Lurker > adjl

dioxxys posted...

Just hope these "kids" are not doing hormone treatments under the age of 16 because you know "mental maturity" and the like. Because God forbid society somehow ends up finding it okay for teens under 16 to sterilize themselves but not have sexual intercourse.

I'm not sure where the ethical consensus is going to end up when it comes to minors. On one hand, gender identity is typically established long before puberty, so it's not like kids can't credibly express dysphoric feelings, plus the whole process gets much easier and less damaging if puberty blockers are used instead of having to change hormones once they're at post-pubescent levels. On the other, transitioning is a major medical choice with permanent consequences, including sterility, and letting minors make decisions like that is typically frowned upon (many doctors will refuse to perform sterilization operations on anyone young enough to have any chance to change their mind).

If I had to make a guess, I'd say the standard will be to defer transitioning until later outside of particularly urgent cases (i.e. imminent suicide). That's purely a guess, though. It could very easily end up going either way.
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loseless posted...

Thanks a lot for having an option for those who don't care at all about E3!

loseless posted...

None at all, I won't be watching any of it live, just the highlights later

I can guarantee you'll pay attention to any major announcements that interest you, even if you don't care enough about E3 to actively follow it. People who care so little about E3 that they won't even pay attention to highlights after the fact aren't likely to be hanging out on a gaming website.

loseless posted...

And before someone says, no, not voting is not the same as not caring. Completely different meanings there.

While true, you have to remember that this poll is polling pretty much the same audience every day. Even if there isn't an option that appropriately encapsulates not caring at all, and such an option might be useful information, that information can be extrapolated by comparing the vote total to the usual numbers. It's not perfect, no, but it does the job for such an informal thing.
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Revelation34 posted...

adjl posted...

You wouldn't fire a teacher who was abusing one of his students?

Deliberately calling somebody a name they don't like is pretty textbook bullying.
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CaptainStrong posted...

released on CD

Why is this a criterion?
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DPsx7 posted...

Then you recall that I had to stop gaming on PC because of it.

Due to some sort of crazy glitch like a decade ago, yes. I also recall you absolutely refusing to accept that those problems were an isolated incident that's unlikely to occur these days, now that Steam is a much more stable platform used without incident by millions. I also recall you accusing people of photoshopping in the Offline Mode option and refusing to accept that it exists. I recall you being rather paranoid and irrational as far as your opinions on Steam went.

Don't get me wrong, Steam definitely has its issues these days, but they're pretty much entirely limited to their lack of quality control when it comes to letting games onto their storefront. As a launcher and a distribution client? It's just fine.

DeltaBladeX posted...

@adjl Would you try this?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/462680/BalanCity/

It's an interesting idea, but I kind of doubt I'd spend much time with it.
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Maybe. I dunno. I don't really pay that much attention.
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GanglyKhan posted...

LinkPizza posted...

I can understand different pronouns, but that doesnt really make sense for names. Since people can have name changes. Not to mention, as a teacher, you have to be use to saying many different names for all the students. It was probably a somewhat common name. He may have even had another student with the same name...

No? I feel like if someone knew Todd for 2 years then he/she is asking them to call him/her Tabitha out of the blue one day, they might find that a little difficult to, pardon the phrasing, transition their day-to-day speech in a way that's natural and comfortable. It's a strange concept for some people and bashing them over the head (not saying you are) won't help with making this a mainstream piece of culture.

There's a very significant difference, however, between having trouble remembering a name or pronoun change and refusing to acknowledge the change. Most people are pretty understanding of how hard it can be to break habits once they're formed. That's not what's being objected to here. So long as you respect the request enough to make an effort, you're not part of the problem.

Revelation34 posted...

BlackScythe0 posted...

He submitted a tentative resignation because officials threatened to fire him

Well they're idiots for threatening to fire him.

You wouldn't fire a teacher who was abusing one of his students?
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Mead posted...

Zeus posted...

Considering it's allegedly back up, probably just a matter of getting DDoS'd by SJWs.

