“Your honor, I may have run over that family while I was driving very, very drunk. But as my gambaling addiction shows, I am a child, and therefore can not be tried as an adult! I rest my case!”

derogatory slang

What did you call me!?

Honestly, the washed up remains of GamerGate have been crying over nothing burgers involving the Nexus so often that I can’t take any of these fears seriously anymore.

The site has to comply with laws, oh the humanity!

…but you can’t make it think

Oh that one, yeah… no fuckin clue. Maybe a cyberman from Dr Who, but like… wearing a suit?

I’m thinking the silhouette of a classic Area 51 style alien.

As someone who loves FFX, the change in map layout from previous games was a huge hurdle to get past for me as well. The maps were so linear that I often wondered why they even included a minimap. It felt like a sick joke.

That mixed with the loss of roaming a world map really made the game feel less “like an adventure” to me.

Now it definitely made up for it in other ways, the presentation, characters, mechanics, and quantity of enjoyable side content really carried the game to be one of my favorites. But those damn maps…

Wait, not trying to be a “cultist” here, but if Valve requires devs/publishers to “offer Steam Keys on other stores at the same price that you offer the game on Steam”, then why do I keep finding Steam Keys much much cheaper elsewhere? Like, all the time…

Can you change your DNS again to test? Just pick Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or google (8.8.8.8) or something. It’s plausable that you actually can connect to the internet and are instead just unable to perform name resolution. Presumably the vpn is using a different dns server, hence it solves your problems when connected.

Or I guess you could try to ping a known good ip to see if the dns is the problem. I just pinged google and got this if you want to try it. 142.250.72.14

I’ve got my beliefs sorted, I want to be able to express myself however I choose. Including using censored curse words if I so choose.

And my point is, as I’ve said a few times, that I find it funny how censorship has gone from “polite” to “offensive”.

What if I don’t “not want to swear”, what if I want to used self-censored curse words? Should I sacrifice my freedom of speech to appease others?

Depending on the circumstance, I completely agree. There are certainly many cases where censoring yourself is giving away your power and freedom of expression.

However, it’s not disingenuous to say that if I want to censor myself, for any reason, on the internet I will likely be shamed by folks who want to assert their values over mine. And in such I am once again giving away my power to the people who want to dictate what I do with my life.

Perhaps I want to do it because I find it funny. Or perhaps I want to do it because I’m trying to emulate a classic comic book speech style, which often had to use censorship because they were being controlled, but now has become a recognizable convention. Or perhaps I want to do it simply to assert my right to speak how I choose, as I already mentioned, despite the “higher authority” of the crowd. For whatever reason, giving up my freedom of expression, as you already mentioned, f*%king sucks actually.

For example, take this post. OP didn’t care if it was censored or not, they just wanted to share something funny and didn’t want to work to do it. Yet most of the comments are about the rage felt by folks who wanted OP to do more work so they didn’t have to see a black bar.

I always find it funny how cursing used to be “contrary to polite speech”, and in doing so you were asserting your freedom of speech.

But now, on the internet, self-censorship is considered “uncouth”, freedom of expression be damned. So now you will be attacked if you say “I’ll F*%Kin talk however the f$$k I wan’t Sh*thead!”

Counterpoint: Evo Moment #37

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Micro$oft is more than happy to let companies pay to use their terrible OS for purposes they never built it for. But the question still stands as to why any of these companies continue to try and shove Windows into a use case that was never even a consideration when it was designed.

Like, if I had a really terrible hammer, and started trying to use it as a saw… I wouldn’t blame the hammer’s inherent terribleness at it’s intended job for why it failed.

Some folks don’t care about having the ‘‘unpradictability of human players’’. Or at the very least don’t think that benefit makes up for the downsides of an always online game, such as always having to have an internet connection, server downtime, lag, the pricing models that pay for those servers, game modes that require you to interact with other players, etc.

I like multiplayer games, and I like single player games, I like couch co-op, and pvp, mmo’s, and fighting games, but I think it’s about having the right tool for the job.

But online multiplayer games that are spin offs or sequels to single player games have a well deserved bad reputation. Due to the numerous instances where the motivation wasn’t to make the game better, but instead to force the more profitable monitary models that online multiplayer games allow for. Fallout 76 stands out as a prime example.

