#wtf why are you removing accessibility features

[curejiraiya]

Thinking about it, fashion dreamer would have been a FANTASTIC $10 game. We're in the time of crazy inflation so really $25. I could see a greedy company pricing it at $35. Any more thought and it's just not worth it.

I love fashion dreamer, but there's not a lot of content. What is there is fun, but in like Style Savvy even without the story you'd still get to do characters hair and makeup and nails and pick out bags for them and scarves and bracelets and give them a WHOLE look. In fashion dreamer you JUST give them outfits.

The scoring system in fashion dreamer IS REALLY bad like it's not at all clear what counts for what category. Which is frustrating when it was crystal clear in style savvy.

The UI is clunky.

WTF were they thinking with "Type A" and "Type B"???? I'm not the only one to complain about this. But seriously it was done so poorly. It's clearly just men and women but late in development someone said "fuck make it gender inclusive". but they didn't change anything but the wording used. Ideally they would have not had types at all. But if they wanted to keep types they needed to make two versions of every item when modeling them. Some misinformed people are saying this isn't possible or is more work. But news flash, every item in this game was made from scratch. It was THEIR CHOICE to make completely separate items during modeling. They very well could have had their employees make two versions of each piece. Someone on the directors board didn't want it that way. Yeah they can't change it NOW but it's frustrating that they're pretending to be inclusive when it's very clear that from the games launch this wasn't in its design.

The game lags when you get more items, but also encourages you to get as many items as possible, but also has a 5000 item cap because of the lag.

I hate the online component lol I wasn't expecting this to be a 100% social game where you're missing content if you're not online ig. I just do notttttt want to interact with strangers in a game like this.

At the same time customers are currently pissed because the first event broke the servers so they took it down and it's been weeks and it's not back up. IMO limited events in a full price game like this is FUCKED, but they're ALSO online mode exclusive (that's so fucked!) so I can't even access the content.

It kinda seems like the reason it's not back is because staff went on Christmas break. If so ..... ooof

ALSO items from the event are fucking SINGLE USE. ?????????? this is a paid game what the fuck. Why are their single use anything? Why are events time limited? If you buy the game late you'll never get these items despite PAYING for them.

I wasn't really expecting much from the updates but really we should treat them like they don't exist. The first one just had two QOL features that should have been at launch. And with that in mind this is not a full priced game. It's not worth more than $25. This isn't the first time we've gotten a shallow, unfinished, and presumablypresumably rushed game from marvelous. and it probably won't be the last. I officially do not trust that team whatsoever. I doubt synsophia provided anything for the game other than the fashion itself, and maybe the NPCs, because the rest of it doesn't feel like their product in the way style savvy or PriMagi arcade does. I wish they didn't partner with them.

Like obviously me and everyone else wishes this was a style savvy game instead. But even without that, I wish this game had more soul. I also wished it felt finished? The actual gameplay loop feels finished but the UI does not. Not having all of the basic sort functions from Style Savvy (color / Item type / style) makes the game feel like a beta test. I stopped playing because someone will ask for red shoes and I have to scroll for 45 seconds to find them while I watch everything slowly pop in.

The removal of money and buying items in quantities is a blow to depth too, because in Style Savvy someone would ask for a cool shirt and you have to hope you still have one in stock. Meanwhile in fashion dreamer this is only a problem for the first hour before you have enough of everything.

Like style savvy had more AND had a story. frustrating. Again I don't mind no story, I get that that's better for modern audiences. But they lost me because of lack of depth everywhere else. ugh

I don't hate this game! I think it's a cute small play once a week or once a month pickup for 2 minutes game. But that's NOT how it's priced. I also think they're REALLY REALLY REALLY fumbling how they're handling events. If they wanted to handle events the way they are right now they game needed to be free to play.

[solidcarbondioxide]

I'd like to point out that even for "tech savvy" people, technology is becoming more and more inaccessible. Trying to navigate all the pre-installed bloatware to find what's necessary and what isn't is becoming nigh impossible for the average person, and googling it doesn't always help.

My laptop from 2016 died and I needed a new one. Tell me why of the 1TB of storage it has, about 150GB were taken up upon first start-up? And when you open control panel [which, not everyone even knows what that is anymore] to delete the bloatware, it doesn't show anything that takes up that much space.

Knowing how to make a clean install of windows isn't something most people know how to do, and even people who are at least slightly technologically aware, might be wary of messing with Windows for warranty/Windows key reasons or what not. The more predatory technology becomes, the more difficult it becomes even for people who try to stay on top of it. "Yeah, I can look up how to do it, and understand what it says, but there are so many ways it could go wrong, and I can't afford another device" is an absolutely valid fear, and if even someone who does know what the tech lingo means is unwilling to mess with it, how can the average user?

[No, I don't want to hear how it's easy because you can do it through an ISO, or because it's only the first install that can't be clean and afterwards the key is bound to your Microsoft account. The average, kinda-sorta-maybe tech literate person won't touch that because tech is expensive and not everyone can try it out on an old laptop that doesn't work anymore to make sure they know wtf they're doing. So they'll remove what they can, sigh, and live with the rest.]

My dad's laptop recently threw a BIOS error and loaded up with the requirement for a BitLocker key. His laptop, in fact, most peoples laptops, have no need for that kind of security, and most people won't know that their computer has it activated until it throws an error. If the error hadn't occurred while I was there, there is no way in hell he could have figured out how to find the key, because he wasn't even aware this key exists. I wasn't even aware my laptop had BitLocker activated until his showed that error, because its either not mentioned anywhere, or hidden in the multi-page agreements that you need to accept before being allowed access to "your" device.

