Trobador's recent activity

  1. Comment on Are there any video games that are/were popular in your country, that the rest of the world hardly knows about? in ~games

    Trobador
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    Late 90s-early 2000s pre-teen CG animation is a vibe. What country did you go to school in?

    Late 90s-early 2000s pre-teen CG animation is a vibe. What country did you go to school in?

  2. Comment on Are there any video games that are/were popular in your country, that the rest of the world hardly knows about? in ~games

    Trobador
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    An interesting boon of them being built in Flash (initially) and Java respectively; though Wakfu's Linux build has some pain points I've been struggling with. Through this thread, I'm learning...

    While I grew up in North America I did actually play Dofus and Wakfu for a short while because they had native Linux support even before Steam did.

    An interesting boon of them being built in Flash (initially) and Java respectively; though Wakfu's Linux build has some pain points I've been struggling with.

    I also played a lot of Clonk Rage and OpenClonk which judging by the forums and leaderboards were only ever really popular in Germany.

    Through this thread, I'm learning that all German video games are made in play-dough looking CG no matter the genre! This Clonk series actually seems like something I would enjoy, sandbox is one of my favorite genres. Can you tell me more about them?

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Are there any video games that are/were popular in your country, that the rest of the world hardly knows about? in ~games

    Trobador
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    Honestly a good question. I know of Oregon Trail and knew it as a popular PC game from the 70s but not much past that. I didn't know it was an educational game at first, and I don't think it's...

    Honestly a good question. I know of Oregon Trail and knew it as a popular PC game from the 70s but not much past that. I didn't know it was an educational game at first, and I don't think it's ever come up in a conversation with anyone from my country.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Are there any video games that are/were popular in your country, that the rest of the world hardly knows about? in ~games

    Trobador
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    I had no idea Mafia was born Czech! Mafia 1 seems like an extremely impressive game for its era. I had not heard about Hidden & Dangerous or Original War; I have a lot of respect for their...

    I had no idea Mafia was born Czech! Mafia 1 seems like an extremely impressive game for its era.

    I had not heard about Hidden & Dangerous or Original War; I have a lot of respect for their approach to changing up a genre! Original War's concept of having defined characters was something I had thought of before and I was curious if anyone had attempted it.

    Samorost and Machinarium, I had heard of, and own a copy of the latter. I think Machinarium might've had a short period of international recognition during the indie boom of the 2010s, since its little dude was playable in Super Meat Boy. Both have incredibly cool aesthetics!

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Are there any video games that are/were popular in your country, that the rest of the world hardly knows about? in ~games

    Trobador
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    Oh! I remember seeing that chicken around the web, I think! Had no idea it was so popular! The number and variety of games in this series seems insane. There's even several re-releases. Cool! Go...

    Oh! I remember seeing that chicken around the web, I think! Had no idea it was so popular! The number and variety of games in this series seems insane. There's even several re-releases. Cool! Go Germany!

    It's interesting to think about how much practical ease of access can make a game's success; be it this in the era of shareware, or web games in the Internet era. The original Doom was like this, it was Flash games when I was growing up, and today, kids like .io games and the like.

    2 votes

  6. Are there any video games that are/were popular in your country, that the rest of the world hardly knows about?

    ~games Ask (survey)
    I recently have been reconnecting with something from my childhood: the Krosmoz universe! Anyone who was a kid in France between 2004 and 2012 or so either grew up on it or is at least a little...

    I recently have been reconnecting with something from my childhood: the Krosmoz universe! Anyone who was a kid in France between 2004 and 2012 or so either grew up on it or is at least a little bit familiar with it. Most people outside of the country, if they know of it, generally only know of Dofus, the first of their three (actually five (actually eight if you count the dead ones)) tactical MMORPGs, or the derived TV animated series Wakfu, which was picked up on Netflix at one point. But it's massive here. Even today, they're still quite popular and perpetually developed.

    As a medium, video games are not generally so closely tied to countries; more than half of their history has been during the era of globalization and the Internet. Even in the past, when you could only buy games in person in a store, people's minds everywhere were nonetheless on games from overseas. Today, games made in Sweden or Morocco have lived on the same storefronts as games made in Venezuela and Australia for a good while, and I'd bet most people don't even think about where the people who make the games they play come from.

    I personally think this is a great thing! But the fact that there's something like Krosmoz, that's so unusually localized to one place, makes me curious to know if there's more; and if there is, I want to know what's unique about it, and what it says about its players and makers, too.

    I've asked this before on reddit, and I remember being told about Metin2, an originally Korean MMO that was so popular in Eastern Europe that even a decade after the original Korean and US servers were shut down, players from those countries are still updating the game and keeping it alive. This is a different situation from Krosmoz but another fascinating one. It's the kind of thing I wanna know about.

