What game are you currently playing?

[cookiecup]

Remnant 2 on Nightmare with friends. This is the best game we have played this year. We're suffering but the game is fun! The Nightmare mode really pushes us to the point that we need to coordinate our moves and we feel that bosses are actually worth defeating. (Context: Nightmare is the highest difficulty available atm)

 

[Alesia_BH]

I made one last evening pot of coffee so I could retire from Street Fighter at the Platinum level.

Spoiler

It’s been a pleasant sojourn, but I’m ready to come back home to RPG land. I’ll see you all in the Annex thread soon

Cheers,

A.

 

[WarChiefZeke]

Lol. I'm confident that there's significant overlap between the meth user population and the fighting game player base.

The top players may not be on meth, but I bet some of them use caffeine or Ritalin.

Leave me alone

 

[Alesia_BH]

Sorry for maybe taking lighthearted jokes too seriously but as someone who has been fighting prejudice on that front for years I'd like to throw in that in Europe it's ridiculously difficult as a halfway functioning adult to get a badly needed prescription, and in the US I have personally heard from people who were diagnosed at age 12, had taken that stuff for more than a decade, had all the necessary data in written form and previous doctor contacts and yet were treated like drug addiction suspects when moving to another state and trying to get a follow-up prescription there that they badly needed to continue doing their job.

Thank you for your perspective.

Our experiences differ in this regard, and I'll acknowledge that my experience may be dated, and or non-representative. I was referring to my time in law school, when students routinely used stimulants and getting a script was a simple matter of going to a sympathetic doctor. This was in the late 2000's.

Times have changed and scripts may be more tightly controlled now, even in the US. My understanding is that Ritalin use is still common in law school and similar venues, though.

I was assuming competitive gamers had similar ease of access. They may not.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

Here in Canada, getting a scrip for any kind of opioids or controlled substances is nearly impossible. It's terribly unfortunate, in my opinion, as some people really need those medications and modern studies show that most people won't become addicted to them. As for those who do become addicted, how do you treat a problem by pushing it to the streets? To that end, you can always get the drugs from somewhere, scrip or no.

As for competitive gamers, that speedy stuff will catch up to you sooner rather than later.

 

[Alesia_BH]

As for competitive gamers, that speedy stuff will catch up to you sooner rather than later.

I'm glad you raised that, OrlonKronsteen.

For the record, I'm not in anyway recommending prescription stimulant use for healthy individuals seeking a competitive edge, in gaming or elsewhere. The data are mixed and the risks are considerable. It's a bad idea.

Caffeine, on the other hand, has a potentially favorable risk reward profile, although that, too, can be harmful. Eyes open, even in this case. Sleep disruption alone entails a significant cost.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

Caffeine, on the other hand, has a potentially favorable risk reward profile, although that, too, can be harmful. Eyes open, even in this case. Sleep disruption alone entails a significant cost.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Lol. I've taken caffeine too far as an ultramarathoner and let me tell you it isn't pleasant.

Caffeine is massively helpful as an ultramarathoner since it blocks the systemic fatigue response and improves muscle endurance. The tendency is to limit test to see how far you can take it. My limit was 400mg every four hours via pill plus 50mg every hour via energy bar. Doing that over a 24hr period is way, way too much caffeine, but I felt like I could handle it. It became my routine.

On one occasion I tried upping my pill does to 600mg every four hours. I ended up ODed, with irregular heartbeat and light headedness, 30km from the nearest road. It was unfun, to say the least.

My cautionary tale is an extreme one, obviously. Nonetheless, the message is generalizable. Caffeine is ubiquitous in our society, but it is still a powerful substance that needs to be handled with caution and respect. There is such a thing as too much.

It's hard to OD with coffee but you can still mess up your sleep. The bedeviling thing is that caffeine users often don't make the connection between their substance use and sleep disruption, even when it would be obvious to an outsider. IMO, the best practice for a coffee drinker is to keep track of your dosing, both amount and time, while also maintaining a sleep journal. It's easier to notice patterns when they're on paper.

