if you think people who do it regularly are idiots. Gambling takes advantage of several well known psychological quirks of the human mind to manipulate already vulnerable people.
This isn't nannying. It's recognizing a vulnerable minority and taking steps to protect them. You might just as well say consumer protection laws are nannying.
Lastly, video games are Casinos now. The lootboxes are the slots and poker tables. It's like how Uber is really a taxi cab service. You call a spade a spade and gambling gambling. The only reason loot boxes haven't ruined more lives is the game companies are holding back just a bit. They're only doing that under threat of regulation.
so it's not really a legitimate threat. The real question is will we start taxing robots when the time comes or will we just turn into some kind of dystopia where only a few folks who own robots have food and shelter? Got me, I'll be dead though.
lots of folks find it very, very addicting. That's why it's being used in games.
The trouble here is the games industry is refusing to self regulate. And who can blame them? They're making not just billions, but tens of billions. Activision and EA have collectively increased their market cap by $70 billion. Like it or not, loot boxes work. And they work because _gambling_ works. It's not as though the effects of gambling aren't well researched either.
At this point I think the game makers know what they're doing is wrong and that they're going to have to stop. They're just going to make as much money as they can before the ban hammer comes down. In the meantime it kinda sucks to be a gamer if you want new games, since they're stuffed full of crap that's meant to manipulate me. I'm old enough to see right through that crap so it's ruins the escapism for me. It drags me right back to the real world like a bad product placement.
to weakening racism. The "Southern Strategy" is pretty well documented and it works, but it's not working with the young'uns as much. It's possible that workers might get past it.
The ruling class always hedges their bets. Have a look at this youtube channel. One of the complaints from him you'll keep seeing is how the "Alt-Right" has basically turned into a 24/7 anti-SJW network while turning away from the more generalized skepticism that drew a lot of folks into it.
The Clinton Democrats (I refuse to call them "The Left", they're not, they're right wing on economics, which is always what matters) use identity politics to distract from economic problems they can't address because their wealthy donors won't let them. The actual Right (organized under the banner of the GOP) are all about identity politics, mostly around the identity of being a White Male. Again, both groups are doing the same thing: divide and conquer.
The actual American Left, e.g. the "Berniecrats" are the only group trying to get away from identity politics and back to substantive policy. Pay attention to how they vote and what they say and this becomes clear. You will hear them talk about "diversity" but not for it's own sake; but rather for the practical consideration of preventing marginalized groups from being oppressed. Again, they're about policy, not wishy washy social mumble jumble Woo. For example, they support LGBTQ rights not because they want you to gay marry a turtle, but because they want LGBTQ folks to be able to participate equally in society.
of how to create an underclass in a country that is increasingly homogeneous.
See, in order for a ruling class to keep a working class in line they need to divide the working class. In America we do this along racial lines (Black/White/Latino). India uses a caste system. Japan got creative and declared some professions "unclean" and forced families into them, then kept lists of those families.
The goal here is to get you "kicking down". e.g. to direct your rage at the poor lot in life you got at a group below you, until you get to a small enough and low group that they're easily controlled. Like I said above, the pattern repeats again and again.
There's two problems with this in 2018.
1. Education. Well educated people don't see the point of hating on someone without reason; and China's been doing a massive education push.
2. Interbreeding. Folks don't enforce apartheid like they used to. So there's a gradual intermixing until the groups aren't distinct enough anymore. Japan made this work with their caste system, but that needed Buddhism to work, and even then education eventually broke it down. China's facing the same problem.
Giving everyone a "score" is a prefect way to create a new caste system and once again get everyone "kicking down".
they're mules. They collect money and hand over drugs for the actual dealers. They're more like cashiers than dealers, hence the low pay.
As for why they pick being a mule over McDonald's, well, every work in fast food? It sucks and it's demeaning. But yeah, when they get a "serious" girlfriend they're stuck trying to earn as much money as they can since "serious girlfriend" in this context usually means pregnant....
Anyway I've never been a big fan of that book. It's the same one that said crime went down because we legalized abortion.
Know how we solved it? Mostly cops giving out tickets. The scammers got arrested. Same results, maybe better, and no massive and terrifying misuse of government power.
