By most objective and even subjective viewpoints, I live a fairly good life, compared to most human beings that have ever lived. I have been married to a wonderful woman for near forty years, we have two grown children that are successful and have families of their own, we own our own home, have reliable transportation and rarely worry about “making ends meet”. Sure there have been challenges to face, including cancer, but overall, my life is pretty good. All that being said, I still have mental and emotional issues with how I was raised in a highly dysfunctional, broken family. The effects upon a person, who was raised in this type of a reality are profound, deep and really never go away. In my case, I believe that most of the damage done to me has either been overcome or I have learned means to mitigate their impact. Some of the issues still impact me, some daily, some occasionally due to triggers. I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist or a doctor, so this is not meant to be a clinical rundown of the effect of a trauma. This is simply me talking about how I was impacted by growing up in a household, with a broken family, a mother who was manic (Borderline Personality & Bipolar) and an alcoholic stepfather. Imposter Syndrome — As a child, I was frequently told I was stupid, dumb, etc. My reaction was to seek success and try and make my parents proud, in the hope that they would approve of me. As an adult, I have suffered setbacks, as we all do in life. I have also been successful in many areas. Even with success, I feel like the “dumb kid”, the person who is masquerading.Even approaching sixty years of age, I sometimes fear that other people will realize that I am just faking it all. I have always exhibited what is termed “The White Knight” or “The Caretaker” role. This individual attempts to keep everyone in the family as calm and happy as possible, even if it covers up deeper issues and dysfunction. This is also demonstrated in an almost instinctual reaction to try and fix, repair or save others — from a situation or themselves. For me, this is one of the most difficult things for me to deal with in myself. It has been second nature for me to try and be the peacemaker, to rescue, comfort and fix things. I have anxiety at times, we all do, but in my life, this anxiety can at times become debilitating. I have learned through therapy and by training, to recognize this and to find means of managing it. The anxiety and and anxiety attacks, can be directly traced back to the trauma I had lived through as a child. I had no idea on any given day, if there would be drunken fighting, insane manic episodes from my mother, or just conflict in general. During my teenage years in particular, the overall memory of my “family” is one of repeating cycles of conflict, violence and emotional turmoil. My parents, particularly my mother and stepfather, have never truly addressed the dysfunctional and abusive behavior they exhibited when I was a child. In their mid seventies, they still argue & fight, are enmeshed in “drama” (particularly my mother) and appear to be happy in not being happy, if that makes sense. I finally had to walk away from them and the dysfunctional family dynamics that spin around them. As I told my mother, their live are a “Hurricane of Chaos” with them at the eye of the storm. Everyone else, my siblings and I (and our own families) are the coastal areas being bombarded by their outflow. The truth is that neither I or my siblings created the dysfunctional family dynamic we grew up in, my parents did. My parents still do. However, unlike when I was a child, I have the ability to get out of the path of their storm. I did not CAUSE it I cannot CONTROL it/them I cannot CURE it/them I can control me, I can seek cures for me, I can be accountable to what I cause. My family (wife, children and grandchildren) are the priority in my life. My family did not experience the life I did, only the effects it had upon me. In a way, my parents became the example for how to be an adult — the bad example, the example of what to NOT do or be.

Looking at buying a new truck just looking for some advise or persuasion to point me in the right direction. Would only be driven on the weekend and maybe one day a week to work 100 mile trip. Have a daily for the rest.
Only pulling I do is a jet ski across town once a year to put it in, random utility trailer couple times a summer, and a larger trailer for a sxs would be pulled around Midwest for outings couple times a year.
Interested in either 1500 3.0 or a 2500 duramax, at4, Denali, ltz, or high country, use to have 17 6.2 Denali but sold for a car in 19 for my commute, just paid off. I have zero need for the 2500 other than Iv always wanted one and they seem to somewhat hold value more than a 1500 and feel like I could buy one and keep it for a really long time. Mileage wise and built heavier duty. More ability in the future
Used or new. Can get GM employee discount Any advice would be appreciated TL:DR looking for new truck not sure what I want 1500 or 2500 don’t really need either can borrow family’s truck if I need it anytime.

