Duet

A unscheduled spaceship asks for docking permission at DS9 and, in what seems to me a massively wasteful use of resources, Kira (second in command of the station remember) deals with the request. This is how she hears that the ship has an emergency case of Space AIDS (not really, obviously, but I just got done in the last post claiming that a 1970s British multi-instrumentalist and songwriter was murdering people in space so you'll forgive my lack of exact details). Only survivors of one of Cardassia's most awful mines during the occupation (which we will hitherto call Michigan Mine cos apparently the air quality was so bad it gave everyone AIDS). Kira skips down to the infirmary to greet a brave survivor of the occupation to be greeted by this cheeky chappie:

He's obviously one of the guards from the camp and, as Kira tearfully explains to Sisko, those guys did a few too many of the old Nanjing Massacre recreation activities during their time in Michigan. This one is called Maritza and is played by Harris Yulin, an incredibly prolific character actor- if you don't recognise the name you'd recognise his face from one of his many, many movie roles. I've always remembered him best for his role as the corrupt pig in Scarface who was cocky enough to think Tony Montana wouldn't shoot him:

Although Maritza claims to have a different sickness, Bashir confirms it's definitely Michigan AIDS and Kira goes all Simon Weistental in her quest to see him hang. Sisko's reluctance to bend the law in order to hold the man on circumstantial evidence threatens to cause a diplomatic incident with both the Bajorans and the Cardassians and he's forced to give Kira 26 hours (one Bajor day, remember) to wring a confession out of the guy.

Sisko gets a call from his predecessor Gul Dukat...

Remember him? Yeah this is only the second time he's appeared in the series, believe it or not. Season 2 will see him appear far more prominently but, until now, he really hasn't played a large role.

Now, the rest of the episode is basically a series of one-on-one interrogations where Kira tries to prove that Maritza was actually the commander of the camp and was therefore responsible for everything that happened there and Martiza both denies it openly but also implies she's right and mocks her for not being able to prove it. These scenes are largely played straight without much in the way of special effects, location changes or other cast getting in the way- hence 'Duet'.

It's very strong stuff and gives Nana Visitor a lot of chances to prove her acting chops (which are considerable- everyone's just going to have to accept that I am going to simp hard for Visitor from now on because she's hot and talented AND I LIKE HER HAIR OK? I have been traumatised in recent years by the genocide of tomboys and I like to return to the 90s when boyish girls were loved and cherished and not hoodwinked into cutting their tits off*).

This episode reminds me of TNG's 'The Measure of a Man' in as much as it's a strong script presented plainly with very strong performances without needing a bunch of expensive vidual effects or the fricking camera rolling around on a fricking skateboard like modern Trek. The ending is a bit contrived (Maritza turns out to be the camp clerk who was too scared to stop the atrocities and wants to set himself up as a great villain to provide the Bajorans with a sense of justice and to publicize the massacre across the quadrant to stop the Carsassian revisionist history from burying it- Kira goes from hating him to feeling pity for him) but the road there is well worth travelling and it does a lot to explore the Bajoran and Cardassian attitude to the occupation and their relationship with each other. Having established that he's actually innocent- and a Bajoran sympathiser to boot- Kira escorts Maritza to his ship but, along the way he is attacked and killed by a Bajoran- not because he was a war criminal but simply because he was a Cardassian.

Ahhhhhhh

No seriously- it's good. Just falls apart a bit at the end.

*This was a sperg out and I'm sorry. I'm going to remember that obssessing about trains helped elect Dumpf and his gaggle of neo-lib Jeet-entusiasts.

In the Hands of the Prophets

So last episode re-introduced Gul Dukat. Lets meet another one of the DS9 rogues' gallery for the finalé of Season 1...

Vedek Winn is a religious fundamentalist and one of two Vedeks (like bishops) in line to become the next Kai (like the pope). Literally the first thing she does upon arriving on the station is shut Keiko the frick up and shut down her stupid school.

So far she's a very sympathetic villain. Winn's issue with the school is that it's teaching the kids, specifically the Bajoran kids, that the Celestial Temple is just an artificial wormhole and the Prophets are merely aliens.

Now this is some real Star Trek shit. The general disdain for religion and the repeated debunking of supposed "Gods" has been a cornerstone of this show from it's earliest days.

DS9 would tackle things differently- the Prophets are, essentially, just very advanced aliens... one theory posits them as what the Bajorans will eventually become although this idea has some issues and also it's a rip-off of the ultimate fate of humanity in Babylon 5...

...but since when has DS9 ripping-off Babylon 5 ever been something new?

Anyway, as I was saying- although the Prophets are just aliens to the Federation, DS9's writers never undermine the religious beliefs of the Bajorans: they are gods to them and they literally do all the god shit that gods are supposed to do. Similarly, just because Winn is an extremist that doesn't mean her religion is entirely bad or wrong.

To compound Keiko's problems, Miles is finding himself quite enamoured of his Bajoran assistant. She has actually been in a couple of episodes before this one but here she's given a lot more to say and do- she's smart, competent and she keeps sticking her tits in his face all the time.

Anyway, after all the shit Winn's been stirring, someone bombs the ( by luck, empty) school...

Remember how I said Winn was one of the Vedeks in the running to be the next Kai? The other one is Vedek Bariel.

You may recognise Robert Anglim as the younger priest guy (who wasn't Richard Chamberlain) from The Thorn Birds. Maybe you don't- he was later in the series after Rachel Ward and Brian Brown weren't in it. Bariel is the moderate candidate and Sisko tries topersuade him to come to the station to try and offset the violence.

He eventually agrees and arranges a photo-op with Winn- "let us stand together against this violence" he says- when Tits McWrinklenose tries to shoot him but is intercepted by Sisko doing a slow motion dive. He even gives us a slow motion "NOOOOOOOOO!" when he does it which is pretty funny. I actually don't want to undermine this scene- it's a heck of a climax.

Ahhhhhhh

Note the Bajoran special-needs clapping as Bariel does his rock-star priest act.

