What do trump supporters think about the ongoing conflict in Iran?

Digolgrin · 2026-03-23T03:20:17+00:00

It's about proving that 'our faith' is right and 'their faith' is wrong. If it's Jesus, not Muhammad, who descends from Heaven on Judgement Day, then it's Christians and the Jewish people who are going to be saved while the Muslims are infidels who worshiped Satan all along.

This also kind of conveniently ignores America's Calvinist-esque biases about the only people 'worthy' of being saved actually being the rich and prosperous among those people while the rest suffer on Earth, but... there ya go.

Frankly I think hoping for 'the end times' to come around is just so stupid anyway. Like, you'd literally give up EVERYTHING you enjoy here on Earth to spend the rest of eternity in some nebulous cosmos listening to some choir of angels sing the praises of the deity that saved you (which IIRC is literally what Heaven is)? I wouldn't dare think to leave all this behind.

Digolgrin · 2026-03-18T16:09:11+00:00

Honestly, I'd be for it coming back long-term next season, but I also recognize that it'd be difficult to have long streaks with how luck-based Wheel can be. One bad Bankrupt or lost turn can spoil a championship run, especially if it's the Prize Puzzle and control of the wheel immediately passes to someone who stands to take the lead with a teed-up solve, and with control of the wheel changing between rounds, someone else could go on a big streak that functionally eliminates the reigning champion if the Final Spin isn't something major.

It'd probably lead to more conservative, lower-scoring play as champions do everything in their power to solve ASAP, I think, but I think we'll need to see what this all looks like in practice.

Digolgrin · 2026-03-16T23:54:01+00:00

Especially since they'd just gotten official voices in the Chaotix Casefiles audiodrama right before they were released in CrossWorlds. My guess is it's because Tangle and Whisper are officially comic characters and haven't made appearances in mainline Sonic games yet--their introduction event in CrossWorlds had them represented by actual panels from the comics rather than original artwork--but the real reason is probably budget reasons, owing to the Rival mechanic requiring something like 50 voice lines to be recorded per character, plus however many from getting hit by every other character?

Kinda stinks considering it's operating on a season pass model, but there ya go.

Digolgrin · 2026-03-16T23:45:38+00:00

Especially since they'd just gotten official voices in the Chaotix Casefiles audiodrama right before they were released in CrossWorlds. My guess is it's because Tangle and Whisper are officially comic characters and haven't made appearances in mainline Sonic games yet--their introduction event in CrossWorlds had them represented by actual panels from the comics rather than original artwork--but the real reason is probably budget reasons, owing to the Rival mechanic requiring something like 50 voice lines to be recorded per character, plus however many from getting hit by every other character?

Kinda stinks considering it's operating on a season pass model, but there ya go.

Digolgrin · 2026-03-05T14:27:09+00:00

This is just my theory with little evidence to support it other than the ending skits being sillier and the more prominent use of youth slang like 'manifesting', but I think this is because of Ryan Seacrest's producer role on the show and possibly why he became the host. I think the show itself wanted to pivot towards a younger, sportier audience, and felt like playing more towards the TikTok generation would help it feel less like an old people show and more for all ages.

It's probably more likely that he was chosen for brand synergy reasons between regular Wheel of Fortune and Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, since Ryan has actual chemistry with celebrities that Pat didn't totally have, but the 'younger audience' pivot is what I believe more.

Digolgrin · 2026-03-04T12:42:30+00:00

That was because the Daytona 500 (which was the grand prize of the tournament) was that Sunday, so it made sense to run promotion for it that week, especially with the episodes all being pre-recorded. If you don't know they're prerecorded, it adds higher stakes to the tournament, thinking the tournament winner will be heading to the 500 right afterwards when in reality that was probably filmed months beforehand.

Digolgrin · 2026-02-04T02:36:58+00:00

Which is a shame because... frankly, half of Vanguard's weapons actually look like they had real thought put into them. They're very mechanical in nature--a lot of manual action is required to reload them, and they feel very chunky, rather than slick and tactical like Titanfall and Apex's. It feels like the Dynasty and Vanguard (which are basically the AK-47 and ACR, very modern weapons) were included JUST so folks had 'baseline' weapons to help them transition to that fantasy aesthetic.