This is a "subscriber only" article written by Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press from last month that I thought some people would be interested in.
Matt Land’s phone wouldn’t stop buzzing.
Land was the coach at Dalton High in northwest Georgia, about 20 miles south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, when the Catamounts lost to Justin Fields’ Harrison High team in 2017 in a nationally televised game on ESPN2.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart helicoptered in for the game to see Fields, then a Georgia recruit who went on to star at Ohio State. But after Fields broke the index finger on his throwing hand in the third quarter, a little-known running back of diminutive stature stole the show.
Jahmyr Gibbs was a 145-pound sophomore then with nary a scholarship offer to his name. He was lightning quick and quiet as crochet, and recruiters everywhere took note of his 202-yard, two-touchdown rushing day.
“The next morning by 10 o’clock I had 45 text messages and emails or phone calls, people saying, ‘Man, who is that kid? And how big is he?’” Land recalled. “I was like, ‘Ah, he’s 165 pounds.’ They’re like, ‘Really?’ ‘Yeah, yeah.’ I called my strength coach the next morning, I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t know what you’re going to do between now and this summer, but you’ve got to put 15 pounds on Jahmyr.’ I said they all think he weighs 162 pounds.”
Gibbs packed on enough weight to attract recruiting interest from across the country, and after three college seasons — two at Georgia Tech and one at Alabama — he joined fellow 2023 first-round pick Bijan Robinson as the first running backs to be drafted inside the top 20 since 2018.
The Detroit Lions took Gibbs 12th overall in the draft April 27, after trading down from No. 6, and are banking on the electric dual-threat to help diversify their backfield, beginning this fall.
Gibbs led Alabama with 926 yards rushing on 151 carries last season and had a team-high 44 receptions for 444 yards. He ran the second fastest 40-yard dash of any running back at the combine (4.36 seconds). He earned all-ACC honors at three different positions — all-purpose back, running back and return specialist — during his time at Georgia Tech.
And his modest upbringing left him with a work ethic and love for football that seem right up Lions coach Dan Campbell’s alley. “He’s humbled by small beginnings,” former Georgia Tech running backs coach Tashard Choice, now the running backs coach at Texas, said. “If you think about the character, a lot of times these football players got stories behind them. For Gibbs, him bouncing from house to house, the one thing that gave him life, that made him have a purpose was playing outside, playing football, running around. Like I got pictures of him as a little kid, like that’s what he loved to do as a little kid. He had that in him. The Lord had that in him way before.”
Gibbs has been reticent to talk publicly about his upbringing, but he was raised by his single grandmother, Angela Willis, who, according to a 2018 profile in the Dalton Daily Citizen, became his legal guardian when he was 13.
Gibbs was joined by his adoptive family, Greg and Dusty Ross and two of their children, at his introductory news conference April 28 in Allen Park. Gibbs first met the Rosses when he and Willis spent time at a local shelter, Family Promise, whose mission is to help homeless and low-income families achieve independence.
Dusty was volunteering at the shelter at the time, and Gibbs passed the days by playing with her son, John, his future teammate at Dalton and Georgia Tech. After a spell living with Dalton quarterback J.P. Tighe and his family, Gibbs moved in with the Rosses, who he calls mom and dad.
Land first learned of Gibbs when his sister-in-law, a teacher at a local elementary school, called to tell him about a sweet, shy, athletically gifted 6-year-old who was in a transient situation and in need of support.
Land gave Gibbs a scholarship to his football camp, made him a ball boy and water boy for his team, and built a bond the two still share today.
“(My sister-in-law) just said he was just a really pleasant kid but that he did have a lot of athletic ability but also that he was just really, really kind of guarded and sweet, but at the same time, just somebody that you just knew that you wanted to kind of be with and help, and was appreciative, but was very quiet,” Land said. “It was more of, instead of telling you thank you, it was more of showing you thank you. He just received that, all the things that we were trying to do. As long as there was a ball, he was connected. I think I could have walked out there with a hockey puck, he wouldn’t have cared. He just wanted to play and compete.”
Gibbs, at his introductory news conference, said he “wouldn’t change anything” about his upbringing. He said an aunt and uncle also gave him guidance early in life, the Rosses did “a great job of keeping me on the right path and not letting me get in trouble,” and football gave him a welcome respite from reality.
“I would say it just lets me to be me,” Gibbs said. “I don’t got to pretend to be anybody. I can just go out there and do myself and do what I do best.”
At Dalton, Gibbs did everything best.
He ran for 2,554 yards and 40 touchdowns and topped 1,000 yards receiving as a senior, when he was named Georgia’s 6A Offensive Player of the Year. Land fed Gibbs constantly on offense, and when he tried to rest Gibbs in practice the next week, he inevitably looked up to find Gibbs with pads on going full-contact as the team’s top cornerback on the defensive side of the field.
“I’m (going), ‘Jahmyr, I’m trying to rest you.’ And he’d be like, ‘Coach, I don’t need rest, I need work,’” Land said. “That kind of became our little tagline, I don’t need rest, I need work. And so when he got into games, I just was like — it’s kind of like that great line in ‘Secretariat’ when the daughter says, ‘Hey, let him run his race.’ It’s that thing. Just let him run. Let him do it, and he’ll do it, man. He’ll go as long as you’ll let him run.”
A four-star recruit who Land called “the best athlete in the state his senior year,” Gibbs begged to cover the other team’s best receiver most weeks, and delivered more memorable plays than Land can count on offense.
In one game against rival Creekview, Gibbs had a Jimmy Chitwood moment after Land drew up an inside zone run that called for him to be a decoy out of a formation Dalton almost always used on sweeps.
“It’s that moment from ‘Hoosiers,’ you know where he’s drawing the play for Jimmy to be decoy, and then all the guys are like … ‘Coach, let Jimmy take the shot, he’s our best player,’” Land said. “He said, ‘Coach, run (the play) Brown.’ And I’m like, ‘No, no, no. They think we’re going to run that, but we’re going to run inside zone.’ He said, ‘Coach, run Brown.’ I said, ‘I know, I know. They’re going to think that, they’re going to overshift, they’re going to stunt and we’re going to gig ‘em on the backside.’
“And he takes his hand and he puts it on my arm, and he says, ‘Coach, run Brown and I’ll score.’ And it was so — it was like this extraterrestrial moment happened, and I can’t say anything but like, ‘Brrooown,’ (real slowly). That’s like all that would come out. Well, what does he do? Goes 67 yards. I don’t even know that we got anybody outside. He runs Brown, goes 67 yards for a touchdown.”
Gibbs proved dynamic at Georgia Tech. He returned a kick 75 yards on his first college touch and led the Yellow Jackets in all-purpose yards and touchdowns as a true freshman, despite missing three games with a leg injury.
As a sophomore, he ran for 746 yards on 143 carries, and added another 470 yards receiving. He tired of losing at Georgia Tech, and put his name in the transfer portal after the 2021 season.
“He wanted to win,” Choice, the former NFL running back who also left Tech after the 2021 season, said. “See, Jah was accomplishing so much on the football field, if you go back and look at what he said, he didn’t care about none of that. He just wanted to win.”
Gibbs had his most prolific rushing season at Alabama last year and helped the Tide to an 11-2 record. After a slow start with his new team — Gibbs had single-digit rushing attempts in Alabama’s first four games — he became the Tide’s weapon of choice when the offense needed a big play.
“The Detroit Lions just got the best overall athlete in this draft,” former Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr., the No. 3 pick of the draft, told the Free Press at the end of Round 1. “I mean, he can line up at wide receiver, he can line up at running back. He can do it all. He’s so elusive in the backfield, his cuts are amazing, his routes are amazing. Everything he do is amazing. They really just got a really great player that can do everything and be a dynamic threat anywhere on the field for them.”
Yet almost no one — Gibbs included — expected him to go 12th overall in the draft.
Not because he wasn’t talented, because of the position he plays.
Running backs have long had short shelf lives in the NFL, and Gibbs (5 feet 9, 199 pounds) is far from the biggest back. Teams tend to split their backfield workload between two and sometimes three players. Most are wary of giving running backs big second contracts.
Saquon Barkley was the only running back to average more than 50 snaps per game last season, and both he and last year’s NFL leading rusher, Josh Jacobs, are currently slated to play the 2023 season on the franchise tag.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes said Gibbs’ talent defies positional value, and his role on offense won’t be that of a traditional back in Detroit. The Lions signed David Montgomery to a three-year contract in free agency, and he and Gibbs are expected to share backfield reps in 2023, with the ability to play side by side.
“They’re football players and if you believe that they can have an impact for you on the football field then you just go ahead and take them,” Holmes said. “Obviously, we had thoughts of maybe (he would be there with our second first-round pick) at 18, but we didn’t feel great about it and so when we were able to select him at 12, that’s when all the texts started coming in of, ‘He would have been gone by 15.’ Just a lot of picks, a lot of people saying they wanted to trade up. They wanted to get in. So I wouldn’t have even felt good of (getting) him staying at 18. But again, it’s not about just don’t pick a running back because that’s not how we really view him.”
Choice, who coached both Robinson and Gibbs, said he knows of six NFL running backs coaches who were ticked the Lions took Gibbs at 12 because they thought their teams had a chance to land him later in Round 1.
Like Robinson, the eighth pick of the draft, Choice said Gibbs’ unique skill set is worthy of a first-round pick, especially in today’s NFL.
“Because they’re going to block, and they got to run the football, and you can put them out there, have mismatches against linebackers cause they’ll beat them one-on-one in their sleep,” Choice said. “So they cause trouble for a defense because you got to account for them all three downs. And when you can do that like (Christian) McCaffrey, when you can do that like (Alvin) Kamara, when you can do that, it adds a different dynamic instead of just being a first- and second-down back and coming off the field on third down. Them dudes going to stay on the field on third down, and you better make sure you cover them because they’ll break your heart.”
When NFL teams asked Choice who was better, Robinson or Gibbs, he told them it depended on what they were looking for. Robinson is bigger, has more initial quickness and breaks more tackles; Gibbs has more game-breaking speed and big-play ability.
“Do you need one to do everything, be your bell cow to run it 20, 25 times? That’s Bijan,” Choice said. “If you need one to run it 10 or 15 times but catch it five, 10, that’s probably Gibbs if you’ve got a bigger back. It’s just whatever you deem is important for your team you can pick either or.”
Choice said one of his favorite plays from Gibbs was a block he made on a quarterback draw, when he picked up a blitzing linebacker to spring a 30-or-so-yard gain. At Georgia Tech, Choice said Gibbs turned everything into a competition, even running gassers, when he would sometimes hold back on his start to try to catch teammates from behind.
That jives with what Land experienced at Dalton, where he said Gibbs was so competitive “he’d race you to the hot dog line” and a player he never worried about doing the wrong thing off the field. In recent years, he’d often find his now eighth-grade son up late on the night before games, playing video games with Gibbs.
“If there’s ever been anybody come through the National Football League draft that deserved a moment, that kid deserved that moment from what life has dealt him, and the hard work that he’s put in, and the lemonade that he’s made from lemons,” Land said. “That kid deserved every moment that happened, so I’m just excited that he’s got it, and I’m telling you it’s going to be fun to see what he does with it.
“I can promise you this, in two years, there’s no one in the Detroit organization that’s going to say to themselves, sitting in the locker room or sitting in the suites or wherever and say, ‘We took him too early.’ I promise you that. There won’t be one person that won’t say, ‘I’m glad we put that kid on the team.’ Whether we got him at 12, 20, eight, it don’t matter. That kid is worth everything we’re paying him and he will be that guy. He will be that guy.”

Hi everyone,
Thanks for all the amazing questions you’ve submitted for our Q&A with Assistant Game Director, Adam Whiting. We’re delighted to have received so many. So many, in fact, that we couldn’t possibly have taken so much of Adam’s time to answer them all – maybe we’ll have to do a part two one day soon.
We sat down with Adam this week and got some answers for you. We’re sure you’ll be happy with what Adam did manage to answer; he’s really gone above and beyond for this one.
Here’s a few words from Adam:

“I really appreciate all the kind words for the studio, we’ll be sure to share them with the rest of the team. It was also nice to see some familiar faces from over the years – thank you for remembering me and saying hello! It’s always a pleasure interacting with our wonderful community, and we look forward to doing more things like this in the future.”

And with that, we’ll dive into the Q&A. Enjoy!
/EVERYWHERE Community Team

Life as an Assistant Game Director at Build A Rocket Boy

Q: Hi Adam! Thank you for participating in this, it's so great to see the relationship Build A Rocket Boy has established with the community!

• What are your daily tasks as Assistant Game Director, and what would you say is the aspect of game development that you give the most importance to? (Game mechanics, narrative, visuals...)
• What are your favourite games and how do you think they influenced you when working on EVERYWHERE oand MindsEye?

