BY OUR MALICE COMBINED

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In the first seasons, the Prophets made a good pitch for the idea that while they were completely bonkers it was because of their transformational leadership and future-first thinking---that they simply operated on a level that Sisko couldn't reach.

Later on, though, as he got to know them, they began to show up in the cubicle of his mind and tell him absolutely nothing in a lot of words. The one time he asked for help getting the resources he needed to do his job, the Prophets got incredibly huffy at his impertinence. Even later they would say things like

"You are the Sisko" ("you are an important member of the team, we value your contribution, we are aware of at least one of your names")

"The Sisko is of Bajor" ("we admire your devotion to the company ideals. You're a real Bajor man.")

various events ("Don't think of us as detached observers and overseers. Think of us as family.")

"If you do this you will know only sorrow" ("people who distract themselves with relationships will never get ahead in business")

various events ("That was the last thing we needed you for, you're fired. Per your noncompete you must now sit in a white room for a few centuries.")

brought to you by Bajor Cola, a product of the Celestial Temple

Full trailer for 'Pickmon', an open-world survival game that looks like 'Pokémon' and 'Palworld', except monster capturing is done with “cards”

Oh hello Ceruledge

Wait

Lots of folks around me complain bitterly that retail establishments are too quick to change their seasonal promos. I say: don't blame me. This is the fault of the ancient Gregorians, who put Halloween and Christmas too closely together when they invented the calendar. They knew exactly what they were getting into, and it is only fate that it is our age that the inevitable collapse has occurred to.

In a normal, healthy retail environment, these two holidays put too closely together wouldn't matter: families would still spend through the summer on hot girl summer, the fall in hot girl autumn, the winter in somewhat colder girl winter, and finally re-up for hot girl spring. Cash throughout the whole year pouring into your coffers, paying for deluxe mall real estate and maybe a BMW or two for the regional manager. Unfortunately, shit's fucked right now, in case you haven't noticed, and now the only two things that can get a wallet opened are spooky skeletons and big ol' trees with blinking lights on 'em.

The number of people willing to accept players who won't read the rules even though they come back week after week is bizarre - you wouldn't accept it for any other game, and RPGs are just a kind of game! If the rules of one game are 'too complex' just switch to a different game! If they claim they 'don't have time' - cancel one session. That 3 hour block is now dedicated game-learning time, and 3 hours is plenty. Easy.

See, "RPGs are [...] a kind of game" is where the disconnect lies. There's a large chunk of the present D&D fandom who don't think of tabletop RPGs as games; they think of them as performances being put on by the GM for the audience of the players, who – like any audience – are obliged only to be physically present. In this understanding, the "game-ness" of the activity is part of the performance – i.e., the GM is merely pretending to moderate a game with rules as an act of kayfabe; there's no point learning the rules because there aren't "really" rules to learn.

(Partly this is a product of folks coming to the hobby whose sole prior experience is with high-production-value podcasts, where the GM actually is an entertainer putting on a show for an audience, and often a professional actor to boot; partly it's a product of Hasbro attempting to market D&D as a zero-entry-barrier hobby by framing the GM not as a fellow player with special responsibilities, but as a volunteer service provider whose job is to facilitate other people playing D&D.)