OK straight off- Louise Fletcher as Winn is fricking amazing. The passive aggressive shit she pulled as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Works even better here where she ties it to smiley insincere religious doubletalk. I know the Oscars is bullshit, and I guess some of the schizo dramatards think the Academy a cabal of old libertarianphile Jews handing out awards for whatever shit they think will most destabilise the midwest, but Fletcher's Oscar deserves to be celebrated and is a badge of her talent. Let's just have a bit of that now...

Yeah, that's Brad Dourif- voice of Chucky and another Star Trek alumni.

Bajoran extremist shenanigans will kick off season 2 and Winn will be back in action, this time allying herself with multiple Tony Award winner Frank Langella (The Tony's are the stage Oscars but even more gay).

DS9 will return... maybe even in the new SciFi hole, who knows?

!dramatards, major advancement in South Park neutrality

/h/slavshit crossover post!

All translations achieved with Google Translate:

Former People's Deputy of the USSR and former State Duma deputy Colonel Viktor Alksnis died, his daughter Irina Alksnis reported.

«My dad, Victor Imantovich Alksnis, passed away », – she reported on the Telegram channel «Black Colonel »who led Alksnis himself.

In October 2019, Alksnis was diagnosed with cancer, since then he underwent several operations.

It is reported that on the night of December 30, Alksnis had a «hemorrhagic stroke », he «fell into a deep coma ».

His daughter thanked the staff of the Mytishchi Regional Clinical Hospital, where Alksnis was «the last three days ». «They not only did everything for dad, but also helped us, his family, to cope with the grief that fell on us », – the message says.

In my place Telegram Irina Alksnis apologized «for the long silence ». «I didn't even write articles these weeks. Family Force Majeure », – the message says.

Viktor Alksnis was born in 1950 in the Kemerovo region, he was the grandson of the USSR Deputy People's Commissar of Defense for Aviation, the head of the Red Army Air Force, second-rank commander Jacob Alksnis. In Riga he graduated from the Riga Higher Military Aviation Engineering School named after Ya. Alksnis.

Political activity started in 1988, when he publicly spoke out against the Popular Front of Latvia, which aimed the withdrawal of Latvia from the USSR. He was a people's deputy of the USSR, a deputy of the Supreme Council of Latvia. Actively advocated the preservation of the USSR. He took part in the October events of 1993 on the side of the Congress of People's Deputies. In 2000 and 2003 he was elected to the State Duma.

This guy wanted to make Russia independent from western operating systems, so he invited a bunch of open-source/free software guys into the Russian State Duma to promote their work, including the co-founder of ReactOS, Aleksey Bragin:

During round table on the problems of developing domestic software, agreements were reached with participants on the continuation of contacts and meetings to obtain the necessary information and develop a common position.

Today, as part of these arrangements, I had a meeting with ReactOS project manager Alexei Bragin in the State Duma.

Alexey demonstrated to me the achievements of the enthusiastic developers of ReactOS, spoke about his plans.

I got acquainted with the operating system with interest, saw and learned a lot of new things.

Personally, I made sure that Total Comander and Mozilla Firef*x work perfectly under ReactOS.

Alexei and I agreed on further cooperation.

[PHOTOS GO HERE]

These photos were taken by my order by my assistant E. Oderova to my personal camera. I transfer these photos to the public domain and for public use.

Those wishing to participate in the implementation of the project to create the ReactOS operating system can contact Alexei Bragin through the website https://www.reactos.ru/ru/index.html

Similar meetings will be held with other Russian software developers.

At one point, he even invited Richard Stallman to Moscow:

In terms of the visit — meetings with the public, supporters of open source software, students, officials, etc. It is planned that Stollman will even perform in the State Duma.

The founder of the modern concept of free software, the GNU project, the Foundation for Free Programs and the League for Freedom of Programming, the legendary Richard Stollman, will come to Moscow. He had already given prior consent and promised to make time for a visit in late February – early March 2008. Most likely, the visit will last five to six days. In terms of the visit — meetings with the public, supporters of open source software, students, officials, etc. Perhaps Stollman will even perform in the State Duma, as he arrives at the invitation of Deputy Viktor Alksnis.

The initiative to invite Stollman to Moscow was made by Vasily Leonov, one of the Russian open source activists who lived in the United States for a long time and is personally acquainted with Richard Stollman. It is Vasily who will organize the visit, so you can turn to him with specific offers right now.

«For 15 years of participation in the Linux community (my code is at the core of each copy of Linux), I have a good understanding of formal and informal approaches, numerous business contacts in the United States, where I lived for several years in the 90s, — writes Vasily Leonov. — With a purely utilitarian all-market sector S who will take part in his fair alteration — will not regret it. Both at the level of individual and public, and moral and psychological and, of course, state. Russia as a whole, for example. On the objective side, this redistribution is inevitable, since there is nothing to object to significant savings on licensing in the long run.

Maybe it would be worth organizing an international forum on the topic "For Free Software and Information Security of Russia ". To invite Stollman — for a long time he was not in Russia, for a long time I did not see him. He takes part in public life with pleasure, some criticize him for this, but after his contribution he can already do what he wants and how he wants. A very strong personality, an unconditional supporter of genuine freedom and justice ».

Подробнее: https://www.securitylab.ru/news/306059.php

But Stallman later pussied out apparently due to Alksnis being too based for him.

The guy he co-founded his free software advocacy organization with is the same guy who, no joke, managed to get fined in Russia for pirating Windows OS:

When high school principal Alexander Ponosov took delivery of 16 computers, he must have felt it was a real accomplishment for a school in a tiny Russian village. It never occurred to him that on that day in August 2005 he became a criminal.

"I was not very well versed in computers back then," said Ponosov in a phone interview with CBS News. "I went to my friends who knew more about PCs than I did and they told me that PCs today come with pre-installed software. So, we took the computers."

