iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 11h

"oops, I thought I ordered a truckload of rice, but this giant skeleton arrived instead"

Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 11h

"All lives are equal, but some are more equal than others. Which, strangely, just happens to put a bunch of rich San Francisco tech-nerds. But it's been put into a spreadsheet and the maths says it's true!"

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 12h

it's basically "throw a birthday party, but bigger". Make it clear that this is a big thing, gonna be fancy, rent somewhere big, have a proper meal, invite everyone, maybe a theme or dress-code. Probably even get some gifts and things from it!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 14h

bleed got me through most of the game - being able to slice a lot of enemies and then suddenly a huge chunk of health vanishes makes things a lot easier!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 16h

a lot are basically mini-art-tokens - you can put a bunch of them in a frame, for example, especially if you can get ones in similar sizes. Or use them around the edge of another picture, rather than a card frame

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 17h

perverted lesbians all around the world lending you their spiritual power to continue, charging you up to make you unstoppable!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 18h

IIRC, they mention "sorcerer" as a class, when that was a 3e thing that got backported into (late) AD&D, some spells are used by classes that don't have that spell, "warlocks" are mentioned when that's a level-title for spellcasters, not a class (until 3e, I think). Mostly minor stuff though

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 18h

wouldn't those then start to get crap over time though, as they don't have anything after a given point in time? So that's a fairly fixed potential range of usecases, and when those are done, that's kind of it

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 18h

plus even then, checking that the list of what is shit is correct is going to take time and effort, and saying it's shit in ways that are wrong is a bit embarrassing!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 18h

it's just a standard scammer tactic - "you NEED to do this NOW, otherwise you'll regret it, don't think about it, just do it, go go go".

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 19h

I *think* they're talking about something like having some pregenned characters that aren't fully book-standard/legal, to show how the system can stretch itself. So like a D&D character that has a custom background or race or otherwise "breaks the rules", to show how that's possible?

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

clearly you're AARAB (Assigned Austen Reader At Birth). Time to go and engage in timelessly sharp and pointed social satire!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

pubs used to be that (at least in the UK), and sometimes kinda still are, but that's massively declined. A place where you could hang out and meet with a broad cross section of "the community", without needing to spend much money, that was often a community hub

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

and then why those places always seem to be busy and bustling and doing well! (and probably also creating useful places where people can pick up some work, either there, or by socialising with people that can hook them up with work, rather than grinding through LinkedIn or some shit)

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Reposted by Melissa DuVant

Cereza 🍒 COMISSIONS OPEN 🍒 @beatorichie.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Sharing my art helps me a lot 🙏🏼🖤

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

tbf, she raises some valid points about turning the world into being full of her clones!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

no time for remorse when you're as cool as gonzo was being!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

yup, friction is how you learn, how things get embedded into memory. It can be annoying as hell, but to get good at something, you need to suck at something first, and then fight through that. Just one-shotting a problem won't actually teach you the resolution

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

it's a lot easier to just roll out of the train station, wait a few minutes for a tram, and then just sit for a bit! Much easier than walking, and cheaper than a taxi

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

it's like writing, music and a lot of other creative stuff - loads of people do it as a hobby, some do it as a side-hustle making from beer money to "nice bonus" money, a fraction make "crap job" money and a tiny, tiny number make "good job" money (and then often only for a short time)!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

oh god, so many issue ticket summaries that are kinda-sorta right but missing key parts - and that's of stuff that's only a few dozen comments, tops, so reading it only takes a few minutes!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

basically this - they're used to the competition being "show that you're the biggest arch-conservative culture warrior". And outside of a specific cultural bubble, that's between "massively unpopular" and "not relevant to daily life", so doesn't actively get voters interested

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

and also because they're probably often in social spaces where that is popular - but what plays well in a primary for "who is the biggest prick to the Scary Others" is a dogshit terrible campaign to run on against anyone that's not on team dickbag, that's going to leave a lot of voters cold

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

that's because of what it's portraying, not because you're being mean to the NPCs though

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

that sounds kinda impractical? Like, no books should contain events that are harsh to characters, as those are simulations of people? TTRPGs can't have anything where PCs or NPCs get abused? And that's before computer games (and let's not get started on kink, where people act out abuse to people!)

