Ken Mathis

@TheDailyShow I was starting to get triggered by a lack of Event Horizon wormhole acknowledgement.

The Pentagon is cooking up some creative strategies to open the Strait of Hormuz

@nuhre_ I defended Crimson Desert for most of the time before launch, although I saw the writing on the wall at the end. However the problem is not gameplay vs story. Gameplay is more than enough all by itself. The problem here is that the gameplay is highly flawed.

From the footage shown before release, I could already tell Crimson Desert was shaping up to be more of a technical demo than a fully realized game. That it would feel like an MMO in everything but name. That the story would barely be there. And people went for my throat over it. And I get it, when a game you’re excited about doesn’t meet expectations, it stings. But pretending criticism comes out of nowhere, or that people are just “hating,” isn’t helping anyone. A lot of us are just saying: manage your expectations. We literally had this debate weeks ago: does story matter in games? And yeah, gameplay is important. But for most players, no amount of systems or content will keep them around if there’s no story to anchor it. If anything, this should be a reminder that hype culture is toxic, for players and studios. Because when something looks too good to be true… it usually is.

@Govindtwtt Universal Basic Income will be ultimate end, but we'll have to go through a lot of pain before we get there. Not all jobs going away. We'll prefer humans to do some even if automation could. However that'll be up to personal tastes. Some will pay more for humans. Others won't.

Everyone says “AI will take all the jobs.” If that happens… how does this future actually work? No jobs → no income → no spending. So who buys things? Who pays rent? Who keeps the economy moving? What am I missing here?

@HomieSanto Divisiveness because: * Game had massive hype locking people into positions they're reluctant to change—especially if bought game * There are people who love exploration/grinding, while others see as a waste of time. Always be conflict between two if a game appears to be for both

@KenMathis I’d agree if it wasn’t as divisive as it is. Because it is, it makes me feel that the game’s intent is coming across regardless of its shortcomings.

I’ve noticed a pattern; when a decent game comes out that expects you to be curious, to be observant and to pay attention, a lot of tourists-turned-reviewers are the first to rage quit, refund, or low-grade that game. Some games aren’t for everyone, but I’m starting to think the pattern is made pretty clear by those who say they don’t like yellow paint, but absolutely need it.

@GermanStrands Turns out there is this little thing called gameplay that is a major factor in a game's quality. No amount of attention-to-detail can change that.

in no freaking world is a game with this much attention to detail and ambition a 4.5/10

Reporter: Should Americans be prepared for oil to hit $200 dollar per barrel? US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright: Did you know Iran calls us the great Satan?

@aakashgupta While I agree that trees should be preserved, this analysis is flawed. The buyer isn't disadvantaged by not having trees. They know the condition of the house when they buy it, and price that condition accordingly. They pay what they think it is worth.

Let me explain exactly why every new subdivision in America looks like the top photo, because the math is wild. A mature tree increases a home's value by 7 to 19 percent. On a $400,000 house, that's $28,000 to $76,000. A single shade tree produces the cooling equivalent of ten room-size air conditioners running 20 hours a day. One tree on the west side of a house cuts energy bills by 12 percent within 15 years. The bottom photo is worth more, costs less to live in, and sells faster. This has been documented by the University of Washington, Clemson, Michigan State, and the USDA. The data is not in dispute. Removing those trees saves the builder roughly $5,000 per lot. Concrete trucks need twice the dripline radius of every standing tree. Utility trenches need flat ground. A bulldozer flattens 200 lots in an afternoon. Preserving trees adds weeks and thousands per home. So the developer pockets $5,000 in savings and the buyer eats $50,000 in lost value for the next two decades. The person making the decision and the person paying for it have never been in the same room. The Woodlands, Texas is the proof of what happens when they are. George Mitchell bought 28,000 acres of Houston timberland in 1974 and preserved 28% as permanent green space. He forced McDonald's to build behind the tree canopy. That McDonald's became one of the highest-volume locations in Texas. The first office building, designed to reflect the surrounding forest so you couldn't see it from the street, leased completely. The Woodlands median home price today: $615,000. Katy, a comparable Houston suburb that clear-cut: $375,000. Named #1 community to live in America two years running. Fifty years of data. The trees are worth more than removing them saves. Developers clear-cut anyway because they sell the house once and leave. You live in it for 30 years.

@Khatspergers A game has to give you an indication of your progress and mechanics should be consistent. It is horrible game design to have the player mowing through enemies with their abilities working only to be stopped cold at a boss with their abilities not working.

After wasting 20 minutes slamming his head into a boss with nothing but starter gear, Phil concludes that Crimson Desert is not a good game and rage quits.

