I want to start of by saying I love this game, bought it on PlayStation and I would say 85% of the people I’ve played with are either weirdos or great people, we communicate, chat and have a great time. Last night I jumped into a game on a squad with no officer so I decided to go ahead and take up the role. The commander we had was great (hope you’re on here buddy). At some point I notice that someone in command chat keeps using the n-word over and over, it’s someone who has no gamertag, it’s just blank. At some point the commander mentions that he himself in fact is half black and the racist dude just won’t stop saying it, yelling it, into his mic. I tried vote kicking him, no dice, I reported him (not sure if anything gets done with that). The guy just won’t stop. I finally asked him to stop, I told him that it’s enough and it’s not funny, and what’s this guy do? Vote kicks me for cheating and gets me fucking banned. Cheating? Man I have a hard time remembering my email passwords how the hell would I hack or cheat on my ps5?
Anyways I’m sorry if I wasted anyone’s time reading this, it’s just really upsetting to run into people like that. Whoever that racist guy is, I hope you get to a happier place in your life
Hope everyone has a great day

Edit: Law enforcement said there is nothing they can do because I didn't let it go far enough. They said he needed to have shared the information and made plans to meet or have something sexual in nature shared for them to be able to even take a report. As of now there is nothing to report cause it was just a kid playing a game with an adult.
Very long but please read I need help.
My son, 10 yr we will call J. I think he was being groomed online.
Background: I let all my kids,m14 (C) f13(K), play cod and fortnite. They can play online and only add friends to fortnite not PS or switch as I set up their epic games account to not have any information on who they are.
There are only 2 TVs in our house as I don't allow TVs in the bedrooms. My husband and I made our living room into our bedroom so each kid could have a bedroom and the 4th room(which has no door) is their classroom. The TV where they can play is in the classroom and it is 15 feet from where I am at all times in my LBR. I can hear everything going on.
I have some rules in my house for online gaming. When chatting through a mic they cant use their real names unless they are only playing with family. They can't share any personal information including when and where they go to school or what state they live in, how many siblings they have, parents names etc. They can only play 2 hours at a time and only after school work is finished or they are on holiday. No chatting or sending messages, only talking on mic when in the game about the game. I didn't think that was an outrageous set of rules.
I started allowing the older 2 in 2021 after covid as I kept them home for virtual learning. I allowed my youngest beginning 2022 since they remained home for homeschooling.
Only the older 2 have cellphones and no one is allowed discord unless it is family only.
I have a weird schedule for teaching as I have insomnia and are up all night. Their school day begins around 4pm for anything I have to actually teach, if it's independent work they can do it at any time. (thus they have a lot of free time from morning until 4pm). I am awake from 4pm until 2pm every weekday. Yes I get 2 hours of sleep. Come Saturday and Sunday I sleep all day since my husband is home.
The situation: Winter break for my kids was the week of Christmas through January 15 (we got covid so I ended up giving them a month off.)
J had no one online to play with during one of those days they weren't doing school work in January and did a random party search on fortnite. This is where he met this girl. He said her voice sounded funny and asked if she was using a voice changer. She laughed and said no it is probably cause she is a singer (idk how that makes sense but ok) he added her to fortnite after a few games and he told his siblings about her.
She played with C but she said she didn't like playing with him and stayed only playing with him if he was already playing with J. When I would ask my son to do something my daughter, K, would hop on and play for him. This girl was very mean to my daughter telling her she was bad at the game, no help, didn't need to be playing etc. K was having none of that and told her off real quick and never played for him again. When I was told about this I wrote it off as a teen mean girl. K said she told her she was 16.
Everything was normal I didn't hear anymore about this girl until this past week. It started on Wednesday with J asking if he could send her a pic of his cat. I asked how he would do that if they can't message on fortnite. He said he added her to ps which was a rule break. I told him absolutely not and he wasn't allowed to have her on ps. He said "she said it was ok since I know her real name and who she is." I told him absolutely not to remove her now.
This is when I began asking questions. I asked C who still had her as a friend on fortnite but didn't play with her, if he knew her age he said she told him she was 20. So she told K she was 16 and C she was 20. I asked how long they had played with her and was told less than a month. I told J to play with some other people for now as I am getting a weird vibe. He said ok. Thursday I start hearing her name again. Apparently she sent him emotes and skins and stuff when he didn't play with her that day. So he played with her to thank her. I told him he had to get off for dinner and was going to use that time to talk to him. She got mad when he said he had to go, because they were in a match. I let him finish the match and she told him she was sad he had to go because she really wanted to play with him. I told him again to get off and he did.
At dinner I began asking more questions and learned she was always really nice to only him. She would get after others if they told him anything ugly. She would talk to him about her life and she told him she was in her 30s and could be like his mom. She told him her full name and asked for his, he said he didn't give it but it's on his ps profile as far as I know so she had it. She apparently had asked all their ages when they first met her and only J and my nephew shared theirs. That's when she picked my nephew to begin talking to and playing with, but the minute she told him what to do in a mother type way he said nope and unfriended her. So then she went to J.
I told J I was feeling weird about it and that I didn't think he should play with her. He started to get hurt because he said not many of his friends are online. I felt bad because he hasnt had much time to play with his friends recently and made a stupid decision to let him continuing playing with her one more day while I discussed my feelings with my husband.
The next day Friday I was very busy packing. We were having some work done on the house and were going to go stay at a hotel for the weekend like a mini vacation. I let J and C play together while K and I packed. At one point I heard J say "we are going to a hotel for the weekend. It's in..." I immediately yelled for him to stop him from talking and he did and came straight to me. I told him to get off right now. He did, and I asked him who he was talking to and what he was saying.
He said "I'm talking to (gamertag), I told her I wouldn't be on all weekend and she asked why, so I told her we were going to a hotel for the weekend she asked where the hotel was and I was gonna tell her its in the same city I live in and why." I asked why he was sharing this information with someone he didn't know and explained why that wasn't ok. He said he did know her. He knew her name and that she was a singer and he knew what she looked like and that it was ok cause she said they were friends.
Now I'm angry at myself and this woman. I have told and taught all of them the dangers of sharing information and trusting strangers but he said she was nice to him and was his friend. So all this month she had been nice to him, gifting him things and making sure he knew she was his friend. I felt so stupid I didn't see it before. After all that was done she picked Friday to begin the questions. Here are some of them and his responses.
She asked him what time he went to school and where. He told her he was homeschooled and she didn't like that. She said he needed to be in school and asked what school he would go to if he went and he said he didn't know probably his dad school. He claims he didn't give her a school name. She asked his bday he claims he didn't give it, idk if he did. She asked for his siblings names again he says he didn't give them. She asked where he was from what city or state. Where his parents worked. If he was homeschooled was there a parent home during the day or just his siblings?
All those questions were asked during the 2 games he played with her Friday. Both games were played with C playing with him so it is very possible he truly didn't give her any of that information.
I talked to my husband and asked if this was grooming behaviour even if it wasn't sexual. He said it was and I feel like it is. The name she gave him was a fake name we messaged that girls mom (since she used her name and photo we found them easily) and the mom said it wasn't her to please report her.
So now here I am asking what do I do? The only information I have is a gamertag which is not very appropriate and if I search the gamertag of her and the 2 friends she made J add, on Google all 3 are pornstar names.
Do I go to the police or the local FBI office even though all I have is the gamertag? Because she is blocked now I can't see her information or the messages she sent J. As soon as she saw he blocked her this morning (once we got back home) she changed her profile pic to a cartoon picture. Please help me. I feel like I really messed up and I want to make sure whoever this is doesn't do this to anyone else. I'm just glad I stopped it before it got worse.

Hello all! I was initially going to keep this post short since the sale's ending soon anyway, but I decided to still put effort into this considering it was something I actually wanted; and was raised knowing that if you wanted something, you should try your hardest to get it.
Now, frankly, I don't think I'm much of a writer; I'm very inexperienced in a way that's noticeable after reading a few sentences on my post I'm sure, so I apologise in advanced if what I'm about to write is messy and or all over the place! Hope that doesn't ruin my chances too much, to anyone reading.
Now, why I want Red Dead Online; the last open world online game I played was I believe GTA 5, I did not own the game; so I often times simply leeched off my sibling's console whenever he was asleep or at work; since it created an opportunity for me to escape the bothersome day to day life most people in poverty are forced to experience.
This game wasn't much, it was considered garbage by most people who played it; but without a doubt in my mind it had to have been one of the funnies, thrilling games, I've ever been presented with the opportunity to play. Now, with my brother long gone, I'm stuck reminiscing about it; staying up at night while he slept to get my few hours of gaming in before school, making sure the noises of the console weren't too loud so he wouldn't wake up. I miss it, and the joy in which game brought me for those little moments I now find myself looking back towards.
I want to get that same feeling, but not from GTA; from a game that came out later, Red Dead Online; a really exciting game from what I've seen featuring no lack in customisation, gameplay, or things to do just to pass the time. I know it's not 1:1 to GTA online but I love it, if I could get my hands on it I imagine it'd be the only game I play for weeks and weeks. Just customizing my character, building a crew, building a legacy, that's what I wanna do.
As for why I can't buy the game myself; besides the medical bills that are costly due to living in America (WISH I could move), I'm currently trying to save up money to shift from this living situation to another one that accommodates my medical needs better; it's also, luckily, very close to the main hospital i visit just-in-case for emergencies.
I seemingly, likely, don't have as valid as a reason as other people here; but I'd be happy to receive the game, and you'd bring me tons of joy. Thank you, if you've read to the end; and have a nice day! Even IF you don't give it to me, I hope you find someone else that may better convince you.
Xbox Profile: https://account.xbox.com/en-us/profile?gamertag=Sheeberk
Xbox Game: https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/red-dead-online/9n3l5ff8m6sw

How did you get your gamertag?
Is there any funny or emltional history behind it? Mine is Julevad0, because my name starts with Ju, and when i was a kid my father always called me Levado (basically IMP in portuguese) and the 0 at the end is because i thought it would sound cooler with a number in it lol, what is your gamertag history?

Is there any funny or emltional history behind it? Mine is Julevad0, because my name starts with Ju, and when i was a kid my father always called me Levado (basically IMP in portuguese) and the 0 at the end is because i thought it would sound cooler with a number in it lol, what is your gamertag history?

So I've been on this sub for a while and I noticed that many here struggle with gamer tags and coming up with new ones. Especially of the more feminine variety. You may have seen some of my comments replying to various request for suggestions as well but I want to give like a quick run down of my thought process and how I come up with something. I'll also suggest a few name generators that may help as well.
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• What do you like?

