I went through the same thing you did when I first quit Dota years ago. Lost contact with a whole group of people - several of which still play - but I just wasn't having a great return on my investment in terms of fun/hour.

It's possible I'll come to the same conclusion with Deadlock, though I'm still willing to try a bit since it's very mechanically fun to play.

Very astute observation. I think the only thing I disagree with is that I personally think the media do to a large extent directly dictate viewers judgements. Which makes the rest of your points even more salient.

I don't think Kamala demolished Trump as thoroughly as some people seem to claim, and I think she could have been way stronger and more direct on a lot of issues and talking poins. There is no denying however that her responses, stances and delivery on abortion was stellar. The whole "they didn't want that" part was very powerful.

I can't believe it's this close and I hate that Harris is starting to slip in some states. My heart can't handle another Trump presidency.

Trump hasn't lost yet - not by a long shot - but this definitely is him preparing Plan B. This is basically just him signalling to his most loyal fans that if things don't go their way in November, they'll be richly awarded for another Jan 6 - only doing it "right" this time.

Like others have said, very much "enemy of my enemy" thing. Old school republicans, Rick Wilson for example worked on George H.W. Bush's campaign.

I love what they're doing getting under Trump's skin, but once he's no longer a threat they'll return to being the enemy. For the moment we can enjoy their work, though.

As others have noted Peter Thiel money might have influenced the choice. Given Vance's relationship to Project 2025 (he wrote the foreword to Kevin Roberts's book, remember^[1]) it's also possible he was a strongly pushed Heritage Foundation plant - put in place to ensure the flailing incoherent mess that is Trump's mind is actually implementing Project 2025 properly when elected.

Harris has a lot of pressure on her. People are basically expecting a total domination from her, so anything less than that could derail her momentum very fast. And Trump might be terrible at classic debating, but he is actually very adept at bulldozing others by ignoring speaking in turns, deploying a fire hose of lies and misinformation and loudly talking over others.

Let's hope for good moderation.

FromSoft sort of brought it upon themselves with their design philosophy to be fair, going back at least as far as Dark Souls. Selling a DLC and having it locked behind a convoluted puzzle you wouldn't figure out without a guide was certainly a choice, for example.

BG3 winning the GotY was something we all could see coming I think and even though it's not my personal pick I'm hard pressed to argue. It's a great game, it opened up many in the mainstream to a new genre and Larian is a great company with consumer-friendly policies. It's hard to be mad.

I'm very glad Alan Wake 2 got a couple of awards, though. Hopefully this recognition means Remedy keeps pushing the boundaries and keeps going with their crazy mixed media and weirdness. We need someone doing innovation in the AAA space.

I am a little pissed they lost out on best music to FFXVI though.

I think ljdawson is working on it for Sync. I assume that's why he held off on implementing posting.

Good old wiki walking, you never realize what you're doing until a few hours in, and even then you can't stop.