Promonk's recent activity
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Comment on Annapurna video-game team resigns, leaving partners scrambling (gifted link) in ~games
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Comment on Annapurna video-game team resigns, leaving partners scrambling (gifted link) in ~games
Promonk LinkNot particularly relevant, but this struck me as amusing: Who could possibly have foreseen that Remedy would pivot to motion pictures?!? However will they adapt those works to the movie screen?Not particularly relevant, but this struck me as amusing:
Last month Annapurna announced a deal to partner with the Finnish gaming company Remedy Entertainment to bring the critically acclaimed Control and Alan Wake franchises to film and TV.
Who could possibly have foreseen that Remedy would pivot to motion pictures?!? However will they adapt those works to the movie screen?
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Comment on Kamala Harris’ lead dips in national US polls and it’s very close in the key states in ~misc
Promonk Link ParentTrouble is, barely coherent lies are what a lot of people want to hear right now. I think what propels the Trump train is misplaced anger at being left by society to rot economically, and all the...Trouble is, barely coherent lies are what a lot of people want to hear right now.
I think what propels the Trump train is misplaced anger at being left by society to rot economically, and all the "number goes up!" crowing in the world won't slow that down a jot.
It doesn't matter if the Biden administration has done a masterful job of steering things back on track (debatable), if improvements in living standards aren't immediate and obviously attributable to their policies. It doesn't matter if the problem Trump's supporters face have been caused by five decades of congressional deregulation and have very little to do with the current administration, or any administration for that matter, because that's just not the way humans think. It's not because nuance is beyond their capacity to entertain, it's because they don't want to entertain it.
This whole mess is down to decades of worsening wealth inequality leading to a climate of anger and distrust, and the people being gulled into believing Trump's bullshit are the types who want nothing more than the complex problems of society to be simplified for them. There are few things in politics that appear as simple as handing over the keys to someone who promises to fix everything with no effort or thought on the part of voters. That's the root of authoritarian sentiment, and pointing at line graphs that say the economy is doing just swell isn't going to address it.
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Comment on Hydrogen-powered skyscraper set for Egypt’s new capital outside Cairo in ~enviro
Promonk (edited )Link ParentMore than that, it's likely to actually tank their economy in more than one way. They're paying for the thing largely by a combination of foreign loans and turning on the money printers, so not...It's not like their economy is doing so well to allow these types of projects.
More than that, it's likely to actually tank their economy in more than one way. They're paying for the thing largely by a combination of foreign loans and turning on the money printers, so not only are they going to drive down the value of the of the Egyptian Pound through inflation, they'll be in debt to various international interests for generations.
The whole project from soup to nuts has an estimated budget of about $58bn USD (an optimistic estimate, as these things inevitably are), of which about $11bn has already been spent on the completed Phase 1, which they already can't afford. The World Bank has cut about $6bn in loan checks to prop up the country, and the IMF is poised to increase their loan program to Egypt from $3bn to $8bn, but they've made that contingent on reining in infrastructure spending–a demand that's both unlikely to be met and kinda mind-blowing, considering the IMF's whole mandate is to stimulate economic development in poorer member nations. Even the IMF, an organization with a long history of enabling the siphoning of wealth from public coffers to private hands, intentionally or otherwise, recognizes this is just a terrible idea.
All this would be merely silly and reckless if it weren't for the implicit goal of the whole project, which is to absolutely separate the poor majority of Egyptian citizens from the military ruling class. The damn thing is being built 30 miles outside of Cairo in the middle of nowhere, and is designed to cater to the administrators who work there and their families, and exclude everyone else.
The planned housing is all mini mansions built on the model of American suburbs, far outside of affordability for service industry workers and lower-level government functionaries, who are expected to take the electric train into the administrative district to work and then fuck off back to the slums afterward. Needless to say, the government promises high security through CCTV and for-hire security services in the capital district. That's part of the sales pitch to the foreign business interests they're trying to attract to the financial center.
