jdreyer wrote on Jul 5, 2020, 16:22:
When you or I go out for drinks, the cost is a factor in how much we drink. That factor was removed from the equation for her. Chris was getting her free drinks and encouraging her. His intent is obvious here. That's not to say she doesn't have responsibility.

Cost has nothing to do with the accusation and I'm sure he can more than afford what's required to get this woman drunk. If he truly is the predator in this case then I think it's safe to say that money would not be an issue.

jdreyer wrote on Jul 5, 2020, 16:22:
And if this had just been a single incident, nothing would have happened. But Chris was the instigator here. He took specific actions with an intent for a certain outcome. He's done this so many times that he's been banned from some conventions. It's a pattern, and even if it's not technically illegal, it's super-creepy, and well within a company's right to terminate business with him. Which is exactly what happened.

I understand why he was terminated and when you look at the big picture he completely deserved it. He's creepy, predatory, and bad for business. My point is that the person this article is the focus of has a really weak story and she shouldn't be the one with the stand out story that gets him called out on a larger scale. Heck, there's even mention in the article of others that encountered much worse interactions with him. They are the ones that should be in the spotlight, not Karissa from the article. Her lame-ass story is not going to convince someone who's out of the loop that Avellone is a bad guy. The article should be about his pattern of behavior, not her questionable recollection of two adults being dumb.

Pr()ZaC wrote on Jul 5, 2020, 08:54:
There's always the other side of the coin and you won't know what really happened there. Unless there's hard evidence... Is there?

There are no reliable witnesses here and no security footage so no, there is no evidence at all.

She admitted to being "black out" drunk so there's no telling how much she actually remembered. The two friends that were with them also stepped away like most decent people do while in the presence of PDAs so they can't be considered witnesses either.

jdreyer wrote on Jul 4, 2020, 21:02:
1) Chris was plying her with free drinks on his company dime, so cost as a limiting factor was not present.
2) He was plying her with Midori sours, a drink of strong flavors that masks the alcohol so you're unaware of how strong the drink is or how much alcohol you're consuming.

Both are weak points that would not enhance the article or further support your argument.

1) She chose to drink what he gave her. She even said "I drink very quickly when I'm thirsty". Yeah...so does every other human being on the planet. Except most of them are not morons and drink WATER instead of alcohol.
2) Midori sour is not a strong drink.

He's a creep, she's an idiot, and they are both adults. Bad decisions were made by both of them that night. When she asked him to stop, HE STOPPED. This was not assault -- he was just a creep who couldn't read the room and she is using the current political climate for her 15 minutes of fame. The fact that she takes no responsibility for any of the stupid decisions made that night speaks volumes about her maturity level and does nothing to bolster any arguments against toxic and unsafe environments in the workplace. Her heart is in the right place but even if he does have a reputation of questionable behavior her story is not the one to tell to put him in his place.

Drayth wrote on Jun 30, 2020, 11:22:
For me, Force Awakens was passable. It didn't fall flat on it's face, and was a decent jumping off point.

I enjoyed it and was very optimistic of the quality of the next two sequels. I was wrong.

Drayth wrote on Jun 30, 2020, 11:22:
Last Jedi just spit all over the lore. Fin suddenly knows how to pilot ships. Hux goes from being Kylo's peer amongst the first order to a complete comic buffoon. Then there was the real world parallels; prank cell phone call joke, war profiteering and animal rights worming their way into the plot. Ugh. Plenty of other issues.

When I saw the green unpasturized alien creature boobie milk scene I knew the series was doomed. And the porgs? Suddenly Chewie is an indifferent a**hole that is just fine with eating a family member of this cute harmless creature -- right in front of it?

Drayth wrote on Jun 30, 2020, 11:22:
Kind of a waste of the new actors as well. I thought they were all great, just trapped in this horrible story arc.

John Boyega was a total spaz throughout the entire sequel trilogy. He is quite the overactor.

