Plagued Consoomers / Consoomer Culture - Because if it has a recogniseable brand on it, I’d buy it!

That's where I'm at. If there's something I want, I just get it. I didn't have that option for most of my life, so I'm enjoying it now, but it feels even better to get things for other people.
That said, though, I have found myself in a very weird situation the other day and wanted to know if any of you guys have run into the same thing.
Specifically: I had a friend of mine actually stop me while out shopping and tell me something I'd grabbed for friend-B wasn't something friend-B would enjoy because, and I quote: "They don't like practical things, that's something they'll buy for themselves. Get them [X] instead."
If it's something they'd get themselves, isn't it good I get it for them? Am I exceptional?
I lean more into you line of thinking because I like it when someone gives me something I know I'll have an immediate purpose for instead of something that might end up collecting dust and taking up space before eventually being donated. Added benefit of people buying me practical things that I could buy myself means I don't have to buy it myself and can use the freed up money to spend on my more specialized hobbies that are harder for people to shop for because it can be confusing.

Like I always ask to get the most practical gifts from my grandparents because it's far easier for them to find that stuff around where they live (no internet and rural) and I can use those things for years. They may think buying me a bunch of coffee beans isn't much of a gift since they don't know any fancy kinds, but usually what I get for Christmas will last me a good chunk into the next year so I don't have to worry about buying any myself for a bit.
You should give people something you think they would want. For a lot of people that's something they wouldn't buy for themselves, which is usually something unpractical.

It's a common meme; husbands buy their wife a vacuum cleaner because it's practical, something she's going to use, and last month she said she needed a new one soon! Wife is unhappy because she wanted a pair of earrings, she left jewelry catalogs around the house with the ones she liked circled, she talked about how nice it would be to have new earrings, but he got her a stupid vacuum cleaner. She got him the new toolbox he mentioned in February.
To get around this I always try to mix it up and get them something practical I know they'd get themselves along with something I think they'd like, bonus if I can find something that's a little bit of both. It really depends on the person you're shopping for.
 
I know I'm late on the Pokemon sperging, but something that really stuck out to me about the new games was that the soundtrack was almost entirely MIDI. Pokemon hasn't done that since ORAS, way back in 2014, and you know what? It sounded better than the 2021 Switch games. Not even their composers can be assed anymore. Good composers, too. The guy in charge also did all the remixes for ORAS, which were pretty great. Really added flavor to them. Then for BDSP he just changes some MIDI samples and calls it a day for the most part.

I know it's a small thing, but it was a huge turnoff for me. It shows they really know their bottom line, and that their fans will eat up anything. The YouTube comments for the OST act like it's god's gift to earth.

"Orchestrating a theme from a DS is something else." Except he didn't even do that! It's still MIDI!
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Unrelated to what we've been talking about, but I found this while out collecting tiktoks:
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The third one down with all the rocks looks alright, she's got them nicely organized and it doesn't take up much room. I'd pick them up and feel all the nice textures and enjoy them.

Fourth one looks like her bedroom directly connects to a Toys R Us warehouse.
 
The idea that Pokémon being for children means it doesn't have to be good is ludicrous. There have been plenty of franchises that are marketed towards younger audiences, but still manage to deliver a quality product.

Nintendo's other "kid friendly" franchises, such as Super Mario and Kirby, can still deliever a quality product, why has Pokémon been stagnating in comparison?
Hazarding a guess from my uncle working at The Pokemon Company.

It is a massive brand outside of the games. It's a far more merchandise-driven business than Mario or Zelda. Pokemon's money is made in majority by merch (not the games), while Mario makes most of its money through video games.

They have a lot of tie-ins and licensing deals with other companies. When a bunch of merch is slated to come out or is on the shelves, they can't afford to delay the game without screwing over their partners.

Pokemon is one of the biggest consoomer merch brands out there, rivaling Disney's merch.
 
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I know I'm late on the Pokemon sperging, but something that really stuck out to me about the new games was that the soundtrack was almost entirely MIDI. Pokemon hasn't done that since ORAS, way back in 2014, and you know what? It sounded better than the 2021 Switch games. Not even their composers can be assed anymore. Good composers, too. The guy in charge also did all the remixes for ORAS, which were pretty great. Really added flavor to them. Then for BDSP he just changes some MIDI samples and calls it a day for the most part.

I know it's a small thing, but it was a huge turnoff for me. It shows they really know their bottom line, and that their fans will eat up anything. The YouTube comments for the OST act like it's god's gift to earth.

"Orchestrating a theme from a DS is something else." Except he didn't even do that! It's still MIDI!
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It's even worse when you consider that the older game had pretty insane technical limitations due to having to fit the entire game in 128mb and the hardware itself being pretty limiting leading to the tracks being super compressed. It's telling that the newer games can't even beat that.

Just for fun here's a comparison between a fan resampled version of the original music using the original uncompressed samples and it's remake in BDSP


That's where I'm at. If there's something I want, I just get it. I didn't have that option for most of my life, so I'm enjoying it now, but it feels even better to get things for other people.
That said, though, I have found myself in a very weird situation the other day and wanted to know if any of you guys have run into the same thing.
Specifically: I had a friend of mine actually stop me while out shopping and tell me something I'd grabbed for friend-B wasn't something friend-B would enjoy because, and I quote: "They don't like practical things, that's something they'll buy for themselves. Get them [X] instead."
If it's something they'd get themselves, isn't it good I get it for them? Am I exceptional?
I think the reason someone would not like a practical gift like a vacuum or like a drill is people have preferences like handle shape, size or whatever and it's probably better for them to go to the store and try a bunch of models for themselves or look it up online.
 