Keep being awesome! – From u/NestorSite
A: Well, thanks to you as well NestorSite, it’s exciting for me to get to talk to you all about what we have been working on (finally!) and we really care about our community and are delighted to get to share more info.
As Assistant Game Director my day can vary greatly, and each day presents new challenges and opportunities to help progress the project. Primarily in Game Direction we are ensuring that all the teams are aligned on the bigger picture and goals of the project. Historically, this has been working mostly with Design on the core game mechanics and systems, but now we are at a point where a lot of the design work is complete, its more about checking progress, playing the game every day, and making sure everything is trending correctly.
It's hard to pick an area that is most important as what makes games development special is how it’s a convergence point for most of the artistic and engineering disciplines we know of, and all of them contribute to the whole, so they are all equally important (plus I would hate for any of our teams to feel like I had any favourites 😉). That being said, games are primarily meant to be fun, so I am particularly passionate about the core mechanics. We want our players to have a great time in EVERYWHERE and MindsEye – though each of these have their own specific requirements that present interesting challenges and drive all our departments to push the boundaries of their respective areas of expertise.
I’ve given a lengthy answer about my favourite games elsewhere so I’ll try and keep this short and point you in the direction of that, what I would say though is that generally we don’t look at other games in particular when working on the design of EVERYWHERE though it’s impossible not to be influenced by the things you have enjoyed (such is the nature of art).
Q: Hey Adam! Could you tell us what is the most challenging task you had to face in the last few years? – u/Gab1024
A: Hey Gab, thanks for your question!
One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced throughout the project has been building the team – building an exciting, ambitious, and new type of project is a huge challenge but building the company in tandem has been very tough as we’ve always aimed to bring the quality talent that the project requires. That can be tough when you are trying to attract talented devs, who, in many cases, can choose where they work. They are often choosing between established studios and established projects which can be very tempting. [DB1] However, we’ve been very fortunate and have built a team of very talented and experienced devs (with a healthy dose of people fresh to the industry) who are really delivering on the ambitions of the project, and we are all excited for you all to see and play the game as soon as possible.
Personally, one big challenge for me was the whole Gamescom experience – I never thought I’d find myself on stage with Geoff and talking in front of so many people, especially having grown up watching countless game announcements and reveals, it was both terrifying and extremely exciting though pretty far from my natural environment behind a PC in a studio 😊
Q: Hiya, I’m curious if you started out in another role in the gaming industry that led to being a Director? - Thanks, u/voodoolady94 xx
A: Hey voodoolady – unsure if your name is a Ween or Hendrix reference but either way, I like the handle!
I started in the industry, as many people did, in Quality Assurance. QA is a fantastic starting point for two reasons; Firstly, it isn’t a role that requires a lot of specialised experience to get started. In fact, one of the key things we are always looking for with new QA roles is a passion for gaming, strong attention to detail and good communication skills – don’t get me wrong it can be very intense and challenging working in QA but if you have a genuine passion for making games it can be highly enjoyable and rewarding working in part of a team that is so intrinsic to releasing any quality project. Secondly, everything in every game needs some form of QA support – meaning that you are exposed to every department/facet of games development which can be really useful for finding what you like and what you are good at. Often you can naturally progress into a more specialised role that can lead to moving to another team entirely (or becoming a stalwart experienced QA that will always be in demand within the industry) – there are countless examples I can think of from across my career where people have gone from QA into writing, AI coding, concept art, audio design – pretty much every department has someone within it that started in QA.
My personal journey was rising through the ranks of QA to a QA Supervisor and then moving towards Production before eventually moving to Game Direction – and I’m honestly still learning and growing every day as I get to interact with truly exceptional and talented people who are each extremely knowledgeable and experienced in their own areas. Each interaction is an opportunity to learn and grow, and if you approach the industry with that spirit, you will definitely do well.
Q: How hard is it to turn your game ideas into reality with the help of developers, how do you explain to them what's on your head in terms of game direction? – Thanks, u/vassirbl. From Morocco.
A: Hey vassirbl, thanks for taking part!
This is a really interesting question and one that is hard to answer directly as it depends on the idea – some things can require just a few lines of code, some can require multiple teams working in tandem to bring it to life – and that is part of the challenge with games development, something that seems quite straight forward might be really challenging to manifest. On the flipside, sometimes something that may seem to be really complicated and taxing can actually be done very quickly and efficiently.
The thing I’d say about this is that having ideas is one thing, everyone has ideas and I believe everyone is creative, but in a position like games direction it isn’t always about throwing around big ideas – you need to have a vision for what you are wanting to make and achieve and you need to ensure that your ideas are in service of that vision and are supplementing/augmenting/enhancing the direction of the game. You aren’t always making a game for yourself and your own niche interests, you are in service of the vision and trying to ensure that there is congruence between what is going into the game and what the game is trying to achieve.
In terms of explaining things that can often be more straight forward than it might seem, you are interacting with people who aren’t just gamers, they have made gaming their passion/vocation so you are speaking about the game in a similar way to when speaking to a friend about a game you are both playing together – and generally if the idea is good then it's going to generate some excitement. Then you are in an ideation process where the person you are talking to, often someone who is passionate about an areas of games development (their discipline), will then have some suggestions for flourishes and tweaks that can help improve the idea. This is really important because you want the game to be as good as it can be, and there is no silver bullet that magically makes a game feel special, fun or unique, normally its countless little tweaks and adjustments and suggestions from everywhere within the studio that create the end result which hopefully is something that feels like it has been made with love, care and attention. You can’t fake that or even articulate what it is that makes a game feel like that, but you feel it when you play a great game and that is what we are always striving to achieve.
Q: I was waiting for this because I'm on the mailing list. I appreciate this. Hello Adam. I guess my question is what is one of your favourite things about being an Assistant Gaming Director at Build A Rocket Boy? – u/EducationalCook9570
A: Thanks for signing up, EducationalCook, really pleased to get to answer your question so thanks for taking part.
It’s really hard to pick one particular thing but over the years I’ve been asked some variation of this question and my answer generally is the same – it's getting to work with such an amazing team of wonderful and talented people who are giving their all in service of the same common goal – making EVERYWHERE and MindsEye the best possible game(s) they can be.
When I was growing up gaming was still a bit of a niche hobby so anyone I met that was a gamer was instantly a friend, someone I could share my passion with, and now I get to spend most of my time with people like that – it's truly a blessing and I feel fortunate every day I get to interact with all of my wonderful colleagues.
Q: Howdy Adam! Most people will ask about the game, but for a Q&A it's really about the person. So here are my questions.

• Were there moments where the development struggled? If so, how did this affect you?
• Now the last ones might be too personal buuuut, is pineapple on pizza justifiable?

Thx in advance for answering these questions. I really hope you do. – u/MikaStr0L
A: Hey MikaStr0L, thanks for your question(s)!
I wouldn’t say there were any parts where development struggled but along the way there are always challenges to overcome, the main one for us was building a company at the same time of building a brand new and exciting project.
Generally speaking though, if things aren’t going quite as planned I try not to let it bother me – though that can of course be hard when you feel very personally invested in something – but I’ve found that it doesn’t help to let the negative feeling linger and instead try and push on, games development – like life in general – doesn’t always go according to plan but you just have to focus on solutions and moving forward and not let things hold you back. If you can do something about an issue, then deal with it and fix it, if you can’t do anything about it then move on and try not to let the negatives/setbacks hold back progress in other areas.
Now the truly important question… I must admit that I am not a fan of pineapple on pizza, although I do like pineapple generally, I’m more of a pepperoni kind of guy 😊
Q: Hey Adam, first, let me say I admire the work you all do a lot. Not only you guys at BARB, but also in the whole industry. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on MindsEye and EVERYWHERE.

• Working within the QA part for many years, was it difficult the transition to a different role? Would you say it was a positive change?
• Do you think EVERYWHERE and other games/experiences with a similar concept are the future of gaming?

