#Lottery Revenue

[thunkdeep]

Unpacking Oklahoma's Education Funding: A Look Beyond Marijuana and Lottery Revenue

Dive into the complexities of Oklahoma's education funding, where marijuana sales and lottery tickets play pivotal roles. This post unravels the intricacies of state budgets, revealing the challenges and impacts of these unconventional revenue streams...

Introduction: Welcome to ThinkTank Theorium, where we don’t just scratch the surface – we dig deep. Today, we’re zeroing in on Oklahoma’s education funding. It’s more than just textbooks and chalkboards; we’re talking green – and not just the kind in textbooks. Marijuana sales and lottery tickets have entered the chat, but do they really make the grade in funding our schools? The Green Rush:…

[roach-works]

That purge poll you liked got me thinking. Let’s say you commit a huge heist on the day of the purge, like you walk away with millions of dollars. How is that money declared? You technically did not acquire that money illegally on THAT SPECIFIC DAY, but does the possession of the money BECOME illegal after the purge is over?? If I lived in poverty one day and then two days later I am miraculously a millionaire, people are obviously going to know what happened.

it's probably just taxed like lottery money. you 'won' it by participating in a state-sanctioned activity (day of no crimes) but now that you have it the state still gets a cut. on a cynical level this would give the state a lot of incentive to keep having the purge days: all of a sudden a LOT of millionaire and billionaire's highly-protected assets have been transferred out to thousands of blue-collar citizens whose income levels can be easily and accurately compared from year to year. and now all the assets like boats, cars, briefcases full of gold, works of art, etc, can get taxed at the end of that year at much stiffer rates than when they were getting sat on by professional tax evaders. hooray!

on a practical level, this kind of tax revenue probably offsets the expense of the spike in post-purge search and rescue, fire fighting, emergency room operations, and other disaster management necessary after each purge from all the arson and murder attempts. i genuinely don't know if it would come out even! but it's fun to consider.

[a-typical]

Profits earned by the state, after paying winners and ticket merchants, serve as a major source of revenue that often funnels into social programs, especially kindergarten through high school education, creating a moral dilemma to vote against this form of legalized gambling in your state.

That got me thinking. Is probability and statistics even taught in US public schools? Recent surveys show that the answer is mostly not. In the few places that do teach it, classes are taught as a novel elective or as part of an advanced placement college course.

If instead, probability and statistics were a fundamental part of the K-12 curriculum, taught to every student, across multiple grades, and if state lottery revenue were allocated to make that happen, then the lottery might just put itself out of business by inoculating its own citizens against the lottery itself.

— Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization - Neil deGrasse Tyson (2022)

[gacha-incels]

South Korea's 'Gaming Kingdom' Falling Apart Due to '쌀먹' and 'Gacha'

Economy insight

CULTURE AND BIZ

published October 4th 2024 this I thought was just an interesting opinion and analysis of the Korean gaming industry which heavily features critique on gacha. it is originally in Korean and has been mtl and edited into english so it’s not going to be a 1:1 but the very basic info should be there. If you see any discrepancies please lmk and I’ll edit it asap. Thanks for your help and understanding everyone

South Korea was once known as a gaming powerhouse; it was a term that frequently described the nation’s gaming industry. Even today, games are the leading export in South Korea’s content industry. As of 2022, South Korea’s game export revenue reached $8.9 billion (around 12 trillion KRW), which accounts for more than 67.8% of the country’s total content exports.

Globally, South Korea's status remains strong in the gaming industry, ranking 4th after the U.S., China, and Japan in a global market worth 282 trillion KRW. Though there have been fluctuations over the years, South Korea has maintained this position since the early 2000s. From a numbers perspective, South Korea still stands as a gaming giant.

However, if you listen to voices from within the industry, the phrase "gaming powerhouse" is hard to come by. A brief look at industry trends reveals concerns about a crisis: "The South Korean gaming industry is in trouble" or "There's no more innovation." Why is it that despite boasting a much larger export volume and market size than K-pop or K-drama, the core of South Korea's content industry, gaming, faces such grim assessments?

Broken growth caused by an incorrect business model (BM)

The key to South Korea's gaming industry growth was PC online games, which spread with the high-speed internet boom in the early 2000s. At a time when other countries were settling into arcade or home console markets, South Korea entered the PC online gaming sector—a move that turned out to be a masterstroke. With a fast market entry ahead of other nations, South Korea took the lead, pioneering its own paradigm. But today, the industry is struggling to even maintain its domestic market, losing ground to countries like China.

