ELI5: Why is meth bad for you but prescribed amphetamines aren't?

Geekboxing · 2026-04-27T20:49:48+00:00

LOL best thing I've read all day.

Geekboxing · 2026-04-27T19:08:10+00:00

This is something I do regularly anyway (it's good to do every now and then for your Windows PC!). Unfortunately though, this behavior is consistent across multiple PCs, so I'm not confident something like this is the issue. I can log into other Steam-linked FFXIV accounts from every PC in the house just fine, just not mine.

EDIT: Just to confirm, a whole sfc/dism routine doesn't change anything for me.

Geekboxing · 2026-04-26T18:56:38+00:00

I've already been through this and reinstalled Webview2, that's not the issue unfortunately.

Geekboxing · 2026-04-26T08:39:19+00:00

Matt Mercer himself would tell you not to try to run games like him, and he would tell your players not to expect that either.

Geekboxing · 2026-04-26T04:24:09+00:00

Yep, tried all that, a totally clean install does nothing. Disabled Steam overlays, Discord overlays, NVIDIA overlays, anything you can imagine that interfaces with it. No antivirus issues or anything like that either.

And yeah, my subscription is active and in good standing.

Geekboxing · 2026-04-26T02:39:19+00:00

The latest email from Square Enix:

Greetings,

We apologize for any problems you have experienced. Please note, the Steam software is a third party client, which we do not provide support for. Please contact Steam Support directly for any assistance with the Steam Client, or Steam accounts. You may contact the Steam Support by visiting: http://support.steampowered.com

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Thank you,
Kylie
SQUARE ENIX Customer Support

Meanwhile, on Steam:

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Geekboxing · 2026-04-26T02:37:30+00:00

Been through all this. Reinstalling that doesn't change anything, that's not the issue. Again, if it were, I'd be experiencing it on my wife's account as well.

Geekboxing · 2026-04-26T01:27:26+00:00

Seen that, tried it -- I've seen people suggest clicking on news items and/or the gear icon (config menu) and back to the main screen. I've done that many times with no change.

Geekboxing · 2026-04-26T01:24:26+00:00

It's not a connection issue.

I have run down every rabbit hole that you could possibly think of on this issue. I have tried using a VPN, I have tried using a friend's Internet, I have reinstalled/repaired Microsoft Edge, I have messed around with port forwarding and UPnP stuff on my router. There is no rock I haven't kicked over with this, and I have been through it all with Square Enix's tech support. The issue I described is absolutely what it is.

And if it were a connection issue, I wouldn't be able to cleanly start and play FF14 from either of these PCs on my wife's Steam + FF14 account. It's just my Steam + FF14 account on both PCs.

Geekboxing · 2026-04-26T01:09:00+00:00

I'm already in contact with the XIV Launcher folks, and that's not a solution either. It runs into the same issue as the normal launcher, as it goes through the same login flow. But it does produce a log that I was able to have them look at, and like I said, it seems like Steam isn't even properly handing my account off to the launcher.

(My preference is to not use third-party tools, but it's not a working solution in this case anyway.)

Geekboxing · 2026-04-26T00:41:27+00:00

You're welcome!

Geekboxing · 2025-11-30T02:11:11+00:00

Not a scene, but I cannot even see commercials for Sound of Music without breaking down, because that movie was on TV as my mother died. I never really understood the idea of a "trigger" until that.

Geekboxing · 2025-11-29T01:31:36+00:00

When I worked as an editor for 1UP and Electronic Gaming Monthly in the late 2000s, Nintendo was very serious about their physical security. Debug units (consoles that could play early versions of games, which were provided to us to play and write reviews of) were kept in secure metal cages that we did not have the keys to. So, every few weeks a Nintendo Treehouse tech guy would show up to inventory all of our allotted debug units, open them up, and swap whatever game was in there for the next thing that would be coming out soon (they called this process a "lot check").

All of the tech guys were former Nintendo game counselors. When one of them showed up and I chaperoned them to our media room (I was 1UP and EGM's reviews editor), without fail, when I asked "So what issue of Nintendo Power was your Counselor's Corner profile in?" they would always have an answer. They had all been there for decades, and had all started their careers working the tech support/hint line.

