secretfire's recent activity
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Comment on There's a new Elder Scrolls MMO in ~games
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Comment on There's a new Elder Scrolls MMO in ~games
secretfire (edited )Link ParentLike I said, vacuous consumerist mindset of just wanting Content. I'm sure you don't care that it was shit out by a plagiarism machine that's threatening the livelihoods of millions of artists...Like I said, vacuous consumerist mindset of just wanting Content. I'm sure you don't care that it was shit out by a plagiarism machine that's threatening the livelihoods of millions of artists across the world while the companies in charge have made it their stated mission of monopolising art and intelligence (Sam Altman has literally said he wants intelligence to be a metered utility like gas and electricity).
We have the ability to choose what sources of entertainment we consume, and I think there is such an abundance of real entertainment out there that we could keep ourselves occupied our entire lives without ever having to dip into the ethically dubious world of AI slop, where we outsource our thinking to the technofascists in exchange for Product. Choosing an AI's product over a human's creation is picking a side. No, you're not literally out there stealing money from the artistic community (already an oversaturated field before AI anything came out), but it has an impact. This isn't the same as the classic 'you have issues with society and yet you participate in it, hmm, curious' argument that's floated around for years. We have the choice to not engage, same as we always had. Nobody ever needs to engage with AI slop for entertainment, and choosing to do so is simply showing that, well, you don't care. But there is always a cost for convenience. Remember that.
EDIT: Toned my comment down since it ended up being fairly abrasive and rude. It's been a long day, sorry.
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Comment on There's a new Elder Scrolls MMO in ~games
secretfire (edited )LinkI can't wait for the 'enormous vibe-coded definitely-clean-room-code decompilation of your favourite game/application' trend to die out. There have been dozens of projects popping up over the last...I can't wait for the 'enormous vibe-coded definitely-clean-room-code decompilation of your favourite game/application' trend to die out. There have been dozens of projects popping up over the last few weeks promising 'cleanroom recreation of GTA 5 or the entire Adobe software suite' and every single one of them is a barely functional mess of AI slop directed by one or two people who couldn't possibly hope to maintain the project for any length of time because they themselves have no idea what it's doing. They're all flash-in-the-pan hype projects that'll collapse in on themselves eventually, if the C&D's don't get to them first.
The project maintainer has put out 10 standalone releases of this project in the past 12 hours, each appearing to be approximately 1 Claude prompt apiece. There are 474 releases for this (less than) 2-month old project as I write this. I mean, that's absurd, right? There is zero chance of this project having even the slightest amount of forward planning being applied to it. It's just months of vibe coded trash piled atop more vibe coded trash.
Like, am I just a luddite buzzkill? I'm not 100% against AI-generated code (though I am very much against the Big AI industry), nor am I an ardent supporter of proprietary software, but this trend just sucks. This project sucks. There are so many good projects out there, projects made by people who even just more-or-less know what they're doing, AI use or not, that are more worth our time. We can choose what code we run, what media we enjoy, and I feel like there is never a good reason to pick something like this over something with actual effort put into it besides the vacuous consumerist mindset of just wanting Content.
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Comment on What are your current pain points with Linux? in ~tech
secretfire LinkThis is the sort of thread where people really need to say what they're using Linux for. I have to imagine all the people who say they have zero pain points with Linux are programmers to some...This is the sort of thread where people really need to say what they're using Linux for. I have to imagine all the people who say they have zero pain points with Linux are programmers to some degree who do most of their work in either their IDE or web browser, on a custom-built PC or well-supported laptop. But maybe I'm wrong.
As for myself, I primarily do music work (composition, engraving, production), general work and productivity, along with some single-player gaming and media and such. I'm on Arch Linux with a custom-built PC using highly Linux-supported components (i.e. AMD CPU+GPU), and for most of my work I have zero issues: in fact it's generally far superior to Windows, which I dread having to boot into.
