Conservatives are demonized among progressives is that their ideology is reactionary as hell. Even non-MAGA conservatives believe in the abolition of legal abortion, further aiding the rapaciousness of capital, and eroding or outright destroying any semblance of social safety net. These are people who believe every…

I think Pathfinder 2nd Ed is a better modern d20 game than 5e.  Dungeon World is cool, though it's a fairly different kind of experience from DnD in general.

It is an indictment of our entire society that the phrase “peak Dane Cook” exists and has meaning.

You seem to take for granted that Nintendo’s legal arm only moves when necessary, which is untrue. It operates as part of an overall corporate strategy that zealously defends both their IP and their overall brand, but only the latter is really at issue here. If Project+ itself were a threat to Nintendo’s IP, they’d…

Thanks for answering the exact question I was asking in my head.

Their response is likely legally sound, but it’s not necessary. Nintendo has nothing material to lose from allowing the tournament to take place. That they believe there is some further, intangible damage dealt to the brand by the tournament is further evidence that Nintendo is run by people with no understanding of…

Modifying software doesn’t inherently infringe on IP (copyright/trademark). Presuming that the mod does not somehow violate copyright (i.e. allow for piracy) or trademark (e.g. add extra characters that are trademarked) then it’s not a threat to Nintendo's IP and enforcement is not necessary to protect it.

Its not that they don’t have a right, but having the right to do something doesn’t make doing it ethically sound. A frequent excuse for aggressive policing of fan events or content is the necessity of protecting IP, but game mods don’t generally threaten IP. Project+ certainly doesn’t appear to, given that it is…

This is a bad take. Other mods have had tournament scenes, some even with dev/publisher support (original DOTA, for example). There is no inherent danger to Nintendo’s IP or trademark, the mod isn’t being sold and it doesn’t allow for piracy of the base game. This tournament is not remotely comparable to a “ROM…

Great points. I really don’t understand why anyone would draw parallels to Daniel Bryan’s early time in WWE as though it were a positive example. Neither Daniel Bryan nor Bianca Belair should be required to overcome deliberate sabotage by their own employer.

100%. This is the confluence of two of Vince McMahon’s besetting sins: a preference for the big “moment” over coherent storytelling, and pure, un-cut racism. The irony is that in his rush to have her come back at a “big” PPV, Vince undercut a well-booked match with a great story, the winner of which would have been an…

Is there actual data one way or another on the “congestion” issue?  Because I could imagine that it hasn’t resulted in notably shorter travel times in some already traffic-prone areas, but has resulted in a net reduction in cars on the road in the congestion charge area.  Which would be a win, even if the bottlenecks…

Honestly, good to know, because the game intrigues me but even just the description of the soul cannon in this article makes me want to cry.  Jesus.

And I responded to the wrong post, whoops.

For clarity, 2.0 is the main storyline of the original “A Realm Reborn,” 2.X are the post-launch storylines included in patches between the original release and 3.0, which was Heavensward.

I think there’s more to enjoy in the 2.0 MSQ than a lot of people appreciate, but people tend to hear “Yeah, 2.0 sucks, but wait till later,” which colors their impression of the story, encouraging them not to engage with or enjoy it on its own terms, often attempting to rush through it, which given its length is…

As someone who played vanilla-ass WoW, I disagree. WoW was easily that dull, and had fewer instances, no cutscenes, and essentially no story to alleviate the grim slog from 1-60.

Welcome back! Take your time, the original 2.X story is a worthwhile journey, and the base for all that comes after. At times it can bog down, but there’s a ton of other stuff to do if it feels like you’re burning out on it.

I think it’s ethically sound to withhold your business from shitty companies. That said, the way you wrote this implies that consumers are responsible for forcing change at the corporate level.

I hope whoever dictated those words gets hit by a train.