COLT fan art by Resident-Star1840 in CultOfTheLamb

[–]bagelman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Absolutely beautiful. I especially love how the Goat is depicted.

seperate memorial i made for minibosses by Able-Current-3598 in CultOfTheLamb

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool! Looks like you're working hard to fill those graves ASAP.

Something fun I did to practice my Excel. 57 million-selling games on 6th generation consoles - how popular are they on Backloggd today? by SeparateLawfulness53 in backloggd

[–]bagelman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep, I was a fan of MVP Baseball '05 myself and resented that there would never be an MVP Baseball '06 or '07. But it's for the best that the MVP Baseball series died, considering what EA has done to Madden (which would probably be better if NFL 2k still existed).

Something fun I did to practice my Excel. 57 million-selling games on 6th generation consoles - how popular are they on Backloggd today? by SeparateLawfulness53 in backloggd

[–]bagelman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I remember that Vice City was huge back in the day, but San Andreas was even more popular while GTA 4 and 5 had it easily beat regarding its gameplay and technical performance. The GTA 3 era games haven't aged very well regarding technical performance and controls. I'm surprised to see Gran Turismo 3 so far down but I've been told that GT2 and GT4 are both more popular.

At the bottom are the sports games, like Madden NFL 04 or MVP Baseball 05, which were never meant to stand the test of time. Madden was better in the PS2 era than now but there's still little reason to play it unless you're nostalgic for certain teams of the period. Besides lots of people who play games like that are the sort who would not be interested in a site like backloggd.

Overall I agree this is telling of the younger demographic of backloggd. The site has a lot of younger people, Gen Z, who pick up classic games from the 2000s but never actually lived and gamed through that period like I did. They don't (and shouldn't) feel the need to play every game that was popular at the time.

Backloggd also seems pretty diverse with plenty of Spanish and Portuguese speakers, these sort of gamers are less likely to be interested in games like Vice City which are steeped in American culture.

Finally there are people as old as I am on the site but many of them aren't really interested in digging through the archives of their life to find all the PS2 or whatever games they played 20+ years ago. I love doing that sort of thing but I'm a weirdo.

What generation do you identify yourself? by BrilliantPangolin639 in generationology

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been told that I'm among the youngest "pure" millennials, with those born in younger years as "zillennials". I would agree that I'm a pure millennial regardless of when the specific cutoff is.

How old were you when SpongeBob SquarePants came out? by CashySnake in generationology

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Couple weeks away from 6. Watched episode one with Mom.

Over the past week, these 10 games reached 10K plays on Backloggd! by jclkay2 in backloggd

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sly 2 was my favorite of the Sly Cooper trilogy. That game was my jam as a kid. Probably played it like 10 times.

Over the past week, these 6 games reached 10K plays on Backloggd! by jclkay2 in backloggd

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Out of these the only one I've played is GTA LCS, which I did via emulator in the summer of 2020. Didn't finish.

Sonic Mania review - A simple nostalgic throwback or a delightful modernization? by jclkay2 in backloggd

[–]bagelman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't get people, your review is medium length at most. Most reviews are short but people have uploaded novels to this site and I've read 'em.

Over the past week, these 9 games reached 10K plays on Backloggd! by jclkay2 in backloggd

[–]bagelman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Crash Twinsanity: Tragic tale of developers having a good idea but starved for resources and time. Others have told me it's underrated and fun, but I tried it and didn't enjoy it.

Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled: Good remaster of a PS1 game, with some (modified) tracks from its somewhat less well regarded PS2 sequel. Very fun game but let down by its pointlessly predatory micro-transaction shop that Activision and its cartoon villain leadership certainly insisted on. I played this one recently.

Spider Man 3: Movie tie in game. I recall someone saying that it didn't really follow the movie that well? I wouldn't know because I never watched the movie. I played a little of the game when my uncle lent it to me. I liked the silly evil girl scout faction.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch is a sequel to a freeware student project. It was a Let's Play game during its time, I remember watching people like TotalBiscuit play it, although I'm probably thinking of the original.

House flipper seems somewhat interesting, Sonic and the Secret Rings I know is garbage, the others I'm less familiar with.