Unfortunately, Linux sucks for music production and composition. It's just not well-supported. For any "serious" work I'm forced to boot into Windows, either because Linux doesn't support the software I need, or supports it so poorly that it's barely worth using, especially when I have a deadline to meet and don't have the time to screw around with pipewire and ALSA and attempting to install and reinstall a half-dozen packages to fix some obscure bug that popped up randomly one day. Most of the software that natively supports Linux is built on an older codebase and has to run inside Xwayland, which brings its own host of problems, especially when trying to string multiple programs together.
Reaper works on Linux, but it works better on Windows. Musescore works on Linux, but it works better on Windows. Max MSP, Sibelius, Kontakt, iLok, and a million other major applications, don't work on Linux at all. I could try and run it in Wine or something but again, I can't rely on Wine not having a meltdown when I'm days or hours away from a deadline. For amateur work I can simply choose not to use unsupported software and opt for a libre alternative, but if a client wants an electroacoustic piece for Max MSP and I give them something in PureData, they'll simply reject it.
Lack of support isn't necessarily the fault of Linux, but the infamously shaky core of Linux's audio backend isn't doing it any favours getting major application support. Not to mention the myriad of issues with developing any Linux software: drivers, display protocols, support for a dozen different distributions, etc. I'm not a programmer so I'm not going to sit here and demand that the FOSS community make a whole new 10/10 standardised audio backend from scratch or something (which would obviously not work regardless), but I really do hate every time I have to switch into Windows to get some piece of work done, because I detest Windows these days and I would much prefer not having it on my computer at all.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
secretfire Link ParentI'd say do a coin flip on Stardew Valley or Mistria, both are great entry points. Stardew Valley has more stuff to do since it's an older game with more updates under its belt, but Mistria has a...I'd say do a coin flip on Stardew Valley or Mistria, both are great entry points. Stardew Valley has more stuff to do since it's an older game with more updates under its belt, but Mistria has a lot of stuff already despite only hitting 1.0 earlier this month, and it's still got a long ways to go in additional content.
I'd say that Stardew Valley is maybe a bit more inclined towards an 'optimization-focused' gameplay loop where you can end up focusing on stats and line-go-up a bit too much. But it absolutely doesn't demand optimization in any way, and if you're the sort of player who can allow themselves to relax and not worry about that stuff, Stardew Valley can be an incredibly relaxing game. Unfortunately I'm the sort of player who's constantly thinking 'okay, I'm having fun now, but if I spend the next 6 gameplay hours of my life grinding Ancient Fruit Wine and Skull Cavern runs then I can have a shitload of money for next year and then I can have fun'. But it's still enjoyable.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
secretfire Link ParentHonestly I'd say the soundtrack is less a high point (not a diss) and more the thing that stuck out to me the most as I played it. Granted I do music composition (semi)professionally and have done...Honestly I'd say the soundtrack is less a high point (not a diss) and more the thing that stuck out to me the most as I played it. Granted I do music composition (semi)professionally and have done a handful of small indie game OSTs so I'm probably more attuned to music critique than most.
I've not really thought about the lack of instruction actually, but now that you say it I realise there's an awful lot of stuff I wasn't told about and instead just knew how to do it from playing Stardew Valley. My takeaway is less that it's a Stardew Valley clone and more that both games are derived heavily from the Harvest Moon games and are very similar as a result. Still, several features do seem like they took a SV feature and added a few QoL improvements, and that's absolutely not a bad thing; I love SV but can admit that it's a little rough around the edges in a few places. Adds to the charm though, I think.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
secretfire LinkStarted playing Fields of Mistria - I'm only six hours in or so (first season still) so I can't give much in the way of detailed feedback, but it's really fun so far! Characters are interesting,...Started playing Fields of Mistria - I'm only six hours in or so (first season still) so I can't give much in the way of detailed feedback, but it's really fun so far! Characters are interesting, graphics are nice, there's lots to do, it's a very relaxing farmsim game.
