I’m a former player, but played continuously from release for 11 years. This is undoubtedly ridiculously expensive, but the convenience of having your mail and auction house anywhere in the world - the value to certain players is immense. I think if I played still today, it would probably be a struggle deciding whether this limited time offering was worth jumping on - I certainly don’t need it even a little bit, but when I want it, this thing would be incredibly convenient to have. Maybe that would just be the addiction talking. But when you spend all your free time with one game, you do feel a sense of good value relative to things like drinks at the bar or a movie or buying 1 or 2 full priced games a month.

But truly, the utility this provides for you and your guild is immense and impossible to replicate. They definitely shouldn’t be selling mounts on the shop for $90. That’s fucked. But compared to some of the video game devs selling weapon or character skins for as much or more, there IS at least a unique value proposition to the player. I guarantee there will be people with it the second it releases, for better or worse.

Did people get bitchy on the internet when they released the PS One, the PS2 slim, 5 generations of PS3, or the PS4 Pro? Or the Xbox One X, Xbox 360 E, the Switch OLED, 2DS, DS lite, Gameboy Advance SP, Sega Genesis 2, Sega Genesis 3, Sega Saturn 2? I certainly don’t remember this much discourse back then. It’s like every gamer on the internet has collective amnesia about mid generation refreshes and how they have existed since the dawn of console gaming.

Just as always - it’s probably not meant for you if you’re perfectly happy with your base model.

And just like all those multitude of prior examples - no, they certainly will not release games that ONLY work on the mid cycle refresh device. Because that would be a really poor financial decision. And can you imagine the discourse if you had to buy a $700 console to replace your $500 console so you could play all the newest first party titles? On a device that has likely 4 years max before it is subplanted by the PS6? That would be a far more justified upset in my opinion.

Better than 5x at 16h I guess. 😅

They know my tax liability based on the income reported to the IRS by my employer - but you’re right that something they don’t necessarily know is the variety of valid deductions you might be eligible to take. Part of the process of filing is also calculating your tax liability though - and that part of it they know precisely and rather than TELLING you, you’re expected to determine your own liability and heaven help you if it’s wrong.

They also know precisely how much we owe in taxes, but instead of telling us and we pay it, they allowed a multi billion dollar industry to pop up around it and dictate tax law.

And the real concern is that with a headline like this one, it isn’t always immediately clear which one is the subject.

Yeah, I had that one too actually - the Moto Z. I rather liked the feel of it with nothing on the back at all, but there were swappable magnetic plates you could put on it if you didn’t like the feel. I never bought into the Moto mod ecosystem but was definitely into the idea of the battery pack and IIRC, there was a full camera body with a zoom lense you could buy too.

Oh that’s right - it was right on the cusp of 4g. Thanks for that.

Wow, that’s a pretty hamfisted approach, but they did the best with what they had I guess.

Edit: Marquez just put out his video and it DOES NOT have an easily swappable battery. Huge missed opportunity. But it’s a $200 phone so at least for longevity… well, the phone hardware will probably age more poorly than the battery, so nobody is likely to keep this thing for long enough that battery degradation is a significant concern. It would have been nice to have the convenience of having an easy swap or extended battery though. What appeared to be an extended battery in images was a wallet.

I love that this appears to have the option of installing an extended battery. I had one on my HTC Incredible, and got one for my wife too when she got her HTC Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt had CRAP battery life because of the drain from the new 3g 4g radio, and the Inc was so small… I probably wasn’t helping the battery situation with my custom ROMs. But we didn’t mind a bit of extra bulk in order to achieve a full day+ of heavy use, and had a spare battery we could bring with us if needed, too.

And then the sleek, gorgeous HTC One m7 came out and after only one generation, sealed in batteries were the norm for every other phone I’ve ever owned. Now, the battery life wasn’t so bad - and so I didn’t mind, but all these years later I wish it were at least an option on the market.

Thanks for the context - that’s fascinating.

Bioware didn’t make Starfield - that was Bethesda. Maybe you were thinking of Anthem? And fair point there.

At this point it has to be “suicide by election” right? Why put yourself in the line of fire?

YouTube Music allows you to upload up to 20,000 tracks to your personal storage for free. And then you can just pre-download anything you want or you have anytime access to just stream your whole library, without the need to preload your device as if it were 2003.

I haven’t tried to use it collaboratively, but TickTick is excellent. Ever in need of something that helps me stay organized, I actually pay yearly for the premium subscription even. Really nice interface, and gives you multiple ways to manage your tasks, just depending on what works better in a given situation or for a given individual.

You run with an interesting crowd.

There’s also 32 million metric tons in Niland, California that can be harvested with green energy. I assume the same could be done with this deposit. Could be very good for domestic battery production and cost.

She’s not - Yvonne is accounting and business, I’ve never heard of her as being remotely involved with the HR department.

We’re the generation that used forums all over the internet, Digg, and then reddit before it was cool. Now that reddit is going nuclear, we’re all looking for our new home because we yearn for the internet we all grew up with as it slowly erodes away thanks to millionaires/billionaires ruining all that is good to make a buck.