No, I said exactly what I mean. Go back and reread my comments, 'cause I’m not repeating myself again.

This might be helpful for you.

I never said Biden was a fascist, though I am saying that now. Biden is a corporo-fascist, just like nearly every US politician.

What I said was that he endorses fascism, i.e. a fascist state, i.e. Israel.

The Biden administration may not be directly responsible, but just like Trump, his endorsement of racism and fascism emboldens the racists and fascists to act more openly.

My old job doing systems design for a predatory mobile game. I quit that job, moved half a state away, and got a job that pays half as much in a company with integrity. Best decision of my life.

The toys-to-life trend ended, as it wasn’t making enough money. The games remain playable, but they have no support and are old enough they they require hardware that I no longer have.

Toys-to-life video games. I went on a Skylanders spending spree less than a year before it officially died. $5-$15 figurines got sold at garage sales for $0.25-$3 each.

I had tons of fun getting into it and I was young enough that I could afford to waste the money, so I regret nothing.

This is the right answer. Hatred just breeds more hatred. If you approach with love and understanding (or at least a desire to understand), you’ll have a much better chance of changing hearts and minds. Try to meet in the middle and you might be able to point them in the right direction.

the only reason Biden hasn’t decriminalized cannabis is because he’s not a dictator and has no control over government agencies like HHS.

The only reason Biden hasn’t decriminalized cannabis is because it keeps (mostly ethnic minority) people in jails, and having full jails is very profitable.

Fixed that for ya.

Are these insanely rich people?

Oh, yes. Emphasis on the insane.

The assumption around the office always was that they were Saudi royals or kids of oil barons.

Very right. As a content/systems designer, it was my job to carefully balance a feeling of progression with a frustrating lack of progression at key points, thereby pushing players to spend.

The first few levels are easy and free, then progression starts to slow, but you’ve already gotten to level 10 easily enough, so you can take a bit of extra time to get to level 15. By level 15, you’ve invested enough time that the sudden valley of progression from 15 to 30 convinces you to make that first purchase; after all, why not spend just $5 to instantly double your level when you’ve already spent a few hours in the game? Progression speeds back up from 30 to 45, letting you feel like you’re in control of your leveling, then another valley hits and you’re now even more invested, and, since you’ve already spent $5 to get from 15 to 30, what’s another $10 to get from 45 to 80?

Rinse and repeat, steadily increasing the cost of each purchase while seemingly improving the in-game value per dollar spent.

Our biggest whales were spending over $10,000 per day on that disgusting “game.”

I had to get out. My next job, one at a prominent console/PC game studio, only paid about half of what I was making at the mobile game company, and I loved it. No more panicked 2 AM meetings because our revenue dipped 10% over the last hour. No more convincing myself that players enjoyed wasting thousands of dollars on an endless treadmill. No more 28-hour shifts.

Rant over.

Bonus: I’ve since become a dad, I’m actually proud of what I’m making now, and I’m excited to share it with my child when they’re old enough.

Oh, console/PC without a doubt. Mobile development, at least in my experience, is a constant struggle for relevance and a nonstop sense of urgency. Creativity is only allowed if it answers the question “how can we better trick players into giving us their money?”

Console/PC development, however, is focused on making a good product that will last. Nobody ever asks “how much money will this feature make us?” At worst, the question is “how much will this feature drive engagement?”

I’ve only worked for major companies, so my experiences don’t reflect what it’s like at indies.

One extremely important factor that this article neglects to address: Valve is a private company - it’s not publicly traded in Wall Street. That is the reason Steam has remained the best in the business; it’s not beholden to shareholders’ short-sighted meddling. It’s also the reason Steam is effectively immune to enshittification.

AI art is very easy to learn, but has a lot of intricacies and extra functions that can take a while to learn and master. The only free and open source one, Stable Diffusion, has a lot of resources online. Here’s a beginner’s guide to get you started.

I recommend running locally if you have the hardware for it. You generally need at least 8GB of VRAM for reasonably fast generation, though I’ve heard of people being fine with as little as 4GB. Check out Civitai for additional resources.

So excited for this! I bought into the beta about a decade ago and have been reading the dev logs on secretsofgrindea.com every so often since then.

It’s a top-notch classic-style isometric RPG with tongue-in-cheek writing, great character building, and a roguelike mode.

Dishonest, am I? I’ve answered each of your insultingly inane questions as honestly as I can. My answers just aren’t as binary as you were hoping.

In your grocery store analogy, telling me not to choose plastic may be the same as telling me to choose paper from your perspective, but that ignores the option of choosing neither and taking my items out in the cart to load them into my car without bags.

You go on to say I should answer yes or no to whether I believe one candidate is worse than the other, but those aren’t the only options. If you insist I use one of those specific words in my answer, then my answer is yes and no. They’re wildly different, but either will likely pull us into World War III. One is more likely to have an immediately harmful effect on a marginalized class, while the other is more likely to have an immediately harmful effect on a different (but not mutually exclusive) marginalized class. There’s no lesser between these two evils; they’re just evil in different ways.

I’m picking neither.

What I was saying earlier was that if I believed Trump actually would do something to stop Israel, I’d vote for him despite the harm he’d otherwise cause, but he won’t, so I won’t.

Same way if Biden wins: it doesn’t.

Though at this point, it’s looking like it’ll already be too late by inauguration time.

Hey, don’t blame me if you can’t understand subtext. I answered all your less-than-inane questions already, just not directly. But fine, here you go:

Do you agree that it will be one or the other?

Sadly, most likely, yes.

Do you agree that one is worse than the other?

If I wanted a candidate who’s a zero, then they’re 10 and -10. Either way, things will get worse for everyone, just in a different order.

Do you agree that telling people to not vote for one is the same as shilling for the other?

No, and the fact that so many people think that is a big part of the problem.

“Hey, you should maybe vote for someone who isn’t actively financially supporting the most well-documented genocide in human history.”

“Hey, this guy wants us to vote for Trump!”

I mean, yeah, he’s technically less culpable than Biden, but that’s just because he’s not currently in the White House. We all know he would be just as bad as Biden in that particular regard.

If telling you to vote with your conscience rather than your fear is the same as telling you to vote for Trump, maybe you’re the real Trump supporter.

You know the real privilege we all live with? Peace. Not being the targets of mass-murder campaigns.

So yes, I’d rather things get worse for a small part of our population for a short while if it means we can stop our government from actively funding a literal genocide.

And not that it’s any of your business, but I am trans (enby) and my partner and I fairly recently (post-2020) narrowly avoided needing an abortion.