This one should be very easy to start with. A go way to come up with a new name or gamer tag would be to make a list or think about the types of games, movies, books, or anything else you enjoy. It would also help to rank what you like the most in maybe some form of tier list. Maybe you enjoy horror movies more than you enjoy manga, or you like strategy rpgs over classic jrpgs. Really consider what you want to incorporate into your new name/gamer tag.
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• Let's get specific

So you've narrowed down the things you would like to focus on for your name but it's still a little broad. Now let's narrow things down a little. Let's say you're someone who enjoys Apex Legends and DC Comics. Who would be your favorite DC Character or Apex Legends character? Maybe there's a specific weapon you enjoy using in Apex or there's a particular run in DC comics you enjoy a lot. Try thinking of a way to blend together two specifics from your most favorite media.
Example: Favorite DC character is Harley Quinn and the best gun, in your opinion, in Apex is the R-301 or Havoc. An easy blend would be to use the name Havoc Harley, a nice play on the character Harley Quinn being chaotic in nature while blending your two favorite things. Another good option would be to go even deeper thinking about the colors Harley Quinn may wear as well, so something like Red Carbine/Havoc would also fit as well.
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• That's My Name, Don't Wear it Out

Something that I see a lot of people want to incorporate is their name into their gamertags as well. They may not want to use their regular name but maybe use a play on their name to make it a bit funny. Let's say you are a Souls fan and your name is Ashley. There's a location in one of the games called the Ash Lake. So with your name being Ashley and Dark Souls being a top game of yours you may want to use this to have a play on your regular name. Something like Ash of the Lake, Lake Born Ash, Lake the Ash, Ash in Lake(a play on like Ashen Lake, I guess), Ash by Lake, might be something you want to give a go.
Some people I know that use their real name in their gamer tags have some creative ones. I know a girl who goes by NikoMochii with her real name being Nicole, mixed with mochi. Alother girl I know her name is Kayce but her tag is Kayceeedilla, blending together her name and quesadilla
This is about all I have as for as how to maybe come up with something. Hopefully this helps those who may want to switch up their name/gamer tag. And if you would like for me to make some suggestions please feel free to ask. I love coming up with new tags for people. And if you have anything you would like to add as well please feel free to comment.

I will try to keep this short as I am looking for advice and perspective only really...
If it's relevant, all parties are now in their 30s and TL;DR at bottom because fuck I see why people do this, because shit got long quick.
In 2019/2020ish I went NC with a former roommate and close friend without giving them notice. We had been friends since high-school and were roommates for about 3 years after college.
The long and the short of it is that it was brought to my attention that mutual friends had been badmouthing me and spreading outright lies about me. The kind where I should have sought a lawyer and sued for defamation and slander. The trouble with that was that the lie, in particular, related to something that happened in 2015 and most of the defamation and slander occurred then. I did not even find out this was occurring until 2019 as no one ever dared confront me in this friend group. I also had nothing in writing or audio, save the very distant acquaintance informing me via text because, in their words, "they just never got that vibe from me."
I blocked and went NC with said good friend and former roommate, as they are VERY close with the parties responsible for the lies. Everything began to make sense... the mutuals distancing themselves from me... the former roommate not inviting me to particular life events you'd think a close friend would be invited to, etc. Yet former roommate would still run to me every day to unload emotionally, ask for advice, ask how I am doing, etc...
Needless to say, I didn't particularly care about losing said mutuals over this.. as people who spread this type of gossip aren't actually your friend and in the interest of transparency, I had been distancing myself from said mutuals for my own personal moral reasons... but my former roommate.. man that one just really really stung. I was so hurt that I couldn't bring myself to confront them. I was pretty inconsolable.
My going NC with former roommate happened at a specific point in time that they were very confused and hurt from as well. To make this part also short and not vague, we are gamers and were each other's duo. I basically dumped them at the end of WoW classic, right before TBC classic, and they were pumped for us to arena, as they never played vanilla and didn't care for it. They started their addiction at TBC vanilla in childhood.
To this day I don't know why former roommate never confronted me or defended me, or hell - even let me know it was occuring. They knew I wasn't the person I was being made out to be. The mutuals that were responsible, former roommate knew first, so I imagine they felt conflicted.
Why I am here because damn that got long quick;
Wouldn't you fucking know it? Fate brought us together in a ranked match for our game (not crack related). I had blocked them on the account I used at the time we were still friends, but I've transitioned since then (I am a Trans woman), and thus made a new gamertag. I honestly never even thought to block them on my new tag. I recognized their tag immediately. I wanted to immediately type and discern if it were them or not (though I knew for certain already), but decided to just play the match because, duh, grinding elo and can't tilt my team... but as the match went on it was undeniably them. I cracked, and as the match progressed I started casually sliding in our inside jokes after good plays we'd make together (it's funny how even not on comms you can have great chemistry with another person). They never responded.
I friended them after the match but they either declined or it is still pending.
What brings me here? Well, I have a sleep disorder. A side effect is vivid dreams. Former roommate has been in them a lot recently since the match, and I've grown a bit since all of this transpired. I've also lost a lot of friends due to my transition, and I am thinking if maybe I should reach out. I don't have their number anymore, but have an old phone and can dig it up.
What say you Reddit (if anyone bothers to read this)? Would you want to hear from an old friend that blocked you out of nowhere? If I did reach out, what do I even say? Should I bring up why I blocked them in the first place? I'm worried I'm just hormonal, and admittedly a bit lonelier than I was back then, as again I've lost and pruned my friendships as I began my transition... but if there's ever a person that I've wondered if I made a wrong choice regarding our relationship, it would be my duo.
TL;DR - I blocked and went NC with a former roommate and close friend in 2019/2020. Fate brought us back together last week and I haven't been able to shake whether or not I've made a mistake in regards to ending things how I did. Should I reach out? What does one say in this situation? If you were the roommate, given the circumstances, would you even want to hear from me? Was it a mistake to block and run without confrontation?
Forgot RA rules - I'm a Trans woman and my duo is a dude. Fuck me I went through all that effort to control my pronoun use so it'd be more anonymous just to be boned by rules. Rules are made to be broken... like buildings.... OR PEOPLE

Let me get this started but I do warn This does contain some really stupid shit (I was 13 at the time) so yk how teens are with decision making its really bad so there's gonna be some corny parts and really had decision making
Let's begin
As a child I lost my mother at the age of 7 and my father at the age of 10.
My mother died due to a massive seizure. And my father due to a gunshot wound caused by a argument with my grandpa and him.
It left a mark since they fought over who would take me where (my dad wanted us to go to Delaware and my grandpa wanted me to stay) but the gun accidently went off and boom. Dead instantly
It wasn't more of the dead body that left the mark it was the fact that is was over me. For years I blamed myself and shouldered all of the burden on myself and as a 11 year old kid I was really mentally unstable sometimes
But I used games to control my feelings and I made accouple of friends named A1-ask1,raze Tazmaina and pennywisenickjay.
Eventually we played a squads game on forntite since it was popular at the time and met a girl named mingleck (can't give out irl name)
We all played and we all instantly click as friends but me and mingleck connected more than others. She would support me through my problems including a bit of trauma from my father's death,Suicidal thoughts, bullying and a bunch of other shit.
But she was always there for me. Then the drama started..
Let me sum it up for you all
A1-ask1 dated her for 3 months.. then raze.. and yeah it was real hectic but fun.
Eventually we all kinda split up into our own lives and me and mingleck stayed together. We had similar personality interests and morals so we clicked as more of bestfriends after everything. At least I considered her my best friend.
But 8 months in I caught feelings for her. I mean she was gorgeous,funny,kind and really smart and clever.
So by month 12 I asked her out and she accepted and we started to date. Though her parents didn't like me due to me cussing alot but I understood that.
So we did the honeymoon phase for 4 months and then eventually we parted ways since we both had alot to work on but agreed to reunite every holiday to spend time together.
Now let's start my downfall as a person..
A month into our relationship a guy named kaiden barker (haahoo419 was his gamertag) the kid was a real asshole..
But ofc I was niave and trusted him and he manipulated me into making a "deal" with him.
The deal was
If he won he would get mingleck
If I won nothing would change.
Not a win at all ik.. but I went for it.
But mingleck told me she put her full trust and agreed to the terms but as soon as we began he spoke to me
And said I remember it clearly "I'm gonna fuck your girlfriend" and I kinda just snapped and lost focus and lost the deal. I mean I was pissed after I lost not to the fact that I lost but to the fact that he even said that just imagining it made my blood boil.
But ofc I'm not that dumb lol.. I alr set up a plan to get her back and I did. Simple and done
Though I kept him as a friend since I really had no one other than my girlfriend at the time
But the relationship other than that fuck up was good. It really messed me up mentally since I thought that if I couldn't even keep someone like kaiden barker away than what would happen later. And u convinced myself I wasn't worthy of her love.
She always convinced me otherwise but I kept on insisting and it stuck in my head.
She comforted me and told me I was always enough and that she would never leave me but. I just told myself otherwise.
I mean she is way outta my league at the time gorgeous,funny,kind and really smart
I kinda had nothing going for me expect I was good at art and painting and also a bit of cleverness when it came to planning but thats all.
Buy anyway then the thoughts just overwhelmed me and I wouldn't self diagnose but I felt depressed ig? Idk how to explain it.
But yeah she always told me she was there for me and she was.
2 years later on July 6th 2022
I really wanted to spend more time with her but I was so scared that. I don't know why I was scared but I couldn't express myself and tell her.
So I just sent 2 photos to my friend asked him to send it to her and say happy b day tomorrow to freak her out and yk grab her attention.
Ofc it did but yeah she was really pissed. And I don't blame her.. I broke her trust in me and that's on me.
But yeah we talked and eventually she broke up with me and yeah
I tried multiple times to apologize to no avail even now I'm still trying my best a year and a half later.
Apologies won't work I'm sure. I know what iv done is disgusting and I hate myself for it but.
Iv realized my faults in the relationship as I look back at it.. I could've been such a better person but i was immature and a bit egotistical and I let my emotions get the better of me.
I'd give anything just to be able to apologize but I'm kinda no contact and I have no idea what to do.
I really want to at least explain myself. Thats all I'm not even asking for forgiveness I just want to try to talk with her.
What should I do?

TLDR: vpn lobbies are full of sweats, hacks, and maybe a couple bots. If you’re an average player with a fairly common kd such as 1:0 like myself, don’t use a VPN. You’ll get shit on and hacked on.
Ok, so the other night and I’m watching some of my favorite steamers do their thing, rack up ungodly amounts of kills, having fun in chat, and seeing the usual comments come in saying things like “bot lobby” “aimbot” etc. I’ve always known steamers and good players usually abuse SBMM by using a vpn but it never really affected me until mw3. These players are indeed very good at the game, but don’t be fooled, they also have several tricks up their sleeve. SBMM is completely fucked and lobby’s are heavily stacked against us because of the amount of vpn players. I can see it being a bigger problem than cheating itself. This game literally got more difficult since mw3 and I’m genuinely suspicious as to why?
Here’s where things get interesting:
I started to watch the (insert twitch streamers name here) killfeed and it was literally stream snipers dropping on them just to feed them kills. They were fans. Prox chat was used and they’d even yell his name like it was a game of cat and mouse. Just for the entertainment value. The average viewer doesn’t know this, nor cares enough to watch the killfeed and see the same gamertags appear like 20 times in the same lobby’s. I felt like this was some sorta joke. Purely for entertainment purposes, which it is. But it’s also extremely manipulative.
Of course we’ve always known that using a vpn will somehow miraculously give us easy lobbys right? Kinda. But not for average kd players like us.
Being a pc player myself, and having a vpn for over 15 years now for m movies/plex server, I decided to connect to random servers in different geographical regions.
Regardless of what country I chose to connect to, I was placed in the sweatiest, nastiest, hackiest lobbys I’ve ever seen. It was laughable. I even kinda thought it was funny cuz I’ve never seen so many hackers and sweats in a single lobby before. I’m literally never one to make hackusations either, cuz i know people are extremely good at the game and I do know when things are unusually suspicious.
I was in their lobby. The same lobby as the “professional twitch streamers” all the sudden. Wild huh?
The few points I’m trying to make here are this:

1. SBMM is fucked now more than ever, as we are playing an algorithm. We aren’t playing COD, COD is playing us.
   
2. If you are an average player, around 1kd or less, then do not even think about using a vpn to try and get you easy lobbies. It will ever happen. YOU and I ARE the bot lobbies that they seek.
   