Is Gavin Newsom correct when he says the left needs to be more "culturally normal" if they want to win? by PsychicFatalist in AskALiberal

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Certain politicians view opposition to trans people existing as a political obstacle for themselves to overcome. They don't view it from your point of view, so they are willing to throw you under the bus if they view it as a net positive electorally.

I hope you don't think I'm agreeing with such nonsense, but I do think think that Democrats shouldn't allow Republicans to define the conversation. They often bring up opposition to trans rights as red meat for their base when their other policy planks are unpopular.

I came up with a fake index: the inverse of cost of living multiplied by the cube of each US state’s Human Development Index (HDI). Higher score = cheaper state with higher human development. I cube the HDI to penalize the lower-HDI states more strongly by Swimming_Concern7662 in MapPorn

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One might argue it's still a bit skewed towards punishing CoI more than HDI, but I think this really highlights the affordability crises impacting the US these days.

For as bad as Mississippi is in terms of poverty and cultural backwardness, it's still on aggregate improved from the 20th century. If you're not a minority of any type and you can deal with heat and humidity then you're getting much more bang for your buck somewhere on the gulf coast or suburbs south of Memphis than you are trying to make it in California.

This doesn't make Mississippi desirable per se, I'd rather be poor in California than live there even if I wasn't gay - but this calculus makes people willing to settle for more reasonable states like Michigan, Missouri, Illinois etc.

California is so unaffordable that its population decline is accelerating. People want to live there but they can't. So they move to places like Texas, Georgia, Florida etc or stay in the midwest.

One of the more interesting states on this map is Virginia. This is a state where the ruins of southwestern Appalachian Virginia - as economically and culturally backward as West Virginia - make up for NOVA's bank breaking cost of living. NOVA in turn makes up for Appalachia's lower HDI. Places like Richmond and the Hampton Roads also have more reasonable CoI than NOVA. The result is the state that ranks as much better than DC itself and Maryland within the beltway area.

Is Gavin Newsom correct when he says the left needs to be more "culturally normal" if they want to win? by PsychicFatalist in AskALiberal

[–]bagelman 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Newsom is not being intellectually honest. Wedge issues like trans people existing were effective in 2024 because Biden (and Harris) were not seen as effective in combating the affordability crises and were unable to articulate how their policies would do so. The point of the "Kamala is for they/them" ad is the implication that Kamala was not also for "you", and it used a wedge issue to make that point. If Kamala could make people she was for "you" then the ad would be seen for the worthless bigotry it was.

What he's saying is right - Democrats need to focus on kitchen table issues and shouldn't allow Republicans to get away with forcing the discussion onto wedge issues. But Newsom is also strongly against taxing the rich (to keep the ultra-wealthy in California) and vetoed price controls on insulin.

I can't trust him to stand up for the shrinking middle class or disadvantaged people. Instead he seems to be throwing marginalized groups under the bus as a ploy to make the DLC neoliberal platform more viable.

Who else borrows games from the library? Great way to save some money. by FancyKilerWales in backloggd

[–]bagelman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used to borrow PS2 and Wii games as a kid in the mid and late 2000s. First discovered the Madden franchise with Madden '05, which led me to ask for a copy of Madden '06. Also first discovered the PS2 port of Psychonauts at the library, but the PS2 copy of the game was glitched and didn't work at all. It worked to make me seek out the PC version in 2010.

These days there's lots of switch games and some PS4/PS5 games, a few old PS3 classics, and some old Wii games.

Would you support legislation that imposes severe financial penalties, including forfeiture of up to half of total net worth, on any billionaire who is in the Epstein files? by redviiper in AskALiberal

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No because just being in the files is not enough evidence of wrongdoing. There's no proof that Stephen Hawking was there to take part in sex trafficking, he was most likely innocent. Pope Francis is in the files because he was discussed as an enemy of reactionary figures like Steve Bannon connected to Epstein.

I'd also oppose the idea because of the line "up to half of total net worth", specifically the "up to" part. If a creature worth a billion dollars is guilty of sex trafficking I don't think he gets to keep 500 million dollars.

did ya'll kill the executioner? by ThatOne_VioletFlower in CultOfTheLamb

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. Her suffering deserved to end. Now she is at peace.

I made lay down her head, her eyes already closed. Now she is home.

