domain:amphobian.info
self_made_human
Sajjano durjano bhūyāt, durjano badhyatāṃ sadā, baddho'nyān nibandhāyet
4m ago
Trust me, I don't just play hardcore games. I had fun with Helldivers 2, before getting bored. I had played a decent amount of Doom Eternal before I moved and lost progress, now I give up after a few levels. In hindsight, I should probably drop the difficulty.
Subnautica? Played maybe half a dozen hours before getting distracted.
Forza Horizon 5? Can't be arsed, and I only played it singleplayer and with competent but not broken AI skill levels.
I will grant that I have a preference for realism or simulationist mechanics. I prefer Arma over Battlefield or Insurgency Sandstorm. I can't go back to Need for Speed after playing Forza, which has a really good balance of accessibility and realism in car handling.
I never could afford the COD games when I was a kid, so my exposure was limited to a few SP campaigns, which were alright. What I strongly dislike about newer CODs is the ridiculous pricing and cosmetics, and I always get an aneurysm with standard video game weapon balancing on account of being a gun nerd. The abominations that Gunsmith allows 😭.
I'm not sure how to describe my tastes. There's that realism/sim thing I mentioned, but also the fact that I'm both ADHD brained and get bored easily, while also hyperfocusing on the rare game that I love.
Of course, everything is more fun with friends! What do you have in mind? I should mention that @Cjet89 tried to get me into Factorio, and even offered to buy me a copy. Maybe I will pop my amphetamines and give it a serious go, though I like the concept of the game more than I liked playing it for the odd half an hour.
As a guy, my experience is also that nobody actually wants men to show their real emotions, least of all publicly. Male anger or horniness is scary. Crying or anxiety is pathetic.
Generally true, but I note pop music with lyrics by men isn't a complete disaster, surprisingly. Gangster rap has high appeal even though it's men expressing anger and horniness, for example.
I wouldn't call most of it positive or anything but it's a fun time.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
13m ago
Princess Leia acted the same way in ANH, but it was presented as a bad thing.
self_made_human
Sajjano durjano bhūyāt, durjano badhyatāṃ sadā, baddho'nyān nibandhāyet
13m ago
It's optional. You can just order your soldiers to shoot normally most of the time. Fine-aim is complemented by the limb-damage system, where you can wound or incapacitate enemies or destroy their weapons. The accuracy of a sniper makes sense beyond just having long range. I think it's great. Even modern XCOM lets you aim rockets and grenades, this just takes it to the next level. Tactical positioning makes sense on a far more physical level than arbitrary cover or angle bonuses. Enemies with shields actually need to be flanked or chipped away. You can shoot the facehugger mind-controlling your soldier, but make sure you don't use a sniper unless you want to give them another face-hole.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
16m ago
The worst part of these deals is the bailout CHIPS Act which already happened. It appears that while the Intel stake (which is quite large, 9.9% of the company) is technically common stock, the government isn't allowed to vote it independently.
Since it looks like there were strings attached to the CHIPS Act funding which are being dropped, this could be anything from an effective takeover to a mere minor technical restructuring; someone would need to dig deeper into it to find out.
As for the questions:
Does this represent a leftist turn in the Republican Party's view on the state's role in the economy, leaning more towards a nationalist democratic socialism?
No, I don't think so. It's a turn towards industrial policy (so collectivist), but not in the Western leftist tradition. I think Trump is probably taking his cue from Japan and South Korea here. The idea seems to be to make money, not improve the lot of the workers or anything like that.
Are there risks of corruption arising in the Trump administration related to government acquisition of major shares in large companies?
There's always risks of corruption, but this doesn't seem any worse than other things the government does.
Does this represent an expansion of executive authority? What do we expect USG to do with its stakes in these companies?
Does this raise potential conflicts of interest, directly aligning the interests of the Federal government with large firms (rather than their merely influential status today)?
These are the big problems, especially the last. Although I'm far more worried about the other direction, increased political control of the large firms using the government's power as a stakeholder (which may be less limited than the government's more direct political powers). The government acting in ways which helps American companies isn't necessarily bad. Acting in ways that helps Intel and other large firms over smaller competitors is bad, though not particularly novel. But the threat of the government setting Intel's corporate priorities while protecting Intel from competition... it seems we have a microchip shortage, comrade!
DiscourseMagnus
18m ago
I have my doubts about the simple version of the "pandering to girls" hypothesis because the particular thing about the sequel trilogy that girls seemed to find most appealing (the prospect of a romantic relationship between the heroine and the villain) was entirely an accident and they ultimately clumsily failed to exploit it; the real audience they were trying to pander to, an unhealthily sexless sort, finds romance just as icky as "boys" do.
