"I was talking to a graduate student recently. He had a very clear sense of his plan for schooling and work, and then I said, what’s your plan about marriage and dating? And there was silence. He didn’t really have a plan. I think that’s part of the challenge — that people are not being intentional enough about seeking opportunities to meet, date and marry young adults in their world."
Sure, laws vary by state... so maybe TX is doing a GREAT thing... but yes, I'd say in my limited experience the primary interest was in preventing the aggrieved party from becoming a ward of the state.
It was quite an education to see how 21st century enlightened divorce laws/settlements worked in Blue Massachusetts & Minnesota.
If I, a card carrying member of the Patriarchy were to design a system to benefit the Patriarchy, that would be where I'd draw the line.
I haven't read what those rascally Texans are up to, so this isn't a comment on any specifics in that law. But, to steelman an alternate approach to the (secular) no-fault regime I'd point to these things:
It's about justice for an aggrieved party, not about making divorce harder or not possible. No-fault Divorce is already hard; it's hard in every possible way. I think it's a category error to suggest that the point of changing the current regime is to make it harderer.
If both parties agree to a divorce, it proceeds with all the usual acrimony (or not) and negotiations over assets, children and future support. Nothing changes.
If one party 'elects' to divorce, then the aggrieved party 'ought' to be entitled to greater compensation or consideration of how the family structure proceeds post divorce.
- This might be categorized as one spouse abandoning a partner for a younger version, or a spouse abandoning a partner to 'find oneself' or the like. The abandoned spouse ought to be entitled to additional considerations.
If one party has 'cause' to divorce, then that party is also the aggrieved party (in this case the 'unwilling to divorce' partner is in fact the one who has 'abandoned' the marriage) and ought to be entitled to greater compensation or consideration of how the family structure proceeds post divorce.
- This might be categorized as a spouse suffering abuse (self or others), serial infidelity, dangerous criminal activity, etc, etc.
In none of the scenarios is the difficulty of divorce made impossible, it just means that the legal structure assumes that the Marriage Contract as stipulated has been broken by one party and the aggrieved party has recourse short of forcing the other party to remain in the marriage. It's a matter of small 'j' justice... not cosmic big 'J' Justice.
Will the serial philanderer who want to trade-up for a newer model still get their divorce? Yes. Could it be 'mutual' and arbitrated the way most are today? Sure... will the abandoned spouse have new leverage to negotiate a better settlement and family structure to their liking during arbitration? Also yes, because the possibility of a contested divorce exists.
In the case of abuse, it is already the case that even with no-fault divorce, the 'battle' happens with child custody and one spouse has to 'prove' to the court that the other is an abuser to have the family structure altered to protect the vitcim(s). No-Fault and Fault in this case already looks similar because one party is extremely motivated to prove fault.
Every divorce is fraught. Having a category for the aggrieved party in contract law is not some novel ideal; the penalty for breaking the contract isn't death; sometimes it's better to break the contract, pay the penalties and move on. Sometimes the cost is higher than you'd like to pay so you reconsider; and, if both parties are unhappy with the contract you can go to arbitration or renegotiate or settle out of it.
Will fewer people divorce if we change underlying framework with regards divorce? I suspect no, not really. Maybe a number of folks will reconsider that the severe mental anguish of minor things isn't worth the cost of abandoning the marriage; but similarly some number of people may decide that the benefit of divorcing the serial philanderer for cause might be worth it. In the end, since divorce is already difficult, I don't think we're altering numbers, just adjudicating outcomes.
I didn't play Hades... my understanding is that Hades is more a Rogue-like/lite? This isn't really like Hades (from what I've read), it's more like Diablo, if that's your main frame of reference.
Less complex than POE, but better pure ARP than Diablo which veers into MMO-ARP zone.
Last Epoch just launched, if you can call 'launching' a game that was in (paid) Beta for so long I was able to amass 125 hrs played in between Path of Exile leagues.
