I've noticed that there's a bit of talk here and there at times about big named directors like Shinbo or Ikuhara in threads about there respective anime. Similarly there's "the /qa/ voice" and a few threads in the past made about favorite seiyuu's. With the more recent Seiyuu Radio thread I got a bit more interested in asking /qa/, how much do you pay attention to who's making the anime you enjoy and how conscious of their work are you while watching?

For myself I mostly know seiyuu, studios, composers, singers, and directors since those are more the big in your face part of anime, but I also can recognize a few character designers like Akio Watanabe/Amazuyu Tatsuki. I also know a few (non-director) animators by name, though I can't really tell who's who from just watching an anime like it's occasionally possible to do with directors/studios. Not even sure if it is possible.

Maybe it's a bit meta for some people, but I think it can be valuable and give you a greater appreciation of anime you really enjoy or lead you to finding other works with them included that you may also love. It can also be an interesting experience to go through the catalog of a director to watch how they grew over the years. A similar thing applies to seiyuu, and with them there's also the feeling of hearing a new voice you don't recognize that absolutely hits it out of the park and astounds you, like Utena from MahoAko.

https://www.pcgamer.com/wow-classic-is-getting-official-hardcore-mode-servers/

What does /qa/ think about the idea of hardcore MMOs? Having seen a bit about this in my Youtube recommends, it looks kinda fun and engaing. Classic wow is by no means the hardest, or even that challenging an MMO, but I think that just lends itself very nicely to a hardcore mode. It encourages a bit more social interaction during questing to not die trying to solo along with encouraging better communication during dungeons/raids since nobody wants to lose their character. Also I'm a bit of a fan of hardcore modes myself, so I was wondering if kissu might be interested in giving it a shot once the servers come out?

Do you have a game or show or anything else that you experienced when you were younger that has left a permanent impression on you? Not just nostalgia, but you feel as though it altered your way of thinking or what it is you desire.
I'm aging myself a bit with this one, but two prominent ones for me are the two Lunar games. They're JRPGs that I first played on the PSX. They originally came out on SegaCD, but it was wisely remastered for a console that more than 5 people had. I did go back and play the SegeaCD versions on emulator back in the day, though. I even had some Lunar avatars that I still have on my drive!

The main themes of the games are adventure and love. At its core the games are very simple both in gameplay and story scope, but its charm is the unmistakable purity of it. I think these two games gave me desire for the fairytale romance that you can only see in fiction, and of course the corny "defeating the bad guy with friendship and love" cliché. It's just so beautiful and pure. If someone were to ask me what paradise is like, I would point to this kind of thing. It is the pure idealization of human emotion.

Someone might have also noticed that the art looks familiar, and that's because the character designer eventually worked on Idolm@ster. Takane in particular really has the face, so she's a bit of a weakness of mine when it comes to 2D idols, even when I don't really partake in that culture.

Of course, the games do have issues. Today I can appreciate the fact that Working Designs went overboard with the localization process and should have been respectful to the source material. The main story is fine, but the random NPCs make jokes and references to pop culture that they really shouldn't.