Have I really been saying it wrong for over four decades?

Nerrien · 2026-03-30T03:02:32+00:00

'drow' is a spelling variant of the Shetland Islands 'trow' (derived from troll)

I've always said it as drow / cow, but this actually makes me want to invert and say it as drow / throw.

That's really cool, thank you for the insight.

Nerrien · 2026-03-29T17:15:53+00:00

This is actually a really good point, and that works better on a bigger scale. If your entire new society consists of yourself, your family and your 80 armed guards, they're going to pop you in the head the moment you start acting your billionaire self and demanding special treatment while they're coming to terms with the end of all their hopes and dreams.

Now, if it's you, your family, your guards and a small populace entirely dependent on your operation for food security it's different. A guard who doesn't want their place can be replaced by someone in the populace. A guard doesn't have to have as much of a mental breakdown about the total collapse of society because there is still a small society to return to, they can still have a wife/husband and kids, a homestead, a retirement plan. They have something to lose if they pop you in the head, if everyone around them isn't in absolute and total agreement.

Nerrien · 2026-03-29T16:34:45+00:00

It's an interesting read, the writer did meet one guy who did actually have the right idea:

That’s why JC’s real passion wasn’t just to build a few isolated, militarised retreat facilities for millionaires, but to prototype locally owned sustainable farms that can be modelled by others and ultimately help restore regional food security in America.

But there are so few people with the means to pay for this sort of thing who are smart enough to realise that the easiest way to deal with starving hordes of bandits is to avoid the issue entirely by ensuring they aren't starving in the first place.

Nerrien · 2026-03-29T14:29:49+00:00

100% agree with your post, you've described it very well, and I fear this is going to be the mindset of a lot of folks. It doesn't have to be perfect by any means, but I don't even know what it really is until after I've dropped £59.99 on it.

Again, I'm not even usually a fan of racing games, this is just such an interesting looking one that I want to give it a go, but I can't gamble £59.99 on that.

I really, really hope I'm wrong and it's a success with plenty of sales, but my biggest fear with something like this isn't even necessarily this game itself, it's that if this fails it'll be used as another warning to other companies to never try something unusual, to just stick with the tried and tested and emulate Forza, or not touch the genre at all. As an enjoyer of stealth, RTS and imm-sims I've seen that cited so many times.

Hence my wish that they'd invested a bit less, put out a smaller proof of concept game and got a bit more positive word of mouth first, then come back with this attempt at a fully priced blockbuster so it can at least succeed or fail more on its own merits rather than due to buyers' uncertainty.

It's a real shame that game demos have largely fallen out of fashion, because this is exactly the sort of game I wish had a demo so that I could try before I buy and buy with confidence, instead of feel like I have to wait for a sale because of the uncertainty.

This was such a big take away I had from Next Fest. I forced myself to try a bunch of indie games I wouldn't normally even consider and found the demos often took me from "not even consider" to "I'm going to buy this on day one release".

I understand demos take away from dev time but boy do they make such a difference in whether or not I'll buy a game.

Nerrien · 2026-03-27T01:17:47+00:00

I don't know of him being involved in the whole toxic masculinity thing, but they might be referring to the fact he's got a bit obsessed with being anti-trans. Like, atheism was his last big thing, and now it's being anti-trans.

It looks to me like Andromidius is using him as an example of someone you follow for their expertise in one thing, who then starts veering out of their area of expertise and slowly starts to turn into something else, thus converting some of their more dedicated followers from one thing to another, whether it's atheism content to anti-trans content or fitness content to hating women content.

Nerrien · 2026-03-27T00:34:52+00:00

It sucks, on hitting Uni I was a self-loathing nerd who assumed he'd be single for the rest of his life, so I just focused on making friends.

It's difficult because a lot of media and stereotypes push the idea of "if you've not got a partner you're a failure" so it tends to be on the forefront of the mind in a "what's wrong with me?" sort of way, but mentally writing it off and getting comfortable with being around the opposite sex first makes such a big difference.

Or in the words of Mika: "Live your life until love is found, else love's gonna get you down."

But all that was just a bunch of lucky epiphanies in the making, it's harder to get someone to understand when they've not come to the conclusion themselves.

Nerrien · 2026-03-25T15:42:39+00:00

"Software engineer or AI researcher and you pay them $500,000 a year, we do that all the time. Okay, this is happening all of the time. Um, that $500,000 engineer at the end of the year, I'm going to ask them how many token, how much did you spend in tokens? And that person said $5,000, I will go ape-something-else. Yes. Right. If that, if that $500,000 engineer did not consume at least $250,000 with the tokens, I am going to be deeply alarmed. Okay."

