The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

[Practical Pig]

With an injury and unable to drive, and now sheltering in place due to The Virus, I’ve been mostly stuck at home for almost five months now and bored out my mind. So I picked up a Nintendo Switch.

Now I’m Sheltering in Hyrule.

 

[BrianLo]

With an injury and unable to drive, and now sheltering in place due to The Virus, I’ve been mostly stuck at home for almost five months now and bored out my mind. So I picked up a Nintendo Switch.

Now I’m Sheltering in Hyrule.

Enjoy! An incredible game.

 

[smooch]

With an injury and unable to drive, and now sheltering in place due to The Virus, I’ve been mostly stuck at home for almost five months now and bored out my mind. So I picked up a Nintendo Switch.

Now I’m Sheltering in Hyrule.

I know people have been talking about it a lot online and the game isn't for everyone but I highly recommend Animal Crossing given the current situation. I've never played one before, but I have had such a blast playing on the Switch. It progresses with the time of real life so you will accomplish certain criteria that will build something the next day, so it keeps you consistently playing / keeping your mind off things. It gives me goals to work towards for the next day and helps split up the monotony of quarantine and losing your sense of day / time.

I also really enjoyed Mario Odyssey, fantastic 3D platformer.

 

[Practical Pig]

I know people have been talking about it a lot online and the game isn't for everyone but I highly recommend Animal Crossing given the current situation. I've never played one before, but I have had such a blast playing on the Switch. It progresses with the time of real life so you will accomplish certain criteria that will build something the next day, so it keeps you consistently playing / keeping your mind off things. It gives me goals to work towards for the next day and helps split up the monotony of quarantine and losing your sense of day / time.

I also really enjoyed Mario Odyssey, fantastic 3D platformer.

Thanks for the recommendations. I've becoming intrigued about Animal Crossing based on @Rich T 's posts about it, and now yours. I'm sold on that and will look into your other suggestions.

I put video games away some time ago, but now this is really helpful in expanding my living room universe.

 

[smooch]

Thanks for the recommendations. I've becoming intrigued about Animal Crossing based on @Rich T 's posts about it, and now yours. I'm sold on that and will look into your other suggestions.

I put video games away some time ago, but now this is really helpful in expanding my living room universe.

I'm glad you're getting back into it! A lot of people have been picking it up either for the first time or the first time in a long time due to the pandemic, my dad who hasn't played games since when he had an NES as a kid is now gaming on my brother's old gaming PC playing games like Portal and Call of Duty.

I would definitely recommend Animal Crossing and Mario Odyssey as your next purchases, at least for playing on your own. Zelda and Mario Odyssey are easily the two main games to play on the Switch, at least in the sense of a "traditional game" because Animal Crossing is a very different style of game, there isn't really an end game, it is just a game about decorating and building your island and having no set goal, sort of like Minecraft in a sense.

If you have anyone else with you and were interested in some local multiplayer games, I would say Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. are both incredibly fun to play with others. Mario Kart is very casual, very easy for anyone to pick up and play. Smash Bros. is unique from many fighting games because it is designed to be played casually, for the most part, but also has potential to be played competitively. If you wanna just have fun and play with items and do whatever, that's how I used to play Brawl on the Wii. It wasn't til I played Melee and Smash for WiiU at my friend's house in high school that I got into competitive Smash, and now I have hundreds of hours on my Switch on Smash Ultimate and it is very fun to throw yourself into if you want to get into a more competitive game eventually, but remains equally as fun to play casually. It is honestly even fun playing single player, there is a "story mode" called World of Light that is fun to play through and breaks up just playing normal matches against bots over and over.

 

[Practical Pig]

I'm glad you're getting back into it! A lot of people have been picking it up either for the first time or the first time in a long time due to the pandemic, my dad who hasn't played games since when he had an NES as a kid is now gaming on my brother's old gaming PC playing games like Portal and Call of Duty.