Everyone in the industry knows why. The unique business model (BM) of the South Korean gaming industry, particularly the trade of game items, is seen as a major obstacle to growth. The term “rice farming” (쌀먹- note I went thru a bunch of translations of this and this is the one that I thought made the most sense in context.. if you know the actual set in stone translation lmk)—a slang term meaning “making money by selling game items”—reflects how making money through games has become a major reason for gamers' choices. Currently, 60% of the South Korean gaming industry's revenue comes from in-game item trades, showing how central this model has become.

The core of "rice farming" is the sale of in-game currency or items that allow players to save time on gameplay. Game companies have capitalized on this psychology, introducing probability-based items, also known as "gacha." Gacha, a system similar to a lottery, can reward players with rare items but is also highly risky. The system is often regarded as being close to gambling.

The gaming industry has desperately tried to conceal the fact that probability-based item models have elements of gambling or promote a gambling mindset. If public opinion were to focus on the gambling-like nature of these models, it could literally lead to the downfall of the entire industry. Since this "goose that lays the golden eggs" brings in massive profits easily, no one has been willing to sacrifice it, even though everyone knows it's a problem, making it difficult to change.

The issue is that this culture has dominated the South Korean gaming industry for a long time, severely damaging the overall diversity and competitiveness of the industry. The current crisis stems from a decline in trust in the gaming industry as a whole, following multiple allegations of manipulated probability-based items, which has subsequently led to a decrease in revenue.

Instead of focusing on enhancing gameplay or user services, companies have drawn in users solely with gambling elements, while users, motivated by the desire to make money, approach these games with a gambling mentality. This dangerous dynamic is the main reason why the gaming industry is in its current crisis. The fixation on a flawed business model has led to distorted growth, and the industry has so far stubbornly ignored the issue.

It’s not that there haven’t been calls for change. Many in the industry have been raising alarms, warning that continuing down this path will eventually lead to a collapse. However, market forces often silenced these voices. By 2023, the festering issues that had been ignored for so long have now grown into an irreversible cancer.

Today, Korean games are no longer judged by their content but by how well they incorporate gambling-like elements. One might wonder how this is any different from Japan's national gambling game, pachinko. This is the current state of South Korea’s gaming industry. What's even sadder is that all of this is a result of game developers knowingly turning a blind eye to the situation, blinded by short-term profits.

A Gaming Industry that Talents Ignore

Beyond the distorted growth caused by flawed business models, there are numerous warning signs for the Korean gaming industry. The most noticeable problem is the significant decline in competitiveness when it comes to developing new games. Recently, it has become increasingly difficult to find new Korean games making a mark in either the global or domestic markets. This issue has worsened since the gaming paradigm shifted to mobile platforms. In 2022, only one Korean game made it into the global top 10 for mobile game revenue. The domestic revenue rankings tell a similar story, with most of the top 10 games being either Chinese titles or mobile versions of games that have been in service for over 20 years. This clearly shows the lack of competitive new game releases.

Experts point to the distorted personnel structure of current game development companies, where decision-making is dominated by professional managers who often lack a deep understanding of games. They highlight that Korea's game development culture is plagued by rigid hierarchies and processes, rather than fostering individual developers' creativity.

Survey data shows that the average tenure of employees in the Korean gaming industry is only 2.8 years, and six out of ten game developers express dissatisfaction with their current working conditions. This stands in stark contrast to the foreign gaming industry, where passionate developers drive innovation with fresh ideas. The so-called "crunch culture," where overtime and late-night work are expected, is another major factor hindering the progress of Korean game development. The high workload, compared to other IT sectors, causes talented workers to gravitate toward other industries, leaving game development behind. This is not just a problem of individual developers' working conditions; it poses a structural threat to the future of the Korean gaming industry. Unless the industry escapes from its stagnant development culture, a resurgence for Korean games will be difficult.

The rapid pace of technological change surrounding games has also intensified the sense of crisis in Korea's gaming industry. When it comes to adopting and utilizing emerging technologies that drive next-generation gaming trends, such as the metaverse and blockchain, Korea has fallen significantly behind leading nations. The power that once positioned Korea at the forefront of game innovation seems to have all but vanished.