China's problem is they treat their working class like crap. This is the kind of crap you have to resort to when you need to keep people from Unionizing.
a resurgence in PC gaming has helped mask that a bit, fueled mostly by the insane popularity of Fortnight and PUBG, but folks are buying less and PCs. They'll buy one or two for Junior to do the homework on but they don't usually upgrade them much.
is they're still flat. I can raise it up, but the MS Natural has a more gradual angle between each successive key (H, J, K, L, etc, etc). It keeps my wrists turned at a better angle. I had a Matias Ergo Pro for a bit but then flat angle killed it for me and I gave it to my gamer brother.
as an old school single player console gamer these mega popular multiplayer games yank players away from the kind of games I like and so there are less of them. You can pretty easily see this with the death of "B" games. You don't really see stuff like Okami, Wild Arms, Jet Moto, Ratchet & Clank, etc. At least not with the level of polish you used to (the indies try, bless their little hearts).
I suppose there is still a bit of a renaissance for CRPGs right now. Lots of solid dungeon crawlers and Baldur's Gate style games. But if you're a console gamer that grew up on SNES/Genesis/Playstation/Saturn not so much.
I have more pressing concerns. I care about single payer healthcare (here's somebody who just died because American doesn't do that). I care about ending the 8 bloody wars we're in, reigning in the CIA and ending our drug war.
Privacy violation is a symptom of the disease of oligarchy. There are better places to attack our oligharch's abuses than Facebook.
Most Left wing candidates do not get any funding corporate PACs. See here and here. Their money comes from small donors and they have explicit litmus tests that require refusing corporate PAC money.
Now, Clinton Democrats (Schumer, Pelosi, etc) get about 50-55% of their money from corporate PACs. But since when are the Clinton Democrats "the left"? They don't support single payer healthcare, they _do_ support the 8 wars we're fighting and they voted to cut federal and state funding to colleges. How is that "the left"?
what really created the "Adpocalypse" wasn't just that a few ads were shown on Neo-Nazi channels. The real cause was that the advertisers panicked and pulled their ads for week on end but then didn't notice any change in sales. It revealed that Youtube advertising doesn't work.
Facebook could probably survive a blow like that (Youtube did) but it would hurt. OTOH I haven't seen that happen. They've still got plenty of Advertisers. It helps that you give Facebook _way_ more personal information. Even if the brands leave the politicians and think tanks aren't going anywhere. That data is priceless. I think it's safe to say it played a pivotal role in the last 3 presidential elections. Obama certain made great use of social media, and, well, we know how the 2016 election turned out.
Sony did damn near the same thing with the PS3 ($600 price tag thanks to a blu ray player nobody really wanted, real time weapon change, etc) and recovered by now.
XBone's sales are down because Microsoft's current CEO doesn't believe in the product. He's just milking it at this point. So while Sony's got The Last of Us, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn and Spiderman Microsoft's got Forza and... well that's about it. No new Halo in 3 years. Last Gears of War game was 2 years ago (and just kinda OK..., plus it has a PC port).
They've got no system seller. Nothing worth buying the console for. At this point they're coasting on fumes, exactly the way their CEO intended.
they're a major clothing retailer and this looks like a sudden collapse. It's an overall bad sign for the economy. Clothing has such crazy high profit margins you can't even blame this on the high cost of malls. Clothing was the one hold out for them.
Also, I saw an article that made a good point, the retail apocalypse is going to wreck property taxes. All those shops pay taxes, and that pays for schools. Get ready for your property taxes to go up or for your schools to collapse. And jokes about/.ers not getting laid aside lots of us have kids. Even if you don't you need the next generation of kids to get education and jobs and drive the economy so you're 401k doesn't collapse.
It mostly seems like clearance items. I guess $50 bucks off a PS4/XBone is ok, but I haven't seen any computer hardware deals and the electronics deals have been pretty weak.
I can't imagine any that folks at Amazon belong to. Maybe the really top guys and the lawyers, but this is probably the engineers who're getting dragged to NY against their will...
there's still the environmental factors. You can't pollute the way you can in China. Cancer Villages haven't been a thing in America since the late 70s.