The best that can be said for the thing is that at least they're building it on vacant land and didn't have to bulldoze quite so many poverty-stricken neighborhoods to build it, unlike some vanity projects.
The whole endeavor is just so monumentally stupid and evil that I even have a hard time believing it's real.
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Comment on Hydrogen-powered skyscraper set for Egypt’s new capital outside Cairo in ~enviro
Promonk Link ParentFor that matter, petroleum is just an extremely long-term storage medium for solar energy, if you want to be pedantic about it. That's just what fuel is. Hydrogen could still be an important part...For that matter, petroleum is just an extremely long-term storage medium for solar energy, if you want to be pedantic about it. That's just what fuel is.
Hydrogen could still be an important part of a sustainable energy strategy, and should not be dismissed as an incomplete solution though. At this point, just about our biggest problem as regards green energy isn't actually production, it's storage and transport. Photovoltaics are cheaper than they've ever been, and Egypt in particular is well-situated to exploit that fact. Hypothetically, Egypt could use solar peak hours to generate hydrogen via electrolysis or biological generation and greatly reduce their carbon footprint, so it's not entirely deceptive greenwashing to use "hydrogen" as a shorthand for 'more sustainable.'
The devil is in the details though, and you're right that merely generating your electricity via hydrogen isn't a guarantee of sustainability in itself. Steam reforming is by far the most common method of hydrogen generation in the US at least, and that does require the use fossil fuels.
Considering how asinine and wasteful this particular project is, I'm not willing to give the masterminds behind it much benefit of doubt, but neither do I think that the mere mention hydrogen alone is grounds to be dismissive.
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Comment on Intel honesty in ~tech
Promonk LinkSpot-on analysis. I too was briefly bullish about Intel pulling their heads out of their asses and actually figuring out their foundry strategy, especially after COVID called out the emperor's new...Spot-on analysis. I too was briefly bullish about Intel pulling their heads out of their asses and actually figuring out their foundry strategy, especially after COVID called out the emperor's new clothes and got CHIPS passed, but I'm seeing now that was unwarrantedly optimistic.
Intel just made too many mistakes, rested too far back on their laurels, didn't course correct early enough. They were too invested in owning the manufacturing stack when everyone else was splitting design and fab, which might've worked, if they'd made the investments in fabrication necessary to keep parity. They didn't.
Ah well. Dinosaurs will die. I just hope somebody gets a clue before TSMC goes into the shitter or China gets too bold. We have a lot of eggs in that basket.
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Comment on Remedy is set to update its original version of Alan Wake on PC – David Bowie's Space Oddity will be removed from the credits due to changes in licensing in ~games
Promonk (edited )LinkI'm not sure how I feel about this. As a Bowie fan, I've heard Space Oddity many, many times already, and I don't think I'll be buying the game anyway, so it probably won't make any difference to...I'm not sure how I feel about this. As a Bowie fan, I've heard Space Oddity many, many times already, and I don't think I'll be buying the game anyway, so it probably won't make any difference to me.
On the other hand, why should anyone be able to make demands on the use of a dead artist's works? Publishing rights I can understand, since publishing requires some amount of outlay to accomplish, and I'd very much prefer that someone has an incentive to continue publishing my favorite artist's works.
But this sort of thing veers awfully close to something I might call "fair use." They may not be materially changing the work itself, but its context in the game certainly brings some amount of transformation. And it isn't as though people are going to be playing the Alan Wake Remaster's credits just to get a taste of a Bowie song from 55 years ago anyway, so it's not going to appreciably eat into demand on the publishing side.
Which makes me think that somebody is squatting on the rights to a dead genius's IP, and is trying to profit from his cultural relevance. They've already made the agreement once, which means someone along the line decided this particular use doesn't debase the intellectual property–presumably with Bowie's blessing, since he was still kicking when that deal was struck.
This is all the more gross because of this particular song's place in the zeitgeist. The song was released in July of 1969 in order to capitalize on the Apollo 11 mission, which took place less than a week later. The BBC used it as bumper music in their coverage of the moon landing. If any Bowie song belongs to world culture, it's probably this one. But nope. Gotta make those ducats.
