PSA: You can easily make appointments to get a new ID card/update DEERS online (Fairly certain that this is available everywhere)
This is somewhat of a response to Casen_'s post. For your own sanity, if you know you'll need a new ID card, make an appointment! Even better is going to an empty ANG base and walking into the office to see 5 people working with no line at all. https://rapids-appointments.dmdc.osd.mil And, yes, you can access the site from any computer.
(GME DD) One DD to rule them. One DD to find them. One DD to to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Ok retards listen up. Been seeing lots of cucks writing small DD pieces of bullish or bearish shit. You cucks need to read this cos this is the whole fucking thing.
this is also basically my magnum fucking opus so upvote retards. Dont give me awards, legit go buy a powerup membership for a year. Cant tell you to buy shares because we gonna get closed down by SEC somehow. im also not some fininacial advisor or whatever just read this and make your own conclusions degenerates. Im not fucking liable lmao but i am balls deep 125 shares @ 19 average now, its literally all I have on this earth. TLDR: GME DD sumarized, Margin wont affect longs the same way as shorts right now. Dont buy shares on margin though and get ready to supply collateral regardless. Short interest is up and some smart retards are on our side. Read the post to raise your IQ from 8 to 9 though. 🐻 🌈s mega fuk and even posting high level bear shit to scare us. Compulsory 7 rockets so you autists dont start having a seizure or something: 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 Basically been seeing posts about "blah blah margin this, short interest this, WS to clever blah". Going to split this post into distinct sections but im no english degree cuck so dont expect any bear bloomberg level shit or something
1. GME is a fucking steal regardless of squeeze. Buy now or be left on a dying planet while we head to alpha fucking centauri.
So basically everyone here knows about Ryan cohen and his horsemen of the apocalypse coming to steal melvins lunch money. This man bought apple stock in 2017. Hes fucking rich. Hes also an eccommerce wizard, taking CHEWY from a measly 100k co-founded company to a $4 Billion company in 2017 at which point he sold it to petsmart or something. Its now valued at $40 Billion, granted anything eccommerce now gets money thrown at it like a stripper in a high flying strip club or some shit idk im a virgin so dont listen to me, so it may well be a bubble. Regardless the thing grows its revenue like bacteria doing binary fission on agar jelly 🚀🚀🚀🚀. THEY SELL FUCKING PET FOOD. the market for that is like what? $1?. Gaming is going to the moon and is basically recession proof because of how cheap game is compared to other things for how much you get out of it. Any bears saying that Gamestop cant compete with digital or with amazon. Ryan cohen already slapped amazons head in with a no name brand. Hell fucking do it again. About digital everyone here already knows, microsoft deal, Ryan cohen also mentioned the possibility of having "Digital game exchanging" or something, image below. Online trade ins. It says online.🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 He also mentions streaming, digital content etc and aside from all the digital stuff wants GME to move to a community centric structure where big stores operate with VR centres, Internet cafe, table games like Dungeons and dragons and 40k (rapidly growing somehow will boom post covid) and as we now might know due to this post: https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/kypuyb/gme_dd_buildapc_kiosks_coming/ BUILD YOUR OWN PC KIOSKS. This is the literal smell of money. Go to your Gamestop to build your PC with your kid? Gamestop is already the goto place wher your parents go to get you your latest digital fix so now they can go build PC's and it cant go tits up? Now for some pussy boomer talk (aka fundametals or something). The expected Q3 EPS was -0.84$ or something close to that. The actual loss was -0.53$ but boomzoids only talked about the revenue drop. No shit sherlock its closing all its dead weight stores. In the holiday report I will talk about a bit more below, 11% of stores were closed and revenue dropped only 3%. Comparitive store sales increased nearly 5%. They cant get enough consoles to sell so expect the momentum to carry on for the whole year I expect. Eccommerce is up 300% over holidays. In Q3 they reported 800% to date. In 2020 Gamestops eccomerce went up 24x. YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT. Online sales now account for ~33% of Gamestops sales now. This is literally gold dust for ryan cohen. We are still trading at 0.38 P/S at this price. The average P/S for the SP500 is 2.753. Massive upside on these two numbers alone. Burry got in this for the MOASS and the intrinsic value. At the time intrinsic value was like $22 and this will pump up as RC takes it to new heights. GME in Q3 somehow halved the expected loss. Big Bad Boomer sherman somehow didnt fuck it up that bad by saying "omnichannel" at the speed of light. Yes the revenue dropped 30% but thats covid for you. As the PC kiosk post above shows GME now sells small items basically so fast they have to have fake stock lmao. The new console cycle always spikes the share price sky high too, as youll see in a crayon drawing later. The potential revenue that this console cycle brings in could be huge. Biggest ever is potentially a true statement and Gamestop sells every fucker they get. Combine the fact that they share game pass ( a massive hit) revenue from the xboxes they sell, something no other retailer has, revenue could be sky high. Now I know you autists are starting to develop short term dyslexia or something but keep reading. This could be the most important piece of shit you read in your life. How do you think I feel? My brains overheating just trying to write coherent sentences. Holdiay report was a bear trap imo, saw people saying the decrease in revenue was bearish blah blah blah. Lies. Comparitve store sales rose 5% and thats with some towns having like 4 gamestops. When the leases dont get renewed and these stores get liquidated (Also in Ryan cohens letter) they can just get this influx of cash and pay down debt and invest in logistics and marketing and new growth. Gamestop realistically needs like 1/2 the stores they have now and just need to improve efficiency. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/349890 this article the messiah himself wrote. In it he states:
At Chewy, we had maniacal discipline when it came to how we spent money. The company-wide culture of frugality came from his example. Free cash flow was our unwavering governor of growth. We grew Chewy from $200 million in sales in 2013 to $3.5 billion in 2018 while spending only $130 million in capital, all of which went into opening distribution centers across the country and acquiring new customers.
Maniacal. Thats all I need to say. The guy is going to get to mars before papa musk and he wont even break a sweat. When FCF starts to catch up to WS expectations every analyst who donwgraded them is gonna get ditched and upgrades will start to happen. So in the heading i said its a steal. That implies some future higher price target right? Well here is my guess for a conservative price target based on the information above and also some more I probably forgot cos im a retard. The difference is where share price looks to be and where market cap places us is due to difference in outstanding shares (another reason shorts are fuk)
The difference is where share price looks to be and where market cap places us is due to difference in outstanding shares (another reason shorts are fuk)
This alone means if for not inflation adjusted terms we reached 9.8Bn or whatever the crayon chart says we should reach: 9.8/2.48 = ~3.95 3.95 * $35.5 = ~$140. The share price now to reach old mkt cap is $140 fucking dollars. Thats a 4 bagger from now. It gets better. from statista :
Considering the annual inflation rate in the United States in recent years, a 2.24 percent inflation rate is a very moderate projection.
If we take 2.24% inflation, the this share price target in todays money means we should reach $182 because of $140 * 1.0224^12, = $182 in adjusted. Thats more than a 5 bagger. basically we could see $10 GME price from short manipulation and buying more is basically a lottery ticket! I really dont understand the bear thesis. The only bear thesis ( short term this one) was that margin would affect longs more but I looked at it on ortex and its basically bullshit. Buy shares with cash though dont use margin. Own your piece of GME dont borrow it. Bears just spout "DigITaL" or "BlOCKbuSTER" so much Ryan tweeted a shit emoji at them. All the bears think theyre clever. What the fuck makes those cucks special? How are they different now than the ones from $2, or $4, or $10. Bears are betting against: Ryan fucking cohen, buisness legend CHEWY from 100k investment, now 40 billion Michael burry, Investing legend, predicted the housing crisis and is in GME since april u/DeepFuckingValue , the new WSB god chad, now basically a whale Reggie Fils-Aimé, gaming and buisness legend, former COO of nintendo Senvest, a mega fund thats actively managed Norweigan sovereign wealth fund Fidelity, Vanguard and blackrock own this shit and are never selling they literally dont give a shit All of WSB has now formed a shield wall against the bears Microsoft gave GME highly discounted azure deals and free office use for all employees and a revenue sharing agreement. Bears are stupid if they think MSFT didnt vet GME. Some valid bear thesis left now (the only ones left) -- Ryan Cohen dies.
