And they updated some of the levelling to work more like Skyrim, because the Oblivion system sucked in comparison

Updated how exactly? Oblivion and Skyrim both have pretty serious flaws. I believe there are popular mods to fix the Oblivion system in a way that still feels like Oblivion, though it’s been a long time since I’ve read in to any of it.

Out of interest, how does that site classify Age of Empires Definitive Edition (and aoe2:DE and aoe3:DE) and Age of Mythology: Retold?

Oh yeah. Now that you mention it I had heard that before. Ah well, it woulda made a good anecdote.

Wasn’t the music they used pirated too?

Not a comparison I use lightly, I assure you.

Maybe that one politician a while back who wanted to redefine pi to equal 4 would be on this level.

There are so many ways to use fingers to count, while the one common in Europe the simplest one possible

But this isn’t about counting on fingers. It’s about counting fingers. As in, the fingers themselves are what’s being counted when you talk about your “middle finger”.

Did something happen in her past that makes her so hateful on this issue

I can’t guess as to the full extent of her transphobia, but I can point to a couple of elements of it.

She did suffer domestic abuse of some sort before and around the time the first Harry Potter book came out. This was a cis man who did it, but I think in her mind there’s no difference between cis men and trans women.

There’s also a well-studied psychological phenomenon where people tend to double-down on their prior beliefs when challenged, unless those challenges come in a very narrow form. Her earliest transphobic comments may have been her being tepid about expressing her true beliefs, but they may genuinely have been the sort of misinformed casual transphobia that a much, much wider segment of the population has which may have gone no further if she were a normal person. But because lots of well-intentioned people—largely some of her most dedicated fans—tried to educate her and help her to be better, she may have doubled down and got into the reactionary feedback loop that so many transphobes, racists, and members of the alt-right got into. They perceive constructive criticism, especially when it comes in large volumes, as a personal attack, and the people who aren’t attacking them instead encourage them to double down on their beliefs, and reward them when they do.

Her books show a very strong liberal bias. Liberal in the sense that it’s not regressive per se, but it’s also strongly opposed to analysis of problems as stemming from systemic issues rather than One Bad Actor. SPEW is the easiest to point to, but the lack of systemic change in the governance of the Wizarding World post-Voldemort is more significant, in my view. The problem was one Minister of Magic who was just ignorant of the problem of Voldemort, followed by another who actively covered it up. These individuals are the bad guys who need to be defeated. It wasn’t, as the books tell it, underlying racism and classism of wizarding culture. So it seems that Rowling is not good at spotting systemic injustice. Such as the higher suicide rates among trans people (especially if they’re not accepted), higher rates of DV and other violence, and other problems faced are not factoring into her calculations. Which makes it so much easier to cast trans people as the bad guys.

But I find it hard for these to adequately explain either the initial spark of transphobia per se, or the rather extreme extent she’s gone to. So yeah, like you I’m a little curious if there’s more to it.

but basically just don’t count for any laws like “50% of company board members must be women to receive this tax break”.

Which, idk, seems reasonable to me.

I have no idea how that’s reasonable. The point of such laws is to promote equality. And even if you choose to count trans women as a completely unique third category (which you shouldn’t…the word “women” in “trans women” is there for a reason), they are certainly a minority gender, so counting them for the purpose of pro-diversity incentives seems like a no-brainer.

Her public celebration of the result was absolutely grotesque

There should be no laws that depend on either gender or sex

Ideally, maybe. In a future perfect society. But let’s remember that the court case that triggered this was about whether trans women count as women for the purposes of meeting laws that require gender quotas. Quotas that most of us should support because of their importance in combatting existing gender inequalities.

Nah, that doesn’t apply in this case. The UK is a world leader in transphobia, acting not because the US does things, but because they’re entirely transphobic on their own.

Sure, but we don’t say you have one middle finger, we talk about the two middle fingers. As in, one per hand. It’s not the middle of all your fingers, it’s the middle of the fingers on that hand.

We don’t count the gabs because that’s…not how counting things works. When delivering a bag of apples, you don’t count how many gaps between apples there are, you count the number of apples. You have to know that your second paragraph here is a stretch that would make a Republican lawmaker seem sensible, don’t you?

It’s pretty normal to count the thumb as a finger. I find it strange that you would not.

If you were asked “how many fingers do you have”, would you answer 8, or 10? Surely, everyone knows the answer is 10 (assuming no physical abnormalities)? On a fingering chart, music will instruct you to play a note with your thumb with the number “1” and your pinky with the number “5”.

I will always discuss this and never let it go uncommented on

I dunno, sounds like the one who’s made it their whole personality might not be spectral here.

Imma be honest, I don’t know what they said either, but in part it’s because your comment that they’re replying to didn’t make sense.

“Humans” nor “Americans” are a group that espouse moral authority.

This doesn’t scan at all.

I don’t disagree with you that these people are taking a message that seems inconsistent with the biblical portrayal of Jesus. But the above comment was criticising people “who feel the urge to spread Christianity in any way”. Which, yeah. Fuck them. If someone wants to do their research and convert to Christianity because they like it, more power to them.

But introducing children to that nonsense (by which I mean belief in resurrections and other obviously ridiculous bullshit, even if it’s not directly used to cause tangible harm) as though it’s fact at a vulnerable young age should be considered child abuse. And preying on vulnerable lonely or depressed people and using highly manipulative tactics like love bombing the way many evangelical branches of Christianity do, as do Mormons and I believe Jehovah’s Witnesses, should also be considered abusive behaviour.

Even construction companies need finance and HR

There’s no misunderstanding, just pragmatism. I’m saying that the fact is that today there is a national government, and that elections for that government should not be run in a fractured way that makes it easier for bigots to take control.

the solution isn’t telling people what not to believe

Absolutely correct. However, I think far too often in society we err too far on the side of respecting religion. As some examples:

• Religious institutions or individuals should not be permitted to discriminate on the basis of either religion or religious belief. A sexist teacher can’t choose to not teach women. A racist bus driver can’t say “no black people on my bus”. A religious doctor, or any doctor at a religiously-affiliated hospital, should not be allowed to refuse to provide certain procedures because of their religion.
• Religions should not receive special taxation status.
• Religious rituals like prayers should not be involved in any civil procedure like the opening of parliaments and city councils.
• The only time religion should ever be involved in actual Monday-to-Friday schools should be as part of dispassionate academic discussion of theology, not from the perspective of evangelising.

Etc.

So Fake London is now known for more than just stroads, then. It’s stroads and rapists.