https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/10/the-true-cost-of-game-piracy-20-percent-of-revenue-according-to-a-new-study/

Throughout the game industry's short history, there's been ample debate about how much piracy actually impacts a game's legitimate sales. On one side, some publishers try to argue that every single pirated download should count as a "lost sale" that they would have logged in a theoretical piracy-free world. On the other side, some wiseacres argue that most pirates would never consider paying for a legitimate version of the game in the first place or that piracy can actually be useful as a word-of-mouth promotional tool.

While the true effect of piracy on sales revenue is likely somewhere between those two extremes, piracy's precise financial impact on a game has always been hard to nail down. Now, though, a recently published study uses post-release cracks of Denuvo's DRM protections as a sort of natural experiment on games sales in pre- and post-piracy worlds. The results "imply an average proportionate loss of revenue of around 19 percent in each week of release if a crack is available," according to the study, suggesting that effective DRM can actually have a significant impact on a publisher's bottom line.

The data dance

In "The Revenue Effects of Denuvo Digital Rights Management on PC Video Games," published in the peer-reviewed journal Entertainment Computing, UNC research associate William Volckmann examines 86 different Denuvo-protected games initially released on Steam between September 2014 and the end of 2022. That sample includes many games where Denuvo protection endured for at least 12 weeks (when new sales tend to drop off to "negligible" amounts for most games) and many others where earlier cracks allowed for widespread piracy at some point.

A majority of Denuvo games studied remained uncracked during the crucial 12-week sales window after release. Credit: Entertainment Computing / William Volckmann

Crucially, the presence and/or specific timing of a crack's availability couldn't be effectively predicted by characteristics like pricing or critical review scores. That makes the existence of a crack "a practically exogenous event" that can be used to effectively segregate a game's revenues in a no-piracy world (i.e., before the Denuvo crack is available) and a piracy-filled world (i.e., after the crack's release). The variable timing of different crack releases also helps the relative analysis, since "revenue is highest close to the release date, and therefore a crack that appears close to the release date has a disproportionately large effect on revenue," Volckmann writes.

Unfortunately, the lack of good publicly available sales data for most games makes it difficult to measure these revenue effects directly. To estimate a Steam game's relative sales decline in each week after release, Volckmann uses a proxy that combines the number of new Steam user reviews and, for single-player narrative games, the game's average active player count. While Volckmann acknowledges that these imperfect estimates represent "the biggest limitation of this study," any estimated biases away from actual sales data seem likely to cancel out across the various games in the sample.

"The no-crack counterfactual"

After applying some complex statistical models to the underlying data, Volckmann finds that, unsurprisingly, relative revenues in the weeks following a crack's release are lower than the baseline expectation for uncracked games in the same time period. These negative effects of a crack on revenues—which are highly statistically significant (p<0.01)—"impl[ies] that the appearance of a crack reduces revenue relative to the no-crack counterfactual," Volckmann writes.

The longer a game's DRM lasts, the fewer new sales are left to be affected by piracy. Credit: Entertainment Computing / William Volckmann

Just how much money a publisher can expect to lose from a Denuvo crack, though, depends heavily on how quickly the game is cracked, Volckmann finds. A Denuvo-protected game cracked in the first week after release can expect to make about 20 percent less revenue than if the DRM had remained in place, according to the study, while a crack six weeks after a game's release only costs an estimated 5 percent of theoretical total revenue. After 12 weeks, new sales are so negligible that "developers could eventually remove unpopular DRM schemes with minimal losses (and possible gains from strongly DRM-averse consumers)," Volckmann suggests (and some publishers have done just that after Denuvo is no longer effectively protecting new sales).

Volckmann's data lines up with public statements that Denuvo-maker Irdeto has made regarding the need for DRM to protect a game's crucial post-launch window. "We don't position Denuvo Anti Tamper as being uncrackable—no anti piracy solution is," Denuvo VP of Sales Robert Hernandez told Ars in 2017. "However, our goal is to keep each title safe from piracy during the crucial initial sales window when most of the sales are made."

The difference between a week 1 Denuvo crack and a week 6 crack can be significant amounts of revenue. Credit: Entertainment Computing / William Volckmann

Overall, according to Volckmann's data, Denuvo is doing just that. The median Denuvo-protected games lose almost no sales to piracy, Volckmann suggests, because the protection "more often than not" goes uncracked in that initial 12-week window. In a world with no DRM, on the other hand, Volckmann projects those games could expect 20 percent less revenue at the median.

Whatever you think of DRM schemes like Denuvo, the potential to protect against that kind of revenue hit is something that major publishers might find hard to ignore. And there are signs that Denuvo's protection is becoming more crack-resistant in recent months; the CrackWatch subreddit lists 28 Denuvo-protected games released so far in 2024, 26 of which remain uncracked and two of which were cracked well outside the 12-week release window. As we see in this study, that kind of robust protection can be worth a significant amount to a piracy-wary game publisher.

Hey, here's a radical idea: make good games again and people will buy them again. Continue making shit and people will continue to not buy it.

!g*mers

I was kinda into porn during puberty but now I'm kinda a goonette in other ways and it's honestly so embarassing. I also realize how porny my taste in men is, like I don't even want a real guy but some porn himbo who just gruffs and puffs and says shitty dirty talk and then disappears into the ether when we're not fricking. But again I don't watch porn much so idk how much can be blamed on it and aren't just my actual desires. The porno dudes are still closely aligned to what I want in a guy except I would like him to actually speak and have some cool skills and stuff.

