Protected's recent activity
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Comment on Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft/Xbox in ~games
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Comment on Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft/Xbox in ~games
Protected Link ParentI'm not so sure about this one: Playstation hardware release cycles are very long. Even if the obscenity that is the AI bubble never really bursts due to protectionism or the same kind of...I'm not so sure about this one:
ongoing RAM shortages and other component shortages and axing the PlayStation after PS6
Playstation hardware release cycles are very long. Even if the obscenity that is the AI bubble never really bursts due to protectionism or the same kind of collective investor dellusion that has sustained crypto for so long, I feel like (and I've made related arguments on tildes before) hardware manufacturing can actually stabilize faster than this, typically in just a few years, as has been the case historically - even if it's just the unlikeliest case of China catching up to the point where the departing incumbents left the technology stagnated. Seeing that, it would make little sense for Sony to make decisions regarding a next, distant future Playstation based on specifically that...
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Comment on Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft/Xbox in ~games
Protected Link ParentWhat do you envision the future will be like? Valve is bringing a new console into the market, so they seem to think consoles aren't dead as a concept, especially if gaming further converges on...What do you envision the future will be like? Valve is bringing a new console into the market, so they seem to think consoles aren't dead as a concept, especially if gaming further converges on Steam. They're already competing with the Switch, too, so one way or the other traditional console form factors would continue to exist.
I find it hard to believe the mainstream will embrace gaming PCs again. Especially with components becoming increasingly more expensive and difficult to procure. I hope they will keep existing as they are the best way to enjoy gaming, but still.
That leaves (for the mainstream) only two alternatives. Mobile gaming is one, but a lot of videogame enjoyers will never be satisfied with just that market, since it's so bogged down by slop and predatory monetization models. And the other is gaming-as-a-service, which... might not be in the consumer's best interests, in the long term, but I can definitely see that happening.
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Comment on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested and in custody on suspicion of misconduct in public office in UK in ~news
Protected Link ParentIt also works the other way around - even if you have made a lot of money, you can be a good person and truly give your money away, or check out and go do something chill with your life, which...It also works the other way around - even if you have made a lot of money, you can be a good person and truly give your money away, or check out and go do something chill with your life, which plays a part in keeping down the amount of wealth you hold.
Child molesting aside, the current crop of (mostly tech) billionnaires seem like the worst ever when it comes to selfishness and obsession with control. Though I have no doubt it can get even worse in the future.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected Link ParentAh, but the problem of participating in the creation process is that it's an effective spoiler for the result! I was also super interested when I read your post yesterday but I'm sure my japanese...Ah, but the problem of participating in the creation process is that it's an effective spoiler for the result!
I was also super interested when I read your post yesterday but I'm sure my japanese isn't quite there yet. For the last few months I and a few others have been going through the Genki books (just the latest iteration of various low priority efforts to learn japanese over the years). I'd love to be able to play games like this once I'm good enough. I'm most interested in reading books and games, rather than tourism, certification or conversation.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected LinkI played ENA: Dream BBQ (chapter 1). I have no recollection of how this made its way to my library. If you sent it to me please let me know. It's free though if anyone else wants to give it a try!...I played ENA: Dream BBQ (chapter 1). I have no recollection of how this made its way to my library. If you sent it to me please let me know. It's free though if anyone else wants to give it a try! Apparently this was released as a preview of sorts for a game that has been in development - with the help of many patrons/backers - for several years, based on a formerly very popular assortment of absurd, bizarre youtube videos.
It was a short experience, but I really liked it! ENA's world is aggressively nonsensical and has that type of janky, mishmash aesthetic you can only get with careful design and intention. It's filled with unique characters, all of which vocalize - some with various sounds, others with various languages, including but not limited to english, french, italian and japanese (these are the ones I spotted; the characters can all understand each other somehow). All the voice acting is really really good, which you wouldn't expect in a game like this. ENA herself has two personalities, each with her own voice actor.
