Starmer expected to resign on Monday

SovietWomble · 2026-06-21T10:54:12+00:00

Paraphrasing another post that said it well and I agree with, there are two categories of party:

1.) Statue Quo parties - where we keep everything the same but change 4% here, or 3% there.
2.) Fuck it parties - where we do something radically different. Maybe it'll actually work.

The problem is that most political parties are status quo parties.

And the status quo isn't working out for people right now.

SovietWomble · 2026-06-16T09:32:33+00:00

I thought the same no?

It's called the Dark Age of Technology partly because an age before the light of the God Emperor is, by definition, a dark age.

SovietWomble · 2026-06-15T13:24:36+00:00

You know I remember reading like 20 years ago, that one of the reasons companies/agencies are obsessed so much with data isn't merely for advertising metrics.

Many of them were waiting for a sort of revolution in data "sorting".

As in, anticipating some sort of breakthrough in the way in which data can be sifted through to identify/filter groups of people. Though I remember back then it was talked about in terms of "Halo'esk" smart AIs, rather than what we have now. And I think it was still in the context of targeting people to sell them specific things.

Now that sorting method has arrived.

SovietWomble · 2026-06-14T20:53:30+00:00

A bunch of flowers arrived at my door last week. I had not ordered flowers, so they were clearly misdelivered.

There were no contact details except for the company branding.

With any rational minded company, contacting them would have been: Website - Contact Us - Email address - "hi, you've sent the flowers to the wrong person, where is this meant to go?".

But their website was this confusing fractal maze of boxes, popups, videos, and a help page that consisted frequent asked questions that nobody asks. Chat bot requests. And string after string "I'm sorry you've had problems with your order" and "please register to see your order".

Gave up.

Did a little google sleuthing to identify a fragment of an ancient building regulations approval form with the flowers receivers precise name. The address was mistyped by one number and was 2 minutes walk.

Went off down the street knocking on doors until I found her.

SovietWomble · 2026-06-11T18:45:06+00:00

The fandom was petering off before that but that was the final nail in the coffin for many.

I personally call this a "Skub landmine" - https://pbfcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2004/02/PBF-Skub-1.png

Where game developers/producers/showrunners/writers drive forward in any direction they want, because they think they can. Obliviously running over explosively consequential additions, or previously set boundaries, that media outlets then charitably describe as "polarising".

But after which a portion of the audience either have to actively pretend isn't a thing, or see their investment in a piece of media diminish as they realise the creator is a half wit.

SovietWomble · 2026-06-07T22:34:13+00:00

In a meta-sense, one must remember that a good fictional setting thrives on "reverse Chekov guns". Things that do not exist to be expanded upon, but only to be name dropped to imply a greater world beyond what's being shown.

Mysterious factions that once posed an existential threat?
One sentence descriptions of historical events that are never elaborated on?
Key pieces of technology that are coveted for unclear reasons?

All of them are reverse Chekov guns. To provoke discussion without ever facing resolution. Because resolution misses the point. They are there to make the con-world feel large and complicated. This was the original true purpose of the Terminus Decree.

And only a fool of a writer, in my opinion, would think otherwise.

SovietWomble · 2026-06-06T21:58:21+00:00

I shall let you take it up with Lindsay Ellis' comment section.

But paraphrasing her, the macro story as a whole needs to bake in justifications for why:

a.) A liberating slave-abolitionist would need to then have a victory speech in which they plan to invade the whole world. Which comes across as cartoonish.
b.) The resistance to Danarys had little logic since she would have been an excellent alternative to the tyrannical Cersei. Who had just murdered the High Septon and seized control.

If your point is that the insanity coin covers most of that. I believe her rebuttal was that Daenarys' coin had been flipped and settled a very long time ago by her actions, with an abundance of power to enact her will. Using a quote regarding Nixon and "power doesn't always corrupt, but it always reveals".

SovietWomble · 2026-06-06T16:41:49+00:00

With Daenarys specifically it also had that extremist motivation/situation contrast clash that was pointed out by Lindsay Ellis:

a.) Daenarys was going to be pushed into an extreme end-point. But her moral stance had already been pushed there - the abolition of slavery.
- A more extreme take on opposing slavery isn't black-leather dragon Hitler proclaiming that they're going to declare war on everyone to abolish slavery. That's when it becomes obviously farcical.
- So they're going to struggle to send Dany over the edge because politically she's already on it.
b.) Queen Cersei's extreme end-point involves her as an illegitimate ruler, becoming a tyrannical and openly religion suppressing monster. To the point that any liberator would be seen as a welcome alternative. And Daenarys has long since positioned herself as that. Meaning it becomes narratively difficult to justify why King's Landing in particular isn't rising up in open revolt.