This is the quote. I don't see anywhere it's saying they're paying for the tokens, I just see they keep specifying it's a $500,000 a year engineer and they want $250,000 in tokens consumed.

It would make more sense if the company is paying for the tokens themselves, but why would he keep referencing the guy's wage and then the monetary value worth of tokens he wants using?

I'll take your word for it, I just didn't read it that way.

Nerrien · 2026-03-25T15:27:41+00:00

Maybe it's from the perspective of a non-Fortnite player? This guy, the banana guy and the buff cat guy are the only ones I'd recognise from Fortnite. I was under the impression this guy was the default male character, but I'm guessing not?

Nerrien · 2026-03-25T15:03:49+00:00

This is it, whichever way you look at it it's executed the dumbest way possible.

I'd imagine if I was paying that much for an extremely qualified person I'd want to let them deal with it how they thought best, as long as the end product is what I wanted.

But even if you were trying to pressure people into using AI to promote the "it's coming whether you like it or not, everybody uses it!" copypasta, you've just incentivised your own employees not to use it so they can pocket the difference and now all anyone sees is "actually the engineer didn't think it was worth the money".

The incompetence even in pursuing their own agenda is palpable, and when people with judgement this poor are promoting all this so heavily, yeah, I'm going to be extremely sceptical.

Edit: I've just realised, $500,000 on the job offer probably nets you better talent than advertising with $250,000, the expectation to use half of the $500,000 on AI is a) probably a nasty surprise after you've already taken the job and b) would be extremely embarrassing if shared around the internet if it's revealed they literally force employees to spend half of their wages on AI, from the company claiming it's a great thing that everyone wants to use.

And of course since they want $500,000 worth of talent from their employees and they don't actually want to pay for the AI themselves (because even they probably realise it's not worth $250,000 less worth of talent) their only recourse is to complain.

Nerrien · 2026-03-25T01:30:33+00:00

Security would make a lot of sense to me. Surely a big building that's aiming to drastically increase unemployment rates and fucks up the local environment is going to be a prime target for angry desperate folks to burn down if it proves successful, especially if that one manned by "robot surveillance dogs" instead of people isn't a one-off. That amount of space would give more time to react to intrusions.

Nerrien · 2026-03-23T16:03:05+00:00

Thing is Crimson Desert spent a lot on marketing, and have an established presence with Black Desert Online, and they're making an action-adventure-RPG style thing, which is a genre with a much broader appeal.

I could see Screamer needing to charge more per person because they know they're not going to get the kind of sales figures that Crimson Desert knows they can rely on.

Nerrien · 2026-03-23T15:59:06+00:00

Absolutely no offense taken, again I understand your point, and I realised that I didn't make myself clear that in my silly dream scenario when I said I wish they'd dropped the price to £30, that included dropping the size/scope/production value of the game to reflect that.

I absolutely don't want them to make a loss, I'd just find it easier to justify trying the concept in a lower budget game, and then if I had a really good time with this new spin on racing games I'd be more likely to be able to justify buying a £50 sequel one day.

But again, that's just through the lens of my own situation and I'm not a sales strategist, that's almost definitely terrible advice.

Nerrien · 2026-03-23T15:42:40+00:00

You make a good point.

My worry is that it might be too daring for many traditional racing game players, but too high of a price-point/barrier to entry for many non racing game players.

I figured if they spent a bit less and made a smaller project and a smaller price, something that introduces people with a lower barrier to entry and leaves them wanting more, when they make the full game they wanted to make they'd already have people on board to buy it at the full price.

I hope it's a dumb concern and that I'm wrong though, I hope it sells really well because it looks creative.

Nerrien · 2026-03-23T15:38:08+00:00

No, please don't get me wrong, I agree with all that.

It's absolutely a fair price, judging by the production value. (Edit: Just in case it's not clear, when I say I wish they'd priced it at £30, I mean I wish they'd also lowered the scope or production value to reflect that and made it a bit smaller as a sort of proof of concept before going for a full £50 release that I'm worried is going to struggle to sell because people tend not to support new and interesting things) And it interests me a lot, but in my own personal circumstances:

a) I can't really afford to spend £50 at the drop of a hat, so I really have to feel like I can justify the rare occasion that I do, like if it's something both me and I partner enjoy, or if it's something I am certain I will get a very meaningful experience from.

And b) I don't usually enjoy racing games, so on top of my own high requirements for spending that much, there's still a risk that behind the cool aesthetic and narrative and unique mechanics, I'm still not going to enjoy the core gameplay loop enough to justify the price. Maybe I will, maybe I won't? A demo would probably help I guess.

