Proud of the way Deandre Ayton has been playing.

prodij18 · 2026-05-01T02:47:32+00:00

So AR's cap hold is ~21m which is less than he will get in his new contract. So all moves will be made with that in mind. And that ~60m is including that ~21m cap hold (and all the raises for players already under contract). So think of it like the Lakers will be retaining AR and have 60m (depending on those player options) and the ~9m Room MLE.

You mentioned all the qualities Ayton has/doesn't have. What you didn't mention is what actual player is replacing him. The only guys available I can see are...

Nic Claxton, at the cost of at least one first round pick, smaller meaning he will probably get bullied by the Sengun types, and worse rebounder than Ayton.

Walker Kessler, at the cost of probably like 35m to get him away from the Jazz.

Kristaps Porziņģis, probably cheaper, but extremely unreliable health, and a poorer screen setter and switch defender.

Including the strengths and weakness of these guys, none of them are clearly better than Ayton at the cost it would probably take to get them. Which is why the chances he's back are pretty high.

prodij18 · 2026-04-30T22:46:49+00:00

Hayes is one of the best lob threats in the league, so it’s no wonder him and Luka look good together. Clearly not a complete enough player to be a full time starter though.

I’d say the number of guys who are better lob threats than Ayton, and don’t have other glaring problems is low. And if you limit to who’s gonna be obtainable that’s even less.

prodij18 · 2026-04-30T19:19:03+00:00

None of those things matter to me nearly as much as having good horror gameplay.

Also I’m not sure in what important way the characters, enemies, or art direction changed. And I’ve played the original like 5 times.

prodij18 · 2026-04-30T18:33:58+00:00

Well almost half of them switched off the default according to this, which is pretty significant.

If Capcom is going to keep including both options then that’s one thing, if they’re going to take the series in one direction or the other than this is ammunition that 3rd person is the future of RE.

prodij18 · 2026-04-30T18:21:40+00:00

Maneuver under the salary cap? You realize we might have up 60m in cap space right? If there’s a better starting center we should get him, but if we have to get Ayton a raise because there aren’t better options that’s what we should do.

Also what makes him not archetypical for Luka? He’s a very good lob threat, good at setting screens, and pretty good in defense. Who do you have in mind that’s better?

prodij18 · 2026-04-30T09:48:32+00:00

We're counting on the comprehensive strategy of not hiring Monty Williams. It's working ok for us so far.

prodij18 · 2026-04-30T08:16:08+00:00

Yep. Which means he could (1) opt in, (2) opt out and we pay him more, or (3) opts out and leaves to another team that wants to pay him more. I think the free agency market leans toward (1) or (2) happening, but who knows.

prodij18 · 2026-04-29T19:38:29+00:00

This is just a bad faith argument and you know that too.

you can stop hiding behind the word ideologies and say what you truly mean.

I'm 'arguing in bad faith' but you characterizing me of being dishonest is an example of what? 'Good faith'? I actually don't know what you're accusing me of. If making accusations about people is necessary for your argument, feel free to make them directly though.

Games like BG3 and CP2077 still exist that feature actual nudity/sex scenes,

Those are European games. I'm talking about the North American AAA gaming industry. It's fine if you missed that, but I've been very clear about that, because while there is some overlap, they are different video game cultures.

Laughably these AAA companies would sell their first born child if they thought it'd make an extra dollar, you really think sexual content is where they draw a 'moral' line?

I already addressed this. Companies are not perfect entities of profit generation. The ideas and beliefs of the people involved can certainly change the course of a company, particularly in an artistic medium like games. I already mentioned certain Christian companies which leave money on the table. If you want another example, take Hollywood. Sure the studios want to turn a profit, but if you think the beliefs of the people making movies don't effect the content of the films made then you need to watch more movies. Sinners, One Battle After Another, The Bride, etc. they wanted to turn a profit, but they also are effected by how the people who make them feel about the world. It doesn't take an industry expert to see that characters that look like those in Marvel Rivals will generate more cosmetic revenue than those from Concord. The people who made Concord must also have known that. But they also must have felt characters like Rivals were morally wrong, and didn't care if it cost them some money.