Thank you and I hope you keep succeeding at your career, can't wait to play both projects’ you guys have been working on. 💙 – u/Fabry06
A: Hi Fabry, thanks for taking part and for your kind words and sentiments. I’ll start by saying that I also admire the work that takes place industry wide – the games industry is full of amazing and talented people who are all helping to further this artform we all whole dear forward, and I believe we are only just now realising the potential that video games can achieve.
I would say that transitioning from QA to another role felt very natural, even in my current position I’m still playing the game all the time and entering bugs, they might not be as well written as they once were but once you’ve cultivated a QA mindset it is not easy to turn off (this can make me a very boring person to watch play in my spare time as I’m always poking and prodding games to see what might happen…). I would say it was also a positive change for me personally but everyone's path in the industry is different and you kind of move with the tides and get swept up in a project and who knows where you end up within it – I always took the approach of wanting to be helpful/productive/useful in furthering the ambitions of the studio and the project and have always been happy to do that regardless of what that entails (in the very early days I was building PCs and writing design docs as well as doing QA work, whatever was required).
I do think that EVERYWHERE is a new type of project, but one that isn’t entirely unfamiliar, there are probably aspects that you recognise and some that are a bit different, I think the way everything ‘fits together’ is quite elegant and hasn’t been done before. The industry in general though is continuously evolving and I think that’s what makes it an exciting thing to be a part of. I do feel that the way people are consuming entertainment has fundamentally changed within the past decade and I believe that EVERYWHERE is a reflection of that – perhaps games in general are a bit to beholden to established paradigms and ways of doing things in ways that I think we aren’t.

About EVERYWHERE and MindsEye

Q: What is the inspiration to create EVERYWHERE and MindsEye, and why did you decide to make them two different games? – u/Zgangstas
A: Hi Zgangstas, thanks for your question.
This is a really interesting question and I think this is part of the magic of games development, when you are ideating/experimenting in the early stages of a project you can happen upon some magic that can alter the way you approach things, even if the vision has remained the same throughout perhaps the way to achieve it evolves.
I think that one of the main things we always wanted to do was create a space where players were in control, where they could be who they want to be and have the experiences that they wanted to have – but then as experienced game devs there is a natural inclination towards curating an immersive experience that captivates and enthrals players – this was a tricky thing to balance and trade off and I think ultimately it lead us to our current path.
EVERYWHERE is a space where players are in control, where they can build, share, compete, and explore in numerous different ways – and MindsEye is where we can construct an immersive and cinematic experience – with shared DNA between the two so we aren’t reinventing the wheel constantly, and we are at the place where we are now where work on one project is benefitting the other and vice versa.
So, I guess the true answer is that they both demanded to be different game organically through the course of development and we pay attention to what the game is telling us and let that guide us.
Q: Hi Adam, there’s the audience that fantasize on stylized and cartoonish games and the ones that are focused on realistic, story-driven experiences. How challenging is it to deliver the best game as possible to both audiences, and how confident do you feel about the shape those two games are in? – u/Treyboss2001
A: Thanks for your question Treyboss.
I think as you say there are probably distinct audiences for both, some that prefer or only enjoy one style or the other, but there are others (like me!) who enjoy both stylised and realistic games – often depending on my mood.
It may seem challenging to be constantly shifting gears between them both but ultimately, it’s more natural than it may seem. They have very distinctive and different requirements and demands that make decisions intuitive – though careful thought and consideration is required for each.
However, the way we think about it internally is that we get to have our cake and eat it, we aren’t locked in to one style or gameplay type, which can be fun and refreshing – perhaps you hit a creative roadblock with one and you can move on to the other and come back with a fresh perspective to the original issue you were having. Projects of this scale can often take many years to make so not being too locked in to just one thing is a blessing.
In terms of the progress we are making, I have to say that I am constantly delighted – either one project is delivering something new and wonderful or the other one is (often both at the same time!). Now we are getting to show people them both for the first time I’m truly humbled by the very positive reactions we are receiving.
Q: Hello Adam from the Build A Rocket Boy team. What was the original plan when EVERYWHERE was being developed in lumberyard engine and back when yah were using the lumberyard engine what were the challenges and roadblocks?
Keep being awesome Adam. - u/Lonelyfades
A: Thank you Lonelyfades, I will do my best!
I think back when we first started with this project the industry was quite different, the game engine landscape in particular was very different. We always had lofty ambitions for this project and at the time Lumberyard seemed to be the only engine that could deliver what we needed to even scratch the surface of what we wanted to accomplish. Since then, things have progressed somewhat and now we are in UE5. I believe UE5 is clearly the cutting-edge technology that we need in order to deliver the best possible results.
That is the strange thing with life and games development, sometimes an old decision was the correct one at the time even if it is not correct for right now, and even things as disruptive as engine swapping is ultimately worth it if it unlocks the creative potential you are aspiring towards.
I think this is ultimately a tribute to our core strength as a developer which is our unwillingness to compromise, we are eager to undertake difficult or even painful changes if it helps move the needle closer to where we want it to be.
Q: Hi Adam, so something I was confused about, is EVERYWHERE and MindsEye the same game? Or is it a game within a game? – u/Jozza141
A: Jozza thanks for asking your question and I am happy to try and relieve your confusion.
EVERYWHERE and MindsEye are distinctly different, but also inextricably linked. One way to think about it is that EVERYWHERE is ultimately a platform for games, entertainment, and different types of fun – and MindsEye is a story-driven, action-adventure game that could reasonably exist on its own but is enriched and elevated by its connection to a larger social space. A connection that I believe is deep and meaningful. The possibilities are endless and there’s so much to share, but we will reveal more when we are ready.
Q: Both u/iPeluche and u/Bobby_Boy301 had some questions about PC vs Console release. Why has BARB opted for the separate release between PC and Console. And does this mean Console won’t get the same treatment as PC after release?
A: I don’t think we are completely locked into this type of approach; we want to do that which makes the most sense for both projects whilst also working within the constraints of their paradigms.
PC is certainly a very open and creatively liberating space in which to operate, sometimes key innovations in gaming take place on PC because of its open nature and I think this is an example of that.
Rest assured we are passionate about both PC and Console development, and we would always aim to ensure parity between both releases of either project – platform holders permitting.
With all that being said, I would look forward to future announcements as we are very pragmatic as a company and always move forward in a direction that makes sense both for us and for our players.

Advice for aspiring Game Developers

Q: Ok, ok, here goes:
What advice do you have for those aspiring to pursue a career in game development?
What excites you the most in terms of future game development and where do you think the industry is headed? – u/RazorDarkness
A: Thanks for your question RazorDarkness.
My biggest advice for anyone trying to pursue a career in games development is to always remain humble, this is the cross section for all the artistic and engineering disciplines we have in media, as such it is impossible to be an expert at all things. You are always going to be working in a team and you are always going to be relying on your peers to achieve whatever it is you set out to achieve. So always keep your eyes and ears open and try to absorb as much knowledge and information as you can so you never stop learning. The moment you think you know it all is the moment you become a dinosaur and you will be immediately surpassed.
My second big piece of advice is to never lose sight of why you are making games in the first place – I often keep some mementos on my desk from favourite games and things that inspired me as a child to keep me grounded, as even on the hardest of days I can take a step back and realise that I’m getting to do something that I’ve loved my entire life and despite its difficulties my overriding feeling is always gratitude that I’m even able to earn a living doing something I love.
Q: Hello Adam!
First, I really hope you and your team are getting enough sleep after all the hard work you guys put into these projects. I just want to say on behalf of the EVERYWHERE & MindsEye Community, we really appreciate all of you that are involved with these two major projects, and also sending much support to every single one of you on this journey!
But my question is ... Where do you see yourself, the team, and everyone over at BARB in the next 10 years after both games are officially out? – u/TheRealRocketBoy
A: Well thank you TheRealRocketBoy – your support and encouragement means a lot, excited for you to get to enjoy the fruits of our labours!
This is a great question – I see us still working on this project, both aspects of what we are doing have far reaching plans and if all they all work out, we’ll still be working on both – and we aim that this will be in tandem with our community and players.
What things will look like at that point though I have no idea, EVERYWHERE in particular isn’t the kind of game we want to prescribe to people, it's something we want to further improve and refine in collaboration with our players – indeed the launch of EVERYWHERE will truly just be the beginning and I know that the creativity of gamers will always thrill and surprise so I think we are going to go on a wild ride together and I can’t wait to see where we end up.
MindsEye on the other hand… well who knows where in space or time we may be with that story by that point… I could write down on a piece of paper now a phrase for where MindsEye will be in year 10 and whilst it would almost certainly hold true, how we get there, and the specifics would surprise even me, I’m sure!
Q: Hey Adam, appreciate you taking the time to do this Q&A!
You have a great name! I may have a bias though as I'm also an Adam. In my spare time I've been creating a game design document for a game I'd love to create. This document has been growing and expanding over the past couple years. Ideally, I have aspirations of becoming a creative director for a development studio but have no experience working in the gaming industry (I'm a project manager in the residential construction industry).
Given your experience in the industry and your current position as BARB's Assistant Game Director, what advice would you give someone such as myself about how I may go about potentially pitching my design documentation to a studio and ultimately becoming a creative director? Do you personally feel as though people aspiring to become involved in the gaming industry need to start in an entry level position? Or perhaps there are alternative pathways to achieving such goals?
Thank you! Well wishes to you and everyone at BARB! – u/EndgameEmporium
A: Hey EndgameEmporium!
I admire your enthusiasm and you clearly have a passion for games which is something you want to hold on to as it will always keep you right and steer you correctly.
That being said I think there are two ways to head in if you want to be a creative director – firstly you can go down the studio route – however keep in mind that games are big expensive things to make, and it would be pretty remarkable for someone to have an idea so strong that a studio would trust in and fund it. Generally speaking I think going down this path would require you joining a studio and working your way up, and in particular showing a willingness to work towards someone else’s vision and showing that you can see the big picture when it comes to games development, then you will get creative opportunities with an established project or studio to show what you can do and from there more and more creative freedom until you are able to pitch your idea. With that path you may very well find that working with other creative brief’s and visions can be both challenging and rewarding, as essentially they are ‘creative restraints’ you are operating within and learning to work within these restraints will teach you how to be economical and efficient with your designs and ideas (sometimes a good idea can cost millions of dollars and sometimes a great idea can be brought to life with existing resources, the latter is where the magic really is, and will make you very popular to work with!).
The second path to take would be to try and build out a vertical slice or gameplay prototype or concept yourself, with that I would try and refine your idea to its core components, understand what things fundamentally you need for another person to be able to experience or understand your idea, and go from there. If anything, EVERYWHERE might be the perfect thing for you as empowering the great creative minds of the next generation is something we are very passionate about and you may be able to bring your idea to life with ARC-ADIA.

