Merz is predictable and a traitor to the German people. He will usher in the fascist power grab through conservative policies - the AFD will grow in popularity as conservatives protect the 1%.

Die Linke’s tax plan would have paid for the yearly debt of the government and then some; their secret - tax the wealthy.

We can afford all of our costs, we can improve society, we can provide a thriving economy for all Germans if we simply tax the ultra wealthy out of existence. No one should have a billion euro net worth, nor 100 million nor 50 million. No one need own 3 houses while others go without even a flat.

We have enough wealth in this country, it’s just in the hands of the hoarders. Don’t look towards conservatives or the right for change, look towards those that address the root problem!

You’re missing the point I think. People want better politicians, Democrats are better than Republicans meaningfully but not so meaningfully that they could fix the issues we’re seeing in society. People like Cuomo and Newson are just power hungry people, who may be better than Trump but the people won’t be satisfied with replacing their turd sandwich with ultra processed fast food, they want a healthy nutritious meal. Newson is fast food, it’s a meaningful step up from turd sandwich but it won’t fix the American diet.

It’s Germany being upset at the traffic light coalition and then electing Merz. They went from one back stabbing party to unhealthy and destructive fast food. This will only upset people enough to eventually elect their version of a turd sandwich - the AFD.

/thread

This is a common misunderstanding, to the point of it being propaganda pushed by oil companies to cause confusion, but electrifying everything is always better long-term than not. From a monetary stand point but most definitely from an environment perspective.

Your area will not always be powered by coal. It is already some degree powered by green energy, it will only get more green over time - and rather quickly with the price of green energy and battery solutions plummeting. Even if it stayed coal powered for a significant amount of time, the reality is gas takes energy to drill, energy to refine, energy to transport, energy to store and deliver the last few miles (km), and then some (or most) of the energy that reaches your house is lost in conversion.

Electricity is increasingly becoming free to generate, there is no refinement, no energy cost to transport, less energy to store and deliver the last few miles, and then most of the energy that reaches your house is used for it’s intended purpose. Pure electricity is highly efficient and it’s only getting greener.

As for cost, again I’m not wise to everyone’s situation, but gas has a constant cost that will always be higher over the long-term compared to electricity that - if I had to make a bet - I’d say will pay back the upfront costs on the order of years and not decades at worst.

That being said, yes, we are all getting poorer and housing is one of societies big failures right now and there’s no shame in not being able to afford the healthy, optimal items right now. That’s late stage capitalism, we need to tax billionaires and multi-millionaires out of existence.

But the reality is gas is worse in every metric, and it is definitely worse for the environment regardless of the power generation sources your local area currently uses. It’s fine if you have to use it, it’s fine if you can’t afford the alternative (although please calculate long term cost to likely save yourself money), just don’t believe gas is better or cheaper or more environmentally friendly.

I mean this isn’t a discussion about what stove you should use if you have one stove. This is a discussion about which is superior and which you should pursue if given the opportunity.

There are a painful number of Americans (and now Germans) who still prefer gas over induction for one reason or the other. A large portion of the Americans in my experience think this way because of the lobbying campaigns of gas companies to make gas seem better or safer than it is.

So ya, if you rent (increasingly most people because late stage capitalism) I’m not talking about how much worse your stove is compared to induction to shame you. I’m talking to everyone who has an opportunity to change someone’s mind on it, buy a new stove for a new construction, or replace their stove when it dies (or sooner if you can swing it).

And there’s no way the gas stove doesn’t cost more over even it’s first couple of years compared to induction. The price of gas will only go up with time, electricity will only go down with time.

Good point, thanks for adding those! I forget how hard my gas stove was to clean now that I’m on induction.

Induction is far superior to gas which is far superior to electric.

Gas is problematic for a lot of reasons:

• the infrastructure leaks from the supplier to your house
• the infrastructure is expensive to build and maintain compared to electricity
• the infrastructure is dangerous compared to electricity
• gas stoves leak harmful chemicals into your house
• using them reduces the air quality in your house
• they transfer a relatively small amount of their output heat into your cookware compared to induction (which also means they heat up your kitchen more)
• they’re less responsive than induction
• every moment of their use is furthering climate change significantly more when compared to induction, and paying for that infrastructure to a home locks that house into that decision for decades at a time.