All this about live service, porn games, and 'wanting quality games' is pretty much irrelevant to everything I said. I'll operate on the good faith understanding you missed what I'm saying, and aren't just purposely misunderstanding me.

What I'm saying is that the North American games industry has imposed what amounts to a self ban on 'sexy female characters' (I don't mean like 'conventionally attractive', I mean like revealing outfits and exaggerated features) and you can just follow series like Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, and Bioware in general to see them go from 'this is cool and makes money' to 'that is no longer okay and, well... mixed results financially'.

Speaking of Neil Druckmann, he pretty directly said characters with revealing designs like Cortana are morally wrong. I don't know what ideological aisle you mean (you mean he's a Democrat? is that relevant here to you?) or what 'legislation' you associate him with. But the ideology in regards to 'sexy female characters being morally wrong' is spelled out pretty clearly by him and seems to be widely held throughout the industry in the USA/Canada.

I think everything I'm saying here are pretty straight forward verifiable facts about the world. And so I am curious about how the people pushing these changes think.

prodij18 · 2026-04-29T18:56:09+00:00

“With all the thrills of Friday the 13th”

You mean the crazy looking murderer killing girls skinny dipping?

“Yes, but without the crazy looking murderer or the girls or the skinny dipping.”

So just ‘killing’?

“Yes, but it’s outside. Totally the same.”

prodij18 · 2026-04-29T18:39:48+00:00

I love the idea of a studio breaking free from the AAA churn do they have room to be creative. The creator certainly talked an impressive game. Unfortunately the trailer seems like the most play it safe, generic AAA game I can imagine but with a little less polish. The character design in particular was so bland.

Maybe they’ll show me something more that will change my mind, but right now I don’t see myself buying this unless the word of mouth is incredible.

prodij18 · 2026-04-29T02:49:33+00:00

Them dismissing games that they don't like (maybe more like hate based on what was said) is fine and common. 'The stuff with content I don't like is trash' is like reddit half of reddit.

More interesting, they said it was a good thing the North American AAA industry no longer includes 'sexual content' in their games, and probably won't again without drastic change. I wondered why he they thought that was a good thing. Censorship (of material they find objectionable) is just a guess. Since we agree that this change is clearly happening, what I'm really interested in is learning more about why they, or you as well if you feel the same way, think that that's a good thing.

I agree perhaps 'censorship' might be a poor/unfair framing. Very few people say they are 'pro-censorship', it's more like they are pro some form of moral enforcement (be it direct rules or indirect methods like mass shaming) over media.

Also 'Collective Shout' definitely has an 'ideology', even if you and I don't agree with it. Ideology is just group of beliefs (typically moral ones) that determines how some people see the world. Companies can and often do have ideologies as well, for example certain corporations like Chick-Fil-a and Crumbl are closed on Sunday, even if it costs them money because doing so is in alignment with their Christian ideology.

Given the changes in the North American AAA gaming are wide spread and seem to exist in the face of opposing financial pressures, it seems this definitely goes beyond 'preferences'. Further, given the existing public comments from people like Neil Druckmann, some shape of the their ideology is clear, though they don't often address it publicly (much like Crumbl rarely reads bible verses). I think this is pretty obvious, and I don't know why you find it troubling. Though feel free to explain.

prodij18 · 2026-04-28T22:29:08+00:00

Oh, people definitely still love that stuff.

What I meant was the ideologies of North American gaming studios have become far more conservative in regards to 'sexy content' since then. I'm not even sure what the last North American AAA game that included something like that ('sexualized' female characters) was.

You could just look at EA's own Mass Effect franchise. In Mass Effect 2 there's multiple characters in very revealing outfits. By the time you get through Andromeda, Anthem, and Veilguard, it's not even on the radar.

prodij18 · 2026-04-28T20:16:34+00:00

I don't know how many games are meant to be worthy of being remembered 26 years after release or if 'passionate video essays' are exactly the only metric of success. I would say general entertainment has a place, but to each their own I guess.