It's (another) ARPG that is informed by both Diablo (booo) and Path of Exile (yaaay) and I'd like to say that it learns all the right lessons, but we'll have to be happy that it learned about 66%-75% of the right lessons.
Good:
Build's center around a single skill with a second (maaaybe a third) button push (POE).
No Diablo/WoW 'skill rotations' gated by timers and lots of meaningless button pushing (thank goodness)
Skills: Many interesting and fun to play damage skills ... enough to make you covet a new class.
Loot: Game breaking mechanics baked into loot (POE)
Loot: You can influence RNG towards the gamebreakers needed for your build (New)
Loot: Endgame allows you to target the types of outcomes you'd like to weight.
Endgame: (still discovering) 'Maps' are a combo between POE and Diablo which strike me as better than both
Endgame: You can 'drive' your way through Loot outcomes -- selecting rewards.
Endgame: 'Dungeons' are a thing... sort of like juiced maps with progressive waves and a boss.
Endgame: Loot.
Basically, ARP's are Loot Economy sims and getting this right and satisfying for early, mid, late and Endgame is the sine qua non of ARP's ... all of the skills, builds, and gameplay are informed by enhancements to skills, builds and gameplay that comes from loot. Done well it's a virtuous circle, done poorly? Well, see Diablo 3. **
Bad:
Early-game itemization (Loot) is simultaneously boring and meaningless.
Mid-game itemization is *really* generic and repetitive.
Late-game where to go, what to do, how does this new gameplay work is not clear at all; once you figure out that a paradigm shift has happened and how it works... it's satisfying, but I -- a very experienced ARPG player - was completely lost by this change. Fixable with more $$ and .dot releases.
Loot: some skills/affixes are very obliquely itemized ... here I'm thinking Throwing Skills and weapons.
Tool Tips: Some really nice enhancements in Character page... but doesn't go to Skill level granularity we need (maybe I'm missing something?)
Bosses: Stupidly over-tuned and way too dependent upon WoW-like cheesy mechanics. Settle down Devs.
TBD:
How long will End-game keep your interest?
Assuming we eventually 'play your stash' are there enough early-/mid-game twink items to make leveling better/faster?
How much advancement is account based vs. character based -- which leads to:
Once we complete the game, can we skip the campaign a'la Diablo (the best thing about Diablo)?
Will the game have Seasonal replayability like POE (phenomenal) or Diablo (cringe)
On the whole, my initial impression is a B/B+/A- depending on how some of these End-game aspects play out -- I'm 'only' level 70 atm. But so far, I'd rate the main ARPGs thus: POE, Last Epoch, Grim Dawn, Diablo IV, all the others (I'm curious about Undecember, but atm moment it's cumbersome and boring, but maybe fixable?)
** For true nerds there's this very interesting 2019 GDC talk given by GGG's Chris Wilson about the importance of getting the economy right.
I don't think y'all have read the facts of the case -- which is the point of Andrew posting the doc.
This doesn't really fit the narrative folks are assuming:
"The plaintiffs allege that the Center was obligated to keep the
cryogenic nursery secured and monitored at all times. But, in December
2020, a patient at the Hospital managed to wander into the Center's
fertility clinic through an unsecured doorway. The patient then entered
the cryogenic nursery and removed several embryos. The subzero
temperatures at which the embryos had been stored freeze-burned the
patient's hand, causing the patient to drop the embryos on the floor,
killing them. "
The plaintiffs are suing for wrongful death in lieu of negligence etc. The plaintiffs are pro-IVF.
Yeah, it was a good episode to go over our 'Don't talk to the police without a lawyer present' discussions. Added on that if you are going to be arrested, you won't talk your way out of it, so prepare to cancel your afternoon appointments and call the family lawyer.
Of course, she had nothing to fear about getting arrested; but the scam caller cited a badge # from her zip-code accurate police dept and told her to google it... which turned up a real cop. That was the 'cool' part of the psychological scam... made it seem legit in the way a magician sets you up with misdirection.