70 years ago you would have been lobotomized

bring them back imo

insane to see how quickly girls have adopted the term "goonette"

textbook cultural appropriation. male gooners are smoking meth and watching hardcore porn compilations on six monitors like a bond trader. female ""goonettes"" are fantasizing about a masculine man who has s*x with them (??)

I'm 28 F, grown as heck and yet I broke down sobbing yesterday because of the reality that I'll never wake up and be an immortal magical being who spends their life questing and adventuring and saving the world. Like even if your only goal in life is to become rich, as long as you're still alive that's a possibility..but my dreams can never come true. I'm still a mortal human working 40 hrs a week to barely survive. Does anyone else feel like reading too much fantasy has been detrimental to their mental health like this? I'm genuinely so heart broken that I'll never get to go on an adventure in middle earth.

>grown as heck

It's another episode of "Help! I never grew up!" where OP goes to the hugbox that probably helped her into this mess

Most of the responses are well-intentioned (and mostly r-slurred) advice about how to step away from the cliff of psychosis, but these brave few tell OP to do a cannon ball into insanity

|

Aliens are visiting our planet and AI is about to be sentient. The sky is the fricking limit. Just be patient and give it a few years

|

Ok. This may sound weird, but there a whole universe of beyond your imagination out there. Apparently, this is real r/astralprojection

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You might be reincarnated as a great King/Queen or philosopher with a life full of adventure :) ever had any crazy dreams that felt farmiliar

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we are about to experience medical breakthroughs unlike any other time. if you can survive for the next 10 years then we will all be functionally immortal.. and then u can have all the crazy adventures you want! hahaha

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Listen, you cannot possibly think that your existence ends here. Your consciousness will always live on as non-existence is not possible. We all will get reincarnated. | _{(I lost the link for this one)}

This. I really hate it when tone-deaf privileged people make sweeping assumptions and extrapolations based on their privileged backgrounds.

(The assumptions and extrapolations being that OP should go outside)

You go, King! Fight the power!

Let them know we won't take it lying down when they tell us... Uh, wait, hang on a second...

When they tell us "poor people have any agency at all in their lives"!

Even the average /r/fantasy user found this to be too loserish and offered a rebuttal

These guys take the topic as seriously as it deserves

|Link

Yeah I had to stop watching that Pixar movie cars for the same type thing. I was absolutely heart broken that I would never be a car. I mean people who dream of being a dr have a chance but me?! No!!! I'll never be a car!!! And it's not fair!!!!! 38m

Link

Have you considered becoming a vagrant?

You'd get to go on epic adventures to acquire loot (copper piping) while avoiding the minions of the Dark Lord (the police).

Hmm, perhaps you need a reality check. Read some grimdark.

This is good advice. She might disavow reading entirely after one of those

Link

Your in good company. The world is full of delusional people who are looking forward to a future existence in a magical wonderland... It's called religion.

Link

I remember telling a CBT therapist I had that there were deep issues in my life that couldn't be solved. He asked me, in a can-do way, what kind of issues. I said, 'Well, for example, the fact there are no dragons.'

He was lost for a reply haha.

And then he used my payment for that session to wipe his tears after being verbally destroyed

Most Based Comments

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔘

If I had it, I'd pay a million dollars to keep Trump out of office. (10)

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔘🔘

My 401k has went up $200k in 2 years under Biden..  it dropped under Trump.  I'll keep the growth over time to not have a disturbed economy  (-8)

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔘🔘

[deleted] (34)

When did he say that? Where is it reported? (4)

Angriest Comments

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

I refuse to believe it's difficult in actuality because of how money strapped people are in here when it comes to other absurd hypotheticals. I'd like to believe those who say Kamala are just saying it to preserve their karma and account history as being left leaning, as this kind of hypothetical can destroy the credibility of those accounts arguing in political subs. Reality is the vast majority of us would take the 1 million in a heart beat. (100)

Nah think about it this way, consider the person you absolutely hate the most in the world, with the fire of a thousand suns. Now you have a choice: you get a million dollars, but this person you hate has all their dreams come true and is handed untold riches and power OR you can say no to a million dollars (be no worse off than you are right now) and in return you completely ruin the life of the person you hate most, send them down the path of their worst nightmares, sentencing them to a cascade of punishment and accountability for the rest of their miserable life?I personally have enough hate in my heart to give up the million and punish the person I hate most… There are plenty of other people who genuinely hate Trump that much. (3)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

He's an butthole, but a transparent one. And our economy was in MUCH better shape (lightyears better) in his 3rd and 4th years in office then it is right now.If they have to choose, people in the working classes who pay their own bills are more interested in the economy then in civil rights. Not to mention Harris is a disengenous liar. She had 4 years as VP and accomplished nothing of what her platforms are. I think if Democrats actually gave people a genuinely decent human being who wasn't crooked then it would be a landslide. (3)

