Housing is the jurisdiction of the provinces. There's limited latitude with which the Federal government can act.
They're not using those enough, but let's not act like it's all the fed, and not the provinces choosing to fuck us over too.
Ya, kinda tired of hitting the edges of my samsung, and their accidental edge touch protection's kinda useless.
MyAnonaMouse is D-tier. Has very little content, and community-wise, they go for "family friendly" which is weird and uncomfy for what's literally a piracy community?
There's also the poorly-aging belief that if you work for a big company that grants you job-security. People will gravitate towards worse, more corporate jobs because of that, even if it's generally not true in the modern era.
Ya well $70 is only for septuple-A games. Nontuple even.
The most heart wrenching for me is seeing the little tweet he posted when he was excited about his promotion. When he felt something good was happening for him, his talent and skill was being recognized, and his life was about to get better for it, only to have a sad reality crush him. :c
so, enough time has passed now for me to talk about why i decided to leave Blizzard. a mixed year with great teammates, but a management that mistreated, lied to me, gaslit me, gave me a fake promotion, and HR that refused to help. buckle up friendos. 💪
> so, enough time has passed now for me to talk about why i decided to leave Blizzard. a mixed year with great teammates, but a management that mistreated, lied to me, gaslit me, gave me a fake promotion, and HR that refused to help. > >buckle up friendos. 💪
> i wanna start by saying that all of the people I got to work with on Team 4 (Overwatch 2) were incredible. they were warm, welcoming, fun, friendly and just so goddamn talented. there were so many great people on my team championing for me and i am so grateful for their support
>unfortunately however, i spent most of a year stressed out of my mind, working 4 peoples jobs at once, and having management make promises they had no intention of fulfilling and i ultimately felt like i had no choice but to leave for my own mental health.
>in July of 2023, i was invited to a meeting by Art Leadership and production, to let me know they were interested in promoting me to Lead VFX Artist of the cosmetics team. (skins, emotes, POTGs, etc.), i had only been there 6 months and I told them basically "if youre sure?? lol"
>but before accepting i was adamant, that we were all on the same page about the full role, what it meant, what i would be doing, and also, what the "promotion" would come with. (pay increase, title change) and confirmed all of those details before going further
>these conversations included other Lead VFX, Art Directors, Associate Art Directors, Production Directions and also HR. and as we were all happy, i started the job effective immediately, with the details to come at the end of the week, in writing.
>the new role was >\- all of my existing responsibilities and workload as a senior >\- becoming a line manager of 3 people immediately >\- managing our entire outsourced vfx pipeline in china >\- plus additional Lead things (planning, much more meetings lol)
>friday of that week comes, nothing, but, the Production Dir does announce my promotion to Lead to the whole team on the thursday! its official! its happening! the whole team knows! i even tweet about it, because im so excited. we're all gucci! > >!
>on my first week as lead. my new manager, tells me that we are going to have to fire one of my new reports cus he wont RTO > >me: "he is waiting for a medical accommodation because he is a carer for his parents" > >them: "yeah [laughing] we're not gonna do that for a junior"
>another lead on the team offers to deliver the news for me, because it is my first week as lead. and the person we are supposed to fire is one of my closest friends on the team. he is given until the end of the month to either relocate, or leave. we're all distraught.
>im now doing my senior role, my lead role and now all the work that this great vfx artist was doing. they then refuse to hire an intern, another one of my reports, who is incredibly talented and we all love. so i add all the work they were going to do, to my plate.
>a month goes by, and i have now sent an email or slack message, every other day to find out what is happening with the pay increase and title change.
>im told i have to wait until August, because thats when all the promotions happen but "dont worry. its all happening"
>i then discover that as I am earning less than 50% of every other Lead VFX Artist at blizzard, so much so, that as a Lead, my salary is lower than every person I am managing. i send more emails. im told its cus im in the UK, and my salary is based on market value, not my value.
>i ask HR if they think that it is ethically okay to pay me less than 50% of every person for doing the same job? > >they tell me "why would we pay you more than we have to? that doesnt make any business sense" > >i realise i am talking to a person who doesnt give a shit about people
>another month passes and i get to august and turns out, "no no, its actually september now" for some reason. but "dont worry, its coming. its definitely a promotion, and theres definitely a pay increase." > >i continue to be overworked, and exhausted, but hopeful. (fool)
>another few weeks pass, and its getting to 3 months being a lead. so i send an email out to everyone, directors, VPs, HR, leads, you name it, telling them that if there is no written information by Sep 1st, i will stop doing the role immediately.
