Kwakigra
@Kwakigra@beehaw.org
- Comment on The Job Market Is Hell: Young people are using ChatGPT to write their applications; HR is using AI to read them; no one is getting hired. 1 week ago:
The actual bubble that needs to be popped is financialization. The US economy is now completely deratched from productivity and is now running on speculation only through financial valuation. At the same time, people are starving, infrastructure is falling apart, the birth rate is plummeting, and suicide is on the rise. It’s time to stop taking “job creators” seriously and use all this fallow professional experience and skill to restart the material economy and forget this pretend crap that keeps plutocrats busy doing nothing of any value to anyone.
- Comment on Hands-On: Borderlands 4 wants you to forget Borderlands 3 ever happened | VGC 1 week ago:
I think that’s the right approach. Once it starts getting old it won’t get better. That being said, the writing of the DLCs does not have the problem of the main story and are often pretty good. If getting access to all your character’s abilities wasn’t attached to playing the main story I would advise skipping the main game and only playing the DLCs.
- Comment on Hands-On: Borderlands 4 wants you to forget Borderlands 3 ever happened | VGC 1 week ago:
I, like you, heard the story was bad but figured I could just focus on the gameplay and ignore the writing. Unfortunately, the reason the bad writing is so notorious is that the game is setup to jam it in your face consantly. It’s unrelenting.
Imagine playing a pretty decent game while a dead-eyed 50 year old comedian is making the worst jokes you’ve ever heard in your life while doing a very poor impression of gen-z internet slang they barely understand. The comedian thinks you the player are actually stupid so the jokes are as condescending as they are awful. Now imagine they won’t shut up. Every time you do anything in the game, you get a few minutes of these whacky jokes. Accepting a mission, every bullet of the mission, skits that you have to watch before progressing, etc. You have no choice but to engage with the lazy, insulting, horrendous writing that wears thin after minutes and goes on for the entire hours-long game.
There are mods that disable the endless chatter which I can’t recommend more highly. I made the misake of playing the game raw. The game is actually pretty fun, but the aggressive garbage of the writing is not something easily ignored.
- Comment on Shein Used Luigi Mangione’s AI-Generated Face to Sell a Shirt | 404 Media 1 week ago:
This is really interesting. Faking an endorsement by someone who is accused of preventing thousands of needless deaths to sell shirts is on one level nefarious but on another level incorporating Luigi into mainstream pop culture. The plutocracy wants people to think this kid is the worst monster who ever lived, but the average American is so pleased with what he is accused of doing his likeness can be used to sell clothing. I am not totally opposed to the mainstreaming of this kind of folk hero. Optimally he should at least get some royalties to pay for his legal fees, though.
- Comment on Can we talk about the Roblox situation? 4 weeks ago:
Definitely. They could do something about this but they would make less profit.
- Comment on Can we talk about the Roblox situation? 4 weeks ago:
This is, very unfortunately, what happens in every internet space which is targeted towards children and allows communication among users. It is by far the easiest way for anonymous predatory adults to make contact with typically unattended children. I would like at some point to see a child-oriented space on the internet have the highest priority of children’s safety at some point, but there hasn’t been one yet.
- Comment on US education 1 month ago:
This appears to be stupid, and it is, but it’s mostly evil. Teaching children to accept absurdities and distrust evidence to make them easier to control.
- Comment on Switch 2 owner banned for playing second-hand Switch 1 games 2 months ago:
And the Nintendo of my childhood was responsible for pretty much every anti-consumer practice and cultural trend concerning videogames during my childhood:
Inventing the idea that videogames are toys only for little boys only for marketing purposes. Betraying and exploiting established relationships with developers. Screwing over partners on disc technology and reversing course to limit technology to be under their control. Supporting Jack Thompson throughout his campaign to ban all videogames with any adult content at all. Lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit to hold the entire industry back. The list goes on.
- Comment on Self insert power fantasy recommendations? 3 months ago:
Haha, yeah. The courier probably has the biggest turnaround of any bethesda game protagonist. They go from a completely anonymous average person delivering packages to being essentially a demigod capable of pretty much anything. No fate, no destiny, no special heritage, just you and your choices.
- Comment on Self insert power fantasy recommendations? 3 months ago:
In New Vegas, it will make sense for your character to look any way they want. In the game’s story, nice clean things are available but restricted to the rich and powerful. The player, however, is the most powerful and the most influential as to who ends up getting what by the end of the game.
- Comment on Self insert power fantasy recommendations? 3 months ago:
To be honest, this is what kept me from playing it at first as well. It’s a pretty old game, but mods can help a lot toward making it easier on the eyes. With Vortex through Nexus modding is super easy nowadays.
- Comment on Self insert power fantasy recommendations? 3 months ago:
Since New Vegas isn’t on your list it has to be my top recommendation. Of all games I’ve ever played, New Vegas is the most reactive to and acknowledging of the insane and unbelievable things the player does. The actions the player takes have permanent effects in the game, and everyone affected will know that the player is responsible for whatever happened and say so. You personally control the fate of every community in the Mojave. In other games, you are powerful on behalf of the story, but in New Vegas you personally are all the power in the entire game.
- Comment on Tinder tests letting users set a 'height preference' 3 months ago:
Tinder is an app where you look at pictures of people and on that basis alone decide whether to go out. It’s even easier to lie about height than to take a misleading picture. I’m really not sure if this would make any difference at all. Everyone frustrated on tinder will continue to be exactly as frustrated on tinder while tinder squeezes them all.
