That's relatively recent. I ordered two sets of an almost identical SKU of RAM for the exact same price as you in late Jan.

Now that's also $450+

I would maybe cry if they ported it to PC and revived the servers

It doesn't pay to grind down any sense of drama, milieu, atmosphere, or character under the weight of trying to widen the channel of the game's information economy.

Ultimately I am cursed to believe that video games are more than just a series of tasks set within a system designed to encourage and facilitate their successful completion by anyone who can hold a controller.

Computers were a skill. They were taught in classrooms as a skill. Skills give you power over your tools because you work them as an expert and that is leverage to multiply externally.

And then computers became an A/B tested telemetry-based advertising conduit to brains for SaaS recurring revenue.

My phone has full optical character recognition of 47,000 photos. I can search individual words.

I cannot search three words in quotes.

Computers used to be powerful. That power meant something. It was power for making your life better in sovereignty to your own interests.

And now we have this.

a bold claim, with ramifications

This is a vibe I've always felt since 2018-ish (vtubing shattering a lot of stigmas about PC gaming) but seeing someone who lives in Japan say "yeah furniture stores have a PC gamer aisle now" really sends it home.

Part of why I can't relate is definitely because I got very good at masking my interests when I was younger lol.

The idea of being perceived IRL as a videogame enthusiast makes me break out in hives. Always has.

Calling it trauma feels overly dramatic, but my parents definitely instilled it in me.