Tag Archives: gaming

When you are at odds

This happens, there is no real reason, merely that you do not agree with another view. In this case it is with the CBC. That is what intelligent people do, we are at odds and we reject a thought given to us. It started with the article (at https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/nintendo-switch-2-1.7558697) where Jonathan Ore gives us ‘Nintendo’s Switch 2 sets early sales records. Its future is less certain’ and his byline gives us the goods “Handheld console arrives with high price, few games and fresh competition” he gives us a decent reason. High price, a setting I personally do not agree with, especially as the systems is basically an overcharged Switch one. The Switch 2 comes with 12GB operating memory (up from 4GB), 256GB storage (up from 32GB) bigger screen and a few other gimmicks. It is a real step up and as I see it, it sold over 3.5 Million Units Worldwide in the first four days, not bad, as it took Microsoft a hell of a lot longer to get those numbers. On day one we got access to Mario Kart World, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch 2 Edition), The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch 2 Edition), Sonic X Shadow Generations, Street Fighter 6, and Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. Not bad capture of games. At present we have 84 upcoming games, as I see it 14 of them likely to be in 2026, but that gives us 70 games all this year and that is evidently just for starters. So, the few games is pretty much sunk at this point. Are they games he wants to play? That is a fair question, but that is a setting we all face whether it is Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. As I see it Mario Kart World is already worth buying the console for, a setting Microsoft enjoyed with Bethesda’s Oblivion and its own Mass Effect. As such there are overlaps in judgement. I had the same setting with the very first Playstation. Because of Tekken I got the system and when Tomb Raider arrived a few month later, the admiration for that very first playstation was complete. There are reasons why we buy a systems. Usually it is because of the games already out, or coming soon. And when the setting of “With a high price, small lineup of exclusive games and a more crowded market for handheld gaming — including a major entry by Microsoft — things aren’t as simple as the original Switch’s debut in 2017.” I roll my eyes and giggle loudly. As the ‘major entry of Microsoft’ is set, they haven’t really wowed us since before the Xbox series S, and as I see it, they have come up short ever since. Now that doesn’t mean that the new console is nothing. Yet two days ago I was given ‘Xbox’s new console quietly cancelled as Microsoft takes different approach’ with the byline “many are wondering what the native console would have cost, because we’re all looking at the Xbox Ally and estimating it will fetch well over £500, perhaps even over £700.” And that is cheap? And as we see the line “It’s a followup to the original Switch’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which sold more than 68 million copies — over 20 million more than the next best-selling title, Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” Which explains the setting that I am convinced that Nintendo doesn’t have any real worries to consider as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold more copies than Microsoft has in actual sales for consoles. That is set to 28.3 million (as of June 2024) accumulative for both the X and S series. Isn’t it weird that Microsoft bundles those numbers, which makes me wonder how many X systems were sold, Microsoft hides nearly all settings of those numbers, I wonder why.

And consider that Microsoft sold the Xbox Series X|S at 16.41 million units in the US in 50 months, Nintendo got 25% of that target in 4 days. So, as we find from a few sources “Xbox faces major challenges as its console sales hit record lows in 2024, and it’s not looking any better for 2025. The gaming giant sold an estimated 2.7 million units in the US market during 2024, marking its worst full-year performance in Xbox history” and as I see it, with cancelled systems the setting does not look good for Microsoft as it ‘just’ spend $69 billion on Blizzard (2023), as such the entire 2024 sales setting doesn’t even gets them the interest on that loan of $69,000,000,000 a year later. So the entire setting of “including a major entry by Microsoft” is massively bogus. One apparently is cancelled and the other one is years away (a speculated 2027 release). As we consider the first Switch with a Zelda game “earning praise as one of the best video games of all time.” Microsoft hadn’t done that since Bethesda’s initial release on the Xbox360, or Mass Effect in 2005, making it a 20 year lull in setting markers. OK, Skyrim on 11/11/11 was a worthy stage, but that one was also released on Sony, making it a not so exclusive stage.

As such I do not see the setting Jonathan Ore gives us, the stage of “Gamers who snapped up a Switch 2 may be anxiously waiting for more made-by-Nintendo games other than Mario Kart World” comes over as media BS as I got a list of 84 games a lot of them in 2025. Yes, I get that No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk 2077 aren’t exclusives, but we are assuming that they were ‘begotten’ on a system they had (OK, a small giggle is allowed). And these games contain the making of fathering the game settings, especially No Mans Sky. I almost forget to give the readers that the Switch 2 comes with Hogwarts Legacy on day one. If you didn’t have that game on any system, you are in for a treat. I end up asking why Microsoft was mentioned in his article at all, there was no reason unless a Microsoft stake holder requests the mention, which is likely as he doesn’t mention that “Sources have told The Verge that Microsoft initially had plans for a native Xbox handheld, but this has been officially scrapped as the company”, but this article doesn’t give you that, we merely saw “a more crowded market for handheld gaming — including a major entry by Microsoft” which by sources got cancelled. As I see it, the little dark cloud that this writer is trying to make falls in the water. What would have been better is that CBC had given the reader a sighting of Canadians playing these Nintendo games on the Switch 2. So how was it seen in Nouveau Scotia, or Saskatchewan? We know what Vancouver or Toronto does, but the rest? 

As such I am at odds with this article. In most places I look I merely see the amazement of the console, especially when the camera is attached and you are playing as a team. This is actual true innovation bought to you by Nintendo. 

Are there lesser sights to Nintendo? This would have been a valid side and the price is high, I admit that, but is the system worth the price? I believe it is and that is a personal setting. Not everyone will agree, but those people still have the Switch 1 to consider, or they have it and the upgrade was a no brainer. It is cheaper that my PS5 and I had no issue paying for either of them. Soon I hope I will be able to get that system (as soon as Oracle, to name merely one option, gives me a tech support or customer care job). 

And surviving Abu Dhabi, speculatively,  as part of ADNOC definitely makes the Switch 2 an essential need. Summer in the UAE is a bit hot when you float around the Al Raha River baking in the sun. The cool dark feeling of a living room playing Mario Kart World might be the way to go. We are all creatures of basic needs and Nintendo has fueled that basic need ever since I bought the Nintendo 64 in 1998. They gave us the fun and the sparkle for gaming even before that and that is some record for any company to entertain and Nintendo delivered. Something we don’t see in this article either. So who was Jonathan Ore catering to? Not Nintendo, not the reader and not the facts. I have my idea’s on this and so will you when you got to this point in the article. 

