Hi Lauren, I'm glad to see you are still around. You don't know me but I used to watch your videos about 10 years ago, when I picked up the flute and my first real pieces was "the place I'll return to someday". I have fond memories of watching your covers because you had a pretty cheerful and natural vibe. It eventually inspired me to start my own VGM cover band (for a whole ONE year before the pandemic hit). Now I'm no longer in that band but I still like to play the flute when my toddler allows it. Anyway, all the best to you and your band! Cheers!
Glad to see you well enough to put stuff up again, but doubly glad just to hear from you that you are doing better. Sorry you were put through such a wringer like that.
Totally get your complaints about the pressure to know about theories / fan meta! 1) because not everyone is looking to play that intensely, it’s like reading frankenstein for fun versus being an academic who reads research papers about it, and 2) if understanding a significant portion of a game requires going in the code and doing category 5 fan analysis then it’s a bad game
adding on that i think a lot of people mistake casual enjoyment of a thing for passive consumption and that’s not true at all! it’s definitely possible to have fun and think about a game or other piece of media without making it a huge part of your day to day life