Grumble4681's recent activity
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Comment on Meta and YouTube found liable in landmark social media addiction trial in ~health.mental
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Comment on Meta and YouTube found liable in landmark social media addiction trial in ~health.mental
Grumble4681 (edited )Link ParentBut everything is designed around drawing people in. I do think there is a strong case to be made that how well researched something is in terms of its addictiveness is a significant factor,...But everything is designed around drawing people in. I do think there is a strong case to be made that how well researched something is in terms of its addictiveness is a significant factor, because it's at that point they know what they are doing, but choosing to remain ignorant of the consequences of your actions isn't exactly the greatest excuse either.
Think about music for example. The one thing that draws people in is called a "hook". In video games, there's also some concept of "core game loop" or something along those lines too, but still meaning some kind of hook. Something that pulls people in and keeps them in. Everything these days is all about vying for your attention. It's an arms race of 'hooks' pulling for everyone's attention and keeping their attention. Linear television programming predated Facebook and video games but did much the same thing. You can't really even have an entertainment business without a hook, because everyone else has them, that is what they're all competing against.
But if I look at Path of Exile for example, do I think they started that game with a team of researchers carefully telling them how to build it to draw people in and get them addicted? No. They've even stated their influence was Diablo II. Maybe Diablo II had a team of researchers that told them how to design the game that way, but I doubt it. But at this point, and for many years now, they've full well known that there are people like the one example I cited before that are addicted to their game, that play it an extreme amount of time. So even if they didn't design it initially with carefully executed precision to get people addicted, now they know it happens and what are they doing about it?
With regards to the edit:
I would also argue the harm potential/result is different, as gaming addiction can lead to time loss and financial crisis, but social media addiction can lead to more self-image issues that become a negative spiral.
I think gaming addiction can have the same issue, but it doesn't manifest in the exact same way. If all your time goes into a void, and you have a poor financial situation, what exactly is your self-image at that point? What's your identity? To everyone else, you're just some incel neckbeard loser.
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Comment on Meta and YouTube found liable in landmark social media addiction trial in ~health.mental
Grumble4681 Link ParentThe same can be said for the person in this lawsuit too. Facebook did nothing for me, maybe others got hooked on it, but it didn't do anything for me.*** Meanwhile, I was hooked on Halo and played...Well to be far, some of those extreme cases are cases of mental health issues.
The same can be said for the person in this lawsuit too. Facebook did nothing for me, maybe others got hooked on it, but it didn't do anything for me.*** Meanwhile, I was hooked on Halo and played it a ton, and lots of other people couldn't give a rats ass about Halo. So why is their life more important than mine? Meaning, why is the protection of their mind from Facebook more important than the protection of my mind from Halo or other video games?
I'm being a bit obtuse in asking it that way, more so I'm trying to frame a different perspective on the matter, to think about it differently.
***Noteworthy of course that I wasn't a kid/teenager when Facebook came around, it was more Myspace back in my time.
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Comment on Meta and YouTube found liable in landmark social media addiction trial in ~health.mental
Grumble4681 LinkThe more I think about this, the more I question if anything is really off-limits. Video games can be addicting, arguably they're designed that way. I recently just got pinged in a Discord server...The more I think about this, the more I question if anything is really off-limits. Video games can be addicting, arguably they're designed that way. I recently just got pinged in a Discord server by a guy who got banned from Path of Exile and he is begging everyone in his server to help him because his life revolves around the game and that he might kill himself if they don't unban him. A guy who said he has a family and kids, he also said he spent 16 hours per day for 8 years straight of his life revolving around the game.
And it's not like he's a one-off necessarily, Path of Exile is a game known to draw lots of people in and garner significant play time. Is it not possible that the developers of that game are not liable for the addiction and destruction of the lives of the people who are playing that game that much?
I don't personally think it's the case, and I also question the legitimacy of this lawsuit against Meta/Youtube as well. Not that I'm against it either, I just genuinely don't know where culpability begins for these and how one is all that different from the other.
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Comment on The century of the maxxer in ~life
Grumble4681 Link ParentI consider specialization in all forms as a 'maxxing' variant. So yeah, our entire societies are all about maxxing, even when it's not for individual identity but also for advancing your career.I consider specialization in all forms as a 'maxxing' variant. So yeah, our entire societies are all about maxxing, even when it's not for individual identity but also for advancing your career.
