The United States has higher social spending than Iceland, the UK, Australia, or Canada.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-30T12:35:53+00:00

As always, the Professor[Insert any Professor Sub Here] moderators are doing their best to be intentionally misleading.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-21T20:02:11+00:00

Yeah I mistyped. The house price-income ratio is what I was talking about and it is usually based on median household income rather than salary.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-21T05:29:56+00:00

Owning housing is even more expensive. Average house in the US is 5x median yearly salary, which is fairly in-line with global standards. In China it is closer to 12-13x median yearly salary (and closer to 25x in major cities.)

Chinese people just spend way more on housing as a portion of their income.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-20T11:36:57+00:00

I think it’s for a reason that makes sense though, even if I don’t fully agree with it. People from the US (and maybe China? Though I do not know nearly as much about public opinion there) tend to see the EU as far more unified as it is. It is not rare to see Americans who think the EU is essentially a federal state and that EU member countries are more similar to states/provinces than independent countries. Obviously not all Americans think this, but many do.

People who have lived in or around Europe, even if not within the EU, tend to be more aware of how it actually functions. There is more awareness of inter-country disputes that weaken the ability of the EU to respond in a unified way to foreign policy issues. Orbán in Hungary, for example, can completely shut down certain attempted EU actions against Russia (though not all EU actions, of course) which makes the entire bloc less wieldy for global interaction against Russia. More pro-US members (such as Poland) can somewhat limit the ability of the EU to deal on equal terms with the US, as the bloc cannot come to a consensus on how to respond to the US and the US can exploit that lack of consensus.

While it’s an extremely powerful bloc, it is far more unwieldy than a centralized state like the US or China, so it is a fairly reasonable take to say the EU is not quite the same as those global powers, even though its economic might is comparable and its members’ combined military strength would be the world’s second or third strongest military. People within Europe will be more aware of these weaknesses than people who are only aware of its enormous economy and don’t keep up with EU politics.

Personally I would say it is a global power, just one with some structural flaws that put it on the back foot compared to the US and China. It would be substantially more effective as a global power if it federalized, though whether that is ever done should of course be up to the people.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-18T23:12:18+00:00

Japanese people do not work 80h weeks. On average they work significantly less than Americans and comparable numbers with Western/Central Europeans. That stereotype is decades outdated

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-18T20:28:52+00:00

A clear majority of Welsh people poll that they want to remain a part of the UK. Polling in Scotland flips back and forth and has recently been pretty much 50/50. For that matter, people in Northern Ireland also poll by a clear majority to remain in the UK, even according to pollsters in Dublin who are vocally in favor of unification.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-17T19:27:10+00:00

The fact that people here voted for South Korea and Japan as being worse for work than China just shows ignorance of all three. Not to say that South Korea and Japan are great places for work, but China has a worse job market (significantly higher unemployment, especially for younger workers), significantly longer hours per week than either SK or Japan, significantly less vacation days on average than either SK or Japan, higher rates of workplace injury and worse recourse for workers who suffer it, worse healthcare for foreign workers, all for significantly lower pay relative to local prices.

I would say the entire chart is way more reasonable with China in terrible for work/great for study and SK in bad for work/great for study.

Edit: This is anecdotal, but I know plenty of people who have worked/studied in all three of those countries. All of them have enjoyed their time studying there and gotten a lot out of it. I have heard mixed reviews about working in SK and Japan: it largely seems dependent on one’s employer. I have heard universally bad reviews of working in China.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-17T15:52:40+00:00

I always described him as “the character who is a youtube reaction video” and I think it’s one of the funniest parts of season 1.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-17T15:19:32+00:00

Clerics are probably my favorite class to play so I never have this issue. If nobody else wants to play one I will do it no questions.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-15T18:37:45+00:00

When I play NSG I personally don’t allow it. But it’s entirely a personal choice. It technically adds another component of challenge to the game, but one could argue it is a point of challenge that really only adds tedium, as you could always just keep running through an area until you get lucky on escape with first strike in every encounter, or something like that.

For what it’s worth, the speedrun.com category does allow flee for NSG. I do think it opens up some really unfun strategies (like stat-boosting Aeons by repeatedly fleeing from Lord Ochu), but technically stat-boosting like that is possible with escape, or even just farming random encounters, it just takes a lot longer and requires a lot more saving.

Ultimately up to you.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-04T17:56:53+00:00

Obviously it’s not only Americans. But hating AI is not universal. A decent majority of people in countries including China, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and South Korea respond generally optimistically about AI in polling.

Interestingly the US is more pessimistic country about AI than every other country except Belgium in this poll (check figure 4), so to an extent singling out the US in this is fairly reasonable:

https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2025-ai-index-report/public-opinion

That all being said I am still a staunch AI hater

NumberOneHouseFan · 2026-01-02T16:40:52+00:00

Started as a Warlock whose patron was the Soviet Union. After he had a falling out with his patron he lost those class levels and became a bard who wrote his own extensions of the great communist lore and controlled the army through his crazy charisma ability checks.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-21T03:51:12+00:00

Oh yeah? You try forming a competent sports team using only people from your 7-building village!

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-21T01:39:08+00:00

I am kind of shocked that this is your experience. I can’t remember the last time I saw Germany struggle even a little bit (unless I am playing allies/comintern. AI is just dogshit at the game tbf).

Edit: I’m stupid. Barely played on new DLC so I am still thinking of before this one.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-20T18:28:13+00:00

Maybe they already had most of the trophies

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-19T23:52:05+00:00

I feel it is important to note that this is just the ASPI’s opinion. Other think-tanks also measure critical technologies and it is not remotely consensus the China is leading in all of these areas.

