They were 100% aware they were hosting a “not technically child pornography but we’re going to use it as child pornography” sub, but there’s no subreddit degenerate enough that they’ll ban it while it’s profitable.

It doesn’t need to be profitable, let alone have every fraction of a cent squeezed from it.

And it doesn’t

Don’t fall for it.

Rich people promote neoliberalism not because it works, but because they get rich off it’s failure. The “free market will fix it” is just another of those lies. The most hated companies in the world continue to bring in record profits.

X continues to operate despite their frontman being plausibly a neo-nazi and undeniably a fuckstain. Whatever damage has been done wasn’t due to the public, but billion dollar companies.

The free market doesn’t fix shit, regulations do. Everything else is just a pantomime.

Exploding head syndrome only a beep? Brains do weird shit.

I don’t know, nor am I speculating. The person I was replying to said they didn’t see a browser check in the code, which isn’t enough to dismiss it.

They don’t need to put incriminating “if Firefox” statements in their code – the initial page request would have included the user agent and it would be trivial to serve different JavaScript based on what it said.

• The alternative to current model of game launch + DLCs/features added over the year is that the game is not launched at all until ready and full featured.

I haven’t seen significant numbers of people complaining that their drip feed of content isn’t coming fast enough. I’ve seen people complaining about spending a non-trivial amount of money on a visibly broken game that clearly had plenty of developer resources for microtransactions and loot boxes.

Gamer audience is privileged, consumerist and impatient. And most of the audience is either autistic or neurodivergent with impulsive and/or compulsive disorders, and have unstable hyperfocus and obsession issues.

Being a game developer had its moments but was still easily the worst job I’ve ever had, predominantly due to the community.

That said, I still wouldn’t go diagnosing millions of people with some bullshit I just made up.

They’re not uninformed, they’re lying.

They are fully aware that if a politician tried to introduce gun laws that were an exact copy of Switzerland’s, they would be staunchly opposed by the pro-gun community, Republicans and the gun lobby that owns them.

They just want to muddy the waters and drag out the conversation forever. The Switzerland excuse is just as bad-faith as when they blamed video games, music or too many doors.

Edit: also, might make the government think twice about fucking with democracy or stepping over the common man.

That’s just a marketing campaign from gun manufacturers. If it actually worked, it would have worked in America.

Instead, they get to choose between a neoliberal and a fascist every few years (if they haven’t been disenfranchised or gerrymandered into irrelevance), which decides whose rich friends and donors get to pocket the most public funds.

Steam got to where it is by good will, good prices and good features.

Well, eventually.

When Steam was first released, the running joke was “steaming pile of shit”. It was slow, unreliable and only a couple of shades of green away from the worst color in the world. People complained about the birth of “always online” games and about paying full price but not even getting a box with it.

It’s not exactly unassailable now either. It’s my platform of choice as a user but for indie developers, the 30% cut is brutal and last I used it, the Steamworks SDK was pretty rough. The app itself also has a lot of legacy bloat like a built in MP3 player.

It’s ahead of the rest but I think “good will, good prices and good features” might be an overly romantic take on “it’s where all my games already are”.

That’s the neoliberal secret – you have to play the game, no matter how immoral the rules.

That wealth imbalance also pushes companies to force dumb shit like this on thier customers.

If Google were to just come out with a $10 a month plan that removed all the sleazy ways they try and profit from you, the overwhemling response would be “Oh great yet another subscription”, because these subscriptions have become a significant chunk of people’s income each month.

But what if greedy neoliberals hadn’t been pocketing our pay rises for $20 years and that subscription was functionally $1? Most people would be happy to blow $20 supporting 20 different content providers.

Unfortunately, their greed is insatiable. There’s always a room of executives doing their grubby little sums. “If people have $1, they probably have $2. We could double our profits! Then double our salaries!”.

Inflation just means “If rich people find out you’ve got more money, they’ll fuck you out of that too”.

The $1 will never be enough. They’ll keep charging more and more until people have nothing left to hand over. Then they’ll figure out more ways to squeeze a profit out of you. Manipulating you with ads, selling your private data, turning your body into expensive dogfood – whatever makes them a few more cents.