What is it about Harris that is 'crooked' - bearing in mind the actual meaning of the word.If you're talking crooked to mean corrupt, you would do well to turn the mirror on Trump for those matters. The economy is doing better in this term - literally >>> "I've hesitated to say this at the risk of sounding hyperbolic," wrote Mark Zandi, the respected chief economist at Moodys, just a few days ago. "But … there is no denying it: this is among the best performing economies in my 35+ years as an economist." Growth: up. Jobs: up. Wages: rising. The value of your home: up. Share prices: booming. Inflation: falling. Borrowing rates: dropping. <<< (quote from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/10/kamala-harris-presidential-election-us-economy-wages) but as this article expands on, that feeling has not permeated down through the layers so doesn't feel that way, but is measurably better than is being portrayed. The feeling for this being stagnation and deprivation over decade... (1)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

He tried to get a legal election overturned. That's a pretty undemocratic act.But also, he had weaponized the office. He constantly threatens political rivals, which is basically anyone who doesn't agree that the 2020 election was stolen from him. And that's what causes the threat to democracy as a whole. (Canadian though, so my knowledge is based on "crazy neighbour" concern). (24)

Not only did he try to get a legal election overturned, but he tried to get a legal election overturned utilizing his MAGA crowd as his army, inciting and sending them down to the capitol, for the purpose of distracting the certification of the vote long enough to, in the backend, use a false slate of electors, submitting them to Mike Pence to have him certify them instead as a means of literally altering the vote in his favour. He engaged in entirely illegal activity to circumvent the will of the voters.As far as I can recall, a large majority of the fake electors have been charged with filing false instruments, or have agreed to some kind of immunity deal, and 7 of Trump's aides have been indicted. Note that the charges against the fake electors can only be brought to them if it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they knew that they were engaging in illegal activity by signing the fraudulent certificates, so there are a number of them that have testified that they were u... (5)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/Taurondir

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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

https://old.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/1g0dgx7/how_a_uk_treaty_could_spell_the_end_of_the_io/

Orange Site discussion

That is all.

!kino !anime

Other funny I stuff I found.

!chuds https://old.reddit.com/r/SipsTea/comments/1g0g6zu/wait_your_turn/

bonus image for @kaamrev and the !ringbearers

https://kiwifarms.st/threads/if-you-dont-care-dont-post.202028/

This form of email verification, much like /biz/'s modified email verification, requires the user to wait 15 minutes to post, or verify their email. At least there's a way to skip having to wait 300 seconds (if a thread) or 60 seconds (if a reply), but I tried verifying with protonmail and it took nearly a minute to send the email.

https://www.transgenderpulse.com/forums/index.php?%2Ftopic%2F24854-if-turtles-are-becoming-doctors-then-we-need-a-defense%2F

!schizomaxxxers @screamkwinn @Ninjjer @grizzly @Soren

bonus

-->i got kicked for 30 mins but came back to say their channel was crappy and my message went through<--

I asked this-->

Got kicked, sccidently leftand came back and wanted to test it if it would tell me im timoutted like last live i was in for saying klamidia 2024

>I kinda felt embarrased for harassing a 40 yyr old toddler

https://www.salon.com/2024/10/09/weaponizing-tragedy-for-political-capital-donald-trumps-assassination-attempts-fuel-maga/

!chuds

>duuude come on, it's so consoomer friendly, unlike those other live service games!

And then it turns out to be like all the other live service games

Anti-FOTM bros, I kneel.... I should have listened.....

Also !g*mers PSA, if you've ever downloaded HD2 onto your PC, you now have a rootkit on your PC that you can't uninstall. Enjoy!

https://old.reddit.com/r/PoliticalHumor/comments/1g0qrsk/biden_will_not_demand_his_name_to_be_put_on_all/

Also she has the face of a 15yo, but I guess that's Black Excellence at work!

Absolute chad lebanese immigrant makes all /r/politics users dilate all at once

I'm half Arab, and I do have a choice on who I vote for. And I'm very happy to cast that vote for Harris.

I'm 73.07% Arab and happy to vote for Harris!

Interesting, I'm a quarter Arab and I'm happy to vote for Trump.

Battle of the percentege-arabs

What makes you vote for trump?

The worm in his brain is calling the shots.

I think his immigration policy is good; the reason I'm here was my family trying to get away from the people from my home country. Only the best of the best culture-wise should be accepted.

Christ's sake, just call yourself a supremacist, it's much faster than whatever hateful bullshit you just spat at us.

Do you hear yourself?

I heard him, he's correct. Gtfo.

Think what you wish

Facts exist, and they don't agree with your un-American fascist butt. You want to live in a religious dictatorship then feel free to move to Iran, saubi Arabia, Russia or some other similar place. Stop trying to ruin the united states because you're a pants Pooping coward

>I ran away from home to escape the religious nutjobs, please don't bring them here too

>Frick you for wanting to live under a religious dictatorship

I don't want to live in a religious dictatorship. Lebanon was rather secular until millions of "refugees" came in, started demanding voting rights, and overthrew the sitting government in favor of becoming a Iranian puppet state.

If you don't want to live in a religious dictatorship, then maybe don't vote for a puppet of Christian extremists who want to install a religious dictatorship? Christian extremists are not any better than Muslim extremists.

I don't remember when we started stoning people.

West hating commies have no idea how good they have it

You realize if Trump had his way when your family was "trying to get away" your family wouldn't have been allowed in right?

It was substantially harder to immigrate to the nation when my family came than it was under Trump.

Congrats, Trump actively hates you and wishes you were dead.

Can you reference me to a source?

You genuinely need a source to prove that Trump doesn't like brown people? If so, that's on you. You've had a decade to figure that out.