It's impossible to not compare the game to Stardew Valley (a game which I love) at every turn and I get the sense it's not necessarily trying to be distinct for the sake of being distinct, which I like - It has a lot of shared elements I like, but I appreciate where it deviates as well. Core gameplay (so far at least) seems basically the same as SV, but maybe with less focus on the inevitable hypercapitalist megafarm simulator that SV always ends up turning into by year 3 (well, that I always end up turning it into at least).
I'm a musician and composer so I've especially taken notice of the soundtrack. The music is pretty good but I can't help but notice just how much it draws from both Joe Hisaishi's Ghibli scores and the soundtrack from Chrono Trigger; there are a few pieces where I swear it's just 'here's my homework, make sure to change a few details though so it's not obvious'. Stardew Valley's music is more simplistic in a lot of ways but it has its own character, whereas Mistria's soundtrack is more compositionally developed but also a lot more derivative. But it's still really effective music overall, the influences just keep sticking out to me when I listen, I keep going 'oh, that part's just like the Kiki's Delivery Service theme' or whatever.
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Comment on A list of independent internet forums in ~tech
secretfire Link ParentI figure there's probably something with my setup that's triggering an antispam response, but I can't figure out what it is. I'm using Arch, SwayWM, Firefox with default ublockorigin. I normally...I figure there's probably something with my setup that's triggering an antispam response, but I can't figure out what it is. I'm using Arch, SwayWM, Firefox with default ublockorigin. I normally use a (paid) VPN via wireguard for general browsing but not exclusively.
It's not common for me to get blocked by sites but it happens every now and then, hence the emergency Macbook Air for when I need to do something really important - The worst offender in my experience is airline booking, they basically all block Linux connections in some way (at least the airlines in my area), normally letting you get halfway through the booking process before throwing a generic error. In terms of forums and 'less important' websites though, lobste.rs is basically the only one I can't get onto at all, which is a bit bizarre. I'll occasionally get gated by Cloudflare or anti-DDOS protections on sites like xcancel but normally that's a VPN thing, and I can understand that; when the issue persists without a VPN active then I really don't know what the problem is. Probably I could contact the site admins and see what's up but it's not worth the hassle, it's just an internet forum. It's all par for the course with Linux these days, but hopefully that's changing as it gets more popular.
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Comment on A list of independent internet forums in ~tech
secretfire Link ParentFor some reason I've always been blocked from the site on my Linux desktop, whereas I can access it just fine on my emergency 10-year old Macbook Air. This has persisted through multiple IP...For some reason I've always been blocked from the site on my Linux desktop, whereas I can access it just fine on my emergency 10-year old Macbook Air. This has persisted through multiple IP addresses and different VPN connections (including no VPN connection at all). Given the highly tech-oriented focus of the forum, blocking Linux connections is... A choice.
But from the little I've seen of it, it seems pretty good; basically the same vibe as ~comp here on Tildes, though somewhat more opinionated (a very common vibe in tech forums).
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Comment on Is there a way to filter out everything posted by a user? in ~tildes
secretfire Link ParentFWIW I've always appreciated your perspective when you've disagreed with things I've said on here; I primarily lurk and have a tendency to only share my opinion when it's a negative one in...FWIW I've always appreciated your perspective when you've disagreed with things I've said on here; I primarily lurk and have a tendency to only share my opinion when it's a negative one in contrast to the prevailing sentiment (i.e. I'm a bit of a buzzkill lol), and your more level-headed stances on tech things are always insightful and have made me think about things differently. Coming from Reddit it's nice when discourse happens in a form other than a person who watched a Youtube video on a topic saying 'you're wrong and stupid'.