2. Now some analysis on the short squeeze and some technical data on puts and calls and ortex data.
Ok everyone on here and their cat, dog, bedbugs and wifes boyfriend knows about the squeeze. Jimmy chill aka cramer even talking about it. Gamestop is literally the most shorted stock of all time and space. The squeeze makes every autist salivate because its basically free money while cucking big money out of like what 1% of their fund. Although I know all you cucks hate shares, and hate holding, if the squeeze doesnt happen selling is probably the most retarded thing anyone could do. Its literally buy high sell low and you fucking disgust me. STONK ONLY GOES UP. This squeeze is so monumental that its been sucking sharks in like fresh blood. Most of the funds where shorting this from 30-15 dollars before this year so they didnt really care. It all changed with 2 people. u/DeepFuckingValue and Dr. Michael Burry. These guys are as OG as it gets with GME. I think u/DeepFuckingValue may have even sniffed this trade out before the legend himself. Since then funds will have churned this through their rules and started jumping on this train. Ive been in since $13 with 125 shares. If I had more money Id be buying but im just some stupid student ok. Im merely a medium for this money made information. The stats for this stock now short wise are, from ortex: Concrete short interest as of 31 December 2020: 71 Million. Estimated short interest, January 11th data: (This isnt predicted, this is from data in flow, has margin of error) : 77 Million Short shares on loan 7 days ago: 50 Million Short shares on loan now (This breaks the bearish margin calls affect longs more thesis): 54.2 Million % of known float short: 147% as of 31 December 2020 % of know free float on loaned shorts: 108% as of January 11th. Some guy on here took into account extra buying on wednesday, Institutions, Burry, RC's extra 7% and WSB ownership (something so stupendously retarded no serious firm will do it) that float on short could be in the 100s of %. Total short float now I would say could be 200-400% if the numbers are correct. This pisses on all other short squeezes. Some countries ban shorting above 100% cos of how autistic it is. The recent hike in interactive brokers available shares is probably a mix of sell off on friday (remember some guys are now buying lambos with GME money. If they held they could buy 10), calls exercising and puts being covered and brokers ditching the shares. Nakedshort even reported 5 million naked GME shorts on friday. This is bullish as fuck because the best the shorts could do on a red market day was -10%. Gamestop is still on the SECs threshold list for 27 days now. This shows naked short selling and downwards pressure hasnt capitulated Need rockets 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀: Ok so now if WSB owns an estimated 6-8% of the stock and we all know to move over to cash accounts now to avoid margin calls, we should be minimizing longs getting margin called. Every bear on stockwits is a clueless cuck who spouts "blockbuster" and these guys dont even know what margin even is so my bet is the colossal 54 Million shares short on loan are gonna be affected by the margin calls more. Why? Because every long on margin is in the green, and now a true zealot/extremist/autist for ryan cohen so will supply their account with collateral to avoid margin call. Shorts are in the massive red zone. How do I know you ask? Ortex data from Jan 4th 2021: This is the data from ortex for short interest for Gamestop for Jan 4th So this shows for jan 4th the estimated short interest is 66.98 Million shares. From the exchange reported 71 Million on december 31st this makes a lot of sense because the share price fell from ~21 to ~17 so shorts took profits. The shares on loan arent for longs too. This is all purely short data, and 47M shorted at $17 this shows. These shorts are in a circle of hell we cant comprehend and makes satan scared. 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 Now for the data for this week: Ortex short data for Jan 14th for Gamestop SHARES ON LOAN HAVE GONE UP. BUT 87% OF LOANED SHORTS WHERE SHORTING AT SUB $20. Cost to borrow is also up, estimated short interest is up to a cataclysmic amount. Longs on margin need to supply collateral, but we are in the massive green zone, shorts are underwater. Margin calls will ravage the shorts and sting the longs. We also have the uptick rule in place until the end of the day, so shorts can only short on the way up. Im not saying itll happen but this shit is skewed in our favour big time. we need to 💎🙌💎🙌💎🙌💎🙌💎🙌💎🙌💎🙌💎🙌. 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 Seen a lot of talk about Gamma hedging and delta. You realize that the fucking bankers and brokers dont understand gamma hedging right? That shits up their with the black-scholes equation and feynman-kac solution. Forget about it. The retards claiming to understand it are either payed by hedge funds or lose money. The guy who took out outs thinking options exercising and gamma hedging would lead to a collossal sell off on friday lost money on his puts because no one except some quants in a goldman sachs server room know this shit. The idea is simple about neutral delta on options that people take out, but the simple system interacts with every other thing in the stock market, and wow who couldve guessed it, like nearly any other element of the stock market predicting something by the day is nigh impossible. That guy talking about Gamma , Delta and margin calls is on weeklies. Hes no more autistic and equally retarded as all of us. Hes a chill guy though so dont berate a fellow brother. Now weve established the likelihood of longs getting margin called is far smaller than shorts, on to the options distributions Two images now: Top one is before the end of the 15th, the other one is after market close: This shows the suspected melvin puts (51000 contracts, 5 Million shares, rolled up from july, strike price $24) and lots of big ITM calls. 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 This shows the big put contract didnt get rolled over and the big ITM calls got exercised on friday. Large puts are underwater big timem while calls are in the big tendy zone. These two graphs, show before market close and after. As we can see the massiver 51000 put contracts didnt get rolled over and the chances that those were melvins july puts rolled up is very high. They expired worthless. Lots of calls are printing big time while huge amounts of puts are worthless and bleeding money. Something else we can extrapolate from the charts is that massive options trades are not present on the scale we saw before (tens of thousands). 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 We are seeing a discrepancy in the number of puts/calls opening up at the higher prices with calls gaining fast. This could show that some funds are now becoming optimistic on the long or short term prospects of gamestop. There are also more puts than options and if we assume this for shorts vs longs on margin (without even taking into account that all shorts are borrowed shares and pay interest further bleeding cash) then shorts are likely on more margin than longs. Regardless fellow autists my main point is two show that the bears are underwater and the bulls are flying high with regards to options. Now lets compare this possible squeeze with others. Bear in mind this is the most shorted stock of all time, but differences in free float change the share price differently. Kodak went from $2.16 to $33.2 Volkswagen went from ~200 euro to nearly 1000. Overstock went from ~$21 to $123 Blue apron went from $2.31 to $18 Ive been seeing some estimated that 1 million shares is roughly a dollars move in share price. This maths is about to be pretty autistic so bear with me degnerates. $1 now is 2.81% of the share price. Everything in the markets is exponential and based on percentages. So if we assume a full squeeze of ortexs estimated short interest (This assumes no sell off and no new shorts, new shorts can be positive or negative depedning on when in the squeeze they happen) $35.5 * 1.0281^77 = $299. GME to moon. 🌑 . This shit can happen. Hold on. GME has squeezed and been manipulated before and it always happens around the console cycles. Shorts never win and they wont win now. This post right here I found months ago and got me in the squeeze from the honourable and valiant u/Uberkikz aka Rod Alzman Basically the crayon chart shows green (outstanding shares) orange ( short shares) purple (Market cap) and cyan (Share price). In 2006-2008 the share price rose in tandem with short interest ( Like now ) Until console releases when you can see an abrupt squeeze happend mooning the share price. This happend to a degree in 2013 with the xbox one but worse conditions for the company and a worse console launch lead to slow short covering but the share price still mooned. Now we get to the best part. History is repeating itself for the third time and the shares sold short are literally higher than the outstanding shares, which have been decreasing since 2010. Short shares are also at the highest point ever and GME hasnt had a brighter future, well ever. Ps5 and Xbox Series X. are the two most hyped consoles since the Ps2. This is setting up the foundations for massive price movements weve never seen before. This shit has literally never happend, ever. Uncharted waters and we are the captain. For the insurmountably retarded autists who think that the squeeze has happend look upon this and despair: https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/kwpf6k/gme_gang_there_hasnt_been_a_short_squeeze_yet/ IHOR IS A MEGA WIZARD Ihor I quote:
A long-buying tsunami ... is the primary factor for the price move
Ihor Dusaniwsky is managing director of predictive analytics at S3 a firm similar to ortex. He told bloomberg that the squeeze hasnt happend yet and that this was long buying. If someone knows this shit its him. He was talking about the tesla squeeze in january 2020. He has access to resources we can only imagine. Barrons cut his comment that the squeeze hasnt happend yet out it was that fucking bullish. All the media ramming down "Short squeeze has happend" down peoples throats because bears are fucking scared. The bots on stocktwits spamming bearish sentiment should show how rattled they are. Edit: You fucking degens just enlightened me that cramer pump is real, funds are ruminating over the long weekend, and stmmy bills pumps stonks and that stimmy bill buys many an xbox. See you at andromeda! Also more rockets. Edit**: Some autists thought lottery ticket was misleading so instead, gauranteed lottery numbers!** Edit 3: RYAN FUCKING COHEN TWEETED THE HOMIE JUST TWEETED. PEANUT EMOJI. HES 1) NUTTING 2) SAYING 35 IS PEANUTS 3) GIF SAYS THERES A CHANCE, SHORT SQUEEZE IMMENINT HOMIES Edit 4: Amazing post here showing that unlucky prize guy was wrong like I said. Ihor also talked about the hypothecation agreement. Edit 5: This is true and I forgot to add
from u/luncheonmeat79 via /wallstreetbets sent 2 minutes ago There’s also the chance of a ratings upgrade. Moody’s and S&P have GME at B3 and B-, which is rated “highly speculative”. Ratings are reviewed every quarter, and a review might be due this month (i.e. this coming week or next). Good chance that the agencies might upgrade GME to a B2/B, or even better to the next higher band (Ba/BB).
Edit 6: We are scraping 42 in frankfurt. Granted its low volumes but pre market should open at these prices I think? Conclusion: Buy shares with cash not margin. Hold shares forever unless RC dies (Shame hes a cybernetic demigod), Melvin bad, Shorts fuk, 🐻 🌈 posting bearish shit are doing weeklies for the second time after they expired red on friday, GME to $200 without squeeze, Ryan cohen a god, GME is still a value play, Good luck have fun.
Are the motives behind "The Evil Farming Game" more sinister than the games premise? Does it even exist as more than rumor? One user was determined to find out. (a lot of context)
Edit - Got a PM from the faker titled; "Do you know what it feels like to log on and have half a dozen ppl calling you crazy?" I tried to reassure him it's all good but he's distraught. Said some things that made me feel guilty and I might delete this thread if he asks me to. I guess the damage is done though. Nice job dicks who harassed him, he seems like a nice enough guy. Said to keep it up but he wants nothing to do with TEFG anymore. The Evil Farming Game is an old computer game that involves a farm, hiding the murder of your wife from police, and other vague creepy details. It was first mentioned online 4 years ago in a sub for finding video games; https://www.reddit.com/tipofmyjoystick/comments/4h5w1w/this_game_was_kind_of_like_harvest_moon This got some attention for some reason, and people began to hunt. People were communicating with OP, mentioning games they find which are similar to either have them confirmed or ruled out. Nobody can find it. A couple of years pass and another post is made, this time by a different person. It seems to sound like this fellow is looking for the same game! https://www.reddit.com/tipofmyjoystick/comments/a6wfbm/pc_evil_farming_game/ This fueled the fire even more. People were wondering just what this "Evil Farming Game" was, why it was made, if it even exists. The gaming mystery caught some traction with a couple of popular youtubers and was featured in a couple of videos. It was around this time, a year ago that /ThatEvilFarmingGame begun. A community which spent a year naming possible games, following leads, being trolled here and there with "broken laptops" and just waiting for the day "Sparta" (OP of the first post) confirms "Yes this is the game." The Subreddit grew to 10,000 people in a year and even branched off onto Discord. At some point someone decided to start a project of re-Creating this game based on the details known. The whole thing started to form it's own little cult based on the idea of this vague game. Tons of threads, searching and speculating. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/k5ousd/idk_if_i_found_something_but_it_might_be_worth/https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/jc6u6g/i_believe_the_evil_farming_game_is_confused/ Dozens of this nature. It's all guess work from everyone, they only have a small list of games they know it's not. After some time most users seem to reach the conclusion it doesn't exist. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ihp5ywe_all_know_its_fake/https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ijjuke/can_we_stop_with_all_the_troll_posts_and_this/ One day a suspiciously low quality, yet credible picture of a game was posted. With it were matching known details and some new ones. For the first time there were also detailed descriptions of the game play mechanics, which sounded like a playable game. It was topped off with the usual story of "on a friends old PC, better evidence soon. There have been many open ended promises of the like over time and people were jaded. However this thread had a ring of truth to it, for what it was. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt6dcf/this_has_to_be_it_right_the_premise_is_exactly/ (Actual screenshot) https://imgur.com/AVQw8P8 Then it was deleted after only a day. The OP telling the moderator that they feared doxxing, knowing how big it would be to reveal the actual game. They would report back with real evidence soon. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt9cjl/why_the_op_deleted_his_post/ Deleting it like that seemed to add credibility to it and gave people hope that this time the game would be found. This person wasn't looking for fame. They deleted their entire profile. The original story of how the game was found and how the screenshot was taken was flawed under a microscope, but also completely plausible. A few other people came out and said they had played this game before, or it was familiar. It was looking to be promising. A lot of speculation occurred. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ky0kfj/what_do_you_see_in_the_screenshot/ The general consensus being if it was a real game it maybe even THE game. The moderator of the sub was in communication with "Sparta" (OP of TEFG) allegedly. He sent the screenshot over.
