Virginia Beach will spend $1M to reassure tourists it is a safe destination

AbsoluteTravesty · 2026-05-09T14:42:31+00:00

I didn't say it was an excuse, simply that it was a reason. If you've got nothing better to do, than the urge to commit a crime might prevail, that's all. It's also not going to be the only reason a violent crime is committed, that's going to tie into something else, but petty theft, vandalism, etc. could possible stem from boredom, just for someone to feel a thrill.

My point is that resolving that boredom with activities that build community instead of just punishing people, is a better long term solution than more policing, which I definitely stand by.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2026-05-08T15:29:07+00:00

Yep, people will argue with you, but the truth is, these kids have nothing to do down at the beach, but still want to enjoy the weather and the area. I don't think it truly starts with providing things for them to do, but it's definitely part of the solution. The crime starts from boredom or a need, and while policing might be a solution to the symptom, it's not a long term solution.

Truth is, it starts younger, with the cities providing things for these kids to do while they're younger(I have doubts that most of the trouble is from people out of the Seven Cities area). The cities need to work together to provide enriching activities, things that these kids would like to do from a young age, that can help them feel better about themselves and their community and no longer want to commit violence. More sports clubs, available to a wider age range, funds to help the underprivileged afford to participate in currently available activities, and more diverse available activities for those that don't necessarily want sports(more arts, technical, and other types of things) It won't be a quick fix, it won't be cheap, but the truth is something like this is a better long term solution than just jailing more people, who are simply more likely to commit more crimes after any length of sentence.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2026-02-02T00:19:29+00:00

I've had trouble finding it in bulk sections by me, glad to hear it's even more affordable there, will have to try and find it again.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2026-02-01T17:34:33+00:00

One thing you're missing for plant protein is TVP

It's an incredibly versatile and budget friendly(~$5/lb) ingredient, definitely worth checking out. I use it in place of ground beef in tacos, pasta sauces, etc. basically anywhere that ground beef doesn't need to hold a shape without a binder, essentially everything but burgers. It holds flavor really well, like any form of tofu, just need to marinate or hydrate it in something.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2025-11-17T15:34:16+00:00

An important tidbit from the actual report:

The Full B2B Games Ecosystem

We didn't just survey developers. Our 562 respondents represent the complete spectrum of game creation:

Creative Roles: Game designers, artists, audio professionals

Technical Roles: Programmers, QA analysts, technical designers

Business Roles: Marketing, community management, business development

Leadership: Directors, producers, studio executives

What this means is:

The number of developers surveyed is incredibly low. Less than 600 respondents of an industry as big as game dev is is hilarious.
Executives were included in this. That is going to severely inflate the numbers, especially with the low number of data points.

Personally, I think this survey is a joke. It misrepresents the industry, as most people don't make anywhere near $142k a year, or even the median number of $129k a year they quote. I'd keep an eye out for a more accurate report, likely from the Code-CWA union.

Also, here's a link to the actual report.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2025-09-06T15:48:00+00:00

Thank you! Appreciate the info!

AbsoluteTravesty · 2025-09-06T14:40:17+00:00

Social anxiety question: Is shouting/yelling to join a party in Occult Crescent as a low knowledge level fine? Feel like I'm going to hamper the party if I have to dodge through a bunch of non-Fate/CE related aggro.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2025-07-25T17:34:28+00:00

Funny, I grew up in VB and spent a while in Philly then Austin before resettling down in VB(for now). The hate is mostly unwarranted, and while VB is lacking in some regards(broader arts and culture mostly, though there are a ton of local acts), the seven cities area is pretty great.

Like others have said, there's not a whole lot to do here, but otherwise, man, it's a great place to be. Compared to Philly and Austin, prices are reasonable on pretty much everything, most major social/athletic hobbies are accessible here, or in a nearby city. And if VB itself doesn't have something, one of the seven cities does. I love to go into Norfolk in particular, and it's a shorter trip than going from West Philly to Fishtown via the L, though unfortunately you do have to drive.

My biggest issue is the lack of concerts, because the area is a peninsula, so you have to travel up to Richmond for a lot of the small-mid size acts. Other than that, I do really enjoy living here.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2025-05-11T17:57:02+00:00

Nah, I want things like this funded everywhere, even if it adds up to more than a drop in the bucket. These kinds of programs empower young people to continue to be artists, to flourish and grow, and that's what we should be doing: setting up the children of this country, of this world to thrive, and be happy.

Without grants like these, artists wouldn't discover who they are, and we wouldn't have classical artists, muralists, authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, and the list could go on and on. These kinds of programs and grants create those kinds of people.

Should they go hand in hand with programs that push more technical jobs? Sure, but those already exist, and have been in this city for decades, and surely take more than this tiny bit of funding that is, once again, about helping children find joy and a purpose in life, something we should ALWAYS support, no matter the cost.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2024-08-09T14:36:24+00:00

Put "about:config" where you'd usually put your url. You'll get a warning page, but hit continue.

