In case anyone wants to know where the top image comes from it’s a Japanese porno.

JAV code: SW-653

Are you guys using VCR to pirate media or something?

Probably? Lmao that was 80 years ago

Because they pump your gas for you lol. Instead you get to be guilt tripped into tipping the worker who’s only there to “create jobs”.

Ratchet and clank is also available on PC

I think the big element you are missing is local shops and online resources. I started playing magic the gathering at the start of last year and one of the things I bought at the start was a box of 1000 cards of all varieties from eBay. It cost me $25 and was an excellent jumping off point to get started with creating decks. Especially when you compare it to the official blind packs that you are referencing that give you 15 cards for $8.

On a similar note there are dedicated platforms for buying specific cards online like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom, and eBay of course. Your purchases aren’t always blind even from MTG itself. When you buy a preconstructed deck it’ll be a specific list of cards that are included in that.

There are also platforms specifically dedicated to building decks which admittedly takes some practice to be good at but is part of the fun. I personally use a free platform called Archidekt but there are others like Moxfield and Manabox. These platforms help with deck creation by providing suggestions and measuring cost as well as having an easy view of the overall cards chosen. Archidekt even allows you to import your collection of cards info it so you can specifically build decks only with the cards you already have. Using these websites I’ve very quickly managed to build competitive decks to play with.

Lastly the greatest element that has added significant value to Magic as a hobby has been comic book shops. These shops very often are more like nerd superstores. The ones local to me have plenty of comics and a huge catalog of cards and related accessories. You can buy the official Magic card packs but I prefer to go through their cataloged collection of loose individual cards. My local store has literally thousands of cards that are sold individually. You can go through the organized boxes for the cards you are interested in and at the end you pay for the exact cards you want. Very often the pricing for such cards is in the $0.01-$0.25 range unless it’s a card that is very coveted in play. Yes there are cards in the hundred or even thousand dollar range but those generally are of the vintage variety and are that price because of their age not their usefulness in game. These comic shops also serve as hubs for local tournaments and play which makes them great places to meet new people.

After about a year of playing I’ve probably spent about $250 on cards but I now have a collection of over 4000 cards that Archidekt values at significantly more than what I’ve paid. But that’s not the point of course. For my $250 I’ve built roughly 10 individual decks that I’ve played hundreds of games with. Long story short TCG doesn’t have to be expensive to be fun.

Yes the correct and honorable thing would be for the employer to absorb the costs but this is America we’re talking about. We’re currently going through record inflation almost purely because of corporate greed. These companies saw an opportunity to blame their massive price increases on COVID/labor costs/ materials cost even though these are only small factors. Yet year over year they’re increasing profits. I have zero doubt that if they switched away from tipping systems that they would use that to falsely justify price increases.

You’re right, it is amazing. These people are giving honest constructive criticism of a product. Companies often have to pay money to get that information. These complaints are generally valid as well.

The company’s commitment to repairability is commendable but it’s in lieu of other important factors. If I have to make the choice between having the newer OS with stronger, more powerful hardware or the ability to repair my device I’m going to choose the former every time. From the get-go the device might last longer simply because I won’t want to get rid of it as quickly. The 5 is of course a significant improvement over previous releases but it’s still behind. If they can deliver a device that is not immediately outdated in comparison to other phones of similar price then this would be a no brainer for me and likely others as well.

Similarly availability is another major factor. You can’t buy what you can’t get your hands on. Even more importantly it’s even more futile to buy one for a network that doesn’t support it at all. Obviously the creators just aren’t ready to expand into another market and that’s fine but it doesn’t make the criticism any less important for their mission.

Doesn’t this movie literally introduce several new characters?

If you preorder the smaller 8 you get pixel buds pro for free.

Let’s compare the S9 to the S23.

