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...
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.
What about people that want to play Daggerfall with their friends? Point me to a better option and I will check it out. If you set aside AI purity testing, some of these projects are actually a...
I feel like there is never a good reason to pick something like this over something with actual effort put into it
What about people that want to play Daggerfall with their friends? Point me to a better option and I will check it out.
If you set aside AI purity testing, some of these projects are actually a lot of fun. Personally, I don't really care if they are 'slop' or flashes in the pan or not well planned if I'm having fun. I think a lot of them are just people sharing their personal projects they are having fun with.
For an example, I had an old abandoned project from many years ago I gave up on when the task was too daunting -- creating a Magic: The Gathering card parser I could plug into a rules engine. I was finally able to create this with AI, and now I'm having a ton of fun creating AIs that I can play magic and draft with. Is it slop? 100%. Is it well-planned? Nope. Am I getting enjoyment out of it? Most definitely!
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...
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).
Like I said, 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.
I’m not sure how to respond to this other than to point out that calling the most individually empowering tools for hacking on video games ever created ‘consumerist’ is an absurd take.
I’m not sure how to respond to this other than to point out that calling the most individually empowering tools for hacking on video games ever created ‘consumerist’ is an absurd take.
I'm just going to reply to this to say that this whole conversation so far (including @Grenno) feels very un-Tildes to me. I come to this website for for interesting discussions where people can...
I'm just going to reply to this to say that this whole conversation so far (including @Grenno) feels very un-Tildes to me. I come to this website for for interesting discussions where people can have a discussion on nuanced topics without resorting to personal attacks.
As for the take itself, I believe it can be both. Generative AI is both individually empowering and a tool being used to fuel mass consumption of vapid Content™. A knife is used to cut onions and to stab people. A rock is used to sharpen other rocks to make primitive tools and to bludgeon. To say AI is just one thing is to ignore the the way the disgustingly rich are treating other human beings through this tool. To say it's the other is to ignore the sudden ability that people have to create software that was infeasible before, clones or not. To say it's either of these and not something else is to ignore the impact it is having on knowledge work industries in general, and I'm sure a 4th person could come in with a different perspective too. The discussion is nuanced, and worth more than insulting others' opinions.
I agree the other commenter wasn’t very charitable, but you did basically call me a vacuous consumerist who was getting cheap thrills and I should think hard on my decision or something. Not sure...
I agree the other commenter wasn’t very charitable, but you did basically call me a vacuous consumerist who was getting cheap thrills and I should think hard on my decision or something. Not sure what I said that was uncharitable?
Who cares what you have to say, honestly. Its clear you've made up your mind on this topic like any other hardline fringe fundamentalist weirdo topic, and you're attacking other people for...
Who cares what you have to say, honestly. Its clear you've made up your mind on this topic like any other hardline fringe fundamentalist weirdo topic, and you're attacking other people for enjoying something adjacent to where you have big feelings.
Why don't you go take up in a cabin in the woods and get off the internet? Then you don't have to be this sanctimonious doomer and can hole up where nobody can bother you.
Honestly, what harm is it causing? Other than experiencing mild annoyance at clickbait titles like this video's, we can simply ignore these projects if we're not interested. For those that are...
I can't wait for the 'enormous vibe-coded definitely-clean-room-code decompilation of your favourite game/application' trend to die out.
Honestly, what harm is it causing? Other than experiencing mild annoyance at clickbait titles like this video's, we can simply ignore these projects if we're not interested. For those that are interested though, this seems like a great outcome. How many Daggerfall-lovers have longed for a project like this? Even if it's jank as heck, I'm sure it'll still allow a good time.
I think it's really interesting to see people experimenting with programming in ways they never could before. These new tools have enabled so many neat VR experiments, emulation/translation layers, retro decompilations, cross-game engine modding, and other silly stuff. Ideas that were always technically possible, but would've taken years of work just to determine if they were even viable.
As for the number of releases, it's likely just auto-building whenever a commit is pushed. It's a little unusual for published software, but not uncommon for alpha projects.
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.
What about people that want to play Daggerfall with their friends? Point me to a better option and I will check it out.
If you set aside AI purity testing, some of these projects are actually a lot of fun. Personally, I don't really care if they are 'slop' or flashes in the pan or not well planned if I'm having fun. I think a lot of them are just people sharing their personal projects they are having fun with.
For an example, I had an old abandoned project from many years ago I gave up on when the task was too daunting -- creating a Magic: The Gathering card parser I could plug into a rules engine. I was finally able to create this with AI, and now I'm having a ton of fun creating AIs that I can play magic and draft with. Is it slop? 100%. Is it well-planned? Nope. Am I getting enjoyment out of it? Most definitely!
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).
Like I said, 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.
I’m not sure how to respond to this other than to point out that calling the most individually empowering tools for hacking on video games ever created ‘consumerist’ is an absurd take.
I'm just going to reply to this to say that this whole conversation so far (including @Grenno) feels very un-Tildes to me. I come to this website for for interesting discussions where people can have a discussion on nuanced topics without resorting to personal attacks.
As for the take itself, I believe it can be both. Generative AI is both individually empowering and a tool being used to fuel mass consumption of vapid Content™. A knife is used to cut onions and to stab people. A rock is used to sharpen other rocks to make primitive tools and to bludgeon. To say AI is just one thing is to ignore the the way the disgustingly rich are treating other human beings through this tool. To say it's the other is to ignore the sudden ability that people have to create software that was infeasible before, clones or not. To say it's either of these and not something else is to ignore the impact it is having on knowledge work industries in general, and I'm sure a 4th person could come in with a different perspective too. The discussion is nuanced, and worth more than insulting others' opinions.
I agree the other commenter wasn’t very charitable, but you did basically call me a vacuous consumerist who was getting cheap thrills and I should think hard on my decision or something. Not sure what I said that was uncharitable?
Who cares what you have to say, honestly. Its clear you've made up your mind on this topic like any other hardline fringe fundamentalist weirdo topic, and you're attacking other people for enjoying something adjacent to where you have big feelings.
Why don't you go take up in a cabin in the woods and get off the internet? Then you don't have to be this sanctimonious doomer and can hole up where nobody can bother you.
Honestly, what harm is it causing? Other than experiencing mild annoyance at clickbait titles like this video's, we can simply ignore these projects if we're not interested. For those that are interested though, this seems like a great outcome. How many Daggerfall-lovers have longed for a project like this? Even if it's jank as heck, I'm sure it'll still allow a good time.
I think it's really interesting to see people experimenting with programming in ways they never could before. These new tools have enabled so many neat VR experiments, emulation/translation layers, retro decompilations, cross-game engine modding, and other silly stuff. Ideas that were always technically possible, but would've taken years of work just to determine if they were even viable.
As for the number of releases, it's likely just auto-building whenever a commit is pushed. It's a little unusual for published software, but not uncommon for alpha projects.
The graphics are a bit too old school for me, but its great that it exists!