killertofu's recent activity
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Comment on Fighting cookie theft using device bound sessions in ~tech
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
killertofu LinkI bit the bullet and dropped $70 on Dragon's Dogma 2 and I've been having a lot of fun with it. I've kind of been wanting a big, open world fantasy game, but I'm also not good at action combat for...I bit the bullet and dropped $70 on Dragon's Dogma 2 and I've been having a lot of fun with it. I've kind of been wanting a big, open world fantasy game, but I'm also not good at action combat for the most part. This one has a nice balance where I can get a bunch of pawns that can do a lot of the heavy lifting. And overall the combats feel appropriately exciting and dangerous. Exploring is fun, nighttime and camping feels pretty good as a mechanic. I've been going with the flow in terms of just walking everywhere. I'm not too concerned about the microtransactions, as there are a bunch of mods to give you fast travel stuff if I get to the point where I want that.
There's definitely a hint of jank, similar to the previous game. I wouldn't mind a few patches to tidy things up a bit (or perhaps mods to do the same). Overall I'm really enjoying it. I haven't had a game that I've looked forward to sitting down and playing consistently like this for a while.
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Comment on Why ban books when you can ban book awards?: Suburban Illinois district cancels youth chosen Caudill Awards in ~books
killertofu Link ParentImagine pretending you want a "neutral" list of books then mentioning PragerU. The proud ignorance is just so gross.Imagine pretending you want a "neutral" list of books then mentioning PragerU. The proud ignorance is just so gross.
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Comment on Has anyone here received any benefit as a consumer from algorithmic ad targeting? in ~tech
killertofu LinkI think the honest answer for me is very rarely, but not never. I think that's basically the whole idea of the system though. Sure, very often I'll see a remarketed ad for something I've already...I think the honest answer for me is very rarely, but not never. I think that's basically the whole idea of the system though. Sure, very often I'll see a remarketed ad for something I've already bought or don't intend to buy in the first place. I don't necessarily find that annoying, because I'm not super invested in the content of ads anyway. Yes, they're technically "wrong" in that I'm not interested in that thing, but if I think about it at least the publisher is making very, very slightly more money from that ad view.
And then in a very small number of cases, I have genuinely been reminded of something I was interested in purchasing and ended up following through, or learned about the existence of a product I then purchased through targeted ads.
I think that's the business model though. Those ads maybe have a hit rate of 1/1000 or 1/10000, but they tend to be more effective than non-targeted ads and so they're still valuable.
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Comment on The small company at the center of ‘Gamergate 2.0’ in ~games
killertofu Link ParentSure, and that strikes me as a great replacement type of panic. What if we're the ones who are marginalized? I'll be concerned about that when the positions of political and economic power aren't...Sure, and that strikes me as a great replacement type of panic. What if we're the ones who are marginalized? I'll be concerned about that when the positions of political and economic power aren't 80% white.
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Comment on The small company at the center of ‘Gamergate 2.0’ in ~games
killertofu Link ParentI'm curious why you think brown or female characters in a video game are intended to be educational rather than just, sometimes people are those things. AAA games can be bad for a huge number of...I personally don't care about diversity itself (though I have doubts about its merit outside of media aimed at children, which only applies to some portion of gaming), but whenever I see some piece of media that feels like watered down, design by committee high-budget crap aimed at the lowest common denominator, but the one area where the creators obviously made an effort is perfect diversity and inoffensiveness, it evokes the idea that their priorities are completely lopsided and that they feel their customers need to be educated more than they need to have an okay game, or that they just don't care about quality at all and do diversity cynically because in a big part of the mainstream market it sells.
I'm curious why you think brown or female characters in a video game are intended to be educational rather than just, sometimes people are those things. AAA games can be bad for a huge number of reasons, and yet it's never occurred to me to wonder if one of them was because too many development resources went into writing dialogue for ladies. In any case, plenty of the games SweetBaby worked on were commercial and critical successes and generally well-liked. Feels like diversity is mostly a carefully chosen scapegoat here.
I'd love to see actual cultural diversity, videogames set in the middle east made in the middle east, Mauritanian videogames about the history of nomadic tribes in western Sahara and other media presenting truly different points of view.
