. I’m in maximum old-white-people-exurb territory. There’s basically nothing for me to meet people my own age, let alone women my age, without an hour’s drive
This is your main problem. The platonic ideal of a dating app is going to struggle if you live in a crap place.
The for-profit garbage apps (all of them) aren't going to do good, either.
I live in a city and as an older guy that doesn't date men can usually get a date a month without paying.
One time I made a joke to the players, "Yeah watch out, the woods could be full of dangerous things. Like fire bears."
The players were like "lol right"
And then there were fire bears. Bears made of fire. (Some industrialists had started a forest fire, killing a local druid and wildlife, and now they were haunting the place.)
People are emotional, tribal, creatures. It's very easy for us to hate the out group. That was probably beneficial for pre-history humans, where the other tribe could be a real threat. It's not so useful today, where "the other group" is just some people waiting for the train.
I think the best paths forward have to make people believe more people are in-group. That's a reason why stuff like representation matters. People might be like "who cares if there's a trans main character in a movie?", but that helps people be less hateful. They don't hate the character from the movie, they relate to them, and then a person in real life gets seen in that light.
It’s like…the solution is right in front of their noses. Just treat people better/not like robots
I've been saying this in response to a lot of things lately, but.. people are emotional. It's an emotional problem. Management feels a way, mostly contempt, and any studies about how treating people better would be cost-effective don't matter. Studies show that a 4-day workweek is good for productivity and profits? Nope, feels wrong, can't be true.
Essentially, people are stupid and I don't know how to fix it. Can't just bop a CEO on the nose with a newspaper when he's being bad, unfortunately.
I've tried this a couple times with limited success.
Those were then bumped up or down depending on if it was "budget", "consumer grade", or "corporate grade". Hacking into some nobody chump's security system from across the street is something the hacker PC get done for free with a little luck. Hacking into the ASI Corporate HQ maglock door subsystem from across town would be a feat of legend, not something someone can likely do just off the cuff.
I do like that Fate encourages players to do some preparation for hard tasks. Have someone use their talky skills to talk up some junior workers, and learn something about the network. That's an advantage you can invoke. Have someone spend resources to bribe someone, that's another advantage.
A problem that's come up each time I've tried this kind of game is not having a shared understanding of what "hacking" can do. Fate kind of helps here because the actions are kind of agnostic about what skills are creating them. If you're trying to remove someone from the scene, that's likely an Attack whether you're using "hacking" or "fight" or "intimidate". The hacker might fake a text from the boss telling the bouncer he's fired where the bruiser might just deck him, but they go down the same kind of mechanical funnel. The tactical considerations for the players comes from like "what looks like a softer target: his face or his phone? is anyone going to see?"
People are emotional. All of us, more or less. Some people also sometimes have other ways of engaging with the world.
But cars are emotional for people. So was 9/11. Facts don't really matter.
So when you tell someone something bad about cars, they have an emotional response and that's game over. Especially if they see you as out-group.
I don't know how to fix this but I think it's the root of all of our problems.
Maybe if we can get people to see experts as in-group again?
It is a little disheartening that the right will riot and everyone else is just like "I guess we lost. We don't need to double check "
As I said at the root of this thread, my ire is mostly reserved for rich people who refuse to tip. If you're struggling, you have to make your own decisions and compromises to get by. But the guy who makes more money from interest than the bartender makes all night, when they don't tip they're an asshole.
The problem you're describing, that people aren't paid enough and CEOs are too rich, is a very real problem.
No one should rely on tips, but they do. Refusing to tip now just hurts people , real people, immediately. You have to live in the world as it is while trying to improve it.
The bartender can't eat your idealism nor find shelter from the elements in it.
Your experiences are different. My friends who work for tips tell me they rely on that money. Losing those tips would have an immediate and real adverse impact on their health and safety.
Have you ever worked for tips or been a close friend of someone who did?
All of these stories I feel the same way: moving to another centralized privately owned platform is stupid.