Valve didn't invent lootboxes. The concept has physically existed for decades, they're called trading card packs or kinder eggs or gashapon. The latter is the inspiration for what became known as lootboxes. The first "lootbox" was actually in the Japanese version of MapleStory in 2004 and it spread in eastern markets (because pay to win is more normalized there) and in mobile games. It wasn't until 2009 when EA added card packs to FIFA. Hard to say if they were inspired by the lootboxes from the east of the insane football trading card market in the west, or by both. It was only after a year and a half later in 2010 when Valve added loot boxes to TF2. So Valve definitely didn't invent lootboxes, they weren't even the first in the west to use them. You could argue that they popularized loot boxes but even there is an argument to be made that Overwatch was a much bigger cultural hit than TF2 or CSGO or EAs FIFA games and normalized lootboxes.

I don't mind the "Valve is bad" narrative, but at least keep your facts straight. The "strongest DRM" is also BS but others have already somewhat covered that part.

Trump would have a running chance regardless of who the democrats pick would be, the electoral college and republican party have made sure of that.

Up there as one of the most dangerous chemical compounds in the world, near 100% fatality rate.

As if to prove my point... All you had to do was tell me the argument I made and all you did was "This is how it's genocide denial". It's exactly what I said you do.

How many times do I have to repeat myself?

I’m going to start from here because this is how you show how disingenuous you are. I straight up said I don’t agree with the genocide deniers and what do you do? You still lump me in with them. Your entire mindset here is “If they don’t agree with me they must be genocide deniers”. Fuck off with that shit.

You don't even try to understand what I'm saying, all you see is that I don't agree with you and so you mental gymnastic yourself into believing I'm doing genocide denial. Once again, fuck off with that shit.

Go on man, shut me up. Retell my point back to me.

You can sit on your high horse and talk about how people are cutting off pieces of their soul “for strategy”, but don’t be surprised when genocide continues and you get fascism shoved down your throat.

I’m yet to find a comment section that isn’t full of you fuckers.

I'm going to start from here because this is how you show how disingenuous you are. I straight up said I don't agree with the genocide deniers and what do you do? You still lump me in with them. Your entire mindset here is "If they don't agree with me they must be genocide deniers". Fuck off with that shit.

I don’t know about that, I think political possibility goes beyond who will be convinced to change their vote because you told people to stop complaining about Biden.

Like for instance, you acknowledging that the US is going to do genocide no matter what seems like a pretty damning thing to say, no? Seems like something worth saying. Seems like maybe we should condemn people who do genocide, or are willing to helm a nation that will make them complicit in genocide no matter what, because those are people that are going to do a genocide.

Political possibilities goes beyond when you stop complaining about a part of the problem and start criticizing the problem as a whole. Biden is only a part of the problem, the real problem is that the majority political landscape of US supports Israel. You can't even get a real presidential candidate who would oppose Israel because it would go against the party line. And yet you're convinced it's Biden you should be complaining about.

Seems like maybe getting people on board with a system change involves pointing out that it is an inexorable genocide machine. And if that’s what it takes to stop the genocides - and you seem to agree with me on this - then maybe we should, I don’t know, talk about it?

Which is why you should talk about all the politicians supporting the genocide and not just focus on one. Why aren't you complaining about Trump? Why aren't you complaining about Mitch McConnell or Chuck Schumer? Why aren't you complaining about everyone in congress who voted to aid Israel? Why is it that you only complain about Biden?

I think if you think you need to do this to get someone elected, that’s actually counterproductive. Like maybe people associating Biden with genocide denial is going to make it harder for them to hold their nose and vote strategically like you want. It’s very hard to imagine the voter who would care about the genocide and yet be fooled into voting for Biden because people kept his genocide support on the down-low. Seems like you’re cutting off little pieces of your soul for the sake of a strategy that isn’t going to really work, unless you’ve got an A-to-B for me on how telling people to stop complaining about Biden’s genocide support helps him win election.

It's not about getting Biden elected, it's about making sure Trump does not get elected. That's what your elections have always been about, voting against the guy you hate more. If you don't vote for Biden you're indirectly voting for Trump because the system boils down to you either get Biden or you get Trump. And it doesn't matter who gets elected, America will still support genocide. This vote isn't about genocide, it's about whether American will get a fascist leader or not. You can sit on your high horse and talk about how people are cutting off pieces of their soul "for strategy", but don't be surprised when genocide continues and you get fascism shoved down your throat.

Actually I'm just pointing out that you're complaining about something that won't change. You can complain about Biden being a capitalist but every final presidential candidate has been a capitalist for I don't even know for how many decades. You're complaining into the void because unless the system itself changes there's no chance to have a socialist president.

Similarly you're complaining about Biden supporting genocide but the alternative, Trump, has pretty much said he will go gloves off and give Israel whatever they need. In fact you probably couldn't find a president in the last 20 years who wouldn't be supporting Israel. It's not a specific president or presidential candidate that is supporting genocide, it's the entire system. The only thing you realistically accomplish by complaining about Biden is sowing division.

As for the "genocide deniers", well some people are just dumb and we have to accept that.

And don't forget capitalist Joe. Nobody is talking about the actual capitalism Joe is supporting because you think you have a good reason for it.

Have you considered that it looks better because you're used to seeing it that way? It's the same with Fahrenheit vs Celsius, the one you've grown up with make more sense and is more pleasing to the eye.

That's like saying 14 lashes is more favorable than 15 lashes.

And the denazification claim was a stupid one in the first place because how does Russia verify that Ukraine is denazified? If Ukraine kicks out of the government all the suppose nazis, is Ukraine denazified? What if they all denounce nazism. Does that count? What's stopping Russia from putting more people in their "nazi" list? It was a vague demand and shouldn't have been a demand in the first place.

Online casinos are also tech. The devops in the article literally says they set up proxies to continue operating in countries where their main domain is blocked. I know the core domain of casinos are very regulated, but I doubt the entire tech aspect of online casinos are regulated. I imagine there's plenty of fuckery to do there.

Also casinos will throw out people who benefit too much at the expense of the casino. The casino benefitted too much at the expense of Cloudflare and refused to share the profits, so Cloudflare did what any casino would do and kicked them out.