The Republican investments into Umbrella Corporation really paying off.

Supposedly, this is a lot of the job of prostitutes now.

Although strangely, the specific example I’m reminded of is Manny in Grim Fandango luring the security guard to a back room, only for her to want to give him her life story.

To be clear, at this point you are not insulting Graham Platner on the idea that he’s a Nazi. You are directly insulting every single voter that doesn’t recognize all Nazi symbols offhand; because all of them were identifying with his excuse. I’m not a Mainer, but otherwise I was one of them.

I was that day years old when I learned what a totenkopf was. A basic picture would’ve made me say “Oh, nice pirate tattoo.” Even after he gets the tattoo, it wouldn’t come up in conversation much if it’s under his shirt, and not in his own field of vision.

I have watched movies about the holocaust and that particular symbol never comes up. I don’t know why people so readily assume it must be common knowledge.

“But you know now!” Yes! And so did Graham! So what’s the point?

Said it better than I could.

People are greedy; greedy for any resource they can control. Today it’s money. It could easily be something else.

“But they wouldn’t be allowed to!” They’re not allowed to do what they do now, but they force courts and opinions to work otherwise.

It’s easy to blame players, but gambling compulsion is a known psychological phenomenon that can bypass the reasoning of some particularly susceptible people. The law quite often leans towards it not being players’ fault they’re so addicted, hence no ads for casinos.

Honestly, we kind of need the law to catch up - on sports betting too.

But they’re not getting “your money”.

When your friends buy your game from you, and then that friend’s friend re-buys the game, those are lost sales. Your friends liked getting the game at a lower price, but if it was sold digitally for half your Used Price, everyone keeps their copy to play later, but the devs (okay, realistically in many cases; publisher) gets more money.

I’m not stating this to condemn you, honestly I’m far more fine with you trading with friends than the GameStop Used Market (a shitshow that wasn’t good for anyone); but you don’t build a compelling case for Sony to want to sell to you.

So far, it’s been very rare for digital ownership of games not to stay preserved. Ex: You can’t buy games from the Wii U anymore, but can still install owned ones. Some games are delisted from Steam, but you can install them.

Notable exceptions: Online games (not helped by discs) and Sony’s big attack on movie licenses.

In terms of resale ownership, yeah, it’s not so favorable. I’m ambivalent on that, because resale motivated a lot of changes in games - more online, more perpetual GAAS, fewer short singleplayer experience.

Ugh. How does MA have to keep reminding this part of history?

No taxation WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. Having a voice was the important part. But asking people to parse a conditional is too much.

“If you breathe mercury, jump off a bridge.”
“You’re telling me to jump off a bridge!???”

I’ve been gaming on Linux for a bit now. I did just run into a series of games my group plays that all break Linux for the sake of kernel anticheat; which was unfortunate.

We may see that change with the popularity of the Steam Machine, but the boost will probably be smaller than the Deck.

I remember one time that I got a flush of scissors, and then my dad beat me for clogging the toilet.

On the right is Two Pair, but you should know that it still gets trumped by Three of a Kind.

Yeah, I’m fine with leaving the difficulty subject alone; as you said, it becomes pretty polarizing.

What you describe about a more individual, self-owned experience is often what makes novels/writing so compelling to people, since they generally come from one crazy mind, undoctored. Even then, you might be surprised how many different professional editing roles tend to go into a very refined book.

Movies and games tend to involve an order of magnitude more people, not all of them holding the title of “Game Designer” but all having a very important form of input to the end product, both for effort and for decisionmaking. If the studio’s lawyer takes a look at a virtual vending machine’s set of drinks and says “No, change those two, they run a risk of lawsuits from Pepsi”, is that “outside censorship”, or does the lawyer count as “part of the studio” because he’s at the same risk of publisher layoff as everyone else?

The hazy answers to that question, in my mind, are part of the reasons I don’t find the “Author vision, unfiltered” argument so compelling, especially as games involve larger studios. I think you’re right at least that it does create something more unique when a smaller, talented team is given reigns, eg Half-Life 2 or Expedition 33.

It’s not the first subject where I’ve heard that sentiment, the other big one being difficulty in video games. But it’s pretty disingenuous, since most great media authors I know seek some level of feedback on their creation, and adjust based on how people have perceived it because some part of their work isn’t quite coming across how they’d hope. Valve famously does oodles of QA testing on all their properties.

The question isn’t just between “Is providing attractive characters good/bad”. It can also be more nuanced, like “I want to make this character really attractive, but some people feel soured by the designs I’ve given where she has a bikini. Is there some way to design her that’s still really visually appealing, in a slightly sexual way, but also feels enjoyable to people who view her more as a role model?”

A great example of that nuance was in the “Tracer victory pose debacle” in Overwatch. Tracer had a victory pose that was just her, facing away, shoving her butt out. Someone commented that it felt off-kilter for her personality, and Blizzard ended up replacing it with another one. A censorship crowd wailed on the occasion, but when comparing the two poses, there’s a more reasonable take there; the ass-centric pose didn’t fit the character much, and the new one was both cute and still managed to show off her slender legs while also fitting the “pilot” theme. It also helps that media of that type has a lot of character designs on offer, so it might just be a matter of hitting more archetypes correctly, instead of everything leaning in the direction of “big booba no clotha”.

There’s probably a good opportunity for a more detailed discussion on sexuality in media here.

Several things are true. One, I think most commenters agree the guy posting this is likely a sex-obsessed misogynist. Two, some people do get uncomfortable, or lose immersion in media, based on certain costume designs. Three, some people would like to see more sexualization/attractive characters in media for their own enjoyment, and in certain contexts that’s not always a harmful thing to ask for.

It’s also made trickier because for groups both for/against sexualization of various forms, they’re often shy about discussing it. It’s a subject that leads to fast accusations of censorship, prudishness, or misogynistic deviancy or gender hatred.

Still, I do think there’s better balances to achieve by allowing a bit more communication. Wonder if this makes sense as a YouTube video or just a more open-ended thread question starting with a poll.

Eh, I will admit I tend to notice poor takes from people who refer to half the population as “females” routinely.

It’s accurate, in the same way “a bag of flesh” is accurate. But it’s also strictly “othering” for many phrases where you could just be talking about all people, or use the simpler “women” or “men”. Besides, it’d be perfectly fair to knock a lesbian for being excessively horny to the point she wants Supergirl to look sexually exposed in a fight.

I will apologize for nitpicking words, though. It can get grating.

Keep talking if you’ve ever taken offense to the way Orlando Bloom has been depicted, or been made uncomfortable by his depiction. Otherwise, I’d say let it go.

Same. I’m a gooner. But I like building into the fantasy. I like the role play starting with “Ooh, I’m a tough mage overestimating herself, here I go in this dungeon” - but starting that mage out in nothing but a thong pulls me out.

Write situations where it makes sense to briefly see someone in their underwear, I won’t deny being satisfied. But you’d have to write. People still need regular clothes

Irony doesn’t make it better. Every self-censor is trying to use irony.

If I’m guessing right from the faded gray color scheme, Arknights Endfield, a very graphically detailed gacha about 4-person teams and factory-building.