After three seasons of buildup, the pair finally admit their love for each other and have sex for the first time. Then, just hours later, Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington) announces that he and Yasmin are engaged. Talk about whiplash.
The announcement comes at a lavish birthday dinner for Henry’s uncle, Otto Mostyn (Roger Barclay). Dozens of guests gather around a long table, chattering loudly and enjoying the rich feast before them. But in the moments following the news of the engagement, the revelers disappear, leaving only Yasmin and Robert staring at each other from across the table.
“I’m sorry,” Yasmin tells Robert.
“I understand,” he replies. And so do we: For Yasmin, the entire season has been built around trying to find security in the wake of her father’s disappearance and various legal troubles. Marriage to Henry would mitigate these woes, especially since Otto all but told her that if she stayed with Henry, he’d ensure none of his tabloids would run stories about her involvement in her father’s death. Matchmaking by blackmail, if you will.
The exchange between Yasmin and Robert is only two lines long, but the decision to clear everyone else from the room for it speaks volumes. For almost all of its run, Industry has rooted itself in realism. With Season 3, it’s begun taking more stylistic swings, like Robert’s surreal ayahuasca trip and now this near-fantasy moment with Robert and Yasmin. As the world narrows to just the two of them, we feel like we’re watching something out of a period drama — think the dance scene between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice, when all the other dancers fall away. Yasmin and Robert’s entire stay in Henry’s manor plays out like a period drama overall, so the choice to depart briefly from reality here is further proof of the show’s playing with genre.
However, as Lawtey revealed in an interview with Mashable, the sequence wasn’t originally scripted that way. Instead, the disappearance of the rest of the crowd came about as a request from Lawtey and Abela.
“[Marisa and I] were both talking about that scene a lot days in advance. We knew it was a really significant moment, perhaps the climactic moment of their relationship thus far, and we really wanted to get that right,” Lawtey said. “Even though it was only two lines, it was all in the atmosphere and connection of that instant.”
In order to nail the scene, Abela and Lawtey asked co-showrunners and finale directors Mickey Down and Konrad Kay whether they could be the only two actors in the room for their close-up coverage, since the supporting cast wouldn’t be in frame.
“We thought it might be easier to have some stillness in the room and really find that moment organically,” Lawtey said.
Down and Kay agreed, and once they’d shot the close-ups, they ended up liking the visual of the almost-empty room so much they realized they wanted to incorporate it into the show.
“It was a very instantaneous, almost impulsive decision that came from what was ultimately a practical request from Marisa and I. I think that really speaks to [Down and Kay’s] freedom as showrunners, and this ‘best idea wins’ kind of culture and ability to just go with the flow of shooting, which can be very unpredictable and hard to restrain,” Lawtey said. “If what is often a very technical process can generate something that feels creatively interesting, then we all have license to pursue that and follow it.”
Princess Zelda wields an enormous toolkit in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. With the flick of a wand, she can summon perfect copies of anything from a household pot to a a living, moving monster that fights for her. These objects, called Echoes, help her navigate the terrain and fight baddies. And while it’s no Master Sword, the Tri Wand has something Link never did: The ability to wield a nice plush bed. And now as I play, I’m convinced the bed is the main solution to all my problems in Echoes of Wisdom.
Echoes of Wisdom embraces a more open and less restrictive design approach when compared to previous top-down Zelda games. A puzzle in a dungeon might have multiple solutions instead of a single one. Because the game has been designed in this way, players are encouraged to think for themselves and tinker freely with all kinds of potential solutions rather than finding a specific path. In an interview, said that “having the excitement of solving puzzles in your own unique way makes the game ‘Legend of Zelda-like,’” so the team increased the degree of freedom to achieve that goal.
Generally speaking, this allows players to flex their creative muscles and find unique ways to get around the world, but for me, I’ve just defaulted to bed. It gives you a bit of additional height, extends out the length of roughly two blocks or so, and only costs one little triangle — so beginners can stack as many as three beds across a gap. I’ve used it to scale cliffs, cross gaps, and solve puzzles in dungeons. Before I get discouraged, I ask myself: Can this be solved with bed? And more often than not, it can be.
