raze2012
@raze2012@lemmy.world
- Comment on Food served to US service men & women. 23 hours ago:
At least In the US, that is very much not true.
usafacts.org/…/is-military-enlistment-down/
It decreases overall, but you can definitely trace spikes in applicants with economic slumps. COVID is probably the big exception, for obvious reasons.
The poor are actually underrepresented in the USian military.
That’s why I focused on applications to military. They don’t let everyone in, and it’s well that many of the lower income applicants get passed up because they can’t pass the tests.
Another family example: my cousin was passed up because he had tattoos. They have been more lenient on such policies this decade, though.
you are not forced to join the USian military.
If “respond to the draft or get arrested” is your interpretation of choice, then you are technically correct. But most societies would not call that freedom of choice.
- Comment on Food served to US service men & women. 1 day ago:
We’re using “volunteer” very strongly in a society where we need to work to live.
Put it this way: military recruitment is almost always inversely proportional to the economic wellbeing. I. E. When the economy sucks and people can’t find jobs, that’s when you often get the highest amount of recruits.
That’s not even going into systematic issues that can lead to that; my mom was in ROTC to pay off her college and my uncles went in when my grandpa kicked them out of the house, almost as soon as they graduated high school.
But yes, back on point: yes, at any point you can be told you are going to be drafted. Just becsuse it’s not this specific boat doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen.
- Comment on Food served to US service men & women. 2 days ago:
Every US male who turns 18 “volunteers” to be eligible to “volunteer” to die overseas for the Epstein class.
- Comment on Food served to US service men & women. 2 days ago:
I also don’t know why everyone is surprised by wartime food.
That’s why awareness needs to be constant. It’s why coke spends a billion a year on advertising despite “everyone knows what coca cola is”.
- Comment on Forty hours, one life... 2 days ago:
Everyone is on a different part of the spectrum. There was the hustler or “ambitious” one who makes their whole life about work. Then lately there’s more young people completely dissolutioned on the supposed “American Dream” and just do the bare minimum to stay employed.
I think you need not necessarily passion, but a little bit of pride in what you do to keep moving and not making over a third of your best years into a soft prison. You can be prideful of a job you otherwise find mundane. But, the times of “work above and beyond and you’ll be rewarded” is also over and we need to accept that, unless you’re working for yourself (and you’re playing an even harder hustle in that case anyway).
I’m not gonna say “balance is key”, becsuse it really depends on your lifestyle. but I think most people need to find a dial between 20% and 70% and figure out where they lie for proper work-life balance.
- Comment on Forty hours, one life... 2 days ago:
Spend 2 generations going “we’re a family!” then ousting otherwise well performing workers. Then are stupified when the next generation no longer falls for the propoganda. Gen Z is in for a reckoning on this society.
- Comment on Park benches don't "open" until 10am 2 days ago:
The cruelty is the point. They’ll say a homeless person doesn’t deserve a fee hundred bucks a month to get back on their feet, but they’ll spend 100 grand a year per person to make them more miserable. It’s just good job security (and satisfaction) for the police unions.
- Comment on Physical Video Game Software Dollar Sales Plunged to an All-Time July Low of Just $85 Million in the US — the Worst Total Since Tracking Began in 1995 2 days ago:
A cloud is a cloud in this case. I’m here stuck on the ground in the meantime.
Baby steps. You want looser piracy laws, you need to get people used to owning digital stuff.
- Comment on Physical Video Game Software Dollar Sales Plunged to an All-Time July Low of Just $85 Million in the US — the Worst Total Since Tracking Began in 1995 1 week ago:
If a format is “superior”, but is made “inferior”, is it truly “superior” to begin with?
We can daydream about ways to resell, keep, and lend our digital goods. But I’m more judging in the current day.
- Comment on Physical Video Game Software Dollar Sales Plunged to an All-Time July Low of Just $85 Million in the US — the Worst Total Since Tracking Began in 1995 1 week ago:
literally the only problem
hides all the benefits of ‘one thing’
- Comment on 2XKO Active Development Will End in December 2026 2 weeks ago:
Pretty much western development studios in a nutshell, sadly. Try to go for a model that maximizes engagement and hope the mass monetization comes from various forms of MTX. But lootboxes can’t be used anymore, so you’re stuck focusing on skins. But skins are still expensive to produce and can’t be put out fast (which is how mobile games get away with that).
So there’s big numbers in the beginning but not enough money coming in to justify the expensive production. Executives don’t let it cook on the market long enough and just shut it down early. Even though by all other metrics, it was a good game with potential to foster a new franchise/sub-franchise. No one wins. Its Multiversus all over again.
- Comment on Behold, "the whole story of Steam's economy in one picture": the top 1% of games earn 84.5% of estimated revenue, and most games barely make anything 2 weeks ago:
I don’t think we disagree. I’m just talking about how the sausage is made. Squeaky wheels get the grease.
- Comment on Behold, "the whole story of Steam's economy in one picture": the top 1% of games earn 84.5% of estimated revenue, and most games barely make anything 2 weeks ago:
Networking is always important. And those AAA studios probably have dedicated lines of support to Valve that can open up such deals way more easily than an indie trying to email support.
Valve also does try to highlight some successful indies, but that’s a small slice of indie pie. While every other AAA studio is that direct line gained from events, existing networks reaching out, etc.
- Comment on Behold, "the whole story of Steam's economy in one picture": the top 1% of games earn 84.5% of estimated revenue, and most games barely make anything 2 weeks ago:
It’s a thing. If you’re an inspiring indie dev, it’s hard numbers to let you know if you can work with these numbers. If you’re just a gamer, they probably don’t matter at all.
