I like to do a lot of things. Most of them boring. But I do them nonetheless.
Like I said, the things I do in my free time are very boring, to some anyway. I'd say the most normal hobby of mine is playing video games but even then, the games I play don't fall into the mainstream and are limited to sub-cultures. My favourite game of all time probably has to be Civilization VI, even though I'm not so good at it and don't play it much anymore. I've been exploring V and VII. Civ VI to many people is a childish take on the IP, which I agree with. Some say it's a downgrade compared to V concerning its art style, mechanics, combat, tech/culture trees and leaders, which yes, is probably a fair assessment. Although I still sink hours into it. It's simple and fun. Found cities. Grow cities. Raise an army. Take other cities. Launch a rocket. Nuke wherever. I like how every round is different. I've never played two games with the exact same plan or won it by doing the same things. Its replay value holds high, and that's true for almost all Civ titles, and I just happened to fall into VI. I've played it for years and I'll play it for years to come. Another game similar to Civ VI is Realpolitiks. This is more niche. The game simply doesn't get the same exposure as other strategy games such as Paradox titles, Civ games etc. A mediocre game with minimal marketing. But it's really good. In depth enough to scratch the strategy game itch but not to the point I'm ripping my hair out. I think the RNG could be toned down though, GDP growth is entirely at the mercy of the game, and the AI doesn't suffer from it. The rest of the games I play are pretty mainstream, Rainbow Six Siege, GTA V, FC26, 8-Ball Pool and so on. I don't really need to talk about them. Below is a screenshot from Realpolitiks that I thought was funny, them getting targeted by the UN for military intervention.
I'm into other things, like music, but I have a separate tab for that. Although, revolving music, I have a sort of sub hobby; audio quality. I like to maximise the quality of audio my music is played back at. I have a hardware stack and a software stack that work in a chain like system to output bit perfect audio. To many people, Spotify and AirPods sound good enough. Some might even say it's the best way to listen to music. Music they don't own, pay for monthly and listen to at a sub-par quality. I feel bad for them. Buy to own people! Anyway. Below I will show a lovely handmade graphic showing my audio stack.
I made the diagram in an webtool, which despite using less that 15 minutes ago, I've already forgotten the name of. Really shows the effect of short-form content on memory. That's a topic for someone who knows what they're talking about, not me. Concerning the contents of the diagram, I think I know what I'm talking about. Not really. I have more of an idea on it though compared to neuroscience. Any audiophiles reading this, feel free to somehow contact me and correct me on it, I might get back to you. Maybe. Possibly. Perhaps. Probably not. While looking through the .svg file that took me longer than I'd like to admit to make, you will have noticed all my software stacks lose bit-perfect output. This is by design. It's because instead of listening to my music or audio at large in bit-perfect output, I prefer it to be tuned to sound better on my IEMs. Some audiophiles like bit-perfect more, as to them, it's 'authentic audio'. There's barley a difference. Like there's barely a difference between £180 IEMs and £1000 IEMs. To me at least, my hearing isn't the best. I can't really be bothered to explain any of my audio stacks, I don't understand them all that well myself. I just follow what other people did online. It works and you get the picture. I do like messing about with my tune, so I guess I'm not that bad of a larper. At the end of the day, I only care that my music sounds better than it used to when I had Skullcandy headphones. Not that hard to do to be honest. Anything wired is probably better than anything bluetooth and sub £450. That about sums up my hobbies, but not really, I'm just tired and my other hobbies are even more boring than this. Not to you, but to me. Unless I'm really passionate about something, I will just get on with it and enjoy it, not tell others about it. I'm not good at explaining things.