Congrats to Team USA on their 4 - 1 victory! They did a great job controlling the ball, and Paraguay sure didn't let up the pressure themselves. I rarely watch sports these days, but that was quite thrilling!

Steam is taking more hits by coordinated efforts to stunt their growth right before their hardware lineup releases. But why? The reasoning is simple: The GabeCube scares console makers. Console makers have political friends. Sony also owns or partially owns more than half of media outlets that would amplify coverage. They're trying to stunt Valve right before they launch their hardware, precisely too late for them to gracefully maneuver around contested concepts. They want the launch to stall so Steam hardware doesn't steal more console sales than PC does. Of note, Sony saw an estimated nearly 15% drop in projected hardware sales this generation but zero drop in game sales specifically for those available on PC. They see Steam hurting their console market even before Steam hardware enters the mix. Sounds like they got their connections into play and are finally trying to stab Julius Caesar. Smells like foul play is at foot because making a better product is too much lost profit and effort. Gaben be upon us in these trying times. Thanks for the insightful video, @watercs2. Fully recommend you guys watch it, and give the guy a follow if you like tracking solid Valve news and event coverage. youtu.be/KXPXXFUJiMg?is=kCII…

Hot take or not?: Immersion - Taking a character, story, or world and wrapping yourself in it, enjoying it for what it is and the suspension of disbelief it provides. Entertainment ensues through new perspectives and lesser mechanical limitations compared to reality. Impersonation - Taking a character, story, or world and ripping the things that you deem non-representative of you away, then filling in the gaps with your own ideas and character canon. Enjoyment ensues mainly through narcissistic control over the dollhouse scenario that is player-enforced to represent reality. Game designers are taught in school that immersion and suspension of disbelief are of high priority, as it deepens the experience for the target audience. Males especially look to immersion to escape reality after hard labor, making up the bulk of the audience. Society and Ideological creep reprogram developers to favor impersonation as a focus, to expand the market for shareholders. Females especially look to put themselves front and center for entertainment, making up the supposed target of this shift. Females largely don't buy in. The original target audience loses what they love in the hobby and opt out. The new proposed audience doesn't latch on to replace them because gameplay systems and their limitations remove total authority over the dollhouse, making the medium a poor one for intended goals. The entire industry fails to meet goals, for both old and new audiences. I think the 'modern audience' needs their own medium, not a repurposing of one fundamentally incompatible with their representative goals.

Another adventurer fails to live up the the modest expectations of the Dungeon. Explain a basic concept that is as little as a web search summary away from being verifed as true, then watch as they seethe in agony at being proven not the blind authority they assume themselves to be. Thanks, @SamuelDeats, for proving that narcissism is only ever a pathway to defeat.

Welcome to My Office The Dungeon has its ups and downs. A little programming here. A hint of networking with other dungeons there. At least they let me use my stress ball! I'm not sure they appreciate all the dents and holes, though... Always fun letting the Yangurra decorate ships with lacquered wood wear surfaces. They make the Dungeon feel so warm and cozy. Such nice people, for carnivorous space plants. ;3

Add another dead adventurer to the wall. @KingofPrinnies just stepped up and peaced out, offering nothing of note to his fellow adventurers. The Dungeon is being brutal today.

Another adventurer succumbs to the Dungeon. He couldn't justify his argument beyond emotional or ideological grounds, and when presented with a compelling counter argument he shuts down and blocks. Thanks, @parasitica_ , for joining the wall of the fallen.

The traditional value of a woman is looks, as a signifier of good genes and good habits that will likely be conveyed to potential children. The traditional value of men is their ability to produce and provide, with wealth signifying potential ability to provide for and raise potential children. There are nuances, naturally, but the point is that men and women are not 100% interchangeable and comparable. Stating that they are 100% equal in all roles including heroic protagonist ones is outright delusion.

Another adventurer falls to the Dungeon. Bring up a trend that they don't like, and the quit that like it's the final boss. Thanks for the one-way block, @HeavenleeBunnie. The Ooze just racks up more defeated quangos on the scoreboard.

I see the way they're cooking. Fisticuffs never work well in duelist/souls games, and they chose to focus on that. Blocking? Nah, you juke and weave to avoid hits. Such fun little flourishes and details to make it function similarly to a blade, but have a life of its own. Keep cooking that good meal—and don't be afraid to put it back in the oven if it needs it. We'll be over here salivating all the same, @StellarBlade.

GW1 took the 2000s style instance, queued action MMO and went for perfection, so it almost felt like local action. About 1/2 of the skill and combat changes to WoW over the years are directly lifted from GW1, if that says anything. GW1 is still actively played today. GW2 took the 2010s MMO concept of local interaction that syncs to the server on set ticks, then ran with it. It didn't just feel like passive back and forth damage like the last gen, but actual combat. GW2 is not just still actively played, but potentially the largest MMO still running. Every other MMO has shut down or rebooted to a new variant in this generation, unable to make it work. GW3 looks to perfect the one thing all MMOs have been chasing as a holy grail since 2010—actual peer-synced realtime interactions. Combat with hitboxes, not targets. Movement with physics between entities, not a delayed view of the physics another player crunched on their local machine. With GW3, it may be the first time we see an actual massive, fully multiplayer-interactive RPG game. They have always wanted to make good action RPG gameplay shared en masse. I hope ArenaNet sticks the landing and makes 20 years of reaching for a celestial goal finally come true. We might finally have the MMO revival we deserve, gumdrops.

Mentiswave proposes an intriguing line of thought regarding the paralysis of many libertarians in online discourse. We dig into this and react with some insights. youtu.be/29nWlqV-k6c

King Trout finally says out loud what I've been thinking for aaaaages. In reacting to his newest research topic, we dive into the world of ravaging good businesses as a business in itself. youtu.be/S0slc4mLrKc

No, this version legitimately looks almost exactly like Jesse from Control. The difference is the Control version both graphically and aesthetically looks cleaner, from a game released in 2019.

I love when they can't even come up with a valid sign-off from a lost argument and hard block. Another adventurer consumed by the ooze. Thanks, @eyet33th. (May your $5 Humble-Bundle Poser Studio asset pack visage live on to the next life.)

Oh, @Tectone , you rascal. Stop showing off all those jiggly bits! c///c