>SUDDENLY, people have something to say! > >this entire time, HR have not responded once and they finally reply inviting me for a quick call. it is in this call that HR ask me "what promotion? i have no idea what you are talking about?" > >at this point i raised a formal complaint.
>i had months of messages, emails that i sent to HR to explain what i was talking about and they finally reply with > >"you seem to be confused" ... "there is no promotion" ... "leadership is a lateral move" ... "its just a change of responsibilities" ... "there is no pay increase"
>i was livid, naturally, and asked what any normal fucking rational human would "why would anybody want that promotion then?" which obviously they then did the old "i can see you're frustrated, i can see how you misinterpreted this".
>the investigation from the formal complaint comes back after a few weeks and after some careful deliberation, decides that HR did nothing wrong, and followed all processes correctly. SO, i hand in my resignation about an hour later. but it doesnt end there!!!
>because no!!! > >HR then told me!!! that because of my role as a Lead!!! i had gained inexplicable knowledge that would put me at a business risk to work anywhere else!!! so they are activating a Non-Compete Clause that restricts me from working ANYWHERE AT ALL for 3 MONTHS!!!!😍😍
>and, you may be rightfully thinking "oh, so this is a paid 3 months, right? you cant stop someone from working at ALL for 3 months without paying the-..." INCORRECT that is exactly what they did, and unfortunately, completely legal, because get fucked, i guess???
>i said I cant survive for 3 months without pay, I have a mortgage and they looked me in the eye and said: > >"well, you probably shouldn't have signed the contract then 🙂" > >within a few minutes i was locked out of slack/email, and that was the end of my time at Blizzard. 🎉🎉🎉
>if anyone has continued so far, thank you for listening 💚💚💚💚 > >idk what the point of this is, but, i needed to get it off my chest. blizzard had every opportunity to do the right thing, and they continually failed at that.
>i also wanna sincerely thank everyone who purchased a mentorship session or portfolio review with me at the end of last year. it quite literally saved me, and meant that I was able to not go into debt and so i am hugely grateful, and hope you all felt like they were worth it!
> so, enough time has passed now for me to talk about why i decided to leave Blizzard. a mixed year with great teammates, but a management that mistreated, lied to me, gaslit me, gave me a fake promotion, and HR that refused to help. > >buckle up friendos. 💪
> i wanna start by saying that all of the people I got to work with on Team 4 (Overwatch 2) were incredible. they were warm, welcoming, fun, friendly and just so goddamn talented. there were so many great people on my team championing for me and i am so grateful for their support
>unfortunately however, i spent most of a year stressed out of my mind, working 4 peoples jobs at once, and having management make promises they had no intention of fulfilling and i ultimately felt like i had no choice but to leave for my own mental health.
>in July of 2023, i was invited to a meeting by Art Leadership and production, to let me know they were interested in promoting me to Lead VFX Artist of the cosmetics team. (skins, emotes, POTGs, etc.), i had only been there 6 months and I told them basically "if youre sure?? lol"
>but before accepting i was adamant, that we were all on the same page about the full role, what it meant, what i would be doing, and also, what the "promotion" would come with. (pay increase, title change) and confirmed all of those details before going further
>these conversations included other Lead VFX, Art Directors, Associate Art Directors, Production Directions and also HR. and as we were all happy, i started the job effective immediately, with the details to come at the end of the week, in writing.
>the new role was >\- all of my existing responsibilities and workload as a senior >\- becoming a line manager of 3 people immediately >\- managing our entire outsourced vfx pipeline in china >\- plus additional Lead things (planning, much more meetings lol)
>friday of that week comes, nothing, but, the Production Dir does announce my promotion to Lead to the whole team on the thursday! its official! its happening! the whole team knows! i even tweet about it, because im so excited. we're all gucci! > >!
>on my first week as lead. my new manager, tells me that we are going to have to fire one of my new reports cus he wont RTO > >me: "he is waiting for a medical accommodation because he is a carer for his parents" > >them: "yeah [laughing] we're not gonna do that for a junior"
>another lead on the team offers to deliver the news for me, because it is my first week as lead. and the person we are supposed to fire is one of my closest friends on the team. he is given until the end of the month to either relocate, or leave. we're all distraught.
>im now doing my senior role, my lead role and now all the work that this great vfx artist was doing. they then refuse to hire an intern, another one of my reports, who is incredibly talented and we all love. so i add all the work they were going to do, to my plate.
>a month goes by, and i have now sent an email or slack message, every other day to find out what is happening with the pay increase and title change.
>im told i have to wait until August, because thats when all the promotions happen but "dont worry. its all happening"
>i then discover that as I am earning less than 50% of every other Lead VFX Artist at blizzard, so much so, that as a Lead, my salary is lower than every person I am managing. i send more emails. im told its cus im in the UK, and my salary is based on market value, not my value.