I think there's two forks in the scam business. The most common by far is the trolling for marks; which is just a psychological pressure play plus time compression... here they are just using a formula that works in volume.
More sophisticated scams require targeting and a plan and have to work more like heists... so I'm not sure they are a general concern.
Maybe a hybrid is a 'generic' deepfake where they approximate a guess of what your grandson sounds like (i.e. voice/accent/age) and have that voice ask for money/help. Something like this was tried on my dad... he asked the caller to recall a shared memory and the guy flubbed the response... but it was all under the pretext of phone battery dying, couldn't talk, desparately needed cash, send money here.
Again, the psychological manipulation is designed to cut-off the simple counter of hanging up and calling the number you have for your grandson/daughter... that's what's pretty interesting. Otherwise it's a numbers game looking for people who won't punch out of the box... so, elderly, usually.
The danger for us isn't the usual phone scam, its the future hologram tech that we don't really understand as we age into our luddite phase.
Reading through it I was wondering if the scam was especially ingenious, and sadly it was not.
Reminded me of the time my daughter called me in a panic that the Police were going to come arrest her if she didn't give someone some cash. Told her that if the police were going to arrest her, it was going to ruin her day no matter what... so cash wasn't going to make that go away. Then she thought through it and realized how unlikely it was that a 'false arrest warrant' would telegraph through a guy on the phone wanting $$.
Interesting to see how the psychological manipulation just takes over.
Yeah, it was kinda 'marketplacey' but the vibe I got was definitely Catholic... a sort of soft center-right Catholic with room for lots of flavors, but not a lot of fads. Well maybe Bible in a Year is a fad, but it's a neutral kind of fad, maybe more an 'unexpected phenomenon'.
The '40-day Challenge' was solid in that it was consistent, orthodox, simple, short, and had professionals doing the voice work. They made an attempt at meta-themes that were good, but felt a bit understuffed. There were bits and pieces of personal stories that alternated between cool and cringe... but mostly they avoided going all-in on personal celebrity stories -- which I think was a good decision. Praying 'with' celebrities rather than celebrities preaching the half-baked good intentions they usually muster - for that I was grateful.
I also went through the St. Francis de Sales 'Introduction to the Devout Life' offering and that was solid because, well, it's a classic text brought on to an app with medium+ production values. No one tried to 'explain' de Sales to me; just produced the text with a tiny bit of context.
But yeah, I suppose we could point out that it was cafeteria catholicism ... which is perhaps the besetting sin of Catholicism?
Last year out of curiosity I did the Marky Mark app.
Curiosity sated, I'm back to liturgy of the hours, simpliciter.
Usually I also doctor my coffee so it's 'not right' ... but I've been doing some intermittent fasting which has played havoc with my coffee routine ... so this year I'm just not drinking coffee at all. The change in eating patterns almost nuked coffee anyway, so I'm just leaning in since coffee had become more of a treat at this point.
I'm glad Marky Mark and Hallow are a thing, it's just not quite my thing.
I'd add that trying to craft and sell policy based on what's best for the richest and poorest segments has been a massive bamboozle that is alienating broader society (I don't want to simply say, Middle Class -- because its wider and that term doesn't mean what we think means).
Most disappointing? The E*Trade babies... they just don't seem to get that the whole thing that made the originals funny was the improv over the raw baby footage. The CGI staging with babies as props entirely misses the point, Shankopotomus.
My wife and son thought the blond next to Taylor was Mahomes' wife, but I thought not.
I asked my daughter who was *not* watching the game if she knew who was in the booth with Taylor? She did: Blake Lively and Ice Spice... and Lana. So I won the bet, but am now a little concerned about my daughter.
I don't think this is an 'art' question, at least not what I'm raising with regards a good game question.
