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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#287201: Aug 9th 2019 at 6:43:22 PM

I agree, ~DrDougsh. I have been having similar thoughts about fictional villains.

Do not obey in advance.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#287202: Aug 9th 2019 at 6:46:32 PM

In simple terms, the Reactionary Right is a bit like Andrjez Sapkowski in they don't actually realize the video game industry is bigger than the NBA and several other sporting leagues combined revenue. They are under the impression it's a niche hobby and blaming it is a "safe" option. They're operating under decades old information like when they took on the music industry.

The video game industry can and does have billions of dollars to burn and they don't want to get them politically lobbying—but I almost hope they do.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Aug 9th 2019 at 6:46:52 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#287203: Aug 9th 2019 at 7:01:07 PM

Today's and yesterday's WTF Just Happened Today entries can be found ont he bottom of the last page here, if anybody wants to see them.

Robrecht Your friendly neighbourhood Regent from The Netherlands Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
Your friendly neighbourhood Regent
#287204: Aug 9th 2019 at 7:39:20 PM

[up][up] To be fair (not to the Reactionary Right, though), I know from experience that industry actually makes a lot of effort to obfuscate just how insanely much money is involved in it.

The big names in the video game industry use a tactic where they can make tons upon tons of money while barely paying any taxes. One they copied from the movie industry and then 'improved' on.

Basically what the big AAA publishers do is always make sure that they have a couple new projects going before the end of the fiscal year and then put basically everything they made in revenue from the last few games into the budget of the new ones. Because they're reinvesting all their money in the new games, they are, on paper, barely turning a profit or even operating at a loss and therefore pay very little in taxes.

This is why AAA game budgets are so ridiculously bloated. They don't actually need to put that much money into their games to make a profit. Most of that money goes into the marketing budget, the spending for which is... Well...

It's why AAA release parties are so lavish (it's so publisher big wigs and studio management can party it up on the company dime and have it be tax deductible because there's also some journos there). It's why you see management for mid tier publishers and studios pull shit like having business meetings in strip clubs or Hooters (They're copying what they're seen management for AAA publishers do, but unlike them, they don't quite have the budget to rent out classy restaurants or mansions to keep their debauchery behind closed doors.) It's why industry CEOs give themselves fat bonuses, but somehow can't seem to find the money on the books to pay their workers a living wage, hire enough people so they don't have to go into crunch or go without firing sometimes as much as 70% of their in-house studio's employees in the two months between the end of development for one game and the start of development for the next.

If they ever do suddenly need access to liquid funds, they simply cancel a game and take the money reserved for that budget for their expenses, then start development on a new game, the budget for which is the budget of the old game minus however much they needed in liquid assets.

The game industry is by no means the only industry in the US or elsewhere that pulls this kind of shit, but they are the most successful at it, particularly because the perception that video games are a very niche market and not at all big business and they're working very hard to keep that perception alive, at least as far as politicians and the parts of the media that don't focus on games are concerned.

Edited by Robrecht on Aug 9th 2019 at 4:44:03 PM

Angry gets shit done.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#287205: Aug 9th 2019 at 8:10:34 PM

I recommend an episode of PATRIOT ACT that talks about some of this and how huge the markets are.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
RainingMetal (Handed A Sword) Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#287206: Aug 9th 2019 at 8:26:23 PM

And actually talks about the influences of crunch and AAA penny pinching. Which was long overdue in mainstream media.

ASAB: All Sponsors Are Bad.
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#287207: Aug 9th 2019 at 9:31:23 PM

Well, in better news, TRMS is talking about a woman who won a lawsuit against the Daily Stormer to the tune of like seven hundred thousand dollars for the harassment the site caused against her. And evidently she's not the only one winning against that website right now.

https://www.newsweek.com/black-woman-awarded-725000-lawsuit-against-neo-nazi-who-led-harassment-campaign-against-her-1453614

https://www.newsweek.com/neo-nazi-ordered-pay-jewish-woman-14-million-damages-troll-storm-1453416

Edited by AceofSpades on Aug 9th 2019 at 11:39:16 AM

Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#287208: Aug 9th 2019 at 9:53:36 PM

"Good luck collecting on me, I'm not in America." -Andrew Anglin, The Daily Stormer

Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#287209: Aug 9th 2019 at 10:52:19 PM

Yup, I already mentioned that. The little fuck is residing somewhere overseas. They are never going to get that money and he'll continue business as usual, sadly.

Also, Daylistormer is back online again.

Edited by Forenperser on Aug 9th 2019 at 7:55:21 PM

Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
Codafett Knows-Many-Things Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Waiting for you *wink*
Knows-Many-Things
#287210: Aug 10th 2019 at 12:45:33 AM

@Charlie Phipps I just find it extremely entertaining how desperate the boomers on the Right are to blame video games. We hit the point so long ago where you can't just blame vidya for mass shootings but here they are. It's full blown denial at this point.

