I mean, tbh, I would consider VIP protection to be far less military-adjacent than police adjacent.

This sounds like the plot of John Scalzi’s Redshirts

I don’t really have a dog in the fight, but what about Shawn Levy, the auteur behind such visionary films like Free Guy, The Internship, and the Night at the Museum series, inspires such confidence in you? Or, rather, why is Tropper a red flag for you?

There’s the kernel of a pretty good 3 minute YouTube skit in here.

Love the 1970s book cover vibe!

What’s going on in the upper right of the motel building? I see a laundry room, but is that a mail room next to it? With all the packages and the location’s “seedy” nature, makes me think some of the guests or employees might be operating a small scale distribution center of some kind…

Well that’s just adorable

ItellyouhwatmandangolgraveyardsmakingmoredoggoneracketthendangolMegalomartsportinggoodssectionnowadaysmanitellyouhwat. Dangolliberalnecromancersmakingthedeadwokemmhm.

I mean, John Williams can say anything he likes about the quality of film music, he’s certainly earned the right.

That being said…

I mean, I guess I just don’t view entertainment options as a finite resource. Amusements abound. Games, movies, shows, books, lectures, theater, articles, podcasts, music, sports, etc. The means to dispense with my free time far far far exceed the amount of free time I have to fritter away. So, while you may view backlog management as unhealthy min/maxing, I would counter that your preoccupation with “running out” of entertainment is, at least, equally as unhealthy a min/max mindset.

Also, I can’t speak for others, but your clothing analogy made me think of this: when I talk about not wanting to purchase a game because of my backlog, usually I don’t mean “aw man, I’d really like to get Baldur’s Gate 3, but I haven’t finished my Madden dynasty yet”. Rather, it would be closer to, “I’d really like to get Baldur’s Gate 3, but I bought both of the Owlcat Pathfinder RPGs last sale and I haven’t even booted those up yet”. So, it’s less about deciding whether or not to buy a shirt based on how many pairs of jeans you own, and more about deciding whether you need the latest, most fashionable cut of Levis when you’ve got 3 pairs of Costco jeans at home still.

Ultimately, it’s neither right nor wrong of you to hoard digital games. It’s your money, you do with it what you will. It just seems like a wildly hot take to come into that conversation swinging around accusatory statements like “that’s an unhealthy min-max mindset”.

That’s not really what’s implied in that statement. A better comparison, using your streaming service analogy, would be that you subscribed to Apple TV because you heard Severance was really good. However, one thing led to another, and now it’s months later, and you still haven’t watched Severance. So, instead of starting a new series (say, Ted Lasso) you queue up Severance instead.

It’s still not a great analogy, because the streaming service implies a real, ongoing cost to maintaining access to the service, which is not the case with most people’s game libraries. That being said, with Gamepass and GeForce Now etc, it’s not necessarily out of the question.

The purpose isn’t to “deplete entertainment options”, it’s to utilize the options you already have financial investment in before sinking more money into more options simply for their novelty.

The “point of the product” isn’t to provide theoretical novel entertainment value by sitting, unplayed, on my digital shelves. Bold take here, but I’d suggest the point of a video game is to be played.

I love this running gag.

You’re the one suggesting that your lack of attraction to these character models is an objective flaw. Which is, of course, semantically silly, if nothing else. Not finding a character (or person) attractive for whatever reason is your business. Taking to the forum and yelling about androgyny being objectively unattractive (in an online space which I’d wager has a disproportionate representation of trans and NB individuals) is an interesting choice.

Is…is that man a carrot?

Agreed. If you’re gonna do the “put as much star power on the poster as you can, we shelled out for these likenesses, we’re damn well gonna market them” thing, you as well dress it up a little. Also, punk rock Dr who is rad.

They get eaten by velociraptors.

In context, this makes sense.

That’s an incredibly evocative simile that ultimately still has me unsure of whether it’s good or bad.

Grew up in Nebraska. It’s a point of really lame civic pride among the population that paid attention in elementary school social studies.

For some reason, I had it in my head that Maine also operated a unicameral, however that appears to not be the case. They tried to adopt it in 2009, but the measure failed. So, I’m not 100% sure what factoid I’m misremembering, but I know there is some strange kinship between Maine and Nebraska local politics.

Have no fear, Pedantic Man is here!

Almost every state has a House and a Senate. Nebraska (as well as the Virgin Islands and Guam, if you want to include territorial legislatures) operates a unicameral, technically non-partisan (as in, party affiliation isnt “officially” acknowledged), legislature.

You’re welcome, citizen! Pedantic Man, up, up, and away!

Thought this was a post in c/witchymemes for a minute