Len (@len.bsky.social)

Bonkers. This is generally just a way to do backdoor layoffs that allow you to save some face by framing it as voluntary. But make no mistake that they don't want to keep these people and it's not like they could all say "no thanks" and everyone would keep their jobs.

Shinobi602@shinobi602.bsky.social

Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees in latest cost cuts, roughly a quarter of its workforce, as the company tries to control its head count while avoiding layoffs ➡️ www.seattletimes.com/business/mic...

"Sometimes it's nice to be held, even if it's hostage" is going to be stuck in my head forever now. @desertbus.org

"Why does 40K have so many queer fans? It looks like fash bait."

Ash Parrish, Kotaku's LeBron James@adashtra.bsky.social

In Fulgrim, Mr. Iron Hands tells his second in command "you are the ice that quenches my fire" and I know I say this a lot but there is NO HETEROSEXUAL EXPLANATION FOR THIS!!

My first five TTRPGs * Homebrew stuff we made up on the playground in middle school with a d20 someone found on the ground 1. Werewolf: the Forsaken/New World of Darkness 2. D&D 3.5 3. Star Wars: Saga Edition 4. Exalted 5. Savage Worlds

valergain 🌹@valergain.bsky.social

My first five RPGs Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition Pathfinder 1st edition Dungeons and Dragons Fifth edition (including play tests) Planet Mercenary One of the Hunters don't remember which one

The fact that my first TTRPG was not any edition of D&D is one of my biggest actual hipster brags. Maybe like 1% of people in the hobby I've talked to.

something to think about!

Jason Schreier@jasonschreier.bsky.social

One important piece of context that many people might not realize: Shutting down a game studio is expensive. Shutting down a French game studio — thanks to labor laws requiring an extended severance period — is VERY expensive. Xbox doesn't want to take on those costs.

We can make it more expensive for corporate pillagers to fuck us over.

When I was in high school there was one out gay kid in the entire graduating class and he was a pariah and bullied relentlessly. It basically wasn't safe to come out still, and this was like 2008. Long way to go still, but at least among younger people it has gotten a lot more okay to be who you are

Michael Druker 🇨🇦@mdruker.app

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

Desert Bus for Hope 🚌 #DB2026 LIVE NOW

Dax: "Don't let 'em get to you, kid. You know, they've been saying humans are too dumb to fly podracers for ages. But did you know one of the best of all time was a human?" Shade: "Really?" Dax: "Yep! And let me tell you, he killed a looooot of people. Lot a kids actually. Er- so chin up, champ!"

Len reposted

@desertbus.org

HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!! Desert Bus for Hope 2026, the 20th year of Desert Bus! I hope y'all are ready for what promises to be the greatest show on Earth featuring a bus. What mischief, excitement, wonder and hilarity have we cooked up for this most auspicious year? Head to desertbus.org right now!

spouse?

This post is unavailable.

"I- it's not like I like you or anything, driver! ...I guess if you REALLY want to know how I feel, you could buy my software upgrade..."

[this account was banned for speaking this evil into existence]

spouse?

This post is unavailable.

gm wants you to fuck their cars

To be honest we are probably less than a year out from your dashboard being personified as an anime girl named Equinox-chan who will erp with you if you buy the more expensive trim and you know this in your heart

Shout out to Katja Mox Galactic Racer for coming along in a year a lot of guys discovered the Bratty Tsundere Heiress Who Has Uncontrollable Sexual Tension With The Heart of Gold Protagonist trope for giving them an outlet to explore that outside a community based on reactionary culture war shit.

I haven't looked at her tag but I think it's going to be good eating if that's your thing you're into now.

trying to explain the h3 cheating scandal to people with healthy brains and realizing I have made a series of really unfortunate choices in my life to be the person in the room who knows enough about these people to have found myself in this role

There's nobody in this picture you need to feel bad for except their kids.

It's wild to me that you could burn every other bridge in your life and then go and betray the one person who's still on your side, but hey, I'm not a brain genius. I didn't make Vape Nation.

I think the big takeaway is that they're both militant zionists who have successfully lobbied to get activists deplatformed, and the aggrieved party here was in the IOF and has proudly told stories about taking place in extrajudicial armed kidnappings of Palestinians, so they deserve each other.

I don't know if all of Biddy Blas' species are like him, but I think it would be way funnier if he is just like that. Like they find him just as annoying as we do. He's That Fuckin' Guy on his home planet, too.

reddit.comFrom the victoria3 community on Reddit: How do I prevent the pettite bourgeoisie from taking over the radical party from the inside and stopping all new social legislation?Explore this post and more from the victoria3 community

On today's episode of Victoria 3 Players Discover Real Life: "How do I prevent the pettite bourgeoisie from taking over the radical party from the inside and stopping all new social legislation?" www.reddit.com/r/victoria3/...

