#with my discount its like 25 dollars...

[bunnymerchandise]

Jellycat Arlo Hare

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Podcasting "Microincentives and Enshittification"

Tomorrow (Oct 25) at 10hPT/18hUK, I'm livestreaming an event called "Seizing the Means of Computation" for the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

This week on my podcast, I read my recent Medium column, "Microincentives and Enshittification," about the way that monopoly drives mediocrity, with Google's declining quality as Exhibit A:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

It's not your imagination: Google used to be better – in every way. Search used to be better, sure, but Google used to be better as a company. It treated its workers better (for example, not laying off 12,000 workers months after a stock buyback that would have paid their salaries for the next 27 years). It had its users' backs in policy fights – standing up for Net Neutrality and the right to use encryption to keep your private data private. Even when the company made ghastly mistakes, it repented of them and reversed them, like the time it pulled out of China after it learned that Chinese state hackers had broken into Gmail in order to discover which dissidents to round up and imprison.

None of this is to say that Google used to be perfect, or even, most of the time, good. Just that things got worse. To understand why, we have to think about how decisions get made in large organizations, or, more to the point, how arguments get resolved in these organizations.

We give Google a lot of shit for its "Don't Be Evil" motto, but it's worth thinking through what that meant for the organization's outcomes over the years. Through most of Google's history, the tech labor market was incredibly tight, and skilled engineers and other technical people had a lot of choice as to where they worked. "Don't Be Evil" motivated some – many – of those workers to take a job at Google, rather than one of its rivals.

Within Google, that meant that decisions that could colorably be accused of being "evil" would face some internal pushback. Imagine a product design meeting where one faction proposes something that is bad for users, but good for the company's bottom line. Think of another faction that says, "But if we do that, we'll be 'evil.'"

I think it's safe to assume that in any high-stakes version of this argument, the profit side will prevail over the don't be evil side. Money talks and bullshit walks. But what if there were also monetary costs to being evil? Like, what if Google has to worry about users or business customers defecting to a rival? Or what if there's a credible reason to worry that a regulator will fine Google, or Congress will slap around some executives at a televised hearing?

That lets the no-evil side field a more robust counterargument: "Doing that would be evil, and we'll lose money, or face a whopping fine, or suffer reputational harms." Even if these downsides are potentially smaller than the upsides, they still help the no-evil side win the argument. That's doubly true if the downsides could depress the company's share-price, because Googlers themselves are disproportionately likely to hold Google stock, since tech companies are able to get a discount on their wage-bills by paying employees in abundant stock they print for free, rather than the scarce dollars that only come through hard graft.

When the share-price is on the line, the counterargument goes, "That would be evil, we will lose money, and you will personally be much poorer as a result." Again, this isn't dispositive – it won't win every argument – but it is influential. A counterargument that braids together ideology, institutional imperatives, and personal material consequences is pretty robust.

Which is where monopoly comes in. When companies grow to dominate their industries, they are less subject to all forms of discipline. Monopolists don't have to worry about losing disgusted employees, because they exert so much gravity on the labor market that they find it easy to replace them.

They don't have to worry about losing customers, because they have eliminated credible alternatives. They don't have to worry about losing users, because rivals steer clear of their core business out of fear of being bigfooted through exclusive distribution deals, predatory pricing, etc. Investors have a name for the parts of the industry dominated by Big Tech: they call it "the kill zone" and they won't back companies seeking to enter it.

When companies dominate their industries, they find it easier to capture their regulators and outspend public prosecutors who hope to hold them to account. When they lose regulatory fights, they can fund endless appeals. If they lose those appeals, they can still afford the fines, especially if they can use an army of lawyers to make sure that the fine is less than the profit realized through the bad conduct. A fine is a price.

In other words, the more dominant a company is, the harder it is for the good people within the company to win arguments about unethical and harmful proposals, and the worse the company gets. The internal culture of the company changes, and its products and services decline, but meaningful alternatives remain scarce or nonexistent.

Back to Google. Google owns more than 90% of the search market. Google can't grow by adding more Search users. The 10% of non-Google searchers are extremely familiar with Google's actions. To switch to a rival search engine, they have had to take many affirmative, technically complex steps to override the defaults in their devices and tools. It's not like an ad extolling the virtues of Google Search will bring in new customers.

Having saturated the search market, Google can only increase its Search revenues by shifting value from searchers or web publishers to itself – that is, the only path to Search growth is enshittification. They have to make things worse for end users or business customers in order to make things better for themselves:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

This means that each executive in the Search division is forever seeking out ways to shift value to Google and away from searchers and/or publishers. When they propose a enshittificatory tactic, Google's market dominance makes it easy for them to win arguments with their teammates: "this may make you feel ashamed for making our product worse, but it will not make me poorer, it will not make the company poorer, and it won't chase off business customers or end users, therefore, we're gonna do it. Fuck your feelings."

After all, each microenshittification represents only a single Jenga block removed from the gigantic tower that is Google Search. No big deal. Some Google exec made the call to make it easier for merchants to buy space overtop searches for their rivals. That's not necessarily a bad thing: "Thinking of taking a vacation in Florida? Why not try Puerto Rico – it's a US-based Caribbean vacation without the transphobia and racism!"

But this kind of advertising also opens up lots of avenues for fraud. Scammers clone local restaurants' websites, jack up their prices by 15%, take your order, and transmit it to the real restaurant, pocketing the 15%. They get clicks by using some of that rake to buy an ad based on searches for the restaurant's name, so they show up overtop of it and rip off inattentive users:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

This is something Google could head off; they already verify local merchants by mailing them postcards with unique passwords that they key into a web-form. They could ban ads for websites that clone existing known merchants, but that would incur costs (engineer time) and reduce profits, both from scammers and from legit websites that trip a false positive.

The decision to sell this kind of ad, configured this way, is a direct shift of value from business customers (restaurants) and end-users (searchers) to Google. Not only that, but it's negative sum. The money Google gets from this tradeoff is less than the cost to both the restaurant (loss of goodwill from regulars who are affronted because of a sudden price rise) and searchers (who lose 15% on their dinner orders). This trade-off makes everyone except Google worse off, and it's only possible when Google is the only game in town.

