TheJorro's recent activity
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Comment on “I don’t see how we can save it.” in ~life
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Comment on Important 2025 Plex updates in ~tv
TheJorro Link ParentThe previous benefit of the paid subscription for Plex Remote Streaming was to allow for hardware encoding as opposed to CPU-only encoding. It was pretty necessary if you wanted to stream 4K...The previous benefit of the paid subscription for Plex Remote Streaming was to allow for hardware encoding as opposed to CPU-only encoding. It was pretty necessary if you wanted to stream 4K and/or HDR files.
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Comment on Pixel Buds Pro 2 help - frequent disconnects from phone in ~tech
TheJorro Link ParentSony's XM lines don't, they connect directly from the earphones.Sony's XM lines don't, they connect directly from the earphones.
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Comment on Mark Carney elected as leader of Liberal Party, becoming Prime Minister-designate of Canada in ~society
TheJorro Link ParentA Bill that targeted hate speech and hate propaganda that didn't make it through due political process is not at all an equivalent to gaming the national media landscape to remove all dissenting...A Bill that targeted hate speech and hate propaganda that didn't make it through due political process is not at all an equivalent to gaming the national media landscape to remove all dissenting political voices from nationally distributed news media. Not in the slightest unless the implication here that current conservative rhetoric could be considered "hate speech".
Inefficient spending is not a good enough reason to shutter the entire CBC, especially not when he plans to re-allocate that money to right-wing news agencies that have no obligation to report their spending or use of government funding. There are so many other things that could be done that don't involve destroying a decades-old national institution. It also doesn't explain the years of aggressive rhetoric he's directed at the CBC falsely that don't have to do with its spending and that his followers have learned from him. Again, I don't see him correcting them, do you?
The CBC is centrist as hell. Simple as. Sometimes it comes across left, sometimes it comes across right. It has not demonstrated a pattern of moving in one direction at all. It only appears more left if one has moved further right, which if they are in line with Polievre, they have.
That editorial you quote really speaks for itself. It says quite a bit that it was published in the NP, and it reads exactly like a Republican complaining about having to think about things they don't want to think about. It even complains about "woke". In fact, she got invited to speak on FOX News and a bunch of US conservative shows over this article. I invite everyone read this whole editorial and then ask if this person has a balanced view on journalism and what is important to people, and then what kinds of people they're hearing from if these are the complaints about the CBC they're getting.
Also peek at the CBC. Poke around. One will quickly see if covers much more than what this author charges in this spiel. This is a pretty easy way to dispel a lot of charges about what the CBC "only" covers and why it needs to be shuttered. It's not the extremely leftists niche zine that many anti-CBC types suggest it is.
MAGA style party-over-country means taking power for your political party and the expense of things like fact, policy, reason, ethics, morals, and honesty. Look at how Republicans act and behave towards people they disagree with. Look at how they foment their base to act irrationally and espouse factually inaccurate things to make radical changes, consequences be damned. Look at how quickly they'll pivot when expedient, not from new information but rather to justify unintended consequences of their actions. Compare that to Polievre's approach to speaking about people he disagrees with (or even how he speaks about other people), and then compare it to literally every CPC leader before him. Polievre stands much closer to MAGA Republicans than anyone else in the CPC's entire history. Would any other CPC leader have disparaged the notion of a coalition the way he did? I can see them complaining and bemoaning the existence of one but why did all PP followers start trying to convince people it was anti-democratic?
He's clearly smart enough to play the "Is he or isn't he" game but the way he lets his followers go unchecked and never reins them in or publicly states corrective facts reveals much.
Here's a specific policy issue: MAGA is also about banning abortion. The UCP in Alberta started polling for that shortly after they won the previous election. Polievre hasn't made any moves to truly protect abortion. He hasn't kicked the anti-choice caucus out of the CPC. This is all exactly what MAGA Republicans did until they got power, and then they swiftly started dismantling abortion rights. He's on record as pushing for adoptions over abortions. If Polievre wants to show he's truly not MAGA, he's teed up for a home run here. Let's see if he swings.