>i ask HR if they think that it is ethically okay to pay me less than 50% of every person for doing the same job? > >they tell me "why would we pay you more than we have to? that doesnt make any business sense" > >i realise i am talking to a person who doesnt give a shit about people
>another month passes and i get to august and turns out, "no no, its actually september now" for some reason. but "dont worry, its coming. its definitely a promotion, and theres definitely a pay increase." > >i continue to be overworked, and exhausted, but hopeful. (fool)
>another few weeks pass, and its getting to 3 months being a lead. so i send an email out to everyone, directors, VPs, HR, leads, you name it, telling them that if there is no written information by Sep 1st, i will stop doing the role immediately.
>SUDDENLY, people have something to say! > >this entire time, HR have not responded once and they finally reply inviting me for a quick call. it is in this call that HR ask me "what promotion? i have no idea what you are talking about?" > >at this point i raised a formal complaint.
>i had months of messages, emails that i sent to HR to explain what i was talking about and they finally reply with > >"you seem to be confused" ... "there is no promotion" ... "leadership is a lateral move" ... "its just a change of responsibilities" ... "there is no pay increase"
>i was livid, naturally, and asked what any normal fucking rational human would "why would anybody want that promotion then?" which obviously they then did the old "i can see you're frustrated, i can see how you misinterpreted this".
>the investigation from the formal complaint comes back after a few weeks and after some careful deliberation, decides that HR did nothing wrong, and followed all processes correctly. SO, i hand in my resignation about an hour later. but it doesnt end there!!!
>because no!!! > >HR then told me!!! that because of my role as a Lead!!! i had gained inexplicable knowledge that would put me at a business risk to work anywhere else!!! so they are activating a Non-Compete Clause that restricts me from working ANYWHERE AT ALL for 3 MONTHS!!!!😍😍
>and, you may be rightfully thinking "oh, so this is a paid 3 months, right? you cant stop someone from working at ALL for 3 months without paying the-..." INCORRECT that is exactly what they did, and unfortunately, completely legal, because get fucked, i guess???
>i said I cant survive for 3 months without pay, I have a mortgage and they looked me in the eye and said: > >"well, you probably shouldn't have signed the contract then 🙂" > >within a few minutes i was locked out of slack/email, and that was the end of my time at Blizzard. 🎉🎉🎉
>if anyone has continued so far, thank you for listening 💚💚💚💚 > >idk what the point of this is, but, i needed to get it off my chest. blizzard had every opportunity to do the right thing, and they continually failed at that.
>i also wanna sincerely thank everyone who purchased a mentorship session or portfolio review with me at the end of last year. it quite literally saved me, and meant that I was able to not go into debt and so i am hugely grateful, and hope you all felt like they were worth it!
The usernames are just domains. Nobody can steal your domain.
i have a layman's understanding of AT Proto, but it seems to compartmentalize between different parts of the service. Front ends, databases, and backends can be hosted separately and amalgamate into one, in the abstract.
Practically, however, AT Proto allows account portability, wherein users can swap what instance they use as a frontend on a whim, even if their home instance is down. Usernames are domains instance of username@domain, that are verified by the DNS. But AT Proto seems a lot less flexible than ActivityPub. We'll have to see when federation is live, but I'm not sure it really suits anything beyond (micro)blogging.
Tencent, who owns League of Legends and Valorant maker Riot Games, is now reportedly expanding its wide range of IPs by purchasing the rights to Dungeons & Dragons from Hasbro. Here is all you need to know about the recent developments.
The report from Speed Daily, a Chinese media site (via Pan Daily), claims that either Tencent is looking to purchase the entire Dungeons & Dragons franchise or wants to get exclusive rights to develop video games based on D&D. It has also been claimed that Hasbro reached out to Larian Studios and offered the Dungeons & Dragons IP to them after the huge success of Baldur’s Gate 3. Tencent reportedly is acting as an intermediary in this deal as Larian Studios does not have the capital to see this deal through. For further context, Tencent holds a minority stake in Larian Studios.
The driving force behind this decision from Hasbro to sell the Dungeons & Dragons IP is reportedly the recent financial struggles. Most recently, the company laid off over 1,000 employees before the holiday season in 2023.
Hasbro, the toy-making company, owns the Dungeons & Dragons brand (via subsidiary Wizards of the Coast) along with Transformers and Monopoly. Wizards of the Coast had licensed Larian Studios to develop Baldur’s Gate 3 which went on to become the Game of the Year in 2023.
