ricecake
@ricecake@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Anon has marital problems 2 days ago:
I believe filling out the divorce paperwork doesn’t actually make it happen, it’s just an application for divorce.
It has to be filed with the court and a hearing held to make sure it’s all good and then the judge does the thing and you’re divorced.
Mostly this is a rubber-stamping type situation, and the judge mostly makes sure that asset division is done fairly and any children are cared for.
If no one has objections, the money is simple and everyone agrees, and there’s no children the whole thing is relatively simple.So filling out or destroying the paperwork doesn’t actually do anything.
- Comment on PEGI gives Balatro an 18+ rating for gambling imagery 5 days ago:
Eeeeh, at least then there would theoretically be public accountability. The FCC has limited censorship power that they’re generally unobjectionable with.
I’m honestly more concerned with the censorship from private enterprises than with government consorship currently. Less accountability and less recourse.
It also really only becomes censorship if the rating system is used to prohibit speech. If we instead made it more like the nutritional guidelines on food it could instead give more of a content breakdown than setting an arbitrary age.
- Comment on Happy birthday, peon 1 week ago:
I interpreted it as a week with a holiday. If you get labor day off, taking the rest of the week gets you 9 days off for 4 days PTO.
Likewise, if your birthday is near there and you get it for free, it’s 9 days for 3 days PTO. - Comment on Happy birthday, peon 1 week ago:
There are also some places that might just do a nice, if not grandiose, gesture for someone on their birthday.
Previous place I worked it was pretty routine for a manager to grab one of those containers of store made cupcakes if it was someone’s birthday and they knew they didn’t mind, make sure they got one and leave the rest in the break room.
Never anything more or less than just a nice gesture.I’m guessing someone tried a nice gesture and it came out looking sad, so they posed for a picture for a chuckle and moved in. I don’t know anyone who would be really upset by being given a pizza bagel on their birthday.
- Comment on Happy birthday, peon 1 week ago:
My workplace gives you a free day within a month of your birthday. Most people take the closest Monday or Friday to get a three day weekend, but some people are lucky and get to bump a three to a four.
- Comment on Iraq War was preceded by the largest worldwide non-violent protests in history and the war happened anyway. 1 week ago:
I was a bit skeptical as well, but there’s at least one seemingly reputable academic researcher who says as much: en.wikipedia.org/…/15_February_2003_anti-war_prot… (first citation).
So even if it wasn’t, one could easily be forgiven for the mistake. - Comment on Claim Denied 2 weeks ago:
From what we know about real hitmen, they tend to be unsettling, since a willingness to murder people is at minimum a sign of an indifference towards life.
They often buy not always have personality traits in common with serial killers. - Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store 2 weeks ago:
You mentioned a handful of games without doing any research on them, and one of them accidentally proved my point.
You asked for a list of games that fit my “steam hasn’t impacted pricing” statement, so I gave you games that had prices inline with what steam prices games at and industry standard. Like I explained in my previous comment. I know how much those games cost: between $50 and $70 dollars, which is what games have retailed at for decades.
Games on steam and off steam have had roughly the same price, and games not on steam have had perfectly reasonable times making sales. Except the one on epic.They set the $50 price tag to maximize revenue
My point was that even with lowering the price to the low end of standard, they have had some difficulty getting enough revenue to cover the cost of the game.
If other retailers are able to compete just fine, and one isn’t despite lowering prices and paying for exclusives, and it’s the one that, as you mentioned, people complain about when they buy an exclusive, then maybe the issue is with that retailer.statista.com/…/average-price-of-video-games-by-pl…
If you want more discussion, you can Google “video game prices over time”.
Given that you’re starting to ignore large bits of replies and have been repeating yourself pretty consistently without expanding on the point, I’m not sure that there’s much value in continuing. You think it’s anticompetitive, I don’t think it’s so obvious. We’ll see what the courts say.