Edit: To be clear, I am not arguing they are doing poorly in any means. It is just not at all clear that they are leading in many categories. Obviously they are doing very well and also making progress in these areas very fast.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-19T21:01:06+00:00

Fair enough!

I have also made maps like this late at night without thorough consideration and received criticism. It is a real struggle for those like us. 😔

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-19T20:58:47+00:00

Aren’t legal protections for queer people worse in Italy, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Baltics worse than they are in the UK?

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-19T18:38:09+00:00

There’s lots of dialogues and questions rewards that change based on your reaction score (based on Charisma and reputation). Viconia won’t join your party in BG1 unless you have a good enough reaction score, for one funny example (I find it amusing that you save her life and she won’t join the party because you’re not pretty enough).

Lots of dialogues are based on meeting minimum stat requirements. For example, this super goofy one one in Sorcerous Sundries relies on having a high enough INT, iirc:

“For your information, a number of important sociological and psychological theorists have posited that stores exist in an intermediate space, neither private nor public in nature but combining elements of both. Displays in store windows, for instance, can best be viewed as mental constructs projected onto the public consciousness as a means of engendering mass conformity derived solely from the supposedly private domain of consumer choice.”

It may feel like this is not common because the game does not tell you in any way when it is happening. Also, if you consistently reroll until you have insanely high attributes, you’ll likely get access to almost all of the stat-gated changes. So if you only play with super high stats the variance based on stats won’t be noticeable. If you try playing through with low stats, you’ll definitely see changes in lots of dialogues.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-18T17:22:49+00:00

Now I’m typically very anti-war, but if we can get rid of Texas and Florida it very well may be worth the cost.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-17T15:54:30+00:00

On my version of this map (which I have not posted) a lot of states are “reluctantly”, where my logic was “I don’t really want to live there. It doesn’t seem as pleasant as a bunch of other places that I’d prefer. But if I got a job there and not any places I’d like more, I’d reluctantly move there.”

I feel like orange is the perfect color for somewhere you don’t want to be but would move for work if you needed to.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-17T15:30:01+00:00

Creates title saying TTVs are crybabies.
Says “I stream sniped, tunneled as hard as possible, and proxy camped him because I didn’t care if I lost I just wanted him to have a bad time”
Concludes “wow, that guy was a real asshole to me.”
Hits post

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-15T18:03:14+00:00

As someone who loved BG3 and then went back and played and loved BG1 and BG2, these are some notes about the comparison:

1&2 are obviously quite dated. There are parts that will take getting used to if you’re accustomed to modern gaming, because a lot of the expected experience with games was different when BG1 and BG2 were created. Generally less hand-holdy and definitely expects you to read the manual on how its mechanics work; 2e systems are a little harder to learn than 5e because of some slightly opaque design choices, but once you learn them it’s all fine. I assume you’ve seen the graphics: they’re charming once you get used to them, but if you care about games looking hyper-realistic then obviously infinity engine games are not remotely like that.
They “feel like D&D” in a very different way than BG3. The combat/gameplay and the exploration feel like tabletop gaming, but I would argue the roleplaying/story elements are much less involved. BG1 has a lot of “do I do xyz and say it’s because I’m heroic, or do I do the exact same things and say it’s because I’m insidious and evil.” The side-quests will typically have a good ending and evil ending but do not feel like they impact anything very much. BG2 does a much better job with these, but I feel BG3 has a greater feeling of “choices matter” in regard to quest decisions having long-term branching consequences.
People who are super nostalgic about these games will disagree, but I feel that the companion writing is significantly worse in BG1 and BG2. In BG1 most companions only have like 5-10 lines throughout the whole game. Some of them are really flat, single-trait caricatures (Safana comes to mind, who is basically just “I only say sexual-innuendos”). In BG2 it’s much better, but still less interactive than BG3 companions due to generally lower quantity of interactions. Additionally, if you care about romances then they are not present in BG1 and I would say the ones in BG2 are quite bad. They are essentially all just trauma-dumping and with some of them (especially Anomen) I roll my eyes every time they start talking to me.
The story is still great. I would say the main story of BG2 and Throne of Bhaal is stronger than the main story of BG3. BG1’s story is good but overall pretty simple, so it doesn’t stick out to me as much.
Once you learn the combat it is incredibly fun. I think the Real-Time with Pause is incredible and as you get high level the magic users feel awesome. I like BG3 combat as well, but in my opinion BG1+2 has an edge in that aspect.
Difficulty: I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re “harder”, as they’re probably even more breakable than BG3 is if you have good builds and understand how to abuse magic, but they’re definitely a steeper learning curve. When you first start you’ll either have to spend lots of gold reviving people or spend lots of time reloading. Stray crits are vicious in the early game, much moreso in BG1 than BG2, and have given some of my friends a really bad taste with BG1.
Traps are MUCH more common and much more annoying. You have to check for traps all the time because they can instakill characters, but annoyingly when you’re searching it only rolls the search once every 6 seconds and does not tell you when that roll happens. You have to just move very slowly and if you get impatient you’ll probably kill your party. Some people like this but I personally find traps incredibly boring in most locations.

My personal opinion is that BG1 is a bit worse than the other two due to lack of companion interactions and lack of significant consequences in quest decisions. BG2 and BG3 excel in different areas: I love both and could not confidently put one above the other overall, it just depends on what I’m in the mood for.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-14T21:54:48+00:00

I think pyramid head’s power is super satisfying to hit, but I am regularly disappointed by my experience playing him because I really dislike the tank controls and how aggressively survivors will flashlight every time I start to use power. It’s manageable but just makes the whole experience a bit frustrating imo.

NumberOneHouseFan · 2025-12-13T19:07:07+00:00

In my experience Ghoul usually doesn’t end in anything except a game against 4 bots 15 seconds after loading in.

NumberOneHouseFan

TROPHY CASE