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Comment on [SOLVED] PC upgrade vs replacement in ~tech
secretfire Link ParentCloud gaming is pretty terrible right now, I agree, but long-term it probably won't be, what with datacenters popping up everywhere and AI technology getting better and better. I think long-term...Cloud gaming is pretty terrible right now, I agree, but long-term it probably won't be, what with datacenters popping up everywhere and AI technology getting better and better. I think long-term it could end up being a viable product, and as soon as it happens I think it's likely it'll get pushed really heavily. Even ignoring the possibility of malicious intent of the technofascist variety, what with the monopolisation and control of resources being taken from the people (what's that famous Dune quote about people letting computers do all the thinking for them?), it might just make financial sense, sorta similar to how Amazon was able to prosper for so long just because it was often simply the cheapest and best option for the average consumer, being well-established in a field (global e-commerce) where the barrier for entry is really high.
Maybe I'm wrong, and it'll quietly die out. I'm not an economist, perhaps the idea isn't actually feasible in the long run. But gaming as a whole is becoming a pretty expensive hobby in a way it hasn't been for decades, in both the console and PC markets, and it's affecting the industry in major ways. Ideally the response (IMO) would be a focus on optimising games for less powerful hardware and a shift away from the billion-dollar AAA blockbusters. But it's also possible the industry will just... Not do that, because optimising at the low level can be expensive without a huge financial incentive. People don't like 500GB Call of Duty titles, but they still sell, and I doubt shrinking it to 300GB or whatever would affect the sales figures too much. But that strategy has only been popular because consumer hardware, generally, has had resources to spare - Same basic reason modern webpages tend to be dozens of megabytes in size while displaying basically nothing. I'm curious to see what will happen when those types of games hit a userbase that simply... Doesn't have those abundant resources. Maybe the answer will be smaller games, or maybe it won't be, and AI datacenters will come to fix all the problems, for a small fee. I don't know, honestly.
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Comment on [SOLVED] PC upgrade vs replacement in ~tech
secretfire Link ParentI genuinely think the greatest financial decision I've made this decade has been buying my new computer last year rather than this year! At the time (March '25) I was even considering waiting a...I genuinely think the greatest financial decision I've made this decade has been buying my new computer last year rather than this year! At the time (March '25) I was even considering waiting a few months for Black Friday sales, but I didn't trust prices to stay down with the way things were trending even then, and I'm so glad I went with my gut. As someone who lives mostly off of freelance work, it's very possible that I straight up couldn't have gotten as much work done on my old rig that I can on the new one.
On a rather pessimistic note, I do wonder if this is maybe just how the market is going to be in the future. Maybe the prices will continue to be inaccessible for the average consumer, and people will end up with essentially low-powered terminals that get everything done through cloud services. Half of all enterprise software is browser apps at this point, and Cloud Gaming is being massively pushed, with the promise that you can play whatever intensive games you want for a simple subscription cost. Maybe consumer electronics will all just be replaced by renting a chunk of datacenter off of your neighborhood techno-oligarch. The next stage in 'you'll own nothing and be happy'.
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Comment on [SOLVED] PC upgrade vs replacement in ~tech
secretfire LinkI'd recommend a replacement with those specs, but it does really depend on what you're using it for. Though keep in mind that it's probably the most expensive time in the last decade to build a PC...I'd recommend a replacement with those specs, but it does really depend on what you're using it for. Though keep in mind that it's probably the most expensive time in the last decade to build a PC with DRAM prices so stupidly high.
Personally I'd recommend future-proofing with DDR5 if you can afford it, but it ends up being a rabbithole of upgrades for any architecture change. I ended up Ship-of-Theseusing my rig last year when I was having CPU bottleneck issues (music production) and decided on a replacement, but I figured there was no point in getting an older spec for a build I'd hope to be using in a decade, so I got an AM5 processor. But that meant I needed a new compatible motherboard, which meant new DDR5 RAM, new fans, a new cooler, new PSU, all of which needed a larger case, and at the end I just thought 'screw it' and got a new graphics card for the whole thing. I was fortunate in my timing since I built the thing only a few months before the data centre boom hit; it would literally cost me triple the amount of money to build that machine today.
