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Len @len.bsky.social · 1h

Yeah like, if Brave New World is this generation's Dark World, we're kind of back to that Phase 2/Phase 3 level of quality, but I don't think that really cuts it the way it did before everyone got tired of superheroes.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 1h

I think I have a higher opinion of The Marvels than the average for sure, and probably lower than average for WF. So depending on how you feel about those two you might disagree about when the slump started or ended. But I'd say 2023 - present has been mostly quality.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 1h

And we are kind of out the other side of it at this point, with Brave New World being a negative outlier. It's the only movie they've put out of the last six that is as bad as most of the eight that came before it were.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 1h

Seeing these all lined up made me realize that there is a distinct "Feige slump era" I can identify and it runs from Black Widow to Quantumania pretty cleanly (with Shang-Chi and No Way Home being positive outliers). www.reddit.com/r/marvelstud...

Reddit - https://i.redd.it/jaqhujj4yavf1.jpeg

www.reddit.com

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Reposted by Len

Nicole Carpenter @nicolecarpenter.bsky.social · 7h

new union alert!

Aftermath @aftermath.site · 7h

Battle.net workers unionize as Microsoft neutrality agreement expires
aftermath.site/battle-net-wor...

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Len @len.bsky.social · 8h

Random business guy: "Yowza! Where are you taking me hot stuff?"

Phyre: "Behind a truck in an alley with no witnesses."

Random business guy: "That is so sexy"

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 @vtmb.bsky.social · 8h

Today, we bring you a new glimpse into The Clan of Divas. Meet the Toreador characters of Seattle and see Phyre's seduction in action.

https://youtu.be/p5bbHM5zSUQ

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Len @len.bsky.social · 9h

You know what they say: "Opinions are like assholes. Yours, specifically, are worse than mine. And believe me, I've checked. Thoroughly."

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Len @len.bsky.social · 1d

I'd say big exceptions would be like, "Our strategy/tactics game is getting a big free update that you can check out on the following date:"

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Len @len.bsky.social · 1d

Honestly a big part of it is also that I don't write news anymore, so anything that's not a preview/review opportunity is probably not something it's worth pitching me on anyway. That should go to the news desk people.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 1d

People ask how I maintain Inbox Zero, which I have done for more than a decade, and the answer is basically extreme prejudice.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 1d

(F2P isn't an immediate spam flag, but it goes to "Promotions" which I scan maybe once a week, as opposed to my inbox which I read every morning. I have multiple levels of email purgatory.)

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Len @len.bsky.social · 1d

Another annoying thing about calling LLMs and GenAI "AI" is that I can't easily filter for it like I can with stuff like "F2P" because there would be too many false positives. So at this point it's basically just a blacklist where if you have pitched me on GenAI, emails from that address go to spam.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 1d

My proudest moment in journalism school wasn't anything I wrote, but when I took a piece from another editor and cut the word count in half without changing any of the points they made.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 2d

Denver

Len @len.bsky.social · 2d

Q: Wouldn't you be taking the weekend off anyway?

If I'm reviewing like a 60+ hour game, absolutely not. Not unless you can get me a review build 2 weeks+ before embargo. Not before launch. Before embargo. I regularly put in 10-12 hour days every day until it's done.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 2d

One whole day is just video editing. The script for that video needs to be ready to turn in the day before, so that's two days gone. And the video team does not work weekends. So if your embargo is on a Monday, the seven days you thought you were giving me to finish the game is actually three.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 2d

What this means to me in a practical sense is that I have at least two days fewer to review your game, and will thus be rushing unless you got code to me like at least two weeks out. Please don't do this if you can help it.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 2d

Embargo: Monday at 9 a.m. Pacific

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 6d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 3d

The longer the storyteller goes without telling you this, the more important to the plot it is and, probably, the more trouble you're in.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 3d

"Chekov's Malkavian" is when there's a Malkavian NPC in a Vampire: the Masquerade story and you don't know what's wrong with them yet, because it's probably going to be relevant to the plot at some point.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 3d

y'all played this game hades 2?

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Len @len.bsky.social · 3d

Hard to feel a great sense of loss about someone who thought I was some kind of abomination and was very abusive to my father, but I now have zero living grandparents, and that's certainly a life moment that feels strangely significant.

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Reposted by Len

Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 3d

Every time someone makes me read something Peter Thiel said it’s like “Scrooge McDuck is Jesus Christ and Huey, Dewey, and Louie are Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel and Daisy is Mary Magdalene and that’s why women voting has lowered American sperm count.”

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Len @len.bsky.social · 4d

If it gets above 80 at any point, summer isn't over yet.

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Len @len.bsky.social · 4d

My new benchmark for "it's actually fall" is when we have a 10-day forecast with no highs above 80 F, which would make this the first day of Actual Fall.

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