When you don’t want to use bed, you don’t have to. The furniture can make a lot of the puzzles easier, but it is about your own creative solutions at the end of the day. Forcing your way through a dungeon with a bed might be more simplistic, but not as exciting. A lot of times, it can be more fun to take advantage of newly learned Echoes, and that’s great! But if you find yourself hitting a wall and not knowing what to do, maybe see if it’s time for Zelda to take a little snooze.
In this weekly column, Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks talks about the world of wearables, apps, and fitness tech related to running and health, in his quest to get faster and more fit.
Everyone who watched Meta Connect was understandably excited by the Orion AR glasses prototype. Still, its most consumer-ready feature had nothing to do with glasses themselves; it’s the electromyography (EMG) band controller for reading neural signals that I expect to see soon on store shelves or in Quest boxes.
Meta’s EMG tech is too good to be a mere accessory, though; it should be the centerpiece for a Meta watch or tracker. And we already have evidence Meta is working on a watch.
Anyone who heard Mark Zuckerberg say on stage that Meta’s EMG band allows you to “send a signal from your brain to the device” via a “neural interface” may have gotten visions of some creepy mind-reading tech, but it’s fairly straightforward.
Right now, a smartwatch like the Galaxy Watch 7 can detect hand gestures like double taps or fists by using the HR monitor and accelerometer/ gyroscope. A VR headset (like the new Quest 3S) or AR glasses use computer vision to interpret pinch gestures for hand-tracking controls. Either way, you get missed inputs or false positives.
An EMG band cuts out the visual or tactile middleman. If you make a pinching gesture, your brain sends a neural signal to your hands to trigger this. The band perceives that you’re pinching your fingers even if they barely move, so tracking errors are unlikely and you don’t have to exaggerate the motion.
A woman controlling the Project Orion glasses UI with the EMG band (Image credit: Meta)
It worked perfectly well in our hands-on Orion glasses demo, proving EMG isn’t just some gimmick. And there’s no actual brain reading required; it just reads the neural signals in your arm.
Samsung and Apple love using gestures to make their smartwatches look futuristic and accessible, but I rarely use them on my Galaxy Watch Ultra because elaborate fist- or wrist-shaking to dismiss calls or open apps feels a bit too finicky and annoying to remember.
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A Meta smartwatch with the right EMG shortcuts would make the big watch brands look amateurish, and allow subtler shortcuts that wouldn’t feel as awkward.
Such a watch could offer other sensors besides electromyography, too. I’ve thought for years that Meta needs to make a fitness tracker, given how popular Quest headsets are for fitness. Quest headsets guess vaguely how many calories you’ve burned based on head and arm movements, but actual heart rate data viewable in-headset during exercise routines would be fantastic. Or imagine if these exercise games could use your live HR data to decide to make the tempo harder or easier.
The big question, of course, is software. Meta has plenty of iPhone-using fans and has a contentious relationship with Google over XR software; a Wear OS watch is unlikely, in other words. So would a Meta wearable OS without serious mobile integration and third-party apps be viable? Can it catch up for both traditional smarts and fitness training plans to compete in a crowded market?
I don’t have the answer to those questions, but I know Meta has been working on smartwatch tech on and off for years.
Leaked photos of Meta’s canceled smartwatch (Image credit: Bloomberg)
Back in 2022, Meta canceled its first Project Milan smartwatch prototype. A Bloomberg report revealed that the watch lasted 18 hours per charge, had a 5MP camera mounted to the watch face, and a 12MP camera built into the bottom that you could use by detaching the watch face.
It had Wi-Fi, LTE, and GPS tracking, as well as “daily activity tracking, workouts, the photo gallery, heart rate monitoring, calendar, settings, and breathing.” It had popular Meta apps like Instagram and WhatsApp built in, and cost $349.
