MiRRoRMaN

Something I've noticed in this community is that whenever I criticize Steam, or point out something I don't like about the platform, I tend to get a ton of downvotes.

And honestly, I'm just curious why.

This is a piracy-oriented community, so I find it kinda interesting that Steam seems to have such a strong positive reputation here. I'm not saying people shouldn't like Steam, obviously everyone has their own reasons for using it. Steam is convenient, has huge sales, supports Linux, has a massive library of games, etc. I completely get why people use it.

I'm just wondering where the line is for people.

For example, do you like Steam despite the DRM because the convenience outweighs the negatives? Do you see Steam as fundamentally different from other forms of DRM? Do you consider Valve one of the "good guys" in the industry? Or do you simply see Steam as a convenient storefront and don't really think much about the DRM side of it?

Or maybe you actually agree with some of the criticism of Steam, but just think it's being exaggerated.

For me personally, I don't use Steam because I don't really like having my games tied to an account and a platform. I'd rather have the actual files, be able to back them up, move them around, mod them and know that I still have them years later. That's basically what I was getting at in that video I made about Steam as well.

But I'm not trying to start another "Steam bad!" argument here. I'm genuinely curious because sometimes the reaction seems surprisingly pro-Steam considering the nature of this community.

So what is it about Steam that you guys actually appreciate?

I've been thinking about something lately when it comes to anime, and I'm curious if you guys have ever had this happen too.

You know when you're watching an anime and you suddenly figure out the mechanics behind the story?

Not the actual story itself, but the little recipe the writers are using to keep the thing going.

Like you watch enough episodes and suddenly you think:

"Ohhhh... I see what you're doing."

And once I see it, sometimes that's it. The magic is gone. 😂

I've had this happen with Re:Zero, Demon Slayer, and Mushoku Tensei. At some point I become so aware of the particular plot device they're using over and over again that I start seeing it coming from a mile away.

And then instead of watching the story, I'm watching the mechanism.

That's the part that kills it for me.

I'm no longer thinking "holy shit, what's going to happen?"

I'm thinking "yeah, okay, here comes the thing they always do."

And once your brain starts doing that, it's really difficult to switch it off again. It's like you've accidentally looked behind the curtain and discovered the little bloke pulling the strings. 😆

BUT...

And this is where it gets interesting.

Sometimes it actually works.

Higurashi When They Cry is probably the best example I can think of.

That anime is absolutely full of repetition and recurring patterns. You start recognising things. You start noticing that certain situations, characters and events keep coming back around.

And yet somehow... it works.

In fact, in Higurashi the repetition almost becomes part of the appeal. You're sitting there thinking "okay, I've seen this before... but WHY is this happening again?"

So even when you start figuring out the recipe, the recipe itself becomes part of the mystery.

Which I find really interesting because technically I'm still being fed the same kind of thing over and over again. 😂

So I started wondering whether this is just something that happens with me, or whether other people get this too.

Have you guys ever watched an anime where you suddenly figured out the repetitive plot device or storytelling formula being used, and from that point onwards you just couldn't enjoy it in quite the same way anymore?

And I'm also really interested in the opposite.

Are there anime where you KNOW exactly what the writers are doing, you know the formula, you can practically predict what's coming... but it still works anyway?

Because I think there's a big difference between repetition and good repetition.

A recipe isn't necessarily bad just because you know the ingredients. Sometimes you just really like the recipe. 😆

I also wonder if this is more common with the really popular, commercial anime. Especially the long-running stuff. I mean, I get it. If you've got a manga that needs to keep producing chapters and an anime that needs to keep producing episodes, eventually you're going to find a formula that works and you're probably going to keep using the bastard.

But does this happen just as much with more obscure or experimental anime?

Or is this mostly a problem with the big popular stuff?

And I suppose there's also the question of how much repetition we're willing to tolerate. Because obviously pretty much every story has some kind of formula. At some point it's not about whether there IS a formula, but whether you notice the formula more than you notice the story.

Anyway, this isn't meant to be a Higurashi thread, but since I mentioned it...

I'm actually really curious about the new Higurashi season that's been announced. 😂

After the last season, they've got a pretty damn high bar to clear. That felt so much like an ending that I'm honestly wondering where the hell they're going to take it next.

But that's a whole other discussion.

I'm more interested in the general question:

What anime made you realise you'd figured out its recipe?

And did that completely kill the anime for you, or did you somehow end up enjoying it because you figured it out?

I'm really curious what you guys think about this one. :)

I've been watching Needy Girl Overdose after hearing people describe it as "Lain 2.0" because the creators were inspired by Serial Experiments Lain.

Maybe that's why I'm struggling with it.

What made Lain work wasn't just that it was weird. It had purpose. When it suddenly stopped to talk about something like the Schumann resonance, it wasn't random "look how deep we are" material. It served the story. It added to the atmosphere. It made you question what was real. It was experimental, but it knew exactly why.

That's why Lain has such a devoted cult following (and yeah, I'm definitely part of it). It's incredibly 90s with that "the Internet is mysterious and magical" vibe, yet somehow it's still timeless.

With Needy Girl Overdose, though... I keep feeling like the creators confused "being artsy" with "looking artsy."

Every few minutes it feels like the show remembers there's supposed to be a plot, briefly returns to it, and then goes right back to flashing walls of text and abstract imagery. Sometimes an artistic reference lands. Most of the time it just feels like teenage angst dressed up as profound philosophy. Ironically, it ends up feeling as shallow as the influencer culture it's trying to critique.

Maybe that's also because the original game didn't have a huge narrative to build on. I played it too, and honestly there wasn't all that much story there in the first place.

I wanted this to be Lain 2.0. I really did.

So far, though... I'm pretty underwhelmed.

I'm curious what everyone else thinks. Do you genuinely see it as a worthy spiritual successor to Serial Experiments Lain, or is the comparison doing it a disservice?