I was part of a campaign that was running for a few years that unfortunately ended abruptly before I could ever naturally reveal the several puns and references I packed into my character from the outset. The set up for the ones I remember are my character was a large, friendly paladin whose highest stat was in Charisma, who largely wanted a group of friends and his highest goal was to be called their pal, who wanted to be called by his last name by his friends, who was half angelic/celestial (can’t remember the name of the race), who had dark skin, a large muscular frame, bald head, and short facial hair, whose starting gift was his blessed chainmail, and whose name was Cronwier Aderb.

The references that I remember are that he was designed in the image of a meme with Terry Crews photoshopped as a paladin (stats also reflected this meme), his blessed chainmail was his Hole-y Armor, I remember there being something about his name reflecting a crown but I can’t remember the pun or reference, and lastly he wanted his friends to say “this is our pal, Aderb.” That last one I remember I specifically came up with after the DM asked if my character was going to be “like your dark souls character, another paladerp?”

Apparently “W” was originally written as “uu” as early as ~600AD, hence the name, however it still used Latin/Roman letters which hadn’t yet distinguished between u and v as letters. For at least 700 years, u and v appear to have been considered the same and interchangeable (so "Double U " could look like “uu” or “vv”) but it depends on your language whether it was verbally called a “U” or a “V” until the first recorded distinction between the two in a Gothic era alphabet written in 1386. The two apparently did still see some overlap in use until about the 1700s with the turning point appearing to be when the distinction between their capital forms was accepted by the French Academy in 1726.

tl;dr: “Double U” predates the distinction between “U” and “V” so it’s up to chance which letter a language called it before it stuck.

Discussion about it on the subreddit was insufferable back in the day. All the fanboys would show up in every thread complaining about the problem saying stupid shit like “well Psyonix has the data to judge if it’s working or not and since you don’t that makes your argument invalid”

Even in casual mode, you have a (hidden) rank which does go down the more you lose. If you keep getting demolished in the game then I’d recommend doing the training, playing against bots, and/or continuing to play in casual mode until your rank starts placing you with other players you can better contend with.

There’s also a distinct possibility you were against someone smurfing as some people like to do that either for content or just for kicks and giggles. The very lowest ranks are probably where the most egregious smurfs like to keep their ranks, so unfortunately you can have some of the widest swings in actual skill levels.

Unfortunately the devs don’t really seem to care much about the smurfing problem in the game because it’s been pretty rampant for a very long time and some of the changes they’ve made have actually made it even easier to get away with.

Why’s that?

I’m not saying I know this person is an asshole because they drive a large, obnoxious vehicle every day. I’m saying I see people who drive large, obnoxious vehicles on a daily basis and as such it wouldn’t surprise me if this person also drove this large, obnoxious vehicle on a daily basis because I’ve seen others do it. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that this person does use this as more than a “toy” just as much as it’s possible that this is the only time it was ever on-road.

If this person drives this vehicle regularly in relatively urban areas (or really much anywhere except mostly on empty roads or off road) then I’d be disappointed and frustrated that their toy is something that has been modified in a way that makes it larger and more dangerous to both other drivers and pedestrians. That’s not to say I think they’re doing that specifically to be more dangerous to everyone else, but the net effect is still the same. Their modifications have made it harder to see others close to the car, made it easier for others to go under the vehicle in the event of an accident, and made it more likely to tumble in a crash.

That all being said, my experience with the type of people who install modifications like this to their vehicles would suggest they’re an asshole who’s either apathetic to the danger they cause others or like these modifications specifically because it pisses people off. Just as you said I don’t know from this single photo whether this person fits that mold and I’m not going to pretend I do, but I’m also not going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

You may feel comfortable introducing the possibility and almost insisting that their vehicle is a toy, but personally I’m against calling almost any car or truck a “toy”, much less one that has wheels that look taller than many people.

To a sensible person it wouldn’t be a daily driver. I’ve seen some people who are not sensible on my daily commute.

I think I would change that one to sometime along the lines of “No corporation is above criticism.” Maybe with some addendum like “regardless of how favorably you view them.” The reason being is that I think it’s perfectly fine to try to set a record straight if there’s blatant misinformation going on about a corporation that’s been doing good by people, but no matter how much good they might have done they should never be above critique.

