I built my entire cloud storage strategy around Google drive because it had very simple integration with my previous seed box provider. Like, I could run Plex from the cloud through them directly off of my Google drive and then mirror that to local storage.

Super slick and easily usable setup. In a push to completely de-google my life the past 2 years I had to figure out an effective migration strategy off of that stack.

It was a total pain in the ass. Not to mention moving the rest of the people on my family plan off of Google as well. The majority of them are fairly tech savvy and even with that in mind we struggled.

I am now 100% self-hosted and learned a shit ton about docker along the way but, I couldn’t imagine trying to do the same thing with a group of entry level users.

The last sentence resonates with me. I too wore a robe and wizard hat back in the day.

There was a great response to this from Gabe several years ago (looks like 13 years ago, fuck, I’m old)…

https://www.totalgaming.co.uk/93-of-steam-users-born-on-january-1st/

The only true answer

Wiby, particularly the “surprise me” option is great for old school sites and that StumbleUpon feeling!

https://wiby.me/surprise/

Worth checking the bias on the reporting here. Very right leaning for the majority of the outlets making these claims.

https://ground.news/article/un-revises-gaza-death-toll-almost-50-less-women-and-children-killed-than-previously-reported_8be784

I get that for some users. In my case, 90% of what’s in the catalog that I’d be interested in I already own. I know this isn’t the standards, but it’s what happens when you’re an avid Steam Gamer with a Humble Sub and a collecting problem.

I joined Game pass to have Xbox live to play with my console buddies and for day one exclusive access. At this point, I’ve moved most of them on to PC and Xbox has done nada with my 5 or so years of subscription.

You know, that’s fair. They haven’t shit on us… yet. 😁

I renewed by doing the $1 dollar deal again a year or two ago… racked up another 3 years at the time.

As a Game pass user from Day 1 I evangelized it to everyone I knew. Especially going in to this console generation.

Now though, I see no purpose to it. Microsoft has dropped the bag in a unbelievable way when it comes to dropping exclusives / first party games.

It’s not so much the Netflix of games as it is the Tubi…

I run O&O Shut Up 10 on every install of Windows 10 and 11 I need to suffer through. There’s still a bit of manual config to remove search bar and other GUI stuff but it’s a pretty great, free tool.

You also might want to script it to run on boot as Windows loves to revert changes after updates as another commentor noted.

As a reddit refuge and former long time troller of r/sleepingdogs, this warmed my heart. Ty stranger.

We had a pretty big event at Game Crazy. I think those shirts finally got retired after my kid grew out of them quite a few years ago.

I unfortunately… put them in the dryer to much throughout the years and they seem to have shrank. Yeah, that’s what happened.

Aww man, good to know! I wish we had a microcenter nearby. Closest one is at least a state away.

Maybe they’ll ship it. Haha

Went to the one in LA on a trip recently. Was awesome to see that much great music on one spot again.

It’s wild that we probably won’t see a return to those types of stores ever again. COVID really put the final nail in the coffin.

As an avid Bawls drinker, I 100% agree with this sentiment.

Oh yeah man, GameStop was at the forefront of what the industry as a whole is doing now. Acquiring, consuming, shitting out a husk.

I’m of 2 minds with GameStop nowadays. On one hand, it’s somewhat nice to still have a physical game store. On the other, it’s fucking GameStop and all the baggage that comes with that.

I don’t see much of a future for physical shops at this point. Especially with Best Buy, Walmart and Kroger phasing out retail space.

Soon we’ll have nothing but digital and subscription and I guess we’ll like it? I’ll hold on to my dragons hoard of physical games as long as I can (thanks Game Crazy for employing new throughout high school) but it’ll be painful the day I realize I’m no longer adding new stuff to it.

Jesus Christ, content warning for that body count you crossed off at the end there.

Fuck. I miss all those shops. Can I get a R.I.P. for Babbages, Game Crazy (pre-hollywood buyout) and Software Etc… while we’re at it?

No sense in not going totally dark here. Haha

This was my first thought as well! Good call.

It not being the same 8 ball that Bushnell and those Atari guys consulted back in the day may be the greatest failure.

But in all honesty, I think that’s a great analogy. There’s no harm in bringing in competent consultation, but you have to choose wisely. This is more akin to a movie screening. It just so happened to be a test audience that has traditional been compensated for their opinions…

I think the counter arguments from the reddit threads are pretty big points.

Good Battlefield plays like something different than the other major offerings. BF2, BC2 and BF4 are all modern military shooters but they “feel” way different than a CoD or Counterstrike or anything else.

The scale is important but so is the struggle of a tight pitched rush push with limited tickets left. Sure, a good pilot is a pain in the ass, but it’s part of what makes Battlefield work. Same with tanks. Man, Golmud and the fucking tanks…

Anyways, just because someone is paid to do something doesn’t mean they’re an expert in all the relative disciplines. I don’t really follow any streamers, but I do work in a pretty specialized industry and know that just because a peer and I are technically in the same field, what we bring to the table, how we approach problems and the way we implement solutions can be wildly different.

Don’t ask him the best strats for Quake 3 and don’t ask me anything about Counterstrike. Otherwise, you’ll be sadly disappointed and end up with a worse experience overall.

I’d like to believe Dice made the best call here, despite what a shit show BF2042’s launch was (even if basically every BF launch from 3 on has been fucked). They set the standard for rough launches years ago and yet every new release comes with doomsayers predicting the studio being closed and the game dying. Yet the reality is, they almost always, eventually get their shit together and patch things up to the way it should of been at launch. Just like most other major devs at this point.