Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@LieutenantFatman It's perfectly alright old chap, I don't visit too often myself nowadays either. Good to hear about the tabletop games. No to Elden Ring, a sweet farming spot got locked off to me and that's normally how I complete these games - I am planning on playing Demon's Souls Remake at Christmas though. What are you playing?

I'm looking to reduce my monthly outgoings further (I've already reduced my monthly payments for my electric and broadband), and as I've paid off my mobile phone now, that I was next on my hit list.

I usually upgrade, but as my phone is not broken or anything, I thought I'd go with a sim only package this time to save on some cash.

So I'm checking the app for my current provider to see what deals they have. It details that my monthly data usage is around 2.5gb. Of course, they recommend me a package with 30gb data allowance! 🙄

They obviously do have packages which suit me better, but I've shopped around a bit and have found a better deal. I've been thinking of changing for some time now, as the internet when I'm not home is not reliable. There have been at times at work when I get no internet connection even though the 4/5G symbol is up on my phone. I talked to a few people at work, and they have said they have similar issues on the same network as me. So I think now is a good time to change as any. Bit of a shame, as I've been with the same provider for about 20 years now.

@JohnnyShoulder They will lose zero sleep over you changing provider though. I can't think of many companies now where you are actually rewarded for staying with them; most of the time it's the other way around if anything. Plus it's now incredibly easy to swap and keep your old number too.

I pay £9 a month for my phone through BT with just 2GB of data which is way more than I normally need as I rarely do much using just 5G.

@Thrillho I use my phone a fair bit at work, but it is mostly stuff like listening to the radio, coming on here or a quick game of Marvel Snap on a break.

@JohnnyShoulder You play Snap still? How is the game now? Haven't played it for months and wonder if the game changed in the meanwhile?

@JohnnyShoulder what SIM card you looking at?

I do Giffgaff for £10/month and it has 20gb data (I think that's a "free upgrade" after staying with them for like 3 months or something) and while I don't ever come close to 20gb, it's such a low fee that it's good to have around if I go somewhere with no wi fi access or if my own internet drops out

@Kidfried There is a new conquest mode that has been added, but I've been pretty hopeless with it recently after a good run whe it first got introduced. And they have added new weekend objectives and ways to get different versions of cards. The only problem is I find now is that I have way too many cards to upgrade (about 90), so it become slightly overwhelming in that respect.

@ralphdibny I'm probably going to go for EE as I know they have good track record in my area. It is not just about finding the cheapest deal for me, as I will have already reduced my monthly bill significantly, and my current provider has some really good deals they can offer me.

@JohnnyShoulder fair enough! I found a map ages ago that detailed the coverage of the 3 or 4 main providers in the UK that all the other networks piggybacked off of. I can't seem to find that map now but I did find this infographic on which that details who piggybacks off of who

Might be a bit outdated because obviously virgin and O2 have merged now so I don't believe virgin Sims actually exist any more in practise. Could be wrong though.

But yeah, if you have good coverage from EE in your area, might be worth checking deals from the providers under it in that infographic as the service should in theory should be basically the same.

I can't remember exactly but I feel like I remember reading that there is no serviceable difference between using the main provider or a piggyback provider. The main provider just sells spare capacity on their network to a piggyback provider so it should be the same like 99% of the time. I think the only time it wouldn't be is if there was a ridiculously high surge in capacity usage, in which case the main provider's customers would take priority. But in practise that either never happens or almost never happens.

Could be talking out my rear end here though because it's been a good few years since I did all this research for my own benefit! So I could be a little bit behind the times!

Edit: looking at that infographic I am kind of surprised that Vodafone has piggybackers because I kind of remember them being their own thing back when I did my own research. A bit like virgin is with their broadband.

The infographic can't be too out of date though because it details Voxi which is a fairly new player that I've seen advertised lately.

I think there are some funny rules that apply to Lebara and Lyca as well because I am under the impression that they market themselves toward customers that do a lot of international calls so I never really considered them and got into the nitty gritty of how they differ from other providers

@ralphdibny Ah, cheers for that, very useful to know!

I with 02 currently, so anything under them is a no go. A fair few people I've spoken that live round by me have said they have similar complaints as me with 02. Similarly, a few people in the area have said how impressed they've been with EE.

One hell of a Wimbledon final!

@nessisonett I'm not usually fan of tennis, but got stuck watching it with my parents! Was a really entertaining match!

@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.