The computers for the school had been supplied by the regional administration. But in his village of Sepych, about 1,000 miles from Moscow, Ponosov did not know that the Microsoft software installed on the computers was pirated. Now, the bewildered director is facing up to 5 years in prison and more than $10,000 in fines for copyright violation.

Russia has been extensively criticized for its failure to protect intellectual property rights. The trade group Business Software Alliance estimates the level of pirated software in Russia at 83 percent. A wide range of pirated CDs and DVDs are openly sold by street traders and small shops in any Russian city. You can even buy them on the sidewalk in front of the famous Lubyanka headquarters of the Federal Security Service, the former KGB.

In trying to improve Russia's image, authorities have begun raiding illegal production facilities, arresting shop owners, and now, going after end-users of pirated materials. Alexander Ponosov believes there is a simple reason why they singled out the director of a village school in an attempt to uproot piracy.

"It is a classic Russian mentality," he says. "They do not touch the oligarchs because oligarchs have got money and can bite back. They go after someone poor and toothless, like us."

The school head has been officially charged with violating copyright law and using pirated software. His case has already drawn a wide public outcry and even made some political forces step in and support the beleaguered teacher.

"A rural high school teacher can hardly be considered the main intellectual pirate in this country," says Mikhail Seslavinsky, head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications. "Once you start punishing users (of pirated software) half of the country's population, including the law enforcers themselves, may end up behind bars."

A Microsoft representative speaking with CBS News did not sound bloodthirsty: "I had to attend the hearings as it is required by the law – I was summoned to the court by the investigators in order to assess the damage incurred by Microsoft," said Alexei Potapov. "I had to give a retail price of the legal versions of the Microsoft products, installed on the school computers in Sepych, which was slightly over $10,000."

Microsoft has decided not to file a civil lawsuit against Ponosov "because we understand well he is just an ordinary school master and he runs an ordinary Russian school," said Potapov. "However, no one has the right to break the law."

Alexander Ponosov insists he is innocent.

"This whole campaign may have started off as a crusade against software piracy. But as time went by, law enforcers realized they were unable to find the real perpetrators of the crime — those who illegally copied and distributed the pirate Microsoft products. And then the solution presented itself: go after an easy target. So, they picked us," Ponosov said.

In attempting to show their commitment to rule of law, Russian authorities have instead created, in Ponosov's words, a farce.

The hearings resume on February 12. The outcome of this case will eventually determine whether millions of pirate software users in Russia could be considered criminals.

So yeah, all in all, a great loss for the open-source/free software community

#Valve #Halflife #GMan #2025 pic.twitter.com/mdT5hlxKJT

— Mike Shapiro (@mikeshapiroland) December 31, 2024

2025 IS GONNA BE THE MOST SCHIZOID YEAR OF THE 21ST CENTURY SINCE 2001

!g*mers

The Nagus

The cold open drops more foreshadowing than sunshine on my butt: Sisko wants go to Bajor with Jake- he plans to visit The Fire Caverns (later revealed to be home to the Pah-Wraiths and they will be the site of Sisko's last confrontation with Dukat in the final episode)- Rom is acting like Rom and he quotes our first ever Rule of Acquisition (Number One, no less- "Once you've got their money, never give it back". As the episode progresses we get the sixth rule too- "Never allow family to stand in the way of opporunity")- we see Grand Nagus Zek, his weird staff and his huge manservant Maihardu. Loads of important shit gets shown for the first time this episode (EDIT NB: Because some r-slurs need it spelling out- the writers did not preplan anything in DS9 and merely returned to these ideas later on). This is also the first proper "Ferengi Episode"- a controversial concept as a lot of people don't like them. Although there were some rotten Ferengi episodes, there were plenty of good ones and I've always had a soft spot for them because they show a slice of Star Trek life from a different cultural perspective- a window into another way of thinking and existing within a setting we've only seen from one perspective in the past. Also, they're kind of like Fiddler on the Roof in space.

The Nagus has arrived on DS9, apparently on a cooming expedition. He intends to indulge in five of Quark's most popular holoporn programs. They would tone down the gooning implications in later seasons (and the holosuite would be used more for recreations of the Battle of Britain, somewhat-self-indulgent Rat Pack knock-offs and copyright infringing James Bond parodies- no seriously... Paramount got threatened with legal action by MGM after 'Our Man Bashir' in Season 5. How New Line's Austin Powers avoided this I don't know) but here in season 1, the message is clear as to what people are paying for in the holosuite:

_{They were together in real life btw: deal with it...}

_{At least he's not really a Jeet}

Zek invites himself to dinner at Quark's apartment. Side note- Ferengi use chopsticks and a lazy susan. There he explains his real reasons for the visit: he plans to use Quark's bar to host a biznez meeting to discuss Ferengi biznez, especially Gamma Quadrant biznez. He's chosen Quark's bar because apparently only Quark can arrange some uncomfortable-looking Ikea furniture in a room for short men with big ears to sit on. During the dinner Zek expresses disdain for BIPOC attending the hoo-man school so Rom tells BIPOC not to go there any more. BIPOC is less than happy about this and matters are not made better because Chief Obrien is currently teaching classes because the casting budget for this episode was already stretched by the Ferengi characters & would not cover Rosalind Chao's fee while Keiko is on holiday. This is the same Chief Obrien who literally had to fix every replicator on the station a few weeks back- now his wife's away he suddenly has all the time in the world to moonlight as a teachercel.

Getting back to the meeting: Nagus Zek explains that it's important that the Ferengi expand into the Gamma Quadrant so as to exploit a market where the unfounded reputation they have in the Merchant-phobic Alpha Quadrant can't ruin their chances.

Everyone agrees that this is an unreasonable goyim misrepresentation of a simple hard-working people.

But Zek feels he's too old to lead his people into this new frontier and he announces that he will now appoint a successor... Quark.

Nobody's impressed and spend the next few days low key threatening Quark- someone even tries to assassinate him. Compounding his woes, Zek suddenly dies leaving Quark without any support. Odo suggests doing an autopsy but everyone laughs as Zek's body is already gone- upon their deaths Ferengi are vacuum dessicated and the dishes of their remains auctioned off. One piece of Zek is worth 20 bars of gold-pressed latinum and is expected to double in value by the following year.