@mistergeezy It's ok for thee Until it happens to me -GOP Every. F'ing. Time.

They voted for Trump, and now they are dealing with the consequences of their actions.

"I'm not responsible for the car crash. I was too drunk to know what I was doing."

@Daractenus One you go below 40%, you're getting into Trump's hardcore support. Becomes increasingly difficult to persuade people the lower it gets. However, the fact that Trump's polling avg is just 38.3% is significant because means hardcore is slipping.

Most pollsters continue to put Donald Trump’s approval rating at around 40%. Everything he has done over the past three months, from U.S. citizens getting shot by his Gestapo to the Epstein files, war with Iran, and his threats to annex Greenland, has cost him about 1-2%.

@TheJamtastic @TheCinesthetic * TRoS was $1.07 billion, not $1.3. That's a 19% drop from TLJ & 48% drop from TFA! Disney didn't stop making SW movies because doing well * Anticipated retcon + enthusiast fallacy drove TRoS opening BO. Counters your claim opening BO proved TLJ didn't harm SW. It absolutely did

@KenMathis @TheCinesthetic General audience helped push it to $1.3 billion. The “retcon” of TRoS turned out to be a muddled mess of nonsensical storytelling and recycled plot points (basically all JJ knows how to do) which is why Rise failed compared to TLJ critically and commercially. Solo failed period.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) keeps getting dismissed over a thirty-second origin gag, while the rest of the film just moves. Train heist, Donald Glover locking into Lando & a crew dynamic that actually clicks. It never really got judged on what it is.

@TheJamtastic @TheCinesthetic * It was 20% drop not 15% * Completely ignored that with JJ Abrams returning, TRoS was seen as TLJ retcon * Enthusiast paradox. Enthusiasts are smaller than general audience but make up disproportionate pct of initial sales. It's why cinemascores are more favorable than reviews

@KenMathis @TheCinesthetic The opening weekend difference between TLJ and RotS was about 15% less. There’s your disgruntled fans. I recognize they exist but again they are a minority in the real world and overly-represented & noisy on social. And Solo failed all by itself. It was not a good movie.

@TheJamtastic @TheCinesthetic The Rise of Skywalker got a boost because it was a mainline Star Wars movie. It was also initially seen as a repudiation of TLJ and a return to what TFA started. TRoS made $300 million less than TLJ & half of TFA, so it is yet another data point on how bad TLJ hurt Star Wars.

@KenMathis @TheCinesthetic If that’s the case, then why did the rise of Skywalker (and objectively terrible movie) open so much stronger than Solo? It made like three times what solo did its opening weekend. TLJ backlash is just a bunch of extremely online social media misanthropes.

@Thecream06 @IGN I was super hyped for this game, but after seeing reviews, that hype is gone. Sounds like there's a lot of unnecessary frustration & wasting-of-time going on. Give it a year or so of patching & it could be something special. Still worried about base console performance.

@IGN So you're saying to buy stock because this game is going to be very very well received by real gamers

Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss' stock price dropped around 30% after receiving a 78 on Metacritic. #crimsondesert #gaming

GOP Senate candidate on rising gas prices: ‘Maybe you take one less trip to Starbucks’ thehill.com/homenews/state…

@McFaul This is going to take a long time to change because Trump has proven that even when the US government gets sane again, like under Biden, GOP voters can bring back the crazy in any future election.

Shocking. But also reversible if we change our ways.

@Michael_Gilead @citrinowicz That is not an option to reopen the strait. That is an option to ignore the strait altogether. It's simply too easy to fly drones into tankers confined to a two mile path. Either fully occupying southern Iran or negotiating a ceasefire are only viable options to open strait.

@citrinowicz These cannot be the only two options. Assume the US takes or further entombs the Uranium and Pickaxe mountain, and declares an end to the war. If Iran continues to disrupt traffic, they will become a problem for the entire world, not just a US problem.

The administration now faces a stark choice—one it can no longer avoid. A. Use force to reopen the strait, knowing full well that any strike on Iran’s energy infrastructure will trigger retaliation. This is not a limited operation. It’s escalation—potentially rapid, and potentially uncontrollable. There are no half-measures here: if Washington wants the strait open, it will have to fight for it. B. Accept reality, cut losses, and pursue a deal with Tehran over the terms of access. Politically unpalatable? Absolutely. But when global oil flows and the stability of Asian markets are at stake, strategic necessity tends to override rhetoric. What last night made unmistakably clear is this: there is no clean solution. No surgical fix. No easy win. The longer the administration pretends otherwise, the higher the cost will be #IranWar‌