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

when you don't care about overdosing, just making absolutely sure they get a dose!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Just in terms of stats, then "break-ins" are relatively rare, but "friend, relative or pet bumbling around at night" is a lot more common. So it's vastly more likely that the unidentified figure will be friend/family/pet, rather than a scary burglar or similar

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Reposted by Melissa DuVant

The Venerable Weed @simonberman.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I understand why we all dunk on Facebook as the lamest place on the internet but everyone needs to put respect on Dean Koontz for being one of the top posters to ever do it for the love of the game

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

there's also going to be a tendency to have links to groups that are likely to lie about their own power. "Yes, give me millions of dollars, I have thousands of rebels waiting for their moment". When it's three guys in a basement with no power!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Second Life but *worse* - a lot of the stuff in Second Life is very imaginative and creative, there's reasons why it was big with furries and similar crowds, and the diversity of bodies and styles is a major appeal to people that do it

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Yup, an endless algorithm narrowing of horizons, until everything is just other things but wriggled around a bit, some kind of media-frankenstein's-monster of other stuff stitched together and awkwardly reanimated, with as little novelty as possible. Creepy as hell!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

lots of profit... as long as you just quietly ignore all the "paying for stuff" they have to do.

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

yup - it's very "more features faster = more good", when a lot of users don't want more features, they want the thing they've got to just work a bit faster and smoother! And not wonkily-specced dodgy features added on top of a slightly janky core experience

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

also, that the way to give it precise and not-misunderstood instructions... is to know how to code, or a pretty close approximation of it. At which point it's maybe saving a bit of typing? So not a super-duper 10x timesaver, but maybe, like, 0.1 faster or something!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

whomst amongst us has not done such a thing, I ask? Just a trifling twenty billion, barely worth the mention!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

it's normally an excuse for "how are they paying for umpteen super-custom items and can mostly do what they want", where the actual "doing" is all off-page somewhere. Even for "mere" millionaires, actual "work" is mostly ignored, with much the same practical effect, just smaller numbers

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I'm writing as "overt erotica", so it's mostly brushed over - "does business or law" is common, or "young, eager and improvising a lot/has a mentor". But "mega-wealthy" is a bit of a red flag, because, well... you don't get to be mega-wealthy without being an asshole somewhere along the line

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

they're still going, but are mostly a dining club for middle-aged/elderly, middle-class men, with some ritual bits attached (and kinda dying out, because younger people don't really want to go to quasi-magical dining clubs with old guys!) Some nice buildings though

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

American universities also seem to have more of a "legacy" component, of going where your parent's went, which UK ones don't - so it's doubling down on that old boy's network (and linked to donations).

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

if they do, there's no old organisation that wants to cover it up - one of the main issues with frats is that they're embedded into a whole "legacy" thing. Drinking clubs can be bad but no-one much cares if they get banned or broken up, but frats have actual influence

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

there's good odds that's the cheapest it's gonna be - so how much more are people willing to pay for it? Or settle for older, never-getting-upgraded tools, that have to be run on personal devices? It has uses, but it's pretty dubious that they justify the cost or will be able to keep it running!

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

awwww! gotta do the rounds of the humans and make sure they're all doing the proper thing. Does she start herding people towards bed if they're doing silly things like "staying up late"?

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

especially if it is actually a business, surely you want the new person in charge to start doing more of that side of things, while you'll still around to advise but start stepping back, rather than them having to do that suddenly and in stressful circumstances with probably no notice?

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

they can also be kinda fun just as a chilled group thing, just something to do with your hands while chatting, without the pressure of a boardgame or as distracting as a movie

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

"get cheaper" has issues when they're billions in the hole already, with more billions of commitments already made, and no profit yet though, and chips not getting cheaper. It's going to have to be a LOT more expensive than $20/month, which is where things get kinda messy

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Melissa DuVant @melissaduvant.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

that crate with the side-panel, mmmm, delicious to watch the squirming!

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