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Could you maybe reblog this post if you think respecting trans peoples' names and identities is a basic right and not a political opinion?

No pressure. Just seeking some validation of my sentiment. Due to some. people

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The honest truth is that there's a vast, vast amount of people who hold absolutely no political opinion nor have any sort of political knowledge. Who don't think of the world beyond their job, their family, and the place they live.

These people don't think of politics in terms that more politically minded folk do. They don't care about what's happening in other countries, or to other people. They literally do not care beyond what they can see with their eyes and feel with their wallets. They don't care about issues like 'LGBT+ rights' unless it directly impacts them. They are that fucking myopic.

It's more of a baseline "My life is ok/My life is bad." dynamic when it comes to politics. If they feel like things are okay, they'll stand pat politically. If they feel like things are bad, they'll "vote the bums out" and swap to another party without really any concern for what that political party actually believes.

You see this more in countries whose major leaders don't have term limits, like my country. The US is kind of unique because it's presidential term limits help mask this, and the president being such a major figurehead (and voted for separately, unlike many other countries) helps your Congresspeople/Senators hide from this impact.

But, like, look at what's happened in the past four years. A combination of COVID and corporate greed has caused inflation. And what these people feel the most is when gas gets more expensive and food gets more expensive. We've seen a lot of incumbent governments around the world, on all sides of the political divide, crumble recently, and that has accelerated this in the US as well.

This is why you saw the "What happened to Joe Biden??" graphs, and the demographics of who voted for Trump being so different than previous years, with higher amounts of non-whites voting for him. (Those demographics are actually closer to what it tends to look like in other countries.) Why undecided voters exist at all.

Because you've got a load of people with literally no political thought other than 'Things more expensive, let's try other guy.' No matter how garbage the politics of the person and party coming in are, or if they'll actually be able to do something, or if they'll actually make things worse. Who don't want to and will not think about things beyond what directly effects them economically, and who immediately forget the result of the last election, let alone the election before that, and how it shook out for them.

It also makes them much more susceptible to things like the anti-immigrant rhetoric you're seeing literally everywhere in the world, or the male bullshit being peddled by Tate and his ilk. It also doesn't matter reasoning like 'Hey, you know, the US actually got hit way less than the rest of the world did by inflation.' Which y'all did, by the by.

Nothing the incumbent can really say or do solves this issue. It certainly hasn't been solved anywhere else so far.

Unfortunately, this...political stupidity has constantly made things worse because malicious actors like Trump and the Republicans are happy to take advantage of it, and actively encourage it, and more centrist parties (like Canada's Liberals) know (or believe) they'll just be back in power in 8-12 years again anyway. Even as we descend further and further into authoritarianism, thanks in part to this cycle.

And, to be certain, this isn't a US only issue. Not even close. This has effected and continues to effect basically every country.

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Dear Americans:

I cannot emphasize enough the number of places in this world that aren't the USA that you've screwed over by what you've done.

I am terrified for your vulnerable people, who are going to be so hurt by this, but I'm also terrifed because the USA has such outsized control over the world that we're in danger too.

We don't even get to vote, yet we have to live by your decision.

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Having some fun with Gundam Breaker 4, but I have to laugh. The story keeps putting an emphasis on teamwork, and how teamwork and trust in each other is how your team keeps pulling off improbable wins and how your party members overcome their difficulties.

But in gameplay, your NPC partners are basically completely useless outside of occupying the enemies attention, and you do 95% of the work. (And I'm being generous at 95%, probably closer to 99%)

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In the midst of replaying Heavensward:

The fact that you're not allowed to put Lolorito and Dewala in a shallow grave outside the Silver Bazaar is still the biggest black mark on the ARR/HW/StB era of Final Fantasy 14's story, and no amount of short stories written after the fact on the website about how he's changed will change that.

Seriously I can't emphasize how garbage the resolution to that plotline is. They knew they weren't going in that direction afterwards and I understand that, but at least let me murk the evil capitalist!

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I've been replaying through Final Fantasy 14 since completing the Dawntrail MSQ, because I didn't want to change my main WoL to Hrothgal but I wanted a Hrothgal. Nearing the end of ARR patch content, and I had an observation:

It's kind of amusing how, especially in the backahalf of 14 that is ShB/EW/DT, how much it kind of relies on you to only really vaguely remember the plot beats of ARR.