That said, I agree with Captain Janeway:

 

[m7600]

Lol. I've taken caffeine too far as an ultramarathoner and let me tell you it isn't pleasant.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Lol. Where I'm coming from I thought the joke would be different. I was thinking, "The runner is going to steal Kramer's coffee, because he wants the caffeine, and Kramer is going to be livid."

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

Do all marathoners (or ultramarathoners) use caffeine? I had never heard of this before.

 

[WarChiefZeke]

As for competitive gamers, that speedy stuff will catch up to you sooner rather than later.

I was a caffeine addict long before I became a competitive Injustice 2 player. But I do need to stop for my own health

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

I was a caffeine addict long before I became a competitive Injustice 2 player. But I do need to stop for my own health

I’ve had problems, too. At one point, due to being trapped on a college campus with nothing to do, I was drinking 10+ cups of strong coffee a day. I finally got caffeine sick. It was REALLY awful. Otherwise I was a regular addict: 4-6 cups a day. Since 2014 I’ve been moderate, however. All good.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Do all marathoners (or ultramarathoners) use caffeine? I had never heard of this before.

It's definitely a thing in ultra running. Not everyone does it, but most do.

Marathoner almost certainly do it. I can't confirm that through personal experience, though.

Athletes in other sports use it too, but endurance athletes benefit the most.

Caffeine-Infused Sports Products Give Athletes an Edge

The banned-substances list grows longer for elite athletes, but one performance-enhancing substance remains curiously legal: caffeine. WSJ’s Rachel Bachman joins Lunch Break to discuss the impact of caffeine on athletes. Photo: Getty

www.wsj.com

 

[Alesia_BH]

I'm going to try to get us back on topic.

I'm not playing this game, but I could be.

 

[Butters]

Still reaching the end of Zelda TOTK currently, will hop on BG3 to have a look see, then I'm looking forward to the coming Assassins Creed game

 

[m7600]

I'm still playing Subnautica. I haven't achieved my goal of killing a Reaper Leviathan yet, but I'm working on it. I found the Prawn Suit and I went looking for a Reaper. There's one at the entrance of the Aurora. As expected, he attacked me, but I was ready. Here's a screenshot of me using the Drill Arm to rearrange his face. That yellow stuff is his blood:

After that, he swam away, and I can't find him anywhere. But he's out there, hiding somewhere, because he knows that the roles have changed. I'm the hunter now, and he's the prey.

 

[m7600]

Finally, I killed one. It wasn't easy. The hunt lasted about 2 in-game days. At night, there was almost no visibility, so I basically had to wander around in the darkness waiting for the creature to attack me. But the Prawn Suit is extremely tough, every time the Reaper grabbed me, I used the Drill Arm to screw up his face. Then, as he swam away, I exited the Suit and I repaired it. Rinse and repeat. I also used the Grappling Arm to catch him, so that when he tried to swim around me, he would carry me and I continued to attack him. Here he is, dead, upside down:

Quite the beast. The only problem is that these creatures don't respawn, and there's only 25 Reaper Leviathans in the entire game (now there's 24 in my session...). I don't want to kill the other ones. One of them had to die because I needed to teach them a lesson for destroying my Seamoth submarine. But I'll leave the other ones alone. In fact, following a YouTube video that I saw, I'm going to build an Observatory for watching them in their natural habitat, equipped with everything from a living quarters to a cafeteria. A small conservation effort on my part for taking the life of one of them.

 

[Alesia_BH]

I’m still playing Street Fighter 6 and I’m still getting better. Since O_Bruce was so impressed with that JP video, I thought I’d share my first victory over a Master ranked JP.

Streamable Video

Watch this video on Streamable.

streamable.com

(Don’t worry everyone. I’ll be back to BG soon, lol. I’m just having fun with a side hobby, not switching genres.)

 

[Antimatter]

Impressive, Alesia! I watched the video, it's cool you persisted and continued to evolve. In that video, there was a neat moment where you stopped losing and just ruled.