Grzmot's recent activity
-
Comment on Listing for GOG Galaxy developer cites Linux as “next major frontier” in ~games
-
Comment on I let my wife have an affair. Do I have to console her now that it’s over? in ~life
Grzmot Link ParentThe person who asked this question was obviously hurt in this whole ordeal, but doesn't seem to realize it. I think that's where their feeling of it not being their problem comes from. They agreed...The person who asked this question was obviously hurt in this whole ordeal, but doesn't seem to realize it. I think that's where their feeling of it not being their problem comes from. They agreed not because they were ok with it, but because they thought it was better than sharing who they actually felt about the ordeal.
Call it sunk cost fallacy or whatever, but it seems like a communication mistake was made at the start, and then the questioner did what a lot of humans do: stuck to their guns while everything got worse.
-
Comment on Listing for GOG Galaxy developer cites Linux as “next major frontier” in ~games
Grzmot Link ParentBut that's the catch-22 I was alluding to. You need to get people onto Linux first. And people are not gonna get on Linux if "all their games only run on Windows". We're getting as close as we can...But that's my issue. People aren't spending money on Linux, they are spending money on WINE.
But that's the catch-22 I was alluding to. You need to get people onto Linux first. And people are not gonna get on Linux if "all their games only run on Windows". We're getting as close as we can now in the consumer space with the most important app being the browser and that running flawlessly on all operating systems.
Right now, developers are not giving a shit about running well on Proton, unless they're targeting the hand-held market and thus Steam Deck with a significant margin, and soon that Lenovo device that's meant to run Steam OS. Outside of Valve investing manpower, no one's doing much; adoption is still too low.
Everyone having Proton on mind when they develop games for Windows is the prerequisite to some developers offering a Linux native version, but for that consumer adoption has to be in the double digits at least. Until then, Proton is the best thing we got, and I'm damn happy we do, especially with the shitshow that is Windows 11.
-
Comment on Listing for GOG Galaxy developer cites Linux as “next major frontier” in ~games
Grzmot Link ParentThat, plus there being some ideological drawbacks on some of the distros. For example, I would easily recommend Fedora with Gnome to a normal user today. But crucially, it doesn't come with nvidia...That, plus there being some ideological drawbacks on some of the distros. For example, I would easily recommend Fedora with Gnome to a normal user today. But crucially, it doesn't come with nvidia gpu drivers nor the HEVC video codec because both are propriatary. Both require pasting commands into the command line.
The HEVC codec is especially tricky because video plays, but you get audio only. There is no error message no nothing that tells you that you're missing a codec. At least Windows tells you and then also tries to sell you the codec for 99 cents, at which point you just download VLC lol.
There are distros that are better at this, in particular Mint and Bazzite get thrown around a lot now, but recently a friend of mine was running Mint until from one day to the other it uninstalled the GPU drivers and borked the system all by itself, making her switch to Fedora. These are rare issues, and similar horror stories exist, but the crux of the problem is that Linux is just not a normal user friendly OS. However, Windows nowadays sports so many different UX/UI styles that it's basically on the same level.
-
Comment on Listing for GOG Galaxy developer cites Linux as “next major frontier” in ~games
Grzmot Link ParentWine/Proton is the first step to full independence from Windows in the consumer space, though. We cannot force an entire, massive industry to just start supporting Linux. We need to make it either...Wine/Proton is the first step to full independence from Windows in the consumer space, though. We cannot force an entire, massive industry to just start supporting Linux. We need to make it either profitable to support Linux, or unprofitable to support Windows. You do the former by having a significant amount of people playing games and spending money on games in Linux. More money than it costs to pay developers to support said games on Linux. You do the latter by having fewer people doing the same on Windows.
We are getting there. The fact that there are games out there right now that run comparably, sometimes better through Proton on Linux than natively on Windows tells you what an unoptimized mess Windows is. But that switch is never going to happen unless people are incentivized to switch. Linux is really good nowadays, but most distros still need a modest amount of tinkering. Said tinkering doesn't require an engineering degree and mostly just looking things up on the internet and following easy guides, but that is still too much for the average user.
I do believe that Microsoft is making things a lot easier by continously making Windows complete dogshit. But Linux is not at the it just works stage yet. It's also not at the stage where pre-builts with Linux installed are easy to buy. Microsoft is doing it's best though at breaking that really gnarly catch-22 of "no users" -> "no games" -> "no users" which is honestly astonishing, but their CEO is completely AI-brained right now, so it's not surprising, plus gaming historically has always been an afterthought for them.
