Gorth

Sorrryyy... I did mention that the Australian government is made up of questionable people, fully owned by the Holy Trinity (the church, the mining industry and the fossil fuel industry)? Guess where the inclination to happily send all your money (privatizing the profits, socializing the costs) and resources abroad comes from. Not just the current government but the governments since the 70's really. Always looking for those party donations from those institutions in order to win the next election. Often sacrificing the truth and the interests of Australia in the process. Latest victim is the climate policy....

You gave that video more credit than it was worth and spend more time on this than I did... I watched the first 2 minutes of it, recognized it for what it was and then 30 seconds to share my thoughts on it. Yes, official Chinese propaganda is obvious official Chinese propaganda Edit: Yes, you are definitely right about the latter part, constantly feeding money into the Chinese machinery of oppression, control, terrorizing neighbours and bullying the rest of the world into submission is stupid. But greed makes stupid unfortunately.

Yes... this is the part of Australia I live in

Honestly? What a face palm moronic video. Did you grab that from an official party site link? The automatically generated robot voice sounds like it's reading the official party line through a piece of text to speech software. Best case, you don't know any better, worst case you are truly in favour of things slavery, koncentration camps, cultural and ethnic genocide and the principle of might makes right instead of any pretense of a rule of law.

Maybe Brexit isn't all what the British people thought it would be?... As funny as the title of the video sounds, it's just a symptom of a deeper problem. Empty supermarket shelves (Is the UK turning into the newest WP Country?), former busy transit hubs and strategic harbours turning ghost towns, a fishing industry that now has less fish than they had before (because, as a "sovereign nation", Boris Johnson can now sell the fishing rights to the EU) etc.

More Eivør. I think I did post one of songs in the past, so here is another one. This Faoerese lady covers a very wide range of styles (not all of them to my liking, but every now and then I feel my self caught up in playing one of her songs on repeat).

I've been a Monty Python fan since my teenage years. They used to show it on Danish TV (with subtitles).

Definitely a critical part of... something?

It's an interesting question... and surprisingly difficult to answer I never really "dug" point and click adventure games, especially the hunt the obscure pixel kind. But I've loved both graphical and text based adventure games. Not the puzzles, but the world building I suppose. My first love was some of the old text based Infocom games (Zork I-III) from the early 80's. Yes, they were built around logic (and in some cases not so logic) puzzles, but the world building of the Underground Empire and the legends of Lord Dimwit Flathead the Excessive were just so intriguing, I always kept persevering with the puzzles to get a few snippets more of backstory when progressing. Later they started adding some basic, often procedurally generated graphics and less text to read. Maybe to make them more appealing or more accessible, I don't know. But two games I remember was "The Dallas Quest" which was actually based on the characters and setting of an old TV series. So many people back then loved "JR" aka JR Ewing, one of the most charismatic TV villains on screen. The other was a typical fantasy based game called "Twin Kingdom Valley". The story was great at the time and the world felt alive as it had "NPC's" and events happening independent of your actions (I know now, they weren't but at the time, it felt like it) But, the game that eventually changed my gamer life was a hybrid like the above (text based adventure with procedurally generated images) was a game by a published called Melbourne House. Its name was "The Hobbit" I played the game quite a bit at first, but got stuck at the same point in every play through. Friggin goblin caves just kept killing me. I managed to get that lazy oaf Thorin to pick me up and carry me on his shoulders, but what little light I had would eventually falter and I would die horribly in the dark (No Grues though, those were a Zork thing). Gandalf would always ruin things by taking the map out of my pocket and respond to requests for returning it with a "No."... I so hated the guy at the time. Oh yeah, in the middle of all my trouble, Thorin would suddenly plunk his lazy dwarven butt on the ground and start singing about gold. I wanted to strangle him! Anyway, I eventually got my problem solved because the game box didn't come with only the casette tape with the game, it also came with a (English) paperback version of the book "The Hobbit". After much hair pulling and teeth gnashing, I eventually read the book. It showed me what I had been doing wrong. Needed to go elsewhere first, trick a trio of trolls into staying out when the sun rose, turned them to stone and then loot the sword "Sting" from their cave. The sword glows in the dark when goblins are near. Yup, problem solved, doesn't run out of light in the goblin kings caves and I could steal a ring and a few other things and be on my merry way. My all time favourite game though is hard to classify. It's part adventure, part rpg, part strategy game and I will always consider its designer, Mike Singleton, as one of the all time underrated geniuses. Him, Bell & Braben (Elite) and Jeff Minter (of Llamasoft fame) were influential characters for me in the 80's (yes, long before the Internet). The game "Lords of Midnight" just had everything. Backstory and lore, huge and immersive world, winning strategies to be worked out (you could win the game in a couple of different ways), and a game that managed to convey it all through its interface (part text and character description, part procedurally generated 3D world graphics)

I can think of a few current and former heads of state, whose deaths would at the very least please me. Not to the point of celebrating it though... Seems like there is no way to avoid the subject of Covid its entanglement with politics. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58273322 "In May, US president Joe Biden ordered a 90-day probe into whether the Covid-19 virus came from a lab accident or emerged from human contact with an infected animal. Until then, the "Wuhan lab leak" theory had been dismissed by most scientists as a fringe conspiracy theory. But now as the report is due to be released, China has gone on the offensive. In the past few weeks, Chinese sources have been amplifying a baseless claim that Covid-19 was made in the US. Using everything from rap music to fake Facebook posts, experts say the propaganda efforts have been successful at convincing the domestic Chinese audience to cast scepticism on international criticism of the country's role in the Covid-19 pandemic. But, experts say, it has done little to legitimise China to the outside world." I.e. standard politics by the text book. If you're worried about what the competition is going to do to you, do it to them first and go on the offensive. Truth was never part of the equation as long as you can make people believe your message.