Allegedly, the biggest hang-up Meta had with this prototype was that the bottom camera “caused issues with another feature for translating nerve signals from the wrist into digital commands.” In other words, Meta killed the whole project because the EMG tech didn’t work with the design.
The following year, we learned from tipster Kamila Wojciechowski that Meta had allegedly restarted in-house smartwatch development, using Android software (not Wear OS) and a Qualcomm CPU. The new design had some sensor changes, but may have kept the detachable watch face for taking photos.
After that, it was mostly radio silence from Meta on the smartwatch front; instead, Zuckerberg bragged about their new EMG band in a 2024 podcast, saying it would be “in a product in the next few years.”
But last month, leaker Evan Blass posted on X a list of Meta Quest project codenames, and said a source claimed one “may be a watch, I’m told — the follow up to a killed model codenamed Milan — while the Vegas are tipped as two generations of budget Quest headsets.” The Vega 1 and 2 did turn out to be the 128GB and 256GB Meta Quest 3S, giving this some legitimacy.
Will the Meta Quest series get the fitness tracking and improved hand gestures it deserves? (Image credit: Meta)
My colleague Nick Sutrich asked the Meta Orion team about the possibility of the EMG tech appearing in a smartwatch design, particularly one with fitness capabilities.
“Right now our focus is on using MEG technology for wearables like smart and AR glasses, but it has the potential to be the best way to control any device,” they answered.
That puts a bit of a damper on my hopes of an EMG-powered smartwatch in the near future. At the moment, The Verge‘s sources claim that Meta “will start selling [the EMG band] soon,” but for another AR glasses prototype called Hypernova.
Still, if Meta really is working on a new smartwatch, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the EMG band would be its way of standing out from the pack, more than cameras that couldn’t take high-res, on-the-go photos as well as Meta’s own Ray-Ban glasses (or any smartphone).
The EMG band can still be a standalone controller for smart glasses, but paired with watch tech, it would help Meta start to form its own family of devices like other big tech brands offer.
You’re in the right place. I was in the same situation a few years ago and I just wanted to know what my options were.
I was a working mom and pregnant with my second child, desperate to leave my 9-5 for something I could do from home but couldn’t find anything even feasible that could justify leaving my full-time gig. I also couldn’t seem to get past all the work-from-home scams.
Everything I sifted through seemed too good to be true, and it was. After months of frustration and time running out before giving birth, I decided to reach out to people with established home-based jobs and asked them three main questions:
What Is their Home-Based Job?
How Can Others Get Started?
How Much Can You Earn?
Thankfully they all responded. They willingly and so generously shared their experience with the ins and outs of a home-based job and how much they earn (what we really want to know). And that’s what you’ll find here on this list, legitimate part-time home-based jobs that are all tried and tested.
A number of these home-based jobs require no investment and are definitely jobs that moms can do as well!
I was able to quit my job when I had my daughter and it was the best decision I ever made. I do job #4 on this list and I love it.
I did a thorough review of every company listed. Each company listed has a 4/5-star rating or higher from Glassdoor. I have a very high standard and if I wouldn’t apply to these jobs, I wouldn’t ask you to do it either.
One of the great things about these home-based businesses is that the government sees these as a small business. When you have a small business you get SO many tax breaks.
I did not know this and had to pay over $20,000 in taxes because of just not knowing what to do. I interviewed a CPA here so you guys would NOT make the same mistakes that I did.
If you have a business or you’re thinking about starting a business definitely check this out first.
How to Find Home-Based Jobs?
To find out what home-based jobs are available check out the list below. The number of work-from-home scams is growing by the day and it’s important to know which jobs are real. That’s why I created this list.
Some of these jobs, unfortunately, do not offer health insurance, so if you’re in need of health insurance you’ll want to know your options here.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.
Here are the Best Home-Based Jobs You Can Start Today
1. Online Writer
Do you like to write? If so, you can make a lot of money writing for other companies and even bloggers from home.