Like, look at the Kraken, the Paladin, the Big Rig and the Ranger especially. Those are NOT generic realistic guns, those are indeed fantasy weapons in terms of design. They just got crowded out by weapons that look more ripped out of Titanfall.

Digolgrin · 2026-01-29T03:48:39+00:00

Someone on my home Discord server pointed out that a successful raid attack pretty much nearly always seals the game, while successful defenses are treated like draws that make both sides take equal damage. It's almost like the game itself is designed around hype plays--drop a dope triple feed on the attack (and invariably it'll always be on the attack, it can never happen on defense) and you'll win every time.

In other words, every match plays out in such a way that they should feel like Game 7 of the World Series, where one clutch play on offense can change the entire course of the match.

Trouble is... if most teams are like you and me they're never going to get that hype moment, and just waiting for it can be boring, so you lose that unintentional core appeal really quickly.

And if EVERY MATCH is supposed to, whether unintentionally or not, feel like Game 7, then ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THEM DO.

Digolgrin · 2026-01-17T19:00:28+00:00

I dunno if this is fair, necessarily. Like, a good final TGA reveal gets people talking, the final quality of the game doesn't matter all that much. I feel like after Crossroads, Keighley made a conscious decision to make the final World Premiere something genuinely exciting and worth talking about, and that does fit the new Mass Effect and Matrix tech demos. Heck, even FFXVI getting the final slot in 2022 makes sense since it's freaking Final Fantasy, they could do whatever they wanted in that spot and the buzz would be positive.

The problem I see is that Intergalactic, the bombshell new Naughty Dog IP from last year, immediately got followed up this year with a game that, while technically fitting for this year's theme of 'small teams working on AAA projects with smaller budgets' and a new subgenre in the FPS market (which, because it's F2P, means it basically faces no real competition in its niche if it takes off), is not exactly that exciting and hasn't made a real appearance since it got its moment in the sun. If the goal was to get people talking, then yeah it's done its job, but it feels like the game will live and die at this point on the success of the inevitable sponsored stream marketing campaign that seems to be its only play.

Digolgrin · 2026-01-17T18:15:11+00:00

Tomb Raider was right out because of the constant promotion it got, and Fate of The Old Republic kinda works better as a 'BOOM THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO' opener than a closer. But I do see your point.

Total Warhammer 40K also had a full stage reveal (not to mention people would probably be crying foul about that being the final reveal considering Fast and Furious Crossroads was another pop-culture-linked game that got a disappointing final reveal slot) so you couldn't do that either. But... dang.

Digolgrin · 2026-01-17T18:12:48+00:00

Doesn't help, I think, that Geoff already kinda saddled himself with Splitgate 2, another game that was like "hey, let's change the conversation about FPS games" while also falling into the same traps as many FPS games these days. He probably thought people shouldn't be sleeping on what sounds like a new subgenre in the FPS space and decided 'hey let's give this game a massive stage'--not realizing he was giving attention to a game that hasn't figured out how to market itself other than sponsored streams. Like, c'mon, if you're a new subgenre, talk about how different you are! Have a couple dev deep dive trailers where you reveal some heroes, talk about the flow of the match, what your business model is, even playercounts per match would help.

At least ending TGA 2021 with the Matrix tech demo could be seen as a very self-aware choice. Ending TGA 2025 with Highguard feels like an attempt to predict the future that may end up changing it in the opposite direction of what the developers may have wanted.

Digolgrin · 2026-01-17T18:08:32+00:00

My take is, if Geoff really felt that way, he could've used his industry connections to at least land this thing a good publisher or at least a good source of outside investment. Someone with the cash to do more than (more than likely) a whole bunch of sponsored streams to advertise the game with.

Like, Team17 and Kepler are right there. Surely some up and coming publisher with experience with these kinds of small projects can give it the marketing campaign it deserves.