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Comment on Mark Carney elected as leader of Liberal Party, becoming Prime Minister-designate of Canada in ~society
TheJorro Link ParentSomething largely missed when talking about Carney is actually has many years of experience working in the public service. He started as an Associate Deputy Minister and worked his way up. That...Something largely missed when talking about Carney is actually has many years of experience working in the public service. He started as an Associate Deputy Minister and worked his way up. That alone qualifies him to politics more than most other politicians. Being able to steer public administration is a key skill in our governments, and many, many, many elected politicians lack this ability. It makes all the difference between their policies and the execution. We have politicians that come from all corners of industry, education, and life experience but public service experience seems to be very rare despite being a directly beneficial exeprience.
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Comment on Mark Carney elected as leader of Liberal Party, becoming Prime Minister-designate of Canada in ~society
TheJorro (edited )Link ParentWhat does this have anything to do with the content of my comment? I am speaking about Pierre Polievre and why he gives off Trump vibes. I have not said a single thing about the Liberal Party, nor...What does this have anything to do with the content of my comment? I am speaking about Pierre Polievre and why he gives off Trump vibes. I have not said a single thing about the Liberal Party, nor said that they're the party of a free and open internet where anything goes. I would not even say they have a good understanding of technology to make good tech policies.
My comment is not mostly conjecture and little fact. Polievre has declared himself "not MAGA" (coordinated with Donald Trump, amazingly), yet uses all their rhetoric. Abolishing the CBC is his biggest original initiative, as even his "Axe the tax" notions came from people and years prior. There are no end to speeches and statements he has made about the CBC that are flat out lies and misinformation, and the way he has educated and inspired his fans to speak of it is pretty damning. I don't see him correcting them, do you? The goal to conservatize all major news media is inductive reasoning but all the pieces are there, as any glance at media ownership in Canada will yield combined with why the CBC would be targeted suddenly along with such obscene disinformation about what it is and aims to do. Peterson is his friend. The policies and rhetoric he has floated are MAGA style party-over-country, which he has quickly had to turn around on and try to dispel in recent weeks as his "Canada is broken (and only conservatives can fix it)" messaging has backfired. He was indeed one of the only politicians who felt safe going around the Convoy, despite your fantastical claims that all would be welcome among them.
All of these things can be fact-checked, but it requires not looking exclusively at CPC-approved news sources. I suppose some of them are a matter of perspective (but I can't name a bigger original initiative from Polievre, unless we think converting all our money to crypto is it).
I guess the only conjecture I made was that the NP is his favourite newspaper. Maybe it's Rebel News.
But otherwise, how do you explain why people see and hear the things he says and immediately associate him with Trump in a way that other CPC leaders never had? It's definitely not because they share a striking resemblance or have a similar voice.
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Comment on Can I carry a Turquoise gemstone on my Air Canada flight? Any documents needed? in ~travel
TheJorro LinkCustoms is more about watching for prohibited, controlled, or dangerous items rather than consumer goods. If they are examining goods, it usually is for commercial purposes. One gemstone is not...Customs is more about watching for prohibited, controlled, or dangerous items rather than consumer goods. If they are examining goods, it usually is for commercial purposes. One gemstone is not going to raise flags. Keep your jewelry with you at all times and you should be fine. I've never heard of a customs agent auditing a traveller's jewelry unless they are carrying a huge amount because then it is clearly for commercial purposes.
If you declare it, just be prepared to pay customs fees on it. But there's no restriction on bringing gemstones to Canada. A lot of Indian gold and gemstones has found its way to Canada without issue.
The biggest problem we've had is gold bars, and that was when they got heisted out of Pearson airport.
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Comment on Mark Carney elected as leader of Liberal Party, becoming Prime Minister-designate of Canada in ~society
TheJorro Link ParentThe funny thing is that this is his new "I'm not MAGA!" rhetoric, after 4 straight years of it, and it's still giving off Trump vibes at first blush. His biggest original initiative is to abolish...The funny thing is that this is his new "I'm not MAGA!" rhetoric, after 4 straight years of it, and it's still giving off Trump vibes at first blush.
