Good. Now do the same to the major triple A studios attaching loot boxes to every sports game and battle royale. Why the fuck start with Mihoyo?

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This is so much more reason that these tankies deserve tbh. I appreciate you taking the time to put it into words.

These people should actually try talking to foreigners, students and immigrants. The picture Ukrainian refugees and Taiwanese students paint is a lot less forgiving than the completely unsubstantiated, pseudo-intellectuslist “but that’s CIA propaganda” arguments these authoritarian “leftists” like to throw around. I’m sure such first-hand accounts would be as readily dismissed, mind you, because the goal is clearly not to have an honest discussion to begin with.

What conclusion are you proposing that I came to? My only statement was that denying Western media in favor of Eastern media is not “leftist.” Everything else you and Dessalines have attempted to drag into this discussion is creating either a false dichotomy or a strawman, in some cases both. The options are not “either you listen to PoC or you listen to Western Media,” because not all Western Media nor people of colour agree on every position. Whatever imaginary propaganda you are creating about the State suggesting that China is torturing minorities this minute is not something I have experienced, nor referenced. We have not presented the arguments that you are trying to deconstruct.

You are boxing with shadows, throwing fists with invisible monsters in the dark. I’m not sure if it’s our of poor reading comprehension, poor critical thinking skills, or intentional dishonesty, but there’s clearly a bias here that is useless to engage with.

No one said I do.

So instead, we should trust… The other ogliarchic and blatantly fascist empires?

Call me crazy, but I don’t think unapologetic fascism is “leftist.”

Either that or engaging with such incredible lies is a waste of time. But hey, they said something you don’t like, so “red lib.”

Kinda hype. Had my eye on this one for a while. I’m a little cautious what “early access” means in this regard, though. I’ve had altogether too many rogue-likes release into early access without enough content to justify it.

I’m not talking about weed, though. It’s been traditionally over policed but that doesn’t mean we should stop policing all drugs. There’s hardly any sense in saying that severely addictive drugs with visible negative effects on the human body should be sold for recreational use for profit. The majority of opiods are a good example of this.

But more to the point, giving moral purchase to profit justifies the abuse of the consumer. I can’t say for certain whether the TikTok ban is government overreach, as I’m not knowledgeable enough on the topic to speak with any authority, but “it makes money, so it’s fine” really shouldn’t be the end of the conversation.

A platform should be allowed to function if it can. If it’s horribly made, or supremely unprofitable it’ll find its own way out.

I mean, this doesn’t allow for any form of ethical analysis, though. Should every drug be legalized? How about gambling?

I’m not saying I am for the TikTok ban persay, but if the only conditionals for whether a product or service should exist are “is it ‘well made’ and does it make money,” we are setting ourselves up to achieve a corporate dystopia rather quickly.

They government should consider what parts of TikTok make it not okay, and target those forms and functions with well reasoned laws. Unfortunately, as you said, I suspect they’ll target things that are good and users like, while pretending that the issue is entirely about one small portion of the complete law. Ie, stress that the issue is one of security, and then write a law saying that all social media in the US must be willing to submit it’s data to the American government. (To be clear, I have no idea what the actual law they wrote is, but this is the kind of shit I expect them to get up to )

It’s been Jackbox every year for the past 8+ years. A side-effect of hosting the New Years Eve party for a bunch of gamers.

It’s still in the “ChatGPT, tell me about X” format, with headers, bullet points and all.

Cynicism is horrible. It is slowly training your brain to always assume the worst in everything and everyone, and has little to do with expectations. Cynicism legitimizes the anger you already feel, and makes it “okay” to yell about it, rather than taking control of your emotions.

You need a philosophy that allows you to take control, not one that justifies your helplessness. Mindfulness practices, and/or existentialist thought eventually leading to positive nihilism can help you.

