It’s interesting to hear the pov of an Australian. From the outsider’s perspective, I think you love rules given Australia’s outside reputation as a nanny state.

Isn’t that standard business practice so that you’d be able to promote your product? As well to improve?

During the whole Olympic controversy on the Algerian boxer, Imane Khelif, questioning her actual gender, someone was making mental gymnastics that she still has testerone level higher than “vanilla females”.

Lol, vanilla females. That alone says a lot.

Yes, we should prepare for the coming of AI. However, we overestimated the rate of AI development. Iirc 80% of investors lost money from investing in AI companies because the technology is not up to scratch yet. I mean, how many people asked something from ChatGPT and gave you wrong answers frequently?

Hmm… that’s fair but it seems that Epic even forgot to think of end users-- the gamers-- in that regard before trying to compete with Steam. They prioritised devs first over the actually most important stakeholder.

To be honest, I totally forgot about Epic until articles are popping recently that it’s not going well even after all these years.

Also, what’s wrong about discussing this? Epic is a good example of a business venture not doing well for failing to do one of the most basic business philosophy: set yourself apart from the competitors.

I’m far from being a business savvy person, but honestly, from business perspective what exactly is Epic offering that sets them apart from other competitors? Even if Epic fixed their launcher issues, how would they be different to Steam that is already well established for 20 years? That’s why I like GOG as Steam’s competitor. GOG focuses on selling DRM-free and retro games. If a game also happens to be available in GOG, I would prefer to buy it from there than Steam. Moreover, GOG keep old games well maintained and updated to run in modern computers; something that Steam is very poor at doing. What does Epic even do differently, apart from doing exclusives which any companies could do?

I thought it is already out.

I mean, why would you go out with a walking red flag to begin with lol.

Well, I am not trying to justify the person in the post since I do not know who the person personally and what she means; but as a guy, I would also want my partner to be earning good money. You know, to raise a family.

I just want to say that the Chinese athletes have been nothing but professional and wholesome throughout the current Olympic!

George Lucas said he wanted the prequels to be more like a children’s story, which explains a lot. I am one of those kids who enjoyed the prequels, but even at the time I saw some flaws but didn’t mind it. I always viewed the Star Wars as an adventure story and should not be taken as seriously. A competent enough creative team should be able to suspend the audience’s disbelief.

The original trilogy is better of course, but the prequels still has a sense of direction and vision. The sequels never had that with too many “creative” visions hampering each other. The sequels suffered from the case of having too many cooks in the kitchen but none of them have any plans whatsoever.

The sequels people like for the action and entertainment

I have the same feeling but for prequels.

I never took Star Wars very seriously and I always see the story and lore as being a fun adventure. But the problem with the sequels is that it doesn’t have the direction and vision. I don’t know about the others, but for me that made the sequels not click.

I’d be curious indeed what people in ten years will say about the sequel trilogy. But I have a strong feeling that it will still be disliked, because it did not have a vision and is a jigsaw mess unlike the prequels. The latter has a vision at least (thanks to Lucas still being at the helm), in spite of the cringey parts. The sequels did not have him and Disney just simply wants to milk the Star Wars IP which made sequels such a bore.

I was cleaning dishes when a lil’ spider, rappelling down, came right in front of my face. Seeing the creepy shape made me jump back and scream. The spider must have been shocked by my reaction and quickly went back up. Both of us got scared!

Looking back in hindsight, the spider must have been friendly and was trying to say hi to me, but I freaked out and he freaked out!

The ancient Incan society would be considered a proto-communist of sorts. Each men will receive a plot of land when they come to a certain age. Though I’m not sure if living in Inca would have been better; they’re constantly at war with other tribes. Q

AC: Black Flag is such a gem after the hot mess that is Assassin’s Creed 3.

My scientific brain would think those other possibilities.

Or someone slapped their cock onto the pizza.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I am aware that some cultures are homophobic in spite of having little influence from Abrahamic religions; such as the case with East Asia. I omitted the latter because i couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I guess patriarchy is largely the major factor for homophobia. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I noticed that cultures that are less patriarchal and egalitarian are more tolerant to lgbt. These cultures are noticeably less sedentary. For example, Philippines recognise the gender “bakla” and Native Americans also recognise “two spirits”, before European colonisation came.

It’s quite interesting that academics back then knew homosexuality and transgenderism are completely normal and not aberrations. Even Sigmund Freud also agreed.

It’s just that society as a whole has been completely anti-lgbt. I always say it is the relic of homophobic teachings from Abrahamic religions. Ancient Greeks and Romans were completely fine with homosexuality until Christianity became enforced in Europe and elsewhere; then later Islam came along and did the same.