First Nazis and now terrorism supporting incels

Who wont he defend?

Now now, they're not really Nazis. Just people who dress like Nazis, act like Nazis, and promote Nazi ideologies. But because it's not Germany in 1935-45, they can't be Nazis.

After all, quibbling over technicalities is basically the same thing as refuting a point, right?
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DPsx7 posted...

I'd rather stop playing games than go anywhere near Steam again. Bleh.

There's a face I haven't seen in a while, posting exactly as before. How nostalgic.
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Because English is stupid.
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I've mostly been playing Factorio lately. It's a good time, if you're into base-building and logistical puzzles.
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Zeus posted...

Thanks, but if it wasn't a matter of his beliefs, then why else would they renege knowing that it would most likely get rid of him?

Maybe because some of the kids didn't like having this one teacher use their last names? That's quite a bit more plausible than that the school's administration was plotting from day 1 to get rid of this pesky Christian, especially where there's a very good chance there are other Christians on staff.

Revelation34 posted...

BlackScythe0 posted...

I like how the alt right thinks their rights are being violated when they have to respect the rights of others.

There's no law saying you have to call somebody by their preferred name or pronoun.

I like how the alt right thinks their rights are being violated when they're asked to be polite in a manner that isn't enforced legally.
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Zeus posted...

Shame that they reneged on that because they wanted to get rid of the guy because he's Christian.

There's an olympic-calibre conclusion jump if ever I've seen one.
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I think I heard a song like that once. Which anime was it in?
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I'm getting a little tired of all the pointless posturing Trump's doing about this meeting. It's getting old. Just meet and sort **** out, Trump. Nobody cares how flippant you can act on Twitter.
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

Secondly, Doctors have done some hella sketchy s*** over the centuries and some fields are in strong philosophical conflict, one doctor OKing something faaaaaar from makes it ethical.

So let them sort that conflict out. You're concerned about the political climate influencing research on the matter? That risk exists here for no other reason than that (primarily religious conservative) people have decided that transgenderism is wrong and must be opposed, which in turn created a reactionary movement pushing for acceptance. If not for that, it wouldn't even be a political issue.

Everyone needs to shut up and let science do its job. If you have reason to believe your doctor hasn't done their due diligence in considering the science when treating you, you can sue them for malpractice, and recommend that your friends and loved ones do the same if they've been similarly wronged, but otherwise, let doctors figure medicine out. Collectively, they know what they're doing, even if there are a few dissenters or less competent folks here and there.
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MICHALECOLE posted...

LanHikari10 posted...

But at the end of the day, it really depends on the medicines in question, but I'd assume if they were all prescribed by the same doctor and filled by the same pharmacy it'll be okay.

Do you really believe that?

Most doctors and pharmacists are actually interested in doing their job properly and to the best of their ability. A certain degree of skepticism is necessary because there are those that are just out to make as much money as they can by pushing the boundaries of what's legal, as well as those who just don't know their craft well enough to be practicing it, but you can generally trust them.
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SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

To address this the teacher had been calling students by their last name. A name that was not in dispute by anyone.

And then the administration chose not to accept that anymore, presumably because some kids didn't like it. Furthermore, nobody's name should ever even be in dispute in the first place, so the idea of there being a "name that was not in dispute" should be completely moot.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

That's clearly not what I was advocating and I think you're being willfully disingenuous here.

You certainly seem to think that your opinion is more valid than that of doctors and psychologists, without comparable credentials. Skepticism can be healthy, certainly, but not when you have more reason to trust science than not. Otherwise, you get anti-vaxxers.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

the reason for something to exist doesn't change.

Nothing biological exists for a reason. There is no purpose or goal involved in the natural world. It simply is. Traits can be associated with certain functions, but that does not mean they can never be co-opted into other functions (in fact, that happens all the time in evolution), nor does it mean that function must always be fulfilled as long as that trait exists (see: the entire concept of vestigial structures). To conflate function with "meaning" is to fundamentally misunderstanding the natural world.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Well I don't. I was responding to your comment about how genders are defined.

