I have no idea what genre of videogame, if any, could replicate the experience of One Piece multi-site battles on absolutely wild and varying scales of power, speed, and size.

But if any genius game dev out there wants to make it happen, I’ll take ten.

This was the first time I ever felt empathy for JD Vance, just as a dad. Also probably the last time.

It does make a little sense, when you consider that one of the goals is to demotivate fascists from voting at all.

Straight facts don’t dissuade fascists. They have every argument and deflection in their back pocket ready to go. Trump is a rapist/racist/traitor? Fake news, fake news, fake news.

But… Trump is weird? That hits them right in the ego. They’re not a principled policy-based voting base, it’s a cult of personality. Even if they want to say he’s NOT weird, it’s not a fact, it’s an opinion. So all it takes is showing a bunch of really strange gaffes, irrelevant rants, and incoherent ramblings, and you just might get would-be Trump voters to feel too embarrassed to vote for him.

It’s a long shot, but based on what I’ve been seeing, it appears to be effective so far. We’ll have to wait and see.

Maybe I’m just bad then. Wouldn’t surprise me 😬

I was a child with an NES and virtually every Nintendo machine thereafter. Parents said my first language was Nintendo.

I still played outside all the time. I regularly rode my bike all over town. I didn’t have to be threatened to play outside. I dunno, people and situations are different, I guess.

That said, it’s certainly harder for kids now. I have a hard time imagining letting my kid ride a bike all over town, mostly because of traffic and stupid drivers. The free public places I used to hang out with my friends are largely gone now. Plus, like you say, the games are now designed to be addicting specifically in the ways that regularly extract more money from players. It’s just kinda bad if you’re not versed enough in the gaming ecosystem to know what’s a worthwhile experience and what’s a cash grab.

Oof, I’m mostly the opposite these days. Multiplayer games either have too much toxicity from randos, or they’re stuffed with progression systems that actively make me hate the game even if the gameplay itself is good.

Still like coop games like Darktide every once in a while.

Or if you develop wrist pain… most FPSs just go right out the window. Or you play on controller and get whomped by the mouse and keyboard players.

I played Red/Blue as a kid. Enjoyed the crap out of them. And then never played any of the later games ever. I think if I tried now I’d feel the same as you.

As someone whose friends got me into destiny 2 on launch… even if you played through the story it was meh at best.

I played through the base game and the first major expansion, but the whole gameplay loop just got so boring so fast.

That’s… an interesting one. Uniquely frustrating from what sort of perspective? Like, do other fighting games work for you but platform fighters don’t? Or are fighting games in general just not your thing?

Aaahhh. Yeah that’d probably do it.

Jesus why was the text so goddamn big

#metoo was a needed movement, but in certain cases it definitely went too far. I think the “believe women” rhetoric makes sense in the contact of “sexual assault happens more than you think, we should stop completely ignoring or actively disbelieving women on impulse when they share their stories”. But some people just took it as “why would any woman ever lie about this, they must be telling the complete and full truth in all circumstances” which is unfortunately how the Al Franken allegations went.

Well I suppose not always. We did have a revolutionary war and a civil war.

But anybody alive today? Less bite than a newborn.

I dunno man. It could be a 33 yr old sharing their experiences.

So young, so precious those 33 year olds, so full of optimism.

That’s true, it could be racism, it could be both.

God, if Taylor Swift runs for president I’d be stunned. I mean, given the circumstances I’d vote for her, but geez Louise.

The only outcome that might suck even more is if Biden did step down, Kamala steps up, and she still loses. Cuz then it’s like… oh so we’re just gonna be misogynistic as a voter base now, great, thanks fellow Americans. Like, we were ready to vote for a shambling shell of an old man but not a lady with Hillary Clinton energy, okay. 🤦

Same.

I wouldn’t equate voting for the lesser of two evils with “blind allegiance”.

For all of Biden’s faults (of which there are many) he’s still the better candidate on offer.

All the issues you bring up are valid, of course, but unfortunately there’s a lot at risk should Trump win. And voting for a senile old man is still preferable to voting for a fascist who is primarily running as a way to stay out of prison.

I’m not sure how we can hijack the DNC primaries to get a real quality candidate, but as far as improving our elections overall, that’s where I’d like to see some progress.

Well, in the current economy, the statistical indicators that economists rely on are booming. GDP, etc. What folks on the left like us are saying is that those indicators are easily measurable but do not paint an accurate picture of what most Americans are experiencing. It doesn’t feel like a boom out here because, well, it ain’t.

It’s not like we’re sipping champagne, kicking it at the beach, and complaining that the guy next door has a nicer beach. We work just as hard as other generations and get a lot less to show for it.

Acknowledging that is important, but corporate politicians in either party seem like they just don’t want to anything about it.

Still voting for Biden, but yeah, not enthusiastically.