwarf Metal and the accursed song Diggy Diggy Hole which has bored its way into my brain.
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There's an Aztec city building game called Tlatoani. It's in early access, but has enough meat on the bone that it's one of my goto games.
Out of curiosity I checked Steam DB for active player numbers. I have discovered at any given point I am 10% to 25% of the given player base BY MYSELF. I am 1 of 4 people playing this game right now in the world. With the prevalence of the internet I always assume whatever weird bullshit you're into there's at least a thousand people talking about it; making memes outsiders could never comprehend. It's actually novel to fly under the radar for once.
What do you do that doesn't have a community associated with it?
wrote last edited by [email protected]When watching incest porn, I try to figure out how everybody can be in a step-relationship with everybody else there. How is it possible for step-mom, step-dad, step-bro and step-sis to all live in the same house with no one else?
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There's an Aztec city building game called Tlatoani. It's in early access, but has enough meat on the bone that it's one of my goto games.
Out of curiosity I checked Steam DB for active player numbers. I have discovered at any given point I am 10% to 25% of the given player base BY MYSELF. I am 1 of 4 people playing this game right now in the world. With the prevalence of the internet I always assume whatever weird bullshit you're into there's at least a thousand people talking about it; making memes outsiders could never comprehend. It's actually novel to fly under the radar for once.
What do you do that doesn't have a community associated with it?
Sumo wrestling. OK, it definitely has more fans than "basically nobody," although it's not exactly popular in the west. I have noticed a couple of people talking about it on Mastodon, and there's a community at [email protected].
A while ago I stumbled upon a TV broadcast one night when I couldn't sleep, and immediately found it interesting. Now I intentionally watch them live when I can, and otherwise catch replays the next day. A very exciting tournament just wrapped up a few days ago. The next one is in November.
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I really like the souped up versions of mom cars that they make before there's a model year redesign.
My dream car is Mercedes R 63 AMG.
Also a big fan of Station Wagons, but that's not that rare among enthusiasts.
you know. That reminds me that I like minivans when essentially no one does. I mean actively like them and prefer them to other motor vehicles (although im not a big fan of motor vehicles)
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I have a lot of obscure interests, but not as obscure as yours.
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Finding former Pizza Huts in North America. It's just such an iconic building design. There's a documentary out now on them, but I've been fascinated for almost a decade now.
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Meshtastic
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John le Carré novels. He was huge decades ago, but basically nobody knows the name now besides Boomers and genre fans.
The amount of Pizza Hut buildings I've seen turned into Lions Den adult stores is too damn high. In second place, is the local wing place Jerk N Go.
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My wife discovered "Powerwolf" recently. Not death metal, per say, but I've yet to meet anyone else whose heard of it. Worse still, this lead her down a rabbit hole to Dwarf Metal and the accursed song Diggy Diggy Hole which has bored its way into my brain.
The fact that Diggy Diggy Hole exists is such a wonderful thing. It was fun to watch the original, and then various evolutions of it. Its what the internet should be instead of the corporate, pay to play garbage we have ended up with.
Also Powerwolf and Wind Rose are just fun bands to listen to. Metal that doesn't take itself too seriously of great.
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The amount of Pizza Hut buildings I've seen turned into Lions Den adult stores is too damn high. In second place, is the local wing place Jerk N Go.
Jerk 'n Go sounds like the adult store. Just sayin'.
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The amount of Pizza Hut buildings I've seen turned into Lions Den adult stores is too damn high. In second place, is the local wing place Jerk N Go.
In my area every single one is a Mexican restaurant and I'm not mad about it.
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There's an Aztec city building game called Tlatoani. It's in early access, but has enough meat on the bone that it's one of my goto games.
Out of curiosity I checked Steam DB for active player numbers. I have discovered at any given point I am 10% to 25% of the given player base BY MYSELF. I am 1 of 4 people playing this game right now in the world. With the prevalence of the internet I always assume whatever weird bullshit you're into there's at least a thousand people talking about it; making memes outsiders could never comprehend. It's actually novel to fly under the radar for once.
What do you do that doesn't have a community associated with it?
A long forgotten game called Fear Equation. I still enjoy firing it up for a run at least once a month or so. I don't think anyone has even been on it's forums for a long time.
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There's an Aztec city building game called Tlatoani. It's in early access, but has enough meat on the bone that it's one of my goto games.
Out of curiosity I checked Steam DB for active player numbers. I have discovered at any given point I am 10% to 25% of the given player base BY MYSELF. I am 1 of 4 people playing this game right now in the world. With the prevalence of the internet I always assume whatever weird bullshit you're into there's at least a thousand people talking about it; making memes outsiders could never comprehend. It's actually novel to fly under the radar for once.
What do you do that doesn't have a community associated with it?
Probably not rare in general but rare where I'm from. Racing, asphalt circle track stuff. Like NASCAR but much smaller, cheaper, and local tracks.
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My wife discovered "Powerwolf" recently. Not death metal, per say, but I've yet to meet anyone else whose heard of it. Worse still, this lead her down a rabbit hole to Dwarf Metal and the accursed song Diggy Diggy Hole which has bored its way into my brain.
Ah yes power metal is quite a thing in and of itself! Feel free to do whatever you want with this knowledge, but there’s also Goblin Metal, my most favorite being a band called Necrogoblikon. There’s no doubt some band singing in Tolkien Elvish to round out the trinity.