This provoked a lot of questions, naturally. Most people agreed that despite the low quality picture, the game itself was quite clear. Clear enough that it SHOULD have gotten a clear yes or no from the only person known to have played it. People began to question the moderator more. They questioned this alleged "Sparta." They questioned the whole premise of That Evil Farming Game. Until the game in the screen shot surfaced they were in limbo and questioning everything once again. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt9cjl/why_the_op_deleted_his_post/gj41mmm/https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/ There was one user who became particularly active at the same time the OP of the screenshot disappeared. This person made a very long thread breaking down why they thought the screenshot was plausible. They were also grilling the moderator pretty hard with questions the Mod couldn't seem to answer, across other threads. This user was apparently trying to establish the credibility of the alleged "OP" and the Mod's communication with him, and knowledge that it was in fact the same person. This user would post a paragraph of 4 or 5 clear questions and the moderator would reply with very vague answers to 1 or 2. There were claims made of the moderator having an alt, or more. This user claimed to be getting downvoted 3 times in quick succession on replies to the moderator within moments of the moderator replying. Some posts deleted. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gjdbgqi/https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gj9z6vd/https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gj83tlt/ (Image in reply: https://imgur.com/a/EVbADTF ) This person was very determined to find hard answers. Is the screenshot real? Is it The Evil Farming Game? Is the moderator even in communication with OP? How do they know it's actually OP? Why can't OP ID the game? A popular theory is that it is some sort of scam to promote the game being built to "recreate TEFG based on known details." https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/k92j7i/i_am_starting_to_think_efg_is_a_advertisement/ In a twist, this new and active user came out and made a thread: after a week of asking dozens of questions which had poor answers and writing a books worth on the subject of TEFG. They admitted to being the one who spent hours fabricating the screenshot. They had burned a 6 year old, 50k karma account which originally posted the screenshot and story to add more credibility to the whole thing. They made a new account just to question the whole idea of the game, make people think about it. They had also left breadcrumb's of evidence along the way expecting it to turn up. It was another more clear screen shot, with a fabricated email conversation posted in the comments of one of the screenshots imgur links. The post had proof of deleted posts mentioning how it's probably marketing. They revealed that they had spent the month on and off coming up with the idea as a way to "investigate" if the game was real. They stressed they were doing it in nature of "investigating" and not as a troll job, hence admitting it. After a long break down of a lot of "evidence" of all sorts of things the fake they were met with mostly mockery or hostility. They edited the post to simply say "I misunderstood the purpose of this sub. Yes, I deleted my own thread." Before deleting the thread and vanishing. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kzb5hm/the_truth_about_the_screenshot_and_the_results_of/ After some time this user came back. They had posted a long breakdown of the situation the day after the screenshot was posted. The thread got a lot of traction. This post was now edited to include a more condensed version of "the investigation" along with admitting to falsifying evidence up top. The user claimed they had done it all for their own curiosity. For the purpose of the hunt and that they were satisfied with their answer; "the game never existed." They deleted the original "grand reveal" of apparently a months work of investigation due to the hostility. Only revealing the truth of the forgery in an edit on the old thread and a couple of replies to old comments. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kts7og/new_to_the_hunt_just_some_thoughts_about/ What do you think? A long con troll? A real investigative tactic? Does the game exist? Why does someone care so much? Why did I spend all afternoon going through this?
Help! Mom gave her SS# and bank info to "verify her identity" for her military beau
I am honestly beside myself... I will try to keep this as short as possible. My mom is in her 60's and is very lonely due to isolation (pandemic). She's been chatting with guys on Tinder for about 6 months. She has a "type" - "bad boy" military men. They are always on "assignment" somewhere, in the special forces, and love bomb her. I've told her countless times they are scammers. I don't know a lick about the military, but I can clearly tell they are scams. After awhile they would ask for money - she laughs cause she has none and blocks them... Recently, she's been talking to one guy in the "special forces" who "lives" on a base in DFW area. Supposedly she cannot call him directly, she needs to call "base" and then he calls her. I've told her it's most likely a scam. Last week she told me he's coming to her city (Houston), but the military will need to verify her identity (why?). I told her DO NOT GIVE OUT ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION. She just called me and told me he's coming, and that money for his trip will be deposited into her account. RED FLAGS are flying in front of me. Why tf would military personnel not have a bank? I ask her what info did she give them. She told me she gave her social and bank info - like her login details. Her credit dropped because they made a hard inquiry!!!!! How can she not realize by now it's a scam?! I admit, I was livid and screamed at her to freeze her credit and call her bank ASAP. I just can't believe my mom could fall for something like this - even after I was right with the other scammers... Anyway... I need help on finding resources to protect her. She doesn't have much money (only SSDI). I told her to call her bank and tell them EVERYTHING and to freeze her credit via the 3 reporting agencies. What happens if they opened a card or loan under her name? What else can she do? What else can they access with her social and bank info? Edit: She was able to close her bank account (thank goodness). I am driving down tomorrow to help her set up a new account with her bank and go to the Social Security office to give them the new bank info and report the scam. I don't know if the scammer charged anything to her debit, but he did get notified her account was closed (and is attempting to call/text her). I told her to call at least one of the credit reporting agencies tonight to freeze her account and request details on the hard inquiry/claim it as fraudulent. She finally realized it is a scam. The really sad part about this is the "military" emails she received that were requesting her personal information are clearly not from the military and it pains me she didn't realize it at the time. I will also request account access to her credit cards, bank account, and any other important accounts to help her monitor activity. I plan to call my company's legal department (it part of benefits) to see about setting up a financial and medical PoA (not executable until absolutely necessary). I'm just so sad, she's had a really difficult life and this just makes it worse... Edit #2: So the good news is that they did not withdraw/deposit anything in her bank account. She called all three credit reporting agencies and froze her account. I told her to pack her bags and she'll be staying at my place for a few days so we can change her account passwords/user names, call SS, and get her annual credit report. I told her that it would be best for me to have access to all of her accounts - and she agreed. Right now she feels so stupid for falling for this scam, and I tried my best to reassure her that everything will be okay. We will get through this - just block the scammer's number and do NOT respond to him at all. I will also report this scam to the ic3 and FBI. Thank you all for the resources you provided. I just hope this can be a lesson for some of you who have aging parents or a parent, especially during these times when many are cut off from so many resources. I did not realize how lonely my mom was. I feel like I could have done more... I was always a bit dismissive of these encounters when we spoke... I will try my best to make up for it now. Thank you again. Edit #3: We went to her bank to open up a new account. Turns out her old account wasn't totally "closed," so we got that shut down and all money withdrawn. We had to schedule an appointment for tomorrow to create a new account, so I will be with her tomorrow too. Although it looks like she will have to unfreeze her accounts in order to open a new account. Then call SS to add her new account for direct deposit. So there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. I changed her passwords to all possibly compromised accounts, including SSA and closed her my.id (it wasn't set up and he actually asked for that info). I now have access to all email addresses, Credit Karma, and loan company. Set her up with TrueId and some other credit reporting agency free monitoring accounts. No cards/loans were added to her reports, but that makes sense since it can take over a month to show up. The drop in her score was her doing (yes, she also is terrible with money, like really bad although had good credit until now - and we've gone over this before numerous times). I will assist her with monitoring all reports. I may sign her up for Lifelock, but the cheap plan doesn't really do much..so we shall see. I've read some of the emails from this guy, a few imessages (for some reason her messages disappear on her phone, so I was only able to see recent stuff). The sad part about it is that she was questioning why he needed all this personal info. The one issue my mom has is this extreme fear of abandonment, as she told me that she was afraid he'd leave if she didn't give him her info (no kidding). It just reminds me of the cycle of abuse. 9/10 times she picks these POS guys and she is very aware of this (my father was one). She's just way too trusting. Like any victim of abuse, you can guide them, tell them they are worth more, tell them what's happening isn't normal - but it is up to the victim to act. The ball is in her court and I will be there for her (but I will never bail her out financially). As for the people saying it may be Alzheimer's/dementia - I told her she should get checked by a neurologist just in case, even though she's had memory problems for quite some time (due to illness and medications). It was really hard finding out what accounts were compromised and explaining several times that a credit freeze does not freeze your credit cards. I'll also see about signing her up for Reddit and subreddits she'd be interested in. Perhaps also get her involved in local senior activities. Maybe see if she'd be interested in borrowing my Switch for games. Anyway, that's about all I can really do right now. I stayed calm and was there for her and she's super grateful for that. Thank you everyone for your advice, kind words, etc. I can now sleep easy knowing I've done all that I can and hopefully she learned her lesson. Edit 4: Well now things are getting weird.. I didn’t know this since I don’t use Credit Karma, but she has a CK savings account. It has 2 pending large transfers totaling $16,000. I asked her if the visible last digits of the account number where the deposits are coming from are hers. She said no (has her old account routing/account number written down but I will confirm tomorrow). I filed a complaint with CK online (I honestly can’t believe they don’t have a CS number). Not sure if I should keep the CK account open or not, but I’ll wait to hear back from CK and her bank. This makes absolutely no sense to me.
Please note: This game has significant disparities in performance, player experience, and review scores between the PC, next-gen consoles, Xbox One, and PS4 versions. The OpenCritic team and several critics suspect that the developer, CD PROJEKT RED, intentionally sought to hide the true state of the game on Xbox One and PS4, with requirements such as only allowing pre-rendered game footage in reviews and not issuing review copies for PS4 and Xbox One versions. This notice will be taken down in February 2021.
I have finished Cyberpunk but I will not have a review up today as I could not comply with CDPR"s embargo requirement that prohibited us from using our own recorded gameplay in the review. Instead, we were told to use b-roll, which is basically trailer footage. Reviews should not be vehicles for rolling out more marketing material, so I'll put my review up when I'm able to show you the reality of the game with my own footage. I'm also disappointed that no console review code was provided to any outlet... Console games are often reviewed without their day one or even day zero patches, so Cyberpunk would not have been special in this regard. Its really lame that no reviewer can tell you how this game runs on console on the review embargo. I absolutely love this game and I think CDPR did extraordinary work, but its clearly unfinished at this point and no review relying on trailer footage alone can properly convey that.
The minimum GPU listed is a GTX 780, with GTX 1060 6GB recommended for 1080p high, RTX 2060 for 1440p ultra, and an RTX 2080 Super for 4K ultra. Then there's the ray tracing additions, with the RTX 2060 listed as the minimum for 1080p and RT medium, 3070 for 1440p and RT ultra, and 3080 for 4K RT ultra. Based on what we're seeing, it looks like those recommendations are for 30-40 fps.
Cyberpunk 2077 is the ultimate power fantasy. A video game that takes the best of modern RPG, first-person shooter, stealth, and the open world and masterfully blends it into a single product. If Skyrim and GTA V marked a before and after for their genres at the beginning of the 2010s, Cyberpunk 2077 is called to do the same from this 2020.
The game may not be perfect but given CD project Red's reputation for fixing and updating games Cyberpunk has a bright neon-lit future. It can proudly sit among its influences of Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner and Neuromancer (as well as games like Deus Ex, System Shock) with its augmented head held high. It's been a long wait, but the end result is a massive sprawling RPG with an incredible story, heart-pounding action, solid mechanics and customisation, offering you unparalleled player choice in a deep, atmospheric world that I can't wait to plug myself back into.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a victim of bloat, but you can choose to ignore a lot of it and take in the sights. That's where Night City is at its best, and I sincerely suggest that you take your time going through it, as rushing will only lead to disappointment. Even just strolling through though though, you'll probably be left wanting more.
We could wax lyrical about how good this game is for another ten years, and we still think the conversation would be relevant - so yes, we think Cyberpunk 2077 is the game of the decade. This is an event, and a big moment in gaming, because the brilliant Cyberpunk 2077 is laying down the stepping stones for greater feats in the future.
CD Projekt RED is willing to take an even bigger risk and dare something very different, combining elements that they have proven to know well and elements which they have no previous experience in.
And it is precisely for this reason that, despite all the technical problems of the production, we cannot in any way fail to assign a vote of excellence to the work of CDPR: the defects will disappear over time, but already now Cyberpunk 2077 is a title which undoubtedly deserves a place of honor in all players' library.
