Half-Life 2 in Asia

Back in 2015 there were few video games with authentic Asian environments, so I made a few experimental maps in Half-Life 2.

It was also common wisdom that games had to be complete and flawless on launch. Probabilistic monetisation such as loot boxes were a no-no. Triple-A games justified their price tags by being known quantities.

Now, in 2026 there are a deluge of high-quality games from Asia, featuring characters, motifs, and visuals from Asia, which are also turning the common wisdom on its head by being serialised, free-to-play, and with a strong 'gacha' component.

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Staying For the Kids

Will having children make marriages last? Children, it is supposed, so enrich a marriage that it is more likely to endure over time. They bring a unique stimulus, necessitate close teamwork, and foster intimate communication. While some would argue that they could seek such stimuli elsewhere, and others would say that they can do without that sort of personal development, the naysayers are not strong enough to displace a nuclear family ideal that has persisted despite change in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Do Pensions Cause Inflation? 📈

It's not the size, it's the growth. As the world ages, it's worth wondering if retiree benefits will increasingly drive inflation through supporting elderly buying power and enabling them to exit the labour supply. Let's plot pension replacement rates , a measure of pension generosity, against 2023 inflation for the G20, the world's largest economies. In short, countries' circumstances and systems are too diverse for a strong relationship between pension generosity and inflation, but let's break it down further.

Australia's Productivity Problem Starts at Home

Australia's lack of productivity growth being due to a lack of business investment is taken as a given. It's assumed that lack of incentives for business investment including franking credits and unwilling lenders are stopping technology from increasing worker efficiency and wages. In fact, business investment has paced the overall economy for decades . The real issue isn't lack of investment, but what's driving the rest of the economy.

dtcwee: The Value of Nothing

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