3. Having a god tier gaming pc like I do will not make you a better player. My kd never went up after switching from Xbox to a 4090 build at 240hz. It’s graphically stunning, and higher performing, but doesn’t help me win fights.
   
4. Your favorite Twitch streamer uses vpn and has a few tricks up their sleeve to make vods and get high kill games. It’s a network between them all and they also don’t want to be in eachothers lobby’s when they’re live streaming to hundred/thousands of viewers.
   
5. If you wanna see half the lobby using Aimbot and walls, and get completely shit on, use a vpn.
   
6. If you wanna suffer like the rest of us in more subtle way, then don’t use a vpn.
   
7. I did see several people ricochet’d from the lobby though. It shows they got kicked by Ricohet at the bottom left. That was entertaining.
   
8. Merry Christmas. Thanks for reading.
   

I've been trying to log into my old xbox live account I made in like 2008 to no success. It tells me I'm locked out due to suspicious activity, and wants a verification code from an email I don't have access to. I've tried the account recovery form of course, which doesn't work, despite me knowing the account name, the gamertag, the password, the security question, the console ID, and everything else but maybe the birth year. WTF? What more does it want?
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Am I making a mistake or is the form is actually broken, too? It asks me for a credit card that was used to make a past purchase, and the earliest year it offers is like 2022? WTF? The last time I used to the account to make a purchase was like ten years ago! I literally cannot input the correct answer—wtf should I do?
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I've tried calling support twice, and so far they've said they can't do anything.
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I've read some other reddit posts saying if you keep calling them, eventually you'll get someone who'll do something. However, these posts are from years ago. Is this still true?
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Does anyone know any details about the Account Recovery Form Process that might be able to help me? I don't see how I can know all the details about the account and be locked out. I didn't even forget my password! I fucking know everything AND have the original xbox (which I just repaired all these years later) but Microshaft decided to lock me out for no reason. Seriously wtf.
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By the way, to even request a number from the call center, they require you to sign in—which I can't do because I'm locked out! Which is why I'm calling! I had to create another fake account just to get in contact with the call center only to explain to them I'm calling about a different account. Between this, the broken forms, etc, this is hilariously kafkaesque. It'd be funny if it weren't painful.

I just want to share with you all what just happened to me, I'm pretty new to the game but I'm already familiar with almost everything.
I was docked (galleon) and maneuvering to unload at sovereign when this microphoned guy comes in with another kid, he starts raising my sails and then throwing my loot overboard. I wasn't capable of doing anything due to needing to vote for brig or for scuttling (I didn't really care much for the loot, more for the time I lost collecting it).
I'm a non native speaker and I was texting on xbox with the controller. I called him some names (nothing racist nor homophobic) and most of all tried to passive-aggressively make him reason over his bad behaviour and whatever kind of sick enjoyment he might have gotten from that kind of behaviour.
During the whole thing he respectively mocked me for - Having thwarted my selling and thrown my loot overboard - Using british english insults (He was American, duh) - My english - My gamertag - Texting from an Xbox and not using a mic (which I have anyways) - Getting more than reasonably upset - He called me schizophrenic - He generally maintained a provocative and smug attitude
He finally asked "what do you think about the gays?" Then stormed out when I confirmed that I am, in fact, "a gay", screaming "OH, HE IS GAY!?". Followed by the kid he had brought along. I have that moment recorded and it's actually pretty funny.
I'm not able to share specifically everything that happened also because I didn't record the whole encounter, I reported him with a more or less specific description but I don't think any action will be taken.
This might be more of a rant than else. But I want your opinion: what would you do in this situation, or suggest I did or do in the future? I know most people will probably tell me to simply log off, which makes sense, but I'm prone to engage in conversations with griefers/harassers.
I'll probably be more mindful next time and record encounters like this, if they ever happen again, and keep reporting this dumb unsporting behaviour.
I understand attacking and robbing the loot of a crew, I understand placing dynamite on a ship and kill the owner while he is selling (also happened to me), I understand sailing only around an outpost waiting for ships to come by to be robbed. I don't approve of it and I don't do it because I think it's toxic, but I understand it. Joining just to ruin someone's experience, that's what I don't understand, I really can't see what's funny or enjoyable about it.
I didn't care about the loot he destroyed, I cared about my time and not being treated like garbage by an idiot in a fucking videogame. Is it asking too much?
I met many good people in the game but experiences like this (it's not my first instance of randoms being harassers) just make me want to stop playing, why do I/we have to put up with these people with nothing better to do than provoke and just being mean and disrespectful just for the sake of it?
Right now I'm going to bed later than I would've if I simply could've sold my loot and logged off, but had to waste time reporting that idiot and wanted to write this post to ask what do you think about it and what would you suggest.
Finally, if those who act like the guy I described (or maybe he himself) are reading this, I just want to let you know that it's not funny and that you're, or could be, better than this. But then again probably not.
Peace.
EDIT: I wrote this las night but had issues with automoderator.

Explanations below. This is obviously incredibly subjective, but I'm focusing on the names themselves here, not the groups. This isn't all of the groups with a "1" in their name, but it's the ones that either I know or thought sounded interesting or had talking points to bring up. Anyway:
S Tier (Best)
2NE1
A Tier
10cm 1TEAM F1RST H1-KEY Wanna One
B Tier (Upper Average)
D1CE FAVE1 I.O.I P1Harmony UP10TION As One Onewe OnlyOneOf
C Tier (Lower Average)
100% ILY:1 Loona 1/3 TO1 X1 Year 7 Class 1 ONEUS
D Tier
1THE9 Kep1er NCT 127 We1ne IZ*One ZEROBASEONE
F Tier (Worst)
B1A4 As One
Explanations:
100%: The phrase 100% is used way too much colloquially for it to be a good name. You want a name to stand out and be recognizable and distinct. That said, it’s still a very clean name, so C Tier.
10cm: Kinda cute. Makes me think that the members are like tiny little dudes who are 10cm tall. Or maybe it refers to a 10cm height difference, like Mamamoo’s 1cm. Either way, it’s clean and recognizable and cute. A tier.
1THE9: It’s alright. My biggest problem is that it’s kind of hard to pronounce: your tongue has to do a lot of work to say “one the nine”. It also isn’t particularly clean, looks kind of like a COD gamertag. D Tier barely, could push C Tier.
1TEAM: I mean, they aren’t lying. This group is, in fact, one team. Clean and accurate, A Tier.
2NE1: This is like, everything that a kpop name should be. It’s clever, clean, short, concise, cute, and it can be read and interpreted multiple ways. To Anyone or Twenty One, S Tier either way.
B1A4: I’m sure this has some clever meaning within the fandom, but I sure can’t guess what that meaning is. It’s two seemingly random letters and two seemingly random numbers, they aren’t easy to pronounce, and it doesn’t look cute either. F Tier.
D1CE: Clean, easy to pronounce, looks good. I don’t think the “1” does a ton for the name here, like they could be called “Dice” and the name would be more or less the same. But it’s still a pretty good name so we’ll go B tier.
F1RST: Hah! Get it! They’re first, so they put a 1 in their name! That’s hilarious, easy A Tier.
FAVE1: This is pretty good. If this is you’re favorite group, then they’re your fave1. And if you want to communicate how great the group is, tell people that they’re your fave1. A bit hard to pronounce though, so B Tier.
H1-KEY: Not sure what the “1” means here, but “high-key” is a fantastic name for a kpop group. The “1” also implies the reading of “hi key,” which is cute too. Multiple interpretations, easy to pronounce, word play, A Tier.
I.O.I: Yeah yeah I know there’s no “one” here but who cares, Mnet isn’t fooling anybody here. The Produce/Planet names as a whole are an entire discussion in themselves, But “I.O.I” is really fun to say, it looks good, and it references the source of the group. B Tier because it’s a great name, but it doesn’t actually have a “1” in it so it would feel weird to put it higher.
ILY:1: My main issue with this name is that even though it’s pronounceable (eye-lee-one), it doesn’t look pronounceable. Like if you came across this name with no context, you’d think it’s pronounced “eye ell why one”, which is pretty confusing and way too much effort to think about. It looks cute, sure, so we’ll say C tier.
Kep1er: This name could be “Kepler” but they had to shoehorn in a “1” because it’s a Produce/Planet group. Plus the name kind of pigeonholes their concept and that’s never ideal. D Tier.
Loona 1/3: This group is, in fact, one third of Loona. So the name is, in fact, accurate. But it’s a lot of work to say, so C Tier.
NCT 127: This name looks bad, it’s hard to say, the meaning isn’t obvious – but at least it’s short. What does “neo culture technology” have to do with a kpop group anyway? D Tier.
P1Harmony: This is a really cute name. Reminiscent of Fifth Harmony, and it sure looks like the name of a music group. Plus who doesn’t like harmony? It’s good but not too special, B Tier.
TO1: I have literally nothing to say about this name. C Tier.
UP10TION: This is neat, they use the word “ten” as in “tension”, except the also use the English “tio” spelling to make the “sh” sound. Points for inter-linguistic wordplay, but it also looks like a COD gamertag so B Tier.
We1ne: Wait, so it’s spelled “We-one-ne”, but it’s just pronounced “We one”? That’s kinda confusing, why even add the “ne” at that point? Also it looks uncomfortably like “wenie” and that won’t do. D tier.
X1: Boring Mnet being boring Mnet. There is nothing interesting about this name, and it isn’t like bad either, just boring. C Tier.
Year 7 Class 1: Honestly this is a pretty unique name, but it’s so long. Like, if your name takes five syllables to pronounce, people are just gonna shorten it anyway. So at that point use the shortened version in the first place! But it’s still unique and kinda cute so C Tier.
As One / As One: So apparently there are two groups called “As One” and that’s not gonna work, a name needs to be unique and recognizable. So we’ll give the first group B Tier because it’s a decent name, and we’ll give the second group F Tier because using someone else’s name is bad.
IZ*One: Ugh… Honestly IZ*One were an amazing group plagued by unfortunate circumstances, and their name sure was one of those unfortunate circumstances. It’s fun to pronounce, yes, but it requires an asterisk to not look like “eye zone”. And like, if you need non-alphanumeric characters for your name to be pronounceable, then it’s kind of failed as a name. D Tier because I can’t bear to put one of my favorite groups in F Tier.
ONEUS: It’s alright. But there’s also a “onewe” under RBW which introduces a level of confusion. C tier.
Onewe: This name is actually kind of fun to pronounce. “Wun-wee” lol I kinda like that. But again, same deal with ONEUS: why would RBW give two distinct groups such similar names? B tier because I like to say it but frankly it probably deserves C Tier.
OnlyOneOf: Four syllables is kind of pushing it a bit, but there’s nothing to really dislike about this name. It’s alright, it’s distinct, it’s kind of cute. B tier.
Wanna One: Oh my god, an actually good Produce/Planet name, let’s go. WannaOne is like “one oh one” which is Funny because it’s a Pun. It’s fun to say and it looks good too. In the same way that Produce 101 Season 2 was the ‘best’ season of Produce, I think it’s fair to say that Wanna One was the best of the Produce names. A Tier.
ZEROBASEONE: So, mathematically speaking, the base one representation of zero is: “ “. As in, literally nothing. Like no symbols. This name, then, is literally nothing. As in, the name that it refers to doesn’t exist. Plus everyone abbreviates it to ZB1 anyway, so why even bother with the longer name that refers to literal nothing anyway? It sounds cool though which saves it from F Tier, but c’mon Mnet, you can do better than naming your group “ “. D Tier.