Life lessons... a bit long, but worth watching (IMNSHO). Lessons start around 2:50 give or take a few seconds

Just guesswork on my part... China doesn't seem to understand the consequences of a zealous Muslim theocracy not that far from Uyghur lands, whereas Moscow probably still remember the war(s) in Chechnya and the threat posed by extremism in the Caucasus region.

I like stoicism. It’s what you do in life that matters, not what you acquire.

Too deep man... too deep Not funny per se, but thought provoking. Didn't we have a philosophy thread several years ago?

it's probably of little comfort to the people suffering in Florida, but they don't have a monopoly on stupidity. They have their Florida Man/Men, Australia has its Bogans. They were out in numbers, violating the stay at home orders, which has to stay in place because people like the protesters, keep violating the stay at home orders. As for the average intelligence of Australians, one just has to take a look at the commentary sections of Sky News. It's as facepalm worthy as the commentary sections on Fox News. Could be because both are run by the same guy of course (unlike say AC/DC, this source of cognitive degeneration export article is nothing to be proud of)... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-58291873 Police in the Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney have clashed with thousands of people protesting against Covid lockdowns. In Melbourne, mounted officers used pepper spray when elements of a 4,000-strong rally broke through police lines. Police arrested 218 people, and at least seven officers were injured. ... All those arrested face fines of A$5,452 (£2,850) for breaching Covid regulations, police said. Three people were also charged with assaulting police.

But you’re perfectly fine with mocking other people for doing the same. Don’t be surprised if you’re held to your own standards. Me, you can mock all you want, I’m a bit like the proverbial waterproof goose, but the blanket generalisations often end up badly received.

Not a Ubisoft fan. Not really a Steam fan either. Did you try Steam support? Sorry if asking obvious things. Can only ask based on what’s in your post

...and scientists are only right until they're wrong. It's the beauty of science. Always looking for more info to prove/disprove something. In the end, who you believe is a personal matter. Some things seems more obvious and easier to accept (like the Earth is flat, because we can all see that from our individual perspectives) and some things stretches credulity. Early (European) astronomers got burned on the stake by the Christians for having outrageous ideas about the universe. edit: if the head of the ICU in Florida’s largest hospital says 95% of the cases in his ICU is unvaccinated (interview in the link I posted above) I consider him a more reliable source on the importance of anti covid measures than anything coming out of DeSantos’ mouth

Just an interesting snippet on the Covid situation in Florida and the results of the governors actions...

Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. You seem to have made yourself the judge of it. If they support your position, they are, if they don't they aren't? Just calling out your hypocrisy in statements like this: Oxford University has it's own share of weird and head scratching research. But you don't seem to mind cherry picking your sources when making blanket statements about other peoples sources.

Up until The Taliban throws all their support behind the Uighurs... because you know, creating external demons always work like a charm if things gets too stale and the population too restless at home.

The link only works once and there was no feedback form. Believe me, I would have loved to give some feedback to that

Tl;dr; if you play video games you suffer from anxiety and have a hard life that you can’t see your way out of other than escapism (by seeking refuge in something where you’re in control of your situation) Every point and question had that as an established truth. In the end I was just fed up with the sheer stupidity of it as it was obvious that they had a conclusion and needed to “massage” the data to fit it. No, I don’t really suffer from severe anxiety and I don’t feel like my life is worthless and best left behind, like the survey tried very hard to convince me of. Edit: This is what it looked like when presented to me (I removed names, links and contact info) My name is xxx, a PhD student from the xxxx and I am working with Professor xxxx and Dr xxxx from the xxxx), as well as Professor xxxx from the University of xxxx (Canadian university). I am reaching out to you as you have previously indicated on past studies that you'd like to be contacted about future research. We are currently conducting research on the motivations and passions people have for gaming, and its impact on wellbeing. This current study is specifically interested in understanding why and how people engage with videogames during difficult times. I’m looking for anyone over the age of 17 who enjoys playing video games, and who also works and/or studies (in any capacity) to complete an online survey (~15 mins). To thank you for your time, all participants will have the opportunity to enter a prize draw of 1 of 4 US$50 Amazon Gift Vouchers. If you are interested in learning more, or wish to participant, please follow this link: xxxx

As recent as yesterday I participated in a survey performed the University of Queensland about video gaming and the effects of isolation caused by Covid. It was grotesque and sadly no commentary section, so I could give those "researchers" a piece of my mind. It was so obvious, that they had already made their conclusion and now people participating were being "railroaded" with multiple choice options that I would describe as confusing at best and deliberately misleading at worst, trying to somehow retrieve data to support their theory. It was a complete wasted of time and tax payer money. At least to your surveys without trying to actively mislead people to answer in a way you would prefer them to answer and let them answer truthfully instead. Edit: By deliberately misleading, I mean the frequent use of double negatives in the answer selections and questions that are assumptions about you. Funny how everyone is a scientist these days

The new generation... the "Coronials". Aka "The Quaranteeens" when they get older