#like. that could be me with the appropriate incentive (baby mode)

[fooltofancy]

if there were a grey calico critter rabbit family please know that i WOULD acquire a tiny one and i WOULD spend the rest of my free time making baby mode gear for it.

[thesevenseraphs]

Bungie Weekly Update - 6/20/19

This week at Bungie, we prepare for Calus’s new challenge.

If you’re reading this at the moment of publication, we’re currently live on the GuardianCon Charity Marathon Stream hosting a Bungie Bounty. We’re being hunted on all three platforms while a menagerie of hosts reads off donations to support a great cause! We have a list of incentives, ranging from releasing the TWAB early to showing off a few Legendary weapon concepts from our upcoming Destiny 2: Shadowkeep release. For more information about the GuardianCon charity stream, make sure to check their website. If you’d like to join the fun on stream, we’ll be live from 1–5 PM PDT (4–8 PM EDT).

Watch live video from GuardianCon on www.twitch.tv

Now, let’s get down to business on your weekly roundup of Destiny- and Bungie-related news.

Challenge Fit for a Guardian

Season of Opulence is full steam ahead. You’ve scoured the depths of the Menagerie, begun your quest for Truth, and taken the Crown of Sorrow. Our next stop on the roadmap begins June 25 with Menagerie Heroic mode.

So, let’s dig in. What does Calus have lined up for our most powerful Guardians?

Increased Power Difficulty: Starts at 750, increases to 770

Matchmaking is disabled; you must form a fireteam to enter

Weekly curated gameplay modifiers, rotating per boss

Unlike normal mode, Guardians can hit a failure state

Extinguish is active; if your team wipes, Calus will send you to orbit

Encounters never repeat; if you fail to reach 100% progress toward the boss after completing each encounter once, you will be returned to orbit

Heroic-mode-specific Triumphs, rewards, and challenges await you

Though we’ll be watching, this won’t be a race. We’re excited to see how players customize their experience with various challenges to show off their skill. Can you defeat Heroic mode with fewer than six players? Maybe with specific loadouts? Only time will tell.

Take Pride

June isn’t the only time when we live our values as a company, but it’s a great opportunity to celebrate them. Here is an important message from the Bungie Diversity Committee on how you can join us in expressing your pride, along with the people who make the games you play.

Pride Month is an exciting time of year, when we can all unite under a rainbow flag and celebrate our LGBTQIA+ family. Bungie has come together this month to do more than we've been able to accomplish before.

We have a Pride pin for sale on our Bungie Store, with all proceeds going directly to the It Gets Better Project (a nonprofit organization with a mission to uplift, empower, and connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth around the globe). This year, not only will Bungie continue its tradition of marching in the Seattle Pride Parade as an official sponsor, but we have also teamed up with other nearby dev studios to create a more united game industry alliance. While we celebrate this month, it’s vital that we stay centered on what Pride is truly about; the equal rights and representation of the LGBTQIA+ community, People who deserve to be celebrated and recognized for their role in making our community as amazing as it is.

“For me, Pride means being able to be visible to someone who needs representation (even when they may not realize it), as opposed to how it used to be where visibility only meant being a target.” —Jayce D., Designer

We on the Bungie Diversity Committee are committed to improving Bungie’s work culture, practices, and policies in order to make this community a more welcoming and inclusive space for our LGBTQIA+ employees and fans around the world. This work does not start and end in June; rather, it’s a series of challenges that we work on every day, month after month. Here at Bungie, we know there are still a lot of ways we could be doing better. We also know that our industry sometimes drags its heels when it comes to necessary change. However, we must keep moving forward for the sake of our own teams, coworkers, families, and players who need to know that they are seen, accepted, welcomed, and loved for exactly who they are.

“One of the most empowering things I’ve experienced is the acknowledgement that I exist in a world that generally pretends otherwise. This was the greatest gift games have ever given me, and one of the most important things I want to do as a developer is give that gift to players.” —David S., Engineer

We look forward to celebrating Pride Month with all of you. Let’s keep our eyes up, and do our part to forge a brighter future. —Bungie Diversity Committee

Please note: If the Pride Collectible Pin shows “Currently Unavailable” on the Bungie Store, this indicates that the item is currently out of stock. We plan to have these available through Pride month, and beyond. If you’re interested in snagging one of these pins, but it’s not available, make sure to click the “Email when available” option on the portal to be notified the moment they’re back in stock!

Preserving the Truth

The members of Destiny Player Support navigate the help forum daily, spreading helpful tips on how to work around issues or collecting data on any newly surfaced problems within Destiny 2. This week, they have some super good advice on how to keep your Truth quest on the right track.

