a lil bee 🐝

Ah, there’s the catch and confusion. Not required for single player but required for multi, I guess? Not sure how others play Civ but that’s not gonna affect me. I’ve only ever played these games solo besides a very rare duo game.

It doesn’t. They mentioned there would be a unique skin for Napoleon if you signed up but it didn’t sound required.

Not really. Most large story DLCs for any Bethesda game require all expansions. I suspect it’s for assets, but I would also just pick the largest use case (and already owning the expansions most certainly is the largest use case) and say it’s a requirement also, so I’m not chasing down edge cases for people all day. Just the rough math of releasing something you have to support afterwards.

I read the article you posted here (great read btw, thanks for posting) and I think just to quibble, that idea of lift (Bernoulli’s Theorem) is not wrong, just insufficient. It sounds like that mechanism definitely contributes to the overall generated lift, but doesn’t tell the whole story.

I really enjoyed the bit about Einstein designing an aerofoil and when it was tested, the pilot said the plane “waddled like a pregnant duck”. Really interesting to see one of the smartest physicists to ever live just kinda give up on aeronautics and consider it a “youthful folly”.

This was a cool read, thanks for posting! That final bit about experiments on both the color and sound while chewing also affecting flavor is super interesting.

Subnautica: Way Above Zero

I’m not disputing that, but the meme kinda is? I guess what I’m getting at is asking where the line is between gross overwork grind culture and taking pride in your work and possibly working a bit more as an investment in that regard. Other people have had some good thoughts here. I think it’s just about watching yourself and your motivations for working to ensure you haven’t fallen into the trap.

I’m in the same boat. Hell, sometimes I can even get into the groove on something useless. It’s more for me though, not for my employer. Wouldn’t the “grindset” people say the same though?

I agree with this in principle (and I know it’s just a meme and I’m taking it too seriously) but how do we still allow for people who take pride in their trade or craft, even if the majority value has been stolen by a megacorp? I work for one of those huge soulless corps. Sometimes, every once in a great while, I enjoy working on something I’ve built. I’ll put in more hours than I have to just because I’m having a good time or whatever. I guess that’s still separate from the “being on my grindset” culture of doing that all the time though.

Idk, thinking out loud here.

All kinds of ideologies are viewed as fascism by all kinds of people, but that’s not a source. Just because you yourself are Jewish does not mean you have an understanding of Jewish people as a whole. If you want to assert something about Jewish views on Zionism, you need to provide a real source. It also doesn’t tie directly to your followup with “affluent Jews are why universities are invested in Israel”. Why would one follow the other at all?

I also know what Israel is and how it was founded. Your wording this time is much more palatable! “Puppet state” has connotations that I agree with, but would not say if I was trying to be neutral. On a different thread, I think that’s entirely fair. Again though, when people ask for raw info, I think it’s only fair to provide that from as neutral a standpoint as possible.

This is a fantastic answer with a lot of great context. Thank you for sharing!

I think we would need stats before making that first conclusion. I’ve seen a lot of favorability polls of Israel amongst Jewish people, but not sure I’ve ever seen an explicit ask for Zionism or its definition. I’m sure it’s out there, but I wouldn’t expect the OP to take that for granted without a source.

Your second sentence is arguably correct, but lacking a lot of context and really not presented from a neutral standpoint like the other commentor and I were trying to strike. I think when people are looking for raw information, it’s fair to provide that with as little bias as possible, especially on a heated current issue. And fwiw, I likely agree with you on that issue.

I think this covers everything except for one last question the OP might have had. Israel was, and still is, a US ally. Trading is generally pretty open with those allies, so citizens are fairly free to invest with any company headquartered in those countries. Investing in an Israeli company was no different than investing in an Australian or UK company. Offshore investment can be smart too, as they can potentially insulate you from the effects of economic shocks in America (in the short term). I’m sure someone much more versed in economics or finances could give you a better summary of that end though.

Just in case they’re wondering whether/why it’s possible/common to have foreign investments in the first place. Your comment is a great explanation for why Israel specifically.

Boggy the froggy! I got the plush and was very pleased. Love the paint job!

Wagging can be in any position depending on the dog’s mood

You still haven’t addressed my argument? I’ll wait for that message. To be clear, here it is: While there ARE a multitude of bad games with bad practices out there, particularly in the AAA space, there has NEVER been a more accessible period for indies and AA studios to create games. This has led to an EXPLOSION of solid games without predatory practices. All told, I believe there are MORE of these good AA/indie options than there were good AAA options in the past. I listed some of my favorite above (NON-EXHAUSTIVELY and only as EXAMPLES, not as a basis for my argument, which you ignored TIME and TIME again to set up your STRAWMAN). These games were also highly rated by the industry as a whole, which is why we’re talking about them at all. Of course, this entire discussion is SUBJECTIVE, so there will always be people who despair at the given state of any industry. I though, believe there are PLENTY of fantastic, non-predatory, non-loot-boxed, non-season-passed, highly rated games out there. The fact that there are also a large number of bad games out there too DOES NOT HURT ME if I don’t play them and I have those good options to play. FOR ME, that’s why gaming is in a good state. And to drive another point home, I’M NOT TRYING TO CHANGE YOUR MIND! Hate it if you want. I was just trying to discuss the topic, not have a big fight with a stranger on the internet.

Please read the rest of the sentence you quoted.

WELL I’m NOT very PASSIONATE about IT either.

Outer Wilds… was a… space shooter.

no I’m not confusing them

You sure do argue in good faith buddy, for sure. You can even admit when you made a common tiny mistake that I gave you every bit of grace on!

Your paragraphs are just badly-formatted run-on thoughts that don’t even accurately address my points, you completely misunderstand what I mean by “dig through”, you confront random asides instead of the central point I’m making, and you manage to show your ass harder than anyone else in this thread. Wasn’t even here to argue, just wanted to have a discussion on gaming and everyone else here managed to disagree with me politely and just discuss without being a raging asshole. All of that is why I didn’t want to continue my argument with you.

You’re confusing Outer Worlds and Outer Wilds (no big deal, I have to remind myself constantly lol). Trust me, Outer Wilds is a once in a generation game, at least for some of us.

I don’t really see how you can on one hand accuse me of using my biases and then turn around and say that three GOTY candidates are not actually all that great because you know some people who didn’t like them all that much. That feels inconsistent to me. I was also never arguing that gaming is in a great place because I like these games, but rather just because these were highly-rated (on average by both users and critics).

I have additionally addressed multiple times that I am by no means saying that there are not bad games being released or that there are not problematic patterns, especially in the AAA space. Seeing all these arguments about loot boxes and season passes when I have explicitly mentioned that digging past that layer of titles is necessary to find the good games (which I have listed non-exhaustive examples of above) is just giving me the impression that you are not truly wanting to engage with the core conceit here. You seem very passionate about this and there’s nothing wrong with that, but honestly, I’m not a huge fan of your argument style and I think I’d rather just agree to disagree on this very inconsequential topic. Feel free to respond, but I will likely not reply to your next response.

It’s a matter of perspective, I suppose, and I was really just naming semi-recent games that I enjoyed, so I assumed I didn’t need to be exhaustive of every “good” game that has come out to satisfy the argument. There are hundreds of McDonald’s for every French Laundry, dozens of Marvel and adaption movies for every Best Picture winner, and the same applies to games.

I genuinely insist that you focus on that pool of shitty games if you want to. I can see how concerned you and a lot of others in this thread would be, because that is only going to grow as development becomes more accessible. I’m going to focus on the high points, play the good indies in currently backed up on, and have a good time. I don’t expect that supply to dry up any time soon.