Making the labored cake sex analogy an evolving reference in this extended friend group amuses me very much. Especially since it isn’t cohesive in its meaning the more parts that get added to it.

I had to let my Nintendo Online subscription lapse because the economic recovery that I keep hearing about hasn’t yet reached my part of the economy. Since I haven’t had time to play the one game I went online to play for a while it seemed silly to keep paying the frankly ridiculous price for it. Unfortunately that meant that all the ancillary things I did use every day also went away, like the music app and the Animal Crossing DLC. The DLC is the thing that annoyed me most though because after paying for the online account for years I feel like I more than paid for that DLC. Asking for a further $24 to unlock it without an active account seems greedy. The thing is, I don’t even really like the DLC. It’s just the principle of the thing. I’ve had an active account for over 6 years. If nothing else I earned that fucking DLC.
Of course all the old games you can play on a Switch also got locked up again. Games I still own physical copies of by the way. I’ll have to drag out my old hardware to play Some of them again. Not that I was going to. Again, it’s the principle. This owning nothing and being happy isn’t working for me. I think ownership is a key feature in my happiness equation.
There’s a device you can buy for various game systems that lets you store game files all in one cartridge and play them on old hardware. Flashcart. That’s what it’s called. It just came to me. The top of the line one that everyone wants costs about 300$ when last I looked. I kept putting it off when times were good because times were good and 300$ is still a lot of money for me even when times are good. Now times are not good and I have no flashcart for my very nice HD SNES. Have I learned anything from this? Only academically. I’m sure I’ll do the exact same thing again if times ever go back to being good. The flashcart isn’t a necessity since I do own the old games still. At least until I manage to accept the reality of my situation and give them up. The big draw is that all that software fits easily in one thing, so you don’t have to dig through a box of games every time the mood strikes you. At one point I think most gamers figured we’d get to a beautiful version of the future where we didn’t have to pay for our old games in perpetuity, and we could just have them on one very nice game system. People who love money much more than the average gamer of 20 years ago made sure that did not happen. Of course we all passively helped, so it’s our own fault on some level. Consumers who can’t advocate for themselves will always be turned into pay pigs eventually. Oink oink.
I know there’s other blogs where I go over this exact scenario when I was trying to talk myself in to investing in the flashcart. The only reason it’s even in my head is because something I wasn’t even really using has been taken from me and that’s what’s made me annoyed. I may not be actively using all my stuff all the time, but that doesn’t mean I want it taken away. It’s the same argument I hear about LEGO or whatever. You aren’t playing with it right now so what does it matter? It matters because it’s mine and I CAN choose to use my stuff whenever I want. It seems very simple to me. I got the thing so I would have the thing available when it becomes subject to my whim. I’m not always counting my money but that doesn’t mean I want it taken away and given to random people because I’m not actively observing it every hour of the day.
In any case I’ll figure a way to solve this problem eventually. Someone somewhere knows how to build these devices and they’ll reveal their secrets online eventually. I already have a PS3 75% ready to load every game file up till the PS1 era into. I just have to have the time to deal with the online portion of the setup. You may thwart me for some time, but I am relentless. The man can’t watch me all the time.

Mom is still ridiculously tired from the chemo. It is displeasing to think that this is going to go on every month or so for several long, long, long months. Through the winter no less… Everyone keeps saying it’s going to be a hard winter too. Daunting.

Well, I’ve taken too long on this already so I’ll leave you to your own devices again. More comic to follow on Wednesday. Stay hydrated until next we meet.

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Does the hotdog go inside the cake sometimes?

Sometimes a (cream!) pie is best, with all consenting parties XD

This is just a Twinkie Weiner Sandwich, and it is sanctioned by God Almighty and Weird Al Yankovic.

So, that means, Jo is the Twinkie, with a wiener on either side, I guess?

Personally I am all for emulation. Owning a digital file isn’t entirely the same, but it’s pretty close in my opinion. At least all the games on my hard drive aren’t going anywhere. And if I’m really determined to have an authentic experience I can plug my PC into my TV and use a filter on the emulator.

Yeah the problem isn’t the digital format itself, it’s that people allowed themselves to abdicate control in favor of convenience.

Don’t buy into closed ecosystems if you don’t like closed ecosystem shenanigans. The entire point/endgame of closed ecosystems as *always* been enshittification.

Just because the bait in the trap was really nice bait doesn’t make it any less of a trap.

I hope that you + your Mom are doing OK, Jackie.

“I’m not always counting my money but that doesn’t mean I want it taken away and given to random people because I’m not actively observing it every hour of the day. …. The man can’t watch me all the time.”