This is why I am at odds with the CBC article. Have a great day, still late breakfast time in Vancouver. So enjoy.

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The changing of games

There is the thought that games are changing and the first question becomes ‘What games?’ And that would be a correct way of thinking. Whether you decide to kill the bullies and their connections, whether you stand up for yourself or if you become a lot less visible. The latter part is my preferred way, what doesn’t see you, will not hurt you. But in the 80’s I learned the hard way that always on the defense tends to be pointless, as such I would be inclined to scurry over to the kill side. It has the benefit that the the magicians of this world get plenty scared when the bunny bites them. They aren’t used to the sight of their own blood. They tend to cry and wonder why they can’t be bullies anymore. You see, at some point people have had enough. Some like me tend to weigh the consequences of being bullied or to eradicate them and live the fallout. At some point accepting the fact to be bullied no longer weighs high enough and when the Sydney Metropolitan police departments tend to do nothing, even as they have Brodies Law at hand, they prefer not to act. It only works so far. 

This story is important to the real deal, it is a story that ZDNet gives us (at https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-denmark-is-dumping-microsoft-office-and-windows-for-libreoffice-and-linux/) where we see that Denmark is now apparently ‘Why Denmark is dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for LibreOffice and Linux’ and in that setting I wonder if Danish voices might also float towards WPS Office (by Kingsoft), you see, ZDNet gives us “Denmark wants to claim “digital sovereignty.” In the States, you probably haven’t heard that phrase, but in the European Union, digital sovereignty is a big deal and getting bigger.” I see that this is one avenue I never considered. Oh, I’ve heard the term. Yet the larger setting is not what I have heard, but what is behind it. Denmark is likely furious by some bully that wants of annex Greenland (an island West of Denmark a mere 2.166 million km²) and they are decently angry and this was the first setting. After being fed up with the Trump stage, they decided to take Microsoft out of the equation. At that point a lot of settings that ‘drip’ into American data settings and in this the first stone is cast. You see, President Trump might seem to think that business will adjust towards American standards, but that is a little delusional. You see, Microsoft is seen as a 3.56 trillion company, but behind that is a towering amount of debts as well. The totality of debts is according to some A$93.09 Billion. This might not seem as much, but what ‘victories’ have Microsoft made? What spin actually represents revenue? Microsoft is all about revenue and net profit, yet the larger setting becomes “In Q3 2025, Xbox gaming revenue decreased by 7% year-on-year, but content and service sales increased by 8%.” So Microsoft sets a plus to diminish the minus, yet the larger station is that they lose a lot more than they gain, for what is the depending value of the 8% rise? It is not the same as based amount of the 7% drop. Microsoft is losing against Sony 3:1 and now that the Nintendo Switch 2 is out, these losses will merely increase overall. Whatever Microsoft has as a tablet doesn’t even dent the setting Apple has and as some see, their Azure state seemingly doesn’t hold a candle to the system some book dealer has (yes, it is AWS). Then we get the setting that their ‘edge’ yes, their browser only has a 5% market share against Google having 67%, Apple follows with 17%. Now how many failures can such a company hold? And now consider Huawei entering the field with HarmonyOS. Taking market share from both Android and iOS. That was the setting before today and now Denmark is seemingly the first to drop Microsoft for other paths in IT. So how long until Denmark convinces one of the other EU nations to follow suit? What losses will Microsoft endure before they sink some of their badly conceived projects? I don’t know, I am merely asking. 

As such Microsoft is speeding to get a lot of the HarmonyOS population, but as Kingsoft grows Microsoft diminishes and the that population never had much love for Microsoft and America to begin with. And we see part of this with “EU leaders are seeking to reduce Europe’s dependence on foreign technology providers, primarily those from the United States, and to assert greater control over its digital infrastructure, data, and technological future.” And another part is that they’re concerned about who controls European data, who sets the rules, and who can potentially cut off access to essential services in times of geopolitical tension. And the tariff war doesn’t help. That setting instigated by President Trump is likely to ht Microsoft faster than they realise and what happens when these debts will rise as revenue decreases.

The next part is alleged settings and I have seen no evidence of this from other sources “President Donald Trump issued ICC sanctions. This order allegedly prompted Microsoft to lock the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan, out of his email accounts, according to reports. This came after Microsoft chairman and general counsel, Brad Smith, had promised that the company would stand behind its EU customers against political pressure. Recently, however, Smith stated that Microsoft had not been “in any way [involved in] the cessation of services to the ICC,” according to Politico. When pressed, Microsoft failed to further explain how the email disconnection occurred.” That might (or not) be a complete answer. I have to add that the entire builder.ai fiasco is on the hands of Microsoft. They backed this and they never saw the 700 engineers programming what on existent AI was supposed to do. So where are these 700 systems, their OS and their Azure licenses? Wouldn’t that be firmly on the eyes of Satya Nadella? And as such, how was this worth a billion dollars? If Microsoft was entirely unaware they could be seen as incompetent (or at lease some people on the VP and higher list). If they did know there is a larger failing at Microsoft going on and as Denmark is allegedly dropping Microsoft, it is the start of a lot more bad news. But they can rely on spin to keep the eyes of others somewhere else.

And we see that (allegedly) see that in part with “Whether or not Microsoft cut services to an organization in response to Trump’s order, the fear that it could do so in the future remains. Before the Danish government announced its move, Denmark’s largest cities, Copenhagen and Aarhus, had already announced plans to phase out Microsoft software and cloud services.” So why allegedly? The setting is fear, not data and whilst we see the results we might see the wrong facts leading to this. As I personally see it “plans to phase out Microsoft software and cloud services” might be du to the fact that AWS is as I see it vastly superior (vastly might be overstating it) and fear could weasel in at any point, almost anywhere. Yet the likely accusation that Microsoft is the ‘bitch’ of President Trump or any American administration will be much harder to counter. It could set the tides against Microsoft in Denmark (for starters), Canada and McDonald islands (both users). So there is space to maneuver, yet Microsoft doesn’t do that and we are left with the accusation. And the larger setting that “In particular, the Danes are worried about Trump’s policies and that US political decisions could put public IT services at risk.” Is a decent fear to have in these days, as such Microsoft will be left holding the political bag. And Denmark is not alone here “Bart Groothuis, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, recently said, the EU “should go for a European cloud” since “Europe has a ‘problem’ with American cloud.”” I am not sure how this ‘computes’ in a downside for Microsoft, but the spin masters will have their hands full because that increases the Danish setting by 100% and there is no way telling what else is at risk and who else is to follow suit.