At first I tried to play this like a normal game, applying logic to accomplish goals - there are "quests" of sorts, after all - but that quickly became impossible and I realized I'd best just go with the flow and play reactively, because you can't tell if you're making the right decisions or exploring the right locations to be a completionist. So I understand I didn't see everything the chapter had to offer, but that's OK. Also, I believe the game is crammed full of references to the original youtube videos. I would probably have enjoyed it LESS if I was familiar with them, but to me everything was new and fresh! I really do recommend everyone plays this, unless you don't have a couple hours to spare or just hate this kind of experience.
I've also been playing The Devil Within: Satgat, a korean metroidvania (attentive readers may have noticed I've been staggering these so I don't get metroidvania'd out). It's... not great. Which I suspected, so I got it heavily discounted ;)
There are some competent ideas and systems behind this game, as well as good enough art and set design. Generally speaking, this is not the kind of Metroidvania that wants you to be agile and enjoy the challenges of complex traversal with various chained moves (although that happens to a small degree). There isn't even that much of a reason to ever backtrack so far. Instead, the game is very combat-oriented. The protagonist has no fewer than 5 different skill trees, and their upgrades all require a mixture of 5 different resources, so a lot of time is spent deciding on upgrades. These yield new combos for attacks, parries, dodges and counterattacks, and increase the player's strength and durability. Fun, but the whole thing is hobbled by an infuriatingly stupid AP system. Everything costs AP (even the dash) and you only have a few - it's like a scarce stamina - so you constantly have to stop and rest in the middle of combat; you can do nothing for a few seconds for it to replenish. But doing nothing for a few seconds, all the time, is not fun. Also, enemies aren't going to wait for you. They can (and often do) stun lock you, or hit you with combos so strong you go for full health to dead despite being level fifty or whatever.
Satgat also makes the same mistakes as Memories in Orbit, except it doesn't earn them. While MIO was so good looking, consistent and polished, and had such satisfying learning and well designed boss fights, you could forgive them the difficulty and bad checkpointing, Satgat allies bad checkpointing to unskippable dialogue in boss fights that you have to listen to on every attempt, unfair RNG-driven attack patterns, repetitive grinding and poor item distributions. There's a whole equippable, upgradeable weapon system I've barely ever needed because the game gave me a novelty sword at the very beginning that's just stronger than anything else, making the whole system pointless.
And let's talk about the plot. This is the most chuunibyou game I've ever played. The protagonist, Kim Rip, is the coolest, strongest swordsperson, which everyone praises. He literally has a devil living in his hand (yes, the actual stereotype). He has amnesia, of course, and he has been unfairly framed by his peers for a crime he didn't commit. Everyone in the game has the intelligence of a five year old, so no one can figure this out. Instead, they all hate the protagonist for killing the people who try to kill him first, and keep refusing to have a conversation and marching to their demise by my devil-infested hand. Also, all the women wear outfits that include form fitting clothing or miniskirt motifs and are grossly subservient - or maybe that's just the goofy, over the top english voice acting? The dialogue itself is also not great and often lines don't quite follow from whatever they're responding to, which is jarring and confusing.
In conclusion - there's a decent looking game here with heaps of systems that should have combined into a fun game, but that edifice is constructed on a pile of bad design choices. If you want to play a metroidvania with lots of combat and lots of systems that doesn't quite nail the balance and feels somewhat anime, then Afterimage, which I played a few weeks ago, is a much better choice, since it's at least fun all the way through and has satisfying platforming.
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Comment on Joy of sharing a creation replaced by a longing sadness in ~talk
Protected LinkAnd here I was playing Beat Saber yesterday on Twitch and all I got were people soliciting ;) (But to be fair I'm not a real streamer, just some guy...)And here I was playing Beat Saber yesterday on Twitch and all I got were people soliciting ;)
(But to be fair I'm not a real streamer, just some guy...)