Measured against the extreme expectations, Cyberpunk 2077 can't fulfill any of them. But all in all, despite the countless small weaknesses and inconsequences, with interesting characters, great story and dialogues or the freedom concerning gameplay, CD Projekt delivers a unique and great RPG that every fan of the genre needs to play.
Cyberpunk 2077 proves that the developers have improved their skills since fantastic The Witcher 3. It is an excellent action RPG that would benefit from a longer delay to polish the various issues. However, no amount of bugs can diminish the immense pleasure of exploring this world.
The era of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X has arrived, but Cyberpunk 2077 is currently running on those next-gen platforms via backwards compatibility. A true next-gen update isn't due until sometime in 2021. That means CD Projekt Red developed a game for three platforms, and it's running on an acceptable level on just one (PC), provided you have the hardware. That is just plain ridiculous.
It's definitely feels like with Cyberpunk 2077 CD Projekt RED tried to tell a really meaningful story, while using as a backdrop truly a unique setting. And all the while the developers made sure that the game still feels approachable by all kind of people, and that it presents itself with insane graphical fidelity painting an image of an eerily realistic world of tommorow. We doubt there's too many people who don't believe in CD Projekt RED, but in case you're one of them, be warned - Cyberpunk 2077 is something that will change the way you look at the gaming industry as a whole.
This is an outstanding and highly enjoyable game, but take your time with it, do all the side missions (think of them as extensions of the main quest, in fact) and don’t rush the main storyline. You should absolutely take the earliest available opportunity to explore Night City and everything it has to offer. From the visuals to the music to the vibe, it’s a superb experience and one I am looking forward to spending a lot more time with.
Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t perfect, but it is ambitious. It marries a gripping story with a huge open world absolutely dripping with atmosphere; one in which, after fifty hours of gameplay, I still feel like I’ve only scratched its surface. Even now I’m itching to jump back in and complete yet more side jobs, not only because they’re enjoyable, but also just in case they offer V more options when it comes to ending their story.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a new masterpiece from CD Projekt RED, a huge, dense, vibrant, colorfoul and dark Sci-Fi RPG that any fan of the genre should step in. First because it will provide the sensation that the story really depends on you choices and that you have everything you need for your playstyle. Then because streets, stores, buildings, inhabitants of Night City won't get out of your head easily. You'll be happy to interact with Keanu Reeves, but the real star is this city and all it provides in terms of atmosphere, game mechanics and stories. [OpenCritic note: Gianni Molinaro separately reviewed the next-gen (10) and current-gen (4) versions. The scores have been averaged.]
Cyberpunk 2077 is the cyberpunk game of my dreams, it provides one of the most highly detailed environments I’ve ever seen, with an incredibly expansive and immersive narrative.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a great game, but it could have been an incredible game that defined a generation. Instead, it falls victim to its own ambition and the industry's constant desire to push, push, push it out. In its current state, it's not for the faint of heart, and even hardcore Cyberpunk fans may struggle to stay interested amidst all the crashes and issues. If you have yet to pick it up, wait a few months and you could very well be treated to the experience we were all hoping for at launch.
Although there still exist a lot of technical glitches, Cyberpunk 2077 stands out in terms of cyberpunk concept, story-telling, characters, level-design, combat, and so forth. It's a pleasure to spend hundreds of hours in the Night City, and I believe it would be one of the greatest open-world RPGs in the next decade.
The dark future certainly looks promising, thanks to the collective imagination of the team at CD Projekt Red, which seems to know no bounds. Cyberpunk 2077 certainly took a while to come to our hands, but be glad it’s finally here, for it is here to stay for a long time to come. And it certainly did not disappoint.
Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the greatest RPGs of the generation. We love Night City, its characters and great writing for every mission. It is also one of the best looking games out there (if your PC is powerful enough).
Cyberpunk 2077 is like an addictive, huge, impressive braindance, where the feelings are real, while sometimes you see the puppet strings. It's an ambitious RPG, where narration, decisions and dialogue are far more important than combat, wrapped around a lot of fun, but usual and not always perfect, action mechanics. Engaging and marvellous to play, Night City on high-end PCs is stunning to see and super stylish. Cyberpunk 2077 is worth the wait, because the adventure of V and Johnny Silverhand is greater than the sum of its parts.
Cyberpunk 2077 offers a great sci-fi experience in which you can get lost for hours. It is not a revolutionary title in its genre, but it brings fresh changes. Whether it's new tasks, well-written dialogues, and characters, good stylized graphics, or very pleasant controls. Decision-making constructions leave you free where you need them. Conversely, they bind you in places where it is important. Everything fits together thanks to that. And if you were afraid that Cyberpunk 2077 would be a debacle. Throw this worry behind your head. Enjoy Night City to the fullest!
I haven’t fallen in love with playing Cyberpunk 2077, but I haven’t loathed it either. Some moments have been exciting or moving, while others have just felt like stuff to do.
A stunning achievement in open world gameplay but one whose tonal inconsistencies and weak narrative undermines what could have been an all-time classic.
Groundbreaking, but not quite as much as you're hoping it is. Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't surpass its brilliant influences, but in Night City, Johnny Silverhand, and its chilling vision of hyper-capitalism, it claims territory of its own.
I fell in love with Night City, warts and all. If its many bugs can get ironed out, Cyberpunk 2077 is a potential Game of the Year candidate. Here’s hoping that CD Projekt Red can quickly push out fixes.
Cyberpunk 2077 is huge, steeped in sex, satisfying shooting, and the expansion of individual elements delights. It's one of those productions you want to get ing into to get to know its charms and enjoy every moment in Night City.
Cyberpunk 2077 is staggering, overwhelming, and even surprising at times in its spectacle. Although my first dozen hours with the game has been marred by easy-to-fix problems, Nighty City, along with all it offers and all that call it home, makes for an intoxicating escape. Here's hoping the next one hundred hours are as utterly compelling.
We're still playing Cyberpunk 2077 in order to bring you a finished review, but it's impossible to recommend picking this game up at launch on PS4 or PS4 Pro. On PS5 via backwards compatibility, there's still fun to be had - a glimpse of the game's excellent potential - but even then, it's crippled by bugs and crashing issues. There's something truly special at the core of Cyberpunk 2077, but in its current state, it's simply not good enough. So far, a colossal disappointment.
When Cyberpunk's grim setting and mix of gameplay systems land, it is a powerfully impressive experience - sprawling, dense, clever, witty, and most importantly damn good fun. Other times, it has all the charm of a moody, edgy teenager.
An ambitious, maybe over ambitious, thrilling ride that falters when it comes to execution. The developer's strength shines through the world building and production, resulting in a unique mix that is let down by a myriad list of technical and AI problems.
Ultimately, it feels like Cyberpunk 2077 is a fitting bookend for the previous generation of games and a strong starting point for current-gen. Now it's time to start innovating again.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a wild journey within an incredibly fascinating setting; some technical uncertainties destined to disappear and a partial repetitiveness limit its glory, but overall it is an adventure worthy of William Gibson himself. Cyberpunk 2077 allowed me to finally feel immersed in that pen & paper RPG I discovered in 1988, pouring rain clouding my view in a kaleidoscope of neon signs, just as I had imagined while leafing through those pages. Some may not consider it a perfect game, but I do.
I’m V and the game is Silverhand - I can’t get Cyberpunk 2077 out of my head. I’ve had it a week and played 70 hours, which is probably about as healthy as scooping out my face and replacing it with electronics, but it didn’t feel like work. Like a digital personality loaded onto a biochip, it felt like stepping into another life for a while. It’s a life I can’t wait to relive.
CD Projekt Red has created a triumphant RPG experience with Cyberpunk 2077, yet it often falters under the weight of its own ambition thanks to inconsistent writing and narrative
Too ambitious for its own good, Cyberpunk 2077 attempts to do too much and falters in its execution as a result. Despite its issues, it’s better than the sum of its parts and might be worth checking out for fans of action RPGs.
In the midst of such intense anticipation and scrutiny, it’s easy to get carried away with what Cyberpunk 2077 could have been. The final experience might be more familiar than many predicted, with plenty of elements that aren’t perfect, but it’s dripping with detail and engaging stories. With so much to see and do, Cyberpunk 2077 is the kind of RPG where you blink and hours go by, which is just what we need to finish off 2020.
Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world masterpiece that features some of the most immersive and liberating storytelling this industry has to offer. With full freedom to choose V's personality, looks, and gameplay style, Cyberpunk 2077 gives the player an unrelenting amount of control in a world that delivers dozens upon dozens of hours of high-quality content. Cyberpunk 2077 is a mammoth achievement and solidifies CD Projekt RED's place at the top of the pile.
It may not sound like it, but I enjoyed many aspects of Cyberpunk 2077. It doesn't hit the highs of The Witcher 3, but it still has a lot going for it. However, it was released in such an unfinished state that it's hard to give it a positive review. It's an 8.0 game hiding in a 4.0 game wrapper. I might change my tune in a few months, when patches have rolled out, but even when playing the best version available on the PlayStation systems, there's no getting around it: Cyberpunk 2077 might have been mocked for its delays, but it needed more of them. You'll still have fun if you pick it up now, but unless you're dying for it, it's best to wait until it's been patched and improved.
Well guys, I lost 90k today on SPY calls which was basically all of my account. I started in 2017 with like 30k of my own money and over the course of 3 years, spent probably a couple hundred hours learning about stocks, options, doing "research" etc. Today, I am down 8k since i started in 2017. Proof: https://imgur.com/8zoihg7 (shows -60k but I was down -30k yesterday already on the calls) That was money I planned on using for a downpayment on a house, and for paying my taxes on gains from last year. So once February comes around, the 20k I have left is basically going to taxes on gains from last year which are now gone. I am effectively broke :-) Im not that upset because I have a decent paying job.. but god damn, I was literally just contacting real estate agents last week because I was planning on buying a house. I could still buy one, but it will probably take me years to get back to 100k in savings. I should have just stuck to selling puts like I was doing for the past couple months. The gains aren't huge, but selling 100k worth of puts every week is enough to make you a couple G's every month with not a ton of risk. I could have made my future mortgage payments just selling puts. I am trying to look on the bright side. Having 100k made me spend somewhat frivolously. Like eating out twice a day, buying clothes i didn't need, etc. Now I have to go back to scrimping and scraping, which is good I think. I was getting a little ridiculous. Also, I have been finishing up my degree online but have had no motivation since I already have a decent job and decent money saved. Im feeling the pressure now to hurry up and finish my degree so I can get a better job (100k+ a year). I went all in on $390 1/22 SPY calls yesterday. I did the math; if we would have had a 1.5% day today, I would have made about 500k.. but it was pretty flat so at open, I was already down a shit ton. Figuring there was no chance left, I pulled out what was left, about 47k. I saw ford was going up crazy and figured that was pretty much my only chance to get back to where I was. Basically bought calls expiring tomorrow at the top, started going down, I pushed out and sold. So now I have 20k. I'm not super depressed about it or anything because I know ill be fine, but I already miss the coziness of having 100k stored away. Knowing that if I lost my job or something, id be okay. But like I said, Im looking on the bright side. My goal at the moment is to just save as much money as possible, pay my taxes in February, and then start over. Not even gonna lie, if I didn't need the 20k to pay taxes on last years gains, Id probably yolo it into something crazy. It's better to feel like this than nothing at all. Kinda fucked but whatever man, life is just boring. EDIT 1: Honestly guys, I could go all in GME shares but even if it goes up 100% this year, I will only be at 40k.. which is already far fetched. Do any of you seriously believe GME is going up 500% this year? Maybe. Maybe you're right.. Maybe I need to go all in shares, defer paying my taxes for as long as possible, and hope for the best. God you guys give me hope. EDIT 2: ALRIGHT, so im going all in shares on something and just holding long. Half of you faggies are saying GME, half are saying BB. Which fucking one is it? I can't risk any options plays at the moment. **EDIT 3: *Went all in GME this morning, already up 50% to 30k. There is hope!**
**EDIT 4: **I was able to make all of my money back because of GME! Went all in with my remaining 20k and up 400% in under a week! Account is back up over 100k because of GME, Elon, and not least you glorious autists. I sold last week at around 350 because I cant afford to lose all that money again. I felt like I won the game. Like god had thrown me the "Reset" button and it was time to get out before something bad happened.