Did you do that on purpose? The picture I get is that the man owns your consuming/spending habits, and even though he can’t watch you all the time, he still doesn’t want any of your spending taken away from him.

Some version of it’s bad to “fuck that much cake” has permanently wedged itself in my brain from that analogy, and pops up every now and then

Me too ?

I don’t know why the laughing emoji changed to a question mark

I was wondering if that Alex metaphor would cross over to Brooksie’s vocabulary.

I will never understand why people insist on saying the nintendo online subscription costs a ridiculous amount or is overpriced. It’s roughly $20 per YEAR. $50 if you get the big version with the extra stuff like the retro games library. That’s WAY below market for similar subscriptions.

Xbox’s equivalent is around $10 per MONTH, Playstation’s is around $11 per MONTH, World of Warcraft is around $15 per MONTH, Spotify is around $11 per MONTH. I believe they all have annual options that are less than twelve times the monthly fee, but they’re all significantly more than $50 per year. Notice how all those monthly fees are around half, or even more, what Nintendo charges PER YEAR at base? And for the record, those are all the base subscriptions, not the higher tiers.

So in what universe is nintendo’s subscription OVERpriced? Like, sure, if you don’t want or need the service, then it isn’t worth paying for. And I don’t know enough about the infrastructure of servers to know whether charging people to access them like this is a reasonable or necessary expense, but reasonable or otherwise the industry has decided that this is how it will be handled, and Nintendo is charging a FRACTION of what EVERYBODY else who uses this model charges, it is far and away the most affordable subscription service I’ve seen in over a decade without needing to use discounts.

Do I feel great about paying a subscription to be able to play all the features on all the games I have purchased? Not really, but that’s an argument that the SERVICE might be unreasonable, not that the PRICE of the service is unreasonable. If your position is that the service itself is unreasonable, then ANY price will inherently be unreasonable, so it’s silly to call out the price in particular as unreasonable when the price isn’t the issue, the service itself is.

Here’s a fun idea: if you disagree with me present your case in a tone that isn’t adversarial.

Perhaps you are too young to remember the before times, but once upon a time, you didnt need to pay for online services. As long as you had internet, that was all you needed. Xbox got the idea to charge subscriptions and then the other game companies joined.

Keeping this in mind, having to pay ANYTHING could be considered overpriced.

I can get that Nintendo exploits the least, but it’s still exploitation. :/

I literally addressed that in the last paragraph of my comment. If having to pay for the service at all is what is considered unreasonable, then the price isn’t the problem.

I have no issue with people who say the practice itself is unreasonable, the issue is that I see people dogpile on Nintendo specifically for *their* version of this being “overpriced” when it is objectively the most reasonably priced option of the lot by a massive margin. I’ve rarely heard anybody say Xbox’s subscription or Playstation’s subcription are overpriced, that particular accusation seems to be reserved for Nintendo for some reason when they’re the cheapest one and it’s not even close, it’s a nonsensical complaint.

Whether something is overpriced is about industry standards, not about whether you think you should pay at all or not, it’s the wrong way to present the problem because it changes the actual content of the argument. If someone makes the claim that there shouldn’t be a subscription for this at all, I won’t disagree, but that wasn’t the claim made.

You are making the classic blunder of assuming that what the companies want to sell it for is a reasonable value to all people.

People often point out to me how some entertainment is “cheaper than going to the movies and getting popcorn and a drink” to try to show it’s not expensive. Except that I barely go to movies because they are expensive, and I definitely don’t buy their overpriced food.

So comparing to other online services is meaningless — does it bring enough value to this person is the question. Especially when you have a limited budget for entertainment, so the question is really: is this a better value than something else I can do with that money?

It’s all about opportunity cost, not comparing it to other things they aren’t going to buy.

You are making the classic blunder of not bothering to actually read the comment you replied to in its entirety, because I literally addressed that in the third paragraph.

If it doesn’t provide sufficient value to you to justify $20 a year, then don’t buy it, that doesn’t make $20 per year a ridiculous price for what is being offered, it just means you personally don’t get $20 of value out of it because you don’t use what is being offered enough to justify spending money on it.

I never made the argument that everybody needs the service or that it would be worth it to everyone, something you’d know if you had actually read what I wrote instead of skimming the first couple paragraphs and deciding you could ignore the rest.