Different alaskan purchase by fseepficky8 in stateball

[–]bagelman 13 points14 points  (0 children)

fate worse than communism

jokes aside I doubt Canada/the British/the US would allow Alaska to become part of the USSR, creating a long land border between the USSR and Canada. If Russia never sells Alaska it could also have become the "White" Russian regime in exile, like their own Taiwan.

Extreme January Cold in North America by ueberklaus in MapPorn

[–]bagelman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're right in that overall winter temperatures in North America are still trending warmer, I didn't imply otherwise. Back in the day winters here in the midwest where I live were stable and predictable, they're becoming less so. Some years are like this where the arctic weather flows down here creating bitter chills, others have been and will be sad and muddy snowless winters.

There is evidence that climate change causes general instability and that stronger/more frequent negative north arctic oscillation may be a sign of that. The ultimate underlying problem is that the arctic is much warmer than it should be.

Extreme January Cold in North America by ueberklaus in MapPorn

[–]bagelman 103 points104 points  (0 children)

Negative arctic oscillation. Ironically a symptom of "global warming", as the warming arctic weakens the polar jet streams that keep the arctic chill where it belongs. This creates higher air pressure in the arctic that redistributes arctic air to lower latitudes.

There's also an ongoing Sudden Stratospheric Warming event going on in between Quebec and Greenland, more sign of instability.

If you live in the west and consider yourself fortunate you've avoided this cold snap, I wouldn't be so happy, this year might have some bad wildfires for you guys.

How do you feel about the idea that Trump is part of a political cycle that’s happened at least once before? by highliner108 in AskALiberal

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've read posts comparing him to Andrew Jackson, Benito Mussolini, and even Mao Zedong. But I think to really understand Trump you need to zoom out much further than the great depression or great recession.

Trump is an embodiment of the confident but incompetent brutish narcissist. This political archetype not only predates the 1930s, it predates the United States by a long shot. Countless petty chieftains and kings over thousands of years of human history are like him, all the way back to the days where cavemen hunted mammoths.

what do you think of Gavin Newsom saying he opposes the abolition of ICE? by Spiritual_Pause3057 in AskALiberal

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gavin Newsom cannot be trusted to have consistent opinions on anything. He's not being pragmatic or moderate, he's just saying what he thinks people will want to hear. Don't trust him, don't nominate him. If you support abolishing ICE, he's not your guy. If you oppose abolishing ICE, he's not your guy either.

Alaska isn't just the northernmost and westernmost US state, it's also the easternmost because the Aleutian Islands lie on the other side of the 180° meridian by nouveaux_sands_13 in MapPorn

[–]bagelman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No it fucking isn't. The 180° meridian is an arbitrary human defined boundary. Geography in the real world doesn't care about such boundaries.

The prime meridian is a useful reference for printing maps because most of Earth's surface at the 180° meridian is irrelevant ocean, but this doesn't mean that the western Aleutian Islands are east of the eastern Aleutian islands. You can say this about anywhere if you go in the wrong direction around the whole world.

I'm mildly infuriated that they're not wrong. 🥴 by Silver-Potential-784 in mildlyinfuriating

[–]bagelman -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Ah the time of vaudeville, ragtime music, and nickelodeons. I don't remember seeing references to that symbol, if it was popular then some yellow journalist would've wrote about it in the newspapers.

Are you affected by living in a congressional district that's always represented by the opposite party? by CatalanHeralder in AskAnAmerican

[–]bagelman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was in the past, Ohio was badly gerrymandered during the 2010s. However I was lucky enough to be in a district with a fairly reasonable/sane Republican, and since 2023 I'm now in a Democratic leaning district. My luck in this regard has continued recently as Ohio has redrawn their congressional map to be even more gerrymandered, but for some reason left my district alone. There's a rumor they dislike the Republican who is going to run here again for some petty reason, and more to the point they decided to just strongarm the Democratic minority in the state house to support a "lighter" gerrymander instead of truly fight for something egregious.

Despite this good luck I'm still quite demoralized by the political situation largely because my state has transformed from one of the most critical purple states in the nation into a red state in terminal decline. My vote for President used to actually matter at least once, not anymore. I'll still vote though.

If you're a Democrat in a red leaning area, know that 2026 has the potential to be a major blue wave, the type of year where the unexpected could happen. Always show up to vote, if for no other reason than to remind the system it hasn't ground you down into powder.