You define something you care about based on criteria you don't care about? That makes little sense.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

That's not the the modern vernacular.

It's how the langauge is evolving. With the growing acceptance that there's a distinction between the physical and mental aspects of sexual dimorphism, and the fading aversion to using the word "is increasingly being adopted to refer to the mental part. It works quite well; there's really no reason not to accept this shift.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

You're referring to specialized terminology that has been used in an Orwellian manner. Controlling how people think by controlling the language they use.

Linguistic evolution is an example of Orwellian population-wide brainwashing. Right. That's totally not a ridiculous thing to say.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

The average person wouldn't associate sex with anatomical distinctions.

It's the biological definition. Why insist on applying such a definition earlier but refuse to do so here?
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Revelation34 posted...

Mead posted...

Everything without constant nudity and violence must be self-censored then I guess

When they admit to not doing it because of people like that it is self-censorship.

Again, used this way, literally any decision to leave something out would qualify as self-censorship, depriving the term of any meaning whatsoever. Of course they're going to remove things they think more people will dislike than like, just like they'll add things they think more people will like than dislike. You call it censorship, the rest of the world calls it a savvy development decision.
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SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

It's claiming the authority to tell one person what they can or can't say to another person.

You're one of those people that thinks freedom of speech means freedom from consequence, aren't you.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Yes, it's their name. They have ownership of it. But it's the other person's speech. Someone else has ownership of addressing them.
Directing speech at a person doesn't transfer ownership of the speech.

And as the owner of the name, they have full rights to not answer to somebody who refuses to get their name right. In a school setting, however, that refusal has the potential to significantly hurt their grades. Ergo this guy was pressured to quit so he couldn't keep infringing on this student's rights to own their name. Maybe he shouldn't have been such a dink.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

That's surrendering a lot of personal responsibility to academics.

When the alternative is making decisions on academic matters without conducting research? I don't really see that being a bad thing. You are defending the practice of making up your own scientific conclusions because you don't trust the actual scientists because reasons. That's the kind of mentality that has bred anti-vaxxers, homeopathy, and Goop. You should not be defending that practice. Nobody should.

Should academic discourse be accepted without any sort of critical thinking? Of course not. But that attitude must be applied equally to all alternatives as well. If you decide ahead of time which side you want the science to be on, and hold competing views to higher standards than that one, you're never going to end up with the truth.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

I define them in biological terms.

People exist in more than biological terms. That's what it means to be sentient.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Gender difference exist to facilitate procreation.

Not anymore they don't. There are ample ways in today's world to effect procreation without relying on one's own sexual dimorphism, and that's even without considering that a good many people have no interest in procreating in the first place. If everyone on the planet suddenly became trans and gave up their fertility to have a sex change? Yeah, the species would have a problem (at least for the 10-15 years it'd take to develop fully-functional artificial reproduction methods). But that's not particularly likely, so who cares about the impact it has on procreational ability?

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

However current identity politics puts forth that there are no biological gender difference. Gender is social construct that can be defined any way that is convenient for the moment.

You seem to be having considerable difficulty understanding the difference between "sex" and "gender" as they are used in the modern vernacular. Sex refers to the biological aspects of sexual dimorphism, gender to the psychological and social aspects. Of course the social aspects can be redefined as needed, because that's how any sort of social construct works.
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DarkKirby2500 posted...

Steam has always been a dumping ground but it's still easy to find what you're looking for.

I've never had a problem with that.

It's easy to find what you're looking for, because it has a search bar, but it's not easy to find something new. It's the difference between shopping and buying: the latter's easy on Steam, the former's virtually impossible. The thing is, developers need people to shop, not just buy.

DarkKirby2500 posted...

I disagree with Steam being heavily censored and filtered to only allow certain content.