I saw a different variation of the ‘downfall’ of Microsoft, for the most their lack of actual innovation, their dependency on marketing spin (or whatever Microsoft calls it) and their failure to deliver in several fields. And their enemies are at the gates. After Microsoft failed the mobile markets (it is near zero) and as Huawei is gaining massive levels and Microsoft is losing market share after market share and Denmark clearly showed that they see Microsoft not as a partner but as a threat. As such I have to wonder, in what field will Microsoft fail next?

Have a great day.

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The dangers of a wannabe

Yes, that is the setting. I got rather annoyed by some guy named mr. Dom Riley. He writes (at https://winteriscoming.net/hbo-s-harry-potter-reboot-shows-the-limited-potential-of-the-franchise) the simple title ‘HBO’s Harry Potter reboot shows the limited potential of the franchise’, it is one of the most flawed settings. Not as bit as the stupid girl, who gave Hogwarts Legacy a 1/10 rating, but it is getting close. With the quote “HBO’s decision to remake Harry Potter rather than take the franchise in a new, original direction shows the limitations inherent to the Wizarding World.” It is not that simple, the larger setting that HBO is limited by greed is another thing. Why take chances on what could be (like Ubisoft milking the Assassins Creed franchise with Black Flag) we are given more of the same in a new jacket with cheaper actors (who reveal at the chance to be immortalised by the Wizarding World setting). This is nothing against these actors, if I were a mere 10 years old, I would jump at that chance. The setting is that it is not on the Wizarding World, it is on HBO. There is (of course) a setting that each seasons is a year and as such we are likely to get a lot more, but what if that is below par? I am not telling you, I am merely asking you. You see, the movies are great. The art of the movies were great and the setting is one that almost defies logic and it makes the entire setting re-watchable. Likely as JK intended it to be. It is my believe that she intended to create books that grew as the child grew, so it is a series that entices from 10-18 all in one go. 

So when I see “The Harry Potter book series is less than 30 years old, so it’s not exactly ancient. It’s been almost 25 years since the first movie, and just 14 since the movie series was brought to an end with Deathly Hallows Part 2, so it seems a little early for what is essentially a remake (or re-adaptation), especially as it comes from the same studio. Why not do something different? Is it possible that there’s only so much potential in the franchise?” My first question for Mr. Riley would be “When did you last have your sanity checked?” At what point did you ask what HBO was thinking? At what point did you wonder where the IP of JK was allowed to be? She wrote the books, HBO and others are merely fleecing their greed of a well set IP franchise. The only real original IP comes from Avalanche Software called Hogwarts Legacy and was published by Portkey games. It is an astounding game that has drive, originality (I wrote about it a few times) and an amazing story, so much so that I had to replay it 3 times to cover all the four houses. The game is that good. In addition, I wrote ‘It starts with options’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/11/27/it-starts-with-options/) offering an additional setting to Hogwarts Legacy 2 and giving the player an additional ‘stage’ for the game. Don’t try to buy it as it is at present the property of JK Rowling.

I am just saying that there were additional settings that HBO could employ, but as far as Mr. Riley tells us, they didn’t do that and he is merely (most likely stupid) and flawed as I created original new IP as did Avalanche software. As such winter might be coming, but it should be seen in the brain of the writer, not in the IP that surrounds the Wizarding World as that is up to scratch and amazing in many ways. 

I don’t go about slamming people, as they are entitled to their views, but this was one straw to many (camel is broken) and that is merely the start of it as I wrote at least one more article preceding that (which is also owned by JK Rowling) and it took me less than 4 hours to write both articles. (I reckon less than three, but that would be too close to the mark), so in 4 hours I dug a hole for HBO and Dom Riley to hide the caskets of their non-originality. 

In part I wrote it to remain creative (and I did) and should JK hand over that IP to Avalanche to add to the thrill of Hogwarts Legacy 2, it would be up to her.

And here I get the next setting where keeping a blog gives the reader the evidence that others ‘hide’ behind ‘I told you so, don’t you remember?’ The blog has a nice temporal setting and I have ben adding to that since 2011. There is no need to go on for 14 years of reminding people, it is set to the internet. And as such I feel that the larger setting is that if it isn’t written down it doesn’t exist. 

Have a great day

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The snag we don’t see

That happens, we don’t always see the settings that open up to us. It is one of the stages of what some call the ‘Aha!’ erlebnis. It is actual intelligence and that is why artificial intelligence will fall short for a long time. Yesterday I had some time to relax and I used it to watch the final two episodes of the October Faction (Netflix). Apart from being totally awesome, I also found the dastardly news that it is a one season only setting. Too bad as it was really awesome. Yet, I digress. During one of these episodes I suddenly had a little brain strain and a few things came into full view. It brought me back to a story I wrote (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/01/15/it-was-this-simple/) called ‘It was this simple’ where I had the idea for a new game that was also (in part) educational. Yet last night I had an idea that I was going about it the wrong way. You see, the start isn’t one of the three gods (Hades, Poseidon or Zeus), it is a destination. The idea is to invert that stage and start with pone of the ‘smaller’ gods like Hecate. You see, as I see it Hecate gets its setting from the mortals and animals. So do the other ‘smaller’ gods. As do Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Hestia, Dionysus. And as we unlock their abilities, we will then get access to one of the three. Or I might am considering that Zeus is only unlocked when all others are unlocked. 

As I see it some gods connect to merely one of the three, some to two gods and some to all three. As I see it this game would need to be replayed three times to unlock it all, but in this game the second game already gives you the areas you unlocked in the first game and the second is not the same, merely a continuation of the first (makes for a challenging lore). And beyond that as I see it, the game will incorporate several gaming styles giving you a larger game and a more fulfilling gaming time. But I wanted more than a hack, slash and pretty picture.

