By 'fastmail masked', you mean an email on the fastmail domain, right? I.e. [email protected]? So that if there is a problem with your domain, you can still login to your registrar even if they want to say verify your identity by sending a code to your registered email address?
The big difference/problem I think is the social aspect. With AAA at least you can expect large numbers of people enjoying them at the same time, so you can share the experience with others (and even then, good luck finding anyone IRL to relate to if you're 35+). People tend to be social creatures, and are largely driven by what 'everyone else' is doing. It's amazing how peoples' tastes miraculously change depending on what their peer group is at.
But if you discover some gem of a game from 1997? You will unfortunately likely feel quite alone playing it.
I don't really have an answer to this. I somewhat envy the game streamers that have a small community around them, so they can play some old game live and get the experience of enjoying it with others.
Is Monkey Island 2 even possible to beat without a hintbook?
I enjoyed Monkey Island 1 a lot, but with 2 there was a combinatorial explosion of items/locations, and it just seemed too difficult/unfair. I got the impression they wanted you to have to call the hint phoneline.
I do not think it is a test of nostalgia, rather a test of time - I have been playing many of these games (and new games, too) for the first time recently.
It is amazing what some games managed to do with the limited graphics capabilities of the time. Metal Gear Solid 1 used a colour palette so well to hide the graphics limitations. Many games shined with clever use of pre-rendered backgrounds (FF7 is one of them, but also the Resident Evil series come to mind).
Even from an earlier time, Monkey Island is all the funnier for the pixelatedness. System Shock 1 is still amazingly immersive and atmospheric (and was way ahead of its time!).
I think part of what makes games from late 90s so special is that the tech was good enough to allow plenty of creative freedom, but still simple enough to allow for relatively small teams with relatively small budgets to make the games and add their personal touch to them. That is why Deus Ex 1 is much more personal than the later more polished installations etc.
I was once in Kanazawa and randomly walked into the phonograph museum. They had a room there where you could pick an LP from a pile and play it on a phonograph. I grabbed one from a box at random, and the music was amazing - I had no idea what it was at the time. Turned out it was the Macross DYRL OST. That got me hooked.
Life comes with a lot of suffering inseparable from it.
Different paths in life we can choose result in different kinds of struggle we onboard.
Meaning is defined as what makes it overwhelmingly worthwhile.
A lot of religions/philosophies - Stoicism, Buddhism, Christianity etc. - are great for dealing with these problems for yourself, assuming you are already here. None, however, inspire the creation of new life to deal with this stuff. E.g. "Virtue is the highest good and its own reward" is great, but why create new life to have to deal with this if it can be avoided? It becomes circular and meaningless.
Any kind of dopamine-based pleasures are also somewhat degrading to one's humanity once you realize you're effectively being the mouse pushing the button, and are certainly far removed from having any meaning. What difference does it make how fast you were running on the hedonic treadmill if you're going to die?
If life is full of tragedy, why make more of it? So that you could still have love surrounding you when tragedy strikes? How is that not selfish but OP's view supposedly is?
Yes, I agree with you that you have to create some meaning in your life, make up something and convince yourself to believe in it, because there is hardly another option.
Have you written about your FI/RE story anywhere? Would be interesting to read. E.g. which SWR, did you end up moving somewhere cheaper, what do you do day-to-day now? How have you found actually living on your withdrawals - has it not caused more worry? How do you avoid the FOMO of seeing your former colleagues pressing on?
I find this surprising. Did we not just have a pandemic, where people had to have fun without 'going out' and spending money? It was great to see so many people gathering in parks etc. instead of going to restaurants.
I found it very strange and sad that after the lifting of lockdowns people went right back to the way things used to be. Did we learn nothing? Such a squandered opportunity.
What happened to just meeting up in a street or at someone's place and 'hanging out' informally? At what point did it become near-obligatory to have a sit-down dinner or 'go out' to enjoy the company of friends?