The year checks out.

Sea of Thieves but the ocean is made of sand.

To your edit, similarly the final sequence of Nier Automata is so deeply rooted in not being alone, and encouraging one another, and being there for one another. A chance to break the cycle.

If I recall correctly, Yoko Taro had said he had been somewhat inspire by this Coca-cola campaign the “Small World Machines.”

Perhaps RPG’s with a party

Going more old school, Chrono Trigger is another great one with awesome supporting party characters.

That’s a neat fun fact I didn’t know, thanks! Looking it up now.

I wanna wad you up into my life / Let’s roll up to be a single star in the sky

Such a killer fucking happy/upbeat soundtrack, too.

Bioshock Infinite - Elizabeth as a constant companion is a big theme in the game.

Beyond Good and Evil - A lot of great supporting cast like Pey’j.

Baldur’s Gate 3 - Massive emphasis on the relationships you have with your companions.

Brutal Legend - A quasi-RTS where caring for your bandmates and roadies is the only way to win.

Disco Elysium - Kim Kitsuragi, enough said.

Firewatch - Story driven rooted in character relationships, about being alone but trying to stay connected.

Hi-Fi Rush - Great cast of characters who are heavily involved with story and often around or talking to you.

Just Cause 3 - Probably the best in the series, for threading the comedy/action needle and giving you characters that are really lovable.

Katamari Damacy - Feel the love of the King of All Cosmos!

Life is Strange - Rooted entirely around your relationships with close friends and classmates.

Mad Max - Your own personal Gollum!

Nier Automata - You’ll always have your PODs.

Portal 2 - Wheatley will keep you good company.

Psychonauts / Psychonauts 2 - How can you be lonely when you’re inside someone else’s mind?

SkateBIRD - Make friends with birds!

Terraria - There’s always some new villager to find.

Like my life has been stolen from me. I am left with nothing.

Isn’t having cancer alone bad enough?

Fuck yes. It is not enough to boycott companies with your money. You must also do so with your labor. Thank you for making a carve out exception for the little people in the picture. It would be better if they could withhold their labor as well, but many of the lowest in companies simply cannot afford to work somewhere else for less pay. As you pointed out, the engineers truly can take a pay cut and survive. Thank you for sharing your likely-to-be unpopular opinion.

Best answer here. The wide use of open source software inside other software leads to precisely such a situation.

Getting fired felt like a possibility but never a reality

…tech people never fail to amaze me in their misty-eyed views of the companies they work for.

It’s still disgusting and obviously an attempt to stifle dissent in the ranks, but like, firing someone for stuff like this is so common in the world that you have to be pretty naive to think it wasn’t a reality and to prepare for it accordingly when you planned your sit-in.

Tech workers need unions so badly for reasons exactly like this.

I think it is absolutely a reaction to more people becoming non-religious. There is much more in the world that is morally ambiguous than the Bible alone would lead people to believe. Things like my example here: hell frozen over with Satan stuck in an endless dopamine hit cycle, struggling with depression is just one of many ways we have “humanized” Lucifer.

I think, especially, in a world ruled by corruption, that people no longer have faith that those in charge actually have their best interests in mind. You question whether Lucifer was kicked out of heaven for pointing out similar issues with heavenly society. Is he truly the villain in the story? He kills far fewer in Biblical history than God does.

Ignorance, pride, “temporarily embarrassed billionaire” syndrome.

I thought that was making fun of R. Kellys Trapped In The Closet

That’s because a lot of these are “style parodies” where he parodies the style of a certain band.

Everything You Know Is Wrong is famously a style parody of They Might Be Giants.

Once you hear the style you can’t unhear it. He nails TMBG uncannily.

“Thank you.”

Thanks, John Oliver, but I really wish we didn’t have to turn to comedians to publicize such serious issues.

I can never marry my partner without her losing all the benefits she needs to function. I worry about us getting separated in old age because we’re not legally married, like being sent to different homes, or her ending up in a home and me ending up on the street. Ugh.

Also, changing that was one of Biden’s campaign promises that everyone forgot about apparently. It seems mostly wiped from the internet, too, except for a few references from news articles around the time.

Thanks for the heads up, I thought it was just me and gave up.

I like to think that Balatro is so popular it crashed the payment system, heh.

but am I just a buzz kill

Nah, I’m a longtime fan of absurd shit like Tim and Eric that is rooted heavily in a public television vibe of “doing things wrong and cheaply.”

I was never sure if this was trying for a similar vibe or what, but I’m definitely one of the people who firmly never understood it.

Having known some people in elder care, the reality is that some old people are nasty, brutish, mean, racist, misogynist, creepy, violent, you fucking name it, there’s some old person you’re going to have to take care of who matches that horrible personality. You’re paid the same whether you’re helping someone you like or someone who is rude and assaults you every time you enter the room.

I agree with you, elder care should still exist, but I can see why some people get tired of taking care of terrible old people who were likely terrible people all their lives and who are just allowed abuse you. Why are they allowed to abuse you? Because most people who do elder care and underpaid, overworked, and don’t have a lot of other options that pay nearly as well. Basically you’re accepting middling but better than fast-food pay to have abuse dumped on you. I can see how someone feels like its a karmic freebie because there’s no responsibility in any of it, generally management won’t do anything about “problem elders.” Get to be a fucking asshole your whole life and then get to be a fucking asshole to the person wiping your ass before you die.

I have a similar story from another friend who ended up at a mental health hospital in a violent youth ward. He was underpaid, overworked, and responsible for about 30 violent and dangerous kids with unstable mental health issues that made them difficult to approach. If he was busy helping one kid take their meds, and another kid on the ward was in the same moment trying to take their own life and succeeded, he would be the one responsible. He was not being paid enough or had enough support to justify taking full responsibility for things that are outside his control when he cannot magically manage 30 dangerous cases at once. He left the job after two months of assaults and scares. I don’t blame him, and he doesn’t blame himself, and we also understand that those 30 cases deserve better care than they’re getting but it’s not his responsibility as an individual to make up for the shortcomings of government funding for this.

Same with people who work elder care. It’s not their individual responsibility to make up for the fact that these companies don’t give a damn about the people they’re caring for, and each elder is just an income stream in a database. The number of people I know in elder care who now have permanent back problems because they’re being expected to lift 300lb old people off their beds and they’re not being given proper equipment for it is too damn high. These people do not deserve to have their bodies broken and paid pennies on the dollar to be abused by the elders in their care, not given the right tools to do the job, with a prevailing attitude of “they’re just old people, how bad can they hurt you really?” Pretty fucking bad, shockingly.

Elder care needs to exist. Does it need to exist as it exists now in the USA? Abso-fucking-lutely not.