Random News not worthy of own thread

[CBJ]

It's not that they won't be held accountable, what they are saying is they don't want anyone to know they are responsible for something happening, as they want anything and everything to be taken care of behind closed doors and kept secret.

That's the point though. If it's behind closed doors and kept secret, then they are in control and can eventually whittle any compensation down to a nominal amount over time, beyond the reach of the court of law or even the court of public opinion.

[clakclak]

A 24 year old has been sentenced to 11 years in prison in Wisconsin for killing a man, Randall Volar, who sexually trafficked her when she was a minor. At the time of the killing she was 17. Police were aware of Volar's crimes. They had fotografic and video evidence that showed his crimes and arrested him three months before his death, among other things for child sexual assault. Police however ultimately decided to let him go again (without bail).

Opinion: I would not be suprised if the fact that Volar was white and all of his victims were black played into that decision.

[chew-ie]

Sounds like yet another complete failure of a justice system which was originally installed to bring .. well. Justice. People should know by now what happens if too much injustice isn't answered / taken seriously. (extremes can come into play for venting) Probability of an extreme development is even higher when emotial wounds are so deep like in this case - either directed at the victim itself or against the offender.

---

Far-right extremist are at it again - exploiting the death of a young boy to spread their hate and violent agenda. This time in Spain: False claims after killing of boy in Spain echo Southport far-right misinformation

@source theguardian.com

[burger1]

Borderlands 4 releasing in 2025.

Borderlands movie might go to digital release early (August 30, 2024) due to poor box office results.

Dragon Age Veil Guard mechanics might be different than Dragon Age Inquisition. Might be dumbed down due to consoles. Bad idea. Dao had better gameplay than the other Dragon Age games in my opinion. Game looks a bit weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBPiovqVeHo

Stalker 2 delayed again until November 20, 2024. 5+ delays? September 5, 2024 was supposed to be the final release date.

Star Wars The Acolyte cancelled.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/star- ... 0-6525968/

[matthewfarmery]

Man, that Borderlands trailer sucked bad. Not surprised that the filmed flopped as it did. Not even sure that the cast were cast right? probably not. Not really a game you can make a film from. They tried and clearly failed.

As for the new Dragon Age game, I also hope that is another flop. I enjoyed the first game, it had faults, but wasn't too bad. But this new one seems even more dumbed down, and only 3 skills? Bioware are a dead company, As the original crew of the studio have long since left. So the game seemed it was all about visuals, I didn't see anything good about the game from the reveal video.

[mr.WHO]

Basically, they are making Dragon Mass Effect.

[chew-ie]

As long as no one [outside of Bioware] makes a Dragon Age Origins 2, Dragon Age remains dead [for me].

[matthewfarmery]

As long as no one [outside of Bioware] makes a Dragon Age Origins 2, Dragon Age remains dead [for me].

Agreed, but then again, none of the games really compared to BG1 and 2. While DAO was decent, it still had a lot to be desired. like camera, and character control. The character control really annoyed me the most. I didn't really play any of the other games. And this new one even less inclined to play it, seems so bland. Maybe its high time to kill the franchise off and be done with it. And mark it as another EA failure.

[clakclak]

Dragon Age is such a strange franchise. Every game is so very different. I think if each of them would have been its own game and not part of any series all of them would have at least been ok, some better some worse, but not total failures. However the genre and style switches between the different parts really makes things feel wrong. Officially the games are all Dragon’s age, but they really are fail at making you actually believe that.

[felter]

Not been too impressed with Gamescon, with what I've heard (which isn't much). Another Borderlands game, another Call of Duty, another live service game from Amazon and yet another live service hero game from Marvel. It's all just the same old yesterday's news.

[chew-ie]

Not been too impressed with Gamescon, with what I've heard (which isn't much). Another Borderlands game, another Call of Duty, another live service game from Amazon and yet another live service hero game from Marvel. It's all just the same old yesterday's news.

The diamonds for me are Starfield & a new Mafia game Indiana Jones looks nice, but it isn't my genre (despite me loving the Indy franchise =). All other games announced either have the wrong publisher or are of no interest to me. Guess I'm getting too old for mainstream gaming.

