I mean, frankly, I agree with you … but there are tons of other games in other genres of style and gameplay…that are also under $70 bucks, at or close to that $20 mark, that are pretty damn good.

They may not be as meteorically popular as Silksong…

But the point of the OP image is that… you do not in fact need a AAA production budget and AAA ‘graphics quality’ and MTX and FOMO and alo that garbage… to be able to have a successful game.

That you can in fact have a more modest yet also more focused approach, and create a break-out hit.

The point here is not ‘Silksong popular!’

The point is ‘Silksong proves that AAA development paradigms and business practices are ludicrously wasteful and not mandatory; there will always be other ways to be a successful game creator.’

Soylent Green.

Yep, this is basically what happened, I watched a lot of former friends basically develop along those lines.

They shitposted their way into turning into fascists, going from being mostly unserious, performatively edgy, to … being extremely serious, genuinely holding these beliefs.

Like ‘God Emperor Trump’ started off as a joke… then they just went ‘no but 4 real he should be a dictator for life.’

You also really, really cannot place enough importance on QAnon, the meta conspiracy framework, that tries(d?) to pull together all conspiracy theories, along a narrative that Trump is secretly waging a war against subversive satanist pedophile Democrats… this is where the whole 12 D chess thing comes from…

And QAnon was born on, and was suckled by 4chan.

Trump kept giving occasional vague nods, using phrases from the QAnon vernacular and such.

In fact, this is arguably what Johnson is clumsily (he is the opposite of a perma online edgelord like Vance or Musk) trying to reference with the FBI Informant thing, this concept that Trump is actually a secret pivotal player in a scheme to thwart essentially a … literally demonic plot to overthrow the US.

This… the whole reason the Jan 6th insurrection happened was because these morons had been promised basically a religious prophecy that Trump absolutely would win that election, their QAnon dogma made concrete and specific promises akin to an apocalypse cult, and when they did not come to pass, they freaked out, thinking the demons had thwarted God’s current agent of destiny on Earth… Trump.

As opposed to, you know, reality, where Trump is a imbecilic criminal mob boss fraudster and serial rapist and also manchurian candidate with a long established track record of literally scamming his own supporters just constantly.

If anyone thinks I am being hyperbolic here… nope, I’m actually underselling how seriously QAnon is a religion more than it is ‘a conspiracy theory’.

Go look up all the evangelical QAnon prophets that popped up during this time, it arguably constitutes a 5th Great Awakening, in terms of mass waves of revitalization and reinvention of Christian religious fervor in the history of the US.

Yes, you heard me right, I am telling you that the 5th Great Awakening of Christianity in the US began on 4chan and pretty much directly caused Jan 6th.

Trump would be the kinda annoying asshole who beats Goldeneye on ‘Agent’ and then runs around saying he totally defeated and mastered the whole game, who then cries and screams when he tries to play through Dam on ‘00 Agent’ for the first time.

President bonespurs here ain’t ever even seen, even heard of 007 Mode.

the screaming goat sound clip, but with helium

Oh, yes, at this point I would be looking to only buy a bike totally outright, in cash, and yeah, ideally something lightly used, I’d rather ask current owner of the bike about its history…

Probably gonna be the case that the average person selling their own bike is gonna be either much more truthful and transparent, or at least worse at lying, than any kind of a dealer.

It seems pretty common that people will buy a bike, ride it a bit, and then just realize they aren’t actually using it that much, after a year or two.

So I would be looking to rehome that kind of a bike.

Of course of course, familiarize myself with a bit of how to repair that make/model prior to going and looking at it, so I would be better able to spot some kind of trouble indicator, that the seller may either be trying to hide or just genuienly not have noticed.

Roger roger!

=P

I appreciate the feedback!

I had been also looking at the Rebel and Versys…

I’ll look at the MT 03 though, had not given that too much research time yet.

I’m not hard pressed to pick something right now, so… maybe I should just wait a bit and go for something in just a bit higher price tier…

But yeah, good to know that ‘basically RE’ is also roughly your answer to what my described ‘requirements’ … means I am not totally delusional about all this, haha!

This is now an impromptu motorcycle advice thread, lol.

But uh, if you would…

Do you have any recommendation for something like a $5k ish (or possibly under) bike that … more or less could function as basically the motorcycle equivalent of… more like a donkey, than a thoroughbred?

Something that could handle itself at least ‘ok’ in a kind of… shitty trail / access roads type environment, but also does decently well on roads… and is ammenable to either saddle bags or hardshell panniers for some cargo?

So far the closest thing to that that I have found at or near that price point is basically the Royal Enfield 500ish bikes… it seems like the more affordable but less powerful ones may just not be able to deliver enough power to handle say, safely performing an overtake at US highway speeds.

