I’m addicted to urban fantasy right now so I definitely wish we could get another swing at The Secret World. I love hidden world things like a second society of cryptids beneath the mundane and I’ve been inlove with the setting for forever.

I know the devs were talking about a tv series but… nothing.

I’ve also always wanted to do a band of brothers style series but from a star wars’ perspective where half the series is in the eyes of rebels and the other half in the eyes of the empire. But to slowly build up more gray morality - like the rebel soldiers have to struggle with committing acts that cause civilian casualties to push their objective. Or the stormtroopers slowly being broken from the imperial cult but still loyal to the concept of what it means for order.

Or like… a band of brothers style series of a platoon of imperial guardsman in 40k. Just guys struggling to survive demons, aliens, and killer robots.

Systemic racism in the US ment an inproportionate number of drafted service personnel were black as white draftees were able to get college deferments in higher numbers.

This boiled back down to the poorer economic situation of black peoples in the Civil rights era fighting for basic equality.

The draft also caused friction that increased fraggings as this racist treatment by educated white officers or NCOs were dealt with locally. Fragging was furthered by a disconnect between draftees who wanted to just survive and glory hounds who saw military service and War as some great adventure.

I too was infantry. And muscle memory doesn’t necessarily mean always being engaged to the process, it means being able to return to the necessary posture when needed.

It wasn’t uncommon for us to rest our hands on our rifles too when we didn’t need to be actively engaged in the current situation in any hostile fashion.

Pirates kind of had a workers compensation program as I’ve been told.

Loss of certain body parts was payable with the amount varying by which part was affected.

These guys aren’t in some kind of parade or ceremonial display, nor do they appear to be at a guard post.

They’re just soldiers standing by. In that situation there’s no need for a uniform display to impress anyone. Keeping soldiers at drill precision 100% all thetime is a good way to fatigue soldiers who don’t need to be perfect quickly.

Besides which, all of them have a hand near their trigger guards and most have hands resting on the barrel of their weapons so are reasonably prepared if someone does try something.

The navy manual for troubleshooting equipment in the field includes “lift 3-6 inches and drop”

El Hazard, is that you? It’s been so long.

I have many negative options of this show. Ultimately, while Lucy was…okay… Norm and chet had my favorite dynamic and didn’t act like complete morons most of the time.

They seemed to have set out with the intention of making the BoS a slapstick comedy rayher than a serious player consisting of intelligent humans. Especially Knight Titus and Maximus felt like horribly written characters.

I understand them going for humor but… I feel the slapstick nature of it really took away my enjoyment of it.

While fallout has had humor in it, I felt it was backseat to the actual atmosphere of its story of surviving the wasteland. In the series, slapstick seems to be all it is.

Also I don’t understand why they added the thing about ghouls.

It depends. Self publishers on places like Amazon Kindle are probably making that choice themselves. They choose their own covers.

I understand a Self publisher has less financial resources but… there’s no good answer.

For large publishing firms, they have a choice. They pick books they think will do well and support it with cover art, marketing, etc.

When you have things like Fallout’s TV series using AI art to market itself? That’s a multi-billion dollar company. They can afford not to. I don’t fault the writer for a book that a publisher forces AI onto, but as long as they stay with a publisher who openly forces them to use AI, I will hold my stance.

One bad apple ruins the bunch.

Cosby was the titular character. His actions reflect on everyone. The supporting cast and crew did good work and were paid (hopefully fairly) for it, and I hope their efforts will always be remembered but the work is also tainted now.

One thing I’m unsure of is if Cosby wrote any of the shows. If so, his creeping shadow gets worse because he’s a hypocrite. If not, then it’s unfortunate to the writers.

There will never be a black or white answer in this but I have to draw lines somewhere. I don’t demonize the supporting cast, only the titular one.

The cast can and should denounce Cosby in cases like that but… again, Apple and the bunch.

I don’t separate them. To still partake in the art helps boost their popularity and their message.

I also can’t claim to support a group while boosting their biggest antagonist. I also see this spreading into the AI area.

If I see authors using AI cover art, I blacklist them. AI voices for characters in games? I’ll swerve. I can’t claim to support a community of artists and then shoot them in the foot at first opportunity.

I mostly hated that the skill trees are still mostly % increases. Cyberpunk retooled their entire skill tree because of that.

It’s a type of gameplay progression that just isn’t that fun - but Bethesda loves it.

Its pretty clear that the automation aspect was a little over sold in some of the trailers. In one trailer, two lines of cattiva are carrying iron bars from what appears to be a forge.

Pals won’t pull out of forges AFAIK. So it feels like they threw 2 stacks of iron behind the forge and recorded it as an automation demonstration.

I think I’ve spent the last 4 days not doing anything except trying to get the pal automation to be a little more controlled…

I’m against AI-generated anything as a principal. I have too many friends in the art community who’s primary form of income is the art they create.

I think I’ve become more jaded over time. I blacklist authors who use AI generated cover art, and I’m getting to the point that I want to do the same for games because I am so tired of hearing AI voices to replace characters, even if that character is an AI in the game.

Again, it doesn’t stem from my hate of new technology, but rather the people being effected by that technology - the artists, voice actors, what have you. And also there’s that thing where I do not want to talk to a chat robot for things.

Even in countries where prostitution is legal women are being trafficked against their will to those countries to be forced into sex work.

They’re already being trafficked to the US to be forced into prostitution, why would they care if it’s legalized. It wouldn’t affect their trafficking.

But I also feel you may be inflating the ramifications of legalization of drugs and prostitution. I believe it was Canada or one of the US states where the cost of legally sold Marijuana was still too high and people turned to their old dealers. You’d see the cartel enter the market again with cheaper, more dangerous options for those who can’t afford the higher priced, taxed, and regulated products.

We can regulate those who wish to operate above board, but you can’t stop the pipeline.

The cartel is probably far beyond drugs and prostitution only these days. Arms trafficking, human trafficking, etc would remain largely viable methods of funding.

And the cartels are smart enough that they’d just shift pipelines and continue to be a large issue.

A thing to remember is that legal prostitution is still a vector in the human trafficking trade. Even where it’s legal, women are forcefully relocated to those nations and forced to work.

Most of the prostitution issues would be handled, but you would still need to account for it.

I get specifically pissed at all the AI generated answers.

The problem with the ACA was that it had to make a lot of compromises to get it through with support by Republicans. While the ACA was initially very unpopular, it’s become more popular in time (if you discount rebranding efforts like Kentucky Connect being the name of the ACA marketplace there… Then Kentucky politicians calling ACA broken but Connect good causing Connect to be popular but ACA not in that state).

It was a good effort at getting the foot in the door for universal Healthcare one day, imo.

I also have the little heated traps for them too.