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Cake day: July 31st, 2023

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  • theparadox@lemmy.worldtoGames@lemmy.worldKotaku being Kotaku
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    2 months ago

    Just reiterating what others have said but… if you have an IP you like and want more of it in the future (regardless of medium!) then its success in any other medium will likely impact whether or not you get more.

    Unfortunately, we live in a world where:

    • Money matters more to most IP holders than the IP itself

    • New IP is seen as risky

    • Those in charge don’t have to take responsibility for their failures

    If there is a commercial failure of an IP, there is a good chance that its failure will be seen as the IP generally failing or falling out of poluarity instead of the failure to best utilize the IP that likely occurred. As a result, priorities will often shift away from the IP to something else in all mediums (ex. ASOIAF/GOT). Unless the IP is absolutely gangbusters in all other mediums, it will suffer. Similarly, success will likely lead to more utilization of the IP in any medium.

    It’s unlikely that the IP owner will sell or license the IP in the near future because at one point it was popular and new IP is hard to make. It would be better to hoard IP and maybe try again in a decade when they need a trick up their sleeve. Plus, another failure might damage the IP even more.

    Admittedly, I’m not attached to any brands or IP in particular and so I’m not invested really. I just makes me a little sad when some IP I thought well of has this happen… or when the person who benefits from the IP turns out to be a person I’d rather not give money to. Occasionally I’ll ponder what might have been if things had gone differently and feel a little bad.



  • Fundraisers and charities, when you have a lot money, are rarely acts of charity. They tend to be PR campaigns and power plays.

    Honestly, even when the acts have good intentions, they are often quite damaging. The involvement of the wealthy in charity is very similar to their involvement in politics. Their wealth buys influence and gives them a disproportionate say that allows them to ignore and overrule the will of the people and sometimes even reality.

    For example, look into the impact of Bill Gates’s “acts of charity” in the education space. He poured money into charter programs that negatively impacted public education. Later studies showed that his programs were not particularly effective.

    Let’s say, hypothetically, that a very rich person is convinced by some charlatan that they found the a means to produce free energy. The wealthy person throws tons of money at the idea. How many talented people will be taken from other legit programs because the paycheck at Bullshit Energy Nonprofit is better? These rich people are successful and think they know bestr. Their money ensures they get treated like experts because money makes things happen whether or not those things are helpful.


  • In the US, conservative lawmakers have been waging a quiet war against our postal system for a while now.

    Highlights: They forced it to be self-sustaining (cut federal funding), then when that didn’t kill it they forced it to, in a very short time frame, pre-fund retirement benefits ahead of time for all current and former employees.

    The postal system is more or less dependent on the funds it gets from spam mailers.

    Edit: To clarify, I’m not insinuating that the bulk/majority of its income is from junk mail, I’m just stating that its not nothing, so they don’t really have an incentive to kill that source if revenue.


  • I agree, though I am super disdainful of any argument that is sort of reskinning “other people are really stupid”.

    I don’t consider ignorance and susceptible to sophisticated influence campaigns to mean “really stupid”.

    Perhaps I’m just using nicer language to say the same thing (or otherwise, ultimately, hold myself to be superior). That’s fair I suppose - but I’m aware of the circumstances and privilege that helped me achieve my perspective. I’m of the belief that, if given similar benefits, most would be just as “superior”.

    Now that I’ve demonstrated I’m superior, and humble, I still feel like this could have been avoided if people in the district voted instead of just ignoring the campaign or assuming, like I did, that people in the district would do better.

    To anyone reading this, if you are a resident in the district and didn’t vote for Bowman… do better next time for everyone’s sake.


  • This also assumes voters are informed and engaged, and that political campaigns are honest.

    As I understand it, mailers trashing Bowman were like 80% of the mail you received in that district and their ads showed up constantly on Tv. It is possible to manufacture a perceived reality when you have enough money.

    Admittedly, I was foolishly hopeful that residents of his district would recognize a racist, conservative piece of shit and vote for Bowman even if they didn’t agree with his stance on Gaza so shame on me.



  • Sadly, old Google doesn’t work either thanks to the efforts of SEO and the AI generated garbage.

    The problem with search is that the motives of those being searched aren’t to provide you with the most helpful answer. The motives are to get you to visit their website then stay/click/buy as much as possible. They’ll tailor their content to match whatever algorithm the engine is using.

    That’s why Google’s new plan is to collect all of the information ahead of time and skip the “visit other websites” step. Then you can stay/click/buy on their website as much as possible.

    Seriously though. Just skip all this nonsense, you selfish piece of shit, and open your wallet so the hungry corpos can feast on its contents - they have poor, innocent, starving shareholders to feed… you monster.