Writing for money is an art, you may have a natural knack for it but the structure of how you set-up your articles may need some guidance and that’s why I interviewed Holly Johnson.
Holly Johnson is a freelance writer and earns OVER $200,000 per year! She’s definitely found the secret sauce when it comes to writing and charging the right rate. You can check out my interview with Holly in my article How to Become a Freelance Writer and I also have a number of ways to get writing gigs at the end of the article.
She created a course for those who want to follow her path of success and I highly recommend taking it.
I met one of Holly’s students at a conference and he said hands down if you want to make money writing, you need to take her course. So I recommend starting with her free workshop on how to build a six-figure writing career.
Are you good with numbers? Do you consider yourself a pretty organized person?
If so, you should consider becoming a Virtual Bookkeeper and help small business owners record their financial transactions
I interviewed two successful stay at home moms who had no previous experience but took a course to learn how to become a bookkeeper from home. One of the moms has 9 kids, homeschools 6, and still earns $2,000+ per month on the side bookkeeping.
So I’m convinced if anyone wants to do this, they can!
How to Get Started: If you want to learn how to become a bookkeeper I definitely recommend taking this free class on How to Become a Bookkeeper to determine if this is right for you. If you have the experience you can apply to companies like Accounting Department.
How Much Can You Earn? The bookkeepers course (the course the moms took) teaches you how to earn $60 per hour, for companies like Accounting Department you can earn $15-$16 per hour according to Glassdoor.
3. Proofreader
Do you often catch speling errors? Did you see the one I just did 🙂 If so, you should consider becoming a proofreader. You can make a nice living catching other people’s mistakes.
I interviewed Caitlin Pile who did this part time while studying abroad and earned $43,000 in one year! Not bad doing this on the side.
How to Get Started: If you want to learn the skills needed to start your own freelance proofreading career, check out this FREE introductory workshop.
How Much Can You Earn? I’ve seen a number of people earning between $1000-$4,000 per month!
4. Home Based Real Estate – And it’s Not What You Think
You can get into Real Estate and earn a lot of money WITHOUT buying or selling anything. I know, it sounds a little crazy, but hear me out.
It’s called Property Preservation and my friend Danielle does this while homeschooling her 3 children earning OVER $400,000 per year! She outsources 100% of the work and just does the admin work at home.
How Much Can You Earn? It varies but Danielle says it’s very feasible to gross $100k+ or more in revenue within 18 months
5. Make a Passive Income with Printables
Have you ever thought about selling printables? Most people haven’t but you can earn a nice amount of passive income with printables because you make them once and can sell them over and over again.
And you don’t have to be a graphic designer to be good at this, see how others are making money doing this here.
How To Get Started: I interviewed two women who do this from home successfully and they show us how to get started in my How to Make Printables to Sell on Etsy article.
How Much Can You Earn? Average $500- $8,000 per month!
6. Virtual Assistant
Are you task-oriented and have skills in the areas of social media management, editing, graphic design, tutoring, researching, writing, administrative duties or data entry? Then becoming a Virtual Assistant may be an excellent choice for you.
How To Get Started: Kayla Sloan went from being flat broke to building her Virtual Assistant business to $10k a month! She now teaches others how to do the same. Check out her free workshop to see the simple step-by-step process for becoming a Virtual Assistant here.
How Much Can You Earn?$15-$100+ per hour
7. Tech Sales
If you don’t mind being on the phone, this could be a PERFECT home-based job for you! Jobs in tech sales are great because of the earning potential and they don’t require you to have any experience!
We interviewed Atiya who was a stay-at-home mom for the last four years and after going through a boot camp, she landed a job earning $60,000/yr. base with a commission structure set up to earn her $80,000/yr. within her first year.
How to Get Started? Atiya went through a boot camp to get her started with the information she needed to know to land her first job. You can hear from her and see what she does on a day-to-day basis to make sure this is something you’d like to do. Click here to watch the interview.