Just because Nintendo’s shit-sandwich is yearly instead of monthly doesn’t make the product provided any less of a shit-sandwich. A shit-sandwich that isn’t even actively being used anymore by the aforementioned consumer, so it’s just sitting there costing money. A shit-sandwich that is actively holding hostage a good turkey sandwich that — even as little as six years ago or even just from companies that aren’t complete monsters — would be available on its own for far, far less than the cost of half the original meal it was supplementing. Or hell, free. Some companies give out that turkey sandwich for FREE.

Stop buying shit-sandwiches just because they’re the cheapest shit-sandwich available. Don’t buy a shit-sandwich from someone just because you’ve been buying all your sandwiches from them for thirty years. Understand that your loyalty to ANY of these companies isn’t worth the ink it’s writ in, let alone the paper it’s writ on. The millisecond you stop being a ‘monthly active user’, or whatever new metric they’re using to confuse shareholders, you cease to matter to them. Spend your money where it’s useful to YOU, not to Nintendo. Not to Xbox. Not to Sony. Hell, not even to Steam. The only thing Steam does different from all the others is it recognizes that good business practices are good for business.

Exactly.

As the two women-hosts on the TV show, “The Two Fat Ladies” said, + I paraphrase:

“[Don’t] make this casserole, with a cheap priced and bad tasting wine, and think that it will work.

If you want a casserole or dish that tastes [good], then buy [good] tasting wine + other delicious ingredients to put in it.

If you put bad tasting wine into your casserole, then [your casserole] will taste [bad], too. Use wine that tastes [good] to you.”

So, I guess these two women’s message is:

[Don’t by wine or products that don’t taste good, and don’t buy products that don’t make you happy]. And also- don’t buy things that you don’t like, + ideas like that.
Hm.

Where did I say people should buy anything they don’t like?

I was responding to D_A’s comment.
OK?

In other words, I never claimed that you said anything. Have a good one.

Where did I make the argument that everybody should buy this? Where did I criticize Jackie for deciding it was no longer worth it for him? I pay for the service because I use it for the games I play often enough throughout the year to be worth the $20.

Since you obviously didn’t actually read the comment you responded to, I’ll reiterate, if it isn’t worth it to you personally, that doesn’t make the price ridiculous, and if you think the service should be offered for free, then your problem isn’t with the price, it’s with the service, so complaining about the price is missing your own point. If the claim was that charging for the service at all was ridiculous, then I wouldn’t disagree, but that wasn’t the claim made, the claim was that the price was ridiculous, and *that* boils down industry standards, and by that metric it’s the most reasonable price in town.

Well me last game system I had was my trusty 64 with mario kart, now I play mostly free stuff online or might buy certain games from Steam where I actually own the game and not subscribing to it., as a side note you should try to enter your mother’s situation into the story it can be kind of cathartic for you, you know like maybe something Thomas’s Mother has to go thru, you can explore your emotional trouble you feel and are going thru, a type of vent to let it all out.

That analogy really describes much of my life. Even if I could have it all it is more than I could manage. Sometimes you just have to make a choice and roll with it.

All this food talk is making me hungry too!

Me too, dude!
I’m lucky that my sister bought me some Little Debbie, Zebra cakes. Starving! I gotta go now. bye!
:D

It sounds like Jo has a lot of problems and things to lick.

Hey, uhh… Jackie? I do a yearly Nintendo Switch Family account for friends, and I’ve got a slot open. If you want it, it’s available.

Is that… Legal?

“I will make it legal” XD

Someone finally responds correctly. XD

Yeah, it’s legal. One of the people on my account is in Florida, and I’m on the West Coast. Nintendo doesn’t care, they get paid either way.

I wouldn’t normally do something like this but if you’ll have me I’ll join. Let me know what I need to do.

I just need to send an invite to your Nintendo Account’s associated email.

I don’t actually know your Nintendo Account email. XD

I’m pretty sure it’s betweenfailures @hotmail.com.

Alright, sent the invite. You just have to accept it in your email. It’s good for 24 hours, so let me know if you miss the window and I’ll send another.

You probably saw that I got it. Just so it doesn’t become a problem later, are you in the discord server, or the Patreon, or whatever? I’d like to know who I know you as ion other places since my brain sets up any different username as a new person. If we’re going to be family I should know who you are.

I WAS in the Patreon, actually! I think I was there under “Anthony Lertkantitham”? Ended up having to drop it due to financial difficulties, I should really get that started up again.

I’m not in the Discord, no, but I could join. My Discord name is endygainer.

Recently picked up a modded GBC with a rechargeable battery and backlit screen and a flash card. Adore it.

It’s always neat seeing how phrases and sayings get dropped or held by a group and how it changes over time, getting good milage outta the cake analogy.

3051 Hotdogs And Cake.

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