Emerging Technologies in Gaming

Q: u/Main-Department9806 and u/Dirty_Worka had some interesting questions about AI. Adam, as AI learning and functionality accelerates, what’s your read on the level of disruption we should expect with regards to game development? And do you think we can leverage AI such as ChatGPT into games, for example, so that NPC’s dialogue could be vast and ever changing?
A: I think that AI is going to fundamentally change the way in which we interact with the world and each other, it's going to be a transformative technology over the coming years and every industry and sector will feel it.
In terms of game development, we can see how this might play out already, things like ChatGPT etc. will streamline and accelerate the game development process exponentially – this should hopefully lower the costs and requirements for making larger projects. This could mean many more larger and ambitious games that are taking more risks emerge as they won’t be as expensive and time consuming to create – instead of a lot of talent being funnelled in to a few large studios and creators it will allow us to go back to an older style of games development where a small team with a big idea has some chance of bringing it to fruition without having to compromise on the scope/scale.
From the consumer perspective yes, I think we will soon have realistic interactions with NPCs where we can really build deeper and more personal connections with the characters we interact with in these virtual worlds, possibly even allowing us to alter how events and stories may play out, maybe in the future the way I play a story driven game may yield entirely different results and a different ending to how your story may finish – and maybe these aren’t just branching paths but completely different forks in the road we are creating dynamically – maybe then watching each other player story games has value beyond the personality/skill of the person playing.
I think this something that games developers have always wanted to have access to, a future where we can create entire worlds that feel unique to the individual because the way you are experiencing it is unique to you, in the same way that each of our journeys through life are unique and different even though we all inhabit the same world within the same physical universe.

Off-Topic

Q: Hey Adam, first I would like to thank you and the team for the great effort on EVERYWHERE and we can't wait to play what you're working on.
Second, my question is what's your favourite game (or games) of all time (excluding games you worked on). - u/Punisher_27
A: Firstly, thank you for your kind words, Punisher!
Secondly, what a fun question! I’m going to end up kicking myself later when I realise I missed something but here are a few of my faves from a lifetime spent playing video games:
Mario 64 – it is tough picking one Mario game as he’s the reason I got in to games (playing on my parents imported NES at the age of 3 changed my life!) but something about Mario 64 is just so magical and wonderful, the first time effortlessly moving through a 3D world, the joyous nature of the gameplay and the level design, I just adored this so much and despite later entries (e.g. Galaxy) being more refined and objectively better this is just such a special game I don’t think it's possible to calculate the impact it had on the industry and on entertainment when it first came out.
Quake 3 – I have probably played this more than any other game (with the possible exception of World of Warcraft) but this was my first foray in to the world of online games and that was a life-changing moment, realising that no matter how good I got there was always someone out there better… well that was a challenge I duly accepted and I have met many wonderful friends I hold very dear to me along the way across many different online games but this was the one that really blew me away
Bloodborne – I do adore the whole Soulsborne franchise(s) and as a game dev I really admire how FromSoft do things their own way and stay true to their artistic vision. I can’t think of a game that is more harmonious and congruent than Bloodborne, every pixel/sound is working in perfect harmony with each other, and the end result is something truly staggering. If I could wipe my memory and play one game over and over again and recapture the same feeling I had when I first played it, it would be Bloodborne.
Final Fantasy VII – I was queueing outside Electronics Boutique the day this came out, the first FF game to get released in Europe and I’m so glad we didn’t miss out on this one (though 6 was great and we had to import that…) – I can’t put into words what it was like encountering Sephiroth for the first time thinking I was at the Shinra HQ to complete the game and then the world map opens up and my mind was so utterly blown I couldn’t believe my eyes. As for Aerith/Aeris – well… aside from the fact she was the group healer… I was just floored; I didn’t realise how potent games were at eliciting an emotional response until that scene and I doubt any game could ever have that impact again.
Street Fighter 2 – when this first came out it was unlike anything I’d ever seen before – encountering at an arcade machine it's what the “cool older kids” were playing and its always retained that allure, this was a game that was cool and badass. The way you compete against others in fighting games has a certain purity to it that I just love, and I sorely miss having arcades to go to as they were a staple in my life growing up and there was always a great fighting game a community would build around. Getting to have the SNES version that was as close to arcade perfect as we could fathom at the time was a real joy as well and I guess this is widely regarded as the beat ‘em up that started it all and with good reason, because it did!
Q: Hey Adam and the community team, hope you're all doing well!

• Are you a cat or a dog person? xD
• When the game was announced in 2017, Everywhere was only the working title of the game. Why did you keep the name? What were some of the suggestions?

Thanks in advance! – u/thewhitewolf35
A: Hey thewhitewolf! Thanks for your fun questions 😊
I am definitely a dog person, I’ve grown up with dogs my entire life and despite being fond of cats I just adore dogs – quite a few people in the office have them and I am always happy to meet them, and due to my lifestyle I am not really able to be a good and responsible dog owner right now so I am very grateful when I get to interact with any of the BARB doggos. 😊
EVERYWHERE has always been called such and I think we liked the title straight away, I think it speaks to the potentially unlimited nature of what we are trying to achieve and we want this to be a game that anyone can play, wherever they are as I think we see games as more than just ways to spend your time, they are ways to connect and socialise and learn from each other – but even more than that they are a way to share experiences and that spirit of creativity has always been our guiding star with the project.
Q: u/MightyMax_1988 would like to know more about what you do in your free time. Do you like retro consoles such as Sega Master System, Sega Genesis (mega drive), Super Nintendo (snes)? And do you like the movie Ready Player One?
A: Hey MightyMax! I am always happy to talk about my hobbies 😊my friends often wish I would shut up about them!
In my free time I do enjoy watching team sports, specifically football (lifelong Nottingham Forest fan) and I adore the NBA (big Lakers fan) and live sports are a good way to stay connected to my friends and are something I always try and make time for. I also try and stay on top of the latest greatest TV Shows, Movies and Anime (just finished Ted Lasso which I thought was such wholesome fun and I also recently finished an anime called Chainsaw Man that was just… exhilarating!).
In terms of games I’m a lifelong gamer so I’ve had every console (apart from the NeoGeo…) over the years (even a VirtualBoy), though I would say that I don’t really do much retro gaming these days as I struggle to keep up with all the modern games coming out, and I think I prioritise online gaming as it helps me stay connected to my friends so I’m always playing something with them and then trying my best to play the cream of the crop of single player games (currently trying to finish off Octopath Traveller 2 so I can move on to the new Zelda!).
And yeah, I liked both the book and the movie Ready Player One – I love a good mashup of different IPs and art-styles, I really enjoyed Wreck It Ralph for the same reason, and anything with lots of pop culture references makes me happy (even stuff like Scott Pilgrim etc.).
Q: How bad were you at Quake? – u/tyj
A: I was so terrible I had to go to tournaments and captain the UK RA3 team… it was a tough time 😊 but back then when I told people I thought Esports would be played in stadiums for millions of dollars people thought I was an idiot… I’m so delighted to see how things have ended up and really excited that future generations can actually become pro gamers as a viable path in life – how far we’ve come!
Q: Also, what’s your favourite colour? – u/voodoolady94
A: Another question from the voodoolady…. Well, this one is an easy one and I can be uncharacteristically succinct.
Pink, my favourite colour is pink 😊