I'm not sure what Ferengi do with these powdered remains but those of great men like Zek sell for a high price and generally increase in value over time.

Quark tries to play it tough and act like he knows what he's doing which leads to this bizarre scene:

Turns out the bomb was Rom and Zek's useless son. They then try and blow Quark out of an airlock- something they're only prevented from doing by the reappearance of Zek who faked his death to test his useless son. A test his son failed uselessly. So Zek must remain Nagus and exploit the Gamma Quadrant personally, a task which will have huge implications in season 2. Far from being angry at his brother, Quark is just pleased he's not a complete failure as a Ferengi. For some reason Rom does not face charges for attempted murder.

There's a B plot about Jake teaching BIPOC to read which isn't worth getting into except for this bit where they goon over a hot Vulcan girl:

The first true Ferengi episode is... fine.

It lays the foundations for a lot of future Ferengi culture- their society is not one of true capitalism and free markets but rather a rigidly hierarchical one based on monopolies and price-fixing with the Nagus sitting at the center dictating everything and taking a cut of it all. Later we will learn of the Ferengi Commerce Authority which creates an impossible web of red tape in the Alliance which can only be navigated via extortionate bribes. This is why Ferengi have to gouge the life out of any non-Ferengi they do business with: their margins are so narrow due to all the bureaucracy and corruption.

Quick note on gold-pressed latinum: it's not a currency- it's a commodity and therefore it's price presumably fluctuates. Latinum is a metal, liquid at room temperature, which cannot be synthesised or replicated- hence it's intrinsic value. The latinum is traditionally pressed into sleeves of gold (which can be replicated and therefore has no real value besides looking nice) which are shaped as slips, strips and bars. Although the value of latinum fluctuates 100 slips make a strip and 20 strips make a bar. There are also bricks which are massively expensive but I don't know how many bars make a brick. I think that if you consider a slip to be worth about $1 you are in the right ball park. Other non-replicatable materials include dilithium crystals and possibly uridium (a fictional metal, originally invented for the 1980s vidya of the same name, from which starship sensor arrays are made) because the whole reason for the Cardassian occupation of Bajor was to strip-mine the planet for uridium. I suppose it's possible that different materials use different amounts of energy to replicate and it might just be more energy efficient for the Cardassians to mine the stuff. I suppose it's also possible that Cardassian replicators (which the show has established already as being a bit shit) can't do it but Federation ones can. Anyway...

Vortex

Jeff Lynne from ELO (or an alien who looks a lot like him) comes aboard DS9 and gets involved in some plot to rip off a Faberge egg thing Quark's trying to sell to a pair of twins (it is never explained why Jeff's involved in this). In the ensuing fight Jeff shoots and kills one of the twins and is arrested on suspicion of murder (although the twins fired first, it was Jeff who pulled a gun on them) while the surviving brother swears revenge.

I do wonder how they cast these twins and who got the decision on which one lives (and gets most of the speaking lines) and which one dies. Did they share both salaries equally? After all- they wouldn't have gotten the gig unless there was two of them.

Anyway, Jeff is one of those tricksy types who gaslamps Odo into believing he can lead the constable to his people- as proof he shows him a shapechanging butt-plug thing he keeps in a locket (why the heck was he allowed to keep this in his cell?).

Sisko and Dax go to Jeff's home planet and find them to be authoritarian buttholes but this week's interpretation of the Prime Directive demands that Jeff is returned to be executed without trial. Odo gets the gig to take him but re-routes to a nebula where Jeff says Odo might find his people. Of course he can't and it's just a stasis pod where Jeff has stashed his daughter (how did he get it here?). The shapechanging butt-plug is a key. He's a dissident, you see and was just trying to protect his daughter (from what? Are they a persecuted minority? We never find out).

The twin shows up in a sharp pointy-looking starship (must be a nightmare to dock) and there's a bit of action which, I'll grant you, does look nice...

...but this whole story makes no sense and Jeff's bullshit about the Changelings (this is the first time we ever hear Odo's people referred to as such) just feels like the episode itself bullpooping the audience into wasting our time watching this because we thought something important might occur. You might also notice a lot of "never explained" and "for some reason" bits in this review- that's never a good sign. There's also this bit where a rock falls on Odo's head and knocks him out- how the frick does that work? He doesn't have a brain.

It's all so disappointing.

Dramatis Personae

Another alien mind-virus has everybody on the station acting weird except for Odo. It was brought on board by a Klingon ship which asplodes after coming through the wormhole after cutting short their planetary survey mission into the Gamma Quadrant. I can't help but wonder how a Vor'cha class battlecruiser can blow into pieces right next to a busy star port and yet not cause any damage to any other vessels or the station itself.

One Klingon is successfully beamed over before his ship asplodes and mumbles one word before he dies; "victory". He carries his own personal logs which have suffered enough damage as to take a while to decipher (or maybe they got the logs from the cruiser wreckage, I can't remember). While this is happening Odo has a massive spazz in Quarks...

...but quickly recovers. This is never explained but is clearly his reaction to the virus. Quark also doesn't seem affected but his usefulness is restricted for reasons you'll see in a minute. Everybody else starts acting paranoid and weird and turns on each other forming into two groups- one loyal to Sisko and the other seeking to overthrow him, led by Kira. The Klingon logs eventually show that the exact same pattern of events occured aboard their cruiser but the significance of this is downplayed by Obrien (acting as Sisko's enforcer while Sisko hides insolently in his office and DNGAF) who, correctly, points out that Kingons tend to get promoted by assassinating their commanders. How the frick things like a Gamma Quadrant planetary survey mission get done under these conditions is unfathomable. The Klingons found some kind of ancient alien historical archive and it somehow causes people to reenact ancient historical events, presumably this was supposed to happen under more controlled circumstances than we see happening here.

