#underperformance

[usnewsper-business]

Tech Giants Struggle, New Players Thrive: What's Happening in the Tech Market? #highvaluations #increasedcompetition #investorselectiveness #longtermprospects #marketconditions #marketleadership #regulatoryscrutiny #slowinggrowth #strongfundamentals #techindustry #techstocks #underperformance

[mumblesplash]

(teaching my art class)

me: and what’s the number one rule when designing characters with wings? …well?

a handful of students, sighing reluctantly: no good fa-

me (interrupting them): NO good-faith attempts at realism, EVER. you want all the bird dweebs and physicists jumping ship as EARLY AS POSSIBLE so they’re not around to cinemasins your ass when you get to the cool parts of your story, and…ugh, what now, gerald

gerald (my least favorite student): why not just do some minimal research instead of-

me: listen you little shit i can and will singlehandedly tank your 4.0 gpa

[technically-human]

Concept: G.U.N. wanted Robotnik dead so badly that they assigned him the worst agent they could find, so there would be plausible deniability. I mean, obviously, they did everything they could to keep him safe!

Turns out, Stone isn't a bad agent at all, he just wasn't motivated. He is now. Another L for G.U.N.

[pangur-and-grim]

If you like complicated card games, have you played the game Wing Span? Based on your general vibe and interests i think you’d really enjoy it.

I actually love wingspan and used to play the digital version obsessively when I was in bed with a broken leg!

[eltristan]

So... Love it! Kinda. 6 launches and total payload to orbit is kinda weak so far: (1) one banana🍌 ...and so far is outperformed in every metric except payload volume by the fricken Space Shuttle. Including reusability.

By unpressurized cargo volume Starship is only 3 time bigger than the Space Shuttles; unfortunately for SpaceX, what actually matters in rocket science is *mass* to orbit, _not_ *volume* to orbit :-(

On these 0kg payload 🍌 flights we should be seeing the best case scenario altitude and velocity -- so far, fully loaded missions of both Space Shuttle and Saturn V have outperformed all the empty Starships. Feel like we're being set up for a big, expensive L.

Starship still (2025) has not made it to low-earth orbit.

I'm slowly drifting to you

The stars and planets are calling me

A billion years away

From you

I'm on my way

I'm on

[zvahlne]

the different versions of the "A SHADOW KNIGHT Saved My LIFE in Minecraft!" thumbnail are very funny to me. she locked in

[ckret2]

Have you watched Transformers One?

Yes, and it is—no exaggeration or hyperbole—the best Transformers movie to date.

And not only is it the best Transformers movie

it's also an actually good movie.

I came in with high standards prepared to judge the hell out of Optimus & Megatron's new origin stories, but no they pulled it off, I 100% believed that within the span of a movie they had both evolved from a couple of nobodies into the leaders we know & love. They made it work.

The one downside is I would've wanted to get to know more of the characters better (especially more Cons), but after so many "we've thrown thirty Transformers at you and only got to know one or two well enough to form an emotional connection, if even that much," I think maybe dialing back the cast was the right decision until they've mastered making good Transformers movies.

Sentinel Prime was a VERY good Sentinel Prime, kinda 1/2 IDW and 1/2 TFA.

The art style's gorgeous, I love TF continuities that go for a colorful cartoony easy-to-read CGI style.

Iacon is beautiful, GREAT city design. All the environments & vehicles are great but I can't talk about the others without spoilers.

Every single background character is SOMEONE, you could watch the movie just looking at the background characters and going "HEY THAT'S— AND THAT'S—" and have a great time.

Steve Buscemi is Starscream.

10/10.

[captainbuzzard]

man reverberating was such a funny mod.

during this inning the first ken drew a walk, stole second, then got caught stealing third before the second ken walked, the third ken arrived and drew another walk, the second stole third base, and finally the fourth ken arrived and this screenshot was taken.

[choices-binglebonkus]

Also apparently people are upset that Do No Harm is only eight chapters…meanwhile I’m sitting here like…….what did you expect??? It’s AI slop. It’s not even real work. How could you reasonably expect what is very clearly a story almost entirely (if not, completely) generated and stylized by AI to sustain itself for longer durations?