It's also small potatoes. Last summer, scammers figured out how to switch out the toll-free numbers that Google displayed for every airline, redirecting people to boiler-rooms where con-artists collected their credit-card numbers and sensitive personal information (passports, etc):

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/phone-numbers-airlines-listed-google-directed-scammers-rcna94766

Here again, we see a series of small compromises that lead to a massive harm. Google decided to show users 800 numbers rather than links to the airlines' websites, but failed to fortify the process for assigning phone numbers to prevent this absolutely foreseeable type of fraud. It's not that Google wanted to enable fraud – it's that they created the conditions for the fraud to occur and failed to devote the resources necessary to defend against it.

Each of these compromises indicates a belief among Google decision-makers that the consequences for making their product worse will be outweighed by the value the company will generate by exposing us to harm. One reason for this belief is on display in the DOJ's antitrust case against Google:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1328941/download

The case accuses Google of spending tens of billions of dollars to buy out the default search position on every platform where an internet user might conceivably perform a search. The company is lighting multiple Twitters worth of dollars on fire to keep you from ever trying another search engine.

Spraying all those dollars around doesn't just keep you from discovering a better search engine – it also prevents investors from funding that search engine in the first place. Why fund a startup in the kill-zone if no one will ever discover that it exists?

https://www.theverge.com/23802382/search-engine-google-neeva-android

Of course, Google doesn't have to grow Search to grow its revenue. Hypothetically, Google could pursue new lines of business and grow that way. This is a tried-and-true strategy for tech giants: Apple figured out how to outsource its manufacturing to the Pacific Rim; Amazon created a cloud service, Microsoft figured out how to transform itself into a cloud business.

Look hard at these success stories and you discover another reason that Google – and other large companies – struggle to grow by moving into adjacent lines of business. In each case – Apple, Microsoft, Amazon – the exec who led the charge into the new line of business became the company's next CEO.

In other words: if you are an exec at a large firm and one of your rivals successfully expands the business into a new line, they become the CEO – and you don't. That ripples out within the whole org-chart: every VP who becomes an SVP, every SVP who becomes an EVP, and every EVP who becomes a president occupies a scarce spot that it worth millions of dollars to the people who lost it.

The one thing that execs reliably collaborate on is knifing their ambitious rivals in the back. They may not agree on much, but they all agree that that guy shouldn't be in charge of this lucrative new line of business.

This "curse of bigness" is why major shifts in big companies are often attended by the return of the founder – think of Gates going back to Microsoft or Brin returning to Google to oversee their AI projects. They are the only execs that other execs can't knife in the back.

This is the real "innovator's dilemma." The internal politics of large companies make Machiavelli look like an optimist.

When your company attains a certain scale, any exec's most important rival isn't the company's competitor – it's other execs at the same company. Their success is your failure, and vice-versa.

This makes the business of removing Jenga blocks from products like Search even more fraught. These quality-degrading, profit-goosing tactics aren't coordinated among the business's princelings. When you're eating your seed-corn, you do so in private. This secrecy means that it's hard for different product-degradation strategists to realize that they are removing safeguards that someone else is relying on, or that they're adding stress to a safety measure that someone else just doubled the load on.

It's not just Google, either. All of tech is undergoing a Great Enshittening, and that's due to how intertwined all these tech companies. Think of how Google shifts value from app makers to itself, with a 30% rake on every dollar spent in an app. Google is half of the mobile duopoly, with the other half owned by Apple. But they're not competitors – they're co-managers of a cartel. The single largest deal that Google or Apple does every year is the bribe Google pays Apple to be the default search for iOS and Safari – $15-20b, every year.

If Apple and Google were mobile competitors, you'd expect them to differentiate their products, but instead, they've converged – both Apple and Google charge sky-high 30% payment processing fees to app makers.

Same goes for Google/Facebook, the adtech duopoly: not only do both companies charge advertisers and publishers sky-high commissions, clawing 51 cents out of every ad dollar, but they also illegally colluded to rig the market and pay themselves more, at advertisers' and publishers' expense:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

It's not just tech, either – every sector from athletic shoes to international sea-freight is concentrated into anti-competitive, value-annihilating cartels and monopolies:

https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers

As our friends on the right are forever reminding us: "incentives matter." When a company runs out of lands to conquer, the incentives all run one direction: downhill, into a pit of enshittification. Google got worse, not because the people in it are worse (or better) than they were before – but because the constraints that discipline the company and contain its worst impulses got weaker as the company got bigger.

Here's the podcast episode:

https://craphound.com/news/2023/10/23/microincentives-and-enshittification/

And here's a direct link to the MP3 (hosting courtesy of the Internet Archive; they'll host your stuff for free, forever):

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_452/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_452_-_Microincentives_and_Enshittification.mp3

And here's my podcast's RSS feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

[humming-tranquility]

You know what? Ima open up comms! Adopt batches and updates should still come out regularly just not as commonly!

PM me with what exactly you’d like drawn as long as it’s rainworld based! Any creature, including ancients! Below will be my pricing, I can take descriptions or images. Please do not pay me till after completion/ half upon sketch.

Only sketch: $2

Lineart only: $5

Colour: $10

Added shading / lighting: +$3

It’s an ancient: +$4

Simple background: +$6

Complex / with wildlife background: +$10

Every new character in an image will be 50 percent less than its original pricing, so a coloured, shaded scene with two characters would be not 26 dollars but $19.50, it will keep a consistent 50 percent on any extra characters. Those who have bought with money, an adopt from me before will have a discount of 25% for each purchased adopt. Can be stacked up for one commission or used for multiple.

[thathomestar]

The 3 main things wrong with Destiny 2 right now

I've been enjoying my return to Destiny 2, but this has mostly been carried by the sublime gameplay. Most other aspects of the game are in desperate need of refinement, but these three are the major problems that are truly keeping the game bogged down in mediocrity.

Complete lack of narrative cohesion

It's no secret that "sunsetting" was one of the worst possible decisions Bungie could have made for Destiny 2. Removing whole swaths of the game that people paid real cash money is obviously awful, but the knock-on effects of this have been somewhat dire, primarily the fact that you can no longer experience a fairly important chunk of Destiny 2's story within the game itself.

New players starting Destiny 2 for the first time right now have no real entry point to the story. They get the New Light tutorial quests, which are terrible at introducing the world compared to how it was done in Destiny 1. If they bought the DLC, the earliest campaign they can play is Shadowkeep, one of the weakest stories in the game's history and one that makes no sense to new players. Not to mention that the seasonal story model, where you buy a battle pass every three months to access the new story content, locks out the story after the season is over. If you missed the big story moment from a past season, it's fucking gone forever! Fuck you!

