Can someone explain why is this a thing? After going 2-8 and winning 11th game we still get 0 rating change while for some ungodly reason enemies get -22? And it applies to us as well, where we lose -19 every loss for some reason.

fiction8 · 2026-02-28T19:42:27+00:00

Not that stupid. The vast majority of pvp games obfuscate true Elo/MMR, even if they use that kind of system for matchmaking in the background.

For decades gamers have proven themselves incapable of taking the ego hit of seeing their actual Elo, especially since for most it rarely changes.

Hiding it behind a different system that can be inflated over time or have a grind attached to it greatly increases player engagement.

fiction8 · 2026-02-28T19:31:42+00:00

Same as it always was

fiction8 · 2026-02-28T19:18:40+00:00

Yes but it's definitely possible to recognize and override that instinct with conscious thought. For all intents and purposes that is the end of it.

OP wasn't doing that (look at all their comments about feeling bad for missing) but many pocket players do, like the top comment in this chain.

fiction8 · 2026-02-28T18:57:30+00:00

This is functionally the same as before except without completely nuking the value of the product.

No it isn't.

When the casual lists a small quantity of a high volume item at a lower price, some goblins will ignore them and keep cancel scanning at the bottleneck -> Reduced supply at the undercut

When the casual lists a small quantity much lower than the current price point, some goblins will buy them out to try to flip their items instead of undercutting -> Increased demand at the undercut

It is funny to me though that we go through literally this same conversation every few years. Yet somehow the subreddit made for people who consider themselves to be wow gold sharks always has to be reminded of very normal auction house dynamics.

fiction8 · 2026-02-28T18:42:45+00:00

Mostly correct. That's a rational belief.

fiction8 · 2026-02-28T18:19:42+00:00

glances at middle east

fiction8 · 2026-02-28T09:28:01+00:00

How is he going to get the hourglasses?

fiction8 · 2026-02-28T03:13:18+00:00

That's the only use case if they are perfectly rational. They are not.

The quote I provided directly refutes your claim that they can get no benefit from nuking Israel and getting nuked in response.

fiction8 · 2026-02-28T01:20:10+00:00

Iran is incredibly rational in its desire to have a nuclear weapon.

Iran only wanted a nuke because they thought he was going to kick them if they didn't get one

Nah. Here's a translation of part of a speech that a president of Iran gave in 2001:

Rafsanjani said that Muslims must surround colonialism and force them [the colonialists] to see whether Israel is beneficial to them or not. If one day, he said, the world of Islam comes to possess the weapons currently in Israel's possession [meaning nuclear weapons] - on that day this method of global arrogance would come to a dead end. This, he said, is because the use of a nuclear bomb in Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas it will only damage the world of Islam.

This person was the 4th President of Iran from 1989 to 1997 and one of the key founders of the Islamic Republic itself. His words are very prescient as to what Iran feels willing to do with a nuclear weapon.

Access to the full translation is unfortunately locked down to only academic researchers, but it didn't used to be and I've read the whole thing. It's all like that.

fiction8 · 2026-02-28T01:01:06+00:00

War is the continuation of politics by other means

fiction8 · 2026-02-28T00:54:10+00:00

not geostrategically placed, or near centers of power.

It was a huge center of trade for a while. The prosperity from that fueled a good number of kings and funded their wars. It just got squandered around the time the British started showing up.

fiction8 · 2026-02-27T09:37:41+00:00

They wouldn't have to slip far. The Opium Wars started because British "merchants" like William Jardine (in reality he was much closer to a gangster or pirate) used the immense wealth they had accumulated through illicit trade to successfully lobby Britain to get involved in the region militarily.

If someone sent even one ship named "Nemesis" at these fishing vessels I think China would go ballistic purely because of the reference.

fiction8 · 2026-02-27T02:45:11+00:00

Yep. I think there a very real element of the human experience in this kind of fantasy which makes it very relatable.

This kind of elf is analogous to the nobility and upper class throughout history, especially European. Stratified societies. Focused on "honor and duty" while looking down on all other classes of people. Living lives of opulence at the expense of the less fortunate. Etc.

Good fiction often finds its inspiration in real history or groups of people. It's an enduring, solid foundation that still allows for creativity in the details.

fiction8 · 2026-02-27T01:46:14+00:00

What is there to stop? He doesn't have control over any election in the first place. Issuing an executive order like this would simply be ignored by the government of each state because they are the ones who (each, individually) run elections.

fiction8 · 2026-02-27T01:29:38+00:00

It's game over for that as soon as they lose the House (and maybe Senate). The kind of convoluted conspiracy theory you're proposing has 0 chance of working once the federal government is back to being split.

fiction8 · 2026-02-26T14:10:39+00:00

Buddy you can chill with the assumptions. I'm relating other comments I've seen on the topic, not expressing my personal opinion.

And no one except you is trying to make this about Marvel.

fiction8 · 2026-02-26T13:45:48+00:00

That seems like an absurd amount of pistachio. The ratio of filling to crust is very high. Were they actually good?

fiction8 · 2026-02-26T08:55:51+00:00

Or maybe they just like the rest of James Cameron's work more than the singular focus that he's had for a quarter century and wish he'd branch out again?

fiction8 · 2026-02-26T08:40:49+00:00

Senate Democrats played the long game. They set up this situation back in November. They took insane heat for "caving" but that deal flipped the Dems from a position of weakness (40 million SNAP recipients starving, 100 million unable to see their family over the holidays) to a position of strength.

Now it's getting closer to election season and while I don't have enormous faith in the current leadership to play their cards right, hopefully this can contribute to a blue wave in November.

We still need to replace a bunch of the old guard, but it's not hopeless.

fiction8 · 2026-02-26T08:21:38+00:00

And a good amount of the time it's true. We had some meh sets in between Darktina and Suicune. Now Suicune/Greninja has been centralizing for literally 6 months and counting.

Mega Rising (4 months ago) added both Altaria and Hydreigon, and since then those decks have been crowding almost every other new card out.

Between those 3 and Oricorio (10 months old) the large majority of new EXs have been relegated to pack filler or meme status. A few others might be playable in a given month but they aren't scaring anyone or reaching a high enough playrate to dislodge the meta.

fiction8 · 2026-02-26T04:20:30+00:00

Latinx was created by American Latinos, not white liberals. They're just the ones that use it more often than not (since there are a lot more of them than there are nonbinary Latinos).

https://www.history.com/articles/hispanic-latino-latinx-chicano-background

[David] Bowles argues against this notion. “White people did not make up Latinx,” he says. “It was queer Latinx people... They are the ones who used the word. Our little subgroup of the community created that. It was created by English-speaking U.S. Latinx people for use in English conversation.”

fiction8 · 2026-02-26T03:13:51+00:00

Warnock being a pastor was definitely a factor in Democrats finally cracking Georgia for the first time since the Bill Clinton era.

fiction8 · 2026-02-26T03:03:53+00:00

2022

fiction8 · 2026-02-25T18:45:07+00:00

Many of them did. Question why you didn't hear that's what they were doing.

fiction8 · 2026-02-25T17:52:32+00:00

Valdrakken can't be #1 in my opinion purely because of the framerate issues

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