There's considerable middle ground between "heavily censored" and "having absolutely no quality control at all." Other digital storefronts manage that balance pretty well. Steam could easily manage it as well, perhaps leaning a bit more to the permissiveness side (since it is good for the indie industry in particular to have a distribution platform that's easier to get onto), but they've instead opted to completely eschew any sort of actual effort on that front. The result is a cesspool.
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MaxZorin007 posted...

adjl posted...

knivesX2004 posted...

Just get it for PC and mod it if you're really that pathetic and desperate for porn.

For that matter, just use actual porn if you're desperate for porn. Gratuitous sexual content in games just makes them embarrassing to play.

DOA without tits is not DOA.

If the only purpose of DoA is to provide extremely weak softcore porn, then DoA is a pathetic excuse for a game series whose primary purpose can be completely replaced by any number of free websites. The Internet exists. You no longer need to buy a $60 game to sneak your hypnoxing material into the house.

Mead posted...

Revelation34 posted...

Nightengale posted...

That's not censorship that's a design choice to sell more copies to make money. Censorship is putting something in and then taking it out. That is money talking. It's about money.

That's self-censorship.

Everything without constant nudity and violence must be self-censored then I guess

For that matter, literally every design decision to leave out anything ever is an example of self-censorship, if we're going by that logic. That's kind of a uselessly broad way to interpret the term.
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SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

By forcing others to treat these people a certain way the experience from such a trial period won't be an authentic one and could give them a false impression of what life would be like after doing anything irreversible.

Clearly, the answer is for everyone to stop being assholes about it, so that sheltering them from assholes while in school ends up being reflective of the real world. Cultural shift, yo. Get cracking.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Not all identities are normal or healthy.

They are indeed not. Effectively raising children - whether as a parent, teacher, or any other formative figure - entails encouraging and respecting healthy exploration of new identities while guiding them away from unhealthy ones. The distinction requires a solid basis for considering those identities to be unhealthy, though. Conveniently, there's a whole field of medicine dedicated to figuring that out. Maybe people should defer to what that field says instead of deciding they know better?

For the record, I fully support the idea of teachers recommending that students struggling with their gender identity speak to a doctor about it instead of experimenting unguided, in the event that a kid has chosen to try out a different gender without talking to a doctor first. When identity disorders come into play, it's a good idea to involve a doctor in exploring one's identity.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Who are they to tell anyone which name to addressees them with?

They are literally the only person who has that authority.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

If a man says he's a T-Rex does that make him a T-Rex?
If a man widens his mouth, shortens his arms, and has surgery to implant a prosthetic tail does that make him a T-Rex?
If a woman says she's a male, does that make her a male?
If a woman takes hormones that are wrong for her body and has elective cosmetic surgery does that make her a male?
No, the woman is as much a male as she is a T-Rex.

Depends how you define each of those latter states. There are many aspects of masculinity which can indeed be quite closely approximated by behavioural and surgical changes that are well within the realm of modern medicine's capabilities. Authentic T-rexitude, however, is far beyond our current capabilities, and it is unlikely that that will ever change given the widespread destruction a close facsimile of a T-rex would cause if unleashed in society.
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knivesX2004 posted...

Just get it for PC and mod it if you're really that pathetic and desperate for porn.

For that matter, just use actual porn if you're desperate for porn. Gratuitous sexual content in games just makes them embarrassing to play.
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SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

It's not clear in the article if the student was going through procedures, or just going by a preferred name.

Standard procedure is to have the patient live as their target gender for a couple years before beginning any physical transition, to see if transitioning is actually going to be beneficial for them before doing anything irreversible. It is unclear whether the name change here was recommended by a doctor or undertaken by the person themselves as a means of experimenting with their identity, but I don't see that that really makes a difference. Trying out different identities is a perfectly normal, healthy part of adolescence, and part of teaching adolescent students is respecting that. If a kid wants to change their name, who are you to tell them they can't?

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Letting them think gender transitioning is possible in a medical sense is lying to them.

Oh really? Do elaborate on what is so impossible about transitioning that it means doctors are lying to their patients (which, incidentally, would subject those doctors to lawsuits if it could be proven that they knowingly lied to their patients, so if you have such conclusive proof, you might want to hook up a lawyer buddy with some juicy legal fees).
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VixYW posted...