Industry insiders unanimously agree that the root cause lies in the complacency of game developers, who prefer to take the easy route and prioritize making quick money over embracing new challenges. This results in the industry circling back to its distorted business models. Looking at this trajectory, it's no surprise that concerns are growing over whether the Korean gaming industry can maintain its past glory in an increasingly competitive global market.

The Last Golden Time

For the South Korean gaming industry to recover, fundamental innovation is needed. The focus must shift from aggressive commercialization to delivering the intrinsic value of games—fun, emotion, and immersion. A drastic change in game design philosophy is required, prioritizing enjoyable experiences over pushing players toward in-game purchases.

Additionally, a flexible, autonomous development structure that values creativity must take root. Only in such an environment can future hit games emerge. Risky and innovative attempts should be encouraged, even at the cost of failure. More companies need to embrace new technologies and genres.

The road to reclaiming South Korea’s status as a gaming powerhouse will not be smooth, but if the industry collectively prioritizes the essence of gaming and takes one step at a time, the path to revival can open. Now is the last golden opportunity for the industry to unite for its future.

[communist-ojou-sama]

I can't wrap my head around the impulse to send you apologia about this so called "anti-gacha" stuff when you've made a clear and reasonable stance.

Particularly given these folks are likely in the US where sports gambling apps have absolutely blitzed most of the country, and forced major broadcasters including controversy-averse Disney to lend the ESPN branding to a gambling platform and every major sports league to rewrite their old blanket bans on player sports betting after they hopped in bed with Draft Kings and Fan Duel.

Gacha-games aren't free of sin I suppose, and maybe I'm wrong about where these anons live, but to single gachas out in the current environment as a key driver or even a major concern as opposed to state-run lotteries or the fact most problem gambling orgs are funded by a share of gambling revenues really indicates a preoccupation with something other than gambling as a whole.

Thank u! Yeah it seems to me that gambling is becoming more ubiquitous everywhere with traditional schemes for cash circulation throughout the economy failing but the only time people feel comfortable mobilizing shame, specifically, is when it comes to popular east Asian mobile games. It certainly doesn't feel like an attitude motivated by genuine concern to me...

[nico-robin-official]

Okay so. I just checked and a presidential candidate CAN actually have their name on the ballot be a nickname/pseudonym (for example, Dick Cheney and Al Gore were both listed as such on the ballot).

So here's the plan

Win the lottery

Quit my job and become a moderately successful vtuber

Join one of the major companies (hololive, vshojo, etc) to increase my following and revenue

RUN FOR PRESIDENT AS THE FIRST VTUBER PRESIDENT

[younggayanddoingokay]

My new obsessive conspiracy theory is whatever the fuck is going on for the ads in mobile games. Like I play a lot of puzzle games and in the ads for different mobile games, all these celebrities are showing up and at first the only way I knew they were “famous” was because they were like “I’m so and so from such and such” and I was like “oof, selling out on cameo for royal match, that’s gotta hurt.” And then I saw Tom Felton, a YouTuber I like, whatever. Then the other day I saw fucking DAVID BECKHAM on an ad for some mobile game and I’m like “wtf?!”

How are all these mobile games affording these people to advertise for them, WHY are they paying that kind of money for a free mobile game?! Like, in-app purchases from the modern version latchkey kids whose parents give them too many electronics to shut them up and don’t bother to parent-lock purchases are like, drunk people, and old people who get bored cannot POSSIBLY be generating that much revenue. So like,

Is it money laundering? Is the government sponsoring these ads to gateway-drug people into gambling so that they can drive them into some sort of new “in app purchase on mobile game to state-sponsored lottery gambling app” pipeline? WTF is going on? Something is suuuuuper fishy here and I’m so stuck on why.