I'm guessing they just want to bump their stock price. No new video game consoles, the latest phones have been a bust and the cat's out of the bag on fixing your old iPhone's performance by replacing the battery. Their raw sales are probably just down.
and debatable Ro Khanna. Al Franklin was doing good work until that bitch Kamala Harris threw him under a bus to get him out of the way for her 2020 bid. If anyone's reading this vote against her in the Dem primary. She torpedoed one of the Dems rising stars for her sad little political gain. No way in hell should she get to even run much less win the presidency.
as in, which Vagina did you pop out of? Me? I was a chain smoking alcoholic who, while she meant well, had sever mental issues. Donald Trump, for instance, won the Vagina Lottery. I coulda done worse. I could certainly have done better. But we're all limited by the lottery.
I want a world where that isn't the case. Where everybody, regardless of who's cooch they pop out of doesn't just get a vague possibility of a good life but gets the actual thing itself. And I don't see any reason why, in 2018, we can't achieve that. It's what I was promised my whole life and I want it.
poverty is down because of tech. India and China industrialized and with that came modern farming techniques and more food. Crime is down because a) more food means less crime and b) they took lead out of gas (seriously, google it, lead in the air made folks crazy). Pollution is down because of tech and because the government stepped in and regulated, enforcing strict rules about emissions and fuel economy.
The only thing that came out of increased social consciousness is LGBTQ rights. Given that a not insignificant number of Evangelical Americans would kill and/or torture (through "Gay Conversion Therapy" and lobotomies) LGBTQs that's not insignificant. But it still required the government to step in and protect their rights in many, many places.
I'm perfectly sane. Charity makes you feel better. It makes the recipients feels better. But when you add it all up it's not much more than feelings. Good feelings. And well worth the effort. But if you want something done right, don't do it yourself. Get a group of friends, form a democratic government and git 'er done.
and that you're just a troll. But just in case no, the left doesn't want to impose their will. The left have fought tirelessly to do the opposite, just ask any member of the LGBTQ. On the other hand ask an Evangelical (a member of the right) how they feel about members of the LGBTQ community. Or legalizing pot. Or blasphemy. Or teaching their holy book in schools. Or....
Seriously, if you were projecting any brighter you'd burn through your screen..
Slashdot Mirror
if you think people who do it regularly are idiots. Gambling takes advantage of several well known psychological quirks of the human mind to manipulate already vulnerable people.
This isn't nannying. It's recognizing a vulnerable minority and taking steps to protect them. You might just as well say consumer protection laws are nannying.
Lastly, video games are Casinos now. The lootboxes are the slots and poker tables. It's like how Uber is really a taxi cab service. You call a spade a spade and gambling gambling. The only reason loot boxes haven't ruined more lives is the game companies are holding back just a bit. They're only doing that under threat of regulation.
so it's not really a legitimate threat. The real question is will we start taxing robots when the time comes or will we just turn into some kind of dystopia where only a few folks who own robots have food and shelter? Got me, I'll be dead though.
lots of folks find it very, very addicting. That's why it's being used in games.
The trouble here is the games industry is refusing to self regulate. And who can blame them? They're making not just billions, but tens of billions. Activision and EA have collectively increased their market cap by $70 billion. Like it or not, loot boxes work. And they work because _gambling_ works. It's not as though the effects of gambling aren't well researched either.
At this point I think the game makers know what they're doing is wrong and that they're going to have to stop. They're just going to make as much money as they can before the ban hammer comes down. In the meantime it kinda sucks to be a gamer if you want new games, since they're stuffed full of crap that's meant to manipulate me. I'm old enough to see right through that crap so it's ruins the escapism for me. It drags me right back to the real world like a bad product placement.
to weakening racism. The "Southern Strategy" is pretty well documented and it works, but it's not working with the young'uns as much. It's possible that workers might get past it.
The ruling class always hedges their bets. Have a look at this youtube channel. One of the complaints from him you'll keep seeing is how the "Alt-Right" has basically turned into a 24/7 anti-SJW network while turning away from the more generalized skepticism that drew a lot of folks into it.
The Clinton Democrats (I refuse to call them "The Left", they're not, they're right wing on economics, which is always what matters) use identity politics to distract from economic problems they can't address because their wealthy donors won't let them. The actual Right (organized under the banner of the GOP) are all about identity politics, mostly around the identity of being a White Male. Again, both groups are doing the same thing: divide and conquer.