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Comment on Joy of sharing a creation replaced by a longing sadness in ~talk
Protected Link ParentI don't think there's that big an overlap between bots and VPNs, honestly, and I have no trouble using VPNs to access plenty of large services that are hardened against bots - occasionally you get...I don't think there's that big an overlap between bots and VPNs, honestly, and I have no trouble using VPNs to access plenty of large services that are hardened against bots - occasionally you get the cloudflare captcha and that's about it.
Twitch is just extra bad with VPNs because they run regionalized ads and most VPN users are evading the ads of their home region, often resulting in fewer ads being displayed. Twitch might tell you some nonsense about streamer revenue but it's their own revenue they care about - they want you to buy Twitch Turbo for the same outcome.
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Comment on archive.today is directing a DDOS attack against my blog in ~tech
Protected Link ParentHalf of my comment was spent explaining exactly why the behavior causes real harm, contrasting it with the typical - morally defensible - copyright infringement which is enabled by archive.today.Half of my comment was spent explaining exactly why the behavior causes real harm, contrasting it with the typical - morally defensible - copyright infringement which is enabled by archive.today.
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Comment on archive.today is directing a DDOS attack against my blog in ~tech
Protected Link ParentThat's interesting, thank you for letting me know. I don't have a lot more time right now but glancing through the wikipedia article, I see that in most cases either the information must have been...That's interesting, thank you for letting me know.
I don't have a lot more time right now but glancing through the wikipedia article, I see that in most cases either the information must have been private, or there must be some kind of demonstrable intent to harm or harrass, right?
Portugal is considered to have very strong privacy laws (AFAIK) but I don't think any penalties would have been enforced against the author here. Instead, the law would have protected the owner of archive.today by making any personal information inadmissible as evidence in court. (Disclaimer: Not A Lawyer!)
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Comment on archive.today is directing a DDOS attack against my blog in ~tech
Protected (edited )LinkAs someone who has had to deal with denial of service attacks before: This is not a shades of grey kind of issue. Investigative journalism is not a crime. Using other people's computational...As someone who has had to deal with denial of service attacks before:
This is not a shades of grey kind of issue. Investigative journalism is not a crime. Using other people's computational resources to cause financial damage to a third party, in the west, is a crime. A real crime with real consequences, not whatever "copyright infringement" is - or in other words, not a crime in any way deserving of civil disobedience. Your electricity and bandwidth (not to mention your trust) are being abused. This costs you money and can have an impact on your address's and your ISP's reputation. The target's financial impact is proportionally much higher, and such attacks can put people out of business entirely. People who are careless or uncaring about their devices being used as a part of a botnet (because that's what this is) are complicit in causing millions of individuals and small business owners a lot of stress and grief. That's where all the spam you get comes from, for instance.
So the person running archive.today is a criminal, and if they lived in a western country they would be condemned to spend time in prison for this. This has happened to other such criminals in the past. It's imperative that we all work toward reducing reliance in this service to zero as quickly as possible.
EDIT: Typo
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected Link ParentIt's the kind of videogame playing I genuinely enjoy. I always try every gift (and I enjoy most indie games, I think). Thank you for the coincidental backup Nocturnal gift opportunity as well (the...It's the kind of videogame playing I genuinely enjoy. I always try every gift (and I enjoy most indie games, I think). Thank you for the coincidental backup Nocturnal gift opportunity as well (the one I didn't accept)!
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Comment on What are your food aversions? in ~food
Protected LinkAsparagus: Not even once. Garlic: Gives me mouth sores and makes me feel sick. People put it in everything here. It also makes everything taste like garlic during and for several hours after the...Asparagus: Not even once.
Garlic: Gives me mouth sores and makes me feel sick. People put it in everything here. It also makes everything taste like garlic during and for several hours after the meal, which I dislike. I like the actual flavors of things.
There are a bunch of things that impact my digestion that I love, such as modern brussels sprouts, chestnuts, artichokes, chili peppers, etc.
