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Dan Stapleton

@danstapleton.bsky.social

Retired. Formerly IGN’s Director of Reviews, EIC of GameSpy, and Reviews Editor at PC Gamer. Dad (so expect dad jokes). Careful: you might hear some opinions.

6,244 Followers  |  505 Following  |  3,935 Posts  |  Joined: 28.04.2023  |  1.7797

Latest posts by danstapleton.bsky.social on Bluesky

I turned up to a Halloween party dressed as The Dude and everyone was like “Lebowski!” But then it was warm so I lost the wig and the robe and I spilled some stuff on my white V-neck and at a certain point I’m just an actual slob.

19.10.2025 04:41 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Guess which one I did

19.10.2025 03:41 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Asked my wife what she did at work today and it was anesthesia for colonoscopies.

18.10.2025 01:58 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Singular, yes.

Are we allowed to spike it with Crystal Light or something?

17.10.2025 21:37 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0

100% depends on the list!

17.10.2025 21:36 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Mine's lined up for next month - they already sent me the big plastic jug to mix the drink in.

17.10.2025 20:51 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 3    📌 0

Me too, but there's enough lingering stuff I'm not quite ready to replace that still uses mini I can't quite get rid of them all yet - and if I get rid of *almost* all of them then I can never find one when I need it.

And there's still the matter of C-C vs A-C (and all the different flavors of C).

17.10.2025 19:05 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

What do you use to organize your loose USB cables and keep A>C, C-C, A>Micro, and misc/proprietary stuff separate?

My current solution of "giant rats nest" is not serving me super well.

17.10.2025 18:28 — 👍 7    🔁 0    💬 8    📌 0

Classy.

17.10.2025 18:22 — 👍 8    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Keeper's definitely gonna be the next thing I'm playing with my family. We love puzzles and it's so vaguely creepy looking that I bet it'll make an excellent Halloween game.

17.10.2025 16:09 — 👍 13    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Logitech G923

17.10.2025 03:02 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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My 7-year-old daughter is getting pretty decent at Forza Horizon 5 with the wheel. This should give her credit toward drivers’ ed!

17.10.2025 02:57 — 👍 14    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Far fewer than half voted for him, yes - but far more than half didn't vote against him because this stuff either doesn't bother them or doesn't register on their radar at all.

16.10.2025 07:00 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

You're correct, $600! Sorry about that.

16.10.2025 02:09 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

It is! But I think we're talking about different things. I'm saying it was a mistake for this to be the first Xbox-branded handheld because it tells people that Xbox handhelds are expensive. You're saying people who buy expensive handhelds will buy it. I agree with that!

16.10.2025 02:08 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

I'm just sayin', it didn't pop up after several attempts. I don't know if it's just hard to find, in which case I'd appreciate the help finding it. I'd love to be wrong here!

I don't view *any* fanbase as monolithic, because that isn't a thing. Not everyone who likes a thing thinks the same way.

16.10.2025 02:06 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Again, I'm not saying in any way that AEW isn't "the most progressive wrestling fanbase" out there.

I just think the bar for that is set lower than we'd all like it to be.

16.10.2025 02:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I didn't say it was crucial to for their life. I said it was definitely a mistake.

16.10.2025 02:00 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

So from casually Googling this I can't find that study, just some very unscientific online polls. Can you point me to it?

Also, if 51% of a fanbase says they're progressive, that doesn't mean that 49% aren't.

16.10.2025 01:59 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0

Huh? When is it not up to the consumer?

Yes, people in the market for a $1000 handheld want a $1000 handheld. But that is a small market (even Steam Deck doesn't sell gangbusters), and it won't be the win Xbox needs right now.

16.10.2025 01:50 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

It is just insane that Trump can bitch about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize on the same day he brags about extrajudicially murdering alleged drug smugglers and plays coy about starting a war in Venezuela, and half the country doesn't bat an eye.

16.10.2025 01:48 — 👍 25    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 1

I'm sure Asus wasn't - it never has. But it's got Xbox branding on it (most people don't know the difference) so all the blowback goes there.

16.10.2025 01:34 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Yup. It's $700, or two Steam Decks.

16.10.2025 01:32 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I'm sure there are plenty of progressive fans, and I'll take your word for it that it's more so than the WWE. But I'd bet they're getting a pretty good ROI on that demographic.

16.10.2025 01:32 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 5    📌 0

Even if it were $250 less it wouldn't have been a great look.

16.10.2025 01:30 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

It was definitely a mistake for Xbox to put its branding on a $1K handheld when the 3-year-old Steam Deck is a perfectly viable option that plays almost all of the same exact games at less than half the price.

They Series X'd when they should've Series S'd.

16.10.2025 01:27 — 👍 67    🔁 4    💬 8    📌 0

It's almost as if they learned absolutely nothing from the Xbox One.

16.10.2025 01:23 — 👍 10    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

With the Ellisons coming for Warner next I would not count on that stopping anytime soon.

...also I gotta say, if I were gonna zero in on a demographic to maximize the impact of those ads wrestling fans would be second only to like, Duck Dynasty reruns.

16.10.2025 01:20 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 3    📌 0

My policy has always been that I would rather take the time to make a better review that doesn't burn out my writers than rush to hit an arbitrary marketing beat a publisher didn't actually give us enough time to meet.

In that context, it's not a hard decision.

14.10.2025 16:31 — 👍 99    🔁 9    💬 2    📌 0

Perhaps AI could summarize those for me 🤔🤔🤔

12.10.2025 23:58 — 👍 10    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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