There are two good things about this episode: the first is the subtle way the characters are afffected by the archive- they retain their sense of selves and their motivations seem consistent with their previously established characters. Kira's initial reasons for toppling Sisko is that she thinks he and the Federation are a threat to Bajor, Dax is an old man who is full of reminiscences and Obrien is a chippy and bad tempered Irish shit. The second reason is Kira being crazy hot. I never remember finding Nana Visitor this attractive before but, God-she is sexy AF and some of her antics in this episode are particularly coom-worthy.

God I wish I was Quark right here...

Avery Brooks is quite good doing Sisko's Nero act in this episode (Brooks was always better playing bad guys) and it causes him to make a strange alien clock instead of playing a fiddle. the clock was a really nice prop and we often see it in the background in his office during subsequent episodes:

Possibility of making a Starshit hole

I'm thinking we need to have a hole dedicated to SciFi TV and movies- particularly shows like old school Star Trek, Stargate etc. I'd be willing to put 50,000 DC towards it if other people could help raise the other half of the cost. I also have no ability with CSS or banner creation. IDK, what do you think?

Video Games Can't Afford to Look This Good

The gaming industry spent billions pursuing the idea that customers wanted realistic graphics. Did executives misread the market?

By Zachary Small

Dec. 26, 2024

One way to understand the video game industry's current crisis is by looking closely at Spider-Man's spandex.

For decades, companies like Sony and Microsoft have bet that realistic graphics were the key to attracting bigger audiences. By investing in technology, they have elevated flat pixelated worlds into experiences that often feel like stepping into a movie.

Designers of last year's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 used the processing power of the PlayStation 5 so Peter Parker's outfits would be rendered with realistic textures and skyscraper windows could reflect rays of sunlight.

That level of detail did not come cheap.

Insomniac Games, which is owned by Sony, spent about $300 million to develop Spider-Man 2, according to leaked documents, more than triple the budget of the first game in the series, which was released five years earlier. Chasing Hollywood realism requires Hollywood budgets, and even though Spider-Man 2 sold more than 11 million copies, several members of Insomniac lost their jobs when Sony announced 900 layoffs in February.

Cinematic games are getting so expensive and time-consuming to make that the video game industry has started to acknowledge that investing in graphics is providing diminished financial returns.

"It's very clear that high-fidelity visuals are only moving the needle for a vocal class of g*mers in their 40s and 50s," said Jacob Navok, a former executive at Square Enix who left that studio, known for the Final Fantasy series, in 2016 to start his own media company. "But what does my 7-year-old son play? Minecraft. Roblox. Fortnite."

Joost van Dreunen, a market analyst and professor at New York University, said it was clear what younger generations value in their video games: "Playing is an excuse for hanging out with other people."

When millions are happy to play old games with outdated graphics — including Roblox (2006), Minecraft (2009) and Fortnite (2017) — it creates challenges for studios that make blockbuster single-player titles. The industry's audience has slightly shrunk for the first time in decades. Studios are rapidly closing and sweeping layoffs have affected more than 20,000 employees in the past two years, including more than 2,500 Microsoft workers.

Many video game developers built their careers during an era that glorified graphical fidelity. They marveled at a scene from The Last of Us: Part II in which Ellie, the protagonist, removes a shirt over her head to reveal bruises and scrapes on her back without any technical glitches.

But a few years later, costly graphical upgrades are often barely noticeable.

When the studio Naughty Dog released a remastered version of The Last of Us: Part II this year, light bounced off lakes and puddles with a more realistic shimmer. In a November ad for the PlayStation 5 Pro, an enhanced version of the Sony console that retails for almost $700, the billboards in Spider-Man 2's Manhattan featured crisper letters.

Optimizing cinematic games for a narrow group of consumers who have spent hundreds of dollars on a console or computer may no longer make financial sense. Studios are increasingly prioritizing games with basic graphics that can be played on the smartphones already in everyone's pocket.

"They essentially run on toasters," said Matthew Ball, an entrepreneur and video game analyst, talking about games like Roblox and League of Legends. "The developers aren't chasing graphics but the social connections that players have built over time."

Going Hollywood

Developers had long taught players to equate realism with excellence, but this new toaster generation of g*mers is upsetting industry orthodoxies. The developer behind Animal Well, which received extensive praise this year, said the game's file size was smaller than many of the screenshots used to promote it.

A company like Nintendo was once the exception that proved the rule, telling its audiences over the past 40 years that graphics were not a priority.

That strategy had shown weaknesses through the 1990s and 2000s, when the Nintendo 64 and GameCube had weaker visuals and sold fewer copies than Sony consoles. But now the tables have turned. Industry figures joke about how a cartoony game like Luigi's Mansion 3 on the Nintendo Switch considerably outsells gorgeous cinematic narratives on the PlayStation 5 like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

man people are cruel, who cares if she does porn. Girl literally broke her back here, sh*t like this is legit life altering, pain for next 50years in your own body

Guarantee you ask any of these people shaming her for doing porn and a fat amount of them probably don't even come close to comparing to the profit she made when doing porn, it's funny to observe but shameful that people really can't grasp basic empathy cause a woman used to do porn

If you have rubbed it out to this woman but you don't see her as enough of a human being to just have a moment of human decency when you're literally watching her back get broken in two places, you might be a little bit of a garbage person. The jokes are gross.

Comments here are petty, god forbid person has 2 professions.

„Twitch streamer" yep, that's what she's known for.

We should refer to people by their previous careers?

When you're a "former" whore?

„Twitch streamer" yep, that's what she's known for.

We should refer to people by their previous careers?

If you google her name she is listed as American Pornographic Artist

Who cares?

Right.... twitch streamer.... thats what she's most known for.

So a woman gets seriously hurt and you're primarily concerned about what else she streams? How is that relevant?

Why are you assuming gender you bigot

Right.... twitch streamer.... thats what she's most known for.