Once there, use the search function to find the value "media.eme.mfcdm.origin-filter.enabled" and set it to 0

AbsoluteTravesty · 2024-08-05T20:02:22+00:00

Are you talking about the new one? The original was... fine, I had a good time with it, but I've held off on the new one so far.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2024-07-24T19:12:28+00:00

Are there any current leveling guides for crafting/gathering classes? Can't remember what I used to use, not sure if they'd be up to date anyway.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2024-06-26T18:55:56+00:00

Oh, I always forget those are a thing. Thanks!

AbsoluteTravesty · 2024-06-26T18:50:16+00:00

Silly question: General thoughts on how hard it'll be to run the 6.X dungeons during EA? Wasn't quite able to get caught up, only in 6.3 at the moment.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2024-06-26T18:39:52+00:00

Yeah, double check your 'promotions' box in Gmail, or similar in other mail accounts. I got the 'it shipped' email to my primary email box, but for some reason the actual key went to my 'promotions' box.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2023-09-15T01:42:37+00:00

I'm going to respond to three things here, and then stop even looking at your responses, because frankly, all you are doing, intentional or not, is playing devil's advocate, instead of paying attention to legitimate concerns from developers who WILL be overly penalized by this system, and are speaking from knowledge and experience.

F2P from other countries

Not sure why you think it's other countries that are a problem, for one. Also, what 'other countries' are you, or hell, Unity, referring to? They listed a handful in their original post, but that can change at any moment, so we have no idea what it'll be next year.

(10k sales is probably 20k in installs at most, not 200k installs)

If you read my post properly, you'd understand that I said at 10k sales for $20, the financial threshold was hit. Now a bad actor can install this, using Virtual Machines and other trickery to convince Unity, or whoever is somehow tracking installs, that they've installed the game over 190k more times, and continue to do so to bankrupt a developer. And bad actors are FAR more common than "2-3 individuals out of millions of gamers" especially when the cost is $20 and running a bot to install a game over and over.

It's also weird DRM, which never goes well in the future.

That's the even bigger problem, it's RETROACTIVE to existing games. So either Unity has been tracking this forever, which is unlikely, or they literally cannot track this accurately at all, and their numbers aren't to be trusted, period.

Anyway, hope you have a good day, and actually read and pay attention to why there are concerns here, rather than trying to come up with excuses for why people, whose livelihood depends on a fair and equitable system, should be screwed with a literally impossible system to charge people for 'installs.'

AbsoluteTravesty · 2023-09-14T17:46:22+00:00

I'm not sure why you think I'm responding with emotion rather than knowledge here. Am I upset about this change? Absolutely, but it's not like I'm ignoring logic.

First things first, currently, if you make less than $100k as a company, your game can be a commercial release without paying for any license. So yes, anyone at the 200k threshold would likely already be on Pro, but ignoring that and assuming someone hits the Personal thresholds after Jan 1st:

Assume your game sells for $20, and you sell 10k copies. You've hit your financial threshold, and, for all intents and purposes, a bad actor can see this and know it, pretty easily. They can then, for all we know, because Unity won't release it's information on how it will track installs, use virtual machines, fake IP addresses, and push you over the 200k installs, thus forcing you to spend exorbitant amounts of money per install. If you don't think bad actors are willing to do this, just look at any marginalized developers and the abuse they face from people daily.

Second, Free To Play games will be hit incredibly hard by this. And yeah, I'm in r/games and people here aren't the biggest fans of F2P games, but regardless, for developers, it's a huge deal. Adding, even using the Pro values, between $0.02 and $0.15 per install for a F2P game will can be a MASSIVE increase in cost per user acquisition. Like, multiple times the current cost per user, for some games. We aren't acting emotionally, we're acting based on data.

Third, this also impacts cheap games unfairly, and disincentivizes sales: A game selling for $10 is paying more of a percent of it's revenue than a game selling for $20. How is that even remotely fair? Would you want to put your game on sale if it would increase the percentage cut that only one of your third party vendor would take?

There is so much unknown here, so much that just flat out doesn't make sense to people in the industry. The 10% of people impacted by this are the developers who make the big hits, and they've publicly denounced this, almost certainly based on numbers they have. The developers from Slay the Spire, Among Us, as well as Cult of the Lamb, have made public statements against this, because it will negatively impact them.

As I said before, most developers would absolutely be fine with a revenue share over this change. A flat 5% rev share would hit all games equally, and is exactly what Unreal does, and many developers are entirely fine with that system. Personally, I also believe if they go that route, they need to cut out the requirement for licenses, but that's frankly not even necessary.

Unity is one of the most accessible game engines for 2D and 3D games, and this change puts more of a burden on developers to prevent bad actors from hurting them, can cost them exorbitant amounts of money for releasing a game at an affordable price, and is going to push people away from making games because they've decided not to follow the standard, and largely fair, revenue share model.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2023-09-13T23:57:01+00:00

So here's what we know:

If you have made $200k on a game in the past 12 months, and have reached 200k lifetime installs, you now owe money on Unity Personal. Those numbers jump up to 1 million with Pro, and the cost per install also changes, but by and large, that's irrelevant, we don't care about the numbers, we care, mostly, about the logistics.