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Comment on GrapheneOS refuses to comply with new age verification laws for operating systems — group says it will never require personal information in ~tech
Grumble4681 Link ParentEven if it's not totally legislated in like that, I could still see states like Texas utilizing the abortion targeting tactics against LGBT+ content. To a certain extent, it's up to the providers...Even if it's not totally legislated in like that, I could still see states like Texas utilizing the abortion targeting tactics against LGBT+ content.
To a certain extent, it's up to the providers to determine whether their content is 'adult' or not, and they're going to do so based on legal liability. I don't know the specific California or Colorado laws in terms of what is considered adult content or where they draw the line, but I know all of these laws have varying ways of defining it so it will likely end up being that those hosting or distributing the content will end playing it safe. But reddit is a good example where there is access to adult content on there, but it's not considered a pornographic site, and some legislation has rules like 50% of the content or whatever being adult content makes the site pornographic or something along those lines.
In any case, what I'm saying is that I expect states like Texas with their anti-abortion tactics, will simply try to use the workaround of just suing everyone for everything that someone could argue is adult content, and then everyone will just end up playing it safe. I could see that being a reality that will force LGBT+ content into restrictions, with the threat being that if you don't do it, you'll get sued in Texas by some backwards ass fuckface.
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Comment on Thinking of getting Proton and using it as my day-to-day email, but I have concerns in ~tech
Grumble4681 LinkThis seems peculiar framing to me, in part because of how you approach other aspects of anonymity and privacy. You completely negate a huge component of privacy by saying it doesn't functionally...Like other than not having my emails used to train AI or data being sold to data brokers, I can't find a functional improvement or benefit to my daily life to use Proton outside of thinking "Yeah, fuck The Man" every time I log in.
This seems peculiar framing to me, in part because of how you approach other aspects of anonymity and privacy. You completely negate a huge component of privacy by saying it doesn't functionally do anything for you. Now if it were consistent that you only compared about the functional aspect of things, then it would make sense. But in other areas you talk about your advertising profile and aliases being connected and piercing your anonymity. So how is the content of your emails being sold to data brokers or being used as part of your advertising profile not more significant?
Don't get me wrong, I get it, there's another side to those emails. You explained how you sign up for one service and that service can sell your data, so it wouldn't matter if Google knows you signed up on godotshaders.com from the email you receive because godotshaders already sold that information. However, you're also locking yourself into a transaction where you can continue justifying inaction because you lack control over the situation. If your email service isn't selling your data, then you might be more inclined to look for sites/services that also respect your data and don't sell your information.
Regarding 2.) I don't think that type of anonymization is intended for a primary email. If you're trying to evade authorities, you're better off separating actions you suspect authorities would have interest in to designated accounts for those actions.
Regarding 3.) Similar to the initial concern, I think by justifying not switching to a more private email provider, you're locking yourself into a situation where you can justify inaction. The other components that you listed that could tie your alias to your primary email, those are components you could eliminate as being an issue if you wanted, but if you keep Gmail, you wouldn't be inclined to because Google still then would have all your data and nothing else you do matters. Mullvad Browser can beat fingerprinting, VPN can potentially save your IP from being collected, changing browser settings with regards to cookies can defeat cookie tracking. Maybe you won't do any of those things so it feels pointless, but part of why you wouldn't do anything is because it feels like too much work to do it. If you put yourself in a situation where you have to change everything all at once, then of course you'll be inclined to never do it because it's too hard. If you're signing up for godotshaders.com, you're not going to stop everything you're doing to do this and sign up for Proton mail or any other service, then go get a VPN, then download another browser, and so on, just to sign up for godshotshaders. But if you already have the email part sorted out, and later on you switch your browser, then sometime later you set up a VPN, eventually you can reach a point where everything you sign up for is more secured and anonymous without it feeling overwhelming to do so. And what's more, you might feel more empowered to pick and choose what services you sign up for if you have all your other bases covered and you're simply worried that one service doesn't respect your data or privacy.
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Comment on GrapheneOS refuses to comply with new age verification laws for operating systems — group says it will never require personal information in ~tech
Grumble4681 Link ParentWell the current incoming laws that are imposing these demands onto OSes to ask about age also have this problem. I think we all know nothing is foolproof, and a kid with enough resources and...Either you setup a Great Firewall to block services that will not comply (like services that operate out of other countries without these laws) or the whole thing is a joke.