Imagine dedicating your young adult life to recording porn scenes 25 days/month for 10 years straight and people just call you a "twitch streamer"

"Twitch streamer" - shes a porn star - and a great one at that!

https://www.reddit.com/r/redscarepod/s/rcijEpriam

What a delightful diplomatic move, the German Foreign Minister, Baerbock, has decided to pay a visit to Damascus, where she’ll be meeting the shining stars of Syria's new government—an esteemed collection of former Al-Qaeda and ISIS members..... pic.twitter.com/IL2wZLEwPx

— Richard (@ricwe123) January 3, 2025

You can see they respect her

R/fauxmoi discusses

Some respond normally, some consider there might be something wrong with them but do not hit the mark.

This is one of those moment where I'm reminded exactly how asexual I am. I just cannot wrap my head around a random person ordering me a glass of milk as a sexy thing, especially if I'd never talked to them before. I'd probably wind up thinking they had some sort of weird milk-based fetish more than anything else.

CNN

The Independent

AV club calls it the grossest scene in a BDSM movie because drinking milk upsets their soylent conditioned stomachs.

The Daily Mail wants in on this shit

Yahoo boomer comments are reasonably confused

Aol.com just because, even though it pulls from Variety

There are many more. This is the hottest clickbait of the day, and I have clicked every single one of them to read the slight variations.

!actualbiofoids !biofoids !cuteandvalid !bottoms does milk get it done for you or give you the ick?

I'm probably going to be the youngest here. I was 12 and an older kid picked some shrooms and distributed some to younger, probably thought it would be funny. I think I tried, maybe 2g of wild psilocybe semilanceata. I had a nice experience, in nature, and it wasn't too intense. Next autumn, I was 13 and I started picking and storing them for use over the year. Got really good at it, best years I could trip once a month thanks to being surrounded by loads of great shroom-picking spots

This is what happens when you take mushrooms at 12. You get /u/HornyforTieflings. Eat shit btw, you gross .

I have struggled with hemiplegia for my entire life and recently I'd been developing the confidence to dance. I use an eclectic, often flowing, sometimes jerky, ecstatic style of dance, adaptable to different genres and speeds. I had four women compliment my dancing this festival and it meant the world to me, especially from other women

For those who don't know it's some type of unilateral paralysis. How many people want to say that this person probably was being complimented because they felt sorry for them?

Guys am I Jewish if I don't practice and am half reform????:

https://old.reddit.com/r/ReformJews/comments/1g4z8n8/query_regarding_status_of_jewishness_in_reform/

But the real meat is his comment history. Posts about drugs. Lots of drugs. Claims to be a Kemetic (obligatory WE WUZ KANGZ N SHIET!)

I'm someone who has been called pro-Palestinian by people across the spectrum of opinions and pro-Israeli by quite a few people on the pro-Palestinian side.

I don't care about any complex political issues when it comes to genocide. I also don't care about what any individual Palestinian feels about me as a queer person, every single one of them could advocate what Hamas does, but genocide is genocide. Turn the tables and my opinion on genocide doesn't change. I've known people who try to justify what Israel is now doing and people who would be justifying it if the tables were turned. All of them are no longer my friends.

What's important is one side has the means to carry out genocide and is doing so, the other does not and is not. Yes, I want the hostages freed, yes Hamas can rot in the heck they deserve, but genocide is ultimately genocide.

You would defend the very people that would cut your head off and push you off of a fricking ledge. It's just kind of hilarious. You're really gross.

Plenty of women choose our own oppression. Not to defend the women who made this choice, but many conservative women have internalised a view about gender politics that was thrust onto us by society. It's often worse for them, a woman raised in a deep south Quiverfull family doesn't have the same chance of escaping those gender politics as I did.

He's conservative about a wide variety of topics, not as right-wing as you judging by your post history though, I'll grant. I imagine you complain about things you can't say without being called racist, misogynist, or homophobic too.

This guy was literally just innocuously defending Dawkins. And is like centrist according to his profile.

The problem is not that certain topics are not up for debate but that duplicitious intent is hidden behind the agenda of people who want to ask these sorts of questions about marginalised groups. Dawkins is already known for his views on this subject, if the organisation that silenced the other view, he would not have resigned. It's got nothing to do with Dawkins's commitment to free speech or scientific pursuit, because he is happy to subvert science for his social agenda, it has everything to do with his personal views about gender.

The topics are usually the same, it nearly always boils down to one of three these days: there's this one about trans people and biology, sometimes it's whether women are naturally better suited to secondary roles in society, and sometimes it's whether race is a predictor of intelligence or criminality. A person will put forward a controversial view, they will be found to hold bigoted views they're trying to mask as science, their work will get pulled then suddenly everyone who also holds those bigoted views cry conspiracy.

Classic if you disagree with me you're the enemy type behavior.

I don't think of myself as conventially attractive, I have slightly masculine facial features which allows me to pull off a really good soft butch but I'm not conventionally attractive how I normally present.

When I put a lot more effort in to look feminine out and about, especially since I now dance with a lot of confidence, I get a lot more attention and definitely get a lot of privileges from that.

Honestly though, I find the attention is often creepy and guys scare me a lot more when I'm more femme-presenting. The better treatment in some ways come with worse treatment in others. When I weent to festivals in the past, I was more masc presenting, this year I was fem presenting and I got inappropriate gestures and remarks from multiple guys. I got them before but nowhere near as much.

the more masculine I am the more I am safe from MEN.

Literal insane fricker.