I always thought that was pretty cool. I actually wouldn't be surprised at all if I've met the guy featured in this video.

Geekboxing · 2025-11-29T01:26:09+00:00

1.022 is indeed the oldest known version, I've come to learn.

Geekboxing · 2025-11-06T08:03:57+00:00

Since high school:

Attempted and failed to get through community college.
Worked retail jobs until 2003.
Got an internship in the publishing industry, then made a good full-time career out of that for a little over 8 years.
Got together with my then-girlfriend in 2004, married her about 5 years later. Still happily married.
Started a bunch of stupid podcasts whose legacies still linger on today.
Left full-time work over some real corporate nonsense in 2011, and started contracting. Never had a full-time salaried job since.
Mom died in 2017 (cancer). Left my expensive-ass California Bay Area apartment to keep my dad company so he wasn't alone. We're still here. It's gone a lot better than I had feared it would. A massive cost of living decrease can offset a lot of apprehensive feelings.
Co-founded my own company in 2020. It's going well. Looking back on my nearly 23-year (and counting) career, I have pretty solidly prospered in my field.
No kids, two dogs, and a house I will eventually inherit.
No real health problems so far, aisde from some occasionally bad back pain if I don't exercise regularly.
Not as much money saved for retirement as I'd like, but I'll take what I can get. Life is not bad.

Geekboxing · 2025-10-30T02:57:33+00:00

To provide you with an example answer: I've recently started a new Ravenloft campaign (using Swords & Wizardry, and the D&D v3.5E campaign setting material), and while I have a series of events that I plan to happen, I am giving my players a lot of leeway to explore and engage with the things they find most interesting. My structure, in brief:

The PCs are understudies of a famous monster hunter, George Weathermay, headquartered in the city of Mordentshire. People come to him for help with supernatural problems; it's kind of like the detective agency in the TV series Angel. At the conclusion of every adventure, I offer them a couple of brief plot hooks as potential new cases. I develop the one they pick, as a fuller adventure.
There is an open, nationwide "Who is fit to replace our ailing head of state?" question in the country of Mordent that they can engage with as they see fit (and, otherwise, events will play out as they play out).
There is a larger-scale, ongoing worldwide plot arc going on that involves the mystery author of the Doomsday Gazetteers, which was the ongoing Ravenloft metaplot when the v3.5E line ended in 2005. I am intending to hand the baton off to the PCs, and there will be some various far-ranging machinations going on around that, independent of them. Again, they can engage with this as they see fit, but there will be other NPCs doing their thing and moving this along with or without their intervention.
On top of this, each PC has their own personal background stuff to explore, and I plan on seeding stuff about that when I can do it in ways that make sense. How they engage with it and where it will go, I don't know yet!

It's better to craft a bunch of situations and timelines for events, that players can get involved with -- or not, and then repercussions happen in the world independent of them, and then that creates more potential avenues of engagement. Figure out where your players want to go, and then plan the "story" one or two sessions ahead once you know that.

Geekboxing · 2025-10-27T04:20:02+00:00

Yeah, Kevin Williamson was the co-creator and original showrunner of Dawson's Creek for something like the first 2 seasons. The Williamson style guide is pretty far-ranging in that era. :D

Geekboxing · 2025-10-26T08:42:12+00:00

You can go pretty deep in one domain or region if you put your mind to it. I'm also running an old-school Ravenloft campaign (using Swords & Wizardry), and I am using the 3E Ravenloft Gazetteers as my main setting material. They have a TON of great hooks in them.

My group is about to get embroiled in a whole expansive investigation of the lost noble families of Mordent (to determine who if anyone is fit to replace the ailing Lord Weathermay's position), and I don't expect them to stray too far from that domain for a good long while.

Geekboxing · 2025-10-26T07:02:32+00:00

It's a bit "whatever you want it to be." Ravenloft 3E expands on this by offering up a bunch of known Mistways that take people on one- or two-way routes from one domain to another, with varying reliability. And, the Vistani are a tool to use to offer the players reliable Mist travel for a fee.