I get that artists have a tough time making a living, but this isn't that. David Jones is beyond needing to make a living off his work any longer. Like I said, this particular use isn't any kind of earthshaking and is unlikely to compromise the integrity of the game, but God damn, it sure is depressing being reminded just how fucked copyright is these days.
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Comment on Hydrogen-powered skyscraper set for Egypt’s new capital outside Cairo in ~enviro
Promonk Link ParentThere's a whole industry built upon dreaming up idiotic ideas that sound plausible and cool if you don't think about it at all deeply or do even a minute's research, and then creating CGI or,...- Exemplary
There's a whole industry built upon dreaming up idiotic ideas that sound plausible and cool if you don't think about it at all deeply or do even a minute's research, and then creating CGI or, lately, AI-generated concept art to sell it to fabulously wealthy idiots with net worths two or three billion times higher than their IQs. I think this industry is casting around for their next marks, because some of the oil sheiks in the UAE have started to realize that the gravy train might conceivably pull into the station at some point, and their multi-billion-dollar vanity projects to build 1:10,000-scale replicas of the fucking moon in downtown Dubai might not be tenable.
I honestly wonder how analogous this con game is to whatever led Bronze-Age poobahs to command their megalithic monuments to be built. Was there some Old Kingdom equivalent of modern fly-by-night architectural firms fluffing Khufu's peen with grandiose papyrus mockups of pyramids? Is this just a continuation of a 5,000-year-old tradition of gulling rich idiots to build impractical projects by breaking the backs of the proletariat? Has a question ever been so rhetorical?
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Comment on Hydrogen-powered skyscraper set for Egypt’s new capital outside Cairo in ~enviro
Promonk LinkMight as well power it on farts and the hopes and dreams of orphans, to go along with the rest of the new capital. The whole project is "what if Dubai, but even stupider?" It's a slow-motion...Might as well power it on farts and the hopes and dreams of orphans, to go along with the rest of the new capital. The whole project is "what if Dubai, but even stupider?" It's a slow-motion economic, social, environmental and humanitarian disaster for Egypt, and I can't say I'm unsurprised that CNN "Style" would publish an uncritical article about one of its many shit-facets.
Is it a bad idea to design carbon-neutral or carbon-negative public works? Not at all. Is it a bad idea to make Africa's tallest building for no reason other than you think you can, using funds your country doesn't really have, built with labor under questionable safety standards, locating it in the heart of a massive unnecessary complex patterned after American-style suburbs (the worst development pattern ever conceived) designed to segregate your common people from their military overlords entirely? I'm going to say yes. Unquestionably.
Much luck, Egypt. With this kind of leadership, you're going to need it.
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Comment on A tool to determine which US city you should live in in ~life
Promonk LinkI got all the way to the last question and the quiz bugged out and wouldn't let me go any further. I'll just assume it was going to tell me Portland and forget about the whole thing.I got all the way to the last question and the quiz bugged out and wouldn't let me go any further.
I'll just assume it was going to tell me Portland and forget about the whole thing.
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Comment on An important update on Concord - "At this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024" in ~games
Promonk Link ParentIt's a bit odd hearing myself described as "casual" in a gaming context, considering the huge percentage of my life I've spent playing games, but you're not wrong, at least not when it comes to...It's a bit odd hearing myself described as "casual" in a gaming context, considering the huge percentage of my life I've spent playing games, but you're not wrong, at least not when it comes to competitive shooters. I tend to prefer using a controller when playing shooters generally, if that tells you anything.
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Comment on An important update on Concord - "At this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024" in ~games
Promonk Link ParentThis is my lack of experience showing. I knew this was a thing, but because I avoid competitive multiplayer games like I avoid swift forceful impacts to the balls, it didn't occur to me. I guess...This is my lack of experience showing. I knew this was a thing, but because I avoid competitive multiplayer games like I avoid swift forceful impacts to the balls, it didn't occur to me.