!chuds !transphobes

Most Based Comments

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Question:Any evidence or source to the claims? Because without context it doesn't sound like he went "alt right", it sounds like he just woke up and realized the damage that has been caused by the years of what he used to believe in.You're making me like Fry more if anything now that he's based and isn't playing imaginary anymore.Edit: The amount of cope on reddit is hilarious. Y'all need to get some lives in the New Year. The same potato brains bitching about Musk and Trump and attacking people for common sense issues. There's reasons the rest of the world doesn't believe your nonsense. And it's because you echochamber bots are insane. (-92)

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Answer: he hasn't.Where is your evidence that he's "going alt-right"? Going on a shitty podcast doesn't mean he's "gone alt-right." It means he's willing to talk to people he doesn't necessarily agree with on a lot of issues. He's always been an ardent supporter of talking to all kinds of people.I haven't listened to the episode of Triggernometry that he was on, but I would caution against some knee jerk response to carefully curated responses to decontextualized quotes pulled out of a larger conversation. Stephen Fry is a vocal free speech proponent, and they were having a conversation about some of the challenges for free speech in the world today. Regardless of what's said - that's an area that is ripe for twisting and misrepresentation. On the podcast, he was asked a question by a gay activist who opposes the organization Stonewall, of which he is a former employee. Levi Pay asked Fry how he could support Stonewall, to which Fry responded, "Do I? I am not sure I do support them"... (316)

He's a Zionist mate, you can't get more right wing than supporting Nazis. (-74)

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I don't think his opinions have changed that drastically.Fry is gay and grew up during a time when that was very much not ok, indeed he described it "a secret horror swelling inside him", plus he's seen many people die during the AIDS crisis. Not to mention his bipolar disorder, struggles with suicidality, etc etc. Fry strikes me as an incredibly empathetic individual for whom a lot of his kindness is born out of the ability to personally relate to struggles. (If you haven't read/listened to his autobiography, it's an incredibly moving tale, but definitely not light reading).I may be biased but I just absolutely don't see someone like that flipping his worldview around in terms of support for minorities or leftie causes or whatever else.It's important to remember that culture has moved incredibly quickly on stuff like trans rights compared to gay and black rights in the previous century. (Yes, I know it may not feel like it, and I agree it can feel painfully slow, but it's true just... (97)

Steven Fry has never been left wing in any way lmao, what are you on about? (-37)

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It would appear Fry is taking the free speech position, that every opinion is valid and open discussions should be able to be had about all positions. I would guess this is how he got tossed in with the far right "free speech absolutists" like Musk and other fascists who don't like it when people call them out for being fascist. Blaming the left also has serious paradox of tolerance vibes.In the end, free speech is a very tricky subject. While I would tend to agree with Fry that open and honest discussion is important, the practical/utilitarian side of me realizes that some opinions and positions are so vile and dangerous that no civilized society should entertain them. The open and honest discussion should begin and end with, "Frick that opinion and frick you if you actually hold that opinion."That's the rub, though. While it is a dangerous and slippery slope to allow governments to decide what speech falls into this category and therefore shouldn't be allowed, it is very much the re... (0)

This is true, but it seems to me that one key problem is that this idea has been weaponized. Activists spent decades making the case for equal rights for LGBT, women or black people, and eventually they'd convinced everybody so thoroughly that even to be called sexist, racist or homophobic was devastating. Opposition to them had been pushed into the 'vile and dangerous' territory.But a whole generation only experienced the tail end of that, and took away the wrong lesson: the way to win an argument wasn't to engage in good faith and make your case, it was just to declare your opponent to be vile and dangerous and yell that they had to be cast out of society. They never actually attempted persuasion.And it worked...for a while. They called people racist or sexist or homophobic for questioning fairly generic public policy or positions, with increasingly tenuous connections to any kind of real 'oppression'. They harassed people and chased them right off the internet for jokes in poor t... (16)

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Small, but not 0. Just like surgical intervention for trans-identifying minors, violence by undocumented migrants, and so many other issues. Each side needs to police the most extreme opinions on that side. As long as the left is unwilling to do so, the fringe cases will be pushed into the mainstream as examples of the slippery slope of leftist ideology. (2)

You have to kind of immerse yourself in the trans mindset in order to understand the "trans people in sports" issue. The moment I came out as trans, my parents struck my name from the will and made sure I would inherit nothing. My entire family instantly cut contact and never invited me to anything ever again. I've got 4 year old cousins running around out there who I've never met and I don't even know their names. When my elderly grandma had the nerve to talk to me over the phone they canceled her landline (!!!!!) so I would have no way to defend or explain myself, so I would remain isolated.My dad punched me last time I saw him. Horrible stuff. Only my mom had a change of heart because she was diagnosed with cancer and has only a few years left to live. I have been sexually assaulted on buses, a train and in a bar by men who noticed I was trans and DEMANDED that they be allowed to check if I was a real woman, by groping me in the crotch. There was nothing I could do to physically ... (4)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

There's definitely a sort of unrecoverable tailspin these guys get into.I think it's analogous to what can happen when a dual engine plane loses an engine. One wing suddenly gets a bunch of new drag, and untrained pilots will instinctually increase thrust to the other engine, but the thrust asymmetry can cause the plane to enter a rapid spin/dive into the ground.When these public commentators make an out-of-lane comment on trans rights or Israel, they suddenly get huge resistance from the progressive side and a bunch of new boosters on the conservative side.In a plane you feather the prop on the dead engine, and maybe even reduce thrust in the remaining one to balance things out.But instead of taking a second to think, maybe apologize, and give things a second to settle, these guys lean hard into the "free speech champion" role and suddenly find themselves popping out of the clouds upside-down heading at top speed into the "YOU CAN'T CANCEL ME" mountains. (1896)

I was 100% with you on the analogy until:This isn't about thinking. Online mobs do not think, they attack people en masse, without any care in the world about the matters at hand.There's a reason why online mobbing has been also named online lynching: it's the same dynamic of outrage snowballing into a complete avalanche, where everyone is trying to one up one another.That's how we go from mild criticism to death threats and bomb threats in 24h, it is completely out of any control.You think when it involves a person you can talk to in real life. Online, it is counter-productive to think, it will never work in your favor to engage in a debate or discussion with a mob.This only works in the pre-social media era. There isn't a single instance where someone apologizing worked out for them, they're simply crossed out permanently whenever they've been judged as persona non-grata by the social media crowd.Apologizing only marks them as easy targets for more social media abuses directed at ... (2)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/yukonwanderer

Score: 🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮(+0🐮)

Number of comments: 17

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NEW: Subscribe to /h/miners to see untapped drama veins, ripe for mining!

autodrama: automating away the jobs of dramneurodivergents. Ping HeyMoon if there are any problems or you have a suggestion

Commissioned by feetincel @ftincel

I accept payment in the form of DC and/or feet pics.