Whatever you decide to go for, 16GB of RAM is the bare minimum these days and that upgrade should be your top priority. For quick and (relatively) cheap performance boosts you could also consider a new SSD (emphasis on relatively since SSD prices are insane now) and maybe installing Linux if it fits your use case. Even just reinstalling Windows from scratch helps a ton if you've not done it since building.
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Comment on Is there a way to filter out everything posted by a user? in ~tildes
secretfire Link ParentI'm surprised by the number of people already in this thread who evidently have grievances against someone or another (and if the five votes on this comment in two minutes is any indication, very...I'm surprised by the number of people already in this thread who evidently have grievances against someone or another (and if the five votes on this comment in two minutes is any indication, very possibly towards one single user); maybe it's because I block all the politics-related tags here but I've never seen anyone in particular I'd consider that objectionable.
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Comment on How has climate change affected your life / plans? in ~enviro
secretfire LinkI've moving internationally specifically to escape the 'new normal' of my country. It isn't just the rising temperature and prices, it's the secondary effects this instability has had, and will...I've moving internationally specifically to escape the 'new normal' of my country. It isn't just the rising temperature and prices, it's the secondary effects this instability has had, and will continue to have, on every aspect of society. Every government is rushing to grab as much power as possible in order to make sure when shit hits the fan further their positions won't be under threat. So all while the world catches on fire and food and water get less and less stable each year, we also have to deal with the surveillance state, the technofascist oligarchy, the degradation of human rights, mass disinformation spread on the internet by bad actors, rewriting of history, hyper-acceleration of CO2 emissions in the name of profit, and more. But at least we'll have a million fucking datacentres that are apparently meant to create value... Somewhere, I guess, to someone.
Opted out of my pension too because I'm never going to retire in this life and I may as well spend the money now while there are still nice things to buy. The long-term plan is to keep hopping countries, trending more and more north, until the dystopia is truly inescapable.
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Comment on The Online Accent Database: Explore authentic accents with a growing video library of real-world interviews in ~humanities.languages
secretfire LinkIt's kinda neat, but I object to them calling themselves an archive when all they do is link to Youtube videos. If any of those Youtube videos goes down, they'll need to find another source for...It's kinda neat, but I object to them calling themselves an archive when all they do is link to Youtube videos. If any of those Youtube videos goes down, they'll need to find another source for the accent. That's not an archive, that's a directory.
The execution isn't great either in my opinion, but accents are always going to be one of those eternally controversial things where any attempt to delineate clear bounds will turn into an infinitely fractal disaster as literally everyone gets angry at you for trying. That being said I think there are some clear areas for improvement. I think at the very least they should provide multiple examples for each with multiple people speaking in different contexts (ideally with easily downloadable audio copies in a standard format and length), but I get that this is a one-person(?) operation making this as a volunteer thing without much profit incentive, and doing it 'properly' would require a huge amount of work. There have been numerous large-scale academic studies on regional accents over the years though, so there's no need to reinvent the wheel that much: Just go through an academically-informed list of accents from a paper, look up some people from each area, add examples to the database - Far easier said than done of course; again, this would be a TON of work for a volunteer. Honestly I'd be shocked if this hasn't been done already by a research group.
Reading through a lot of the site I would guess that much of the text and site are AI-generated, but I really don't have anything to base that on other than vibes. It all kinda reads the same, a lot of the quirks of AI writing show up, particularly with adjectives in descriptions, but that could also be someone really not knowing what to say about Miscellaneous Midwestern Accent #4 and bodging it, who knows.