His biggest original initiative is to abolish the government-funded CBC, pretty much the last national news publication in the country that isn't conservative-owned. He has been spewing disinformation about it since before he was CPC party leader, calling it "state-run media" and likening it to dictatorial propaganda mouthpieces even though it decidedly isn't by any measure or metric. The real goal is to introduce FOX News style media empire into Canada and remove all dissenting major media publications from a political standpoint. This is evidenced by the existence of his favoured newspaper, the National Post, which is our newspaper version of FOX News. They're also the newspaper which provided free office space to his friend Jordan Peterson. He ignores all this while convincing his followers that the mandated-to-be-neutral CBC is "leftist propaganda".
This guy is 110% on the MAGA train. Not because he likes Trump but because he enjoys this kind "party over country" politics, and all of his efforts and rhetoric has been of this vein. There's a reason he was one of the few politicians who felt safe around the Convoyers when they were terrorizing Ottawa citizens, shutting down our trade border, and demanding the overthrow of the federal government. Guess who they wanted to undemocractically install into power.
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Comment on Repeatedly upvoting violent content on Reddit can now get you flagged in ~tech
TheJorro Link ParentAn announcement is an opportunity to craft the narrative. How often do you see someone believing a communique at face value without thinking about if it's portraying the situation honestly or...An announcement is an opportunity to craft the narrative. How often do you see someone believing a communique at face value without thinking about if it's portraying the situation honestly or providing the full context?
The reddit announcement is purposefully worded in a way to not be clear what the nature of violent rhetoric they're taking issue with is. In previous initiatives, they were more clear about which rhetoric and why but since Spez has come back, that has ceased.
The reason why they can't be silent about it is because it's very noticeable when a comment gets removed by admins, since it leaves that "[Removed by Reddit]" tag on the post and only invites questions. And very easy to tell from context what the subject of it was. So an announcement is actually the ideal way to serve a palatable version of the situation to people who haven't heard or experienced it but want information.
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Comment on Cancelled Powerpuff live-action reboot trailer in ~tv
TheJorro Link ParentIt's one of their better comments sections at least. Only a couple of racist comments.It's one of their better comments sections at least. Only a couple of racist comments.
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Comment on Cancelled Powerpuff live-action reboot trailer in ~tv
TheJorro Link ParentOhh, that's a very bad subreddit. GamerGate-adjacent. They will be feasting on a subpar live action adaptation starring women. Still, thank you for the working mirror. Do not read any text on that...Ohh, that's a very bad subreddit. GamerGate-adjacent. They will be feasting on a subpar live action adaptation starring women.
Still, thank you for the working mirror. Do not read any text on that post, submission title nor comment section.
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Comment on What works do you think should be added to the literary canon? in ~books
TheJorro LinkAs far as American Literature goes, it always feels like the list was last updated in the 70s or 80s. Not that I have anyone newer than that to suggest adding but rather, reputationally, two...As far as American Literature goes, it always feels like the list was last updated in the 70s or 80s. Not that I have anyone newer than that to suggest adding but rather, reputationally, two American writers have really proven to have a genuine and thoughtful voice for American literature in the time since then:
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Cormac McCarthy
They didn't make Fadiman's list but, for my money, they represent American fiction a lot more than Faulkner's work these days.
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Comment on Humble Choice - March 2025 in ~games
TheJorro Link ParentI was doing some reading to find out if there was some errant setting that was tuned way too high (like Dying Light pre-patch) but it just seems to be an especially shader-heavy game. It may just...I was doing some reading to find out if there was some errant setting that was tuned way too high (like Dying Light pre-patch) but it just seems to be an especially shader-heavy game. It may just be tuned to benefit from the most recent mid to high end GPU specs.