My 10-hour verdict on Galactic Racer is: Hell yeah Like this is exactly the kind of nonsense I was craving at this specific moment in my uncontrolled careening around a fireball on a giant rock.

Len reposted

Aftermath

@aftermath.site

Every single hobby I love has has been infected by slopped up and unserious software. It's exhausting. aftermath.site/ai-slop-hobbie...

I said I would come back to MELE when we got mod support for Tali/FemShep romance. It appears the modders have not only done that, but managed to voice 95% of the lines for it with no AI using cut content and borrowed lines from elsewhere. I DID also say I was going to finish Witcher 3 this time...

what do you MEAN Cyberpunk 2.5 patch??

Not a big fan of this recent wave of videos I'm getting recommended that are like, "Expert debunks AI slop" related to their field. You wouldn't send them around to various stables to point out that horse shit is, in fact, horse shit and of no value. You're giving this stuff too much attention.

It's supposed to be like, "Watch this educated person DEMOLISH the bad history created by the lying plagiarism machine!" but I think it would be even more EPIC if you just ignored that it even exists at all.

Another reason we need to reform IP law is that there's no good reason Galactic Racer needed to waste my time explaining in natural language what a "Kinetic Boost" does. You could just say, "It's a Mario Kart mini-turbo" and we all get to go home early.

I think one of the most clever parts of this game is that they realized nobody likes letting off the throttle in a racing game. So they've balanced around the three speeds being "Floor It", "Afterburner", and "SMOKE EM IF YOU GOT EM!"

The existence of drifting in Galactic Racer implies that in-universe, speeders are actually wheeled vehicles where the wheels are edited out in post.

[Mechanic]: "Yeah, my father taught me to work on these. We'll get you spaceward again in a jiffy." "Your father, huh?" "Listen here, what are you implyin'?"

lmao, there's literally a, "My parents did war crimes for the Empire, what of it??" character

The existence of drifting in Galactic Racer implies that in-universe, speeders are actually wheeled vehicles where the wheels are edited out in post.

kotaku.comIt Didn’t Have To End This Way - KotakuAfter years of strife and sabotage, BioWare is gone, and video games are lesser for it

I like that Shade's shuttle is clearly a civilian market Seinar design. Like they're still around kind of like BMW but they don't want you to ask what they were up to during the war.

Len reposted

i’m just ken

@shepardcdr.bsky.social

Tried to keep mostly calm here. BioWare management shouldn't be let off the hook for its own part in the troubles of the past decade, but every story we hear about how EA mismanaged the studio is a reminder that this was entirely avoidable.

Dead and honestly never to return. We can and will have amazing stuff in the future, but we'll also think about how good we had it with that whole run from Baldur's Gate all the way to Veilguard because nothing like it will exist again. Especially not the ME trilogy.

AmericanTruckSongs10@ethangach.bsky.social

A certain era of gaming definitely feels dead

I saw this coming a mile away and it's still hard to process it. Few games have meant more to me over the course of my life than the ones made by BioWare. I wouldn't be who I am without those stories. We all deserve an industry where these endings are not such a foregone conclusion.

Aftermath@aftermath.site

Electronic Arts closing BioWare, laying off hundreds: aftermath.site/electronic-art...

I'm still happy we got Veilguard. It's written like a heartfelt goodbye letter from a friend with a terminal diagnosis and I hope people will revisit it and truly appreciate it in that capacity in years to come. A swan song that deserves better than the discourse it got.

And I'm glad we didn't end on another Shepard-centric Mass Effect game because I can't imagine that would have felt nearly as sincere.

Len reposted

Replying to @len.bsky.social

stoked for all the vore fans that this whale movie is finally doing for them what zootopia did for furries

For anyone looking for additional data points to help explain how my taste in search-action games doesn't make any visible amount of sense: Really enjoying Belmont's Curse. (Did not like Dead Cells or Hollow Knight)

They weren't *sticky*, is the thing. I think it's probably related to why I don't care much for Breath of the Wild but I have 900 hours in Elden Ring. The combat progression has to be actively engaging and rewarding to keep me in there. Exploration alone doesn't do it.

I get excited about becoming more powerful. I get excited about unlocking new abilities. I get excited by seeing that there's a long road of unlocks in front of me. Getting to a new area because I got better at the platforming doesn't quite do it. I need those mechanical rewards to stay invested.

I'm sure there is something! I'm sure we could titrate a bunch of action verbs and swirl them around in a beaker and get to the bottom of this! But I've never taken the time to do it. Also no one has ever paid me to.