    This is an invitation to yap, if you'll oblige me. Do you have anything like that where you're from? A game or game franchise that only people of your culture know, and that you want everyone else to know about? I wanna hear about it!

    I posted this once and immediately deleted it to make it shorter. I did not really succeed. Please don't sue me!

    34 votes

  7. Comment on What do you think the top three most used apps on your phone for the past week are? in ~tech

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    Apparently, Firefox, NewPipe (YouTube) and Revenge (Discord). I expected Mihon (comic reader) instead of NewPipe, but I guess I've been watching more YouTube than I recall?

    Apparently, Firefox, NewPipe (YouTube) and Revenge (Discord). I expected Mihon (comic reader) instead of NewPipe, but I guess I've been watching more YouTube than I recall?

    3 votes

  8. Comment on Why emoji picker default on? in ~comp

    Trobador
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    It's definitely something that's been high in demand for a little while. Though interestingly, I feel like there's not a lot of good emoji pickers available for desktops, especially Linux.

    It's definitely something that's been high in demand for a little while. Though interestingly, I feel like there's not a lot of good emoji pickers available for desktops, especially Linux.

    3 votes

  9. Comment on Brave Origin, a paid, premium version of Brave is now available in ~tech

    Trobador
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    I cannot, which is why I only used 'allegedly' ; an acquaintance told me about it and I remember her sourcing the info but I wouldn't be able to bring it up again. I added that to provide context...

    I cannot, which is why I only used 'allegedly' ; an acquaintance told me about it and I remember her sourcing the info but I wouldn't be able to bring it up again. I added that to provide context as to why I'd switched but maybe it was a bit zealous... apologies.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Brave Origin, a paid, premium version of Brave is now available in ~tech

    Trobador
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    I've used Firefox for years myself, but decided recently to give Waterfox, a fork of the browser, a go since Mozilla has allegedly been using user data to train AI without users' consent. It's...

    I've used Firefox for years myself, but decided recently to give Waterfox, a fork of the browser, a go since Mozilla has allegedly been using user data to train AI without users' consent. It's been a decent experience. I would recommend it.

    7 votes

  11. Comment on What's a game you're dying to play that doesn't exist? in ~games

    Trobador
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    I have a few, which is why I did the same thing as you, OP! I described one in another comment, but another one I want to make is a 3D beat 'em up game that takes after Kingdom Hearts II's game...

    I have a few, which is why I did the same thing as you, OP! I described one in another comment, but another one I want to make is a 3D beat 'em up game that takes after Kingdom Hearts II's game feel. I do mean Kingdom Hearts II. It's unique compared to any Kingdom Hearts game or to anything that takes after DMC, by how fast individual attacks are and how fluid and effortlessly aerial it all is. Air combo attacks move your character on hit, and air finishers move you back down quickly to continue fighting. Your moves change based on distance and position of the target to make it simple to start combos while giving an importance to intentional spacing if you want to fully control your kit. Long combos are possible and look awesome and short combos are valued too. It just feels so cool in hand ; yet, negative feedback at release had them decide to move away from that style of combat in later entries, and no game's ever reproduced that feel somehow !

    1 vote

  12. Comment on What's a game you're dying to play that doesn't exist? in ~games

    Trobador
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    I'm in almost the same boat as you: one of the ideas that motivate me to do game dev so that I can execute them one day is a fighting game based on 3D beat 'em up gameplay (DMC). Street Fighter...

    I'm in almost the same boat as you: one of the ideas that motivate me to do game dev so that I can execute them one day is a fighting game based on 3D beat 'em up gameplay (DMC).

    Street Fighter started out as basically a translation of classic beat 'em ups in a player versus player context, and nearly everything that came after SFII followed the same mold. There's nothing that makes more sense as a concept than doing the same thing with the games that succeeded those beat 'em ups. But somehow, no one's considered it! Instead, everything 3D is either a spin on Tekken and Virtua Fighter's super grounded, close quarters formula, a janky arena fighter with no sauce, or some esoteric thing like Power Stone.

    We've had something around 30 years of stylish beat 'em ups in 3D that operate with a similar mechanical basis, that all take from fighting games, that all allow for high amounts of expression, and not a single one's considered having one such game where you fight other people instead. Why?!

  13. Comment on What are your gaming idiosyncracies? in ~games

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    I don't have a ton that are too unique. If I had to name one... it's that I have less qualms nowadays about modding games even before finishing a vanilla playthrough of them or seeing most of...

    I don't have a ton that are too unique. If I had to name one... it's that I have less qualms nowadays about modding games even before finishing a vanilla playthrough of them or seeing most of their content.

    I really, really enjoy using mods, and considering how I very rarely replay campaign games, sometimes I don't feel like going through hours of something before enjoying all the fan-made content or at least getting the experience how I want it to be. To hell with purism, it's my video game!

