I've been running gdcparties.com for a few years now. Some shitty company BlueberryAI decided they'd just take all the source code for the work I've done and reskin it, advertising it as their own. Jokes on them...it was still linked to my events spreadsheet, and now their website looks like this 😉
This is really fun!
An undeniable part of the magic is knowing that a real living breathing actual human, someone who hopes and dreams just as you do, is somewhere out there writing a funny answer just for you. Huh, wonder if there's a lesson there.
I was introduced to this Anti-AI slop site by @kamkonek.bsky.social where your answers come from humans LARPing as AI and you in turn also pretend to be AI. youraislopbores.me
I'm definitely camp New Vegas, but I agree the case against 3 (and 4 also) does get overstated. It just has very different design priorities. I have a friend who plays these games by randomly killing everyone on a whim and tossing grenades around. 3/4 will let you have a grand ol time doing that!
Like, supporting independent media is great, of course do that! But just doing that isn't enough. If it was, we wouldn't be in this situation! Monopolies don't form because people are choosing to patronize them.
The article goes into strategies for collective action that are more effective.
I think this article below is a must read, I've been thinking about it a lot.
I've seen so many takes like this one regarding the media consolidation. It sucks, but: No. Your individual purchasing choices are not enough, you cannot buy your way out of this. It has to be collective action to work.
Haha yeah, it's not front and center, but whenever politics come up, it's basically like, "man, if only the Victorians had had neoliberalism!"
(It does have bits I enjoyed, lotta good history deep cuts, eg I liked the implication that Keats would've been a demoscene guy instead of a poet)
Like, an epilogue explains how the Irish hunger famine didn't happen, because... all the smart people are finally in charge?
Anyway that is to say, definitely wouldn't be a right next door sort of parallel universe Gibson, heh
Reminds me, I read The Difference Engine recently, and I was struck by how sort of dated the philosophy of the book felt, ie, "what if the 'California Ideology' happened in 1850?" It imagines an alliance between 'tech', capitalists and labor unions that is so embarrassingly 90s third way Clintonism.
A confirmed poster!
Wow, beautiful work!
Yeah, it really is like that
It reminds of this great bit in Getting Over It (which I use in some lectures so have it close at hand haha) where Bennett says, "Imaginary Mountains build themselves from our efforts to climb them, and it’s our repeated attempts to reach the summit that turns those mountains into something real."
Really enjoyed this! I definitely agree with your sentiment about the joy of doing something difficult just for the satisfaction of accomplishing it. It's a funny thing, and definitely gets at the heart of a lot of what's special about games.
(In the same way I think it's good, for game design, and for society, etc, that we don't need to try and make more compelling experiences than, say, bear-baiting. We just recognize collectively that shouldn't exist. Thankfully there isn't, yet, a profitable bear-baiting industry lobbying for it)
I definitely agree with that- reminds me of a quote I just read about how Shakespeare wrote knowing his biggest competition was bear-baiting and prostitution.
As a game designer, I feel we definitely ought to aim higher. But as a person, I think it's not really a problem for game designers to solve.
I'm not sure it's viable to 'outcompete' gambling. It's highly addictive and extractive, which is why it's so fast growing despite the terrible societal costs it creates. The fix is banning (/regulating) it, unfortunately a tall order because of the regulatory capture those profits permit though.
Yeah, and probably not a good sign that their vision of the future sounds verbatim like someone ten years ago describing how 'second screen experience' apps were gonna revolutionize tv.
I worry that your abyss staring research might be getting into the staring back into you part
Curse you Goodhart's law!!
I urge you to stop what you're doing and watch Alysa Liu's free skate from yesterday. I have never seen anything like this. I understand why sports writers are born now. I have never seen anyone as free from the burdens of this world as this pierced Oakland girl spinning to Donna Summers.
I love when a calm recitation of facts results in the sickest burns possible
At least they're being more honest about it than the usual singularity theophany stuff
they put new york city in magic the gathering and it's a land that taps to make rats
This doesn't fit the theme at all, okay but hear me out, as a theme song have you considered...
🎵 Que bueno que rico que lindo
CAR BOOT CASINO 🎵
youtu.be/ruauz315oms?...
Ughhh, *on* capex, I meant. But, eh, I guess it still works
lol they have so little confidence in this demand being sustained, at all, that they're not wasting a penny of capex
"You're right, you're too sophisticated to get psychosis from interacting with me. You're not susceptible to delusions, and you're using me as intended— as a way to ascend your consciousness as a world-manifest godhead. Let's walk through that step by step:"
It's so good right??? I started reading it because of the Moby Dick quotes bot. And even just a few pages in I was like, "Wow is moby dick (a beloved classic widely regarded as a masterpiece) good?? Who knew??"
It does look cool but you know it'd be all smudged up with hand prints