Everything comes down to if Valve will back down on that or not,

If laws start getting involved to regulate the content that Valve's refusing to regulate, they won't have a choice to back down or not. The ESRB was created to allow the industry to regulate itself and keep lawmakers from interfering, but Valve's chosen to eschew that sort of self-regulation. One way or another, Steam will be regulated. It'd just be a lot better for everyone if Valve would do it themselves.
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VixYW posted...

the complaints of the SJW will fall on deaf ears.

See, here's the very important point I think you're missing: It's not the SJW complaints you have to worry about. SJW complaints come first, because they spent more time on the Internet and therefore notice it first, but they also tend not to extend beyond telling other Internet people that what they're doing is wrong. Once it goes past that and leaks out of the Internet and into the real world, it's the pearl-clutchers you've got to worry about, and the pearl-clutchers have a currently-elected government that's demonstrated on many occasions that it's willing to pass laws that appeal to their version of morality. We've already seen Trump himself suggest that violent video games might be to blame for the epidemic of mass shootings. Do you really want them having more ammunition?
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I think people who refuse to change their opinions in the face of ample reason to change their opinions are idiots. Does that count as changing because it's convenient?
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VixYW posted...

adjl posted...

until the novelty of "take that SJW's you can't censor me" wears off.

This won't last long. Now that everything is okay to be released, there won't be those huge controversies about censorship causing repercussion anymore, thus these games won't be able to count on that free advertising and the bad ones will sink fast.

Oh, the controversy will continue. Do you think anyone had heard of Active Shooter until the media glomped onto it and clutched every pearl they could find? Of course not. That game's obviously utter garbage even without considering the subject matter; it would have otherwise faded immediately into the sea of barely-playable asset flips.

That sort of media reaction isn't going to go away, though. People will always be horrified by a game that glorifies school shootings coming out amid a rash of very real school shootings, because that's a perfectly reasonable thing to be horrified by. People will always be horrified by any number of other game subjects that are specifically designed to be horrifying, and the "developers" of those "games" will continue to get off on "triggering SJW's," each time emboldened by Valve's decision that censoring them would be wrong (ignoring, of course, that the actual decision was that censoring them would entail doing actual work to continue making money hand over fist).
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SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Encouraging their delusion denies them the help they need.

Except transitioning is typically not done without consulting medical professionals, who make that recommendation only if it's what's most likely to be beneficial for their specific case. In many cases, acceptance is the help they need. Like any medical decision, that's not guaranteed to be the right treatment, but if you actually care about someone, you take your concerns about their treatment to their doctor, rather than refusing to cooperate with the treatment so they get bombarded with mixed messages.

It doesn't matter how much "this is for their own good" transphobes spout, it's not going to change that that's nothing more than a self-righteous justification for being uncomfortable with the idea and deciding that they know better than doctors. I don't know if transitioning will end up being the gold standard for treating gender dysphoria. Nobody does. For now, though, it's what we've got, so shut up and let science do its job, cooperating with doctors as much as is necessary to help science along while it figures out how best to proceed.
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Of those, SMG2, but that list really needs more Xenoblade.
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Valve should. The rest of us? Maybe it's time to start making backups of our Steam games, but otherwise, life will go on.
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Joker_X_II posted...

If another crash were to happen, it'll probably have more to do with too many AAA games pushing micro-transactions as the only way to play. There was a lot of financial backlash with EA's Star Wars: Battlefront 2. And Red Dead Redemption 2 is already seeing controversy with it's pay2win features in their deluxe editions of the game. Crap like that will crash the market.

The "Crash of '83" used up too much plastic and packaging for the hardware, which had always jacked up the retail price to begin with. Today, the impending crash in the near future would probably leave all the indy developers jobless, or living in their parents basement trying to peddle their a Peggle clone as another cheap mobile app.