8. Drop-Shipping
If you want a home-based job that doesn’t require leaving the house definitely consider Drop Shipping.
Dropshipping is a method where you can sell third-party products from a Drop Shipping Company without ever seeing or shipping the item. When you make a sale, the product is shipped directly to the customer from the drop shipper.
Your profit is the difference between what you charge your customers and what the drop shipping company charges you.
How to Get Started? Theo McArthur is one of the most successful drop shippers I know and created a VERY AFFORDABLE course on Udemy that teaches you how to launch your first profitable Dropship Website in 14 Days or less and grow your Income to $10,000 per month in profits. Just check out the amazing reviews on her course!
How Much Can You Earn? This really depends on you and how much work you put into it but you could make $10,000+ a month.
9. Travel Agent
Are you a people person? Resourceful? Like to travel? If so, have you thought about becoming a Travel Agent?
How To Get Started: You can either start your own business or work for an agency. I interviewed Sarah who started her own Travel Agency and she tells us how to do both.
How Much Can You Earn? Glassdoor states the average salary ranges from $29,000 to $58,000 a year, but it all depends on experience and number of clients.
10. Search Engine/ Social Media Evaluator
Search Engines like Google don’t always get it right with the search results so they’ll pay you to help them get it right.
These positions are often called search engine evaluators or web evaluators. This is a great home based job because it does not require getting on the phone, you make your own schedule, and it does not require any training.
There are many pros to this job, and because of that, there may be lows in available work.
You can also check out Care.com and your local FB mom groups for opportunities to grow your business.
How Much Can You Earn? It depends on where you live, but you could charge $30 per day which turns out to $600 per month (assuming its for 8 hours a day), while some daycares will charge $900 or more a month for one kid.
Feel free to raise your price and check the daycare costs in your area to stay competitive.
Make sure you add childcare endorsement to your home owner’s insurance in case someone gets hurt and check your State regulations on the number of children you can care for without a license.
12. Customer Service
Are you patient and like dealing with people? If so, you’re probably really good at Customer Service.
Customer service positions typically provide product or service information over the phone or computer. You will be required to become well informed of the company that you choose to work for and will need to be prepared to answer the questions that will come your way efficiently.
How To Get Started: Consider applying to the companies below.
How Much Can You Earn? The pay ranges from $10-$21 per hour according to Glassdoor:
I also highly suggest checking out these job boards for an up-to-date list of available remote customer service positions such as Indeed, FlexJobs, and Upwork.
13. Life Coach
Do you enjoy helping people and want to help them develop professionally or personally? If that’s you, you should consider becoming a Life Coach.
I interviewed Life Coach Natalie Bacon and she earns six-figures on her way to seven-figures!
How Much Can You Earn? It depends on your market. If you are targeting lower-income, you can charge $47 per hour, if you’re targeting higher-income you could charge $297 per hour or much more. It also depends on your model, are you doing 1-to-1 coaching or group coaching?
14. Flip Items from Flea Markets
Thrift Stores and Flea Markets are literally gold mines if you know what you’re looking for.
Rob from the Flea Market Flipper is a MASTER flipper and made over $130,000 flipping items from Flea Markets and thrift stores PART-TIME online.
You do not need to have a lot of money to start either. Rob recommends his students to start with a budget of $20-$50 to find items. Based on that, they should be able to make $100-$300 (mostly reselling on eBay) and then take some of the profit and do it again.
Have you ever thought about making money from home typing audio files? Transcribers type what they hear and if you have a computer, internet connection and can type well you should definitely consider this.
I interviewed Kim who does this and loves it. You can check out the interview in my article on How to Become a Transcriber.
How to Get Started: Take this Free Mini-Course to find out if this is the right job for you.
I know, I know not the most glamorous job on this list but what if I told you that you could earn $30-$50 per hour doing this on the side?
I interviewed Brian who has grown his local business to six-figures per year doing this, $650,000 to be exact but this is because he has scaled his business and now has people working for him.