The actual American Left, e.g. the "Berniecrats" are the only group trying to get away from identity politics and back to substantive policy. Pay attention to how they vote and what they say and this becomes clear. You will hear them talk about "diversity" but not for it's own sake; but rather for the practical consideration of preventing marginalized groups from being oppressed. Again, they're about policy, not wishy washy social mumble jumble Woo. For example, they support LGBTQ rights not because they want you to gay marry a turtle, but because they want LGBTQ folks to be able to participate equally in society.
of how to create an underclass in a country that is increasingly homogeneous.
See, in order for a ruling class to keep a working class in line they need to divide the working class. In America we do this along racial lines (Black/White/Latino). India uses a caste system. Japan got creative and declared some professions "unclean" and forced families into them, then kept lists of those families.
The goal here is to get you "kicking down". e.g. to direct your rage at the poor lot in life you got at a group below you, until you get to a small enough and low group that they're easily controlled. Like I said above, the pattern repeats again and again.
There's two problems with this in 2018.
1. Education. Well educated people don't see the point of hating on someone without reason; and China's been doing a massive education push.
2. Interbreeding. Folks don't enforce apartheid like they used to. So there's a gradual intermixing until the groups aren't distinct enough anymore. Japan made this work with their caste system, but that needed Buddhism to work, and even then education eventually broke it down. China's facing the same problem.
Giving everyone a "score" is a prefect way to create a new caste system and once again get everyone "kicking down".
they're mules. They collect money and hand over drugs for the actual dealers. They're more like cashiers than dealers, hence the low pay.
As for why they pick being a mule over McDonald's, well, every work in fast food? It sucks and it's demeaning. But yeah, when they get a "serious" girlfriend they're stuck trying to earn as much money as they can since "serious girlfriend" in this context usually means pregnant....
Anyway I've never been a big fan of that book. It's the same one that said crime went down because we legalized abortion.
any day now. Yep. Any day now. Right after we stop selling bombs to the Saudis...
In other news, I can buy a 50" TV for $200 bucks this Black Friday. And the new iPhone is _sweet_.
Know how we solved it? Mostly cops giving out tickets. The scammers got arrested. Same results, maybe better, and no massive and terrifying misuse of government power.
China's problem is they treat their working class like crap. This is the kind of crap you have to resort to when you need to keep people from Unionizing.
a resurgence in PC gaming has helped mask that a bit, fueled mostly by the insane popularity of Fortnight and PUBG, but folks are buying less and PCs. They'll buy one or two for Junior to do the homework on but they don't usually upgrade them much.
is they're still flat. I can raise it up, but the MS Natural has a more gradual angle between each successive key (H, J, K, L, etc, etc). It keeps my wrists turned at a better angle. I had a Matias Ergo Pro for a bit but then flat angle killed it for me and I gave it to my gamer brother.
as an old school single player console gamer these mega popular multiplayer games yank players away from the kind of games I like and so there are less of them. You can pretty easily see this with the death of "B" games. You don't really see stuff like Okami, Wild Arms, Jet Moto, Ratchet & Clank, etc. At least not with the level of polish you used to (the indies try, bless their little hearts).
I suppose there is still a bit of a renaissance for CRPGs right now. Lots of solid dungeon crawlers and Baldur's Gate style games. But if you're a console gamer that grew up on SNES/Genesis/Playstation/Saturn not so much.
I have more pressing concerns. I care about single payer healthcare (here's somebody who just died because American doesn't do that). I care about ending the 8 bloody wars we're in, reigning in the CIA and ending our drug war.
Privacy violation is a symptom of the disease of oligarchy. There are better places to attack our oligharch's abuses than Facebook.
Most Left wing candidates do not get any funding corporate PACs. See here and here. Their money comes from small donors and they have explicit litmus tests that require refusing corporate PAC money.
Now, Clinton Democrats (Schumer, Pelosi, etc) get about 50-55% of their money from corporate PACs. But since when are the Clinton Democrats "the left"? They don't support single payer healthcare, they _do_ support the 8 wars we're fighting and they voted to cut federal and state funding to colleges. How is that "the left"?
what really created the "Adpocalypse" wasn't just that a few ads were shown on Neo-Nazi channels. The real cause was that the advertisers panicked and pulled their ads for week on end but then didn't notice any change in sales. It revealed that Youtube advertising doesn't work.