And guess what? If this reaches anyone, somewhere out there is someone who considers themselves "tech savvy", who has just found out their new device has BitLocker activated, and they're trying to figure out how to find the BitLocker key because no one told them this exists or that they may want to know how to find it. (Go to aka.ms/myrecoverykey, sign in to the Microsoft account linked to the device, look for the key that corresponds to the first 8 letters/numbers of the Recovery key ID on the device)

And if you followed one of those helpful guides on how to force a local account onto your lovely new win11 device? I hope you also went and found a lovely guide on how to find your BitLocker key/how to de-encrypt your device, cuz guess what? You see that blue screen and your files are gone. (Well, there are ways around it but again, they're not exactly the easiest of methods, definitely not something the average user could manage)

Sure, it's a safety feature, but it's unnecessary for most and should be an opt-in, not a "find out when shit hits the fan"

The more predatory technology becomes, the harder it becomes to be technologically literate.

I was lucky, my first proper device was a Windows 7 that required some tech literacy but was for the most part user friendly, I didn't love the switch to Windows 10 because it became harder to to find the more complex settings, but I learned most of my tech skills on it, moving to Windows 11 and seeing the "simplified, user friendly, easy setup" interface that makes accessing things harder and actively hides settings from the user? It still grates my nerves. I still have issues with the audio settings of all things because for some stupid reason apps set to 0 still produce noise and the slider moves up by 1-5 points automatically. I've pinned the windows 10 volume mixer to my windows 11 devices task bar because I cannot tolerate the windows 11 one and its bs.

Technology becoming "user friendly and easy to navigate" has, in a lot of cases, actually made it harder to understand. I did not get taught what I know about technology at school. I learnt it on my own, because I grew up with tech that still allowed it.

Yes, schools should still be teaching the basics of technology, but at some point we need to realise that technology has become much more inaccessible too.

And that's only the software side of things. Why does all of my laptops RAM come soldered now? Why does opening my device up to clean it void the warranty? Why does the number of ports keep decreasing?

Anyway, this has gotten longer than I wanted, so I'm going to say this one more time and end it there.

Technology has become easier to use on the surface and harder to understand beyond that. Users are being kept away from "settings they may not understand", and it makes it significantly harder to learn as a result.

Me: oh yeah, if you think school photography is hard now, try imagining doing this with film.

The new girl: what's film?

Me: ... film. Like... film that goes in a film camera.

New girl: what's that mean?

Me: ... before cameras were digital.

New girl: how did you do it before digital?

Me:... with film? I haven't had enough coffee for this conversation

[dracox-serdriel]

Tumblr Rants

Several recent updates to tumblr’s UI have removed several accessibility features mostly related to keyboard navigation. Previously, whenever Tumblr would give me the “do you want to post this now?” prompt, I could hit the enter button to confirm.

Now, hitting the enter button closes the prompt without response. If you want to confirm, either you have to move your mouse to click “okay” OR you have to hit tab twice before you hit enter. WTF? Why would you actively make your site less accessible?

And it’s not just less accessible -- it’s also way more annoying. After confirming that I want to post, there’s almost always this ugly time lag--seems to be related to the new animation Tumblr is applying to make the post “disappear” off the page. Seriously? Why? The animation isn’t even that good. And it doesn’t matter which browser I use, they all have it.

But that’s better than when I try to add a draft to my queue. A few weeks ago, there was a “...” you could use to select “Queue” for any of your drafts. This is really helpful for me, as I like to save drafts ready-to-post, then add them to my queue for posting order. For whatever reason, Tumblr removed the “...” from drafts a few weeks ago -- now, if I want to Queue a post, I have to go to “Edit” then “Queue.” Why? It’s really annoying that I have to wait for the post to open in edit mode when I don’t have to make any changes--I just want to put in my queue. And then... when you DO queue from your drafts... nothing. The edit window closes, and nothing else happens. Nothing. The post isn’t removed from the Drafts page. There’s no message about it successfully being added to the queue. The only way to confirm this by reloading the drafts page (or checking the queue). Which isn’t a great option if you have more than ten drafts (given how they’re loaded). Tumblr has confirmed this is a bug, but it’s been weeks, and it’s still there.

The entire point of the queue is to spread out the posts -- which is great if you have a bunch of things you want to share but don’t want to innundate your followers with posts all at once. But it’s difficult to put things in the queue. And it’s also difficult to do anything to the queue. Want a post to be moved to the top? Easy. Literally anything else? It takes forever, especially reordering things, which otherwise is 100% “drag and drop” -- no accessible alternative, either. Keyboard navigation has no effect on it. Even if you can drag and drop, that page uses the slowest drag-scroll speed (for scrolling up/down to stuff you can’t see, which is necessary if you want to move the post up more than 1 slot). Why is this interfact so sluggish? Why isn’t there an accessible alternative for reordering posts in a queue?

Add to it the fact that there are a number of baffling limitations on this platform. I want to look at all the tags I’ve used. Oh wait, you can’t. There’s no listing, no way to get them from the API. (Note: You can get the full list of tags, but you have to “view source” and hunt for it--which means they have the list, they’re just refusing to share it for whatever reason.) The best you can do is head to your archive and you’ll see a list of your top tags. Great. Except that - for whatever reason - the count on tags can be really, really wrong -- even several days after deleting posts or updating tags, the old tags (for me, usually typos) are still listed in the archive tags. What?

Then some of the tags don’t work. “Nothing here.” What? This is one example of a broken archive tag link from my side blog. Select “color: red” as a tag from the tag list, and this happens. But there are hundreds of post under that tag! Why is the link broken? Character encoding! Look, here’s a working version of that same link for the “color: red” tag.

Then there’s the tag counts. There’s a list of “top tags” for each blog you can get from the API. They’re used on the archive page. But they’re wildly inaccurate. Take a look:

I had accidentally used #reylonet due to a typo -- and kept using it, because I didn’t see the error until about two months ago. Over two months ago, I went through and corrected this tag (apparently I typed it wrong two more times recently). However, the count for “reylonet” remains at 3128 over two months after I removed/corrected that tag. How does that even happen?

That, and sometimes it takes days before posts I delete are no longer visible on the blog/visible as a post/show in the archive. Why?