I'm not brown, and every slander I've seen on him calling him racist has been out of context, i.e. when he supposedly called Mexicans male feminists when he was referring to gangs, or when he said there's "good people on both sides" and then immediately said "and I'm not talking about [the nazis]," interestingly cut out of the media clips.

I'd like to ask where exactly there are "good people" on the side of white supremacists.

There's no use with you.

This week he was saying immigrants are criminals with "bad genes". Super racist, also immigrants in the US commit crimes at a rate lower than natural born citizens. ALSO if he actually cared about border security he wouldn't have told republicans to vote against a strong bipartisan border security bill just to avoid giving his political opponents a win.

You are brown. You aren't 100% white. The fact you have Arab blood in you will never make you white in the eyes of his supporting base.

Feel free to get out of this country, you un-American fascist

Insane to call half of the nation fascist. I wonder if you think that word is synonymous with nationalism.

Very sane to call 1/3rd of the nation and slightly less than half of active voters fascist, when they're supporting fascists.

Again, I wonder if you think that fascism is when nationalism.

Feel free to look up Umberto Eco. It's a very good definition of it.

All 14 points of which trumpism includes.

Deport yourself to a fascist country, it's where you want to live. Stop pissing on the graves of every veteran in my family (and every veteran period) with your pants Pooping coward politics.

Interesting you cite veterans, the veterans on the other side of my family & most I know support Trump. Edit: I will look up your definition, but itll take some time.

Any veteran who supports Trump has betrayed with oath to the country and also enjoys getting their faces pissed on by trump. He calls veterans idiots, losers, sucker, and wants to destroy their veterans benefits.

Trumpism is treason, for pants Pooping cowards deathly afraid that someone not like them will have rights.

You're un-American shitbags thst use the constitution for potty paper. Leave this country you hate so much.

get out, nazi lover.

What a way to dilute the word

Not diluting the word even in the slightest. Trump had Steve Bannon in his administration, who is a self-described neonazi.

If you have 10 people at a table and one of them is a nazi, you have 10 nazis. Unless that table in court at Nuremberg.

But We all know you're pulling-the-ladder-up-after-you white christian supremacist self will deny reality while you piss on the constitution.

"Why can't we criticize Kamala just a little?!"

They're right, a vote for Jill Stein is a vote for more dead Palestinians and more Muslim discrimination in the United States. Remember the Muslim ban? Harris is the only choice. A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump.

This should be higher. The pro-Palestinians have their pride, but there are children in Gaza that will literally die if Trump wins. It's crazy that their are activists in the US too cowardly to support Harris.

Children are already dying in Gaza. For over a year now. Biden could have forced a ceasefire with one phone call. He chose not too. "Working tirelessly" my butt, one fricking phone call. Israel is now invading Lebanon, despite how badly that went the other times they tried, bombing Yemen, and further provoking Iran. I guess we're getting another war. Most of the American population supports that sadly. I guess we're gonna have to learn the hard way, again. I pray this one is what destroys our stranglehold over the region.

Sure, maybe China can move in after America abandons Middle East and put all muslims into camps

Sorry to break it to you but those kids are dying if Harris gets elected, or if Trump gets elected. So either way you're voting for more dead kids... unless you vote for somebody else.

Harris I believe will try to stop this. Trump doesn't care how many kids die as long as it benefits him. It's true that kids will die whether Harris or Trump gets elected but the scale of the deaths and whether the killing stops is what this election is about.

you can believe whatever you like. but in that case i certainly hope you aren't out here calling out evangelical christians and trump supporters for also making policy decisions based on vague "beliefs" entirely contrary to observed reality.

>nooo you must vote for us, we'll be marginally better than drumph, we promise

>no

Democrats are in charge right now and there are literally children dying in Palestine right now though. It didn't happen under Trump, it's happening under Biden who has given Israel lethal aid to the tune of $18 billion.

I don't understand exactly how voting for a Democrat will save Palestinian children when they've been giving Israel billions with zero stipulations to that money. Is the difference that Trump will call Palestinians dogs to their face whereas Biden/Kamala will do it behind closed doors?

Do you want more dead Palestinians or a lot more dead Palestinians? Choose wisely. Welcome to Earth.

if you're saying that palestinians will be wantonly murdered regardless i'm half tempted to go with the decision that will make you, personally, more miserable tbh. i'm spiteful like that.

And what exactly are democrats doing that republicans wouldn't in this case? Israel is getting full throated support regardless and entire generations of families have been massacred. These empty threats don't work when 43,000 Palestinians have been murdered and this is the count from July.

Well the good news is if you get your way Trump will not bother with the empty threats and will start sizing up the gaza strip for a golf course. But don't worry, I'm sure the Palestinians will pat you on the back for being such a true warrior

Let's be honest. Either candidate in this race is a vote for more dead Palestinians. Harris will at least occasionally wag her finger at Netanyahu, but I don't believe that she'll do anything to actually constrain Netanyahu.

On the domestic front, Harris is objectively light-years ahead of Trump. That's why I voted for her, because I'm not a single issue voter.

They are not equal. Trump definitely greenlight total Palestinians annihilation. He has said as much. Trump will enable Netanyahu as much as possible.

Allegedly there is talk Netanyahu is offering the Trump family Gaza real estate for tourism opportunities.

God I hope this true, imagine the seethe

I think there's actually a modest chance that she actually changes course.

However it is maddening that she will not do anything but toe Biden's line. It makes it impossible to know what to expect so we can only expect no change in either direction which is terrible.

