awitchandherdog's recent activity

  1. Comment on Why did you select your username for Tildes? in ~tildes

    awitchandherdog
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    I have a dog! That, and it was originally a book title for a WIP that sort of never went anywhere. I still want to work on it one of these days.

    I have a dog! That, and it was originally a book title for a WIP that sort of never went anywhere. I still want to work on it one of these days.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on 87% missing: The disappearance of classic video games in ~games

    awitchandherdog
    Link
    Ignoring the ethical concerns of piracy for a moment, video games are probably the most well-preserved out of all media. How many games are really 'lost' in that they can't be played? MAG? City of...

    Ignoring the ethical concerns of piracy for a moment, video games are probably the most well-preserved out of all media. How many games are really 'lost' in that they can't be played? MAG? City of Heroes? That's a pretty small fraction compared to the losses of, let's say, Doctor Who, which was still having episodes destroyed as late as 1978, the same year the Odyssey 2 came out. Because of emulators, games are really accessible and play almost identically to how they did in the past. It takes me all of two seconds to download Stella and a ROM of Space Invaders to play one of the most influential games ever made—without any loss of quality. That's the important thing. Physical film and music are subject to degradation, but games are eternal and are the same today as they were forty years ago.

    This article understandably sees games preservation through a capitalist lens because of copyright, but there's no question that the vast majority of games are in no danger of being lost. Right now you can download every single Atari VCS game ever released and store it for as little as twenty megabytes. Imagine if the Silent Era of film was like this.

    4 votes

  3. Comment on The main problem with the Fediverse is that people mostly just use it to talk about the Fediverse in ~tech

    awitchandherdog
    Link
    That hasn't been my experience with Mastodon at all: there are vibrant communities there. The writing instance that I'm on is fairly active, and I see new poetry and writing every day. The...

    That hasn't been my experience with Mastodon at all: there are vibrant communities there. The writing instance that I'm on is fairly active, and I see new poetry and writing every day. The communities are definitely smaller than what you'd find on Twitter or Reddit, obviously, but they exist, even if you do have to search for them.

    Tildes has its fair share of posts as well comparing it to Reddit. I think what you're seeing is the result of users migrating to Mastodon because of Elon shenanigans, so naturally there is a lot of discussion about the Fediverse to encourage new users that would be scared off otherwise.

    18 votes

  4. Comment on Twine is an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories in ~creative

    awitchandherdog
    Link Parent
    The heavy reliance on JavaScript/CSS is what kills Twine for me. I'm not sure why, exactly. I just found it less intuitive than Ren'Py at the same task of creating interactive fiction. I really...

    The heavy reliance on JavaScript/CSS is what kills Twine for me. I'm not sure why, exactly. I just found it less intuitive than Ren'Py at the same task of creating interactive fiction. I really couldn't find good resources for Twine and I was fighting to get anything working. Granted, I don't know anything about webdev and that probably contributed a lot to my frustration.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on What is "that part" for you in any game? in ~games

    awitchandherdog
    Link Parent
    You can definitely tell that the Demon Ruins are not finished. There's so much empty space that isn't used. It's just a single straight path from point A to point B. I love the first Dark Souls,...

    You can definitely tell that the Demon Ruins are not finished. There's so much empty space that isn't used. It's just a single straight path from point A to point B. I love the first Dark Souls, but there is a noticeable lack of polish the exact moment you pick up the Lordvessel.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on What is "that part" for you in any game? in ~games

    awitchandherdog
    Link
    This was Golden Sun for me as a kid because of an extremely long dialogue sequence that just drags after the tutorial. Emulated it's not so bad, but on original hardware it takes forever to get...

    This was Golden Sun for me as a kid because of an extremely long dialogue sequence that just drags after the tutorial. Emulated it's not so bad, but on original hardware it takes forever to get through.

