One more post, before the year is out

 The traditional acknowledgement of the shit state of parts of the world follows.  The Hamas/Israel thing is still going on (a pox on both their houses), and Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues (a pox on Russia, and Putin and his circle in particular).

Right, that out of the way, 2023 is coming to a close, and life is greatly unchanged for me, outside of a couple of bits in the gaming sphere.  As expected, an XBox gift card came my way from my brother, which I put towards finally picking up Baldur's Gate 3.  It's an unexpectedly large game, which forced me to make a decision.  Either Starfield or Destiny 2 needed to go, to make room on the limited drive space of the Series S.  I wrestled with that choice a bit, but, in the end, Destiny 2, in its current state, isn't really geared towards how I'm playing these days, so off it went.  Looks like it's been a bit over a year since I got back into Destiny 2, so it had a good run... and I'm definitely more interested in seeing what Bethesda does in coming weeks to shore up their latest game.

What about Baldur's Gate 3, you ask?  Well, I've hardly played enough yet to give a proper review, but I definitely like what I've seen so far.  Companions with issues, proper turn-based combat, wide ranges of choices to make, no matter how poor (let's just say I've ended up kissing a mind flayer, however unintentionally)... it's a wild ride, and it's hooked me deep enough for unintentional past-my-bedtime play sessions.  How much of that is, for lack of a better term, "nostalgic novelty", and how much is a really good game, I need more playtime to work out... but I'd lean in the good game direction, myself.

Well, that all said, goodbye 2023.  Let's see what the new year has to offer.

What's this? A way to get Bungie executives removed, you say?

 Before I revel in being a terrible person, here's the traditional report on people being terrible in Ukraine and Gaza.  In Ukraine, winter is setting in, so, likely, not a lot of news is going to come in on that front for a while... which is good, because we (USA and Europe, but mostly USA) can't seem to get our act together to keep Ukraine funded for their fight against Russian invaders.  Meanwhile, while there was a ceasefire and exchange of some hostages in Gaza, the fight is back on now... and apparently, the USA had to veto a resolution at the UN trying to force another ceasefire.  The UN is good for many things, but trying to decree the end of active fights, not so much.

Anyways, turning to something I might have a bit more influence over, it's the situation over at Destiny 2's developer Bungie.  According to reports from a couple of days back like this one, the amazingly tone-deaf behavior of Bungie's executive leadership team of late may be due in large part to a simple driver:  self-preservation.  Per reports, if Bungie doesn't make certain financial goals in short order, Sony can wipe out the current board and replace it with people of their own choosing.

Looking at that from a slightly different angle, one result I come up with is:  by not giving Bungie any money in the form of microtransactions or season/expansion purchases, I can do my part to usher the bad-for-customers-and-employees board members out the door.  There are a number of reasons why this isn't a sure-fire, unalloyed good of an action to take.  Most obviously, the current board is likely to cause even more chaos among the employees and players as they seek to avoid their fate.  Also, well, it's Sony who would set the rules thereafter, and they've demonstrated in the past that they're not the most customer-centric sorts either.  That all said, the current state of affairs for both players and employees is pretty bad, and Sony taking over direct control likely wouldn't be much worse (or, if it did become that much worse as an immediate result, it would be that much easier to walk away from the game).

So, yeah, I'm on board.  So long as nobody comes up with a compelling reason otherwise, count me in the camp of "I'm not giving Bungie any money until their current board is removed."  Will that happen before the next expansion launches later next year?  I'm hopeful (the sooner the better, really), but we'll see.