Yeah. I think there’s a problem with the modern development cycle that a fuckton of the budget goes into marketing and marketable assets (i.e. all them graphics that look great in the trailers but nobody’s computer can actually handle, and then the rest of the team’s on the hook to make a game on a shoestring that can actually use all of that content - The only way you can possibly accomplish that with a fraction of a fraction of the budget is if it’s super simplistic and repetitive gameplay that’s stretched over 40+ hours like a peasant on a torture rack.

Think about how many games you’ve played over the last decade, and how many of them were still fun to play after the first five hours, either because the primary gameplay loops were satisfying enough to keep you engaged, or because the game was keeping it fresh with new mechanics that didn’t bungle clumsily atop one another like a raspberry and beef trifle. Making great games is difficult and expensive, and most studios would rather put out something with a guaranteed return than anything that’s fun to play.

Juicero-ass headset.

Hmm, I’m no historian but I seem to recall they closed it because it cost a gazillion dollars to boat everything the prisoners and staff needed on a remote island. So is DOGE gonna get on that, or…

No? I guess I should just keep praying for a hamberder-induced heart attack then.

F

There, I saved you 7 minutes

What kneecaps this prodpect is that the other half of the supply-demand curve simply won’t fall enough to meet American production where it will inevitably peak - far lower than that of existing overseas factories, even with the implementation of tariffs.

I think people fail to understand that, even if investors were to somehow become obsessed with dropping factories in the states left and right, people still wouldn’t be able to outproduce China and India. Even if Americans get paid the same poor wages, the cost of production would still be too high because the cost of living is also too high, not least because we have very little HDH and everything is too spread apart with little public transportation.

Two inch gap between the plywood rectangle wall and door so everyone can see you taking a shit? A foot between the bottom of the door and the floor so stupid kids can pop their heads under and keep you company? Say no more, I got you covered!

It really is impressed upon me how cheaply every public bathroom is constructed. I feel like somebody could sneeze too hard and the whole thing would jostle apart.

You know, the fucked up thing about it all is I was always told that the kind of delayed gratification that came from major accomplishments like a college degree, a steady career, a comfortable savings account, would all outweigh the fleeting pleasure of parties and stupid little trinkets and other such fun. I wish I had taken so much more time for myself because I burned out so hard achieving some of these things and failing to achieve others that I struggle deeply to imagine a future with me in it.

I hope whatever youth is left in the world spends their time having fun. I hope their lives are worth living now, and that mine will be someday too.

God if someone could get in and wipe out student loans, I would be so happy.

People could avoid paying $70 for bad games by not preordering. Like seriously, it takes maybe two hours after release for the criticism to start pouring in.

He’s gonna fucking croak this term, why are they trying to make a dead guy president forever?

Yeah no shit not everyone’s onboard. How the fuck does this help anyone except the apple C-suites?

Man, there are a lot of articles this week that feel like they should be next to an onion symbol and they aren’t. Getting real fuckin’ tired of this shit.

Yeah, I’ve been at some real low points and the fear of being charged several grand for a mandatory grippy sock vacation has kept me from reaching out for help or even talking about it.

For anyone wondering how to do this - on the first setup screen asking you to pick a language after you turn the laptop on, hit Shift + F10, which will bring up the console. Click on it and type:

oobe/bypassnro

This will restart the computer, and setup will appear unchanged. When you get to the step asking you to connect to a network, select “I don’t have Internet.” This will prompt the creation of a local account. Enjoy your Microsoft account free computer!

If you’ve already connected to the Internet but haven’t created the account, open the console and type:

ipconfig /release

Which will force the computer to disconnect from the internet. From there you can use the oobe command from before to reset and set up without a Microsoft account.

Yeah I don’t trust these fucks. I didn’t before but I still don’t now.

“Creating and Bringing value” = Maximizing our ability to squeeze productivity from the chattel without them knowing how badly we’re fucking them over.

Yeah, the silver lining of the whole gaming industry fallout is that the indie game scene has never been better. I was lamenting the fact that we hadn’t had a good top-down zeldalike in a long time, echoes of wisdom notwithstanding even though the formula is pretty altered. Someone pointed me in the direction of Master Key and it was an incredibly satisfying time. Almost like it would have fit in perfectly between LoZ 1 and Link’s Awakening.

I kind of feel that - I think the issue for me is that there’s a lot going on in each of these games that is tangential to the primary gameplay loop that on the surface isn’t obligatory, so if you find it not to your liking you can choose not to engage, but avoiding the secondary activities locks you out of some rewards for the PGL often and severely enough that you do feel obligated to engage to the point you can get these rewards. Especially in the gambling minigames, I often feel relieved when the points you buy end up being the same points you exchange for said rewards because it means I can just engage in the fighting a little more instead of having to gamble.

Case in point, I’m playing Infinite wealth right now and it feels like a big step up from the first Like a Dragon, but I’m still finding myself pulled into the Sujimon quests even though I personally don’t like monster tamer games. I don’t even know what the rewards are but half of the map icons are raids and trainers, so I feel like I should at least be putting time into maintaining a team with the ones I can catch just from grinding out fights for Job XP.

Oh I know, I’ve been giving a lot lately to communities affected by climate change induced catastrophes. But money only does so much to alleviate it, and it’s certainly not fixing root causes. Soon I will either have nothing left to give or more people are going to need it than not, myself included.

Honestly, the suffering was going to happen either way. We’ve been spewing carbon into the atmosphere for, what, five decades now? We were already further along on the worst case scenario than most models accounted for and it’s been continuing to accelerate. I don’t mean to sound defeatist but like, the Titanic has been sinking for a long time, all this one election decided is how much time we have to get to the lifeboats and wait for the ocean to swallow us.

I was already not planning on having kids or retirement in 2015, that sure hasn’t changed with everything that’s happened since. I feel for everyone who will be affected by climate catastrophe (i.e. everyone) but like, we have been sowing for that harvest since before I was born.