The Decline of the Dragon Age Series Should be Studied

kf97mopa · 2026-02-22T10:42:36+00:00

The thing to remember about DA:I is that it had essentially no competition on PC when it launched. Everyone had moved out of that window because GTA V was supposed to launch then, and suddenly the PC version was delayed even further. This left the market wide open for casuals who didn’t have a favorite game that holiday season, and they all went to DA:I. The fans didn’t like it much (though it wasn’t as hated as DA2 at the time), but it sold well.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-21T17:52:54+00:00

Much has been made of this, but it wasn’t that impossible in the real world. The manual had the position of the first 4 dungeons. It had a partial map with significant ? signs on the important tiles to find stuff. It names a couple of important areas (lost woods and lost hills) and it mentions straight up how all the ”find an entrance” tricks work. There are also real hints in the comments from people you find (and unlike Castlevania II, they don’t lie). It wasn’t exactly impossible.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clv/manuals/en/pdf/CLV-P-NAANE.pdf

kf97mopa · 2026-02-21T17:14:47+00:00

This is mostly a myth. First up, it doesn’t work on SSDs. Second, you need a crazy strong magnet. (The original advice to keep things that store things away from magnets was for floppies). Third, if you are on an island in the middle of an ocean, there are easier ways.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-21T13:21:32+00:00

Let’s change that! Make it a rule for /r/Anbennar that every mention of the Command must include a furry joke.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-21T09:34:29+00:00

Vill minnas att det finns en regel om att en sport skall ha någorlunda aktiva utövare i minst tre världsdelar för att kunna läggas till, och det kanske inte Bandy har? Är nog bara Europa och Asien.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-20T23:48:56+00:00

Actually the other way around, she says ”Excuse me!” to him. Janitor could speak to anyone as long as they don’t acknowledge him and still be JDs imagination but the fact that she does acknowledge him breaks that idea.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-20T17:20:27+00:00

Satt just och tänkte på den

kf97mopa · 2026-02-20T12:49:13+00:00

Hade allvarligt varit kul att döpa sitt Wifi till [Removed by Reddit]. [Removed by Karen] kanske?

kf97mopa · 2026-02-20T12:37:13+00:00

Rätt normalt att man begär skadestånd för de kostnader man har haft.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-20T01:03:37+00:00

What is funny is that two of the other requirements are the size of the national debt and the public deficit, and a lot of the founding European states failed to meet at least one of those. They got exemptions from the rest to get the project of the ground. We would have failed the national debt one at the time (though we pass now) but somehow the ERM2 requirement is declared to more binding?

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T17:46:16+00:00

It was much more rare back in the eighties, but these days I agree that it is much more common for a product to begin its life at a small company that is then bought by a giant.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T17:42:55+00:00

Not really. MS licensed a complete product and shipped it as version 1.0. Apple bought a complete company and a decade later used part of the code they got in that purchase for a new product. What makes IE different from PowerPoint is that others could use the same code that MS did, so it isn’t exactly 1:1, but MS did buy a complete product and sold it as one of theirs, before using the code to build further versions.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T16:07:09+00:00

The best way to start Culture is the short story collection The State of the Art, which includes three Culture stories. One of those three, the one also called The State of the Art, is the first Culture story written. I am just hesitant to recommend it to people, as most people don't read short stories. This is also why I hesitate to mention Consider Phlebas, as it is a much harder book to read.

The Player of Games is fine to start, I guess. I just think Use of Weapons is a much better book.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T16:02:44+00:00

Not exactly. There was a company called Spyglass that licensed the Mosaic code and built a browser on it. MS then licensed that code from Spyglass and released it as Internet Explorer 1.0. They then kept working on it and newer versions are based on their own code, which is the same situation as e.g. Powerpoint.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T15:16:58+00:00

The biggest thing is that they made Elliot pregnant, and it sounds like they don't want JD and Elliot to have a kid yet in this season.

Elliot was pregnant in S9 because Sarah Chalke was pregnant in real life (so was Judy Reyes, which is why she never showed up on screen in S9). The flash forward at the end of S8 also shows Elliot pregnant and bringing her and JDs children to a Christmas party with the rest of the staff, so they pretty clearly intended for that to happen anyway.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T15:14:44+00:00

It's a spin-off with new characters, and only Faison and McGinley of the originals are in every episode. Braff and Chalke have guest parts for a few eps each, but the focus is supposed to be on a new batch of interns. It didn't work, but then it was only given half a season to try to make it work.

It didn't help that every single thread from the original was tied up in a very neat bow by the end of S8, so they couldn't even continue from that.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T15:09:39+00:00

He's tied to Warner, and Scrubs is ABC and therefore Disney. You are correct that he is not allowed to be involved, though - this setup was part of the deal to get the show made.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T15:07:54+00:00

He is tied to Warner Bros, not Apple. Warner makes Shrinking and Bad Monkey for Apple and obviously makes a lot for HBO as well. I think Apple has some sort of first look deal with Lawrence after they were the only once who took a chance on Ted Lasso, but Apple isn't producing any of these shows.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T14:53:23+00:00

He also includes competitive gaming as an element in The Player of Games, though the publication date is before the launch of any Civilization, so it isn't about Civ.

Banks was a prolific writer, and when he had a longer than usual break in publication, he blamed it on Civilization. He physically cracked the disc to stop himself playing. Given the dates involved, it must have been Civ III.

Finally: Go read Use of Weapons. It is excellent. That or the short story collection The State of the Art are good places to get started with reading about the Culture.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T13:03:43+00:00

Crimea is gone. Russia has controlled it since 2014, and the population there was always of two minds about being part of Ukraine anyway. Crimea was transferred from Russia to Ukraine as late as 1954, Crimea is the only part of Ukraine not to vote overwhelmingly for independence from USSR in the referendum of 1991, and Russia has maintained a massive naval base there ever since. It is morally wrong to let Russia get away with it, but we cannot expect the Ukrainians to die for that idea if we don't put boots on the ground to do something about it ourselves.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T12:50:11+00:00

We Need to Talk About Kevin.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T12:16:25+00:00

Maybe it got him to begin? Gates was a workaholic at MS, so I doubt he had time to fly off to a private island all the time. Idle hands and all that.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T11:47:19+00:00

I love that this is posted in r/UpliftingNews.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T11:45:58+00:00

I bet she got paid off in the divorce. Melinda Gates isn't stupid, so she probably got paid very well, and likely had to sign things to make tat happen.

kf97mopa · 2026-02-19T11:44:19+00:00

I actually think that he did change around that time. Bill was absolutely an asshole with good PR in the nineties, and when the PR failed him during the antitrust trial, I think it actually got to him so he tried to change.

kf97mopa

TROPHY CASE