I believe the problem is that WOTC was incredibly hard to work with. They should have a lot more freedom with their own IP.

I would argue otherwise.

Wikipedia is incomprehensibly large. Perhaps the largest database of vetted human knowledge ever.

I know for a fact you can find inaccuracies and biased information if you look for it. But it’s rare relative to the amount of information that exists there.

Yeah, RDO is pretty much garbage. Blatant cash grab.

Did you beat the game?

I agree with this guy that it may be the best Western ever written.

I really love that you said test hamster instead of guinea pig.

I’m using this from now on.

Colleges definitely have counseling staff and I don’t think it’s far-fetched that you could be referred to one.

I mean, this post is definitely fake but that’s not why.

I’m not saying it never happens, but it’s not a super common occurrence.

And even if it is, locking down the entire internet and monitoring people in an Orwellian fashion isn’t the government’s job.

What happened back in the day when kids walked in on their parents doing the deed? What did the parents do when their child snuck a passage of Shakespeare and read all the filthy jokes he wrote?

Oh, they spoke to the kids and guided them through a normal part of life?

I have a son. I would like for him to not see graphic images on the Internet. But when he does, I will explain to him that human beings have sex (which is why he exists). I will tell him that sometimes people like to watch videos about it because it feels good to them. I will explain to him that it’s fake, just like the action movies and violence he sees on TV. I will tell him it’s nothing like that in reality and I will explain to him that he’s not ready to see that material yet.

Fascists always gain control by offering “safety.” Ironically, they’re more dangerous than the thing they claim to protect you from.

Yeah, making a government list of porn watchers with their watch history available is 100% going to be abused. It will not turn out well.

I have ADHD and I personally wish I could adopt some personality traits from people I find admirable!

I’m just so me all the time even when I try very hard to be aware of myself and how I’m presenting.

So impulsive.

Careful with this. Downloading pirated content can definitely be illegal depending on where you live.

It’s just not usually enforced as heavily as redistributing.

Blandon Blanderson? Kidding.

He’s a great storyteller and a good-but-not-great writer. He excels in slow-burns with big payoffs. He hasn’t written any page-turners but the stories are very sturdy, well-considered, and rewarding.

His worlds are realistic in a sense because they aren’t full of whimsy and they’re not very inviting. But that’s what makes them feel real.

The characters aren’t 3 dimensional but they’re not flat either. I’d call them 2-dimensional in that they have flaws and a growth arc, but not a ton of complexity beyond that.

The dialogue and his ability to describe fights/battle tactics/magic physics are a place where he shines.

Personally, I probably won’t read any of his other books unless someone tells me he has written something entirely fresh and different than his other works. But I’m still very glad to have read a few of his works. They definitely set a new bar for creative magic systems. His magic systems are phenomenal.

I think any creature evolved through competition and natural selection will end up this way.

Lying, killing, stealing, loving, building community, etc. are advantageous to survival at different times and in different situations. Seems the best survival tactic for us was to just keep improving and blending these.

We are at the point in our development where a lot of them don’t fit as well anymore. But they won’t go anywhere unless they impact mating success or stop being passed down for genetic reason.

I think what a lot of people are missing in this thread is that not everyone has access to convenient physical stores and many people do have good reasons to want faster shipping.

For example, young families who don’t live near a Walmart. When you realize you need a few things for the kid, it can be pretty tough to pack them up and drive however far to the store that may or may not have what you need. If they do have it, you aren’t going to get reviews or many options.

My recent prime purchases have included bottle brushes, a crib mattress protector, a replacement remote for our sound bar (dog ate it), and a cheap car camera to check the baby since he started daycare last week and I’m completely paranoid about my ADHD brain leaving him in a hot car and killing him.

Did any of these need to be prime purchases? I guess not but you can see how I would want them sooner rather than later.

Walmart near me didn’t have any good car cameras in my price range.

The sound bar remote was online only and was required for us to watch TV since our TV speaker doesn’t work.

The bottle brushes were just convenient.

The mattress protector could have waited but would have been a gamble on ruining our very expensive crib mattress. This could have been a a Walmart purchase for sure though.

I’m not saying these were life or death purchases. They weren’t and people got by just fine before Amazon. But does the convenience and reliability outweigh the monthly prime cost? For us, yes. And I admit we have become pretty dependent on it.

Which begs the question, is $1,731 really equivalent to $37,393? Because it sure sounds like we aren’t using the right metric for that conversion.

Prime example. Atomic bombs are dangerous and they seem like a bad thing. But then you realize that, counter to our intuition, nuclear weapons have created peace and security in the world.

No country with nukes has been invaded. No world wars have happened since the invention of nukes. Countries with nukes don’t fight each other directly.

Ukraine had nukes, gave them up, promptly invaded by Russia.

Things that seem dangerous aren’t always dangerous. Things that seem safe aren’t always safe. More often though, technology has good sides and bad sides. AI does and will continue to have pros and cons.