The 1% numbers makes me question by there aren’t more AA initiates out there. we don’t get many 5-10m budget games these days, but the typical AA game is (conservatively) making 15m dollars. So if you can turnournd a game on the level of Claire Obscur (which IIRC had a 10m dollar budget) in 4 years, there should be openings for potential success.
Guess it comes down to the lack of investors who care at that level (who wouldn’t just throw it at AI)
- Comment on Behold, "the whole story of Steam's economy in one picture": the top 1% of games earn 84.5% of estimated revenue, and most games barely make anything 2 weeks ago:
Given the way they estimate sales numbers, it’s probably too different a curve. I imagine there’s both a lot of bottom of the barrel adult games that still manage to get some sales off (as opposed to none for most non-adult games) and there’s a lower sales ceiling that still results in surprisingly strong revenue compared to a game with similar reviews.
- Comment on Behold, "the whole story of Steam's economy in one picture": the top 1% of games earn 84.5% of estimated revenue, and most games barely make anything 2 weeks ago:
ice cream flavor sales
Strawberry’s fallen on hard times. We need to seize the means of chocolate production and distribute the wealth among all our fellow flavors.
- Comment on Behold, "the whole story of Steam's economy in one picture": the top 1% of games earn 84.5% of estimated revenue, and most games barely make anything 2 weeks ago:
Would Pareto be ecstatic or rolling in his grave at this disparity?
- Comment on Behold, "the whole story of Steam's economy in one picture": the top 1% of games earn 84.5% of estimated revenue, and most games barely make anything 2 weeks ago:
It seems that’s partially taken into account:
New analysis of 99,206 Steam games illustrates just how extreme the economics can be on Valve’s PC gaming emporium
Over 8,000 paid games analyzed never received a single Steam review
This report also only looks at premium games, meaning free-to-play giants like Valve’s Counter-Strike are left out, as are “non-game software, adult-only titles and unreleased entries.” The list of 99,206 was selected from a base of 136,281.
The only caveat is that revenue is estimated, so there can be big swings in the data.
The standard multiplier here is 35, so this research assumes one Steam review is worth 35 sales at a game’s current listed price, though you can also use a more “conservative” 20 or “generous” 50 in the report’s impressive graphs.
- Comment on The price of soda in 2017 2 weeks ago:
Part of that is the power of government subsidized high fructose corn syrup, yeah. It’s in a lot of American food and makes a huge difference in pricing healthy vs highly processed foods.
- Comment on The price of soda in 2017 2 weeks ago:
Your lack of conviction disgusts me
- Comment on Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Cons Officially Have A Pay-To-Press Button 2 weeks ago:
Wish I could do that for the Switch. Or hell my dang TV remote. I never press that Netflix button on purpose. Hell, it seems manufactured to press those streaming buttons whenever I drop the remote.
- Comment on The price of soda in 2017 2 weeks ago:
I think you jumped the gun when you tried to compare this to losing elections. You kinda lost your ground to be sarcastic about how you’re responding to some dude making a hot take.
- Comment on The price of soda in 2017 2 weeks ago:
- Comment on The price of soda in 2017 2 weeks ago:
If we only drink soda, 45 gallons sounds disastrously small. Since we’re supposed to drink at least 64 Oz of water a day (or a gallon). We can’t possibly be that dehydrated.
- Comment on The price of soda in 2017 2 weeks ago:
Ehh, it’s still liquid at the end of the day. We going to call beef a luxury because chicken or tofu has more nutritional value (I do not know if this is true. This is just a random theoretical).
- Comment on The price of soda in 2017 2 weeks ago:
You’re not wrong. But by that logic water based products would be cheaper. Which it sadly isn’t. Often the contrary.
The US very rarely uses price to incentivize good practices and vice versa.
- Comment on The price of soda in 2017 2 weeks ago:
For a 12 oz/300ml? Yeah, that gets into crazy territory.
But we’re in crazy land right now. My local Walmart? 8.50 for a 12 pack. 70 cents a can, so not full loony. But a far cry from this picture a decade ago with under 20 cents a can.
- Comment on Saber CEO scorns writer who says she was fired in favor of AI with confusing, combative statement 2 weeks ago:
I wish I could blame it all on these kinds of people. In reality it’s about 60% of the story or so. They’ve always been around but they weren’t this bold a decade ago.
A small part is the political climate over the last decade. That’s a topic worth its own encyclopedia one day, and games is affected as well.
A large part is that games just isn’t doing well financially right now. Because everyone in tech wants to invest in AI so there’s a lot less money in the space. Smaller or medium sized teams can’t get funding and less pitches get approved. Larger studios are “fine” but companies are using this time to cash out. Which is why you hear about Activision selling out to Microsoft and EA to Saudi Arabia. Layoffs at small companies happen because they need to (or companies simply shut down) , layoffs at large companies happen to make the number go up.
Last decent chunk of the problem is the landscape of games is changing. Converging more on “forever games” rather than traditional console experiences. This is an emerging problem that will get worse over the coming years, something even the consoles themselves are trying to shape itself around.
- Comment on Saber CEO scorns writer who says she was fired in favor of AI with confusing, combative statement 2 weeks ago:
And to the people, not knowing your employees (or giving a damn to look them up) implies a structure where leadership is disconnected from the craftsmen that actually bring value to the company. Making leadership look out of touch, unrelatable, and outright crass.
Not to mention that he proves the writer correct in their accusation by admitting he does use AI and relishes in it.
- Comment on Saber CEO scorns writer who says she was fired in favor of AI with confusing, combative statement 2 weeks ago:
Untitled Avatar: The Last Airbender title
That one was already cancelled, by the way.