While the report seems credible, it remains to be seen if it does turn out to be true. It is difficult to rule out Tencent’s intention to make further investments. Apart from owning Riot Games and Sharkmob, the video games giant has a majority stake in Turtle Studios (Back 4 Blood) and Techland (Dying Light 2). They also have a minority stake in Epic Games (Fortnite), FromSoftware (Elden Ring), Krafton (BGMI), Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed), Paradox Interactive (Stellaris), and Remedy Entertainment (Alan Wake), and Netmarble (Marvel: Future Fight).
So same situation as Epic
Can you give some examples of companies that went to shit after Tencent purchased them, and what investor-pleasing behaviour they did that led to this enshittification? I'd genuinely appreciate that.
They have a 30% stake, but most of their other investments didn't produce anything. Even riot's down enough to have massive layoffs.
Maybe Microsoft should buy it.
I have an old samsung S21+ I don't use anymore and was thinking it'd be cool to turn it into a wireless charger via the wireless power share, but every time I take my Flip 5 off it, it turns of Power Share, and every time I leave it for a minute it turns off too.
Is there a way I can keep Powershare on indefinitely?
Tencent historically is quite hands-off with their investments. Hoping they continue to be so if they did end up purchasing D&D.
American toy company Hasbro is seeking to sell its well-known IP
Speed Daily exclusively learned that the American toy company Hasbro is seeking to sell its well-known IP “Dungeons & Dragons” (referred to as “DND” below), and Tencent is one of the potential buyers.
At present, the negotiations are still in the early stages and both parties have not yet reached an agreement on the details of the transaction.
According to informed sources, the financial crisis faced by Hasbro is the main reason for considering the sale of DND, and Tencent Investment’s Larian Studios is acting as an intermediary in this transaction. Larian Studios’ game “Baldur’s Gate 3” won the TGA Game of the Year award in 2023 and is considered one of the most successful adaptations of DND. As a result, it was seen as a potential target buyer by Hasbro. However, due to insufficient funds, Larian ultimately introduced this deal to shareholder Tencent.
Hasbro was founded in 1923 and has a history of over a hundred years. In 1935, the company gradually became a world-class toy company with its Monopoly series games. It owns well-known IPs such as Transformers, Dungeons & Dragons, Monopoly, and My Little Pony. However, this century-old enterprise is currently facing a huge crisis due to losses. Its stock price has dropped from a high of $108 in 2019 to $51 (closing data on January 26th).
According to the financial report, as of the third quarter of 2023, Hasbro has been experiencing consecutive losses for four quarters due to its main business of toy sales. The accumulated loss from Q4 2022 to Q3 2023 exceeds $500 million USD, and in Q2 2023, there was even a negative free cash flow situation. According to Forbes reports, in response to the crisis, the company underwent significant layoffs last year, with a total reduction of over 1,900 employees accounting for more than 20%.
Although the company as a whole is in a loss situation, its DND-related IP is a high-quality asset and has achieved considerable success in video game adaptations. Last year, the release of “Baldur’s Gate 3” by Larian Studios was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. It not only won six TGA awards, including Game of the Year but also generated revenue of $657 million, surpassing the Harry Potter IP adaptation game “Hogwarts Legacy,” making it the most profitable PC exclusive game last year.
The success of “Baldur’s Gate 3” is also reflected in the financial data of Hasbro. The financial report shows that in the third quarter of 2023, driven by “Baldur’s Gate 3” and another Monopoly IP game called “Monopoly Go!”, Hasbro’s electronic gaming and licensing-related business achieved a contrary year-on-year growth of 40%, reaching $423 million.
Outside of electronic games, DND is also one of the most popular tabletop games in Europe and America. It has appeared multiple times in American TV shows such as “The Big Bang Theory” and “Stranger Things”. A large fan base has formed around its related culture, making it a top-tier IP.
A Tencent IEG (Interactive Entertainment Group) insider revealed that Tencent, represented by its overseas business department IEG Global, is in negotiations with the aim of acquiring a series of rights including the adaptation rights for electronic games such as DND.
According to the aforementioned IEG insiders, Tencent currently holds the game adaptation rights for many top-tier IPs. However, due to the licensing model mostly not being a one-time buyout, Tencent not only needs to bear high copyright fees and long-term revenue sharing but also frequently faces restrictions from its partners in terms of development and operation. Previously, the mobile game adaptation of “NieR” developed by Tencent TiMi Studio was unable to be launched even until the project was cancelled.
If this acquisition is successful, it will enable Tencent to gain dominant control over the IP of Dungeons & Dragons, which will largely avoid the aforementioned issues.