I like almost everything people have mentioned so far. Not a huge fan of shrimp or blue cheese but I will eat them in a pinch. Seafood, fruits, cabbage-adjacent vegetables, eggs and olives are all extremely common and an integral part of the gastronomy here, and our food has an excellent reputation.
(Americans in particular seem to have a strange aversion to olives that I've seen portrayed in popular culture multiple times. It's so strange to me.)
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected LinkThis weekend I played Nocturnal. Received last giveaway from @CannibalisticApple ! It's a competently made combat-action 2D sidescroller/platformer in which you control a protagonist who uses...This weekend I played Nocturnal. Received last giveaway from @CannibalisticApple !
It's a competently made combat-action 2D sidescroller/platformer in which you control a protagonist who uses fire-related abilities to fight shadow monsters. You accomplish this by setting your sword on fire temporarily using torches found in the levels/background. Besides unlocking ability use until the fire goes out, this also provides light and makes the shadows vulnerable, and best of all, it can be used to light other torches on fire, extending your ability to explore and fight, and solving small puzzles. This game is a pyromaniac's dream as it encourages you to basically set everything else on fire as well; both kills and destruction are rewarded with a currency that can be spent in a small skill/upgrade tree.
The game looks good and has a fine balance. By the end a lot of monsters are coming at the protagonist at the same time, requiring the use of the various special abilities you unlock, but this isn't super difficult to figure out. I thought the torch-sword-torch fire spreading mechanic had great potential and, if anything, the main disappointment was that the game was pretty short at only 3 hours!
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Comment on The hidden cost of AI art: Brandon Sanderson's keynote in ~tech
Protected Link ParentI'm really glad you brought this up, I was wondering if someone would! Not long ago we had here on Tildes (at least I think it was? hard to keep track of everything) a submission from an article...communication
I'm really glad you brought this up, I was wondering if someone would!
Not long ago we had here on Tildes (at least I think it was? hard to keep track of everything) a submission from an article in which a professor quoted Stephen King's On Writing: "writing is telepathy".
The professor argued that they weren't concerned about students using AI to write because AI can't write. There is no one there to communicate, so whose telepathy is the reader receiving, really?
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Comment on The hidden cost of AI art: Brandon Sanderson's keynote in ~tech
Protected Link ParentI found this nice video that explains the process (although it focuses more on beta).I found this nice video that explains the process (although it focuses more on beta).
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Comment on The hidden cost of AI art: Brandon Sanderson's keynote in ~tech
Protected Link ParentI'm just one of the beta/gamma group. I had mentioned it before on tildes! There are a lot of us, check the acknowledgement pages on his books :)I'm just one of the beta/gamma group. I had mentioned it before on tildes!
There are a lot of us, check the acknowledgement pages on his books :)
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Comment on The hidden cost of AI art: Brandon Sanderson's keynote in ~tech
Protected LinkWhen I was a child all my musical taste amounted to was the casual enjoyment of the fragments of whatever recognizable pop songs played on the car radio on my way home from school. We (well, our...- Exemplary
When I was a child all my musical taste amounted to was the casual enjoyment of the fragments of whatever recognizable pop songs played on the car radio on my way home from school. We (well, our parents) had a carpool thing going on, so imagine a car stuffed full of noisy kids, eating, reading, talking, whatever. The radio was on, but maybe it was ads, or comedy, or the adult driving would want to change the station to hear the news or weather report. Whether there was music, I was paying attention to it, and I found it enjoyable was random, which was never conductive to developing real taste. Under these circumstances, you merely enjoy what's immediately pleasurable - the musical sugar, let's call it.
I became an adult, and over the years I started paying attention to music and grew to appreciate the talent and skill of the artists who create it. My taste quickly veered towards rock, a genre that features untold heights of virtuosity when it comes to guitar, bass and drums. It grew to encompass metal and prog (and here you start having more keyboards, flutes, violins). But it's not like I require a song to have at least five different time signatures before I respect it. Enter psychadelic. Punk. Broadband Internet arrived and liberalized (in part) music publishing, and now you have new genres, new creativity. There was amazing innovation on display in Dubstep, for example.