Beamer wrote on Jun 27, 2020, 16:31:
What was the last post Cutter made in which he wasn't offended and outraged?

Until you stop encouraging him it will be every post he makes.

deqer wrote on Jun 27, 2020, 18:14:
"Our goal is to appease to mobs so that we can continue making money off them."

Yep. Everyone is a kiss-ass these days. It's almost always to maintain a reputation and / or prevent the disruption of income.

The stuff we see on the news every day? 98% of it is just entertainment for the masses that *think* they are being well-informed. Oh and guess what...the entertainers make lots of money off it too!

Beamer wrote on Jun 27, 2020, 16:27:
In some ancient cultures, pooping on someone was considered socially acceptable. I'd somehow doubt you'd allow me to, though

My wife? Maybe. But you? Hell no. What comes out of your mouth is bad enough. I'm sure what comes out of your ass is the stuff of nightmares that you'd have in hell.

Beamer wrote on Jun 23, 2020, 10:16:

"You could slap your secretary on the ass and she'd find it funny! These days, when you tell a woman that she's gained too much weight for you to date but you'd certainly give her a roll in the hay, she gets offended. When you tell a black man that your grandpappy used to own people like him, he gets angry. Why can't we go back to the good old days when white men could say and do whatever they wanted and everyone else had to laugh or else? We need to go back to that! Make America Great Again. For white people to not have to be polite or respectful, yet everyone else needs to towards us!"

You missed the point entirely. Off-color jokes (within reason), compliments, and asking someone out all fall under reasonable social interactions and don't fall into the blatantly negative category you provided examples for above. The problem is that there are too many morons that can't read the room and totally miss the mark on the target audience. That's why nobody with half a brain does that anymore. It's a good way to lose a job, get doxxed, death threats, etc. People are too stupid and sensitive these days.

GothicWizard wrote on Jun 23, 2020, 10:56:
Even the IMPLICATION that because they were drinking that justifies it is WRONG. Period. So again, what the fuck is wrong with you for defending that?

I didn't read it as defending or justifying -- more that it needs to be taken into consideration. She made it clear in her tweets that she did drink a lot. So did he. People make bad decisions while drinking and details are not always accurate when recalled. Humans are notoriously bad witnesses even while sober.

No one knows what happened once the doors closed. Is he a creep and did something absurdly inappropriate most likely happen? Absolutely. Our justice system is supposed to be fair and impartial and in order to do that all factors need to be taken into consideration.

Beamer wrote on Jun 23, 2020, 09:34:
And lack of interest often flows from lack of perceived opportunity.

Agreed. The current approach to correcting this doesn't work in practice, however. People who feel this way are going to have to step up and deal with it. People don't like to hear the whole 'bootstraps' advice that seems to be politically incorrect these days but in my experience (by observation) that's what is the most effective.

Beamer wrote on Jun 23, 2020, 09:34:
But to say that there's any male demographic uninterested in making games...
I just don't get why so many people feel threatened by this.

Not sure if this is directed at me but...

The article has nothing to do with gender.
I'm not sure where you get this whole 'threatened' idea. I don't care what is done to improve the situation -- that's their prerogative. Ultimately I don't care how diverse my coworkers are or how diverse a specific industry is. I just want good people to work with (competent, respectful, team player) and products / services that are the best they can be based on employees that are hired in the first place because of those attributes.

All this push for diversity stuff is a dead horse. It feels forced and it's been statistically proven in many industries that lack of diversity more often than not coincides with lack of interest shown by the minority demographics.

A while back there was a push to get more female participation in the Linux development community by one of the major Linux organizations (I forget which one). They had a board to manage the whole campaign and it failed miserably. They dropped the whole idea. Why? Lack of female interest -- it was a waste of everyone's time.

It's kind of a no-win for minorities that do want to get into <insert name of industry here> but this synthetic pandering helps no one and is a waste of resources. The best way to improve the state of diversity is to provide improved support for minorities already in <industry of choice>. Otherwise the only other effective means to a fair work environment is the legal route. See Riot Games for a good example. It took a while, but there are consequences for toxicity and they (literally) paid for it.