There's not even an in-game cutscene viewer or a bare-bones written summary of the events that have transpired. There's an in-game timeline, sure, but it only gives you a sentence or two about the general events of a given DLC's story. It's basically nothing. Do you seriously expect people trying to understand the basic story of the game to go watch hours of Youtube videos to catch up? That's complete horseshit.

Confusing and aggravating pricing model

Some Destiny Youtubers have been stirring the pot recently about microtransactions, and this is not really about that. I'm talking about straight up purchasing the game. A recent change Bungie has made is a Legacy Collection, which bundles all the previous available campaigns together in a single pack. This is good! Why are they still available to purchase separately from the bundle? Like seriously, look at this store page:

This is a whole bunch of redundancy, and it only serves muddy the waters. "This is so people who have some of the DLC don't have to rebuy the ones they already own when they buy the bundle" that's stupid. There's two solutions to this: either A) have the bundle recognize which DLCs you own and offer a discount based on that (this is possible to do on Steam already), or B) just lower the price of the whole bundle to the price of the latest included expansion (which is Witch Queen, so $30) so people won't feel that bad about rebuying something they own. The latter is what FFXIV does. Buying the latest expansion gets you all the ones that came before it bundled in for $40. Easy. Makes sense.

Then we have the Forsaken Pack and 30th Pack. The Forsaken Pack should just be included in the free to play portion of the game. The fact that they culled Forsaken from the game but still charge money for that content is insulting, though the 30th Pack is arguably worse. $25 for a single dungeon and a single exotic weapon. For the record, dungeon keys, which give you access to two dungeons, is $20. A complete slap in the nuts ripoff.

Speaking of dungeon keys, the fact that dungeon keys have to be bought separately from its corresponding expansion is moronic. Regardless of the reasons Bungie does what it does with dungeon keys (or excuses people come up with for it), it ends up feeling like squeezing people for every dollar they have.

I know at the end of the day, Bungie is a business, and they need money to pay their staff and survive as a studio, but they really need to give some thought into how people actually purchase their game, the process they go through, what they see and encounter along the way, because for a lot of people it's really, really off-putting.

Lack of meaningful player interaction

So Destiny's whole thing is that it's an MMO, right? At the very least, it takes a lot of elements from more traditional MMO games. Something it does not do very well is get people to actually mingle with each other in a meaningful way.

When I play FFXIV, I can strike up a conversation with people hanging out in the main cities if I so desire. There will be people willing to engage in some small talk at the very least. You might tell someone you think their character looks cool, you emote at each other, maybe even add each other to your friends list. You basically cannot do this in Destiny. Text chat might as well not exist with how little I see people use it, and almost nobody opts in to voice chat during activities. People occasionally emote at each other in the Tower or in the field, and that's about it. I've made friends with random people playing FFXIV. I have not made friends with anyone playing Destiny.

Destiny also lacks a proper Group Finder feature common in most other MMO games. They've toyed around with adding matchmaking to raids, but that feature has been in Beta™ for roughly 7 years, so it's safe to say it's never going to properly get off the ground anytime soon. People trying to find pick-up groups for harder content have to use external sites (or know a guy who knows a guy, which is how I've gotten through most of D2's raids).

They have taken a small step in the right direction with player commendations, where you can rate whether people on your fireteam were fun to play with, were a stout ally, or fashionably dressed. This is good! But they really need to make it easier to communicate and form groups outside of matchmaking from within the game to truly take a big step forward.

just about the most interaction i ever managed to get in the tower

To summarize, you can't experience a large portion of Destiny 2's story within the game, trying to buy the game itself is convoluted and the pricing structure is all over the place (and kind of high in my opinion), and for an always-online MMO-style game, it's challenging to find groups or even make friends with other players. Destiny 2 feels like a game that is in desperate need of some true backend maintenance and development, but that kind of work doesn't translate into profit, so it is heavily minimized.

A player starting for the first time right now is not going to know who Cayde-6 is outside of a couple of references. He has been effectively excised from the game. Why should they care about his return in The Final Shape?

[mj1343]

Half Life has rewired my brain

Half Life's 25th has completely shattered the notion that these games are just a fun interest i have and enjoy 100%ing and has proven its a full on hyperfixation. The energy has been steadily building ever since the announcement a few days ago, and now that its the 19th, i feel like im going insane. These games mean SO much. Theyre so interesting. The characters are so fun. The expanded world is so neat. I too have felt the pain of Half Life's cliffhanger.

This anniversary update feels fake. This is so much more than i expected. Of course theyd celebrate their big hitter turning 25, but a whole update to the original game? Thats so much MORE. They made Uplink easily accessible! People can play Uplink whenever they want now! They added new MULTIPLAYER MAPS?? They updated the game for new systems and the Steam Deck so more people can play it! (And theyre phasing out HL:Source as the 'main' version and hiding its visibility on steam, LMAO)

These images feel fake. But theyre real! And it feels incredible! I never thought id see the day.

Starting about a year ago i went on a quest to 100% every Half Life game and mod that existed and had steam achievements. I love 100%ing games, and Half Life seemed like an easy answer. And the games just.. grew on me. I was already a fan of Portal, and i had played the full HL series for the first time in one big sitting a few years before. But this made me dive DEEP into the series. and i LOVE it. it makes me go crazy. Ive put so much time into these games. I got The One Free Bullet in HL2E1 on my first playthrough. I did the Gnome run in HL2E2. I started a Gnome run in Alyx as my first playthrough (although i havent played that in a while, VR is exhausting, but i want to get back to it so i can play the other VR mods) I got the Hat AND Pizza achievement at the SAME TIME in Black Mesa. Ive 100%'d Portal and Portal 2's challenge chambers, Entropy Zero and 2 on hard, all sorts of things. These games have grabbed me. My profile is dedicated to displaying the hardest HL achievements i have. and im so happy to have this one on display now too. To honor this silly, wonderful series.

(if you dont know what that is, go to the Half Life 25th anniversary webpage and click on the crowbar at the bottom. Enjoy.)

This game has done irreversible changes to my brain and today feels more important than a national holiday right now. Im buzzing. Im so excited about HALF LIFE !!

(Also, the full Half Life collection is extremely discounted until tomorrow, November 20th, with each game being LESS THAN A DOLLAR EACH, and if you have VR, HL Alyx is only 20$ from its usual 60$, AND THE ORIGINAL HALF LIFE IS COMPLETELY FREE!! Even if you dont care about this series and dont wanna spend like, 5$ on the full series, you can get a FREE video game before it expires tomorrow. Free things are free!)