There's a lot of moments, foreshadowing, dialog, exposition and supposition that are setting up elements that will lead absolutely nowhere and are dropped unceremoniously.

As a very minor example (page cut for spoilers for ARR, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker)

Like, yeah, sure buddy. I'm sure that the idiot god whose brain is currently walking around as another Ascian who ALSO is having memory issues is really going to recognize your efforts.

And then, of course, there's stuff they absolutely can't ignore because it was part of the core plot, that's how you get Pandemonium, which is an entire raid series devoted to answering the question "Why did Lahabrea act like that during ARR?"

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If you're watching YouTube or listening to a podcast and they advertise something that you know is scummy or a scam, then you should probably rethink your relationship with that piece of media.

If they're selling something like Betterhelp, crypto, online gambling, or whatever other scam, then you can no longer trust them and should put some serious thought in that you should be watching/listening to them at all.

Don't matter if they claim they'll do better, do better research, or even take the video down after backlash. They prized money over the safety of their viewers, and hoped they'd get away with it.

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You'd think that after nearly twenty years my extended family would know that grabbing or poking my nerve damaged arm is like sticking a knife in it, but I guess not.

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My last post was incredibly depressing, and I want a palate cleanser. Something that makes me smile.

So behold! My cat!

She's a true S-Rank catte. My life would be a lot sadder if I had never adopted her.

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Lol good thing I got this out, Twitter just started hiding Likes the day after I posted this. Exactly for this reason, too. This is why I took screenshots!

New RPG.net owner liked tweets from RFK Jr, Tucker Carlson, and more...

Just left RPG.net, that venerable old tabletop rpg forum, a forum that I've been a part of for 20+ years.

Recently (in March), it was bought by RPGMatch, a startup aiming to do matchmaking for TTRPGs. In the past couple of days, despite their many reassurances, I got it into my head to look up the new owner Joaquin Lippincott, and lucky for me he has a Twitter! (Or X, now, I guess.)

Yeah...the first warning bell is that his description calls him a 'Machine learning advocate', and his feed is full of generative AI shit. Oh, sure, he'll throw the fig leaf of 'AI shouldn't take creative jobs.' here and there, but all-in-all he is a full-throated supporter of genAI. Which means that RPGnet's multiple assurances that they will never scrape for AI...suspect at best.

Especially, when you check out his main company, https://www.metaltoad.com/, and find that his company, amongst other services, is all about advising corporations on how to make the best use of generative AI, LLMs, and machine learning. They're not the ones making them, but they sure are are helping corps decide what jobs to cut in favor of genAI. Sorry, they "Solve Business Problems."

This, alone, while leaving a massive bad taste in my mouth, wouldn't be enough, and apart from his clear love of genAI his feed is mostly business stuff and his love of RPGs. Barely talks politics or anything similar.

But then, I decided to check his Likes, the true bane of many a people who have tried to portray themselves as progressive, or at least neutral.

And wow. In lieu of links that can be taken down, I have made screenshots. If you want to check it yourself, just find his Twitter feed, this isn't hidden information. (Yet.)

Here's him liking a conspiracy theory that the War on Ukraine is actually NATO's fault, and it's all a plan by the US to grift and disable Russia!

Here's him liking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praising Tucker Carlson interviewing Vladimir Putin!

Here's him liking a right wing influencer's tweet advancing a conspiracy theory about Hunter Biden!

Former Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy talking about how he wants to tear down the Department of Education and the FDA (plus some COVID vaccine conspiracy theory thrown in)

Sure did like this Tucker Carlson video on Robert Kennedy Jr... (Gee, I wonder who this guy is voting for in October.)

Agreeing about a right-wing grifter's conspiracy theories... (that guy's Twitter account is full of awful, awful transphobia, always fun.)

Him liking a tweet about someone using their own fathers death to advance an anti-vaxx agenda! What the fuck! (This guy was pushing anti-vax before his father's death, I checked, if you're wondering.)