Hey hey people, poor dude here! Name's actually Alex, I reside in the mythological country of Romania, so please beer with me (seriously let's go grab one) since english is not my native language.
I come with an, albeit quite pricey, but wholehearted request of Remnant 2, for my Xbox Series S.
Now, why do I want this game ? I mean have you seen gameplay of it ? It's bloody awesome.
On a more serious note, I'm a huge fan of the first game, played it for what felt like hundreds of hours on a PS4, mostly coop but also solo.Been a huge fan of the Dark Souls series so when I heard everyone saying "haha gun souls" I had to give it a try. And oh lord it has been one of my favourite experiences ever.I liked every aspect of it: the gunplay was S O L I D, great artstyle, really interesting worlds and mostly fun bossfights ( i'm looking at you Undying King).But the cherry on the top was the randomization of playthroughs.I have no idea if any other game has done it in this way, but to me this was a first and I was left speechless realizing that this game required MULTIPLE, not 2, playthroughs in order to have a chance at finding every item, event or bossfight.This is really what sold me to put in the hours i did, and it's been some of the most ACTUAL fun I had in a video game.
Funny enough, 2 days ago I was rummaging throught my epic games library and discovered I have the first game on there, so I instantly installed it and booted it up.Already finished my first playthrough :D. Even if my PC can barely handle it at the lowest settings, I'm still playing it in 15-20 fps and I can't get enough of it, I'll honestly 100% it on PC too.
Now with that being said, when I found out they're working on a SECOND game, I unironically jumped up out of excitement. I cringe whenever I think of that.
I've been speculating on lore, on what locations, on new gameplay mechanics that could make it in. Well it's safe to say nothing I speculated, except a summoner class being added, made the cut (afaik).But these past days I've been watching gameplays and the trailers intensively, and oh my lord, Remnant 2 looks like GOTY material.The new archetypes look amazing and the fact that you can basically have 2 at the same time! Imagine the possibilities. It screams build expression.And the new bosses are looking like some of the best I've seen in such a game, really cool mechanics. Gunplay solid as ever. I just wonder how many different random events and different choices we are gonna see, but I bet it's more than the ones in the first one, so far Remnant 2 looks like the first game BUT BETTER in every way, so I imagine we're in for a treat.
I really can't wait to make up different builds for different weapons, I can just see myself theory crafting for hours on end just to end up with a suboptimal result :dd But hey can't have your cake and it eat too, or whatever the saying was. That's also one of the parts I'd enjoy the most, putting some random items together that sound great on paper until I reach THE build, the off-meta but somehow godlike build.Because that's what games are supposed to be at the end of the day: fun.
Truth is, I've been playing video games since I was shy of 4 years old! I still remember my first game, Delta Force: Task Force Dagger, game I got from my uncle, burned on a CD. Thats when I fell in love with gaming, and of course shooters. I have yet to find a more intriguing and fun form of entertainment. I, to an extent, even consider video games as art.There's something about them you cannot find anywhere else.And there really is something for everybody.But i'm not gonna get into that today.
Now, why can't I just go ahead and buy it for myself ?
WELL, as of now, I'm unemployed. I'm just 21 and I left university in favor of work, but I had to take a longer than usual medical leave due to an accident that left me unable to speak and use my right hand fully for a few months, stuff I needed at work. Fortunately, I'm all good now, but after the medical leave I quit the job alltogether. I had to move cities for another month, for some tests on my jaw.
Now, I'm looking for new jobs to apply to but I was also thinking of going back to uni, i'm torn between having money or going to finish and have a degree in something. Truth be told, the one I was studying, called American Studies, wouldn't really help me get into a lot of places but it's something i really enjoyed my time with, and would want to go back to.But I also need money, as we all do :D
So yes, basically i'm broke, looking for a job but not having any luck so far.
I know the game is expensive, and I really don't see myself being granted the request, but I want to take my chances. I really want to sink my time and mind into something, to keep me away a bit until I put my life back together, and this game looks just like the right thing.
And if i'm to be granted the generosity of someone, I will forever be in your debt, as I cannot forgive acts of kindness, be it from strangers or not. (this is not to say that i'll do anything in order to get the game lol, you got the gist i believe)
And well, if that miracle does happen, regarding regional stuff, my xbox account is UK based,so I believe the pricing would be in GBP, which the game goes for £42 (?). I'm honestly not quite sure if you can gift games on xbox as you would on steam, or if I need a CD KEY, or a top up of the store balance.I believe the latter to be the real answer but we'll see.
As for my Xbox account, the gamertag is: Ayyramaia
And the link: https://account.xbox.com/en-us/profile?gamertag=Ayyramaia
Link for Remnant 2: https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/remnant-ii-standard-edition/9NNJL6J2X0K8/0017
And hey, if you read all of this and got to this point, well dear stranger, I wish you a good morning, day, evening, or any other temporal realm you reign. Farewell!
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About 2 years ago I decided to cut all contact with someone who I will refer to throughout this story as "P" for convenience. I decided to cut contact because he was effecting my mental health in a very negative way, he'd exploit any insecurity I had/have, he'd berate me constantly about whatever he could think of that would make me feel down about myself. I should mention that all of my interactions with P were online.
P was someone who essentially thought that his "freedom of speech" meant he could be an insensitive AH to whoever he wanted without consequence. He'd commonly use slurs, even if the people he was talking were very clearly uncomfortable with him saying them. he was very integrated with my friend group so I felt like I had to put up with him and accept the mental and emotional tole his bullying was taking whenever me and my friends would talk online, he would commonly be invited on with us. He essentially used "freedom of speech" as an excuse to bully/harass people without consequence.
I often felt like I needed to hide my feelings about him from my friends as usually I was just told I was being "petty" or that "he just likes edgy humor" whenever I tried to bring up my problems with him to my friends. There's a line between edgy humor and genuine harassment and to him that line didn't exist. Usually in edgy humor it's not personally directed at someone day after day after day picking at all the insecurities they didn't even know they had, but according to whatever twisted definition he had, his actions were not only acceptable but excusable.
Eventually my feelings boiled over, the emotional and mental tole this had taken on me lead to me trying to harm myself. I'm fine now, luckily one of my close friends talked me out of it and got me help. I spoke to a counsellor about P and she suggested that I block him and cut contact since the mental tole was beginning to get to this extent. I spoke to my friends about it and due to the severity of the situation they agreed. The following days were hell, there was a lot of pushback from my friends about my previous decision to block P. Since he was integrated into my friend group the main conflict was trying to schedule online calls, if he was on, I wouldn't be on and if I was on, I'd leave the second he joined the call.
I reluctantly agreed to be in a call with him in our discord server, I had him muted. I was dead silent during that call, I was afraid to speak just knowing P was there, I eventually left the call without saying a word, I said about 2 at most. Due to discords abysmal blocking feature he could still hear me even after being blocked. He could still @ me, he could still see messages I posted, he could still get in a call with me on a server with no problems. Blocking on discord essentially restricts you more than it restricts the person you're blocking.
After I left the call one of my friends messaged me, concerned, asking what happened, I told them I couldn't be in a call with them due to the anxiety I felt knowing he was there. Fortunately my friend understood, I didn't have to be in a call with him, they said that they'd work out what works best. Meanwhile, according to one of my friends, he called me a "schizo" essentially saying that I was making it all up. I should probably mention that the initial arguments I had about him and why I blocked him were mainly built on emotion, and since a lot of the bullying happened mostly over call I didn't have any evidence aside from a few screenshots of a few messages he sent, messages which weren't nearly as bad as the bullying I experienced on call with him.
My friends right before I blocked him were planning to start a co-op Minecraft world on Minecraft Bedrock. It included everyone in our friend group, including him. We agreed that it could work, as long as I wasn't in a call with him. They all went in a call with him and I was on my own, messaging my friend every now and again. I went away from spawn and noticed someone following me, I thought nothing of it and set up a small base a bit away from spawn and continued on. A while later my friend messages me repeatedly "blood for the blood god" on discord, I see P's gamertag through the wall of the cave I had set up in. He tunneled through and I exited the game.
In any other context, if that had been any other person tunneling through my wall, I would have found it really funny and laughed it off, even if I had to start from nothing. The fact it was him, immediately after I'd made it clear I didn't want any more interaction with him, it just upset me. I know it sounds petty, especially considering it's Minecraft of all games, but it was more than just that. It was the idea that no matter what boundaries I set, no matter what I say, he's still there. After that I was done, I set my heels into the ground, HARD! I explained to my friend that, for the sake of my mental wellbeing, I did not want any more interactions with P, he understood, and for a while after that things seemed good. I built another base on the Minecraft world, went in calls with my friends when P wasn't online and it seemed to work out. There didn't appear to be any problems...
Until a few months later.. My close friend who originally got me help (who I'll refer to as "M" for the remainder of the post for the sake of convenience) started insinuating that I made up all the stuff about P and that maybe I'm overreacting. At that point I felt the worst I'd ever felt, I felt like I had no one left to trust. On top of that, P started coming into the calls when I was in them to taunt me and essentially exploit the fact that I didn't want to be in a call with him to bully me out of a call. He was essentially setting up an ultimatum, either I stay in the call, anxious and wait for him to leave, or I leave and let him successfully make me leave the call. Some of my friends were also arguing for him, saying that I was overreacting and that I should unblock him. I felt like everything was coming apart, the situation I'd set up for myself for my mental health was being threatened from multiple angles, and it sucked.
That lasted for about 2 weeks to a month and eventually I managed to once again drive my heels into the ground and explain that there is no way in hell I'm ever talking to P again. After that, Most of my friends either supported that decision and didn't attempt to interfere with it anymore, or they reluctantly agreed that this is for the best. From then on, for about 2 years, things went well, aside from a few minor instances and a few arguments here and there, things were pretty well, I didn't have to talk to him, my mental health slowly started getting better, and things looked bright, I could finally rest knowing I got through it.
That brings us to present day, me and my friends have a small discord server mainly for us to make shitposts, organize calls, set up plans for whatever game we're playing at that time, etc. Basically just a group chat, but with different channels and a music bot. Things were going well, I felt way better than I did when I was talking to P, I was going through some personal stuff but I still felt better than I did back then. A few days ago P was added to the server by one of my friends, and everyone seems to just accept that now. that's the current position I'm in, a group that I took comfort in and that I could post whatever dumb joke/meme in for my friends to enjoy, is now somewhere I feel unsafe, vulnerable, due to this AH. I'm too scared to bring it up to my friends because I don't what to go through the hell that the first time trying to convince them was again.
It feels like I've gotten nowhere, thankfully my mental health is still good, I haven't posted anything in the server since he joined, I haven't joined any calls since either. I decided to distract myself with other hobbies and interests I have for now, but I know eventually this situation will come up, and I don't know what to do. My friends, as much as they may come off as assholes in this story, are my friends, and aside from this situation they're honestly amazing people, and I don't want to lose them over this AH, but I also don't want to lower the boundaries I have set up with P because setting those boundaries up was the best decision I've ever made, not only for my mental health but also for my own confidence in setting boundaries like that in other situations.
It should also be mentioned that M never stopped defending P, whenever I'd try to vent to her about him and how I feel it'd usually end in some lecture about how I'm the bad guy for blocking him and holding all this against him, and it sucks because she was one of my closest friends, and I feel like I've lost the trust I once had in her all because of P. It feels like no matter what I do he always finds some angle to play this, some way to get at me, I feel powerless, like no matter what I do, he keeps coming back!! I don't know what to do, and I guess that's the sentiment in this entire post, I don't know what to do. I don't want to rebuild a bridge just to have to burn it again, but I feel like he's trying to make that my only option, and I feel trapped.