I don't see why games from the "US cultural hedgemon" can't be considered genuinely diverse. Brown people, women, gay folks, they live here too. They're part of the culture. They work at these companies. Part of what SweetBaby does is literally allow underrepresented storytellers to give their input. How is that not ok?
Are some cases of diverse casting just box checking? Probably, but so is every other element of AAA game development. It's an always online looter shooter with microtransactions because they thought that's what would be commercially successful. I don't think the color of the characters' skin is what pushed things one way or the other.
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Comment on How American evangelicals use digital surveillance to target the unconverted in ~tech
killertofu Link ParentI mean, arguably that's a secondary scam on top of the primary scam that is recruiting into evangelical Christianity and all the predation that entails. I just hope that they end up getting sued...I mean, arguably that's a secondary scam on top of the primary scam that is recruiting into evangelical Christianity and all the predation that entails.
I just hope that they end up getting sued out of existence for careless collection and treatment of personal information. Not that I have tremendous hope in the US legal system in that area. But hey, maybe they'll make a good target for spam vandalism.
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Comment on The small company at the center of ‘Gamergate 2.0’ in ~games
killertofu Link"Gamergate 2.0". Oh god, not these losers again. Can we just not? As if the poor folks who make video games don't have enough to worry about."Gamergate 2.0". Oh god, not these losers again. Can we just not? As if the poor folks who make video games don't have enough to worry about.
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The small company at the center of ‘Gamergate 2.0’
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Comment on What irrational video game requirements do you have? in ~games
killertofu Link ParentOh yes, that's a tough one for me too. Sometimes mitigated if it's an old enough game for emulation with save states, but yeah otherwise major negative points.Oh yes, that's a tough one for me too. Sometimes mitigated if it's an old enough game for emulation with save states, but yeah otherwise major negative points.
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Comment on What irrational video game requirements do you have? in ~games
killertofu LinkIt's not really irrational but it's an immediate dealbreaker for me: lack of pause in a single player game. I have things in my actual life that will always take priority over playing a game. I...It's not really irrational but it's an immediate dealbreaker for me: lack of pause in a single player game. I have things in my actual life that will always take priority over playing a game. I also strongly dislike the feeling of losing progress or time. If I'm going to get killed by random things in your game because the doorbell rings, it's not for me.
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Comment on Chinese gangs use cryptocurrencies to launder billions in ~finance
killertofu Link ParentYeah, no. This somehow implies anything that "hurts" traditional banking has "good parts". That's not nearly sufficient for crypto to be "good", and ignores the fact that many of the worst,...Yeah, no. This somehow implies anything that "hurts" traditional banking has "good parts". That's not nearly sufficient for crypto to be "good", and ignores the fact that many of the worst, predatory elements of more traditional finance, from banks to hedge funds to fascist billionaires, are neck deep in crypto.
Cryptocurrency has been a solution in search of a problem for more than a decade. It's not, and is incapable of becoming, a consumer-level payment system. It's not going to be Visa; it's not going to be ACH. It does produce highly volatile speculative assets that can be transferred, with extreme inefficiency. And the main non-speculative use case for that is by people who don't want to or can't use actual banks: criminals, terrorists, hackers, child pornographers. None of that is hyperbole, just literal facts on the ground.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
killertofu Link ParentYeah, I didn't think this was my kind of game but now I'm very into it. I've been playing "one more hand" for days now and keep getting deeper. It's a really impressive one.Yeah, I didn't think this was my kind of game but now I'm very into it. I've been playing "one more hand" for days now and keep getting deeper. It's a really impressive one.
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Comment on Chinese gangs use cryptocurrencies to launder billions in ~finance
killertofu LinkYeah, funding for illegal activities is basically the cryptocurrency use case. Buying in is basically helping some criminal cash out.Yeah, funding for illegal activities is basically the cryptocurrency use case. Buying in is basically helping some criminal cash out.