Gas has some benefits to induction, but if it was invented today very few people would use it because it’s so much worse than induction.

This comment isn’t to say “people who use gas are bad or in danger”, it’s just saying at the technical level and from a societal perspective there’s no meaningful reason to use gas as your main heating element’s source of power.

This looks kinda bad but I can’t place my finger on what it is. I think it’s the like clay like textures and mobile phone like graphics.

This isn’t giving next gen to me and the trailer felt was less put together than they usually do. I guess I like the more realistic or hyper realistic style the cinematics have always pushed in my heads.

That being said, I hope it slaps. I miss a solid dawn of war that my pals and I can play. Nothing like Dark Crusade LAN parties back in the day.

Merz sucks, the conservatives suck, and I hope Germany can survive this corporate illness long enough to vote in people who care about improving Germany and the world. The CDU will worsen this country until the AFD win unless the people push back at every level.

We can have a better life in Germany, if we don’t vote for the defenders of the rich and wealthy.

That’s not how that works. That’s not how any of that works. If you tax a rich person more, they barely feel it. Their lifestyle hardly changes. They also do not deserve a lifestyle 10,000x better than the average person’s.

Well I haven’t read his biography or even really followed him so… I came in with this new watch, have experienced very few things from them as a company, and a couple of the experiences were just a bummer.

I’ve got nothing against the guy, maybe everything you said is correct, I don’t wish him ill - just pointing out some things I experienced with this redesign announcement.

Did you watch the video where the creator talks about adding more features? I also got the ick from that lol. He talked about throwing in a cheap compass module and not being able to promise how good it was and then said “you’re welcome”. Maybe I’m being a Karen lol (oh god I should have died a hero), but I didn’t like that whole exchange. If I recontextualize it to “a friend of mine shooting the shit about his project” it’s not bad at all - just my lazy friend complaining about some feedback. But the fact that it’s the founder making his supposed baby and having no interest in making the most jam packed, high quality product, makes me a bit upset.

There’s that Kickstarter knife going on right now, and watching their video where they’re obsessed with putting a whole bunch of bullshit into this knife and doing it elegantly - idk… Felt like a stark contrast from that to this “your welcome for a cheap compass module” attitude.

Idk. I buy things based off of vision and belief in execution right now and this guy makes a slim epaper watch vision feel like a vision of money bags instead. And now the execution misses the mark for me. Vibes are all off. RIP, might get one after reviews now but ya writing this out has convinced me to cancel.

I hope it still slaps for everyone and it’s successful. I want more epaper everywhere - love the tech.

Oof, I actually really liked the square screen design of the preliminary images. It had a much cooler retro sci-fi vibe to me previously, now it looks a bit forgettable and basic.

I want to know the thickness, because I might just cancel based off this redesign. Which is unusual for me but ya, I’m not digging it.

It’s on my to do list. It seems like it’s lacking the playstyle customization that I’m interested in but I look forward to playing through it.

PoE2 promised engaging, methodical combat but as of right now has failed to reach that mark. The end game is that of PoE1 which the developers claim they don’t want but I’m not seeing the design choices to slow things down in a meaningful way. Let’s hope they figure it out, I have no doubt the first ARPG to figure this out will bring in larger numbers than most have seen to date.

I very much disagree with what she said, but I’m also not ok with her being fired for expressing herself.

This is you defending someone who was anti-vax, politically conspiratorial (general Fox flavor, vote was rigged), and mocked people specifing their pronouns against consequences for sharing those opinions.

Beliefs that hurt her community, that hurt the marginalized, and that she was happy to continue expousing and expanding upon on conservative podcasts and channels after being let go.

Idk why you’re acting like you’re not defending her or saying she shouldn’t suffer consequences - this is literally the basis for this thread. Your bad take about this situation.

Nazi’s should feel threatened for holding their beliefs. If that person were my dad or my friend, I’d offer understanding while trying to work them out of their horrible beliefs - but boy would that be a short rope. Even now, I’m trying my best to talk to you about this topic with kindness. Despite none of my comments or any other in this thread seemingly penetrating.