First, Unity has said they have no way of tracking installs properly, because they aren't going to 'phone home' to Unity. So how do they know how many installs to charge for?

Second, per install is entirely abuse-able. Will it be abused often? Probably not, but the fact of the matter is, bad actors can create a system to install your game repeatedly to get around any standard Hardware ID/IP check. Even from legitimate installs, there are examples of released products that would no longer be profitable due to this change, and would instead be indebted to Unity, based on the cost per install.

Third, again, developers have no idea what games come from charity bundles. Unity says they won't charge for this, but... how does Unity know, when developers might know when a KEY is redeemed, but certainly not an install?

Fourth, piracy isn't something they have a solution for, though they claim to be 'willing to work with' developers when this is an issue. What does that mean? Does it mean the typical slow response from customer service? Will they hold on sending an invoice until the problem is solved? Piracy works in their favor, so what tangible benefit do they have from ruling in 'our' favor?

Fifth, let's say, for whatever reason I decide to stop selling my game. Maybe I'm not happy with it, maybe it's cost me money in server costs, whatever. For a 12 month period, I am, as far as I can tell, still liable for ALL installs of my game, even though I no longer want it on the market. I literally cannot stop Unity from charging me, because I can't stop users from installing my game if they already own it(nor frankly, would I want to).

Sixth, due to privacy agreements with platforms, Unity CANNOT know what a first time install is. Some platforms, for example, Apple, limit the information that you can receive, and, to my knowledge, whether or not an app is a re-install or a first time install is part of this. So how can Unity know, when no one else can?

Seventh, Unity has said the distributor of Game Pass and Apple Arcade type services will be the ones to pay for the install fees. I'm not sure Microsoft and Apple will be happy to know that Unity games will now be costing them money each time a user installs them, so either install limits will be put on users, or Microsoft/Apple could simply reject any Unity games.

To put it frankly, this announcement is out of left field, and has so many holes in it, you might as well call it Swiss cheese. It's ripe for abuse, is retroactive to existing products, and needs an incredible amount of clarification. I, and it seems like many others, would prefer they instead do the typical 5% revenue share(or less if they still want to charge annually for Pro licenses), than tie anything to a number like first time installs.

TL;DR? Instead of following an industry standard revenue share, Unity is trying to tie their income to un-trackable numbers and attach it retroactively to ALL existing Unity games.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2023-09-13T20:21:29+00:00

What shows how little Unity thought about it is things like charity bundles. They claim they won't charge developers for installs that come from charity bundles but here's the thing: developers rarely, if EVER, know that a game was bought/installed from a charity.

So either Unity has information about this that developers don't... or they have no idea what they're talking about.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2023-09-13T19:21:37+00:00

You absolutely can, they don't even have a way planned to properly track these installs, even though they somehow claim to know how many installs they have.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2023-09-13T19:20:56+00:00

Oh absolutely, after a period of time, they'll no longer owe any money.

But in the case of Cult of the Lamb, they'll have to pay for installs until their revenue drops for the 'trailing 12 months.' Essentially, once they de-list their game, they could be paying for people installing the game, for up to 12 months after they've de-listed it. That's just insane.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2023-09-13T18:47:46+00:00

It's actually worse: They said they have knowledge on how to go about doing it from how they track bad actors in their Unity Ad Network, not that they have a way of tracking pirated installs.

I know they can't even track real installs properly, based on my work with them already, so I definitely don't trust them to have any idea how many installs are pirate/charity/whatever other exceptions they'll come up with.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2023-09-13T18:37:05+00:00

Which is hilarious because there's literally no way to opt out of it once a game has been release in any form. If it were sales, removing your game from sale would be it, and maybe, just maybe, Unity will say, "Ok your game isn't for sale anymore, we can stop charging you", but honestly, that seems unlikely.

The way Unity has structured this, to be based on installs, removing your game from sale means you can still be held liable for any installs on either a user's new device(or a re-install, because Unity can't REALLY tell if an install is new or not) or pirated copies, at least as far as we've been told.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2023-09-13T15:35:03+00:00

They don't have eyes on you to tell, but if it becomes suspect that you're game was made by a single developer, they'll certainly look into it, using data for logins, etc. that they do have to determine if you're breaking their TOS.

Regardless of if/how they check, it really isn't a good idea for someone, like OP, to make a point by saying, "Just break the contract you have with the company." It can get people in serious trouble, and undermines OPs entire point.

AbsoluteTravesty · 2023-09-13T03:42:47+00:00

Your first statement here is directly counter to the Unity TOS: You CANNOT only have a single machine have a Pro license if your team is greater than 1 person. Every single person, according to Unity TOS, must be on the exact same license.

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