SophismaCognoscente

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I love token decks of all types. Squirrel tokens, copy tokens, whatever. My favorite is a mono-white deck that does nothing but create tokens and accrue value from them. I don’t usually like to attack with my tokens, so I generally wait until I can end the game with something like [[Starlight Spectacular]] or just dig for [[Halo Fountain]].

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

This whole article is propaganda. If you want to see concern trolling, Millben is doing a ton of it by calling Obama’s remarks “arrogant” and “virtue-signaling.”

The fact is, religious nationalism is bad for any country that calls itself a democracy. Modi and his party should be taken to task both by Indians at home and by India’s fellow democracies.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

The link is up there.

Basically the plaintiffs are hoping the Supreme Court enacts a narrow definition of the word “income” for taxability purposes relating to Trump’s repatriation tax, and they and their lawyers are explicitly inviting the Supreme Court to do so in a way that would also stymie a hypothetical wealth tax.

Per the article, “The Justice Department had urged the justices to reject the case, noting there was no split on the issue in the lower courts and arguing that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had correctly applied the relevant precedents. On the wealth-tax question, the government also pointedly noted that the Supreme Court does not have the constitutional power to issue advisory opinions about hypothetical legislation that has not been enacted into law by Congress.”

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The handheld/console hybrid has been Nintendo’s dream for a long time. They even merged their handheld and console development teams a few years back, so I can’t see them abandoning the formula.

The only way I can see iterating on the Switch design is by dropping the dock in favor of a tv dongle to connect and stream wirelessly. This could allow for asymmetrical gameplay much like the WiiU (and would open the door to WiiU ports).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Just buy it. Corporate malfeasance aside, the game is worth paying full price.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Sounds like backwards compatibility is a lock—not that it’s a huge hurdle for today’s machines—since most of the account features involve software and save data. The retro game archives will probably make the jump too, since keeping them locked behind a paid membership is probably more lucrative than the Virtual Console ever was.

Anyone who has ever transferred their account to a new Switch knows how easy it is, for the most part. The biggest chore is redownloading software data, so maybe Nintendo will allow full game data to transfer over via SD card this time.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (12 children)

I’m conflicted. I have no sympathy for Meta, but I think it would be a mistake to defed from all corporate-run servers axiomatically. Involvement from deep-pocket industries has its issues, but it also builds legitimacy and awareness.

You wouldn’t want your email provider to block all communication with Gmail, just because it’s Google-hosted, would you?

Ultimately, the strength of the decentralized model is to allow those who don’t want to see normie Meta content to move to a platform like Scicomm. But I worry for the drama and fallout when large instances make decisions that affect a huge number of users.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’m always wary of basing campaigns around movies because there’s always the potential that the players will make radically different choices. Like, if the players decide not to stick around for the next fog, will that be okay?

To answer your question, campaign level is a function of the types of monsters you’re looking to include. Since these seem to be mostly humanoid soldier types, you probably want to stay low enough level for that kind of combat to be a danger.

Starting at level 2 or 3 would probably be appropriate to maintain the challenge. On the other hand, if you’re planning to pit the players against an army of dozens of soldiers, you may want to start at level 5 so they can mow them down properly.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I’m a huge proponent of physical media, but this is entirely unsurprising given Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda. Compared to Switch and especially Playstation, the Xbox has a much higher rate of digital game sales.

If Starfield were on PS5, it would get a disc release for sure, and Xbox would probably get one too for the sake of parity. But discs aren’t terribly important to the Xbox crowd, and that goes double for PC gamers.

Moreover, digital games are good for the publisher’s bottom line, so physical media is only going to exist as long as customers demand it. And PC and Xbox gamers simply don’t.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I remember when this comic used to be about swords.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

“Quadrant theory,” as I believe it is called, has been a useful tool for assessing which cards stay and which cards can go.

Basically, you break down the game into quadrants (e.g., early game, late game, post-boardwipe, waiting-for-wincon, stalemate, etc.) and consider how a given card will perform in various stages of the game.

A card that can be useful in more game quadrants is obviously preferable to a card that will sit in your hand if you draw it at the wrong time. For example, a counterspell can serve as removal when an opponent drops a threat, or it can protect your board while you go for the win.

This approach favors modal spells at the expense of powerful niche spells, so it should be employed judiciously. But it’s a good way of considering to what extent a card can carry its weight.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Weirdly, one of my most anticipated cards is Reprieve. I love white counterspells (in theory) but Mana Tithe has been dead-in-hand more often than not lately. Stack interaction that’s reliable (if not permanent) which cantrips besides? Expect to see this get reprinted into mainline Magic before too long.

I’m also looking forward to getting the hobbit deck for my wife—huge LotR nerd. She knows how to play but it’s hard to get her to sit down and shuffle up, so I hope this changes things.

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