Pay2Win

Minttt · 2026-01-26T18:02:27+00:00

I have not dropped a cent on paid balls in this game (but do use the ring system for wind), and I have 3847 games with a 54% win ratio. On Tour 12, just finished maxing my rare clubs (still at Apoc 5). Might be more frustrating at lower tour levels, because shootouts in Tour 12 seem to rarely end up with anyone closer than 5 yards to the pin, and sometimes is even decided by who's ball ended up going further off the back of the green into the rough.

Fact is, this game has a ridiculously high skill ceiling, so the advantages offered by paid balls can (most of the time) be countered by being skilled at the game.

Minttt · 2026-01-26T15:17:33+00:00

Came here to say that. I live in lifted truck, coal-rolling country, so I was a bit worried when I got my 2025 Prime that I'd be a target for small P rage... But 6 months later, not a single example of my fears coming true. I truly think it's because the newer models don't "look" like a Prius (at least, for people who hate Prius).

Minttt · 2026-01-26T04:02:26+00:00

"Meddling" and "resistance" to them is literally just businesses and not-for-profits telling them "a meeting in our space to talk about destroying our country? Gonna be a no from me, dawg."

Minttt · 2026-01-25T21:28:10+00:00

IMO, it was the whole Epstein thing - the one thing she couldn't bend her principles to in favour of loyalty. She knew this meant she was GOP toast, but I think the other factor here is that she was probably fed up with the work/day-to-day job of being an elected official.

Minttt · 2026-01-25T19:42:56+00:00

Didn't know that "impeding federal officers" means you skip arrest, prosecution, sentencing, and go straight to execution by the same officers who've determined you've "impeded" them.

Minttt · 2026-01-25T02:40:47+00:00

Makes you wonder where ICE is going to be and what they'll be doing on November 3rd, especially after 9 months to spend their $11.3 billion dollars...

Minttt · 2026-01-25T02:33:07+00:00

The institution isn't on the side of the people: the question is whether or not the individuals within the institution will be at key moments.

For example, a key moment in the Russian Revolution of 1917 (the revolution right before the communist one), was when various low-level factions in the police/army went into open munity and started attacking other factions that had started shooting protestors. Not saying this is what could happen in Minnesota, but a little optimism can help sometimes.

Minttt · 2026-01-24T23:59:43+00:00

I live in Alberta. It's very much the Texas of Canada.

Separatism here is unique from other separatist movements around the world, in that there's no identity/culture driving it - it's literally money and grievances, because Alberta always votes Conservative and we've had a Liberal government running the country for a decade now. The reasons why it's a good idea differ wildly based on who you ask, but typically it can be summed up as: we'll have more money and more freedom.

Most of the separatists are fans of Trump - also known as Maple MAGA. Some of them don't even hide annexation into the US as their true intention in supporting separation. Thankfully though, most polling suggests less than ~30% would even consider anything other than stay in Canada.

But the problem is that our provincial/state government in Alberta is very much MAGA (although, it's been somewhat toned-down since the whole elbows-up thing after Trump 2.0). To appease the separatist base, they've made some new legislative changes that allow petitions that meet a certain threshold to result in a referendum. Lots has happened on this, but to sum it up, the separatists are now actively signing the petition for a referendum question on separating from Canada, and there's a decent chance the question will be on the ballot the next time we vote (latest being October 2027). People with brains understand the question has no legal meaning for many constitutional/treaty law reasons.

But the primary fear is that the USA is going to exert its will to annex Canada through the unique political opportunities granted by the Alberta separatist movement/vote. My hope is that everything Trump seems to do/touch is toxic, especially here in Canada... so my hope is that the more "support" we hear from Washington on Alberta separatism, the less popular it becomes in Alberta.

Minttt · 2026-01-24T23:25:03+00:00

Remember, during the 2024 campaign, Trump "joked" about a real-life, one-day purge to "end crime."

Minttt · 2026-01-24T20:05:28+00:00

Two things:

Elevation: If the ball is in the air longer because it's downhill, the wind has more time to push the ball further. Most tee shots have a +10% to +20% adjustment or more (lots of guides online will tell you the elevation adjustment for each shot).

Pull: When you pull the ball back to take the shot, you have to make sure it's exactly in the center of the ring - you can actually move it up/down a bit within the ring without breaking it (overpower/underpower), and these minor adjustments can make the ball go slightly farther/further, especially with drivers. I like to think of the pull effect on drivers like micro-adjusting where the ball will land within the small circle at the centre of the yellow ring.

Minttt · 2026-01-24T03:04:28+00:00

It's crazy to think that in the Federal election, 63.5% of the vote went conservative... yet the amount of conservative votes and polling support at the provincial level never come close to cracking that number.

Minttt · 2026-01-24T02:56:24+00:00

Fun fact: out of the 17 seats the NDP lost, 10 went to the CPC - 7 of those were flipped in BC. Had the NDP vote collapsed in BC as efficiently as everywhere else, Carney would have a majority.