Realistically, I don't see another crash happening. Certain major publishers may go under if some of their more questionable practices get taken too far (in particular, the "live service" model several publishers are pushing doesn't seem overly sustainable), but the industry's too big to see any sort of major collapse. If any one part of it does collapse, there are plenty of others waiting to fill whatever vacuum they leave behind.

Joker_X_II posted...

Vote with your wallet,....that's the best you can do.

That's not going to do much. Most people don't buy the genuine garbage; it's just people who get a key for a cent through some bundle somewhere, sell the 3-5 free trading cards for 10 cents each to turn a profit, and move on to the next game. The problem is, that's a large enough market to sustain this, at least as long as Steam sells enough other games for Steam Wallet money to have any value.
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They maintain a download server and collect 40% of revenue from sales and they update DotA 2 every 5 minutes.
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darkknight109 posted...

Worth noting that this was the exact situation that led up to the Video Game Crash of '83. Tons of developers flooded the market with poorly made trash that didn't sell; retailers marked it down to bargain-bin prices to try and move what product they could; legitimate developers couldn't get their products seen as they were competing against underpriced trash; consumers quickly lost faith and interest in the system and left.

The system isn't wholly analogous, but the historical precedent for this sort of thing isn't a good one.

The key difference there is that Steam is just one storefront, and developers have other places they can go. This may be Steam's downfall, but I don't see this hurting the industry at large (unless Steam's unwillingness to have any sort of standards for their storefront results in enough public outcry to attract government intervention, since that intervention isn't likely to be limited to Steam). They just aren't the market juggernaut they used to be.

VixYW posted...

Okay, I re-read the blog post and it seems people are misunderstanding some things (either that or I am right now). Their decisions is mostly regarding the content of the games, not exactly the quality. Quality is mentioned there, but just lightly, so I assume no changes are being made on that end. Also, it is mentioned that their process to admit games into the store still exists - which involves contact between devs and Valve, so Valve will be seeing the game and running it at the very least, the only difference is that as long as the devs are clear about what kind of content they have, they won't be rejected FOR THAT REASON alone. This whole thing is more about individual morals than anything else.

Even if they maintain their current quality control standards (and I have higher standards for what I flush down the toilet than Valve has for what they'll sell), this idea of not censoring content anymore is only going to attract more deliberate efforts to be flagrantly offensive, especially until the novelty of "take that SJW's you can't censor me" wears off. Bear in mind that the current content standards didn't prevent this from getting on there:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/875280/AIDS_Simulator/

And it's only going to get worse with this news. Selling bad, offensive games on Steam is rapidly approaching meme status, and Valve just gave that carte blanche to continue at a point when they ought to be cracking down and doing some real quality control.
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VeeVees posted...

Basically, steam will become nothing more than a launcher. There's no reason to look at it as a storefront with the thousands of garbage flooding in. Go buy your games from 3rd party sites like gmg or humble.

Pretty much. This is only a good thing for Valve because it means they can lay off everyone who was trying to develop quality control algorithms (since they already laid off any actual people doing that job), and even that's debatable in the long run because it's going to drive people away from Steam as a storefront. Though I guess Valve makes plenty of money off of trading card sales even if the game generating those cards is utter garbage that the player paid 5 cents for, so maybe they'll do alright with nothing but those sales. I personally don't see that being very sustainable, though.
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dioxxys posted...

I would have more options then less

When "more options" is "we're not even going to bother checking that this game has a working .exe file included," though, that "more options" stops being even remotely beneficial. Hypothetically, saying that they aren't going to police content and will allow controversial stuff through instead of censoring it isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the vast, vast majority of stuff that will take advantage of this will be shameless asset flip cash grabs, possibly capitalizing on the "I'm so edgy that I'm gonna buy a game about lynching black people even though it's literally unplayable take that SJW's" attitude that a disturbing number of idiots are adopting. It's not going to be legitimately controversial stuff, it's going to be stuff that everyone hates that only sells to people who get off on doing stuff that everyone hates.