[horce-divorce]

everything is such a gamble in this fucking economy... spend all your time and energy at the first job that'll have you, and it might be just enough to get your benefits cut and still not be able to afford all your bills. sure you MIGHT get pithy raises if you stay, you MIGHT get promoted and work your way up to a reasonable salary, but the "raises" might amount to .25 cents each. maybe you do it right, maybe you pick the right job that respects you, pays you well, and is set to promote you, and you make a living wage-- until you get covid or swine flu or get into an accident, and become disabled, and you can't keep up the pace anymore, and its suddenly not even enough to cover your medical costs. teach yourself how to work from home, train yourself in multiple jobs that promise to pay decent salaries once you set a good pace, only to find out that you're being replaced by AI. you put all your time and energy into getting a degree, you MIGHT be able to pay that off later, if the industry you chose is still functional, lucrative and hiring at all by the time you get there. you can spend every waking hour on running your own small business, you can do everything right, you can post to social media multiple times daily and get plenty of "engagement" and still not end up making ends meet. you could post a one-off video, one time, and become a meme that lives in infamy. you could post pictures of your chickens all the time and get thousands of dollars in ad revenue per month. you could spend your time making thoughtful, well-sourced, educational videos that put your degree to work and get just a handful of $1 patreon subscribers and almost no clicks. you could pick a lottery ticket up off the ground and win something. you could spend 80 years buying lottery tickets and never win anything.

[beardedmrbean]

Finland's infamous online message board Ylilauta has removed advertising on its website over the summer as the site transitioned to a user paying model last year.

"Yes, all our financing is now independent of others," the site's administrators wrote in a reply to Yle.

Ylilauta reported last year that it had 2.5 million monthly users. It has not publicly disclosed the number of paying users.

The decision to remove ads was voluntary, according to the site's management. However, there have been a number of problems with the site's advertising model in the past given some of the controversial content posted on Ylilauta.

Police found casino advertisements illegal

Yle MOT reported last year how Ylilauta paid millions of euros in dividends to its owners in tax havens. The proceeds were obtained, among other ways, by selling advertising space to online casinos.

The advertising of foreign online casinos is prohibited in Finland. The police could have imposed a fine on the gambling promoter.

Finnish police first intervened in Ylilauda's gambling advertising in 2021. Lauta Media, the Maltese company that owns Ylilauta, has denied violating the Lotteries Act.

However, in June it said it would remove the gambling ads to please the police.

"As a gesture of goodwill, Lauta Media will take steps to remove banner ads from foreign gambling companies," CEO John Farrugia wrote in a response to the police department.

Google removed its own ads from Ylilauta

In July, Tivi reported that Google had removed its own Adsense ads from Ylilauta because the forum violated its rules on hate speech and harassment.

Tivi cited the discussion threads exposed by Svenska Yle in June as an example. Ylilauta users had posted pictures of women without their consent.

According to the site's administrators, there are no longer any ads on the site, which also improves the user experience.

Ownership transferred to Estonia

Ylilauta is owned by Lauta Media, registered in Malta. The largest owner is Aleksi Kinnunen, the founder of the forum also known by the username Sopsy.

Kinnunen has owned around 32 percent of Lauta Media through Goldhill Holdings, a company registered in Gibraltar. In May, however, he transferred the shares to Pulju OÜ, registered in Estonia.

The rest of Lauta Media is owned by Halonen Holding, registered in Gibraltar, and Sissonen Capital, Stelbur Capital and Huhtikuu, registered in Finland.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Jackpot! (2024)

I don’t like criticizing premises. The movie’s “got to happen”, so picking away at the rules of a fantasy or science fiction realm and asking the movie details about backstories or events that took place before the action even begins doesn’t add to the conversation. This brings us to Jackpot!. If the premise HAD worked, this could’ve been an action comedy with some fresh ideas. Unfortunately, it doesn’t pan out and the weak setup proves no one sat down to make sure they were making the best movie possible, they just figured things would sort themselves out at some point during the filming.

By 2030, California has created the Grand Lottery. Now, every month, a lucky ticket winner wins big - and in the process, the financially desperate state generates some much-needed revenue. There’s a catch, however. You have to survive until sundown to claim your prize and whoever kills you before then gets your money. When Katie Kim (Awkwafina) accidentally enters the lottery and wins, the whole city is after her. Soon after the news breaks, she’s approached by Noel Cassidy (John Cena), who offers to protect her in exchange for ten percent of her prize.

Let's address that setup. I understand California wanting to make money by selling lottery tickets but what does that have to do with allowing anyone to murder the winner? Wouldn’t it discourage people from entering the lottery? We’re also told you can’t kill them with guns or bullets, which seems like a plot-demanded ruling rather than a logical one. Basically, if people COULD use guns, this movie would be over in minutes. Anyway, the opening text card says “Some people call it dystopian. But those people are no fun.” which feels like a half-hearted attempt to squelch some much-deserved criticisms if you ask me. I think even Jackpot! knows its premise doesn't make sense.