Well the current incoming laws that are imposing these demands onto OSes to ask about age also have this problem.
I think we all know nothing is foolproof, and a kid with enough resources and determination is likely to bypass most restrictions. Hell, that's true in the analog comparative of what is attempting to be accomplished here. Restricting sales of cigarettes and alcohol to people with government issued IDs that show they are of the appropriate age has never 100% stopped all kids from drinking or smoking.
If you could assume competent and altruistic entities existed, what would likely be a decent compromise for this situation would be that devices set in 'adult content restricted mode' would use DNS servers that filter out adult content, with the theoretical competent and altruistic entity being the one that sets up those filters. At least initially anyhow, I think this could be similar in efficacy to what restricting sales of alcohol and tobacco are in the offline world. It's not going to stop everyone, but it would likely stop enough. I'd say the real problem with this idea is that I presupposed it on a theoretical entity that isn't real and the political challenges of who controls that filter and what not are the inhibitors.
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Comment on US regulator bans imports of new foreign-made routers, citing security concerns in ~tech
Grumble4681 Link ParentSo while this doesn't immediately solve the issue for consumers, this would seemingly be easily circumvented by taking consumer grade router hardware and stripping out the firmware/software. Then...Routers: For the purpose of this determination, the term “Routers” is defined by National
Institute of Science and Technology’s Internal Report 8425A to include consumer-grade
networking devices that are primarily intended for residential use and can be installed by the
customer. Routers forward data packets, most commonly Internet Protocol (IP) packets, between
networked systems.So while this doesn't immediately solve the issue for consumers, this would seemingly be easily circumvented by taking consumer grade router hardware and stripping out the firmware/software. Then it's just a general purpose computing device with extra network ports on it. Then anyone can import it. Then a separate legal entity that operates independently that buys the imported general purpose hardware and loads the firmware/software onto it. The key part is that TP-Link or such can't just establish another LLC in the US because that would be one entity trying to circumvent the law, but one entity who is only importing general computing devices and another independent entity who is only loading software onto already imported devices are two entities who are doing nothing illegal.
And yes, you can already do this with hardware that is already available. I bought some myself and previously used untangle on it, but now switched to opnsense. I haven't tried OpenWRT yet.
I strongly suspect that this is a similar case to Tik-Tok. US leadership doesn't care about privacy or security of US citizens in general, they only care about protecting them from foreign adversaries and it makes sense for them to supplant the foreign adversaries in the role of invading privacy and security of US citizens with domestic allies. I'm sure Larry Ellison wouldn't mind having access to everyone's home routers, and the current US leadership would be quite happy with that arrangement as well.
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Comment on GrapheneOS refuses to comply with new age verification laws for operating systems — group says it will never require personal information in ~tech
Grumble4681 Link ParentI think it's a problem of framing in this case. Almost the same exact outcome could be achieved with basically the same processes, but instead of asking for a person's age, the setup is designed...I think it's a problem of framing in this case. Almost the same exact outcome could be achieved with basically the same processes, but instead of asking for a person's age, the setup is designed around parents doing the initial setup of a child's device. Basically all it needs to ask is something like "Do you want to set adult content restrictions on this device?" and then the 'boiling the frog' issue will be less about "but anyone can enter the wrong age" because that's not what it's framing it as, but instead it will be 'but XYZ websites etc. are still accessible even in content restricted mode'. And when kids get ahold of devices that aren't in content restricted mode, it places it back into the parental realm. That's not an issue that requires sophisticated technical skills as far as responsibility for a parent goes, because the law gives them an option to reduce technical overhead and place content restrictions on their child's device, it's up to the parent to control what physical objects their child gets ahold of.
Now the issue in that scenario will be what the crackdown would entail to follow up on services that don't oblige by the flag, but that's also true even in this age framing of the law. How draconian will they go and what will that look like to force services to respect that content restriction flag?
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Comment on Commonly misspelled words quiz in ~humanities.languages
Grumble4681 Link ParentI messed up restaurant under similar conditions. I know how it's spelled, somehow I picked the wrong one. The other one I messed up was rhythm, and to be honest, that's one word that I often find...I messed up on "apparent." I know how it's spelled, but I think the pressure got to me, lo
I messed up restaurant under similar conditions. I know how it's spelled, somehow I picked the wrong one. The other one I messed up was rhythm, and to be honest, that's one word that I often find that spell correction keeps having to correct for me as I keep forgetting how to spell it.