More options is only a good thing if some of those options will actually be useful, and if the quantity of options doesn't become so inflated that it's impossible to find the ones you can make use of.

dioxxys posted...

I'm capable of ignoring games I don't want, it's not that hard. And if youre a true fan of a certain genre, it's easy to find the most well received recent games in that genre just by doing a little research.

Here's the thing, though: Somebody else has to find those games first in order for them to be well-received. The harder it is to find good stuff, the fewer games are going to end up being well-received, and the less data you'll have to research. As it stands, Steam's utter lack of quality control means you can't find good stuff by simply going into the Steam storefront and looking at new releases.

And that's without even getting into the effects this has on the ability of legitimate indie developers to make profitable games. Indie developers are already finding that their games are selling better in other stores than on Steam, simply because there's some degree of vetting going into those catalogues so every quality new game doesn't release alongside a hundred asset flips, brainless memes, and sub-functional products that barely qualify as "games." That's not a sustainable marketplace. Steam was once the prime market for indie games, but abandoning all pretense of quality control is going to kill that. Nobody's going to shop on Steam anymore.

It's also worth noting that offending people shouldn't be discounted, as tempting as that might be. The ESRB was created in response to people being offended and concerned about content in video games, as a way to let the industry regulate itself without government oversight. When games like Active Shooter and Hatred attract media attention, that attention is turned toward the store that's endorsing the products. Steam gets blamed for selling these, as well it should. If Steam isn't going to regulate itself and continues attracting this kind of offended attention, somebody else will do it, and that's not a good thing.
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This could actually be the nail in the coffin for Steam as an indie platform. Not because of people being offended, but because it's already nigh-impossible to get noticed among the sea of garbage thanks to how pitiful their quality control "efforts" have been since Greenlight launched. If they're giving up on even that ineffective pretense, it's only going to get much, much worse. Here's hoping "give people more control over the content they see" means improving the discovery queue to actually be useful, otherwise I see developers giving up on Steam entirely.
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samuricex posted...

The people who feel they have a special preferred name should be the ones making a compromise.

"Special preferred name"? You make it sound like it's a lot of work to use the desired name. It's literally a matter of saying "call me Sarah now instead of Sam," no different than any other name change in terms of the impact on other people.
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Huzzah! Welcome back.
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The_tall_midget posted...

Irrelevant

The frequency with which a problem occurs is irrelevant to how significant that problem is? Don't be absurd. If that were true, we should all be panicking over meteor strikes 24/7.

Zeus posted...

It happens pretty damn frequently enough to be an issue,

Numbers, my friend. You want to claim that it's a significant issue, you need to prove its significance, and that means providing actual data instead of a vague "it happens often just look at the news and all those SJW's."

Zeus posted...

Which is why there should be laws protecting the accused's identity at least until things go to trial.

I think this wouldn't be a bad idea in general, regardless of the crimes alleged. That's not going to do anything about cases where criminal charges wouldn't be laid, though, which encompasses most of the sexual harassment cases coming out of #metoo (abusing power to behave inappropriately, while deplorable, is only illegal if the behaviour falls into a fairly narrow set of actual charges).
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Rasmoh posted...

15 year olds say stupid shit, next.

That.
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Mario_VS_DK posted...

For them to overtake road vehicles, they need to be cheaper, safer, and have just as much range as what we are currently using.

Depends what they overtake road vehicles for. The range issue isn't actually relevant for the vast majority of driving, which tends to be commuting relatively short distances. They'll never replace cars for longer trips, certainly, but provided they can run for half an hour or so continuously, they'd be a viable option for commuting.

The real hurdle comes in regulating them. They may currently manage to stay under the FAA's boundary for requiring a pilot's license, but if the idea starts to look like it has any commercial merit, there'll be new, pretty heavy restrictions on their use. There are no "rules of the sky" analogous to those that govern the road, and nobody wants a bunch of unlicensed civilians flying around without rules.
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FatalAccident posted...

