luciole

luciole , 5 months ago

Currently into Triangle Strategy’s New Game+. I’m enjoying that game way more than I thought I would. It’s a fun, charming successor to the strategy JRPG. It has few tropes and the mechanics have been streamlined while maintaining challenge. Surprisingly low magic as well. I mean there are plenty of magic users, but no monster, no supernatural armageddon and the end game is not “kill god”. It does have that peculiar JPRG theatricality, so you need to be fine with that.

luciole , 5 months ago

Have you played Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling yet?

luciole , 5 months ago

They’re going to make us miss that clueless little bastard.

luciole , 5 months ago

I shan’t!

luciole , 5 months ago

I’ve gotten a few emulated titles on Wii and WiiU in the past. I preferred the Virtual Console collection from those consoles. You’d pay a few dollars for the title you wanted and you had it forever. I’m not a fan of the strange bundling of online services + retro gaming with Nintendo Switch Online… not to mention the expansion pack. I just don’t do enough retro gaming to justify it.

As much as I prefer going legit for gaming, if I get a retro craving I’ll probably just set sail on a trusty PC.

luciole , 5 months ago

I can’t even

luciole , 5 months ago

I’m with you. It’s hip to hate on Ubisoft, but I’m of the impression that subscription based gaming has already gained traction with Game Pass. The article is spot on though when the author remarks that Ubisoft offering their library at 18$ a month is a hard bargain. Especially considering Game Pass is currently at 10$ a month… and includes Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Origins & Odyssey.

luciole , 5 months ago

Suchman and Myers West both pointed to OpenAI’s close partnership with Microsoft, a major defense contractor, which has invested $13 billion in the LLM maker to date and resells the company’s software tools.

That explains it. Microsoft wants to cash in on their massive investment in OpenAI by embedding ChatGPT into every bit of software they can. Defense being an important sector for them, I’m surprised the military ban was ever in OpenAI’s usage policy.

luciole , 5 months ago

There’s this linguistic problem where one word is used for two different things, it becomes difficult to tell them apart. “Training” or “learning” is a very poor choice of word to describe the calibration of a neural network. The actor and action are both fundamentally different from the accepted meaning. To start with, human learning is active whereas machining learning is strictly passive: it’s something done by someone with the machine as a tool. Teachers know very well that’s not how it happens with humans.

When I compare training a neural network with how I trained to play clarinet, I fail to see any parallel. The two are about as close as a horse and a seahorse.

luciole , 5 months ago

I mean passive in terms of will. Computers want and do nothing. They’re machines that function according to commands.

The way you feel like teaching a child when you feed input in natural language to a LLM until you’re satisfied with the output is known as the ELIZA effect. To quote Wikipedia:

In computer science, the ELIZA effect is the tendency to project human traits — such as experience, semantic comprehension or empathy — into computer programs that have a textual interface. The effect is a category mistake that arises when the program’s symbolic computations are described through terms such as “think”, “know” or “understand.”

luciole , 5 months ago

I’ve had a fine experience with a Brother black and white laser printer. Just a big ugly gray block that prints my documents and my shipping labels fine. It doesn’t die regularly like those cursed HP contraptions. The cartridge goes on forever and it doesn’t blotch, wretch, coagulate or whatever the fuck inkjet cartridges do whenever you let them be for a month. I don’t miss the colors. Apparently it’s not good to print photos lol.

luciole , 5 months ago

Moreover, Luddites were opposed to the replacement of independent at-home workers by oppressed factory child labourers. Much like OpenAI aims to replace creative professionals by an army of precarious poorly paid microworkers.

luciole , 5 months ago

Anyone knows good bands with Māori influence? Her chanting slaps.

luciole , 5 months ago

I miss the anticipation.

luciole , 5 months ago

Oh to prepare a mixtape on a dual cassette player… Now that I migrated as well to a digital mp3 library it would be dead easy to make playlists, but somehow the convenience kills the fun out of it.

luciole , 5 months ago

To pretend Windows 11 might eventually require a Copilot key on keyboards is plain silly. That’s just not how things work. People have been using all sorts of compact keyboards with a reduced set of keys for ages. Maybe they’ll put pressure on laptop manufacturers or whatever. Those ones will probably get on board enthusiastically, considering how the day Copilot dies will make all these fine machines look just a little bit more obsolete.