[buggybuggs]

Fresh New Commission Sheet!

As I've been drawing more, I've decided to make some updates to what I offer commission wise!

i use PayPal and Ko-Fi for payment :) all prices are in USD!

Click below for more information!

Hey! Glad you clicked!!

The main difference between this comm sheet and my previous one is updating the prices, simplifying my finishing process, and to showcase more of what I can do with my art!!

Got the norm base prices - 20$ headshot, 25$ halfbody, 30$fullbody

Finishing is my term for shading, as I have two shading methods, and a wiggly-line style of art!

Examples below of Style 1 (smooth) 2 (pixel) and 3 (wiggle)

And I do offer discounts for symmetrical works! I didn't write it on my sheet but its usually 5 bucks, whatever makes the number look good.

Now for the 4 featured things -

Yes, I do have an 18 + account, i'm not linking it here but it shouldn't be too hard to search for my 2nd account on this blog

I'm also happy doing taur designs! I can even make them of usual non-taur creatures!

Nonfurry designs are cool too as you can see by my monster girls, here's a human though for good measure (her name is Sam)

And animations!!! I can do smooth Live2d Animations and also frame by frame animations!! Double the price of the usual commission for what it'll cost, so 40 for headshots, 50 for halfbodies, and 60 for full!

And not listed on the sheet.. Ref Sheets!

The base is 50 bucks for the fullbody and your choice of focus shots, and for 5 dollars each you can get a symmetrical outfit doodle added in!

Other than all that, if you see anything I post and want something like that with your characters, feel free to send it over to me!! Whether its a big OC lineup or some specific pose i did before, just let me know!

That's about it though! Here's my TOS below, and feel free to DM me if you have any questions!

I usually give updates for 1-2 sketch phases, a color phase, and then the finished piece. Once I send you one update, I'll wait for your approval before moving onto the next phase. During these updates, any requested changes should coincide with the stage of the artwork (Posing during sketching, color changes during colors, etc.). Please don't have any fear however if you do need to make a last minute change, just keep it reasonable please. I usually add filters onto my art, I'll be more than happy to send unfiltered alternate versions upon request. Feel free to also personally request different filtered looks (Making the piece pastel, adding a static filter, giving the piece a pride flag overlay, etc.) I'm always happy to experiment. When commissioning an animation, please let me know whether you'd like a smoothly made animation using Live2D or a frame-swap animation. Feel free to ask for examples, but just note that these you'll need to pick one or the other Feel free to message me here or on Discord (Mel#4367) for any questions, or if there's something you'd like that isn't listed here [By commissioning me, you agree that your commissioned piece will not be used for AI art, any cryptocurrency related means, or reused/resold for more than you paid.]

[smallerplaces]

Mama wants a new pair of knees!

Kylie meets her body donor. In this dystopian society, the penalty for having a great body but a boring face is to have your body taken for the use of dolls with more personality.

This morning I got up early to get my one time-sensitive project done before Target opened, then hied myself to the sole Target within a 30-mile radius that still had Black MTM at $16.99. With my 25% Target Circle discount, that's $12.75, which is more than I paid for Kylie. But Kylie's hair-oxidation issue had left me in an intense mood of You Will Become the Doll I Want You to Be.

Kylie came with me in my purse, to do the skin tone match. It's not perfect, but it's the best I'm going to do. I wasn't worried about being mistaken for a shoplifter, as Target never sold Simply Fresh (it was a collab with Family Dollar) and this Target doesn't carry The Fresh Dolls (the non-discount version) either.

Kylie is a much bigger girl, all over, including her head. She also seems to be wearing her bust higher.

While i like the idea of different Barbie body types (petite, tall, curvy), in practice it's been frustrating because of the lack of fashion packs for non-standard sizes. I'm not as sorry as I probably should be that post-body transplant, Kylie will be able to dig into my existing stock of Barbie fashions. (I'm also not a small girl with puberty ahead of me, so the body diversity, or lack of it, in my four adult Barbie-esque dolls isn't going to have much impact on anyone.)

So I boiled a big bowl of water, intending to use the steam to soften the heads. This intention lasted just as long as it took me to get MTM's pony tail wet. (Her hair quality, btw, is greasy and lank. WTH, Mattel?)

MTM's head came off fairly easily, despite the spike. Kylie's head was another matter. The one thing this line did thoroughly was make sure the doll's head will not come off during energetic play. I had to dunk her four times and squeeze a lot, before the head agonizingly peeled off its knob.

Getting heads back on was easier.

And it's done! After the moments of terror that Kylie's head would never come off, it seems unreal.

Both gals are drying upstairs, and Kylie got a hair masque treatment. MTM will go in the donation bag when she's dry.

Kylie has gone from having the least mobility of the four adult women dolls to the most! Teresa only has the articulated Fashionista body; Cinderelsa has a knock-off of it; and Kelsey has click knees with immobile chop-chop arms.

[nickgerlich]

Blink

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.Well, that’s how the old adage goes. And sometimes even the big guys have to blink. Lately, upstarts like Shein, Temu, and TikTok Shop have been crushing it in the online arena, forcing even Amazon to figure out how to join the party, which it just did with the announcement of Amazon Haul.

Available only on its mobile app, Amazon Haul features a wide variety of items, from household to clothes, all priced less than $20. In fact, many are less than $10, and some even at the $1 price point.

But the usual promise of two-day or faster delivery is off the table, because Amazon is mimicking the business model of those Chinese rivals who instead rely on drop shipping directly from China. Orders take one to two weeks to arrive. Shipping is free for orders more than $25; otherwise, it is $3.99.

There has been concern that Amazon might be cannibalizing itself, but the company shrugs it off, saying that a value-centric spin-off is complementary to the normal spread of products they offer. They see it as having upside potential for incremental sales and new customers, the folks who have been buying up a storm on competitor sites.

Interestingly, Amazon has wisely not backed itself into a corner price-wise, at least for now. Whereas every discount chain with the word “Dollar” in its name has had to deal with inflation and raise prices above that threshold, Amazon has given itself a very wide berth. It would take many years of inflation to hit the $20 mark.

But, of course, there’s the possibility of tariffs, because everything in Amazon Haul is coming from China. Trump’s proposed 60-100% tariffs could quickly cut their price range in half. That is, of course, if he was blowing smoke or really meant it. Even in a completely Republican-majority House and Senate, there’s rising speculation that Trump may not have as much carte blanche as he would like to think. There would be repercussions. Can anyone say trade war?

