Honestly the EU is fucked up in so many ways but somehow still feels far more competent at doing good for its citizens than basically any other government institution, even if it’s of course not without its failures (looking at you, copyright reform).

Honestly, she’s insanely rich already, the main entity that would get money from buying hogwarts legacy is the dev studio and publisher. So for that reason I believe a boycott to be pretty pointless - she’s richer than anyone should ever be anyway, and that won’t change whether or not people buy whatever else is made with the IP.

I respect anyones decision to not buy it, because fuck jkr, but imo there’s also great reasons not to care in spite of her being a terf, and I don’t think anyone should be judged for buying it.

I think there’s a lot of backlash bc of the few lunatics that went and harrassed people for streaming the game, which of course gets reported on by sensationalist right wing media as “all trans people ever are doxxing everyone who they see play hogwarts legacy” and people believe that horseshit.

As someone who never cared all that much about HP anyway, it’s just one more reason to spend my money on something else instead. But if the same studio made hogwarts legacy 2 and it’s somehow the greatest game ever made instead of another slightly above average open world rpg, I’d probably buy it.

A lot of things I could buy end up giving some money to rich assholes that I’d rather not give anything to, after all. If anything, someone saying hateful things on twitter seems middle of the field, even if I’m part of the group being targeted.

I can agree with the consecutive spending one, that seems like something that shouldn’t be allowed, but log in bonuses? Sure it’s an obvious way of getting people to keep playing your game by at least getting them to log in, but it’s functionally no different from daily quests in that regard. Wow, now your log in bonus is instead a daily quest to do something extremely trivial that takes 10 seconds. And if lawmakers start wanting to forbid the concept of daily quests then I would like them to get the fuck away from my hobby.

First time spending bonuses kinda w/e, it is a pretty manipulative thing but it’s so easy to work around too, just put in a one time purchasable thing that gives better value.

Makes sense though since the article said it’s more about the scare of more such regulation coming than necessarily the specific proposal.

Because they can’t (couldn’t?) build it for the usual reasons that there’s one place on the route where they have trouble getting permission. Not because of any faults with the technology.

Also wasn’t even the original planned completion date still in the future? You don’t build hundreds of km of railway featuring some of the longest railway tunnels ever built in a year.

It solves the problem of long travel times if you’re not flying. Not in this case of course, but in general. Even a straight line HSR line from e.g. Hamburg to Munich could never compete with a plane. Maglev could.

There are plenty of caveats in the additional requirements for higher speed trains, but there is a reap problem to be solved.

Japan is in the middle of building a very long maglev line, what about it is supposed to be not at all ready?

There’s still no point for a 10km intracity line, but for important long distance routes it seems like the best way to kill flights, though we’ll see how it works out for japan whenever they finish it.

Yeah, I get it for effectively 32€ through my employer due to the payment being pre-tax and a slight discount on top. Sucks that public transport is so poor for you, I only use it when it’s really cold but going by bus takes maybe 5 minutes longer than cycling for me, and I’d guess maybe 10 minutes longer than if I had a car and used that.

For me the ticket is worth it just for the occasional regional train, though. Visiting family for christmas over 2 days already pays for it for an entire month, since the train ticket itself would be 20€ one way.

The article says that 90% of 39 million euros in public transport revenue came from locals, so the cost should be around 35 million, perhaps with some savings on staff or infrastructure since fewer people have to buy tickets (as well as possibly less road maintenance if fewer people use cars as a result). And the city is financing it through a new tax on companies with more than 11 employees.

It’s not a world ending amount of money, so I don’t see why it shouldn’t be viable. Germany’s 49€-ticket, while currently having some financing trouble, is similar too in that it is extremely cheap, and is nationwide, and it happened in a nation with an extremely strong car lobby.

It’s not free, but it should be possible anywhere with enough political will.

This situation somewhat does. Yes there’s also been Orban being a fuck about EU help, but armament wise the US has been the primary supplier, and if US aid wasn’t running out, Ukraine wouldn’t be facing these issues, regardless of whether the EU or even other actors also could’ve prevented this.