What?? How are you getting that I am threatening people?? I was clearly saying that META people do not seem to take no for an answer even when NO is meant. I said I would keep this in mind the next time I am downtown and come across anyone from their staff. I live in San Francisco and pass by both Twitter and Google for that matter on a daily basis so I see people that work there all the time, at coffee shops in the morning, at lunch etc. As in TO AVOID THEM. Good grief.
That is NOT what I said and NOT what I meant. The Mod removed this comment due to everyone saying I was somehow threatening everyone. They did not publish my response to the message they sent me, so this needs to be cleared up.
What I am saying is that clearly these people do not take NO for an answer, even when it’s clear NO means NO. They ignored it and did what they wanted anyway. I said I would keep this behaviour in mind whenever I am downtown because I live in SF and go by their headquarters literally every day and have already see a lot of their people, and in fact some awful behaviour from some that work there. Interacting with them is something a **WANT TO AVOID. ** I was not implying in ANY WAY that I intended to harm or threaten them.
Some time ago, I basically relegated Amazon to nothing but a search engine.
Let’s say I want to buy a certain item; I do a general search online for what I want; inevitably the first 5-10 search results are a listing on Amazon. I go ahead and read reviews. I notice specs and branding info. That’s it.
From there, if the store isn’t near me physically (so I just go in person), I just go to the actual brand vendor and purchase directly from them instead.
Prices are literally either the same or cheaper direct from the brand.
the product is the real thing.
returns if needed, and customer service is always easier/better.
Amazon does not get my money… (actually maybe this should be number one)
May seem convoluted but I have been burned so many times with fake items, with used items when they were supposed to be new, with no real savings, constant shipping problems, etc. that Amazon as a vendor has become basically nothing but junk to me, compared to how they operated even 10 years ago.
Meantime, I spend some of my happy time back in brick and mortar bookstores, record shops, etc. and enjoy getting undamaged items to my heart’s desire. 😊
Yep. Obviously he can go ahead and claim now whatever he wants about this move being all about combating bots but it seems fairly obvious to me that this is not about that. Getting access to registered users payment info is just one more way to loop people into their system and keep track of who.what.where type of users they have. Charges and platform uses for buying marketed products on the platform is just a hop skip click away at that point.
Bots meanwhile will continue to do what they always do; $1 a year to register in is nothing. They will also most likely be able to do this via a one time only use type credit card where user info is irrelevant.
They also bought out ZeniMax in the same deal, which means they also have ESO under their rap sheet.
The only thing that effectively changed in ESO since the acquisition in 2020 is that they added the endeavor system to the game, so there was an excuse to sustain loot crates and give people a means to get the loot crate items in the game… though that system is frankly still BS since the amount of endeavor and gems needed for that fluff is in real world dollars ridiculous. As is, I dumped ESO completely after High Isle and went back to only playing GW2 (I have been in both games since beta), since the nonsense happening in ESO was enough for me to see that Microsoft running into the ground was not an issue - ZoS already managed that themselves…
I imagine it will be the same for WoW. Zero sum game.
I found a lot of things in this review pretty spot on, and am curious if others feel the same. I do still regularly play one MMO which I love (GW2), but dumped all the others I used to play since I got fed up with their obvious shift to practices he discusses here. While Anet may be guilty of employing some, they are not imho...
I can remember the first time I thought there was something seriously wrong with all the social media habits people were getting sucked into; that was probably like in 2008 or so, when some of my colleagues and I used to joke about how we could never get through any kind of interaction with another colleague of ours without her constantly scrolling her phone like 25 times a minute. It only got worse from there…
The biggest sigh of relief I have had in a long, long time was deleting my Google apps and account. I also deleted Facebook, Twitter, and lastly Reddit account over the summer. The only “social accounts” I have today are this one and my new e-mail account. I now use Startpage for searching if I need it, so no more “googling” things. I haven’t subbed to cable since 2010, but I do sub to HBO (er… “Max” now ffs… I am considering dumping that too…), and The Criterion Channel which is still awesome. Rest of the time, I work, game, hike, or swim.
Getting rid of Google is sort of like trying to get all the fish out of the sea. They are everywhere, hooked into everything, and they constantly nag you. I had to give them another e-mail address before I could even delete the one I had with them, which really annoyed me. None of their business where I got off to… except it is. According to them. So, I had to trash that email account too afterwards just so I could stop getting stupid Google spam.
Anyway, it is definitely possible to unplug just takes some effort. The internet is a lot more pleasant without all that nonsense. :)
There is no better example of this that I can think of than the clothes sold under the Ralph Lauren labels. If you browse through their website you will see a plethora of labels all meant to cater to a certain price point, from Collection level down to retail store. A former work colleague who has enough money to buy collection wear, told me this year that after dropping over 5K on a supposedly 100% cashmere sweater and vest set (labeled as such on the site) when they received it they discovered blended materials listed on the inner tag of the garments, let alone that they began to pill and unravel after one wear. One.
Mind you I would never spend that kind of money on clothes so I don’t have too much sympathy, but share the story to say that Lauren is typical of a ton of “designer” labels now, throwing out tons of promotion for their supposedly high quality garments that are all just as crappy construction as Walmart clothes seem to be. It’s insane.