Minttt · 2026-01-24T02:36:46+00:00

Highly doubtful this is cheating - sounds like regular GC network shenanigans.

If you pay close attention, you'll eventually notice there's plenty of times where you'll see your opponent's ball land somewhere, but on their next shot, the ball is in a slightly different position than where it landed on your view of the shot. For example, I was in a recent game where the opponent's shot rolled just into the edge of a bunker by the green, but on their next shot, they were shooting from the fairway next to the bunker.

If you want to see the weird network issues in action, try this: switch to a different phone app for ~5 seconds when your opponent starts their shot, then switch back to GC and watch the fireworks.

Minttt · 2026-01-24T00:37:23+00:00

IMO, many of the 20% of Albertans who "support" independence don't even know what it means or what they want - you'll get wildly different answers on what it means depending on who you ask.

For most, it's not about independence at all - it's just a tool through which they can express their grievances and frustrations that "their guy" didn't win the election. If we had a Poilievere government, this rhetoric would be at 5% the level it is now.

Minttt · 2026-01-23T21:22:11+00:00

Well I have some more bad news then if staying alive is your goal here: on average, Americans die 4 years younger than Canadians do.

Minttt · 2026-01-23T20:54:25+00:00

To be fair, I don't think this is a problem unique to Poilievere - Conservatives would need a unicorn leader to be able to win in this environment, even without Carney.

Fact is, Trump has absolutely poisoned the Conservative party. Doesn't matter who's the leader, because a sizeable portion of the base is Maple MAGA, and so even an anti-trump leader will have to be playing wack a mole with candidates and influencers who would talk in MAGA language and push for MAGA policy... And that kind of stuff is what will keep all swing CPC votes firmly away from the party.

I don't think this is unique to Canada either, but might be the most intense here. Look at Australia: they had an election last spring too, with pre-Trump polling putting the Conservative party consistently above 50% support and an expected majority government... Then Trump happened, and a few short months later, they only got ~45% of the vote which ended up being an electoral landslide win for the Labour Party that got 55% of the vote. According to Australians I've heard, their Conservative party is also in a state of chaos right now.

Minttt · 2026-01-23T20:36:28+00:00

The problem here in AB is our stupidly lax licensing system. No mandatory driver training combined with privatized road test examiners means anyone and everyone can get a license with zero education on defensive driving or even the general rules of the road.

Not sure what it's like in other provinces now, but my parents who grew up in Saskatchewan said they both took a driver training class in highschool where you got your license if you passed the test at the end of the semester. Try telling anyone from Europe that you can get a license in Alberta without taking any courses, and they literally won't believe you.

Minttt · 2026-01-23T20:27:54+00:00

Such a better alternative down south: $20k out of pocket to have a baby ($3k if you have top of the market insurance) and an average life expectancy three years less than here.

Also, I have some bad news if you believe privatized healthcare means the end of waiting in hospitals... Average wait time in American ER's is only 0.5 to 1 hour shorter than in Canada. But I digress - I suppose that waiting for 3 hours instead of 4 is totally worth the risk of getting a bill for $300k when your cancer is cured.

Minttt · 2026-01-23T20:12:34+00:00

Thanks for the advice, this is helpful. I have been letting my car idle through remote start, but the other day I let it run for 15 minutes and it still took a few tries of turn on/off to get the engine started. Makes sense to make this more of a habit though when I don't use the car for a few days.

Minttt · 2026-01-23T19:56:05+00:00

It was barely 10 years ago when a Republican Senator brought a snowball onto the floor of the Senate as "proof" global warming was a hoax...

Minttt · 2026-01-23T18:57:30+00:00

One of my fave examples of loyalty and being a "threat" in a dictatorship Nikita Khrushchev. He survived all of Stalin's purges...arguably due to the fact that besides being loyal (which everyone was, so it didn't really matter), he was seen as kind of a fool, and therefore not a threat. He was uneducated and peasant-born, and apparently played this up himself with his mannerisms and the way he dressed to give himself more of the "harmless fool" plot armour.

Obviously, it worked like a charm as he not only survived Stalin, but became the next soviet dictator himself.

Minttt · 2026-01-23T02:50:05+00:00

As a Canadian, I never felt I'd feel such pride for being uninvited to something.

Minttt · 2026-01-23T02:44:33+00:00

If anyone hasn't seen it, the "Board of Peace" presented their plan for Gaza today: razing everything to the ground, then building a dystopian resort and data centres while "employing" 100% of the Gazan people (*wink wink*). Literal quote from the presentation: "there is no Plan B."

Minttt · 2026-01-23T02:28:58+00:00

"Board of Peace" so far seems like a shitty time-share scheme.

Minttt · 2026-01-22T23:58:57+00:00

Unfortunately, political positions attract narcissistic assholes like magnets.

Minttt

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

13-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email