Companies in Europe and America attach great importance to the value of intellectual property (IP), while Chinese companies have limited opportunities to acquire top-tier IP from overseas. For Tencent, the opportunity to acquire the Dungeons & Dragons IP from Hasbro due to financial considerations is a rare chance.
American toy company Hasbro is seeking to sell its well-known IP
Speed Daily exclusively learned that the American toy company Hasbro is seeking to sell its well-known IP “Dungeons & Dragons” (referred to as “DND” below), and Tencent is one of the potential buyers.
At present, the negotiations are still in the early stages and both parties have not yet reached an agreement on the details of the transaction.
According to informed sources, the financial crisis faced by Hasbro is the main reason for considering the sale of DND, and Tencent Investment’s Larian Studios is acting as an intermediary in this transaction. Larian Studios’ game “Baldur’s Gate 3” won the TGA Game of the Year award in 2023 and is considered one of the most successful adaptations of DND. As a result, it was seen as a potential target buyer by Hasbro. However, due to insufficient funds, Larian ultimately introduced this deal to shareholder Tencent.
Hasbro was founded in 1923 and has a history of over a hundred years. In 1935, the company gradually became a world-class toy company with its Monopoly series games. It owns well-known IPs such as Transformers, Dungeons & Dragons, Monopoly, and My Little Pony. However, this century-old enterprise is currently facing a huge crisis due to losses. Its stock price has dropped from a high of $108 in 2019 to $51 (closing data on January 26th).
According to the financial report, as of the third quarter of 2023, Hasbro has been experiencing consecutive losses for four quarters due to its main business of toy sales. The accumulated loss from Q4 2022 to Q3 2023 exceeds $500 million USD, and in Q2 2023, there was even a negative free cash flow situation. According to Forbes reports, in response to the crisis, the company underwent significant layoffs last year, with a total reduction of over 1,900 employees accounting for more than 20%.
Although the company as a whole is in a loss situation, its DND-related IP is a high-quality asset and has achieved considerable success in video game adaptations. Last year, the release of “Baldur’s Gate 3” by Larian Studios was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. It not only won six TGA awards, including Game of the Year but also generated revenue of $657 million, surpassing the Harry Potter IP adaptation game “Hogwarts Legacy,” making it the most profitable PC exclusive game last year.
The success of “Baldur’s Gate 3” is also reflected in the financial data of Hasbro. The financial report shows that in the third quarter of 2023, driven by “Baldur’s Gate 3” and another Monopoly IP game called “Monopoly Go!”, Hasbro’s electronic gaming and licensing-related business achieved a contrary year-on-year growth of 40%, reaching $423 million.
Outside of electronic games, DND is also one of the most popular tabletop games in Europe and America. It has appeared multiple times in American TV shows such as “The Big Bang Theory” and “Stranger Things”. A large fan base has formed around its related culture, making it a top-tier IP.
A Tencent IEG (Interactive Entertainment Group) insider revealed that Tencent, represented by its overseas business department IEG Global, is in negotiations with the aim of acquiring a series of rights including the adaptation rights for electronic games such as DND.
According to the aforementioned IEG insiders, Tencent currently holds the game adaptation rights for many top-tier IPs. However, due to the licensing model mostly not being a one-time buyout, Tencent not only needs to bear high copyright fees and long-term revenue sharing but also frequently faces restrictions from its partners in terms of development and operation. Previously, the mobile game adaptation of “NieR” developed by Tencent TiMi Studio was unable to be launched even until the project was cancelled.
If this acquisition is successful, it will enable Tencent to gain dominant control over the IP of Dungeons & Dragons, which will largely avoid the aforementioned issues.
Companies in Europe and America attach great importance to the value of intellectual property (IP), while Chinese companies have limited opportunities to acquire top-tier IP from overseas. For Tencent, the opportunity to acquire the Dungeons & Dragons IP from Hasbro due to financial considerations is a rare chance.
I agree wholly except the language "stolen assets" is kinda false considering they own Riot, and they're their assets by all rights.
"We have found ourselves at a loss as our competitors continue to produce new products."
Tencent, the sprawling multinational that spent years gobbling up studios like Riot Games and Techland while investing in others including Ubisoft, Remedy, and FromSoftware, has chastized itself for becoming a passenger during 2023.
As reported by Reuters, Tencent CEO and co-founder Pony Ma indicated the company has been coasting along while its major competitors have been rolling out global hits.
Speaking at the company's annual meeting, Ma reiterated that video games remain Tencent's flagship business but suggested the company "achieved nothing" in the market over the past year.
"Gaming is our flagship business [...] but in the past year, we have faced significant challenges. We have found ourselves at a loss as our competitors continue to produce new products, leaving us feeling having achieved nothing," he said.
