I loved the original West World movie, which is about 20% high concept and 80% “how do we copy terminator when all we have are a bunch of random Wild West, medieval and classical back lots?”
I’m sorry what? ‘West World’ came out in 1973, ‘The Terminator’ came out in 1984. Am I missing something here?
I refuse to record video answers for an interview. I’ve actually drawn a line at the whole one-way interview in general. If you can’t make the time to talk to me on the phone or on video chat, then you’re not a company I want to work for. Plus, a lot of companies use those video responses to discriminate against people without having to look the person in the eye. It’s so cowardly, and I won’t participate in it.
My primary responsibility is to take care of me and my family by earning enough money to pay my bills.
Most definitely. And since their entire job is illegal, why not go all-in and do more illegal stuff on cam for higher pay? That would be my thought process.
I have a lot of thoughts on this game.
First, the production and release of the game itself was like a living metaphor about how corpo assholes ruin everything good. It was obviously rushed for the Christmas release when they clearly weren’t anywhere near finishing the game. I think they could’ve used another solid year, but no, the suits upstairs needed you to hand over those holiday eddies ASAP. Everyone knows about the bugs, so I don’t need to go into that. My biggest complaint about the gameplay is that 90% of the dialog choices really don’t feel like they have any substantial impact on the story overall.
Complaints aside, it is one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played, and probably the best designed open world in any game, in my opinion. Night City really feels lived-in. The city itself is a character in the game, not just a backdrop. The different neighborhoods and districts all feel very unique without feeling like that uniqueness is forced. It just makes sense, and works really well. One improvement I think Night City could use would be more substantial random events happening independently of the player, instead of people just milling around. Like rock concerts, protests/riots, car meetups, parades, stuff like that. Not a big deal without them, but would be a big improvement, in my opinion.
The characters are also great. Judy and Misty are my favorites, and I wish there was a lot more story (or even side quests) with Misty. They are well written and have depth and their own motivations, and their stories were emotionally impactful. But all the characters are well done, and they provide a great experience, even when the main story itself feels thin at times.
Overall, I love the game. It’s been a while since I played through it, so I might go check out the mods and see if anything catches my eye for my next play through.
Some will. But like with alcohol prohibition, many of the people who work in the industry will just go to work in the black market.
Yeah that $3 billion won’t do squat. California spent $24 billion over a five year period and didn’t track any of the money, how it was spent, or the outcomes. It’s a safe bet that most of the money went to contractors charging extortionate fees for services while providing almost nothing in return, and probably quite a bit landing in the pockets of local politicians. It was basically a big scam to further enrich a bunch of greedy parasites. A few low-level idiots were charged with fraud and embezzlement of like $400k, but that doesn’t even scratch the surface of corruption involved in that whole scheme.
This is exactly it. A couple of days ago there was an Ask Lemmy thread about the legalization of marijuana. My entire argument is “Prohibition of vice does not work and only empowers organized crime.” This has been proven over and over again throughout history. It shouldn’t even be a question anymore.
Just think about the popularity of the “schoolgirl/barely legal” image as it currently exists in porn. If it becomes just as illegal to hire a young-looking 25 year old actress as it is to exploit an actual child, a lot producers will opt for the latter.
Alternatively, the number of fistfights I’ve almost been in with Albanians who aggressively refuse to let me pay for anything is off the charts.
If you think the porn industry is exploitative and abusive now, just wait until they push it all underground.
She also has an MEd, which is a Master’s in Education. I think people like the one you’re replying to skim her Wiki and read it as Med, as in Medical, which is hilarious.
Middle ground on social issues: “Separate but equal”
I think the French saying is a response to rising Fascism. If Fascism is taking power in your society and you do not directly and explicitly oppose it, then you are at the very least going to be tacitly supporting it. By definition, centrism cannot fight Fascism, because it will always “both sides” the problem, which ultimately only benefits the Fascists. This is what we are seeing now in the US with the Democrats. The only realistic opposition to Fascism in this scenario is Leftism.
The comment you were replying to was clarifying to someone else that the person Trump paid hush money to (Stormy Daniels) was not the person who was alleging rape (E. Jean Carroll). Your reply that E. Jean Carroll did in fact allege rape made me think you were also conflating Carroll with Daniels. If I misunderstood the intent of your reply, I apologize.
Only the embarrassing kind.
When I was just starting out as a waiter many years ago, I worked in a restaurant that was three stories tall. First floor had two kitchens and multiple dining rooms, second floor was all dining, and third floor was dry storage. Carrying those big trays full of plates and dishes up and down stairs all night long is exhausting. Anyway, I had this private dining room with a big group of people from Italy. They were really nice and just knocking back bottle after bottle of wine. I come upstairs carrying one of those big trays with about 20 appetizer plates stacked on it. As soon as I go to set it down on the little folding stand, it went sideways and dumped everything on the floor.
Cue the “everyone clapped” moment.
I was beet red in the face. Not only embarrassed, but I knew the kitchen was going to want my head on a pike. I quickly cleaned up the mess and resent the order, then ran back downstairs to the kitchen to beg for my life. After promising to buy them all beer after work, they put a rush on my appetizers and a hold on my mains, which I’m sure was a nightmare for them. A few minutes later I’m back upstairs serving more wine to the increasingly drunk Italians, and this lady leans in close and says to me, “don’t be embarrassed, this is a good thing, it gives us time for more wine.”
I don’t know if it’s an Italian culture thing, or if it was just particular to that group of people, but they were incredibly gracious, and genuinely happy that my accident delayed their food and extended their pre-dinner wine binge. Still embarrassing, though. And while Europeans generally don’t tip the way Americans do, I made a killing off that table.
Similar. Main difference being the SRA actually believes in the thing their org is built on.
So good. I love that song.
I agree with all the other people in this thread mentioning ‘In Time’. It had such a great premise, and I didn’t even hate the execution, but it was mediocre. It was like they went 50% of the way to a flawless execution and just said “fuck it, that’s good enough”. The concept has a lot of elements to explore, like classism, labor exploitation, human rights, even free will to a point… A movie just isn’t the right vehicle for that story. It needs to be a series. Done right, you could explore all that while having an overarching plotline, and still have your weekly subplots and B stories. That would give the story time to fully develop the romantic connection between the poor guy who comes into a bunch of time, and the rich girl who empathizes with him. That romance felt incredibly rushed in the movie, but you could build it up over a whole season in a show.
I also want to mention another movie that I’m not sure belongs here. It’s not a bad movie, nor do I think the execution was mediocre, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why it didn’t do better. That movie is called ‘Push’, with Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning. I just watched it again the other night, and I freaking love it. The concept isn’t that amazing or original, but the way they present it is great. There isn’t a ton of exposition or world-building. They kinda just drop you in and let you figure it out, and I really like that. Evans and Fanning have great onscreen chemistry, and Djimon Honsou is a perfect bad guy. This is another one where I think it would make a great series, even though I think the movie was done really well. It’s just kind of a perfect mid-budget sci-fi action movie, and we don’t seem to get those anymore.