I guess this is a point in cooperative games' favor, because skill mismatches, while still a concern, are much less impactful on player experience. It sucks to get paired with someone who's put 5,000 hours into a game and blasts through a cooperative challenge like they're on the main stage at AGDQ, giving you no time to get immersed in the experience, but the mismatch in skill levels can be much wider before it becomes a real issue. That's something that developers can influence to a greater degree as well.
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Comment on An important update on Concord - "At this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024" in ~games
Promonk Link ParentI agree, and I didn't mean to give the impression I thought otherwise. I do think they are settling into their niche though, and probably won't get quite the same following they've enjoyed going...But multiplayer competitive shooters are not at all dead and gone.
I agree, and I didn't mean to give the impression I thought otherwise. I do think they are settling into their niche though, and probably won't get quite the same following they've enjoyed going forward. They're fantastic for esports, but that doesn't signify success as a public release. Consider how many people watch professional American football as opposed to how many have actually played it recently.
I also don't know that life responsibilities really factor in as much in people's decisions about what games to play as people make out. To use my own example again, I've never cared a bit about comparing e-peen with other players. It's not that I can't enjoy friendly competition, it's that I've always accepted that there will be people who are better at certain things than I will ever be, and I don't find much of a thrill in competing for 750,000th on a worldwide leaderboard. That informs my game purchasing decisions much more than whatever else I have going on in my life, particularly so because my ability to actually spend the time playing a game has very little to do with whether I buy it, as my extensive library of untouched Steam titles can attest.
I don't think live service is going anywhere for the foreseeable future, but I would like to see some evolution in the paradigm. I want to see more cooperative PvE storytelling experiences, something along the lines of what Baldur's Gate 3 attempted in its multiplayer modes. I want devs to find new ways to limit players' ability to cause grief that don't completely cut out communication from the equation. As much as anything, I want them to find new ways to monetize that don't involve putting players on a never-ending Skinner treadmill, or enticing us to gamble like some greasy weirdo on the corner in a trenchcoat ("find the red queen and win a rare weapon skin!").
Maybe we'll get there eventually. I dunno.
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Comment on An important update on Concord - "At this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024" in ~games
Promonk LinkI can't help but feel that they just straight bungled the marketing for the launch, because the ONLY thing I heard about it prior to release was that it was lackluster. Not bad, just ho-hum, with...- Exemplary
I can't help but feel that they just straight bungled the marketing for the launch, because the ONLY thing I heard about it prior to release was that it was lackluster. Not bad, just ho-hum, with nothing to really differentiate it from its competitors. The art style was kind of bland and forgettable, the characterization thin and uninteresting. In fact, the most positive thing I heard was that the gunplay, which players of FPS/team shooters hold up as supposedly their prime concern, was reportedly pretty good.
Mind you, this is what I heard from various media types prior to launch, and aside from the game's aesthetic, which I can confirm is uninspiring, that's ALL I heard. There seemed to be a collective popcorn party waiting for this to fail, and Sony never bothered to get a word in edgewise. If you allow gaming vloggers and influencers to control the narrative around your middling-quality live service game, they will inevitably root for its spectacular implosion. They know that kind of stuff drives engagement, and history shows that predicting the failure of big budget competitive multiplayer games is a statistically safe bet.
I never saw a single ad, article or video that pushed back against this and offered anything positive about the game, but that might be down to targeting. I am not the type of gamer who plays anything competitive, much less MP shooters. I simply don't have the experience necessary to compete at a satisfying level, and don't honestly have desire enough to work to overcome this shortcoming. This means my experience of most competitive shooters goes something like, 1. Spawn two or more minutes away from enemies; 2. get loadout figured out, restock if necessary/applicable; 3. haul my ass to the battlefield; 4. Immediately get shot in the fucking dome by either a bot or some kid on summer break who's spent most of the last 43 hours in a PvP flow state and dirty britches; 5. rinse; 6. repeat. YMWV, of course, but I am not eager to shell out $70 for a fresh flavor of this type of hell.