So I did what any decent person would do, which is I opened my Amazon app and took a look around. There are bargains galore, but just like at the dollar stores, there’s a lot of stuff I would never buy, some stuff I don’t need, and then a few things I had no idea existed or needed. I even bought something. Make that two somethings, a couple of base layer long-sleeve shirts. At $13.99 apiece, that’s pretty cheap.

I realize the old rule: You get what you pay for. My rule of thumb for athletic gear is to figure out the cost per wearing, or, in the case of shoes, cost per mile. I may very well wind up paying a few bucks per wearing on these if they fall apart fast. At that price, I may wind up paying $14 for a one and done. I’ll find out soon.

Like in a couple of weeks. At least I went above the $25 free shipping threshold. From China, with love.

You can also bet that Walmart will be watching closely. They already have plenty of bargain basement items online and on their app, and to be honest, it would be a much easier fit for Walmart to do so since it has always been seen as a discount store.

As for the dollar stores, they should be nervous, and not just because of potential tariffs on everything they sell. They intentionally focus on much cheaper items with thin margins. Their whole world may be turned upside down. And never mind that this is strictly a pure play proposition. Amazon is not saddled with 19,726 stores like Dollar General is. If Amazon Haul flops, they just make it go away.

Lastly, there’s the whole issue of shipping, which I find to be intriguing if only for how much it has evolved during my life. Once upon a time, domestic as well as international shipping took a long time. Amazon changed that with Prime and two-day delivery, along with all the third-party couriers who can do one-day or same-day deliveries. But getting something from China in one to two weeks may cause you to wonder how this model can survive when we have come to expect fast deliveries within the US.

I recall my first iPad, which I had pre-ordered in anticipation of its April 2010 release. I was able to track my iPad in transit from Shanghai via FedEx. It took only two days. That had to cost Apple a pretty penny.

Shoppers have welcomed the longer shipping window from China, though, because it reinforces the low-price model. They are shipping things half way around the world. Even for $3.99, that is a bargain in and of itself. Try sending a Christmas gift to your relatives in New York for $4. You can’t do it.

It normally takes 15-30 days for a freight ship to cross the Pacific from China to the US, so it is clear they aren’t putting our purchases on a slow boat. They are entering the normal parcel post system, which includes ground on both ends, and then air to cross the ocean.

What a great time to be alive! Marco Polo had to journey three years to get to China, and we can taste it in a fortnight or less. It’s a good thing Amazon didn’t exist eight centuries ago, because we may very well have forgotten what we had ordered by the time it was delivered.

Check out Amazon Haul. It’s game on for the big boys, even if they did blink. Those Chinese competitors also need to be very nervous.

Dr “Bargain Hunter” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[creativitycoach]

Why I am not a fan of Replica Surfaces as a company or Mandy Gleason

Replica Surfaces Biscotti Linen, Scandinavian Wood, Lush View

There are many pros and cons to consider when selecting backdrops and companies that provide them. Everything I do at this point is to fund the 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity I founded. As such, when selecting companies from which to purchase or partner, a key factor is philanthropy. A company that supports the community cares about the community. A company that does not support the community cares about lining its pockets.

Companies that are socially and environmentally conscious actually consider the environment and its peoples. It should not be a question to support a company that cares. They may support the community by working with charitable organizations, projects, offering discounts, or damaged items. My experience with Replica Surfaces is that they do none of these things. V-Flat World offers a modest discount and supports Humanity Showers. Poppybee Surfaces offers a modest discount but does not donate damaged goods. Regardless, those are at least two backdrop companies that seem to take an interest in people who devote their lives to helping others and making the world a better place.

V-Flat Coral and Terrazzo

As far as social media, V-Flat World has an exclusive Facebook group that supports their consumers without playing favorites. If they like your posts, they may feature them. Replica Surfaces VIP Facebook group is a high school clique. The few and the favored get benefits and are uncensored. Others in the group posted things for which I was flagged. They promote their favorite vendors by requesting free products and photographing them for their own ads. This is not quite an equal opportunity that I have witnessed.

Replica Surfaces Bathscape, Sunsoaked Terrazzo, Tuscany Styling Towel

We cannot forget things such as their styling towels and mystery gift. Their styling towels are great in photos, but I have found linen scarves and fabric remnants at local shops that perform just as well if not better in photos. The question remains, why pay Replica Surfaces $40.00 for three styling towels, when you can purchase scarves and fabric remnants for a fraction of the price?

As far as the mystery gift, it is simply a cheap set of three small, smaller, and even smaller wooden blocks. I literally bought a pack of 25 of the same size of the smallest block from the dollar twenty-five store, so what is so special about Replica Surfaces cheap styling blocks? Do they perform better than other blocks? No. Are they worth the price (purchasing five surfaces to receive the blocks for free)? No. Are they of workable size? Not unless you are shooting something as small as a coffee bean. The blocks are rather useless.

All this is not disputing the beauty of some of their surfaces. How you conduct business is personal preference. The surfaces are nice, but they are smaller, thinner, and single sided compared to V-Flat World, and they cost more. Why can Replica Surfaces not produce boards that are double sided and at least 24”x24”? Likely they want their 3mm thick boards to be incompatible with surfaces from other companies. Still, it does not answer why Replica Surfaces cannot make a more affordable and appealing product double sided. It seems like simple greed. However, that is one person’s postulation.

Their marketing tactics are genius but shady. Yes, it is nice to re release products, but to offer such small quantities and actually tell consumers to set alarms to fight other online shopping customers for their products that may or may not sell out is rude. They are driving up demand but not meeting supply. After they release a new limited collection, then have a sale as soon as the collection sells out can bankrupt consumers. Replica Surfaces has no conscience and have consecutive releases and sales without consideration of paydays of many consumers . They care only about their bottom line and how full they can get their pockets. It is great to have sales, but it is greater to allow consumers time to refill their wallets. It seems another point driven by greed than consumer mental health.

For simple surfaces such as Subway Tile, what really makes the selling point when competitors offer more superior products at lower prices?

What would convert me to a fan of Replica Surfaces when their competitors already have many more reasons to avoid Replica Surfaces? Perhaps if they were more community conscious, aided and supported community projects and nonprofit organizations, made their boards more standardized in size, and made their boards double sided to give consumers more options. That is all setting aside the bureaucracy of their Facebook group, where they censor and ban some people for stating and doing exactly what their favorites do uncensored and not banned. As if their sophomoric antics could not be predicted, I was banned from their Facebook group for reporting violations others committed but were not flagged, which were allegedly the same violations I committed. Why would anyone want to support such a juvenile company and immature owner, Mandy Gleason?