The fact that Netanyahu wants Trump to win should be a red flag

The fact that if Harris doesn't change Biden's course Netanyahu will still have access to an infinite amount of financial, military, and PR support is also a red flag.

She needs to change our current course or she will be party to genocide, end of discussion.

And if trump is elected he'll do what now?

It is genuinely pathetic to never ever entertain anything critical about Harris and to always drop this thought terminating cliche into every conversation about Gaza

You can criticize Harris while still acknowledging she's the significantly better choice regarding this issue

I wouldn't say significant until she takes a stance of any kind that is better than Biden, who has been horrific on Gaza.

Trump has straight up called on Israel to 'finish the job'. I think supplying a geopolitical ally with funding whilst advocating for a ceasefire is a lesser evil than advocating for complete annihilation any way you cut it

Dunno, completely wiping off one side will end the conflict immediately

And if trump is elected he'll do what now?

You're on par with MAGA cultists btw. Don't question, just redirect away from dear leader.

If she's still delivering JDAMs to Israel next spring, the blood of children will be on your hands for not demanding more from her.

Their point is it's either her or Trump, buddy. And with Harris there's at least a possibility of harm reduction.

Trump? Nahhhh

Their point?

That was my point, like 5 posts up.

But as I said, the thought terminating cliche has turned your thoughts off, too, so you forgot.

Braindead leftie complains about other braindead lefties

This is true, she might lead the same way as Biden but if she does we the people can do something and that's called protest. If Trump wins he will not allow such actions and will have immunity to act out all his psychotic plans.

But all they do is call protesters antisemites? If theu dont care now and dont bother engaging in good faith what makes you think they will care once Harris is guaranteed 4 years as a president?

Maybe calling everyone a nazi was a bad idea? Ooops too late now you nazi

Its almost funny for someone to say that more Palestinians will die under Trump than have already died under Biden and would die under Harris. She is going to keep the same people as Biden like McGurk and Hochstein that are running the genocide right now. Gaza is unlivable now. She said nothing will change from Biden and she has said nothing differently from Biden. Its as if she heard people wanted to vote for her because she might be better on Palestine and decided to nip that in the bud ASAP.

Trump will give Netanyahu his OK to go rogue on Gaza. 40 thousand people dead is way too high, even if a third of them are Hamas and nobody should care about them quite frankly. But Trump would let Bibi deport the 2 million people left in Gaza to some hellhole in Africa.

Its been at 40,000 dead for months, which is only the directly confirmed deaths recorded at hospitals that Israel has systematically destroyed. The number trapped under rubble is another 10-15,000 people and doctors that worked in Gaza have said the death toll is likely 100,000+ people 5% of the population. The third that are "Hamas" is counted by Israel as every adult male killed. From The Lancet, "Counting the dead in Gaza":

"A report from Feb 7, 2024, at the time when the direct death toll was 28 000, estimated that without a ceasefire there would be between 58 260 deaths (without an epidemic or escalation) and 85 750 deaths (if both occurred) by Aug 6, 2024."

Israel and Biden were going to "voluntarily transfer" Palestinians into the Sinai desert at the beginning of the war and offered an IMF loan to Egypt before it said no. Whoever is the president they are going to probably kick them out as a "humanitarian gesture" at this point because Gaza is completely destroyed.

It hasn't been 40 thousand people dead for months. Stop lying. If all of Gaza was destroyed there would not be 2 million people in Gaza and if Israel really wanted all Gazans be dead, they would have no problem achieving that.

I think its been at 40,000 since the summer, but I don't feel like looking it up. That's probably an easy thing to figure out. And Israel is trying to kill Palestinians as fast as they can. 40,000 is 110 people killed per day. They mainly kill with bombs and seldom send in ground troops. I don't really know what killing at the fastest rate would look like to you. They want them to either leave or die. There are 100,000 Palestinians in Egypt right now that bribed guards to get across the border.

Leftist upset that other leftists will lie about facts to promote their leftist agenda

"Did I mention that I'm trans yet? You have to vote like me now!"

Successfully radicalizing a subset of the left against Biden / Harris due to the atrocities occurring in Palestine was I fear a masterstroke by those who want Trump in power. It's wild to watch extremely liberal and trans people I know vow not to vote at all. Do they not understand that all that does is help Trump win? That despite their best intentions, this could in fact make things worse? All I see in the end are not people who abstain from voting due to their conscience, but people who are effectively saying they are okay with a Trump presidency.

We judge ourselves on intention and others on their action. NOT voting is an action, an action that says you didn't do the bare minimum to prevent a Trump presidency.

Right now, the only moral thing to do is vote Harris, because short of electing her we are absolutely chunked as a country and as a planet. Just so many consequences to this. Climate change, supreme court, human rights, basic rule of law! etc. etc. etc.

Right now, to say you won't vote because Biden wanted war, is cutting off your nose to spite your face. It's short sighted, misguided, and dangerous. Deal with him Nov. 6th once we finally rid ourselves of that walking colostomy bag once and for all.

It's insane. I understand they want to protest against US arms sales to Israel given what is happening in Gaza right now, but what do they think happen if Trump wins. It will be even worse, and when every Palestinian has been driven completely out of Israel or killed, Trump will probably go to stand in the rubble and as the dust clears say "I told you I'd get peace in the Middle East done." and actually be praised for it. Then they want to militarise the US police force and probably force out immigrants and other people they don't like with the same level of force. That anyone would choose to not vote in order to protest against the alternative to Trump and all the utterly deplorable snakes he is surrounded by is just madness.