I bought a $600 hipster pseudo-typewriter.

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I kinda feel like there might be a niche market for eink screens + mechanical keyboards, but other than George RR Martin and Stephen King, I’m not sure who it is.

Also, all of that wasted space on the sides of the screen makes me angry. Why not ditch that shit in favor of more room for the screen?
 
That's where I'm at. If there's something I want, I just get it. I didn't have that option for most of my life, so I'm enjoying it now, but it feels even better to get things for other people.
That said, though, I have found myself in a very weird situation the other day and wanted to know if any of you guys have run into the same thing.
Specifically: I had a friend of mine actually stop me while out shopping and tell me something I'd grabbed for friend-B wasn't something friend-B would enjoy because, and I quote: "They don't like practical things, that's something they'll buy for themselves. Get them [X] instead."
If it's something they'd get themselves, isn't it good I get it for them? Am I exceptional?
It really depends on the person and you know your friend. I like getting practical gifts because they remind me of the person who gave them to me every time I use them. But if someone only buys practical things for themselves and has trouble justifying the unnecessary but nice stuff, then something they wouldn't get for themselves is extra special.

Am I exceptional?
You're posting on KiwiFarms just like the rest of us.
 
I upgraded my computer early this year and there's been a lot of talk about improved ram speeds improving performance, and my ram is old enough that faster ram is pretty cheap. But instead of buying that shit on black friday I looked into it, and the difference between my mediocre ram and 'fast' ddr4 is like 3%. it's like 3% between the fastest ddr4 ram and new ddr5 stuff. with a top of the line video card.

you have people losing their shit about ram clock speeds and ram timings and buying $100 sticks of ram to get results barely out of the margin for error and nobody seems to be willing to acknowledge that squeezing 3 more frames per second out of a top of the line video card probably isn't worth $400 of ram. For people with midrange cards it literally does nothing but they'll buy it anyways because the guy who beat an overclocking world record used it. it legitimately feels like boomers and corvettes, i swear to god.

ME AND TOM WERE TWEAKING TIMINGS IN THE OL' RIG, IF YOU AREN'T GOING ALL IN YOU'RE WASTING YOUR TIME. DONT NEED TO BENCH IT TO KNOW ITS FASTER -BILL
 
I bought a $600 hipster pseudo-typewriter.

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Oh god I remember this thing: https://the-digital-reader.com/2016/05/09/freewrite-how-not-to-do-software/
Not only do you not have the ability to give your documents titles, the Freewrite only allows the chemical method of changing what’s at the beginning. (The chemical (attack) method is slower than the nuclear method, but just as deadly.) To put it another way, you use Backspace/New+Backspace key to erase every letter/word you’ve written.

That’s right, the Freewrite does not allow you to even modify the first line of your document to identify it. The only way you can get to the first line of your text is by backspacing over every line that came after it. They tell me that’s the way Ernest wrote but, by now, you can see that they only pull ole Ernie out of the hat when it suits them.
 
I upgraded my computer early this year and there's been a lot of talk about improved ram speeds improving performance, and my ram is old enough that faster ram is pretty cheap. But instead of buying that shit on black friday I looked into it, and the difference between my mediocre ram and 'fast' ddr4 is like 3%. it's like 3% between the fastest ddr4 ram and new ddr5 stuff. with a top of the line video card.

you have people losing their shit about ram clock speeds and ram timings and buying $100 sticks of ram to get results barely out of the margin for error and nobody seems to be willing to acknowledge that squeezing 3 more frames per second out of a top of the line video card probably isn't worth $400 of ram. For people with midrange cards it literally does nothing but they'll buy it anyways because the guy who beat an overclocking world record used it. it legitimately feels like boomers and corvettes, i swear to god.

ME AND TOM WERE TWEAKING TIMINGS IN THE OL' RIG, IF YOU AREN'T GOING ALL IN YOU'RE WASTING YOUR TIME. DONT NEED TO BENCH IT TO KNOW ITS FASTER -BILL
It's the same in any technical hobby.

Both the mechanical keyboard community and the hifi community hype up new products to shit. There are self-proclaimed community leaders on forums/reddit who make it their mission to shit on stuff they don't like. Many of these people seem more interested in consooming to own more things rather than actually using what they buy.

I've heard people in the hifi community say that a $3000 tube amp is "mid range".
 
Please accept this offering of TikToks for your trouble.

All of that girl's "PR Packages" looked like trash companies send out when they can't sell stock. Why would you flex that you got any of that? Or an urban outfitters haul? Fucking "influencers" give me such a headache.

Also funny that those other tiktoks think it's cute to show off they have consoomer problems. I was looking up some shit on Facebook Marketplace and funko pops are constantly being thrown on there with people struggling to get their money back for them. Pretty sure a lot of those are going to end up in the local landfill in a few years time.
 
Am I supposed to be impressed by these rooms?
Impressed, envious, and inspired.
All of that girl's "PR Packages" looked like trash companies send out when they can't sell stock. Why would you flex that you got any of that? Or an urban outfitters haul? Fucking "influencers" give me such a headache.
It's just one step up from fake sponcon:
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She literally works for Silla, too. This is from a few months back:

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Also funny that those other tiktoks think it's cute to show off they have consoomer problems. I was looking up some shit on Facebook Marketplace and funko pops are constantly being thrown on there with people struggling to get their money back for them. Pretty sure a lot of those are going to end up in the local landfill in a few years time.
That's when we cross into the "thrifting" community.
This is played frequently by jewtube now. Desperate for those Xmas gift money you know. (adblock doesn't work on smartTV)
The anime-part took me by surprise.
Miley Cyrus Precure
 
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