The max daily posting limit for Tumblr per person? 250 posts. Max posts you can schedule with your queue at once? 50. Why? I want to know how close I am to the daily limit -- but Tumblr (for whatever reason) -- won’t tell you how many posts you’ve posted in the current day. I have to use an outside site to calculate that. Why?

I’m also annoyed at how difficult it is to answer the question, “Have I reblogged this post before?” Although that’s been a long-standing issue with the platform, I feel like it belongs with this rant.

I’m just annoyed that the platform seems to be making it more and more difficult to use -- especially if you use the platform a lot.

[noddytheornithopod]

MML Reactions: Snow Way Out/Teacher Feature

Snow Way Out:

Doof cameo sucked. It just sucked. It was so forced, seriously. My fears that Disney are shoehorning him in to lure in PnF viewers are only increasing (and if that ISN’T the case, then I’m even more disappointed in Dan and Swampy’s inability to move on from the show they CHOSE to end, like if you needed more Doof make Doof 101 or OWCA Files a show geez).

Aliens referring to some ominous threat coming. Spoopy.

Bradley still had his durr plant arm. Another reminder of that goddamn crossover. Has anything even changed besides it being a mere visual gag in this regard? Since this episode was used to show a change in the status quo, perhaps they could’ve done something with the arm (as much as it reminds me of that goddamn crossover).

Cavendish and Dakota scenes were good, however I’m disappointed they didn’t really give Cavendish any real feelings about the Dakota Island. Like, they rushed through his reaction in the crossover, but now they don’t even bother doing anything in regards to how he actually feels about it.

That being said, Dakota being found out is cool, nice to get some consequences to this.

So since this was kind of a way to show how the characters have developed since the pilot, Zack was clear in that he’s more accepting of Murphy’s Law and all that and is braver, but I wasn’t quite sure on what they were doing with Melissa? Like, the “I hope” suggests she’s starting to have less faith in Milo and of course there’s the part where she’s coming to terms with Milo failing, but nothing I’ve seen has really suggested that to happen for me? IDK, unless they explain she’s secretly been feeling a certain way in a later episode it just doesn’t really feel like there’s a place for this to actually come from.

Speaking of Melissa, animators failed to realise she still had the shovel even though the timeline was altered so that she won the bet. Oops. :v

Was that Olivia Olson singing? That was nice, I guess.

I’m not exactly sure why Cavendish and Dakota would still have access to time travel when they’re now removed from BOTT? I guess I just find it weird that they’re sent back in time and yet still have time travel gadgets somehow (unless Dakota stole them to keep saving Cavendish) to get Milo and Zack to class on time. Like, abusing time travel was their big offence. :V This is more of a nitpick, but it’s weird nonetheless.

Cavendish was apparently milked to death once. That sounds strangely sexual? I’m sure someone out there is probably gonna draw smut of that. :V Sorry not sorry.

I like the Llama judge, I want more of that guy.

Bradley doing the overreaction to Milo appearing was funny.

Overall it was just fine to me, not really the best they have to offer but there were a few nice things here.

Teacher Feature:

Scott and Murawski go on a date. Okay then.

“Written by Scott Peterson” because of course. XD

Murawski is still madly in love with her desk, just like I always wanted.

Melissa reminding Murawski they have a test as she dismisses class and she responds “you need to get out more” was pretty funny.

“I’m a teenager, I’m a self appointed expert on everything” lol okay.

The Scott and Murawski date was so awkward... as it should’ve been. They were never meant to be.

Murawski decides the only love she needs in her life is her desk... MML OTP is vindicated!

Scott’s love triangle with the carton and bottle at the end... can we just watch more of that, please?

The montage was probably the weakest part of the episode for me, just wasn’t that interesting to me even with the song.

It was pointed out to me Milo seemed very done this episode... guess Scott being hard to work with for hours wore him down. XD

Weird Al doing a British accent with Milo was funny. Though WTF was that restaurant name with all those languages? 0_0

Wait, was Murawski willing to be polyamorous given she clearly loves her desk? I mean it was probably just a heat of the moment thing she felt that day, but still.

Overall, this episode I liked more than the last one. Still nothing special, but I didn’t really have much to criticise here. I’m just happy Woodawski lives on. :P

[alloftheyesses]

A Look at WTF Happened With Destiny 2

One Player said, “It feels like they went backwards. D1 was a good game with plenty of content by the end of its run. Instead of building off that, they end up taking away most of the features players waited 3 years for. By the time they end up getting it together, and give the community what they want, that “casual player base” will be long gone.”

Another said, “…If they lose the long term fans they built, they better figure out how to keep the casual players playing, or the community will fall off a cliff.”

There’s also contradictory opinions.

One Gamer said, “The game gives out exotics and high level rewards too quickly compared to the first.”

Then followed up with, …no, there isn’t enough high level rewards.

Another said, We “We’re simply not getting enough,” then followed up that statement with, “…they released new content too soon. PC players were only able to play the base game for a month or so before they have to fork over another $20 on top of the $60 they already paid to continue playing the base game and the new content without parts of the game being locked out.”

Now, I’m not going to review what’s been happening or what Bungie is doing with Destiny 2. There’s plenty of articles and videos detailing the present situation. What I want to do, and find out is wtf do I, and many others do about all this. Do I quit, Do I stay? Are the reasons justified?

“Three years. We where here for three years! This is the real complaint. This is why it hurts. This is why Destiny 2 is failing.”

Article by: Frank Marks,              December 10, 2017.

Bungie decided they were going to launch a new version of Destiny, but this time, they would change not only the entire game, but the entire demographic. Rendering the previous years pointless and bringing the new era down to having no special or extras features. Destiny 2 became ordinary and standard.

Bungie pulled a 180º and it left it’s committed audience baffled, stunned and confused. Why would they do this to us? Three years. We where here for three years! This is the real complaint. This is why it hurts. This is why Destiny 2 is failing.

After building and going through the growing pains, Bungie decided that they were going to launch a sequel to Destiny 1. After learning what everyone could want out of the game. Can you believe it? They worked hard, having conversations with fans and staff for three years, perfecting and fine tuning the game they started with. They took three years, and then threw it right back in our faces.