I would definitely recommend Animal Crossing and Mario Odyssey as your next purchases, at least for playing on your own. Zelda and Mario Odyssey are easily the two main games to play on the Switch, at least in the sense of a "traditional game" because Animal Crossing is a very different style of game, there isn't really an end game, it is just a game about decorating and building your island and having no set goal, sort of like Minecraft in a sense.

If you have anyone else with you and were interested in some local multiplayer games, I would say Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. are both incredibly fun to play with others. Mario Kart is very casual, very easy for anyone to pick up and play. Smash Bros. is unique from many fighting games because it is designed to be played casually, for the most part, but also has potential to be played competitively. If you wanna just have fun and play with items and do whatever, that's how I used to play Brawl on the Wii. It wasn't til I played Melee and Smash for WiiU at my friend's house in high school that I got into competitive Smash, and now I have hundreds of hours on my Switch on Smash Ultimate and it is very fun to throw yourself into if you want to get into a more competitive game eventually, but remains equally as fun to play casually. It is honestly even fun playing single player, there is a "story mode" called World of Light that is fun to play through and breaks up just playing normal matches against bots over and over.

Great info! I appreciate it and will look into Mario Odyssey. Thanks! I'm glad your dad is on board.

 

[Phroobar]

And now for something completely different...

For those that keep seeing some weird pig animal, look at it with its nose in the upper right.

 

[drizgirl]

For those that keep seeing some weird pig animal, look at it with its nose in the upper right.

Hah! I did too. He's quite flexible!

 

[Phroobar]

Anyone have this board game as a kid? The idea was to escape from the Haunted Mansion. Your game piece was a doom buggy. The path would change when gears were rotated and the ghosts would dance.

 

[Rich T]

Absolutely had this! I’d often set it up just to look at the artwork!

 

[Rich T]

I know people have been talking about it a lot online and the game isn't for everyone but I highly recommend Animal Crossing given the current situation. I've never played one before, but I have had such a blast playing on the Switch. It progresses with the time of real life so you will accomplish certain criteria that will build something the next day, so it keeps you consistently playing / keeping your mind off things. It gives me goals to work towards for the next day and helps split up the monotony of quarantine and losing your sense of day / time.

I also really enjoyed Mario Odyssey, fantastic 3D platformer.

So glad you’re enjoying it! Animal Crossing is much like growing a garden (a garden full of comedy, music and endless random fun). I’ve found that its real-time village store hours add a nice sense of normalcy to the real-life stay-at-home situation (I wake up and think:”Awright! Shop opens in half an hour!”)

I’m trying to work as many Disneyland references as possible into my town. Just re-created the Dapper Dans! (They’ll be better when the shop gets straw hats in stock).

 

[Rich T]

Efteling just posted this wonderful kinda-hopeful, kinda-sad drone fly-through of their beautiful, empty park waiting for the day it can reopen to guests. Beautifully done.

 

[NateD1226]

Finished my 1000 piece Space Mountain puzzle today!

 

[TROR]

As I read Huckleberry Finn for one class and write a paper on the history of the barbecue for another, I wish Disneyland had more Southern culture in the park. Get the pirates off Tom Sawyer's Island! Kick Pooh out of Critter Country! Bring back the petting zoo and barbecue!

 

[Phroobar]

As I read Huckleberry Finn for one class and write a paper on the history of the barbecue for another, I wish Disneyland had more Southern culture in the park. Get the pirates off Tom Sawyer's Island! Kick Pooh out of Critter Country! Bring back the petting zoo and barbecue!

I would go the opposite. Expand Pooh with the Tokyo version. Add a path to the X-Wing battle coaster. Build an underground pirates dark ride on TSI where you search caverns for buried treasure. Build a tunnel under the river that comes up on TSI.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Hunny Hunt in DLR would be a dream, but it'll never happen unfortunately.

Otherwise either TSI option is good.

ALSO: I get that people don't like Galaxy's Edge but I really don't understand people that want the petting zoo back or act as if it was objectively better than GE. I mean, sure, Big Thunder Ranch was a nice quiet space and we are losing those and that's unfortunate.

But the amount of whining about losing goats is something I've never understood.

