Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@JohnnyShoulder I’ve been watching tennis my whole life but kinda fell off it the last few years as Djokovic dominating hasn’t been that fun. Nice to see new faces winning, this is the first guy since Hewitt in 2002 to win that isn’t one of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray.

@nessisonett Great match with some ridiculous shots in that last game. The 30min game was just something else too.

I struggle to sit down and watch too many men’s matches because of their length but it’s awesome to see epic finals like that. I just hope some of the other guys on the tour can step it up a level too.

@nessisonett @Thrillho I gave up watching tennis not long after Murray won Wimbledon. I agree with Ness in that the dominance of Djokovic has made it all too predictable. I felt the same with Sampras and Federer too, and the Williams sisters in the woman's game.

When Djokovic got back to 2 sets all, I thought he would push on to win it again. Crazy to think there is a 17 year age gap between them! 😂

@JohnnyShoulder Early Federer was dominant for sure but at least there was that great period where you had peak Federer and Nadal against each other, with Murray and Djokovic winning titles too. There just hasn’t been that same competition from the others recently, with Federer retiring and the other two struggling with injury. The 2008 Wimbledon final is widely considered one of the best matches ever but I only saw the last few games cause I was on a plane to Italy for most of it 😂

@nessisonett It hasn't helped that there are very few characters in the game any more. Sure, you get the odd crazy one come through, but generally I was finding the matches a bit of a bore to watch.

Allow me to indulge on random thought which recently occurred to me —

My main hobby and interests are video gaming and what people would call “nerd culture”, but I also maintain a moderate interest in sports. As I was recently following some of the latest sports news, my mind drew an analogy that I’d never quite considered — at least not specifically — and that is that the commerce of Sports and Video game production are similar and analogous in many ways in regards to talent acquisition.

It’s off-season right now for the NFL and NBA, the two biggest sports markets in the US. What’s happening now during off-season is similar to what’s happening in the video game industry. Teams are trying to build their roster in preparation for the upcoming season in an effort to build a competitor to win a championship. They also are trying to build their team to something marketable that will sell tickets and merchandise.

Some teams are spending big money on free agent star players who have had a history of success. Sometimes they overpay for a player, give them a huge multi-year contract, even if the players best years are behind them. They bank on the player being able to produce for another season or two, sell a lot of tickets from the buzz they’ll bring, and grow their brand recognition. An example is an accomplished, but past his prime (at 40 years old before the year ends), Aaron Rogers signing with the lowly NY Jets and set to make $107 million this year.

Other teams are trying to not overspend, and yet find cheaper unknown talent that will produce later. They have a scouting team that tries to discover good players that haven’t peaked yet, and usually will take a chance on a random guy to fill a roster spot that they feel is a good value. Ofttimes teams will actually cut or refuse to overpay really good players because they simply can’t afford them, like currently what the NY Giants have going on with Saquon Barkley.

Every team would love to fill their roster with All-Stars, but honestly sometimes that doesn’t work out either. There’s a lot of teams that have learned the hard way that you can’t always buy a championship by overpaying star players. The team still has to make sense together and have good coaching and teamwork.

Is this all that different from what Microsoft and Sony are doing in the video game space? Microsoft has just signed two huge star players, Bethesda and Activision-Blizzard. They are All-Star, Hall-of-Fame performers with a past history of success which will sell tickets and put up big numbers. Meanwhile, Sony has spent strategically on lesser known player like Firewalk, Haven, and Housemarque. These are more akin to rookies and players from small D-league teams that they held private work-outs with and were impressed with what they saw and decided to sign while the price was still low. Many of the best championship teams were built this way. Find talent early, pay them less, and develop them within your own system. The San Antonio Spurs and the Golden State Warriors each won a lot of championships using this strategy.

I’m not saying there’s a right or wrong to either approach, but as a fan it’s sometimes frustrating to watch while your favorite team never gets the big splash with signing a big-time star player, but it’s important to realize sometimes there’s a method to their low key approach. Of course, sometimes a team is just being mismanaged and cheap and will end up as a bottom feeder the upcoming season 😅

@Th3solution Well what’s happening with the Saudi leagues buying up football players is incredibly similar to the way that Tencent and Embracer were buying up devs the last few years. A seemingly endless money supply while having a much smaller reputation for actually delivering a good product.

@nessisonett Ah yes, that’s another interesting parallel.
I’d heard about a similar occurrence with the Pro Golfers being financially coaxed into the Saudi tournaments but haven’t followed the international football/soccer scene.

On that subject too, I’ve been of the opinion that although I’m not necessarily a fan of big companies getting bigger or of consolidation of the gaming market, I much prefer Microsoft acquiring ABK/COD to Tencent or the Saudi fund. And if the MS acquisition were to be blocked, there’s no doubt that one of those entities would come knocking at ABK’s door. Better to keep that star player in the main league, rather than shipped out where they might be lost entirely, to continue the analogy.

@Th3solution I think the fans are comparable in many ways. So many people have such an encyclopaedic knowledge of football, footballers, teams, managers, years, matches and stuff. They are football geeks. And I probably look at them when they reel off this font of knowledge in the same way they would look at me if I was telling them about every single mainline and spin off of different game series like MGS, Zelda or GTA. Or on the movie/TV side of my interests, if I go on a tangential six degrees of separation linking Tobey Maguire to James Mason.

We are not so different!

Edit: Tobey Maguire cameo in Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller. David Soul had a cameo in the Starsky and Hutch movie with Ben Stiller. David Soul and James Mason were both in Salem's Lot

Kinder Bueno's are elite. No other chocolate bar comes close.

Of all the takes I’ve seen on the internet over the years, this is possibly the worst

I'll raise you all White Chocolate dairy milk with Oreo filling.

Normally I think Oreo and milk choc dairy milk is too much of a clash of iconic flavours. But they've switched out milk for white and now it is a match made in heaven

Also marvelous creations jelly popping candy. Ridiculous bar and one of my favourites

@RogerRoger Not sure what you're thinking by suggesting a Bounty! Atrocious behaviour! 😉

@lolwhatno It's so good though! Can't ever get enough. Could live off of them!

@ralphdibny That does sound rather tasty. I'll have to keep an eye out for one of those during my next trip to the shop.

@Kidfried Oh we have a suger free bounty bar here in Sweden which I like to enjoy sometimes.

Peanut Butter KitKat Chunky FTW.

@JohnnyShoulder Quite simply: Elite.

@KAIRU I wish they do the giant size ones like I've seen of Tolberone or Dairy Milk.

I've been known to wolf down a whole share (yeah, right) pack of Dairy Milk Oreo bites.

And I always go for an Oreo milkshake.

But am not even fussed on Oreo biscuits. 😂

@JohnnyShoulder I'd take a big 1KG bar of it, to be honest. Same with a Kinder Bueno. Forget the packs of four — give me one GIANT one.

Musk is rebranding Twitter. Of course he is. It'll now be called 'X'.

What a cool name for an app. Good lord...

@StripedTomato I've been seeing the old 'Xvideos' joke floating about a fair bit today. Quite amusing. 😂