One of the biggest complaints fans have is, Why even make a Destiny 2?

Bungie took everything away. Then, justified it by telling its existing audience of fans that it would be because the game was going to be something new, it would be bigger and better and a game full of stories and adventures. New content and new weapons!

WOW! The majority thought! More than D1? There’s going to be all new stuff? It all sounded too good to be true. Bungie had promoted itself as taking everything away so that it could die in the past. They made it seem that all of the old stuff wouldn’t matter anymore, there would be new content and better things to do in D2 that would make us say, “Wow! Who cares about D1 now!??”

Alas, this is not what they did. They stayed true to their technical promises. They had removed everything great that fans had worshiped the game for. Bungie stripped the D1 game to it’s skivvies and left players feeling cheated. Now that may read as an over-dramatic statement. So I’’m going to list everything Bungie took away from D1 to make this “brand new experience”

The Crucible. 1. The ability to select which game mode you wanted to play, forcing players into a playlist. 2. The ability to have private matches. 3. The Ability to have up to six people on a fire team. 4. Ranked matches. There is only one way to follow your stats after competing in a non competitive match of Destiny 2 Crucible, Their website.

Strikes. 1. The ability to select which game mode you wanted to play, forcing players into a playlist. 2. Removing strikes from planets, forcing players to use the strikes playlist, rather than allowing players to choose what they wanted to do.

Bungie.Net 1. The ability to access, view and make changes to your vault. Forcing players to use the Destiny companion app on their phones, that doesn’t support Destiny 1. 2. The ability to access and review a library of Grimoire Cards. Forcing the player to venture through loading screens and menus to read or reread all of Destiny lore and history in game.

Then there’s the things that they changed for the sake of changing them. Quests or missions are now called “Milestones.” They didn’t change how these worked they just renamed them. Patrols are confined to a planet. Allowing the player to choose when and where, if they wanted to do a patrol.

Removing unique Faction Leader rewards. Where Faction leaders used to reward players with unique drops, Faction leaders now all pull from the same rewards list and drop them back at you with a random number that reflects the average number of your equipped gear. (Yeah, that’s not simplifying it guys!)

ZUR The mystery man selling raid ready gear and exotics that you could only get from doing unique specific content in D1, now sells the exotics that you can earn at any point in game before he even sells them.

SHADERS Free random drop shaders that a player could earn while playing specific content was removed in lieu of a new system where a player could earn a one time use cosmetic shader that could be applied to any peace of gear or weapon. The down side to this is that special unique legendary and exotic shaders are being sold through an optional. pay for random system with a face named, “Tess Everis.” Players can earn Silver Dust or pay with real money for a random drop of a shader that can only be used one at a time.

Vault to Weapon ratio. The vault only holds 200 weapons, gear, and inventory. We came from a vault that offered over 100 slots for each, including pages worth of space for weapons.

My god! This list could probably, go on and on….

It’s embarrassing, to invest into a game for years, to work month after month giving feedback and finally seeing it realized in year three of Destiny 1; only to see the majority of it taken away from you. What makes it even worse, what really rubs salt in the wound, Is the blatant lack of respect for the gamers that invested their money and time into the universe.  

I stated earlier that Bungie changed the focus of who their demographic would be for Destiny 2. (I’ll come back to this again later.) They wanted to make the game more accessible and enjoyable for the casual gamer. But, Why? They had already built and worked for a community for three years. Three years! it’s not like the community was going to abandon the series. Players had developed careers out of following the game’s story, plot, progression. All of the lore of the game was reduced to zero for a fresh start and a new experienced that had one focus…. MAKING MONEY FROM GAMERS.

It’s becoming more and more clear that Bungie is in the business of scamming people of their money. In a time when gamers are complaining about EA doing the same to their fan base with Battlefront II before the game was even released, Bungie decides it’s in their best interest to do the same to their audience that already existed!

Bungie is doing one thing and one thing only to Destiny 2. They are trying very hard, working almost endlessly at making a game that is automated and standard. Destiny 2 has become ordinary. It is a grind fest without an entertaining incentive with loot that was once the main incentive of the game, is now a gambler’s chance. It has become repetitive and stale. Shoot and kill on Planet A, earn a token so that you may pay to get something random. Then go to Planet B, earn a token so that you may pay to get something random. OR just pay for it in the main hub. Etc, etc Repeat, repeat.

Bungie has attempted to add a story that builds and expands from Destiny 1, without giving players any real reason to be invested in these new stories. With the stories and the game play, there is no real threat. There’s never urgency, or a compelling enough moment to keep players invested or wanting to come back to replay.

Another player told me he was having a hard time finding anything he wanted to replay or re-experience in Destiny 2. That’s when I found myself asking, “Is there anything I would want to replay in D2? Is there anything at all that I would want to re-experience?

The answer, was no. Bungie forces players to repeat missions or leaves the options to re-play quests and adventures. The thing is, Why would we want to? Why? There’s no incentive at all for doing it again.  They’ve created a universe where the story is a one time opportunity to experience a cinematic video that adds absolutely nothing to the world. At the same time, it doesn’t take away anything either.

Bungie has even ignored lore that they created. Players have pointed out the plot holes and inconstancies of the overall story arch. Yet, Bungie acts like it was intentional and that there’s a bigger story that ties it all together. However, they can’t get the content out in time for launch day because it isn’t ready. Plus, they plan on charging us for that content in DLC and Expansion packs.

We, the consumer of your product, understand that you have to make money as a business, but nickel and dime-ing, milking the wallets of players who have invested time in your product, stringing us along in circles is a slap in the face to every single fan.

The audience is changing in Destiny, and it’s not for the better. People are starting to catch on, they are noticing how they are being treated, and they’re rebelling, The once, tight nit community is beginning to raise their voices with their, wallets, time, and voices.