Facebook could probably survive a blow like that (Youtube did) but it would hurt. OTOH I haven't seen that happen. They've still got plenty of Advertisers. It helps that you give Facebook _way_ more personal information. Even if the brands leave the politicians and think tanks aren't going anywhere. That data is priceless. I think it's safe to say it played a pivotal role in the last 3 presidential elections. Obama certain made great use of social media, and, well, we know how the 2016 election turned out.
Sony did damn near the same thing with the PS3 ($600 price tag thanks to a blu ray player nobody really wanted, real time weapon change, etc) and recovered by now.
XBone's sales are down because Microsoft's current CEO doesn't believe in the product. He's just milking it at this point. So while Sony's got The Last of Us, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn and Spiderman Microsoft's got Forza and... well that's about it. No new Halo in 3 years. Last Gears of War game was 2 years ago (and just kinda OK..., plus it has a PC port).
They've got no system seller. Nothing worth buying the console for. At this point they're coasting on fumes, exactly the way their CEO intended.
they're a major clothing retailer and this looks like a sudden collapse. It's an overall bad sign for the economy. Clothing has such crazy high profit margins you can't even blame this on the high cost of malls. Clothing was the one hold out for them.
/.ers not getting laid aside lots of us have kids. Even if you don't you need the next generation of kids to get education and jobs and drive the economy so you're 401k doesn't collapse.
Also, I saw an article that made a good point, the retail apocalypse is going to wreck property taxes. All those shops pay taxes, and that pays for schools. Get ready for your property taxes to go up or for your schools to collapse. And jokes about
with that layout. I'm on a MS Natural too (one of the older ones). I like the layout but I miss mechanical switches.
It mostly seems like clearance items. I guess $50 bucks off a PS4/XBone is ok, but I haven't seen any computer hardware deals and the electronics deals have been pretty weak.
I can't imagine any that folks at Amazon belong to. Maybe the really top guys and the lawyers, but this is probably the engineers who're getting dragged to NY against their will...
there's still the environmental factors. You can't pollute the way you can in China. Cancer Villages haven't been a thing in America since the late 70s.
I'm guessing they just want to bump their stock price. No new video game consoles, the latest phones have been a bust and the cat's out of the bag on fixing your old iPhone's performance by replacing the battery. Their raw sales are probably just down.
They make damn near everything electronic.
and debatable Ro Khanna. Al Franklin was doing good work until that bitch Kamala Harris threw him under a bus to get him out of the way for her 2020 bid. If anyone's reading this vote against her in the Dem primary. She torpedoed one of the Dems rising stars for her sad little political gain. No way in hell should she get to even run much less win the presidency.
as in, which Vagina did you pop out of? Me? I was a chain smoking alcoholic who, while she meant well, had sever mental issues. Donald Trump, for instance, won the Vagina Lottery. I coulda done worse. I could certainly have done better. But we're all limited by the lottery.
I want a world where that isn't the case. Where everybody, regardless of who's cooch they pop out of doesn't just get a vague possibility of a good life but gets the actual thing itself. And I don't see any reason why, in 2018, we can't achieve that. It's what I was promised my whole life and I want it.
poverty is down because of tech. India and China industrialized and with that came modern farming techniques and more food. Crime is down because a) more food means less crime and b) they took lead out of gas (seriously, google it, lead in the air made folks crazy). Pollution is down because of tech and because the government stepped in and regulated, enforcing strict rules about emissions and fuel economy.
The only thing that came out of increased social consciousness is LGBTQ rights. Given that a not insignificant number of Evangelical Americans would kill and/or torture (through "Gay Conversion Therapy" and lobotomies) LGBTQs that's not insignificant. But it still required the government to step in and protect their rights in many, many places.
I'm perfectly sane. Charity makes you feel better. It makes the recipients feels better. But when you add it all up it's not much more than feelings. Good feelings. And well worth the effort. But if you want something done right, don't do it yourself. Get a group of friends, form a democratic government and git 'er done.
and that you're just a troll. But just in case no, the left doesn't want to impose their will. The left have fought tirelessly to do the opposite, just ask any member of the LGBTQ. On the other hand ask an Evangelical (a member of the right) how they feel about members of the LGBTQ community. Or legalizing pot. Or blasphemy. Or teaching their holy book in schools. Or....
Seriously, if you were projecting any brighter you'd burn through your screen..