22 votes

A few final links before signing off for the year

Posted by hungariantoast
Tags: self post, goodbye

I'm taking a break from Tildes and have asked Deimos for a temporary ban until next year (so I won't be responsible for keeping myself from coming back). Before I go however, I wanted to share a few final links that I think are worth keeping around on Tildes:

https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/28/17911372/there-are-too-many-video-games-what-now-indiepocalypse

https://bottomfeeder.substack.com/p/there-are-too-many-video-games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stxVBJem3Rs

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2018/10/17/our-lives/empty-seat-crowded-japanese-train-10-years-gaijin-seat-still-grates

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11/22/baldwin-florida-food-desert-city-owned-grocery-store/

https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/tactical-urbanism-is-the-only-way

http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/

https://eev.ee/blog/2016/07/22/on-a-technicality/

12 comments

  1. cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    I managed to get in touch with @hungariantoast to make sure they were okay, and asked if I could let people here know what they said, so here it is: cc: @skybrian, since you were worried it was...

    I managed to get in touch with @hungariantoast to make sure they were okay, and asked if I could let people here know what they said, so here it is:

    Thanks for checking in! I'm okay, I just wanted to take a break from the site for a while, mostly to minimize distractions and to focus on school. It was something I had been considering for a while, and May 27th marked five years since I joined the site, so it seemed like the most appropriate date to depart. I will probably come back sometime in 2024.

    I asked Deimos to delete all my topics and comments though because I just didn't have the time and patience to curate all of it and manually delete the identifiable stuff. I'm also just generally trying to shred this particular online identity.

    Oh yeah feel free to let anyone who is curious know why I left. I probably should have actually given a basic explanation... It wasn't because of any specific person or thing. I have generally just been minimizing my interactions online, and Tildes was one of the last holdouts

    cc: @skybrian, since you were worried it was something you did/said that cause it, and it was not. @teaearlgraycold too since you were also curious about why.

    13 votes
  2. [3]
    skybrian
    (edited )
    Link
    I spent a fair bit of effort yesterday writing a reply that got nine upvotes and an exemplary, but he deleted his post and exited the site. Possibly not directly related, but I can't help but...

    I spent a fair bit of effort yesterday writing a reply that got nine upvotes and an exemplary, but he deleted his post and exited the site. Possibly not directly related, but I can't help but think I screwed up.

    Edit: I've been told it's unrelated. (Sorry for making this about me.)

    6 votes
    1. vektor
      Link Parent
      FWIW, I can't see anything wrong with your post. If that helps.

      but I can't help but think I screwed up.

      FWIW, I can't see anything wrong with your post. If that helps.

      7 votes
  3. [6]
    tesseractcat
    Link
    Unrelated but that second article is one of the strangest things I've ever read, it's like the Marxist version of Atlas Shrugged.

    Unrelated but that second article is one of the strangest things I've ever read, it's like the Marxist version of Atlas Shrugged.

    3 votes
    1. [5]
      PantsEnvy
      Link Parent
      The one about too many video games? There are too many video games. The chance of making serious money by making video games is quite low. The only fault I see is in the conclusion. There are...

      The one about too many video games?

      There are too many video games.

      The chance of making serious money by making video games is quite low.

      The only fault I see is in the conclusion. There are plenty of games created in China that are consumed in the USA.

      If the world economy suffers a serious disruption, fewer people will want to buy games, and fewer people will be able to afford to make them. It really doesn't matter what the cause is.

      1. [3]
        tesseractcat
        Link Parent
        That's not the reason I found the article strange. The title of the article is related to video games, but it's actually making a much more general point: Spending time on "oversaturated" creative...

        That's not the reason I found the article strange.

        The title of the article is related to video games, but it's actually making a much more general point: Spending time on "oversaturated" creative pursuits is harmful to society. This viewpoint is made clear in the It's Not Just Vidya, Of Course section.