    I've played through Dark Souls so many times that I'm not a fan of going through the Undead Burg. It's great level design, but since it's at the very start the character customization is limited, so it plays the same way basically every time. In general the first couple of hours of every RPG are not fun for me if I've played them before—except for Underrail. Underrail is king at replayability.

    4 votes

  7. Comment on What are the benefits of using Linux for the less computer competent? in ~comp

    awitchandherdog
    Link Parent
    I really don't think those are comparable. There is a world of difference between Minecraft commands and the Linux terminal. You're not going to learn how to navigate directories in the terminal...

    I really don't think those are comparable. There is a world of difference between Minecraft commands and the Linux terminal. You're not going to learn how to navigate directories in the terminal through a Discord bot, for example. The command line as a concept might be familiar to the average person, but using it to install programs, copy and delete files, etc. is well beyond what they know.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative

    awitchandherdog
    Link Parent
    I used to do significantly more editing, but obsessing over every word slowed me down to a crawl. I hate publishing prose that isn't 100% perfect, but that's life, I suppose. I think the most I've...

    I used to do significantly more editing, but obsessing over every word slowed me down to a crawl. I hate publishing prose that isn't 100% perfect, but that's life, I suppose. I think the most I've ever written in a day is 4k, so good on you! I wish I could write at that speed, even sporadically.

    Still, you should be proud of yourself. Writing is extremely mentally taxing and is tied to your health. It's not always going to be possible to write more—and that's okay. Remember to set limits for yourself. You shouldn't beat yourself up because of mental health out of your control.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on What are the benefits of using Linux for the less computer competent? in ~comp

    awitchandherdog
    Link Parent
    The best QOL decision I've seen for a DE is Linux Mint having a 'Show in Terminal' option when you right click in a folder. That saved me so many headaches when I was just wrapping my head around...

    The best QOL decision I've seen for a DE is Linux Mint having a 'Show in Terminal' option when you right click in a folder. That saved me so many headaches when I was just wrapping my head around terminal business.

    I think the problem really is that the societal knowledge of working in a terminal has long since gone. The average person had not had to use or even seen an operating system without a GUI in four decades. It's like reports of Zoomers struggling with the concept of file directories because they've grown up using smartphones. This knowledge has to be relearned, and for non-techies that is too big of an ask.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on What are the benefits of using Linux for the less computer competent? in ~comp

    awitchandherdog
    Link Parent
    The average person is familiar with Windows in at least some way, though: for most people it is probably the only operating system they have ever used. I don't think it's fair to cast aside that...

    The average person is familiar with Windows in at least some way, though: for most people it is probably the only operating system they have ever used. I don't think it's fair to cast aside that tech literacy as if it were a habit that needs to be broken. Switching to a whole new family of operating systems is a hurdle that many people cannot (and don't have to) tolerate.

    Linux is a different environment, a different culture. I love Linux, but the terminal is a non-starter for many people. Sure, a lot of beginner friendly DEs try to abstract away the terminal from the user, but it is still the best way to install programs and something that every user will come into contact with eventually.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative

    awitchandherdog
    Link Parent
    I've been doing the same line of work (not commissions, however) for around two years now, and I definitely sympathize. I can reliably hit 1.5k words a day when I'm feeling well, but maintaining...

    I've been doing the same line of work (not commissions, however) for around two years now, and I definitely sympathize. I can reliably hit 1.5k words a day when I'm feeling well, but maintaining that speed day after day with a deadline always in the horizon is so hard. I don't like throwing words on the wall like this: I like taking my time, sitting down and thinking about what I'm writing, even if that only means I get 500 words down by the end of the day, but with erotica that's just not possible if I want to make a living.

    It has helped me that I have other writing projects on my mind that I reserve time for. I have a fantasy book that I'm working on, and having it on my mind has done a lot to keep me sane, even if I can't always put words down because of work. I have a constructed language that I'm building for it, and I've done a ridiculous amount of worldbuilding... having some kind of creative outlet that is separate from work has done a lot of good for me.

    1 vote