You are defending this actress against suffering consequences for her beliefs, including dangerous anti-vax beliefs and borderline anti-lgtbqia beliefs. Are you now denying what you wrote? Or have you changed your mind? Or where is the misunderstanding here?

No, we’re not agreeing on the fundamentals.

I don’t break bread with Nazi’s, I don’t respect racists, and I don’t make friends with homophobic people.

If anyone came out in support of fundamentally evil concepts and I had the power to fire them, ostracize them, or make them feel unwelcome I would. You fundamentally disagree with that because you believe in true neutral freedom of speech, seemingly void of any meaningful consequence.

I think there’s something to say about giving people space to have bad ideas and to try and heal them through their evil perspective, but I think if someone is a full blown racist they should be treated like full blown racists. You old a bad opinion, but I’m trying to explain why it’s bad so that you can improve your perspective and do more good for the world.

So I’m trying to be clear, we do not agree. If someone is racist, you shouldn’t defend their beliefs and give them space to espouse them. If you do that, you allow those beliefs to grow. This is freedom of speech with consequences for your beliefs and actions. This is an ultimate good for society. Some idea and actions are toxic to society but play on base human instincts - like the “other” as an escape goat. Those ideas need to be socially and financially punished as much as possible because they’re an easy disease to spread that hurts everyone. Racism and anti-Semitism and anti-lgtbqia are these concepts that allow evil people to falsely attribute the cause of societal problems to marginalized and less powerful groups. And the problem is it works, it plays on base instincts, and thus the best vaccine against them is education, experience, and harsh punishment for holding those beliefs.

You have to start believing in protecting your community by abandoning the belief that anyone should be allowed to say and believe anything without suffering any consequences.

Brother in Christ, calling them out, telling them they’re wrong or even a moron is treating them differently.

And if someone you know says racist shit, and you don’t treat them differently, you’re racist too. You don’t get to share drinks with a Nazi without becoming a Nazi.

Treating people differently because of their beliefs is entirely valid depending on their beliefs. If you think pancakes are better than waffles, that’s one thing, if you think transgender people are mentally sick and don’t deserve rights (or any LGBTQIA+, any race, any nationality) then that’s an entirely different thing.

True unbiased neutrality only benefits the worst side of humanity.

I’m arguing some of the developers know it’s broken (including arguably all PoE leads and No Rest for the Wicked leads)(I would extend this to an even larger group but I won’t to keep it verifiable).

I don’t think all isometric ARPGs copy D2 because they think it’s not broken, I think they do it because it was an innovative genre defining game for its time, most of the devs look back to it with nostalgia, and it was a blockbuster hit. And I wouldn’t minimize the innovations in the scene to just QoL. I think what PoE1 and 2 and LE are doing around their systems is very innovative, including their financing model and tech. I would argue that they’re still fundamentally maintaining the moment to moment loop while expanding all the subsystems that give the game as a whole massive complexity and content - and that’s great but will inevitably pale in comparison to a game that innovates the moment to moment gameplay. I think most genres have innovated their core moment to moment gameplay compared to their genre defining counterparts 25 years ago, but that ARPGs haven’t.

And I completely disagree on my expectations being “unrealistic, unknown to the genre, or incompatible”. That’s laughable imo and something only a player incapable of imagining change would say.

