Quetzalcutlass @ Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world

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495

Joined

2 yr. ago

I wonder if medicine packaged like this would be statistically more effective. The placebo effect is a real thing, and adding a layer of ceremony to the medical process might trigger it in those of a certain mindset. (or have them decry modern medicine as demonic, though that's hardly new)

Also, I really want my medicine to come in health potion vials. Please?

Jealousy is just envious because it didn't make it into the Seven Deadly Sins.

There are two things I can't stand in this world: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures... and the Dutch.

It was, which is why it sucks that it got snuffed out instead of one of the dozens of less interesting subplots.

Half-Life, and more recently Abiotic Factor (which is basically Half-Life reimagined as a survival crafting game).

I liked how there was a multi-book background subplot of some Aes Sedai investigating the Black Ajah in secret, only for them to get killed off between books (and their deaths only mentioned in passing during the next book's prologue) and the Black Ajah plot thread put on hold, then for the solution to the Black Ajah to be handed to Egwene with a wrapped bow a few books later.

I get Jordan was trying to cut out extraneous subplots and actually finish the series, but it sucks that so many pages were wasted on something that went nowhere, and the eventual resolution didn't even need them in the first place.

The game made over a billion dollars but disappeared from the cultural zeitgeist almost immediately. Of course the publisher only cares about that first part, so unnecessary sequel it is!

What I meant by it being too late is that once you're a billionaire, you can fund your interests (like making the world a worse place) off the passive income you make from interest and investments. Licensing fees are probably a drop in the bucket at this point. Even if she makes tens of millions less due to a massive boycott (which is wildly optimistic), it wouldn't affect her life or political activities a smidgeon.

And since Hogwarts Legacy was the game that finally dethroned Call of Duty and random sports games as the top seller of 2023, I doubt a boycott would be at all effective. Harry Potter was many people's childhood, and they'll buy it regardless of external factors just to finally live in that world.

Edit: I fully support anyone who chooses to boycott Rowling and anything associated with her. It makes sense to not want to support her in any way. I just wanted to point out the unfortunate truth that a boycott won't actually hurt Rowling or her disgusting political activism in any meaningful way, outside of maybe bruising her ego. She's not beholden to public image like a corporation is, so she won't even make a token effort to appear less awful.

I loved the descriptions of the Carheinien Game of Houses, where everything was political theater and anything you did in public was scrutinized for multiple deeper meanings. It's a shame the actual politics shown in the series was mostly pampered and immature nobles complaining that preparing for the literal imminent apocalypse was too inconvenient.

It'd make a great RPG setting, but IIRC every attempt at a licensed adaptation (aside from a forgettable FPS like twenty years ago) has ended up in development hell or terrible. Or both, in the case of the show.

I do like that the portal to alternate dimensions ended up being how the Seanchan acquired the weird monsters their army used. That was some quality world-building.

Matt and his crew, Thom, Aviendha, Min, Verin... There are so few likeable characters, especially amongst the women (you could write an entire book about how WoT handles women - I should note two of the three I listed as likeable are tomboys and were therefore saved from Jordan's normal characterization). And due to the aforementioned thousand named characters, the good ones get almost no screen time.

But there's always time for Egwene and Faile, the two worst "good" characters. Don't you want to know what Salidar or the Shaido are(n't) up to for the billionth time?

It's funny. I actually liked the Wheel of Time, but any time I talk about it it's to rant about its flaws.

There are good live service games, but the blatant monetization bothers some people.

Take Warframe, one of the most popular live service games. Everything can be earned in game, including the premium currency as long as you're willing to put in time and effort. However, every single UI element offers a way to spend that premium currency with higher presentation priority than the actual in-universe methods of doing whatever that menu is for.

Want a specific gun? Only 500 platinum for a fully kitted out model* (or 25,000 credits for the blueprint you actually want, and it wasn't until fairly recently that they added tooltips showing where to earn things in-game). Building something? Only 20 platinum to rush construction, or you could wait a day. Want to customize your frame? Here's a few dozen color palettes, 99% of which cost platinum.

Which is such an awful newbie trap. Don't buy weapons or frames off the Market in Warframe, kids. Their Prime variants, which are statistically superior, can be bought off other players for a fraction of what DE charges for the inferior regular versions. The Market is hilariously, blatantly overpriced and has been since the very beginning.

Space Engineers is another offender. It's a block-building game and all of its DLC is cosmetic skins, but even if you don't own the DLCs those skins show up as unique blocks in the block picker with a padlock icon that tells you to buy their associated DLC. It clutters up the UI to the point of worthlessness, but there's no way to turn it off because it acts as an advertisement.

Let's not even get into gacha games, which feed off of addictive impulses to have a small percentage of players pay thousands of dollars to subsidize everyone else who plays for free.

Live Service and Dark Patterns go together. Games as a Service requires a constant revenue stream to fund development, which incentivises predatory design patterns.

I get that, but she's already a billionaire. The damage is done; nothing we as consumers can do will have a meaningful effect on her life. And the game studio is obviously against her views, given the positive presence of a clearly MtF trans character* in the first game.

Which honestly bothered me (the obviousness, not the trans part), because the Potterverse is one where you'd imagine transitioning to be easy and perfect (take that, Jo). I think it would have worked better if that character had a flawlessly feminine voice and only revealed they were born male later in their dialog. The way it was implemented it felt like pandering to negate Rowling's toxic reputation, which tbf it probably was.

Counterpoint: it's WB Games. Nothing they've done in the last few years gives me confidence that their suits won't fuck things up in their attempts to wring ever more money out of their games.

It also mentions that the unannounced title is planned to have a "live ops" phase post-release, suggesting that the Hogwarts Legacy sequel could be a live-service game. WB Games has been quite vocal about doubling down on its live-service push in recent times, seemingly unfazed by the failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

That's all you need to know.

There are over a thousand named characters in the Wheel of Time. I think I actually liked less than ten, and only one of them was part of the Emon's Field crew (Matt, after he stops whining and becomes an actual competent person - due to magic, of course, because positive character development only happens via deus ex machina in this series).

Don't forget Skimming, which is plot relevant like twice after teleporting is introduced (and one of those times isn't even for traveling, it's to throw an invincible murder golem into the void between dimensions).

It's the, ah, finish that's the danger.

Basically this:

(I'm sorry)

Catpuchin.

Felt the deep pit in my stomach

It's depressing how I went from not understanding this expression, to feeling it nearly every time I checked the headlines starting in November of 2016.