[luminique]

if i may... late night bike rides with lighter 🫶

whether you know how to ride a bike or not, most of the late night bike rides are on his bike. he makes sure that everyone is asleep before heading out with you. this way, he could have your arms wrapped around his waist as he drives out of blazewood. the road is pretty smooth for the most part so he takes this as a chance to sneak his hand onto yours, as if to fix your hand placement. in reality, it’s his way of knowing that you’re there, holding onto him.

it gets colder during the night in the outer ring. no blazing sun, the skies are clear, the iridescent edges of multiple hollows. he knows the perfect spot to stop at that had the best views. he clumsily removes his gloves off before putting a hand out for you to hold as you got off the bike. he has all these sharp parts on his gloves and he does not want you getting poked by it.

the stars twinkled across the night sky, it was breathtaking. with the outer ring depending on oil rigs, carbon emissions were high and yet it seemed like this was the only area untouched by it. your eyes may have been on the stars but his eyes were on you. you’d tell him to take his shades off because what’s the point of wearing them at night but he doesn’t want you to see how smitten he is.

it started off with just sitting on the ground. then it progressed to laying down side by side while talking. after a while, he’d notice your change in speech. how you’re talking slower and quieter. that was when he knew that you were getting a little tired. so as usual, he makes sure you’ve got something comfy under your head.

using his arm, he’d guide you to place your head on it. he’s definitely going insane at this moment but you were too busy trying to fight off your sleepiness to even notice his flushed face. you were practically talking nonsense now at this point and then a sudden silence mid sentence.

he doesn’t dare wake you up, instead choosing to watch you sleep. the way your chest goes up and down with every breath, your body unconsciously moving closer to his, searching for some sort of warmth. with his scarf, he’s slowly wrapping it around your neck instead. it’s not that big but it’s enough for the time being. the sound of your breathing and the sounds of wind in the outer ring, he finds it serene enough to rest his eyes, falling asleep right next to you.

you’re woken up by the soft light of the sunrise, eyelids fluttering open. you don’t see lighter next to you but his scarf is still wrapped around you. his voice calls out to you, casually leaning against his bike. he’s facing the sunrise but his eyes are on you. he wouldn’t mind doing this again, as long as it means he gets to spend time like this with you.

[il-predestinato]

6 TENTHS?!

Charles’ brake issue in Bahrain cost him 6 tenths per lap! 😭 Imagine the race we could have had!

(Source: formu1a.uno)

[slutforpringles]

Interesting to me that even AMuS highlighted how unusual it was for Red Bull's Head of PR to be with Daniel for his media rounds, while also reiterating that Daniel still has Christian Horner's full backing and support. I also think Visa advocating for Daniel is a HUGE boost for him given their sponsorship deal is worth upwards of 20 million a year.

via: AMuS | Bleibt Daniel Ricciardo bis zum Saisonende?

[indigosfindings]

remember how the wii u's launch overemphasized a bunch of ports, some of which were of games over a year old, but there was no killer app? & how within a year, third parties were barely touching the console? & how nintendo spent the mid-2010s haunted by a public image of Stagnation and Behind-The-Times-ness?

[blackberry-sage-tea]

Apologies but I have another stupid long analysis post. Been thinking about this and I think Veilguard defenders aren't necessarily wrong that Veilguard's main choices "matter" about as much as prior game choices matter--that is, in that they have a superficial impact on dialogue and story paths, while the core narrative is ultimately unchanged (albeit it has way, way less of those superficial changes). Dragon Age's main appeal as an RPG series (imo) is that it tries to balance player freedom with having a coherent and emotional narrative in a way that a lot of RPGs can't (either because they let you kill major NPCs if you want or because the endings diverge so heavily the next game has to be 100 years later), so it's always been more limited in what you can do. It's mostly always been down to dialogue, cameos, and side quests.

But the thing about Veilguard's major story choices is that it doesn't give you any context to appreciate what you're choosing or why you're choosing it. And so they FEEL like they don't matter in a way that prior games never had a problem with.

In DA:O your major choices come at the end of a quest chain. Harrowmont or Bhelen, werewolves or elves, mages or Templars. These choices have very little impact on the rest of the plot, your story is not significantly different for picking one or the other (except for, again, the superficial things). The thing that makes these choices feel weighted is not the consequences of which ally you have at the final battle or a single paragraph at the end, it's that you spend a lot of time building up to them--you are given the full context for what you're choosing, the game is asking you to make a decision on a topic that you are now very well informed on. You know what the stakes are for this choice, even if you don't see it outside of an epilogue blurb.

