The way you put it, it made me think about the fetish, not the act of procreation.

How about an igNobel prize?/Although it could pass as an insult to the institution behind those awards. Because they have standards. Low. But still.

This whole thing about the couple sharing they are trying to start their family comes as awfully american and cliché.

Is this a real thing in the US?

And if it is… WHY?!

What is the need for it? Is it some sort of twisted social ritual? A perverse bragging? Why not just do the deed, keep to yourself, and after 9 months present the evidence you’ve been rutting like animals in heat?

It was a military coup inside a military coup inside a military coup.

The original coup that instated the regime was a revolt led by high officials in the wake of a scandalous counterfeit money scheme. The post WWI military felt their wages shrink in purchasing power and pointed fingers at the very unstable and young republican goverment.

Hence the coup and following fifty years of fascism that by all measures was instated against the military plans. They wanted a military-run country. They apointed a general for president. He appointed a strongman for running the daily affairs. The civilians still got back the true governing and the military were pushed aside.

Come 1974, it was a rebellion of low ranking officers that threw the regime, with a good dose of communist (read popular) insatisfaction into the mix.

To quote the head officer:

"Meus senhores, como todos sabem, há diversas modalidades de Estado. Os estados socialistas, os estados capitalistas e o estado a que chegámos. Ora, nesta noite solene, vamos acabar com o estado a que chegámos!”

Running a state is a job for civilians. Making sure those civilians toe the line is the military to enforce, after the population set it. In 2013 we had the military remembering the then government remembering it was their sworn duty to uphold and defend the Constitution, which was constantly being ignored by several attempts of law.

Going to separate houses for the night.

Colorblind and subtitles are designed to include people, so they can enjoy a game or any other content, that otherwise would not be accessible for such individuals or would be otherwise diminished in quality or reach.

Difficulty tiers were created to extend the longevity, by adding extra challenge or even content to a game. Many games have - or had - content that was only accessible by playing one difficulty setting after the other. I don’t personally agree with it but it is(or was) a thing.

And isn’t Sony putting forward what the company understands is a new and useful feature to their games? AI autoplay? That is their thought on how a game should be enjoyed/played from that point onwards.

And in the chance I haven’t made myself clear enough at this point: I am not on a quest to prove others wrong. This is my take on the feature Sony will be inserting on their future games. If others find it good, good for them. Enjoy.

You’re generalizing your own values and goals and they’re absolutely not as common as you think they are

Isn’t that what we are all doing, while engaging in this discussion? Better yet, isn’t Sony doing that exact same thing by thinking that putting an AI autoplay function into the games is what all players want or at least a gross majority?

Nobody is debating based on the sharing and comparising of proof and facts here; we are all sharing our personal view on the subject.

I am not on a quest to prove you wrong over me being right.

Do as you will, it is your life.

But it is through learning from small, inconsequential things like games, of any kind, to deal with controversial or unpleaseant feelings that many kids acquire coping mechanisms to handle real life situations. Situations with no cheat code, dificulty setting or pay-to-win mechanisms.

Wanting an escape, a tension release valve is fine. Just pick the right one.

It’s more than obvious we are completely opposite individuals.

Yes, I would - and have - replayed a game after using cheats. It’s not about knowing the game; it’s about knowing if I can actually beat the game without resorting to cheats.

And, yes, I will rewatch an entire movie if I’ve missed a scene for any reason and the movie was somehow catching my interest. Not on that moment but I will rewatch it again when I have the opportunity and see how much the one scene I missed adds or not to the entire movie.

That’s really funny. It never stops to amaze me how convenience replaced well considered options.

You spend the money, you get to keep it. The logic of guaranteed satisfaction is non-sense. Unless it is defective, what other reason is valid to return anything?

One way or another, we need to live. And it is impossible, for all practical purposes, to produce everything we need to lead a well balanced and reasonable life.

It holds a degree of validity, but like all absolutes, it leaves out everything between complete lack and total abuse.

Cheat codes are one thing. You can abuse those to even smoth your learning curve to later beat the game clean.

The same logic can be used for difficulty settings: you play it, in harder and harder settings, to have a new/added challenge.

Dynamic difficulty I’m unaware of what it migh actually be buy I risk I have an idea.

The game playing itself? Sounds like a movie.

But I hope you are right.

Search enough and you’ll discover that every company on the planet has some shady stuff in the closet.

Best we can do is support the small, more ethical, companies and exploit to our best the others.

Games are already too expensive and it has been made known. That is a sure way to make people abandon platforms.

Not being a military or strategy educated individual, what I can say is that the US armed forces are not prepared nor geared to long term war of attrition.

The entire doctrine relies on threat of overwhelming force and brutal initial strikes, which actually work, but wars are won in the long run and the US armed forces are not capable of such effort.

The logistics is too complex, too much infrastructure is required to maintain forces supplied and motivated, and the stock from which the common soldier is being pulled is used to or expects a certain degree of comfort.

That is why guerrilla warfare and the forces relying on it are so successful: they are already prepared to live and endure a bad time. They are already predisposed to die. And they usually fight for causes, not barons.

And so it begins?

They are free to talk about theirs, if they are willing to hear about my own beliefs or lack thereof.

Being laic, religion is of no concern to me in my daily life. I do accept others don’t have the same view and stance and if that brings them joy and a feeling of sense to their life, great.

As long they respect me in return.

I’ve made my peace with the threats of damnation. I fear humans more than I fear demons. And I only need to casually surf the web to take a look into hell.

So, I’m good.

Thank you for considering Lisbon in your thoughts. It’s very appreciated.

It’s hard to pass as “sound investment”, also.

So… What’s the point of playing then?

Games are expected to pose some sort of challenge, of difficulty, to keep the player interested. Even if it boils down to pure frustration at some point, making some turn from it, even learning how to deal with it is useful. Games are some of the oldest teaching tools we stumbled upon.

This another move on human and individual agenda, on learning how to exist, to an extent.

This isn’t funny.