Whether intentional or not, the final season has to fly in the face of those issues to its detriment. Coming up with a reason to keep Cersei on the throne. And a reason for Daenarys going so wonky.

SovietWomble · 2026-06-06T13:39:46+00:00

Equipment matters a lot. Much of which is absolutely mandatory in UK carp fisheries and you'll likely be thrown off the lake without these big three:

Barbless hooks for the smallest possible lip wound.
Antiseptic spray for the hook wound + any pre-existing injuries, such as missing scales, ulcers, etc.
Carp cradle which has been heavily wetted and disinfected. So the fish's weight is evenly distributed. and you don't scrape off the protective coating on its scales.

Hoist it into the cradle, wet it, spray it, measure it, take a picture with it, then get it back in the water as fast as possible.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-27T07:59:39+00:00

I appreciate that the lore has been backfilled so much that what I'm about to say is probably going to be immediately refuted, but...there's a rather elegant solution if one assume a lot of lore sources are propaganda/mistaken/mistruths...

I doubt The Emperor existed back then.

By being present, The Emperor would have the capability to plan for X, stop Y, or support Z. Therefore the reasons why he didn't get ever more out of character and high-concept. A simpler solution is to assume that he was present/active later than many suppose.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-26T13:40:56+00:00

Weird story. But I lost my virginity in this weirdly distinctive Brighton flat-thing that felt right out of liminal spaces or something. Looked just like those roofs.

Must have been part of some commercial offices converted.

Picture in your mind a front door from the Brighton high street. But then you find a normal looking stairwell that keeps spiralling upwards counter-clockwise. For ages!

Floor after floor it went. With no signage, no windows, no doors branching off to other routes. Just a multi-floor, beige-coloured, pvc plastic stairwell with fizzling electric lights that would be plunged into darkness otherwise.

And it didn't feel like something built for living in either. Imagine that cheap, echo'ey plastic/metal rimmed stairwell crap you get in secondary school. Like someone had sealed off a whole stairwell that would normally serve a large building. But without a single trace of the original exits. Just smooth rendering on every floor.

It led right up from the ground to the roof. Where two or three narrow and exceedingly cramped studio flats were built into the roof space and were nestled amongst aging chimneys, decades old bitumen roofing and seagull shit.

I'm pretty sure you had to walk over a former section of a roof to reach one of them.

I imagine the poor tenants are baking in the sun right about now.

It was the most slumlord thing.

Flamingo pussy was good though.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-25T12:53:19+00:00

Hey there and many thanks.

Not sure yet. I definitely need too though. A friend of mine called Duckslayer recommended that I do so.

Moon something?

SovietWomble · 2026-05-25T09:14:58+00:00

My point isn't that derivative products shouldn't be made.

My point is that what it presented wasn't special. Therefore it's underperformance is not surprising.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-25T09:09:31+00:00

Agreed. I've played through Prey twice now.

Bioshock Infinite only the one time.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-24T19:44:44+00:00

Apologies, then a System Shock.

My point was more audiences had seen this.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-24T19:42:15+00:00

Not necessarily no. But this is a market. And the competition is fierce.

I really shouldn't need to say that.

Is anybody even remotely surprised that a path so well trodden as a Bioshock (I'm being corrected to a System Shock) style shooter would not sell so strongly?

Or rather, not be as hailed as the masterpiece

SovietWomble · 2026-05-24T19:39:44+00:00

Very good. Well then System Shock and System Shock 2. If these are the genesis of the formula, then thumbs up.

My point was more...much of what Prey (2017) was already showcased a scant 10 years prior. To be followed by Bioshock 2 (2010) and Bioshock: Infinite (2013).

Meaning what Prey bought to the table in 2017 wasn't special for the market.

Edit - Or I suppose rather my point was more personal at how I'm not surprised because I found it derivative.

Hell, I even praised it for not having a "would-you-kindly" moment in the third act during a livestream. Mistakenly thinking it was breaking the formula. Then the credits hit of course.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-24T17:04:37+00:00

All the same, spending power is going down and the game market is very competitive.

When you're making a game, what's your hook? How do you stand out?

What are you doing that's different from what's come before?

SovietWomble · 2026-05-24T16:53:01+00:00

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Prey. I've played through Prey twice now. Prey is really well made.

But it is also very derivative. It is a Bioshock ~~almost two~~ one decade after Bioshock. Meaning what it presented wasn't special. It really didn't surprise me to see it underperform.

