Curious how it’ll perform in real world conditions. Sodium batteries are supposed to have much better charging times and don’t degrade the way lithium batteries do, both of which would be huge. Fingers crossed they live up to expectations.
(Also obligatory “expand and improve public transit damnit!”)
Yakuza/Like a Dragon sidequest.
Full disclaimer: I fell off Overwatch years ago, so this is just stuff I’ve picked up reading general game news, so I’m sure others will be more in-tune with what’s up but here’s an overview, at least:
So first off OW2 as a thing was always kind of bizarre. When it was a battle(dot)net exclusive, it was free if you owned 1, and straight-up automatically replaced OW1 in your library. It behaved like an update would for any other game, and that’s because it kinda just was a big update to the game. Naturally there’s some back and forth about if the gameplay changes are good or not, but the big issue is monetization.
So, when OW1 came out, they explicitly said that all content updates (basically things other than skins) would be free, including new characters, maps, etc. However, since OW2 was a “new” game, there was no risk of legal issues around false advertising if they were to start charging for new characters, which is exactly what they did. New characters now had to be unlocked via the battle pass (or purchased individually, I assume) in order to be playable, which obviously rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. (I vaguely remember this maybe being walked back to some degree after backlash, but I’m not sure one way or the other).
And all of this comes as Activision/Blizzard is going through a genuinely horrific series of scandals around workplace conditions. Like, there’s genuinely too much to list here but famously, one of the OW characters was renamed since he was originally named after an employee who turned out to be a huge sexual abuser. There’s report after report coming out on an almost daily basis, and it’s abundantly clear that management (including infamous shitbag CEO Bobby Kotik) are intentionally trying to cover things up. Genuinely mind-boggling. At this point, it also becomes abundantly clear that ActiBlizz management is using OW as a distraction from the negative press they’re getting, regularly announcing new updates or “progressive” (big air quotes due to the extreme cynical corporate nature) character details within hours of major scandals breaking.
So you’ve got all that on top of the usual toxicity that tends to form around competitive games if left unchecked. It’s kind of a mess.
Alright as someone who has seen this happen… Don’t. Fist off, if the employee doesn’t already know what the benefits of a union are and how to go about organizing one, this does nothing to change that. Second, it puts them in a dangerous position with management. Obviously, any good Union drive should be fully prepared for union busting tactics, but ideally you want to keep that shit secret from management for as long as possible. And imagine how frustrated you’d be if a customer pulling a stunt like this got you fired.
Instead what you want to do is talk to your family, friends, and coworkers about what a union can do for them and talk about how to effectively organize a union drive. Make sure that shit is led by the workers, and puts forward strong demands and escalating tactics. They should also absolutely get community support, but in organized, meaningful ways - think things like mailing lists to get the word out about rallies, boycotts, etc.
Unions are hell of a tool and they should be organized in the most effective possible ways.
I mean I dunno why you’d want to preserve capitalism. It’s not like the parts outside of climate change are going super well either.
(This comment brought to you by a hospital attempting to charge me $4,000 after telling me to eat a banana).
For the average user maybe, but for a client as big as Twitter they’re probably going to want to take a more hands-on/careful approach, so whatever’s in the contract would probably supersede their standard terms.
One extra thing a lot of articles haven’t pointed out is that the mod was locked behind a patreon paywall. Sticking mods behind paywalls has been a hot subject (to put it gently) in the community for a while now. Not to rush to the defense of the most profitable franchise in the world, but yeah that’s absolutely gonna get you shut down.