Thing is, I don't think I'm alone in this. If you look at the surprise early access successes of Palworld and Helldivers 2, I think you can see evidence of a more general rejection of competitive multiplayer games in favor of cooperative titles. This isn't really a new thing, I think, considering the overwhelming popularity of games like Minecraft over the last 15 years, but I think a few standout successes like PUBG, Overwatch 1, and Fortnite, and the relative ease of development for that sort of game, has kind of misled big developers into chasing the success of others instead of taking multiplayer gaming in new directions. The result is a steady stream of "like Overwatch, but less aesthetically pleasing," or "like Fortnite, but a dark tone that's incongruous with the cartoony art style we need in order to sell merch and skins." That's super reductive, I know, but not entirely inaccurate.
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Comment on Where do you fit in the US political typology? in ~misc
Promonk Link ParentI still prefer the three-dimensional progressive-regressive, conservative-radical, liberal-authoritarian scheme better. Even that works best when you do separate charts for social vs economic...I still prefer the three-dimensional progressive-regressive, conservative-radical, liberal-authoritarian scheme better. Even that works best when you do separate charts for social vs economic beliefs (acknowledging that social and economic ideologies are ultimately fundamentally inextricable).
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Comment on Where do you fit in the US political typology? in ~misc
Promonk Link ParentHonestly, the fact you're looking for nuance at all probably pegs you in Outsider Left by itself.Honestly, the fact you're looking for nuance at all probably pegs you in Outsider Left by itself.
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Comment on Where do you fit in the US political typology? in ~misc
Promonk Link ParentOutsider Left 4lyfe! I feel like we should get leather jackets made. I straight up skipped a few questions because they were overly simplistic. I wonder how that affected my result?Outsider Left 4lyfe! I feel like we should get leather jackets made.
I straight up skipped a few questions because they were overly simplistic. I wonder how that affected my result?
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Comment on Trusted aide would likely play key role in Kamala Harris review of US-Israel policy in ~misc
Promonk Link ParentI'm sure there are, but my guess is that if someone is engaged enough to give a cogent opinion, they probably pay attention to the weekly thread. I'm as wary of siloing and opinion bubbles as the...I'm sure there are, but my guess is that if someone is engaged enough to give a cogent opinion, they probably pay attention to the weekly thread.
I'm as wary of siloing and opinion bubbles as the next guy, but I completely understand it if people want an easier way to isolate themselves from the neverending torrent of anxiety-inducing politics that the US has become. It's one thing to stay abreast of political developments, but that can quickly spiral into obsession and paralysis for some people. I think that's why the weekly thread exists.
It's also good to remember that this site is based in Canada, run by one near-saintly Canuck with a dream of having even one civil place on the Internet. If @Deimos thinks US politics needs to be silo'd unless there's some exceptional reason, I think it's best we follow his lead.
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Comment on Trusted aide would likely play key role in Kamala Harris review of US-Israel policy in ~misc
Promonk LinkThis should probably go in the weekly US politics thread. It's not particularly momentous, though it may prove important in the long run.This should probably go in the weekly US politics thread. It's not particularly momentous, though it may prove important in the long run.
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Comment on Is Google training AI on YouTube videos? in ~tech
Promonk Link ParentHe explains Google AI's position on open web access. The video is more about whether Google considers the YouTube TOS as specifically allowing scraping for LLM learning, and his mixed feelings...He explains Google AI's position on open web access.
The video is more about whether Google considers the YouTube TOS as specifically allowing scraping for LLM learning, and his mixed feelings about the implications of creating online content under corporate TOS that can be reinterpreted however it suits the parent company.
He eventually settles on asking for an opt-out option, and encourages other creators to chime in in the comments. It's interesting looking at the comments and seeing a veritable who's who of educational YouTubers.
Yes, I was being sarcastic, or ironic or something. Remedy's whole schtick has been blending live action cinematics and gameplay, and kind of blurring the lines between the two. Some might say they've focused a bit too heavily on the cinematic angle, to the point where it sometimes impacts gameplay negatively.