lol it's pretty weird hearing an English voiceover in the Japanese language promo trailer. You guys think that was a stylistic thing or a marketing thing?
To be clear, by using the term "flat-hierarchy" I was indeed suggesting a situation that's exactly as you say: a company ruled under an iron first used sparingly -- ergo "the truly defining characteristic of his leadership is his willingness to be as hands-off as possible."
We can of course only speculate as to the soft power dynamics at play, although we can be certain that a soft-power dynamic does exist. I even agree with you when you state that this dynamic is unique to Gabe's specific personality and individual mannerisms and not something which can exist without him. Where we seem to differ, however, is in our opinion of how important Gabe's special flavor of soft power really is -- is it the secret sauce or nothing special?
I argue that it's nothing special. Given the right hand-picked successor, I foresee an uneventful transition and not a catastrophy. Some things will get easier and some things will get harder, but I think the overall structure and mission of the company will ensure a certain measure of continuity. If anything, I'm actually optimistic; the mere presence of a new leader will help change internal perceptions of what's possible and help bring about some exciting new ideas.
Is Gabe really that irreplaceable? The way he runs the company (flat-hierarchy), it's mostly self-governing -- the truly defining characteristic of his leadership is his willingness to be as hands-off as possible. A like-minded successor or even governing council could probably quite effectively handle things in Gabe's absence.
Well... regardless of that: nothing lasts forever, but that's no reason to assume that things will change for the worse. Gabe seems to put a lot of deliberate thought into his actions, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if he has already taken care of preparing for a smooth and faithful transition away from his leadership when the time comes. Who knows, maybe they'll even do a better job than Gabe could?
I'd love to... but unfortunately that's more-or-less the extent of what Tolkien has ever written about the One Ring. Tolkien was ultimately writing about Sauron (i.e.: the lord of the rings) and the evil miasma besetting Middle Earth which the lord personally embodied. Viewed through that perspective, the ring is merely a storytelling tool for imposing Sauron's shadow upon our heroes without compromising his dramatic weight as the big bad.
With that being said, the One Ring became foundational in shaping the modern incarnation of what TV Tropes has dubbed the "Artifact of Doom", though I'm more partial to the OSP classification of "Cursed Artifact" which focuses more on specifically malevolent & varyingly sentient magical artifacts (e.g.: the Monkey's Paw, the Picture of Dorian Gray, Nightblood, Gonne, SCP-055). One of the curses (heh) of this particular trope is that it's quite hard to stake the dramatic weight of a full narrative upon them, since they tend to lose their mystique as the audience gets more familiar -- this works very well for short stories, though!
The concept of "fate warping" power, on the other hand, has caught on significantly less in western fantasy. This is actually kind of odd by historical standards because we can see similar explorations of the concept in both eastern and western mythology (e.g.: the (Chinese) Red Thread of Fate vs. the (Greek) Thread of Human Fate). It's actually a bit of an unexplained mystery as to why the theme only fell out of favor in the western traditions!
Weeb that I am, I would be remiss not to mention the intricate mechanical and thematic power of fate in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure -- specifically in the context of Araki's (fantastically bizzare) commentaries on justice, power, truth, and inequality which take center stage in parts 4-6. One of my favorite stories of all-time is the weighty JoJo Part 5 epilogue -- "Sleeping Slaves" -- because it makes such an eloquent and powerful statement about the roles of fate & heroic self-determination in the preceding story.
Nope. Sauron isn't even aware of when someone wears the ring. The ring basically only has a handful of effects:
(Slightly) bends fate to favor Sauron's interests (e.g.: bouncing in a particularly fateful direction, shining in a particularly noticeable way at a specific moment). This is basically the only thing it can do without an owner.
(Slowly) amplifies the wearer's worst personality traits (e.g.: greed, powerlust, paranoia, hatred). The ring has enough agency over which traits it brings out to subtly favor Sauron's interests, though this varies by individual and the extent of exposure.
Grants the owner wraith-like powers such as: invisibility, unnaturally long lifespan, and understanding of black speech.
Grants Sauron (or an equally skilled warlock) immense infuence over the owners of the other rings, including mind reading and partial control.
tl;dr: The ring exists as a tool to control the other wearers and is functionally useless to Sauron when he's not wearing it. The other properties of the ring basically amount to a contingency plan... though it's not actually well established just how intentional vs. accidental some of these auxiliary effects were.
AI won’t be creating anything new anytime soon, because it recycles existing art just like hack writers do now.
This is one of those half-truths which I think is doing more harm than good for the AI-skeptic crowd. If all we have to offer in our own defense is that we have souls and the machines do not, then what does that mean if the machines ever surpass us? (For the kids snickering in the back: I am using "soul" as a poetic stand-in for the ineffable creative quality which the "AI as collage-maker" argument ascribes to human people -- nothing spiritual).
For now, the future of AI is incredibly uncertain. We have no clear idea just how much gas is left in the moment of this current generative AI breakthrough. Regardless of whether you are optimistic or pessimistic, do not trust anyone who acts like they know for a definitive fact what the technology will or won't be capable of.
An unexpectedly candid response as far as these things go... though I guess that's just how Phil Spencer usually is. I appreciate the deliberate choice to avoid double-speak even though he's basically blanket declining to discuss the topic.
A stand-up move from Re-Logic. You love to see it when the people at the helm of a lucrative publisher are industry stakeholders rather than the all-too-common quarterly cash extractor types[^1].
[^1]: Yes, I am all too aware that such seemingly altruistic gestures can be calculated PR moves in disguise. I certainly understand that this move will earn them (as a publisher) brownie points with various indie studios who may just so happen to be seeking publisher funding in the wake of an expensive mid-project engine switch. Such is the way of the world; sometimes a move can be simultaneously altruistic and good business.
The only experience I've ever had that rivals the intense soulsucking of dating apps was applying for work as a fresh highschool graduate during a recession.
Just for context: I'm actually decently eligible by the traditional metrics... nice job, nice place, nice face. Shit still sucks even with tailwinds at your back. I admire anyone with the fortitude to stick to these apps because they tore my ass down and then some!
My takeaway was simple: life's too short to waste waiting for someone else to complete you. I uninstalled those apps and have been happily single ever since ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
lol it's pretty weird hearing an English voiceover in the Japanese language promo trailer. You guys think that was a stylistic thing or a marketing thing?