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the website has gotten too rightwing in an obnoxious way, which I would just ignore if there were actual memes here instead of just politics nowadays….I think I might leave idk

You've been blueballing everyone about "leaving the site" for a while now…

whitepill:

dude is so full of conspiratorial thinking but not once blamed the Jews for it.

With all the wackos and antisemitic conspiracy theories popping up, at least the man didn't blame the Jews and didn't kill anyone else either.

Seriously speaking, it's sad and he needed serious help. Media needs to be careful in how they report these self-immolations, because there's been links between over-coverage and copycats, just like with mass-shootings.

Oh yeah, it's already been mentioned in Ukraine-Russian War entry, but the US House has passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The voting record was 311 for (210 Dems 101 Reps), 112 against (All Reps).

A black hobbyist gunsmith was sentenced from between 10 and 18 years in prison for the heinous crime of… smithing guns, because he had the misfortune of living in New York. Unfortunately, the only actual article on this case is from some website called "RedState", but the case definitely exists, it's number "IND-71520-22/001" in Kings County (better known as Brooklyn). The man's name is Dexter Taylor.

Ignoring the obvious discussion about the constitutionality of the relevant law(s), there's two interesting, and highly severe, blunders made by the judge:

1. Declaring that, because "this is New York", the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution "doesn't exist [in this courtroom]". This is obviously ridiculous and implies either a severe failing of the judge's civic education, or a willful ignorance of how the constitution works. The United States Constitution and its amendments apply everywhere within the fifty States, as well as within any incorporated territories (which currently only includes the unorganized and uninhabited Palmyra Atoll, for some reason). A judge also cannot declare the constitution, or any part of it, null and void. Otherwise, a judge could simply choose to declare that the Eighth Amendment "doesn't exist", and sentence a litterer to be drawn and quartered.

2. We aren't given as much detail about this part, but the judge apparently told the jurors that if they didn't find Mr. Taylor guilty, they would face consequences, by leading them to believe that jury nullification is illegal. It's not, but I think judges telling juries what verdict to find very well might be. It's definitely grounds for a retrial, and probably grounds for getting booted from one's post.

tl;dr: innocent black man sentenced unjustly by an insane kangaroo court that ignored rule of law and the constitution, news at 11

yea, i might be wrong on this, but i'm pretty sure the fucking judge of a court case is supposed to be impartial a.k.a unbiased

in fact, i think the only thing a judge can widely order the entire jury to do is to disregard all former and future testimony from an individual who was confirmed to be lying under oath, and i'm not even sure if that can be forced

Huh? Why did it stop?

Why arent people whining about sweet baby inc or the female custodes or some other shit? Why stop now? (Yes I am salty)

Eh who am I kidding the constant shitstorm will continue by the afternoon

Not beating the allegations when you make posts like this.

This time it was intentional

Only this time?

But seriously, don't fan the flames if you don't like to see shit on fire.

Because the reality is that the woke shit, and the ESG stuff is only a partial problem of what's really plaguing the video game industry. I recognized the problem 10 years ago. And it was that the cost of developing a AAA tittle is going to inevitably become unsustainable. Back in the early 2000s it took a few million dollars to produce a AAA title, today it takes 20x amount to make the same product. When I graduated college in Game Art and Design, things like normal maps, metallic, roughness, etc, was relatively new. The idea of making high poly model first and creating a new low poly mesh on top of it to bake the textures into it was a relatively new concept. But I saw then that the time to produce a simple character or an environment object doubled if not quadrupled in time to make.

SO why didn't it collapse sooner?
2 reasons:
1) China money. China invested very heavily into US video game and movie industry, and that easy money paid off primarily in the mobile game sector. Roughly around 2020 – as increasing US – China tensions rose that money started to dwindle, and what started out as a Trump era anti-China policy, continued on by the Biden administration hardcore (imo, this is a good policy).
2) The biggest factor is interest rates. When interest rates are low a company like EA can borrow 60 million to develop a game that can generate 80 million in revenue. But if interest rates increase, that same return on investment is substantially lower. Like, SUPER LOW. To give you some shenanagins:

On December 30th 2020, Electronic Arts has a debt of $1.08 Billion. In March of 2021 (3 months), the debt is 1.95 Billion. For over 2 years since it's debt remained at 1.95 Billion. From 2020-2021, Activision Blizzard increased it's debt 34% from 2.6 Billion to 3.6 Billion. Similarly, Ubisoft debt in March 2020 to March 2021 went up 56%, from 1.56 Billion to 2.45 Billion.

Why is it that Larian had to lay off a sizeable chunk of their higher staff even though BG3 was a massive hit? Because of this.
interest rates are what's killing the game industry and the tech industry.
These industries literally thrived from cheap loans, and now that they can't get them, they are unable to innovate. Tech, specifically the giants, thrive on innovation. META originally was supposed to be a low key minor sub-product of Facebook, bjut because of COVID and the shift to remote work there was a huge push by investors to throw billions behind the project. But META can never achieve those expectations, and to try means borrowing tons and tons of cash with high interest rates.

We're tying the cultural war to these issues, and they have an impact, believe me. But the reality is, that technology – which games and movies have been a part of have enjoyed a super low interest fee for nearly a decade and a half, and it allowed them access to easy cash. Now that interest rates are high, and borrowing is more epensive than ever before, they cannot sustain the old model. It's collapsing.

And… unfortunately I am part of that collapse. The studio I worked for shut down last week, and the 30 people I worked with are now all unemployed.

Huh, I've actually learned something new around here. I had no idea about the debt issue, but it makes more sense than some of the other theories floating around.

Sorry to hear about your studio.

The problem with the interest rates isn't the current interest rate – we're around the median for the last few decades.

It's that fiscal policy for the last few decades in nearly every government has been to lower the interest rate at any sign of economic trouble and promising to never raise it, which encourages reliance on massive amounts of debt.

This was never sustainable. Interest rates cannot go down forever, they eventually have to go back up, and now they have.

Businesses that do not make money and sustain themselves by taking on more and more debt should fail. But the problem is by keeping debt so cheap for so long, policymakers have ensured that every company that didn't leverage themselves to the tits fell behind the ones that did.

In terms of decades, you are correct. But keep in mind the rapid expansion of technology, tech industry, and massive expansion of the gaming market, etc all coincided with the last decade and a half low interest rates. But yeah AAA is not a sustainable model as it is now. Most of the massive profits in the industry come from mobile titles. I remember reading, sometimes in 2015 I believe, that it took 400k to develop Clash of Clans (or one of those games) they made that money back in a few days.

The indie scene is alive and thriving because the expectation of AAA graphics is not there.

In terms of decades, you are correct. But keep in mind the rapid expansion of technology, tech industry, and massive expansion of the gaming market, etc all coincided with the last decade and a half low interest rates. But yeah AAA is not a sustainable model as it is now. Most of the massive profits in the industry come from mobile titles. I remember reading, sometimes in 2015 I believe, that it took 400k to develop Clash of Clans (or one of those games) they made that money back in a few days.

The indie scene is alive and thriving because the expectation of AAA graphics is not there.