When I attempted to resolve the discrepancies with Replica Surfaces, Liz reiterated rules I had not broken and offered no explanation as to why I was penalized, and my white neurotypical counterparts were not. She stated the word “addict” is triggering for her due to her sister’s addiction. Yet, when given proof that over 57 posts and comments contained variations of the word “addict,” she did not apologize that I was the only one banned. She did not offer any words as to why when those other instances were reported, they were neither banned nor removed. Why would Replica Surfaces be extremely lenient and tolerant of consumers who more closely resemble her?

I offered to give away my boards for free, but that was considered sales. Yet crafters in the group share their product links and prices and made sales within the group. The company photographer promotes products from her favorite makers, so why is that open sales solicitation not considered a violation? Again, those makers share much in common by way of specific demographic to Mandy Gleason. At no point has the company apologized for favoritism and inequitable application of group rules. One can only postulate the rules are merely a way to cull unwanted minorities from the clandestine white washed culture of the group.

They shadowban comments about where people obtain resources except in the instance of badmouthing competitors such as VFlat. They censor all customer service reviews to give the appearance of flawless customer service. Even Leah is not knowledgeable as to which surfaces are limited, because of her conflicting statements.

When you uncheck the box to state you do want to continue receiving stands, they automatically recheck it then blame the customer for not checking it. It defaults to check marked, so they can have an excuse not to provide stands with their bundle deals that specifically state one received two sets of stands with purchase of five boards. When this was brought yo their attention, I was blamed for not removing the checkmark, although I kept removing it, and it kept defaulting back to checked. Then Leah stated to correct that five sets of stands owed to me were not included, she stated she mailed seven. Later, she mailed stands to Bowling Green, Ohio, then changed her story to say she was only allowed to send two of the five sets owed. At this point, Liz stepped in, added the five stands to my next order, but removed the mystery gift owed to me, from purchase of the five surface bundle. It is annoying they refuse to comply with their own website claims; however, I was not as nearly upset about the removal of the useless styling blocks owed to me, pursuant to their website bundle deal.

Will I continue to purchase Replica Surfaces? Only during steep sales if a client really is fixated with using a specific backdrop. For example, a client loves Replica Surface boards for their products, so I use this boards and charge enough to recover my “lost” expenses for the boards. Essentially, the client is paying for the boards as well as product photography services.

Will I promote them on social media when I use their boards? No. Will I continue to participate in the clique that is their Facebook group? No, because they are discriminating. Will I rant and rave about how great they are? No, because the company and its owner are not. The products are subpar to others on the market. Even the stands are $26.00 for two, which a set is supposed to be free with purchase of two boards. Similar stands of better quality are available on Amazon at $8.99 for four.

V-Flat Duo Boards are larger with higher resolution. It is easier to style props to create faux rooms rather than a smaller board with a scene of a room. Plus, you can style the props to create rooms in many ways. The solid colors and classic patterns of V-Flat are better for makeshift walls and floors. There is more room to zoom and crop.

V-Flat Coral, Terrazzo, remnant fabric from Jo-Ann

I found myself losing parts of the photos with Replica Surfaces, because the area is smaller. The stands did not hold the surfaces flush, so there was room where I had to sacrifice part of the product photo to avoid getting any parts of the surrounding background also known as my makeshift studio. V-Flat Duo Boards offer the flexibility to zoom out a bit to capture more scene. Their stands hold surfaces straight while Replica Surfaces did not. The Replica Boards were leaning and crooked, so it required cropping, which, again, meant part of the mood created had to be sacrificed.

Price gauging for substandard products and lure of a special mystery gift are definitely cons much like the greed of the company.

Replica Surfaces Florence, Wine Cask, linen scarf from Amazon

I have provided the company many opportunities in email and their Facebook group to rectify their actions. However, Mandy Gleason does not support charitable organizations, Asians, and differently abled, but she still wants their money. Their shipping had always been within hours in my experience, but my last order took three days to ship, and they failed to provide shipping confirmation via email as they typically had done previously. More disconcerting is they prompted a shipping exception and further delay with an illegible FedEx label. Perhaps this is Many Gleason’s way of punishing consumers who bring her shady, unethical business practices to her attention.

[unreliabledragon]

Not the same poster, but I did econ in undergrad. Basically, "normal" is the equilibrium that the currency would reach if everything was held equal in the long run.

As an example, zuppose that Switzerland were to print a ton of Francs tomorrow, just totally flood the market with them. We would stop being in an equilibrium, because suddenly there would be a lot more francs, and a lot of things would happen as the market reacted to that. Contracts denominated in francs would become worthless, since paying someone a set number of francs becomes trivial when the government decides to throw them around like candy. Swiss people would also rush to buy as much as they could, as fast as they could, until prices and exchange rates caught up, since they have all this extra money, in both domestic and foreign trade. However, this disruption wouldn't last. Let's look only at the foreign market, since that's the question being discussed: As people exchange francs to buy foreign goods, the currency exchange market would be flooded with francs, causing their exchange rate to fall. Over time, the exchange rate would come down and reach "normal" again, and the only effects would have been the transitive ones as people adjusted to the new "normal" state. Despite all this wild money printing, nothing about the economy would actually change in the long term, despite all of those short term impacts listed above. (Except perhaps that investors might lose faith in the currency's stability, but those effects are beyond the scope of this explanation.) That long term state is what people usually mean when they talk about "normal".

But what if the government intervened to prevent that from happening? Perhaps the Swiss government announces that you may now only exchange other currencies for francs with them, and they will always do so at a 1:100 rate with the US dollar, giving you 100 francs for every dollar you give them. If the true, "normal" exchange rate was, say, 1:80, this would mean you would get 25% more francs for your money! This is basically a 25%* discount on anything you can buy using francs! And that, in turn, makes your exports really, really attractive. Why would I buy a $100,000 luxury car in the US, if I could convert my money to francs and buy a Swiss car worth $125,000? That currency manipulation is literally giving me a nicer car for free! The flip side, however, is that it makes imports really difficult for your population. After all, they have to pay 20 extra francs per USD they exchange, so if they have $100,000 worth of Swiss francs they want to spend on an American luxury car, they'll only end up with $80,000 USD after the exchange, which discourages them from importing foreign made goods.