Case and point being LMG with their recent issues regarding allegations of sexism, harassment, overworking employees, bullying, and adopting the exact same practices that they themselves have criticized major tech corps for, among other issues. Now I don’t mind correcting the record if someone was saying some stupid BS about them, however you can bet that I was also one of the ones calling them out on the things they did.

Well only started using a browser profile, specifically in Chrome, within the last year. I still don’t use it for personal use, though. Or chrome for that matter.

I’m the same boat except I was forced to use it because of work some time in the last 2 ish years.

Except for 0⁰

If you want to discuss specifically why someone might pirate a game for the explicit purpose of not liking Nintendo’s practices then it sounds like you don’t understand the concept of spite and/or don’t understand how infrequently that is the primary reason one would pirate a game in comparison to the other myriad reasons.

Pirating a game comes with some inherit risk depending on precise circumstances so a potential pirate would be to weigh how much their desire to play a game compares to the time and effort it would take to get it working (download time, installing emulators, installing drivers, configuring, modifying the game, etc), the risk to the machine they’d be installing it on (the malware that may be installed alongside, the risk of physical damage to hardware modifications that might be required, the potential for your console or your IP being banned from servers, etc), and if it’s worth any additional hardware they might require to install it (additional storage space, buying tools to modify hardware, buying hardware mods that could allow hacks, etc)

Not being physically, legally, or financially capable of buying games may make someone willing to risk some, many, or all of these factors. I can’t imagine a significant percentage of people who’d pirate a game like Tears of the Kingdom were financially well off enough to easily afford it, but chose to do it with the explicit purpose of saying “Screw Nintendo, they don’t deserve the money I easily could give them for this game.”

I can however reasonably believe that the majority of the pirates for a game like Tears of the Kingdom would do so because “I can’t play the game without better accessibility options that Nintendo doesn’t offer, so I need to play it on an emulator that can support what I need”, “it’s not available in my region other than from brick and mortar stores which are all out of stock or charge absurd prices I can’t afford”, or “I just want to add a few mods to make the game I love even more enjoyable without risking my console getting banned from online play”.

But refusing to discuss other reasons except the most petty feels like you want to disregard other valid reasons in order misrepresent piracy as nothing but a petty practice. Of course I don’t know your exact intentions, but that’s the vibe I get from your response here.

As far as my personal opinion on whether games such as any of the Soulsbourne titles should be made easier, I’m appreciative of the fact that they don’t have difficulty sliders in much any regard. If I beat Dark Souls 3, there isn’t a question about if I beat it on the easiest mode, anyone who’s gone through the entire experience knows what I also went through. While I agree that most of the FromSoft games are sorely lacking in accessibility options (even more so their older titles), Difficulty is only one of many accessibility options. I would rather they add other accessibility options so that players who struggle with the games as is can have an easier time getting the intended experience than reduce the intended experience down to allow for the lowest common denominator.

As an aside, many of the Soulsbourne games already have something in the way of “easier modes” via alternate weapons, different combat systems, and different play styles. Playing almost any of them primarily using ranged combat reduces the difficulty in most every encounter in the game outside of boss battles. Boss battles often have their own gimmick that you can exploit to make them easier to fight. Often the level design, nearby items (and descriptions), or enemy positions are used as clues to make finding these exploits easier.

As an example, the Taurus Demon in DS1 can be killed fairly easily by baiting him to where the skeleton archers are above the fight, then using a plunging attack on him several times in a row. The intended experience is that you would go into the arena, you may run directly towards the other side, spawn the Taurus demon once you run about halfway through the arena, and notice you’re being shot at from behind. You’ll likely die, but in the next fight against him you can try to take out the archers via your own ranged weapons, but doing so shows a cleverly hidden ladder that leads up to the archers. The ladder isn’t visible when entering the arena but the moment you turn around to look at the archers you can clearly see it next to the doorway you entered from. You can go up the ladder and easily dispatch the archers. I don’t remember if every following fight you have to run halfway through the arena to spawn him again or if you have to run halfway through only the first time, but regardless an observant player will notice after taking down the archers that the drop back down the ladder will look very similar to the plunging attack the game teaches you in the tutorial boss fight. If you make the connection and perform that attack on the Taurus Demon it’ll take out about 30% of his health depending on your class and weapon. Scramble around his legs (now that you’re on the same floor as him) back towards the ladder, climb up, and repeat a few more times for an easy victory. Alternatively you can wait up where the archers were for a few seconds and the Taurus Demon will jump up and fight you there. You now have an alternate wider arena better suited to strafing around him instead of the narrow bridge he spawns in on.

