The thing about survival games is that the busy work is the point. Participation in it at first and finding ways to get around it as your base gets more complex is part of the fun. You start from nothing and eventually through effort and planning get powerful. The busywork is the obstacle for the player to overcome.

Without the busy work survival games become some kind of BR. Which has its appeal but scratch fundementally different itches. A pizza and a burger are quite different even though both have bread.

I really don’t think Pals are a dogwhistle for humans. Its just a monster collection game where you can make the monsters do stuff. Its legitimately not that deep. Its not like a game is saying slavery is good or anything. Like sure, you can be mean to the digital puppets if you want, but really a lot of stuff is just head cannon. Are they working for you because they are scared or because they live in some communist utopia and work as a choice? Up to you. Really I think its just a way to put them to use for more than just combat. Plus it means you can focus on tasks you find fun instead of some of the busy work of survival games. Seriously, every game has things like this. You can take any idea and if you intentionally read it in a negative light that will be what it looks like. Does pokemon promote dog fighting? Ofcourse not. Even if it really is just digital dogfight simulator. Does Disco Elysium promote drug use because drugs have useful effects in it? Does Skyrim promote capital punishment as a good thing because guards will try to kill you for committing crimes and you can kill bandits for the government? Irl crime is caused by disenfranchisement of the poor, is Skyrim proposing we kill them all? No. Skyrim wanted an easy low level enemy you could deal with to learn the game and make some early money. In fact, any game that involves killing anything can be construed in such a way if you like. Ofcourse this isn’t to say games can’t carry messages, but I don’t think this one really does. I think the devs just saw they could do some edgy marketing and went for it.

Not surprising. People in the military tend to be quite far right and since the US does nothing to slow the spread of fascism and abuses their troops you get a perfect breeding ground for fascism. Especially since anything left is “too political” and “hurts moral” the only arguments for change in the military come from the right. I know people in the military and they very much border on fascism if not are outright fascists that just haven’t told me yet because I shoot down their right wing shit in the few instances they drop it.

I hate Bernie so much. Such a scumbag. Advocated for the destruction of Yugoslavia and his constant grift of pretending to give a shit about the poor tricks a lot of people. More than that I’m sick of those who suck off this guy like he’s some hero of the proletariat when he’s nothing more than an opportunistic con artist. I’m so sick of the lesser evilism nonsense people try and use to justify this crap. Voting for lesser evil is all the left has done for fucking ever now and all its gotten us is a neoliberal hellscape. The democrats will never need to give the left anything because the left is spineless and gives its power away freely. If you’re a guaranteed voting bloc your demands will never be even considered because they aren’t real demands, they are simply polite requests. Policy is instead dictated by those who will jump ship if a better opportunity presents itself because they are the ones who may swing the other way.

Damn, I thought Cali was supposed to have better public education than the rest of the country. No water, no air, and no education? Surprised people still live there at this point.

Really fun game. I’m surprised though, I raised the entire world to a high standard of living, fixed climate change and ecological issues, even raised happiness to max level and it still said I failed in making the world better when I guarantee it was. Regardless its a very fun game, thanks for the recommendation.