Tencent playing "catchup" on AI
Ma added that some of Tencent's latest releases have failed to meet internal expectations, but didn't specify which titles underwhelmed. He also suggested the company was until recently playing catch-up when it comes to AI tech, but is now able to "follow the pace" of leading rivals.
Ma said Tencent should be focused on leveraging its own 'Hunyuan' generative AI model across various businesses. It's unclear if that means the company's internal game studios will be encouraged to lean on the technology.
Tencent has been grappling with tightening playtime and spending regulations in China, resulting in the company investing in more western studios. In 2023 alone, Tencent became the majority shareholder of Dying Light maker Techland, sunk cash into new startups like Lighthouse Games, and led a $10 million investment into fitness game maker Quell.
More recently, however, Tencent subsidiary Riot Games laid off 530 workers after claiming it scaled up too quickly and overreached with a number of "big bets."
"We have found ourselves at a loss as our competitors continue to produce new products."
Tencent, the sprawling multinational that spent years gobbling up studios like Riot Games and Techland while investing in others including Ubisoft, Remedy, and FromSoftware, has chastized itself for becoming a passenger during 2023.
As reported by Reuters, Tencent CEO and co-founder Pony Ma indicated the company has been coasting along while its major competitors have been rolling out global hits.
Speaking at the company's annual meeting, Ma reiterated that video games remain Tencent's flagship business but suggested the company "achieved nothing" in the market over the past year.
"Gaming is our flagship business [...] but in the past year, we have faced significant challenges. We have found ourselves at a loss as our competitors continue to produce new products, leaving us feeling having achieved nothing," he said.
Tencent playing "catchup" on AI
Ma added that some of Tencent's latest releases have failed to meet internal expectations, but didn't specify which titles underwhelmed. He also suggested the company was until recently playing catch-up when it comes to AI tech, but is now able to "follow the pace" of leading rivals.
Ma said Tencent should be focused on leveraging its own 'Hunyuan' generative AI model across various businesses. It's unclear if that means the company's internal game studios will be encouraged to lean on the technology.
Tencent has been grappling with tightening playtime and spending regulations in China, resulting in the company investing in more western studios. In 2023 alone, Tencent became the majority shareholder of Dying Light maker Techland, sunk cash into new startups like Lighthouse Games, and led a $10 million investment into fitness game maker Quell.
More recently, however, Tencent subsidiary Riot Games laid off 530 workers after claiming it scaled up too quickly and overreached with a number of "big bets."
If you’re a player or casual observer, the video game industry seems to have it all. Yet growth is now illusory, layoffs abundant, and game/studio shutdowns common. Why? And how might things change?
If you’re a player or casual observer, the video game industry seems to have it all. Yet growth is now illusory, layoffs abundant, and game/studio shutdowns common. Why? And how might things change?
That's fair.
To me, it feels kinda cynical of the developers, like how a lot of GaaS trickle thins out just fast enough to not destroy their userbase. I prefer a little bit more reward as I play through, while obviously maintaining a slow enough pace that it feels like there's reason enough to continue playing.
Different strokes though.
Not really. There's a ton of other survival games I'd rather play, and the game's progression feels like it's deliberately just fast enough to keep me from closing it. After 8 hours or so I closed and uninstalled because it feels engaging enough to play, but not enough to be anything but chores.
The boss battles suck, the crafting has arbitrary timers to it. I just really don't find it fun at all.
I love monster collection games, and I enjoy survival, but this definitely isn't for me.
Palworld continues to break records on Steam, racking up 1,864,421 unique concurrent players in the past 24 hours. At least 4 of those uniques are in the Nexus Mods offices, where after-hours ‘resea...
Palworld continues to break records on Steam, racking up 1,864,421 unique concurrent players in the past 24 hours. At least 4 of those uniques are in the Nexus Mods offices, where after-hours ‘research’ is being conducted.
Whether you think this game has arrived out of the blue, or was an obvious hit, one thing is clear; It bears a lot of similarity to an existing game franchise you may have encountered, namely Pokémon. We won’t go into detail about potential similarities; suffice to say that enough significant likeness exists in the base games to require clarification when it comes to modding the game.
We do think that adding Pokémon content to Palworld is a very cool idea and we understand why people would want such a thing. However, we're not comfortable hosting this content at Nexus Mods.
As you may know, Nintendo (who jointly own the Pokémon franchise) have a consistent record of mercilessly submitting legal challenges, DMCAs and takedowns against fan-made content.