Most of them I could just visually recognize, on the latter stretch I stopped even reading the sentence and just looked at the word choices which surely boosted my score. I got somewhere in the 5400s but I closed it and retaking it now would feel like cheating.
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Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech
Grumble4681 Link ParentThat's really not what I'm talking about though. I'm not even sure how that's what you came away with to be honest. I even stated "A country with great national security under the rule of a...That's really not what I'm talking about though. I'm not even sure how that's what you came away with to be honest. I even stated "A country with great national security under the rule of a dictator is still a country under the rule of a dictator."
Also lets be real, you enjoy freedoms and securities of life that you would never have if the world was built in the principle that you state, so it's easy to say it for things you can't erase the existence of but only exist because people gave up liberty for security and you grew up in that situation that you had no ability to change.
Living under any government at all is giving up liberty for security. Living in any kind of community setting is potentially giving up liberty for security. Even if you're fully on board and in agreement with the series of engagements of any community type of setting, procreating and creating any life at all is forcing others into situations they had no choice over. All of life is making compromises for things you don't want for the sake of continuing to live, and often for the sake of increasing your own comfort and safety.
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Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech
Grumble4681 Link ParentFrom a national security standpoint, unfortunately they probably were closer to the mark than I'd have ever wanted to acknowledge. That doesn't mean I agree with the whole GFW in concept or...From a national security standpoint, unfortunately they probably were closer to the mark than I'd have ever wanted to acknowledge. That doesn't mean I agree with the whole GFW in concept or principle and surely not the implementation as well as their other internet controlling tactics. I'm not very familiar with the details of their setup, some people that I know who have been to China tell me it's trivial to bypass and that it's a joke and it doesn't do anything and that all Chinese citizens know how to bypass it etc., I have no clue the actual truth to it, but if it actually allows them any greater control or insight into what type of internet traffic is happening going into and out of China and limits exposure to attacks in ways other countries seem to be more exposed to them, then that's a clear advantage for national security if nothing else.
Of course, national security is sometimes more advantageous to the controlling interests of the nation than it is to the people of the nation, so it's not inherently a clear win to the people of any country that the national security of their country is superior to other countries. A country with great national security under the rule of a dictator is still a country under the rule of a dictator.
And I'm probably using national security in a broader sense than perhaps it's actually meant to be. I think that phone scams that come from poorer nations targeting wealthier nations is a national security issue. Due to the recent decade's revelations of Russia interfering in elections, involvement in Brexit etc., it goes beyond phones even. When it gets to the point that you know this kind of interference is happening and you can't do anything about it, that's a problem. I am honestly somewhat surprised that it hasn't already been the case that sanctioning countries doesn't involve cutting off physical network connections to other countries. I'm sure it's a lot more complicated than that due to the interconnected-ness of things, but still. I also know it won't stop them from being able to send people over the border to other countries and commit crimes in unsanctioned countries, but that at least forces people into jurisdictions where they may be exposed to consequences.
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Comment on Iran hits Gulf energy sites, escalating war, as US mulls sanctions rollback in ~society
Grumble4681 (edited )Link ParentConsidering that from what I've been seeing, a lot of this oil and gas isn't destined for the US market and much of the market trading and pricing is speculative, I'm coming around to the idea...Considering that from what I've been seeing, a lot of this oil and gas isn't destined for the US market and much of the market trading and pricing is speculative, I'm coming around to the idea that this war is calculated political theater. Bring the prices up before elections happen, then wind it down in a few months and because at least in the US market most of it was speculation, prices will come back down before the election. It's a way to manipulate the goldfish brained populace into feeling like things are better right before the election.
At this point it's well known, voters don't vote based on logic, they vote based on emotion. This is the basis of Trump's success. Voters also don't remember what they had for breakfast last week, let alone who started what war and for what reasons 7 months ago. The basis of success in elections at this point is making people feel good about your party in the weeks/days leading up to the elections, and feel fear of the other party. That's it. Logic does not matter. Facts do not matter. Feelings are what drives US elections.
If you see it this way, it's easy to see how actions can be done for political theater. Humans are very easy to understand on this level. Big blockbuster movies are dictated by formulas, a very carefully orchestrated ride that guides people through an emotional journey through the movie with precision on when to orchestrate certain events and in what order to generate the reactions and feelings. Not that it works to a 100% degree because people change as a result of seeing things many times over so the formulas have to adapt to chase those changes, and different people respond to different formulas, but it's not hard to see. It's not that much of a leap to say that an administration with absolutely no ethical boundaries, no qualms of lying, headed by a figure who grew his fame through entertainment, would be successful and willing to use such tactics.
