6 Comments

Since you mentioned D&DG, I’m curious what your thoughts on Balatro are

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As I've said before, it's fine, I enjoyed playing it for a bit, but it's not balanced and it's not as good as the excitement around it.

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That’s fair. I myself can’t put it down, but I do find myself getting increasingly frustrated, especially at higher stakes it feels very RNG dependent

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How long does it take you to write all of this?

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Two things: one is that it is interesting that the NFL did a total about-face on gambling. They used to be like “we have nothing to do with gambling and we are shocked, shocked that people gamble on our games!’ to “we LOVE gambling!” Watching an NFL game, it seems like every other ad is DraftKings or another sports betting outfit. It gets very annoying.

Second, Vegas can be a good entertainment option for adult non-gamblers. Since retiring, my wife and I have made an annual excursion to Vegas during the week, when rates are low. We barely step into the casino. Our losses are usually less than $100 each. But we’ve dined at multiple Michelin Star quality restaurants. She will do a full spa day, with manicure, pedicure, facial, etc, and while those are girly for me, I do get and enjoy a good long massage. And we have seen a number of great shows, including Lady Gaga doing her jazz singing, Penn and Teller, and an off strip production of the Evil Dead musical at which we were almost certainly the oldest guests.

As a resort destination, Vegas can be a lot of fun, even if you don’t gamble at all.

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Been rather enjoying this series so far. It's sort of disturbing how many parallels and symmetrical skills one can draw between Magic and Real Gambling. Although I'm finding it weird how tales of EV and odds and sportsbooks are kinda fascinating ("maybe I'll just try casual poker...already playing MtG on lunch breaks..."), whereas Blue bores me to play and play against. Stop trying to hit me and hit me, says the Boros player...still useful to adopt some of that River Nature though. Take more risks, actually swing in combat, be willing to trade creatures. It's important to have a high Perception score and model one's opponents, no matter the strat. Feeling that pain point when players make illogical or merely suboptimal plays that are later revealed as actual mistakes, not cunning plots - that's a good reflex!

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