For those unaware, the Bloons TD series consists of tower defense games where you place monkeys along a track to pop balloons. It's called TD and not Tower Defense because a scumbag company decided to trademark the name of an entire genre, but that's beside the point.

Since the series's debut as a flash game over a decade ago, the games have evolved to contain a wealth of strategic complexity. Aside from the towers having different attack rates and ranges, there are different types of damage (e.g. popping, fire, explosion) that make each tower unique. Additionally, the balloons occasionally have resistances to certain types of damage. This forces you to be creative with your tower placement, and opens each game up to an incredible depth and variation. This helps keep the game fresh and exciting, as you try out different strategies.

...Or at least, it would do that if it weren't for the arbitrary roadblocks the game puts in place. Presumably in order to ease new players into the mechanics, you're forced to unlock everything through gameplay. This doesn't just include new towers, tracks, and game modes -- you're forced to unlock every single upgrade for every single tower. You unlock these by using the towers to earn them XP.

In theory this wouldn't be so bad. You could argue that it makes you learn the strengths and weaknesses of the towers before you can upgrade them. But why is that learning forced on me by the game? Why can't I learn at my own pace? I care so much because the game's pace is hellishly slow. You will certainly have to spend time grinding in order to unlock everything.

If that sounds ridiculous, it's because it is. I should not have to grind in my mobile tower defense game. I've been playing for two days now, and I'm still incredibly far from being able to play without restrictions. I'm mentally preparing myself for the long haul on this, but I can easily see this alienating new players, or those who just want to experience all the game has to offer.

It really is ridiculous when my own attempts to win the rounds are foiled because the game won't let me have the upgrade I need.

The other major problem I have with the game are its in-app purchases. Ninja Kiwi, the developer, seems to adhere to the despicable model of charging $5 up-front and also charging for things in-game. The game tempts me every time I look at the menu of which upgrades I've unlocked. "Don't you want to use this tower now, instead of many hours from now? Why not pay $5 to unlock all of its upgrades instantly?"

There are in-app purchases for different amounts of Monkey Money (which let you continue to play a failed game) that range from $2 to $55. Double Cash mode, which in previous games was unlocked through playing, now costs $19.

There are good points to this game. The graphics are 3D, which is quite different than the older games, and they look good. They're not an outstanding visual pleasure, but they also aren't irritating or ugly. The word I'd use is serviceable. I preferred the cartoony graphics of Bloons TD 5, but I can see myself getting used to these.

The music is also adequate. Different tracks may have different music, but the repetition may have you cringing as you grind, grind, grind away for hours at unlocking everything. At 20 tracks, there is certainly enough variety to help alleviate some of the drag, but you also have to remember that the more difficult tracks are likely impossible to beat if you still don't have access to every tower's upgrades.

So there you have it. I give Bloons TD 6 three rubbery balloon-husks out of five while shedding a single disappointed tear, because all the fun is locked away behind hours of grinding.

Or you could pay real money to skip all that and actually have fun. Ninja Kiwi, you've broken my heart.

It's hard to have a neutral position or tone about sexual assault. I think we can all agree that sexual assault is bad and should be punished when credible evidence exists, and I think most of us can also agree to the corollary that it's hard to prove allegations of sexual assault on a good day, let alone 10, 15, 20, or 30 years after the event happened (which is after the statute of limitations expires in many states anyway).

So from this starting point (sexual misconduct = bad, proving sexual misconduct = hard), let's talk about that lovely and unique junction we've been finding ourselves in, in the current year: (1) the use of social media to amplify stories of sexual misconduct and (2) to organize economic punishment of famous persons who have engaged in such conduct (when it is credible enough).

Let us take the case of Kevin Spacey. After Anthony Rapp publicly accused Spacey of sexual advances while Rapp was 14 years old, about a dozen similar stories surfaced to show a fairly similar trajectory of behavior. Even if nothing ever crosses the line into "rape," a clearer picture seems to emerge from these myriad stories of a pretty damn creepy, repressed dude. Spacey lost several acting jobs as a direct reaction to these stories.

We might also look to Al Franken for further insight. In this case, eight women to my knowledge have separately accused Franken of violating behavior, with one pretty outrageous photo as proof of the most famous initiating accusation.

There are plenty of other serial predators that have been exposed in the last year and change too. Let me be clear on this: I see exposing serial predators as a good thing. I hope you do too. There can be a problem of believing claims too quickly, which I think we're all aware of and need to be careful of, but as far as exposing and at minimum economically punishing serial abusers, I think that's pretty much a good for society as a whole, especially when done through legal channels (i.e., a Hot Cosby).

So to the questions:

1. How should we as a society deal the increased ability to share horrific stories of sexual misconduct and abuse?
2. How can our governments adjust to better handle cases of unaddressed sexual assault?
3. How should we individually react when someone we know (famous or otherwise) is accused of sexual misconduct? Along these lines, should we make economic choices based on the allegations that surface about some person?

My friend and I were talking the other day about how for a perfect society to exist, surely every person within that society must also be perfect, which lead us to discussing what defines a perfect human.

Clearly we live in a imperfect world and therefore it can never be accomplished, but we realised there are multiple ways in which a perfect human could be defined. This included such parameters such as emotional stability, morally perfect, physically perfect (whether or not this is even possible) and a whole array of other parameters that have escaped my memory.

What do you think defines the perfect human, assuming it's even possible in the first place? Should it just be defined by one parameter or a mix, and would some parameters be valued higher over others? For example, is a perfect moral compass more valued over physical perfection? I would love to hear your guys take on the question.

EDIT: By perfect I mean functioning within a society perfectly.

