As far as I know, the level of humidity is too high there.

There are no such cities. Astrakhan and Rostov-on-Don are subsidiaries of hell on Earth during the summer months. Kaliningrad is more or less okay; the climate is mild without temperature extremes, but it's closer to the cold end of the spectrum.

I just wish they stopped projecting their sins on Russia; it would be enough. I'm talking mostly about "colonial empire in denial," "rasism," and "lack of women's rights." The situation with those things is far from ideal (and always has been), but they are different and far less widespread than in the collective West.

Yes, I was so happy when I noticed no grass flickering during benchmark cutscenes. I couldn't get used to this constant shimmering, even after more than 10 years of playing. To see no flickering was such a relief to the eyes!

Chinese are alien, but that makes China a very interesting country to study.

I've seen one such person, but he was a Slavic philologist from Canada.

It would be interesting to see the results, or at least a brief summary :)

If they are friendly, I'm friendly. If they are not, I just ignore them and move on.

What level is your character at? A low-level character can't add anyone as a friend or join a guild.

It is said that dynamic events are rotated between maps, so chances are high that this one will be repeated in the future. If you not happen to loot the key, someone else might (that's how I got my chest completion).

I like the story too; it's simple, but the voice acting is decent. The only thing that annoys me is that cutscenes are cut off abruptly too often.

I'm curious about the motivation behind asking this question. Has the Western media uncovered another "victim of the regime" or what?

I don't understand the question. Female friendship exists, it's not a secret (I've been blessed with some true friends personally). Or do you mean "friends,"  aka lesbian relationships? That's another question.

Ahaha, that's just precious and surely shows your deep knowledge of the Russian political scene.

I don't think it's a folk song (Russian folk songs have a different rhythm); I guess it's an arrangement of a classical composer's music or a modern tune; unfortunately, my musical knowledge is poor, so I can't recognise the composer. The melody is beautiful, though.

I just love when f2p apologists start saying, But you don't need a premium you can play for free! Yes, you can, but you also hinder yourself.

Premium is also character-based :)

I don't know anything about PvP in Lost Ark; sorry, I'm not a PvP player. Yes, in LA, you can earn gold from raids with six characters per week. That's why people tend to have a six-character roster and clear three raid instances with each of them (and that's very time-consuming). As for me, I have only one character. Yes, my progress is slower, but I won't burn out.

Lost Ark is probably the most socially dependent game of all I've played (maybe except for Lineage II, a long, long time ago). If you are lucky enough to join a group of seven other like-minded individuals, you are golden, and the game is pretty fun (I pay only the premium subscription + battle pass, and that's more than enough for me). But if you are trying to get a party via a matchmaking system or party finder, you are going to suffer a lot because of gatekeeping.

I tried BDO, but it's not my type, so I can say nothing about the game.

I personally also play SW:TOR and Lost Ark. People seem to enjoy survival games, but I know nothing about the genre. That's why I'm thinking about trying Once Human when it releases. Also, I'm waiting for Ashfall (I played during CBT and liked the game, so it's likely I'm going to play it in the autumn if the developers manage to launch the game at the 3Q as promised).

Maybe you are right, I'm mostly a PC player, and I've never played mobile games (except for some ported to PC).

Tarisland might be good as a mobile game, but as a PC game, it's pretty underwhelming (we already have lots of good theme park MMOs with literally years or even decades of content). Well, at least the visuals are lovely, the music is great, and the game feels... comfy.

The major downside is the monetization, though. When I learned that both the premium and the battle pass are character-based (even not server-based), I decided that they wouldn't get any money from me.

P.S. Tarisland photo mode is lovely; I enjoy just roaming around and taking pretty shots.

I noticed it also; it seems like the developers have changed something since yesterday. Yesterday, if you pressed on the quest name, you just had the quest mark animated. Today, your character mounts up and rushes to it. It's very frustrating.

Rift had the same option about 13 years ago.

Being an edgelord is tolerable when you are young and handsome. If you are old and tattered, it's the other way around.