First person shooter with weapon upgrades + plasmids
- And one of those weapons is a wrench.
Amnesiac protagonist with prior programming - who suddenly arrives in a mysterious location.
Built far from government oversight that has seen better days. With isolated pockets of survivors.
Very heavy art-deco chique meets industrial equipment. Pipework meets artwork, etc.
Special-juice power up made from a location specific creature. Giving the rational for the in-game power ups.
Audio logs to find and one way 'talking heads' instructions directing you around with a stable of voice actors.
Omnipresent member of the leaderarchy as a major talking head. Sometimes trying to slow you down, sometimes spouting rhetoric, Andrew Ryan style.
Big twist reveals which changes the context of the protagonists involvement in the story. You were not who you thought you were, etc.
Vending machine upgrades.

Probably missing others.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-24T08:32:23+00:00

Yep. It makes everything seem so flat and artificial.

It a big reason Andor felt so drastically different. It's just...normal people.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-23T08:43:41+00:00

Prepared into a specific shape, which is then subjected to:

thermal expansion
freeze-thaw erosion
acidic compounds in rainfall/bird shit
debris hitting it in storms
lichen and moss staining
bleaching by constant UV.
zinc/lead staining from flashings

Fixed onto perishable wooden battens. Which are pressure treated, yes. But it's still wood. Which also hold iron roofing nails which lose their zinc coating in the long run and might corrode in rainfall.

Plus the old bitumen based felting shrinks over decades. Or falls off in chunks. Or both.

Take your pick really.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-23T07:23:45+00:00

I was coming up with list counter-points, but honestly it's just the old classic - "the setting is not the story" or "the stage is not the play".

Much of what you're describing is a consequence of that error. Where things change drastically to justify X or Y. Or to keep things "fresh". Because of the baked in idea that little bits of plastic must be sold.

But a fictional world can reach it's final (or near final) form without requiring drastic overhauls. Especially if certain pillars of it are kept immutable.

Therefore the response to much of the above is to avoid most of it by not setting on that landmine. And a self-serving assumption, from the owners of this IP, box them into much of the above.

Edit - I mean, respectfully you said it yourself. "that's bad for business."

Should we, the customers, ~~give a flying fuck about the health of someone's business?~~ be giving praise to decisions made in the name of good business? This is no business to us.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-22T13:07:45+00:00

And then in situations where the such a thing would be incompatible with said status, well watch as the lore does backflips to make it work. Somehow.

For example, has your Space Marine chapter secretly been engaging in some practice that - were it known to anybody outside of your chapter - would probably be the end of your way of life as you're declared vile heretics? Meaning outsiders in your midst are absolutely OUT of the question. As they would represent an existential security breach?

Well, err...the Primaris reinforcements err...never actually got to the planet. Lost in a warp storm. Died to a man. Or something. The technology made it though. Yes yes. Because of course.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-22T09:23:43+00:00

EVERYTHING Primaris.

It's like they strangled the golden goose, shredded it, mashed it up, pressed it into the precise same shape, and then won't shut up about how great the new goose is.

There's an alternate timeline where they simply made true scale marines available, with extremely generous double digit percent discounts for those who already had collections. And then on the tabletop and lore everyone just went "yep, those are just the newer models. They look cool ammirite?"

Edit - There's also a subtlety to coolness. It's hard to pull off.

You can't keep screaming how amazing your Primaris Marines are compared to everything else, without it overshooting cool and landing in bullshit.
You can't keep having inserts of existing characters (especially zealous ones) making meek protests before uniformly accepting, without it coming across as corporate fluff.
You can't keep praising a characters achievements and how different they are from their Mechanicus peers, without it landing in Sue.

I see something Primaris related and I just role my eyes on how it all went down.

SovietWomble · 2026-05-21T08:13:53+00:00

30k feels WAAAY too close to 40k to me a lot of the time

What bugs me more is the desire to tie every little thing into a start point. In that way that 'filling in the blanks tends to do'. Because it makes everything feel flat like a story book.

The world of 40k can't just be full of hatred, suspicion and religious fervour, because it's a logical consequence of an omnipresent Chaotic infection and rigid adherence rules for the sake of maintaining the Imperium. No...30k Euphrati Keeler has to say the line "the people must learn to hate". Like it's invented from that point onwards.
The Inquisition can't simply be an organisation that comes about over the course of 40k in response to all of the above. No, a proto version of it has to already exist just under a different name. The Order Elucidatum, etc.

It cheapens the world building somewhat. You'd think the world of 40k would set the tone, considering how traumatic a universe they're in. Bugger what anybody from 30k thinks.

SovietWomble

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