You see, it is merely a setting to a game, but there we also see that we unlock educational parts. What is more enticing than gaining knowledge of classical works whilst gaming? Not the ‘essence’ of a classical work but the full text of people like Hesiod, Homer, Sappho, Alcaeus, Pindar and many many more. I still think that the Amazon Luna, with a link to the Kindle, or even now the Tencent console with a link to the the MatePad Pro or MatePad Air might be an alternative. A setting to see a more inclusive form of gaming and as such un-enabling those with the ‘turbo’ style of gaming trying to getting people in line to more advertising. Short term enabling and set gaming back on the track of a more enabling setting of gaming like Bethesda enabled for almost 2 decades. 

We are all do taken back by the turbo setting of games (especially the young) whilst the more complete setting of gaming is largely ignored and as I see it, there is more to gaming. You see we cannot (in good mind) waste the entire day gaming. I get that, but we can rotate that interest to give people a larger backstory. You see, according to classicist William Hansen: “the Greeks and Romans had all the genres of oral narrative known to us, even ghost stories and urban legends, but they also told all kinds that in most of the Western world no longer circulate orally, such as myths and fairytales.” I want to resettle that lost art. Some gamers have tried to do so in the lore they give us, but they fell short as they didn’t consider the larger stage. It was not their fault, until recently and the promise of the IoT (Internet of things) and the larger stage of Bluetooth we never considered where we could go and that is merely another setting the Microsoft failed to see (they are racking up a setting of missed opportunity) and Google cannot be given this failure as they basically dropped the Google Stadia, which was their right to do so and as I see it, Amazon and Tencent now have a larger stage to become the new heralded kings in gaming. It is not a smooth or even an easy ride, but as I see it they both missed out on gaining at least 50 million gamers. 

So could I be wrong?
Yes, of course that is possible, but what the ‘advertisement’ courtesans fail to see is that the people have had enough of advertisements and that is something they are in denial of as the money is too good. But as I see it, the one who does see it will get a larger setting of gaining the field advantage to this and that is basically Nintendo and Sony. It is the third place that becomes interesting when we see in January ‘Microsoft’s AI revenues up 175%, while Xbox’s results remain disappointing’ (before the builder.ai exposure) and ‘Microsoft’s Xbox Handheld Plans Reportedly Shelved; Company to Optimise Windows 11 Gaming Performance’ (last week) and I reckon that the spin will continue as Microsoft is scrambling to bury bad news as Nintendo is making larger strides into gaming. As such there is space for either Amazon or Tencent to gain the number three spot. This is not a given but massively likely, especially as other news sees my other solution grace the limelight in sight of some Hajj numbers I see roll be and an optional solution that roughly 900,000,000 million users are up for grabs (yet another space Microsoft missed). So as some will see “Asus’ Xbox branded handheld, codenamed Project Kennan, is reportedly on track to launch later this year”, I merely wonder when that changes from later this year to next year and after that it being silently cancelled (my personal speculation). You see Asus also sees the market and the knee-jerk actions from an tariff driven administration won’t last long, especially when Huawei is showing its MateBook Fold and that is making the filtered news. I personally don’t know how good it is, but the larger setting is that the world is watching and now that it is less than 1.2Kg and uses Harmony OS. The first and it is a banger. So when that system as well as Tencent takes the world by storm (which it is very likely to do) we see yet another loss for Microsoft and not merely that, Apple, Sony, Google, Samsung and even Nintendo will see its impact (Sony and Nintendo less so). This was the setting I expected to come about 6 years ago and it is here a little faster then expected. 

This is all important because the advertisers will start losing out and that will stop gamers in their track as their games are less fulfilling. You see ad break gaming is nice in a turbo setting, but when the gamer considers where they ended up being they will want (read: demand) a more compelling form of gaming. This is good for people like Bethesda, Ubisoft, Guerrilla Games (and several others), but (for example in the UK) the 1,801 independent and publisher-owned studios. These studios employ around 75,000 people. The number of studios has grown significantly, with 251 new studios founded between December 2021 and April 2023 it is not good news, because what we don’t see is that these developers are relying on advertisement to make some of their money and when that falls away, these developers will fish behind the net of revenue.

And as I see it, Ubisoft has options in these glasses devices and they could also launch on Sony and Nintendo, but others will have to streamline whatever they thought was an option and others will merely collapse. As I see it, we haven’t see the power of Harmony OS yet but it will come and as America shuns away from that (for the most obvious stupid reasons) Europe and others are very willing to give their economy a boost from what HarmonyOS brings and now that the hardware is out some people will finally get the thought “How can this benefit us?” And that will be the start of a lot more and as I see it, Amazon has the inside track to grow more business (outside of the US) and there lies the setting for them. As some might ‘speculate’ that Amazon would not be profitable without its cloud business. We also see that the shape of the cloud is about to change and that is where the larger money is, because cloud gaming is only gaming in name. It can be a lot more and as I see it, the solutions I gave will become massively and not merely this game (I put it online for a reason) it could start a much larger wave and that is where I see my surf time (perhaps literally so). I reckon that the ‘older’ quote “HarmonyOS, Huawei’s operating system, is designed to work with a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and PCs. While it’s not directly tied to Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the same way as Android or iOS, you can still use it to access AWS services and resources.” I reckon that Amazon sees that this lack is about to end, because they have a clear goal to increase their visibility and whilst others are taken back, Amazon is seemingly embracing the options it opens up to. As I see it, people will prefer that setting then feeling blue (read: Azure). Yet another field where Microsoft is falling short of soon enough. Their failures do seemingly seem to stack up, don’t they?

We can see the snags we think we fail to see, we can ignore them or we can find away to make it work for us. So have a great day and consider where you could be in 2026 or 2027, because thinking you get there in 2025 is nice, but largely set to economic turmoils of the days we expect them to be according to some media. Consider where some people will END the stage of their products and see where HarmonyOS is merely beginning at present. It makes for an interesting read. Consider that WPS Office (by Kingsoft) its here for HarmonyOS and also on Amazon Fire tablets. Merely two places and as I see it, as this is free software there is a larger stage where Microsoft will end up surrendering market share. So as I said, have a great day. 