[matthewfarmery]

The new Indiana Jones game is both overpriced and could be infested with political BS. There is a company called Sweet Baby inc, that is responsible for consulting work for games etc, to make them more mainstream. They are doing work for the devs in this game. So the game could be ruined before it even comes out. So, while the game is on my wishlist, I might pick it up when it hits bargain bin prices. (or not) But not much that is coming out either really interests me.

[mr.WHO]

The new Indiana Jones game is both overpriced and could be infested with political BS. There is a company called Sweet Baby inc, that is responsible for consulting work for games etc, to make them more mainstream. They are doing work for the devs in this game. So the game could be ruined before it even comes out. So, while the game is on my wishlist, I might pick it up when it hits bargain bin prices. (or not) But not much that is coming out either really interests me.

I'm more and more convinced that in currect gaming era, there is very little to no incentive to buy games on release (unless it's very trusty developer that you know well - e.g. Egosoft).
All of AAA stuff is overhyped and every influencer and their grandmother will shill the game on YT for 1-2 weeks after release.

Reject FOMO and trash modern marketing tricks, sit back, relax and watch dust to settle for month or two after release.
After that time you'll have enough footage and clear picture what is the state of the game.

If you're patient and strong willed, you can extend that time from one month to one year (or several ), to wait for complete, patched and DLC finished package...on 50% sale - you get superior product, for lower price and the wait is only cost to pay.

That's also why I stopped beign salty about Epic Store Excusivity - the Epic release is not an actual release, but paid beta...but you're paying (instead of beign paid).


Even wait time is no longer an issue - with all free game giveaway in several different stores (Steam, Epic, GoG), quartely sales of hundreds of games, it's very easy to accumulate huge backlog of games to try in the mean time.

[matthewfarmery]

Due to a lawsuit brought against Musk and twitter, Musk had to disclose who the investors of twitter / X are.

https://fortune.com/2024/08/22/elon-mus ... wner-list/

That is a pretty big list, and a bit concerning. Thought this would be of interest.

Full list of names are at the bottom of the page, a lot of names and entities.

So, X is now pretty much a russian platform, and with a Saudi prince and a few others. It starts to make sense why Musk might be wanting to help Trump. So yes, very concerning. and should be headline news.

[felter]

I think right now, Musk will be more worried about the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France especially as the arrest is about:

According to officials the 39-year-old billionaire was arrested under a warrant for offences related to the popular messaging app. The investigation is reportedly about a lack of moderators, with Mr Durov accused of failing to take steps to curb criminal uses of Telegram.

The app is accused of failure to cooperate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual content and fraud. Telegram has previously denied having insufficient moderation.

Most of that sounds pretty similar to what's happening on Twitter, especially the lack of moderation and that Musk keeps on letting criminals use and welcomes back known criminals. I suspect Musk is not going to go to Europe anytime soon.

[PersonyPerson]

Good:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/lula ... 024-08-30/

All credit to Brazil, but the EU (+UK) should have already done this...

Why is the biggest enabler of far-right extremism and general bigotry still allowed to continue grifting and spreading disinformation within Europe?

[matthewfarmery]

It relly does boggle the mind. nd yes, fter revent events, the EU should block access to Twitter, (I will never call it X) I guess the EU is a bit afraid of pissing of Musk maybe? But Musk is showing his true colours and something needs to be done about it.

[mr.WHO]

Can you even block X/Twitter when VPNs exist?

Is it worth it?
I mean countries which goes to that level of control are Russia, China, North Korea - not exacly a crowd we would like to aspire to belong.


More effective, sane and cheap solution would be for Brasil and EU to make an information capaign about dangers/manipulations of social media in general (not only X - you might hate Elon in particular, but this doesn't mean other Social Media are all roses and rainbows).

[felter]

Using a VPN would let a Mexican view Twitter in let's say America, the problem with that to Twitter at least is that the adverts are American and are not suitable for a Mexican viewer unless that Mexican is going to travel to America. Not just that not everyone uses a VPN or even knows what a VPN is or what it does. At the end of the day, a ban in Mexico hits Twitter in the pocket, it's as simple as that. Not just that other nations and countries are watching this and taking notes on what is happening, there is a good chance of it spreading, or it might just go nowhere.

[PersonyPerson]

Can you even block X/Twitter when VPNs exist?

Is it worth it?
I mean countries which goes to that level of control are Russia, China, North Korea - not exacly a crowd we would like to aspire to belong.