The only sad thing about this story is that it took Gabe Newell and Valve taking the really long con and betting on Linux. Apparently this was a reaction Microsoft considering killing all other game delivery systems on Windows other than the Microsoft Store, but it could also just be that Newell runs Linux personally and tasked his developers with making games good on Linux.
-
Comment on Far Cry 5 | When gameplay and story fundamentally oppose each other in ~games
Grzmot Link ParentIt's because Bioshock Infinite is a much more competently made game not watered down by Ubislop's corporate interests of appealing to the widest market possible. Of course the publisher 2K is just...I agree that by chance I ended up making the better choice. There is just so much to discuss with Infinite. I remember during that playthrough taking notes of every scripture referenced and then doing a comparison of where they are referencing the most (if I recall correctly, there is limited references to the Gospels and lots of Old Testament references, but this was also a bit over six years ago when I wrote that paper). Infinite has such a robust baptism theology (and one that is orthodox), and all the major story beats are linked to a baptism.
It's because Bioshock Infinite is a much more competently made game not watered down by Ubislop's corporate interests of appealing to the widest market possible. Of course the publisher 2K is just as much a corporation, but it's obvious that they were hands off about the writing process and what the game means.
The only message that FC5 has is the one that slipped through on accident while they were busy not trying to offend anyone. The implicit libertarian one I made the whole video about.
-
Comment on What are your favorite home remedies or comforts when you're sick? in ~health
Grzmot Link ParentA common "people's remedy" with a sore throat is to gurgle (is that the english word?) alcohol and then spit it out. Alcohol kills, so it's effective at clearing your throat of germs. But it's not...A common "people's remedy" with a sore throat is to gurgle (is that the english word?) alcohol and then spit it out. Alcohol kills, so it's effective at clearing your throat of germs. But it's not very pleasant.
-
Comment on Far Cry 5 | When gameplay and story fundamentally oppose each other in ~games
Grzmot (edited )Link ParentYou lucked out immensely by picking Bioshock Infinite over Far Cry 5. FC5 is honestly just not that interesting to explore from a theological perspective. Sure, the villains are Christian...You lucked out immensely by picking Bioshock Infinite over Far Cry 5. FC5 is honestly just not that interesting to explore from a theological perspective. Sure, the villains are Christian nationalists, which are very in right now in the USA, but the corporate climate inside Ubisoft watered their depiction down so hard, they barely make sense. One of the notable songs composed by the cult is literally about how the world is gonna end and you're gonna need your gun and don't let the government take away your guns, and conversely one of the lines of the main antagonist in the game in the ending is "When are you going to realize that not every problem can be solved with a bullet?"
It's a travesty of a narrative, but the game (and tbh, it seems like Far Cry 6 as well), are much more interesting to view through a lens of critiquing libertarianism, because that is what those games promote. FC5 punches you in the face again and again and again about how you just shouldn't intervene. That's where the real meat in the narrative is, and that's what needs to get deconstructed.
The guns probably got slimmed down in an effort to simplify the game, and I didn't mind the selection that was given. They're there to support different playstyles, but they are not interesting on their own. Which goes for nearly every aspect of FC5. What makes the gameplay interesting to me is that the open world is a genuine playground for you.
If you view it from the region being fully complete the resistance points can be poorly weighted, but from a timing perspective, it makes way more sense. They're clearly balanced with the overall progression in mind rather than neatly clearing out nearly everything in a region.
I never encountered a single NPC saying that Faith was not the first, it was always a reveal in Joseph's post-boss reaction, but I believe you that there were lines in the game and some sort of telegraphing. But it fits with my overall impression that out of the 3 areas, John's received the most attention, then Jacob's and then Faith's. Her area just seemed very rushed.
-
Comment on Cory Doctorow | AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage. in ~tech
Grzmot Link ParentThis is already happening in younger generations though, and was only accelerated when boomers pulled up the ladder behind them after achieving the "American Dream". Housing affordability is...If we're going to have even the slightest hope of building support for evidence-based work reform, the first barrier to cross is breaking the idea that "40 hour per week job == good, contributing, beneficial" and "any other arrangement == bad, lazy, burdensome".
This is already happening in younger generations though, and was only accelerated when boomers pulled up the ladder behind them after achieving the "American Dream". Housing affordability is fucked and has remained fucked for decades, and this has directly influenced how people think about having a job and why exactly they should work so much if they can't build anything of their own by investing their limited lifetime into some corporation.