        They think society is crumbling and that people making and playing video games (and making and listening to music, making and reading books, etc.) are wasting time and thus critical work is not being done to maintain infrastructure:

        Writing a game nobody plays discharges your energy and creates the feeling of achievement, but it's all empty calories and then your car falls into a sinkhole. If your game succeeds, it’s even worse. Your customers are now also expending all of their energy too, playing your game alone in a room. Meanwhile, sinkholes.

        This set of beliefs isn't particularly strange in and of itself, in fact it's pretty standard Ayn Rand style rightwing, hyper-individual, anti-liberal arts beliefs. The strange thing is that the author blames all of this on capitalism. And why do they blame capitalism? Because it lifted enough people out of poverty to spend time working on creative pursuits they enjoy.

        These tens of thousands of games are being made, for the most part, by affluent children of Empire. The poor don't have that much time to waste.

        Don't blame capitalism for these problems. Capitalism is the instrument that made the surpluses that made it possible for you to write art nobody wants in the first place.

        Anyway, TL;DR it's just not a set of beliefs I've seen held together before.

        7 votes
        1. NaraVara
          Link Parent
          Gamers have been complaining about how every game is an online, social, live-service experience nowadays for almost a decade at this point. Gaming as being a solitary activity you do alone in a...

          playing your game alone in a room.

          Gamers have been complaining about how every game is an online, social, live-service experience nowadays for almost a decade at this point. Gaming as being a solitary activity you do alone in a room is a very old and not quite accurate stereotype.

          Anyway, TL;DR it's just not a set of beliefs I've seen held together before.

          The core belief is that life is for serving [externally defined metaphysical aim] and not for fulfilling any personal need or desire. It's a through-line across most authoritarian philosophies. They just change what the item in brackets is. Could be God. Could be "human development." Could be "the nation." As long as your personal aims are being suppressed in service of something the author thinks (on your behalf) is more important.

          1 vote
        2. PantsEnvy
          Link Parent
          I thought it's a fairly normal set of concerns about capitalism even for conservatives Trump also had concerns about the trade imbalance but I think most economists seem to hand wave the concerns...

          I thought it's a fairly normal set of concerns about capitalism even for conservatives

          Trump also had concerns about the trade imbalance

          Some economists worry about the consequences of large and persistent imbalances. The Peterson Institute’s Gagnon warns that the debt necessary to finance the deficit is heading toward unsustainable levels.

          but I think most economists seem to hand wave the concerns away and instead point to the huge improvements in standard of life, globally speaking.

          Economists highlight that the singular role of the U.S. economy in providing liquidity to the global economy and driving demand around the world makes a U.S. trade deficit central to global economic stability. The dollar’s role as the global reserve currency and primary tool for global transactions means that many other countries rely on holding dollar reserves, creating massive demand for U.S. financial assets. This means that the U.S. pays little for its foreign borrowing, allowing it to finance its high consumption at low cost, which boosts global demand.

      2. NaraVara
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        I don't know about the first part. I suspect video games might actually be a counter-cyclical good (which is to say, demand goes up when the economy is doing badly) similar to canned food and...

        If the world economy suffers a serious disruption, fewer people will want to buy games, and fewer people will be able to afford to make them.

        I don't know about the first part. I suspect video games might actually be a counter-cyclical good (which is to say, demand goes up when the economy is doing badly) similar to canned food and other things that provide a lot of value for money.

        2 votes
  4. [2]
    teaearlgraycold
    Link
    If I may ask - why are you self-banning?

    If I may ask - why are you self-banning?

    5 votes
    1. cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Hungariantoast is already gone so can't answer that now. :( I can't speak for them, but several times in the past I have genuinely been tempted to ask Deimos to do the same for me when I was being...

      Hungariantoast is already gone so can't answer that now. :(

      I can't speak for them, but several times in the past I have genuinely been tempted to ask Deimos to do the same for me when I was being particularly unhealthy with my usage of the site, although not for a year, just a few weeks. Site blockers and most everything else you can do to stop yourself from constantly revisiting a site can be pretty trivially circumvented, and when you have impulse control problems (like I do) they're often not enough. So asking for a temp ban is a surer way to accomplish that, especially since Tildes is invite only.

      12 votes