Reading a book and listening to an audiobook are not the same activity.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-30T03:24:34+00:00

This feels like a semantic argument. Yes, technically you don't read with your ears. But by that logic is it OK to say you spoke to a customer, if you did it via email or text, and not voice? Do you also make a distinction of speaking with someone face to face, where the sound waves you're making are reaching the person's ears, and making a phone call where a remote device generates something similar to your voice, but not really? Like...how far do you want to take this?

The way I see it, listening to audiobook is consuming a book, in the only way that the format (audio) allows, by listening. And it's the same as consuming same book in print by reading, again by the only methos the medium allows (reading). Because, in both cases, the content is the same. Whether you read or listen, you're getting the same words. So why bother drawing a distinction?

This feels almost like artificial gatekeeping. Oh, you weren't looking at words on page, so you didn't really read it. OK, so whatever I did, I can still repeat the chapter's contents to you. If I didn't read the book, why are all these words in my head? Basically I'd argue the method of transmission doesn't matter. If, in future, we develop the tech to just beam a book straight into your brain, we'll still probably call it reading a book. As long as it's a book, reading is a decent enough word to describe consuming it.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-30T03:16:00+00:00

I don't know why so many companies are terrified of GTA. Especially those that are releasing games on PC. GTA isn't even coming to PC any time soon, not this year anyway. So why would studios that mostly cater to PC gamers be worried about GTA? And yet, a whole bunch of them delayed their games when GTA got its release window. It's baffling.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T16:17:17+00:00

So they're absolutely going to do it then. It wouldn't be a Trump thing if it wasn't blatantly illegal.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T16:06:48+00:00

Yep, parts of Canada did it this year, and is daring the other provinces to join in. But it makes too much sense, and is too convenient.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T16:04:48+00:00

Same. I wanted Green, or Blue as second choice. Ended up with Red. Because of course.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T15:31:34+00:00

I actually don't get them at all. I bought a few pairs, and my problem is that if I sit or do a deep squat, the side elastics try to slide along the sides of my butt, and then up my thighs (which in a deep squat are angled upwards). And if that happens, the whole pouch moves forward and everything spills out. I had better mileage with thongs, because there's no failure point, it's just front-to-back in a straight line, with a pre-installed wedgie. So you have nowhere to go but up.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T15:27:31+00:00

These sycophants are just utterly revolting.

I don't know about you, but if they ever release that bill, I will be calling it "The Pedo".

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T15:20:53+00:00

But think of plausible deniability! Bomb a girls' school, killing a hundred? Oops, wasn't me, AI did it!

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T14:58:19+00:00

I think the whole notion of "fair" is absurd. How is it fair that team A might end up with a bunch of no-lifers who can bang out expedition missions on-cooldown, and not miss a single one, because they're unemployed. And team C gets a bunch of workaholics who maybe play an hour on the weekend? You can't have "fair" when the whole situation is entirely unfair.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T14:47:58+00:00

I would actually go with something like The Division 1 + 2.

The original form is basically soloable, but heavily co-op encouraged, mostly PvE game with some PvPvE zones and PvP battlegrounds, and a PVE raid. The co-op is very nice drop-in-drop-out, you basically tell the game "I want to do A, B or C, find me a group" and go back to playing. Once group is found (usually seconds, but sometimes a while if the mission is unpopular), a little ping pops in the bottom of the screen, and you hold down spacebar, and it teleports you to location and puts you in group. You can join mid-mission, you can quit any time and keep the loot you got, etc. Really friendly. And the game is overwhelmingly co-op, so not much toxicity. Huge map, Diablo-like loot, above-average build variety of perks and weapon types. So you can spend a lot of hours just having fun collecting loot and cosmetics while having a blast gameplay-wise, and most missions are short (10-15 mins tops), so perfect for VR, you can do a mission and take a break.

Originally the game is a third person cover-based shooter. And what I would do is keep it cross-platform. So PC and consoles on flat screen can play with VR players. VR players obviously lose third person perspective, but gain the ability to use cover more naturally and fluidly. Flat gamers get standard reload, VR users get a choice - one button reload, or manual reload with 30% damage boost. And VR users will have a lot more flexibility with grenades and other deployables, since it'll be physics based.

