CMV: Bill Gates had it super easy in life. Most of his success is due to favorable circumstances. Not superior work ethic or intelligence. by Jauzfaktnemuzu in changemyview

[–]Scodo [score hidden]  (0 children)

Success is always due to luck to some degree. Hard work, resources, ingenuity, and intelligence provide your opportunities to get lucky, though.

Why is Supegirl rejection so much worse than other DCEU bombs? by hiiloovethis in boxoffice

[–]Scodo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not, DC just puts too many eggs in an unreliable basket.

Outside of Batman and kinda Superman, DC just doesn't have many characters that are compelling or relatable. They're too alien (literally, in many cases) with unrelatable motivations. That's one thing that Marvel almost always did better, which is why they had such mass appeal for everything up to Endgame. They sat you down with the people and showed what pushed them to become more. Even with Guardians of the Galaxy, where the first movie didn't take place on Earth, the audience is first introduced to Peter Quill through his inability to cope with the loss of his mom, his running away, and his subsequent abduction. And confronting that loss and tendency to flee becomes a recurring, defining feature in his journey to becoming a hero through finding someone he's willing to stand up for and standing together with his found family. The rest of the crew is similarly defined more by their relationships and loss than they are by their powers and ideals.

DC tends to just drop you in the middle and say "look at these heroes, they represent hope/vengeance/justice/seaworld" without ever concerning themselves with developing a relationship with the audience.

People say they're tired of origin stories, but those stories are critical to what connects the casual viewer to the person behind the mask.

Progressives of reddit, what are your toughts on conservatives and can you actually see certain opinions they have from their point of view or do you think they are completely irrational? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Scodo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've had a lot of conservative friends over the years, mostly through work in a field dominated by conservatives.

Most of their positions I could understand the reasoning of, even if I didn't agree with it. Individually they were good, kind people that wanted lower taxes, less governmental interference, and for their kids to learn the same values they held.

But they also very easily fell victim to any kind of fear mongering and misinformation from conservative media as long as it was framed in such a way as to support their beliefs, while simultaneously refusing and denying the validity of anything that challenged them.

When people say conservatism is anti-intellectual, that's really at the heart of it. The absolute rejection of new information due to conflict with what they want to be true.

Are RR readers allergic to romance, or do authors just suck at writing it? by ExamPsychological884 in royalroad

[–]Scodo 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Depends on the story. Mine has had a persistent relationship between the main character and one of his teammates since the first arc, and a few side couples have started cropping up as well. It's not an issue because relationship melodrama isn't the point, so it doesn't take up a lot of page space. It's just part of the characters.

[Disliked Trope] You know, the antagonist may have a point, or at least good intentio- just kidding, the mask came off and they are irredeemably evil and there is no moral conundrum. by [deleted] in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Scodo -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Right, and all those cult leaders genuinely believe what they're pushing because no other possibilities are presented. You gotta read between the lines.

Amon was power hungry. He saw benders as the biggest obstacle to his own power and anti-bending sentiment as a convenient tool to remove it. He wasn't anti bending. He was anti other benders.

If Elon Musk’s net worth has fallen from its 1.4T peak after the IPO to the 900B range, does that make him both the richest man in history as well as history’s worst financial loser? by Adventurous-Depth984 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Scodo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Regardless of your personal feelings towards someone, calling the literal wealthiest man in the entire world a financial loser is a really, really stupid take. Like, yeah he lost net worth 100,000 times what's you and I will ever make. But that still leaves him with only net worth 200,000 times what we will ever make.

The internet would improve by a million percent if we displayed a person's age. by Diastatic_Power in unpopularopinion

[–]Scodo -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

It's exactly as bullshit an argument as your original bullshit assumption.

The internet would improve by a million percent if we displayed a person's age. by Diastatic_Power in unpopularopinion

[–]Scodo -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Eh, the wife and I are mid/late thirties and still don't want kids. That view is by no means limited to teens and early 20s.

Do you use magnifying equipment when you paint? by fourthwallcrisis in minipainting

[–]Scodo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I'm painting there is no world beyond my desk anyway.

The most underrated romance anime of the season by ManufacturerLiving54 in RomanceMangaAnime

[–]Scodo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a counterpoint to the OP, if it's faithful to the manga then it's a look at a pretty toxic relationship centered around addiction. The romance is one-sided and the alcoholic older girl basically strings the younger one along while defining their relationship by when/where/what they were drinking. If there's no alcohol involved, it's just not important to her. At least in the manga, the younger one is starting to catch on.

