kid living off Lunchables
Where I grew up that was spoiled rich kid food. If my parents bought me something like that it was a "treat" because I was dumb and impressionable enough from the marketing to ask for it. Pretty sure I never asked for a second one though, some of the worst shit I've ever tasted.
They aren't really playing.
Point is simple: Sports fans expect to be ripped off.
Like another poster said, there is a whole subgenre of "Gamer" who ONLY buy sports games. They are actually just Sports fans, and they are literally buying it as "memorabilia" and for the ability to watch fake games play out when there isn't one on tv, or a reason to have their sports buddies over "for a game" when there is no game on tv.
These are the kind of people who trash talk anyone who plays a video game that ISN'T a sports game.
Then there is the dudebros who only buy Current Year Sportsball Game and Current Year Call of Duty with 100$ season pass. These people don't even properly understand that other games exist, and are spending the money for the imagined prestige of having spent money on it.
They even copied the smell.
"But I NEED my coffee pot to have an internet connection! How else will it know when the fridge is out of milk?"
It's easier to sail the seas than to support pedo networks.
First they came for the Conspiracy Theorists, and I did not care.
Then they came for the Trump supporters and I did not care.
Then they came for the Patriots and I did not care.
Then they came for the OnlyFans and I REEEEEEEEEEEED until I cried.
Not 5 feet of newspaper propaganda.
Uhh, have you read any Canadian newspapers?
Winter in Canada might look a lot like this.
Moderna is the fall guy. It's history reads like a shell company for a reason.
WOT is unfilmable, and that's it.
Agreed, but that's pretty much true of all (decent) books, and quadruplely so in the current clown world. Some books are simple enough they can make the transition. Even LOTR, which was lightning in a bottle never-going-to-happen-again-couldn't-even-get-the-Hobbit-right had a large number of inconsistencies, and we are damn lucky the xena-warrior-Arwen leaked and fan backlash killed in in production.
Had it been current year, they would have called the fan backlash misogynist and hatefull and proceeded to cast half the elves as black and make all the Dwarves gay, while replacing Frodo with Arwen as the main character.
But even what we did get is never going to happen again for any property on earth. GOT almost had it, because the books are so light fantasy as to be practically non-fantasy, and 80% dialogue 20% sex was so braindead easy to translate to the screen it worked up until they got ahead of the author, because only an idiot would start a series based on an unfinished work.
Someone with dollar signs for eyes keeps thinking they are going to replicate those two successes without understanding anything about what actually made them work. Sticking pretty damn close to the source material come hell or high water is what made them successful, until they didn't and it all came crashing down.
If we are just recommending Scifi from before it went woke:
The Skylark of Space series, and the Lensman series by Doc E. E. Smith.
Skylark had a huge influence on original Star Trek, and Lensman was basically the first (and still one of the best) Space Operas. Also likely had a significant influence over the Green Lantern mythos, some strong parallels with the Guardians and origin of the Lanterns, and creation of the Lantern Corp.
They call him the grandfather of Scifi for a reason.
the books
Who ever reads the fanfiction?
First two games had their fare share of wokeness creeping in, which will be even more noticeable in current year, but they also had some pretty based stuff too. Fake news, lying corrupt politicians, meritocracy, that krogan plotline is actually good in the first two games, I know nothing about either of the issues just described.
The third games has an ending that is a pile of flaming trash and retroactively ruins the entire series. I have no idea why anyone would care to read the fanfiction books after that.
On the other hand: The only way they could ever do a "faithful" rendition would be a twenty minute GOT-like intro that previews the stitching of every dress that will be worn in the current episode.
They had a taste of power and will not let it go. This is why it was so shocking and disgusting the first time they were allowed to do this. They will continue to exercise their newfound powers more and more now.
Didn't they come for the villains first? Art imitates life after all.
There was some real dark stuff happening that lead to the witch trials. There may, or may not have been innocents caught up, but there were a lot who were anything but innocent.
I used to know a new ager 'witch,' yes, they believe it.
confirming the precedent that ideas aren't copyrightable.
Rounded corners on cellphones. Minigames on loading screens. "Nemesis" system. Grip buttons on a controller.
At least three of those have successfully won massive payouts in court.
The whole story of video game patents is pretty messed up from the get go.
Used to be that "You cannot patent an idea" was a core facet of the US patent code. So when Atari tried to patent breakout, they had their claim thrown out like three times.
Eventually they succeeded on two basis: one their code of the ball bouncing was NOT based on physics, therefore it was some unique "artistic" idea to have the ball bounce at exact angles without losing momentum. Not just, you know, a thousand times easier to code than real physics, it was "art."
Secondly, they claimed all the levels in the game, taken together, was itself a "work of art" and could be patented on that ground.
At that point in time, they still could not use the patent to stop breakout clones, or even games that straight up copied part of the game. They could only use the patent to prevent illegal distribution of the game Breakout.
From then on companies mostly focused on patenting their art. (Enter the highly litigious Nintendon't into the picture.)
Over the years the entire tech industry has pushed, and pushed and pushed the patent courts until "rounded corners on a cellphone" and "minigames on a loading screen" and "two grip buttons on the back side of a controller" are all patent trolled and enforceable, even as they clearly violate the concept of patenting an idea.
They used to defend any speech
BS. They were always anti-Christian anti-Bible from the word go. The only thing they ever defended was destructivist causes.
While the "conspiracy theorists" were trying to warn everyone, the destructionists were openly stating their intentions to anyone who would listen.
The ACLU is largely responsible for the environment of paranoid legal fear over not listening to groups like the SPLC and the ADL.
All just different heads of the same hydra though.
They hate the simps they have created. Most of them have never even met a genuine "nice guy."
But they've probably all met at least a dozen losers who were very obviously hoping to get into their pants if they buy them stuff and/or show up the second they express any displeasure with their current unemployed stoner of a bf.
If they ever did meet a nice guy, they were just pissed that he was looking for a nice girl, or already married, and not simping for them.
Ramen and Tuna by the case. We usually had good homecooked meals for dinner, but lunch was whatever was on sale that month.
I used to make the ramen with the water/oil from the tuna, and add curry powder, tuna and sour cream. I still have a soft spot for tuna curry.