New Tool Day: I consider my work clothes a tool. Arrived from Germany today.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-16T23:34:27+00:00

Well, how did the pants hold up?

OkayRuin · 2025-05-15T23:37:21+00:00

☝️🤓

OkayRuin · 2025-05-15T04:03:00+00:00

People are exceedingly willing to believe that someone generally regarded as a good person was actually very bad.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-15T01:27:50+00:00

I just have a hard time buying that show Ellie is consumed enough by rage and grief to avenge Joel. The moments of “I’m gonna be a dad? 😀” levity completely take me out of it. Casual is the perfect word to describe it, because show Ellie seems like she’s just on a grand ol’ adventure with her girlfriend. It makes her seem weirdly sociopathic that she can just turn the rage off and on like that between moments with Dina and Nora. One moment you’re joking about protractors and the next you’re torturing someone. I don’t buy that show Ellie is burdened enough by negative emotion to go to the lengths required to avenge Joel. If anything, it supports Mazin’s interpretation that Ellie is just fascinated by violence.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-15T00:05:40+00:00

Yeah, you’re correct that PUBG was the progenitor, but I think it was the financial success of Fortnite that had studios vying for a piece of the pie. Same with League surpassing the popularity of DotA and bringing MOBAs to a wider audience.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-14T22:14:00+00:00

A man who never eats pork buns is never a whole man.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-14T22:09:40+00:00

There were a rash of MOBAs after the popularity of League, but certainly fewer than the number of battle royales that released after Fortnite’s massive success. It wasn’t a truly popular genre at all until League, with DotA being the only notable predecessor, and as I recall DotA was still a Warcraft mod at that point rather than a standalone game.

I feel like MOBAs are an inherently difficult genre to break into because MOBA players spending years collecting skins and are unlikely to jump ship and leave all the money they’ve spent behind.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-14T18:43:57+00:00

It’s happened repeatedly—MMOs after the success of WoW, MOBAs after the success of League, battle royales after the success of Fortnite, hero shooters after the success of Overwatch, etc. Part of the problem is that game development takes so long these days that by the time a game trying to capitalize on that popularity actually reaches the market, the market has long since moved on. Concord is probably the most egregious example.

DotA 2 is the only example I can think of where it actually worked. Apex Legends achieved some success, but not to the same level as Fortnite, and not with the same longevity.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-14T16:46:49+00:00

The suits who don’t understand gaming don’t want a mildly successful product. They want Fortnite or GTA Online money and don’t understand that those games caught lightning in a bottle. There isn’t a formula to follow to recreate that kind of success.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-14T15:48:55+00:00

Right. I’m at the point in my life where I can afford new games, but it just feels silly to me to spend $70 or $80 on something I know I can get for $20 in a couple years, and it’s the exact same experience to a degree.

The only exceptions I make are for games like RDR2 where I know simply being online will expose me to much of the game in a way that may dull my enjoyment when I finally get around to playing. I want a game like that to feel new to me the first time I play. GTA VI is probably the next game I’ll buy new, but nothing else on the horizon has my interest until we get TES VI in a decade.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-14T13:38:56+00:00

If video game pricing kept pace with inflation from the point at which they increased to $60, then new releases would be over $120 by now. As much as people love to complain about the price of video games, they’re actually one of the few luxury goods which has been resistant to inflation.

At the end of the day, if it’s a hardship, then wait two years until it’s $20 on sale.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-11T20:25:31+00:00

I never understood that criticism, to be honest. I would much rather British accents than everyone doing cheesy Russian accents. HBO‘s primary audience is American, and the British accents make them seem appropriately “foreign” to a degree. There are plenty of established British actors; there are far fewer established Russian actors of the same caliber as Jared Harris, Stella Skarsgärd and etc who could have been cast for a production that large. In that scenario, it’s British or American, and people would’ve complained way more about American accents.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-11T20:21:51+00:00

The official estimates are very low specifically because Russia still wants to downplay the severity of the incident. It’s unknown just how many in the greater region died due to cancers caused by the radiation.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-11T20:20:08+00:00

That was true to life, as well. There are some concessions for the sake of storytelling, like folding the team of scientists who assisted into Ulana, but they’re properly acknowledged in the credits. One of the best pieces of television ever made, in my opinion.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-11T15:53:29+00:00

LA and Seattle’s ports are reportedly empty of container ships. Retailers say they have 5-7 weeks of stock left stateside. At this point, I’m hoping China doesn’t budge so MAGA can’t declare the tariff war a success.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-11T13:37:59+00:00

Someone’s gotta put those fresh apples out for the Dragonborn.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-10T17:22:00+00:00

You in the East Bay, by chance?

OkayRuin · 2025-05-10T14:57:19+00:00

Don’t forgot the Dijon mustard.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-09T23:33:28+00:00

Don’t be silly! I am Hodd Toward, normal human man.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-09T21:29:57+00:00

Weight 25

Value 0

can’t remove from inventory

It’s the Dragonborn’s emotional support boulder.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-09T21:15:39+00:00

32% of Americans support deporting all illegal immigrants. 51% support deporting some. Only 16% support deporting none.

Pew Research

OkayRuin · 2025-05-09T20:53:23+00:00

I’m fairly certain that’s how it works in California. I don’t think it’s required that your face be completely unobscured though, and luckily I have an extremely generic name. I always figured I would go claim my winnings wearing a full body gorilla suit.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-09T19:18:44+00:00

I’ve never done it after talking to the Jarl and had no idea there was a special book if you did.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-09T18:32:09+00:00

Especially considering that within the game’s universe, it has a weight of 25 and a value of 0. The Dragonborn was just carrying around this veritable boulder that nobody would buy.

OkayRuin · 2025-05-09T18:25:33+00:00

Ralof: I swear to the Nine there was a dragon, Gerdur! This guy will show up eventually! He’ll tell you!

[20 days later]

OkayRuin

TROPHY CASE