luciole , 5 months ago

I played both Octopath Travellers games. The second is definitely a step in the right direction in terms of cohesion. There’s also now a piss easy final boss, as well as an impossible-if-you don’t-follow-a-cheese-strategy-online secret final final boss. Merely being level 99 doesn’t cut it. Ugh. Octopath Travellers games are so charming but the devs still haven’t figured out how to end them in my humble opinion.

luciole , 6 months ago

Do you really think it’s OK to seed an AI with other people’s work, generate strikingly similar images with it, pass them as real and farm engagement from that? Because that’s the trend this article is about.

luciole , 6 months ago

I wonder if Adobe will come back on their word that XD’s a discontinued product now that they’re not about to take over its competitor.

luciole , 6 months ago

Instead of chiptune inspired music, how about music that inspired chiptune ? Yellow Magic Orchestra had an important impact (namely) on '80s/'90s era video game music. Here’s Rydeen (1979).

luciole , 6 months ago

The basic idea is that the West has declined irrevocably, beginning with what Srinivisan calls the birth of the centralized state that disempowered wealthy industrialists with antitrust laws, securities regulation, central banking, and adversarial journalism. Now, the thinking goes, we’re on the backswing with wealthy individuals reclaiming their power over supposedly corrupt public institutions, and we have the internet and its currency—Bitcoin—to lead us out of the darkness.

So the billionaire techbros feel powerless (wtf) and are offended by criticism (oof) so they want their own techbro dictatorship with no free press. Also please no peasant to support, only exploit. Got it.

luciole , 6 months ago

Add that whiff of eugenics from the pronatalism mixed with the longtermism and, if they get what they want, we have something closer to good old blue blood monarchs.

luciole , 6 months ago

Public Lending Right programs exist in 35 countries to compensate authors whose works are in libraries.

luciole , 6 months ago

They do already.

luciole , 6 months ago

Agreed. Sewers serve an important sanitary purpose. I propose to characterize Twixxer as an out of control tire fire.

luciole , 7 months ago

It’s a prototyping tool. You use it to whip up something quick and get proper feedback before spending efforts on developing the actual thing.

Adobe XD and Figma were direct competing products. That’s why XD’s discontinuation by Adobe coupled with Figma’s acquisition is seen as a sort of reverse killer acquisition.

luciole , 7 months ago

And this is how I’ve learned about yet another weird internet trivia.

luciole , 7 months ago

Meming’s fun but I wish it wouldn’t be everywhere all the time.

luciole , 7 months ago

What a horrible decision all around.

• Generates e-waste as controllers are bricked for no reason.
• Kills costly custom built accessibility controllers. No consideration for marginalized users whatsoever.
• Retroactively screws all customers over.
• Goes as far as breaking peripheral compatibility with a discontinued console.

Is it to kill cheating devices used on competitive titles? Is it a money grab? It probably won’t achieve either. From a customer protection standpoint I’m wondering if this position can be attacked legally.

Nevertheless it reminds me that other time when Spencer was daydreaming about buying Nintendo and it feels like Microsoft is being a little unhinged as of late.

luciole , 7 months ago

Yet, in a redacted copy of an internal email chain released on Friday, Jim Kolotouros, the vice president of Android Platform Partnerships, wrote: “Chrome exists to serve Google search, and if it cannot do that because it is regulated to be set by the user, the value of users using Chrome goes to almost zero (for me).”

So Chrome’s whole point is bringing users to Google Search… and Google Search’s whole point is Google Ads. I’m Glad I use Firefox.

luciole , 8 months ago

I hate headlines. They’re written on purpose to piss me off and sometimes they work. Maybe I should stop reading headlines and just read the articles instead. Probably healthier than the other way around.

luciole , 8 months ago

I’d pick a reasonable source, then I’d go with a mix of pure chance and good old fashioned skimming.

luciole , 8 months ago

For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas

luciole , 8 months ago

A couple of points you might find interesting:

• Biden was supposed to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas cancelled his presence following the hospital bombing, then Biden discussed with King Abdullah and they agreed to call it off.
• Biden was not complacent with Israel in his address at Tel Aviv. He urged Israel not to give in to rage, drawing a parallel with USA’s mistakes following 9/11.
• During his trip, Biden finally managed to convince Israel to let humanitarian aid into Gaza.