*Then Robinhood pulled their shit. *
The hedge fund freaks got on the news and started crying The media started painting us out to be the bad guys The hedge funds DOUBLED DOWN and reopened their shorts at current levels And I got pissed. FURIOUS. They blatantly rigged the game, right in plain view, and they think they are going to get away with it. And if we don't fight them, they will.
So, as much as I would have liked to accept gods reset button, to take my money off the table and go back to a lower risk strategy, I had to jump back in. So I'm back in on GME with a small position which I can afford to lose. And I don't care if I lose that money. At this point, it's about the message, its about solidarity with my fellow autists. It's personal, and Im seeing it through to the end. I will diamond hand these shares until the fucking end with you guys, even if it goes to 0. I've been on this sub for years now, I love this sub, I love you fuckers, and I LIKE THE STOCK.
I Guess My New Boss is Messing With Wrong Single Mother
*I guess my new boss is messing with the wrong single mother Obligatory I'm using mobile and not a native English speaker. Trying to limit some info cause I'm not sure if she's on here. A little background, I just gave birth a few months ago. During my maternity leave, I was requested to join in a Zoom meeting, they said it's very important so I obliged. I love my company so much since it always had my back when I got pregnant (ehem single mom) and got sick on my 6th month. Meeting was about me being transferred to a new boss due to realignment. This new boss then started calling me and asking me to do stuff which actually could wait until I get back from my maternity leave cause of course the company knows I'm on leave. She always say there is a deadline for some online learning and stuff. She also asks me to attend some meetings, company annual online parties (which she said is mandatory to attend to) and most of my officemates will ask me why I'm attending since I'm on leave. Well I'm the kind of person who doesn't really complain much, If I can do it I just do it. Talking back or talking ill against somebody is a waste of my energy. Everything is remote anyways and my baby is sleeping almost all the time and camera is off so I can breastfeed. Now fast forward to this week, it's been three weeks since I'm officially back to work (still work at home set up) and I know bosses have different leadership styles but I'm afraid I can say she's kinda a pain in the ass. She demands things to be done asap when these are the ones which should really take a little time to get the best results. She will talk in the sweetest voice and tone but her message is basically telling you to "fucking finish this now". Just imagine an evil character in a movie smiling at you but the eyes are scary while telling you that she's about to kill you. I then found out from my old boss that this one is full of pride and always wants to be the best. Never asks help from anyone and wants to impress the big boss all the time. Two days ago I messaged her sincerely apologizing that I have to file a leave the following day cause my baby is set to do vaccines. I said I was sorry cause in my calendar it's a week from now and planning to file the leave this weekend but the doc's secretary just called and it has to be that next day. And in my country, I have the solo parent ID so leaves like these are really valid. She called me up and asked how many hours it should take. I said it's gonna be in the morning but I really want to file a leave cause most of the time babies get fever after and of course I want to take care of my baby. She said since we are just working from home, I don't need to file a leave and just adjust my working hours. I wanted to explain that I really want to take the entire day off and not work at all specially at night cause I want to observe my baby but she literally ignored me and did not let me talk and just said her goodbyes and hung up. Imagine my surprise when around 9 am the mf messaged me to join the conference call for our meeting. Cue malicious compliance. I said I'm on my way to the clinic and will just join once settled. I just ride the tuktuk to the health center so I can't join just yet cause I'm holding my baby securely. So once I'm in the clinic, I graciously obliged to join the conference call while a lot of other babies are crying. Vaccination schedules are the same day so maybe half of the town's babies are there and they are all my accomplice. I press mute of course but when it's my turn to speak, I speak super close to the microphone while other babies were either shouting due to the injections, crying just because they're bored or maybe laughing at my boss right now. My own baby is just so quiet looking like the cutest mf latching on me. I can hear in my boss' voice the regret of not allowing me this day off but she can't do anything about it now. I'm on the meeting answering all her questions and impressing everyone in my team like a boss! I can imagine their faces when they have to lower the volume when it's my turn to speak. I then sent her a message regarding the next vaccination schedule and that I want to ask permission to file for a leave that day. Well of course she said yes.
I was in the same boat as you were. 100 dollars for 4 holsters seemed like a great deal. I thought John Correia was being a salty old man in his review of the carry pack but everything he said makes perfect sense after using it for a week. Now I'm out 20 bucks to ship the thing back to them and on the hunt for a couple great holsters. There is a reason AGH aren't on the good holsters list this sub recommends!!! Sorry Alien Gear, The lady on the phone was pretty cool and helpful but I wouldn't recommend your holsters. TLDR; New to firearms? Skip Alien Gear Holsters... Edit: double words Edit 2: a few people want my personal problems with the holster. So I'll oblige. I didn't really expect this to get attention as I rarely do on reddit. First the material of the holster itself just feels like regular plastic. Other holsters, mostly kydex, I handled in stores feel much higher quality. Second, I thought Id like the modular aspect but I didn't. Too many pieces to keep track of. I realized I just wanted something dedicated to just throw in a bag and swap out at the range. Iwb to owb and back if I need to. Instead of messing around with little pieces of plastic and sliding pieces together. Third, I did not like retention mechanism. It didn't work for me and I couldn't seem to get it right. I tired tightening and loosening it several times Finally, the backing added bulk and just made my belt and pants tighter. So it was overall less comfortable. I've tried a couple cheaper holsters and I'd take those over the alien gear. I'm really just taking issue with the iwb appendix and strong side. Just didn't find them convenient or more comfortable. I ignored quite a few red flags about the alien gear holsters. The video I shared, bad reviews, the fact that it isn't recommended on this sub and still got it. Wish I had seen a post like this 3 weeks ago. Edit 3: my final recommendation would be to not buy online and go feel holsters at a local gun store and know there return policy, you can probably try a holster out for a few day and return if it's not your style. If I had the chance to handle an AGH, I probably would have ruled it out but their online marketing got me.
[Video Games]One user turns the hunt for an obscure and possibly fake PC game into a month long investigation, or possible troll?
The Evil Farming Game is an old computer game that involves a farm, hiding the murder of your wife from police, and other vague creepy details. It was first mentioned online 4 years ago in a sub for finding video games; https://www.reddit.com/tipofmyjoystick/comments/4h5w1w/this_game_was_kind_of_like_harvest_moon This got some attention for some reason, and people began to hunt. People were communicating with OP, mentioning games they find which are similar to either have them confirmed or ruled out. Nobody can find it. A couple of years pass and another post is made, this time by a different person. It seems to sound like this fellow is looking for the same game! https://www.reddit.com/tipofmyjoystick/comments/a6wfbm/pc_evil_farming_game/ This fueled the fire even more. People were wondering just what this "Evil Farming Game" was, why it was made, if it even exists. The gaming mystery caught some traction with a couple of popular youtubers and was featured in a couple of videos. It was around this time, a year ago that /ThatEvilFarmingGame begun. A community which spent a year naming possible games, following leads, being trolled here and there with "broken laptops" and just waiting for the day "Sparta" (OP of the first post) confirms "Yes this is the game." The Subreddit grew to 10,000 people in a year and even branched off onto Discord. At some point someone decided to start a project of re-Creating this game based on the details known. The whole thing started to form it's own little cult based on the idea of this vague game. Tons of threads, searching and speculating. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/k5ousd/idk_if_i_found_something_but_it_might_be_worth/https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/jc6u6g/i_believe_the_evil_farming_game_is_confused/ Dozens of this nature. It's all guess work from everyone, they only have a small list of games they know it's not. After some time most users seem to reach the conclusion it doesn't exist. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ihp5ywe_all_know_its_fake/https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ijjuke/can_we_stop_with_all_the_troll_posts_and_this/ One day a suspiciously low quality, yet credible picture of a game was posted. With it were matching known details and some new ones. For the first time there were also detailed descriptions of the game play mechanics, which sounded like a playable game. It was topped off with the usual story of "on a friends old PC, better evidence soon. There have been many open ended promises of the like over time and people were jaded. However this thread had a ring of truth to it, for what it was. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt6dcf/this_has_to_be_it_right_the_premise_is_exactly/ (Actual screenshot) https://imgur.com/AVQw8P8 Then it was deleted after only a day. The OP telling the moderator that they feared doxxing, knowing how big it would be to reveal the actual game. They would report back with real evidence soon. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt9cjl/why_the_op_deleted_his_post/ Deleting it like that seemed to add credibility to it and gave people hope that this time the game would be found. This person wasn't looking for fame. They deleted their entire profile. The original story of how the game was found and how the screenshot was taken was flawed under a microscope, but also completely plausible. A few other people came out and said they had played this game before, or it was familiar. It was looking to be promising. A lot of speculation occurred. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ky0kfj/what_do_you_see_in_the_screenshot/ The general consensus being if it was a real game it maybe even THE game. The moderator of the sub was in communication with "Sparta" (OP of TEFG) allegedly. He sent the screenshot over.