They obviously don't care about Iran or what happens to Iran after, it does not matter if there are political consequences for these actions 5 years from now, they don't care about Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Europe, Asia in general, so the consequences to what happens outside the US matter very little.
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Comment on New Firefox features: Built-in free VPN, split view, tab notes in ~tech
Grumble4681 (edited )Link ParentYes but even that partnership makes more sense because it's Proton branded. Proton has a business model that makes offering that VPN for free possibly make sense, because it pulls people into the...Yes but even that partnership makes more sense because it's Proton branded. Proton has a business model that makes offering that VPN for free possibly make sense, because it pulls people into the Proton services umbrella and possibly will get them using other Proton services and then possibly convert them to a paying customer.
If Mozilla is offering a VPN that is Proton branded, then I'll have reason not to doubt its viability. Proton has been around awhile and seems to have made a sustainable business model and is seemingly growing, so they seem to be doing things right and know what they're doing to the point they have been offering a free VPN for awhile and they continue to keep offering the free VPN and as you highlighted, even expanding the offering. Mozilla and their handling of Firefox on the other hand...
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Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech
Grumble4681 Link ParentThe thing about it to me is that I bet 99% of these scams are coming from people who live in other countries. If you look at what a lot of IT network vendors and companies do, they employ threat...Instead, we need to be better at criminalizing scams and tracing the money flows. Get better at detecting bad apps (which they need to do anyway to actually make their Play Store safe).
The thing about it to me is that I bet 99% of these scams are coming from people who live in other countries. If you look at what a lot of IT network vendors and companies do, they employ threat detection software that generally just blocks anything from various countries they would have no expectation of internal traffic coming from.
I don't know enough about the phone system to understand the full scope of how it's built and operated, but in the US at least, it's been comically easy to spoof numbers and scam people over the phone for decades at this point. It's absolutely absurd that such a system even exists. The reality is that many people have absolutely ZERO need to receive calls from people in other parts of the world and yet the vast majority of the scams likely come from people not residing in their country, but people use VOIP systems built on total shit technology that is the phone system to originate their calls in the country they are targeting. There are also plenty of people who probably who need to receive calls from people in other countries, this isn't the 1950s after all, but it would be a start.
I honestly think the future is that the internet will eventually be restricted on a country by country basis. I don't see how it will continue to be justified to allow countries like North Korea or Russia etc. to launch attacks and election manipulation tactics with impunity because they are outside of any jurisdiction that matters.
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Comment on The 49MB web page in ~comp
Grumble4681 Link ParentYeah this aligns more with my experience. I had CanvasBlocker, used Firefox's advanced tracking protection set to strict, and there were just oddities I would keep encountering of things that...At the point where you really no longer have a unique fingerprint you end up with a browsing experience I'd personally hate to be honest. With a lot of steps in between you might actually make yourself more unique as your browser effectively starts to act out of place.
Yeah this aligns more with my experience. I had CanvasBlocker, used Firefox's advanced tracking protection set to strict, and there were just oddities I would keep encountering of things that didn't work right or as expected. I ended up giving it up as it just wasn't worth the headaches.
I considered using Mullvad browser but it doesn't come with the password manager I use as a default (Bitwarden) and they do seem to advise that installing other extensions kind of defeats the purpose of using it since every extension you add makes it more unique and identifiable. I don't know if just adding Bitwarden would make it fully unique, I didn't try it.
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Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech
Grumble4681 Link ParentI wouldn't necessarily have a problem with that if it wasn't also such a self-serving maneuver. Apple, Google etc. I'm so sick and tired of their endless excuses about security because it's gotten...I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with that if it wasn't also such a self-serving maneuver. Apple, Google etc. I'm so sick and tired of their endless excuses about security because it's gotten to a point where security excuses advantage themselves over everyone else. So while you gain security for the masses, you lose so much more because you enable giant vertically integrated companies to advantage themselves further, to further entrench their position and further make everyone more dependent on them.
I don't think you can easily separate the gains in security with the losses in healthy competition both now and potential futures where such compromises didn't exist or were handled differently.
