This is misleading and dangerous rhetoric.

Autonomous vehicles - actual autonomous ones, not Tesla bullshit marketing “self-driving” - are already significantly safer than human drivers. Yes, they are limited to certain conditions (they don’t handle inclement weather very well yet) but the point is that they are already improving safety over human drivers.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Additionally, once autonomous vehicles become the standard, you will see a dramatic shift in how the insurance industry operates.

Think about it: if I’m not the one driving, why would I be the one taking on liability? I wouldn’t. The manufacturer would. Suddenly, the insurance industry would be targeting vehicle/software producers instead of individuals. And anyone who chooses to drive themselves anyway? They would almost always be liable by default. Premiums for drivers would skyrocket and this would be a huge disincentive to getting behind the wheel in the first place.

Don’t. Let. The. Perfect. Be. The. Enemy. Of. The. Good.

We all lose out. And it costs lives.

I grew up in Ohio, lived in NYC, and now live in the PNW.

Ohio is bad, as a whole, about bigotry. Very bad.

Urban areas will always be more tolerant, on average, than their rural neighbors.

But a semi-rural area in a blue state might be more tolerant, on average, than an urban area in a red state.

Columbus is one of the most tolerant areas in Ohio, because of The Ohio State University and the educated, young community it fosters.

But things get bad pretty quickly as you move further away from the college areas.

My recommendation: you are more likely to find your people - the family you choose to have, whoever they are - in your new area. However, there are still significant risks to being completely open, including things getting back to your family.

Find the people who correct bigotry or misgendering, etc, and learn how to be yourself around them. When you are ready, you can either confront your family and become an outspoken lgbtqa+ ally, or peace the fuck out to somewhere better :)

Called this a while ago https://urusai.social/@neatchee/112255667073894754

Polkadot Stingray

And anything else on my Japanese music playlist :D

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1qp2kWRqMd77nsVXr2jG5um4DpMWNn5Y

I never said anything about the quality of the games. I’m speaking specifically to the monetization bullshit.

As I said elsewhere: budget bloat happens in a lot of places. Greedy executive and publishers is one place. Overambitious design goals that get scrapped is another. There’s also bad tools workflows, mismanagement, and any number of other contributing factors.

But even indie devs are getting screwed on pricing and making far less than they deserve to be in many cases.

If people keep buying CoD and Assassins Creed, devs will keep making them. And if they can’t increase retail price to cover the budget they will find other ways to do it.

I almost replied from my inbox; glad someone said it before I even got to it haha

Oh don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the capital structure is fair by any means. I understand all the reasons why people - especially right now - are struggling to justify big purchases.

And I will readily agree that inefficient and improper use of resources is one of the contributing factors to ballooning development budgets

That said, video games are - and I challenge you to disprove this - easily one of the best investments for entertainment. Dollars-per-hour of fun on a 20hr, $60 game is $3. For a live service game where people spend hundreds of thousands of hours playing it can get below $0.10 per hour.

EDIT: I also agree that demos need to make a comeback because I’m sick of wasting money. Though people also need to read some reviews before they buy occasionally :/

While that may be true, the costs and budgets we’re dealing with today are orders of magnitude higher than they were back then. Physical product manufacturing doesn’t even come close to making up the difference when you factor in digital storefront costs.

I simply chose two big, well known, and beloved titles for the sake of expediency.

This problem is not unique to big budget games.

Indie devs are getting screwed too. You saying that you’ve found great games for $30-40 from indie devs isn’t an argument against more sustainable pricing like you think it is.

If the dev budget for the indie game was 5% of the AAA game but the price was 50% then you’ve literally just helped prove my point

The fact is - and I challenge you to prove me wrong here - video games continue to be hands down the best dollar-per-hour investment for entertainment. Even a $60 game that only lasts 20 hrs is still coming in at $3/hr of entertainment, which is very hard to beat. When you look at live service games where people will spend literally thousands of hours after paying anywhere from $60-200 you’re looking at $0.10/hr in some cases.

Fun facts incoming!

Cost of “Mario 64” on release = $59.99

Development budget for Mario 64 = ~$1.56mil

Inflation adjusted Mario 64 cost in 2022 = $111.91

Inflation adjusted Mario 64 budget in 2022 = ~$2.91mil

Cost of “Elden Ring” on release = $59.99

Estimated dev. budget for Elden Ring = $100mil-200mil

Mario 64 units sold = ~12mil

Elden Ring units sold = ~28mil

These details are provided without comment. You do the math and decide whether the fact that prices haven’t changed since 1996 might be the reason for some of the enshitification we continue to see.

And now for the comment:

Consumers are horrifyingly resistant to price increases for games. It is directly responsible for many of the shitty monetization models we’ve seen. Development budget continue to rise, even on indie games, while consumers pay less and less in “real money value” over time.