Big name, elite players of the game, are quitting at a rate that the comunity hasn’t ever seen before. These are players and channels that built their name and following on Destiny, and they are leaving the game because of the state it’s in. That’s not something people are doing because they think it will make them more money. That’s not something people are doing because they believe in the developer to make things right. To respect and value their audience. It’s something people do when they can not find a solution to a problem they can no longer contribute a positive attitude for.

Bungie might be shocked that their dedicated fans are jumping ship. But they couldn’t be further removed from the conversation that matters.

Destiny gamers gave Bungie three years to get it right. Bungie is acting like they’ve only been working on D2 for eight months.

Dedicated fans of anything aren’t stupid, and they won’t willingly be taken advantage of.  Some might quit sooner than others.  

See, Bungie is like that girlfriend you’ve had for three years saying, “We’re going on a break next week, Then starting over in two weeks.”  Then, just as before, she comes back after two weeks and is acting like you guys just met; and although she’s acting the same as before, she insists that she has changed and is changing. See, Now, she has a new wardrobe; but if you want to see the full collection —you’re going to have to pay for it with your time or with your money. See the difference? You can still do the same things as before, you can still have fun together, you can still get into the crucible. It’s just now, It’s all  on her terms with your money and your time.

I won’t subscribe to that and don’t expect you to do that either. I wouldn’t expect any self respecting person to commit to behavior like that.  Not one.

There are some positives that have come from D2, but they are very few, and none of them are an improvement on the previous three years of Destiny; rendering the confusion, baffled, and stunned looks on everyones faces when Bungie says, “Give us more money! For the sequel that never had to be made in the first place.”

See, that’s the thing about sequels. They’re supposed to be an improvement over the previous iteration. This is true for everything in life. TV shows, Movies, Video Games, Birthdays. Although we age, although somethings evolve. We become better with time. When we don’t, when we fail to, that’s when we feel disappointed.

But the reality is, for now, I’m still very torn on what to do. I like many, Pre-Ordered Destiny 2 for $100. Money I earned and invested believing I was going to get something, overall —better.

I feel forced into a contract that I don’t want anymore. I must play the game to get most of my monies worth. To be frank, I still have an ounce of hope left. A hope that Bungie will come to their senses. A Hope that they will give me back D1 options in D2. A hope that they will expand on D1 and continue to make it better. A hope that they will work hard at making a game worth my time.

The improvements I feel the Destiny’s audience wants, aren’t improvements at all. We just want what we loved back. Then they can add and tweak the mechanics to make an even better game.

Sadly, with the companies current focus of money being their first priority —I fear that this will either be years away, all over again! I fear that they will want to charge us for anything they do.

I keep thinking of a this analogy, “I pay a licensed and highly recommended flooring company to install new floors in my first home, so when it came time to buy my vacation house, I knew exactly who I would use. He had worked with me every step of the way in my first home and I knew the quality of his work was unmatched by anyone for miles.  Plus he knew now what to expect from me.

Well, day one of the vacation home and the guy tells me I need to remove the base slab before I install new floor. He tells me, it’s so the new floor will lay better than before. I say better than before? Wow! Okay, lets get started! He completely removes the old slab and lays the new one down; and it’s the same as before, except it’s blue now. In fact, it has some cracks.

I ask him, what’s wrong with the slab and why does it have cracks? He tells me not to worry about it, and that he will tend to it before he lays down the new flooring. So weeks go by and he’s about to pick up the new flooring to lay it down, when he calls me and says, “I’m here picking up the floor you asked for, but there’s another floor here that I think will work for you, it’s even better!

I’m blown away! I didn’t think there could be anything better than what I wanted!

So he starts installing the new floors when I arrive at my house only to see the exact same floor I chose but it’s green! GREEN! Can you imagine how upset I am? He’s installed a third of the floor already and I notice the cracks in the blue slab have not been fixed!

What is this? I yell. “I asked for these cracks to be fixed, and what made you think I wanted a green floor?

He calmly apologizes and says he’ll be back next week with a fix.

Next week comes and he shows up with a wood accent. It looks great, but it’s not what I wanted! He then Reminds me that I already payed a deposit and If I want him to finish it, the choices are going to have to stay. He also adds that unfortunately he can’t fix the cracks in the new slab but that the floors he’s installing won’t make it noticeable. He also tells me that the wood accent is going to cost me extra! He already laid down a little bit of it and he won’t charge me for that, but to finish the floor with the wood accent he’s going to have to charge me for it!

The furry in my vanes is approaching a boiling point. I can’t believe this guy!

I can’t back out now. I’ve already invested in the services and although It’s not what I wanted, It does look really great. I told him to give me another week. He’s coming back next week to finish what he started and has also offered to do the baseboards (at no extra cost) to complete the space he was working in.

I’m not sure what to do…..”

See that’s exactly where I am with Bungie.

They’ve strung me along with their mistakes and I’m paying for it. Do I continue with their service, get my moneys worth and then split. Riding on the chance that I may like what they do in the end. OR do I cut all ties with them immediately, find someone else and get exactly what I’m looking for.

[hidetothink]

holy shit, how can this person not realize how incredibly bullshit this entire argument is? it's literally the green eggs and ham story, but with rape. you can say the story is cute because in the end they like it, but that's food. to continually badger someone over what circumstance they'd change their no to a yes in regards to sex is definition rape culture. they're hoping to wear you down enough that you'll eventually say yes and try what you're uncomfortable with, exactly like rapists.