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Comment on New Firefox features: Built-in free VPN, split view, tab notes in ~tech
Grumble4681 Link ParentThat says nothing about the costs though. My concern is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of free options from reputable companies, which makes me think it's not a financially viable model for...That says nothing about the costs though. My concern is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of free options from reputable companies, which makes me think it's not a financially viable model for one reason or another. Yes there are different motives and different revenue sources for companies so one can't directly compare in that way, offering free VPN to lure people to the Firefox browser could open them up to an umbrella of other services that could get Mozilla revenue, meanwhile Mullvad may only do VPN and nothing else and wouldn't necessarily benefit in the same way for subsidizing a free VPN. So I get that there are other factors.
The thing is that VPNs are serious business when it comes to privacy, and there are a lot of less reputable VPN providers that offer free VPN usage but there's a great distrust by anyone who is privacy minded to use those because there is a decent chance that they can offer it for free because they're doing some kind of tracking, data harvesting etc. on the back end.
Then you look at some other things Mozilla dabbled in or ended recently. I mentioned Monitor Plus which was recently discontinued, but they also bought FakeSpot and then discontinued it, Pocket was recently discontinued. Mozilla, with its limited funds appropriated to Firefox, is missing the mark more than I think is acceptable.
So I think it's fair to question the viability of what they're offering when I don't see anyone else doing it that also has the reputation Firefox has to uphold. If it brings in new users and those new users allow for it to be sustainable in some way in the long term, then more power to them for pulling it off, but if they're simply just giving away 50GB of free VPN to existing users and not increasing any revenue, then I don't see it being viable.
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Comment on New Firefox features: Built-in free VPN, split view, tab notes in ~tech
Grumble4681 (edited )Link ParentI don't see how it's economical or financially viable for them to offer 50GB of data monthly for free in a VPN without there being some kind of unsavory string attached. Of the more reputable...I don't see how it's economical or financially viable for them to offer 50GB of data monthly for free in a VPN without there being some kind of unsavory string attached.
Of the more reputable VPNs, many don't have free offerings. Proton has a limited offering that is free, I don't recall the various restrictions of it. TunnelBear had some conditions where you could get a certain amount of data for free if you promoted the product in various ways, but even then, they weren't offering 50GB and they were doing it on the basis of you doing work for them in return for the limited data they were giving. I'm sure there are others I'm not aware of as it's not a space I actively patrol but I've still not yet heard of any reputable offerings where you get 50GB of data free unhindered, so I just don't see how this is a viable offering. I would like to be optimistic about Firefox and Mozilla and not pessimistic, but they don't have a great track record of launching big features that they can sustain or make a meaningful difference with or that don't have some unsavory elements. One of the more recent ones being the identity erasing service they offered, Mozilla Monitor Plus, because it turned out it was backed by an illegitimate company with unethical practices. If it sounds too good to be true...
I don't disagree that is likely a significant factor for him specifically, but if you look at the big picture of the game, there's reasons why someone like him was even in that position to begin with. You say its 1% of the 1%, but I don't believe that, but I suppose it also depends on how you define the players of the game. Of the regular players of that game, I would say TFT is a greater percentage of players than you give it credit for. I was in that discord server and I'm not even a regular player of that game, I haven't even played it in awhile, but I was in there because of the few times I did play, on a few occasions I used it to get more out of the game than was available to do in other ways. There's also a reason that group has had an outsized influence on the PoE community as a whole and constantly was generating controversy and ending up in drama threads on reddit, because lots of users used it.
Given that it has been so long since I've played the game it's possible it's less relevant now than it was a few years ago, but that's not really pertinent anyhow. The point being that the game inspiring so many people to even desire and gravitate towards a service like TFT tells you how many people are into the game. The game design itself is built around people spending insane amounts of time on the game, because most of the content in the game you can't even interact with or achieve without playing it an insane amount of time. People who swarm to defend the game design against others who suggest feedback on changing the game further this to me. The game was very anti-QOL for the longest time, from what I've gathered it's improved over the past couple of years, but a lot of players who play the game as much as they do basically wanted the game to be a time sink because it let them get above everyone else. They don't want it to be easier to get Magebloods and various currency and what not that let you craft items in different ways, because then they wouldn't gain anything over everyone else who doesn't spend 10 hours a day on the game.
And the devs full well know this too. They have benefited greatly from the dedicated fan base who builds up tools and what not around the game over the years. Those 'addicted' people are huge boon to the success of the game.