ConstableJelly @ ConstableJelly @beehaw.org

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25

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232

Joined

2 yr. ago

There's a PlayStation community I was subscribed to whose main mod posted a gamergatey rant over the weekend with a number of factual inaccuracies. I wanted desperately to assume they were just benignly uninformed, but it didn't turn out that way.

I'm not interested in subscribing to a community at risk of being affected by that kind of toxicity, so I had to leave. Which is a bummer because I liked having PS-specific news in my feed.

I think I have it. OP was staying at a hotel when it was evacuated by SWAT. This evacuation event was notable enough that it wound up on the front page of the paper (A1), so OP wound up being a source for a front-page story. As a result of reconnecting with people at the paper, they decided to try emailing the editor about any job opportunities.

Rather for the sake of profit, transparently.

Republican state representative Tiffany Esposito, who sponsored the new workplace heat bill, spent years as an operative in the business lobby before being elected in 2022.

Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the company that owns Pornhub to force compliance with the state’s age verification law and threatened millions of dollars in civil penalties.

My brain has actually defaulted to thinking of Ken Paxton as a particularly vile time traveling pilgrim, whose immediate response to arriving in the present day was outrage that the world had changed and a divine conviction that it was his purpose to revert the world to the puritanical Christian dominance that made him feel warm and safe in his own time.

That's easier for me to comprehend than that an actual 21st century person has this many stupid, hateful ideas he's willing to happily tie his name to.

When we were trying to book a hotel, my partner clicked on the top link of a Google search, which was of course a sponsored link and took her to some completely off-brand intermediary whose website was designed to mimic the appearance of the hotel's. She completed the booking there before ever realizing it wasn't the hotel itself, and when I quoted the same stay directly with the hotel it wound up being some $100-$200 cheaper.

I had to have a lengthy phone call with their customer support and exchange a few emails before they finally agreed to refund us. I suppose we're lucky they even had a reachable customer service, but I was and remain infuriated by the conditions that created the situation in the first place.

Thanks! I looked at Graveyard Keeper a while back, might give it a go.

I finally tried out Hardspace Shipbreaker. I've played a few hours and just finished the reactor tutorial. So far it's that diamond in the rough I'm always looking for: an engaging but chill gameplay loop and enticing progression. Something I can turn on to relax and zone out with noncommitally, but that isn't just an objective-less sandbox ala No Man's Sky.

If anyone has recommendations for other games that fit the bill please let me know!

Now, with Republicans withholding critical lethal assistance, largely at the behest of former President Donald Trump, Ukrainian troops are feeling the pressure.

The amount of damage being done globally at the behest of Donald Trump's personal ego is unconscionable.

Topic of tonight's nightmare: "sex party with Matt Gaetz."

The company claims that fully complying with the state law would put it in breach of its contract to operate the facility, raising the prospect of $160 million in lost revenue. GEO also says that complying with HB 1470 would require building upgrades estimated to cost over $3 million, including a complete redesign of the heating, cooling and ventilation system at the detention center.

Fucking. Yikes.

36 here too, two kids. I have been overwhelmed with fear the past few years that something like this will happen. I can only imagine that if I received the news you did, it would cripple me. Immediate shutdown.

I wish I had more to offer than my sympathy. I wish we could do better with cancer than we can...

I'm a California restaurant operator preparing for the $20-an-hour fast-food wage by trimming hours, eliminating employee vacation, and raising menu prices

No media outfit should be covering these anecdotes unless the business owner is willing to divulge their margins and expected impact to them. Is Mr. Fatburger here protecting a 1% decrease in his 9% margin? Cut a hole in a cantaloupe and fuck it. Uncritical coverage like this also assumes that owners are operating efficiently and that the minimum wage increase isn't unduly affecting them because they suck at operating a restaurant.

This is frustrating. We know that in the absence of regulation or oversight, workers' rights at the bottom of our supply chains approach or outright classify as slavery conditions.