But 'if' it is an art question, my objection is that the art itself is too constrained by a series of mostly A/B questions which are themselves the result of constraints of Dev time to map out non-binary interactions and downstream paths. It's an illusion of choice that usually makes the game worse because making the choice 'meaningful' just makes the choice 'instrumental' to whatever you're hoping to do. It's the worst sort of calvinist pre-destination on rails we could imagine.
So, even if we grant that it is art (not necessary IMO), it's bad art because we aren't really participating in 'sub-creation' we're executing branching paths that have already been written and exist in all their badness -- which we merely uncover.
Truly dynamic worlds is something I've heard about for years... and I'm still not convinced that's what anyone wants. The 'game plays you' theory strikes me as ultimately (even with, say, AI) unsatisfying as the only thing the game exists for is to play and it will play you relentlessly and it won't be fun.
'Games' that is 'True Games' are meta-systems that increase in complexity such that they are 'fun' at easy levels and still fun as complexity increases. Calling them books or art is just a category error.
Don't get me wrong... I have no problem with people writing books and getting people to participate in them ... just not for me. I'd rather they 'get out of the way' and build better systems. The most common failure of games as story is that the story runs out and the game isn't that fun.
On “On Parenting and Divorce”
No Idea what's triggering you...
You know that Brad Wilcox is a research professor of Sociology at UVA with a PhD from Princeton?
You know all the times people point to "studies say" and that we should listen to the experts?
He's an expert that does the studies that people say we should listen too.
Not just 'some guy' giving life advice on the internet.
"
Good plan!
"
"I was talking to a graduate student recently. He had a very clear sense of his plan for schooling and work, and then I said, what’s your plan about marriage and dating? And there was silence. He didn’t really have a plan. I think that’s part of the challenge — that people are not being intentional enough about seeking opportunities to meet, date and marry young adults in their world."
"
Sure, laws vary by state... so maybe TX is doing a GREAT thing... but yes, I'd say in my limited experience the primary interest was in preventing the aggrieved party from becoming a ward of the state.
It was quite an education to see how 21st century enlightened divorce laws/settlements worked in Blue Massachusetts & Minnesota.
If I, a card carrying member of the Patriarchy were to design a system to benefit the Patriarchy, that would be where I'd draw the line.
"
I haven't read what those rascally Texans are up to, so this isn't a comment on any specifics in that law. But, to steelman an alternate approach to the (secular) no-fault regime I'd point to these things:
It's about justice for an aggrieved party, not about making divorce harder or not possible. No-fault Divorce is already hard; it's hard in every possible way. I think it's a category error to suggest that the point of changing the current regime is to make it harderer.
If both parties agree to a divorce, it proceeds with all the usual acrimony (or not) and negotiations over assets, children and future support. Nothing changes.
If one party 'elects' to divorce, then the aggrieved party 'ought' to be entitled to greater compensation or consideration of how the family structure proceeds post divorce.
- This might be categorized as one spouse abandoning a partner for a younger version, or a spouse abandoning a partner to 'find oneself' or the like. The abandoned spouse ought to be entitled to additional considerations.
If one party has 'cause' to divorce, then that party is also the aggrieved party (in this case the 'unwilling to divorce' partner is in fact the one who has 'abandoned' the marriage) and ought to be entitled to greater compensation or consideration of how the family structure proceeds post divorce.
- This might be categorized as a spouse suffering abuse (self or others), serial infidelity, dangerous criminal activity, etc, etc.
In none of the scenarios is the difficulty of divorce made impossible, it just means that the legal structure assumes that the Marriage Contract as stipulated has been broken by one party and the aggrieved party has recourse short of forcing the other party to remain in the marriage. It's a matter of small 'j' justice... not cosmic big 'J' Justice.
Will the serial philanderer who want to trade-up for a newer model still get their divorce? Yes. Could it be 'mutual' and arbitrated the way most are today? Sure... will the abandoned spouse have new leverage to negotiate a better settlement and family structure to their liking during arbitration? Also yes, because the possibility of a contested divorce exists.