Of course, this also lead to other worrying trends, especially a rise in consumerism and collecting things founded on social media fads becoming faster and faster and faster. Be it Stanley cups or Legumi pens; a lot of people no longer have long-term financial goals, which directly leads to them spending all the available cash they have on "useless stuff".
-
Comment on Pluribus full season discussion in ~tv
Grzmot Link ParentI hope that in the next season they break someone out of it successfully so that we can actually get an account of what it's like to be inside the hivemind. Since they all work towards a...I hope that in the next season they break someone out of it successfully so that we can actually get an account of what it's like to be inside the hivemind. Since they all work towards a particular goal, it would also be interesting to see what their longterm thinking is, plus what happens when their goal is achieved.
-
Comment on Pluribus full season discussion in ~tv
Grzmot Link ParentThe LLM idea was something that the showrunner was asked about in an interview and shot down, but acknowledged that it's unlikely that anyone will believe it given how perfect it is. The pilot was...The LLM idea was something that the showrunner was asked about in an interview and shot down, but acknowledged that it's unlikely that anyone will believe it given how perfect it is. The pilot was written before LLMs were a big thing (I miss that time).
-
Comment on Pluribus full season discussion in ~tv
Grzmot Link ParentI doubt it will go this way, unless successfully spreading the virus unlocks some new stage that causes destruction. I think it would be anti-thetical to the show though and cheapen the premise if...It would be interesting to see what the pluribus does once it is done building the big antennae... does it just kill off all the humans?
I doubt it will go this way, unless successfully spreading the virus unlocks some new stage that causes destruction. I think it would be anti-thetical to the show though and cheapen the premise if the others become evil by achieving their goal. How would they even know? The signal they received travelled for 600 lightyears. Given that anyone affected cannot harm living things under any circumstance including plants, there's a solid chance that no one is around anymore on that originating planet due to everyone having starved.
This is smart writing that mirrors how viruses work in reality. Their main purpose is to spread, and this trumps their ability to harm. This is why, as diseases spread, they tend to become less harmful rather than more, because killing your host before they can spread you to other creatures is not how you succeed in evolution. I doubt they will discover some kill switch. Rather most people will die building the antenna and then presumably all of earth's resources will be dedicated to aligning it with planets we believe are most probable to have intelligent life, which will cause even more people to die until we reach some critical point the amount of people on the planet is so small that even with their pluribus hivemind, their individuality will return, or presumably, Carol and Menousos will figure out how to break individuals out of the hivemind first.
-
Comment on UK Conservative party would ban under-16s from social media in ~society
Grzmot Link ParentOf course some sites are going to comply and some are not. But the UK government has forced its own citizens to expose their own private data to random companies around the world in order to...Of course some sites are going to comply and some are not. But the UK government has forced its own citizens to expose their own private data to random companies around the world in order to verify their age, and these include pictures of faces and the matchid IDs, which of course contain a ton more data than just your date of birth.
The main issue is that only some sites will comply, and porn, for the most part, is porn. It doesn't matter wherever you get it on xvideos or pornhub, but if xvideos doesn't force an age check, then people will start going there. But these sites are naturally more unregulated and will contain porn that is even more harmful in what it depicts and how it was created.
Social media companies are more exposed, you are correct, and there is more money to be made, but the ultimate issue is that you can still easily get around this with a VPN.
-
Comment on UK Conservative party would ban under-16s from social media in ~society
Grzmot Link ParentThe issue with going after the algorithms is that your legislation needs to have teeth for that to work. Either rising fines that are a percentage of a businesses' revenue, or banning the service...The issue with going after the algorithms is that your legislation needs to have teeth for that to work. Either rising fines that are a percentage of a businesses' revenue, or banning the service if it doesn't comply.
But banning it is nearly impossible. The UK already tried it with porn. It just doesn't fucking work, you either need to government to verify the user's age, which the UK didn't even bother to implement, or send your very personal identifiable information to some fuck-off porn site providers somewhere.
The EU is trying it's best with its own implementation of zero knowledge age verification, but we'll have to see how well that'll work.
-
Comment on Looking for audio recording advice in ~hobbies
Grzmot (edited )Link ParentHi! Fellow small youtube creator here. The way you can picture sound is like bubbles. Something makes a noise, like your mouth, and then an air bubble expands into all directions from that point....Hi! Fellow small youtube creator here.