I'm a techie person, often an early adopter. I bought an iPhone the very first day the first one was released. I love playing with and setting up new gadgets. But I keep looking at home automation and find myself thinking "what's the point?" I just haven't seen any killer applications or use cases that make me think this is something I would value. A friend of mine is kind of into it, and his best demo is using his Google Home to turn his lights blue and play music. Fun trick, but not something I need.

Does anyone here have examples of really valuable or killer use cases in their smarthome setup? For what it's worth, I live with my spouse and 2 young kids, we have a small 2-floor apartment that we rent, we already use our programmable thermostat, and we don't own a TV.

A while ago there was a post comparing e-books and hard copies. After chatting with a few people, I was convinced to spend the money on a Kindle to replace reading on my laptop.
It's an amazing difference and I'd recommend it to anyone who reads on a "normal" screen. My eyes don't get tired, night reading is more comfortable, I've got 40 books in my pocket, the screen really is glare free, and I've charged it once in a week and a half.
So if you read e-books, get a reader with the e-ink screen. It's worth it, and thanks to those who convinced me.

So I'm not really sure about this one. It's AMC.

I had read something about it several weeks ago, and I expected more. It's, apparently, the story of this overweight woman working as a writer for a fashion magazine. She's very dissatisfied with her appearance and doing whatever she can to lose weight. She seems more resigned than depressed.

It looks like the main topics are self deprecation, self empowering, fat shaming, the-beauty-inside and I guess feminism. There is a second plot regarding a mystery that will surely be developed in later episodes.

All in all, for a 2-episode premiere, I thought it was pretty slow and felt like not a lot happened. The characters were a bit flat and stereotypical for my taste and dialogues weren't brilliant. I think there were probably some good insights here and there, but nothing really engaging for me. There wasn't a lot of tension and I can't really point any algid moment. There was just a funny line I think, and the dramatic scenes were very soft key.

I might give the next episode a chance, but probably only when I have nothing else to watch.

I'd say 5/10.

After watching NakeyJakey (YouTube hot boii) do a series on games he thinks should bang (two games that should combine their best elements to create an entirely new game). I was wondering what two games do you think should bang.

My two are Dark Souls and World of Warcraft

I'd kill for a game with the scale, community, and lore of World of Warcraft combined with the combat and difficulty of Dark Souls. - but not something like Monster Hunter

Imagine Dark Souls type combat with full raiding parties filled with clerics, casters, rangers, tanks, barbarians, etc... fighting against a legion of the undead. Or doing dungeons, etc...

That's just my dream

What two games do you think should bang?

While I also appreciate the ability to read things without marking them as read, it took me a minute to figure out how to mark things as read and now I find it more of a burden than anything. Would it be possible to implement functionality to mark things as read if you click on the message in your inbox?

Sometimes I even reply out of my inbox and it keeps it unread. While I sometimes keep emails I've replied to as unread at work, I can't see any reason I'd want to do that on a social media website. Maybe that's another functionality that could be implemented?

I don't play mobile games very often but every now and then I want to load up something a bit more substantial than your average mobile game without having to log hours like Fallout Shelter. I played something called (I think) Pixel dungeon in the past that was a sort of roguelike and I enjoyed that. What do you guys play and recommend?

I've been trying to understand Docker and while also learning Python it occurred to me that virtual environments seem to be the same thing. They're probably not, but can anyone shed some light on this?

I'll start.

I support England even though I am not from there because I follow the EPL and most of my football news comes from England. So I feel an affinity towards them. I'll be happy if they reach the quarters.

I just discovered IFC’s Brockmire. Anybody else watching this?

For those who are not, it’s based around a character created and played by Hank Azaria. He plays a hilarious whoring and drug addled baseball announcer. It’s worth watching if you are into dark comedies.

I feel so cheated- I went into college with no clue what my interests are and got a degree in something irrelevant that doesn't interest me ( BBA in digital marketing).
I was too young when I made the decision to get this degree and in the years since, I have discovered my passions are art and the environment- I can't see myself feeling fulfilled working in any other field.
But now I don't have the qualifications or skills to get into either, and it seems like a bit of a stretch to go back to college and do another four years!

I just don't know where to go from here, I feel demotivated and I wish that college was something that happened to us later in life. I would do things so differently!

I'm taking some time off to figure out what to do next, but honestly...I don't have a clue.

I live in the US.

I used to play music every day. I used to skate almost every day. I used to surf TWO times a day. I used to write songs and poetry. I used to contemplate the cosmos and reality and come up with fun projects with friends. I used to garden. I used to spend more time with my pets.

Now I work.

I work and stress so hard that I wear myself out, drink too much to "help me sleep", still stay up stressing about my job - how I can improve my standing, and stress about needing to do side projects to supplement my income AND stress that I don't do any of the fun things I used to do.

This is all to be able to afford a living space and ensure that if a disaster (personal or natural) happens I won't be completely screwed.

Any friends that did have loans are still paying them off. I have been fortunate enough (and diligent enough) to pay off all my loans, but I had to ditch my hopes and dreams.

Will I ever be able to afford a decent house in a metropolitan area? No. Will I ever do the things that used to make be happy? I don't see how. Will I ever be truly happy? I have no idea.

Is anyone else in this situation? What are you doing to mitigate? Moving to a more affordable area (leaving friends and family)? Are you learning a new trade to up your financial standing? Are you as bummed out as I am that we have to work so hard just for a mediocre standard of living?

https://kotaku.com/ninja-takes-two-day-break-loses-40-000-subscribers-1826813300

Sometimes the volatility of current gaming trends, championed by twitch, really make me feel like I'm not even in the same place as the rest of gamers anymore.