I remember when there was a discussion on Twitter about Shein's manufacturing practices and some apologists invented all sorts of fantastical machinery and technology to avoid facing the more horrifying truth. Reminds me of this comedian's joke.

IG bscomedian

Or hell, if they're unwilling to get voice actors to do them, get the developers to record their own as a cool little easter egg!

There has always been alternate methods. Gen AI slop is a conscious choice.

If it's meaningless they don't need it at all. If it's meaningful they should hire people to do it.

Image context: Nexon owns Embark Studios.

But for some reason we are supposed to accept that Emabrk simply cannot stand to pay someone to record lines such as "I need a medpack" and "I'm looking for light ammo" then wait for them to put the file in a dropbox.

We gotta stop accepting worse when we could have much, much better.

worth in 2015- but in 2016 they were valued at ~2.5 Billion. If we assumed that Fallout 4 caused the company to double in value, they would have been worth approx ~1.2 Billion before release. Yet they got all those unique lines of dialogue AND Lynda Carter on the voice cast.

Remember: In 2015, Fallout 4 released and Codsworth was able to say close to 1,000 unique first names because they recorded those lines for the sake of immersion and a more satisfying user experience. The game cost an estimated $150-$200 million to make. I can't seem to find how much ZeniMax was

single line and had a much stronger product. I think The Finals and ARC Raiders look like great games that I would love to play. But playing these games implies to the greater development community that these choices are fine and justified, so long as someone was paid.

It's more enshitification.

"But the voice actors got paid! They licensed their voice to Embark specifically for this purpose!"

Okay? I still think the voice lines suck. You can absolutely tell that they are synthesized and it ruins immersion. Even if you couldn't tell, Embark *still* could have paid actors to voice every

People will log onto bluesky and say anything. “My Nazi friend is very trustworthy” no he’s not. That’s not true.

fuck gavin newsom 🖕

Trans & NB folk, as well as women and girls should not have to be forced to play against *only* each other because of cis people with closed minds, cold hearts, and fragile egos.

If you're worried about losing to trans people/women- Get good! Be better! Prove you can hang with THEM!

Exhausting.

reputation for being very aggressive and physical on the field. They were indeed, and we never beat them! They sent our boys home with bruises!

Co-ed leagues for all ages should be normalized and mainstream so that we might put this tired ass, withering conversation to rest.