That rickety foundation wouldn’t be the end of the world if the rest was terrific. The thing is, Jackpot! is quite funny at first. Awkwafina is a talented actress and comedienne, as is John Cena, who can handle the stunts no problem. You'll be laughing until you realize a problem with the dialogue: no one in this movie has a distinct voice. Everyone makes the same kind of jokes as everyone else. There isn’t a straight man (or woman in this story) because everyone is always making wildly inappropriate comments about pop culture, their surroundings or people all the time. After a while, none of the dialogue surprises you because it’s constant and always “the same”. It feels like director Paul Feig is falling back on his old technique of letting everyone say whatever they want and including all of it whether it matches their character or not. More than once, characters deliberately put their lives on the line for the sake of a gag. The best example is a scene (prominently featured in the trailer) that has Katie donning an extremely elaborate makeup disguise that transforms her into an old man. There is no way anyone could recognize her… but she takes it off minutes later! Is she afraid for her life, or looking forward to the next wacky scenario she’ll find herself in?

The logical problems continue until the final act when we're introduced to a villain. You read that correctly. The premise is that everyone wants to kill Katie but for some reason, we need a bad guy too. The way this villain (who you can see coming a mile away but I won’t reveal) plans on getting away with what they’re doing just pokes more holes in the film’s logic and makes you start asking questions you were never meant to ask like, “Does anyone care about all these new, murderous billionaires living in California?"

The dopiest thing about Jackpot! is that the Purge franchise has a similar premise but handles it so much more intelligently. Yes, the first installment wastes its potential and creates profoundly idiotic protagonists that are practically begging to be killed… but at least within the movie people understand the danger of being targeted by maniacs who want to kill you. The script of Jackpot! (or whatever loose blueprint was given to the actors) is weak and it doesn't do anything smart with its central idea. The laughs get more derivative the further along we get and the second Simu Liu enters the frame, you can predict everything all the way to the end of the movie. If you choose to watch Jackpot! despite this review, you might as well stick around for the end credits, which contain several gags. (September 1, 2024)

[wumblr]

let's have a hard talk. these insufferable takes on AI are not advancing the discussion. the discussion was miles beyond this "takes work from artist" "consumer boycott must be the answer" dead on arrival poor substitute for an analysis, years ago, when timnit gebru got fired from google, for making what is now, because of her, the trivially obvious observation that large datasets may be too large to manually analyse for bias.

like congratulations. you have hit upon the point of capek's RUR, origin of the word robot, from a hundred years ago. were you going to take another point from back before the dust bowl or was that it? it's not just automation that takes surplus value from labor, it's any increase in efficiency. this is the first textbook feature of the economic model we're living under. luddites genuinely had more sense for nuance when the loom threatened to extract value from their labor at a pace never before seen. this is not that. luddites were producing textiles that people actually bought. you aren't.

aside from that, the implication that this is on par with like, a museum heist, or art forgery (both of which are, by the way, through a lens that includes class analysis, badass) is laughable. you are not selected for exhibition by making posts online, you are participating in a social medium where your continued pageviews are the source of advertising revenue. you are not bourgeoise, you are proletarian. your deviantart was search engine optimized to the point that it was trivial to pull five billion carbon copies of you off google images with like a two-line API call. you are not unique, you are one drop in a lost generation's renaissance. maybe if you don't want your work "stolen" you shouldn't be posting an endlessly reproducible digital copy to the world wide web? it's been seven years since twitter killed vine for trying to set the precedent that collective action can produce wage, can we bring back that level of foresight yet? or are you happy settling for tiktok because they deign to curate a ""creators fund"" for white heterosexuals? go buy a lottery ticket

i've said it before but this is a structured argument, presented to you with two neatly-collimated "sides," one that says every possible piece of data should be available for free for capitalist class to build automation out of it, and one that says pirating endlessly reproducible goods belonging the capitalist class should have harsher punishment. this is intentional, not unique, not new. it's the perverse dialectic of capital. you can only argue a side that benefits it.

