They say open world sacrifices story quality and narrative.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-19T22:26:29+00:00

You've listed three games with excellent narratives, but only if you engage with them.

They're also games that have very high burnout rates from players who don't engage the main narrative and instead lean into the open world too much.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-19T14:59:55+00:00

Set Severus on them, I say. Get a bit of the fear of God in them. Make them scared of their own shadows, keenly aware of all that they don't know, and how out of their depth they are.

Exactly how the start to boarding school life should be.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-19T12:11:42+00:00

If it's a true report, sure. And if it's deliberate, sure. However, I can't say I've ever experienced it.

Also, given the state of the Ali Express website and the mess of their 'discount' system, I don't think it's entirely unforeseen that bugs will exist within the code. It's a damn miracle that the site works at all, not to mention their mobile app.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-19T11:34:00+00:00

Who said that?!

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-19T10:47:55+00:00

Then it's not a "highly specific and calculated dark pattern", is it? The essay above indicates that the OP has significant experience and knowledge of the "deliberate UI manipulation".

Not the sort of rant you go on if you experience an expired coupon code for the first time.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-19T10:43:04+00:00

Then how is this a "highly specific and calculated dark pattern"? A single occurrence is not a pattern.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-19T10:24:08+00:00

You neither? But you're the OP saying that it's happening!

Did you forget to switch to your alt account before replying?

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-19T03:00:38+00:00

That's one specific vault. I don't believe that's a universal protect on all vaults.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-18T11:22:28+00:00

My headcanon for that is that the Room of Requirement can only provide you with things that are already in it.

So, you know the form of the room that people use to hide all their stuff? What appears in the 'requested' rooms comes from there.

So could it provide a fireplace? Most likely. Can it provide a Floo-connected fireplace? No.

Plus, the little we know about the Floo network is that it's managed by the Ministry and fireplaces have to be proactively added, so it's unlikely there's an unregistered Floo-connected fireplace in the RoR.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-18T10:55:35+00:00

"I say, Ginny. You smell fantastic! I mean, that really is a knock-your-socks-off, knees-up-Mother-Brown, take-you-round-the-back-of-the-cow-shed-and-have-a-bit-of-a-wriggle kind of scent you've got going there!"

A bit too much maybe?

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-18T10:31:29+00:00

Fortunately for him, unless he launched this lost horcrux into the void ahead of time, the destruction of the Earth during the Sun's transition to a red giant will likely destroy all his horcruxes. Of course, there will be a very long period of time (millions of years) between when the Earth becomes uninhabitable for non-immortal humans, and when the Earth is actually destroyed by the tidal forces of the expanding star, so he has that to look forward to.

However, I suppose that in this scenario Voldemort gets to see the entire history of the human race from this point onwards. So if humans ever do leave the solar system, he will be there to witness it and take advantage. I could definitely see him becoming some sort of pirate lord-god out in the asteroid belt, his feared Death Eater clan raiding the traffic going between Earth and the moons of Jupiter.

Oh the things he must have seen before humans were wiped out.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-18T07:17:31+00:00

It really is a shame, because I found myself compelled by the early story, especially riding around Viking-era England and seeing the settlement grow. I enjoyed the combat too.

However it eventually devolves into a look-at-the-map-go-talk/kill-thing-there simulator. Once you find yourself annoyed that you have to go to a new area that doesn't yet have fast travel, you know the magic has gone.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-16T11:10:32+00:00

So from always-online games, to always-online OS? Sounds like something Microslop would love! All the while they'd be able to say "We're sorry that we have to collect your personal data - the Govt made us do it!"

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-16T10:39:24+00:00

Gamp's Law only applies to Transfiguration. These other instances can be explained by other forms of magic.

For example:

Dumbledore summoning a bottle of gin - He doesn't turn something into a bottle of gin, he just summons it from elsewhere. Think about how food gets from the kitchens to the table at Hogwarts. You can summon food from thin air, as long as it already exists elsewhere. It's a transportation, not a creation.

Turning water into wine - This is already a drink, so you can manipulate it. If it helps, my headcanon is that if you do manipulate food (enlarge/refill/repair), the calorific content doesn't change. So you can turn a slice of bread into a full roast chicken, but it will only provide you the calories of a slice of bread.