In the case of abuse, it is already the case that even with no-fault divorce, the 'battle' happens with child custody and one spouse has to 'prove' to the court that the other is an abuser to have the family structure altered to protect the vitcim(s). No-Fault and Fault in this case already looks similar because one party is extremely motivated to prove fault.
Every divorce is fraught. Having a category for the aggrieved party in contract law is not some novel ideal; the penalty for breaking the contract isn't death; sometimes it's better to break the contract, pay the penalties and move on. Sometimes the cost is higher than you'd like to pay so you reconsider; and, if both parties are unhappy with the contract you can go to arbitration or renegotiate or settle out of it.
Will fewer people divorce if we change underlying framework with regards divorce? I suspect no, not really. Maybe a number of folks will reconsider that the severe mental anguish of minor things isn't worth the cost of abandoning the marriage; but similarly some number of people may decide that the benefit of divorcing the serial philanderer for cause might be worth it. In the end, since divorce is already difficult, I don't think we're altering numbers, just adjudicating outcomes.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Marvel’s Midnight Suns”
I didn't play Hades... my understanding is that Hades is more a Rogue-like/lite? This isn't really like Hades (from what I've read), it's more like Diablo, if that's your main frame of reference.
Less complex than POE, but better pure ARP than Diablo which veers into MMO-ARP zone.
"
Last Epoch just launched, if you can call 'launching' a game that was in (paid) Beta for so long I was able to amass 125 hrs played in between Path of Exile leagues.
It's (another) ARPG that is informed by both Diablo (booo) and Path of Exile (yaaay) and I'd like to say that it learns all the right lessons, but we'll have to be happy that it learned about 66%-75% of the right lessons.
Good:
Build's center around a single skill with a second (maaaybe a third) button push (POE).
No Diablo/WoW 'skill rotations' gated by timers and lots of meaningless button pushing (thank goodness)
Skills: Many interesting and fun to play damage skills ... enough to make you covet a new class.
Loot: Game breaking mechanics baked into loot (POE)
Loot: You can influence RNG towards the gamebreakers needed for your build (New)
Loot: Endgame allows you to target the types of outcomes you'd like to weight.
Endgame: (still discovering) 'Maps' are a combo between POE and Diablo which strike me as better than both
Endgame: You can 'drive' your way through Loot outcomes -- selecting rewards.
Endgame: 'Dungeons' are a thing... sort of like juiced maps with progressive waves and a boss.
Endgame: Loot.
Basically, ARP's are Loot Economy sims and getting this right and satisfying for early, mid, late and Endgame is the sine qua non of ARP's ... all of the skills, builds, and gameplay are informed by enhancements to skills, builds and gameplay that comes from loot. Done well it's a virtuous circle, done poorly? Well, see Diablo 3. **
Bad:
Early-game itemization (Loot) is simultaneously boring and meaningless.
Mid-game itemization is *really* generic and repetitive.
Late-game where to go, what to do, how does this new gameplay work is not clear at all; once you figure out that a paradigm shift has happened and how it works... it's satisfying, but I -- a very experienced ARPG player - was completely lost by this change. Fixable with more $$ and .dot releases.
Loot: some skills/affixes are very obliquely itemized ... here I'm thinking Throwing Skills and weapons.
Tool Tips: Some really nice enhancements in Character page... but doesn't go to Skill level granularity we need (maybe I'm missing something?)
Bosses: Stupidly over-tuned and way too dependent upon WoW-like cheesy mechanics. Settle down Devs.
TBD:
How long will End-game keep your interest?
Assuming we eventually 'play your stash' are there enough early-/mid-game twink items to make leveling better/faster?
How much advancement is account based vs. character based -- which leads to:
Once we complete the game, can we skip the campaign a'la Diablo (the best thing about Diablo)?
