Perhaps they are going for a tone of heroic escapism, or fantastical drama over gory and downbeat "realism".

If you really just want to see heroes maiming people it's been done. Invincible, The Boys (show and comic). Even back to the 90s there were comics like Stormwatch that centered on the premise of "realistic" consequences of super powers.

Personally, I think Star Citizen is shallow and pedantic.

It gets me thinking. Tech literate people are the types to install blockers, and would be the same type of people both motivated and knowledgeable about how to switch browsers. On the line of thinking it seems like it is just going to drive them away from Chrome. Tech illiterate people remain unaffected since they are getting ads anyway.

But then on the other hand, if someone is tech literate then why are they even still using Chrome? Does such a person value whatever advantage Chrome theoretically provides over their ad-blocking?

Unfortunately the good taste of people who actively comment about games often has only slight overlap with what makes money.

Three of the top ten US game earners in 2024 were yearly sports game rehashes. One of the top ten games was Call Of Duty. One was Fortnite.

These are money making machines. We can argue and beg and plead all we want. There is a huge mass of gamers out there was simply don't care, and who will continue to buy formulaic rehashes and microtransaction infested treadmills.

The AAA publishers are not in it for the art. Look at AA and indie if you want games that are willing to appeal to a niche. I'm talking to you and everyone else reading this because this might actually have an effect. Saying what AAA publishers and developers should do is pointless, not like they will ever read it.

Oh boy. Time for an 800 comment long flamewar about Star Citizen. I'm ready.

and the whole hooters/twin peaks concept

I haven't thought about Hooters in years. It always did seem like a dated concept from the 1980s that was somehow still clinging to life in the 90s. It's still in business, so obviously somebody must be going to them, but I don't know if I'd call it normal for most Americans.

Lords Of The Realm 2. A game I like to play to relax.

Alcohol sales vary hugely between states. In some states, you can get hard liquor at Wal-Mart while in others you can only get it at state run stores.

The rules about licensing mean some areas gas stations usually don't even sell beer, while in other places they have giant walk in beer freezers.

Some states or counties have dry laws where they don't sell alcohol on Sundays, or maybe no hard alcohol, or maybe you have to wait until noon to be able to buy it.

It's all over the place.

As for the Wal-Mart machineguns, I think you've gotten enough replies on that detail, but again gun sales are something with huge variety. Some states have put restrictions in place where a Wal-Mart theoretically could still sell guns but doesn't because of the hassle, and gun stores end up being few and far between, while other places basically just have the Federal minimum in place.

I was going to go sleep, but now I have some gaming to do.

[Untranslated Wookiee speech]

But he di'd bring a bomb

According to the chart, here are a few other countries where the average is "dumber than the average human":

Australia

Belgium

Belize

Brazil

Canada

Chile

Czech Republic

Denmark

France

Finland

Germany

India

Israel

Italy

Mexico

I suppose dunking on those stupid Belgians isn't as eye catching of a headline as good, old fashioned America Bad bait.