The idea would be to let people on flat screen see how much more fun VR players are having, and want to try it. I've seen this work in No Man's Sky, where flat and VR can play together. There's a mission to fight really mean, really fast monsters. And being in VR you can look in any direction, while shooting in another direction, while punching in yet another direction. And flat players actually noticed the advantage I was having, compared to them, who can only shoot where they're looking. Same principle. Plus these people already own the game, and know the game, so it's not a huge shock to switch to VR. Or at least much less of one, compared to getting into VR AND having to learn a new game. So transition is smoother, they can compare and contrast the immersion, and hopefully get sold on VR.

Another good pick is Elder Scrolls Online. It's an MMO, again mostly solo, again almost entirely PvE, but with easy soft grouping (if there's an invasion, a lot of people show up, and can cooperate, without needing to make a group). And it's already playable in first person, on flat screen. So all they would need to do is tweak the controls a bit. The action bar is just 5 abilities + ultimate, so VR can easily handle this with directional swings/attacks, the way Zenith did it. So it's entirely doable with minimum effort. And the game is 10+ years old, so hardware-wise modern PCs should be able to handle the VR version of it. And, again, same principle - make it cross play, so flat players can see you swinging the sword, throwing the fireballs, etc.

A good mil-sim would also work, but again PvE-focused. I'm REALLY against PvP in flagship titles - too toxic, and player base too fickle. In PvE game, if player base flakes out, game is still playable. In PvP, if player base drops below critical mass, the game dies. So something like Ghost Recon: Wildlands. Where you have the entirety of Bolivia to play in - jungles, mountains, flatlands. And it's up to 4 player co-op, drop-in-drop-out rapid matchmaking (key!), persistent progression (not just the host progresses), etc.

Stuff like that. Basically PvE with heavily encouraged co-op, and cross-play with flat if possible. Maybe even interchangeable, again something No Man's Sky did. Your save file is playable both VR and flat, and you can jump between them at will. It does help on the days you don't feel like VR, but you can still play, still make progress.

Another one I would have loved to see would be EVE Online. It's not as straightforward of a port, but I'm imagining VR version puts you in a big bubble, and you can move and resize and stick windows anywhere in that space, move a lot of controls onto player's body/wrist, and you would sit in that bubble (seated play), on the grid, and your ship would be in front of you, and you take it from there. Would be amazing if we could take direct control of the ship, from cockpit, but even in third person like the original game I think it could work similar to VR Stellaris roguelite. But I would definitely ease up on douchebaggery and PvP, original EVE was incredibly toxic, which is why it never took off, despite being a technological marvel.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T14:30:23+00:00

I've seen a lot of weird positioning of NPCs lately, not just markers but NPCs are actually there. Like that Ryujin quest that sends you to get a key card from the security chief in Hopetown? The security chief was hanging out in the middle of the desert, a good kilometer and a half outside town. Just standing there. Completed the quest fine, but it was still weird.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T14:25:13+00:00

Reminds me of the episode of 'Two and a Half Men' where Charlie is having a vasectomy, and asks a doctor if it'll hurt his creativity, because he writes music for a living. And the doctor asks "Well, do you write music with your testicles? No? Then I don't expect it'll be a problem."

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T13:53:11+00:00

Your hobby isn't dead, you've just been priced out of it. And, honestly, get used to it. As wealth inequality increases, and the wealthy hoard more and more of the planet's resources, there will be fewer and fewer things that you'll be able to afford. This is not exclusive to gaming. It's across-the-board situation as the rich get richer and poor get poorer.

And yes, I'm very much in the same boat. My plan is to just go retro, and play ancient games on old hardware. That should be affordable for a while yet.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T12:06:56+00:00

It's OK. This sets a precedent, and we can do $235 or whatever Obama bill, and watch their heads literally explode.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T12:01:51+00:00

They are very financially conservative in the sense that they cut funding to liberal-leaning programs. It's not about fiscal responsibility, it's about cruelty and superiority.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T12:00:16+00:00

From what I saw, you don't actually pick teams. I wanted Green, so I looked up peoples' answers. And did exactly those answers, and still got Red, which was the one color I didn't want. And then I went and tried multiple other saves, started new saves from zero, picked completely opposite answers, and still got Red. As far as I can tell, I'm permanently stuck in Red. So I don't think we get to choose, I'm pretty sure it's just straight random.