Other games would do things like give a prompt to lower the difficulty, reduce the health of enemies in the background after repeated failures, or give you optional power ups after X defeats. All of these reinforce the mentality that “what you’re doing is right, but you’re lacking the skill to do it” when often in Soulsbourne games that’s a harmful mentality to have as it’ll lead you to keep repeating a tactic or playstyle that’s demonstrably not working. In my opinion, that’s the core of what fans of harder games like myself want to keep experiencing and why so many are against “easier modes” because it subverts the intended experience we enjoy: recognizing what’s going wrong, correcting it to make things go right, and overcoming great challenges.

You’re presenting the two options as similar when I’m not entirely sure they are. You’ve explored making an easy game harder and a hard game easier, but let’s look at the other two results from your presented options: making an easy game easier and a hard game harder.

Making a hard game harder is often met with praise because the people who beat or otherwise enjoy the hard game already want and expect a challenge out of the game, so giving them more of that is almost what they expect already.

Making an easy game easier can be met with praise as much as it can be subject to criticism. The Pokemon series has long been critiqued for continually making every next installment easier and easier for the last several generations.

Obviously in your example of making a hard game easier there are people in favor of it but also people against it. The fact that we’re having a discussion about this controversy is proof enough that many people want it, but dedicated fans are often against it.

And just like in your example, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone against allowing an easy game to have harder modes as long as it doesn’t negatively impact those playing the easier modes.

The trend I’m seeing amongst these 4 outcomes is usually that allowing the option for a harder mode than the game already allows is often agreed upon by the wider gaming community, but asking for easier modes is often controversial. The trend I’m also seeing is that this remains true regardless of if the game was considered easy or hard in the first place.

Your original post seems to imply that players and fans for hard games are being obstinate and resistant to allowing the same concessions that players and fans for easy games do, when you could use the other two results I brought up to make players for easy games seem just as obstinate. “Us players of hard games are allowing for harder games to be made, why do you fans of easy games seem to be having such a controversy over if easy games should be made easier?” or something to that effect.

In my opinion, the controversy isn’t whether hard games should be made easier, it’s whether games that fans enjoy should be made easier.

Not to detract from your point, but the word you’re looking for is cease. Seize is to forcibly obtain something, like “seizing the means of production.”

The closest thing I’ve ever seen to a teen center was a sports facility that had a room for kids and teens to hang out, but that was closer to a babysitting service. Paired with the facts that you had to pay monthly membership dues ($25 to $100/mo these days, apparently) and the whole facility was meant for something else entirely, it’s not something I would first describe as a teen center. Not any more than I’d call a high school a chemical R&D facility just because of its chemistry classroom.

Outside of that one room, I’m not aware of anything else nearby me that would be even remotely similar.

Speak for yourself, the only woodworking at my school was in the bathrooms.

So are you gonna cite your sources for that 1-9 ratio? Still waiting on the source for your other comment about only 1% of gamers backup their games implying the other 99% use backups for piracy.

You’re being just as dishonest as the people you accuse in two different ways: there are people already in the replies to this comment admitting to the same things, as well as making unverified claims that “they’re actually pirating, they just won’t admit it”

I feel like devices like this aren’t really under a false pretense though. Most people who would pirate games like this probably wouldn’t buy a third party device so they can copy a friend’s cartridge so they can emulate it, they’d more likely just download it and skip the middle man.

The only real way I see it being used primarily for piracy is in areas where Internet activity is heavily monitored/restricted, or broadband isn’t available/accessible. Otherwise a 1 month subscription to a VPN and a few gigabyte of Internet usage is far cheaper and easier to a pirate.