I found a real easy approach to any undesired solicitation - zero contact, no reaction. Works on telemarketers, panhandlers, salespeople etc.

I have no shame about ghosting you publicly when the only thing you’re after is my money. If I’m in the home generator store, sure thing bro talk to me about my home power needs. If I’m walking out the supermarket and you slide around a booth to “help me keep my home safe during unrest” nah fam you can fuck yourself.

Cold open sales is parallel to pick-up “artists” imo. You want the transactional outcome for yourself, and my consent is the only thing you’re concerned about taking care of.

wait 'til you hear about beekeepers…

Yes. Going from thinking “yeah, that’s a tree ofc” to talking like a paid shill to everyone I know “I CAN SEE EACH LEAF!!! ITS LIKE I’M SEEING IN HD”

Why would they pay anyone? Just turn their own AI loose to dog pile dissent

Won’t anyone think of the shareholders?!?!!

This is a very easy to flag, given the intelligence of the people working at OpenAI. Russian IP, political topic, high post frequency. But blocking them has an opportunity cost in identifiable dollar value, doing nothing only costs them a few pithy press releases and a “commitment to truthfulness and openness”.

Move fast and break things, right? As long as the money rolls in… Just this time they’re breaking the fabric of reality binding society together.

Lawful neutral cuz in 6mo when some “controller” punches three buttons to run a report and asks “Hey why’d you do that?” THEN I’ll have documentation. And a job.

Make ticket, receive assistance. Fight me on that and I’ll add you to my email inbox’s ruleset - I am now an LLM, and will gentle-tone you to death via faux misunderstandings

And the wheels. I get the homage nod to the past, but that big shiny hubcap is a huge tell that isn’t offered on the non-police models.

Murdered out police insignia and shorty antennas only go so far when you floating on that chrome

Onion News Network called it

I can HIGHLY recommend brownie batter put into non-standard pans. Madeline pans make excellent bite sized brownies, and cupcakes are good too. Just don’t put too much into each one, otherwise the center doesn’t bake and achieve the desired gooey texture.

This. Gog literally links you the .exe file and turns you loose, Steam is a (mostly) benevolent monopoly that does good for the PC gaming ecosystem

You’re literally defending ‘post-truth, race to the bottom standard’ capitalism. Yes dumb consumers exist, but that isn’t a free pass for corporate exploitation or false advertising. Because this isn’t an alpha, it’s advertising.

Okay, if they want to bug test, there’s DECADES of accepted practice. Paid/intern bug hunters or playtesters, with an airtight NDA. They’re there to stress tests and find issues, there needn’t be a public facing element.

Marvel want free bug testers, and to get the hype train moving - but don’t want to pay for actual testers who work quietly, and want only positive commentary. Marvel want an astroturf campaign to push preorders, not actual genuine discussion or bug testing.

I’ve been part of public alpha releases, and generally they don’t allow streaming or public commentary, outside of the invite-only forum/discord channels - BECAUSE THEY WANT THE FEEDBACK TO FIX ISSUES.

Hold on y’all, we -justyoulistenhere- get a buncha bulldozers and push thems dirt into the water, just like Ja-apan did right? And get this! Then there’s MORE AMERICA!

Oh, absolutely and that’s why I love NV and 1 & 2. They have self awareness and embrace the whimsy, a character like Myron or ’Fisto’ the sexbot would NEVER feature in a grimdark lore like STALKER, but that’s the humanistic charm of it.

If there’s some kind of post-apocalyptic society, there’s gonna be weird people and freaks, just like now - but in an absurd context.

I can’t comment on ‘76 but I have played the Metro series, which is 100% on rails but makes it work.

Fallout has a tongue in cheek goofy that permeates the IP and casts a thin layer of non-serious over everything. The brutalisism and commitment to tone is what I loved about Metro and STALKER, but Fallout is Disneyland in comparison

I’d reflexively say “Yes” to New Vegas but it depends on what Fallouts you’ve played, and what you don’t like about them.

FO1 & 2 offer ZERO hand holding and expect you to know how to play an RPG, but offers a very open approach to the world and plot

FO3 and 4 are great games that primarily struggle with permanence of your actions in the world - it’s pretty on rails between and during setpieces, no secondary plot to really get lost in

Don’t forget the Plumbata!

You’re right, that last sentence was ham fisted - I was referring to the gunboat diplomacy opening the trade free for all after decades of isolation, not colonial annexation.

Web search is failing me for a primary source under the deluge of web/pop culture fascination with katanas, but I swear I’ve read that their primary killing tool in battle was the Yumi bow, usually fired from horseback.

Guns displaced every warrior-caste from multiple different societies; the samurai held on to power through arms control first for swords, then later guns once the colonial powers forced Japan to end its self imposed isolation.

My favorite is when you finally relent, answer the phone and they’re hyper distracted, trying to ‘fit in’ a phone call during their day

“Oh, hi Mark”

“Hey do yo- hold on” sounds of keys, phone put down, grocery bags rustling

“…”

Like bruh. You called me, because you felt this warranted 1:1 attention for a conversation. I didn’t sign up for your organic ‘hold music’ via foley session.