I could probably recite Bill Wurtz’s “History of the entire world i guess”. And go into some more detail if someone asked.

Gacha.

For most anything else, I can simply chalk it up as a difference in tastes when I don’t like the gameplay, or art style, or whatever. Even those shitty horror games for babies I despise are perhaps fun if you dive into the lore at the right age, who knows. I certainly have obsessed for less than mediocre games.

But no one likes gacha, or at least should like it. It’s gambling marketed to kids, preying on the people without impulse control. No “you can spend 2 hours of your life every day on this and save up 2$ in currency” is changing that, in fact that is even worse.

And yet they give hoyoverse a pass for their series, because everything around it is so high quality. Open your fucking eyes! Games are not supposed to punish you for not playing!

But of course, no accusation without confession, I am quite fond of the yugioh simulator, and used to defend it the same way. I try to resolve this double standard by doing what I feel they should do: Never gush about it, only mention it in shame, and always warn people to not pick it up.

A AAA-battery to AA-adapter. I randomly had 50 of the smaller ones lying around, so it really came in handy.

Can’t share a link, but there should be dozens of this kind of model on any site. “Can’t”, because the model I grabbed was definitely among the worse ones.

“forced” to play

because the path of the gamer isn’t a choice™

That is literally what I am talking about, though. “you doing more, the store doing less, prices increase anyway” is exactly the same thing as happened 100 years ago.

Stores where customers didn’t have access to the back also don’t need security cameras, so even that point is 1:1 the same (although that’s way later than 1925 then).

We have lost most of the stores where a clerk will collect your items for you, they once were the only option. At this rate, we will lose most of the stores where a clerk will scan the items for you as well. Simply because 1 clerk and 20 cameras is cheaper than 15 clerks.

I’m not saying that you have to like or hate both developments equally, I just wanted to point out that we have had and lost this exact battle before.

“Don’t you hate it when you walk into a grocer and they expect you to pick out the items yourself? I don’t work here, I just want to say “1 pound of ham and 2 loafs of bread” at the clerk, pay and pick them up. I’ve been to this new Piggley Wiggly, can’t find anything, spent like an hour to find beans. Imagine if I was paid for that time, I would have made 15¢!”

OP in 1925, probably.

The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen. The man who is endowed with important personal qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respects his own nation falls short, since their failings will be constantly before his eyes. But every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.

Arthur Schopenhauer

It may a 200 year old quote, but the only thing that has changed is that we have since found even worse things to be proud of.

Ad blockers

Discord, YouTube and Twitch. Even if I don’t count 1 because I don’t really build any online presence, all 3 together probably count as having mainstream social media no matter how strict the definition.

For purely economic reasons, the less often I need to buy it, the more I allow myself to splurge.

So vegetables and my go to drink I consume everyday are bought the absolute cheapest, but that spice blend for those veggies lasts me months so I really don’t care if there’s a cheaper alternative.

Of course, expensiveness is measured per kg/litre, paying a bit more up front is always worth it if it means a lower price per kg (if you can consume it before it goes bad).

What a weird bunch, to me these are 2 titans, 1 serial one-hit-wonder, and 1 guy whose humour is family guy cutaway gags.

Ah, yes. Their “We found space whales on Nimbus!” video (about speculative Zoology of alien worlds), which was later titled “What actual aliens might look like” was something I could excuse. I don’t consider claiming the impossible click-bait, but seeing the controversy, it was best they changed it.

However, what I really hated was their ad for a “strange matter” vile/necklace (i forgor), not because they lied about it containing reality destroying elements, but because they did the “buy now because they’ll never come back” trick. I consider manipulative sales tactics to be a greater sin than clickbait.

I believe discussion on this flares up now and then because it is an easy answer, tough decision.

If you make this decision for others: of course this is the most ethical thing to do, the data isn’t ambiguous.

If you are yourself affected: Oof. Yes it might be better for society, but personally I value this and that, and I am but one and would rather wait on legislation before I do anything.

We love to argue it because one side thinks experiencing it taints your view, the other that only reading data misses the point. Can be about indoor cats, vegan diets or pineapple on pizza, the argument itself never matters.

Like this?

Au contraire! As was sung, “I am the one thing in life I can’t control” (Edit: Oof, how embarrising), spending effort on that is the waste. So just coming off as more approachable is the one path open to me.

If I see a obviously AI generated picture as a thumbnail on youtube, I immediately block that creator. If I hear those awful AI voices reading text, same. If you want to share something with the world, put some effort into it.

Use case seems to just be dicking around, and that is just not worth the resources we pour into it.

There is some aspect of Japanese culture I can really do without in my games, like everyone being either a high school student, just getting 18, or 60+. Especially when they then get into relationships.

Then again, I can’t really say if that would sell. I’m certainly not deep enough into anime culture to gauge interest there.

Nice try IRS, but you already know what I do: Unemployed, I only deliver newspapers to keep a day rhythm.

Per month 450€ for paper delivery, 600€ from the state (mostly rent assistance).

Lived half a year from my savings without any assistance and learned to cut back at everything unnecessary. Now I get more money and don’t need to pay into healthcare. Feels weird to be able to splurge again. Nothing contributes to my pension fund at the moment, but nobody believes in pensions here anyway.

CGPgrey’s AI and his self driving cars videos.

Definitely made some poor choices in life due to these that I could scream into a pillow. The future is always unpredictable, and while behind the scenes I’m sure a lot happened to improve both of these technologies, more than a decade later the use cases of both are still the same - grifting investors.