More effective, sane and cheap solution would be for Brasil and EU to make an information capaign about dangers/manipulations of social media in general (not only X - you might hate Elon in particular, but this doesn't mean other Social Media are all roses and rainbows).

Yes it'll be worth it, 100 times over.

The reasons for why the regimes you've mentioned shut down Twitter is not the same for why Brazil has done and why many of us in Europe want. Those regimes shut it down because they have strict laws preventing them from criticising their governments and it's typically a blanket ban that applies across the vast majority of social media platforms. The reason why Brazil is not just another one of those countries is because it is a functioning democracy which shut Twitter down specifically for the site's lack of standards, with hate speech, conspiracy theories and disinformation being enabled and the norm. Brazil gave them the fair chance to defend themselves in a court of law, and Twitter refused. And if anything Elon/Twitter are the ones who behave like the regimes you've mentioned, not those who want him held to account.

Difference between Twitter and the many of the other social media sites is that the latter are at least making an (albeit weak) effort to moderate the content on their sites and are not actively promoting the disinformation that appears on their platforms. Twitter itself used to be like the others, now it isn't. Worse, it promotes the same individuals that were previously banned for hate speech/dangerous science denial/extremism. If Elon think's you're funny, you'll never be banned regardless of what you'll say (See Andrew Tate). He is intentionally enabling and motivating criminals and far-right terrorists through his words/actions and he makes Twitter's algorithms intentionally boost such individuals. The site is even useless for research purposes. I closed my official account when Musk took over, but still had a couple of a anonymous research accounts for it until a few days ago, the straw that broke the camel's back was receiving 7 Donald Trump tweets in a row out of the blue with even more appearing when I refreshed the page, despite never once searched for him or not being from the US. Yeah, I could have blocked him, like I have with the previous several hundred far-right extremists with notable followings that unwantingly appeared on my Timeline, but it became more than obvious to me that the site's only objective is to promote conflict, unconstructive dialogue which typically resorts to bigotry or flame wars and far-right extremism. When you make a new account in the UK, one of the first things you'll have shoved down your throat is a constant barrage of dystopian nonsense from GB News and TalkTV, even if you choose something innocuous like NASA as your first follows. It is insidious.

The main tactic of Disinformation merchants like Musk, Durov, Bannon, Marshall, Murdoch etc. is to flood the info space with so much nonsense, that the accurate and valid information that most people are looking for gets drowned out. Engagement numbers > Factual accuracy/validity.

These "information campaigns" you speak of already exist, but I doubt you know much about them because they are not effective, partly because they don't reach the individuals who need it, partly because content of how to not fall for mis/disinformation isn't there and partly even when they do reach them, they simply ignore/dismiss them. They existed when I was in school over 10 years ago and not a single person cared. Even so, the typical social media company has a vested interest into making you not care as long as you're feeding into their engagement numbers, and will only act when they feel their reputation is at stake or to avoid criminal responsibility. When one doesn't care about the consequences at all, as is case for Musk's Twitter, then that in turn makes you care, but for all the wrong reasons. He should be arrested and charged in a similar manner to Durov.

In regards to VPNs, if Twitter gets blocked, then most people are not going to waste their time trying to figure out how to use one. They're just going to use a different social media site that isn't blocked. That's how Telegram got popular in Russia. Funny how the same platforms that we wish to be held to account are the same ones that are allowed to flourish in authoritarian regimes isn't it? Gone full circle.

Anyway, sorry for another (probably unhinged) rant, I'm just tired liars never facing any consequences for the impact that their lies can have and I can see in real time that the liars in question are getting bolder, more influential and more successful. It brings a fire within me that I do not want, nor is it easy personally for me to put out. Someone like Nigel Farage should be in prison. Instead, he's still allowed to incite further violence + domestic terrorism and currently have his far-right extremist party sitting 20% in the opinion polls on the back of disinformation, science denial, hateful populistic blame game rhetoric (typically on people who have limited to no voice like asylum seekers) and encouraging people to vote against their own self-interest to remove their own human rights, but apparently, he and individuals like him such as Musk always the victims... Similar individuals and parties got enough people elected in the EU Parliament in large numbers, so now the Commission is scared to act against the causes of their spread despite knowing full well the harms of them doing so and some governments in the EU are even caving into their rhetoric to appease them instead of fighting them.

It's so incredibly stupid and short sighted...