Context: I was streaming myself playing some Game Builder Garage yesterday. Periodically during the stream, my friend would hop online and a Switch notification would appear in the top-left of the screen showing their name. The problem is, my friend's last name is "Dicks." His gamertag is "Dr. Dicks."
I explained to the chat that this was their actual name, but the problem is there are presumably kids watching this stream. These kids are laughing their assess off every time the word Dicks shows up on the screen in what is supposed to be a family-friendly stream and a family-friendly game.
Okay, realistically, I don't think that my tiny little stream single-handedly sparked outrage at Nintendo. I just thought it was really funny that just 24 hours after that stream ended, Nintendo drops an update replacing his username with "???" which is how Nintendo censors illegal character strings.

cause they're the size of attachments. i only ever write a first drafts. like, since 97ish, i guess. i was writing at work then, too. wanted to write a 1500 page book. and, i did.
they told me it was trash and they threw it out. concepts, characters, and dialog were mostly left in.
keep my jokes and pass them off as yours, you ain't even funny. but, that's the uppermost limit of an email attachment. 135 pages. i didn't have a lot of time, work got in the way and there ain't no other way for me to, you know. put a roof over my head and eat, so i couldn't get out of it.
the ex bought me a laptop and i wasn't working, but i also wasn't feeling inspired. i felt dead inside. i didn't want to do anything, but what i was doing and being online would distract from that. you know. playing GTA V. only on story mode, i don't play any online games. stopped doing that. i didn't want hueser to try to talk to me or have an avenue to.
i was mad at him.
he'd just try to figure out what games i was playing and then look for my gamertag and try to talk to me. and, i didn't want to talk to him so i wouldn't play any online games, not since 2012. that's when i stopped playing online games, but i wasn't so much even before. i was really busy with kids
i mean, they took a lot of my time when they were younger. just, you know. getting dinner and baths and brush your teeth and you know, just doing the basics doesn't leave you a lot of time to yourself. so, when they were real little, i had a very strict bedtime of 9pm and that's when i was online gaming.
after that. like, 2004 to idk, when i had to put my hard drive in a microwave. the most embarrassing part of that rumor about clinton breaking her hard drive is the way they said she done it. like, seriously. you think she don't know to cover something up. i mean, running it under water and breaking it with a hammer is probably not going to work.
that's not even how to destroy a harddrive. just take it out and put it in a microwave. virus. i thought that was how to remove a virus from your harddrive, is that not how to do it. asking for a friend.
i didn't feel safe during my childhood and i wanted them to feel safe. and, idk, you know. it was difficult as a single mom at times. it's not easy and it ain't like i really ever got child support. and, then when i asked they called me irresponsible.
but, you as far as mark's anxiety goes. i mean, idk. man. maybe it would be like an orgasm for you. you know. to get caught. finally that pressure would be off.
yes, a new set problems might be fun. don't ya think
you'd feel better to let it go and live your truth. don't you want to live your truth, mark
isn't that who you're currently pretending to be. let's all tell the truth and maybe then we'll ascend to some greater virtue of being. he's not an actor. except the part where his whole damn life is only just an act. in that regard he is very much an actor.
yeah, i know. i've certainty got my issues. i just don't think i should have to make an effort to be socially acceptable to people who i don't find to be socially acceptable.
and, therein lies our issue.
no, you. in meme speak. we've had this argument before. i don't give a fuck about what you think i should be like or do. i don't have to be what you consider to be socially acceptable. i have to follow that the various governments have laid out and that's it. that's all i have to do
i don't have to do anymore than that
if you want you can come here and we'll start a commune, but it'll probably just turn into a sex cult again. and, next time, i want to be the cult leader.
and, it's not exactly something you post on the internet, you know. i mean, would a real cult leader have their shit all over instagram. nah, man. the government likes to break up cults. except for the ones they work for that dance in boeheim grove.
that cults ok, but the rest of them are not. but, that's true. like, there are lots of pictures and accounts of that. just a bunch of old naked guys in the woods burning an owl and holding hands and asking for what they want. praying for money and power.
fame, no. not so much, that's a hinderance. to have the money and the power and still be able to move about freely. that's the thing. you know.
do what you want, wear what you want. you know. not be bothered with that bullshit. it seems like a dumb thing to go after or even want. like, the pestering. i don't like to be bothered. about anything.
ever.
just want to be left alone. but, ultimately my goal here is to get a small farm and grown whatever the fuck in my yard and do whatever the fuck i want to do. and, i need to actually get paid for a book, you know.
for a change. this is just a very long email to an ex. and, he can be fucking mad, but i still haven't been paid. you see. you mother fucking owe me, and furthermore you've made a living off of me all these years and you are the very same man who extorted me into making bdsm child porn.
i mean, you do see the issue that i'm having, no?
it's guilt over what the fuck you did to me eating you alive, i don't give a fuck what your therapist says, it's guilt. because you know you're wrong. that's why. that's why you can't sleep at night. that's why you're nothing but a pile of nervous ticks. being tested for Parkinson's but he don't have it.
nerves. got him shaking. i mean, isn't that the thing. like, he's all upset this may actually come out. like, you know. his most literal nightmare is the truth coming out and it's what would set me free of this. you know. being trapped here in this. with this.
like, my wildest hopes and dreams are that all of this comes out, you know, and that's his nightmare
and, he thinks i don't have the right to say anything, i mean, he stole it fair and square. not his fault i was so stupid to have trusted him. right. so, you know. not his fault
but, still yet the nightmares of what he'd done plagued the man. he watched her ceaselessly to try to figure out what it was, what she'd done to him, to make him so obsessed. to watch like that. to have done the things he did, just to gain that small bit of access to her life.
she wasn't what he wanted. she'd never been. he hated hearing about himself in a negative light, and she told of his flaws. she wouldn't fawn the way he liked. idk, he doesn't really like me, he only ever just used me and then i'd be like, i think you're just using me, and he'd be like, and blah, blah, blah, and when i didn't buy it, he'd just hit me
i mean, i can see why he wouldn't want people to know that, it clashes terribly with his i'm a real, super good guy bit, but that's just what happened.

So, I was messing around with my completed account's Main Pawn yesterday in order to create the best Hired Pawn for my new account. 😅 I think many of us have done it, so don't judge me too harshly lol.
I was going for something different, appearance-wise and combat-wise. I made a Warrior but, since this Warrior is aimed to be hired by a low leveled Arisen, I didn't want to equip them with a full Traitor's set and Bitter End etc.. And then it hit me: I'm going to make Kassandra from AC Odyssey.
It sounds very dumb, I know.. But this inspired me to wear appropriate armour and also try my best in the character creator. And you know what? She turned out very decent. She wears armour with slight emphasis on the colour red and is named "Misthios". I tried "Kassandra" but the game detected "Kassandra" and took it as sensitive content. Real mature Dragon's Dogma, "K-butt-andra". Ha ha, very funny.. Meanwhile her moniker is "Cass" but I guess that's different?😑
..
Anyway, I had this idea:
What if we made some sort of friendly weekly contest? This will be mainly for the people who have done everything and their Arisen is left staring at the sea at the docks of BBI.
Said contest would involve picking some famous characteactocelebrity/etc here in this sub, and give out a week until participants perfect their creations. I haven't worked out the details, clearly, but we could comment on a mod's post (that will present the person we are supposed to create) with our gamertags in order to place ourselves in the contest. I guess we would also need three separate sub contests tor each platform..? And people will be able to rate each contender's pawn by simply hiring said created pawns.
The evaluation of each attempt would take into consideration both physical appearance and armouclothing, as well as Vocation. For example, if we decide to make, say, Tom Cruise, him being a Strider may look better than him being a Sorcerer or something.
What do you guys think? Too stupid? Mildly interesting? Am I the only one who would be bored enough to try it? I think the character creator in this game is too good to not do something like this.

Beware EA Play in Xbox Game Pass for children, EA will scam you and doom your Xbox account.

WARNING: Never use GAME PASS with EA Play children account, your Xbox account will be doomed by EA, they will lock it out and you will never be able to unlink and connect other account - you will never have access to EA Play with that Xbox account. If you buy Game Pass for EA games like us, you will be basically scammed by EA.
I am trying to fix our account for last few days, im loosing my mind, there is so much things wrong with EA Support, that i even determined to spread the case and use my totally accidental findings during this shitshow to try to connect more people for classaction. I would never believe that a company would piss me off on principle enough to go that far.
TLDR
- I paid for Microsoft Xbox PC Game Pass- Installing some offline games requires EA Play and therefore EA Play account- I created EA Play account with child age, i am very happy with Microsoft Parental Control and i would never imagine this can lead to madness like this.- Without any warning that "it's not possible", i created that EA Play account and connected it to account with active Xbox PC Game Pass. They literally don't tell people that it's "technically impossible", so anyone can do it.- EA Play account is totally LOCKED OUT, i can't log in to EA Play Windows desktop app, can't login to EA Support, they try to make it look like you can't even log in into EA website.. the catch is, you can, with the right link directly into user section, you can login with connected Xbox account.- that EA "underage" account has fake anonymous email given by EA, CHECKED ALL CHECKBOXES CONFIRMING COLLECTING OF DATA FOR ADS, RESELLING DATA TO THIRD PARTY, etc. I can't change anything, i can't disconnect Xbox account, because it needs email confirmation on anonymouse email (funny is, they have my email, they literally asks for parent email during registration)
​
Support CALL #1
I tried to call EA support, when the support agent finally understood my problem, he basically told me that they will not do anything about it "because of COPPA law". I told him, that in that case i'd like to get that account and all information removed.... because i can... because COPPA...
He told me that it isn't possible and that even when they remove account, it will not unlink my Xbox account, which is hard stuck with this broken EA account, which i can't access...
I asked him, if he is joking ...
he told me, that "this is English support, you don't understand or speak English" and hang up on me.
Support Call #2
Almost exactly same scenario, i asked for supervisor, support agent refused and basically told me to try to get refund from Microsoft... for their technical incompetence...
I bought physical code, i don't know what could Xbox refund me and why would they do that, when its obviously EA's fault..
then he refused to continue conversation, when i asked more question, he just ignored me and kept asking if i have any other problem?
I told him that i have..
he hang up on me..
Twitter Support #1
They understood my problem, checked my identity like 5 times, including email code verification, etc... then told me to send SUPPORT CASE TICKET with my legal ID..I refused to give up and continued there..
EA Support Ticket #1
I send all info, copy of my legal ID, included case number as Twitter support told me to, repeated the whole sitation 3 times...