This provoked a lot of questions, naturally. Most people agreed that despite the low quality picture, the game itself was quite clear. Clear enough that it SHOULD have gotten a clear yes or no from the only person known to have played it. People began to question the moderator more. They questioned this alleged "Sparta." They questioned the whole premise of That Evil Farming Game. Until the game in the screen shot surfaced they were in limbo and questioning everything once again. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt9cjl/why_the_op_deleted_his_post/gj41mmm/https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/ There was one user who became particularly active at the same time the OP of the screenshot disappeared. This person made a very long thread breaking down why they thought the screenshot was plausible. They were also grilling the moderator pretty hard with questions the Mod couldn't seem to answer, across other threads. This user was apparently trying to establish the credibility of the alleged "OP" and the Mod's communication with him, and knowledge that it was in fact the same person. This user would post a paragraph of 4 or 5 clear questions and the moderator would reply with very vague answers to 1 or 2. There were claims made of the moderator having an alt, or more. This user claimed to be getting downvoted 3 times in quick succession on replies to the moderator within moments of the moderator replying. Some posts deleted. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gjdbgqi/https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gj9z6vd/https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gj83tlt/ (Image in reply: https://imgur.com/a/EVbADTF ) This person was very determined to find hard answers. Is the screenshot real? Is it The Evil Farming Game? Is the moderator even in communication with OP? How do they know it's actually OP? Why can't OP ID the game? A popular theory is that it is some sort of scam to promote the game being built to "recreate TEFG based on known details." https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/k92j7i/i_am_starting_to_think_efg_is_a_advertisement/ In a twist, this new and active user came out and made a thread: after a week of asking dozens of questions which had poor answers and writing a books worth on the subject of TEFG. They admitted to being the one who spent hours fabricating the screenshot. They had burned a 6 year old, 50k karma account which originally posted the screenshot and story to add more credibility to the whole thing. They made a new account just to question the whole idea of the game, make people think about it. They had also left breadcrumb's of evidence along the way expecting it to turn up. It was another more clear screen shot, with a fabricated email conversation posted in the comments of one of the screenshots imgur links. The post had proof of deleted posts mentioning how it's probably marketing. They revealed that they had spent the month on and off coming up with the idea as a way to "investigate" if the game was real. They stressed they were doing it in nature of "investigating" and not as a troll job, hence admitting it. After a long break down of a lot of "evidence" of all sorts of things the fake they were met with mostly mockery or hostility. They edited the post to simply say "I misunderstood the purpose of this sub. Yes, I deleted my own thread." Before deleting the thread and vanishing. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kzb5hm/the_truth_about_the_screenshot_and_the_results_of/ After some time this user came back. They had posted a long breakdown of the situation the day after the screenshot was posted. The thread got a lot of traction. This post was now edited to include a more condensed version of "the investigation" along with admitting to falsifying evidence up top. The user claimed they had done it all for their own curiosity. For the purpose of the hunt and that they were satisfied with their answer; "the game never existed." They deleted the original "grand reveal" of apparently a months work of investigation due to the hostility. Only revealing the truth of the forgery in an edit on the old thread and a couple of replies to old comments. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kts7og/new_to_the_hunt_just_some_thoughts_about/ What do you think? A long con troll? A real investigative tactic? Does the game exist? Why does someone care so much? Why did I spend all afternoon going through this?
$ASTI - Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. - 1700% - 5700% profit potential
Hi all. First post here. I am new here, but, I trade penny stocks for a living since 1997. ASTI is my last call. I called it on IHUB at .0025, and since then it hit .0375. Now it is pulling back, giving an excellent entry price for the next big run to .30 at least. Why I say in the title that it is a 1700% - 5700% profit potential? Because I know it will run to .30 at least. As I live in Germany where the new owner of ASTI lives, the billionaire Bernd Förtsch, and I know many people connected to the stock market here, there is a rumor here that he wants to drive the price to .70 - 1.00 before a RS to put again ASTI on NASDAQ, where it was until 2016. Bernd bought 91.4% of the company a few months ago. Another friend of him, the millionaire Johannes Kuhn, bought all the debt notes except one, investing 10.5 million dollars. Bernd, through Crowdex, a company where he owns 100%, invested 2.5 million dollars, and TubeSolar, a publicly traded German company, where Bernd owns a 60.3% stake, invested also 2.5 million dollars. So the company has now $5 millions in cash as working capital. All the debt was paid or restructured. ASTI will produce for TubeSolar and other clients. They have great products. There is a rumor that ASTI will work for Tesla. They have the right product for this. The first phase of the restructuring is done. They hired 3 Directors and a new CFO, and are now working on the Financials to get Current on OTC Markets. Until then the price will be at .30+ Take a look on the chart on the bottom of this post, and you will see the amazing run is is making since Bernd bought it. Something very important. The OS is now in the billions, but, all those shares are ion the hands of Bernd Förtsch and Johannes Kuhn. The Float may be around 750M - 1B, judging by the daily volume. There is NO dilution. I am very experienced in identifying stocks diluting, and there is none. And the biggest proof is the run the stock made until now, since .0001 to .0375 in less than 4 months. 37500% I did a very deep DD on this stock, and I know everything about it, so feel free to ask whatever you want to know, and I will respond. I strongly recommend to buy this stock asap. Do your own DD using the links posted below, and if you have questions, just ask me.
As you can see in the link above, until 2018 his private Holding made 550.3 million euros, now add an average of 45M € for 2019 and 45M € for 2020, and we have 640.3M €.According to the links below, he sold in last July 1,800,000 shares of Flatex at 43€ per share, making more 77M €, so his net worth is about 717.3 million Euros,not counting with his stakes in many German companies, the biggest one being Flatex, the biggest online broker in Europe, with over 1 million clients,that bought the business of Etrade in Europe, and that was founded by Bernd Förtsch in 2006.
Why are the knives all gone? An explanation to price increases and constant OOS messages
We’ve seen an influx of new members to the sub and one of the questions constantly being asked is “why is the knife I want still out of stock?” Longtime members, meanwhile, are more likely to ask why the same knife costs 30% more today than it did a year ago. These are good questions, but the answer is sufficiently complex that answering in a comment reply doesn’t give a full picture. This writeup will aim to present that big picture. We’ll examine how we got here, the current state of affairs, and some predictions for the future. https://preview.redd.it/owygjsf4tvg61.png?width=227&format=png&auto=webp&s=ea8f629779e8d1509658cbbf2841548dbe1ae458
Part I: Demand for high-end kitchen knives is increasing
It’s hard to nail down exactly why demand has increased. There are many underlying causes and yet each of them individually only goes so far. We’ll consider them in combination to understand the surge.
Online interest in knives is growing
Let’s begin close to home. Here at chefknives, we’re about to reach 100k subscribers. That’s a meteoric rise from a small following just four years ago. Here’s how that growth rate looks: Growth in chefknives subscriber count 2015-present For comparison, here’s that same growth trend compared to two subreddits with about the same subscriber count as of early 2018 (Delaware and Wildlife) Subscriber growth of chefknives (blue) compared to Delaware and Wildlife (green and yellow). Source: subredditstats.com If you look at growth rates across other kitchen knife communities you’ll see similar trends. More people than ever are talking about their favorite work cleaver, looking for an “upgrade” recommendation, or asking how to sharpen their grandpa’s vintage sabatier. We need to be careful in recognizing that these trends play a part in overall growth in phenomena like Reddit, a revival in home cooking, and more. Yet even when compared against these background events, the surge in kitchen knives is remarkable. Reddit approximately doubled its subscribers and posts between 2018-2020. chefknives has doubled three times.
Home cooking was undergoing an early renaissance leading into 2020
It’s no longer the idyllic 1950s. As economic pressure and then cultural allowances pushed traditional gender roles into a more diverse working environment, the reality of the American kitchen became at once more egalitarian and less dedicated. Critics decried the decline of home meals as a loss of culture. More pragmatic Americans saw it as an economic reality. Ultimately that means more of us in the kitchen out of choice. Nowadays it’s unlikely that Redditors here have (or are) a dedicated parent or spouse who stays at home and cooks all the meals. More likely is a sharing of labor in the kitchen; or, where couples take regular home tasks those chores are less likely to be gender-assigned. Furthermore, the amount of couples choosing to have children is trending downward as the age of first-time parents goes up. Fast food and other pre-fabricated meals are cheap and readily available for those who don’t feel like cooking. Working adults are therefore more likely to choose participation in home cooking than ever before. Against this unique backdrop began a rebirth of cooking at home - Google Consumer Surveys from 2015 showed discovery search terms on the rise (“best recipes” saw 50% increases year-over-year) and online populations spending increased time researching recipes. Social media programming like Tasty, Binging with Babish, Laura in the Kitchen, and Maangchi took over our Facebook feeds and YouTube recommendations out of nowhere. Source: Acosta research \"COVID-19: Reinventing How America Eats\" And then, suddenly, home cooking became a necessity for us all. Restaurants closed and grocery stores faced massive supply chain issues shelving their most popular products. A population already casual fans of Bon Appetit and Beat Bobby Flay suddenly found themselves unexpectedly making fermented foods come alive and, while certainly not giving professional chefs a run for their money, then at least discovering their homemade chicken nuggets beat the hell out of Tyson’s frozen imitation. Many of us saw 2020 turn our nascent interest into a favorite daily hobby. So, like the earlier run on toilet paper there began a run on high-end kitchen knives.
Entrenched brands are losing share in the high-end market
Until now I’ve delayed defining what high-end means. What exactly makes a high-end knife? We’re certainly not talking about $15 supermarket knives or the $30 indestructible house knife that line cooks use to chop parsley and open stubborn cans. Rather, we’re speaking of what somebody buys when they want to invest a little more. That’s the chef de commis who wants to start bringing their own knife to work or the home cook staring longingly through the glass front window of a Williams-Sonoma. Unfortunately, once we get more specific about what a high end knife is, people tend to have wildly different standards. I fully anticipate this will be the graphic people seize upon in the comments section, which is why I added descriptive text. That probably won't stop a few screeches about what high-end actually means but, eh, c'est la vie I’m not going to bother saying where high-end knives begin, but for now let’s simplify to somewhere >=$100. This limits us to a handful of brands (at major retailers, at least) and comprises the vast majority of discussed lines here on the sub. If we look at Internet search terms for high-end brands, we see people losing interest in established names that cannot prove their price to performance value. For example, let’s consider Google search rates associated with traditional German brands like “wusthof,” “henckels,” “messermeister,” etc. source: Google Trends All of these terms have seen a slow decline in search interest from 2007 onwards. In comparison, between 2014 and 2018 the interest in “gyuto” increased on average by 50% while more general cooking terms like “recipe” or “saucepan” have seen slow, steady increases. Why are the traditional Solingen brands losing the interest of consumers? One theory is that knife designs are fads like clothing or trendy restaurants - a full-bolster Wüsthof and Nautica jacket may have been all the rage in the early 2000s, but interests simply change over time. If this theory is correct, the current “fad” of Japanese profiles, damascus cladding, Serbian chef knives, etc. are all temporary tastes which will give way to the next fad. A related explanation is that the Red Queen hypothesis is at work - a theory from evolutionary biology that suggests adaptation is necessary just for survival. Indeed, many of the classic lines of these brands have changed little in the past years and certainly the main differences have been cosmetic. This explanation places blame for brand decline on the brand itself rather than consumer preferences. While unpleasant to point fingers, it’s worth exploring the other side of this coin to get a complete picture. In other words, let’s explore brands that are successfully adapting.
The high-end market is pivoting away from Europe and toward Japanese manufacturing
If consumers have a new standard in aesthetic and performance then how can existing brands stay relevant? Large household names like Zwilling, Victorinox, Wüsthof, Kai, and Messermeister have had varying success in introducing new knives in large western retailers. Focusing on the American retail space, we see that knives which successfully embrace the new consumer demand already own or else license pre-existing, non-Western manufacturing. Struggling brands, on the other hand, try to adapt Solingen practice to produce novel designs and the result ranges from “interesting interpretation” to “missed the point.”[1] [2] [3] I won’t try to explain why Wüsthof hasn’t had luck making a competitive nakiri or why Messermeister allowed their awful “usuba” design past the concept phase. Suffice to say, the knives that western retailers are pivoting toward tend to be Japanese imports. This may be occasionally disguised by branding, but make no mistake that these are not German copies. Zwilling simply purchased a large manufacturer in Seki City; it becomes obvious when you put them side-by-side with the other Seki manufacturer sold at major American retailers. Knife lines sold under a German and Japanese brand respectively. Meanwhile, co-opting manufacturing (either by rebranding OEM knives or simply sourcing from the same supply chain) is not exactly a new concept. While this practice is less visible in major brands, it is prolific in the Japanese native market and within smaller retailers in the U.S. For example, take the first design from the Zwilling vs. Kai graphic above and see how it’s copied ad nauseum: I'm not sure how many of these originate from the same knife blanks vs. different sources of steel that just happen to look very, very similar. Okay - so what does this mean for Japanese and European manufacturers? For the Europeans, things are not looking good. Unless they somehow convince consumers that their performance to price ratio is going up (and this is a losing economic proposition at present), then major restructuring of their industry is on the horizon. Meanwhile, the remaining question for Japanese manufacturers is twofold: (1) how do they compete against manufacturing in countries with even lower production cost bases and (2) can they scale up fast enough to deal with this demand? Keep these questions in mind as we’ll soon return to the problem with supply.
