MentalEdge

Unrelated.

We are extremely social, with a big initial wall. We don't do small talk or other forms of disingenuine pleasantries. I consider that stuff completely normal and not a problem.

In fact I like it. And I'm not talking about how people act to maintain that initial wall. I'm more than used to that stuff, being finnish myself. No decent person does it by saying things they don't believe, or by treating you like crap.

I'm talking about what people actually think on a cultural level. Stuff they say and do without meaning to do harm. Even after you get to know them. The expectations you are faced with as a man, when you start a relationship or start working with new people.

When I say men are mocked for showing weakness, I mean people who do it because it doesn't do anything to the man in question. As if his mental state and confidence is unshakable by default, making their words just harmless fun. Becayse he's a man. He can take it.

I don't consider it just an opinion. I've heard of similar experiences from too many others.

I want to stress that I do know a ton people who are past this type of thinking, but it feels like I have to sift through a hundred persons to find one worth knowing.

If I stay within my known-good circle, it's fine. Great, even. But the moment I try to meet new people, men and women, I instantly get slapped in the face with how things really are.

As for whether it's a thing in the local culture, maybe. I'm finnish. We're progressive in a ton of ways but this isn't one of them.

It really isn't.

You're mostly right. With a lot of people, yes, you can be open and honest and you'll be met with love and understanding. But it's a minority in my experience.

With the majority, you get a "men should be socially aware and emotionally available" but then the second you bring up your own feelings and problems, you're ignored. Possibly even get your admission of "weakness" mocked.

The assumption is that as a man you have it good, are set for life, and so you don't get to complain. Any problems you have must be minor and should be easy to deal with, how dare you try enlist help from others. Suck it up and man up!

It's popular to virtue-signal about how society thinks about men, so it might seem like things are better. And they are. But there is STILL a double-standard that is making it very difficult to discuss with most people.

When meeting people one on one, the toxic masculinity is alive and well. No-one mocks me to my face at a party. But one on one? All the time.

And there was a cheat-code to unlock them all immediately, in case you got the game to play with your friends. That way you could skip grinding the single player campaign to unlock characters for multiplayer.

This is making me think of Jurmo

It's a harsh stony island on the outer edge of the finnish archipelago, with a history of pirate residents.

Did Tove base this plotline on it? In that the island is desert, not deserted.

No...

The higher the chance you'll stab me, the greater my fascination shall be.

Haha! Like the lunch boxes.

1. You can even play solo. You can play just you, or allow a random fourth to come and go whenever. Matchmaking is good, and people will come and go from lobbies, helping out while they are there. It works the same as DRG, if that game is familiar.
2. Yes, you can also go down to his difficulty level. Progression is more about unlocking variety, rather than getting bigger better guns (though that too). The player that is behind can still use the weapons and equipment called in by higher level players, so keeping up is more a matter skill, rather than character level.
3. I come and go as I please. The war is a constant community effort, and while following the story is fun, there isn't a "bad time" to start or stop playing.
4. You can do one mission at a time. Higher difficulties provide faster progression, and more complex missions, as well was "sets" of mission you can do in any order to get bigger rewards for each one. You can jump around the galaxy, come and go from every front, even join and leave missions while they are in progress.
5. There are more and less effective things. At the highest level you have to be highly efficient and plan out your equipment to precisely counter what you'll be facing on the ground. No one build is the best, and almost everything is effective enough to be viable. The difficulty is HIGHLY configurable. Don't feel locked into playing the highest one, just find the balance between fun and min-maxing and only stray from it for variety.

I should really unpack why that makes me more interested.

Not today.

El, Psy, Congroo

Blaming?

You mean citing.

This is a good thing.