Words are defined and redefined based on their real world usage, so if there were enough people describing themselves as dragons, the definition could be updated to account for that. Denying or ridiculing novelty or unorthodoxy would hamper progress in any movement, be it for religious freedoms or trans rights.

As much as Steam is free to host what it likes, Visa and the others are free not to work with Steam. You could argue the options available to Steam would be significantly limited by that, but the same argument is being used against Steam now in the Wolfire lawsuit. The argument is that Steam violates antitrust law via illegal tying and other means, making it hard for a user who doesn’t agree with their content policies to switch to a different platform, like Epic, which has always prohibited porn games.

Well, some people do want that.

There should be a separate platform for that, similar to how you wouldn’t go on YouTube expecting to see videos from PornHub.

Women exist. Dragons do not.

Exist in what sense? Again, is it rooted in something like biology or social assignment in your view, or is it based on the existence of people self-identifying as such? If the former, why do you not take issue with singular they? If the latter, what’s the difference between that and “dragon”? Would you argue there are no people who genuinely use “dragon” as their pronoun? There are certainly quite a few who use “fae/faer”, so it wouldn’t be a significant leap.

Would it be transphobic to say “I’ll use she/her for you but I don’t believe you’re a woman, as that’s against the objective reality of biology”?

Could you cite a legal document to that end? Per the cited court decision, he was an illegal immigrant awaiting deportation.

What’s your fear in relation to using older recovery?

Relaunching never seems to work out. Just look at Multiversus and Bloodhunt.

You could still name names and link the article(s), then offer a verifiable summary as to why you believe the coverage is inaccurate. You’re not disputing that Kirsche is transphobic and that there is a genuine-looking clip of them being racist though, are you?

Not a great idea to call someone out for spreading lies but not support the claim with evidence. Also, what are your honest thoughts on Gamergate?

Pravda is a good Ukrainian source though. It’s independent from the government and not pro-Russian in any shape or form. The number of Ukrainians protesting speaks for itself and eliminates the need to trust Transparency International here.

deleted by creator

Indifference is more like it. Being ruled by some form of a tsar is most of what they’ve known, so there’s not much of a framework in the culture to go by in order to oppose the regime. Another aspect is that, due to the rise in oil prices coinciding with Putin’s rise to power, many have become wealthier and credited Putin for that. Even those who aren’t for Putin would have to ask themselves if they’re ready to trade all they’ve gained for a violent uprising that could easily cost them everything. The quality of life of most Russians hasn’t really decreased from the war or the sanctions to even make them want that. For the most part, they still get to enjoy the same lifestyles with some adjustments, like trading American, Korean, or European cars for Chinese, though even that can be bypassed via parallel importing and the used cars market. Same for virtually everything else.

My impression might be skewed because I’ve only played from the first through Syndicate so far. Based on those, yes, there’s a lot of pointlessness even there. After finishing all quests in Rogue, I had to spend as many hours to open all the chests and collect everything for achieving 100% completion. Still, I got to explore new places and see more of the game world. I also could just abandon that and still see the game as finished, but you can’t do these things if you’re stuck trying to beat a boss in a souslike, or at least how I understand those games.

I’m a big fan of the AC games. It’s my favorite series. I also avoid soulslike games, as I don’t understand the appeal. Aren’t they all about doing the same thing over and over again “to get better”? If so, that’s definitely not what I play games for, as it’s more like work.

No, it’s not a way to keep anything in check. It’s a way to not pay license fees to Microsoft.

It’s easy to be in a progressive country like Canada and praise the Soviet Union or Russia. I think deep down they know that they’d have a miserable life in Russia or China, so at best they make up reasons for why they can’t move, even though the power of the passports and wages in the countries most of them are from allows them to easily do that, which can’t be said about Russian or Chinese citizens trying to get a visa to even travel to one of the Western countries.

To me, the use of Bandcamp itself was a discovery a year or two ago. In the mid to late 2000s, MySpace was where everyone shared their music, so the natural progression from that seemed to be all the other social media platforms, YouTube, and maybe the streaming services. I never would have thought to look for the music on a website that’s not any of those things, and yet Bandcamp is like the new MySpace for goth music these days!

One of my favorite tracks is Weimar Vampire.

I’ve known about it for a while and I don’t hear AI in the music itself. The guitars and the singing are very legit. The lyrics are flawed enough to be human. Sometimes he credits other people for the drums, so I assume those are real too. Quite a number of the songs have alternative mixes or re-recorded versions. He does put out a lot of stuff, and it’s hit or miss as far as quality, but being a bit too active is still better than nothing!