Yep!!

Hamas delegation visited Moscow just 10 days after Oct 7th. And Nancy Pelosi thinks the pro Palestine cult is boosted by dirty Russian money. Plus the international media all of a sudden focussing on the Middle East instead of Ukraine definitely helps Putin.

It's all linked!!

If only leftists would realize that they are just as easily manipulated by foreign entities as MAGAtards are

It's pretty wild how not wanting to vote for a genocide has to be some sort of conspiracy and not, you know, the expected consequences of a party supporting genocide.

Don't complain if the candidate with a worse stance on the war wins and let's the people you disagree with bomb the people you want to save out of existence 🤷‍♀️

I will blame Democrats for running on an unpopular platform of supporting genocide.

They have an obligation to adopt popular, electable policies, and they are currently not meeting it.

Stop throwing the word genocide around because it makes you feel good to blame the Jews. The ICJ has not ruled on this yet.

So you chose to actively aid the people who said "yeah level gaza to build a golf field". The real 1000 IQ play.

This right here. Gaslighting voters for not supporting genocide is wild.

This narrative is missing the point. Condemning a genocide approaching holocaust levels of death is not radical. Demanding that the president or vice president, both democrats, stop using u.s. taxpayer money to fund said genocide, is not radical. The only moral thing for them to do is cut off all u.s. funding to Israel and all weapons deals. But they refuse to do it, won't stop repeating lies about October 7, and have dug their ditch to fail into on election night. Stop gaslighting voters for actually having a conscience, and stop with the holier than thou attitude. This is exactly why 180,000 gazans have been murdered. Because enough voters will just dehumanize them for their own interest of seeing Trump lose.

The population of Palestine has increased in the past year. The Holocaust killed 6 million Jews. Escape the extremely obvious echochamber you're in and stop spreading blatantly false information.

Frick off. 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust, and that doesn't even count the gays, gypsies, Poles, or the disabled. Maybe 40000 people have died in Gaza, and many of them were combatants.

Lamo at semites inflating their victimhood numbers

Maybe hold the terrorists and their supporters accountable

Why does the Author not demand that Hamas return the hostages? Hamas has rejected several ceasefires and refused to return hostages. Returning the remaining hostages would result in a ceasefire and end the war. Hamas has killed and holds American hostages too - yet neither the Author nor our leaders (other than Trump) mentions the Americans being held by this foreign enemy.

Does the Author also condemn Communist China, which is committing a UN-declared Genocide against his fellow Muslims? Yet another large scale genocide and/or slaughter at the hands of socialists - be they national or global socialists.

Because they are the bad guy and won't listen to anyone so demanding things of them is just pissing in the wind.

The question is are there two bad guys in this war or just one?

There's more than two sides, Iran is behind much of this.

I can't believe Iran turned our nutjobs against us

Because the residents of Gaza, which is of similar size and population to the city of Denver, has no way to return the hostages to Israel.

The average Gazan voted Hamas into power. They celebrated October 7th, and September 11th in the Street. They celebrated dead Americans and Israelis. Would you suggest that the Allies should not have invaded Nazi Germany because there could be (and was) collateral damage? Rather, let Hitler dictate terms of a casefire. Hamas has refused ceasefire offers.

What do you suggest? Let Hamas stay in power?

The average Gazan would have been a kid the last time there was an election.

The average Gazan of voting age. Hamas won elections, they are popular with Palestinians. Their slogan is "From the river to the sea" - what do you think that means exactly? They said, after putting babies in ovens and raping and killing women, "This is what #decolonization looks like".

That was 18 years ago, and regardless the residents have no way to return the hostages.

What would you do if you were in the same situation? The reality is that you would do nothing except starve, because HAMAS is an Iranian paramilitary with weapons, and you aren't.

9/11 was in 2001, so 23 years ago. And october 7th was much more recent. Gazans celebrated both events. Gazan celebration of violence against non-muslims, both a long standing pattern, and recent. Don't make it sound like a 1-off 20+ years ago, because it is not. I'm puzzled why you think Americans should shed a tear, when they would gladly celebrate the death of random Americans. I will continue not giving a frick, thanks.

You're right that the average Gazan cannot do much, but they should not have voted in Hamas. The average gazan is being oppressed by Hamas, and thus needs to be liberated. The IDF is liberating them. It doesn't matter if they don't want to be liberated, because Israel has a need and right to dismantle Hamas entirely.

There were plenty of videos from Iraq celebrating attacks on US troops, but it didn't make me want to carpet bomb cities. If that's what you mean by "shedding tears", OK, you got me.

And no, the median age in Gaza is 18 years old. Very few people would have even been voting age at the time. See the CIA factbook: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/about/archives/2021/countries/gaza-strip/images/b18f6e8a-8e81-51ed-ab96-0b190c7d3f8d

I'm in favor of the current international law about how civilians should be treated in captured areas. If you are trying to persuade me otherwise, I'm not persuadable about it.

"carpet bombing cities" is not what Israel is doing, this is a demonstrably false characterization by you. "Carpet bombing" is not equivalent to "there is some collateral damage". Look it up on wikipedia, the definition does not match what Israel is doing. Israel is doing targeted strikes on terrorists. The rate of collateral damage, for urban warfare against terrorists embedded in civilian areas is historically low.