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Comment on Humble Choice - March 2025 in ~games
TheJorro Link ParentWow you were not exaggerating about the performance. I just booted it up and I was surprised to see how little fps I was getting. I've been waiting to upgrade my GPU but still, it's a GTX 1080. It...Wow you were not exaggerating about the performance. I just booted it up and I was surprised to see how little fps I was getting. I've been waiting to upgrade my GPU but still, it's a GTX 1080. It should not be running a game like this at just 30-40 fps with Medium-High graphics.
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Comment on AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT reviews and launch in ~games
TheJorro Link ParentThey'll offer different coolers and video port connections. Some may also have different power requirements (due to the cooler or any factory overclocking). Examine the specs and choose what works...They'll offer different coolers and video port connections. Some may also have different power requirements (due to the cooler or any factory overclocking). Examine the specs and choose what works best for you, or is in your price/availability zone. They're all reputable brands at least.
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Comment on Everything is Chrome in ~tech
TheJorro Link ParentRight, I was being a bit sarcastic but that didn't come off properly. The market share dropped a long time before all the crowing about Mozilla and Firefox reached fever pitches, and it's always...Right, I was being a bit sarcastic but that didn't come off properly. The market share dropped a long time before all the crowing about Mozilla and Firefox reached fever pitches, and it's always been a terrible metric to look at or judge the quality of a browser.
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Comment on Everything is Chrome in ~tech
TheJorro Link ParentOne of the reasons I stopped even bothering with r/firefox was the moderation team didn't do a good job investigating accounts saying things like "I am no longer using Firefox after 10+ years and...One of the reasons I stopped even bothering with r/firefox was the moderation team didn't do a good job investigating accounts saying things like "I am no longer using Firefox after 10+ years and will be switching to Brave", while their account history showed they were a Brave browser evangelist. It wasn't hard to find many suspicious accounts like this.
With how much more open we've seen astroturfing and bot accounts on reddit following such patterns with accounts, I believe I saw some early examples of successful campaigns in the tech spaces and this was an example. And all this over things like the Megabar, not any privacy or other major issues with the tech or ethics that would apply to Chrome and other browsers more strongly.
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Comment on Everything is Chrome in ~tech
TheJorro (edited )Link ParentA big reason for Firefox having such a low market share is because there are targetted campaigns to make mountains out of molehills, and have people freak out over every little change with it in a...A big reason for Firefox having such a low market share is because there are targetted campaigns to make mountains out of molehills, and have people freak out over every little change with it in a way they do not when other browsers make as bad or worse moves.
Like when the Megabar came out and people acted like it was poisoning their wells and killing their pets. Or how much hay was being made about the Mozilla Foundation's finances and CEO compensation. Right now I see more people upset with a change in a Mozilla FAQ than I see people upset about Manifest V3.
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Comment on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 announcement spoiled by Singapore rating in ~games
TheJorro Link ParentI'd describe BW and Quake as the old style esports scene, and DOTA2 and LOL got their approaches from the groundwork StarCraft 2 specifically laid. SC2 brought esports worldwide to a popular...That's giving SC2 a lot of credit for work done elsewhere. Broodwar set the stage in Korea far earlier, as did quake, and right around that time you've got things like Dota2 and LoL which i'd argue were MUCH more influence on modern esports in part because they captured a larger audience or viewership.
I'd describe BW and Quake as the old style esports scene, and DOTA2 and LOL got their approaches from the groundwork StarCraft 2 specifically laid. SC2 brought esports worldwide to a popular degree, it wasn't locked to Korea by KeSPA like BW was as we got many international high level tournaments in North America and Europe which grew exponentially and started bringing in other sports off the back of SC2's popularity. And then there were the technology advancements for esports which all centred around broadcasting and spreading StarCraft 2 and that has made the biggest difference in the spread of esports. For example, StarCraft 2 inspired Justin.TV to establish Warp Prism where multiple SC2 games could be watched at once and that became so popular that it turned into Twitch.tv and modern game streaming. Even the current tournaments for LOL owe a lot of their structure to the big StarCraft 2 tournaments, including their game commentating and replay structures.
Depends on how much money you throw at it, how much competition is in the niche, and how inertia you have going into it. To be clear while I do think they turned SC2 into a great competitive game eventually, if this was their first game out of the gate and it wasn't the sequel to BW with money being chucked at the prize pool it'd be one of those examples.
