I'll always remember her accurate Trump impersonation.

One of the big platforms I managed had the issue of the founder not making a clear distinction between its moderators and administrators, which is one of the reasons I left it.

One is a public-facing role for people who are great at conflict resolution, while the other is for people who can program or manage behind the scenes. One individual exceeding at both skills is not common. More importantly, relying on someone for their admin skills means you'll probably fear pushing them away even if they do a poor job as a moderator. This is what we saw with Rooki of Lemmy.world: despite the clear power abuse and the community recognizing that, it felt the other admins had no chance but to keep him because of his help with the platform development, so they even went as far as changing the rules.

Perhaps the issue is not as obvious now, but once the admin has been around and substantially helped you for a while, with a lot resting on their shoulders, it will be impossible for you to not think of that when deciding whether they are doing good as a moderator or if they should be let go.

Short of the introductory scenes that teach you to avoid using the special abilities, I can't think of a case of the protagonist being manipulative in a negative way. It's worth noting that she can be as bad as the player though, if they decide to interrupt people and use her powers to the same end.

To your second point, there are enough examples of Justice being bad, like their officers talking about arresting people purely out of being annoyed, being kinda racist (e.g. saying that two Black individuals must be siblings, then to themselves wondering if that's racist), going after a little girl for having special powers, experimenting on people, persecuting all people with special powers and regularly calling them deviants (all while claiming to promote diversity), trying to arrest peaceful protesters, and so on.

I wouldn't agree with the assessment of the main characters being a-holes. Maybe in the carefully cut clips devoid of the full context.

In the first scenes, the protagonist is indeed somewhat mean to her crew, but the game immediately tells you as much, to show you that abusing the special abilities, Vox, is not a good idea. From there, it's up to the player whether to listen to every dialogue to the end or to interrupt, whether to avoid using the charged Vocals or to use them frequently. Going by the post-chapter stats at the end of one particular chapter, most players choose to avoid them at least in that instance.

It's a lot more nuanced than ever presented in the hate videos or reviews. Like the protagonists being deliberately flawed, the villains (or the people presented in those reviews as villains) are also portrayed as human: misinformed but not inherently evil; capable of empathy and questioning their beliefs; seemingly caricature at first, but then showing a different side.

Finally the kind of game I would have on my wishlist!

Probably Fortnite. It's not just one battle royale game anymore. If I feel like racing, I can play Rocket Racing. If I feel like building, I can play Lego Fortnite. Festival if I want a Guitar Hero experience, Ballistic if I want a Counter-Strike experience, and so on. It's all tied to Epic's servers though, so it's not for life.

The Last Case of Benedict Fox being around 90% off was the only one with an acceptable price tag for me. Got it even cheaper via a bundle because I already owned Arise.

Thanks!

They were - https://store.epicgames.com/p/vampire-survivors-f699a1

It's the same one that revealed Return to Moria this year and the mystery giveaways last year. I decided not to post about Moria specifically on Lemmy as I still had doubts, but I shared that in advance in another community on Discord. I'll DM you the link, as I'm not sure if it should be out in the open.

Even the wokest Kotaku was mostly positive about it, so the grifters are just making things up as always.

Fortnite is superb. I've not invested a penny but I can purchase every premium season pass and more. The game always offers something fresh and it's gone well beyond battle royale. If it gets shut down, it won't take away from the fun I've had.

Here.

Called it a week ago.

Does it make it the final Lego update?

Have you heard of the word "their"?

I agree, but the part about not caring if it's NATO is something Zelensky said himself.

If Ukraine were to surrender territory, they would have to be allowed into NATO, to be secured from repeat attack from Russia.

I do think that's one of the more realistic scenarios expected under Trump, though I'm not sure about it having to rest specifically on NATO and not some other written security guarantees. However, in that scenario, Russia gets to keep its gains and the world returns to business as usual, as we saw after Russia's actions in Moldova, Georgia, Syria, Ukraine in 2014, etc (and that's just the military involvement, not to mention the countless influence and infiltration campaigns, isolated sabotage and killings in Europe, among other things). It could stop Russia from moving forward in Ukraine, but it wouldn't stop Russia from choosing another target as it always has.

From my link:

Of course, this means Russian President Vladimir Putin’s thuggishness will be rewarded, that there will be no accountability for the bestial nature of his army’s atrocious behavior or the unlawful, detestable deportations from occupied parts of Ukraine to Russia. The axis of autocrats will be emboldened in their determination to smash the old global order.

But there’s no other alternative. Short of a “forever war” or Western powers becoming combatants themselves — or at least putting their economies on a war footing to supply Ukraine with much more than they currently are — that’s the cold hard reality.

And according to a Republican foreign policy expert familiar with Zelenskyy and his circle, Kyiv understands this. Asking to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly, Kyiv now reckons Trump may well turn out to be a better option than Harris, he said.

Also:

After Trump’s win, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who’s being tipped as the new secretary of State, said that Russia’s war against Ukraine had reached a “stalemate” that’s costing lives and “needs to be brought to a conclusion.” He described Ukrainians as “incredibly brave and strong,” but also noted “the reality of the war.”

Zelenskyy understands that too — not that he’s going to shout it from the rooftops. As war-weariness mounts, public opinion in Ukraine has been changing, especially among the young, who are the most willing to accept limited outcomes. According to a poll conducted this summer, only 40 percent of those aged 18 to 25 think Ukraine should fight until it liberates all its territory.