the absence of nuanced intersectional perspective here is embarrassing. beyond that it's painfully obvious people are taking it personally, as if you had any chance to make rent as an artist, regardless of what procedural generation or neural networks might do. it's a selfish, blindly individualistic, mass manufactured wholesale bargain basement opinion, one that does not serve to advance any collective good, because it's based in the pipe dream of suddenly jumping three tax brackets to become bourgeoise. beyond that, doesn't it cheapen your art to only ever make saleable products? beyond that, it's painfully obvious none of you have ever tried using a neural network. from computer science or statistical perspectives, these constructs are novel and fascinating (or, the advent of cheap processing power sufficient to allow decades-old theory to flourish, which let's be honest, this power relies on an exploitative global network of rare mineral resource extraction and high precision manufacturing, which is yet one more topic i haven't once seen broached in the months this stultifyingly dull conversation has been ongoing.)

blaming a novelty for the ills of capitalism is nonsense, and it's not why luddites opposed the loom.

and let me just tell you, working with a code construct also does not improve your chances as an artist, which is the main point i wish i could get across. aside from the absence of intersectionality there's also an absence of class analysis, in which context it's, again, painfully obvious that no capitalist has ever cared one whit about art. even when they deign to take on a patronage it's as a backhanded PR stunt, like the unpaid notre dame roof pledges, to offset the ill repute they've accrued from extracting value for personal gain, while contributing nothing except the directive power their birthright of wealth gave them. this is the main critique i had about age of surveillance capitalism -- zuboff seems to think a return to ford-era capitalism, where the rich bothered to endow museums (to curate what they exclude) or pay a livable wage (in order to recapture it as sales), would solve the fundamental problem of value extraction from labor and natural resources for the barefaced sake of the profit motive. unremarkable and unsurprising for tenured faculty of harvard, how else would she sell books? but for some foolhardy reason i expected better from my peers.

your aspirations of small business aren't going to flourish if you suddenly got everything you claim to want and they banned every code construct from competing with you. you are not in competition with capital. you are nothing to it, it will kill you in total indifference without blinking, surely you ought to know this by now, it will bus in scab slave labor from prison to ramp up production despite a boycott in solidarity with a strike, and it's going to remain this way as long as capital survives. whether or not an algorithm or a network or an artifice is involved is irrelevant to the fundamental problem that it's a winner-takes-all game that ended before you were born. unless and until you want to start challenging the police that uphold the state or the insurance trust that pays to replace its points of failure, you're doing surface level armchair analysis on a problem that only the extremely online care about. arguing over what color of icing is on the cake you're never going to be eating while you starve for lack of bread.

and like... i get it. after the pandemic that we're still going through, you want to refocus on the things that really make you happy. but i've got to say, refocusing on art until you starve because you didn't manage to figure out self-sufficience during a recession is a sad way to die. perhaps you should consider the necessity of survival as a precursor to contentment. and to be clear i am saying this specifically because i care whether you survive and because i am interested in the artworks you are making or in your future potential. but you can't focus on that to the exclusion of all else, dog eat dog world and that means every day i have to see someone get ate. now for the last time, for god's sake can you stop yelling "this is because of code constructs" every time a dog eats your purported art commission revenue because it's really hurting MY purported small business revenue, selling products of code constructs,

[eqt-95]

For the WiP Title Game, one of your original works? Author’s choice. Please and thank you!

oh! honestly i didn't expect anyone to throw their hat over the 'original works' wall, so i'm a bit tickled to see this. i picked 'preferential citizens' because it's a bit 'out there' but i dig it (and would love to one day have focused time to work on).

but (also) tuck in because this is the first time i've 'written' what this story is about. normally i just mumble a few incoherent words until the glazed-over look of people feigning interest allows me a stuttering exit back into silence.

the concept is simple: it's a world where poll-taxes were explicitly given permission to exist in the Sixteenth Amendment (ratified in 1913). Call it a historical rewrite i guess? At it's core, it's a satire about the government implementing a federal poll tax in a desperate attempt to get people to vote.

But you may be thinking 'a poll tax would dissuade people, no?' And that is totes correct, except in this world, 50% of the revenue from poll taxes are put into a lottery, and anyone who votes is entered into that lottery.