Conclusion: the global health crisis caused a run on already sparse supply
The COVID demand surge is unique because potential customers cannot be guided by in-person sales staff toward the high-margin knife they want to sell. Indeed, retail sales of the same Solingen brands listed above have actually been strong even as their internet searches have declined - which is why you continue to find them in malls. So, absent retail staff, interested consumers turned online and the growth rates at chefknives illustrate that. Meanwhile, online communities have been building their following over years. Each community tends to have their favorite brands with some overlap, but this knowledge base tends to be built up over years and decades. That’s because trusted reviews are infrequent (we want more!) and consensus takes time to develop. As consumers turned online, they found communities recommending products already facing scarcity issues. What do you get when combining exponential demand with a shift in consumer preferences for a relatively small market of available knives? A run on supply.
Part II: Supply cannot scale
High-end knife manufacturing is unlike low-end manufacturing
Low-end manufacturing is all about limiting cost and producing volume. Typically parts and processes must work together with high tolerance for error - imagine trying to grind a precise geometry when the heat treatment isn’t even and one portion of the knife abrades more quickly. So, there is almost always a tradeoff in performance for price and production at scale. Workers can be trained in a single task, such as soldering the tang to the blade or inspecting heat-treated batches of blade blanks. Many tasks may be automated altogether with humans only inspecting the results. When most Redditors think “mass production” they likely imagine this kind of manufacturing. Yet “mass production” doesn’t mean low-end by default. Typical factory setting of Japanese knife manufacture. This particular factory produces both low and high-end knives High-end knives can be similarly produced at volume, but the production process is more demanding. With higher performance requirements come lower tolerances for error and this means additional training for workers. Heat treatment must be more exacting so that grinds can fit within tighter parameters. This often requires cross-process knowledge so that the sharpener, forger, and metallurgist each understand and can identify minor discrepancies in the others’ processes. Sometimes the sharpener, forger, metallurgist, and polisher are the same person - though this is less common than marketers would like you to believe. Eventually, workers can specialize in a single aspect like polishing or forging and they become so good that others will solicit their services as part of their own process. So in summary, high-end manufacturing requires more training. Some of that additional training is cross-disciplinary while some is highly specialized. In practice, this means working in various positions across production before settling into a specialty. All that additional training takes years, which is why apprenticeships and decades-long careers are the norm in high-end Japanese manufacturing.
There are limits on how quickly new workers can be trained
Now equipped with understanding of the training required for a high-end manufacturer, we’re ready to dive into the story of a Japanese bladesmith who we’ll call Kenji. It’s 2018 and he wants to scale up production rapidly. First a little bit more about Kenji. He didn’t start his career in bladesmithing - in fact, despite his city being famous for metalworking and knives, everybody told him that industry was moribund back in the 2000s when he went to university. So, he worked his first years designing heavy machinery before a family emergency unexpectedly brought him into the family business. Years later, he has grown into a management role for the production where he has two full-time employees plus an apprentice. One of those employees is the father of his childhood friend. The two families’ knife businesses merged several years ago. Now it’s 2018 and Kenji is seeing demand skyrocket. He knows that even if production doubled, he would have a hard time meeting demand. So, how can he double production as quickly as possible while maintaining approximately equal product quality? In short, he cannot. We’ve already covered how slow training can be, but hiring experienced workers to train them can be equally taxing. That employee whose child was schoolmates with Kenji? None of his sons went into knife making because they saw it as a dead end professionally. Similarly a generation of family businesses shrunk or died out and so Kenji was a dying breed when the market suddenly became hot. Even as knifemaking becomes a viable career once again, finding apprentices is not simple. Many are mindful that consumer interest could quickly return to apathy and such a career does not pay dividends for decades. Kenji’s story is the norm in high-end Japanese production. Even at a breakneck pace, it will take him several years to double production. If the market should falter during this time, it would be disastrous for his business’ solvency. Historical data for "Kenji"
YEAR
EMPLOYEES
PIECES PRODUCED
2014
2
330
2015
2
310
2016
3
335
2017
3
440
2018
3
490
2019
5
570
2020
6
355
Ballpark numbers for the manufacturer Kenji manages. In mid-2018, he began subcontracting the majority of his sharpening and polishing labor and changed his product line to use more prefabricated steels. 2020 saw major business interruptions due to the COVID19 crisis.
Price increases are slowed by the business landscape
Meanwhile, the free market capitalists here on Reddit have been positively wetting themselves waiting to ask “why don’t the knife makers simply raise their prices?” The simple answer is that Japan’s economy is a free market economy in the same way choosing dinner as a family is a free market decision. Piss off your partner and you can guarantee you won’t get any dinner. Of course price increases have been happening over time, but slowly. Many makers are still fulfilling backorders - sellers swap stories about shipments arriving for orders placed years prior. Others are under obligations to sell via wholesalers or trade brokers who behave territorially when vendors or other middlemen encroach on their network. Finally, every maker is conscious of how their prices play into the overall landscape of colleagues and competition. Did you apprentice under another bladesmith? If so, what happens if you start selling your knives for more than him? What message would that send and how would he react? The net effect of this is a market with unusually rigid prices and inflexible scalability. These problems are not intractable, but like all market shortcomings they require time to fix. Beginning in 2020, that time suddenly became equally scarce.
Conclusion: the global health crisis slowed production of an already scarce supply
As the world left the late 2010s, Japanese manufacturing was struggling to scale its production and downstream sellers began to slowly change pricing expectations to meet the new demand surge. Both changes were gradual if not energized - scarce supply was spurring young people into rejoining an industry long thought dead in Japan. Eager young apprentices began showing up to job openings in Sanjo, Seki, and Tokyo for the first time in generations. Then suddenly that already scarce supply lost crucial days of business production as Japan first began implementing workplace hygiene measures before entering a state of emergency from April until May. These along with other interruptions have severely hampered production capabilities during a time when the business pipeline could hardly afford it. The run on supply that we explored at the end of Part I is different than the slow demand increases from the decade prior. Large manufacturers had time to expand operations into China and Indonesia while small manufacturers took on apprentices. OEM practices improved and producers were able to streamline their work over months and years. Everybody lagged a little behind with the promise that soon, supply would begin to scale as young apprentices became journeymen and then master smiths. This run on supply caused a multiplier in demand as production scaled down. Manufacturers no longer lag slightly behind their orders - vendors are reporting it will take years for operations to recover and resume the same pace they had before.
Part III: What’s the future of kitchen knives?
Now we know why the knives are all gone and that the problem is unlikely to be resolved in a few extra months of production. So, what does the future hold for high-end knives? I will propose some educated guesses for what happens over the coming years.
Either Japanese manufacturing practices will scale and expand their industry or else interest will move on - potentially to China, Indonesia, and Vietnam
The Japanese market is already being eaten from both ends. At the very high end, we’re witnessing the rise of custom makers in the US and Europe whose individual pieces command price tags well into the “collectible” range for Japanese knives. Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturing is eating into the bottom range of Japan’s knife market with Indonesia and Vietnam closing in. Some of this movement is driven by Japanese companies who outsource low-end manufacturing, but it’s likely that jobs continue to move offshore en masse. The key question is whether Japanese manufacturing can scale quickly enough to preserve their market share at the $100-500 range. The domestic Japanese market likely needs 10-20 years to scale up production. The question is whether foreign manufacturing needs this long to capture market share, even if Japan does manage to scale up eventually. The past five years have seen neighboring countries scaling up their production quality and doubling quantity every few years, so things are not looking great for the domestic Japanese market. Here is a predictive model based on the past five years of growth. Predicted model of market share after 15 years wherein Japan doubles production while China, Indonesia, and Vietnam each double every 3-5 years.
Today’s most popular knife fads will be replaced by new ones
One thing we haven’t mentioned until now are the hangers-on of high-end knives. For example, the prolific Sakai Takayuki VG-10 damascus knives are streamlined imitators of more expensive knives like Anryu or Yu Kurosaki. They take certain aspects like the hammered (tsuchime) finish and suminagashi pattern and build the knife around them, allowing the knife to spread more quickly because of the reduced prices. Yet there are even more extreme imitators coming out of China and Southeast Asia who move faster and are less scrupulous about marketing. They flood Facebook with ads featuring shiny damascus blades with handles so colorful it looks like an M&M mass murder. These companies move massive volume before customers grow wise and thus hasten the lifetime of the fad. For some, it’s an educational experience. For others, they’re just happy they scratched the itch. At any rate, movement like this eventually spells the end of one consumer taste to be replaced with another. So, I predict that the current fads (VG-10 damascus, hammered finishes, serbian chef knives) will soon fade and be replaced by others. One way this prediction might come to pass is that two years from now semi-scam companies will start advertising cheap cu mai (five layer steel with a stripe of nickel) offerings instead of their current Sakai Takayuki imitations. Or maybe it will be a faux kasumi finish or etched core stainless-clad instead.
Successful manufacturers will begin to partner with small, non-Japanese makers to innovate in their designs and production
Zwilling has already done this with Bob Kramer once, so why not again? The most popular U.S. custom makers are struggling to produce at volume, so these partnerships could solve the problem from both ends. I predict we’ll soon see some version of Wüsthof releasing a line of Maumasi-designed blades or Victorinox licensing Don Nguyen’s handles. This will, of course, come with challenges. Knife enthusiasts mostly have bitter tastes in their mouths with the memory of the Shun Ken Onion and members of the forum here have pointed out that ZKramers struggle to produce consistently good geometries. I don’t necessarily predict these partnerships will produce good high-end knives.
Conclusion
The knives are, indeed, all gone. And that’s unlikely to change for the near future. The brand you desperately want to come back into stock will continue to face shortage issues for years and may never come back at all. But that’s okay. Instead, newcomers will soon replace the current favorites. Five years from now, the most sought-after knives will have diversified and new names will replace the old ones slowly. In the past five years, those new names have mostly been Japanese. I suspect the new ones may not be. Until then, may the back in stock notifications be ever in your favor.
Beermoney for Busy People! (2021) - No Disqualifications!
Beermoney for Busy People! (2021)
Hi! I try to make this post each year about sites that don't have DQs and are worth your time to use even if you have a busy life! I have removed sites and apps that no longer exist and have also added a new one I am using this yea! I am a full-time student and work while in school so I don't always have time to grind out surveys for hours at a time. To qualify for this list, the sites can't DQ and have to be worth your time to use! Hope these help! Let's get into it.