The last week has been monumental in my healing and I thought I'd share a bit.
So I met her randomly at a mall after not seeing her for a year, almost the exact same date as we broke up last year. I tried to ignore her and look the other way but she called my name, opened her arms and asked for a hug. My heart was racing, beating so fast and it felt like a panic attack brewing. She stood very close and I could feel she wanted to be near. Gorgeous as ever and a faint smell of perfume, the same as before. A very intense moment. After all we were best friends and partners for years. She said she felt her heart beating so fast and could barely speak. I said me too. She asked me if I wanted to grab a coffee. How could I say no? So we sat down and talked about life for a while. She even cried a little.
Anyways, when we parted ways she told me it was very nice seeing me again and we hugged for a long time. I knew this could be an opportunity to win her back. To feel her touch on the daily, to see her smile when I make her breakfast in the morning, travelling together, raise our future kids, to hear "I love you". I envisioned everything. if I just play things right. But that's what fucked the relationship in the first place, me gaming a relationship. Me not being honest about myself and always trying to keep up a mask. Like saying I spent a day reading and working out(cus that's what I planned) when all I did was destroy myself instead. I was living a lie and although she never knew the extent of my depression it tore us down. I still think she's the most beautiful and smart person I've ever met, the girl of my freaking dreams, but it can't be us. I'm not the one she fell in love with, she fell in love with the idea of me I neatly created for her to love.
I won't contact her and I know that deep in my heart it's finally over and I can stop resisting. For the first time in a long long time I feel good. I'm fucking 30 now I can't fake it anymore. I better be my honest self and all my flaws if I ever want a relationship that's healthy. Continuing my path of healing is changing my life every day for the better. I think relationships for me has been a way to escape the pain of feeling like a failure. Meeting what was the perfect girl to me and then losing her was in hindsight the lesson I needed and for the foreseeable future it's the relationship with me and the people close to me I need to nurture.

I’ve been at my networking job for 6 months and the amount of down time seems a little abnormal. Our systems are pretty stable for the most part and we rarely have any issues. Other than working the occasional weekend for updates or new equipment installs I sit at my desk some days doing nothing but helping the help desk employees. Technically I don’t even have to do that but I choose to because it helps our team and makes my day go by faster. Even with me helping I will sit at my desk daily lately doing nothing for a hour or two at a time (tasks that use to take me a hour to do take me 10 minutes half the time now). We do have a big project coming up but after that I feel like I will be in the same boat. I have the option to work from home coming up next month and think I will take it just because if I’m going to sit around and do nothing I mine as well do it from home. Is this the norm for networking jobs? I am on the lower pay side (50k a year) but am okay with it for now because the company took a huge risk on me and has taught me the majority of what I know. I also have little improvement for growth here and wouldn’t get a solid promotion for at least 5 years. I almost feel like I will want to leave at my two year mark and shoot for a higher pay role doing the same work I do now. I currently am the only networking engineer for the company and my duties include creating/maintaining VM’s, creating AD accounts/emails/phone extensions, setting up/maintaining switches at all 15-20 locations, maintaining our Cisco system, maintaining our fire wall, and so much more. I am not 100% trained on everything but for the most part would say I’ve got 90% of everything down. I’m formal military and learned all my IT stuff from my mos. I guess my question is should I look for another job for better pay at my 2 year mark or should I stay here and have less stress. The most I can make in this position is 62,000. I see job postings all over my area for 80-100k starting and they seem to have less work than what I’m currently doing. I just don’t think I’ve learned my job well enough to even take the risk of applying for them. I also am finishing school starting in the fall and will be getting more certs as well. I’m also learning how to write my own powershell scripts bc I use them daily for our AD/office 365 account creation and more. Any tips or advice would be appreciated.

Let's tour the headlines. From Yahoo's Morning Brief:
What We're Watching

• A hate (almost) bull market: The S&P 500 closed Wednesday's trading session roughly 0.5% away from entering a new bull market, defined as a close 20% above its most recent low. During this rise, the the atmosphere in markets has been relatively dour, but there are signs the mood is beginning to change on Wall Street.
• Wholesale numbers and a stronger consumer: April's wholesale trade data is due out Thursday, and inventories are expected to have dropped slightly in tandem with a rise in sales — an indication of a consumer staying strong even with prices remaining high.

What We're Reading

• Affirm stock soars on new deal with Amazon Pay: Wednesday's announcement of a new deal with Amazon brought welcome reprieve to Affirm shares which have been beaten down heavily as investors question how many companies will be winners in the buy-now-pay-later space now that Apple is getting involved.
• Amazon plans ad-supported streaming tier amid race for profitability: Report: Amazon is also reportedly planning an ad-supported tier for Prime Video, joining the ranks of Netflix and Disney amid a race to make streaming more profitable.
• Dude, Gen X is totally unprepared for retirement, survey finds: Just over half of Generation X born between 1965 and 1980 have little to nothing socked away for retirement.

Today's Take Away
Small cap stocks are finally perking up — just in time to catch Wall Street flat-footed yet again.
Since Friday's job report, the Russell 2000 (^RUT) has surged 7%, rising in excess of 2% in three of the last four trading days. Meanwhile, the year's best-performing index, the Nasdaq 100 (^NDX), is fractionally lower over this period after surging more than 30% in 2023.
Another example of what Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferré noted Wednesday is a market rewarding this year the biggest losers from last year.
For all the concerns about market gains being concentrated among a select few companies, the megacap rally appears to be broadening, or at least shifting into other areas.
The question for investors is: does this latest rotation have legs? Or, conversely, will the small cap rally peter out and reverse just as quickly, causing more frustration for investors?
Generally defined to be under $2 billion in market capitalization, small cap stocks are highly sensitive to the domestic economy and tend to do better when the economy is improving.
They are also highly levered to the financial sector, as this cohort is home to many regional banks. Not surprisingly, the internet bank crisis that unfolded in March hit the Russell 2000 disproportionately hard.
In that regard, small caps are highly sensitive to interest rates, as interest payments can consume a big chunk of sales. Companies that routinely tap the capital markets by selling their stock or issuing debt to fund operations have been feeling the pinch of the Fed's aggressive rate hikes since last year.
However, the fallout in terms of the price of money has been contained.
Looking at the high yield debt market that services companies with lower credit ratings, spreads above the risk-free Treasury yield in March barely exceeded 5% — far short of the levels seen in prior episodes of market stress.
Accordingly, with the "panic" apparently contained, investors seem to be interpreting Friday's strong payrolls gain as a sign that US growth may not take a big hit this cycle.
And this outcome would favor a "catch-up" rebound in small cap returns until the next major catalyst arrives.
Several technical reasons are also supporting the short-term, tactical bullishness in small caps.
Index traders in the futures market are short the Russell 2000, adding fuel to any squeeze higher. Also, performance relative to the megacap Nasdaq 100 had become extreme just prior to Friday's bounce, which means mean reversion is also at play.
Longer-term, investors should be aware that a bet on small caps is not only a bet against a hard landing, but also against a recession, in general.
If the markets are setting up like 1998 or 2019 — when stocks rebounded relatively quickly from a mere slowdown in earnings -- stocks ought to post sizable gains this year.
Conversely, if this is more like the recessionary periods of 2001 or 2008, small caps could be in for a drawdown measured not in months, but years.
************************
In Other News
Reuters covering the ailing GameStop. Shares getting beaten down after yet another CEO puts the job in the "too hard" pile. Big Investor Ryan Cohen set out to turn the gamer company around and make it the "Amazon of Games."
(Record Scratch.)
What? Why would Amazon sit on its competitive hands and wait for Cohen to build the Amazon of Games? Or Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, Sony...I'm not a gamer so maybe I'm missing big here.
Excerpt:
The ousting of former Amazon.com executive Matt Furlong came alongside top shareholder Ryan Cohen's appointment as the executive chairman of a company that he turned into a favorite of meme-stock traders with promises of a digital pivot.
Yet GameStop was set to erase half of its gains for 2023 and about $1.3 billion in market value, with one analyst saying management change has been the only constant in recent years.
"It's hard to have an opinion with no earnings call, little-to-no investor communication, and lack of consistent strategic vision," Andrew Uerkwitz of Jefferies said.
"One consistency remains, changes at the top. Over the last 5 years, GameStop has had 5 CEOs and 3 CFOs." [Emphasis mine.]
Uerkwitz is among the last few analysts who cover GameStop after a massive pandemic-era rally, that was driven by traders banding together on Reddit, prompted several brokerages to say the stock price had decoupled from its fundamentals.
The company's shares have dropped nearly 80% from the $120.75 peak they hit during the meme-stock saga of 2021. The stock has a 12-month trailing price-to-sales ratio of 1.38, compared with Best Buy's 0.37, according to Refinitiv.
GameStop has also struggled to deliver on Cohen's pledge of making it the Amazon of videogame stores, [emphasis mine] having seen several high-level exits over recent months, including those who were drawn from the Chewy co-founder's personal network.
\*******************
I'm not going to throw rocks at anyone with an imagination and a vision. Yet there's a lot to be said for reading history in general and business history more specifically. Retailing anything is hard. Moats are low, narrow, and/or non-existent. Just look at retail clothing. Or Bed, Bath, and Bankrupt.
Other CEO news from Morning Brew
CEO Chris Licht out at CNN. He lasted longer than CNN+, but Licht departed CNN yesterday after just 13 months as the head of the cable news network. His brief time at the helm included plenty of controversies, including a recent unflattering profile in The Atlantic, pushback from staff on the handling of the Donald Trump town hall, and the layoffs that came with killing the network’s attempt at a streamer. Ratings and profits also fell during his tenure. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav took responsibility for the situation [emphasis mine] and put three execs in charge while he searches for a permanent replacement.
******************
Zaslav should take responsibility. That's his job.
Links
https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/issues/smoke-signals?mbcid=31725987.3322941&mid=d758082b6c25bdb1acbbf5950c29d651&utm_campaign=mb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=header_signup
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gamestop-shares-plummet-fifth-ceo-103406737.html
https://newsletters.yahoo.net/H/2/v6000001889a7381bfa2b5bff4bbe5cfc0/2ce37b8b-af1c-491b-8bcd-09468ccfb1e1/HTML