This is their report.

Fall 2019 FAQ Update

This week, we’re making some updates and revisions to our Fall 2019 FAQ. See below for this week’s additions:

Q: What is included with Bungie Store purchases of physical editions of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep?

A: Digital products delivered via email before September 17, 2019: 

Digital code for Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Digital Deluxe Edition with Digital Deluxe Edition in-game bonuses

Digital Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Original Soundtrack

Players who selected and purchased the “No Game Code” option for Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will not receive any codes leading up to the September 17, 2019 release date.

Collector’s Edition exclusive physical collectible bundle contents delivered on or before September 17, 2019:

Collector’s Edition Exclusive In-Game Emblem Code: An exclusive in-game emblem code printed inside the physical collectible bundle.

Hive Cryptoglyph Replica: Follow clues in the Collector’s Edition to unlock the Hive Cryptoglyph and its secret contents. Dimensions: 7.8”L.

Metal Luna Mission Container: A metal Luna mission folio that holds esoteric relics and records. Dimensions: 8.6”L x 5.9”W.

Luna Mission Handbook: Containing 40 pages of schematics and design documents.

Luna Journal: A 160-page journal featuring additional story content that is bound with the mysterious charms and talismans of Eris Morn.

Artifacts from the Golden Age.

Q: When should players expect Destiny 2: Shadowkeep to ship from the Bungie Store?

A: Physical editions of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will ship to players on or before September 17, 2019. Included digital codes will be delivered by email to players on or before September 17, 2019. Players should be aware that Bungie Store codes included with Shadowkeep physical edition purchases will arrive only by email, and that no versions include any codes in the box.

Players who selected and purchased the “No Game Code” option for Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will not receive any codes leading up to the September 17, 2019 release date.

Q: Who should players contact with concerns regarding their Bungie Store physical edition purchase of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep?

A: Customer service concerns related to physical editions ordered from BungieStore.com, to include the delivery of Bungie Store digital product codes, should be directed to orders@bungiestore.com.

Customer service concerns related to physical editions ordered from eu.BungieStore.com, to include the delivery of Bungie Store digital product codes, should be directed to bungiesupport@brandaccess.com.

Additionally, we’ve revised the following questions for clarity in response to player feedback:

Q: Do players need to repurchase Destiny 2 on each cross-save platform separately?

A: Destiny 2 will be accessible to players on all available platforms for free as Destiny 2: New Light.

However, players will need to purchase Destiny 2 expansions (Forsaken, Shadowkeep) for each connected platform in order to access that expansion’s content. Cross save will preserve all gear, character, and items across all platforms regardless of expansion ownership.

Q: Can players merge different characters, items, or Triumphs from different accounts?

A: Cross Save does not feature any form of account, character, or progress merging. Selecting a set of characters for Cross Save does not delete or alter the data of any other character sets. Other character sets will be inaccessible for use as long as Cross Save is active.

Q: Will Stadia feature cross-play with Steam or other platforms?

A: Cross-play will not be available for any platform in 2019. We are investigating this feature for Destiny 2, but we have no official announcements to make at this time.

Destiny 2 Season of Opulence Known Issues

Listed below are the latest player-impacting issues discovered in Season of Opulence:

Not Getting Truth from the Ascendant Chest: We’re investigating an issue where players may not receive Truth after they open the Ascendant Chest if they aren’t on the quest step “Candy from a Baby.” Players should ensure they are on the appropriate quest step before opening this chest.

Refer-a-Friend Linking Issue: We’re investigating an issue where new players can’t accept links from veteran players.

690 Gear for Alternate Characters: We’re investigating an issue where players don’t receive 690 gear on all of their characters after completing “The Invitation” quest.

Vestian Dynasty: We’re aware that Vestian Dynasty is dropping for players after Update 2.2.1.

Rune Bonus II Not Refunding: We’re investigating an issue where players who have this node active in their Chalice of Opulence don’t always receive a rune back when opening the Menagerie chest.

Double Rune Drops: We’re investigating an issue where players receive only one rune when two runes of the same type drop at the end of an activity.

Infamy Points and Bounty Issues: We’re investigating an issue where Gambit Prime “Civic Duty” bounties are not counting toward player Infamy ranks.

Crystals in Eater of Worlds and Crossroad Public Event: We’re investigating an issue where these crystals don’t transition correctly and it becomes difficult to shoot them.

Raid Witches Vessel Swappers Not Spawning: We are investigating an issue where the swappers do not spawn during flawless runs of the Crown of Sorrow raid, resulting in players being unable to complete the flawless run.

Static Shock Emote: We’re investigating an issue where players have a hard time interacting with this emote prompt.