I dunno, hopefully that makes sense, and hopefully I am not asking for the impossible.

Also, if any of my preconceptions here seem widly offbase, please let me know, one can only get so far from watching reviews lol.

…

As best I can tell, it… seems Yamaha is doing an XSR500, but I cannot find any confirmation that it is coming to the US nor what the price would be … ???

Yep yep yep.

I would suggest anon takes that 18k, sets aside ~75% of it in some kind of savings or investment scheme, start that nest egg early.

(No, not fucking crypto, probably just find a high yield savings account)

Or, wipe out any existing debts first.

…

Then, take whats left, and consider:

Fix up your car,

Get some good quality clothes and shoes or boots that you will be able repair and maintain, get the tools that enable you do to that,

Get a good and comfortable mattress and quality pillows,

Get some good quality cooking appliances that are relatively portable and will enable you to make decent meals from scratch, or at least closer to scratch,

Unironically, consider getting a bidet… toilet paper is expensive, a reasonably priced bidet addon to a normal toilet can pay for itself in a few months,

Basic repair toolkit for electronics, and also basic repair toolset for around the house/automobile type stuff,

Some basic, not stupid expensive, home work out / strength training equipment.

…

Ya’ll see where I going with this.

Use that other 25% to buy actually useful things that lay a more solid foundation for the rest of your life.

Solid foundation?

You’re much more likely to be able to buy that motorcycle or gaming pc or what not in another year or two, all without having to touch that nest egg for anything other than true emergencies… if you can keep working at whatever you’re working at, from that stable foundation.

…

Take that Bali trip in 5 years or a decade when you can actually afford it, not instantly with someone who’s first instinct upon coming into money unexpectedly is to spend it on something ephemeral and temporary.

Activision HR:

Just kidding actually, we are the ones who run the focus groups, thank you for engaging in our 3 month unpaid internship and doing all the work for us, but we have decided to not move forward with your employment in a paid role at this time.

No no, we’ve tested this in focus groups, and we are quite sure that what you want is a kind of generalized, averaged slop that vaguely resembles a bunch of other distinct things you like, but isn’t any of them.

Then you would be using a different term than ‘Millennial’, or you would be using that term… as a loan word, from a culture that was/is deeply influential across the world, and was also massively affected by 9/11.

The boot licker cares not if the boot is made of leather or circuits.

The boot licker cares only for how well shined that boot is, how confident the stride of the wearer is, how many others want to shine those boots.

Easier yes, but also more confusing, causing terms to lose specificity and accuracy.

I am the kind of person that complains every time I see people incorrectly using any term adopted from another language, culture, academic field, whatever.

So… yes, I can and do complain about things lile that.

…

To pick a random example: Almost no one uses the term ‘black swan event’ properly.

Its from Nassim Taleb, meant to describe… a kind of risk of an event that would have been impossible to predict, due to said risk being completely unprecedented, outside of the possibility of conceiving.

But, most people just use ‘black swan event’ to mean… a thing that is fairly uncommon, but certainly has been studied, has a precedent, has known situations in which it arises.

Thats not a black swan event. Thats a predictable but uncommon event, not a wholly unprecedented and totally unpredictable event.

The term Millenial orginally and specifically, academically and etymylogically in general usage… refers to generational cohorts of USAmericans.

As does Baby Boomers. As does Gen X.

You can maybe make an argument than Gen Z / Zoomers and Gen A / Alpha are more globalized, due to the massive proliferation and normalization of digital culture… but they are again still based off of a naming convention schema describing USAmericans.

So yes, I am using a US-centric definition for a US-centric term.

If ya’ll want to come up with your own terms, I’m all for it, the US has long had and still does have waaaaayyy too much influence over many aspects of general internet culture, global culture in general, the other economies and societies of the world, etc.

My personal cut off for ‘are you a Millenial’ is ‘do you know in significant detail where you were and what you were doing when 9/11 happened?’

If no, because you were too young, you’re a Zoomer, Gen A, etc.

Yep, my definition of Millenial is mass psychic trauma based.

This is basically correct imo, the typical definition is from '81 through '96, you could probably roughly have a decently vivid memory of your parents freaking the fuck out from yourself as a 5 year old.

But anyways, yeah, I was born when the Soviet Union existed, but I don’t consider myself an 80s kid, as I was born at the tail end of that decade and … don’t really remember experiencing much of it, directly.

… Well, beyond mullets, ‘big’ female hair, and… 80s styled glasses.

Persistent and extreme sleep deprivation is literally a form of torture.

https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/sleep-human-right-and-its-deprivation-torture/2024-10

Gee I wonder why so many Americans act literally insane so often.

Warning!