Switch game prices are ridiculous! I think my (teenage) kids have 4 games for their Switch because nobody wants to pay those prices. I don't know how many 100s of dollars they've spent on Steam games over the years at $5-20 per game, but they're never willing to spend $40-60 and they won't even put Switch games on their wishlist at that price.
Depends on your hairstyle, but I used to have my hair cut about once a month for $20-25. I bought a set of electric hair clippers for about $30 more than 15 years ago and learned to cut it myself and have saved thousands of dollars. Its a simple men's cut, so it works for me.
An electric razor or a quality safety razor are also possibilities. I used to use the disposable gillette razor cartridges at about $4 per head, which lasted 3-4 weeks (I used them until they hurt to save money). Now I have both a safety razor and an electric razor (I don't need both, the electric was a gift). The safety razor was $45 and and blades are about $0.10. Blades last about a week instead of a month, but it paid for itself in about a year. I experimented with various shaving creams as well, but eventually went back to canned shaving cream because the time spent creating a good lather in alternative forms was annoying and not worth the savings.
The electric razor may or may not pay for itself depending on how much it cost and how often you have to change the head and the cost of cleaning solutions, but I do enjoy having it for a quick shave. It definitely is not as good of a shave though.
Its not always sinister, sometimes its just the petty bureaucracy of HR trying to standardize things to benefit themselves. I once got switched from salary to hourly because HR was trying to align job titles across departments.
My title at the time was Sr. Analyst and they were switching to a numerical title system. My boss said to write up a justification for why I should be slotted as an Analyst 3, which would stay salary, otherwise I would be slotted as an hourly Analyst 2. I asked if there was any benefit to the higher title and was told no, so I declined and was switched to hourly. For me it was fantastic because I regularly worked over 40 hours and traveled frequently, so I started getting lots of overtime pay.
Its only temporary, those employees will be eliminated later under more lax labor laws.
I also go back to Skyrim constantly; it is probably my most played game. I have a hard time making a definite suggestion because I sit here many nights and wonder which game I want to play and frequently find that I don't want to play any of them (so I scroll Lemmy instead). That said, below are a few that might be possibilities and I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's suggestions so I can find my next game too!
You could check out the Dungeon Siege or Torchlight series. They're both Diablo-style gameplay, but in a super generic RPG setting. They're both older, cheaper, and okay game series.
The Overlord series is fun, its kind of a reverse RPG where you are the bad guy terrorizing the locals with your minions. The gameplay mainly revolves around directing your minions more than direct combat. It is a bit simplistic, but I really enjoyed it.
I'm not a fan of the Witcher series, but lots of people love it and it seems to check most of the boxes you're looking for.
I agree with the Oblivion suggestion. I'm always conflicted on this one because I think it is a better game than Skyrim in terms of quests and interactions, but the gameplay is a bit dated and there were some questionable design decisions that resulted in some major overhaul mods being built to completely redesign the leveling system. I would love to have Oblivion, but with Skyrim graphics and mechanics (mostly).
Kingdoms of Amalur definitely seems like it hits everything on your list. I struggled to stay interested in it long enough to finish it (I think I finished it), but I'm not sure why since it has all the elements I enjoy from other games.
Similar to KoA, Dragon's Dogma seems to have all the typical things I like in a game, but I've played it twice and not made it out of the starting region either time. I'm not sure what it is that causes me to lose interest so fast. There's nothing I can point to and say I dislike.
Greedfall is super weird (to me) and not quite a fantasy RPG, more like medieval fantasy RPG. It is generally an open world game, but not as open as Skyrim (fewer side-quests, semi-linear main quest line). I thought it was an okay game, the main thing that frustrated me is that there were some areas of the game where you could make decisions with major story impacts and other areas where you were not given any choice in the narrative. As a result, I sometimes felt like my character was taking actions that were not in alignment with the narrative I had created for him. I appreciated that the game seemed unique and not just copying something else that was successful and I think I played it on GamePass at the time, so it was kind of like playing it for free. :)
I also use a double edge safety razor, but have an electric razor also for a quick morning shave. Other things I do:
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I cut my hair with clippers I bought 15+ years ago for the price of 1-2 haircuts. This probably only works for people with simple, short hair, but has saved me thousands of dollars compared to getting a monthly haircut at $20+
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We put a basket with cloth napkins next to the dining table and a basket with washcloths on the kitchen counter and have drastically reduced the quantity of paper towels that we use
True, watching other people use Excel is painful. I used to have a coworker that was so good at Excel that she didn't use a mouse at all and was way quicker than anyone else. She made me feel guilty whenever I was the one being watched because I knew she must be frustrated watching me do things with shortcuts and the mouse.
Did they assault every tire, just in case, or did they have some way to know which ones were a threat?
At this point I'm mainly still on Windows because it is the easiest thing to do - I know how to use it and it is already installed on all my PCs. At least 3 of my PCs are eligible to upgrade to Win11 (2 are not), but I have no plans to ever upgrade. So, when security updates stop, that will be my motivation to give Linux another try.
The lodgings were on the top floor next to the well-guarded premises of a respectable dealer in stolen property because, as Granny had heard, good fences make good neighbors.
The Steamdeck sale is tempting. I have been trying to decide if I need one (I don't need one, but that's not important).
What addon is that? Its very frustrating using LinkedIn and having to click through so many pages of useless results, especially all the listings from other job boards.