Sturm and Drang Audio: We are investigating an issue where Sturm plays the reload audio on every kill when paired with Drang or Drang (Baroque), even when Drang’s magazine is full.

[orbemnews]

They Say Capitalism Is Over. Want to Buy a Piece? When Jack Carlson wears his mom’s old green Lehman Brothers sweatshirt around New York City, people try to buy it off his back. “People will just come up to me and offer me money for it in restaurants,” said Mr. Carlson, 33, the founder of the clothing company Rowing Blazers, which sells a contemporary version of the so-called banker bag, a Wall Street accessory that dates to 1978. Branded merchandise of defunct investment banks that were key architects of the financial crisis in 2008: officially hot, if in an arch, allusive way. Buying and selling products associated with the crash has become, paradoxically, a thriving niche market. So too has memorabilia associated with other disasters in recent financial history, like the dot-com bubble and the Enron scandal. In a Bloomberg article in which financial experts described how they would personally invest or spend $1 million, Akshay Shah, the founder of the investment firm Kyma Capital, said, “When businesses go bust, they leave behind reminders of corporate power and the effects of time.” eBay sellers, he noted, have scooped up branded items and then offer them for sale “at a pretty substantial multiple after a suitable passage of time — like the $500 Lehman sticky notes.” (Sounding a note of caution, Mr. Shah said, “The key to success here would be volume of products and being patient.”) These days, however, there are also more affordable items on hand, a Lehman Brothers-branded baby bib ($59.59 on eBay) and an emergency evacuation kit ($98.99). A Shearson Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. certificate dated to 1987 will set you back $295, however — even though the stock it once represented is worth nothing. And an Enron “Conduct of Business Affairs Booklet” is on sale for $395 on the “stock market gifts and collectibles” website Wall Street Treasures. “I’ve been selling a lot of Enron memorabilia lately,” said Scott Davidson, 38, an accountant and financial planner who runs Wall Street Treasures, and has been selling finance-related memorabilia through various channels for nine years. “There’s a lot of appetite. Everyone loves a good scandal.” Among the current items Mr. Davidson has in stock is a framed promotional piece that displays a “Most Innovative Company” Award that went to Enron four years in a row. It’s now on sale for $1,495. “Of course, the only innovative thing about them was their accounting scheme,” he said. “The innovation was the fraud.” In a disorienting boomerang of value, a once-valuable stock certificate becomes totally worthless, and then, in an afterlife as a collector’s item, becomes more valuable than it was before. Why, one might ask, is anyone buying this stuff? Financial scandals and crises, which left millions impoverished, might seem like odd fodder for office décor or workout sweatshirts. “I think it partly has to do with collective identity,” Mr. Davidson said. “So many people owned a piece of Enron at one time, through their mutual funds. Everyone knew the story.” Personal identity is part of it, too; he often gets contacted by former employees of defunct companies looking for souvenirs of their time there. The popularity of these cultural artifacts has led to a whole subgenre of new offshoots and homages, like Rowing Blazers’ banker bag. There are two versions, emblazoned with “Duke&Duke Commodities Brokers” or “Pierce&Pierce Mergers and Acquisitions” — both fictional firms from movies. To produce it, Mr. Carlson worked with Warden Brooks, the company founded by Joan Killian Gallagher that made the original canvas bag in 1978, which came to telegraph “New York finance” in the 1980s and 1990s. “It has been a staple for interns, IB conferences, special events, elite clubs, associations, university and prep school reunions, off-site meetings, corporate programs and incentive groups,” Warden Brooks’s website proclaims. The Rowing Blazers version ($135) is one