Have a nice day, and I hope you find the same passion for your next endeavor. :) - Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store 2 weeks ago:
So, a court document is an argument, not a smoking gun. The court didn’t dismiss the case because it has enough merit to be argued, which just means it isn’t plainly false at first glance. The court did dismiss earlier versions of their claim. Earlier versions being rejected and this one being allowed to move forward have little to do with anything.
Repeatedly asserting that it’s “anticompetitive bullying” doesn’t actually make it anticompetitive bullying.This isn’t going to end well for you when Valve becomes as openly evil as Google.
Lol, what do you think is going to happen to me? I think maybe you’re taking this conversation too seriously.
Yes, Alan wake 2 was lower priced on epic than on consoles by about $10, after epic financed the game. it also has yet to turn a profit, with most revenue coming from titles that aren’t exclusive to epic. You also ignored the list of other games I mentioned, each of which launched for $60 to $70 and wasn’t on steam.
Half life 1 cost $60 on launch. Same for 2. Same for the original star craft. Same for basically every full featured game for years.
It’s not “sus” that most games sell for the typical price for a game. It’s a sign that valve isn’t driving up prices, since prices are roughly the same regardless of platform, vendor or time, including when steam didn’t exist yet.I know you think you’re arguing against a mindless steam fanboy, hence you’re starting to break out some insulting language and condescension. I can assure you you’re not, just like I assume I’m not dealing with a dense contrarian more interested in punishing valve for success than actual critical thinking.
I don’t think that suing someone necessarily makes you right, and that a financially motivated lawsuit is an inherently slanted description of events, when the trial hasn’t happened and none of the claims have even been responded to. - Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store 2 weeks ago:
And of course it’s not possible that they’re despised and not doing well because people don’t like their platform.
You still haven’t convinced me that they are price fixing, to say nothing of it hurting consumers. Full feature games on steam are still around the same price console games are, and that games have been for many years. If they’re price fixing to artificially inflate prices, they’re doing it in a way that hasn’t really kept up with inflation and has been in line with retailers on platforms they don’t even sell on.
- Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store 2 weeks ago:
Listing your product on Steam isn’t advertising.
They literally present your product to people as recommendations and make it discoverable by the people likely to buy it. No, it’s not banner ads, but you use them because they get your game in front of consumers likely to buy it. That’s the entire reason the platform has appeal to developers.
This entire lemmy post is about someone being upset that Epic is successful enough to have an exclusive
Yes. Because it’s a worse store. People being upset that a thing they want has a hurdle they’re not willing to jump over doesn’t mean the preferable system is a problem.
Is it reasonable for Nordstrom to go after a company selling the same product at Wal-Mart cheaper?
If they signed a distribution agreement, then yes. It would almost be like a game signing an agreement to sell exclusively on the epic game store and then deciding to sell on steam anyway.
It’s a flawed analogy though, because Nordstrom’s and Walmart buy the product and then resell it, rather than facilitating a sale. Valve doesn’t buy 50k licenses from you for $20 each and then try to sell them while keeping all the revenue for themselves.
They know their price fixing department would have to become a “watch for prices on other platforms and adjust our prices / cut to be competitive” department.
🙄 That would make sense if valve set the prices or adjusted their cut in real time.
Epic is allowed to compete with steam on price. Games don’t have to be on steam to be successful. Valve has no way if stopping you from choosing to use a different store, and as you pointed out in the beginning: This entire lemmy post is about someone being upset that Epic is successful enough to have an exclusive. You can’t be mad epic isn’t “allowed” to compete when they’re actively competing. - Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store 2 weeks ago:
How much does Diablo cost? How much did StarCraft 2 cost? Alan wake 2 ? Every Nintendo game? PlayStation or Xbox console exclusives?
It’s trivially easy to find full featured games that didn’t launch on steam and have the same price point as a full featured game on steam.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “the economics of an exclusive launch on a smaller platform are going to be completely different”.
Isn’t your whole point that the smaller platform can compete by taking a smaller cut and allowing developers to offer lower prices for the same revenue?
How does developers not doing that become irrelevant?And it’s two small publishers who had their remaining claims joined by the court after variously having them dismissed and reframing them. Class action doesn’t mean that a large number of publishers have actually made the complaint.
- Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store 2 weeks ago:
Valve not letting you use their advertisement and distribution network at the same time you undercut them on sales elsewhere doesn’t feel anticompetitive to me.
Some games choose to skip steam and use epic. Epic pays them to do so, and the publisher doesn’t lower prices.
If you’re a publisher, why would you want to offer a lower price elsewhere? The appeal to a lower cut to you is higher revenue, not equivalent revenue.
- Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store 2 weeks ago:
Or blizzard, riot or epic. All of which are perfectly successful without using steam.
Communication between valve and publishers about TOS violations is only an issue if it’s an anticompetitive clause.
If publishers want to offer lower prices, they can use a different storefront like the others. If they can’t make sufficient revenue without valves advertisement and distribution network, then maybe the service is worth the price valve charges for it.
Valve has done nothing to stop consumers from using other stores, so I’m not particularly sympathetic when the stores are upset about consumer choice. - Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store 2 weeks ago:
Price fixing is, as your highlighted bit says, a conspiracy to not compete on prices. Valve isn’t conspiring with their competition to fix prices, nor does valve even set the price.
The lawsuit alleges that it’s anticompetitive, not price fixing.
I personally don’t think it’s anticompetitive , given the number of popular games that don’t use steam. I just think that epic has a worse product, which isn’t valves fault.
- Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store 2 weeks ago:
I literally said “companies that don’t use steam”. If a publisher opted to not use steam, it should have lower prices, right?
Except we see games not released on steam still selling for the same $60 for a full feature game that we do everywhere.
- Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store 2 weeks ago:
… That’s not price fixing.
Do companies that don’t use steam offer comensuratelty lower prices?
- Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store 2 weeks ago:
That’s not why epic has to pay for exclusives. They have to pay to cover the income gap developers would face from eschewing the better store.
Publishers are free to skip using steam and pass along their savings, but they invariably don’t. They just pocket the difference.That epic game store exists, takes a lower cut and gives away free stuff, and still struggles to be viable is an indicator that valve isn’t be anticompetitive.
It’s not illegal to have a better product, only to use your market position to keep other products from trying to compete.It’s one thing to be generally against big companies, and another to be against one in favor of another, when the stakes are “which company keeps money”.
- Comment on SHAME. 2 weeks ago:
Sadly not the case. “The vaccine is untested, as any immunity that a vaccine gives you will be weaker than what you get from natural immunity. Your immune system will never get stronger unless you let it work. I’m gonna get COVID eventually no matter what, so I may as well get the good immunity without risking the side effects of the vaccine. It’s just a cold anyway, so I’m not risking much”.
That whole corner of the family is very ignorant and susceptible to misinformation. I’m just some guy who can explain things and show them CDC or WHO sources, which are unreliable and suspect. I don’t have the gravitas of a very confident tiktok creator or a podcaster.
I’m also a little salty at them because they were all excited to see my new twins until I asked if they could be up to date on their vaccinations since they were in the NICU (premature, all good now). Variously “my family will not get the COVID shot”, “the flu shot will give me the flu”, and “I shouldn’t need to get a Tdap booster, I’m tired of needles”.
- Comment on SHAME. 2 weeks ago:
Yes. And less effective at giving immunity.
- Comment on SHAME. 3 weeks ago:
But you could also use it to separate them from their money, which is an even greater good.
Also, it potentially keeps the people in their care who have no agency from getting listeria, which is up there with lining your pockets via virtuous con artistry in terms of moral virtue. - Comment on SHAME. 3 weeks ago:
I damn near throttled someone who said that to me. They said the COVID vaccine was too risky, and they’d rather get a real immunity from actually getting it.
- Comment on Since the government can theoretically access the location of everyone's phone, wouldn't it be unsafe for an undocumented immigrant to have a phone? 3 weeks ago:
They werent allowed to disclose location and times
That makes it wholly unsuitable for a dragnet surveillance system.
Further, a business can aquire data that a police agency can’t gather without a warrant.
