iOS being closed is a selling point for iOS.

Why do the rights of people who bought the product and expected it to do more than advertised outweigh the rights of those who bought the product because it does exactly as advertised?

Given the many, many violent threats that Trump supporters throw around, I'm far more likely to believe the woman was doxxed and threatened until she pulled the suit.

They've threatened judges, jurors, government officials, etc.. I would not be surprised about them threatening rape victims, especially if it was their guy who did it.

Companies get flak for stupid shit all the time. Just look at Dylan Mulvaney and the Bud Light fiasco.

All these anti-AI people need to calm down and touch grass.

They have more than enough sprites/models for an LLM to learn from too, I'd imagine. They've used the excuse before that there are too many existing Pokemon to possibly create the needed models to have them all in a single game, but this should solve that too.

.. which is probably why it won't happen. It's wild that the most valuable media franchise to exist is also one of the cheapest, doing the bare minimum with their products. But I guess that's also how they became so profitable.

What I don't get is that, say, The Pokemon Company owns all the assets for their games, right? If they own the assets and use machine learning to build patterns from those existing assets to generate new ones, what would be the risk to their IP?

I could see there being a problem with using a third-party LLM, but if it's an in-house LLM using in-house assets, what's the issue?

I could see The Pokemon Company using generative AI. They're the cheapest company in existence while also owning the most valuable media franchise in existence. They already do the bare minimum in their games, why wouldn't they try to do even less?

Like a prestige system, where they can go from 1 to 50 all over again. And again. And again. That's a ton of gameplay.

They can do that with prestige badges, new medals, and unique field research. Why does it have to be level 60?

If they're only collection games, why do you need level 60 when you can collect Pokemon just fine at level 50?

If IVs matter so little, show me the 1 and 2 star Pokemon you've maxed out instead of waiting for a 3 star instead.

It doesn't matter. In every single game with levels, reaching the max level is part of the game. It's something you just have to do. Having a max level of 50 makes players think they have to reach level 50. Since so many players already have a problem with that, why should they raise the level cap to 60? Who is that supposed to be for?

If people already struggle to hit 50, raising the cap to 60 and potentially gatekeeping features behind those levels will alienate people -- and for no good reason.

If people who are at level 50 want something to do, the best way to do it would be to add a prestige system so they can get a badge. Not just increasing a grind most people already can't handle.

Because reaching the max level in games is basically how you play them. By not reaching the max level, you didn't really "beat" the game in any way, shape, or form. Getting to level 50 is already a daunting task that most players haven't reached. Adding another, even more challenging 10 levels is going to push people away from the game because it will be "unbeatable" in their eyes.

Prestige systems don't carry that same burden. Players can still reach the max level and beat the game. Prestige is like a new game +, completely optional.

And again, most players are not even level 50 yet. So even if 51 - 60 is more content, who is it content for? 5% of the playerbase? Less?

There's no way. They would alienate a large chunk of their playerbase if they put certain features past level 50. Most players aren't even at that level yet.

The best thing for Niantic to do would be to add a prestige system, where players can get badges purely for bragging rights.

No animals should be allowed in grocery stores. Really, there are so many options now allowing you to shop without even stepping foot in the store that these accomodations shouldn't even be a thing anymore.

They get hair everywhere, they go to the bathroom and the owners typically never clean it up, and they set off allergies of others in the store. If someone genuinely needs a service animal, they can just get curbside delivery or government assistance for delivery services. There's zero reason why they should be in the store.

They're all infinitely more useful than Celebi even as a shiny though. Zarude is a beast, Diancie is the best rock-type attacker in the game as a mega, and both Shaymin and Meleoletta can get decent DPS and insanely high CP.

Most players won't even make it to level 50. It's why adding level 60 to the game is stupid. Leveling just becomes even more daunting for casual players, pushing them away.

I hope they add a prestige system if they want to do more. Just give players badges for leveling over and over that others can easily ignore rather than making everyone feel like they can't complete the game by hitting max level.

All the previous ones that I've done (Zarude, Shaymin, Diancie, and Meleoletta) have been much, much easier than this.

If you have two people who are doing the same job, one of which is doing half the work of the other and requires numerous accomodations to even do so, it doesn't make sense to pay them both the same wage.

You can say it would be exploitation to pay those with disabilities less, but I'd argue it's explotation to pay someone the same rate as someone else when they do twice the work.

But obviously minimum wage is a joke and everyone, disability or not, needs money to survive. So really, the only answer is for the government to step in and provide support for these workers in a way that takes some of the burden off of employers so that they can afford 11 employees to do the work of 10.

Agreed with what you've said. Obsidian is going to show no matter the game, so we'll have great quests, characters, and writing, and the world of Eora is incredible, so we'll hopefully see amazing worldbuilding and atmosphere with plenty of lore for those who want it

The better this game does, the more likely we'll see another game set in the PoE universe, which is going to be great whether it's a sequel or a third CRG entry.

They took feedback from the first gameplay trailer of Avowed and gave the combat a bit more weight for the deep dive gameplay. How many other developers do that?

Just to be fair, The Outer Worlds left quite a bit to be desired for me. I'm cautiously optimistic for Avowed, but the worlds of Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity II were amazing so I'm still excited to be able to revisit them in first-person.

And given how Bethesda is performing and acting, I really, really want for more developers to release good RPGs as actual competition.

Todd and Emil need to go.

Lots of stores have more than one front-end TL along with a front-end ETL. Guest service also deals with most disgruntled guests themselves, so very rarely are those TLs actually brought into those situations -- and even then, it's just to make things right for the guests so they shut up and leave.

It's also one of the only areas of the store that isn't allowed to fall behind. Just call for back-up when it gets busy. If it's too much, even the TLs and ETLs in the store will go up and cash. No other department has that safety net to fall back on.

It's jarring because most executives spend a lot of their time sitting at their desks, but they're never considered lazy for it. It's those who work manual labor that are deemed lazy for sitting.

Even where I work, cashiers are not allowed to sit at all and even our receiver lost their chair. But go into the offices of all the leaders and they have their chairs still.

No one who works three jobs is lazy and it's pretty telling how biased you are in thinking that.

Because this is transactional, not support. If I'm paying for a mod, I want it to work. I want it to work when I install it. I want it to work when I install other mods. I want it to work throughout all of the game's updates. If I'm paying money for it, my standards of what is acceptable are much, much higher than they are when something is free.

Just look at the host of issues with some of the paid mods right now. If modders want to create mods as a job, then they need to actually do the job right and be held accountable when they don't -- but that isn't a thing, so it just can't happen.

Bethesda can't properly maintain or curate paid mods and many mod authors can't or won't do the work that should be required when selling goods and services. So paid mods should just not be a thing.

If Bethesda wants to support modders, they should do what Nexus is doing and take donations. Or, given how much modders extend the life of their games, maybe they can actually pay modders based on the amount of downloads their mods get rather than fleecing the modding community for more money to line their own pockets (the pay split between modders and Bethesda are horrendous the last time paid mods were a thing and I doubt that has changed).