Thank you for contacting EA Help, my name is Santosh, and I hope you're doing well. Upon reviewing your case, I've gathered that you are unable to link your Xbox with the EA account because of wrong age. Do not worry I will help you in all possible ways. Let me inform you that player can not play online multiplayer game on an underage account as per the COPPA law. COPA law: https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule-coppa Also please note for the security reasons any underage queries can be only resolved through our live support. To contact our Phone Support Team through help.ea.com, select Call Me (when given the option). Leave us your number and our EA Game Advisor will contact you shortly regarding your issue. There'll be no need to wait on hold, and you'll be free to do other activities until then. You can also follow these steps in the link to contact us! > https://help.ea.com/en-in/help/faq/contact-ea-help/ English phone support number is +44 870 820 0707 **(chargeable)** If you are unable to see the call option on the link, we would probably not be available that time, you can check on EA Help to see if we’re available when you need to reach out to us. 

Who asked about multiplayer games? What the hell is going on?
Twitter Support #2
I told them, that i believe that their Support Ticket system is ran by bots and i don't believe that real person saw my case, because response doesn't make any sense.
I was told, that "its just COPPA"."I am from EU, do you realize that COPPA is US Federal Law?""COPPA LAW apply all countries worldwide." - EA Support
I... I know that the point is, that they are US company, so COPPA law apply to them and they refuse to fullfil requirements, so instead they completely disconnects children accounts...but WHAT THE HELL? COPPA US Federal Law is WORLDWIDE LAW :))))
I already told them in first Twitter support conversation, that its my account, not children, so COPPA can't apply there, so i can get off this shitshow without loosing my mind... nope..
EA Support Ticket #2
I told them my problem again, i'd like to note that i wasn't offensive, violent and didn't use any bad words during all conversations... well.. i did, but in private, not against them..
I tried to repeat my problem in like 5 variations so even underpaid India (all links from them lead to EA India)......
Here is response..

Hello Player, Thank you for contacting EA help. My name is Ali and I will assist you with your issue today. I see you mentioned that you are having issues with game. I will do my level best to help you out. Being a Gamer, I can understand how it feels if you face any issues with your Game. Before we proceed further with the investigation, please help us with the information asked below to locate your account: -Registered Email address -PSN ID/ Xbox GamerTag EA ID/ Mayhem ID/ Pogo screen name -Do you have access to your Email address? Should you have any further questions regarding this or any other issues, please do not hesitate to let us know. You can also find answers to common questions on our Help Center at http://help.ea.com, or ask our community experts by visiting Answer HQ at http://answers.ea.com. Still need help? You can reach us on help.ea.com. Thank you once again for contacting EA Help! Have a great day and stay safe! 

I am loosing my mind.I never felt such feelings to stupid company..
I am determined to spent all my time and money to fight against this scammy practices.
This company deserves public condemnation and class action lawsuits that will put it out of business and put good IPs and services that in the hands of someone who is competent..
I feel helpless.. but I'm the kind of person that it will make much stronger, more passionate and more active..
I apologize for the composition of the sentences and the awkwardness of my English, i didn't do my best..

This post is about the bug in Gears of War 2 that can leave some players unable to play the game. The short version: trying to play the game while logged into a certain account causes the game to crash. Other accounts can be used to play the game, but this particular account crashes the game whenever logged in. I haven't found a name for this bug, so I'm calling it the Account Specific Freezing Issue. There's not much more to the symptoms of the bug. Despite having been an issue for at least a decade, there's not much solid information about the bug that's readily available. I hope to change that with this.
The obvious part of the bug has already been explained, so let's just jump straight into getting it fixed. For reasons I'll get to in a minute, this is actually known information that's been around almost as long as the issue itself. There's already a video explaining the process, but it doesn't explain what the goal is or why it works.
Gears of War 2 Freezing Solution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQm_6Sh72zg
[Alternate video] Gears of War 2 Load Issue Fix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMxZv7je_zI
​
The first thing to note would be what's actually causing the issue, that being bad achievement data. At some point, the achievement data for the affected account was corrupted by something going horribly wrong with the game. More on that later. The obvious fix would be to press the button to clear the achievement data for that account. Unfortunately, that button doesn't exist. Fixing the buggy handling of achievement data in Gears 2 requires the use of the buggy handling of achievement data in Gears 2.
This is where we get to the process from the video mentioned earlier. The only known fix to the issue is to leverage a glitch that allows for the Gears of War 2 achievement data from one Xbox Live account to be copied to another Xbox Live account, overwriting the data there previously. Actually, there's another video I found describing the process for doing this that was uploaded over a year earlier than the first one linked.
Gears of War 2 RANK 100 Glitch TUTORIAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEEnEmAgO6E
Instead of using it to fix broken accounts, it was being used to copy data from accounts with more achievement progress to other accounts. It's kind of funny in a way. Had this not been discovered and used by people to get easy achievements, the only known fix to the issue probably wouldn't have surfaced. I won't go over the process for performing the achievement data copy glitch, as the videos already have that covered.
​
With that out of the way, it's time to get to information about what causes the issue and how to avoid it. I've made this section out of forum posts that had no real resolution, knowledge of the fix, my own personal experience dealing with this issue on my account... TWICE... my programming experience that probably has little relevance since I've never made an Xbox 360 game, and gluing it all together with guesswork. Yeah, most of this is going to be more speculation than actual known information. Now that I've bestowed such confidence on what's to come, I'll get to explaining.
I should probably lead with the bad news first. Any account that has this issue has lost all of its achievement data, multiplayer rank, campaign completion, and collectibles found. Everything. There's no recovering it. Applying the fix described earlier will put that account back to zero, but all of the information was gone anyway. My basis for this is this clip that I got from my Series S that doesn't show the 360 guide menu and makes no goddamn sense without an explanation anyway.
Gears 2 Account Freeze Observation (Read description): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6GalgREBis
There's more detail in the description, but here's a short explanation. I loaded into the game not signed into my account while it was broken, then I signed in again while on the main menu. Then, it shows that I unlocked the Anthony character for multiplayer, then goes to update network settings, then crashes. Anthony, along with RAAM and Minh are unlocked by completing achievements from the first game. My account /should/ have this unlocked already since I've had the acievement and the character unlock long before running into this issue. The fact that this popped up means that the game doesn't recognize that I had already done this.
This actually provides more information when reading between the lines. The fact that it got to the point where it determined that I needed that character unlocked means that the game completed the process of reading... /something/. Whatever it's reading in that achievement data isn't causing the game to instantly crash. The actual crash happens during whatever the Updating Network Settings entails. What I gather from this is that the chain leading to the crash is something to the tune of:
- Attempt to read achievement data
- Achievement data is corrupt, process fails
- Function responsible returns some kind of error code or null value and no real achievement data is present where it should be
- A function after this doesn't recognize the returned error code as being a successful load of old data
- Checks achievement progress from Gears 1 to see if anything needs to be unlocked. This seems to run fine.
- Functions related to "Updating Network Settings" begin to run
- One of these needs to read from the achievement data and is designed with the assumption that what it reads will be valid achievement data
- It's probably given a null pointer instead
- Because it's not designed to handle this situation, it does something that causes a catastrophic error (probably a segmentation fault)
- This fault crashes the system and is what renders the account unusable until fixed
​
Taking a break from attempting technical explanations, a great piece of info for taking preventative measures: never play this game with two different Xbox Live accounts signed in and playing at the same time. This is something I learned both from personal experience and from old forum posts. Of the posts I found and read, an unusually high number of them mention a second player being involved, be it a friend, the wife, the boyfriend, or someone who would be likely to play the game splitscreen. From my personal experience, both times my account broke were when I was playing splitscreen with my dad, with me being Player 2. His account was also broken at some point and magically fixed itself for no reason after several years. Playing splitscreen with one account signed in and the other player signed in as a guest profile (Ex: dav3 and dav3(1)) works fine from what I've seen. (I have no idea if someone actually has that gamertag)
Gears of war 2 freezes on Xbox 1 [Makes explicit mention of playing the game co-op with a daughter, doesn't say "splitscreen", but can be easily inferred]: https://www.reddit.com/xboxone/comments/5f2u04/gears_of_war_2_freezes_on_xbox_1/
Gears of War 2 freezing [Mentions the wife's account working, but not his. Doesn't mention playing co-op]: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/gears-of-war-2-freezing/fa1b9a8f-ccb8-4ef5-b87d-5ab18b0f8676
Freezing / Gears of War 2 [Boyfriend's account is the one that's broken. Also, a reply to this states that this issue was introduced with Title Update 6, although I'm not sure how accurate that is]: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/938611-gears-of-war-2/55983875
Playing splitscreen doesn't actually cause the issue, but it causes the game to be more prone to crashing for reasons that are completely beyond me (at least in Horde). That brings me to the last thing to bring up. What actually causes this to happen? Well, I've already partially given it away. It has to do with crashes. Most every game that uses save data will have some iteration of an icon or a message that conveys the same warning. "Do not turn off your console while saving is in progress". Once the game starts writing changes, it needs to complete the process to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Doing so could result in data being corrupted. Turning off the console or closing the game would interrupt this process. Another way this process could be interrupted is if the game crashes.
​
I'll try to summarize my theory behind the cause and effect of this issue. Gears of War 2 is a buggy mess. Sometimes, the game crashes. If it crashes while it's updating an Xbox Live profile's achievement progress, it could corrupt the Gears 2 data tied to that account. It cannot and will not affect data for any other games. If the data is corrupt, then the game will try to read the data and fail in a way that the program doesn't have an accurate response for. Shortly after, another part of the program will try to take whatever garbage data is there (it's probably just nothing) and interpret it as valid data. At this point, it will proceed to do something that inevitably fails, causing the game to crash. Because there's no way to clear this bad data, the only way to get the account working again is through the glitch used to copy data from one account to another. Playing splitscreen with two Xbox Live accounts signed in and playing probably increases the risk of this occurring. This is an issue that has existed for over a decade and no known attempt to fix it has been made by Epic Games or The Coalition.
If another attempt to explain this issue in this much detail has been made, I can't seem to find it. I was originally going to make this a video explanation, but decided I should probably do a text post first to see if I could find out more information that would help explain this better. I know this post is about ten years too late, but I hope this is helpful anyway. Has anyone here run into this issue? Is there anything I'm missing or got wrong?