Fair trade certification is essentially meant to be a means of opting out of funding those conditions as consumers, by indicating which products hold themselves to a higher labor standard. However, this report claims that the mechanisms used to enforce those standards are exploited by certified organizations by manipulating the auditing process (e.g., compelling workers to respond positively in interviews because corporate representation is present). Thus, this particular brand of private regulation is worse than useless because it tempers labor solidarity in favor of impotent "ethical consumerism."

If accurate, it's nothing short of an outrage. But abandoning the idea entirely in favor of global labor solidarity feels naively misguided. The majority of privileged consumers don't even care enough to choose fair trade options when given the choice, due to ignorance, apathy, and/or a sincere belief that we have a divine right to $1 king sized-snickers, and that the exploitation of invisible people is an unfortunate or righteous inevitability.

The world's not in a position to effect impactful labor solidarity right now, and I'm not convinced (yet) that there are no benefits (e.g., "Workers are provided the tools and uniforms necessary to perform their jobduties free of charge, and the costs of these cannot be included in wagecalculations or as salary deductions") to fair trade initiatives.

Per Labor Notes's own findings, certification audits are carried out by third parties, and their reporting covers only areas in Mexico through the testimony of 200 workers. Without seeing more information, I don't want to assume this isn't a localized issue or due to a single negligent auditor. When given the choice between idealistic purity or meaningfully pragmatic gains, I'll choose the latter. But it's becoming increasingly apparent that's not enough on its own.

As a side note, I get my coffee from Equal Exchange and I highly recommend it, unless someone tells me they're bullshit too.

Exact same reaction. First person feels so inappropriate for this property that I immediately assumed comparisons to Uncharted and Tomb Raider must have been a, if not the, major contributing factor to going first person.

First person perspective blurs the line between player and character for a specific type of immersion (when done well). An Indiana Jones game should be all about playing as motherfucking Indiana Jones, no blurred lines necessary. His stature and costume is integral to the formula that makes him iconic, and without them, the gameplay segments of this trailer make it look like Far Cry: The 80s Adventure Serial.

Seems nothing has changed in the past 2 years: Take Two Is Being a Dick

I've said before that being a PS Plus subscriber has changed the types of games I play by making indie games more accessible to try, with low stakes. Prior, I usually reserved my funds for what I assumed was the biggest bang with AAA titles.

There's value there with having a library of games to just try out. That being said, the trajectory of subscription services generally and "digital ownership" (see Playstation's recent Discovery kerfuffle) is really concerning.

I think Ubisoft's mindset here is on the wrong track (surprise...). Luckily, as others have said, there's not a lot of temptation here for Ubisoft's modern library (Prince of Persia being an admitted exception).

Alan Wake 2. I'll spare any commentary on all the things it does well and that make it a one of the most ambitiously distinctive (AAA) games...ever? because that's been well covered.

On the other hand, I am kinda surprised that the combat is as... deficient as it is. I never liked the combat experience in the first game. I don't like how the enemies were programmed to run off screen to the sides of view, because Alan isn't nimble enough to pivot direction sufficiently to track multiple enemies, and it just felt cheap and frustrating. Dodging is clunky too.

Control was the next Remedy game I played, and I thought the combat in that game was fantastic. The gunplay felt right, and the paranormal powers were weighty and responsive. Even the levitate power looks and feels fantastic; the animation is super cool and I love watching it.

So I had high hopes for Alan Wake 2, but the combat again feels too imprecise and unbalanced. Dodging is still clunky, projectiles clip through objects, etc.

Oh well. It's a bummer, but in a game like this it's well overshadowed by the strengths.

You've seen everything Hellblade has to offer in the combat department. I enjoyed it personally; it's really slick in its simplicity, but you are right that it's not the main draw. Hellblade shines in its performances, journey, and presentation, like you said. Some of the set pieces are just striking in the best (and worst) ways.

It's a really effective and unique experience overall.

Ghost archive link

Oh man, that's a good point. Surely she knows what she signed up for, I hope.