I'm a little conflicted, though as far as podcast aggregates go I don't think there are really any that aren't getting metrics on you and your listening habits and extrapolating your whole psychological profile from there - I really doubt a one-time purchase of Pocket Casts was the backbone of their business model to begin with.
And to be frank, if I were to choose one group that I'm okay with purchasing the app NPR at least seems to be bringing more good into the world than bad, so I guess they would be closer to the top of the list.
At the end of the day Pocket Casts is the best bang for your buck when it comes to podcast apps, bar none, so all I hope is that the purchase doesn't destroy any of what I liked about it. It's not like Howl was a great app to begin with, but when the Scripps acquisition of Earwolf somehow forced all their premium content onto an even worse platform it was a real "what the hell are they doing" moment.
So all in all... I guess not? It sounds shitty when I type it, but I guess that's just the horrible world we live in now where we have to trade our privacy for convenience.
I agree with you, it certainly does seem a little slimy to me. If they feel the main game is robust enough to support an additional expansion, and that in turn is robust enough to warrant a $20 price tag, then the game should already be out of early access.
It's pretty much just an issue with labeling, but it's a valid issue nonetheless.
Right now I'm finishing up the second novella in the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms series by George R.R. Martin, and I really love it, maybe even more than the mainline A Song of Ice and Fire novels. I always find that I like the smaller, comparatively "lower stakes" spin-off stories from a fictional universe more than the actual universe itself. But just like @hunter5024 posted in this thread a while ago, it's definitely giving me the Winds of Winter itch, and the ASOIAF subreddit isn't going to tide me over for much longer.
@dr_unorthadox: I'm not the person you replied to, but I'd actually recommend Mother Night, the book that @grizzledwolf was reading in their post. It's not quite as quirky as Slaughterhouse 5 but it has a lot of the humour and moral complexity of that book, and IMO its themes are a little more robust than just "war is bad" (not to say that "war is bad" is a bad theme by any means, just simple).
@sethmode: Personally I have to totally agree with you. GRRM is a fantastic writer, but I think too many people take his written word as gospel, and a lot of ADWD really dragged for me. While the show does have some bad missteps - Dorne was rough, and I wasn't super into Season 5 - I cannot tell you how happy I am that they cut large parts of the latest book (The whole Fake Aegon storyline is going nowhere fast for me, and Dany's storyline needed someone like Tyrion to not make it horribly boring).
So all in all, I think the show is really starting to come into it's own this season. While I still don't think Benioff & Weiss hold a candle to GRRM in the writing department, episodes like last night's show that competent writing and superb directing can come pretty damn close to the highs of the novels.
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