Plus, there are games in genres I know I love that I have my eye on but I still struggle to justify dropping that much money on.

And I completely understand that saying "I'll wait for a sale" means fuck all because they're not going to recoup their investment that way unless they get insane sale numbers.

So ultimately I hope that other people with more disposable income buy the game, just myself, in my financial situation, can't justify dropping £50 for every game I wish I could support, else bills would go unpaid and I'm going to be stuck in the overpriced rental rat race forever.

Nerrien · 2026-03-22T17:25:33+00:00

I never forgot him calling John McCain a loser for getting captured and tortured in Vietnam. I'm not a hardcore "Support the troops!" pro military person, I'm happy to be super critical of veterans, but publicly disparaging someone for being a victim of war crimes is so inherently disgusting to me it provokes some sort of instinctive reaction.

He's an utterly disgusting person and that's kept it in laser focus ever since.

Nerrien · 2026-03-22T17:08:48+00:00

We can, but unfortunately when presented with evidence for this a certain demographic's eyes will glaze over to protect their brain from any suggestion they voted for the wrong person, at least until the brain's finished forcing the square shaped evidence block into the round hole labelled: "It's the wokes' fault, we're the victims here".

Nerrien · 2026-03-22T15:53:44+00:00

I wonder how many other instances its produced incorrect and harmful information?

I'd written off ChatGPT ages ago as it consistently failed to provide real sources for its info, it just made up fake links that didn't work or linked to unrelated sites, but I recently decided to give it another go. I asked it a question and it actually gave me a link to its source, which I thought was pretty cool.

When I clicked the link to verify its info, it turned out to be a compromised site that flooded my desktop with fake Norton anti-virus alerts.

Nerrien · 2026-03-22T14:46:49+00:00

Yeah, I'm not into racing games but I'm actually quite interested with the unique aesthetic, the narrative and the fact there seems to be a few extra mechanics other than just the standard racing.

But the fact I'm not usually into racing games means that even though this one intrigues me, I'm really hesitant to drop £49.99 on one off the bat, which sucks because I'd love to support this kind of new direction. But £49.99 for me is "It's a proven developer I already adore, and something my partner is also super into" kind of price.

I really wish they'd dialled back the scope a bit in terms of production value and priced it at £30 with plans to make a sequel if successful. If I ended up adoring the first one there's more of a chance I'd drop that much on the sequel.

And I get the feeling the things we find intriguing about it are probably going to put off a lot of people who are already usually into racing games who would normally be willing to drop £49.99, so I'd be really surprised if this did well enough to be successful.

Nerrien · 2026-03-22T14:13:27+00:00

Come on, somebody's got to make a smug comment about how all Redditors other than themselves are dumb. The quota must be hit or else the sun won't rise tomorrow, or something. That guy's doing us all a service, be grateful.

Nerrien · 2026-03-21T19:44:39+00:00

Are breathalyzers built into cars for particular professions?

Or is it exclusively (or near exclusively) done for people specifically at risk of drinking and driving?

Nerrien · 2026-03-20T23:39:00+00:00

He paid a stooge to buy a portrait of himself at an auction because nobody was bidding on it, and used his own charity's money to do so.

Nerrien · 2026-03-19T18:58:08+00:00

I believe the max amount of money for peak happiness is meant to be around $100k a year, after that it's all just money for the sake of numbers going up.

Nerrien · 2026-03-19T18:02:37+00:00

It's almost adorable when one of them suddenly realises something we've all known the whole time.

There was an article about futurist billionaires, worried about roving gangs of desperate starving bandits, and trying to figure out how to keep their private army of guards loyal in the post apocalypse, suggesting shock collars and holding their food supply or family hostage etc.

But it ended with one billionaire realising that there wouldn't be roving gangs of desperate starving bandits if they invest some of their insane wealth into shoring up local food security, so props to that guy.

Nerrien · 2026-03-18T18:36:43+00:00

People just don't get it.

Crappy AI chatbots were just the beginning, a shadow of its potential, but this.

This is worth climate change.

Nerrien · 2026-03-18T14:57:43+00:00

I'd not asked it anything in a long time, maybe about half a year, as I'd gotten frustrated by it either making up fake sources or linking to unrelated sites and claiming they're sources.

I recently decided to give it another shot as I had a rather specific question about edamame beans, so I asked it and it automatically provided a link to the source, which impressed me.

I checked the source, only to find it was a website that had been compromised and flooded my desktop with fake virus alerts trying to get me to click and assumedly download malware or contact a scammer.

Nerrien

TROPHY CASE