This is my entry for [Close-Quarters], if you enjoy it please leave a !v in the comments.
= = = = = = =
"Welcome, ladies, gentlemen, and tertiary sexes, to the fourteenth annual intergalactic Deathshot tournament, proudly sponsored by Wender Cola! And boy do we have a showing today, isn't that right, Klovxis?"
"Don't let your mandibles froth over, Jip, you'll want to save some excitement for the game!"
"Well Klovxis, looks like the players are setting up their builds. Right here we see N00BM0NCH3R, setting up his character!"
"Yep, the tried and tested build of the current meta, Jip, using drones to provide aerial support and scouting, but it looks like for this game M0NCH3R is putting some extra points into electronic warfare!"
"Well they did rework the e-war mechanics last patch, Kloxvis, and if anyone follows the release notes it's M0NCH3R!"
"Speaking of patches, looks like next up on the spectator stream we have xXx_Wombsmasher69420_xXx!"
"For the folk's at home who aren't caught up with the drama, Smasher is a well known synergy master. What that means is he figures out one synergy and focuses all his points and equipment into it! There's rumours that he alone is the reason for the e-war patches!"
"And this time it's no different, Jip! Smasher's going for a full splash damage build! He's even going for the Fractal Explosions perk, which most consider to be too expensive to be worth!"
"Well, as the humans say, never let your memes be dreams. And speaking of humans, Kloxvis, up next is our sole human contender! On the spectator stream is... Jane.Swanson.2033@dmail.com?"
"Surely that's got to be a mistake, Jip, let me take a...holy shit, she hasn't even set up a gamertag, she's just going by her email login?! Gods, I'm looking at her right now through the window in my booth, Jip, she's over seventy years old by the looks of things! What a boomer!"
"Well Kloxvis, let's take a look at her build. It looks like she's putting a lot of her points into strength, I'm assuming she's going for a heavy weapons build."
"She might surprise us yet, Jip! Most players going the HW route just get an exoskeleton to get past the stat requirements, the fact that she's saving up her equipment points leads to all sorts of questions as to what else she's spending them on."
"Questions the bookies are having a field day with!"
"Well looks like those questions will have to go unanswered right now, Jip, as the spectator stream has just switched over to webmommy_1, and as usual this eight-limbed insectoid is going full akimbo, changing her game avatar to match her physical appearance by putting equipment points into prosthetic arms!"
"Well if one gun good, six gun better, as the humans would say!"
"Jip, please don't say anything that'll make us need another sensitivity training."
"You're right, Kloxvis, my bad. And looks like the pre-game screen is ending folks! Now let's see who will the first person on the spectator stream...and its last year's champion, I_RULE! What a way to start the game folks!"
"And he's gone with last year's build again, Jip! Full-frontal assault, directional heavy shielding, and a heavy gatling gauntlet!"
"Well if it ain't broke, don't fix it! And it seems that like all traditional HW builds, he's gone for the exoskeleton, putting his character points instead into intelligence speccing in e-def! That's gotta be a problem for M0NCH3R and everyone who thought hacking would be the path to victory!"
"Well Jip, that just goes to show that - AND WE'VE ALREADY GOT ACTION!"
"That's right Kloxvis, a grenade right at I_RULE's feet, he's already activated his shielding, pointing right at it! No matter what it is, it won't do a damn...wait, is that what I think it is?"
"If you think it's a smoke grenade, you're damn right! Someone at this level of play, using a smoke grenade?"
"Well, looks like we all got a good chuckle out of that one. For those new to the game, smoke grenades are considered worthless. Every player buys the Tracker HUD upgrade with their equipment points, so you can always tell which direction they came from, as well as their location if you're within their blast radius, meaning you know which direction you need take cover from or shoot back towards."
"Well said, Jip. And it seems I_RULE has already taken advantage of that, he's been shooting his gauntlet in that direction for seconds now, really taking advantage of his heat sink and ammo nanoforge equipment upgrades. And yet he still hasn't killed anything."
"Well it may just be someone trying to juke him, Kloxvis, throwing a grenade and sprinting away."
"Well you'd have to put points into speed for that, which is a total noob move. Nobody can outrun a bullet, so why bother?"
"Anyways it looks like...wait, what? Can we get IT to confirm this? Folks, it looks like we're having technical difficulties, the game says someone just scored First Blood on I_RULE with...what even is that weapon symbol, I haven't seen that before? Is that new?"
"It might well be, Jip, you know the devs like to keep it fresh with new weapons every season. Something I_RULE should have considered when he recycled last year's build."
"Klovxis, IT has just gotten back to me, looks like that's not a glitch, apparently that's the symbol for the melee kill."
"Melee? Nobody uses melee, what are you talking about? The first thing everyone does is re-map the melee button to something useful, like taunting!"
"Well we've got the killcam right here, let's take a look. And it looks like it's the human...what the fuck? Where's her HUD?"
"Folks, looks like the human didn't even spring for HUD attachments. But there she is, chucking a smoke grenades from...how the fuck is she throwing it from so far away?"
"Looks like those points in strength have made a comeback, Klovxis! And look at her go! It looks like she's put points in speed as well, she's going so fast she's reached the sprinting speed cap!"
"Looks like she's maxed her endurance too! She's running towards I_RULE now, she's coming up behind him, and GODS HELP US ALL SHE'S GONE FOR A MELEE KILL!"
"Well there's a first time for everything, Kloxvis, especially on the e-sports circuit. Wait, looks like something is...spraying out of I_RULE? And it's somehow heading towards the human...Kloxvis, the game devs have just sent us a message about it, are you seeing it?"
"I am indeed, Jip. For those of you just listening in, it looks like Jane.Swanson.2033 has gone for a perk called Glory Kill. Reading the description, it says After killing an opponent with a Melee attack, heal 15% of your health. This increases to 35% if the opponent is unaware of you or stunned. For every X% overhealed, you gain +20% speed, which can go past the speed cap, for X seconds. This cannot stack, but the duration can be increased by subsequent triggers. Now this isn't very clear, Jip, is it referring to movement speed, reload speed, weapon swap speed..?"
"Kloxvis, I think it's referring to...to all of them. Well shit, looks like the human will be one to watch."
"Couldn't have said it better myself, Jip. I only hope she'll make good use of her, what, 10 seconds of movement speed? Anyways, back to the spectator stream. Looks like we're viewing Skullboi, a newcomer to the competitive Deathshot scene, and it seems he's gone for a pack hunter build, using robots for damage and defence."
"He's about three seasons behind the meta, but could this be a comeback for the build? It looks like, wait, it looks like one of the robots has detected movement!"
"Yep, Skullboi has already triggered his actives, let's hope he's not wasting the energy for no-NEVERMIND, ONE ROBOT DOWN!"
"Looks like it's webmommy_1, Jip, using her GBW.mk3. For those unfamiliar, this single shot pistol does immense damage, but it can only shoot once before needing to reload."
"Well the firefight is on, Kloxvis, Skullboi just had one of his remaining robots put up a shield BUT WEBMOMMY JUST USED HER GRENADE LAUNCHER TO SHOOT OVER IT!"
"What else can we expect from her, she's a fantastic player with a versatile build, each gun for a different situation."
"Speaking of different situations, here comes Skullboi's last robot, and it looks like it just launched an entire micro-missiles salvo!"
"Quite a desperate play, Jip, but that's usually a finisher. Wait, look, webmommy_1 just used her PD3 to wipe out all the micromissiles! Folks, if you're unfamiliar, the PD3 is a point defence weapon usually found on shoulder turret mounts or drones, but here it's being used handheld to wipe out the salvo!"
"Yep, looks like Skullboi knows this fight is over, he's running off to try and resummon his robots, but I think we all know what time it is!"
"I think the chat agrees with us, Jip, they're all typing LG5, and I can't disagree! Looks like webmommy_1 has decided to grace us with it!"
"For those of you just on audio, webmommy_1 has just shot her LG5 pistol-fired missile into the air, and is now pointing the guidance laser at Skullboi, the missile is firing right towards him, anddddd...BOOM, he's a goner!"
"Well, there goes the hope of the pack hunter building coming back. Looks like if anyone's got a chance of succeeding with a companion build its those drone controllers."
"Seems that way, Kloxvis. You know, I used to run a pack hunter build back when I was a competitive pla-HANG ON!"
"I see it, Jip! Looks like someone's making a run for webmommy_1, and by the gods is she going fast!"
"Chat's calling that player a cheater, says they're breaking the speed cap. Wait, no, you don't think..."
"I think it's the human, Jane.Swanson.2033! But how is she still that fast? Her speed buff should have only lasted 15 seconds!"
"I don't know how, we'll have to get in touch with the devs on that one, but she's running straight for webmommy_1! And all those guns are useless if they haven't been reloaded yet!"
"That's right, she's used the GL, the LG5, the PD3, and the GBW! That only leaves two guns, her semi-auto Colossus revolver and, well, the shotgun!"
"The shotgun never gets played, webmommy_1 herself confirmed last week that it's only there because she doesn't want to have an empty hand, but that Colossus sure packs a punch! She's aiming it, she fires, but the human isn't down yet people!"
"Holy shit, I recognise that armour! That's the ABL-1!"
"What's that do, Kloxvis?"
"Instead of a flat HP pool, or a flat or percentage damage reduction, it instead only has a HP of 10, but each hit on it does an actual damage of 1, regardless of its strength. That makes it shit against auto weapons or explosives, as splash counts as a bunch of different hits due to the game's hitbox collision system, but against strong semi-auto damage, it works well! Not only that, but it's really expensive, explains why the human used actual character points for strength instead of accuracy!"
"Speaking of accuracy, what gun does she have, because I don't see any!"
"Me neither, Jip! It looks like she's running straight for webmommy_1! You don't think..."
"What, full melee? No way, nobody's that stupid! And even if she is, she's got that shotgun to contend with!"
"You're right, shotguns will absolutely shred the ABL-1! Looks like Jane.Swanson.2033 is just in range, webmommy_1 fires, AND WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!"
"We're gonna need the killcam replay for that one Kloxvis! There we have it, the human is running, we can see the shots hit, no damage,there's the shotgun, and it looks like the human just moved swiftly to the side, ran just behind webmommy_1, and punched her in the back of the head!"
"Jip, the devs got back to me, here's their response: Jane.Swanson.2033@dmail.com is not cheating, she's using the Glory Kill perk as intended, as well as the Dodge perk."
"Dodge? What's that do?"
"They've attached it. It reads Dodge: Move swiftly to the left or right after you've been running forward for at least 1.5 seconds. Cooldown 5 seconds."
"That doesn't make any sense though, we didn't see a cooldown timer appear on her HUD in the killcam! Not only that, she was still running faster than the speedcap even though Glory Kill only lasts for 10 seconds!"
"I've put a request in with the devs to have them explain this to us, Jip, but the chat is going crazy. Anyways, looks like the spectator stream is showing us another contender, we've got Superior, a long-time contender for the crown!"
"I remember him, he's placed second every single time he's participated in the tournament, and there's rumours he's retiring if he doesn't get the platinum this time!"
"Well looks like this time he's delivering! He's just been approached by Ghost_Killer, who is known for his invisibility build, but it seems he's been detected by Superior's nanite screen!"