So, yes, to sum it up, RPG.net, that prides itself as an inclusive place, protective it's users who are part of vulnerable groups, and extremely supportive of creators, sold out to a techbro (probably)libertarian whose day job is helping companies make use of generative AI and likes tweets that advance conspiracy theories about the Ukraine war, Hunter Biden, vaccines, and others. Big fan of RFKjr, Carlson, and Putin, on the other hand.

And, like, shame on RPG.net, Christopher Allen for selling to this guy, and the various admins and mods who spent ages reassuring everything will be okay (including downplaying Lippincott's involvement in genAI). Like, was no research into this guy done at all? Or did y'all not care?

So I'm gone, and I'm betting while maybe not today or tomorrow, things are going to change for that website, and not for the best for anyone.

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New RPG.net owner liked tweets from RFK Jr, Tucker Carlson, and more...

Just left RPG.net, that venerable old tabletop rpg forum, a forum that I've been a part of for 20+ years.

Recently (in March), it was bought by RPGMatch, a startup aiming to do matchmaking for TTRPGs. In the past couple of days, despite their many reassurances, I got it into my head to look up the new owner Joaquin Lippincott, and lucky for me he has a Twitter! (Or X, now, I guess.)

Yeah...the first warning bell is that his description calls him a 'Machine learning advocate', and his feed is full of generative AI shit. Oh, sure, he'll throw the fig leaf of 'AI shouldn't take creative jobs.' here and there, but all-in-all he is a full-throated supporter of genAI. Which means that RPGnet's multiple assurances that they will never scrape for AI...suspect at best.

Especially, when you check out his main company, https://www.metaltoad.com/, and find that his company, amongst other services, is all about advising corporations on how to make the best use of generative AI, LLMs, and machine learning. They're not the ones making them, but they sure are are helping corps decide what jobs to cut in favor of genAI. Sorry, they "Solve Business Problems."

This, alone, while leaving a massive bad taste in my mouth, wouldn't be enough, and apart from his clear love of genAI his feed is mostly business stuff and his love of RPGs. Barely talks politics or anything similar.

But then, I decided to check his Likes, the true bane of many a people who have tried to portray themselves as progressive, or at least neutral.

And wow. In lieu of links that can be taken down, I have made screenshots. If you want to check it yourself, just find his Twitter feed, this isn't hidden information. (Yet.)

Here's him liking a conspiracy theory that the War on Ukraine is actually NATO's fault, and it's all a plan by the US to grift and disable Russia!

Here's him liking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praising Tucker Carlson interviewing Vladimir Putin!

Here's him liking a right wing influencer's tweet advancing a conspiracy theory about Hunter Biden!

Former Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy talking about how he wants to tear down the Department of Education and the FDA (plus some COVID vaccine conspiracy theory thrown in)

Sure did like this Tucker Carlson video on Robert Kennedy Jr... (Gee, I wonder who this guy is voting for in October.)

Agreeing about a right-wing grifter's conspiracy theories... (that guy's Twitter account is full of awful, awful transphobia, always fun.)

Him liking a tweet about someone using their own fathers death to advance an anti-vaxx agenda! What the fuck! (This guy was pushing anti-vax before his father's death, I checked, if you're wondering.)

So, yes, to sum it up, RPG.net, that prides itself as an inclusive place, protective it's users who are part of vulnerable groups, and extremely supportive of creators, sold out to a techbro (probably)libertarian whose day job is helping companies make use of generative AI and likes tweets that advance conspiracy theories about the Ukraine war, Hunter Biden, vaccines, and others. Big fan of RFKjr, Carlson, and Putin, on the other hand.

And, like, shame on RPG.net, Christopher Allen for selling to this guy, and the various admins and mods who spent ages reassuring everything will be okay (including downplaying Lippincott's involvement in genAI). Like, was no research into this guy done at all? Or did y'all not care?

So I'm gone, and I'm betting while maybe not today or tomorrow, things are going to change for that website, and not for the best for anyone.

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I always kind of adore when someone, attempting to defend something specific, ends up exposing or relying on a wider societal issue that completely nullifies their defense and they don't even realize it.

For context, the Magic: The Gathering community has had a bit of controversy erupt when popular MTG media producers The Command Zone posted a job posting for a production assistant that required a lot of responsibility and job tasks for a wage that was not a living wage in the region of the world TCZ is based.

