Any specific recommendations? Or even just a pointer to where to find some?

It’s already been linked elsewhere in these comments, but Kotaku has done the article you imagined before, about 4 years ago: https://kotaku.com/the-dungeons-and-dragons-session-that-became-a-real-lif-1691643499

I am amazed (and delighted; this is my jam) at how many games about designing factories have come out since people first started adding automation mods to Minecraft and other people went “That could be a whole game in its own right.” That said, Infinifactory and Satisfactory could not be more different, and I hope…

Wait, was Friendly serious? I thought it was a parodic response to a parodic OP.

OMG, finally! That solves my only complaint with this keyboard. I am so excited for this! Now I just have to justify spending $300 to replace my perfectly-good 10-key version with this…

I hope you can feel my envy over the internet.

Shout out to Got It Memorized?, who managed to finish recapping all the games before KH3 came out and followed it up with this epic, 2-hour perfect rundown of everything! Since it’s a podcast, it’s also great for if you can’t spare your eyes for a YouTube video.

Oh, then you are going to love Konami’s latest dancing game. Dancerush Stardom is a lot less precise than DDR, but it really encourages players to freestyle. Unlike DDR, it’s not as hard to survive most of the songs, meaning the challenge is making it look good. Here’s one of many great videos:

I was at first, too! But I just realized something: The launcher loops around again next year. No matter what day you start, you always have 365 days of new games ahead of you. Starting on a different day just means you’re starting in a different place in the cycle.

“That ice cream you like is going to come back in style.”

AFAIK, you have to convince Nintendo you're in Japan. I have not looked deeply into it, though, so I don't know what they use to determine what region your account is in.

For anyone lucky enough to snag the Japan-only Famicom controllers, it’s been confirmed that the microphone on Player 2 is fully functional. Nintendo really did think of everything!

Oh, is that what was going on with the PICO-8 Celeste? Thank you for explaining!

The only game that has ever given me motion sickness was The Witness. It forced me to stop and lie down for hours and made my motion-sickness-prone wife throw up. Unfortunately, I never found a cure, so I can’t help you. (And also I’ve never finished The Witness, which I was really enjoying. 😕)

Wow. Google's been branching out into some very unexpected markets.

I’d just like to remind everyone that this is Kingdom Hearts, the series where Mickey Mouse was literally turned into a glowing orb of light for most of a game. Pooh becoming an orb of light with little bear legs would be adorable and not entirely out of character.

Anyone else remember the Orisinal games? This feels like a spiritual successor to those. I feel like they evoked a similar mental state.

This this this this this this this this this.

Because I can’t just go do that. Physically, I could, sure; but I’m unwilling to live with the consequences. I have to go to work or take my mother-in-law to the hospital or fly 20 hours for business. And when I can’t justify just staying in bed, but I can justify taking a short break where I am, something like this…

THIS is what I came here to find out. WC3 was great and all, but the mapping and modding community is why I was still part of the community through college. WC3c.net’s bot still faithfully sends me a birthday email every year. ☺️