They could ask Ford for tips on raising their own crack squad of private enforcers, to send over there!

I agree here, this continues to be self inflicted by lifetime players, but is also natural failing of legislation to get involved. After the ESRB in the US formed (since that’s my experience) it seems the government simply handwaved any need to get involved ever even as games came online and marketplaces got added.

Parents similarly cannot simply just know the intricacies of every hobby their kid slides in and out of, and few hobbies are quite as insidious to may or may not allow extra purchases quite like gaming. Not even all millennials grew up as gamers, and can pass off that knowledge. And many more just play fifa with the boys on weekends and just wanted a product that works - they treat it like an online NES. Turned it on and go with no deeper thought or realization of the market it supports.

It’s an ad this time.

Yeah this happens every fucking time. This time it’s 6 hours. Next time it’s a week.

This is how DLC started. “It’s not like we cut content from the game to sell!” Was only true for that batch of games for a year or two. The industry’s scum sucking knows no limit and will absolutely pay wall more for longer if this isn’t denounced properly. It is never, ever “just” anything when it comes to these parasites.

“$80 for 80%”

Can’t make people pay to stream board games and dnd. Which, coincidentally, I am buying guide books for because shitfucks like this are actively making gaming harder and harder to continue to justify morally to myself.

They: don’t pay their staff but give executives massive bonuses (Game company CEOS are among the highest when you look at pay disparity charts), indulge in layoffs on failure or success (listing non-paid wages in the quarter as profit to shareholders) , continously justify gambling as not because it’s digital (lootboxes, “player packs” boosters), actively erode consumer rights (liscense vs ownership), actively treat their consumers like dogshit (the ps3 WILL cost $700 and if you do not like it you can…get an Xbox? Lol?), cutting content of products to add back as paid extra content (moving up deadlines and prioritizing XYZ at the end so it’s “not done” by deadline so it can be added back later for a price to beat the “we intentionally didn’t include it” allegations)

Gaming’s shitty practices are ruining other markets and the governments of the world’s refusal to reign them in is causing spillover into other things.

They applaud my originality, where I had time between then and now to think of a comeback.

This is because the average arch user does not enjoy their experience. The average enjoyer is so far beyond a mere “user” when it comes to self-flaggelation

I can fucking smell this truck and the layer of oily grime it leaves everywhere.

20k and a bottle of everclear

I love pointing out that in the US, a base ps5 is now what you risked paying a scalper when they were new, except now it’s not a scalper listing it on Walmart, it’s just straight up Walmart charging it.

My ps5 purchase helped a guy pay his rent after he made a dumb fucking decision in 2022, people buying now pads Walmart pockets.

Pretty sure it has the 2016 version of NMS on it. Booted up a ps4 install with it to try and couch co-op only to look around and ask why the UI was so different from what I was used to. It had internet access we thought but it can’t have or it would have installed whatever the latest patch is. It was surreal seeing pillars of Emeril again.

But you point yes, gaming single player offline is a joke now with DRM requiring single player online. We ripped EA Simcity for this. Simcity died to City:Skylines because it became such a movement.

Your Command strip accidentally breaks the paint and underneath is more layers of fucking paint - not drywall

Had a nokia 3310, had a flip phone, did not like T9. The predictive nature was aweful and never got me to like it before I got a slide keyboard phone.

Gonna catch a lot of “get with the times” but an ad blocker and watching YouTube in browser on my phone - I’ve never seen the value of needing Premium to do adblocking or a whole ass app like Vanced. Maybe sponsorblock for more but like overall, my impression has always been YouTube Premium is a joke of a service that can never offer anything more than adblocking/sponsor block already just does from a browser on my phone.

Yeah they are just so evil bad and aweful, too bad I don’t know their names so I could actively avoid them. If only some good Samaritan would help me find my way to avoiding those.

He sure tagging something

To sort of piggyback, what about loss of people? A parent or spouse is usually a bigger deal to people, how to support those?

Jerboa. It was the first one I found working and installed, and didn’t see a reason to change unless it stops working - like RiF before it. If it aint broke why switch.

Not really big stuff cuz I don’t own a house, or a lawn.

But commissioning art over the years has never really resulted in bad experiences. Of the…10 or 12 times I have commissioned something, only twice I’ve had artists ghost. One did work and I wanted to commission more but then vanished. I assume because I was the only one asking and paying it wasn’t worth keeping the pages up. The second was a 3d modeler, who asked about the character and then never got back to me. This one I have no idea. Not really upset because I had not yet paid for these things and artists are free to decline work, but I wish they’d just said no and I’d have just made new requests to others.

I once commissioned a plush, and she (the crafter) was phenomenal through the whole process with updates and deadlines. I’m glad I can still link to her page on Deviantart, I assume she’s still in business. These have all been…at least a decade or more ago.

Lastly much more recently, I commissioned a piece from r/hungryartists for a discord pfp, a small thing I didnt want to just use AI for, and I’d say it went well too.

For every one of these interactions I’ve used PayPal, and never once had issues with the people getting their money (because PP issues or bank) or people running off with it.

I don’t need anything done, please don’t dm me with your carrd lol.