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There's an Aztec city building game called Tlatoani. It's in early access, but has enough meat on the bone that it's one of my goto games.
Out of curiosity I checked Steam DB for active player numbers. I have discovered at any given point I am 10% to 25% of the given player base BY MYSELF. I am 1 of 4 people playing this game right now in the world. With the prevalence of the internet I always assume whatever weird bullshit you're into there's at least a thousand people talking about it; making memes outsiders could never comprehend. It's actually novel to fly under the radar for once.
What do you do that doesn't have a community associated with it?
I’m an avid reader, and I like reading in original language. That has brought me in a variety of rabbit holes, including trying to learn Russian, then Japanese. Unfortunately, I forgot most of it. I also forgot most of my ancient Greek, but my Latin is still vaguely useful. My German and Spanish never reached the “I can read anything” level, that is a shame because I really want to read the Don Quixote and Goethe... But I’m proud to easily read in 3 languages, struggling in 2-3 others (depending how much dictionary use is allowed).
I haven’t been able to find a community of people that like this. Most like a specific culture and go deep into a single language.
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Sumo wrestling. OK, it definitely has more fans than "basically nobody," although it's not exactly popular in the west. I have noticed a couple of people talking about it on Mastodon, and there's a community at [email protected].
A while ago I stumbled upon a TV broadcast one night when I couldn't sleep, and immediately found it interesting. Now I intentionally watch them live when I can, and otherwise catch replays the next day. A very exciting tournament just wrapped up a few days ago. The next one is in November.
I was lucky enough to be watching Sumo back in the days when Chiyonofuji was at his peak. Seeing him pick up and carry Konishiki out of the dohyō was something else.
Not seen any for years though.
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There's an Aztec city building game called Tlatoani. It's in early access, but has enough meat on the bone that it's one of my goto games.
Out of curiosity I checked Steam DB for active player numbers. I have discovered at any given point I am 10% to 25% of the given player base BY MYSELF. I am 1 of 4 people playing this game right now in the world. With the prevalence of the internet I always assume whatever weird bullshit you're into there's at least a thousand people talking about it; making memes outsiders could never comprehend. It's actually novel to fly under the radar for once.
What do you do that doesn't have a community associated with it?
wrote last edited by [email protected]How to use game design for education around political and social issues and complexity science
Edit since a few people asked: I don't have good answers for this yet, but some thoughts:
- According to C. This Nguyen, games are the art of agency (in the same was as music is the art of sound). Agency is core to politics and activism, and the antidote to apathy and despair. I think (some kinds of) games can make you think in really interesting ways about how you can approach agency, or how it is taken from you.
- Some excellent examples include Wintergreen and Bloc by Bloc. Basically any storygame can, if you want it to.
- Games are basically a voluntary and temporary acceptance of an arbitrary set of rules, with an arbitrary goal that you strive to overcome. They often include metrics that tell you how well you are doing. To some degree, the same can be said about modern bureaucracies (albeit less voluntary and temporary), where the metrics might be KPIs or money.
- Games can satirise this in educational ways, e.g. this was the purpose of The Landlord's Game (the precursor to monopoly)
- This is another C. Thi Nguyen thing - really worth listening to his podcast episode on the Ezra Klein show.
- Some games show amazing emergent complexity. That is, complexity that isn't due to underlying complexity of the system parts, but emerges as a result of their many interactions, like turbulent eddies, or bird murmurations.
- Go/Baduk is an extreme example of this. 2 rules that have produced 3000 years of culture surrounding one of the most difficult and engaging games I know.
- Tak is another example that's a lot easier to learn (because it doesn't require building up a bank of pattern recognition)
- TTRPGs are also super interesting to me, because narrative is one of the tools that the human brain has developed to help understand complexity. I don't think they exhibit emergent complexity so much, but they bring in a lot of complexity via the players' life experience, and via the setting/world.
- Different game mechanics and story tropes provide different affordances - that is, they allow or encourage some behaviours, and disallow others.
- No one ever forments a revolution in monopoly, right? Why not?
- Affordances is an excellent frame for understanding how agency relates to systems, because all systems have attributes with affordances (and constraints). What are the affordances of a capitalist democracy? I think games are an ideal vehicle for explaining affordances easily.
There are probably plenty more links. I've been playing some of those games for years, but am still relatively new to some e.g. story games. And I'm just starting out looking in to game design..
edit 2: also, a plug for [email protected]
- According to C. This Nguyen, games are the art of agency (in the same was as music is the art of sound). Agency is core to politics and activism, and the antidote to apathy and despair. I think (some kinds of) games can make you think in really interesting ways about how you can approach agency, or how it is taken from you.
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FoundryVTT, baby! Somewhere north of 70,000 downloads for a very feature rich virtual tabletop that you'd think more D&D / Computer Nerds would be into.
If you want to get even more bespoke, I'm the proud owner of a version 2 box of "Kingdom Death", a $400 boardgame designed in the spirit of Monster Hunter or Dark Souls. You play a primitive band of survivalists, hunting horrifying monsters for their body parts, in order to slowly claw your civilization's way out of a Lovecraftian dark age.
I’m right with you on both of those things. I just spent more time than is reasonable on a gatehouse over a chasm in foundry, and have a screaming antelope on the shelf next to me that I’m reasonably proud of.