Southkraut
The rain fell gentlier.
21m ago
You can actually aim the weapons yourself!
In a grid-based turn-based tactics game! It's a profoundly shitty idea!
Corvos
28m ago
I’m up for coop if you want but IMO your problem is that you are playing only the hardest, densest games despite being a 28 year old with a serious full time job and other hobbies. Like it or not, this is your body’s way of telling you it’s time to be a filthy cashul.
In all seriousness, try playing some stuff like Subnautica or Hardspace-Shipbreaker or Doom 2016 or the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Stuff where the gameplay loop is a bit more reactions-based and rewarding and the game is a bit less like a second job. See how you get on and then come back to the tougher stuff when you’ve had more sleep or a vacation.
My current thing is Elden Ring and while that certainly has difficulty spikes, there’s also a lot of downtime exploring the world.
(I know none of my suggestions are really to your taste but it’s what I do).
self_made_human
Sajjano durjano bhūyāt, durjano badhyatāṃ sadā, baddho'nyān nibandhāyet
35m ago
Huh, you're right. I learn something new everyday.
Unfortunately, I do know about duck penises.
self_made_human
Sajjano durjano bhūyāt, durjano badhyatāṃ sadā, baddho'nyān nibandhāyet
39m ago
I enjoyed myself playing the XCOM 1 remake, and especially XCOM 2. I even tried Xenonauts, which is a spiritual successor to the original XCOM, but just didn't like it very much. I guess the 1980s aesthetic and the clunky mechanics weren't to my taste.
(Why hasn't someone made Phoenix Point but good? You can actually aim the weapons yourself! There was granular destructible terrain and cover piercing!)
hydroacetylene
40m ago
Mexico is a failed corrupt one party mafia state, but it does have free and fair elections and still has to pass out handouts and incorporate stakeholders- both the literal cartels but also labor unions, religious interests, big business, etc- to keep winning those elections.
Hungary... it's probably easier to list the bribery the government/ruling party doesn't engage in. From bribing impoverished villagers with literal sacks of potatoes to controlling the issuance of economic opportunities like cigarette sale licenses to benefit its supporters to using government loans/grants to ensure favorable media coverage.
self_made_human
Sajjano durjano bhūyāt, durjano badhyatāṃ sadā, baddho'nyān nibandhāyet
42m ago
I have so much free time (and OOMs more money) and I barely play any video games. 15 year old me would cry. At one point, I would have chalked that down to depression and anhedonia, but that's way better now.
I find myself bouncing off 90% of the ones I do try.
- Didn't finish BG3, though I think I made it halfway.
- Played like 2 hours of Clair Obscure before getting distracted
- Reinstalled Teardown, didn't play it
- Rimworld, an all-time favorite: I refuse to play Vanilla, no insult to Zorba, but it's such a painful experience. I also have an addiction to installing 17 gb of mods for a 500mb game, which is great fun till it all breaks and I have to debug it. Happened again a few months back, after I had already spent 3 hours fixing my modlist, and now a DLC came out and I have to wait for everything to finish updating.
- Total War Warhammer 3: Another favorite, same issue as Rimworld, down to updates breaking mods, or just mods breaking mods.
- Arma Reforger: I play it semi-regularly, but it's by far best enjoyed with friends. I was a senior NCO (don't laugh) in an American clan, but then it imploded because of internal drama and burnout. I hop on modded pub matches for a few hours, but it's just not the same.
- Escape From Tarkov: A good (but uncompromising) game ruined by bad development decisions. I no-lifed it for a while, but just couldn't bother to repeat that process. I had a lot of good buddies in Singapore and Malaysia I met playing on those servers, but the latency doesn't allow for that anymore. Great guys, I personally raised half a dozen Timmies into cracked PvPers who are far better than I ever was.
- There are so many goddamned games collecting bit rot in my SSD. The only saving grace is that I pirated most of them, so at least I'm not losing money.
- I left my old Quest 2 back in India. Don't feel like buying a new one here, and it would be inconvenient in a shared apartment.
What's wrong with me? I splurged on the world's 4th best gaming pc (1 CPU and GPU down from the best of the best), I have the time. It's not anhedonia, because I clearly still enjoy reading, writing, and arguing with people on the internet. I still watch people play and talk about games, I look forward to new ones and wishlist them, I just don't really play. I don't like this, what's the point of having all this money and fancy hardware? Don't tell me I'm getting old and crochety :(
At this point I might have a kid just to have some to play coop with.