Cyber Briefing Video: 2023.06.08
👉 What's going on in the cyber world today?
******************************************************************** 🚨 CyberAlerts ********************************************************************
VMware Issues Critical Patches for Aria Operations, Allowing Remote Execution and Data Access Source: VMware
CISA Adds Active-Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog, Urges Timely Remediation Source: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Cyberespionage Campaign Targets Ukrainian Government and Media with Malware Downloads Source: CERT-UA
Rampant Adware Onslaught: Over 60,000 Android Apps Infected Source: Bitdefender
High-Severity Privilege Escalation Flaw Fixed in Cisco Secure Client Software Source: Cisco
******************************************************************** 💥 CyberIncidents ********************************************************************
Hack Shuts Down London School as Personal Data Breached Source: Evening Standard
Eisai Pharmaceuticals Collaborates with Law Enforcement to Tackle Devastating Ransomware Attack Source: Eisai US
LockBit Ransomware Strikes Again: 24 Victims in 24 Hours, Including Schools and Municipalities Source: vx-underground and Dominic Alvieri
Global Companies, Including Aer Lingus, Impacted by Employee Data Breach in Cyberattack Source: The Irish Times
NJ town’s Computer Systems Compromised by Criminal Group, Authorities Investigate Cyber Incident Source: northjersey.com
******************************************************************** 📢 CyberNews ********************************************************************
Senegal Implements Daily Internet Shutdowns Amid Political Turmoil Source: CNN
Outdated Presidential Directive Hinders Protection of Critical Infrastructure, Says Cybersecurity Policy Organization Source: CyberSolarium
Florida Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Counterfeit Cisco Equipment, Faces Prison Time and Restitution Source: U.S. Department of Justice
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Rejects IPO, Advocates for AI Regulation on Global Tour Source: Bloomberg
Clop Ransomware Group Extorts Global Companies with MOVEit Vulnerability Source: Joe Tidy
******************************************************************** Find the full stories at cybermaterial[dot]com ********************************************************************

show me consistency Miami FL
I always get lost for words tryna write these Tell me is it deja vu cause you want me and i want you? cause baby this ain’t nothing new Ummm i love reassurance and quality time I wanna be that couple who color coordinates and also rock Justin Bieber merch I love me a man who’s lowkey gonna be obsessed with me also I’m an introvert and homebody so if you are too we’re definitely gonna connect fast and i love when I talk to introverts cause nothing seems forced just flows naturally and we’re so comfortable and chill and i love every minute of it I’ve never had a guy best friend who knows me inside out I want a reason to smile a reason to laugh and cry less someone who’s gonna make me feel safe and loved unconditionally who’s romantic spoils me a little someone who knows how to compliment sweep me off my feet go on dates or just chill and binge watch stuff at the house I wanna cherish every moment we have together like I’m so ready to love the hell outta you like fr tho🥺💕 so hurry up I’m patiently waiting to see if you’re the one who is gonna steal my heart so waiting on you hubby I need someone considerate patient loyal funny and and strong daily good morning and goodnight texts someone who cares about my well being

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Hi,
so I have an Vivo y72 with the latest Android version installed and I use the speech to text function of my Gboard daily. I use it both in English and in German. The problem is, that the spelling is an absolute nightmare in German. It uses wrong "capital" spelling and also it often doesn't even react at all. Most of the time I have to say a sentence twice before it gets translated to text. Maybe it's the internet connection sometimes, maybe just buggy programming.
Is this normal or do I have the wrong settings? In English it also makes mistakes, and sometimes it doesn't recognize the right language and then spells gibberish in English or German, when the other English is being used.
Any Europeans here that can relate?
Also, I am currently learning Hindi. Does Google speech to text work well for that?
Thanks!

This might change with seasons, but I don't really care if it does so long as the relevant content gets added to the eternal realm. I can not tell you how burned out I am on dailies and weeklies and time gates and check lists and "Do these 16 things before the weeks is over and these 10 things before the day is over or you will fall behind forever." in live service game design. It's fucking exhausting always. I hate the game telling me how I have to play it, I hate games telling me I have to progress this much in this amount of time or I will fall behind, and not be able to do this thing when it releases on this date. I love that Diablo IV currently lets me just hop on and do the content I want to without feeling like I have to go do this specific task.
I know level scaling is a hot topic but seriously it is so much better than the alternative of "Get to X power level in order to do Y content." I like that the game let's me pick which tasks I want to do and all of them are equally rewarding. I like that the things that are on timers happen frequently enough that I don't mind missing whispering bounties since they immediately pop again, I don't mind missing a legion event to run a nightmare dungeon instead because my rewards feel equal. My only current complaint would be hell tide being the only source of tormented souls since it forces me to go do them when I run low on those little suckers and the World Bosses not giving a notification most of the time that they are spawning. Other than that I really adore the end game design of go do what you want and you'll be rewarded.
If you feel pigeon holed into one specific event that isn't hell tide for Forgotten Souls at this point I firmly believe that is of your own making. Endlessly running Demise comes to mind, seriously you don't need to reach 100 and get a maxed out build right away, just go play the game do the content you want the game rewards you well either way. There is no rush and other games have conditioned you to make you feel like there is. When the season comes these Eternal Realm characters aren't going to be needed for that content there is no point to rush to the end, and honestly build experimentation while leveling has been half the fun for me.
TL;DR: Diablo IV encourages you just play the game and get rewards and that is a good thing. It places zero pressure on you to get X task done and doesn't shove a stop watch in your face telling you, you will miss out on these tasks forever if you don't get them done RIGHT. NOW. Seriously who enjoys that kind of stress from a game? I never thought I would see the day Blizzard of all people created a live service experience that doesn't subsist entirely off FOMO mongering.
P.S. I do have one complaint about the game. Did Mephisto himself design your shop and prices? I am under the impression he must have because it feels like you designed these price points with pure hate in your heart. You would sell 10 times the items at 1/3rd these prices. I'm even the occasional dabbler of cosmetic items and you have some good ones there, but I'm not touching this shop with a ten foot pole with these price points.