Will the game have Seasonal replayability like POE (phenomenal) or Diablo (cringe)
On the whole, my initial impression is a B/B+/A- depending on how some of these End-game aspects play out -- I'm 'only' level 70 atm. But so far, I'd rate the main ARPGs thus: POE, Last Epoch, Grim Dawn, Diablo IV, all the others (I'm curious about Undecember, but atm moment it's cumbersome and boring, but maybe fixable?)
** For true nerds there's this very interesting 2019 GDC talk given by GGG's Chris Wilson about the importance of getting the economy right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmuy9fyNUjY
On “Alabama Supreme Court IVF Embryos Ruling: Read It For Yourself”
I don't think y'all have read the facts of the case -- which is the point of Andrew posting the doc.
This doesn't really fit the narrative folks are assuming:
"The plaintiffs allege that the Center was obligated to keep the
cryogenic nursery secured and monitored at all times. But, in December
2020, a patient at the Hospital managed to wander into the Center's
fertility clinic through an unsecured doorway. The patient then entered
the cryogenic nursery and removed several embryos. The subzero
temperatures at which the embryos had been stored freeze-burned the
patient's hand, causing the patient to drop the embryos on the floor,
killing them. "
The plaintiffs are suing for wrongful death in lieu of negligence etc. The plaintiffs are pro-IVF.
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/12/2024”
Yeah, it was a good episode to go over our 'Don't talk to the police without a lawyer present' discussions. Added on that if you are going to be arrested, you won't talk your way out of it, so prepare to cancel your afternoon appointments and call the family lawyer.
Of course, she had nothing to fear about getting arrested; but the scam caller cited a badge # from her zip-code accurate police dept and told her to google it... which turned up a real cop. That was the 'cool' part of the psychological scam... made it seem legit in the way a magician sets you up with misdirection.
"
I think there's two forks in the scam business. The most common by far is the trolling for marks; which is just a psychological pressure play plus time compression... here they are just using a formula that works in volume.
More sophisticated scams require targeting and a plan and have to work more like heists... so I'm not sure they are a general concern.
Maybe a hybrid is a 'generic' deepfake where they approximate a guess of what your grandson sounds like (i.e. voice/accent/age) and have that voice ask for money/help. Something like this was tried on my dad... he asked the caller to recall a shared memory and the guy flubbed the response... but it was all under the pretext of phone battery dying, couldn't talk, desparately needed cash, send money here.
Again, the psychological manipulation is designed to cut-off the simple counter of hanging up and calling the number you have for your grandson/daughter... that's what's pretty interesting. Otherwise it's a numbers game looking for people who won't punch out of the box... so, elderly, usually.
The danger for us isn't the usual phone scam, its the future hologram tech that we don't really understand as we age into our luddite phase.
On “Weekend Plans Post: A Sneaky Three-Day Weekend”
In addition to Sundays, adding this to the Solidarity Party plank:
The Third Friday of every month shall be a National Holiday... additive to the currently observed secular feast days.
However, I just checked our corporate calendar, and sadly it seems we hate the Presidents.
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/12/2024”
Hoping the 'lie' angle is true.
Reading through it I was wondering if the scam was especially ingenious, and sadly it was not.
Reminded me of the time my daughter called me in a panic that the Police were going to come arrest her if she didn't give someone some cash. Told her that if the police were going to arrest her, it was going to ruin her day no matter what... so cash wasn't going to make that go away. Then she thought through it and realized how unlikely it was that a 'false arrest warrant' would telegraph through a guy on the phone wanting $$.
Interesting to see how the psychological manipulation just takes over.
On “Lent!”
Sound advice.
Practicing virtue is probably better than purging vices; but often they work together.
"
Our biggest flaw AND our superpower.
"
Good point, you want more of a Josh Brolin experience for the meditative parts.
"
You do get to pick who your reader is... they should make Caviezel/Walken an option.
"
Yeah, it was kinda 'marketplacey' but the vibe I got was definitely Catholic... a sort of soft center-right Catholic with room for lots of flavors, but not a lot of fads. Well maybe Bible in a Year is a fad, but it's a neutral kind of fad, maybe more an 'unexpected phenomenon'.
