Content depicting the actual sexual abuse of children.

At least they used words. My g/f makes dinosaur noises and expects me to fucking interpret what she wants based on a growl.

I fucking love Grim Dawn! Started a new nightblade/berserker. It’s way better than Nightblade/arcanist but still scratches the itch poison/ice dual wielding.

PREACH. Can I get a hallelujah!

The point I poorly made, is that it’s capitalists/capital interests, the uber rich and techno-fascists that are clamoring for AI. It’s not “EVERYONE.”

Demand for a thing doesn’t mean that the poor and rich are demanding the thing equally.

The point I poorly made was the uber rich, and their greed are driving global warming far more than your average person.

I recycled like a good little soldier through the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, 2010’s and early 2020’s, only to find out that much of our plastic waste was just sold to third world countries rather than ACTUALLY being recycled. I’ve eliminated plastic everywhere I can in my life, and reuse it until it degrades and it’s got to be tossed.

I keep my thermostat set at 62 in the winter, and 78 in the summer to reduce my demand for electricity, even though these aren’t comfortable temperatures, they are tolerable. I already eat a primarily vegetarian diet, not because I want to, but because I am being priced out of meat. I repair my shoes and clothes to get a second life out of them. I don’t own a car and ride a bicycle. (Before I moved closer to work I’d average 45 miles a day between commute and errands on the way home.)

Corporate interests have actively hampered transitions to greener energy and public transportation, and bicycle infrastructure, (at least in the USA where I am.)

The point I am trying to make here is that the poor, and lower middle class don’t have large footprints to begin with, and have reduced consumption due to inflation and shit pay. Corporate interests and the uber wealthy are the biggest drivers of climate change.

Frankly, I’m tired of the powers that be trying to make me feel shame for fucking breathing because they think it contributes to global warming.

CEOs burning tons of fuel riding luxury jets does nothing for us. AI data centers clamoring for more electricity will do nothing for us.

It is. I’d consider it a form of stochastic terrorism. Stochastic terrorism is the public demonization of a person or group through mass media that incites a violent act which is statistically predictable but whose specific perpetrator and timing cannot be predicted.

So the government labeling anti-fascists as terrorists, or people that support an end to the Palestinian genocide as terrorists could fall under the definition of stochastic terrorism. We have the public demonization of anti-facists via policy and yellow journalism, which leads to those people speaking out against fascism to be targeted by the police/government for exercising their right to free speech and assembly. The anti genocide protesters spreading red paint and breaking windows are vandals for sure, but I wouldn’t go so far as to label them as terrorists. Labeling them as terrorists creates an opening for the government to deny them freedom via criminal charges worse than any crime they are actually guilty of.

The US Department of Justice is attempting to prosecute an Atlanta resident in connection with the movement against the police training center known as Cop City because he had GrapheneOS on his phone, an open-source operating system that enables users to enter a passcode and wipe a phone clean. The dude gave the police officer the code to wipe the phone, instead of the unlock code, in response to an illegal search and seizure of his property. The defendant, Sam Tunick, was stopped for interrogation at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport on 24 January last year, after vacationing in the Dominican Republic. Unbeknown to him, federal authorities had put him on a terrorism watchlist because of his alleged association with the movement against Cop City.

This is hysterical. Like the cheaters couldn’t even be bothered to proof read what the AI wrote to make sure it was correct.

I have briefly tried path of exile. It is also a good game, but maybe not for the casual aRPG player.

What I find really strange about PoE is that active skills you cast are tied to putting gems in your gear. As I continued to play, I found it frustrating. I might find a piece of gear that has good stats for my character, but the gem sockets are the wrong color for my gems that contain my skills. This necessitated grinding materials to re-roll the gem sockets, which was RNG. I found this to be a clunky way to change your skills too.

In grim dawn, you acquire active skills and stats as you level up and put points in your mastery. So if you want a skill, you base mastery must be raised high enough to unlock it, then you put a point in the skill. Putting additional points in the skill makes it stronger.

In terms of leveling up and making your character stronger, the system for spending points was pretty daunting in PoE. Resetting your points gets more and more expensive as your character levels up in PoE. This juxtaposed with the gem system for active skills just felt super clunky.

In grim dawn, leveling up your mastery gives you stats like physique, cunning, and spirit. If you are putting points into a base mastery for an arcanist, those base mastery points will overall give you more spirit per level; which means more energy regen for casting, and more magic damage. If you’re putting points into base mastery for a night blade, over time that gives you more cunning, for weapons based attacks, crit, and bleed. Putting points into base mastery for the soilder gives you more physique overtime, which gives you health regen, and the ability to avoid attacks. What I’m getting at here is the mastery system gives you the correct balance of stats. (Remember, you get to pick a second class/mastery at level 10.) As you level, you also get points to put into your characters base physique, cunning, or spirit which can help make you more well rounded, or boost a stat your are lacking due to the class choices you make. (Like a soldier + nightblade give you way more physique and cunning, and you might be running out of energy because you’re lacking spirit, you have a way to put points into spirit only to rectify this.) Reclaiming mastery points has a fixed cost and isn’t expensive the way it is in PoE.

The class/mastery system vs cost to make changes felt rewarding. It encouraged experimentation. PoE wanting/needing to make changes felt more punishing. I found in PoE I often waited to add points to my skill tree for a long time because I was worried about gem socket color on gear i might find, and the types of active skills I would find. Eventually I’d get locked into a play style and experimenting wasn’t rewarding in PoE.

The complexity of PoE eventually caused me to put it down. Grim dawn has the right balance of being more complex than Diablo 3, and simpler than PoE. Easy to pick up, with lots of depth too.

Grim dawn is an amazing game - 2,156 hours, (90 days,) played and counting. I can’t wait for the new expansion.

Here is a link to my review, with a copy paste below.

What happens when diablo, torchlight, and titan quest gang bang a video game developer and you’re not quite sure who the father is? Grim Dawn.

This game, hands down gets a 10/10. Absolutely worth purchasing at full price. Here’s why.

1. The class system is amazing. You can select a single class, or you can pick up a secondary class which allows for hybrid builds. The class system is similar to titan quest, in fact the game uses the TQ engine. (I own TQ, I haven’t play much, but now I am curios to pick it back up because Grim Dawn is so awesome.) The class system creates so much depth with varied playstyles.

Added for copy/paste; here is the full list of classes/masteries. Arcanist, Demolitionist, Nightblade, Occultist, Shaman, Soldier, Inquisitor, Necromancer, Oathkeeper, Berserker.

2. SO MUCH LORE. Really! I loved reading all the little notes you find scattered about the world. Many of the NPCs you interact with are pretty memorable, and add depth to the story.

3. Amazing art and music really help create the gritty and desperate world that is Grim Dawn. Boss battles feel intense. Dungeons and secret lairs feel creepy.

4. 3 different difficulties if you like achievement hunting. Crucible mode if you want to do a little PVP, or co-op crucible. 3 different crucible difficulties.

5. Despite how RNG the gear system drops can be, you have the ability to buy back talent and devotion points to adjust for gear drops. Skill bonuses on gear work well with the class/talent system. (Aside from the class/mastery system, there are a series of constelations you can also earn points for. Some constelations can be linked with your skills from your mastery class giving it additional effects.)

6. Gear is tradable. If you haven’t been blessed by RNGesus, you can trade stored gear with total strangers in multiplayer crucible. I love this. I love being able to give gear to someone that might be able to use it instead of letting it collect dust in my chest. Likewise, I have been freely given some pretty nice pieces too.

7. The community is AMAZING.

In summary, I love Grim Dawn. Grim Dawn, please marry me and let me have your babies.