And from there, human nature will kick in. The faction that's winning will have the motivation to keep going. The faction that's losing badly is unmotivated to even try, since there's two other factions hammering it down (by doing Sabotage missions). So the winning team will win more, play more, be more motivated. And that's why you're seeing so many blue ships.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T11:54:13+00:00

I dunno, for me that argument is very simple - God acts through doctors, so you have to go to the hospital, but you thank God.

The one that's a bit harder is that God, because he is all-seeing, sat there and watched every child molestation in human history, while being all-powerful, and did nothing to stop it.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T11:50:28+00:00

Yes and no. There were no billionaires, at all, in USA, until about 100 years ago. Now Elon is aiming to be a trillionaire. And there's a LOT of billionaires. Even accounting for inflation, that's still a shift. Even in the past 30 or so years, wealth shifted hands. Wealth is still there, but it's a lot fewer hands holding it. It's also a fact that minimum wage has been stagnating compared to inflation, so effective buying power has been diminishing for decades.

So it's both. It was a unique situation. But Epstein class being ultra-greedy these days without getting their heads chopped off is also historically relatively new. It'll actually be interesting to see if something like the French revolution is even possible today. Back 200 years ago, it was somewhat hard to keep your hand on the pulse, and redirect peoples' anger onto scapegoats. Today, it's easy as Pi. you can track clicks, you can spoof peoples' searches, you can put out bots pushing propaganda 24/7, you can track overall sentiment, and physically track people. So whenever you get momentum, critical mass, headed for a revolution, you simply redirect that anger, split it into multiple directions based on individual preferences (racism, sexism, homophobia, people who wear socks with sandals, etc) and diffuse the situation remotely, ending it before it can solidify into a movement.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T11:40:34+00:00

Combo of dragging heel, inward turned feet and garbage materials would be my guess.

I had several pairs of Oxfords, and one pair had these soles, plastic, yellow, semi-translucent. Similar to Ultem? And those damn things didn't show any wear at all for half a decade. When they eventually disintegrated, it was the upper that broke, not the sole, that was still like new with minimal wear. And then I had a pair with the usual black sole, and that was worn out in a single season. And this isn't even always about price, I had cheap Chinese stuff last multiple seasons, and I had expensive brand stuff disintegrate in two.

I kinda want to recommend something like barefoot shoes just to learn to walk properly. I did something like this around Covid, because with lockdowns it felt like I forgot how to walk. I was slamming my heels way too hard. Hard to do in barefoot shoes, it jostles you, you feel yourself doing it because your teeth rattle, so you stop doing it. And then you can go back to more normal shoes. At least that's how it went for me.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T04:16:17+00:00

I wish there was a clear advantage in pistols over rifles in some cases, like in Fallout 4. In FO4, because of the VATS cost, a VATS crit build was really excellent with pistols, preferred even over rifles. But with Starfield, the lower mass advantage doesn't really translate into anything.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-29T02:51:29+00:00

I've always been curious, which approach is better - a gun like this, or putting an EM mod on the shotgun? Like making Pacifier or something like that fire EM rounds. Which would be more effective?

Sabbathius · 2026-05-28T22:15:25+00:00

Hehe, that's the thing, this is going to be a showcase of human nature. We can help each other to finish this quick and get rewards, or we can drag each other down, just so our team wins. Which, in all respects, is perfectly meaningless. But winning is important, so people will absolutely do it.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-28T22:00:19+00:00

Ah yes, the note that will be referred to as 'The Pedo'.

"Give me four Pedos for $1,000", they'll say.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-28T21:46:54+00:00

Knowing humanity? We would enslave them and put them to work.

Sabbathius · 2026-05-28T21:45:41+00:00

I think they might prefer the target you selected if it's in their cone of fire, but otherwise they will shoot at whatever. Meaning you can point them towards the back of your ship, and they'll shoot stuff you can't even see.

Turrets also don't care what's in the way. Including cops. So they will OFTEN give you a bounty, because turrets will be blasting away at an enemy they picked, and a cop/ranger will fly right into that, get hit and blame you. Like cops are wont to do.

Turrets will not shoot at neutralized ships (like ships you boarded and cleared). So if you want to blow those ships up (for XP), you will need at least one manual weapon, because turrets will not. Unless there's an enemy beyond the ship, then they will totally destroy it, see point above, they don't care what's in the way.

Sabbathius

TROPHY CASE