And the fact it's my longtime friend makes it even more frustrating and hurtfulBest quotes include:"hormones are also able to alter preferences, and as such sexuality will forever be fluid. There are further contexts to that, such as nurture, brain chemistry, and the like, and it certainly cant be changed willingly due to the complexity of an individual, but many folks find their identity alter as they go forward."So I guess reparative therapy doesn't work because you FORCE it, but if you just keep an open mind it'll maybe happen on its own ;)"Sometimes alterations are so small or infrequent that statistically they are irrelevant, and for those folks we classify them as "monosexual". largely because as humans we love categories, and they facilitate understanding. But it is imperative to not perfectly remove possibility on a technical scale, but only on a semantic scale."A lot of his argument through the whole exchange was that: you can't technically say something couldn't ever happen to your attractions. Monosexuals don't exist because they say they could never be attracted to a certain group and that's just not technically correct."Sure, sexual compatibility is important, but that is interpersonal, not categorical. Not all transguys have femme features at all. Some even might have been born with butch genetalia."Wtf is butch genitalia my guy. There are words for organs. Why are you being like this. Oh and attraction can't be categorical...I guess?"But attraction to a person has been shown to allow for variance in what we deem "what we want"...."Emotions fuck with us my guy. But to re-iterate the point of this: accepting the possibility is not accepting responsibility to pursue it."What if you found a female you REALLY LIKED!? Emotions will make you stop being gay, you silly monosexuals. "Finally, you seem to equate criticism of your stance as equal to criticism of your identity, and that needs to be removed."I like to say that homosexuals are silly for saying they can't like the opposite sex too, but I don't like that you get offended =["Consent is the right in question, and consent is based off of individual evaluation, the trend of which is documented as orientation. Past patterns predict, but do not rule, future engagements."Sure, something MAY have been true and proven yesterday, but it's quite silly to assume it will ALWAYS be true. Silly monosexuals. ;)"You lose the right (to deny access to myself to any and all females) when broad categories are used, akin to racial preference. On an individual basis, you have every right."You can say individual women just aren't your type, but it's rude to say NO woman couldn't make you hot and bothered silly gay man ;) I would know as a pansexual ;)(Responding to the claim that homophobia is based on a hatred of same sex attraction and intimacy) "In a general sense, to the uninformed"He has yet to explain what he things homophobia IS based in if not on the hate of homosexuality =\"Literally just adjust your meaning of exclusive to the semantic meaning. Because on a technical level i could develop an attraction to ping-pong paddles, were the brain adjusted. It's the scary reality of neural connections. This refusal of the literal science is concerning, when this is a social problem that should be addressed on social terms. Biology is fucked man. Humans are bethesda codes. Semantically im not, and never expect to wanna fuck paddles. But I wont rule out that it could happen, like anything else."Look, right NOW I don't want to fuck a horse, but I really shouldn't be so silly as to say I'd NEVER fuck a horse. How closed minded you silly non-open-to-the-possibility-of-horse-fuking-persons ;)"My role as a multisexual is set aside for this, i'm approaching this as a scientist and anthropologist."I have no idea what it's like to be a gay man, but I can put aside that ignorance and understand objectively anyway without listening to anything a gay friend actually tells me =DI honestly don't know how someone gets...this homophobic while being same-sex attracted on some level. I'm just rethinking whether I want to even be friends with this guy if he won't widen up and just stfu for a second and listen...

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

'Johny Johny Yes Papa' is just one of many terrifying YouTube videos made for kids

The internet is invested in the tale of Johny, Papa, and their sugary deceit. 

"Johny Johny Yes Papa" is probably one of the more terrible things to curse your timeline recently. The nightmarish nursery rhyme went viral over the past week, drawing hundreds of thousands of new people into its lore. 

In the most shared version, a child with an absurdly large head sneaks out of bed to gorge on sugar cubes when his father — known only as "Papa" — sternly calls out "Johny" and breaks into a Gangnam Style-type dance. 

SEE ALSO: 'B*tch, I'm a Cow' is the summer bop taking over the internet with memes

When Johny denies eating sugar, Papa asks if he's "telling lies" while emphatically doing the wave. Johny denies telling lies, so Papa orders Johny to open his mouth and then absolutely nails Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" footwork as he confronts his deceitful son.

Caught in the lie, Johny belts out in deranged laughter and lifts his hands, spinning around like he's performing some sort of playful demonic possession. 

Since that tweet, Johny, Papa, and their fixation on sugar inspired memes about their strange storyline.

papa: omg why is there no sugar in the house....wtf???? johnny: OMG KING that's so sad 😔😔😔 go off!! find that liar!!! papa: vague// i literally saw oomf with sugar in his mouth but go off i guess

— nayan 💉 摩天楼 + pinned (@Iingfan) August 27, 2018

Johnny johnny 👋 \ 😳 || \_ _/¯ ¯\_ Yes papa 😜 👊/||\_ _/¯ ¯\_

— valerie🌷🦇 (@mahounurse) August 27, 2018

calling ur man daddy is so basic we’re replying ‘yes papa’ in johnny’s voice now

— im having an identity crisis (@ceIIinne) August 26, 2018

The video is one of many "Johnny Johnny" spin offs — sometimes spelled "Johny Johny" — which are often paired with bad claymation, strange animation, and absolutely awful singing. One of the first versions of the nursery rhyme was uploaded in 2009, according to Know Your Meme. Three years later, another children's channel posted a version of "Johnny Johnny," where the father looked oddly similar to Peter Griffin from Family Guy. The song took off (as much as a nursery rhyme could) with ChuChuTV's 2013 rendition, which portrayed a young boy named Johny who crawls out of the bed he shares with his father to eat spoonfuls of pure sugar. It now has more than 480 million views. 

In 2014, YouTube channel EdukayFUN posted this hellish version featuring terribly 3D animation and absurd body modifications. The corrupted version of the song was briefly taken down, and then reposted this year. Since then, increasingly bizarre versions of the kid's song have flooded YouTube — some of which are available on YouTube Kids, the child-friendly version of YouTube which has been scrutinized in the last year for inappropriate content. 

Although this hellish version of Johny Johny isn't available on the kids app, reaction videos that show clips or mirrors of EdukayFUN’s disturbing animations are accessible to kids on the app. 

Some, like the version from WOA Teddo Channel embedded below, have blatant rip offs of popular characters. The Hulk and Batman make an appearance in what appears to be a cautionary tale about getting teeth pulled after eating too much candy. Later in the video, a clay Spiderman nearly kills the Hulk by squeezing him through a French fry cutter before a horrified Elsa stops them both and demonstrates the tool brutally shredding a potato. 