All the while, the ol' music industry is busy streamlining. It's much more profitable when artists are produced rather than found; new music is pre-planned and designed by a team of people who are very knowledgeable about formulas, appeal and marketing. Variables are eliminated; we want artists who are beautiful, stable, clean, uncontroversial. Can they sing? It doesn't matter, we autotune. Can they play an instrument? Who cares, use pre-recorded tracks. The result is the purest, most refined musical sugar. It is sweet, and sweet is safe, because it's a flavor even a child can immediately enjoy.
I have no trouble believing AI can create this kind of art. It should be able to do it perfectly. Why would it remix clichés any worse than a human? It's literally a remixing machine. That's what it's for.
But as an adult, there is an additional dimension to my enjoyment of music. I want something beyond sweet; let me taste that bitter, that savory, those notes of chocolate and smoke. When I see a traditional (modern) artist shredding their heart off, I think of the years of effort it took them to get that good. When I hear lyrics so touching they marked a generation, I marvel at how there has never been, and never will be, another song quite like that.
When I hear Jon Anderson sing, I think "holy fucking shit, he's literally better than autotune." And I don't give a damn if the artist is ugly, elderly, disabled or wrote every single one on their songs during a three year long nonstop drug binge. They are humans who struggled and sweated to create something new, and every single one of their accomplishments is more valuable than anything that will ever come out of the remixing machine, whether the machine is powered by five audio engineers, a PR manager and twenty marketing experts or by three Nvidia GPUs.
Does that mean AI is useless, undesirable or otherwise doomed to fail? No. To a lot of people, it suffices. What do people want out of art? Different things, for sure, and that's OK. There are people who want enough comfortable repetition out of their entertainment to make recurring themes, genres and formulas profitable in all kinds of fields - TV shows, LitRPGs, FPS games, whatever. One might argue - and this is a suspicion of mine rather than anything I have hard data for - that most people want at least some predictable comfort in the content they consume. Actually parsing what's taking place in an Ursula K LeGuin novel can demand more mental bandwidth than we have on a day by day basis. Sometimes we're tired and just want to see yet another anime boy win a martial arts tournament, or something.
But true artists will always be the ones I admire and respect. I don't want to go without their works; I'm definitely willing to pay to experience them. Once in a while I eat chocolates and biscuits but too much sugar is cloying!
I'm currently helping with Brandon Sanderon's upcoming book, The Fires of December. Some of you may not be fans of his work - on a mental diet? - but I can guarantee that at least he wrote it himself - and a lot of people work very hard to make sure a good book will be published later this year (note: timeline as announced; I have no privileged information and cannot answer any questions). And when you read a passage and think "that was clever!" or "that was surprising!" isn't it cool to think that was a real human being clever and surprising?
(P.S.: Pre-emptively acknowledging the pretentiousness of my disdain for modern pop music ;) )
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Comment on Two small word games in ~games
Protected Link ParentOh that's a very helpful second guess for sure. Yeah I hadn't realized I could go out of range! So I just stared at it for a long time.Oh that's a very helpful second guess for sure.
Yeah I hadn't realized I could go out of range! So I just stared at it for a long time.
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Comment on Two small word games in ~games
Protected LinkI tried today's tumbler. Pure evil. Yesterday's is much easier! I got them both in the same amount of tries; the problem is that you can easily get into a position where you just don't have any...I tried today's tumbler. Pure evil. Yesterday's is much easier!
I got them both in the same amount of tries; the problem is that you can easily get into a position where you just don't have any valid words you can fit into the current game state, so you can't make progress...
A fairly optimistic view of the future!
For single player, consumers hate "always online" but big studios love it, so it depends on whether that particular industry keeps self-destructing and giving way to smaller studios or not... I think for demos it's the opposite also; it's much cheaper and easier to just plop a demo on steam in time for nextfest, which is sufficient for getting your game in front of plenty of eyeballs and getting you feedback.