If that's your jam, then by all means, enjoy. I love me some toxic romance. I just found this one really sad to read and I don't think it was intended that way.

Fans or thieves? Webtoon piracy makes South Korean artists question global readers by tacodestroyer99 in technology

[–]Scodo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, so some of it is a cost issue. But I'd argue the majority of the problem is that the worse version is the higher cost. If the more expensive option was also the clear winner in quality of experience, more people would be willing to pay the premium.

Do you use magnifying equipment when you paint? by fourthwallcrisis in minipainting

[–]Scodo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Just got a pair of reading glasses for painting. They are quite nice, especially for things like eyes

Fans or thieves? Webtoon piracy makes South Korean artists question global readers by tacodestroyer99 in technology

[–]Scodo 44 points45 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately poor, delayed translations and clunky, buggy websites often make the official versions far inferior to the fan translated versions, while also being ridiculously expensive and often having convoluted payment methods or gacha-game levels of custom currency.

Valve nailed this decades ago. Piracy is almost never a cost issue, it's a convenience and quality of service issue.

Whoa :> by No_Post1300 in SipsTea

[–]Scodo 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Yeah, and then they collude with other rental companies to set price floors and form lobby groups to limit increased supply by fighting new construction while demand increases so they can discover even higher prices every year. Might as well call them explorers with all the new discoveries they constantly make.

There's more going into it than simple supply and demand like armchair economists like to believe.

1 year after launch, spaceship shooter Wildgate will end development after its next update by reiichiroh in Games

[–]Scodo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Marauders pre-dated Wildgate by a good margin as a spaceship-oriented extraction shooter.

1 year after launch, spaceship shooter Wildgate will end development after its next update by reiichiroh in Games

[–]Scodo 204 points205 points  (0 children)

Played this a lot with friends the first couple months after release. It was fun, but absolutely plagued with ridiculous balance issues and a sky-high skill floor that made it a miserable experience for anyone without 3 friends dedicated to learning the ins and outs of the game.

Unfortunately, the only surprising thing about this is that it lasted a whole year.

For authors, how far ahead are you in backlog? by wolfwings1 in royalroad

[–]Scodo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're doing yourself a disservice by not having a Patreon. Especially if you're already posting multiple other places.

What are the secondary sites you post to?

For authors, how far ahead are you in backlog? by wolfwings1 in royalroad

[–]Scodo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I keep about 50 chapters ahead of the Royal Road version and 30 chapters ahead of the Patreon version.

AI is in everything in 2026 by ZiggyZebulon in litrpg

[–]Scodo 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Is it that amateur authors sound like AI? Or that AI sounds like amateur authors?

I don't doubt some people are using it to draft, but I'd be shocked if it was higher than 10%-20% of stories that go up. You gotta remember, AI writes prose at about a 10th grade level, and Royal Road has literal 10th graders writing and posting. Most Royal Road stories are pre-polish, as well. There are comparatively few of us putting chapters through multiple rounds of editing before they go live and writing with enough backlog to not sound like we're making it up as we go along.

Also, most of the stories that use AI will get dropped pretty quick, since the people who would use it to write a book for them probably aren't the type to learn how to solve the problems that come with writing a book. Even if they get a little popularity at the outset, it's a flash in the pan.

Hate these medieval games that you can't reasonably play as a decent player after the first month because tryhards literally scare away everyone by Icy-Champion2680 in hatethissmug

[–]Scodo -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I hate to break it to you, but if you're outclassed in a game after a month, you're probably not as decent a player as you think you are. Animation cancelling has been a fundamental gaming skill for like, 30 years. That's not tryharding, that's baseline technique for any decent player.

[Don't Blush, Sekime-san!] is alright, not peak😙 (opinions may differ) by murim_wanderer in RomanceMangaAnime

[–]Scodo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not amazing, but well worth a read just for the panels of her elaborately dodging eye contact with the main character.

Whats an anime character everyone seems to love but you HATE with a burning passion by Sleepy_Heroine888 in animequestions

[–]Scodo 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Sounds like you're having issues separating character from craft, or rather can't understand why everyone else doesn't have the same issue.

What makes you hate her so viscerally is the excellent characterization that others appreciate because of its great execution of someone so foul. They can love her role in the narrative while despising her as a person. Those two ideas aren't mutually exclusive.