I don't think Israel should allow terrorists who want to kill them all to remain in power, because removing them as a threat would involve some amount of civilian casualties. That seems to be what you are suggesting.

If you have nine people at a table and one terrorist then you have ten terrorists at the table

Average palicuck arguments

That's correct. There are two options and she is clearly the better choice

Jill Stein has a path to 270. There are three options.

Jill Stein's campaign has literally admitted they have no path to 270 and that their goal is to deny Kamala swing state victories. Abso fricking lutely not.

Harris could move left and adopt Green Party policies in order to earn those votes. I doubt she would though.

As usual leftists are their own worst enemies

I think saying "Trump is worse" is the wrong move.

The right move is saying "Netanyahu wants Trump to win".

Considering Biden is letting him do his thing, and Kamala seems barely different, I think Bibi is content with either result. Especially since the US is probably gonna join in full force BEFORE the election.

I agree, however Bibi and Trump openly ideologically agree with one another and they have business deals they want to broker on the blood soaked soil. An open fascist will pick an open fascist to buddy up over a liberal fascist.

I'm West Asian and this has been very complex for me to navigate, it's boiling down to who I want to spite more. I'm honestly still not sure what I will do.

At least you acknowledge Biden as a liberal fascist. I can agree on that

So many new flavors of fascism

I have seen so many Arab Americans on social media simping for Jill Stein it's getting ridiculous.

I guess those people want everyone to suffer by letting Trump win. I honestly and sincerely think there will be a holocaust of Palestinians if Trump wins.

Palestine is already being genocided, even if the news just kinda glosses over it. Israel is invading Lebanon, having not learned from the other times, and is dragging other countries into fighting it. Biden could have easily used one phone call to end this FAR sooner, but he chose war.

Ah yes, Biden should choose to make big ultimatums and swing his peepee around Netanyahu, potentially permanently losing the nation of Israel as an ally, and probably getting nothing of substance in return as far as the war goes.

How does "one phone call" magically make Hamas disband AND magically make Netanyahu stop wanting to wipe the people of Palestine off the planet?

For such a grandstanding, pearl-clutching, holier-than-thou person, you seem really happy ignoring the fact that Trump would let Israel turn the Gaza Strip to glass for the simple fact that he's too lazy, unintelligent, and uncaring (not to mention racist) to even think of helping the Palestinean people.

You know that Obama made "one phone call" and stopped hellfire missiles shipments to Israel in 2014 after they invaded Gaza. Israel can't continue this war without American weapons —their entire air-force is American, their bombs are, their artillery shells, even their prime minister is from Philly. We block UN security council votes that would impose a ceasefire and we are funding their economy that would have collapsed already. The nation of Israel is totally dependent on us this can easily be stopped.

How is Trump going to make the Gaza strip any worse than it is right now? Its is rubble. They are beginning to cordon off sections of it and will probably put settlers in soon. They are likely to kill everyone in the north or make them flee.

Tbf I want to see Biden swing his peepee around Bibi

There's already been a holocaust of Palestinians under Biden and Harris. About 180,000 dead now.

The 180k estimate is extremely high. It's based on extremely shoddy methodology and simply not true. The 43k number is likely much closer to the truth.

The Holocaust comparison is also absurd. It's just not even remotely close by the numbers.

All of Palestine destroyed, but you're right, that's not a Holocaust 🙄

6 Million people died in the Holocaust. Obviously, the deaths in Gaza are also horrible, but A).there's a big difference between casualties of war and literal ethnic cleansing and B).there's a massive difference in scale between 40k and 6Million. Gaza (aka Hamas) also started the conflict by attacking Israel and taking hostages, which is a total different situation than the Holocaust where people were murdered for being Jews.

I don't want to minimize what is happening in Gaza and I want peace as well, but comparing it to the Holocaust is just absurdly stupid. Gtfo with your emojis and sass.

I'm running out of palicuck marseys

Unfortunately there are a group of Arab's who strongly align with the anti LGBTQ messaging of the right, believe that Trump is the better choice for helping bring peace to middle east, and think they can gain political sway because they can become a voting block that will demand attention if they can help get Trump elected.

In other words, there are idiots in the Arab community (as with every other community).

Complete delusional morons. How TF do you forget the muslim travel ban?

Except they benefited from Democrat protection before but are not willing to extend it to other minorities.

How dare these stinky browns think for themselves?

Honestly why was this so hard to come around on?

Performative politics at its finest. Having the 'uncommitted' lingering out there didn't help things.

Because the Biden administration has been complicit in helping Israel commit genocide on Palestinians.

Trump would be a worse outcome for Palestinians, but it's exceptionally difficult to vote for someone who is a part of the same administration that's currently sending over bombs that are being used to blow up your relatives.

The ICJ has not ruled on genocide yet, so don't casually throw accusations around!

The science hasn't been settled yet chud

At this point in time, I think Israel is playing chicken with the US election, hedging bets on GOP promises that they'll get elected. If the Dems can take back Congress, there's a lot more teeth to enforce actions.

Biden has the power to stop this now. He chose war

Thanks, one-month-old-account-with-9000-karma-who-only-posts-about-politics-and-Palestine. I keep forgetting that Joe Biden is the president of Israel.

Also, I liked it better when you played for the Habs than the Bruins.

