That was the beginning of the end for me. I think by the time I got to that part the series had already been going downhill but I remember that being a really sharp turning point.

I tried to press on a little further. The introduction of the straw man nation with the innocent child king who’s only existence was to be blown the fuck out by the brilliance of objectivism is when I finally decided I just couldn’t go on.

Ooo, I was trying to think of what to answer in this thread and you just reminded me of another Orson Scott Card book, Empire.

Absolute trash. Prior to that I had read all of the Ender and Bean series and loved them. Didn’t know much about Card personally, but picked up this book because it was supposed to be tied in with a video game I was looking forward too.

Reading this book is how I found out what a shitty person he really is. It was basically all him hitting you over the head with his shitty fascist ideology while jerking off to a bunch of military porn like a dollar store version of Tom Clancy. I never did play the game.

Until you find out those were also built by a junior using an llm to help 🙃

Hey, as a random Internet stranger I’m just going to say that I’m proud of you. Everyone has their own path to becoming a better them and I’m glad you’re doing the things that work for you. Keep it up!

My dad cracked three ribs while surfing in his 20s. He caught a wave much larger than normal, fell off his board near the top and landed flat on his back.

One of my favorite T-shirts. https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/23763923-utc-or-gtfo

(I am not affiliated in any way with this shop)

Magic carpet 2, the Netherworlds is one I played a ton and think of from time to time. I wonder what I modern remake would be like.

It’s the first game I remember playing with deformable terrain.

Nope, it was Gmail and I know it’s the correct account because I have other emails regarding that account going back a few years including confirmations and a password reset.

I did check spam at the time. I really tried to give them the benefit of the doubt but all I can figure is my account slipped through some weird crack. It’s likely I never would have even known if it weren’t for my kid asking me one day if we could play together.

I did check that at the time as well. Nothing was there.

Doubt all you like. I checked multiple times after opening a ticket to make sure I hadn’t missed something. I would actually be a lot less annoyed with them if I had.

I did. Unfortunately the chain ended with repeated canned responses to me that the grace period had ended and the only way I could get access again was to repurchase the game.

So did most of my friends, but I checked multiple times and confirmed that I had nothing. I would have been a lot less annoyed with them if I had received an email and missed or ignored it. For whatever reason, the notifications never made it to me.

I’m one of those people. I haven’t played in years. I may never have played again. I only found out because my daughter is now at an age where she asked if we could play together. I received no notice from Microsoft and I don’t do social media so it was a complete surprise to me when I couldn’t log in, then find out through their support that I had lost access to something I had legally paid for.

Absolutely. Anansi boys is my personal favorite of his, but I think highly of all his books.

I’d second all three.

Neil Gaiman is absolutely one of my favorite authors and from what I’ve seen, a pretty great human being as well.

I loved Orson Scott Card’s books when I was younger, even the later Ender books. Unfortunately he’s also a pretty terrible person much like Rowling.

This one? https://youtu.be/_loUDS4c3Cs?si=oaF9L2yCBFuy35KB

It’s a great watch on the subject.

“Austin Powers, his loins ready.”