Why would we want a subsidized Steam Machine?

Subsidization pretty much requires that the hardware be locked down and walled-gardened so the subsidy they put into it eventually pays off. The Steam Machine, currently, lets you install whatever OS you want and use it like a regular PC without locking you into the Steam ecosystem at all.

"Okay, so they should make a locked-down subsidized one and an unlocked full price one" someone might ask. That's extra development and support work they have to put into it, and it would only be a matter of time before someone jailbreaks the subsidized one to work like the unlocked one.

Plus, you can make any capable PC a "Steam Machine" since they also give away Steam OS. My DIY Steam Machine runs Bazzite, but I was close to putting SteamOS on it. The only thing that made me choose Bazzite was that pretty much all of the patches and special module to support this former AMD crypto-mining card were already baked into Bazzite.

I don't have that information, but I almost bought a Deck to use in such a manner. Figured it would be easier to carry around than my laptop since I pretty much just move from a docking station in my office to the docking station in my den (my org is BYOD since pretty much everything is through Citrix). Ultimately decided to just buy a smaller laptop (yay X1 Carbon).

Honestly, it just sounds like you're mad at GabeN for having money.

Not sure if this counts, but I used to DJ at local bars and events. One evening, some guys had a bit too much and got into a brawl, so I put on Carl Douglas's "Kung Fu Fighting". People weren't as amused as I thought they'd be.

In my defense, I was very, very drunk. People would bring me shots of Wild Turkey to play their song, and I took a lot of requests that night (note: I took requests for free but they brought me shots anyway).

My thought process was basically "refuge in audacity" and that a soundtrack might snap them out of whatever drunken rage they were in. Psychology wasn't my major if that puts things into perspective.

So the song wasn't lying. Everybody was kung fu fighting.

I watched the whole series and did enjoy most of it, so keep that in mind because this is going to sound really, really critical.

Liked the premise but I feel like it just jumped the shark multiple times, kept going, and jumped the shark again every following season.

That said, yes, you're right that it does explore some interesting topics, but the way they did and kept raising the stakes every season just kind of ruined it. So much of it was just completely implausible even by TV science standards. And they basically rebooted the show in the last few seasons except with Space criminals replacing the grounders as the antagonists.

Conceptually, my favorite season was the first because of the survival theme, though the teenage drama kind of annoyed me (granted, it was a YA show and I wasn't exactly the target demographic). In practice, my favorite season was the one with ALLIE. It explored ethics in AI while being a bit of a mix of The Matrix and Invasion of the Body Snatchers with a touch of zombie movie. For better or worse, it also provided the backstory of much of the series.

Best character arc? Probably the authority guy from the beginning. Forget his name, but he looked like a young, store-brand Dustin Hoffman. (Edit: Kane?) Started out as the bureaucratic jerk, went through hell and stuck to his principles when refusing to take the ALLIE chip (and they even crucified him), and became one of the few level headed characters toward the end of the show.

Worst character arc? Probably a toss up between Clark and Octavia. It's like their worst attributes got turned up to 11.

Favorite character overall? Raven. She was basically a live-action Gadget from "Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers".

I thought it was profound at the time, but no, it wasn't at all.

This was a meme I posted a while back and based on a true story:

Basically I thought that plants were the manifestation of God himself. All around us, providing us with live-sustaining oxygen and food.

If we go by the logic in some media where the ghosts are bound to the house/property, they probably don't want to be stuck somewhere that will eventually just dissolve in the rain.

I would love to take a whole month off because yeah, it's also been years since I've taken proper time off. Enjoy it.

Ooh, nice. I wasn't aware there were softmods available for the 360 yet. I avoided modding it at all because I played a lot on XB Live and didn't want to get it banned but since that's shutdown, I may revisit the mod scene. Glad to know there's a softmod. I did the MechAssault one on my OG Xbox and it opened up all kinds of doors.

Honestly I have no idea. I don't think so? I vaguely recall the music at all, but I wanna say it was a kind-of techno background music which all sounds pretty generic to me (not my preferred genre).

Edit: According to TV Tropes, it does have music by Skrillex so maybe (renewing?) the music licensing wasn't worth it considering its low sales.

I dunno, but it did.

My original hard drive died and when I got a replacement, I just went to my purchase history and re-downloaded it. When I wanted to play it a few years ago and noticed it wasn't on my Xbox anymore, I went back to re-download it and it wasn't anywhere to be found in my history.

Probably something buried in the XB:Live ToS that says they can do whatever they want.

It's disappointing there are no resident cosplayers in that lounge area. Would be amazing for recording some low-budget fan works.

Plus, some of the mechanics are maybe a bit spicy for modern sensibilities.

Not that you're wrong (Wikipedia alludes to the same thing) but the only spicy mechanic I can recall is hacking an enemy's brain chip to make them temporarily fight on your side and commit suicide after it wears off. That's literally the exact same thing as "Possession" in Bioshock: Infinite that came out a year later.

I just have a Linux-based "DIY Steam Machine" so it'd have to be able to run under Proton. I may just buy a physical disc on eBay for ~$22 and hope my 360 doesn't crap out on me lol. It's the later "slim" model with an upgraded hard drive, so as long as I can install it and it reads the disc enough to start the game, I should be okay.

It kind of looks like Stephen Fry.

I found Xbox 360 copies on ebay but no PC ones. They're not expensive so maybe I'll just do that and then try to get an Xbox 360 emulator working on my (Linux) gaming system. My 360 works but is def on borrowed time.

Nice! I bought the XBLA Perfect Dark remake and really liked it. The Github repo is just the wrapper so I'll have to track down the actual assets, though.

Twitter ... got invaded by 4Chan mentally unstable losers and edgelords.

I mean, yeah? A mentally unstable edgelord loser bought the platform several years ago and remade it in his unstable, edgelord image. Every other complaint you have about Twitter is explained by that.