This is an interesting question for me. I used to be solidly in the “no” camp but became part of the “yes” camp due to some things I’ve experienced in life.

Life is strange. Maybe it’s nothing more than what is happening in our brain. Maybe it’s more than that. I choose to believe the latter, but I’m open to having my belief challenged if (when?) scientific study provides a better answer than what we have now.

Starsiege. No, not tribes. Starsiege, third game in the earthsiege series. Tribes was actually a spin off in the same universe that got much more popular (with good reason, tribes was awesome).

Starsiege was a pc game that came in a bigass box, complete with multiple books filled with lore from the game’s universe. It wasn’t as well received as mech warrior (another mech sim), so it didn’t have a big community. But those of us that played it loved it to death. I think you can still get the game running if you don’t mind fucking with a bunch of sketchy third party patches.

I was so excited to play the SC2 campaign when the game came out. Starcraft and Brood War was my life for years.

I was so disappointed by SC2 that, to this day, I haven’t even read the wikipedia summary of the expansion campaigns. Never bought either of them. I stopped playing around the time they introduced paid maps (in 2010 or something). Playing competitive was good, but UMS was botched just as bad as the campaign when the game was new. That was my most anticipated thing after the campaign. Even now people mostly only play the same 3 UMS maps.

The original game still holds up too. We got robbed of a good sequel. And don’t even get me started about diablo 3 lol. RIP blizzard.

Edit: did some googling and it turns out they announced, but did not implement paid maps in 2009. Map micro translation did eventually get implemented though.

Unfortunately I don’t think that is a typo, lol. Death race is definitely how I would describe the I-45 Houston experience. If I’m not mistaken, the section of it that runs through Houston is actually one of the most dangerous stretches of road in the entire US. People absolutely tailgate at 90+ on that road.

This is true, particularly in the brutal heat this summer. My mind just turns to selfish solutions when I’m stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.

You would think that somewhere between the 10th and 26th lane of this urban hellscape, someone calling the shots would stop to ask “hey guys, y’all think maybe there’s a better way to do this?” But since this is 'murca, that guy probably got fired and replaced by some ex-executive of a company best known for its crimes against nature.

Can confirm, this happens a lot too. That level of recklessness should be remarkable, but that’s just how people roll around here. There’s a special sort of Houston PTSD that comes from almost dying in a car on the way to work every single day.

Air quality (or rather the lack thereof) is a problem in parts of Houston. If you ever want to go down an internet rabbit hole, google the Houston cancer clusters. Or the Brio superfund (not superfun) site. I try not to think about it when I’m outside taking a walk 🫠

Houstonian of 30+ years here.

Even with the insane number of lanes available, driving anywhere inside beltway 8 between like 12 pm and 8pm is hell on earth. And outside those hours, you’re playing chicken with drunk drivers.

Before I started working remote, I used to clock my average speed to and from work. Most of the time it was 15-20mph on a 65mph freeway. Literally bicycle speeds. Without cars or gridlocked traffic, I could have commuted faster on a bike.

More than one person dies in Houston traffic every day on average. This is probably the shittiest and most expensive form of mass transit mankind will ever build. At least I hope this is as bad as it ever gets, lol.