It’s completely unsustainable and the very reason the “business types” get involved, forcing unpopular monetization schemes

Exactly this. I work in the games industry as well and even big studios are falling over themselves NOT to release anywhere near GTA6.

Nobody believes there won’t be people playing other games at that time. But it’s going to dominate the media cycle for a month, especially if it is either better or worse than fans hope. And the reality is that many, many people have limited gaming budgets. If you’ve only got $100 to spend, GTA6 is very likely to be the default pick at that time.

It’s a behemoth in terms of grabbing attention from both the media and players. All the best laid plans for a successful release can be completely derailed by a game like GTA6.

We’re actually talking about this in another reply to my comment haha. Outcome is unknown because he was charged as a minor so literally everything is sealed but he did graduate highschool so not in prison

Yuck. That’s pretty distressing :( It sounds like the civil case is still ongoing? Maybe the parents will feel some burden (as guardians should in this case).

For what it’s worth, just to clarify for anyone reading along with the context of this conversation:

• nobody died in this incident, though multiple people suffered long term debilitating physical and psychological trauma
• the perpetrator was a minor, and in an assault case where there was no clear intent to cause physical harm - the trend of “rolling coal” being one of intimidation and clout-chasing - the virtue of pursuing criminal convictions that would be expunged before any sentencing of substance could occur is questionable
• as a minor, any plea agreement or settlement would be sealed. Not even the victims would be allowed to discuss it. So it’s very possible it wasn’t just an “oopsie” but a settlement where the kid lost his license, was placed under house arrest, was required to do community service, with the parents helping cover medical expenses… We’d never know. Which is itself a problem, for sure, because it undermines the deterrent factor for others!
• there is still an opportunity for civil remedies for the victims, and I’m confident their insurance providers will be trying to recoup their costs

What a shitty situation. Frankly, the law is just really poorly equipped to handle minors who engage in reckless endangerment with a vehicle. We badly need to get some better laws on the books for handling kids who show wonton disregard for others’ safety, especially when it’s just for clout

It seems like the prosecutor really did want to go hard on this case too. The article mentions a previous conviction against someone who actually did kill cyclists with their vehicle: life in prison

In 2017, an army veteran named Victor Tome had veered head-on into a group of people riding bikes in Waller County. The crash killed two riders. Tome, who’d been intoxicated on a mixture of drugs, received a life sentence without parole.

But to bring it back around to the OP: I think this kinda proves the point I was trying to make…nobody is getting away with murder. And I have a strong suspicion that if anyone had been killed, they’d have tried to prosecute the driver as an adult.

I need to go watch something happy after reading that article. What a horrible incident. Maybe the victims got justice and we won’t ever know, and it certainly seems like the city/county made some significant changes in the aftermath. But it still doesn’t feel right. :(

Would love to see a citation on this. Not familiar with the specifics and would love to know more but I had trouble finding this specific story

🙌PREACH🙌

These are the types of arguments we ought to be making memes about. Well reasoned, well spoken, and based in facts that are irrefutable

Kudos. Thank you for doing “fuck cars” the right way 💪❤️

See, THAT is a reasonable, thoughtful argument. Yes, the density of cars in our cities is dangerous.

But there is not some epidemic of vehicular murders going unpunished.

Rather, we have normalized living in a high risk environment. And THAT is the crux of the problem. Not law enforcement

Perhaps that’s because… There usually aren’t fatalities inside the home???

Like, not only is it a giant, loud object that can be seen coming in many cases, but the impact with the house exterior dissipates a huge portion of the energy.

When people get killed my a car, they don’t die from the car hitting them. It’s almost always the impact with the ground that causes severe head trauma. Otherwise it’s a neck or spinal injury.

Those types of injuries are just way, way less likely to happen when a car drives into a building.

I’m getting really sick of people around here not showing even a modicum of logical thought and just screeching “CaRs BaD!!” every other sentence.

Fuck cars, for a lot of reasons. We don’t need to make up new ones that are silly and illogical. We have plenty of really good reasons to say fuck cars that don’t involve bullshit claims re: murder charges or a lack thereof

And did that kid get off with a “oopsies!”? No? Then how is that related to this thread?

They’re not comparable.

If I’m at a firing range, where it is expected that people are carrying guns and ammunition, I can pull the same “oops, my finger slipped” excuse.

Similarly, if I drive my car around the side of your house and into your back yard to run you over, I can’t claim “my foot slipped”.

Seriously, stop with the mental gymnastics. We don’t need to reach for more reasons to say “fuck cars.” There are plenty within arms reach

You’re not helping. Stop being an inflammatory troll