I’d argue that Valve does more than just take 30% as a middle man. Between Steam Input, Proton, the beta built in recording system, the Forums for every game, community system and the marketplace, having your game on Steam is a massive value generator for the consumer and by extension developers.

30% might not be what the industry standard should be, but Valve isn’t just providing a standard digital distribution service.

I feel like trying to frame men’s mental health issues as a problem caused exclusively by “the patriarchy and capitalism” seems like it’s trying to wash the rest of society of their own personal responsibility to contribute to making the world a better place for everyone. Patriarchy and Capitalism are just tools of the greater power structure of society, which we all have a hand in forming and perpetuating.

And let’s not pretend that the feminist movement’s tendency to pump out and empower misandrists and misandrist thinking isn’t going to have a negative impact men’s mental health, especially if we continue to hold feminism as a scared cow beyond reproach or criticism. And let’s not pretend the fact that we have the explicitly female coded “feminism” that opposes the explicitly coded “patriarchy” isn’t going to give people who don’t have a lot of time to philosophise an inherently combative view of the feminism.

It’s hard to buy into the whole “actually femismim is for anyone who wants equality” shtick when you’re working exhaustive jobs most your life and then you get exposed to the kind of feminist who says men might as well go extinct because they have sperm banks now.

It won’t fix it, but it can mitigate it to an extent.

Pets are a expense and a responsibility, with conversations being one sided, so their less than ideal for shut ins who struggle to function to begin with.

Therapy could help, but is also an expense and still has the barrier of a direct interpersonal interaction.

Both of these also have the issue of intimacy being non-existent. An AI offers a chance for low stakes, human like interaction that can be intimate.

I’ve heard of a guy who married a hologram app of Hatusne Miku, and it literally turned his life around having anything to talk to.

The loneliness epidemic is real, and as a former NEET, crippling social anxiety is a killer. Something that can put these vulnerable people in the position where they can function and get though the day is an objective good.

Doesn’t help that sex keeps being written into shows where it doesn’t belong.

It’s trying to make a show “more adult” in literally the most childish way possible.

That Halo show is a good example of completely needless sex scenes.

Americans always seem to think that there is some kind of pan-ethinc bond between people in completely different counties, as if we weren’t all killing each other until that whole “world wars” thing.

When I was young my brother wanted to trade in our crystal xbox for money towards an Elite 360.

I made a stink about it because I didn’t want to upgrade at the time, and I even ended up setting it up in the attic to try and avoid having it sold.

In the end Dad did end up trading it in… for 20p (good riddance to physical game shops).

Ended up getting my own crystal xbox as an adult, and I did end up playing Halo 3 ODST’s multilayer disc religiously. Still, for 20p Dad?!