"That's right, looking at Superior's setup, he's invested heavily into three things: a wide nanite screen to detect movement, then a jet jump, which he's just activated, and there's the last piece of the puzzle, the missile salvo! Looks like Ghost_Killer has been turned into a ghost himself!"
"Jip, I don't know what was more embarrassing, that pun you just made or the death we just saw."
"Well if it's up to me, Ghost_Killer being gibbed like that takes the cake! Wait, is that the human running towards Superior?"
"Looks like it, Jip, and she might have met her match! The people at home might not be aware, but Superior can stay up in the air up to a solid minute, the only penalty is that the longer the jets get used the longer the cooldown. He's already started reloading, she's a goner!"
"Well, it was fun while it lasted. Let's take a look at her build while she charges an airborne target. Let's see here...no points in accuracy, everything in strength, endurance, and speed...she's spent her equipment points on smoke grenades, displacement grenades, high explosive grenades, the armour we've already seen, and...what's this? A grappling hook?"
"I wouldn't worry about it too much, that thing doesn't have the range to reach Superior."
"If you say so. Now let's look at her perks. Glory Kill, Dodge...wait, no way!"
"What?"
"She's gone for Self-Safe! That's the noob perk that prevents you from taking damage from your own explosives, meant for new players who still haven't figured out safe minimum distances!"
"Speaking of explosives, it looks like Jane.Swanson.2033 is throwing one now!"
"Yikes, that was a bad throw! With her enhanced strength she might have managed to hit Superior with it, but she instead threw it right on the ground!"
"I don't think she's even realised yet, she's walking right in front of, and...she's stopped and crouched right past it?"
"She might be making a statement here, Kloxvis! Some kind of a "You can't take me out if I take myself out" thing. Unfortunately for her, she's not going to take any damage from it!"
"Yep, but I wonder about the crouch, Jip, and - WAIT LOOK, SHE'S FLYING!"
"Amazing, it looks like she's taken no damage from the displacement grenade but the physical force from it is still sending her flying right towards Superior!"
"It won't be enough, Jip, her jump will fall short and she - GODS ABOVE SHE JUST DOUBLE-JUMPED!""
"SHE'S STILL TOO FAR TO REACH...NO WAIT, THE GRAPPLING HOOK! SHE SHOOTS...CONTACT!"
"Folks an unbelievable showing by the human, she just killed Superior by punching him to death as they both fell!"
"Kloxvis, as impressive as that was, I still call that cheating, double jumping isn't a default feature in Deathshot, and none of her gear allows her to do so."
"Well Jip, I've been told by the producers that someone from the dev team is on the line...Gloylh Hurmal, welcome to the stream!"
"Jip, Kloxvis, great to be here."
"Now Gloylh, tell us, is she cheating?"
"The short answer is no."
"And the long answer?"
"Well, the extended speed boost you saw is from when she killed I_RULE while he was unaware of her."
"Unaware? But she's not running any invisibility gear!"
"The game recognises unawareness as when an opponent isn't in your field of vision or on your sensors. Jane.Swanson.2033 killed both of her previous opponents from behind."
"But surely their sensors detected her!"
"Both I_RULE and webmommy_1 were running the meta standard of shielding, electronics, or gunshot detectors. The human is running neither of these."
"Doesn't her HUD count as electronics?"
"She's not using any."
"Wait, really? Folks, you heard it here first, the human Jane.Swanson.2033 isn't running any conventional builds! Well, thank you Gloylh for your time."
"Wait, what about the double jump?"
"Ah, yes. Well, this is a bit embarrassing, but if you were in the air while crouched and you pressed the jump button, you would actually perform a jump. We thought we patched this out two seasons ago by preventing crouching in mid-air, but it doesn't prevent the behaviour from occurring if you somehow enter the air while already crouched, and displacement grenades were only added last season."
"So if this is a bug, doesn't this qualify as cheating?"
"I can answer that one, Jip. Bugs being exploited to win are fine, as was ruled during the championship for season seven, when BRASS_SHELLS used a stack underflow to give himself more ammunition by stacking fire rate buffs."
"That's exactly right, Klovxis. Well, good luck with the rest of the stream."
"One more thing, Gloylh. Did you or the dev team ever think melee builds would be used this way?"
"Not at all Kloxvis. They were added as part of our unreleased single-player mode, and I don't think they've been used during competitive play, other than by smurf streamers for punking compilations."
"Well there you have it! And just in time for the spectator stream to pick up something exciting!"
"Yep, looks like xXx_Wombsmasher69420_xXx is back at it again, this time with full explosions! It's a full triple kill, Jip!"
"You don't sound as excited as you should, Kloxvis, and after the carnage the humans been up to, I can't blame you! Speaking of, there she is, running straight for xXx_Wombsmasher69420_xXx!
"That's right, and Smasher is ready for business! He's running a semi-automatic eight-chambered grenade launcher, and he's set up in some ruins. Terrible for anyone who uses direct-fire weaponry, but perfect for splash-damage! And as we just saw, he's got proximity grenades set up, meaning they only fire when close by to an enemy! He can bounce those babies against walls all he likes, and if he misses he just creates traps instead!"
"Well, looks like he's spotted the human from his vantage point, he's already launched a grenade right at where she's running to, unfazed by her speed! She's going to get hit right in the face unless she somehow - AND SHE HAS DODGED!"
"Folks, she's just used her grapple hook to pull herself to a nearby structure, moving out of the grenade's explosion! She's zipping around without a care in the world! And it looks like she's entered the building!"
"For those of you on audio only, she's using her grappling hook to navigate from wall to wall, avoiding the proximity grenades on the floor, as they can only detect within their blast radius!"
"This is ingenious! Why hasn't this type of play been seen before, Jip?"
"Well Kloxvis, not only does the grappling hook take up the same space as a gun, but it's got to be aimed like one too. So you can't use it unless you're going akimbo, which breaks the current meta of long guns, or gauntlet-gun and shield, but you've also got to aim at walls during a firefight, which is normally a recipe for a quick death."
"But as we've seen today, normally isn't a word that applies to Jane.Swanson.2033! Looks like she's just outside the room Smasher is holed up in...and she's just waiting?"
"That's right, Kloxvis, she's just holding onto the wall with her grappling hook, right above the door to Smasher's hideyhole. Let's switch from the spectator stream to instead follow Smasher's screen. And it looks like he's just moving his field of view around from one door to the next, unaware of her presence."
"Just like Gloylh said, she's not running any equipment that will get her detected, and she's not triggered any grenades yet. I...I think Smasher is scared."
"I can't say I blame him, Kloxvis. It looks like he's decided to go check it out, he's manually set it so his grenades will be defused while he's in the blast radius."
"Normally I'd commend him for following the advice of Deathshot's first champion, Jgkpt Klkkt, It is always better to be the peeper than the peepee, but I think we all know where this is going."
"Yep, switching back to Jane.Swanson.2033's screen, and yep, she's looking down at the door frame, we can see the lights on the grenade below her turn off, and there's Smasher, walking through the doorframe, is she going to go for another melee kill..."
"Doesn't look like it, she's still attached to the wall, she's pulling a grenade out, and she's...she's thrown it at the ground and run? And Smasher isn't even in the blast radius! And she's already running out of the building! Wait, what? The game is reporting Smasher killed himself?! How!?"
"Let's go back to free camera replay. There she is, she threw the grenade, then ran off...Smasher is out the blast radius...oh shit."
"What? Why did you pause?"
"Smasher's not in the blast radius. But his grenade is."
"But it's not primed while he's in its blast radius!"
"No, it's proximity detector isn't primed while he's within its blast radius. But it'll still explode if shot or caught in another explosion."
"But why not just melee him? Or throw the grenade directly at him?"
"If he dies, the grenades' sensors reactivate, and if she was in melee range she'd be within proximity detection range. If she throws the grenade close enough for him to be in the blast radius, he gets an alert on his HUD and runs away or turns around and explodes her."
"...fuck me, that's brilliant."
"Well, shit, looks like it's just two contestants left. All this focusing on the human has kept us from the rest of the match. Who's she up against next?"
"My personal favourite contestant, N00BM0NCH3R, although that was before we saw the humans performance. Looking through the logs, it seems he's taken out his opponents through various drones, each with a different specialty! And he's taken advantage of the new e-war system, hacking his opponents in place while his drones deliver death by a thousand shots!"
"Well here she comes, Kloxvis!"
"Yep, and this time her primitive build won't protect her! M0NCH3R's drones have already seen her, and she's taking hits! She's trying to dodge like she did with webmommy_1, but there's too many drones! And...look, she's popping smoke right at her feet!"
"That's silly, smoke isn't bulletproof!"
"Wait, look, the drones, they're not shooting, they're...they're moving in! Why?"
"Hang on, looking at M0NCH3R's screen, he's got drones set to hunter mode, meaning they will do their best to increase accuracy! And the game's AI is trying to get a visual of her before firings, hence why they're entering in the smoke!"
"But...but that'll just get them punched to death! And she'll heal from it! And get that speed boost!"
"M0NCH3R doesn't know that. I'm looking at his screen, he's just getting reports that more and more drones are getting destroyed! He's trying to order his nanoforge to print more, but he got a less capable one to afford his e-war suite! Kloxvis, he's trying to track her electronics and hack her! This is hilarious, he hasn't figured out that she doesn't have any! Even her grenades are set to manual delay activation!"
"Looks like she's thrown another smoke grenade closer to M0NCH3R! She's just darted into it, and is repeating the process! She's creating her own godsdamned cover as she advances!"
"M0NCH3R is retreating! He's swapped his e-war deck for a sidearm, the same Colossus we saw Webmommy_1 use! But this time the human is out of ablative armour, and M0NCH3R is just waiting for her to come out of that smoke!"
"I'm still watching her screen, she's pulling out smoke grenades and throwing them almost straight up in the air, with only slight variation in the angles! What is she doing?"
"M0NCH3R spotted them, he's too scared of her running out to track them! I'm on free camera, and the grenades are coming down, and they're in a semicircle behind and around M0NCH3R!"
"She's just thrown out her last one!"
"I see it, it's enveloped M0NCH3R! He's trying to get out of it by running backwards, but he's got no clue how much smoke is around him! Oh he's gonna get punched so hard!"
"Not really, she's not going forwards! She's run out of the smoke, and is going around it, to the back...I think she's waiting for M0NCH3R to come out...yes, there he is, he's not seen her, and BLAM, SHE LANDED A KILLING BLOW, RIGHT IN THE HEAD, A CRITICAL! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND TERTIARY SEXES, YOUR FOURTEENTH DEATHSHOT SEASON WINNER, sponsored by Wender Cola, JANE.SWANSON.2033@DMAIL.COM!!!"
"...she's...she's still running around. Do you think this is some sort of dominance statement? That she's saying she can still keep going, or that she doesn't feel she's had a hard enough fight yet? Kloxvis? Why are you laughing?"
"She, ha, she, haha!"
"What? She what?!"
"She doesn't have a HUD!"
"SO?!"
"So she probably hasn't realised she's got no opponents left to fight!"
"Shit, now that is funny."