Now, obviously in the real world the exchange rates are much more complex, but the basic principle of the government interfering with its currency to keep its value artificially low to stimulate exports is something that does happen! If you remember the whole thing when the Trump administration labelled China as a currency manipulator, this was exactly what they were talking about: Deliberately undervaluing their currency so that exports would be cheaper and more attractive to foreign buyers. Obviously the mechanisms were much more complex, but this is the kind of thing that economists are referring to when currency manipulation comes up in the news.

Anyway, this is all terribly simplified, but hopefully it's at least somewhat helpful in seeing how the effects occur!

* technically 20%, because something worth 100 francs costs you 80 francs worth of USD, but the fact that these calculations aren't symmetric isn't really relevant here and I'm gonna play it fast and loose to make this easier to understand

I don't understand why currency prices matter. I understand why *changes* in currency prices matter, because then you can speculate on them or whatever. But why does a weak currency stimulate exports or whatever. Why does it matter?

[elvesofnoldor]

I was going to buy hades and hyper light drifter on steam today cause i thought the steam black friday sale was still happening. unfortunately the cut off day was LITERALLY yesterday and I have to wait for Christmas/new year steam sale for a potential discount. So, because I didn’t feel like paying a sum of $50 for these two games, I ended up playing more of hollow knight instead and beat pantheon of the artist on like, the third try lmao

[ourlittlebitofnothinguniverse]

Mhhhhhhhh

[duckiesdoodlesdelight]

ive closed the inbox, but dw!!! i’ll reopen it after the commissions thing is done.

[readingsimp]

the cheerleader and the freak

*The above image is not intended to force the reader to identify with any of the people in it. Its purpose is to present the concept of the story.*

pairing: eddie munson x reader

theme: fluff, a bit of angst and a lot of flirt

warnings: mentions of drugs, mentions of weed, mentions of struggle with public image

word count: 1675

summary: basically you are chrissy but you don't get murdered by vecna; you go to eddie to buy drugs but something else happens

a/n: ok the original plan was a smut, but i think that this is much better :)

                    »»————-　　————-««

The breeze flows into your hair as you wait for Eddie. He's late as usual, but this time his tardiness could put you in real danger. Anyone could find you in that clearing.

It is actually really peaceful, with a picnic table and a shed as decorations. The trees that surround it are home to many birds, in fact they make beautiful noises as you are sitting down the bench.

Suddenly the quietness of the chirping is disturbed by the trampling of branches and dry leaves. You flinch in that direction just to see a thick-haired figure walking towards you.

«I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you,» Eddie says, approching and sitting before you. He has a little metal box with him, so you immediately assume that it is where he stores his weed.

«Can I just say that this whole situation is surreal? Never I would have imagined selling drugs to the cheerleader captain,» he confesses to you. «But, hey, I don't judge,» he shrugs.

It is, in fact, very strange. You are a cheerleader, the prom queen, the most perfect girl in school. But it is not easy to stay that way. Nobody knows what’s behind all that and turning to weed to escape from this reality, even for a little while, says a lot.

Eddie notices that you haven't said anything yet. «Hey, don't worry, nobody can find us here, I promise. Beside we don't have to do this, just give me the word and I'm outta here,» he reaches out his hand to touch yours, but then he reconsiders it.

«Oh, no, no, it's okay, it's just that this is my first time... buying drugs,» you finally speak, reassuring him but also yourself.

He smiles. «I get it,» he says, hiding his box. A moment of silence passes by when suddenly Eddie stands up.

«You know, this isn't the first time we hung out,» he walks in circles laying his eyes anywhere but you. He's waiting for your answer.

«Oh really?» you try to remember when you first saw him.

«You don't remember? You're hurting me,» he puts his hand on his heart, mimicking a fake pain in his chest.

«No, I'm so sorry,» you laugh in embarrassment. You really can't remember him.

«Okay, I'll help you: middle school, talent show, you were doing this cheer thing, while I was playing with my band–» he is suddenly interrupted by you.

«Corroded Coffin! Oh God, how can you forget a name like that?!» you clap happily, your laugh is genuine this time.

«Yes, I knew you were a freak y/n y/l/n,» he laughs with you, jumping joyfully.

«You were so different back then,» you say smiling at him.

«Well yeah, my hair was buzzed and I didn't have these sweet old tattoos,» he says while showing one of his tattoos on his chest.

Your eyes wonder on his body in search of all his tattoos. His arms are muscular and full of gothic and dark drawings. You start to wonder how many does he have.

«So, should we start our business?» his question breaks the cute moment that he created and your expression falls again from serenity to anxiety.

He sits down again and he opens his metal box, which is more likely an old lunch box. He shows you many small sachets with small doses of weed inside.

«How much do you need? I have several doses and types,» he starts to explain all the kinds of weed he has, but as he describes them you are not convinced on their strength.

«Look, just for you, I can do a 25 percent discount, so only 15 dollars, how does that sound? You're robbing me,» he finishes his speech, but you don't answer.

Your eyes are fixed on what's in the box, then they move on him. «Do you have anything stronger?»

He seems confused by your question. «Well, yeah, but not here,» he closes the box.

«Look, y/n, if this is your first time I don't think you should go for something stronger than this, I really don't want you to get hurt, they're gonna blame me and I really can't do this right now,» Eddie tries to explain.

He keeps talking as fast as a train, the words flow out of his mouth in total panic. He stands up and walks away from you, gesturing his way out of this deal.

You get up and try to follow him while he walks with great strides around the clearing. You try to call him.

«Eddie, wait please, I'm sure of what I'm doing, believe me, I wouldn't be here if I didn't need it so bad, you have to trust me,» your hands land on his shoulders, trying to stop him and turning him towards you.

He's towering you, but your eyes are still fixed on his. There's a moment of silence that you both decide to soak in. Your breaths are synced and his eyes are wondering on all your body pressed against him.

You finally notice it, you scroll away your hands from him and take a step back. Your gaze falls on your shoes. «Please, Eddie, I need this, I need you to trust me,» you beg trying to fight back your tears.

Eddie takes a big breath as he tangles his hands in his hair. «Let's get this over with.»

                    ____________________

«Welcome in my castle,» Eddie exclames as he enters his uncle's trailer. You step in right behind him.

«Excuse me for the mess, I forgot to call the cleaning lady this morning,» he jokes, hinting at the chaos.

«Oh, it's okay,» you take another step in what seems to be the living room. «May I?» you ask pointing at the couch.