I might be overly optimistic, but I feel that countries (including the US) supporting Israel are in the process of diplomatically clarifying that their support is not really unconditional and that peace is the only acceptable objective. In that sense I don’t think his trip was all bad.

luciole , 8 months ago

When my kid was younger he had a “garbage games on tablet” phase as well. As others have said, paid games are the way to go (Play Pass sounds cool). Looking for indie games for Android, or PC games ported to Android gives some good results. Stardew Valley’s an obvious one. I haven’t played Ordia, but it looks gorgeous.

What worked really well for us was to teach him about some dark patterns in simple terms and spot them with him in the freemiums he was playing. “Fear of Missing Out” events/notifications and “Progression Paywalls” are typical ones. It made him realize the game wasn’t built to give him a good time as much as to frustrate him into endlessly spending real money in exchange for some phony currency. In the end he was happy to switch to saner games. It’s a good opportunity to work on their critical judgment basically.

luciole , 8 months ago

Wrong question, in my humble opinion. A bubble is speculative at its core. It’s about traders, the stock market, investors, speculators and shit placing much more value on a thing than what it’s worth. The distance with reality grows massive, until everybody wakes up and “pop!” all that sweet sweet wealth (or savings, for the peasants) vanished into thin air. Think housing market or beanie babies.

The question here is if indie game dev can remain sustainable. It’s like restaurants: the more there are, the harder it gets. The risk is not nearly as sudden and explosive as a bubble though. If there are too many, some shops close, others shrink.

Furthermore, the tools and knowledge required for gamedev keep getting more readily available. It’s an art too, so there will always be someone somewhere with the overwhelming drive to do it, profitability be damned.

luciole , 9 months ago

The strongest argument against AI art is that it is derivative of the copyrighted art it is based on. A photo of a copyrighted artwork would be similarly difficult to copyright. In this sense, AI art is more akin to music sampling in that it uses original material to make something new – and to sample music you must ask permission.

luciole , 9 months ago

Oof. This is corporate lingo for “we’ll pull a number out of our ass and charge the dev accordingly”. “Proprietary data model” makes it clear they intend to remain conveniently (for them) opaque about it.

luciole , 9 months ago

OK hear me out: Minecraft in survival. For real. Nothing jump scares like a creeper going “psshht” in your back, telegraphing that you’re about to die in a destructive explosion. As you walk a narrow path over a chasm of lava in the Nether, the wail of the Ghast might make you fall out of sheer panic before it even shoots at you. The Warden is a special kind of scary too, as it’s nearly unkillable and will detect you by the noise you make. It sounds kind of silly but there’s plenty of players making the remark that Minecraft survival is basically horror.

And it’s all in a child friendly, non gory, voxel style.

luciole , 9 months ago

We have no reason to laugh at ancient Rome’s unfortunate use of lead pots for cooking beverages and lead pipes for drinkable water. Down with plastics.

luciole , 9 months ago

Nah mate. I took a minute to search “objective opinion” and I’d suggest you do the same. It may look sort of oxymoronic but it’s definitely a time-honored expression. Opinions may be based on facts and analysis. An expert’s judgement is one valid definition for “opinion”.

luciole , 10 months ago

Never played Roblox myself, but my son had a big phase and still plays from time to time. Back then we’d get him Roblox figurines once in a while. They can be disassembled/mixed and they come with codes for virtual items as well.

luciole , 10 months ago

It’s unfortunate that Ubisoft Quebec will not be able to try and shake things up with an unusual setting and a more challenging game play. From what’s described in the article, it sounded like a welcome iteration over the open-world formula.

luciole , 10 months ago

I’m sad that the workers blame each other rather than the corporate giants hiring them for getting paid less and less.

I wish clickworkers were more visible. They’re an essential part of today’s new technologies, they’re clearly kept in precarious conditions and I bet most users don’t even know they exist, seeing only the tech gurus at the top of the pyramid.

luciole , 10 months ago

Since you named Octopath Travellers 2, I’ll recommend Cosmic Star Heroine. It’s an old school turn-based indie JRPG that’s charming, fun and short. As a matter of fact all games by Zeboyd fit that description.

luciole , 10 months ago

oh no

luciole , 10 months ago

Stretching older tech to skip the new one because it includes shit is a worthy strategy. Also, chatting about specs is going to happen in a technology community. I don’t see why you’re mocking the commenter like they’re oversharing.

luciole , 10 months ago

I was wondering what was going to happen to her. Turns out she’s going to a wildlife sanctuary!

This turns out to be a rare occurrence though, between 300 to 1000 “problem bears” are euthanized in the US every year. This one was saved because of the media attention she was attracting.