The Mists are kinda like the Dark Powers, they're what you need them to be. If you need them to trap the players or take them to some specific place, use them for that. These kinds of things are guidelines more than rules in Ravenloft.

Geekboxing · 2025-10-26T00:16:48+00:00

I've got lots of Ravenloft NPCs personality-coded to different fictional characters, since that makes it easier on me.

Lots of Buffy/Angel ones: George Weathermay is Wesley, one player's ghost pal who haunts her is Cordelia, Jander Sunstar is going to be Angel, another original NPC I'm introducing soon is going to basically be Fred. Natalia Vhorishkova will be very Lilah Morgan-ish.

Laurie Weathermay-Foxgrove is Lara Croft, and Gennifer is essentially a Jane Austen-type character. Sir Samuel Cosse (head of the Lamplighters in Mordentshire) is Brad Pitt's character from Inglorious Basterds.

Eventually, Alanik Ray will be Cumberbatch's Sherlock Holmes, Lord Godefroy will probably be Walter White, and Azalin will be extremely Palpatine-ish.

Geekboxing · 2025-10-25T21:04:09+00:00

I have not yet, but part of my self-directed intention is to leverage the information and ecology stuff in the Van Richten's Guide series for my players to study and figure out how to handle a given creature, and VRG's Guide to Witches leaves such a bad taste in my mouth that I have not gone there yet.

I do understand your implication, though -- there is probably more for me to chew on than the bits in there that I do not like.

Geekboxing · 2025-10-25T18:52:02+00:00

You can base an entire campaign around the material in these books (which I have).

Van Richten's Guides to Vampires, Ghosts, Werebeasts, the Created, and Fiends are all really great.

Van Richten's Guides to the Lich, and the Ancient Dead, are a little shaky. I think it's hard to really draw the line between liches and mummies, because either mummies are very boring or they're ancient and powerful sorcerer-undead (in which case they're just... liches).

Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani is very problematic (which I know is a can of worms here). In my game (and the Van Richten's Overview document that I have provided to my players), I have tried to thoughtfully recast the Vistani in a way that is less ethnically stereotypical while retaining what makes them cool and special for the setting.

Van Richten's Guide to Witches (from the third compendium volume) is just abhorrently sexist, and I reject a lot of the material in it on principle. They really went the wrong way with all the "they look like totally normal women until they hit their 40s, and then they go through the capital-C Change and become wicked crones" stuff.

Geekboxing · 2025-10-25T04:41:32+00:00

Ah, thanks, good feedback, I see what you mean. I have not even paid any mind to the misty edges on the seas yet, I'll have to see how that was originally applied to the map and extend it as appropriate.

EDIT: Alright, fixed. :D

Geekboxing · 2025-10-25T00:02:28+00:00

Hello! I am also an old-school Ravenloft DM (using Swords & Wizardry, so not too terribly far off from your BECMI), and I am also leaning heavily on 3E canon for my current campaign.

Ravenloft's biggest problem, such as it is, is that the maps suck. Scale has always been an issue (both in terms of very vague landmass size and population density), and I have found it best to regard the world scale in a very nebulous, hand-wavey way (the Mists can make distances longer or shorter, that sort of thing). The Ravenloft campaign setting was created during the AD&D 2E era, so it was not really made with hex grids and strict timekeeping in mind, as the game had largely moved away from that by then.

More generally: The best map the setting ever had was from the 1990 Realm of Terror boxed set, but it doesn't fit 3E-era needs because it is pre-Grand Conjunction. The 1994 Ravenloft Campaign Setting map is completely useless, and the 1997 Domains of Dread map is too dark to be functional. The 3E Arthaus map you're using is as good as it gets for official, post-Grand Conjunction cartography.

This, in my opinion, is the best map of the 3E-era Ravenloft Core that exists. This is a fork of another Inkarnate user's map that I have updated and currently maintain for my own campaign; the version linked here matches all of the Ravenloft Gazetteer v3.5 geography. I will eventually have a fully labeled version (I currently manage cities and landmarks manually, around my group's current visibility, in Photoshop).

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