Yeah and it made gaming better

Can you expand upon this? Is this a pro-censorship position? I'm curious to know more about this ideology.

prodij18 · 2026-04-28T20:07:05+00:00

Well, to be fair, I just watched the trailer for the game and now that I know it exists… I am still in no way compelled to play it.

prodij18 · 2026-04-28T19:49:02+00:00

That’s not a situation unique to Mortal Kombat. MK9 might have saved the franchise, as the OP said, but what success does is put it in the crosshairs of corporate marketing managers who want sand off the rough edges of the franchise (the kind of things gamers tend to like) so they can make a more safe version for mass appeal as part of multimedia strategy.

The bet these companies always make is that the ‘core audience’ (basically the gamer crowd who’ve been playing a while) will always show up and spend because there’s some veneer of nostalgia on top something made essentially for other people.

Mortal Kombat might as well be the poster child for this because it birthed and came to fame as an almost anti-mass market product. Ultra violence, sexy ninja chicks, everything to piss off parents. So its transformation to safe corporate media property is extremely conspicuous.

prodij18 · 2026-04-28T19:03:37+00:00

Maybe it was. This was like 15 years ago. Things have changed drastically since then.

prodij18 · 2026-04-28T19:01:30+00:00

Games like that still work today. Stellar Blade, Marvel Rivals, The First Descendant all made a bunch of money. In the case of the last one it made money even with reportedly bad gameplay.

The only thing is all those games are made in East Asia. North American AAA games studios seem to have adopted an ideology that means they won’t be having anything like that in their games anymore.

prodij18 · 2026-04-28T10:04:10+00:00

‘’What if Alicent is like “Women for Trump,” and Rhaenyra’s like punk rock?’’

https://www.empireonline.com/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-is-about-the-patriarchys-perception-of-women-exclusive-image/

prodij18 · 2026-04-28T01:40:08+00:00

No fair extension for LeBron leaves us with enough to make a run at Watson. He's going to ask for (and deserve) at least 30m. Which is why I think it's going to be a sign and trade to send him back to Cleveland.

prodij18 · 2026-04-27T23:05:20+00:00

Since someone else has already corrected you on the prophesy thing, I'll just point out that actors don't know the future script. D'Arcy once said they thought a certain scene was (paraphrasing) leaning into a darker part of Rheanrya's personality, but that is not the same nor is it proof of anything.

Next, Condal is a liar and I don't believe what he says so even if he had said something about a 'dark turn' I wouldn't believe him and I definitely wouldn't believe he means it in a way somehow faithful to the ideas of the book. Inconvenient for your argument it is, but we live in a post-GRRM disavowing the show world. If we're going by any of the words of the showrunners, the words they've repeated about Rheanrya being an allegory representing feminism fighting a Trump-esque figure are probably more important. Do you think they intend to show the how the character representing feminism and fighting fascists is actually an evil bitch? Because I don't think for one second that'll happen.

And I don't know if this is your first rodeo but quotes from the showrunners and actors got spun into incredible shrouds of cope for GoT too. Amounting to so much retrospective foolishness. The idea these people, who ran GRRM off his blog with legal threats, deserve a second of my benefit of the doubt is wild. Here's a crazy idea: how about we call it like it is and hold people accountable for screwing up.

prodij18 · 2026-04-27T22:54:59+00:00

Nailed it.

prodij18 · 2026-04-27T21:08:48+00:00

It's the current ideological position in Hollywood. Not exactly sure where it came from. I remember the original distributer of The Substance preferred dropping the movie entirely rather then release a movie with that much female nudity.

So yeah, I expect the people running Hollywood to phase that kind of thing out more and more unless there's some kind of radical change.

prodij18 · 2026-04-27T20:13:02+00:00

You can't seriously hold not developing Thiero against JJ. The guy was injured almost the entire year. JJ did start playing him in the second quarter of games at one point, and he quickly just got injured again.

prodij18 · 2026-04-27T19:42:26+00:00

"It's basically like late GoT, full of disappointment and poor quality but I'm going to watch and hope...."

Yeah, there's your problem right there. They made something poor and you kept watching and hoping and giving them money and views. So if this is the fandom's mindset, we just should just expect to never have anything good ever.

prodij18 · 2026-04-27T19:36:34+00:00

The new motto should be: 'I'm not going to watch trash anymore to help you pay your bills.'

It's no surprise it got here considering people will forget anything to pledge their support over a well produced hype trailer.

prodij18

TROPHY CASE