One phone call. That's all it took before, that's all it would take now. Israel is extremely dependent on America. Also, I don't understand the final sentence. And you should talk about Palestine too, fricking disgusting for you to downplay the nightmare they have been facing for over a YEAR, and all the years before that.

How about you tell the mullahs in Iran to not arm their proxies with weapons that they still shoot at Israel. I despise Netanyahu, he is part of the problem, but it was not Israel that started this war.

Lol gets caught, immediately pivots.

Account checking is always a good way to dodge an argument

If you're Pro-Palestine, the only reason not to vote for Harris is if you value your ego and "showing it to the dems!" more than the actual suffering of the Palestinian people.

Funny how so many Palestinian-Americans disagree with you. I guess you know better.

I know enough to know the difference in rhetoric of "finish the job" and "we want to work towards peace in the region, a two party state, and ceasefire". Both are bad for Palestine because Israel is getting armed either way BUT only one may actually listen, especially after she comes out from Biden's shadow if elected. Right now she's not allowed to differ from his policy on that issue but only with her is there at least a sliver of hope for them.

I'm sure that as soon as she becomes president Kamala will instantly nuke Israel and declare the Great Gaza Ethnostate

You'd be surprised. People do have other options and many will take them. If Harris actually wants to win, she'll have to address the extremists in her party and be more forceful on her push for peace in the region. Continuing to aid and abet and protect Israel in its ongoing criminal genocide is not the way.

Terrorist supporter complains that people against terrorists are extremists

The lesser of two evils, as is tradition.

Lesser of evils only applies when 2 or more awful people are candidates such as the 2016 election

They are starting to throw Hillary under the bus

I don't care if jannies consider this an effortpost or not, it's a 35k character long post with funny marseys and links all over the place. It's totally an effortpost

Fuck #India🇮🇳.

— Fuck Every Country (@fkeverycountry) October 4, 2024

The Dem Party has moved so far left that it has left centrists behind https://t.co/c4BTzNjwvX

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 10, 2024

been stealin since I was a kid

Mark this down. Trump's decision to rent out Madison Square Garden is an attempt to recreate the 1939 "America First" Nazi rally. Trump will use this to rally white-supremacist groups as his brown-shirt army to interfere with the election in urban population centers. pic.twitter.com/Imb6J0BbyZ

— Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) October 9, 2024

Mark this down!

Sorry @Murdervann I reread the comment and it's wildly disproportionate in meanness when I being nice

With Irish peacekeepers still refusing to leave their posts in Southern Lebanon so that the Israeli army can move in Zionists all over twitter are wetting their pants over the situation:

To see the active seethe just search the Hebrew word for Ireland on twitter. אירלנד

!palestine !jidf

!ringbearers !bookworms

You mentioned their relationship might remind people of their own relationships, including romantic. There were times watching Celebrimbor and Annatar that I wondered if there was some romantic, or even sexual, underpinning to what was going on there?

MCKAY I would say the nature of this relationship and its closeness, and the even the sexual tension in it, has been a source of speculation by may fans of the source material for many years. Anytime you're dealing with such powerful emotions as seduction and deception, I think it's easy for your imagination to go there.

PAYNE I think you can see it from the beginning of their interactions together in the second episode. Sauron is pulling Celebrimbor in by saying, "There are things I can only tell to you," and, "You always saw me the way no one else could" and "You're safe with me." You're seeing this intimate dance that Sauron is doing. So certainly we could see how people could take that a step further and ship them.

AAAAAAGHHHHHHHH

I thought shipping the Dark Lord with Galadriel was enough but apparently Celebrimbor/Annatar fan-fiction was important to the plot too.

MCKAY And it's also a story of the orcs, right? Adar is an orc who believes that orcs could be something more. They could have a home. He even seems to promise Galadriel they'll leave the rest of Middle-earth alone. In some ways, it's not just the story of how Sauron claims the orc nation, it's also the story of how there was a chance that orcs could have been a people in their own right

Muhh uruk lives matter. NOOO YOU CAN'T MAKE THE ORCERINOS BAD!

https://old.reddit.com/r/Rings_Of_Power/comments/1fzkmz5/rop_showrunners_think_celebrimbor_sauron_might_be/

The chud sub discussion

https://old.reddit.com/r/RingsofPower/comments/1fv22gu/bookfocused_discussion_thread_for_the_rings_of/

And it looks like not even the normie schlock site enjoyed the finale

Also, the Balrog destroying Khazad-dûm is just like the heckin climate change

Over in Khazad-dûm, I always had the impression that once the Balrog was released, he wreaked havoc and drove everyone out of the mines immediately. But in your story, this is more of a gradual corruption process. That city is still occupied and they're still going to be fighting for it going into season three.

MCKAY This is a thing where, how do societies fall? Usually it's gradually, and then all at once. If you want to use climate change as a metaphor, climate change is not an event. Climate change is a process that ebbs and flows, that's always headed in a dark direction. I think a kingdom as great and powerful as Khazad-dûm does not fall in a moment. The fall is the product of many disasters over time. And I think it would sell Khazad-dûm short for the Balrog to get out and then it's all over. It's more complicated. We think there's a bigger story to be told here.

I can't keep a secret sorry

Here are some substantial discount codes if you want a giant spooky Stonetoss head for decor

Or 50% off a flurk plush

!hallowhitesupremacists !chuds