Awakening, similarly, has its main story choices near the end--Do you save Vigil's Keep or Amaranthine? Do you side with the Architect or against him? These impact the plot almost not at all because of their placement, it's a "future consequences" thing, but it feels like it matters because the game has spent its whole runtime telling you what choices you're making and building them up through its side quests. It's asking you what you think is most important.

DA2, same deal. The lesser story impact on your choices is, in this instance, more of a technical constraint this time around (the game is very unfinished so you're pretty much press-ganged into the Templar route for a good chunk of it) but all of the choices you make are based around things the game is constantly giving you context for. How you feel about the Qunari, how you feel about Templars and Mages, how you feel about the Chantry, these are things the game is ABOUT and so there are no major story choices where you ask yourself, "why should I care about this?"

Inquisition fumbled this a smidge, I think. The mage-Templar choice is a very early one, and it's given to you without much time to build context for it (if you're a new player, that is), however that's the choice that has a little more story impact than normal and unique quests for each so it's not as big a deal. The other choices though, they also come at the end of questlines where you get to know the stakes and the characters involved. Who do you leave in the Fade? Do you wish to redeem the Grey Wardens or not? Who do you think is the best ruler of Orlais? Should you drink the Well of Sorrows, given what you've learned of Elven history? I have my criticisms of the writing for these quests but like most people I appreciate in hindsight that it still followed the pattern of "your choices matter because you know what you're choosing and why it's important".

Veilguard doesn't do that, and that's why its major choices (what few there are) feel like nothing despite arguably getting the same amount of story impact that previous games did (ie, its mostly dialogue changes and slightly different side quests).

Who do you pick to help you in the opening? I mean, does it matter? The situation is dangerous whether they're helping you or fighting demons alone, there's not really any way to anticipate that the one who comes with you is getting seriously injured outside of "this is a video game". Should you help Treviso or Minrathous? Well, I mean in-universe as Rook I'm doubtful that there's anything I can actually do to save a whole city given my lack of resources (plus each city has a collection of warriors about as capable as me) and tbh I barely know anything about either one because this is pretty early game, I've just been focusing on recruitment thus far. Do you punch the First Warden or not? Yes…? I mean I get that it wants to give you a choice but I've been given no indication that there's a guy capable of reason in there--even the whole "You're hearing your Calling" thing is given AFTER the choice is made, and it's not like punching out the First Warden would have major consequences for the Wardens as an order, he's just a politician. Do you pick Davrin or Harding for your secondary team? Am I supposed to know in advance that this is going to get them killed? I'm picking the person I think is best for the job, and sure enough they successfully do the thing I picked them for. It's only later, after the choice is no longer relevant, that the consequences bear fruit. Do you pick Neve or Bellara to undo the wards? I mean there's no reason why that choice leads to Elgar'nan grabbing one or the other, it's literally just who is standing closest to the mirror when he shows up.

And this isn't even going into things like "Who should be Archon?", which is relegated to a single fucking side quest (unless you saved Treviso in which you have no choice) and your options are "reformist who wants to use dirty tactics" and "reformist who wants to use naive tactics" given to us after having 0 development on Tevinter's actual sociopolitical system and how it works other than "it's bad". Oh, and both candidates promise to support each other with no hard feelings and none of the people you ask have strong feelings one way or the other, just vague preferences.

You see where I'm going with this, right? The ONLY major choice the game has you make that it has spent the whole game building up to is how you want to deal with Solas, but to a long-time player who got more, BETTER context for who he is in Inquisition and Trespasser, it feels painfully unfair and lackluster in execution (it's not an exaggeration to say this game told me nothing about Solas as a person that I didn't already know going in, except for the things that directly contradicted his prior characterization). And of course, that's just one character--you're not being asked to make a decision that impacts the world (because the world consequences are the same no matter what), you're just deciding what flavor of Solas you want for your ending.

Your major choices don't matter not because they have less impact than prior games (which is a separate argument), or because there's less of them (this is true but it's not the point I'm making here), but because these choices are arbitrary as hell in the moment you're making them. You're not given the tools to care about them. All the reasoning people give for one or the other? Entirely meta or based on future knowledge. The narrative doesn't inform the decisions, the mechanics do.

[sersi]

the ways in which brave new world's box office performance/critical reception is constantly used to attack and question sam's place in the mcu and as leader of the Avengers©️ versus the extensive mental and verbal gymnastics that happen anytime there's new evidence of d*redevil: b*rn again's viewership under-performance 🤡

[cupidskissx]

Did you take photos? #australiangp ^^