of the company’s most popular items. “The banker bag is such a polarizing object,” Mr. Carlson said. “For some people it’s this really important status symbol, and for others it’s kind of a symbol of everything that went wrong.” Rowing Blazers also makes a yellow hat ($48) that reads “FINANCE,” in black letters — which is, he said, the best-selling object on the site. Sometimes people wearing FINANCE hats are simply people who work in finance and think finance is cool, Mr. Carlson said. But perhaps more often it’s an ironic gesture. “The people who are buying the hat, or the banker bag, are not necessarily people who are idolizing these extinct financial institutions,” he said. “There’s almost like a sense of appropriation or a sense of empowerment that comes along with it.” (Someone who works in finance did once email Mr. Carlson to accuse him of appropriating financial culture, he said.) The popularity of these items has surprised him. “I really did not expect this to take off like that,” he said. “It’s so bizarre.” Occasionally Mr. Carlson will sell vintage items, like a knitted Merrill Lynch sweater emblazoned with bulls that went for $300 to $400, but they go out of stock very quickly. This buying and selling of finance-adjacent memorabilia is a cousin of scripophily, the collecting of stock certificates: a niche hobby among, mostly, financial professionals and history buffs. Paper stock and bond certificates, which are being phased out of circulation, are often highly decorative. Bob Kerstein, 68, founded scripophily.com, the primary website for buying and selling stock and bond certificates, in 1996. He now has roughly 14,000 of them on the website, ranging from stock certificates for 19th-century mining companies to Ask Jeeves stock issued in 2001, with Jeeves himself on the top. “The financial crisis is one of our biggest sellers right now,” Mr. Kerstein said. “We have mortgage obligation bonds on our website, and people like those a lot, because that was really the starting point of the Great Recession.” When he first started, he said, collectors were most interested in the older certificates but now, “railroads are deader than a doorknob,” he said. “Modern certificates are more popular.” Other popular items include Trump-branded stock certificates, and those for defunct dot-com companies. Even the names of companies, like MP3.com and Fashionmall.com, can instantly conjure stories about the overspeculation that happened in the heyday of the early web, when it seemed like almost everyone with a website could find investors. “Having one of these on the wall in your office can be a reminder that in the stock market you can make a lot of money, but you can lose a lot too,” Mr. Kerstein said. The idea that objects can impute lessons about the follies of money management is not a new one. William Goetzmann, a professor at the Yale School of Management, is the co-author of the book “The Great Mirror of Folly: Finance, Culture, and the Crash of 1720,” inspired partly by memorabilia of the first great stock market crash. This crash, popularly known as the South Sea Bubble, inspired a range of scrapbooks and satirical drawings that pointed to the absurdities of speculating. Playing cards even emerged out of this crash printed with satirical drawings; people may well have gambled with cards that poked fun at the feverish atmosphere of trading and speculating that led to the crash. “Saving the artifacts from stock market crises is about more than just saying, ‘We want something to remember it,’” Mr. Goetzmann said. “It’s about having something that you can use ironically or satirically to force yourself to realize that human behavior can lead to these crises.” This seems to be part of what’s at work in the obsession with Lehman Brothers and Enron memorabilia — not just memorializing scandals or crises, but also processing them through irony. Sometimes that means buying and selling in a mode of speculation that mimics the very thing you’re mocking. Or, sometimes it’s simpler than that. As Mr. Davidson said, “What else are you going to get your financial adviser?” Source link #buy #Capitalism #piece