It’s not always a bad change mind you, sometimes it really adds a lot to the game… like… uhhhh… er… Ultima Online? Im sure there are other examples too.

So maybe you can take that stick out of your ass and let folks enjoy what they like? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

“Talent just defines what you do,” Rincewind said. “It doesn’t define what you are. Deep down, I mean. When you know what you are, you can do anything.”

He thought a bit more and added, “That’s what makes sourcerers so powerful. The important thing is to know what you really are.”

There was a pause full of philosophy.

“Rincewind?” said Conina, kindly.

“Hmm?” said Rincewind, who was still wondering how the words got into his head.

“You really are an idiot. Do you know that?”

-Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Can speak to this slightly. I tried to get their app to run via Wine, and it did not work just “plug and play” at least. Tried to find a guide or some alternative option. After about 15 min of searching, I decided that “eh, it works great out of the box” and started using easy effects for an EQ instead.

you only think otherwise because liberals were engaging in mass genocide denial and apologia when it was their team doing it.

Well, no. Actually I think it is accelerated because the Dems engaged in performative humanitarian efforts, which while largely ineffective still presented a minor barrier to the complete genocide. Trump on the other hand has called for Israel to “finish the problem”, and said that the Gaza strip just needs to be “cleaned out”. Beyond that Trump has said things to the effect of “US will own the Gaza Strip”, and is pushing for the displacement all remaining Palestinians, which is by definition escalating the situation to a declared ethnic cleansing, which Trump has attempted to mitigate by saying is only “a small number of people relative to things that have taken place over the decades and centuries.”. His administration has even been directly consulted regarding airstrikes and said that “All hell will break loose” on the enemies of Israel and the United States

And given all of that, it is fairly clear that he is throwing the full weight of the US government behind the genocide, without even the faintest facade of decency or “humanitarian efforts”. So while it’s obvious that the Dems were still allowing the genocide to move forward, it was being ever so slightly hampered by their desire to “appear humane”. Trump has removed those final barriers and now it is accelerating.

And you don’t have to take my opinion for it, you can take it from the warmongers mouth. Israel’s far-right former national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who quit Netanyahu’s war cabinet earlier this year to protest the Gaza ceasefire deal, confirmed the synergy between Trump’s thinking and extreme conservatives in Israel, saying on Xitter “Donald, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship” in response to Trump’s proposed plans for Gaza.

Beyond that, in the United States, Trump has attempted to silence dissent against the genocide. From attempting to strong arm colleges into forcibly stopping protests on campus, to deporting any foreign nationals who speak out, to instructing the Justice department to “aggressively prosecute pro-Palestinian activists”.

Which kinda torpedoes the claim that “Trump has been better for Palestine”, especially on the ground of “now liberals are actually acknowledging what’s happening.” I don’t really see how a group of people who have no political power, and are actively being silenced from using their freedom of speech and assembly, could be an improvement at all. Doubly so when the Trump administration isn’t even asking Israel to pretend to not be committing a genocide, but rather encouraging it.

Which kind of puts us at an impasse. Because the logic of your claim that “Trump is actually better for Gaza” sounds… insane to me. And even if your logic was correct, I don’t see the value in promoting Trump now, given that he is still perpetrating and encouraging genocide and needs to be stopped just as urgently.

But given your world views, I think you kind of need your rational to be true just to protect your sense of self. Because if it isn’t, then you would have to reconcile the fact that your efforts may have played a part in making things worse for the LGBTQ+ community, women, minorities, the world economy, the education system in the US, privacy laws, and the few Palestinians in Gaza that otherwise could have been saved (if only so the Dems could save face), to name just a few.

Here is the kicker however, despite your rather colorful accusations towards my character, I don’t think you are out to intentionally cause harm. We are both limited in our abilities to affect change, and (I hope) are doing the best we can with the knowledge we have to make the world a better place.

So maybe instead of assuming that “lesser evil voters” are “untrustworthy” and seeing them as your enemies, recognize that many of them share the same goal as you. Recognize that we need to work collectively towards these goals. And if you think there is a better way, speak up! I’d be glad to listen, especially if you have a good plan moving forward instead of trying to rehash decisions long since cast. But don’t think listening is somehow admitting defeat either. As far as I’m concerned, we are not enemies and we are not competing to prove who is “more responsible for the world’s problems”. We are all going to need to work together if we are serious about making this world a better place for everyone.