Edit: After rereading your initial post, I am doubling down on mindfulness practices. The goal of simply not caring doesn’t seem to be helping you, so perhaps it’s best to try and accept and understand your feelings for what they are, rather than attempt to reject them. Your anger is there, and it is real, but it is your choice to act on it, or let it pass. With time, the practice of “letting it pass” will hopefully result in this being the default position. The brain form habits, and if you start to build a habit of letting go, it’ll get easier.

Hi-Fi Rush.

I was so distraught when the studio was closed despite selling extremely well and working on a sequel. I am beyond excited now that the studio has been picked up by Zenimax Krafton. There’s no confirmation, but you don’t go from planning a sequel to a breakout hit, to being closed down, to being picked up by another parent company just to scrap said sequel.

EDIT: Fixed the company buy-up. Forgot the order of things.

The things I care about have been getting stripped away every game, and they’re selling more copies than ever. I suspect the next mainline game will be the first time since the Gold/Silver remakes that I actively choose to not buy a mainline Pokemon game.

Legends, on the other hand…

I don’t always find time to proofread when I am sitting on the toilet, trying to finish my thought and get back to my life. Nor do I concern myself with my old posts enough to go backwards over them later.

When I see them, I fix them, but the time and energy necessary to correctly proofread my posts just… Isn’t worth it. We misspeak in real life all the time. We correct ourselves when we can and move on when we can’t. It just isn’t a big deal.

Theology is not a belief in God. It is a study of the belief in God, the connection between humankind and the possibility of God, and the philosophies grounded in religious doctrine. Saying that trying to understand theology is a waste of time is the same as saying that trying to understand any social science is a waste of time.

You may dismiss the beliefs as “all made up”, but their impact on our world is very real. Is studying politics a waste of time because it’s “all made up”? Or are the arbitrary thoughts and feelings on how the world should be run suddenly more important because we’ve removed a belief that you personally disagree with?

Your ignorance on the topic of religion is what is astounding here. Reducing religion to “the supernatural” is to ignore centuries of philosophy and social theory.

While widely practiced religion, particularly in the Western world, has been disgustingly reduced to nothing more than a series of corporate institutions vying for social and financial power, this does not represent “religion” as a field.

People seek an understanding of the universe, and an answer to all the existential questions they have. Many people suffer existential dread as a result of their powerlessness in the face of the unknown. Seeking answers through religion is one way to quell such concerns and fears. Whether or not you agree with it, it has provided comfort to millions of people who suffer very natural, human fears.

People also want to know what it means to be “good” and live a “good life.” Religion has provided a number of philosophical frameworks in which to seek such answers. If you wish to dismiss all religion out of hand, you’re fundamentally discarding much of the basis for modern philosophy as well. You’re basically left with consequentialism, which has a number of serious pitfalls.

Religion is a lot more than the belief in God.

The answer to this is going to differ heavily from religion to religion. You’ve already been inundated with the atheist and agnostic response. Christian theology could give you a few different answers.

The Bible could been seen as man’s interpretation of God, therefore God’s will is placed in terms we understand: emotions. Calling God jealous, angry, sorrowful, or joyful is a lot easier than asking you to understand a four-dimensional physical space. The latter is beyond your perception, much like understanding the “feelings” God exhibits, so it is simplified to terms you can understand.

The second potential answer would be: why wouldn’t he/she be? You’ve made the assumption that emotions are bad or wrong, but if you throw out that assumption, there’s nothing wrong with an emotional God. Maybe being “beyond that” is in fact a mistake? If he/she made us in his/her image, then of course we are given emotions similiar to God. Ultimately, who are you or I to judge whether such feelings are good or bad, or make a being imperfect?

Admittedly, I am deeply agnostic myself, because I ultimately don’t buy any of the explanations I’ve provided here. But I’ve taken time and energy to understand Western theology, rather than dismiss it out of hand, and these are the explanations I suspect you are likliest to find.

Problem is, I own most of the games on the Steam front page, so finding new and interesting games is getting difficult.

This. I feel totally underwhelmed by the sale this year because everything on the front page I already either own or have no interest in. I know the discovery queue exists, but it primarily tries to feed me the same jank I already know exists.