The way you can picture sound is like bubbles. Something makes a noise, like your mouth, and then an air bubble expands into all directions from that point. All hard surfaces like walls, desks, computers, kitchen fronts, etc, will echo this sound back very well, which is what's picked up by the microphones and makes your voice sound echo-y and hollow.
So yeah, sound will reflect from the ceilings as well. There are a few things you can do:
- Get an enclosure for your microphone like this one or that one. The principle of these are always the same: Isolate the microphone from all directions but one; the one you're speaking from. The reason why they use the triangle foam is simple: The sound gets lost between the peaks, instead of a flat surface like a wall bouncing the sound right back at you, and the soft foam is incredible at "destroying" sound. I use something like this for recording, and the difference is incredible. This is why people are recommending adding cloth everywhere. The softer your surroundings, the more the sound gets lost in them instead of being reflected back at you and the microphone. Even hanging up curtains and drawing them closed makes a major difference, because you're removing your glass windows, a very hard and echo-y surface, and replacing it with soft cloth.
- Software processing. I'm not sure what you use right now, but I'd recommend the free software Audacity. It has features you can use to isolate your voice in the recording, plus plugins that will do that for you in an even more automated fashion. I'd recommend looking up something like "Audacity voice isolation".
- Microphone gain. Professional microphones have gain knobs you can increase and decrease. Think of that like the "sensitivity" of the microphone. The higher the gain, the more it will pick up from further away. I'd recommend experimenting with the gain and your normal speaking voice to see what gain setting is best for picking up your voice and not much else.
- Microphone pattern. I saw that you purchased the Yeti, which is a multi-pattern microphone. You'll want to set it to the "cardiod" pattern so that it's most sensitive at the front you're speaking into and least sensitive at the back. This will further reduce echoes getting picked up as the sound hits the opposite wall and is reflected back into the microphone back.
-
Comment on Far Cry 5 | When gameplay and story fundamentally oppose each other in ~games
Grzmot Link ParentThis is because across like 10 to 15 years of gaming becoming a really big market, analysists detected a pattern in the way games succeed, and that was fairly simple: middle of the road...Then they adopted the universal big media strategy of putting every egg in a few big name IP baskets and expect the market to reward them with exponential returns.
This is because across like 10 to 15 years of gaming becoming a really big market, analysists detected a pattern in the way games succeed, and that was fairly simple: middle of the road "mid-budget" or "AA" games never became huge successes. Huge successes either came from indie developers that created something truly unique (which these companies didn't own) or huge AAA games like Call of Duty or GTA. So from the perspective of a publisher, who's going to pay these developers for 5 years anyway, you can run the numbers: given the previous performance of AA games across the market, is it better have them make 2 or 3 smaller games, or spend 5 years on one huge game? You are spending the cash either way, because game development budget is just salary, so there is functionally no difference to those holding the money.
This was the same sort of resource consolidation that hit every big media company from Disney to Netflix to even YouTube.
For streaming the effect was similar, but for a different reason. Streaming completely transformed the television industry. Royalties became functionally worthless, which were the backbone of old movie and tv projects. You used to be able to star in a movie for a shit payday because it used to bring you in money every time a television station showed it. This is no longer the case on streaming services, so actors are asking for bigger salaries upfront, which balloons the budget and killed the mid-size movie.
Now, Ubisoft pulled in a similar direction, but they added a weird company theme to it, where there was creative office full of old french dudes in Paris where every creative director pitching a game had to go and convince them that this game is worth funding. This creative office also oversaw specific gameplay decisions which is why for a while every Ubisoft game from Assassin's Creed over Far Cry to Ghost Recon turned into an RPG (probably also because an RPG makes the mictrotransaction easier to sell).
The issue is ultimately that the Far Cry series became a game about the protagonist being a one-man army defeating evil despots that has a really strange fetish for telling the player that this doesn't solve any problems. FC5 is just the most extreme variant of this plot, because the world literally ends if you try to save the day. Like literally. Nuclear war means the world is done and we might get intelligent cockroaches in a couple million years.
-
Comment on Pluribus full season discussion in ~tv
Grzmot Link ParentTo be fair, I don't consider that to be a plot hole or a flaw of the show, but it's just one reason why Carol was frustrating to watch for me. S1 is mostly about her coming to terms with the death...To be fair, I don't consider that to be a plot hole or a flaw of the show, but it's just one reason why Carol was frustrating to watch for me. S1 is mostly about her coming to terms with the death of her wife, and most of her actions are about that death, especially at the start. On the surface level she says she wants to reverse this and stop them, but what is really driving her is Helen's death. Sometimes people say one thing, but then do another.