- Comment on Do you think being left-handed gives any unique qualities or advantages compares to other right handed? 3 weeks ago:
Notable advantage in a lot of beginner and intermediate level sports. By the time you get beyond that everyone knows how to compensate for left handedness.
Easier for you to assault a castle with spiral staircases while using a sword.
- Comment on Since the government can theoretically access the location of everyone's phone, wouldn't it be unsafe for an undocumented immigrant to have a phone? 3 weeks ago:
Accessing that location data isn’t trivial. The data is typically held by various private companies who put up at least token legal resistance to cover themselves from lawsuits.
Intelligence agencies have their own avenue for getting the data, and on paper they’re not allowed to share it with police agencies.
Police agencies typically need to specify the individual in question, or the specific location and time to get a warrant. This is because they’re not supposed to be able to blanket surveil an otherwise private piece of information without having a good reason.
The classic example is not being able to listen to every call on a payphone they know drug dealers use because they’ll listen to people who have not done anything illegal.
Intelligence agencies are an entirely different thing with weird special rules and minimal and strange oversight.This is all relevant because the government doesn’t actually know who’s allowed to be here or not.
Most people in the country without proper documentation entered legally and then just stayed outside the terms of their entry. The terms can be difficult to verify remotely, which is why you’re not actually here illegally until you go in front of a judge, they deport you, and then you return again.Finally, there are significant chunks of the country where location tracking via cell tower is imprecise enough to get the country wrong, and a lot of people live there. So any dragnet surveillance setup is going to have to exclude some pretty large population centers to avoid constantly investigating people in Windsor sometimes quickly teleporting into Detroit.
- Comment on If a word can have as many meanings as we assign to it. Can was assign every meaning to one word? 3 weeks ago:
Smurf yeah we can.
- Comment on Why does it seem most people, mainly conservatives, against Trans people? Unless I am wrong I never heard of one shooting up a school church or whatever. The ones I have met have been pretty cool. 4 weeks ago:
It’s a failure of empathy. People hate and/or fear what they don’t understand.
They can’t empathize with someone not feeling right in their own skin like that, so all their rationalizations for things like “why would they want to use that bathroom” end up stemming from what they have left, which is unsavory intent, making them threatening.
- Comment on Petrichor 4 weeks ago:
It’s worth remembering that evolution doesn’t select for the best as much as it selects against the worst.
The reason we have such sensitivity doesn’t have to be particularly game changing as long as it doesn’t make us less likely to reproduce.
You can plainly see our big niche adaptations being used everyday. We think good. We recognize patterns. We use tools. We walk a lot, efficiently and upright. We communicate with high precision. We have a surprisingly efficient digestive system.
We’re not busting out the ability to smell rain super often, which hints that it might be more in the “doesn’t hurt” category instead of being a big advantage.
My guess is that being able to smell disturbed soil is helpful for tracking, either where an animal has run or where something has been buried. Our ancestors were not above digging up a fresh-ish dead animal a canine had buried for later.
But it could just be that rain sense slightly more accurate than looking towards the horizon was as useful then as it is now: vaguely, I guess? It just doesn’t hurt anything. - Comment on turned them into their final form! 4 weeks ago:
And they’re delicious. ~Although usually not just plain meat, but filled with wonderful spices~
- Comment on I just WON'T 4 weeks ago:
We colloquially call a lot of things I’ve cream that aren’t labeled ice cream, and aren’t legally ice cream.
The US has tediously long definitions for different foods, and ice cream needs specific proportions of milk products, as well as limits on other physical properties.
www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/…/cfrsearch.cfm?fr…
www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/…/cfrsearch.cfm?fr…
www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/…/CFRSearch.cfm?CF…
So while I might pick up some sherbet and say “I got ice cream”, and people would know what I meant, it would never be labeled ice cream.
I also like oat milk ice cream, but it’s actually labeled “frozen dessert” because it doesn’t contain dairy.The company isn’t allowed to use a term that might mislead a unwitting or uninformed consumer, but the consumer is free to have a more relaxed definition, and stores can put things where you would expect.