Everyone should play more games offline.

gemini://gabrielcornish.com/2025-10-06-gaming-offline

2 months ago · 👍 arubes, hacknorris, devyl, bavarianbarbarian, devoid, half_elf_monk, nexy

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My recent top list:

Factorio - modern gem, replayable infinite amount of times

Transport Tycoon - old but gold, is still enjoyable

DayZ - best open world game with hardcore mechanics

Starcraft - classic, still played widely

Songs of Syx - very indie city / society builder gem with hardcore mechanics

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Problem with online multiplayer games, is that to sustain its economy they have to have subscription model or at least ingame purchases involved because of expanding network infrastructure, its sort of bubble scheme in the end, but there is no other way to sustain online based games as business. · 2 months ago

As soon as the game industry became big business, it was diluted by the influx of money. The race for profit turned games into products filled with addictive mechanics and behavioural manipulation. Modern games have become viruses for the brain.

Even so-called indie games stay independent only until they succumb to greed or take investments from third parties. This pattern applies everywhere, but in gaming, it has especially corrupted the craft itself.

Fewer people create genuine games, more create products with game-like mechanics. Big studios struggle to find real artists and true programmers. In the end, there are still games but they're buried under piles of commercial garbage · 2 months ago

LAN parties were great, remember those? · 2 months ago

It's probably not the tech itself, but rather using the "there are 3bn people at this card table, let's chat" as a starting point. it's different. · 2 months ago

Agree! Too much predatory psychology involved in online gaming. Yes, there's social elements, but really... do the social benefits of gaming with people you know outweight the drawbacks of crowds of unknowns in a deliberately addictive (and often corrupting) environment? My experience: no. LAN parties were way better. · 2 months ago

If you're looking for a good single player board game (digital or physical), I highly recommend Dune: Imperium. It's excellent. · 2 months ago

I agree, everyone should regularly play board games with friends in person, rebuilding the bonds of a fraying social fabric :) · 2 months ago

PnP best games, sitting around with your friends and just let your fantasy go wild ;) · 2 months ago

me recently (since last watching of stargate, so like 2 or 3 months already) constantly playing builtin mahjong with egyptian theme. also some crosswords and something similar to "candy-crush" (i mean - similar in mechanics, match 3, not that assholism of original) on phone. lol. also physical, paper crosswords too (wordsearch, sudoku and that thing possibly named "cipherword" or something - that one with numbered hidden letters i mean, idk, i'm not english…). board games i don't like cause they require people to play and at home only 2 persons where only one could play. so no, no :-) (unless there are some singleplayer board games, but i doubt it) · 2 months ago