[orbemnews]

They Say Capitalism Is Over. Want to Buy a Piece? When Jack Carlson wears his mom’s old green Lehman Brothers sweatshirt around New York City, people try to buy it off his back. “People will just come up to me and offer me money for it in restaurants,” said Mr. Carlson, 33, the founder of the clothing company Rowing Blazers, which sells a contemporary version of the so-called banker bag, a Wall Street accessory that dates to 1978. Branded merchandise of defunct investment banks that were key architects of the financial crisis in 2008: officially hot, if in an arch, allusive way. Buying and selling products associated with the crash has become, paradoxically, a thriving niche market. So too has memorabilia associated with other disasters in recent financial history, like the dot-com bubble and the Enron scandal. In a Bloomberg article in which financial experts described how they would personally invest or spend $1 million, Akshay Shah, the founder of the investment firm Kyma Capital, said, “When businesses go bust, they leave behind reminders of corporate power and the effects of time.” eBay sellers, he noted, have scooped up branded items and then offer them for sale “at a pretty substantial multiple after a suitable passage of time — like the $500 Lehman sticky notes.” (Sounding a note of caution, Mr. Shah said, “The key to success here would be volume of products and being patient.”) These days, however, there are also more affordable items on hand, a Lehman Brothers-branded baby bib ($59.59 on eBay) and an emergency evacuation kit ($98.99). A Shearson Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. certificate dated to 1987 will set you back $295, however — even though the stock it once represented is worth nothing. And an Enron “Conduct of Business Affairs Booklet” is on sale for $395 on the “stock market gifts and collectibles” website Wall Street Treasures. “I’ve been selling a lot of Enron memorabilia lately,” said Scott Davidson, 38, an accountant and financial planner who runs Wall Street Treasures, and has been selling finance-related memorabilia through various channels for nine years. “There’s a lot of appetite. Everyone loves a good scandal.” Among the current items Mr. Davidson has in stock is a framed promotional piece that displays a “Most Innovative Company” Award that went to Enron four years in a row. It’s now on sale for $1,495. “Of course, the only innovative thing about them was their accounting scheme,” he said. “The innovation was the fraud.” In a disorienting boomerang of value, a once-valuable stock certificate becomes totally worthless, and then, in an afterlife as a collector’s item, becomes more valuable than it was before. Why, one might ask, is anyone buying this stuff? Financial scandals and crises, which left millions impoverished, might seem like odd fodder for office décor or workout sweatshirts. “I think it partly has to do with collective identity,” Mr. Davidson said. “So many people owned a piece of Enron at one time, through their mutual funds. Everyone knew the story.” Personal identity is part of it, too; he often gets contacted by former employees of defunct companies looking for souvenirs of their time there. The popularity of these cultural artifacts has led to a whole subgenre of new offshoots and homages, like Rowing Blazers’ banker bag. There are two versions, emblazoned with “Duke&Duke Commodities Brokers” or “Pierce&Pierce Mergers and Acquisitions” — both fictional firms from movies. To produce it, Mr. Carlson worked with Warden Brooks, the company founded by Joan Killian Gallagher that made the original canvas bag in 1978, which came to telegraph “New York finance” in the 1980s and 1990s. “It has been a staple for interns, IB conferences, special events, elite clubs, associations, university and prep school reunions, off-site meetings, corporate programs and incentive groups,” Warden Brooks’s website proclaims. The Rowing Blazers version ($135) is one of the company’s most popular items. “The banker bag is such a polarizing object,” Mr. Carlson said. “For some people it’s this really important status symbol, and for others it’s kind of a symbol of everything that went wrong.” Rowing Blazers also makes a yellow hat ($48) that reads “FINANCE,” in black letters — which is, he said, the best-selling object on the site. Sometimes people wearing FINANCE hats are simply people who work in finance and think finance is cool, Mr. Carlson said. But perhaps more often it’s an ironic gesture. “The people who are buying the hat, or the banker bag, are not necessarily people who are idolizing these extinct financial institutions,” he said. “There’s almost like a sense of appropriation or a sense of empowerment that comes along with it.” (Someone who works in finance did once email Mr. Carlson to accuse him of appropriating financial culture, he said.) The popularity of these items has surprised him. “I really did not expect this to take off like that,” he said. “It’s so bizarre.” Occasionally Mr. Carlson will sell vintage items, like a knitted Merrill Lynch sweater emblazoned with bulls that went for $300 to $400, but they go out of stock very quickly. This buying and selling of finance-adjacent memorabilia is a cousin of scripophily, the collecting of stock certificates: a niche hobby among, mostly, financial professionals and history buffs. Paper stock and bond certificates, which are being phased out of circulation, are often highly decorative. Bob Kerstein, 68, founded scripophily.com, the primary website for buying and selling stock and bond certificates, in 1996. He now has roughly 14,000 of them on the website, ranging from stock certificates for 19th-century mining companies to Ask Jeeves stock issued in 2001, with Jeeves himself on the top. “The financial crisis is one of our biggest sellers right now,” Mr. Kerstein said. “We have mortgage obligation bonds on our website, and people like those a lot, because that was really the starting point of the Great Recession.” When he first started, he said, collectors were most interested in the older certificates but now, “railroads are deader than a doorknob,” he said. “Modern certificates are more popular.” Other popular items include Trump-branded stock certificates, and those for defunct dot-com companies. Even the names of companies, like MP3.com and Fashionmall.com, can instantly conjure stories about the overspeculation that happened in the heyday of the early web, when it seemed like almost everyone with a website could find investors. “Having one of these on the wall in your office can be a reminder that in the stock market you can make a lot of money, but you can lose a lot too,” Mr. Kerstein said. The idea that objects can impute lessons about the follies of money management is not a new one. William Goetzmann, a professor at the Yale School of Management, is the co-author of the book “The Great Mirror of Folly: Finance, Culture, and the Crash of 1720,” inspired partly by memorabilia of the first great stock market crash. This crash, popularly known as the South Sea Bubble, inspired a range of scrapbooks and satirical drawings that pointed to the absurdities of speculating. Playing cards even emerged out of this crash printed with satirical drawings; people may well have gambled with cards that poked fun at the feverish atmosphere of trading and speculating that led to the crash. “Saving the artifacts from stock market crises is about more than just saying, ‘We want something to remember it,’” Mr. Goetzmann said. “It’s about having something that you can use ironically or satirically to force yourself to realize that human behavior can lead to these crises.” This seems to be part of what’s at work in the obsession with Lehman Brothers and Enron memorabilia — not just memorializing scandals or crises, but also processing them through irony. Sometimes that means buying and selling in a mode of speculation that mimics the very thing you’re mocking. Or, sometimes it’s simpler than that. As Mr. Davidson said, “What else are you going to get your financial adviser?” Source link #buy #Capitalism #piece