The notion that SC2 would have crashed and burned if it came out with any other name from any other studio is a tall claim. Of course it being a sequel and from 2009 Blizzard gave it a lot of credence to get started but I don't see how it's a given that it would be another esports flop on the level of all those forgettable, failed games. The issue I identify with all those failed esports games was that the gameplay just didn't allow enough variety and expression like someone could find in "real" sports, but StarCraft 2 (like its predecessor) allowed for enough creativity and style that players' personalities could be displayed via the gameplay. Beyond that, there still wasn't another RTS anywhere near its level of quality at the time. In that same era, we saw C&C implode under C&C4. SC2 was just the only option for RTS fans, of which there was still an active competitive esports scene, in 2009-2010. I think it says quite a bit that the most recent successful esport RTS is Age of Empires 2's remake.
I don't think your assessment of the meta's tracks with what I've heard from competitive SC2 friends, but I think that's mostly too far into the details to matter as yes I agree they go up and down (although how bad the swings are is something else where I think SC2 lacked). I believe the critical point thought is on launch and for the first couple of years SC2's meta was routinely, and correctly, criticized for being things like roach/marine medic death ball.
I honestly don't know how they could describe the first few years of StarCraft 2 that way. There were crazy strategies and plays happening even in the 2009 beta tournaments. The first few years was full of all kinds of changes, and insane new discoveries. The marine/medic deathball was an extremely early (and novice) strategy that was hard countered by banelings which the devs specifically designed as a deathball counter... until MarineKingPrime showed the world that the best counter to banelings were the marines themselves, to start splitting up marines and microing units into formations on the fly to mitigate the splash zones and out-DPS the banelings. It was never considered a good idea to death ball as Terran again. And that was just one example, there were many giant meta shifts as players discovered and showed off all kinds of creative new timings and strategies, like the Hellion drops, the Archon toilet, clever burrowing strategies, Infestor ambushes, and more. It was only near the end of WoL's lifespan where brood lord/infestor became a problem meta, and then something early in Heart of the Storm where Swarm Hosts were very annoying.
Funny enough, the remaining scene is currently reminiscing on that area for how dynamic and fast-changing it was as people discovered more and more of the game and players and teams had so much personality.
They did smooth these out, but it still strikes me as a weaker point in the philosophy because it felt like it was thrown in just because there wasn't enough for micro masters to do, and while that is a legit skill test for a RTS, I and others felt the solution itself was poor.
I think this was just a matter of time for discovery of opportunities to employ micro at opportune moments as StarCraft 2 was a wholly new game and more dissimilar to Brood War mechanically than people initially assumed. I don't know how related this is to the above but in my following of the scene since the launch of the game, a lot of the advances were discoveries in micromanagement possibilities, and that MarineKingPrime marine splitting baneling counter was the first earliest seismic shift in the entire way SC2 was played. It was purely a micro mechanic discovery. A lot of the biggest moments in the scene came out of great micro moments too. The worst moments of SC2's competitive meta was when micro was superseded by automatic stuff, which was the issue with broodlord/infestors and swarm hosts, and also Protoss deathballs when those could reach critical mass. StarCraft 2 is at its best when micro was important enough to make all the difference.
The worst blizzard writing yet outside of WoW (which again I think is what led to a lot of blizzards later decline as it taught them content volume can make as much money as quality content). Yes D3 then NOSEDIVES even harder from SC2's "this is just a boring action romance" to "this is objectively awful and shouldn't be here" nonsense.
Oh man, the writing and story really does suck. Huge disappointment.
The requirement to buy the game 3 times at FULL PRICE. Even today this would be seen as crazy/extreme. $180 for all 3 expansions, especially when the single player was a mess and the multiplayer was having "ups and downs" while competitors like Dota/League were basically free/free but with time sink didn't help.
Quick note: the expansions were not full price, they were US$40 on release. $140 for the full package at launch prices. Not much better, but the expansions were still expansion-priced despite having as much content as the base game each.