The videos don't always include that haunting nursery rhyme. Instead, videos with "Johnny" or "Papa" in the title appear to be an SEO grab for nonsensical videos geared toward kids. 

This video posted by YouTube channel Vlad Bibabo, for example, is titled "johnny johnny rhymes" but tells a completely different story. 

A green woman and child — presumably the Hulk's wife and son — gorge on bright orange cheese puffs. They take the sleeping Hulk's cheese puffs, fill a bathtub with the carb-loaded snacks, and have the time of their lives in the makeshift ball pit. Their shenanigans wake up the Hulk, who storms into the bathroom and threatens to pummel them in a cheese-driven rage. Using a magic wand, the Hulk manages to turn her abusive husband into a stuffed toy and then triumphantly buries him in puffs. 

The sketch shows just how weird YouTube content for kids can be — many of the videos made for children are educational and have some sort of moral to pass on, but have perplexing ways of doing so. 

In the series produced by Billion Surprise Toys, the same channel whose dancing Johny video took over Twitter, Johny's family appears with a sentient refrigerator who inexplicably calls Johny's parents "Papa" and "Mommy." 

Instead of asking the refrigerator if it's eating sugar, various characters ask it for food and drinks. The fridge appears to have no agency over the contents of its body: despite denying that it contains water, sauces, and ice cream, its human family members demand that it open its door. The fridge does so without any hesitation and hands over the snacks. 

The video takes a questionable turn at 1:32 when the fridge sees a character named Chiya approaching and hunches over, defeated. When the refrigerator backs away from him and refuses his request for chocolate, Chiya forces the refrigerator open and chocolate bars spill from its shelves.

While kids behaving badly is a common theme in these videos, there's just something weird about a 3D-rendered child violating a talking fridge.

The videos produced by Billion Surprise Toys are scattered with uncomfortable situations that aren't explained at all. In another video about getting ready for the day, Johny shares a bed with an adult-sized being named "Ice Cream Man." According to the character bio on Billion Surprise Toy's website, Ice Cream Man "loves to give hugs and cuddle." 

At the end of the "getting ready" video, Johny and Ice Cream Man smuggle lollipops in bed before falling asleep together. 

And in this version, Johny is a child-size pink bus who shares a bed with the child we've previously known as Johny. The song is identical to the previous video, but in this animation, everyone except the original Johny is a bus. The bus-creature even has bus arms and unsettling bus hands to eat forbidden snacks, and boards a bigger bus to ride to school. 

The carrier bus does not appear to be sentient.

Billion Surprise Toys also produced this educational video to teach children about colors which shows crying babies being fed gum balls. When a floating green gum ball is placed in the infant's mouth, the baby's skin tone morphs into a sickly shade of green. It repeats for every corresponding color. 

Last year, Mashable reported that graphic, violent videos managed to slip past YouTube Kids' moderation and could be easily accessed by young kids. Although none of the Johny Johny videos are explicitly harmful toward children, they do present uncomfortable scenarios. It shows that there's something still off about the content aimed at kids on YouTube. 

The YouTube Kids app is a sort of an atonement for its previous lack of moderation. In April, BuzzFeed reported that YouTube planned to keep creepy videos away from children with a team of actual humans who would hand-curate appropriate videos. It appears that some still slip through the cracks. 

And moderating videos on the app alone may not be enough. While not all of the videos featured here are accessible through YouTube Kids, it's clear that they were still targeted at a young audience. Between animations that fall right in the uncanny valley and disturbing storylines, YouTube's early childhood videos should concern you. 

If you want to ensure that your kids are watching appropriate content, maybe YouTube isn't the place. After all, would you trust an anonymous stranger on the internet to teach your children?

On the bright side, we're getting some fucking weird memes from this nightmare fuel. 

UPDATE: Aug. 29, 2018, 11:36 a.m. PDT Since this article published, it appears that Billion Surprise Toys is attempting to stop the memeification of its videos.

Although the original viral tweet is still up, the video is no longer available. Instead, it shows an image that says, "This video has been removed in response to a report by its copyright holder." 

In additional to removing reporting tweets, Billion Surprise Toys has also disabled video playback on other websites. 

Billion Surprise Toys did not respond to request for comment. 

The disturbing educational video about colors featured in this article was also removed from YouTube. 

WATCH: That 'Titanic' flying scene sinks when you remove the epic music

[mxbumblepants-blog]