Given Palworld's similarity to the Pokémon franchise as a base game, hosting content that adds Pokémon copyrighted characters or assets into the game is almost certainly going to put us at risk of legal action. Palworld content that is uploaded to Nexus Mods and is considered to have Pokémon-derived characters or assets will be taken down. Our normal moderation policies will apply.
We don’t think it's worth the risk to allow this content to be shared in our community. At best we would have to deal with the headache of legal threats from Nintendo and at worst they may seek to take action against us and the uploaders of the mods directly.
There are many creative opportunities to explore mods for this game that add to the world and gameplay, but do not infringe on existing IP so obviously. You are encouraged to explore these modding directions freely.
We are looking to support Palworld modding in any way that we can and we have already released Vortex mod manager support for Palworld. We also encourage you to visit us in our Palworld modding forums.
All of us here at Nexus Mods are really excited to see what the PalWorld modding community comes up with.
Palworld continues to break records on Steam, racking up 1,864,421 unique concurrent players in the past 24 hours. At least 4 of those uniques are in the Nexus Mods offices, where after-hours ‘resea...
Palworld continues to break records on Steam, racking up 1,864,421 unique concurrent players in the past 24 hours. At least 4 of those uniques are in the Nexus Mods offices, where after-hours ‘research’ is being conducted.
Whether you think this game has arrived out of the blue, or was an obvious hit, one thing is clear; It bears a lot of similarity to an existing game franchise you may have encountered, namely Pokémon. We won’t go into detail about potential similarities; suffice to say that enough significant likeness exists in the base games to require clarification when it comes to modding the game.
We do think that adding Pokémon content to Palworld is a very cool idea and we understand why people would want such a thing. However, we're not comfortable hosting this content at Nexus Mods.
As you may know, Nintendo (who jointly own the Pokémon franchise) have a consistent record of mercilessly submitting legal challenges, DMCAs and takedowns against fan-made content.
Given Palworld's similarity to the Pokémon franchise as a base game, hosting content that adds Pokémon copyrighted characters or assets into the game is almost certainly going to put us at risk of legal action. Palworld content that is uploaded to Nexus Mods and is considered to have Pokémon-derived characters or assets will be taken down. Our normal moderation policies will apply.
We don’t think it's worth the risk to allow this content to be shared in our community. At best we would have to deal with the headache of legal threats from Nintendo and at worst they may seek to take action against us and the uploaders of the mods directly.
There are many creative opportunities to explore mods for this game that add to the world and gameplay, but do not infringe on existing IP so obviously. You are encouraged to explore these modding directions freely.
We are looking to support Palworld modding in any way that we can and we have already released Vortex mod manager support for Palworld. We also encourage you to visit us in our Palworld modding forums.
All of us here at Nexus Mods are really excited to see what the PalWorld modding community comes up with.
Devs clearly refers to the company that develops the game. Try again.
The fact that you're harping on this point is because you know I don't agree with personal harassment. You are aware that I don't agree with people being abusive about specific people who work for the company. You're making bad faith arguments to try to prove "You were saying this", which I was not, and if I was, is clearly not what I intended. Move on.
Nunavut signed an agreement with the federal government Thursday that transfers responsibility for land and natural resource management to the territory, marking the largest land transfer in Canadian history.
OTTAWA — Nunavut signed an agreement with the federal government Thursday that transfers responsibility for land and natural resource management to the territory, marking the largest land transfer in Canadian history.
The “devolution” agreement means the power to make final decisions for two million square kilometres of public lands, including onshore waters, and natural resources — as well as the royalties from the extraction of those resources — now belongs to the territorial government.
In a ceremony in Iqaluit that featured the Inuktitut language, traditional singing, dancing and drumming, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed the agreement along with Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated president Aluki Kotierk.
"Devolution is about Nunavummiut making decisions about our lands and our waters. It means that we, the people most invested in our homelands, will be one of the ones managing our natural resources," said Akeeagok.
"Our people have made many, many sacrifices in the name of Canadian sovereignty. In the past, too many decisions about us were made without us. With the signing of this very historic agreement, we could now bring decision-making home right here."
Nunavut represents 20 per cent of Canada’s land mass.
The final devolution agreement with Nunavut is the latest step in a process that officially began in 2008 with the Lands and Resources Devolution Negotiation Protocol. However, the transfer discussions have been ongoing since the creation of the territory in 1999 under the Nunavut Act.
Nunavut, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the federal government had signed an agreement in principle for devolution in 2019, which served as a guide for the negotiation of the final agreement.
The federal government has been working on transferring responsibilities including health, education, social services, housing, airports and land and resource management to the territories since the 1960s.
