Sounds like something an AI-loving Nazi would say!
Seriously, though, yes. This was exactly my first thought. There are plenty of reasons to be apprehensive about AI, but conflating it with Nazis is just blatant propaganda.
Sounds like something an AI-loving Nazi would say!
Seriously, though, yes. This was exactly my first thought. There are plenty of reasons to be apprehensive about AI, but conflating it with Nazis is just blatant propaganda.
What an absurd, ignorant notion. Of course social media has a negative impact on developing minds, but forcing sites to display warnings would have zero positive impact. Browser extensions would immediately pop up to hide those warnings, and if anything, the presence of such warnings would increase kids’ use of social media, since the danger is something even adults had a hard time understanding and kids love to rebel against oppressive systems. The warnings would turn into memes.
The only answers to this problem are to break up and ban social media companies (not possible) or get parents to actually be parents and teach their kids about the pitfalls of social media.
What an inane question. Of course they aren’t saying all Jews are racist. They’re saying that the people in charge of Israel are deeply racist. They also happen to be Jewish, but that isn’t really a factor.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if, in the inevitable Israel Nuremberg Trials, it comes out that the Israeli government intentionally instigated or even carried out the October 7 attack in order to generate sympathy and as a pretext for its genocide.
Yeah, they should really stop killing their own people. Over 30,000 Palestinians, many of them children, dead at the hands of Hamas!
Good thing Israel’s there to stop this horrible genocide and restore order.
/s
My old job doing systems design for a predatory mobile game. I quit that job, moved half a state away, and got a job that pays half as much in a company with integrity. Best decision of my life.
The toys-to-life trend ended, as it wasn’t making enough money. The games remain playable, but they have no support and are old enough they they require hardware that I no longer have.
Toys-to-life video games. I went on a Skylanders spending spree less than a year before it officially died. $5-$15 figurines got sold at garage sales for $0.25-$3 each.
I had tons of fun getting into it and I was young enough that I could afford to waste the money, so I regret nothing.
This is the right answer. Hatred just breeds more hatred. If you approach with love and understanding (or at least a desire to understand), you’ll have a much better chance of changing hearts and minds. Try to meet in the middle and you might be able to point them in the right direction.
Are these insanely rich people?
Oh, yes. Emphasis on the insane.
The assumption around the office always was that they were Saudi royals or kids of oil barons.
Very right. As a content/systems designer, it was my job to carefully balance a feeling of progression with a frustrating lack of progression at key points, thereby pushing players to spend.
The first few levels are easy and free, then progression starts to slow, but you’ve already gotten to level 10 easily enough, so you can take a bit of extra time to get to level 15. By level 15, you’ve invested enough time that the sudden valley of progression from 15 to 30 convinces you to make that first purchase; after all, why not spend just $5 to instantly double your level when you’ve already spent a few hours in the game? Progression speeds back up from 30 to 45, letting you feel like you’re in control of your leveling, then another valley hits and you’re now even more invested, and, since you’ve already spent $5 to get from 15 to 30, what’s another $10 to get from 45 to 80?
Rinse and repeat, steadily increasing the cost of each purchase while seemingly improving the in-game value per dollar spent.
Our biggest whales were spending over $10,000 per day on that disgusting “game.”
I had to get out. My next job, one at a prominent console/PC game studio, only paid about half of what I was making at the mobile game company, and I loved it. No more panicked 2 AM meetings because our revenue dipped 10% over the last hour. No more convincing myself that players enjoyed wasting thousands of dollars on an endless treadmill. No more 28-hour shifts.
Rant over.
Bonus: I’ve since become a dad, I’m actually proud of what I’m making now, and I’m excited to share it with my child when they’re old enough.
Oh, console/PC without a doubt. Mobile development, at least in my experience, is a constant struggle for relevance and a nonstop sense of urgency. Creativity is only allowed if it answers the question “how can we better trick players into giving us their money?”
Console/PC development, however, is focused on making a good product that will last. Nobody ever asks “how much money will this feature make us?” At worst, the question is “how much will this feature drive engagement?”
I’ve only worked for major companies, so my experiences don’t reflect what it’s like at indies.
The Steam Deck is the best thing to happen to Linux since… Linux. It’s the first time average tech illiterate folks have gotten a taste of Linux on their own systems, and it’s driven the development of compatibility tools (Proton) to a hitherto-unheard-of degree.
It convinced me to switch to Linux.
Exactly what I’ve been saying to anyone who’ll listen. All that money saved (plus all the money the rich are needlessly hording) could easily support all of humanity to do what we want with our lives while the robots do the grunt work.
AI art is very easy to learn, but has a lot of intricacies and extra functions that can take a while to learn and master. The only free and open source one, Stable Diffusion, has a lot of resources online. Here’s a beginner’s guide to get you started.
I recommend running locally if you have the hardware for it. You generally need at least 8GB of VRAM for reasonably fast generation, though I’ve heard of people being fine with as little as 4GB. Check out Civitai for additional resources.
So excited for this! I bought into the beta about a decade ago and have been reading the dev logs on secretsofgrindea.com every so often since then.
It’s a top-notch classic-style isometric RPG with tongue-in-cheek writing, great character building, and a roguelike mode.
So true, especially when paired with Miyazaki. They’re the Japanese Williams and Lucas - a real filmmaking match made in heaven.
He’s hardly modern, having died nearly 30 years ago, but Kevin Gilbert’s Song for a Dead Friend still brings tears to my eyes every time.
Such nonsensical results. It really is a popularity contest.
At this point, I think it’s clear that voting restrictions of some sort are necessary. My first thought: players can only vote in a category if they’ve got at least 5 hours of total gameplay distributed amongst at least 25% of the games in that category, with a minimum of 30 minutes of gameplay per game.
If you really want a fresh experience and don’t wanna spend more time modding than actually playing, I cannot recommend more strongly Wabbajack. It’s a fully automated modlist installer with a huge gallery of available lists.
Some of the available modlists are foundational, giving you just the essentials (Engine tweaks, HD assets, community bug fixes, etc.), and some are total conversions, turning the game into a fully-realized modern third-person action game, with controls, animations, and graphics as good as any modern game.
It does everything for you, from installing Mod Organizer 2 to creating game launch shortcuts, and everything in between. All you have to do is log into Nexus (and whatever other mod sites your modlist of choice might use). It’s worth getting Nexus Premium at least temporarily to speed up the process.
Here is the Skyrim Special Edition modlist gallery.