If they retained some of the talent (specifically the writers) they could make another Mass Effect adjacent game and call it something else. The articles start writing themselves, "The main people behind Mass Effect are working a new game."

I don't think it has to be a "triple A" game to be a commercial success.

Companies reinventing themselves has been done before many times (Black Isle Studios -> Obsidian; Squaresoft -> Square -> Square Enix; Konami -> Kojima Productions) and the Canadian government has thrown money at fiscally riskier projects.

Wikipedia is already referencing articles saying it's a pathogen related to the Black Death.

And for people worried about it, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that "today it can be easily treated with antibiotics and the use of standard preventative measures."

I asked the other club members and we took a vote. They said if have a Steam Controller and you're still using it - you can be an associate member only. That basically limits you to two Half-Life 3 jokes a day and posting about how "my wallet hurts" or similar to 4 times a year. Otherwise - welcome to the club!

I still use "cool" a lot, but I think its become one of those words that will persist through generations.

It's not really a filler word, but I've been corrected on my use of "just," particularly at my work place. "Just" is often used by some people to minimise the impact of what they're saying intentionally. For example, "I just think we should change the wording in this law." If you take out 'just' (and some of the other words) and say the thing you meant to say - it becomes a far punchier statement, "We should change the wording in this law."

The OP made me think of a poem by Taylor Mali, "Speak With Conviction."

I mean, yes and no. You can see all the iconic MJ moves in Bob Fosse's performance here, but they're not quite the same. As well, Bob Fosse, as far as I know and I honestly don't know anything beyond this clip and I can't be bothered to look it up, wasn't also a singer and songwriter.

As well, there is rarely ever an original form of art - every great artist has either copied or stolen from someone else.

Terry Pratchett, an author that I greatly respect and admire, straight up stole/paid homage to all kinds of pop culture movies and science and quotes - he dressed up those stories and made them his own.

Rap artists off all kinds will steal bars and hooks from one another all the time.

I guess my point is, at what point is it paying homage to something and at what point is it stealing? If someone truly made something original it would likely be rejected for being so obscure as to be offensive to "good taste."

I'm sure that Google will quickly change their map projections from Pseudo-Mercator to Equal Earth projection as quickly as they changed the names of the bodies of water because President orange cheeto said so... right?... Riiiight?

I feel like the mountain police are the kind of police that traditionally say, "Bone apple tea" before each meal.

I get your point, but, unfortunately, I think the vast majority of children would only vote the way their parent's are voting. When you're literally dependent on someone else to feed you, cloth you, and provide a shelter over your head - you don't have a whole lot of options to go against your parent's wishes. Add in that most kids are equally as uninformed, or drink knowledge from some of the most brainrot cesspools of the internet, and you're not really getting the most informed voter on the other side.

I want to believe that a child voter would dramatically change the political landscape for better, but I'm far too jaded and cynical after seeing this current circus to believe it.

I'm listening to The Last Dragon on Mars by Scott Reintgen which I'm just over half way through.

Side tangent, I just recently reactivated my library card after an embarrassing amount of time (couple decades?) of not using it. I CANNOT BELIEVE just how much content I got access to for absolutely no cost to me. The entire time I've been away from a library it feels like they've revolutionized access to literary media.

Anyway, The Last Dragon on Mars caught my eye as I was scanning the audiobooks on the library app so I jumped into it with no other expectations. It's an okay Young Adult fiction that mashes Ender's Game with the Harry Potter books. The world building is neat, and the pacing is good - it's just kind of missing some extra edge to set it apart from other YA.

The narrator of the audiobook, Landon Woodson, is quite good and I love the spin he's giving for each character. He's really the main reason I've kept listening.

Nowheres in particular. Your comment and the original post inspired me to write it.

Take care, internet denizen!

Happy birthday to your brother. Truck guys are never forgotten - they become legends.

"I knew this one guy who showed up in a beater of truck smelling of pine and diesel. He helped me move my bed once. He refused my money, but gladly took the beer I offered. After the move, we leaned on the bed of his truck with our elbows raised along its rim. We talked for an hour about sports, music, and television. After awhile he stopped leaning on the truck and said, 'Welp...' and dusted off his pants. Without knowing the meaning, I knew exactly his purpose. We shook hands and he drove off into the sunset to help the next poor, truck-less soul."

I agree, that line you highlighted from the article is giving strong, "How do you do, fellow kids?" energy.

I keep avoiding Secret Level because of all the headlines that tied the series to Concord, Sony's failed Overwatch-like game. Y'all's posts are tempting me to at least check out the 40k episode!