Escapades ensue, hijinks happen, hilarity becomes somber moments of clarity, but for added complexity (and what really inspired this in the first place) i lean into the format of legal papers and their bonkers use of footnotes (upon footnotes upon footnotes: literal footnotes within footnotes; papers that are 85% footnotes). I also just truly enjoyed the chaotic (claustrophobic) reading experience of 'House of Leaves' which has levels upon levels of footnotes and narration and intertwining storylines. I loved the idea of poking fun at the legal papers while playing with different types of narration. So there are things like pamphlets and legal notices, anecdotes of 'Preferential Citizens' (the citizens who 'win' the lotteries), and a single (wildly unreliable) character in present day trying to take down the organization from the inside and crack the conspiracy nut that makes the 'lobby' of Preferential Citizens, government, and society as a whole all interconnected, corrupt, and morally bankrupt.

[neuroticpantomime]

I know this is like leftism 101 but god lotteries are fucked up methods of tax revenue lmao

[fruitymarcy]

I think it’s very interesting that the Sonic Frontiers dlc is free. Now, updates 1 and 2, sure, any game would have stuff like that for free. But update 3 is an expansion with 3 new playable characters (Tails, Knuckles, and Amy) and new story content. You’d think that’d be 20 bucks or so, but it’s going to be entirely free as well! I think the reason Sega chose this route is to convince more people to buy the base game, rather than trying to make more off of the install base the game already has. Let me explain my theory on this:

If you think about it, if Sega made the dlc 20 dollars that would mean they’d make money off of those who already own the game, but no one would really buy the game for the dlc alone considering that would total 80 dollars, or 90 dollars if you buy the digital deluxe edition. But to advertise to those who don’t yet own the game that there’s now even more content and 4 whole playable characters? Now THAT would convince those who were on the fence about buying the game to take a look

Instead of making 20 more dollars in revenue off of those who bought the game in the last year, they instead make 60 or 70 dollars off of people who never bought the game in the prior year. Not only that, but existing fans who do already own the game will be thrilled to get free content and it will help to keep us happy while we wait for the Sonic Frontiers sequel/successor

And lastly, because of this strategy, Sega could release a definitive edition for Sonic Frontiers. It’d be like Sonic Adventure 2: Battle where it combines the base game and all dlc to create the best version of the game all on one disc/cartridge. Then all they have to do is throw in extra goodies like maybe the Sonic and Koco plushies and other goodies they made for the Japanese Sonic Frontiers lottery as well as the Frontiers DX and Limited Edition sets. Seeing as we never got a physical Sonic Frontiers Deluxe Edition in America, it’d make sense for this to be their way of giving us one: giving us collectible goodies AND the best version of the game physically. Collectors would go nuts, and Sega likely knows that. I mean, I own Sonic Frontiers Digital Deluxe Edition on Steam. However, I’m also planning on getting a ps5 copy so I own it physically and can play in bed, and a Switch copy so I can play on the go. Not only that, I want to buy an Xbox copy for my little brother. A massive Sonic fan like me would absolutely also buy the Sonic Frontiers Physical Deluxe Edition as well, and I imagine Sega knows that

[rainbowsky]

Hey rainbowsky, idk if you could answer this for me or maybe somebody else but why is there a bad connotation with being called idol? I see this mostly in China compared Korea or Japan but idols in China will try very hard to distance themselves from the word idol and see it as bad, I just wanted to know your thoughts on this. From what I’ve seen idols in Korea and Japan don’t care. Again as far as I’ve seen.

Hi Anon!

Idols tend to be looked down upon everywhere, not just in China.

Yes, it's true that they're massively popular and admired by millions of adoring fans, but only within a narrow group of very young girls. From a mainstream perspective the majority of people would have no clue who these 'massively popular' idols are because they aren't part of daily life in the media they consume.

As entertainers they're usually not taken seriously in the industry when compared with serious actors who went to acting school and perform in serious works, or when compared to other popular figures such as top athletes, musicians, comedians, etc.. They are seen as manufactured marketing products, not serious entertainers.

And this isn't just an 'Asian idol' thing - this is a reality across the globe. Look at how top 40 pop stars are viewed in society vs how well-known actors, comedians, TV hosts, athletes, politicians and other public figures are viewed.

Justin Beiber - as popular and as talented as he is - will never be taken as seriously as film stars like Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman or Michelle Yeoh, or even TV actors like Bob Odenkirk or Peter Dinklage.

There are good reasons to not want to be seen as an idol in the entertainment business or by the public at large:

Idols are broadly viewed as being popular because of their looks and because of the fashion/fad they represent, not because of any special talent, experience or ability.

Idols are viewed as having won some sort of a lottery rather than as having worked hard to earn their notoriety.