I love doing research studies because it’s a quick and easy way to make money from home. Below are the best-paid companies to sign up for
Online Surveys
I’m going to tell you now, these will not make you rich but if you just want to make a little extra money in your spare time why not take some surveys?
You get paid in the form of gift cards or through PayPal (basically cash).
How Much Can You Earn? If you take the time to answer a lot of surveys, you could make up to $50-$100 per month
Pro Tip: Open a separate email account solely for surveys. You’ll start to get inundated with emails, and it will be more manageable in a different account.
Get Paid to Test Websites and Apps
You can make money by testing new websites and apps by simply sharing your thoughts. Companies need feedback on the user experience of their websites, and they’ll pay you to get it.
Here are two companies that will give you $10 per test and they usually take around 15-20 minutes each (User Testing now pays up to $60 per test):
I hope you could find a home-based job on this list that’s right for you. If you didn’t see anything that fits your interest, I encourage you to check out FlexJobs. FlexJobs is a paid job site that screens all the applications that come through to help sift through the scams.
Once you find a job you can cancel with them and if you don’t think it’s worth it, you can request a refund…so there’s no risk. To sign up make sure you use my code FLEXLIFE to get 30% off.
The normal fee each month would be $14.95 a month but it’s less using my code.
If you found this article to be helpful, be sure to subscribe to our mailing list. When more work from home opportunities are added, you’ll be notified by email. Click here to subscribe.
Instax Mini 90 Camera for $210: Once my favorite Instax, the Mini 90 seems to have been superseded by the Mini Evo. The price isn’t too different, yet the Mini Evo is more capable, especially since the Mini 90 is fully analog. That said, the Mini 90 delivers the highest-quality image of the Mini series (equal to the Mini Evo), so if you want the fully analog experience and the highest quality image, this is the camera to get. It regularly dips below $150, so avoid paying more.
Instax SQ 6 Camera for $130 to $210: This one is a head-scratcher. As I noted above, the SQ 6 is a better camera than the SQ 1 or SQ 40, which seem to have jointly replaced the SQ 6. Heck, there was even a Taylor Swift version of the SQ 6 (I’d hate to see what that’s going for on eBay these days). Whatever the case, Fujifilm no longer lists the SQ 6 on its Instax website. But if you find it, and like the square format, the SQ 6 is a fantastic camera. It has several manual features not found in the others—I especially like the Lighten and Darken modes that can be used like exposure compensation—in addition to the fully automatic mode of the SQ 40. Other nice extras include a self-timer, close-up mode, and the option to turn off the flash. There is stock out there, so try to only buy it if you find it for around $100 to $150.
Instax Mini Link 2 Printer for $100: The Instax Mini Link was replaced by the Mini Link 2, but the upgrades were minor, and, honestly, I can’t tell any difference in print quality. If you can find the original Mini Link for less than the price of the Link 2, go for it. The Link 2 sells for $100 most of the time, so don’t pay as much for the original Link. They’re both great printers.
Avoid These Instax Cameras
Instax Mini 11 for $80 to $120: I mentioned this above, but the Mini 11 is rarely worth buying. It’s only a few dollars cheaper than the newer Mini 12 and lacks most of the features that make the Mini 12 such a good buy. If you can find this one for under $50, maybe it’s worth it. But otherwise, avoid the Mini 11.
Instax 7s/Instax 8/Instax 9: These are all older, low-end Instax models. They use a fixed 1/60 shutter speed, whereas the comparably-priced Mini 12’s auto exposure can choose between 1/2 to 1/250 second shutter speeds, making it much more flexible. Given that most of these are hard to find anyway, skip them.
Do You Want a Camera, a Printer, or Both?
Once you’ve picked the size of film you want, the next question is, do you want a camera, a printer, or a hybrid that can do both? The latter is more expensive but gives you the best of both worlds—our top pick is a camera and a printer. Note that if you want Instax Square or Instax Wide prints, there is no hybrid model.