Like, is SoCal or the West Coast lacking petting zoos? There's nothing interesting or exotic about goats in the Midwest and they are probably the worst petting zoo animal. It's like getting sad that your neighborhood McDonald's closed to be replaced by a PF Chang's. Maybe unfortunate if you don't like Chinese food, but is it honestly a downgrade?

It's one thing to miss a quiet area of the park; but goats? Honestly.

 

[Phroobar]

Hunny Hunt in DLR would be a dream, but it'll never happen unfortunately.

Otherwise either TSI option is good.

ALSO: I get that people don't like Galaxy's Edge but I really don't understand people that want the petting zoo back or act as if it was objectively better than GE. I mean, sure, Big Thunder Ranch was a nice quiet space and we are losing those and that's unfortunate.

But the amount of whining about losing goats is something I've never understood.

Like, is SoCal or the West Coast lacking petting zoos? There's nothing interesting or exotic about goats in the Midwest and they are probably the worst petting zoo animal. It's like getting sad that your neighborhood McDonald's closed to be replaced by a PF Chang's. Maybe unfortunate if you don't like Chinese food, but is it honestly a downgrade?

It's one thing to miss a quiet area of the park; but goats? Honestly.

If I want to see goats, I can look over the fence to my neighbor's backyard. I don't go to Disneyland to see goats or cows or horses. I go to Knotts for that kind of thing. Besides, why hasn't PETA done anything about have a petting zoo next to a BBQ ribs area? Isn't that cruel to subject these animals to the smell of their own kind being roasted?

 

[Californian Elitist]

Hunny Hunt in DLR would be a dream, but it'll never happen unfortunately.

Otherwise either TSI option is good.

ALSO: I get that people don't like Galaxy's Edge but I really don't understand people that want the petting zoo back or act as if it was objectively better than GE. I mean, sure, Big Thunder Ranch was a nice quiet space and we are losing those and that's unfortunate.

But the amount of whining about losing goats is something I've never understood.

Like, is SoCal or the West Coast lacking petting zoos? There's nothing interesting or exotic about goats in the Midwest and they are probably the worst petting zoo animal. It's like getting sad that your neighborhood McDonald's closed to be replaced by a PF Chang's. Maybe unfortunate if you don't like Chinese food, but is it honestly a downgrade?

It's one thing to miss a quiet area of the park; but goats? Honestly.

There were other animals besides goats at the petting zoo.

For me, it was not about goats, it was about charm and something that was reminiscent of a classic Disneyland experience. I didn’t enjoy that area simply because there were goats there.

I’d rather have a charming area that matched the overall feel of the park than an IP-based land with no charm, money-grabs everywhere, and two rides that don’t live up to the hype.

 

[TROR]

I like the agrarian lifestyle and want to see it further represented at Disneyland.

 

[PiratesMansion]

There were other animals besides goats at the petting zoo.

For me, it was not about goats, it was about charm and something that was reminiscent of a classic Disneyland experience. I didn’t enjoy that area simply because there were goats there.

I’d rather have a charming area that matched the overall feel of the park than an IP-based land with no charm, money-grabs everywhere, and two rides that don’t live up to the hype.

I know there were other animals, and there was more to the area than just the petting zoo, but many people have made a habit of singling out the goats specifically when they mourn the loss of the area. Whether some people have said it ironically or not, It's become a shorthand.

I'm not saying it wasn't charming (nor am I making any judgment about GE when I haven't visited myself), nor do I doubt that GE has problems, it's just kind of ridiculous to see "oh I miss the GOATS" come up just frequently enough that it never quite leaves the radar.

I also grant that it was likely a favorite of locals and APs, people who have already seen what the park has to offer many times and appreciated the change of pace; likewise, as a tourist, with prices being what they are, it always seemed absurd to spend time visiting a petting zoo when there's nothing uniquely Disney about it. If I wanted to go to a petting zoo, I can think of at least five places within an hours drive from me, all much cheaper to visit than a Disney park.

That's just my perspective. I can understand and mourn the loss of many things, but I will never mourn a closed petting zoo.