Vader

I think this is maybe the source of our impasse. The experience of both me and many people I know has been that it isn't always easy to find work that pays better than under minimum wage. In my case, this is rooted in as much of a struggle to find working hours as it is the base pay rate of those hours. I am compensated well for each hour I can work, but I can't get many hours. Thus, my weekly salary is less than what I would make in a full time minimum wage position. And yes, I have applied for service jobs to supplement my other work. No, none have hired me. No, I don't have a criminal record. Yes, I do have a bachelor's degree and have been accepted into grad schools for two different disciplines. I know other people who have had similar experiences, including people much less privileged than me.

Just trying to keep in sight of the big picture here, are we arguing about whether we should tip? Whether tipping is unfair? Whether we should support higher minimum wages everywhere? To each question, yes we should tip. Tipping as a means of paying for labor is unfair. We should support higher minimum wages everywhere.

Oof

If Bob Cratchit can't afford medicine for Tiny Tim, why doesn't he simply go work for someone else who pays better? Scrooge is under no obligation to pay Cratchit more, if the market has valued Cratchit's work at the expense Scrooge is paying him.

Yes I have played the earlier games. I didn't find the use of flashbacks to be overly obnoxious, though honestly the trope in general is not something that particularly bothers me. More of a mode of storytelling than cliche.

Rafiqa

Yeah, I honestly can't speak to how things differ in the UK. If a business in the US implemented a similar system and paid a livable hourly wage besides, I would definitely get behind it.

I just want to clarify: I'm not suggesting people tip 20-25% of their Postmate order if they are getting, like, an XBone delivered to them or something. I think I said it earlier, but 20-25% of a MEDIAN priced order of similar size/weight is I think appropriate. I would probably tip somewhere in the $10-$15 range for an order like that. Might be pretty generous, but it's not like I'm ordering XBones every Saturday. I haven't held a lot of service industry jobs, so I can't speak to the whole tipping law thing. I'm always a little skeptical of arguments that try to downplay how fucking shitty the pay is, though. At Sonic, for instance, carhops are payed less than minimum wage in accordance with the tipping exception, but their credit card machines don't allow tips to be added :-/ I've heard this might be remedied soon in response to the backlash, so that's good If someone wants to flame me for being full of shit I guess that's cool, but I like to err on the side of being a decent human being and tip people who probably aren't that well paid to begin with. Of course I would prefer a tip free society where everyone is just paid at least $15 an hour, but I think it was Gandalf who said something like "we can't help that we live in a shitty world, but we all need to be the best we can in that world" or something.

Also, I wish I could see a video of Nick Breckon's guy finding out his friend died in NBA 2K16

I hear you. With the price of rent eating up so much of my wife and my household income, I don't know how we could be expected to save.

I liked that robot Jake Rodkin guy. Didn't say much, but he sure kept things grounded.

Glad I'm not the only one who looked like a foolish old man tipping with cash. The delivery lady was pretty eager to run off before I handed her the money which was odd, and the tipping on the receipt later clarified things for me a bit. But yeah, Postmates convenient and all. Go around the icky business model to compensate the deliverers well, and its pretty sweet.

This. If Postmstes were to simply increase the service fee to the value of a 20-25% tip for a median value order, I would be totally ok with that and indeed see it as a step forward (so long as this portion wasn't also pegged with overhead cuts)

Dayum, I hope you're right

What are the chances that the new Zelda they've been silent on for the past year actually makes it to the Wii U?

Yeah, but hopefully the unemployed and underemployed population becomes large enough that we can demand guaranteed minimum income

Maybe. I don't like the fact that they don't seem to encourage tipping, though honestly their wage minus tip is probably better than what most restaurant servers get. We need better protection for workers, but that aside tipping well is a good way to make things more fair on a micro level.

I'm sad to say that is the American service industry, Clyde :-/ In most states there is a separate minimum wage for jobs that can collect tips. Nationally, it is only $2.13

Implicit racism aside, Cuphead art would have scared the bejesus out of me as a kid, and even creeps me out a bit now.

Thanks! You are rad.

Hi everyone. I'm a dude from Philadelphia who likes video games. Right now I mostly play stuff on iOS, Wii U, 3DS, and a 7-year old Macbook (I'm hoping to get a custom windows desktop as soon as I get the $$$ together). I've also dabbled a bit in making stuff in Twine. I'm currently a self employed fiction writer and English tutor. I'm accepted into Temple's MFA Fiction Writing for Fall 2014, and plan to enroll if I can get funding. I started listening to idle thumbs in Summer 2014 at the behest of a good friend. The mixture of smart criticism, social consciousness, and absurdist humor really fits me. The podcast has only gotten better with Danielle joining and Nick making more regular appearances. Favorite games (in no particular order): Wind Waker, A Link Between Worlds, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island I, Monkey Island II, Tales of Monkey Island, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, The Walking Dead (both seasons), Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Castlevania, Shovel Knight, Gone Home, Papers Please, Kentucky Route Zero, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Broken Age, The Sims. Thanks everyone.

God this looks amazing. Occult themes, developers from Latin America, point-and-click adventure — I'm all over this shit. C'mon people, let's get it funded!

Can someone please post a link to Danielle's itch.io? That also should probably be added to the list of games discussed. Thanks.