This is super long. It's a brief recap of how North Korea developed, and what is coloring NK's decision regarding nukes and diplomacy. North Korea's People's Assembly has voted to reinstate the Diplomatic Commission, which was removed from NK's constitution in 1998. This could mean that North Korea may shift more towards diplomacy, but there hasn't been any official announcements, and you never quite know what they'll do. Pursuing nuclear power is unpopular among North Korean citizens. However, it seems unlikely that either the feelings of North Korean citizens or the belligerent nonsense of 45 and his crew made this happen. The opinions of the general public do have an effect, but generally slowly, over time. Instead, it's sanctions that are making the leadership reconsider wtf they are doing. When the USSR still existed, North Korea was able to play China and Russia off of each other, and so North Korea was able to survive quite nicely off what the two other countries gave them. People actually used to marvel at how North Korea was able to feed all its people & provided them with other goods and clothing. Back then, North Koreans received wages that were essentially an allowance to spend at state owned places like restaurants and movie theaters. Such a thing had not been achieved before in Korea, and it was eventually a stark contrast to the situation in South Korea. After much drama (including at least one dictator we placed & kept in power there), South Korea eventually gained a functioning economy. Then the USSR fell, and that brought on the Arduous March - a truly horrific famine in the 1990s which coincided with Kim Il Sung's death. Some songs from that period have been banned because people will sing them defiantly as a symbol for the struggle they have now. Kim Il Sung was revered because the USSR set him up as a great war hero. The USSR set things up so that he could be seen as magnanimous, great at everything, and able to bring prosperity to his people. Koreans in Japan were invited to come join the new society, which seemed like a sweet deal considering how Japan had treated them (among other things, you can learn about "Comfort women" to get a sense of why North Korea hates Japan so much.) These people would move to North Korea prepare for an awesome new life, them discover they were trapped inside a hellscape, and that people were very jealous of any material goods newcomers had brought with them. Kim Jong Il couldn't get the same deal, though oodles of propaganda was churned out for him as well. He turned to the "Military First" strategy to maintain control. Support for the troops was super popular (esp. because NK has always dwelled on the war. It fills every facet of media.) Food was diverted to soldiers. With the military on his side, he didn't have to worry about much. Things got worse immediately, and when the famine hit, the government lost a lot of control. They could no longer provide rations for anyone, so started doing things like offering coupons for discounts on items at state stores - which even today stock very little outside of Pyongyang and the shops set up for foreign tourists. A generation had grown up isolated from capitalism, so they had to start from scratch developing an economy. Many felt disgusted about it, horrified that they were betraying their country's ideals by engaging in commerce - but when people are cannibalizing each other for lack of food, most aren't going to hold out. The government slowly developed rules for sellers, and a marketplace developed. Occasionally the government would replace the current currency with a new one, and would only exchange a certain amount of the old for the new. This meant that anyone who had over that amount would be unable to save money. The last time NK did this was a few years before Kim Il Jong's death. Coupled with bribes and many forms of taxation and fees (Including demands that citizens simply give money to the government), it was near impossible for anyone to get anywhere. A growing bribe culture gave citizens more flexibility, and lax laws let smuggled goods flow in easily. Most important were USBs with bootleg copies of South Korean Dramas. The USBs were easier to hide than videotapes or CDs, and many have had useful features such as appearing empty if people don't know how to look for the files on there. The shows got passed around, and most people watched them behind closed doors - especially teens and young adults. As young people asked at the markets for fashions and items they saw in the shows, sellers began following the trends - and thus South Korean culture seeped in. The most important thing here is that North Koreans finally got an unobstructed view of South Korean culture. And they saw for themselves how much things outside had progressed. They were told all their lives that people outside NK were suffering & dying to get in - but the dramas were damning evidence that this was not true. (Incidentally, this is why I think sending pamphlets by balloon over the Korean border is a bad idea. Citizens would get arrested if seen picking those pamphlets up, so no one is going to read them. Showy efforts like this are a waste. Sending in information and goods is what changes things. Supporting the sellers at the markets is the right way to go.) Kim Jong Un was no one's favorite. He was given a completely tanked economy and a huge corruption riddled morass of a government. His strategy was to push all senior people aside & put a bunch of 30 year olds in high positions. In NK, older people hold the positions of authority, so this was not well received. Kim's age was a problem too, but his propaganda folks dressed him up to maximize his resemblance to Kim Il Sung. None of this fixed the problems, so of course Kim did a purge & tightened the reins. Suddenly people found it was deadly again to cross the border. Under the previous Kim, the markets had developed a series of packages for defectors, ranging from swank to super basic. Daily NK had lots of communication with people inside NK, including anonymous officials. Some very brave people were given cameras, which they used to film inside North Korea. Most notable were a video of a starving boy picking up scraps of food from adults at a makeshift outdoor 'restaurant,' an exhausted woman picking grass for her family's rabbits (she was later reported dead from starvation), and videos of people being interrogated or executed. But after Kim Jong Un came to power, nothing was getting in or out. Meanwhile, different political factions have been hard at work the whole time. I might write about them in the future if I time to reacquaint myself with their names Kim Jong Un is not actually the sole decision maker (and neither were the previous Kims.) He can't step too far away from cultural norms, for instance. (And yes, having Rodman come visit was -very- poorly received). In addition, of he isn't careful, rivals to the folks who put him in power will very easily take him out. He does actually have to produce something in the way of results in order to survive. After the USSR fell, North Korea slowly lost all it's meaningful friends - except China. (NK is still friends with other small, dictator run countries with corrupt, command economies) So China has had a large amount of say in NK's decisions. In the past China has shut down stuff that was a problem for them, but otherwise they've been hands off and paid lip service to friendship between the two countries - and of course helping to hunt down defectors (which China refers to as 'economic migrants' so they don't have to sound as much like monsters.) And now China is unhappy. North Korea has been a failed state for quite awhile, and each time it gets worse. None of the current situation there is sustainable as is. So NK's government has to keep coming up with responses to the worsening crisis if they are to maintain control - and that is impossible now with how spreadable information is, and how much reality does not match up to propaganda. Some things to keep in mind: Women are the main breadwinners now because the men are required to go to state jobs (where they stand around doing nothing, since there are no materials to work with, and citizens would pay for quality at the markets rather than rely on low quality state goods even if rations were brought back. The women are free from that nonsense, so they can spend their time making money. Houses are currently valued by how nice the kitchen is, because that is traditionally a women's space, and NK women are now able to make major decisions because they are the source of income. And generally, when conditions improve for women, they improve for everyone. Also, North Koreans have electronics. They also have cars - although those are created only by the state, and so there are limited, expensive options that most people can't afford. Up until recently, the only news about individual citizens in North Korea was about how the country was a mysterious black hole no one could peer into, and how all the citizens buy every bit of nonsense their government puts out. This was never entirely true, and has majorly declined in the last few decades. There has been info getting out for at least a decade, maybe two. There is no excuse for journalists or news organizations to discuss matters about North Korea in a way that doesn't include how politics actually work there. The information is right there and doesn't require anything but time and basic internet access to learn. I learned all this from freely available sources in my spare time, and I don't have super secret access to anything. Basically, if anyone tries to feed you the idea that nothing we hear from NK's propaganda has any basis in fact, or that we can't understand or predict anything they might do - that's a load of bullshit (or lazy ignorance.) We can successfully follow the development of NK from it's founding to its present without handwaiving stuff and saying its mysterious.