I’ve always maintained that the first was a fine game that was tanked by the price. It was priced to drive gamepass subs, not sell the game. At $35-40, it would have been received much better, imo. Years later, now that it’s more appropriately priced, it seems to be more well-reviewed.

Unfortunately the second is going down the same path. It may take 5+ years for the game to be appreciated to its fullest (assuming no glaring issues), through no fault of the devs.

This is why subject matter experts matter. Support for the vague idea of “deport people here illegally” is pretty high, but any specific method of actually doing it is much more unpopular. Media is essential in getting that distinction out to the laypeople, but they’ve largely failed.

And I’d argue that it’s not just immigration where this disconnect exists. Lots of policies have broad support until you start talking about specifics. People just want to “get things done” but the “how” is either boring or unsavory.

You can handle what you can handle, and trying to drink from the firehose will only burn you out. Be as active in your community as you can, when you can, then take a break when you need to. Your own mental health matters, too.

Can’t be. I was born in the 70s and I’m only what the fuck?

Wasn’t that long ago that people even had pet rocks.

For many people, “drugs,” with no other qualifier, is just short-hand for “illegal drugs.” Plenty of people who say they don’t use drugs also take prescriptions or OTC medications.

It will be interesting in the next few years to see where marijuana ends up on that spectrum. Still largely illegal (federally), but if that changes, will people still consider it a “drug” in the same way they do now, or will it fall into a separate category like drugs that are mostly legal?

I was in high school when the Simpsons was still pretty new, and there was some popular Bart t-shirt at the time that got the word “hell” banned on any clothing.

All while the school mascot is the Blue Devil.

The most useless UI element ever invented:

I’ve been using MS products for some 40 years, and I swear it’s company policy to put every Chaotic Evil new employee immediately onto a UI/UX team. Absolutely zero consistency between products and versions.

The best managers can find out exactly what motivates their people, and lean into that to make things fun and rewarding (or as much as possible, being work related).

The tricky part is that this won’t be the same for everyone, so a one-size-fits-all field trip won’t necessarily be received the same by all the employees. Maybe the group dynamic is such that everyone has a good time, and this may work out well. Maybe some members resent being compelled to spend relaxed time with people they don’t want to see that way.

In a perfect world, everybody could get their own individualized rewards and recognition, based on what they value most. The only way to get there is to put in the work to know the employees as people.

Masnick’s Impossibility Theorem in action.

The bigger the platform, the wider the spread of opinions on how moderation should look, and that means wherever the admins land, there will inevitably be some who think it’s too little, and some who think it’s too much. You can’t please everyone.

If you can’t find an instance that matches your preferences, you can always go with the most permissive, then block other instances/communities/users that are causing problems. It’s a little more work at first, but it’s possible to tailor your own experience here wherever you’re registered.

As someone with mild travel anxiety, I’d probably be the one with the vision. And even if not, it would make a good excuse to skip the trip and stay home like I wanted to do in the first place.