Not that I’m actually trying to defend MS/Teams (seriously, fuck ‘em both); but this is more due to IT Admin settings.

We have similar in our company, that’s in place because we handle PIR data regularly and it’s meant to be a speed bump rather than full roadblock.

Is this loss?

W-Summon Knights of the Round; perfect time to go take a toilet break - except against maybe Ruby and Emerald weapons… 😅

He was discussing options where people oppose both ads and subscriptions as methods of payment for consumed media.

IMO YouTube Premium is the only subscription that I will probably never cancel as not only does it pay more to content creators than ad revenue does (per individual viewing), it directly financially supports the hundred-odd creators I enjoy (large and small).

If the cost is too high for you to justify, you can band together with friends to split the costs of a Family Plan and/or do as I do and VPN back to my home country where the cost is significantly less than it is where I live now!

…or it’s available on the service you subscribe to, but not in your region.

I doing think it was an one thing, but more-so a build-up over time - a death of a thousand cuts, if you will:

It was a cultural moment generally, just think back to all of those celebrity commercials (“I’m Mr. T and I’m a Night Elf Mohawk”). All cultural moments pass eventually.

The third expansion (Cataclysm) was quite weak to begin with; coupled with a lack of content in the tail-end of the second (Wrath of the Lich King), which itself was incredible - narratively wrapped up the story that began all the way back in Warcraft 3.

So a lot of people chose that time to bow out of the game, as it required a fair bit of time dedication and seemed like an appropriate time to do so - given the narrative pay-off.

Lastly, the introduction of a number of game tools to automate the group composition process meant that the impact of player reputation on servers was severely diminished. Before then, there players who were toxic (stealing items, intentionally killing the group, failing quests) were infamous on a server.

Once this tool was further opened up to allow for groups to form across multiple servers - the sense of community was shattered as you would have no way to know if the person from another server was good/bad etc. it stopped being about bringing in the individual player, and just getting a body in to fill a role.

As someone who was lucky enough to get to experience those first ~6 years; it truly was lightning in a bottle.

20 years on, I am still friends with a number of those I met in WOW - and an in contact with a few more beyond that!

Unfortunately, it does feel like that sense of community those early years fostered are long gone, save perhaps a blip when Classic first launched.

Who knows when the next game will come along, which will be able to foster such relationships.

If it’s within your budget, grab a Steam Deck and use it in docked Desktop mode. It’s a pretty great introduction into Linux IMO, especially due to the fact that Valve themselves are maintaining the OS, and since it’s running on a fixed hardware platform - most online solutions should be applicable to any problems you may encounter.

Worst case, you don’t like it you can always eBay it off to recoup most of your costs?

IMO: Pirate it guilt-free without a second thought. If you enjoy it, and deem it worthy of a rewatch - then buy the DVD/Blu-Ray.

Then rip a quality copy of it, and delete the previously downloaded one.

Random stab in the dark, but I could easily take this statement to be about Final Fantasy 7… 🤣

Even if it isn’t, it’s safe to accept that a lot of modern game tropes can have their origins traced back to 8/16/32 bit origins.

Basically what I’m trying to get at is that a lot of the time, the narrative was able to be seen as less cringey, and more cutting. Time has dulled the more sharp edges, or even moves public perceptions well beyond what was presented.

Ah, so the full Deluxo Package? Lucky! I bet that ’improvement’ alone bumped your rent up by $10/week.

Whelp, never comment again - because you aren’t going to be able to outdo yourself after this Masterpiece. 👌🏼

I was legitimately in my late 30s when I first realised this about myself too; the sheer amount of caffeine I can be on (upwards of 300mg pre-workout for an evening gym session), and be pretty much asleep before my head hits the pillow.

I have no idea the long-term impact this level of stimulants would have on my health (but I doubt it’s good), but it works!

My wife is extremely jealous of this, if she so much as looks at a bottle of Coke after 4pm she has trouble sleeping… 🤣

2 words that any BMW owner from that era fears: VANOS pump.

The car was a hand-me-down from one of our grandparents, with ~100K miles on the odometer.

They owned it since new, and like most old people’s cars - it was religiously serviced. Keeping up with maintenance goes a long way towards keeping most cars on the road (unless they’re BMWs, but that’s a whole other story).

Given the community, you should probably finagle that raise and just put it towards friendlier commute alternatives if possible!

Boss: “Hey, I have you that raise - where’s the car?” You: “Oh, I put that towards an e-bike instead!”

It’s not so much our social circles; rather our respective companies’ Department Heads and C-Suites. Appearances and office politics play a hand in perception, unfortunately.

While I can somewhat understand their viewpoints, as both my wife and I are paid well - neither of us have client-facing roles, and we have a nice enough family car for carting around the bub and in-laws.

There is honestly something liberating about not worrying about dings, scratches, or expensive replacement parts.

“No one cares about what car you drive” has such Boomer energy to it, and it’s completely false.

Our 2nd car (ie. the one we use if my wife or I need to commute individually - suburban sprawl means we live in a public transportation desert), is a beat-up 15yo Hyundai hatchback.

We both love it because it’s economical, surprisingly reliable, cheap as anything to maintain, and we don’t particularly care if it gets dinged at a parking lot.

But the looks we get from our peers when we drive to our respective offices (we usually WFH), holy crap! Constantly having to explain ourselves is tiresome, and our line managers have both made off-handed comments sarcastically asking if we’re not being paid enough. 🤦🏻‍♂️

It’s not a stupid decision, but a stubborn one.

I’m 100% OK with that; Apple is heavy on design aesthetics. If a user doesn’t like that, they can just use their own preferred mouse - wired or otherwise.

I assume because Firefox has been a ‘niche’ browser for a long time (pretty much for as long as Chrome as existed?); so the users tend to be a combination of die-hard fans and neurodivergents - two groups who tend to not do well with change of any sort (even cosmetic).