CrowdTap is a great site for short polls and surveys that is available online and in a mobile app on iOS and Android! The questions are about things such as consumer goods, food products, and services. The polls pay 1.5 cents each and the short answer questions pay 10 cents each (converted from their points system). Some of these polls are combined into longer surveys, and some are single one question polls. All of them are well worth it for the time that they take and there are no DQ’s of any sort. Reward options include Amazon, Target, Walmart, Steam, Xbox, and more. You can cash out starting at $5 and I am able to cash out about once a week. Make sure to give quality answers and look out for attention checks because people have been banned for not giving quality answers. Definitely add this one to your routine if you have not yet.
This is a site with short surveys and no DQ’s. There are short surveys (10ish questions) to collect demographic data that pay $0.10. As you do these, your trait score increases. Having a high trait score makes it more likely to get high paying surveys. You have to be patient, and you might go weeks without a survey, but once you get to max trait score it is definitely worth it. I have a max trait score and I get at least one survey (if not more) per day. The real surveys that aren’t just for demographics can pay upwards of $2. You can cash out at $15 via PayPal, Amazon, or Walmart. Just as some inspiration to stick with it, after hitting max traitscore I am on track to make $150 on here this year!
Pinecone is a great survey site with surveys about consumer products and food that don’t DQ and pay $3 per 10ish minute survey. I get an average of one a week. They also sometimes send you samples of the products to review and I have gotten several of these this year! The catch is that you have to find an invite to join the panel. These can be found on offers or banner ads on GPT sites so keep an eye out for one! It is well worth your time to sign up. You can cash out for PayPal and many gift cards at a $5 minimum.
This one is great. You take academic surveys for universities and researchers and get paid in cash. I have been getting tons of surveys on here right now about Covid-19. As long as you don’t miss attention checks you won’t ever get disqualified. Some people get multiple surveys a day and others get only a few a week based on demographics. Usually it slows down in the summer because school isn’t in session, but they’ve had a lot of surveys available this summer. Many surveys pay at least minimum wage. Pro tip, if you ever have a problem with a survey or miss an attention check that you noticed, try contacting the researcher and often they can fix the problem for you. You can cash out with PayPal with no fees (for U.S. users).
Zogo is an iOS and Android app that pays you to learn about personal finance. It is backed by a variety of established banks and is actually quite interesting to learn through. While in the past it required a sponsor to be able to cash out, now anyone can earn in the app. You earn by answering a set of questions once daily through the “pineapple party” (the name for their currency). You earn pineapples based on your performance. You can cash out for a wide variety of gift cards such as Amazon and Target at $5. It is fun and worth it because you are learning valuable lessons about finance as well!
YouGov is a survey site/app that pays anywhere from $0.50 to $2 per survey. You never disqualify. I get a couple surveys a week. Most of the surveys are about public policy, politics, or general opinions of companies. You get the best value for your points if you save up for the $100 cash out. They offer the $100 cash out in bank transfer and Amazon. The Amazon gift card option used to be a physical mailed card but now its an e-gift card so that makes it even better! They offer other gift cards but they are for smaller values at worse rates so I would avoid them. Available online, on android, and on iOS.
E-poll is a survey site with surveys that don’t DQ. They send you surveys via email when they are available. The surveys are often about pop culture, TV shows, and celebrities. Some of them pay better than others for the time it takes to complete them, but most are well worth your time. Make sure to complete the surveys soon after you get the email, because some fill up within a day or so. You can cash out for several gift card options including Amazon and Starbucks. You get better rates with the higher valued gift cards so I always save up for the highest ones.
Forthright is a survey site with a nice twist. You sign up and receive invitations to surveys via email. I don’t usually do their “partner surveys” because they often DQ and you can get stuck in an endless loop, which doesn’t really fit with the point of this post.. Their non-partner surveys are awesome. They pay well for the time spent but they also have one of the best disqualification bonuses I have ever seen. Every three surveys you take, regardless of whether you disqualify or not, you get a $2 bonus. That is $0.66 per survey on top of its base pay regardless of whether you qualify or not. The base pay for the surveys ranges from $1-3 depending on length, which varies from 10-30 mins. They usually take much less time than the estimated length. I get a non-partner survey about once every 1-2 weeks and made around $50 here last year with minimum time spent. They pay instantly with PayPal, Amazon, or Bitcoin with no minimum.
Perksy is an app that sends you short surveys that they call “stacks”. These surveys generally pay anywhere from $0.30 to $1.00 and I get about one a week. You can’t DQ from these and they only take a minute or two. The minimum cashout is pretty high at $25 but when you sign up you get a signup bonus that gets you pretty close to your first cashout. I am able to cash out about once a year. They offer a lot of different gift cards but the most notable ones are Amazon and Target.
This one is quite popular and most of you have probably heard of it. This app is run by Google that will send you short surveys. If you have the app on iOS you can cash out to PayPal at $2, but on Android you can only cash out to Google Play balance. People who travel a lot or use a lot of Google services may get more surveys than others. I make $10ish dollars a year on here but I’ve seen others make more.
This is one of my favorites. The app will send you “Pulses” that you can answer for cash. The surveys start out paying around $0.25 each but as you level up your account they pay more. Mine currently pay $0.34. They have non-paid pulses that can level up your account but those aren’t really worth doing. The minimum cash out is $20 via PayPal. I have made about $10 here just in the last week due to pulses about Covid-19.
This is an app that is owned by SurveyMonkey, the popular survey development company. It offers short surveys that pay anywhere from $0.25 to $0.50 depending on length. The surveys take no longer than 3-5 minutes. They technically can DQ, but this happens very rarely and only at the very beginning of a survey. The nice thing about the surveys is that they use SurveyMonkey's survey software so they are consistent and easy to complete. While they do send notifications, earnings on here depend on how often you check the app because they don't always notify you. I try to check the app at least once or twice a day. You can cash out at $5 for Amazon with instant payments.
SurveyMini is a little different. The app sends you surveys when you visit different stores to review your experience there. They ask you about your satisfaction with the store, what areas you bought from, etc. The surveys usually pay $0.10 and take about a minute, but some can randomly pay up to $0.75. The more you visit stores, the more surveys you will get. You can cash out at $10 but you get slightly better rates the more you save up. They offer e-gift cards such as iTunes, Xbox, and Visa, but sadly no Amazon. I am on pace to cash out for $25 twice this year.
This is a new one this year and has easily become the most worthwhile receipt apps out there. All you have to do is submit either 10 paper or email receipts per month to earn a $10 Amazon gift card at the end of the month. I have also received a short survey from them that paid in Amazon cards as well. While this app has a waitlist, go ahead and join. It only took me a couple weeks to get accepted. A dollar per receipt is extremely high for a receipt app!
This app has surveys with a more personal and fun spin. You get paid via PayPal for each task that you finish. There aren’t always tasks available but when there are, they often pay well. I had one for testing an app that paid $9! It’s a nice option for something a little different than traditional surveys.
Thanks for reading! Hope these beermoney sites/apps help you make better use of your beermoney earning time! Let me know if there are any sites that I didn't include that would fall into those categories. Give my profile a follow for more beermoney related posts in the future! If you want to read more of my posts, here's one of my favorites to get you started!
It looks like the original method AND the "everyone" (not "passengers only") Methods are somehow unpatched and WORKING AGAIN (for now). So, the old GCTF Glitch was patched. (When you get in your friend's car while invisible, it kicks you to story mode). [Work-Around/Changes Begin at Step 13]
Method Below WORKING Feb 12, 2021
This Glitch seems long..but it is not. The walk through is long because it requires detailed explanation, but is a short GCTF Glitch. (The Receiver does most of the work) Here is the video of the patched glitch. Its a great guide because the steps are the SAME all the way up until your character goes invisible outside of the MOC. Receiver needs: 👉Arena Workshop or Nightclub 👉MOC with personal vehicle storage 👉BOTH NEED TO HAVE VEHICLE ACCESS SET TO "PASSENGERS ONLY" Step 1) Receiver goes to their arena garage on Level B1 or Level B2 or Nightclub garage and tell the giver to start any mission Step 2) Receiver goes to the elevator and hover over "enter arena workshop" Step 3) Receiver then tries to join giver in mission by spamming A on Xbox or X on PS when the prompt comes up asking if you're sure. (Your character will start walking into elevator as you go into clouds.) Step 4) Quit the job and tell your friend to quit too Step 5) Receiver will spawn back inside the arena workshop (or outside your nightclub if you did it that way.) Re-do this part if you spawned somewhere else Step 6) Receiver now gets in any car and drives outside then drive forward a bit and then reverse into the blue dot by your garage door. Hover over the garage choices and press A(or X on PS) and then start spamming Y/Triangle and you will fall through the map. Step 7) Receiver will spawn in road and needs to die in any way (take the easy way out) [Receiver is now glitchy and ready to go to glitch location and start receiving cars. Steps 1-7 only need to be done 1 time. After this, numerous cars can be duped using the next steps over and over.] Step 8) Both go to this location which is 3 streets down from the Ammunation in the north side of the city. Step 9) Receiver go and put face against the wall and call in MOC and an Elegy(This Elegy will be replaced with the new Dupe) The Giver now parks the car they're giving in front of the MOC. Step 10) Both get in Elegy, Receiver driving and giver in passenger side. Passenger(Giver) now clicks down on the d-pad to choose character switch to Michael (which brings up the "quit to story mode" screen) and stays on that black "are you sure?" screen. Step 11) While both now in the car, and giver still on that screen, Receiver drives up to back of MOC and press right d pad to enter the MOC and it will kick passenger out. Receiver now move your elegy out of the way and get out of the car. Passenger now "takes cover" against the back of the MOC for the rest of the glitch. Step 12) Receiver now on foot does the "attempt character switch to Michael" then "cancel" 2 times (by clicking the d-pad to offline character then "cancel" when the menu asks if you want to leave GTA Online) and then enters your MOC. Screen will be black.. immediately start doing the "character switch to Michael then cancel" button combination a few more times. You will spawn outside the MOC invisible. Step 13) (Receiver, invisible) gets into Passengers Seat of car. It will glitch you and the car into your MOC. The car is now yours!
Rinse and repeat from step 10-13, to dupe as many cars as you want in about a minute or two each.
1 Seater Method:
Method 1: Try with vehicle set to "everyone" instead of "passengers only" as it seems to be unpatched now. Or.... Method Below Confirmed working on PS4 by Ismokealot666 and OdonnieO420. 1.) Once invisible, the giver uses jerry can then shoots at vehicle till it burns and before it explodes, the Receiver hop onto it. The Receiver will spawn in the MOC with the one-seater but ITS NOT SAVED YET. 2.) Before exiting the MOC, the Giver needs to call Mors Mutual to claim their car. One they have it, the Receiver can exit the MOC with the duped one-seater. 3.) Receiver needs to take the one-seater to the Nightclub, get off bike, walk to garage blue circle, and when the menu comes up, back out and take your one-seater to the MOC. One-Seater vehicle is now stored Credit to: GTAGlitches and Se7enSins for the original glitch and TheChxice & DKR Crew for the new workaround. Enjoy! IMPORTANT: THIS GLITCH IS NOT MEANT FOR $ OR SELLING CARS. - IT IS MEANT TO ALLOW YOU TO GIVE/TRADE PEOPLE COPIES OF YOUR CARS (This is a "Give Cars To Friends" Glitch) You WILL get dirty dupes from this which can NOT be sold without a custom plate or the "clean dirty dupes" Glitch.
Visit /GTADupe to Trade, Give, or Receive Cars while this Glitch is active!
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