Good lord, screed is right...

I don't think Karissa understands how Twitter is supposed to be used!

It doesn't matter what you had to drink, just that you got drunk and were taken advantage of. I guess brevity isn't for everyone.

I'm all about innocent until proven guilty but when you have a situation that falls into "Bill Cosby Syndrome" I can't help but believe the accuser 100%. I'm glad she found the courage to call it out and I wish there was some way justice could be served in this scenario.

RedEye9 wrote on Jun 17, 2020, 19:18:
You know what the funny thing is, most white people aren't pissed off and recognize the plight of our brothers.
The pissed off ones are now a minority and that's why they're angry. They're not used to being the underdog.
Well we got news for them. Change is coming and they won't be able to do a damn thing about it.

Um...no. The pissed off ones are the ones that are rioting and looting in the streets. The other side consists of people who are annoyed with it. Most of them are just as annoyed as they were before it started because they don't agree with the approach taken for change -- it's led to destruction of property, injury, and death. The effectiveness of the protests has run its course. Politicians have committed to pushing for change - that's the only goal they can expect to reach. Anything else is going to have a negative impact on the cause.

mxmissile wrote on Jun 17, 2020, 16:15:
isnt white a color? SMH

Ironically, it's "all colors"

jdreyer wrote on Jun 13, 2020, 18:50:
Yeah, they're doing a bangup job with XWVM so far. Been in development for years now. Thought they might be done by now.

The main challenge holding things up is asset development. They've used a lot of placeholder models / textures for which they were not granted permission to use. As a result they have not released anything to the general public because these assets are still in development and they don't want to step on any toes by including content without approval.

The Half Elf wrote on Jun 12, 2020, 23:06:
Just need a Xwing/Tie Fighter/Xwing Alliance remake, NOT by EA. Ship combat in Battlefront 2 was horrible.

Google "XWVM". Keep it on the DL though -- we don't want it to get "Foxed" lol

opie wrote on Jun 12, 2020, 22:50:
it will be on rails, but shitty.... why is it so hard to get another Xwing or Tie fighter or Xwing vs Tie fighter...

Because the largest target market doesn't have the patience for the difficulty level or complexities of another X-Wing. They want to maximize profit.

Google "XWVM" if you want the next X-Wing.

Verno wrote on Jun 1, 2020, 10:42:
I'm going to have to eat my words about Netflix originals, they've been knocking it out of the park in the past year.

Agreed. I kept cancelling Netflix when I'd find that there wasn't really much I wanted to watch (as in 'mainstream' stuff like recent movies, shows from major networks, discovery channel, etc).

Now Netflix is part of the mainstream. They weren't kidding when they vowed to become a major production company. I've been watching a lot of their content lately.

RedEye9 wrote on May 28, 2020, 11:56:
Here's to hoping for good weather.

Indeed. Fingers crossed. I was disappointed but I'd rather be safe than lose two more astronauts.

Cutter wrote on May 26, 2020, 13:00:
Personally I find grilling to be a PITA. Constantly going in an out to the grill, checking temps, monitoring time, watching for flare ups, etc. Way easier to prep it in the kitchen, stick it in the oven, and leave it until it's done.

I live in an area that's hot and humid (and requires A/C) most of the year. You'd be surprised at how quickly an oven or stove can heat up the house. Grilling fixes that. It's also great for things that you smell in the house for days afterwards (seafood, bacon, brussels sprouts).

I bought a good quality grill ($2500!) but it was worth every penny. Once you get used to the characteristics of how it cooks you really don't need to follow the same science you'd use in the kitchen. After a few learning experiences I got a 'feel' for how to cook on the grill and by following 'gut' science I would say I have about a 97.5% success rate. Plus, the grill has a built in beverage holder for my beer (not a joke!).