@noodlemaz Yes, hehehe…
One of the aspects of BotW I love, and don’t know how appreciated it is, is NPCs dialog. There’s an old woman sitting under a tree at Hateno, Uma. If you talk to her, she will tell you many interesting stories about her life and Hyrule’s history. Just fantastic. Also Rozel, Lurelin’s mayor, and his daughter Ralera, that married Rhodes and moved to Hateno. They ask Link for news about the others. These details makes this game feel alive.

@noodlemaz The other complain is that future games may follow the new games' patterns. And I honestly hope future games encourage exploration as much as BotW and TotK. I'm pretty sure new ideas will be tried. But linearity, as seen in OoT and MM may not return, because new games have a way subtler way of guiding you (we all ended up in Kakariko at the beginning, right?) 😄 That people are not strictly forced doesn't mean you're not being guided... It's so well made!

@noodlemaz I started with OG Zelda (I'm Gen X!). Imho, BotW and TotK are the most "Zelda like" games I've played. I honestly don't like linear games, and I'm more drawn to exploration, so that's a factor. And understand that your childhood games form later choices in gaming. That being said, Devs always try new things, and the new games are a couple jewels (even if TotK is a bit derivative). I understand some of the criticism, but them being "not true Zelda games" is going a bit too far... 😝

@ErickaSimone @mojo @dalias There's still a long way to go. A lot of back office services (fraud protection, insurance, etc.) is still handled by Visa/Mastercard. But I think little by little EU Banks will build a domestic infrastructure. International payments are more complicated, and there US cards will still reign. But future agreements may bridge local systems. Time will tell. A more decentralized organization may be better for all (like Mastodon!) 😄

@NatureMC @soapdog @mojo @Coffee Oh! Don’t get me wrong: we’ll arrive there. Here in Spain we have Bizum. It’s already integrated with MB Way (Portugal) and Bancomat (Italy). Polish Blik and Norwegian Vipps are joining and there’s an agreement to integrate with EPI’s Wero. And I guess more will join one or the other initiative. Bizum is already deploying retail payments. In the end, we’ll have a pan-European system. That’s the goal.

@soapdog @mojo @Coffee Of course it can be done! But it’s never easy. Like trying to have a single currency in Mercosul, for example. There are always conflicting interests, and the more parties, the more difficult it is. But I’m sure we’ll get there. So far, it seems there’s a shared vision and synergies. 😊

@NatureMC @soapdog @mojo @Coffee Yes, there’s SEPA. But this is a different service. And the thing is some banks already started with custom solutions, and some have nothing to offer. Now you need to make everybody agree, and work on a common solution. The will is there, but the technical hurdles are there too. And many particular commercial interests. It’s never easy to agree on standards, specially if many parties are involved.

@largo @soapdog @mojo @Coffee How long did it take Visa and Mastercard to establish their global system? How much did they invest in infrastructure and maintenance? You’re talking about a couple companies that employed decades and a lot of money to position themselves, against more than a hundred banks in 27 countries that must agree on many levels to make way different systems work… so, lol! 😄

@ErickaSimone @mojo @dalias It’s not actually new. The pandemic made the EU realize that we were depending on a lot of foreign infrastructure and services. And the current US government made clear that former allies may not be it in the future. The EU is just trying to protect itself from catastrophes and problems it may encounter, and we want to be prepared.