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The secondary drive

That is what some have and it is not always in the field you expect. I was contemplating a few things whilst playing the remastered version of Oblivion. I am playing me second character as I am stuck (due to a bug) in the first one. It gave me pause to consider a few settings. These settings I can convert to the game I already had in mind, but I can spice things up now (now is a word as the default setting is not entirely accurate). You see, I created the game to counter Bethesda. The operative word might take a little tweaking. It actually started yesterday when I saw a list of upcoming Playstation games, 15 of them this year and I kept on hearing ‘soul type gaming’ (way too often). You see making more of the same is not more gaming, as I see it, it is the introduction of blanded (just more of the same taking away gaming hunger). As such my mind kept on revisiting settings (and movies) in all directions. It also brought to mind a game named Fable (Microsoft title) and it had great ideas, especially the first and second game with the second being a vastly improved IP over the first. It also made me realise that I had created a dislike for the word ‘Chicken-chaser’ (a word EVERY Fable enthusiast remembers). So what happens when we ‘cross-pollinate’ ideas? And moreover, what if we set this per guild, house or location? 

That is merely the first step. You see, most people have ‘accepted’ the use of nick names and when capture this in combination with the SNPC (smart non playable characters) concept I put in here last year a RPG game could really be spiced up. I see it as a setting to create passive achievements, achievements you will have to work for, but they don’t have any real controllable action and as such you could get a real setting that controls you and you do not control it to that degree. You see when you play an RPG over and over again, you get to be blanded, a blanding like setting that takes the joy out of the game, it will take it out of any game, but when you can divert that feeling by adding ‘soft-achievements’ I predict that this feeling diverts somewhat (it will never take it all away). Added to the changeable setting of dialogues and missions, the game gets to be a lot more rewarding for a lot longer. And today’s consoles can handle that challenge. 

I already set some parts in ‘motion’ in my mind as early as 2022 and up to now, no one considered the ideas I had (or never enacted them) and in my mind, the reengineered idea that originally came from Vint Cerf might be a game changer in RPG gaming. Such directionality will up the game for wannabe ‘fighters’ and ‘assassins’ quite a lot. I get that in the past these ideas were not really possible and now we can do them all, perhaps Bethesda is enabling these ideas in the new Elder Scrolls game, but that will not be known until 2027. What is clear that there is a risk that we will see too many things that we saw before. In the YouTube video that game me the list of 15 that I saw in under an hour I had at least half a dozen time things that I had seen before. To be honest, the only real cracker I saw was Code Violet, not ragingly new, the style of gaming is known to stealth game preferred players, but in the setting that we see, is a new fresh paint of a horror classic and that is at least something. Go see the trailer if you are curious. Anyway, that gave me pause to another setting. You see some will remember ‘Knight Games’ (CBM64), and Bethesda has a ‘sort of’ version in that called Arena, but Arena is a joke to stealth players. Most of the rounds I have no opposition. With a bow and stealth I go right through the opponents in seconds. So what happens if all contestants have Candlelight (Skyrim) cast over them? It takes away the stealth advantage, come to think of it, what if the security of a location ‘auto casts’ Candle light over the trespasser of a location? You need to get close to the cast location and perhaps there is a workaround on that too, another thing you have to elude, now breaking and entering comes with a little snag. 

You might (not entirely incorrectly) think that this brainstorm setting only sounds nice. But tell me, when was the last time that you witnessed true gaming innovation? I reckon that for me it was Horizon Forbidden West (2022) and as such I am trying to blend new ideas (at times re engineered old ideas) to add to gaming and to offer a solution that looks in more directions than Bethesda (not that Bethesda is bad, far from it) but a choice of one, is not a choice.

Well, I need to rethink a few more settings (which I already am), but I think better during breakfast and that is roughly 183 minutes away. So back I go, back in my design shell and watch what others are missing. Have a great day.

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Insectum

It is time to talk bugs. As I see it there are three kinds, there are the actual bugs, these are settings that crash a game, or make it non-working. The other two are glitches and systemic glitches. Glitches are merely a hindrance they are flaws in a game of program, but they do not dissuade from the joy that the game brings. I saw all of these settings in Oblivion remastered. Let’s be clear. I am not a doom speaker and heralding the ‘Messy setting of Oblivion’, I am (for the most) a game and before I start this article I will say right now, up front, that Oblivion brought the sense of joy I had when I played the game 20 years ago. That is as I see it a massive achievement, 

Virtuos brought their A game and it shows in everything you see and play. This game is 20 years old, as such plenty of laurels for Bethesda as well. It was the reason I bought me Xbox360 and I never for one moment regretted doing that. Yes, I have had the red rings of death and in the end I have had 3 Xbox360’s. But never was there any doubt that it was a great machine and a worthy contender to the crown that the Playstation 2 won.

Still, we were talking about the game. As such, we have glitches, persistent (or systemic) glitches and bugs, there is also the fatal bug, but I haven’t seen that one in Oblivion.

A glitch can be systemic, but does not mess with gaming fun. An example is that when you go from the rain into a ruin, or a cave and you still hear the rain. It doesn’t stop you from having fun, but it is a glitch. Then there is the systemic glitch. When you’re cupboards are too full, because you (me) is a hoarder, the system gets a little confused and will not show everything in your inventory. As such I could not move my sigil stones from the inventory. The solution is to sell off a lot of junk you were holding and that fixed it. There there is the setting that you can not control. A setting where things go a little haywire (because of a dozen reasons), which can mess with the storyline, but the simple solution is to reload the last autosave and often it is fixed. When dealing with these knights of the thorn idiots, I had to reload half a dozen times before I got the mission done (in different places). There is nearly no saving an idiot who thinks he os gods greatest knife fighter whilst surrounded by two Xivilains, loudly engaging them calling in two more. There is no stopping stupidity, it tends to get you killed in the battle field. Then there was the first time I went into the Rockmilk cave. After the first reception area, there is a path down where three spiked traps are. The stage to the left could not be entered, whilst it had enemies. I think it was a glitch, and it was ONLY the first time I entered it, subsequent entries were good. It is my place to collect free arrows and in earlier levels that matters, later too (I had over 400,000 gold), but it is a assured way to get ebony arrows and glass arrows, which are not sold. Apart from the bounty in there, it is a clear way to make headway. Then there are several persists glitches, but the one in Sancre Tor was fixed by waiting at the opportune time (where there are 4 people) and that worked. These settings happen. Anyone who thinks that bugs/glitches on a game this big doesn’t happen is beyond stupid. And for the most part it never bothered the game. Perhaps one setting which was beneficial to me was that the Rumare Slaughterfish were bouncing on the waterline, so in clear view to kill them. For the most, this game is utterly awesome and I never regretted spending the money of the 125GB download time on this. I will be playing this a few times over as I never played a high elf mage, but that was on me. 