Corvos
44m ago
The Devil Is a Part-Timer. Done by the same guy as Steins;Gate I think and similarly has more range for the voice acting and snappier writing compared to the sub or the original Japanese.
gattsuru
49m ago
They… kinda have both. Although, while pretty far from the weirdest junk out there(you don’t want to know how ducks work), still pretty far from mammal anatomy.
self_made_human
Sajjano durjano bhūyāt, durjano badhyatāṃ sadā, baddho'nyān nibandhāyet
1hr ago
crocodile penis
Divorce this woman right now! Even if you're not married! Anyone ought to know that crocodilians have cloaca.
I jest. She sounds like a keeper, you're a lucky man and I look on in envy.
(Did the 18th century taxonomists know this? When I consider this more deeply, she might have a point.)
Dean
Flairless
1hr ago
I enjoyed the charming quaintness of the argument that expanding the House to 11,000 people would require fewer, not more, staffers to keep up with the magnitudes more institutional relationships such a reorganization would imply.
Eetan
1hr ago
There is no catboy character because that doesn’t exist in the Western imagination.
Tales about talking human-like animals are older than castles, cathedrals and other medieval tropes.
It depends where you draw the line. If 19th century gothic horror is traditional, why not 20th century Disney style animal people?
(and WOW indeed buckled to the pressure and added multiple cute and fluffy playable races)
Throwaway05
1hr ago
This comes up on Reddit a lot so you can always search over there (Steins;Gate generally shows up on lists but I was never a fan of that anime in general).
Anything recent and high budget (ex: Dan Da Dan, Apothecary Diaries) is always likely to be good.
Someone else here mentioned Cowboy Bebop which I think is a good pick but that is in part because the English voice fits the mood and vibe better, I don't think the dub is truly stellar by modern standards.
My personal vote is FMA: B, the dub is pretty great and has some big names you'll recognize if you know their voices, but the outtakes are absolutely incredible and work better if you spent the show listening to those interpretations of the characters.
zeke5123a
1hr ago
Probably not from a discounted cash flow perspective. Also you ought to factor in failures like the Star Wars hotel in WDW.
kky
1hr ago
Mexico is AFAIK basically a narcostate. Opposition “disappears” and then reappears in several different garbage bags.
Hungary - not familiar on the details, what gibs do they give to whom?
SA is a bit of a special case. To be a majoritarian gibs-based political party, on practical terms you need an exceptionally productive minority to tax for the sake of the voterbase. This doesn’t happen in most places. SA, with a wealthy white minority, is able to do it. I’d call it an exception that proves the rule.
yofuckreddit
1hr ago
John Wick is a well known franchise. Perhaps not quite mass market.
Dune?
coffee_enjoyer
☕️
1hr ago
Something nice about Vanilla WoW is that each location was drawn from one specific European fantasy source. It’s not just some random person concocting his own fantasy. Stranglethorn Vale has the vibe of a colonial expedition into South America or perhaps Africa, Tirisfal Glades pulls from gothic horror, etc. So they are renditions based on real preexistent motifs, and the game takes you through a survey of European fantasy and history. It’s not all just “fantasy medieval area”. There is no catboy character because that doesn’t exist in the Western imagination.
hydroacetylene
2hr ago
Hungary and Mexico both do this. I'm pretty sure South Africa does as well.
Throwaway05
2hr ago
While I'm sure you had some exceptions I doubt you had the current situation where many states had problems with a flood of zero English effort population and the government was both forced to and decided it was fine to essentially instantiate a second official language.
And for instance the Pennsylvania Dutch are small, isolated, insular, and German - and still are. Very different from getting on public transit in NYC and getting surrounded by Spanish speakers.
It isn’t just movies. Tasks the theme parks. Infamously Disney reimagined a fan favorite in Splash Mountain allegedly due to racism (note the ride literally contained zero humans or depictions of humans). The original ride was great story telling as the ride itself cohered with the story telling. The story wasn’t gendered but arguably somewhat masculine (ie had a frontier / wandering aesthetic).
Disney turned it into a black princess ride that is a pale imitation of its ancestor.
Or the Indiana Jones stunt specular. They removed swords for batons. Indiana no longer has a gun. The bad guys don’t “die.” They even removed the bad guy’s Nazi symbols. They sanitized the show removing the things boys would find interesting (probably without making it interesting to girls).
I’m not sure these moves are to pander to women so much as Disney has strong progressive / feminine decision making.
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