• to be self-insert character or at least one of many characters as a form of self expression
  • Diablo 4, LE, and PoE2 (going forward “the big 3”) all do this well to extremely well. Diablos transmog system is peak, PoE2 has unbelievably good cosmetics and they’ve just started, LE is a small studio but I still feel like I’m playing my wizard when I play a wizard.
• I want mechanical self expression ideally in the form of dozens or hundreds of skills and their customization along with a skill tree that enables further customization on how your character plays. My load out of 10 abilities should look and feel and play very differently than your load out of 10 abilities.
  • the big three all do this but do it poorly. Diablo has low variability in abilities, poor customization, and my load out consists of mostly number go up choices. But importantly the bones are there, this makes it neither non-compatible nor unknown to the genre, it just means these devs did a poor job implementing it. PoE has a ton of this but fails to provide a meaningful load out or mechanical skill expression because nearly all builds converge to press a single button to blow up the screen and a second button to move around the screen fast. Again, they have all of the bones and far more customization than I’d ever expect from a game, and yet a lot of it is meaningless the second you close Path builder and actually start playing because it trivializes the game.
• I want to fight monsters and bosses that are varied, challenging, and uniquely rewarding ideally. Challenging and varied are putting in a lot of work in that sentence so I want to further expound and say combat should feel like a dance, a puzzle, high octane, and skill rewarding (not simply build skill or farming skill, but actual play skill).
  • the big three have varied down, and arguably uniquely rewarding down (D4 sucks at this imo) but they all falter on challenging or good moment to moment gameplay. I would argue PoE2 campaign is pretty good for this, but mid-end game is pretty awful and it really only ever shines in the boss arenas. They seem incapable of further innovating the mob combat because they seem to differentiate good combat in a boss arena (engaging) from good combat while mapping (mindless). LE’s Pinnacle boss is fantastic for this (and I like it better than all PoE bosses at this moment). Even as I heap praise in these areas, I’m rarely using reactive abilities, I’m rarely using multiple skills in a fight that aren’t just buff my one damage skill. Again, none of this is incompatible, none of this is unknown to the genre, all of this is achievable, and in a lot of places already in place just used poorly from a design perspective.
• I want the pacing around playing to be focused on fighting and clearing encounters more so than exploration and discovery.
  • the big three do this perfectly, as that’s essentially one of the ARPG innovations - fight fight fight and then plan/craft/prepare then fight fight fight. I think poe has some work with their towers and LE has some work with the size and rewards of their maps, but it’s hard to tease out changes here when this is typically the most mindless portion of all the games. They keep me clicking blow up screen at the right pace, I just wish I didn’t have to. Again, this quality is completely inline with the genre and done well.
• I want an additional system of collectibles that further modify the way I play and look, most consistently this looks like loot or crafting (this however should not be primarily satisfied with #'s go up).
  • again, the big 3 all do this well. I wish the qualities on items were more impactful and not just number go slightly up, but generally they’re doing okay. The uniques being added to PoE2 have been awesome to see, like the song crossbow and stuff, so I’m hopeful. Diablo let’s you collect transmogs. Again, totally typical of this genre.
• I want to do this with friends in a multiplayer format, ideally at times requiring multiplayer because that opens up a lot of unused design space (looking at you remnant 2 which was awesome or only theoretically Diablo world bosses and black dungeon).
  • multiplayer is possible and rewarded in all of the big 3. Only Diablo has content designed for multiplayer. I think PoE has a ways to go on making this experience more multiplayer friendly, in fact it’s my least favorite to play with friends despite it being my favorite of the three by miles. I wish they’d design more multiplayer content but I understand why they don’t. If the combat wasn’t so screen explosion based it would probably be a decent enough experience. Again, another quality entirely a part of this genre already just not fully implemented well.

So what exactly is incompatible here? I think the answer you’d give is engaging combat, because that’s what I always get when I have this conversation. “All changes that have already been made to the genre are great but no more changes to the genre would be good.” That’s the sentiment I always get. “I want to mindlessly grind mobs while watching a show I can only partially pay attention to on my second screen.” Is something I get a lot as well. Which just feels like a mobile game, an idle clicker, but not what most people want when they go to play a video game including in the ARPG genre. Even if we said there’s room for idle clickers in the genre, why are our stand out examples all idle clickers, that to me feels like a clear sign of stagnation in a genre. Dota, rainbow six, BG3, BioShock, portal 2 - none of these games would be better if they were less engaging such that we could watch TV on the side, so why is it okay when talking about the genre defining games of our Gen in isometric Diablo-like ARPGs?

Partially because it’s a tool made by stealing other’s work. AI exists today because hundreds of thousands of artists and writers and real human people did not get compensated for their work. It’s like support Walmart despite it purposefully shutting down small businesses or buying blood diamonds (is that too far?). It’s something made by hurting other people.