    4 votes

  14. Comment on What is still to be done to merge... the dragons? in ~comp

    Trobador
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    Reminds me of this odd anomaly of my autocomplete: if I type human, I can get... human machinemachinemachinemachinemachinemachinemachine

    Reminds me of this odd anomaly of my autocomplete: if I type human, I can get...

    human machinemachinemachinemachinemachinemachinemachine

    3 votes

  15. Comment on Tildes Survey #8: What is your favorite video game? (Results) in ~talk

    Trobador
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    I sort of hate picking favorites because it's so difficult! And I always feel like my picks are too recent and not established enough. There's that voice in the back of my head always telling me...

    I sort of hate picking favorites because it's so difficult! And I always feel like my picks are too recent and not established enough. There's that voice in the back of my head always telling me I'm childish or a trend follower for thinking of "new" games that released less than 20 years ago instead of some ancient SNES JRPG or the like. I realize how irrational it is, especially seeing the kind of titles people are naming here. But man, I never totally left that time when I was browsing forums in 2009 when I was way too young for it and seeing everyone talk about retro titles when all I had was a DS!

    It's always a hard question, but now, I tend to say Minecraft. It's probably the most important game to my development : my first 'proper' PC game, the one I made my first long-time friends on, one of the games I've played the most (possibly the most, but much of my tracked playtime is lost). It's a beautifully designed game and one well worth loving, one that still impresses me years later. I frequently go back to it. None of its many descendants can quite capture what makes its appeal special.

    The funny thing about Minecraft, also, is that it's the only game where I feel like a veteran. Since it's a big modding version, I've heard that players sometimes see 1.12.1 as a cut-off point between classic and modern Minecraft today. I started playing with beta 1.7, back in 2011 ; anything after 1.0 feels new to me! I still think of ocelots as a newer feature and they're not even in the game anymore.

    5 votes

  16. Comment on What are people's experiences with using Kagi? in ~tech

    Trobador
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    That, I did not know, that's cool! Props for that.

    That, I did not know, that's cool! Props for that.

  17. Comment on What are people's experiences with using Kagi? in ~tech

    Trobador
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    But does my request go through an LLM anyway, even if I don't use that 'quick answer' thing? Whether it's visible in the end result or not, I don't want one to be involved at all.

    But does my request go through an LLM anyway, even if I don't use that 'quick answer' thing? Whether it's visible in the end result or not, I don't want one to be involved at all.

  18. Comment on What are people's experiences with using Kagi? in ~tech

    Trobador
    Link Parent
    I used DDG for a while and I tried using bangs but did not see the point of them. It seemed much easier to just add the sites you used frequently to my browser's search engine list, after which it...

    I used DDG for a while and I tried using bangs but did not see the point of them. It seemed much easier to just add the sites you used frequently to my browser's search engine list, after which it would autocomplete to the search I want instantly, as opposed to trying to remember the bang, waiting for the request to go through DDG and then maybe getting the right site.

    4 votes

  19. Comment on What are people's experiences with using Kagi? in ~tech

    Trobador
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    Of course. Though I don't like that piece much. It points out the fact that abuse of SEO is detrimental and sometimes harmful to users, but Kagi doesn't actually seem to do much about that; it...

    Of course. Though I don't like that piece much. It points out the fact that abuse of SEO is detrimental and sometimes harmful to users, but Kagi doesn't actually seem to do much about that; it still seems vulnerable to SEO abuse. I still see SEO farming sites on Kagi. AI-generated how-tos with 20 sections paraphrasing each other, sites meant to imitate others, frickin' Fandom. It's there. Less than Google, but not less than other search engines.

    I recognize why paid services like these exist, and support their efforts to change things, but my ideal is not just an Internet that's not a privacy hellhole, but also one that is freely and fully accessible to all. That arguably matters more to me. I don't want a future where these services are the norm and we end up with a constantly paywalled Internet.

    I'm not arrogant enough to claim I have a better solution (maybe federated search engines?), but I don't think I want to support this one.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on What are people's experiences with using Kagi? in ~tech

    Trobador
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    It seems to be a good search engine and the translation seems great, but I have no intent to pay for a search engine, especially not 10 bucks a month. I understand I'm the product when using free...

    It seems to be a good search engine and the translation seems great, but I have no intent to pay for a search engine, especially not 10 bucks a month. I understand I'm the product when using free services, but searching is a basic thing that shoumd not be locked behind payment, so I do not see it as an improvement. I think unfavourably of it like I think of any paid software in general.

    So long as my data isn't being collected, I'm okay with some sponsored links, so long as they're not obtrusive. Kagi also doesn't seem to solve the main problem I have with search these days: AI-generated SEO farming articles. Startpage does slighty better than the rest in that regard. Kagi is about the same. So, I prefer to stick with Startpage, since it treats me well.