As a kid, my family always went to tailors for our clothes. We bought fabrics we liked, they measured us, made the garments, done deal. Same with knits. Suits always fit exactly, dressed were a snap, pants all flattered in all the right places. This was not considered “chique” or whatever. Everyone we knew did this. We did not pay a fortune. Buying clothes at department stores was considered far more expensive and a somewhat strange thing to do at the time.
I wish that the idea of supporting and nurturing real artisanship at the local level in all communities were more of a thing. Where I do find them, there seems to be way too much hipster/exploitation vibes around it which is completely counter to the idea of honing a craft and sharing that skill for not just a living but the betterment of people around you.
Maybe some effort at finding where these people still exist and supporting them would be a good way to turn some of the fast fashion (trash fashion) mindset and practices around.
I’ve recently rekindled my love for Katamari Damacy and it made me wonder if there’s any other amazing cult classics out there that aren’t talked about these days. What are your recommendations?
Aquaria is one probably not too many people played to make it a cult classic, but it has a dedicated following of people that love it. Was pretty popular as a 2d indie adventure. I never thought I would like it, but was glad I gave it a try. 😊
I have a lifetime account at LoTRO. Whenever stories about games based on LoTR come up, I am always hoping it will become something awesome, but they all just seem to flop. The ownership rights of the IP are also so fractured and convoluted, it's kind of a miracle anything actually gets made let alone made well. Maybe someone will actually step up at some point to make a game that really embraces the magic in Tolkien's universe, instead of trying to change it and them calling it lightning in a bottle.
Bravo x 1000, I say! I was truly disappointed that the mods at sub Reddit for GW2 did not do the same; after initially going on blackout for a few days, they are now back to business as usual.
Currently investing some time back in ESO for a bit to check out the newly released Archanist class... not super impressed so far tbh. I mostly play GW2 these days so coming back into ESO again everything feels super clunky and slow for some reason, yikes. On single player titles, I have been dipping into The Witcher 3 a bit since I recently got a new rig that can run it at top settings, which is nice.
One of my close friends decided that she's no longer enjoying games so she offered to sell it to me for really cheap (100$). I love gaming but since I switched to Mac a few years ago my choices have been very limited. I've been mostly playing indie games that are available on Mac. So I've been thinking about her offer....
I don't know that looking at games as a release is necessarily a great vantage point, but they can certainly be seen as a haven for fun if you approach them with an open mind.
For me it was more of a switch from how I played vs what I played. I got into online MMOs some years ago and (like a lot of things I do in my life...) I threw myself into them for a while like a loony. I found I was investing far too much time and energy organizing events, raids, builds, spreadsheets, people, personalities, drama, ugh. It was like going to work for heaven's sake! 😂
Eventually I got burned out and stopped completely. When COVID hit, of course going out wasn't an option so I got back into playing more again but realized that I could still have fun without the whole hardcore approach. I became, for lack of a better description, part of the "filthy casuals" lol - something I have never for a minute regretted. My time is my own, I chase what I like, meet others in game, and just plain have fun now.
Meta given 30 days to cease using the name Threads by company that trademarked it 11 years ago (www.techspot.com)
Brave appears to install VPN Services without user consent (www.ghacks.net)
From article:...
The Cobra Effect: Why Anti-Adblock Policies Could Hurt Revenue Instead (yt.artemislena.eu)
The internet is littered with fake reviews. Amazon, Glassdoor and others are trying to fight back (apnews.com)
X, formerly known as Twitter, will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features including the ability to tweet and retweet (fortune.com)
archive.org...
So, Microsoft now owns Activision Blizzard. How will this affect the rest of the industry? (www.gamesindustry.biz)
Live Service And The Decline Of Gaming (www.youtube.com)
I found a lot of things in this review pretty spot on, and am curious if others feel the same. I do still regularly play one MMO which I love (GW2), but dumped all the others I used to play since I got fed up with their obvious shift to practices he discusses here. While Anet may be guilty of employing some, they are not imho...
Why the Internet Isn’t Fun Anymore (www.newyorker.com)
Disney's CEO Is Reportedly Being Urged to Consider Turning Company Into a 'Gaming Giant' [and buying EA] (me.ign.com)
Your Sweaters Are Garbage: The quality of knitwear has cratered. Even expensive sweaters have lost their hefty, lush glory. (www.theatlantic.com)
Archive link...
The Elder Scrolls VI will skip PS5 and isn’t coming until at least 2026 (www.theverge.com)
in my opinion, '98 was the best year for game releases. What's yours? (en.m.wikipedia.org)
98 has some of my favorite games to ever come out, like:...
What forgotten cult classic games are worth revisiting?
I’ve recently rekindled my love for Katamari Damacy and it made me wonder if there’s any other amazing cult classics out there that aren’t talked about these days. What are your recommendations?
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum developer to close after disastrous launch (www.polygon.com)
Minecraft's devs exit its 7 million-strong subreddit after Reddit's ham-fisted crackdown on protest (www.pcgamer.com)
What are you playing this week?
Tell us!
Is the PS4 still a viable console?
One of my close friends decided that she's no longer enjoying games so she offered to sell it to me for really cheap (100$). I love gaming but since I switched to Mac a few years ago my choices have been very limited. I've been mostly playing indie games that are available on Mac. So I've been thinking about her offer....