The fact that even after 20 years and after Skyrim, this game shows just haw amazing gaming can be and that is never a bad thing.

So don’t call everything a bug, because some games are just too big and a bug tends to have fatal issues on a game and yes, I did crash a few times, but I just reloaded the game and I merely lost a few minutes in its worst scenario. Yet it is not all bad. It made me realise the settings I redesigned for an RPG and as I saw the stage also saw why my mind set a few things the way it did and it makes sense to do so if replay-ability is your goal. I think this should be the mindset of any RPG developer. As such did you consider the soft architectural stage that Diablo (the first one) offered against the planes of oblivion? When you connect the ideas that certain games had and incorporate them into a plane of oblivion? When you aren’t set to a mere version of a game, but when the towers can be radically different, how much more fun can you have exploring? 

So have a great day and when you hear the screaming in the night, that would be the sound of Daedric Princes as I have entered their realm and they fear for their life now. 

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Creating a plus plus game

Yes, there it is, but not in the way you think. First off, I have always loved RPG games, even before I got into Oblivion and Skyrim. These games are the best and as I am replaying Oblivion (now on the PS5), a thought got into my mind. And I created a new RPG IP. I summarized some of it in ‘Recap to the intro’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/09/25/recap-to-the-intro/) so the ideas have been brewing for 5 years. And today I had another idea. You see, we have a plus game where we continue or replay with the achieved gameplay. This is nothing new, but then I thought that some of the replay gets dreary (to some degree) and I just had the idea. You see, in my game there are 4 classes of magic based on the elements and these magic casters have a massive difference among themselves and it suddenly hit me to set certain missions in a different setting, as such, dependent of the magic class you play you get a mission, this is not new. Yet when you replay the game, when you select another magic class certain missions will have a new premise. Optionally with an altered intro to the mission. This has as far as I know never been done in any game.

So in the first mission you get to assist a smith to set the new forge with required cokes (or coals) and when that mission is done, the second time around another part of the mission comes clear. There is no setting that it all repeats, though some missions are an optional replay but with other sides. As such we get the option for other classes to add to that mission. So we get more than one plus game, giving the games additional sides to a mission. I wonder why the current RPG makers never considered that to amp their gaming experience. A setting that has the ability to create new lore, new experiences and now challenges. It got to me as I was going an Oblivion mission, so what is stopping us to push the envelope? I got a few ideas and that is a setting a simple setting, I reckon that in a much more complex setting it could create a new form of RPG game (I am not brave enough to give it a name). 

So as we set the game to a new frontier, we can create games with at least 4 new game playthroughs. A setting that has never been contemplated before in gaming. I wonder why not. Games nowadays need to entertain longer, so we can create more games or more gaming time (preferably without making the game lose gaming quality). 

As such the setting is changed. Consider the game Hogwarts Legacy getting an overhaul and the game needs to be played 4 times (not optionally played), which unlocks other parts of the game. It does not matter which house you play, and as different houses unlock missions for the first house, but what if the house is the second or the third house? The lore needs to be set to have one cosplayers (like Poppy for Hufflepuff, Sallow for Slytherin, Onai for Gryffindor and Thakkar for Ravenclaw) be the other contributor, so if you are one house, the other comes into play (via a message) that gives you the option when playing the second or third play through, I doubt that it is needed for a 4th play through but for completion it might be added. 

A new setting I an old concept, the RPG gaming experience (of a lifetime) that could add a lot more to the same game. I used the Hogwarts setting to illuminate the perception, but it could be added and part of this can be seen in Jackdaws rest, where each house gets a different alert to the same mission. So what happens when a mission gives us the 4 different missions to complete the mission overall? As such, I have been contemplating the same setting but in a slightly different way. Its just fun that the big boys (Bethesdas and Ubisoft) never got that far. Especially as Ubisoft has 18,666 dedicated game designers (big smile from me).

As such I can go after Bethesda too, but they created some of the greatest RPG settings, so they get a pass on this. It’s just fun that after I did the Melvin to DARPA and created three weapon systems (they dob’t have these) and I created IP that Google missed (Amazon too) I still found time to surpass Ubisoft and Bethesda. I am feeling good today. Still, I have an idea that could get me $3,000,000 from Matt Damon (he gets a script for that amount of money). Not sure if Matt is up to it, but as I see it, I have been plenty creative today and I am not done yet for today. 

It is a lovely day to get creative, so have a great day and get ready to dream big.

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Dynamic lore

Perhaps Dynamic interactive NPC’s is a better if not a little incomplete at this time. I have been loving every moment that I have been in Cyrodil, yet some of the missions are bland, redone over and over again and at this time (as there are more options), the setting seems a little absent of electricity. This is not the fault of Virtuos of Bethesda. I have over 1000 hours (perhaps even 2000 hours) in the game, so for the most I have already seen it. Still roaming the sights of the province is a delight. All the sights I forgot about over the 14 years that Skyrim graced my computers (PS3, Xbox360, PS4 and PS5) and there is more, but at some point I started to set out the idea of Dynamic Dialogue.

You see the first game you play remains always the same, but the subsequent versions, there could be a setting that some of the dialogues will be somewhere else. As such my mind set out the stage that at this point has never been done in any RPG.



Could be set to 
Pers001ArdantNadia
Location01BravilBravil
KindofPersonMerchantBeggar
ActionRumorRumor

And this is merely a sample. So we get a key part of information from a merchant, but this information could be from a beggar as well (not always an option), but the system of Dynamic Dialog will have within itself what the definition is. As such you can run to Bruma and ask the same person again and again, but what if the mage changes? Optionally you are given the name, but that is not a given. 