Devolution of land and natural resource management took place in Yukon in 2003 and in the Northwest Territories in 2014.
"Today begins a new chapter in the history of Nunavut. A transformative chapter," Trudeau said, adding that this process is not just a "devolution" but an "evolution in our partnership as the federal government and the territory and also an evolution in the progress towards self-determination for Inuit living in Nunavut."
"I am here to celebrate devolution as recognition that Inuit have long been stewards of these lands and that your voices matter and decision making is finally coming home," Vandal said.
The Nunavut agreement includes a three-year implementation period to allow time for passing legislation and the transfer of responsibilities.
The agreement also comes with $15 million in transfer payments over five years for implementation and to work toward representative Inuit employment in government.
"If we had backed down from the challenges, we would not be here celebrating this historic moment today. The road ahead will be very difficult, and we will face many obstacles but our vision for the future is very clear," Akeeagok said.
"It is our time, our territory, our decisions and our future."
A new Notepad Cowrite feature appears to be on the way.
Microsoft said 2024 was going to be “the year of the AI PC,” and it looks like that’s ringing true already. Microsoft appears to be readying a new generative AI feature for its Notepad application that’s built into Windows. While the software giant hasn’t officially announced it, eagle-eyed Windows watchers have discovered code in Microsoft’s latest test builds of Windows 11 that indicate a new “Cowriter” feature could be on the way soon.
It looks like it has the same credits system that Microsoft uses in its Cocreator feature in Paint to let Windows users know how many more times they can use these AI-powered features. Microsoft hasn’t announced pricing for these credits yet, but one can assume the company will eventually start charging once you run out of them. Bing uses a similar system, but once you run out of “daily boosts,” the image creation through DALL-E simply slows down.
New Notepad feature soon™️ pic.twitter.com/yv6axwuG2e — PhantomOcean3 ☃️ (@PhantomOfEarth) January 9, 2024
Other Windows testers have even found references to a waitlist for the feature and a hero image that Microsoft may use to market its new Notepad Cowriter. The style of the image is identical to how Microsoft markets its Copilot features inside Office apps like Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint.
This could indicate that Microsoft is close to officially announcing the Cowriter feature for beta testing, in the same way that it tested the Paint generative image feature for months before it was rolled out to all Windows 11 users.
Now, I’m old enough to remember a time when Notepad was but a mere simple Windows app that had barely been touched for more than three decades. Microsoft has been greatly improving Notepad on Windows 11 in recent years, adding a dark mode, tabs, character count, features like autosave and automatic restoration of tabs, and even a virtual fidget spinner.
I don’t think I’m alone in not wanting these kind of AI features built directly into Windows apps as a means to upsell users into buying AI credits. I’d rather see Microsoft continue on its path of improving Notepad in meaningful ways, especially since it’s removing WordPad from Windows after nearly 30 years. If Notepad is going to get another new feature, please let it be an optional spellcheck instead of a computer hallucinating into my text editor.
cross-posted from: https://bookwormstory.social/post/900150
> Invidious Link > > Demo, most recent version 2.1 released November 22, 2023
Demo, most recent version 2.1 released November 22, 2023
Brendan Carr @BrendanCarrFCC -- Dec 13, 2023 · 03:42 AM UTC >President Biden stood at a White House podium & stated that Elon Musk “is worth being looked at.” > >When asked "How?", President Biden responded “There’s a lot of ways.” > >There certainly are. The DOJ, FAA, FTC, NLRB, SDNY, & FWS have all taken action. > >The FCC now joins them.
Maye Musk @mayemusk -- Dec 13, 2023 · 15:40 PM UTC > I am the mother of @elonmusk His goal is to make this world a better place. @POTUS wants to stop him. Have you any idea how furious I am? People in other countries are proud of Elon and do not understand the US President’s motive. Please tell me how I should answer them.
Comments start at 06:22 and end at 12:30
My current place is being sold, so my cheap ass rent for an entire house? Gone!
Oh well, I have a friend in QC looking to move, and he asked if I'd join him. Prices in MTL are of negligible difference to my city in Ontario, but the area we'd be looking is in the more-french portion of MTL.
So I've got maybe 4 months to learn as much french as I can. I have an ok understanding of syntax and can parse the phonemes on the bad end of ok.
I don't wanna use the Owl app, I don't think it's actually that effective a language teacher.
Any advice on how I can shove in as much french as I can to become minimally conversational?
Apps, anki decks, textbooks; anything would be appreciated. ♥
ram @bookwormstory.social If I own a community that's related to a piece of software, service, or other community and someone who actually contributes to that wants it, message me and it's yours. I stake no claim in communities, I simply want to see them exist and thrive.