Most people are pretty annoyed by this, especially since one of the hosts had been on a podcast talking about the importance of paying people. But there are people defending it, with their defense being (paraphrased) "You don't understand. This is standard pay, even if you go to a larger company like Netflix. The pay sucks but it gives you a chance to hone your craft and get noticed. The people complaining about this don't get it."

And, like, don't you understand that your defense that "LOADS of companies in the industry underpay and overwork their entry-level employees for the nebulous promise of exposure and experience" isn't the defense you think it is?

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After my last post about the Screen Rant response to Jenny Nicholson's Galactic Starcruiser video, it was pointed out to me that Gizmodo's I09 division also put out an article defending Starcruiser. I'm not going to spend as long analyzing this one.

It's the usual you've already heard: people were confused that it wasn't just a hotel, how you had to put effort into it to get results back, that the staff and Imagineers worked real hard on it, there were people who liked it.

It's all the same defenses that clearly are hoping that you haven't watched the video, and probably they haven't either. Since, you know, the video basically dismantles all of those arguments one by one.

I will say it also attempts a slightly bafflingly progressive take on it, like saying stuff like:

"To many Star Wars fans who were able to check out Galactic Starcruiser during its short-lived existence, the attraction presented a chance to act on the frustration many share in their day to day lives of watching atrocities happen and feeling like there’s little we can do about them."

Which is pretty gross, right? Comparing 'going to a hotel on vacation' with 'fighting the good fight against the bad shit in the world'. I mean, especially when you consider one of the paths is joining with the fascists? Also it's owned by a billion-dollar corporation? Which even the article briefly points out...which is the point the article writer should of rethought their stance.

Now, more importantly, looking at the articles from Screen Rant and Gizmodo and I'm sure there's others, I'm sure people are wondering/thinking that Disney had a hand in this. And to be honest...

No, probably not. Well, not directly, at least.

Rather, these websites require access. Access to press releases, access to interviews, access to special events. So writing a puff piece defending Galactic Star Cruiser is a pretty safe bet to do, especially if you suspect that Disney is planning to still do something with the GSC. As has been pointed out, the building still remains intact, and a lot of the signage in the parks is still there. So if they reopen it as, say, a dining experience, then the website who wrote a puff piece defending the honor of the Halcyon is much more likely to be invited to opening night than Jenny Nicholson is.

Additionally, these days websites such as Screen Rant pay like crap, to the point where the only people willing to work on them are the true believers. It's like how game developers are some of the worst paid and most overworked dev teams, because the industry knows they can get true believers who want to Design Video Games in the doors.

So no, I doubt Disney is directly in anyone's ear about this. But rather, it's websites taking advantage of the situation to try and get into Daddy Disney's good graces. There are always useful idiots.

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I have to have a chuckle at the Screenrant article posted recently about the Galactic Starcruiser, which totally wasn't about Jenny Nicholson's video honest.

In part, because early in Nicholson's video, she talks about how unnatural it is to have your influencers speak in adcopy and copyright rather than the more colloquial nicknames, and how it makes the people speaking about the product seem very insincere and, well, paid off. Because normal humans don't speak that way, but advertising does.

What's the first two lines in this article?

"As a life-long fan of Star Wars, there was nothing quite as exciting as finding out that I would be working on the immersive Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser experience. Located at the Walt Disney World Resort, the Galactic Starcruiser opened on March 1, 2022, and welcomed passengers to board a two-day, two-night cruise through the stars, during which they could live out their own Star Wars adventure."

No one talks like this naturally. No one writes like this naturally.

This is supposed to be your passioned defense of the place you worked at, the people you worked with, and the memories you made along the way. C'mon! Why don't you open with a story, perhaps an anecdote about the best moment you had working there, or the devastation of the day you lost your dream job. We need to feel your humanity! But there's nothing of that here, to the point where you can just hear the TM behind Galactic Starcruiser.

The first half of this article continues in this vein, reading like a press release Disney marketing put out, just with past tense rather than present or future tense:

"Essentially, the Starcruiser experience was a 48-hour movie that passengers were actually a part of. It was all facilitated through the "datapad," which was accessed through the Play Disney Parks app."