- Comment on My theory about the easy to spot bots in YouTube comments 3 months ago:
They could be having that effect. Scams that look obvious are to attract people who fall for obvious scams, such as people with dementia. They are designed to be transparent to most people because they don’t need anybody clicking that has the faculties to know better than to fall for the rest of the scam.
- Comment on Former PlayStation exec says "$70 or $80" games are a "steal": "As long as people choose carefully how they spend their money, I don't think they should be complaining" 3 months ago:
$80? How much is that, like 4 bananas?
- Comment on Lies, Damned Lies, and LLMs: AI is a Con 3 months ago:
Honestly, it’s a great source of truly stupid ideas. It’s convenient to have a total idiot on hand at all times to make dumb suggestions when asked, inspiring me to think of something better since the standard was set so low.
- Comment on BDS calls for boycott of Microsoft and Xbox gaming products over alleged Israeli military connections 5 months ago:
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, because in that case it usually ends up being nothing. If you have the desire to limit what you described in any way you can as much as you can, it’ll be something. If everyone does as much as they can, it’ll be a huge something.
- Comment on What are some lesser-known obscure TV series that went under the radar, that you would recommend? 5 months ago:
Swarm. It’s a great show but unpopular for a reason since it’s pretty niche and I imagine would make most people too uncomfortable. That’s my endorsement.
- Comment on Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a Masterpiece, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an Indulgence 5 months ago:
This is very interesting to me because I wanted to keep going after BoTW ended. ToTK is like a full game sized DLC with all new gameplay elements, so it was exactly what I wanted. It’s kind of like an indulgent victory lap showing off all the cool stuff the engine can do with some new tools to play with. I will say that this is enough for me. Really hoping they do something completely original again.
- Submitted 5 months ago to gaming@beehaw.org | 27 comments
- Comment on Christie's First-Ever AI Art Auction Earns $728,000, Plus Controversy 6 months ago:
Cutting out the artist middleman in their money-laundering scheme. What a joke.
- Comment on Microsoft Study Finds AI Makes Human Cognition “Atrophied and Unprepared” 6 months ago:
Microsoft likely considers this to be a feature rather than a bug. Another avenue for brainwashing credulous people is wide open.
- Comment on What are some games you like that most people hate and/or were panned by critics? 7 months ago:
Dynasty Warriors series. Some criticism is correct, in that they really did release the same game several times in a row with minor adjustments. The gameplay is much more strategic than it was given credit for, though. It’s true your warrior basically feels like a lawnmower demolishing hundreds to thousands of hapless footsoldiers at a time, but the trick is that you are the army’s only lawnmower. Almost everything your allies try will fail catastrophically unless you help them. You really have to time your presence on certain parts of the fight to be where you’re needed. It feels very heroic. Also, the cutscenes are without exception hilarious and drew me to the source material Romance of the Three Kingdoms which has greatly enriched my life.
- Comment on Deepseek when asked about sensitive topics 7 months ago:
This being an open-source application made me wonder about this exactly. Thanks for running it and publishing your results. This is fascinating.
- Comment on Biden’s TikTok Flip-Flop: President Rushes To Undo Ban He Championed As Backlash Grows 7 months ago:
Yes, it is a Tiktok meme. A few may actually remain on Xiaohongshu but probably most will migrate to whatever logical replacement pops up.
- Comment on Biden’s TikTok Flip-Flop: President Rushes To Undo Ban He Championed As Backlash Grows 7 months ago:
It is a protest. Some Americans may ultimately remain on “Little Red Book” but the main purpose of making it the #1 app in the US was to spite the government. It’s a much more restrictive app than Tiktok, but people are enjoying talking to foreign nationals both ways.
- Comment on Biden’s TikTok Flip-Flop: President Rushes To Undo Ban He Championed As Backlash Grows 7 months ago:
Because of the nature of the algorithm, it absolutely is this for plenty of people. It’s also not the case for plenty of people. I doubt there are many right-wingers going on to join a Chinese app called “Little Red Book” which has rules that require the promotion of Chinese socialism. It’s the most popular app in the US now because of this ban.
- Comment on Tawny Newsome Says Live Action Star Trek Workplace Comedy Will Explore Life Outside The Federation 8 months ago:
I have to admit I had very low hopes for Lower Decks after that first teaser featuring a drunk Mariner being reckless with a bat’leth. It looked like it was going to be just another “adult cartoon” cash-in like the dozens on Netflix. Very happy that my initial impression was totally wrong.
Lower Decks was an effective Star Trek show as well as an effective comedy. While I also wouldn’t trust this idea with just anyone, as long as there are people working on it who understand why Star Trek is important and how the themes are more important than being dismissive, I welcome another comfy optimistic comedy about a better world.
- Comment on James Gunn Says 'Superman's Trailer Is The "Most Viewed" In The "History Of Both DC & Warner Bros." 8 months ago:
Superman rules. He’s all the way relevant again. He was introduced in an era when people understood very well the oppressive nature of their establishment, so the idea that a Superman could stand up to the bullies and save honest people from being victimized by their greed and selfishness made him very popular very quickly. Lex Luthor is essentially an abstraction of all the evils of capitalism although he’s typically framed as a corruptive influence rather than a product of his environment. Despite this framing, these days the audience might interpret the conflict between Lex and Superman a little differently than they would have twenty years ago. Timely reintroduction of a beloved character to mainstream audiences.
- Comment on ‘Section 31’ Director Says The Streaming Movie Is A New Flavor Of Star Trek… With A Surprise Twist 8 months ago:
The tagline is “Tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, she also must face the sins of her past.” In Section 31? She wasn’t specifically recruited because her morals are aligned to Section 31? She won’t be engaging in the mission of Section 31?