I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say “There is no ethical consumption under capitalism” but like it’s not easy. We all are forced to make shortcuts and are forced to be a part of harmful systems. So I wouldn’t judge you if you used AI to generate art, but I would judge you if you pretended it wasn’t unethical and harmful to both the environment and fellow humans.

I think people are particularly up in arms about this topic because the output is, in some instances, so bad or so commercial or so lifeless that it feels like a really poor exchange for taking money away from artists and burning rare materials and energy. Like it’s so easy to NOT do this thing that it feels extra bad when people do it.

I get it, when midjourney first came out I was a huge fan. In fact I think it’s easy to say I love the idea of AI as a tool for quick creative creation. I think it’s incredibly empowering. I just think there isn’t a form of it today that wasn’t created via value extraction from the working class.

I think you’re getting the wrong impression.

I absolutely like isometric ARPGs, I just like them exponentially more in theory. Most of them have barely innovated on Diablo 2’s core moment to moment loop and it’s something that seemingly everyone is aware of but no studio has yet to be able to fix. I’m looking for good combat, which was what PoE2 pitched in all of their videos, in most of their dev interviews (although as of late it feels like they’re pulling back on this), and has so far failed to deliver outside of the boss arena (and sometimes in the boss arena too).

I want:

• to be self-insert character or at least one of many characters as a form of self expression
• I want mechanical self expression ideally in the form of dozens or hundreds of skills and their customization along with a skill tree that enables further customization on how your character plays. My load out of 10 abilities should look and feel and play very differently than your load out of 10 abilities.
• I want to fight monsters and bosses that are varied, challenging, and uniquely rewarding ideally. Challenging and varied are putting in a lot of work in that sentence so I want to further expound and say combat should feel like a dance, a puzzle, high octane, and skill rewarding (not simply build skill or farming skill, but actual play skill).
• I want the pacing around playing to be focused on fighting and clearing encounters more so than exploration and discovery. Elden Ring is fantastic but it’s slow between clearing mobs and escalating the stakes/rewards - relying on the underlying exploration to be meaningful (and it is and it’s a 10/10 but not what I’m talking about in this post).
• I want an additional system of collectibles that further modify the way I play and look, most consistently this looks like loot or crafting (this however should not be primarily satisfied with #'s go up).
• I want to do this with friends in a multiplayer format, ideally at times requiring multiplayer because that opens up a lot of unused design space (looking at you remnant 2 which was awesome or only theoretically Diablo world bosses and black dungeon).

In theory this describes games like Diablo/LE/PoE as well as remnant 2/destiny/borderlands. But classic ARPG’s have so much of these needs theoretically covered that if they’d just tweak the moment to moment gameplay they’d have a perfect game for me. Where as games like Borderlands barely has a dozen skills in the entire game and they barely change how you play (coming from B3 and B4), the combat by the nature of being an fps is more engaging but it’s not much past that - it’s very repetitive and the number of mobs that are interesting or good is low imo. If each quality I’m looking for is scored 1-10 borderlands may have some of them but they score lower than most ARPGs. Remnant 2 was fantastic but it didn’t have the hundreds of hours of content and systems to do that wasn’t grinding story paths (I’d still rate this experience at 10/10). Hades and Enter the Gungeon and most roguelites have fantastic moment to moment gameplay but lack most of the other qualities I’m looking for. Wo Long and DS and all of those are fantastic games with good moment to moment gameplay but similarly lack multiple qualities I’m looking for.

I honestly think I want an open world Diablo where it’s designed more like a Gauntlet and DND-esque groups in mind, with better combat and better loot and more skills. I want exactly what PoE2 was promising and delivers in their campaign (by and large, some things would still need to improve to score highly in my desired qualities) but which they completely abandon in the mid-to-late game. I want something in between No Rest for the Wicked or Hades or Remnant 2 and PoE 2 or LE or Diablo. And listening to the developers in this space on various podcasts and dev interviews, they know that is what’s missing but seem unable to get there quite yet. I think PoE2, if it doesn’t fix combat, will be an innovation on PoE1 but will be remembered as PoE1.5 and lumped into the age of ARPGS that were still Diablo 2 successors or the age after of innovators instead of the next generation of ARPGs i think we’re on the cusp of.