If they retained some of the talent (specifically the writers) they could make another Mass Effect adjacent game and call it something else. The articles start writing themselves, “The main people behind Mass Effect are working a new game.”

I don’t think it has to be a “triple A” game to be a commercial success.

Companies reinventing themselves has been done before many times (Black Isle Studios -> Obsidian; Squaresoft -> Square -> Square Enix; Konami -> Kojima Productions) and the Canadian government has thrown money at fiscally riskier projects.

Wikipedia is already referencing articles saying it’s a pathogen related to the Black Death.

And for people worried about it, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that “today it can be easily treated with antibiotics and the use of standard preventative measures.”

I asked the other club members and we took a vote. They said if have a Steam Controller and you’re still using it - you can be an associate member only. That basically limits you to two Half-Life 3 jokes a day and posting about how “my wallet hurts” or similar to 4 times a year. Otherwise - welcome to the club!

I still use “cool” a lot, but I think its become one of those words that will persist through generations.

It’s not really a filler word, but I’ve been corrected on my use of “just,” particularly at my work place. “Just” is often used by some people to minimise the impact of what they’re saying intentionally. For example, “I just think we should change the wording in this law.” If you take out ‘just’ (and some of the other words) and say the thing you meant to say - it becomes a far punchier statement, “We should change the wording in this law.”

The OP made me think of a poem by Taylor Mali, “Speak With Conviction.”

I feel like the mountain police are the kind of police that traditionally say, “Bone apple tea” before each meal.

Any amateur entomologists able to hazard a guess what those bugs are?

Some kind of dragonfly larvae?