Idols will tend to be cast in projects where acting ability isn't a huge factor - projects intended to highlight the idol's looks and appeal to the type of young women who follow idols. The point is to get as much traffic, attention and revenue as possible rather than to create an enduring cinematic masterpiece. Serious opportunities aren't typically given to them.

There is a real shelf life to idols. They tend to be a flash in the pan - people whose careers only last as long as their style is in vogue and as long as their looks are in peak form. They often fly high and fall hard, never to be heard of again. Whereas other popular figures have a longer trajectory to their careers, and often their work spans decades.

Idol fan culture means there is a lot of BS associated with being an idol that most other popular figures don't have to deal with nearly as much - in part because the fan base is so young and less mature, less able to see the seriousness of (or care about the consequences of) their behavior. Stalker fans, toxic fan activity, shipping with everyone they interact with, trying to hack into their private info, installing tracking devices on their cars, harassing family members, wasteful and outrageous consumer behavior, vote-manipulation, fan wars - all of which has serious negative impacts on stars. Especially in China, where stars are held directly accountable for the behavior of their fans.

Idols face bigger career risks than other public figures do. Being seen to be in a relationship, for example, can kill an idol's career moreso than that of a serious actor or musician. They have to maintain a much more 'perfect' image than other public figures do. They come under an incredible amount of scrutiny for people who aren't considered 'serious' entertainers.

Idols are usually very tightly managed and don't tend to have as much control over their careers as other popular figures do, especially if they come out of 'idol search' competition shows. Their contracts are notoriously exploitative and restrictive, and cover every aspect of their public and private lives. Often most of the money they earn goes to their management company.

Idols are restricted not just by their management companies, but also by their fans. Often they are victims of their own success, because their fan bases often have a lot of influence over what they are able to do. For example, DD lost solo fans when he took on The Untamed as a project, because many of them didn't want him appearing in a BL project. GG's popularity means he's had to reel in his often friendly, affectionate behavior around costars because his fans ship him or go to war over it.

There are likely a lot of idols who are perfectly happy in a career as an idol, but most seem to see it as a stepping stone to more serious opportunities. They use the attention they have to get roles that will enable them to transition into a longer, more stable career.

It's true that these extremes are even bigger in China, especially lately, due to the way the government and media have been framing fan culture as corrupting, immoral, wasteful, disruptive, misleading and a massively negative influence on youth.

They've enacted policies that attempt to intentionally place idols at a disadvantage in the entertainment industry there (limitations on which roles idols can play, for example, and limitations on the number of dramas featuring idols that can be made, limitations on behavior and dress in the media that appear to directly target idol fashion/culture, etc.).

The more someone is seen as a 'traffic star' in China, the more restrictions and scrutiny they are put under.

GG and DD both came out of idol groups, and are seen by many as being famous only because of (and only good for) their looks. They have a lot of hard work ahead of them to prove themselves, and to be taken seriously and given more serious opportunities. They appear to be handling that quite well and making great progress, but they still have a ways to go before they'll be accepted broadly as serious public figures with respectable careers that will stand the test of time.

[devoted-to-colin-farrell]

Jamie Lee Curtis: So there’s a redemption. And a reconciliation. And a healing.

Colin Farrell: It’s so beautiful. Because the only two things I know as certainties are, we’re going to die and we’re going to make serious mistakes. Whether we atone for our mistakes.

Throw back - Variety interview with Jamie Lee Curtis and Colin Farrell discussing, acting, sobriety and their Oscar nominated movies - Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Banshees of Inisherin.

Deirdre Beaubeirdre is one of the best characters ever!

Trivia - The appearance of Jamie Lee Curtis's character Deirdre Beaubeirdre is based on a stock photo of an IRS worker. The photo by Mike Simons, captioned, "Kathleen Malone works on tax returns at the Cincinnati Internal Revenue Service Center April 8, 2005 in Covington, Kentucky" shows an IRS worker with an identical hairstyle, yellow turtleneck, light yellow knit vest, glasses and necklaces (IMDB).

Colin Farrell summed up the story as "the disintegration of joy". Padraic starts the movie, "Like he's just won the lottery; he's so happy and content and connected". But by the end, he has turned into "someone who believes there is a place for violence in the world, and that it doesn't even need to be justified... and he can't find any of the joy that he once had in his life".

They were the best two movies from this year’s awards season (2023).