The S23 has Wi-Fi 6E support, Bluetooth 5.3 support, twice as much base storage and RAM, 5G support, an in display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, 3 high resolution cameras, 120hz refresh rate, twice as fast internal storage, a 33% larger battery, a much newer version of Android and to top it off a processor that’s roughly 3X as powerful as the S9.

So to me it might not be fair to call the S9 dialup but I would say a comparison between broadband and fiber is pretty accurate. At the very least the other features are worth upgrading for if not the speed. Now I suppose the S9 is still a perfectly good phone to be used as just a phone but these things are really portable computers and the increase in processing power becomes tremendous in a short period of time.

As much as I agree that individual releases are lackluster and uninspiring usually I just can’t agree with a 13yo phone being very capable today. The benefits that are compounded after 3 or 4 releases is usually worth the switch. However I do firmly believe these devices should last at least that long.

Not to mention most people are ecstatic to have their washing machine, refrigerator, water heater, or even their cars for so long and usually it isn’t without compromises. Just about any appliance lasting that long is considered good luck.

Computational devices are even harder to continue using for so long and usually not because they break but because they become inadequate as processing power follows Moore’s law. I would guess most people use their laptops for about 5 years before feeling like they have to upgrade because it feels slow but I remember the laptop I had 13 years ago and the thought of still using that now fills me with dread.

Not to put too fine of a point in it but you’re wrong because your understanding of frame generation and displays is slightly flawed.

Firstly most people’s displays, whether it be a TV or a monitor, are at least minimally capable of 60hz which it seems you correctly assumed. With that said most TVs and monitors aren’t capable of what’s called variable refresh rate. VRR allows the display to match however many frames your graphics card is able to put out instead of the graphics card having to match your display’s refresh rate. This eliminates screen tearing and allows you to get the best frame times at your disposal as the frame is generally created and then immediately displayed.

The part you might be mistaken about from my understanding is the frame time lag. Frame time is an inverse of FPS. The more frames generated per second the less time in between the frames. Now under circumstances where there is no VRR and the frame rate does not align with a displays native rate there can be frame misalignment. This occurs when the monitor is expecting a frame that is not yet ready. It’ll use the previous frame or part of it until a new frame becomes available to be displayed. This can result in screen tearing or stuttering and yes in some cases this can add additional delay in between frames. In general though a >30 FPS framerate will feel smoother on a 60hz display than a locked 30 FPS because you’re guaranteed to have every frame displayed twice.

I’ll never forget my Sweet 3 series… Because I’m still paying for it’s repairs years later.

None of our representatives should be dying in office. At least he didn’t drag this out like McConnell and Feinstein. May he rest in peace regardless.

Open link. See PragerU. Immediately close link

I don’t think I can agree with you here. Elden ring, for all of its flaws, is one of the last true honest to God video games you can buy recently. For $60 you get a complete, no microtransaction, no battle pass, no cosmetics, whole, playable game.

There aren’t pieces taken out and sold back to you one item at a time like Sims 4. You don’t have to buy the horse dlc or spend money to get the magic battle pass. It wasn’t a completely buggy mess from the start like no man’s sky or cyberpunk 2077. There’s no integrated battle pass designed to suck your wallet and your soul dry like in Overwatch 2 or COD. There’s no cosmetics to make you look like SpongeBob SquarePants or any other fictional character like in Fortnite and countless other games. This is a game that knows what it is and doesn’t try and bait you into playing it like the others.

Sure it’s difficulty is hard and it doesn’t hand hold you but it certainly doesn’t require you to use the wiki. Don’t get me wrong your experience WILL be better with it but one of the big marketing points was the sites of grace pointing you where to go. The game actually goes through some trouble to make sure you understand what it is when you get to the round table hold. Gameplay mechanics are also explained in the inventory under the info items tab. But by and large you’re supposed to learn through doing here.

Largely I agree that recent games are more slot machines with collectable crap tacked on but Elden Ring is not an example of a zoomer game. Hard? Sure. Garbage? Not on your life.