eochaid

So if he doesn't change course on Gaza they're going to....vote for Trump? Sure.

The answer isn't nostalgia for school. The answer is to improve work with the "perceived" benefits of school. 30-hour work weeks, 6 weeks paid vacation, paid holidays including bank holidays, occasional half days after the end of a big project, chatting with coworkers that aren't stressed out of their mind and actually given the mental space to be chill with you.

That's the real dream.

No, this is not news to us - our accountant has certainly mentioned it - but there's a lot of oddities in her situation that make this a little more difficult - like the fact that she's not an actual freelancer but it's just the compensation startegy that this grant-funded project she works for was built around.

Its not impossible though, and certainly something we need to look more into. Thank you for bringing it up especially for anyone else looking at this in a similar situation.

You also have to pay the 15% (of net) self employment tax that your employer normally pays when you're a W-2. That effectively means you're paying double the tax rate of a W-2 employee.

Oh and you can deduct your "business expenses" to try to reduce your tax burden, but you shouldn't even try to itemize unless your yearly expenses are higher than the standard deduction ($13,850 for single / $27,700 for joint / $20,800 for HoH). Itemizing doesn't add to your standard deduction, it replaces it.

Source: My wife is a contractor and taxes for us are a whole fucking ordeal. We're just glad I have a W-2 job thar offers benefits and the option to pay a lot more than I need to in tax withholding.

They never said "star trek in space" because, first of all, that's redundant, and second of all, would invite lawsuits. I'm not even necessarily saying that they're copying star trek in any way.

I'm using Star Trek as an illustration of the positive sci-fi genre and the tone they were putting out in their marketing. No, its not literally star trek - but unlike their other titles that are either distopian sci-fi or a semi-dark epic fantasy, this one has a more positive tone - there's a sense of hope and compassion that even persists in more distopian areas like the well, cydonia, ryujin, and ebbside. And furthermore, the main story's focus on the excitement and wonder of exploration, and traversing the unknown, is a love note for Star Trek and all the sci-fi novels strewn about the environment.

And though this clarification is quite separated from it's context now, I only brought this up to say that this game is far more hopeful and optimistic than their previous games and I feel like their marketing illustrated it quite well. And the reason it matters is beacuse the lack of the "darkness" and "grittiness" you are looking for can be explained by this difference in tone.

Wait, so first you were complaining it's not dark enough and now you're complaining it's too dark and not utopian enough? Bro...

Also, I said they were trying to capture the tone of a positive sci-fi story like Star Trek, not create star trek fan fiction. The game world shows significant progress towards solving various social, equality, and health issues, but we haven't quite gotten rid of money, and as such, greed. For this reason, we still have economic disparity, corporate evil, pirates that do evil things for money, and a monopoly banking system that uses it's power to use an abuse it's opponents.

Furthermore, there's plenty of people who have a problem with an overbearing singular government and want to do things their way - thus why the freestar collective and crimson fleet exist.

Its earth + 1, better, but still flawed. Which is honestly, a lot more realistic than star trek ever seemed to be. Perhaps they wanted to show a "missing link" between current humanity and star trek humanity. There's progress, but there's still work to do. Which, given the lack of aliens, its probably a good move to make sure humanity still manufactures drama.

Regardless, the theme and tone of the game can be best described as "hopeful and wide-eyed optimism", which is very different from the distopian unease of Fallout and sweeping fantasy epic of Skyrim and, starfield was very clearly marketed as such from day one.

I actually prefer the taste of almond milk, but I only consume milks as part of something else, like coffee or something. Chia seed pudding with almond milk is absolutely delicious imo.

But I'm glad that there are lots of alternatives available because I know people that prefer soy milk or oat milk for coconut milk for various reasons. Personally, I use different milks for different occasions because they all have unique characters that make them better for certain things.

The blood looks way better than vanilla Skyrim did...

Also you've gone from calling the game "corporate" to "tame/sterile" which seems to be an admission that you now understand this was a purposeful and consistent creative choice towards building a "positive sci-fi" world ala Star Trek. A choice they were pretty clear to market and a choice you disagree with. That's fine. It doesn't mean it's a bad game, it just means you weren't paying attention and bamboozled yourself into thinking this game was ever designed for your sensibilities. Not every game made by a studio will be the same - especially when it's a new IP. Hell, Tango made Evil Within and Ghostwire then turned around and built Hi-FI Rush.

Oh well. But since it's a Beth game, you can be rest assured that there will be a ton of mods to help your realize your dream of watching people die and decompose in the most realistic way possible. Heck, there are probably already a bunch that do.

Okay, but just because they're not titillating the desires of teenage boys doesn't mean they "sold out" or "got more corporate". They've been pretty consistent about presenting their creative vision for the game since the beginning.

Also, you're premise is wrong. I just shot the hell out of someone iin the game and there were absolutely blood splatters all over the wall and floor. Have you played the game, or are you meming influencers?

That said, I would never consider Beth games to be particularly risque. They've always faded out sex scenes. Oblivion and Skyrim aren't particularly bloody games. Fallout's bloodiness is more in line with the IP and considerably tame compared to Obsidian's games.

Maybe you're thinking of mods. I dunno.

Right, because the people who are paid to review the full game over hundreds of hours and have spent, in many cases, years, analyzing their biases and determining the right way to construct objective criticsm and have peer review editors to check their work....

Nah. Randos on the internet who have tendancy to form circlejerks for fake internet points and for minor doses of dopamine and who may or may not have even completed even a tiny portion of the game - that's what I need to make an informed decision.

EDIT Lol at the coward downvotes with no replies. You know I'm right, you just don't want to admit it.