Reminder that the 30% steam tax is absolutely greed. Gabe is a libertarian and charges it because he can get away with it. It makes games worse by affecting the equation measuring what is profitable to make. Gabe doesn’t care about that, and that should be taken into account when considering if you actually trust him.

BBB is a scam

Typically you pay for a battle pass with some sort of currency that costs real money to acquire. The battle pass isn’t anything on its own, but if you play the game you’ll then unlock experience or whatever with the battle pass, thus unlocking whatever it contains. Often that’s cosmetics for the game, sometimes useable items, and sometimes it’s more of that currency that costs real money.

IMO they suck. Usually they expire at the end of the month, so if something comes up (family emergency, computer died, whatever) you wasted it and paid for nothing. It’s a cheap trick to devalue a player’s purchase, and to try and boost player count in lieu of good gameplay.

But apparently if you completed the battle pass, it would give you enough premium currency to buy the one they out next month. So theoretically you might only have to buy it once if you were diligent in finish the pass before it went away. Now they’ve taken that away because they wanted more money.

\o/

Out in NYC, the bodegas all have a little plaquard saying that either 1: listed prices include a 2% credit card fee and you can save by using cash, or 2: listed prices may not match your final charge because they add a 2% fee on top for credit cards.

Which is the same thing effectively but it can be sometimes confusing if you’re trying to watch for the fee.

Anecdotally, I have sometimes noticed the cashier will say a price, and then say a slightly different price when I pull out the card. So it’s not like they always apply the fee regardless. At least some of the time anyway.

Not universal of course. I don’t remember if that’s also true for grocery stores, and it’s probably not the case for big chains but honestly I don’t know.

Then this isn’t about them?

Just like why post at all though? This clearly isn’t for you if you’re driven to insult the game on a post about it’s update.

Aphantasia is neat. I have to wonder how it affects the way we see the world. I’m 1. It doesn’t really take concentration, which I see on here? it’s not any harder than just a simple internal monologue anyways. But that’s always in motion whether I want it or not so 🤷

That’s including lights and reflections, but like that’s constructed by me, and so I might imagine a light reflection incorrectly. again just like I might have a definition incorrect for internal monologue.

Anyways, sure. Imagining is part of it. Like placing yourself in the situation in front of you. I don’t need adult videos to do so though. But like, having full HD imagination doesn’t replace videos of any kind, or else I wouldn’t watch YouTube either ya knoe

The affect of the microwave would fall off exponentially with distance. So like if it has X power at Y feet away, and you go out to 2Y feet away, the affect would be quartered. The affect on a drone isn’t going to do much, even if it really messes with your wifi close up.

Look if someone’s having a bad time, it don’t cost much to throw em a bone. Like sure, that last attack killed them a round early because everyone has had a moment to feel proud today but you. Or like the spellcaster who is feeling a bit shitty because every monster has saved against their spells by some fluke today.

Like if they aren’t having fun, what am I doing here?

Video games do this shit all the time. Famously the first GoW gave new players a small boost in multiplayer. It led to a community and better engagement in the long run because people had more fun. BG3 has that goofy ‘karmic dice’ system, which is on by default. Fire emblem lies. etc etc

Might be worth spoofing your user agent! I mostly just make it look exactly like the user agent my windows machine sends, so I’ll still look like a Firefox user. But by default, Firefox will note that it’s the Linux build in the user agent.

Isn’t brave owned by that weird crypto guy? And based on chrome?

Not in public. This is a conversation with the healthcare provider, not with your partner while you’re at the grocery store. You have a legally recognized right to privacy (at least in the US) when it comes to your health details.

Which is an unequivocally good thing.

I think it was pretty clear the issue was one of privacy requirements and not any qualms with losing jobs, which isn’t even happening here.

(edit: God I’m sorry about this big ass wall. I ranged and rambled. It’s too early to write this much lol. Tl;Dr 1: law enforcement. Police don’t need a warrant to buy your info. In the US, we have warrants for a reason. Constitution outlines restrictions on "unreasonable search and seizure. 2: Consent. Like, I should have the right to just say no. It’s my data, let me be part of the conversation. 3/4: Safety and equity. It’s still illegal to be gay in some parts of the world. An insurance company or an employer could check your race online if they wanted, whether or not you’ve made that available. )

The problem extends across a few metrics.

First, probably the most tangible. The police can and do use data purchased from civilian companies to bypass regulations. For example, you don’t need a warrant to check phone contacts if you can buy it. You might be saying you don’t do anything illegal to worry about. Have you ever been to a protest? Have your friends? If climate change bothers you, could you see yourself going to one?

Protests are frequently targeted by law enforcement. Even if you think that would only happen if the protest becomes a riot, you don’t control the crowd. If you’re there but not rioting, your phone location can be used as proof of participation. There is precedent, too. They used location data to arrest capitol rioters. IMO those were good arrests, but how many BLM protestors were arrested based on phone data?

Second, consent. Even if I change nothing else in your mind here, consider that we might simply value our personal data differently. I should have a right to be part of the conversation about me. Let me pay $20 to use a product without observation. Products should be up front about what is collected too (GDPR has helped lots with website tracking). Facebook is known to collect “shadow profiles”, where data is compiled on you even if you aren’t on the platform. I should be allowed to say no to that, for any reason, simply by virtue of it being my information.

Third and fourth go together some. Safety and equity. People are still killed for being gay. Legally. And the collection of data on people enables that. Just buy data off of Pornhub to identify who is browsing their gay section. And if someone is found in a country where it is illegal to be queer, all you need is a list of their contacts to find more. Maybe Apple refuses to unlock their phone for you, but that’s okay. Just buy their contacts off Meta.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory

But that’s the straightforward issue of equity. Consider someone who has gone to jail. They’ve done their time, they’ve reformed, and now they want to rejoin society. The judge even goes so far as to expunge their records. Well, a background checking company can buy that info still. And that’s just talking about criminal acts that should be reformed. Maybe you don’t care about that. What about crimes that just target BIPOC? In the US, weed is legalizing, slowly. People were still arrested for it, and that history is indelible, regardless of the official record. If even the US Justice System wants to wipe the slate, than the slate should be wiped.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_in_the_United_States_criminal_justice_system

Special mention to Google btw. Good and bad. They do a lot to tell you what and how they collect data, and how they anonymize it. Purportedly don’t sell your data, since they also own the ad network. Like you say, I’m not really worried about the ads, and a lot of their products really are good enough that I don’t mind making that trade. However, I do take umbrage with the idea that it’s fine still. A company does have analytics on their ad campaigns. John Oliver did a funny bit where they put an ad targeted towards Congress. He got a couple of hits too, with their location and had the power to fingerprint their browsers if he wanted. Once you click an ad, you’re in the care of whatever site put that ad out. That means they collect whatever they want on you. Additionally, theyll know what ad brought you in. So if you put an ad out targeting “pregnant people in Texas looking to make a trip”, you’ll have a list of people that Google thinks match.

This whole post misses a lot of nuance and context. It’s a social media post, ultimately. I’m not sure I have enough mental capacity right now to hunt down more links, and I’m about to start my work day. I don’t have any trouble with folks who don’t care – frankly I’m jealous. I’m annoyed that I can’t just use products like most people and not care. It’s just everywhere. Walking down the street I’m on someone’s TikTok, meaning Facebook, YT, Bytedance could get my location without me even interacting with them (shadow profiles from earlier). When I got a covid test recently, I had to download their stupid app to fill out a form. That app has the power to collect endless data points about my phone. Buying concert tickets means signing over my information to your favorite ticket vendor. It’s just endless and exhausting for me.