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Comment on Nimona in ~movies
killertofu Link ParentAgreed. It's both a devastatingly effective allegory and an absolutely hilarious kids movie. Fun for the whole family that we've watched and rewatched a bunch of times now.Agreed. It's both a devastatingly effective allegory and an absolutely hilarious kids movie. Fun for the whole family that we've watched and rewatched a bunch of times now.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
killertofu LinkOff the beaten path a bit, but I started replaying Planescape: Torment (Enhanced Edition). I'm using a pretty exhaustive walkthrough this time, since I've spent many, many hours in the past just...Off the beaten path a bit, but I started replaying Planescape: Torment (Enhanced Edition). I'm using a pretty exhaustive walkthrough this time, since I've spent many, many hours in the past just wandering and I'd like to actually get to the end this time. I'm just rocking a high wis build and enjoying the story and incredibly crafted city of Sigil.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
killertofu Link ParentIt feels like such a missed opportunity to have not done and HD pixel remaster like Live a Live or Octopath for these later SNES games.It feels like such a missed opportunity to have not done and HD pixel remaster like Live a Live or Octopath for these later SNES games.
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Comment on CMV: Once civilization is fully developed, life will be unfulfilling and boring. Humanity is also doomed to go extinct. These two reasons make life not worth living. in ~talk
killertofu Link ParentHmm. Well, I guess first I should acknowledge that we can't really know that either 1 or 2 is true. As pointed out elsewhere, our knowledge is completely insufficient to assume either thing will...Hmm. Well, I guess first I should acknowledge that we can't really know that either 1 or 2 is true. As pointed out elsewhere, our knowledge is completely insufficient to assume either thing will definitely happen. But for the sake of argument, let's take as given that humanity/the universe is not infinite, and that the ultimate fate of everything is nothingness or the like.
If this is true, does it follow that everything is "pointless"? I suppose, if the actions we take in life are simply vectors of causality that over time inevitably lead to nothing, then in that sense you could say they had no impact on the ultimate outcome. They were "ultimately pointless". But then, if that is our destiny, what should we do about it? By this logic, our experience is a string, constrained at two endpoints. Does it really not matter what happens in the interim? How long it takes to get there? What paths we took? From my perspective, in this case these are the only things that matter. I would want the ultimate doom of humanity to be as far away as possible. Even if that's a fight we're doomed to lose, I would want people's lives, my life, to be as long and as joyful as possible. Because that's all there is. And that makes it infinitely precious, and worth caring about.
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Comment on CMV: Once civilization is fully developed, life will be unfulfilling and boring. Humanity is also doomed to go extinct. These two reasons make life not worth living. in ~talk
killertofu Link ParentMy more essential goal was to point out the absurdity of deciding everything that's not infinite is useless and pointless. It's just completely disconnected with the entirety of human experience....My more essential goal was to point out the absurdity of deciding everything that's not infinite is useless and pointless. It's just completely disconnected with the entirety of human experience. Would you not scratch an itch because it didn't forever relieve you of itchiness? Would you refuse to share a kiss because it didn't last forever? Is doing those things really pointless?
I think maybe part of the anxiety here comes from imagining that one could stand at the beginning of time and look forward to see that humanity has built a metaphorical tower, each human life adding a brick to that tower that gets ever higher on into the infinite future. But a more accurate metaphor might be not one tower, but a dense forest of structures of all kinds. Over time they rise and fall, in every combination. Looking into the future from your point a the beginning of time, it's not one point that gets higher, but waves of chaos and color and noise. And eventually, maybe nothing. But all the noise in the middle is where all the exciting stuff is. The indelible footprint of humanity.
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Comment on CMV: Once civilization is fully developed, life will be unfulfilling and boring. Humanity is also doomed to go extinct. These two reasons make life not worth living. in ~talk
killertofu Link"This movie will eventually end, so why watch it?" "Eventually I'll be finished with this meal, so why eat it?" Things don't have to last forever to be worthwhile. In fact, it's the things that..."This movie will eventually end, so why watch it?"
"Eventually I'll be finished with this meal, so why eat it?"Things don't have to last forever to be worthwhile. In fact, it's the things that are ephemeral, finite, that won't always be here, that are the most valuable. We're here, now. Maybe not tomorrow.
I like it. With strong, unique passwords and a security key second factor on my most important accounts, I think cookie theft is probably one of the bigger vulnerabilities I have. Good to see some thought being put into this area.