The one thing Im worried about is suspension. Mountain bikes normally have suspension but Im looking at road bikes which dont seem to. Are they still quite comfortable? For example when mounting and demounginh(?) kerbs on the road.

Personally, I don't go over curbs very often when I'm riding around the city. There are enough driveways and other ramps to facilitate that where needed, plus I spend very little time on the sidewalk anyway. When I do, it's definitely not a gentle bump without suspension, and I need to stand up off the seat if I want to avoid getting castrated while doing it, but it's not unmanageable. In general, I'd say suspension isn't necessary for city riding, since you won't be dealing with major bumps and suspension adds quite a bit of weight.

FatalAccident posted...

I like that idea, although my sister is insisting we buy him one and wrap it up for a surprise factor. I may have no choice in the matter - but that shouldnt be the end of the world right?

It won't be the end of the world, but he will almost assuredly end up with a bike he likes better if he picks it himself. I do get where your sister's coming from, since giving people actual presents is much more fun than throwing money at them, but you would probably be better off coming up with a creative way to give him the money than buying him a bike that might not fit perfectly. Maybe build a bike out of paper towel tubes and wrap that, along with the money.
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The_tall_midget posted...

Here is the problem: modern accusations = accusing someone directly and having the simp white knights and feminist idiots ruining the person's reputation before ANY investigation is done.

How often does that actually happen? It's often cited as a major problem that's serious enough that nothing should be done to make reporting assault any easier or more effective, but how often does that really happen compared to the number of assault allegations?

MirMiros posted...

Especially when crimes involving men being raped by women are still treated as a joke in this country.

That's the kind of nonsense whataboutism that needs to stop immediately. "It's not a problem because this tangentially related problem also exists" has never been and will never be valid logic. You got a problem with female-on-male sexual assault not being taken seriously? Do something about it. Don't use it as a reason to justify not doing something about male-on-female sexual assault while never actually getting off of your couch to address what's allegedly such a grave indignity.
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FatalAccident posted...

But still would like to know what's good and how somebody goes about choosing a good bike.

That really depends on what he's doing with it. Most bike shops are going to be well prepared to answer "I'm looking for a bike to do X and my budget is Y," so that's probably your best bet. Buying from a local shop is also generally a better option than ordering one online or whatever, since different shops specialize in different brands and will be more likely to have matching parts if he needs to replace stuff. Just check reviews for local bike shops to see who doesn't suck, and check out some of them.

FatalAccident posted...

Also hopefully he doesn't pick out something that costs a bajillion pounds

You should expect to pay somewhere in the $3-500 range for a decent one. There's a pretty sizable jump in quality going to that tier from the <$200 range. You get more diminishing returns going higher, but it may be worthwhile if he's serious about it. If you're taking him shopping, though, you can always give him a pseudo-gift certificate sort of thing and give him money that's meant to go toward whatever bike he chooses. That way, you won't end up spending too much if he decides he wants to go for something higher-end.

Chewster posted...

Somebody more experienced like adjl could probably tell you more specific stuff like what kind of shifters and brakes tend to be better.

Eh, I wouldn't say I'm experienced in the sense of being able to comment on that. I haven't done anything more than fairly rudimentary maintenance. I chose my bike (2010 Marin Toscana CX) because it was the one I liked best of the 3-4 I test rode, and that was the extent of the research I did before buying. I quite like my bike and I ride it a lot, but I can't really generalize that to what anyone else should buy.
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Chewster posted...

It kind of depends on how serious of a rider he is, though. I don't think that trying out a bike is as universally crucial as, say, trying on a pair of shoes.

That is true. That said, though, unless he becomes really serious and upgrades accordingly, this may well end up being the only bike he ever uses. It's not like buying a bike for a kid, where they'll outgrow it in a few years and that'll be that.
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Take him out and let him pick one out for you to buy. He'll benefit from getting to test ride a few to pick one he's really comfortable with.
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trentpac posted...

1920-present

Not that.
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Jen0125 posted...

That whole first post sounds like problematic drinking behavior.

Eeyup.
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