Why are you reading this? Go do something worthwhile.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 23rd, 2023

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  • Think of it more like Netflix. Netflix was great, then the market fractured and Netflix enshitified in response.

    What it would take here is for a publisher to become a real distributor in the space, but competition is weak right now. Just like it really took Disney wading in to disrupt Netflix, it would take someone equally large, like Microsoft, to disrupt Steam. Sorry Ubisoft, but you don’t cut it.





  • There were some aspects I liked. They demonstrated some construction techniques people could have used to build something similar 5000 years ago. That was neat. They used some carpentry found in archeological digs from the time. I am a sucker for some of the old PBS Nova specials on how ancient Egyptians build obelisks, pyramids, things like that.

    It just gets buried in the schlocky pseudo-science really quickly. It’s a hard pivot from sewage systems, to people riding dinosaurs like horses, to lap joints.



  • I have been to the Ark. It’s weird.

    They have some interesting exhibits where it’s obvious that someone gave it a lot of thought. They dug in and thought about the tools and techniques that someone would have had available to build something like this 5000 years ago.

    In some ways, it’s a real monument to human achievement. But then the next exhibit just shrieks that there were definitely dinosaurs on the Ark and if you believe differently you’re dumb as shit.

    2/10. Food was awful.



  • No, these strawless, non-gay, heterosexual, manly men are just like me. They were handed a spoon, but not a straw in the drive through and they decided to just drive off rather than bother or inconvenience someone, even though it wouldn’t be a bother or inconvenience, it’s the person’s job, and they’d be happy to help. I am married though, so while I wouldn’t say my wife is specifically attracted to that brand of social awkwardness, she’s not entirely repulsed by it.



  • One of the things that Game of Thrones did well early was always ensure the payoff was worth it. If you didn’t like an episode here or there, it was fine because it advanced the plot enough that you still followed the breadcrumbs and another episode down the line made it worth it.

    Season 8 was so bad because many people tolerated elements of seasons 5, 6, and 7 because they were hoping for payoff. When that payoff was underwhelming at best and utterly nonsensical at worst, people tuned out fast. People spent hundreds of hours over a decade watching the show and discussing it with their friends, and in the end, it wasn’t worth it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something disappear so completely and quickly from the cultural zeitgeist.








  • I don’t think many people rejected the conclusion outright, just the path of getting there. So much of the last season was totally nonsensical. Dothraki ride off into the darkness and get obliterated by zombies; next episode, they’re back! Everyone forgets about the Iron Fleet. Jamie ditches a 7 season character arc in a second. Arya subverts expectations and undermines the existential threat in an instant. The all-seeing, all-knowing Bran serves no purpose except to have “the best story” somehow. Dany heel turns from saving the world to destroying it on a whim.

    Most of Game of Thrones, books and show, is predicated on causality. Things happen for a reason. And they happen realistically, not necessarily in the way we want. It was a breathe of fresh air in the beginning. Honor isn’t rewarded for honor’s sake. Strength is a tool, but a slippery slope. Travel takes time. When that realism is thrown out to force plot, it undermines the entire show.

    So it’s not necessarily the ending that was bad, it was how it got there.