Driving someone to chicago and dropping them off isn’t trafficking, but there is most definitely a slew of child-labor happening in this country, and the majority of the children involved are migrants who illegally crossed the border. There’s a lot of coverage about this if you look for it. I imagine that Texas might be involved in some part of that process if they’re the ones handling these people.

Edit: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/04/1173697113/immigrant-child-labor-crisis

I understand your sentiments, but here’s the crux of the problem:

The majority of all physical disk are really just download licenses. They don’t actually amount to anything more than a game key you buy on a card. Why? Because the majority of games can’t even fit on a single disk to begin with. Unless disk technology has changed significantly since blue-ray (I don’t keep up with it), even the largest disk only hold about 25gb of data. That means you’d need technically 6 blue-ray disk just to install Starfield… now think about that on a supply-chain level. Games would cost even more than ever if they had to fit the entire games worth of data in the box.

They’d save more money selling USB drives with the game art slapped onto them. In fact, if we think about the future of physical media, it isn’t CDs, it’s game cartridges. The Switch is ahead of the game on this. The problem though, is that even if that is doable, there’s the very real fact that releasing physical media cost money, and these days, that is an un-necessary cost. The only reason all of these indie developers are thriving is because they can readily release their games without worrying about physical release. We’re in a golden age of indie video game development and its entirely driven by digital downloads.

So instead of worrying about physical releases, what we should be focusing on is DRM-free media. You can get DRM-free games on GOG.com, for example. It’s always better to buy your game there instead of on Steam for this reason. DRM-free is essentially the ownership you’re looking for.

It’s not. Even the disk these days is just a physical license to download the game on your console. You literally can’t play most games right out of the box unless it’s a Switch title (that I’m aware of). This has already been happening for well over a decade on PC. Everyone else is just now catching up. Besides, less plastic/paper waste is undoubtedly a good thing.

Late to this thread, but wanted to add to it:

Going out, and going out regularly. Go to places you enjoy, partake in activities that interest you, be consistent about it, and you will meet people. It can be as little as going to the same mom and pop shop every week for a sandwich or coffee, or as big as going out to some kind of club weekly. I actually made a few friends by going to this coffee shop pretty regularly, even hooked up with someone who worked there. Nearby to that same shop was a little occult shop that I liked to frequent and made acquaintances there as well. At one time I was involving myself in a HEMA club and that was super fun and you engaged with a lot of cool people.

Now with that said, there’s another part to this. In addition to putting yourself out there to be met, so to say, you also need to know how to converse and listen to other people. Frankly it doesn’t matter if you surround yourself with people, because if you are annoying or incapable of holding a conversation, or always come off too strongly, you’ll inevitably be ignored.

It would be an odd move if Sony didn’t plan to do the same. They’d give all the exclusive power to Sony and effectively kill any reason to buy an Xbox in the first place.