"To facilitate the overarching immersive experience and storytelling, the Starcruiser built a jam-packed itinerary for each and every guest that would consist of a variety of important activities: the captain's toast at muster, a bridge training exercise, lightsaber training, and more. These types of events were essential to understanding what was happening, as they would give passengers the chance to interact with characters and build their story. This is why the Starcruiser could never be just a hotel; every part of it was designed for enthusiastic interaction."

Like, c'mon. I used to work in television. I've seen and used adcopy in my former job, and this is some serious adcopy. It honestly wouldn't shock me if the author dredged up some old adcopy they had lying around about the topic and just transferred it over, changing the tense. You're not here to sell us this product, because there is no product to sell. It's gone, it's been gone for a year, you don't have to sell us on IT. Speak about your experiences.

The next part is yet another topic that Jenny Nicholson pointed out, the bad faith excuses that influencers and advertisers made for the extreme price point:

"What many people don't know, however, is that the price included much more than just a room. The passengers' food, park tickets, recreation activities on board, non-alcoholic drinks, and more were all included - with merchandise being one of the few additional costs on board."

Which is absolute bad faith reasoning, especially when there are plenty of other vacation options that are ALSO all-inclusive, but are MUCH cheaper and offer MORE amenities than the Galactic Starcruiser did! Including Disney Cruises, owned by the same company! Seriously, you can go on a halfway decent sounding cruise or all-inclusive resort somewhere warm for, like, a week or two and spend far less than GSC cost.

Then the last part is essentially: "All the workers liked working there and the bad reviews afterwards make the workers who worked on it feel sad. :("

Which, like, companies have been hiding behind that reasoning for ages. Curiously, the author never offers....any reasons or stories. WHY did working on it impact you so much? What set it apart, what were the people like, what did you like about working there, why are you so passionate about it even a year later? There's nothing, just a generic sort of "We worked hard." and "We're sad it's gone." Why? How? What happened? The video you're obviously writing this in response to is filled with personal anecdotes and stories, it's the backbone of the video! Again, you need to give us something to show your humanity!

Especially when you consider that Nicholson repeatedly points out that the only highlight about her experience, the only thing that kept the damn thing going was the workers.

She had nothing but praise for them, and nothing but contempt for the higher ups who wasted and abused that enthusiasm, to the point where one of her last points was "Hey, Disney is basically exploiting labor."

Much like Jenny, I'm also not condemning anyone who had a good time working there. Good! If you were having a good time at work, that's great. If you have good memories about the people, awesome. But I'll note two things:

a) That doesn't meant you weren't being exploited, and

b) That doesn't mean you have to be a useful idiot for the corporation you worked for afterwards.

I'm not conspiracy brained enough to go "Oh, Disney TOTALLY forced this article into being.", because a cursory examination of the author's prior works and such suggests a lifelong passion for Star Wars, she did work at the hotel, and she's a Star Wars Editor (whatever THAT means in this day and age) for Screen Rant. Apparently one of the heads of Screen Rant says that Disney had no hand in it either.

Though, I can see why people would think that way. It READS like a press release, not something a normal human being would write about an experience they feel passionate about.

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I'm pretty good at avoiding having my Paladins Oaths not get broken in BG3, but a momentary lapse had my Paladin Lae'zel falling because she threw an explosive barrel at Dror Ragzlin out of combat, so I met the Oathbreaker Knight for the first time. And started to laugh.

See, I play Final Fantasy 14. If you're unfamiliar with the MMO, one of the classes is the Dark Knight. And how Baldur's Gate 3 presents the Oathbreaker is basically lifted wholesale from the lore of the Dark Knight from FF14, and the Oathbreaker Knight is basically just Fray. A person clad in dark armor, obscuring helmet, and glowing eyes, who acts as a guide for the new knight to their newfound powers and only speaks to them?

And, I mean, there's already a Heavensward reference in BG3 (One of Folk Hero/Wyll's Inspirations is titled A Smile Better Suits...) so you can't tell me there's at least some people in Larian that plays FF14.

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Shadowheart's Act 1 distrust of Lae'zel because she knows the Artifact is Gith and Lae'zel might have some objections to her having it gets very funny when your Tav is also a Githyanki.