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Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food
secretfire LinkYesterday (Sunday) I decided to make a big chicken pasta for a few weeknight meals. Bought a kilo of chicken thigh from the butcher (i.e. expensive), some quality cherry tomatoes, onion, cheap...Yesterday (Sunday) I decided to make a big chicken pasta for a few weeknight meals. Bought a kilo of chicken thigh from the butcher (i.e. expensive), some quality cherry tomatoes, onion, cheap white wine (you don't cook with good wine), lemons, garlic, fresh parsley.
The first alarm bell came when chopping up the chicken. It had a slightly odd smell. Not a bad smell like rotten meat would have, just something that caused my brain to feel a bit uneasy. This concerned me but I figured it was fine, I literally just bought the chicken a few hours prior, it had been in a well-temped fridge nearly that entire time, it was probably just some juices in the bag or whatever. There was a sunk-cost emotion at play here too: I only buy meat once every week or two max for reasons of environmentalism and anti-cruelty, and when I do buy it I'm happy to pay extra for a more sustainable product from a good butcher.
I cooked the chicken thoroughly, took it out, sautéed the onions for 15 minutes until they were beautifully caramelised, added the cherry tomatoes (chopped in half), garlic, a few chilli flakes, deglazed with wine, lemon, re-added the chicken, and seasoned. Let it simmer for only few minutes until it had come together a bit (everything was already cooked), then finished the pasta in it with a healthy dose of pasta water for creaminess. It looked lovely.
Served. Topped with parmesan. Took the first bite.
The chicken was bad.
I don't think I did anything wrong on my end: It was cooked thoroughly, my fridge is more than cold enough. I think the butcher just gave me some meat that was on the turn. It wasn't fully off yet, but from that first bite I could just tell that it wasn't right. In hindsight I imagine the 40-degree heatwave this week probably played a part here. I think most of the chicken was fine, but my trust was broken entirely. I ate about a quarter of a meal in denial before just chucking the whole thing out. The worst part is that I had guessed from the start that it might end up this way just with how that chicken smelled on the cutting board, but I chalked it up to a bit of health anxiety (which I have in spades) and opted to not trust my gut, forgetting that my gut has been designed over millions of years to prevent me eating the bad things.
Went and got Chinese takeout instead. Cumin lamb, it's delicious. Pro tip, cook your rice at home and buy the main meal at the restaurant. A while back I made a big jar of a Sichuan chilli oil (called xiangyou; note that there are a lot of Sichuan chilli oils) and I've been putting that on basically everything even vaguely East Asian, it's brilliant.
My stomach feels weird today. Praying to all deities that might be listening.
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Comment on Arch User Repository compromised, 1500+ packages affected in ~tech
secretfire Link ParentI strongly disagree. I have precisely one AUR package installed and it's this one for adding a weather widget on my desktop. I do nearly all of my work on my computer (mostly creative work and...I strongly disagree. I have precisely one AUR package installed and it's this one for adding a weather widget on my desktop. I do nearly all of my work on my computer (mostly creative work and audio programming) and I can do it all through regular Arch packages. If I desperately needed something that wasn't in the official repos I could easily get a flatpak. This is the case for virtually every distro out there. It's not like the official Arch repos are far more limited than other package managers and users are forced to go to the AUR where they otherwise wouldn't be on other distros; the AUR is a bonus option for package installation on top of Arch.
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Comment on Has anyone else seen a LOT of dead birds on the side of the road this year? in ~enviro
secretfire Link ParentInsulting you by... Asserting that you're American? I didn't claim that baselessly, by the way, I glanced at your account and saw that you post a ton about America-centric things. If I had looked...Insulting you by... Asserting that you're American?
I didn't claim that baselessly, by the way, I glanced at your account and saw that you post a ton about America-centric things. If I had looked closely I would have realised that you've mentioned not currently living in [North America] and that my assertion was simply wrong (well, partially wrong I suppose), but I really wasn't trying to cyber-stalk you; I just glanced at the last couple of comments that you made before this post.
Plus I don't want to share too many personal details.
