Signtist

Science is great; it’s the people who ignore it throughout school but still think they know enough to understand complex topics like medicine and climatology that are the problem.

Something I had to learn is that they’re not trying to ask for help or treatment. It’s one of those times where you’re supposed to listen and commiserate, but not offer a fix. They likely already know that you’re unable to help, and they likely already know that there isn’t really a way to “fix” it, only ways to make it easier to deal with. And one of those ways is to talk with someone about it, which is probably why they brought it up. Ironically, you’ll be helping so long as you don’t offer help, just company.

I was surprised at the accurate guess, to be sure, haha!

Not even mad; I don’t have any real connection to the Fighting Hawks - it was still the Fighting Sioux when I was there. Funny thing was that we were always technically the Flickertails on paper anyway, along with the green and pink official colors that they always liked to pretend were actually green and white.

I guess I’m just an armchair armchair-spotter, haha!

I suppose that would be a gotcha if I we’re actually trying to read into a scenario I know nothing about, rather than just calling someone else out for doing so.

Yeah, armchair psychologists often like to throw out the “this isn’t what it seems” argument with such conviction that they forget that it still definitely could be what it seems.

UND represent!

That’s why I’m glad I live where I’m more likely to complain about it being -40.

Doesn’t look anything like the reference, but it’s great in its own right.

I’ve got a bunch of work to do next week, but technically none of it absolutely needs to be done tomorrow. I’m sitting here hoping this isn’t me when I wake up.

Yup, and it’s more fun when you let yourself have challenges. Sure, it’s easier and more efficient to stealth behind an enemy and stab them in the back, but it’s more exciting to go in swinging, even if you’re only wearing leather armor and haven’t trained your sword skill very much!

Yeah, I appreciate when my grocery store has an awesome sale on the products I wanted to buy, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to pay them more or anything. To your company, you’re just a product.

Unfortunately, the government was never the good guy, either. It’s meant to be a voice for the people, but it almost never is. We need to become educated enough as an entire population to keep companies in line ourselves, because governments side with corporations more often than not.

I’ve had to specifically put a hard stop on my usual thought process while playing games, in an effort to get back to how I played as a kid. If I catch myself strategizing too much to the point where I’m not even playing anymore, and am just going through the motions I already planned out, I purposefully make myself do something completely against the plan just to put myself in the kinds of situations I’d be in as a dumb kid who did the wrong thing, since that was the last time I had real fun playing games. It doesn’t always work, but I do have more fun than I did earlier in my adult life.

We as a people have been lulled into a false sense of security by corporations claiming “It’s okay, we can both get what we want!” as they play the long game that ended up resulting in the global situation we have right now. We have to reject capitalism in all forms as much as we can, and truly embrace only what few products were made for the sole purpose of creating something, not for profit. It’s no longer about only following what few companies use the power we’ve given them responsibly - the troublemakers ruined it for everyone, and now nobody can be trusted with it. Companies aren’t just not our friends, they are our sworn enemies.

But are you? Literally the only people who could possibly make a gamer-first video game is an organization that isn’t money-first. That was my whole point. You have never played a game made by a for-profit developer that wasn’t specifically money-first, even if the gameplay ended up being good in spite of that. Indie devs are the only people making games that sometimes break that mold, and while I wouldn’t exactly call an indie dev “nonprofit,” it’s a lot closer to the truth for the ones that truly make gamer-first games than grouping them with a for-profit corporation.

It’s not all that shit of an argument. All companies exist to make money, not products. If they could make money without making products, they would stop making products altogether. Some are more egregious about that fact, but it remains a fact for all companies, even the ones you think are your friends. It’s possible for a company to do what consumers want and still make money, establishing a good relationship that makes both enjoyable products and decent profits, but even those companies are just one leadership change away from short-term profit-driven decisions that run the company to the ground.

In a legal sense, media is media. The laws were established for music before digital games were mainstream, and were then applied to games.

Oh, yeah, that’ll happen. The tried and true method of making massive profits is to sacrifice long-term stability for short-term revenue, then abandon ship before it sinks.