On one hand, yeah, it sucked. On the other, we really did get three full-fledged campaigns out of it and a ton of other things with each expansion. It wasn't as bad as initially feared when first announced it would basically be three different packages. I think ultimately it was better given how long it took to get all three out, and the fact that they were more than just expansions of old. But this was also the time period where free-to-play really took off and StarCraft 2 was caught in that storm while LoL was destroying HoN out of existence. We're not even at the end of this period as Blizzard is still going through this weird free/paid wringer with the Overwatch games.
But all games had their ups and downs with their metas too, that's not exclusive to SC2, and I think it's a sign of a healthy competitive game that such fluctuations are happening as it usually comes as a result of a push-pull between high-level players and game balance changes.
Oh shit I forgot EVO on my "helped grow esports" list, although the FGC is somewhat unique there and arguably has continued to be it's own little unique thing, but still worth mentioning on the list of "what made modern esports."
Also CoD and friends but I know a lot less about that.
The FGC also benefited from the tech changes and tournament attention StarCraft 2 brought (I remember attending a DreamHack where the FGC was included and they were very grateful), and COD is actually one of the games I had in mind as a "failed esport" since they could never make it as popular as Halo, letalone Counter-Strike. R6S was the first successful FPS esport since Counter-Strike GO and even that was something of a surprise to Ubisoft but that's just what good gameplay lends to. All COD attempts were stymied by how simplistic COD gameplay is at the end of the day, there's just no room for player expression or creativity.
Anyway, a lot of ink being spilled on how good of an esport game SC2 was but ultimately I just don't think it's currently remembered as the first failure of a game (on launch) from Blizzard. It was well-received and very popular, and the long tail it had is just not something that comes out of a game with a divisive or bad launch. I really think it is Diablo 3 that was Blizzard's first launch misstep as the Real-Money Auction House directly affected gameplay mechanics and the game had to be transformed quite a bit to recover from a very disappointing first couple years.
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Comment on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 announcement spoiled by Singapore rating in ~games
TheJorro Link ParentThe story was definitely not nearly as good as the Brood War games, but the gameplay issues are not as dire as you're making them out to be. StarCraft 2 has had one of the most successful esports...The story was definitely not nearly as good as the Brood War games, but the gameplay issues are not as dire as you're making them out to be. StarCraft 2 has had one of the most successful esports scenes ever, and is the originator of the modern esports scene. This doesn't happen if the gameplay isn't top tier, as many other failed esports titles have found out since 2010 when SC2 came out.
It's had its ups and downs over the past 15 years but they're just that: ups and downs. Every successful longrunning competitive scene has gone that way. It hasn't been one big long-running quagmire of dismal competitiveness. The infestor-broodlord era was probably the worst of it and it's long in the past, gone as soon as the first expansion released. The deathball issue is Protoss specific and even that was dealt with a while ago. There are balance patches affecting competitive gameplay even to this day.
Otherwise the mechanics were different than Brood War's but that's fine. A lot of the arguments about which is better is down to preference really, where BW required far more micromanaging whereas StarCraft 2 allows for more economic quasi-automation to prioritize army micro.
StarCraft 2 is still regarded as the last great RTS game. It's used as an example of how great Blizzard used to be, not an example of how they started going wrong. Especially after all this time, the amount of naysayers have died down once they saw what happened with Diablo 3 and the rest of Blizzard's output and went back to realize that the issues around StarCraft 2's first few years were basically just complaints about it not being Brood War or having some things that needed ironing out much like all their other well-regarded games had, not fundamental issues that capped the game's quality with design that incentivized the wrong things.
The writing style caught me by surprise. I re-read it just to enjoy the style properly. I really like how this was expressed. But also for anyone who has had to endure some bureaucratic nonsense with a property, this is exactly how it feels.
My hometown recently had to cut down a bunch of trees due to a beetle infestation in the forest valley behind my mother's backyard. It's caused erosion that's creeping onto the backyard rapidly. Still in the middle of this bureaucratic process, along with all the other neighbours.