The series was very good, but it was still a low budget project. BG1 was developed for an estimated $1.5-3M. BG2 was developed for $7M. I can’t even find budgets for Icewind Dale or Planescape: Torment.
But compare that the BG3’s $100M budget (closer to $200M after marketing).
These were great games, but they were largely indie games. None of them had AAA budgets back in the 90s. Even at the scale of the era, Ultima XI cost $12M to produce. The OG FF7 cost $45M.
I’m more or less disposable
Hey buddy. If they’re hiring, you’re not disposable. Managers come in a variety of flavors. Sometimes you get Peppermint Stupid. But also know your labor is worth more than their salary and without you their bills don’t get paid.
There’s power in a union. But even on your own, you can exert a surprising amount of leverage by finding your niche, establishing your criticality, and then setting boundaries on when you’re going to work. When other workers see you getting “special treatment”, and when you encourage them to stick up for themselves in turn, you can change the culture of an office through collective stubbornness. Or, at the very least, you can get an obnoxious assistant/middle manager shit-canned for failing to meet their own numbers.
But yeah, professionalization adds a lot more (corporately perceived) value to your resume. Once the business has handcuffed itself to college degrees and years experience, the employees discover a lot more freedom.
Not a bad bet, all things considered. I’ve seen jobs that offer “minimum wage starting” and then make you jump through a bunch of annoying hoops to get up to the $20-$25/hr line. It’s basically a way to fuck over summer hires and seasonal/migrant workers.
Sackler Family Values
why dafuq people always asks “WhY dO yOu WaNt To WoRk HeRe???”
As often as not, I field this question with a straightforward “I have X years in the industry and you seemed like a promising fit.” I might even gush about how wonderful the place looks and how charming the people are. Or note that it seems like your business is growing and how exciting it would be to join a team with such a bright future.
Like, I hate the question as much as anybody. But its so fucking boilerplate, I have to question why people are even mad at it. You’ve got a rookie pitcher sending one straight down the middle. Shove a rainbow up the interviewer’s ass and move on. If they keep coming back to it, that’s a red flag. But if they’re just reading off “How to Hire Someone 101” ChatGPT notes, you should be able to breeze through the most predictable set of questions imaginable.
Betting industry
https://x.com/salmanso_/status/2004011126364033110
It’s 9:00 pm on Christmas Eve.
Not a single Kalshi engineer has left the office.
There’s levels to this.
Honestly, looks like a half-step above Corporate Memphis clipart.
I mean, maybe its not shit money. Maybe its sitting squarely on top of the salary median for the career and years experience. Maybe it really is a good offer. Idfk.
But employers act like you’re applying for “The One Job That Exists” rather than juggling competing offers. I’ve bid my own existing company against new hire offers multiple times. And, every time, my existing employer countered with a better offer.
If you don’t offer me a salary, why the fuck would I leave my current job? I have decades of experience. I have a very particular set of useful skills. I have friends all over the industry. I’ve got more than one “Once In A Lifetime Opportunity” to choose from.
Only thing you can do is crack a door and take a peak.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationship_of_Bill_Clinton_and_Jeffrey_Epstein
Epstein’s interactions with Clinton can be traced to the early 1990s. After donating $1,000 to Bill Clinton’s presidential election campaign in 1991, Epstein donated $10,000 to the White House Historical Association in 1993 and, accompanied by Maxwell, attended a donors’ reception hosted by President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton.
…
Clinton and Epstein appeared to be on friendly terms; a photo from 2002 shows them together during a stop in Brunei, and in an interview that year Clinton praised Epstein as a “highly successful financier” and “a committed philanthropist”.
…
According to one of his lawyers, Epstein was “part of the original group” that conceived the Clinton Global Initiative, a flagship program of Clinton’s philanthropic work. This relationship extended to Maxwell as well – she and Epstein were invited guests at events early in the Clinton Foundation era, and Maxwell was noted as the likely social “glue” connecting Epstein to Clinton’s world.
Epstein was a major fundraiser for the Democratic party. Trump is the head of the Republican party. And it’s a two party system.
Napoleon loved that opening so its the same picture.
Or if you’re a young earth creationist, then god created the chicken wholesale
Did God create a chicken wholesale or did God create an egg that hatched into a chicken?
(God isn’t really, yadda yadda, but that’s not a fun answer)
Do they produce chickens?
It’s a language question, as you’re asking that we define whether a (Chicken) Egg is an egg laid by a chicken or an egg that hatches into a chicken.
“Don’t feel bad about being an incel. Everyone who isn’t a literal rapist is an incel. It’s okay” is one of the more enlightenment takes.
Failing romantically is painful and difficult. Especially when you’re younger and your emotions are still new and raw, it’s easy to fixated on a single person, to obsess and stew and cultivate insecurity and paranoia.
One of the big secrets to dating is not to do it alone. Throw parties, join clubs, mix with people your age. The apps are a trap. You’ll have far more luck dragging a friend or two with you to the gym and meeting people who work out at the same time. Or doing Rec League volleyball or basketball or running club or whatever. Or volunteering or going to church or literally leaving the house for any reason and hanging out with other people.
Why do you think so many 20-somethings spend every night out at The Club? It’s not for the smell.
But all of this is hard, and needs to be acknowledged as such. Groups of friends make it easier. That’s a big first step.
I mean, a lot of PUA advice is basic bitch “wash your ass”, “dress nice”, “engage in interesting conversation”, “don’t get hung up on a single person forever” tips that get glazed in new age pop psychology.
And if you go to the OG Bible of the PUAs (and get all the way to the end of the book) Neil Strauss makes all the same critiques of PUAs in the book that’s supposed to laud them.
The mistake people make is in reading the material like a How To Plumber’s Guide to fixing your dick drain instead of a life experience that informs a moment in history. You can learn from the mistakes of other people without becoming an asshole. Or you can learn to be an asshole by blindly replicating other people’s mistakes.
There were a lot fewer, certainly. FF7 was the heavyweight. Zelda: Ocarina, MGS, and StarCraft were in the running. Shenmu (produced a year later) had a budget north of $47M (the high fluctuation in Yen value making this a hard calculation).
But you wouldn’t see truly big budget gaming until GTA4 crested the nine digit mark.
The difference between $7M and $47M is a buncha lotta money.