Better. Not way better.

There’s a certain degree of toxicity and messiness that simply comes with interacting with the general public. I’m not sure how one can build a system open to people, yet simultaneously not open to flawed people.

I’d argue it means dopamine, suggesting it’s only permissable with the desire (and consent) of both parties.

Because we live in a world where it’s easy to block offensive words, so much so that the powers that be like to pretend that blocking talk about the 'cest is somehow an effective tool in combating it. (When instead it just coins an endless stream of new words that act as synonyms for ‘the bad words’. 'Cause funk you. Funk you to heck!)

Missed opportunities:

• that German guy who wanted to be an artist
• Trump as a weeb

You’re not wrong. But I low-key wish to hate you for how simple and inevitable you’ve put it. I won’t shoot the messenger, but I want to.

^this

I don’t need the tool giving me its opinion. I usually use alternativeto.net to find more open alternatives, but if someone has tried open source and is looking for proprietary solutions, doesn’t hurt me to see all options presented reasonably fairly.

Openalternative.co is “Made by Piotr Kulpinski. Website may contain affiliate links.”

I think they’re a person who’s honestly in a dark place.

I think they’re objectively wrong about the ‘Saddam being linked to 9/11’ thing, and I worry that they’ve been a bit lost in their own head a bit.

The idea that data was deleted isn’t meritless in the sense that between enshittification and Musk’s tech bros there’s good reason to believe censorship and destruction have occurred recently (and they’re only the latest in a long line of maliciously maligned actors).

But I agree that their posts are so ridiculously textbook schizophrenic, that I do wonder if it’s an act. Yet, nonetheless it costs me little to be kind. 😅

I’ll stop referring to sources that could have been altered, when you start providing specifics about who you think deleted what and why?

I’m not trusting any external source here. I grew up under the Bush presidency and simply remember the whole fiasco.

Bush and friends invented the link to justify their prior war plans, when pushed to prove there was a connection, Bush failed to produce evidence.

You’re implying Bush (or … someone?) had the evidence that would have vindicated him, but rather than share it, deliberately buried it and successfully hid it from the whole world?

You do realize that reads like you’re off your meds.

I work in IT. There have definitely been several attacks on the quality of information available to the general public in the last few decades, but none that I would qualify as a singular “the”

Could you be more specific on which attack (or by whom) you’re referring to?

I’m not confusing your point about a bad comparison. I’m confused on your point about it being a bad comparison because I disagree. I believe they’re comparable. If there’s a reason they can’t be compared, perhaps you haven’t explained it as well as you think you have?

I asked about your values because I believe you are trying to to make a point about the economics of large vs small studios, and I want to understand. So rather than imply I was insinuating something (language that suggests I understand you, but am being willfully subversive), could you actually answer what was outright an attempt to understand your point?

Why do the back-end costs matter to the consumer? I do understand the difference between the two and that’s what makes the original meme funny.

Can you cite where Saddam is involved in 9/11? Again, it’s generally accepted history that the Bush Administration claimed he supported the attacks, never presented evidence he was involved, then later admitted he was not involved.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/sep/12/september11.usa2

Are you conflating Osama Bin Laden with Saddam Hussein, for whom as summarized by wikipedia:

In 2003, a US-led coalition invaded Iraq, falsely accusing him of developing weapons of mass destruction and of having ties with al-Qaeda.

Unless you have that evidence the world was looking for I don’t want to spread old, debunked propaganda.

Big development team ≠ valuable game

The argument implied here is that because more money was poured into development, the value of the game is higher.

It’s putting the cart before the horse. The business logic on display by the studios is that they deserve a profit for the investment of making the game, and they have a right to charge more because they paid more to have the game made. That’s just … not true, or at least shouldn’t be the logic of the consumer. A game is only worth the value it brings to the player (which is of course subjective).

The argument being made here is that the $1M fancy character creator and it’s dev team CAN be compared to the work of a handful of sprites by an artist - and the fact that the value is either on par or in the small artists’ favor ought to be seen as damning to the larger studios.

To you specifically, @FreddyNO and regarding complex character creators specifically: do you really see value in them? My experience is that they’re something I do once at the beginning of the game, but usually within a couple hours I’m wearing enough new equipment to all but fully conceal every choice I made … save perhaps overall skin-tone; plus in most 3rd person games i spend most of the game looking at the characters backside whereas the c.creator focuses on mostly the face. I get that a good character creator adds cost and complexity - but are you sure it really adds value?

I personally am waiting for the OLED handkerchief.

Computer monitor with multiple simultaneous 4k displays?

Grasping at straws here

Living on the edge.★

(((((★Buried in TOS: coin edge occurs ⅛ of the time: lose the money, no product)))))

Summer in Arizona feels like what I imagine living in space feels like - sure you can ‘suit up’ and temporarily endure the outside if needed, but radiation will immediately start saping your strength. Life is about going from one environment with life support (“AC”) to another environment with life support.

I don’t live in a state that advertises the toys as novelties, but all the toys at my sex shop are body safe. I have to imaging the ‘totally not a sex store’ novelty shop is probably also seeking the same suppliers, just different packaging

That’s my point - Q-tips and novelty toys are both more commonly used for their off-label functionality because listing that on the label is inconvenient for the maker.