Shaanyboi

I've been working my way through some older playthrough videos, and just today, videos broke for me. New videos seem to work fine, but things like Beast in the East will play audio but just show a black screen.

@allthedinos: I think the absolute best case is if it's just like "Yeah, seems like Open Hand is really sloppily run" as opposed to willfully and maliciously committing fraud.

But if they have a false document of "thanks for the donation" from a former USFC head, that's a baaaad look.

Unless someone can make a material case that any guests/developers would have any personal responsibility for how IndieLand or Open Hand operated, there's nothing there to point at them unless there was some formal expectation that they'd have lawyers or accountants looking into these numbers beforehand.

So this begins with Karl Jobst investigating the 'Open Hand Foundation', an organization started by Khalil and his family in honor of his late mother, and fundraised through the IndieLand charity streams.

This was meant to support dementia research, claiming to work with the University of San Francisco. Since apparently starting around 2014, they'd raised around $600K (as claimed by their website).

But then things get... sketchy. (first video)

And then just recently... they get even sketchier. (second video)

In nearly 10 years of filings, they've apparently never actually dispersed any donations as according to tax documentation.

...jesus

This does not exist - every writer brings their own experience, understanding, and preferences to what they're playing. Trying to divorce that element is how you get decades of meaningless product-style reviews as if people are reviewing toasters vs. critiquing and examining creative works. Spend your time looking for reviewers whose perspective you can understand enough to get an idea of whether you'd like something or not - regardless of whether you even agree with them.

Objectively, if you know there are games you want, yeah absolutely. If you're already paying into NSO, no reason not to take advantage of that.

@thekage: The people who openly don't care about JKR's shit or actively or dispassionately dismiss the concerns of trans folks aren't worth giving a shit about. No more than I'm interested in "reaching out" to some fucko in a MAGA hat. They're lost, screw em.

The ethical contortion people by people to try and justify why it's okay to buy into this thing is what I find comical. Like the damage done by JKR's platform is plain as day - this feeds into it. That's all there is to it. This is not tangled in the imperceivable mess of corporate ownership or something. Rowling openly boasts about her royalty cheques and what it affords her. Like that's a pretty fucking clean and obvious line she (and her vocal fanbase) has made. So I have little respect for nonsense like "Ummm but if I buy this game and then donate afew bucks to a trans charity, I'm karmically okay, right?" Or "Rowling doesn't really own HP - we do! I-it's our memories! Y-yeah! Actually we can take it away from her by continuing to engage with it and pretend she wasn't involved!" Or the classic "Well I shouldn't hurt the developers! That would be unfair to them!"

Like this isn't a complex piece of media with acouple problematic ideas that are worthy of criticism - the profile of this game is fundamentally a problem. The power it continues to afford her is a problem. She, and this increasingly transphobic fanbase, are a fucking problem. Not playing this doesn't suddenly beat transphobia, but making clear that there is a line and you won't promote or support this thing is the most basic of acts.

I think this show has had some real highs - i don't think those highs have had to do with how the show is directly adapting already highly polished cutscenes. Like that stuff is totally fine and competent, Pascal and Ramsay play their roles well, but this is fundamentally uninteresting as adaptation.

It's all the extra stuff with Sarah, it's the Indonesia opening, it's Episode 3 with Bill/Frank. That's what's making this an interesting watch.

I'm paraphrasing Ren from Waypoint, but gamers specifically thinking "THIS is the adaptation that's going to show people what games can do!" are kinda fooling themselves? Because this isn't doing a favor for the games - if anything, someone going from the show to the game might be a bit deflated at all the ways it's constantly throwing action scenes at you. Like holy shit, someone who fell in love with Bill/Frank's story going from the show to the game is going to be like "omg what the fuck..."

I don't hold TLOU in particularly high regard, and the sequel was just such shallow nihilistic bullshit that frustrated me. Like all the times it wanted to be like "man, isn't this dark and fucked up?" I just kinda went "Yeah... but not the reason you think it is." But I think the show is just a stronger work overall. We'll see how future seasons go...

Harry Potter was always a mediocre series. Not playing it takes no effort for me.

But the idea that adults simply can't let go of a thing they liked when they were 8 as trans folks are outwardly expressing and presenting examples of how this mediocre over-exposed writer is using her success to platform hate and dehumanization towards them is both gross and embarrassing.

The game looks mid at-best, and yet this is the fucking thing people are latching onto to define their personhood by? Like they need to play it? Nobody's praising this thing for being anything special - just a corny licensed theme park. There's like a million other games out right now. Play literally anything else.