K-ON is a slice of life anime about a group of girls who form a band!

You might notice there are no instruments visible in the picture. This is because they do not practice and instead spend their band time drinking tea and eating cake like true dramanauts.

K-ON is official rdrama culture. You have probably seen the characters before because they are on the default profile banner.

I hope with this essential element of rdrama culture institutionalized with these Marseys, we can see a dramanaut resurgence into the New Year.

Remember, fun things are fun!

!anime

pic.twitter.com/BB85ibDmKP

— Why you should love animals (@animals_twts) January 3, 2025

The republican party has been hijacked by silicone valley tech, homosexual, atheist, and billionaire globalists.

One of them controls one of the biggest platforms and promised free speech, rather, he wanted to simply control it.

We are cooked.

— Myron Gaines (@MyronGainesX) January 1, 2025

BREAKING: Trump reiterates his support of H-1B visas, “We need a lot of people coming in.” pic.twitter.com/vci6Ishwdf

— Dominic Michael Tripi (@DMichaelTripi) January 1, 2025

Elon Musk is single-handedly destroying the trust we have for the incoming Trump Administration.

Nobody is coming to save us.

— Evan Kilgore 🇺🇸 (@EvanAKilgore) December 31, 2024

Wearing the skin of his enemies as a trophy 😭 pic.twitter.com/bi8mSmHWaG

— Kaguya’s Top Gal (@hayasaka_aryan) December 31, 2024

What is going on??? @elonmusk https://t.co/OrRXVxTDBK

— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) December 31, 2024

I've been demonetized on X for almost a year, so I don't care about that.

My problem is that @elonmusk said this was a free speech app and he's betrayed the people that believed in him with the censorship going on right now.

When we saw you support Trump, we got excited...…

— Myron Gaines (@MyronGainesX) December 31, 2024

Welcome to X,

Where hardcore porn is allowed and profitable but criticizing foreign immigrants gets you demonetized or even banned.

Frick you Elon.

— Next Wave America 🇺🇸 (@NextWaveAmerica) December 31, 2024

I don’t care about Trump anymore. I just want to be on the opposite side of whatever this is. pic.twitter.com/0g3whzrUXM

— Lucin K (@Lucineh_K) December 31, 2024

Remember kids, X is a free speech platform - as long as you hate on Whites and only use generic Rightwing talking points.

— Ian Smith (@iansmithfitness) December 31, 2024

Why do you think @elonmusk demonitized and took away people's blue checks?

Who really runs the show? pic.twitter.com/Q6nEq28Ssb

— 1984 (@TheOfficial1984) January 1, 2025

X has decided I’m not allowed to be monetized

X has decided I’m not allowed to have subscriptions

X has decided I’m not able to be verified

X has decided I’m not allowed to use more than 280 characters

When will X decide I’m not allowed on their free speech platform?

— Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) December 31, 2024

Donald Trump will actively engage in war against whites.

He will assist the synagogue of satan in the Greater Israel land grab and genocide, and he will import the third world en masse.

— Stew Peters (@realstewpeters) December 31, 2024

Make no mistake, people are being deplatformed and demonetized to send a message to the rest of us: shut up or face the same consequences.

It’s Marxism under a technocracy. Never forget this mask off moment.

— Leonarda Jonie (@leonardaisfunE) December 31, 2024

Not sure why this one won't embed but here's the link

The biggest rug pull of 2024 pic.twitter.com/VrlAPke5TE

— Gentile News Network™ (@Gentilenewsnet) January 1, 2025

Getting rid of your enemy and assuming their identity is very jewish behavior. pic.twitter.com/282HYSWk1R

— Henri Fjord (@henri_fjord) December 31, 2024

Israelis First
Indians First
Mexicans First

Americans Last
Welcome to the Trump presidency

— Gentile News Network™ (@Gentilenewsnet) January 1, 2025

Bonus bitching about Jews I found

Trump endorsed everyone who signed this bill by the way.

TREASON ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/EFhlZILoxo

— Next Wave America 🇺🇸 (@NextWaveAmerica) December 31, 2024

All right, I'm going back to bed now

A brief primer for all the non-leafs

1) Leafs have been largely disarmed. All the most common battle rifles are long banned and our current PM has banned virtually every semi-auto rifle and over 70% of the population agrees with this policy

2) The people who do have decent guns (illegally) are overwhelming either rightwing (who want better relations with the states) or injuns (who hate the fed) and neither of who are in or near our urban centres.

3) America could literally surround half Canadians population in a day by taking lower Ontario.

4) Our army is so underfunded we don't even have rifles and ammo enough for training. Soldiers during their bi-annual training just pull the trigger and say bang

Veteran CBS News reporter Jan Crawford dinged news organizations for not thoroughly covering President Biden's "obvious cognitive decline" this year until it became unavoidable during his disastrous debate against Donald Trump over the summer.

Crawford, the network's chief legal correspondent, insisted stronger reporting on the topic could have changed the entire election as she responded to a question from "Face the Nation" moderator Major Garrett about the most underreported story in 2024.

"Undercovered and underreported, that would be, to me, Joe Biden's obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable in the televised debate," she said on the Sunday morning show.

further reading: https://nypost.com/2024/12/19/us-news/white-house-aides-hid-bidens-apparent-mental-decline-from-day-1-of-his-presidency-explosive-report-reveals/

tldr

Year 1:

Year 2:

Year 3:

Year 4:

MASS SHOOTING IN NYC: At least 13 victims shot at the Amazura Night Club located at 91-12 144th Pl, Jamaica, Queens. Massive crime scene set up. Unknown conditon of the victims. pic.twitter.com/HDXGhA3HJo

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 2, 2025