I noticed this bullshit a few days ago on my Win 11 desktop! I found if you go check the settings of the start bar, you can hide the copilot icon in the lower right, and then there’s a check box to enable the lower right hand corner to work as show desktop again. The functionality can be restore to exactly as it was, but what the hell were they thinking.

Enshitification, plain and simple.

One thing I absolutely hated was the Open World, it was non-stop jammed packed full of monsters, just spawning non-stop. And they are always around your level, so you never feel like you’re progressing in power. It was just such a shitty way to handle the world, you can never clear out an area, never go back to an earlier area and flex your new power. Also, monsters spawning constantly was jarring, but the first time I saw a grizzly bear climb straight out of the ground, not a den, just the ground… lazy bullshit.

There are so many things that were just trash about that game, the stats on gear, it was impossible to figure out which pieces would be actual upgrades. The skill trees looked fun but feel so empty and hollow, ugh, I’m irritated all over again about that purchase.

So unless you’ve corrected all of that stuff plus a ton more, I probably won’t ever play it again.

Diablo 4, hands down. My best friend and I have been playing co-op games together for many years, and we were convinced that D4 would be the next 200+ hour co-op event of the year. So I bought myself the 100 dollar collectors edition and he, the same one since his birthday was near launch.

Yep, after 2 weeks we both admitted it just wasn’t a good game, and neither of us wanted to play anymore. What a massive disappointment.

Nothing.

I’m 42, I was fat in my 20s and didn’t lose 100 pounds and get in shape until 31. I’d gladly take that pill right this instant, make a lot of different choices, lose my weight and get in shape at a younger age too. I would have a very different life I bet.

But alas, your theoretical pill just taunts “Now Me”!

I played the arcade cabinet version of bump n jump as a kid!

I know it’s so damn frequent that Occam’s Razor gets trotted out, but in this situation, I think the simplest explanation is probably the most likely. Life developing in general is insanely rare in the universe, and there is no law that states that life HAS to evolve into intelligent life that would develop technologies, and space travel.

I agree about the Dark Forest hypothesis. Also the idea that other alien life just knew to be quiet up front is silly, for the same reason we’ve been blasting radio waves into the universe the moment we figured out how.

Nah, us being first is scary to me in the sense if life is nearly impossible to form, and we’re all alone, that means we can search planet after planet, after planet and only find dead lifeless environments. That’s not nearly as fun of a thought as the universe being full of life, and all the amazing discoveries we’d make exploring. That’s all I meant.

I find the idea that life is insanely rare, and that 99.99999999999999999999 of every planet and moon is lifeless. Even if we some how find a way to explore the cosmos, we’ll be searching empty dead rocks for the rest of our species lives. That’s scary to me.

I suppose it depends on why they’re being quiet. If other civilizations view each other as competitors for rare resources like worlds that would be inhabitable with out large scale terraforming, then being loud may get your planet targeted. That’s the basis for the “Dark Forest” theory. I think that theory is interesting, but it’s a bit pessimistic in my opinion. What’s way more likely is, if there are other civilizations out there, the odds of them existing during the same time frame that we’re here, AND being close enough to receive radio waves in a timely fashion, AND are at a technology level to send and receive those radio waves… it’s all very very very unlikely.

For me, what’s way scarier is, it isn’t that everyone is being quiet, it’s that there isn’t any one else out there, and we’re one of the first civilizations to develop. If there were other highly advanced civilizations out there, there’d be signs of them, signs of their technology. Shit, I read that large ships moving at close to the speed light would generate detectable gravity waves. But so far, nothing.

I think it was my Motorola Razr, then I got a Black Berry Bold, or some such. So yeah, the Razr.

No, we are legion. I’m sure oodles of people fall into this fruit trap.

You and me both! Or I get into a fruit kick, then slow down after a bit, and what I have starts to go bad so I stop buying them all together.

You know it! God damn, a TV show based on that series would be so awesome! Come on Amazon, get cracking!

The Expeditionary Force series! I loved the series and listened to the whole thing on audible! The great thing is, R.C. Bray could still voice one of the key characters who makes the whole series fun and addicting!

I feel that way about guns and I’m American. It isn’t a hobby, it isn’t a passion, it’s a fetish. They never want to admit why they’re so adamant on having access to any amount of guns they want isn’t for any practical purpose outside they think they’re cool and they feel powerful owning them. There’s also a subset of gun owners here who have guns for “home defense” but they fantasize about someone breaking into their house so they can shoot them. It’s god damn sick, I hate gun ownership culture here. The last reason people love to trot out is the 2nd amendment will help protect the people against a corrupt government, again playing to the sense that gun nuts are some how on part training and mentality wise to a professional military. If the US government ever tried suppressing the population using the military, no amount of Big Gun-Nut Energy and a closet full of guns will stop the real soldiers.

The only way we’ll ever curb mass shootings is to pass laws restricting gun ownership to the types of guns with low capacities like break action shotguns or low capacity bolt action rifles. Essentially just down to hunting firearms. But that will never happen here, it’s typically right leaning folks who love their guns an unhealthy amount, and right leaning politicians are swing further and further into crazy shit to appease their extreme voting base.

So instead of any good sense gun laws, we get laws being repealed to make gun ownership easier and easier, open carry, conceal carry etc etc. To even hint at laws to bring down the the amount of mass shootings, people screech like howler monkeys. They love the “slippery slope” argument, where any law to restrict any type of gun will lead to the government coming and forcefully taking their guns. They are crazy people.

I’m so happy someone tried out Ascension based on my post! I’ve been playing around in there for a few months now, nothing hard core, just trying different specs or build ideas. At first it does feel very overwhelming, but they’ve made changes to the talents to sometimes make them a bit more agnostic or if the talent says “Increases Pet Damage” it’ll generally apply to any pet. That combined with the ability to search for any ability or talent based on keywords or phrases like “All Damage” to find talents to increase damage mitgation all combines to allow you to think up interesting specs and try building it your self.

The other thing I adore about this system is, in normal WoW, there has always been the meta, if you’re a fire mage and you want to raid you better be specced this one certain way or your trash. Well in Ascension, the options are so god damn wide open that no you could very well come up with unique build that is better then anyone has made before. Also people can’t see your spec in game, so there just isn’t that rigid expectation of choosing the “right” spec.

Also check out prestiging , it’s fun to loop back to level 1, level back up and earn rewards. Or prestige , and pick a Ironman challenge, where you get 1 life and need to accomplish a certain goal like, kill hogger before level 10 or you fail. I’m working on an Ironman Challenge called “King of the Jungle” where you get 1 life, and need to kill the final tiger boss in the Stranglethorn Vale big game hunt quest line before level 40!

Over all, it’s just a very well thought out and daring approach. On top of Ascension’s Area 52 server that I’m on (Free pick classless), there’s also the Thrall server which is also classless, but instead if free pick you get a selection of 3 or 4 abilities when you level and you try to assemble your build using those cards. I have some friends that positively love the draft server, but it isn’t my cup of tea.

It’s a separate company, I don’t understand how they don’t get sued into oblivion, but they update the game all the time, it’s feature rich and has so much to explore. The website is ascension.gg. They also have an alpha server which cost money to get access to with 21 brand new classes, none of the old classes, new ability, new talents.

WoW Ascension on the Area 52 server. This server is classless, you can pick any ability and talents you want. Plus there are mystic scrolls you can find in the world which when equipped (you can have 17 equipped at once, 1 legendary, 3 epic, then a bunch of blue or green) and these enchants completely change how abilities work to allow for you to make incredibly cool custom classes.

It’s full of fresh ideas, I love it a lot!

Maternal fornicator