If you have nostalgia for what I still think of as “the Polaroid experience,” an Instax camera is the way to go. They aren’t the highest-quality cameras (most have plastic lenses), but they take decent photos, and you get to watch them develop seconds after you shoot. It’s the more fun option, but the disadvantage is that if you have an image you love on your phone and want to print it, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Ubisoft announced today that Assassin’s Creed Shadows will miss its November 12, 2024 release date, launching on February 14, 2025 instead.
Additionally, the game is going to hit Steam on day 1 instead of it being a staggered release on Valve’s platform (Ubisoft games stopped coming out on Steam back in 2019, then came back to the platform in recent years, but never as day 1 launches). The publisher has also confirmed that everyone who preorders the game will receive the game’s first expansion for free, and that they are moving away from “Advanced Access” type releases where the priciest edition allows owners to start playing earlier than everyone else who’s also purchased the title, but chosen a cheaper edition. According to Ubisoft, everyone who buys Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be able to play at the same time, which is a very nice change of pace, considering every publisher seems to be trying to nickel and dime fans over “early access” to their games lately.
Embark on a huge new Assassin’s Creed adventure set in feudal Japan
Become a lethal shinobi Assassin and a powerful legendary samurai as you explore a beautiful open world in a time of chaos.
Switch seamlessly between two unlikely allies as you discover their common destiny.
Master complementary playstyles, create your shinobi league, customize your hideout, and usher in a new era for Japan.
Sundays are for squishing nids. I…was at least 35% wrong about Space Marine II. The new patch and a trick I learned to deal with Zoanthropes means I can play on Veteran now, and a lot of the issues I had with feeling overpowered have been sorted. I still think the guard are more interesting, but it’s a very fun bit of smashy. Before I continue to never be wrong about a videogame ever again, let’s read some writing that I personally found interesting about games (and game related things!)
For his blog, I Wanna be the Guy’s Michael “Kayin” O’Reilly wrote about ‘Toyification’
Toys, as they were, for thousands years. Concept, reduced down into a caricature representing their most important traits. A policeman distilled down to a hat, a firefighter distilled down to the color red. Vague shapes without limbs. A wooden toy knight, cherished by a medieval child.
A toy isn’t trying to be the thing it’s representing. It’s a symbol. A toy is an streamlined proxy. An idealized Memory. A fantasy.
Compare this to models. A model train is desperately trying to be a real train. It wants to contain all the details, all the nuances. Great models and kits border on educational. It will never succeed in truly being what it represents, but it aims for a level of verisimilitude that a toy does not concern itself with. Where toys are subtractive, models are additive, starting with nothing and trying to build back up to reality.
Now, a model is no nobler than the toy. Despite it’s attempts to be real, it never will be. A model feigns realism, deceitful by its very nature.
But toys aren’t exactly honest either. You look at that village, with its helpful cop and its selfless, competent social services. You look at the handsome and strong toy soldier, the impossibly proportioned Barbie doll. You look at toy guns that are disarmingly harmless, and bears that only want to snuggle.
This is beautiful – if bleak – piece of writing, nominally about the recent US internet crash, by Sarah Kendzior
In March, I went West and was shocked by my inability to pay with cash and access basic services without apps. I had a traumatic experience attempting to order Dunkin’ Donuts from a peopleless purveyor near Pahrump, Nevada.
I wanted to raise Pahrump hometown hero Art Bell from the dead and tell him he was right. Humans had been replaced with robots and a faceless tech cabal monitored my glaze consumption.
“Traumatic” is perhaps overstating my Dystopia Donuts quest. But there is an uncanniness to having a site of happy childhood memories overtaken by your most absurd childhood fears. Et tu, Dunkaccino? Then fall!
There are folks who, if they could go back in time and give their younger selves advice, would tell them to buy Apple stock. And there are others who would tell their younger self to burn down Silicon Valley before it burns down the world.