The '40-day Challenge' was solid in that it was consistent, orthodox, simple, short, and had professionals doing the voice work. They made an attempt at meta-themes that were good, but felt a bit understuffed. There were bits and pieces of personal stories that alternated between cool and cringe... but mostly they avoided going all-in on personal celebrity stories -- which I think was a good decision. Praying 'with' celebrities rather than celebrities preaching the half-baked good intentions they usually muster - for that I was grateful.
I also went through the St. Francis de Sales 'Introduction to the Devout Life' offering and that was solid because, well, it's a classic text brought on to an app with medium+ production values. No one tried to 'explain' de Sales to me; just produced the text with a tiny bit of context.
But yeah, I suppose we could point out that it was cafeteria catholicism ... which is perhaps the besetting sin of Catholicism?
"
Last year out of curiosity I did the Marky Mark app.
Curiosity sated, I'm back to liturgy of the hours, simpliciter.
Usually I also doctor my coffee so it's 'not right' ... but I've been doing some intermittent fasting which has played havoc with my coffee routine ... so this year I'm just not drinking coffee at all. The change in eating patterns almost nuked coffee anyway, so I'm just leaning in since coffee had become more of a treat at this point.
I'm glad Marky Mark and Hallow are a thing, it's just not quite my thing.
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/5/2024”
This is a great observation.
I'd add that trying to craft and sell policy based on what's best for the richest and poorest segments has been a massive bamboozle that is alienating broader society (I don't want to simply say, Middle Class -- because its wider and that term doesn't mean what we think means).
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Watching a Zoomer play Fallout New Vegas”
...and there's that too.
"
Heh, I like reading books. I just don't pretend they are games.
On “The Big Game Sunday”
Handful of funny commercials last night.
My personal favorite was Matt Damon/Ben Affleck as they evolve into pure memes of themselves for Dunkin Donuts
https://news.yahoo.com/j-lo-tom-brady-matt-205200825.html
Most disappointing? The E*Trade babies... they just don't seem to get that the whole thing that made the originals funny was the improv over the raw baby footage. The CGI staging with babies as props entirely misses the point, Shankopotomus.
"
My wife and son thought the blond next to Taylor was Mahomes' wife, but I thought not.
I asked my daughter who was *not* watching the game if she knew who was in the booth with Taylor? She did: Blake Lively and Ice Spice... and Lana. So I won the bet, but am now a little concerned about my daughter.
"
JB would've liked it... it had a Fallout retro vibe to it.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Watching a Zoomer play Fallout New Vegas”
I don't think this is an 'art' question, at least not what I'm raising with regards a good game question.
But 'if' it is an art question, my objection is that the art itself is too constrained by a series of mostly A/B questions which are themselves the result of constraints of Dev time to map out non-binary interactions and downstream paths. It's an illusion of choice that usually makes the game worse because making the choice 'meaningful' just makes the choice 'instrumental' to whatever you're hoping to do. It's the worst sort of calvinist pre-destination on rails we could imagine.
So, even if we grant that it is art (not necessary IMO), it's bad art because we aren't really participating in 'sub-creation' we're executing branching paths that have already been written and exist in all their badness -- which we merely uncover.
Truly dynamic worlds is something I've heard about for years... and I'm still not convinced that's what anyone wants. The 'game plays you' theory strikes me as ultimately (even with, say, AI) unsatisfying as the only thing the game exists for is to play and it will play you relentlessly and it won't be fun.
'Games' that is 'True Games' are meta-systems that increase in complexity such that they are 'fun' at easy levels and still fun as complexity increases. Calling them books or art is just a category error.
Don't get me wrong... I have no problem with people writing books and getting people to participate in them ... just not for me. I'd rather they 'get out of the way' and build better systems. The most common failure of games as story is that the story runs out and the game isn't that fun.