You can be an extremely hot man but if you can’t converse better than “idk lol” and never ask any relevant questions, you’re unlikely to have a good time. People like when potential matches are interested in them.
Your message I’m replying to seems fine, so that’s promising.
Many people go to clubs and meetups to do the thing the club is about. If you go to the bike riding club or bird watching club looking for dates, people are going to pick up on that and probably react unfavorably.
If you go just to do the thing, that’s fine, but you could do that for years without ever finding a date.
I wouldn’t recommend this as a primary means of finding a partner.
Yes and no. Capitalism has lead to shitty experiences for users, but also users self sabotage. It is possible to find success for free, but you’ll probably need to spend time and effort on it.
On the one hand, they are capitalist shit holes. They want to make money, not find you a partner. There’s not enough competition (match group owns a lot of different apps). Those are big factors in why they suck. They’re going to keep asking you to pay for more, and there’s no competition to drive down prices or force innovation. This absolutely sucks and should be changed, but good luck getting the current US government to do anything good.
The other problem is many users are frankly bad at using the apps. They have a blank profile, or one that has no hooks. When they get a message, they dead end the conversation instead of engaging. They ghost.
Don’t be like that. Don’t send generic messages. Have a profile that funnels people into interesting stuff you want to talk about. When the app has a space to write your hobbies, do not write “lol I dunno”. That’s stupid and self sabotage. Write something (true) that gives people an entry point to talk to you. “I really like making pizza! I’m working on perfecting a stuffed crust recipe” is basic but gives them something to talk about. Many people fuck this up and then are like “why does no one send me interesting messages??”. They don’t know you. If you don’t present anything interesting, they’re not going to know.
Once you have the conversation going, ask them out. I’ve heard many people complain about this problem. Guys will match and then text and text and text for days or weeks, and never ask them out. Then they complain “I never get a date!”. Self sabotage. Match, ask a question about their profile, have one or two exchanges, clear any deal breakers (eg: if you’re divorced or have kids), then ask them out. That’s it. That’s the game. People fuck this up and blame the apps.
You don’t need to be mega good looking. That’s just a bullshit self comforting excuse. I used to have a horrible cave man beard and none of my clothing fit right. Still got dates. The bar for men is in hell. If you can converse, be kind, and pay attention to them you’re already ahead of the curve. Getting a good hair cut, clothes that fit, and a good photo helps, but do not think you are immutably unattractive. That’s nonsense.
Your location matters a lot more. If you live in bumblefuck, Wisconsin, where there are 23 people in your age and gender range, you’re going to have a bad time. There’s a special place in hell for people who lie on their profile, though. Don’t say you live in New York when you “might move there some day” or commute in for work.
I never paid for the apps. When I’d use them every day, I could typically get a date a week. Some were just the one date, some lasted weeks, and a couple lasted longer. I’m about 40 and largely unremarkable. You have to put time and effort in. Every day, go through profiles and send quality messages. Most will go nowhere. Don’t be discouraged.
I was burgled. The cops came and looked around. Looked for finger prints. Didn’t get anything. The guys who came were polite, at least.
They supposedly caught the guy because he left his wallet at another place he broke into.
I didn’t get my stuff back. They didn’t even try to help me get my stuff back.
Overall a 3/10 experience.
Just off the top of my head
That’s a big part of it. There’s also a lot of ignorance and stupidity.
They’ll be like “I don’t want government in health care” but also want Medicare and Medicaid.
I haven’t thought through all the scenarios and edge cases, but generally spying on the public seems dicey and ripe for abuse. Especially if it’s just like “the public, all the time, whenever we feel like it,” instead of “ok we got a warrant signed by a judge to investigate Joe Bombguy”.
I guess everyone needs a hobby but this one sounds less rewarding to me than others.
I would be surprised if it was as good and big as bg3. I doubt they’ll give it to a small studio with a lot of heart, so it probably won’t be good.
Though I don’t know, maybe if they gave it to whatever’s left of obsidian it wouldn’t be the worst?
I don’t think the current government is capable or interested in making sound decisions. I don’t think the public is capable of electing a better government. For profit orgs don’t have the public’s best interest as a priority. So this is bad
Probably any game with a story. Voiced might be better, but written has advantages, too.
Might not want games with a lot of fictional words or idiosyncrasies. Like Baldur’s Gate 3 is really good and well acted, but you’d pick up a lot of less useful fantasy words.
Just looking at what I’ve played lately.
Guild Wars 2 is a great game. Lots of content. Most of it voiced. There’s also other players you can talk to, and some might speak your native language. It has some fantasy jargon.
Grand Theft Auto 5 would probably teach you swear words and other stuff you shouldn’t casually say. Be careful with that one.
My time at Sandrock was fun. That probably would give you some vocabulary.
Oblivion? One of the best RPGs ever made? This is a joke, right? It’s not even the best Bethesda game.
edit: fixing autocorrect mistakes
Ownership will abuse labor as much as it can. Sometimes to make more profit. Sometimes for murkier reasons. I think some management are just stupid and they’d hurt the company to follow their unfounded feelings.
Labor should organize.
I’ve been happy with Bandcamp. They got sold recently so their future is uncertain, but I downloaded all the music I bought.
They don’t really have an algorithm, but you can see who else purchased something, and they do blog posts about like “what’s new in [genre]” that’s worth reading. So far as I can tell it’s written by real people.
CEO seems like an idiot and/or coward.
DND is tricky to recommend. On the one hand, as far as RPGs go it’s mega popular. On the other, it’s a very specific kind of game and rather finicky.
Many people who don’t want to play fantasy dungeon crawling tactical combat would enjoy other genres, but finding those groups can be harder. One of my friends has no real interest in fantasy, but immediately was like “LET’S DO IT” when I mentioned a game of Vampire.
The tabletop game meetup I know of (in New York) is explicitly friendly to new players. One of the hosts said their first game ever was at the meetup many years ago.
I was hoping you would explain what you meant by “There’s not a reason to fight most enemies in most video games to be honest”. I don’t think that’s a true statement. I think most games do give reasons to fight enemies.
I haven’t played enough BotW to really weigh in on it, specifically.
There’s not a reason to fight most enemies in most video games to be honest.
Hmmmm… that’s a thinker.
In the older zeldas, you didn’t especially need to fight stuff on the overworld. I’d usually just run by, or kill the ones that were in my way.
In most FromSoft games, you can run past enemies but that can quickly spiral out of control. Killing them gives you time to explore safely, on top of the XP rewarded.
In shooters like Doom, you could probably run past most enemies, but they’ll keep attacking. Clearing them makes you safer.
Monster hunter it’s the whole point of the game.
What games are you thinking of where fighting is pointless? I don’t think it’s “most” games.
No. A well executed flirt can make someone interested when they weren’t before. You flirt with the cute girl at the party and if she’s receptive, maybe ask her out or ask to kiss. Or not. Sometimes flirting is just fun for itself.
Standing there in chaste politeness is going to create a whole different scene with different outcomes.