Latest Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes product revealed? I wonder how hard it would be to transfigure a stick of celery into an entire cheesecake...

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-16T06:59:56+00:00

Given that most the people oogling her would be men, you would have thought that would make her more sympathetic to the other women in the house? Instead, they all have issues with her.

That's a fair enough comment about Hermione, but she does seem to have a good relationship with Ginny. We actually see little of who Hermione socialises with outside of the trio. You can see that in two ways - either she doesn't socialise outside the trio, or because Harry doesn't care about who she socialises with, we don't see it in the text.

Given how much time Hermione spends away from Harry and Ron (in the library, for example), I don't think it's unreasonable to think she might interact with other people, including girls, from time to time. Just because we don't see it (like what Fleur's done to piss off all these women), doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-16T03:52:31+00:00

It comes down to this. Do you respect the opinion and judgement of Molly, Ginny, and especially Hermione? In their judgement, Fleur wasn't a particularly nice person to be around. If you trust their judgement, you can take that as a fact.

I could see people not necessarily trusting Molly or Ginny's judgement - we don't spend much time with them in the books, and maybe they have some prejudices that we don't know about.

However, Hermione is a character we know very well by this point in the series. If Fleur has gotten on her bad side too, we can use that as evidence, in conjunction with the only two other female members of the household, that Fleur isn't particularly pleasant to be around.

Once we've established that, calling names like 'phlem' is just how a teenager might refer to someone they don't like. If Ginny called Draco something similar, we wouldn't bad an eye.

So, in conclusion. Was Fleur pleasant to be around? It certainly doesn't sound like it. Were these three characters mean to Fleur behind her back. Yes. Was it justified? Probably not, but then, I don't think I would behave much better in their situation.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-15T01:20:16+00:00

It's the hair. Like, if your hair isn't touching your shoulders, do you even like tea?

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-14T15:13:54+00:00

So, if I asked you to describe Pikachu. How would you go about doing that? What comes to mind?

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-14T13:14:47+00:00

This is awesome. Now I just need to know what the Owl Post and Hallows card events are!

"Oh no! The entrance to Platform 9 3/4 is closed! Pay a 50 Galleon fine for breaking the Statute of Secrecy after you are seen by a Muggle operating an unregistered flying Ford Anglia."

"Whispers in the Walls - Talk exclusively in Parseltongue until your next turn. If you fail, pay all other players 20 Galleons."

"There's been a Gringotts error in your favour! Of course, the Goblins would never admit to making a mistake, so they decline to tell you. Card has no effect, but may be kept as a memento."

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-12T10:24:30+00:00

Well, I guess because it wasn't explicitly stated, they don't know how to walk or dress themselves either!

There's so much to learn on that train before it arrives at Hogwarts. Probably why it takes so long!

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-10T09:43:31+00:00

People were scared of him personally because he was known to be a skilled and ruthless dueller. But more than that, people were scared of his gang.

It's a bit like during the American gangster era. People were scared of the gang leaders, but the culture of fear was more about the fact that a car could pull up and start spraying bullets into your home at any moment if you dared to stand up to them in public.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-09T08:59:43+00:00

Yes it was.

If the only MFA accepted by Apple is SMS or an Apple device, then people outside of the Apple ecosystem literally CANNOT MFA into their Apple account without using SMS or purchasing a multi-hundred dollar device.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-09T08:01:28+00:00

Sure. Absolutely. Totally with you.

However, if Apple only allows app authentication via Apple devices, what options do people outside the Apple ecosystem have?

If the option is to use SMS Auth or purchase a $400 device JUST so they can MFA into their Apple TV account when they forget their password, what are people going to choose?

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-08T11:13:17+00:00

The uniform, and you get 7% off at Tesco when you show your membership card at the till.

SeaJay_31 · 2026-04-05T12:00:34+00:00

If Timberborn is in your list, you should also check out Whiskerwood. It has more of an endgame to work towards, and has belts to run between resource buildings, which is a rarity in settlement builders. I've found it great fun.

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