This is an admirable goal and something that I think we should all do on the internet. I want to point out for your own sake, however, that you aren't doing a great job at it outside of this post. I took a glance at your comment history and you've made several comments stating you live in [a country in Europe], and that you used to live in [North America]. I find it a bit strange that you're being so cautious about what you say here in this post when you post so many data points elsewhere. You could have just said "I was in [continent] recently and noticed this" and it would have given essentially zero identifiable info and made this post much easier to answer.
I'm intentionally keeping this comment vague by the way; I'm really big on internet privacy as a whole, and if you weren't aware of the digital footprint you've left in your account history and decide to do something about it, I'd be happy to make this comment even vaguer.
Not everything has to be local and I figured I'd get more responses if I asked generally.
The world is a big place, and I don't know why you'd assume that the issue you're seeing in your area is a worldwide problem. The responses in this thread have, rather predictably, been all over the place, with some people saying they've noticed it, others saying they've not noticed anything, and others bringing up entirely different issues. When you've cast this wide a statistical net you're never going to get any kind of useful answer, except that there probably isn't a single worldwide bird-killing phenomenon taking place.
I made my comment assuming that you were in Bhutan (a country notable for its isolation and lack of internet presence) as a joking way of indicating that your question was vague enough that a useful answer couldn't really exist without covering every environmental problem happening in every part of the world. The pollution of the Amo Chu is probably causing problems for birds in Bhutan and upper India, yeah, but that presumably isn't having an effect on what you're seeing. But you essentially asked a question involving the entire world, so it's a perfectly valid answer, I think. The dead birds in your area may be caused by rising temperatures, drought, El Nino, Monsoon Season, farmers spraying pesticides, disease, a revivalist Cultural Revolutionary organisation trying to bring back the Maoist policy of killing all the sparrows (citation needed), or a million other things.
Anyway, I'm really not trying to start internet beef over this or anything, I was just having fun with my comments. Apologies if I caused offense.
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Comment on Has anyone else seen a LOT of dead birds on the side of the road this year? in ~enviro
secretfire Link ParentOne of those people was trying to find a common connection between something they noticed in their local area and what you've seen. As they had literally nothing to go off except that you live...confidently incorrect location guesses
One of those people was trying to find a common connection between something they noticed in their local area and what you've seen. As they had literally nothing to go off except that you live somewhere which 1. Had birds at some point, and 2. Has at least one road to drive on, they couldn't do anything but guess.
The other was poking fun at you for making a post entirely about a location-specific issue and then failing to provide even the most basic information as to where you are located, not even the continent or clime, meaning there's no way anyone could possibly give you an explanation for the issues in your area. It gives the impression that you're American and you made the post assuming that the USA is the default country and that everyone else here is American too.
You're right, thank you for reminding me of what makes this site good. I wasn't intending for my comment to be a personal attack but it took a single reread to realise that's just what it was. Apologies to @streblo, I've tried editing my comment to be less rude and more of an actual response to your issues. I really wasn't trying to insult, I just find it hard to accept when people's response to all the issues that AI has brought into the space is 'well I like it so I don't care that it's AI'. I feel that is, on some objective level, a consumerist stance. I have elaborated more on that in the previous comment's edit.
For my part, I just ignore AI-generated content in my own life as much as I can, particularly for entertainment. I think the degree to which one can be entertained is a relative one, and a large-scale MMO (AI slop or otherwise) isn't necessarily more or less entertaining than, say, a book or a walk in nature. So I just do the things that I find to be the least ethically questionable. We could go on and on ad infinitum about whether AI use is really an issue but ultimately I choose to just avoid it altogether and be happy.
I should just say that I am an artist who cares very strongly about this whole AI argument, and I know myself well enough to know that 1. I'll not be the person to solve the debate once and for all on a random Tildes thread, and 2. I'm too emotionally invested in the topic, so I'm probably going to dip from the conversation here. Life's too short for heated internet arguments.