Eddie sprints on it to clean it from the clutter and old pizza boxes, or at least he tries. Just as a sit clears out, he points at it, bowing theatrically. «M'lady, you're sit is ready,» he says.

You laugh in response as you sit matching his energy. «Thank you, My Lord.»

Before standing up straight, he turns to you. Your faces are inches away and your eyes are intertwined. You smile at each other before he speaks.

«Okay, wait here, your order is coming right up,» he says with a sigh, as if he didn't want to break away the gaze.

You look around the trailer. It is very messy, but homey at the same time. Between the shelves you see many pictures of Eddie and his uncle, many are very old. You decide to get up and watch them closely.

The frames are a bit dusty, but it doesn't discourage you to pick them up. You grab and caress each one to let the dust fly away and reveal who the people in the photos are.

But the only picture that stands out is one of a child holding a little guitar. You smile as you immediately recognize Eddie's features. The background of the photo is the same trailer park as the one where he lives now. It reveals much about his life.

As you put the photo back to its place you hear a presence behind you. «I've lived here as long as I can remember,» he explains, «and I've played the guitar as long as I can remember.»

You turn around and you find him very close to you, with an hand on the shelf, enclosing you between it and his body. You look up to him and smile. «You were very cute,» you admit.

«"Were"? What about now? Am I not cute enough?» he asks pretending to be offended, but gifting you with a smirk.

You suddenly feel your cheeks on fire and you mentally thank God that the trailer is not that much lit. You chuckle as you try to answer his question. Finding the correct words is hard since you have to reconcile the truth, which is that yes, he’s very cute, and the detachment, which is that you just came to him for drugs and nothing else.

You clear your throat. «So, uhm, do you have it?» You squat to pass under his arm that still blocks you.

Eddie sigh. «Yeah, it's on the counter, but forget the discount for that.»

You approach the little packet with the green substance in it. You pick it up and suddenly many thoughts came in mind. Do you know how to smoke it? What would happen if anyone found out? Do you really need it?

You stay there for a moment, while Eddie is right behind you waiting for a reaction from you. But as soon as he hears you sniffle, he sprints to your side.

Your face is hidden by you hair as little drops fall on the counter. Eddie moves your hair behind your ear.

«It's okay, you don't have to do this,» he says cupping your shoulder. You sniffle again, taking your hand on you face and wiping the tears.

Eddie picks the sachet and he hids it in his pocket. «See? There's no need for that,» he smiles at you even if you're not facing him. At the disappearance of the packet you turn to him and look him in the eyes.

You never noticed him at school, or at least that what's you were supposed to do. He's the freak and you're the cheerleader. There's no place for you to coexist, but here you are.

«I'm sorry,» that's the only thing you can say and do, apologize for how people treat him, for not getting to know him before, for being named 'the freak' or 'the banished', for everything that goes on in his life.

You englobe him in you arms, hugging his waist. He's caught off guard, but he soon reciprocates, hugging your shoulders and caressing your hair.

His smell of cigarettes and old aftershave assails your nostrils, but it doesn't bother you, because you know that, from now on, it won't be the last time hugging him.

And he knows it too.

[murasakina-plays]

So the BSD crossover is delayed, what do we do now? I doubt the devs will tells any new info on dates nor what was their issues. There was a lot of people speculating it might be Yosano being the problem but that isn’t a full confirmation as when she got leaked by the devs in doc’s role reveal no one complained in China. Another rumor I heard before the delay was announced was that Dazai’s price package was ridiculous and everyone was complaining about it yet devs didn’t care either so what’s really happening anyway? Like the Junji Ito one for what I remember it wasn’t that horribly delayed and the devs acted before releasing Part 2 or am I mistaken? I just know it wasn’t that long for a single skin since I remember seeing both Picture Woman and Tomie coming together already.

If any IDV player or BSD fan sees this please let’s start a discussion on this as a way to pass time for the crossover! Whether about the series or the game BSD is trying to collab with can be both interesting to discuss. Besides I’m a little bored…

Just nothing like false information as the ppl who said the Yosano situation was confirmed isn’t really 100% confirmed yet as the devs would announce this to the whole community as to why it was delayed, not to a single server or region.

I really hope with the time they take, they should reconsider on some things on the crossover other than Yosano, like their Dazai package being too expensive for other regions who had the price go higher due to apple’s policies and I believe the discount they added for the pack is too expensive still in my opinion. In my country, the package is literally 60+ dollars and the skin itself is 58 so it’s not much of a change…

The rng for the essences is also bad and I say this by own experience on crossover essences, they said you won’t get repeats after getting one said A skin for the first time but I got double Chiakis and Nagitos but never got Mikan on the second DR essence. It’s a god damn scam, the same happened when I got L, before him I got Light twice in the same essence. For P5, I guess it’s fair to unfair because I got 3 makotos and 2 Harus before getting Futaba but I never got Akechi which I really wanted. They should make crossovers more player friendly for both new players and veterans :/

Would be cool if they made Dazai frags too like the Junji Ito skins and Edward Scissorhands, just keep the pack echoes only for the whales or people who can’t save frags, they would still receive a ton of money from their essences anyways, mainly crossover ones where people have to spend 500 dollars or more for 1 S skin and if the player wants, upgrade the Atsushi accessory into S rarity with Echoes which it’s the only way to get it S tier anyway, it’s 760 echoes which is around 10-25 dollars which in my opinion it’s still dumb how a small acc costs to upgrade. And don’t give me excuses about they also need to earn money and the author too but the BSD author has a game itself that is big on Japan and is winning tons specially with S4 out there plus IDV already earns tons with other crossovers and in the past 3 years, releasing echo only skins which costs real money and worst part is limited to certain period while some are unknown of its return. Some people I have seen struggled to get 1 S skin for 2000 or so because they know the player is a whale based on previous purchases or their YouTube status, I’m just amazed how no one decides to fight against this whole scam as for me a echo pack of 29.99 with taxes is only with 20 pulls while other games with the same pricing would give you better pulls around 40-80 pulls specially with first purchase bonuses resets, idv never had bonus reset because they will always give the bonus but you will barely get 20 pulls and even less an A skin in shop if you aren’t a NGP member.

Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one complaining about these things with reason. Then people throw hate at me for trying to help this game get better, no wonder this game is aimed to kids at some things. Because it’s very tame compared with a mature audience who fight against this abuse. But then again adults I meet in this game are just as childish for even having an opinion or point out a truth about the game that’s in their face. This is why I often get so off mood when I log into the game that I used to enjoy back in 2018.