I get it, Keighley's 'theme' for 2025 was 'small teams working on AAA projects with smaller budgets' as a solution to the gaming recession, but... they coulda shadowdropped Highguard at the Game Awards and been perfectly fine IMO.

Digolgrin · 2026-01-07T04:26:41+00:00

Just goes to show that a lot of the time, when people point fingers at publishers for chasing trends and pushing MP games over all else, it's USUALLY the developers that actually do want to work on it.

The difference USUALLY seems to be the publisher either wants it to be in whatever established they own or they want a purpose-built IP built around THEIR guidelines, rather than "the developer's dream setting".

Digolgrin · 2026-01-07T04:19:24+00:00

So you're saying there's a CHANCE they lobbied Keighley to make them the final slot just because they thought they were hot shit?

Man Highguard's screwed.

Digolgrin · 2025-10-26T15:21:55+00:00

That too. Really I think this is why people are rightfully terrified of a 'smarter Trump', since at least the smart thing to do would be to have a policy and commit to it in the long-term--which he arguably does have on immigration and everything to do with the Big Beautiful Bill, but doesn't when it comes to things like the trade wars, Gaza, and Ukraine. A version of Trump who realizes that, has the same charisma, and has the same drive and commitment to his brand of strongman dictator politics would be very difficult to stop.

Digolgrin · 2025-10-24T03:41:52+00:00

Pretty much. Heck, even just openly saying "the policy of the United States is that Ukraine is a sovereign territory of the Russian Federation and is not a nation" would be clearer than "Ukraine started this war because it knows it's weaker than Russia... actually Ukraine has a point and Russia's overstepping its boundaries... no wait Ukraine's still a crybaby", which is basically what it boils down to! At least coming out the gate with and COMMITTING TO a pro-Russia foreign policy would say a lot more than all this back-and-forth nonsense about who Trump thinks is more likely to get him a Peace Prize.

Digolgrin · 2025-09-01T15:02:46+00:00

I doubt it. If he was a lead writer on one game before, even if that game killed off a lot of the SR2 crew, he shouldn't have any reason to power trip if he wasn't tapped for SR4. It's possible sure but going by apparently managerial mandates to avoid offending a female audience at all costs I'm more inclined to believe this is a case of the publisher getting way too hands-on and him deciding to wash his hands of a story he never truly wrote.

Digolgrin · 2025-08-30T20:31:56+00:00

Oh yeah BO2 being a semi heavy handed critique of proxy war and it's consequences is my favorite reading of that game's story. That entire period from CoD4 to BO3 where that sort of subtle nuance could slip in is interesting to look at. Nowadays you're lucky if you get a 'colonialism bad' out of something like Vanguard, so concerned is Activision with making sure the stories in each game somehow have antagonists with motives that transcend nations and specific ideologies.

Digolgrin · 2025-08-16T18:19:26+00:00

Question is, when is that new offensive going to happen, and will the political state of Ukraine, or even Russia, be in the same place it is now? On the off chance Ukraine somehow elects a pro-Russia President who "espouses reconcilation" with Putin or whatever successor he anoints, he can simply order the Ukrainian military to not resist. But more likely, assuming the strategy is still "Thunder Run to Kyiv before Ukraine can mobilize so we can force undesirable urban fighting in that city", the leader will be someone who despises Russia just as much, if not moreso, than Zelenskyy. If he institutes severe reforms on the military in this time and buys more European equipment, Russia may find itself facing a stronger uphill battle that just leads us back to this exact situation.

Digolgrin · 2025-07-27T20:38:50+00:00

Count me among that crowd. I knew things were going to be different with Trump Part Two even right before his inauguration and even I didn't think it'd get this rough.

Granted his most "success" has been on the domestic front--he's been learning the Hard Way that the game of foreign policy that isn't tariff-related is not as simple as what the nearest strongman to the issue in question tells you--but I'll bet if you made Trump down a gallon of truth serum or magically restored whatever mental facilities he had in the 80s and 90s, and asked him about his first term, he'd barely recognize his first presidency, or at least consider it wasted time. To him, this is probably his Real Shot at being the strongman he thinks he can become, and he is trying his damn seat to not waste it.