Final Fantasy’s sales crisis is also an identity crisis, writes Ron Fahey for GI.biz. I’m obviously wary of espousing any opinion about game development that begins with the word “just”, but speaking as a fan: just keep making new, good stories with FF7 Remake’s combat system, and I will buy them all. Hell, make a live service Destiny-style skinner box with FF7R’s combat, and I will play it until I’m dead.
At one time, this was the premier JRPG brand; for much of the world, it was about the only JRPG brand many consumers knew. There was a very clear sense of what you’d be getting if you bought one of these games – each iteration brought significant reinvention, but these were always identifiably similar in key ways, ranging from story themes and structures to overarching concepts in the gameplay.
Now, though, I’m honestly not sure what Final Fantasy means as a brand – I don’t know what it’s supposed to mean to me, as someone who’s played these games for nearly 30 years, and I certainly don’t know what Square Enix thinks the Final Fantasy brand represents to consumers more broadly.
This is funny if you like laughing at cops. Declassified UK obtained some documents that you might find interesting. Here’s an in-depth piece about music licensing in games from Keith Stuart at the Guardian, following the Heaven 17/GTA 6 kerfuffle. Here’s a fun poetry project that Edwin sent me. I’m going to start using the papers to shout out more independent games blogs and newsletters. Fear Zine looks at horror games old and new. Startmenu are an independent games writing site offering mentoring and edits to burgeoning writers, and they’ve just launched a Patreon. Let me know if you’ve any favourite hidden gems. Music this week is Richard Cheese doing a Limp Bizkit medley whynot. Have a great weekend!
Note that it uses the assembly name as a tag. After building it set a new tag to the image naming to docker.io/library/assemblyname done
Before publishing it change the tag to utilize the version and registry: The push refers to repository [ghcr.io/assemblyname]
So the final tag is: ghcr.io/assemblyname:0.0.1 – which is an invalid tag for GitHub, it requires docker push ghcr.io/NAMESPACE/IMAGE_NAME:2.5
So I have a publishing error
Publish has encountered an error.
Running the docker.exe push command failed.
name invalid
A diagnostic log has been written to the following location:
...
There is a way to change the default tag. I added DockerfileTag option to the project file:
It creates an image with the tag docker.io/xakpc-dev-labs/my-name:latest
But then it tries to change the tag and fails with an error
Failed to push docker image
Publish has encountered an error.
Running the docker.exe tag command failed.
Error response from daemon: No such image: my-name:latest
A diagnostic log has been written to the following location:
...
The big promise of Todd Phillips’ Jokerwas stripping out the titular character’s comic book elements and showing what would happen if a regular guy in 1980s Gotham decided to put on clown makeup. (Turns out, things didn’t go well, mainly for everyone else around him.) A young Bruce Wayne is in the original movie, and you may be wondering what would happen if an adult Batman met this version of his nemesis. According to director/writer Todd Phillips, he thinks Arthur Fleck would just think Batman’s neat. (You’re shocked, I’m sure.)
In a recent IGN interview, Phillips explained how Arthur would “be in awe of the alpha male that is Batman. I think [he’d] look up and appreciate it.” In his read, Arthur is “fascinated by men at ease,” such as his own coworkers and Robert De Niro’s talk show host Murray Franklin from the first movie. Those men are everything he’s not, and why wouldn’t that extend to Batman? Presumably, this Batman knows Arthur’s responsible for his parents’ murder, but maybe they can move past that.
The original Joker ended with Arthur eventually losing his cool so bad he shot Murray in the face on live TV, so that fascination clearly has a limit. Still, Phillips’ comments get at something, namely how Arthur has been very quick to fall in love, either romantically or platonically. But Warner Bros. is probably not interested in making the decades of subtext between Bats and Jokes into actual text, or at least no more than what Lego Batman already did back in 2017. Considering Arthur’s luck with people he crushes on, anything between this Clown Prince and a Dark Knight old enough to punch his face in would likely end in a bad romance.
