Like I cannot fucking figure it out and since I'm BANNED ON REDDIT AGAIN I can't post on the one place where someone might actually answer this other than here or I guess the steam forums but fuck the steam forums.

Anyway, I have never, ever, in like hundreds of hours of gameplay, taken territory and not had a secession shortly after that I've had to crush. The turmoil in conquered territory is always >50% and it's basically impossible to build enough to meaningfully affect standard of living to reduce radicals before the secession triggers, especially because of the massive construction penalties from the turmoil.

Like I do not know what I, the player, am supposed to actively do aside from wait for the inevitable secession and crush it. Then it never happens again and the turmoil goes away.

Like am I supposed to just never conquer anything until I have 10000 construction points and can turn the conquered territory into a utopia in a few months? Because the timeline to secession is IMPOSSIBLY short.

      • RyanGosling [none/use name]
        ·
        4 months ago

        tells someone to touch grass

        writes essay about how playing video game makes you imperialist

        monke-beepboop

        • oregoncom [he/him]
          ·
          4 months ago

          I don't know u ppl irl but I know you're all good people who deserve to be freed from vidya.

          • Starlet [she/her, it/its]
            ·
            4 months ago

            do you genuinely believe pretending to own a farm on my computer is reactionary or are you just acting like you think that

            • oregoncom [he/him]
              ·
              4 months ago

              I don't think the devs or players of stardew valley are bad people, and I do think it does avoid the reactionary subculture that forms around most games. There is still something antisocial about playing a game where you have a computer simulate a crude simulacra of human interaction and a sense of community. At best it's a way to cope with the atomized hell world we live in, at worst it fucks up your perception of the world and takes time away from actually engaging with the world it mimics.

              • Starlet [she/her, it/its]
                ·
                4 months ago

                Okay, what about, like, any Mario game? Is there a reason you believe this applies to all computer games and not all movies?

                • oregoncom [he/him]
                  ·
                  4 months ago

                  Movies and TV and even books also pose some of the same danger. The closer somthing mimics human interaction without actually being human interaction the more antisocial it is. Maybe mario party or something where you're meant to play it with friends in person can be the exception. The other mario games are empty time sinks on par with doomscrolling tiktok or ig without the agitation. Your time is still better spent clubbing or something.

                  • Starlet [she/her, it/its]
                    ·
                    4 months ago

                    The other mario games are empty time sinks on par with doomscrolling tiktok or ig without the agitation

                    What you're describing is called "fun"

              • RyanGosling [none/use name]
                ·
                4 months ago

                There is still something antisocial about playing a game where you have a computer simulate a crude simulacra of human interaction and a sense of community.

                So true. I will get together with people to pretend to be vampires and knights and elves and go on magical adventures instead of doing the same thing on the computer

                • oregoncom [he/him]
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  4 months ago

                  Yeah that is significantly better. TTRPGS are an actual social event where you interact with real people and see their faces and shit. Please go do that. But also in DnD in particular you're literally larping ethnic cleansing the brown greenskins