This thread is for anyone who wants to chat with me about their nerdy interests! I'm really into Nintendo games and animation. Would love to meet some other people here who can relate, maybe we can exchange our Switch friend codes and play online sometime! I know this app is for OCD treatment, but I really want to use this platform to connect to people and make new friends. We all know how difficult it can be to engage in conversation with others when we suffer from intrusive thoughts, believing they would hate us if they knew what goes on inside our heads. We're all here for the same reason, so that barrier of entry is gone. We don't have to worry about hiding our "deepest, darkest secrets" because that ice has already been broken. As someone who also suffers from social anxiety and spends most of my time in isolation (I only have one close friend I talk to regularly--I fell out with my three best friends in the past year, which has been incredibly difficult) I think reaching out and connecting with others is instrumental in my recovery process. So, this forum is purely for people who want to be friends and talk about our hobbies and interests! While I'm hoping to find some likeminded gamers and artists, I'd love to get to know you regardless of what your hobbies are, so feel free to share your interests even if they're different from mine! I hope this doesn't violate the rules of the app or anything, but I really wanna keep the discussion on mental health to a minimum in this thread, if possible. I just want this to be a fun space to share what we like! Exposures are an essential step in the recovery process, but that doesn't mean our goal should be all work and no play. Let's just enjoy ourselves here and tell OCD once and for all that we don't have to take everything seriously! Tell me what movies you like, what TV shows you're watching, what video games you're playing, what projects your working on! Just be sure to make it FUN!!! 😁😁😁

No worries! I'd like to see people posting in this thread regularly--not just today--so drop back in tomorrow if you want and ramble to your heart's content!

@Aaron R. will do!

Hey, thanks for sharing! I've heard great things about the Persona series, but I don't really play M-rated games, so I'll probably never get to experience it for myself. As a Smash Bros. fan, I'm at least somewhat familiar with Joker. I know P5 Scramble is a Warriors spinoff, and those games can be a lot of fun. I sunk dozens of hours into Hyrule Warriors. It's funny, I always think I would be really into life simulation games, but I've never played one that's really resonated with me. I picked up New Leaf back on 3DS a long time ago because I heard such good things, but I fell off of it after maybe 10 days. I just couldn't get into it. When New Horizons exploded in popularity, I figured I owed it to myself to try again, but I still find myself bored with it. It's really frustrating because I desperately want to like Animal Crossing! I've wanted to like it so badly that I've actually put about 70 hours into it. I wish it relaxed me, but it honestly just kind of stresses me out, lol. I keep wishing I could do things faster and think, "If I have to pluck one more weed or listen to Blathers tell me how to get my fossils assessed one more time, I'm gonna lose my mind!" 😂 I haven't played in a while, but I'll probably at least dip back in to get the Mario furniture they're adding. Stardew Valley is one I've never played. I'm very curious about it, but I feel like it would be similar to my Animal Crossing experience. I also have a hard time getting into indie games with pixel graphics. Shovel Knight is pretty much the only one that really does it for me. I think the co-op update for Stardew was really awesome though, and that really tempted me to buy it. I've loved cartoons ever since I was a little kid, and I still watch them pretty regularly. I like watching wholesome, family content (hence not playing M-rated games), and I think that's definitely influenced my love for the medium. Avatar: The Last Airbender is and always will be my favorite animated series for how emotionally compelling and well-written it is, as well as the stellar visuals. I've always loved drawing and writing (I'm an English major), and telling stories through animation is just a natural fit for me. When I was little, I spent hundreds of hours making Flipnotes on my Nintendo DSi. My mom got me an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription a couple years ago, which includes Adobe Animate. I've messed around a little with it, but I haven't really made anything worth sharing. Because of the poor self image my anxiety causes me, it's often hard for me to power through it and actually make something creative. Making cartoons for a living is my dream, so I hope I can find the motivation to pursue it more than I currently do.

It ain't much, but here's a short animation I made for a class project. Ignore the crappy background, lol. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u6sXI6vDaG4

@Aaron R. Sorry for taking a couple days to respond but!! Wow youre really talented! You have such a charming style, reminds me of early 2000s cartoons! I love animated stuff a lot too, tho i tend to prefer stuff aimed at older people i still LOVE avatar. It was a really big intererest of mine growing up and now i kinda wanna rewatch it lmao. Also re: you getting stardew valley, I think you might like it more than animal crossing because theres a lot more stuff to do and though it is mostly a day to day farming sim, theres still a bit of a story to it. Though if you get overwhelmed with too much stuff to do in games it might not be the best fit (I have this problem playiny sometimes and i end up needing to put it down for a few days)

@rokay Thanks so much, I really appreciate it! Yeah, I'm very inspired by shows from the early 2000's, since that's when I grew up! This particular character was based slightly on Mandark from Dexter's Lab, though that's technically more of a 90's show, lol. Avatar is on Netflix, so there's no matter time to rewatch it, haha. Just today, the creators confirmed they're working at Nickelodeon again to create more shows in the Avatar universe, which has me really excited. That's good to hear about Stardew Valley. I get very bored doing the same repetitive tasks in Animal Crossing and often feel like nothing new is going on. I like the idea of having lots of different things worth managing. I don't think Stardew is at the top of my radar right now, but I'm definitely interested. I just really have to get past the 16-bit aesthetic, lol.