It changes the game, as the subsequent play is more of a setting that sets a new premise. A game  altered to the gamer who loves the challenge, not merely running the distance. In this there comes a second setting that loot in houses could alter, books might be in different locations (after the first play), It gives shine to a game that was good to be great over several play throughs. With the optional setting when you start the game of activate Dynamic Dialogue. As the database is set correctly the game could be reset to original when a new game is started. 

A setting we have never seen in RPG, but this is now possible, as such, I though of including this setting. Loot can always be randomized, but the people usually aren’t. Then there is the setting that a mission could get another parameter as well. Like the weapon shipment could give the added premise of saving miners and that is set to a clock within the moment you give the weapons to the three mercenaries. So there could be the option that you get a 10 minute timeframe to save a number of miners in that level (like 6 miners) and that gives the player a new chase. To get to the people in time. I am not saying that it should have been done, but when you get the second play through, some missions get to be a bit of a milk run, as such I devised the setting to add Dynamic Dialogue and optionally added achievements. 

There are places when that is not possible, but given the option, we have a good stage to improve RPG gaming, and in this case merely the additional times you play the game. I reckon that my mind will concoct a few more iterations of this in the near future as such I will keep you informed of the hair brain schemes I think of. Perhaps in the near future I will add to what I wrote yesterday, there was a lot more to be had.

Have a great day, time for me to close another Oblivion gate.

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Rejuvenating Love

Yup, we’ve all been there and it is not the love for a partner or spouse (I have no experience in that regard). It is the rejuvenating the love you have for a hobby or interest. For me it has been Photography and gaming. In this case it is about gaming.

You see, last week Oblivion was launched. The 4th game in the elder scrolls and in the mean time I downloaded the 116 GB and got to play it for real. The initial setting was of course ‘old stuff’ the prison, the escape and the inability to protect the emperor from getting his throat slot (poor Sir Patrick Steward). As such we get to the outside world and my first achievement. From there I went straight to the Rockmilk Cave. I have played the game before, so to ‘hone’ my archery skills I go there as it is home to the black bow bandits and a warring party, as such plenty of things to pick up. And there I got my first glitch and first bug. Darn! No biggie, I merely got around it. The bug was that when you enter the cave, you go right down the cave where you also get the glitch, The bandits (all 4) go back and forth (a few steps) cry “Why won’t you die” and so it goes on. The archers on the right were easy, the ones on the left were the problem. There was an invisible wall preventing me to get to them and slaying them. I didn’t go any deeper at this time a little afraid the bug would become worse, but I got 50 arrows and a few black bows, so not a trip in trouble. Then I wandered around to see some spaces and two caves I never saw before (at least that is what I think). Then off to Chorrol and from there to Anvil where I joined the fighters guild. So I am now a journeyman in the fighters guild. And now I am about to meet the fighter guild master with the next mission. It is also an idea to try and get into the mages guild. I still need to kill an innocent to get into the Dark Brotherhood, but that is for tonight. All in all this all sparked a renewed crush on the game. And after 14 years in Skyrim, it is time to renew the settings I have loved for so long and this devotion needs to be recognised. You see, some will cry like a little wiener and shout bug. But it is merely one in a setting of over a hundred of hours and so far no bugs seen. A few glitches but they cannot spoil the fun I am having. Still I have now enough money to buy the waterfront dwelling, which is nice so I can offload the stuff I do not want to sell. 

The house in Anvil requires silver weapons because of the nasty ghosts and a stronger marksman skill to deal with the thing in the basement. And as we get further into the game, there are more missions and a larger need to get items from these Daedric princes. Not to mention the luscious Nocturnal and her Skeleton key (very nice for opening chests). 

I learned that the Peryte glitch still works, so that will get my fighting skills up in a quick jiffy, but I haven’t been there yet. Still the vibes going through me are unmatched. To play this game in a new coat is amazing and well worth the effort of spending coins to get them and downloading the game as well. I feel a little lost as Skyrim upgraded marksmanship in the game so I need to get higher in bow skills. But that doesn’t take the grin away from the massive boost to my ego as I largely still know where to mustard is. In that setting this game is not to be underestimated. And no matter that Skyrim is ‘better’ in some ways, this version revives the love I had for this game, I reckon that the bugs will be fixed at some time and that is cool, that first feeling of this game came raging in and settled in my soul (like a soul gem) pretty fast and very comfortably. 

It opened a new door as well. As I was looking at the RPG setting that I got for Eder Scrolls: Restoration and as such for a few other games (as Bethesda is now Microsoft) this setting in the last 24 hours gave me a few new considerations for RPG gaming. I still need to reflect on some, but I reckon that it will be in my big soon enough.

Have a great (gaming) day.

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Curse you to Oblivion

Yup, I went there. Well not really. I still have to buy the game and I was able to get half of it. Hopefully the other half in 3-4 days. You see, we are talking about The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion remastered. It was the reason I bought the Xbox360 in 2006 and I never regretted it. 

To be honest I spend over 1000 hours in that game (it might have been 2000), Together with Fallout 3, I have banked the better part of 5000 hours and they were wonderful. So when I got wind of a remastered version of Oblivion, I just leaped at the optional chance to get back into that game. So I got up this morning at 01:00 to see the YouTube video and it was marvelous. This version was made by Virtuos, a massive undertaking and a well made one (as far as I can tell). Like all RPG’s, I saw a far amount of glitches in this game. I am talking about glitches, not bugs. The glitches do not matter, the game is a wonderful result. I already saw that there were new looks and parts in the game that are actually new. The environment comes from Unreal engine 5, the voices are mostly the same, but it might have imagined this, but it seems that Sir Patrick Steward added a few dialogues to this and it is well received. 

The artwork has been preserved and is seen in a few places, giving it additional tone to the game. As I see it, you need to retrain yourself as this is not a Skyrim version, so there are differences. I think I saw the PC version, as such I will need to wait for the PS5 version (4 days and counting). There are two ‘issues’ at present. They aren’t really issues, but I need to call them something. The special edition in $99 (normal edition $85), with the hours I spend on the 2006 edition it will be well worth the money and the second one is that the download is 120GB, a little big, but with all the Unreal engine 5 stuff, understandably large. In addition is that this game has been upgraded for the PS5 pro, as such I reckon that this machine will give you additional sides I currently cannot see (I have the normal PS5). And as I see more of the game, I wonder where my memory went, as I do not recall a few issues I see now. 

