Spyke

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Google says it can’t fix Pixel Watches, please just buy a new one | With no official repair program and no parts, broken Pixel Watches are just e-waste.

i bought a P-Watch due to the circular aesthetic, have been wearing mine since release. it's "OK" but last week i fell on my bicycle and scratched up the watch face pretty badly, so QUITE annoying that there is no repair program.

doesn't matter though, switching to a classic Cassio watch soon anyways. "Smart Watches" aren't that helpful for me, ultimately i don't understand the appeal. it's just PHONE ON WRIST, seems like another way to "PLUG INTO THE MATRIX"

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This should be illegal

the problem is that we've allowed this to happen. all mobile games function this way, the "rug" can be pulled at any time. all that money you spent on gacha pulls, was it worth it?

the problem goes back innocuously to MMO subscriptions, i think. which had a valid reason for existing, but an MMO can be "rug pulled" at any time as well, thankfully most of the greats have stayed up (wow, ffxi, eq) but ONE DAY they will be gone forever, relegated to private servers only.

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BBC Children in Need 2023 Special

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seems a bit wishful thinking, and - absolutely - it was Davies who made the Doctor the center of the universe, starting with 9/10 as ThE lAsT oF ThE TiMe LoRdS, and every episode/arc being largely centeted on The Doctor's past/present/future and enemies. 14(?) popping in to essentially NAME the Daleks, his greatest enemy, kinda undermining 4's Genesis of the Daleks arc, is a sign - to me - that The Doctor is, once again, the center of the Whoniverse as we know it.

13 was far less "center of the universe" than 10 and 12 ever were, often taking a back seat to her companion's storylines, which was refreshing.

to clarify, i like every season of Doctor Who and enjoy center-of-the-universe Doctor as much as backseat Doctor, i just don't think this is going to be a backseat decade for Doctor Who, not with Davies at the helm.

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You Are Wasting Your Time

not again.

this is going to devolve into nihilistic: "well what is there to waste if life is meaningless to begin with! we create our own meaning!" or the hedonistic: "if it makes me happy, then why not?!" or the semantic: "define wasting time."

like it always does.

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What Final Fantasy opinion are you defending like this?

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FFX-2 was Square as well. It was developed by a Square team and released by Square in Japan, not SquareEnix. In fact, it was the last Square Final Fantasy game to be released. This is all easily verifiable on Wikipedia, as well.

The truth is that this was the direction they wanted to take the X universe, even had the same Director and everything.

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Generic (fantasy) settings are better than "original" settings

the use of the word "better" is always problematic because you then have to explain how you define "better," which you did; then you have to justify it, which you did; but it has become entirely subjective during this journey. the hurdle is truly justifying why "tactical gameplay" or "character interaction" has more value than original world building, which is nigh impossible.

considering this is computer games, you could make the argument that gameplay rules all, but doing shooty-shoots-at-bad-guy can happen regardless of setting, it's all about mechanical fidelity and input-response feedback at that point; the setting is not relevant. if someone plays a computer game primarily for its unique setting, then the uniqueness of the setting becomes the prominent value judgement for that individual; that person would be disappointed if the setting was just a DnD-rip, for example.

i do think there is merit in your viewpoint from a general perspective; to appeal to the masses, using familiar tropes helps ease the average player into a comfort zone. but too much reliance on this idea of "familiar is better" stifles creativity. you could argue that unique settings should be left for novels/etc, but i think computer games should push boundaries, and the idea of what constitutes a computer game changes every day. you could argue that a non-DnD setting falls into the realm of "scifi" as well, but this is a semantics game; genre labels are typically vacuous, functioning only to give a potential audience some general understanding of the material they're about to engage with.

that being said, i can't think of many "fantasy" settings that don't borrow from Tolkien on some level. even the example i was going to use to counter your point, Morrowind, has a setting heavily inspired by Tolkien; albeit, very far removed and unique with elements of Hinduism thrown in. i don't think this validates the theory that sword/sorcery settings are "better," only that it validates the theory that human beings have a hard time being truly unique. even Tolkien was heavily inspired by the Norse Volsunga Saga. it's like a long game of telephone.

good post.