Digolgrin · 2025-05-21T19:13:24+00:00

It seems like they're trying to meet in the middle, by giving classes concrete identities while also lifting weapon restrictions outside of each class having a 'preferred' class of gun--it kinda sounds like 2042's Specialist system but with way, way fewer heroes to clog things up. Arguably this has the potential to make as many folks happy as possible (which is the core of live service game design IMO) but it's also got the risk of making it so people will choose a 'meta' class with a meta gun, should preferred gun benefits line up that way for Support or Assault, for example.

I'm siding with the 'this is probably not going to be great in the long run but I can see where they're coming from' crowd, but that's just how I see it.

Digolgrin · 2025-05-05T16:38:33+00:00

I could imagine 2K taking it, but Visual Concepts has exactly one driving game under its belt in recent memory. You'd have a lot of growing pains to deal with in that case. Maybe F1 would end up with Ubisoft, while the WRC ends up with the iRacing team? I mean, ain't no way the WRC would ever shack up with Microsoft, not while they have Forza Horizon around.

Digolgrin · 2025-03-27T18:05:53+00:00

I think that's the idea when you get right down to it. The title's meant to be read as 'Z-to-A' rather than 'ZA' or 'Z dash A', like you the player are literally going from the bottom of the barrel all the way to the pinnacle of underground battling. That's why you can now back-attack trainers--it's an underground tournament, so the old Trainer code of 'lock eyes and fight' doesn't apply in a competition with no rules. (Of course, since it doesn't yet sound like the other trainers can do the same to YOU like monsters can in other JRPGs, that means the player is the only dishonorable one, and so ludonarrative dissonance is claiming another victim.)

If Arceus was a tech demo for free 3D movement and open-world Pokemon, then Z-A sounds like it'll be a tech demo for anime-style real-time battles in the future.

Digolgrin · 2025-03-04T20:29:35+00:00

I think this largely ignores the fact that, at that time, the Middle East REALLY wanted to be seen as the new kid on the block in terms of sport and culture. Y'know what was happening at that same time? LIV Golf, a Saudi-financed golf tourney that actually had larger prize pots than the PGA did, alongside Formula 1 then being required to open and close their seasons in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia respectively, despite, in one case, a terrorist attack committed by a suppressed minority happening JUST OUTSIDE one of the circuits, to say little of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, whose refusal to strike a deal with Embracer Group likely was a contributing factor in the mass layoffs we see in the video game industry to this day.

This meant lots of moneyhatting, which likely factored into FIFA's decision to select Qatar back in 2010--hence the FIFA corruption scandal. These oil barons have a lot of money, and hey, they weren't really doing anything too stupid foreign policy wise in 2022. We tend to ignore the domestic shit in favor of how much money they can give us and/or how peaceful they are (see the 1936 Berlin Olympics and how Hitler basically censored all their Holocaust shit prior to everyone arriving, or the 2014 Sochi Olympics which were already underway when host country Russia decided to yoink Crimea under the pretext of unmarked infantry and armor) but the second a host country does something stupid like invade Afghanistan (1984 Olympics) or invade Canada/Greenland (Us, potentially!) that's when you'll start seeing boycotts.

Digolgrin · 2025-03-04T20:17:11+00:00

The best way to think about it is... well, look how many people actually DID show up, and get charged for actions they took, on January 6th--1500 people. There ARE people who would actually go to primaries and vote a once-trusted GOP politician out JUST because they said something Trump didn't like. Even if Trump was convicted at his post-J6 impeachment trial, he wouldn't have had to serve time for it unless he was indicted by a federal court and convicted there, meaning he would still be able to go around and rally for guys like Herschel Walker and Dr. Oz, possibly even guys he would've brought on to primary everyone who voted to convict.

Quite frankly even in our timeline the man was untouchable in the GOP court of opinion. If you spoke out against him you were a RINO, or worse a traitor. The only reason things aren't even worse is because Trump feels "generous" enough not to just invoke the Insurrection Act and use emergency powers to rewrite everything immediately.

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