There are several issues (not bad ones) that I get and it also shows that Virtuos didn’t blatantly copy stuff, they added massively making this more than a worry remaster. This is a clear labor of love, a statement I hadn’t expected to give after Hogwarts Legacy. S I watch the play through of MKIceAndFire I see so much familiarity, but so much new as well. I won’t give you the rundown on that as You need to see it for yourself, it is well worth the view and MKIceAndFire did a good job, although it views like he never played the game (which I sincerely doubt). 

And as I see at least three locations I haven’t seen in over a decade, my memory might be a little glitchy on the subject. No matter how that plays out, I feel my blood rise to the chance of the occasion and that sets the need to play this game again and get lost in the Cyrodiil. It was there that I initially designed the premise (of my) Elder Scrolls VI Restoration. It was set in part before Skyrim and the latter part was redesigned to play at a setting after Skyrim. I had set the story to not one by two provinces, namely Elsweyr and Valenwood. In the story that I designed I added Cyrodil and Skyrim where the area of Cyrodil was 900% the original size, so as the original game was 5 by 5 miles, the new setting was 15 by 15 miles and Skyrim was grown to fit exactly and that was the new stage, on this I added Elsweyr and Valenwood. The premise to allow added places (as some designers were truly amazing and that was a new setting in RPG gaming. A world like game that was a new setting in gaming. One we had never seen before, and that was the beginning. The game was set on a different stage. You see, I envisioned an impeding war between the magical and muggles (sorry JK). This isn’t a copy of the Skyrim setting. I set the premise that there is a massive distrust between the two all over the game. No one is ‘safe’, and that sets the start, but as I really like the replaying of RPG games, there is the setting that one side is revering the Nine as well as the magical settings (Valenwood) where most of the Elves, High Elves and other magical people are (they are still in other places all over Tamriel as well) and that is setting the larger setting we get to embrace. The other side are the tradies and commerce people that are muggles (sorry JK) and they do not care for the magical people. As you get to encase the game, you need to keep the distrust balanced (no spoiler), and lower the distrust between the two. So you get to set another path and at some point you will need to make a choice and that evolves the game. I made the call to exclude the shimmering isles (for other reasons). But in one way we get to set free the princes of Oblivion, we also need to ‘reconnect’ to the nine and as we get the distrust lower, we can give the tradies their own guilds as well and that is all possible no matter which side we chose. As the princes of Oblivion are set to their thrones again, magic in the land starts to reflourish again, which also lowers the distrust with the council of elves. The setting also sets limitations. As you reset the guilds (except the mages guild which is in the imperial city in Cyrodil) you get to chose. You can have one guild per province. So you need to chose between Skyrim, Valenwood and Elsweyr (Fighters Guild, Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood). You can only create one in each province. And each choice has an impact. The fighters guild reduces the mount of bandits in that province, the Thieves guild reduces the wealth of merchants in that province and the dark brotherhood reduces the nobleman and high ranking soldiers in that province. As I saw it there are more impacts. Where you place them will also matter, but only in certain ways, the second setting is that if you find certain books, the places will be stronger and have certain improvements. There are 4 books, one for entry, one for sustenance, one for accommodations and one for defense. The books are a mere extra and are not essential, if you find the books later you can upgrade the guild later (but a lot more expensive). And you lower the distrust of the merchants you get to build New Kvatch. Here the books become adamant, there are 4 books of the gates. The wooden book, the book of Dwarves Metal, the book of Moonstone and the book of Ebony. They decide the gate of New Kvatch and also the general look of the city. And as the city is completed you will get your statue in the town square. The statue will be Stone, Bronze, Marble or Ebony, depending on the gate was. And as I see it, there is a real need for a photo mode at this point (which unlocks now). 

As I see this remastered game, the ideas that I initially had in 2009 and 2013 erupts in my mind. 

I also gad a few winks to the older games. The merchant guild is now lead by Savonarola  Frasoric (Savonarola after a Christian false prophet) and Frasoric after the former guild master of Bruma. And in this he is not evil, merely (largely) useless. 

The setting as I saw it in less than 48 hours was largely reconnected to as I come to the end of the movie one YouTube. I also saw initially the creation of the mages guild and restoration of the Necromancers, which will lower the view of Meridia has on you, but it will increase the view Namira has on you and as such there are additional missions in the game.

Another setting are the merchants missions, they usually give you resources for New Kvatch and workers, the more workers you have, the bigger and faster the city grows. The first comes from the books for the gates. They will mention quarries for the stones and after you ‘liberate’ these quarries you have unlocked that is where the workers will get the stones. The workers are set to Quarry, transport and masonry. As there are more people, more stones and quicker results in the building. You CANNOT upgrade the city, the book you enact (a specific action in the book) will decide the look of the city and as you decide the city is created. From then onwards you merely get to ‘guide’ by completing merchant missions and get the town build faster, but there is the rub, guiding the merchants non-stop will lower the trust level with the Center of Elves and the Mages guild. The game is about Balance, as most things, balance is everything. And as I set the necromancer side, additional missions were introduced also gives an other setting for the pirate cave under Anvil and that might still be an option, but you need to finish the necromancer missions. In that no undead will initially attack you, unless you attack them (and then, they all turn hostile). As I saw it, more ideas came to mind and as Bethesda became Microsoft, I used the ideas to fuel other RPG games. Well, the ideas came to mind again as I see the remastered version of Oblivion.

Skyrim gave me additional ideas and I reckon that whilst Bethesda is trying to figure out how to connect to High Rock, restoration could add that to the premise, but that is all up to Bethesda. At present I merely use whatever I had to emboss the other RPG games and let that not stop you (or me) from enjoying a remastered Oblivion, because at present that setting is partially overwhelming and I saw almost 2 hours of a game that will be hundreds of hours long. A job well done (as far as I can tell at present)

So get ready to lose a lot of free time and don’t forget to have a great day.

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