Just got home from the gym, and going to head back for another session in the morning - all because I’m stubborn and want to prove the wife wrong…

…she definitely knows how to push my buttons, heaven help me if she ever decides to use those powers for evil! 😅

The in-laws are heading back overseas in a month, so we are going to lose their babysitting services shortly, so I’m trying to get in as much exercise as I can!

Any tips to stay on track and motivated to work out from home once they leave?

I don’t want the current iteration of EA to succeed; but I do want them to return to form and help* nurture quality releases of Command and Conquer, Mass Effect, Dead Space, Burn Out, Need for Speed, Road Rash, Theme X, Sim City and about a dozen other dormant (or mismanaged) franchises.

Could I get similar experiences from other publishers and developers? Absolutely — but I’d much rather we as gamers have a broader choice in the future of our hobby, rather than continually whittling down our options as quality developers get swallowed up and spat out by the current industrial machine.

I think it’s time we blow this scene, get everybody and the stuff together…

Okay, three, two, one, let’s jam! 🎵

Holy crap - that was brilliant, and Amber’s over-the-top reactions were just the cream on top! 👌🏼

Fuck me, that’s somehow creepier than it has any right to be.

I mean, if you are enterprising enough you can strip the car down, sell the stainless steel to a scrap yard; sell the interior, wheels and windshield to a salvage yard; and repurpose the batteries for an overkill off-grid home system!

Realistically yes, you are correct.

I’m sure we all (at least those old enough) to remember that Boycott Modern Warfare II Steam group screenshot.

Idealistically, imagine that for every release - instead of giving EA that $80 dollars, 10% of gamers put that money towards a share instead.

So that would work out to be ~$200m in lost upfront sales, and up to $540m in lost recurring spend (microtransactions, battle passes etc.).

That would only be enough for gamers to own 0.5% of the company after the first year, but keeping this up for multiple years could have a downward pressure on EA’s stock price long-term as they miss their financial forecasts - increasing gamer’s buying power on shares.

Within a few years, these “Gamers United” would begin to have sufficient stake to influence board decisions (for the better).

The best part being that, the entire time, EA would continue to pay dividends to them (currently at a rate of ~$3.10 per share, per year), while they still technically own that money - almost like a corporate savings account.

*Edit: out of the three companies I randomly picked, Ubisoft would actually be the softest target - as their market cap is only $1.38b, so gamers would only need to acquire ~$700m of shares to wrestle control of the company!

You might be right; only looking at losing the windshield, soft-top and driver… all easily replaceable parts, IMO!

Miata is always the answer.

In this case, the question would have been - which one of these cars would not survive an accident with the other?

Machiavelli, Ley is definitely not.

The problem is that the Nats smelled in the water, and pushed to dissolve the previous Coalition agreement to one that favours them - or at the very least gives equal standing to both parties due to the current seat count.

In order to truly rebuild the Liberals, she needed to go off alone and rebuild the ‘wets’ side of the party - the gays and plays, basically - the ones that were peeled off by the Teals, due to the party’s hard right shift over the past decade.

At some point in the future 2-3 election cycles down the track when the Liberals rebuilt their identity they could arguably re-enter a coalition with the Nats from a position of power. Doing so now, is just tying an albatross around their neck.

More power to them, let a thousand blossoms bloom - I say. Never interrupt your opponent while they’re making a mistake!

I really wish gamers could unite in a way that they buy out sufficient ownership stakes in these terrible publishers that they force them to treat development studios better, and not push out half-finished slop filled to the brim with predatory monetisation.

EA, Konami, Ubisoft would all be ripe for a renaissance if that were to pass.

I’m going to hold out for Cyberpunk 2222, personally.

You’re likely right, but one can still dream!

A world without Putin and Russian aggression, a peaceful and prosperous Ukraine…

So is the main benefit to this that you could host your totally legitimate back-ups on a NAS, and access them from any on-network device?

If so, can you share save states this way?

Which is why in Australia, when we tell someone to eat shit - it’s actually because we care about their digestive health!

I’m more curious as to what his middle initial J. stands for… d’oh!

I find it helps to avoid the hype trains surrounding new media releases, as well as anything after the teaser trailer.

Getting one’s expectations up usually results in the said media failing to live up.

Best to go in blind and make your own mind up afterwards!

Not quite, unfortunately… these cruise missiles don’t have the range to cover the distance to Moscow. Perhaps another exploratory excursion into the Kursk region might be necessary?

The lack of glasses means he can stand to look at himself in the mirror… it tracks!