-
Comment on Pluribus full season discussion in ~tv
Grzmot Link ParentYour enjoyment of this show is completely valid and okay, and I do not want to take it away or mess with it in any way with my criticisms of the show. They are subjective opinions. Art will appeal...Your enjoyment of this show is completely valid and okay, and I do not want to take it away or mess with it in any way with my criticisms of the show. They are subjective opinions.
Art will appeal differently to different people, and the slice of life that you crave with such drawn out scenes is what makes it grating for me. We react differently to the same things.
I just want to “follow along” and be there with Carol if that makes any sense.
It does! :] It means you care about the character and her journey. I'm happy you had a great time with it.
-
Comment on Pluribus full season discussion in ~tv
Grzmot Link ParentYou're right, the Others being truly or falsely happy can't be stated with certainty. It's just my personal take. I think for that we'd need to see more interaction between the Others without a...You're right, the Others being truly or falsely happy can't be stated with certainty. It's just my personal take. I think for that we'd need to see more interaction between the Others without a survivor present. We haven't had many scenes where we see the Others without the influence of a survivor, and in every scene where they interact, the Others are trying to fulfill their every single wish and whim. I presume in places where they do not, every single individual is working towards spreading the virus towards the next planet or upkeeping Earth.
I think the reason that I see it as a false happiness is also that there is just a lot of miserable people on the planet. Their misery evaporates in this big whole that the Others are, and they only feel bad when someone is mad at them, where they go into shock, or when they are forced to act against their biological imperative like when Carol almost made Zosla tell her how to reverse the process.
I simply cannot believe that reason would win, given how many deeply unreasonable people we have on the planet. So the virus does more than just connect people, it also forces extreme pacificism even towards plants, and it creates this blissful state, which is why I'm calling it "false".
EDIT: I think this connects nicely with @jamfox's comment: The Others are incapable of properly addressing Carol's grief because the only thing they can do is execute her commands. They can't really challenge her in the ways she needs to be challenged because of their extreme pacifism. This to me indicates that along with that pacifism, the virus induces a blissful "false" happy state, like a drug.
-
Comment on Pluribus full season discussion in ~tv
Grzmot Link ParentIt is very difficult to criticise art to any level of objectivity beyond talking about what works on the technical level, which on a production of this scale, things usually do unless the lead...It is very difficult to criticise art to any level of objectivity beyond talking about what works on the technical level, which on a production of this scale, things usually do unless the lead creative(s) make some batshit decisions like when Zack Snyder decided that every scene needed an extremely shallow depth of field in Army of the Dead.
Ultimately, what may work for one person, may not for another. I can enjoy a slow burn, my favorite director is Denis Villeneuve, and I'm definitely not part of the youtube shorts/tiktok generation with an average attention span of 30 seconds.
I think the prerequisite to being able to enjoy a character study is if you can watch a character for a long time. Pluribus tries to make this levy this up as much as it can, with scenes like the drone trash pick-up, but I do think that even as a slow-burn, it stretched out some scenes beyond a reasonable degree. Menousos' bottle episode was the point where the kettle boiled over for me. His determination is not something that needs to be shown anymore. He already spent days searching every single radio-frequency for minutes at a time, and he was shown eating dog food rather than accepting food from the Others. The only thing we learned in that episode was that he's so determined that he'd rather die than accept help from them, and that's a pattern that we had in every episode, except for episode 1.
Ultimately, neither Carol nor Menousos worked for me as likeable protagonists. They are not meant to be entirely likeable, and Carol is obviously constructed to be the exact opposite to the Others, it's the foundation of the show; but for a character study, too much time was spent on her by herself, which is not really something I enjoy. For someone trying to figure out how to reverse this thing, she was surprisingly non-inquisitive about how the Others work, which culminated in episode 6.
But to reiterate, Pluribus is still a good show in my eyes, not just for the unique premise, but also that it doesn't go for the obvious, cheap twist of the Others turning bad. It's set up two diametrically opposed sides and now explores wherever the trade-offs that each side has are worth it for the gains. That's really interesting.
Getting people into Linux is wishful thinking. The overwhelming majority of people want their shit to just work. But if the base is broader, if money is to be made there, then all Linux users profit.
I understand the fear of exchanging on whip-cracking corporation for another, but you simply need to boost adoption if you want game devs to give a shit about Linux at all.