This is a ridiculous article. People are not their government. The fact that Russia is a non-democratic government even makes it even worse. The russian people still deserve to earn a wage, to pay for their necessities, even if their taxes - unfortunately - support a warmongering dictator, and they’re suffering through a draft. How is this any worse than the US government that not only builds itself on constant foreign interference as well as flat out invasions? And their soldiers willingly enlist. Should we ask that every american citizen starve themselves because their taxes support the military? Should we call that companies stop employing US citizens and drive them into poverty because of the countless atrocities the United States support?

To call out a foreign country on not standing up against their leaders is absurd. They control the policemen and the army, they have the weapons, the finances, and the policies. Why didn’t americans - the supposedly defenders of democracy - not easily depose Trump if that’s all it takes? Why are they struggling with a bipartisan system in which both candidates openly support the Palestinian genocide? Why not make a call for the rest of the world to abandon them and just let them die out? Its almost like its not that easy to change your entire nation, huh?

The details are still up in the air, but 404media has chimed in with a legal expert on this deplorable situation. They mostly talk about what damage this could do, and how Nintendo has never lost a lawsuit, but I found this to be an interesting key point

https://www.404media.co/cold-blooded-business-nintendo-is-patent-trolling-palworld-because-it-got-too-big/

Nintendo has, as I mentioned in my tweet, a legendary track record. I think they never lost a lawsuit that they initiated themselves, and under the Japanese legal system, seven years ago, they sued a company called Colopl, which is a mobile gaming powerhouse from Japan. They [Colopl] have, I think, almost 2,000 [employees], nobody but knows them outside Japan but they had a famous mobile game called White Cat Project, not copying Mario, not copying Pokémon, not copying Zelda, nothing at all. Nintendo brought forward six patents that they thought that this company was violating inside their very successful mobile game at one time. It was one of the most popular mobile games in Japan, and they built a huge case. One of the patents was for a confirmation screen after sleep mode. You know when devices are sleeping and you want to resume there’s a confirmation screen in a lot of games? “Are you sure you want to resume?” And then you tap yes or no. Nintendo has a patent on that, and this game uses it. And then Nintendo said, you know, look, you’re using our patent and you cannot do that. You’re not paying us any licensing fees.

And they had five other ones, including one for isometric, pseudo, 3D games, when the character is hidden behind the tree, the game forms a shadow, so you have a kind of sense for where the character is, even though you don’t see the character clearly. Nintendo has a patent on that, and this game uses that technology. And Nintendo said, look, you cannot do this. And this goes on with four other patents, right?

So they had this legal battle. Colopl said, no way, but in 2021 they had a settlement where Nintendo got the equivalent of $20 Million US dollars and Colopl is now paying licensing fees to Nintendo for continuing to use the patents inside their mobile game. So it was a complete win for Nintendo, even though it was technically a settlement. I personally think you will see that after a few years, Nintendo will be in a very, very similar position. I don’t think that Nintendo will even think about filing a lawsuit like this without being as sure as they can that they’re going to win this.

If you are unaware, this was done because of the launch of Dragalia Lost, a game that has long been forgotten, and discontinued.

This is definitely the quickest I ever rushed to a website to backup my favorites

Desperation and hunger for control. The streaming model - as well as digital stores - are based on controlling media; companies can dictate what products are sold, when, to who. At any point they can pull them away effortlessly, edit, raise or lower prices. The ongoing war against piracy begins first as a war against physical media and any kind of independence the customer might have when picking their products.

Now, aside from that control, the biggest corporation in the planet have also centralized their offers and distributing systems. The latest wave against anime & manga is most likely caused by the buyout of both Crunchyroll and Funimation by Sony, and the other big names in the game have also been solidifying themselves in major buyouts, except the profits aren’t coming. They need to justify their expenses, maintain their control, and make an example, so the last isles of independence must be attacked.

I’ve had this exact thought in my head the past few days, including the idea that having 3 or 4 different types would actually fulfill the goal of avoiding “Male/Female” choices - something that only Saint’s Row has done, AFAIK.

The issue is that they only changed the label and Body Type A and B are still clearly Male and Female, but for some reason people praise it as not being gender locked because…?

Its even more ridiculous in games like Monster Hunter Rise for example, where you get the Type A and Type B body options…and then you still get gendered outfits where one is fully covered and the other is baring their midriff and wearing dresses! Wow, I wonder which is supposed to be which!? /sarcasm