Like you said, not only is the video game industry a billion dollar entity right now, and not some niche thing you can only attach to basement dwellers but it's just such an outdated deflection. Like trying to say that bullying is the leading cause of mass killings.

Just Having Fun
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#287211: Aug 10th 2019 at 12:50:29 AM

To say nothing of the fact that violent games have been a thing for decades at this point, while any significant spike in mass shootings only really started a few years ago.

Below is an article on this dated 2014 that uses data from 1976~2012:

Mass Shootings Aren’t On the Rise

So even if 2012~2019 has shown a significant upward trend, it's unlikely that violent videogames are related. Violent videogames have been a thing long before 2012.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#287212: Aug 10th 2019 at 1:03:28 AM

It'd be hilarious if not for the fact it's because they're desperate to defend terrorists. Not even the gun manufacturers who they're at least being bribed by.

Actual fucking terrorists and they can't say, "It's because they're racist pieces of shit."

That removes all the humor.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#287213: Aug 10th 2019 at 1:04:55 AM

They can't admit that maybe the Angry White Man is a problem.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#287214: Aug 10th 2019 at 1:47:26 AM

Its sobering to realize white supremacy has its direct defenders in the highest level of government.

It shouldn't be a surprise but it kind of was.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#287215: Aug 10th 2019 at 1:52:03 AM

I kind of thought it would be obvious by the time it was clear just how hostile the GOP was to reaching some common ground with former President Obama. A big part of it — maybe the core part of it — was that they didn't like a black man having power over them.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#287216: Aug 10th 2019 at 1:59:43 AM

It was around Gingrich and Clinton that the Republicans started acting like the Democrats were an existential threat to humanity.

Or maybe that I just noticed.

It was Obama that I noticed some people were suffering Sanity Slippage and just did not get it.

I knew this guy who was an actual Birther. He was appalled in a visceral way that Obama was elected and assumed it could be magically undone like a magic spell.

It makes me sick realizing he couldn't cope with a world where a black man was President.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#287217: Aug 10th 2019 at 2:22:01 AM

Some white people lost their minds when Obama won.

Do not obey in advance.
Codafett Knows-Many-Things Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Waiting for you *wink*
Knows-Many-Things
#287218: Aug 10th 2019 at 3:16:25 AM

I posted this in the Gun Control thread and then it died, so Imma try again

https://popculture.com/trending/2019/08/10/suspect-arrested-with-rifle-missouri-walmart-allegedly-wanted-honored-second-amendment/ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-body-armor-armed-rifle-sparks-panic-missouri-walmart-n1040676

In Missouri, a (white) man walked into a Wal-Mart armed to the teeth. He was immediately arrested. I don't think he was an attempted active shooter, I think he was one of those assholes that take it upon themselves to be a one man militia and waltz around town with their guns and other weapons on display primarily just to make people uncomfortable.

Everytime I hear about those people and how they're "protected" by the 2nd amendment it just reminds me how badly these germs want to be action heroes. He doesn't care about how scared people were, in fact he found it amusing, and when confronted he goes on a tangent about open carry.

[up] As much as some people try to dress it up with questionable things that did admittedly happen during Obama's term, the real reason the GOP and so many white voters hated the guy was quite simply because he was black. I'm probably beating a dead horse but that was always the root and I hate when conservatives try and claim he was just a shit leader.

Edited by Codafett on Aug 10th 2019 at 3:25:14 AM

Just Having Fun
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#287219: Aug 10th 2019 at 3:41:17 AM

Let's be honest he probably wanted to get arrested for the attention,in some countries he'd have been shot on sight.

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#287220: Aug 10th 2019 at 4:21:54 AM

In simple terms, he was arrested because he was white and not shot on sight as we've seen with any black man who has a gun.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Soban Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
#287221: Aug 10th 2019 at 5:01:54 AM

It's also an example of a good guy with a gun in action (not the idiot).

Armed Firefighter Stops Gunman at Missouri Walmart Off-duty firefighter holds man at gunpoint until police arrive

Lucas said an off-duty firefighter held the suspect — a 20-year-old man who was not immediately identified — at gunpoint until police arrived about three minutes after receiving an initial call.

Edited by Soban on Aug 10th 2019 at 8:02:13 AM

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#287222: Aug 10th 2019 at 5:10:05 AM

Let’s not validate the whole Good Guy with a Gun myth. This was not a case of a shooting prevented by a guy with a gun.

Disgusted, but not surprised
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#287223: Aug 10th 2019 at 5:10:57 AM

Firefighters are like one of the few civil servants I completely trust. Probably due to the fact that their main job revolves around fighting inanimate flames, not other people.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#287224: Aug 10th 2019 at 5:21:14 AM

bugger

Edited by Ultimatum on Aug 10th 2019 at 12:21:36 PM

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Soban Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
#287225: Aug 10th 2019 at 5:26:48 AM

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. A good guy with a gun, stopped a possible attack. I'm not sure how it can really be read any other way.


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