I guess the dialogue of counsellor Troi in that episode is worth examining. I seem to remember they thought it was therapy that turned into unhealthy addiction.

No, just foot soldiers of ideological subjugation. Emotional abusers. Cultists and colonizers.

Some trekker should correct me here, or clarify, but I’m pretty sure that in TNG the character Barclay used the holodeck to treat his crippling social anxiety, which involved holos of his crewmates and got into some very awkward situations.

Don’t know many Tibetans, eh?

On the other hand, “Jacinda” was suddenly commonly heard admiringly at many kitchen tables around the world for a brief time.

That, and the player base stuck around. 14 years old, and put out to pasture ("maintenance mode), yet daily logjn count is still a respectable ~250k or more.

The real answer may actually be something like the Whales are still addicted and buying lots of in-game silver. One viewer donated over $5k USD to Aztecross’s stream during the announcement recap, then someone else threw in $500+. D2 has enough sleazy gacha mechanics going on that a lean dev team might be funded nicely by whales.

[edit, popularity.report daily logins around 250k in the last 24h, 40k in the last hour, and fluctuating from 20k to 75k per hour]

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Oh yes, and even plum union jobs for floor workers in Windsor or Brampton can be kind of shit too, especially in some of the parts factories.

I expect that from hypercapitalist oligarch-run societies. I don’t expect it from vanguard countries. It’s a betrayal.

Heavily subsidized by misery, as well.

Detroit pays union wages and has to respect worker rights (at the top end of the supply chain). The “communist “ state seems to escape these limited obligations in big parts of their supply chains.