Maternal mortality/morbidity is a serious issue that most don't consider. We're constantly hit with depictions of childbirths where nothing goes wrong in tv/shows/books, etc. The reality, is that there are a lot of cases where things go wrong, or where women know up front they have conditions where even trying to carry a baby full term could pose a risk to their life.

So this subject matter could be a sensitive point for medical reasons, not even just a financial or social pressure reason.

www.rainymood.com is one of the classics.

I recommend Ambient Music Lab on YouTube. They keep up multiple 24/7 music streams focusing on various ambient genres, from sci-fi soundscapes to drone and overall ambient songs.

https://youtube.com/@MusicLabAmbient

Can even pair the two above for rainy sci-fi soundscapes and go full in on their Blade Runner radio.

Do you do the hop teleport travel or smooth analog stick movement to control feet? I hate teleport movement, but they say it's less nauseous to do it that way.

I do agree there's a lot of potential. I just become a bit pessimistic seeing how platforms instantly take people down for copyrighted content detection through algorithmic scanning of audio or visual content.

I think stuff like VR Chat scrapes by through 'Fair Use' practices because it's a free application, but the second you try and broadcast what you're doing elsewhere to like Facebook or Twitch or YouTube, you can get struck down in seconds, especially if you are playing music owned by someone like Disney.

It's a rough thing to navigate when it comes to intellectual properties all being used and abused on someone's platform.

I'm not even the biggest tabletop gamer, but am playing more strategy tabletop games and D&D with friends than the pre-Covid years. Nice to just be able to sit at a table with friends, have a drink or two and order a pizza or something and play a game.

The biggest problem is the learning curve is typically much higher with board games than most video games because it takes about 30 minutes to explain the rules to a first time player of a lot of these games. Once a game is in more common rotation, it goes much smoother, but can't tell you how many game nights we start so late because it takes us forever to decide on what to play and then cover the rules on top of that.

Something like Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros, you just turn the TV on, hand the controllers out and you're rolling almost instantly

Turn the VR defroster on, heat up, AC on with air to max, air recirculation mode off.

I enjoy it. The price was really cheap before they changed the name from Oculus Quest 2 to Meta Quest 2. Was only like $200 for the full set. Don't think the price will be a heavy barrier of entry for VR for long considering what the PS5 sits around.

I mostly play games to be single player experiences more than multiplayer. So I do actually really appreciate the immersion level of VR, counter to me knocking it pretty hard in my initial post. I do think the tech is awesome, 3D immersive sound and motion controls is all deeply fun.

As far as interacting with others, I just find it limited. I think microphone chat in a virtual space with an avatar that you wave your hands is kind of where it tapers off. A lot of people like to share more than just speech or text with each other.

Also, you can't really drink or eat while playing VR while you can playing games at the desktop, table or couch, so there's that as far as talking about social aspects of gaming.

You are still very limited to how you communicate in VR. It's basically microphone chat with an avatar version of yourself.

Chatrooms and other online hangouts give you access to a lot more information to send back and forth, be it photos, hyperlinks, videos, gifs, memes, audio files, etc.

There's a lot more than just text that is being sent back and forth between people now, and it is a huge pain to send anything text related in. VR from aiming and shooting with motion controls on a virtual keyboard vs. just using mobile phone or keyboard/mouse.

The problem with Meta is ultimately it is some corporate controlled play space, and they will strip the type of content you can share, so kids or people will move somewhere else if it feels like there's too much censorship.

Not to mention Facebook/Meta shadowbans people from having very little customer support and leaves almost every account ban up to algorithms with no great way to recover your account or access to your own VR device without looping in some local state attorney general. Current FB/Meta is already kind of dystopic Black Mirror.

I think VR showed a lot of promise, but it's ultimately too uncomfortable for extended use. Stuff like Beat Saber and Half-Life Alyx is pretty much peak VR still, so it's not making a ton of leaps forward right now.

I've honestly just seen such a resurgence of old as much as people try to push new. Pixel art and retro games are arguably as strong as they've ever been with classic libraries existing on the Switch and indies being very affordable and on all platforms.

I've also seen a big uptick in table top gaming. Deck building games, Dungeons & Dragons and more are all on the rise.

I think playing games will always be a part of how humanity has fun. I think the question may be less about the format of the games themselves, and more about how humans choose to stay connected.

VR implies disconnecting personally in the same room, and being more online. And the way people are moving in online connectivity, it isn't VR. It's streaming, Discord servers, live chats, Twitch, messengers, etc. It seems a lot of people don't want to be so immersed into a game world they lose a lot of communication and interaction with other humans in the process.

I think gaming will move in all directions. So many niche markets and Kickstarters of all kinds are making it because people want a little bit of every thing. There won't be some homogenous push in one direction. Nintendo proved it by going back handheld when others were focused on graphics. How we play is often more important than what we play.

Just my two cents.

Hip Hop recently had its '50th birthday' so the genre goes back way further than most people think. Hip hop has been through quite a few re-inventions of itself over the decades, from conscientious boom bap to gangster rap to blog era rap to mumble rap and so on.

I think the reason why it's been the genre that dominates globally for decades is because of the overall feeling that it gives off. Hip hop and rap is both aggressive and empowering. It's rags to riches. It's motivational workout music. It pumps you up. It's storytelling. It's danceable. It offers a lot.

It's very competitive within itself. More than most other genres, the 'come up' is a huge part of hip hop. The early part of any rapper's career is big because that's when they're hungriest to make it. It's their 'freshman' year so to speak. The competitiveness of hip hop ensures that the artists try and push each other throughout the years to stay on top of their game and sharp with the pen. It's a genre one has to prove themselves in, and the veterans and newcomers are pushing each other alike. It's pretty amazing when some of the best rap music coming out in 2022 is from some of the originators of the genre; see Nas and Hit Boy working together on the King's Disease projects.

And ultimately, people resonate with all of this. When you consider around 50% of the world lives on like $5 a day, hip hop has often been a way to give a voice to the voiceless, to empower people to tell their own stories in a way that's meaningful and impactful. It's one of the leading genres when it comes to dance choreography as well. It's often associated with what's hip and trending from a cultural and marketing perspective. It's often used for political protest musically.

It's bold, loud, and full of people speaking truth to power. Sure there's some trash and lazy variants of it, but for the most part, it's to the current generation what rock and roll was for decades before. Also, some of the most interesting things in music come from hip hop and rap because of the combination and fusions of genres and sounds that people would not have tried elsewhere outside of electronic music. Yet both hip hop and electronic music still get lambasted as not 'being real music' by people who are just closed minded.

TL;DR, most people don't live very comfortable lives, and hip hop is a form of music that beautifully captures the struggle and represents individuals who overcame that to see success. People ultimately want to overcome their own struggles, and hip hop is often the soundtrack of people's choosing.

Nobuo Uematsu - To Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X Theme)

I've always listened to music of all genres and styles, but to be honest, it's video game music that really pushed my interest to explore music further. Hearing this song for the first time as the opening credits rolled was already an emotional roller coaster, but it inspired me to try and pick up and learn piano. Maybe that helped spark a lot for me, but here I am now, with a collegiate music degree, been producing music for over a decade. I feel like this might be the most literal 'life-changing' song for me.

At an earlier age, I'd say the Donkey Kong Country 1 + 2 soundtracks also hit me really hard. David Wise somehow made a game about a monkey in a necktie one crazy emotional adventure. Aquatic Ambience and Stickerbush Symphony being obvious standouts.

Eminem - Fack