I started 25mg of Zoloft on April 12 and have yet to feel amazing like I’ve heard so many others talk about. I’m wondering if it’s worth taking at this point. This is my first time being on an SSRI (or any long-term medication), so I don’t know much about how I’m supposed to feel and when I’m supposed to feel it. I was told it takes 4-6 weeks to start feeling the benefits, but here I am at 8 weeks with almost nothing.
TMI, I have PCOS and stopped having regular periods about 3 years ago, and now have spotting every few months. I started spotting on April 25 and it has. not. stopped. Well, it occasionally stops for a day or two, but then it starts back up again. My doctor told me it can happen while the body adjusts to the medication, but that was when I was 3 weeks into spotting. Now I’m 6 weeks into it and I’m fairly certain this can’t be normal.
There have been a few instances where I believe I behave much more calmly than I would’ve before, which makes me think Zoloft is working to some degree. But I still deal with anxiety daily. I’ve never had panic attacks or anything; my anxiety comes in the form of an overthinking brain that won’t shut up. Mistakes at work would ruin my whole day, but now I’m able to say “oops, my bad,” and move on. I’ve never had that capability before and it feels great, but outside of instances like that, I’m still overthinking. I’m still on edge.
Now I have anxiety about Zoloft. I’m scared to continue but scared to stop. My brain is nonstop overthinking about the pros and cons and I’m tired.
The reason I decided to post today is because when I sat up in bed this morning, my head was spinning and I’m still a little dizzy and unsteady an hour later. I can’t deal with this. I have to be on my feet at work and need to be able to think straight. I’m also still spotting and I’m so sick of it.
I keep holding out thinking I’ll feel better. The spotting has to stop eventually, right? The brain has to quiet down at some point. I figure I probably need a bigger dose but I’m not willing to do that. Not when I’m still dealing with the consequences of the small dose.
I guess my question is when will this end? Do others still have negative experiences 8 weeks into it?
TL;DR - My brain is still loud and my body is still spotting. I’m not convinced Zoloft is working for me and I’m wondering if it’s time to stop.

(xPosted on Diesel) Hi, first off I've never had a Cummins diesel before but I do daily a 7.3 ford van, so I'm not completely green to diesel as a whole, just the Cummins side of things. I'd greatly appreciate any advice y'all can give me!
​
Now, my situation.
I'm looking at picking up an old 1994 Thomas bus with a 6BT5.9 and an automatic trans, it has been converted to a racecar hauler, it's a pretty cool rig. However, the last time it was run and drove was a little under a year ago. I'm not overly worried as the ford van I previously mentioned was the same situation, but I have absolutely *zero* idea what would be different in this scenario! OFC starting fluid is bad, but is there anything I should be doing to help it start easier? Does this motor start off two batteries or just one? Anything I need to check for before driving it ~1hr home?
Again, really appreciate any help/insight you guys can provide!

(xPosted on Cummins) Hi, first off I've never had a Cummins diesel before but I do daily a 7.3 ford van, so I'm not completely green to diesel as a whole, just the Cummins side of things. I'd greatly appreciate any advice y'all can give me!
​
Now, my situation.
I'm looking at picking up an old 1994 Thomas bus with a 6BT5.9 and an automatic trans, it has been converted to a racecar hauler, it's a pretty cool rig. However, the last time it was run and drove was a little under a year ago. I'm not overly worried as the ford van I previously mentioned was the same situation, but I have absolutely *zero* idea what would be different in this scenario! OFC starting fluid is bad, but is there anything I should be doing to help it start easier? Does this motor start off two batteries or just one? Anything I need to check for before driving it ~1hr home?
​
Again, really appreciate any help/insight you guys can provide!

First of all hats off to the people who travel in Mumbai traffic daily on vehicle. Today while coming from Vikhroli to Mira Bhayandar side I took WEH route (due to some work, I don't travel regularly).
So while riding through traffic which gear do u keep, 1st or 2nd. Today while trying to be on first bike was making noise and and if I move it to 2nd gear again to due traffic have to lowe down.
I tried to glide using 2nd gear but 2-3 times my bike stalled, rest I was able to take it but not sure if that's a good idea. I also saw one guy riding G310RR and he was on 2nd gear.
So can you please share some tips and trick to avoid stalling? For background I have experience in riding Platina in traffic since it's light weight and easy to handle there was no issues, but current bike is Vstrom 250.

After selling my entire knife collection to make ends meet through a very rough time, I was hoping to be able to hold on to one knife, my favorite I've ever owned. Unfortunately life just keeps kicking me when I'm down, so now I'm force's to sell it...
Timestamp and photos - https://imgur.com/a/1QjiT9P
[B] Giantmouse Atelier Green Micarta. Carried daily since purchase, but very well cared for. 9/10 condition with the only issue being a tiny chip out if the blade edge. Still very sharp, and only noticeable if you're looking for it. Currently has Skiff bearings installed, but will include the original bearings as well.
SV: 190 shipped. No trades please.
Can provide more pictures upon request

For some context, me (F22) and my boyfriend (M38) who we will call Q have been dating for 3 years, so yes we started dating when i was 19, i now see why that's not cool but at the time i was young and didn't think there was a problem. I'm originally from the North and moved down to London to study my degree which started in 2020, covid meant i couldn't leave my uni accommodation apart from a daily walk which was like prison so Q asked if i wanted to stay with him for a while (we'd been chatting for 6 months at this point) so i agreed, i ended up staying with him for almost a year until the 2nd year of uni started.
I found out after this year by going through his phone (my gut told me something was not right) that he slept with a woman (Z) during this period, possibly a few times when i'd gone up north to visit family. She was his high school ex who he'd told me about perviously but said they are just friends now. Between the time of them ending in college he'd had a whole other 7 year relationship where he had a house and a child which ended due to his baby momma leaving him for someone else. Because of this i allowed them to be friends since they hadn't recently broke up, Q assured me there was nothing romantic between them and i didn't want to be controlling, rookie error i know, once an ex always an ex.
Anyways, after finding this out we split for a few months i got over it and was living uni life to the full, then he somehow wormed his way back in sending apology after apology assuring me that it wasn't anything but a mistake, that he loved me, saw a future and would do anything to get me back. I said that he cannot have any contact with this girl obviously, which he agreed to. But Z had given him some money to invest for her (Q is big into crypto) and due to the market being down he couldn't take it out right now to give her it back, so he assured me as soon as the market goes back up he'll give her the money back and that will be it between them. i agreed, stupidly, and here we are 2 years later.
I recently finished my degree and my lease ran out at my London place, so i planned to go back up north till i got a job etc sorted. Q said he'd be happy for me to stay with him for a while till i get everything sorted and it would be best for me to stay down here so i could attend interviews. I don't have the best home life in the north so was dreading going back so this was perfect. Job dependent i have a friend who i'm going to be moving in with in late July so staying here is only temporary.
Me and Q are on really good terms, we go out on date nights, are always affectionate with one another, even me and his daughter have a really good relationship when she comes to visit, everything seemed perfect. But i'd always wondered if he did stop speaking to Z, i didn't like bringing it up because it throws the whole mood off for a few days, he'd say things like 'stop living in the past and focus on us now blah blah'. So i went on his phone to find the answer and found that Z had been messaging him every 2/3 weeks with messages like 'how's you' 'long time no chat', this woman does not let go, he hadn't replied to any of them, until recently where he called her, it says the call failed and she messages him 'Are you okay, sorry i missed your call' he replied 'Hey i'm good, just thought we could catch up, hope your well etc..' just generic convo with a little banter, she replied with 'i haven't seen you in so long, we should meet up, i'm back in the UK in 2 weeks' (she lives between Mexico and the UK) that was on June 1st and he has opened the message, but not yet replied. I am monitoring the situation to see if she messages him again or he agrees to meet her, then i really will fly off the handles. But for now what do i do, do i keep monitoring? Do i bring it up and risk and argument starting and me being kicked out and forced to go up north? Do i just ask him about the him and her situation, see if he lies but that might be too obvious.
I really feel a lack of respect as he knows how much the cheating affected me, i had to go to therapy. I don't really ask him for much ever, but i told him when we got back together he cant have any contact with her but he had just carried on oblivious. I don't think theres anything going on between them but the fact that something could means i cant fully trust him, i just wish he would block her and we could get on with our relationship and future.