Fair enough; game mechanics really shouldn’t be patentable. Specifically / particularly video game mechanics; every video game uses concepts and ideas from other games - there’s nothing completely original anymore. Imagine if every game had patented all of its mechanics - there would be no new games, it’d be impossible to make something. Imagine if ID had patented the concept of a first person shooter, for instance.

This is a whole separate discussion; game mechanics really should not be copyrightable at all, IMO.

Yeah, this is a really shitty, clickbait title.

“They were only getting paid for the first copy sold,” Fryer explained. “They lost millions of dollars.” Sure, multiplayer games were growing in popularity at the time, but as Fryer put it, “How do we create a single-player game that is so compelling, that people keep the disc in their library forever?”

Really, they finally found that one simple trick to maximize profits: Make a good product that people want to play longer. Go figure?

If you mean “enough copper to make a pickaxe and hammer”, panning is by far the most reliable method. If you mean “Enough copper to make everything I want to make with it”, are you using a prospecting pick? (If not, do so.)

Vintage Story is fantastic. It was described to me initially as ‘Minecraft for adults’ and it really lives up to that description. Also has a very vibrant modding community with a ton of well-maintained mods and installation is a single click on the official website. Highly recommend.

This immediately brought to mind the unique pistol Ruin of House Isner from Caves of Qud:

The seven lords of House Isner feasted on boar gut and swilled wine from gilded cups in the ivy-strewn halls of their hold. They spared no concern for temperance, for the coffers of their house had swelled with gardeners’ gold amassed through the sale of water drawn from the lords’ wells. But as the gluttonous barons counted seven amongst their clan, so had become numbered their days of debauchery when the son of a beggared gardener swore a vengeful oath in the name of his father against the house of Isner.

The penniless boy beseeched a gunsmith of great repute to craft for him a pistol of the most exquisite artistry with which he could be sure to vanquish the seven lords, and in return the boy promised the smith all the spoils of the battle. The smith, who in the hazel eyes of the boy beheld the spirit of vengeance, agreed.

And so the boy, armed with the masterwork pistol, cast open the doors of the Hall of Isner with a fury that shook their iron hinges and seized upon the supping lords. Before any of them had yet set down their gilded cups, the boy unholstered the pistol and shot dead six of the sons of Isner. The last lord rejoiced at his fortune and reached for his hip from where he would sling a pistol of his own at the spent boy.

But as his crooked finger freed his holster’s strap, the boy shot the lord between the eyes, for the smith had crafted for the boy a pistol with seven chambers and seven slugs. Such it was that on this day the house of Isner fell.

This isn’t comprehensive, but is a pretty good indicator of the largest servers.

Note that you don’t need to be using that instance to be able to read their content or post there.

Climate change is a global problem; every other country that’s at all concerned about the climate should consider this an act of war.

Now I really want to see someone try to make a multi-channel track using only their voice that a modem can recognize as data.

I look forward to watching people finally reach their breaking point and start firebombing government buildings. Preferably while Trump is in them.

Isn’t that basically just a modem?

I don’t know that I agree with that. I guess it depends. For example, if they bought the land and let it return to nature, is that really morally wrong, especially given the remote location? Humans aren’t the only ones who might want to use that land.

There was a post some time ago where someone mentioned going to the doctor for an employer-mandated sick note and the doctor was so irritated by it, that they wrote the note demanding 3 days of bed rest, rather than the 1 that had originally been requested. Thought that was pretty classy.

This is employer dependent in the US, too. I can Slack my boss and say “I’m feeling under the weather, going to unplug and rest today,” and she’ll say “Okay, no problem, feel better!”, and that’s the end of the conversation. Definitely the exception to the rule, though; I think OP’s situation is much more common.

so now with the monthly plans I can just buy it when I need it and immediately disable auto-reneweal

I’ve been doing this for Amazon Prime. I shop there as infrequently as I can manage, but sometimes it’s just the best way to get something I need. In those cases, when I check out, they invariably offer me 15 days of Prime for like, $4.99 or something. So I accept the offer. Place the order, then later that day, cancel the Prime subscription. They issue a pro-rated refund, so I end up paying about $0.35 for 2-day shipping on any order.

With Activision Blizzard, anyone can say “Yeah, fuck those guys!” then buy the latest game when it releases, and nobody is the wiser.

With Tesla, they’re getting vandalized on the streets. Insurance rates are hiking. It has social stigma attached. You can’t buy a Tesla and hide the fact that you have it. It comes with social backlash.

Even the folks who had no intention of buying one can contribute to that public sentiment, and as long as that social backlash remains, it’ll be effective at dissuading people from buying them.

Is he implying that he secretly hates Jews? Or placating to the haters in his voterbase that are anti-semitic?

I strongly suspect that it’s not because it was a genocide against jews, but rather that it was perpetrated by Nazis, and he doesn’t want to paint them in a bad light.

Nothing at all. DEI is just being used like a catch-all media buzzword to justify racism. To Trump, DEI means “Anything at all about anyone who isn’t a cis white male that I don’t like”.

It’s a hex placed on their family line in generations past, for some unknown sleight committed against a witch or something. They’re cursed to forever burn any food they try to cook.

Maybe the dad doesn’t know how to cook, either. It’s just a whole family tree of dads who can’t cook.