teawrecks

@teawrecks@sopuli.xyz

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨the game "Horses" now barred on Steam, Epic and Humble Bundle⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Assuming the content is merely controversial and not objectionable (i.e. exploitative), it seems there may be room for an art-centric game store front.

  Ironically, I’m betting it’s nowhere near as exploitative as the monetization practices of virtually every AAA release these days.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you cheat in video games?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m generally not interested in playing a game in any way other than how the dev(s) intended. Ex. for a souls like, I don’t get any enjoyment using mods to access content I’m otherwise unable to on my own. Using cheats to unlock all guns in GTA, or to get infinite rare candies in pokemon, or to time travel in Animal Crossing is fun for all of about 5 minutes, at which point I feel like I’ve deconstructed the fun out of the game.

  My unique experience with a game is defined both by what I do and what I don’t experience. If I use cheats to ensure I experience everything, then IMO I’ve effectively dashed anything unique about my experience with the game.

  That said, there are games that I feel I’ve experienced all there is that the dev intended, and now I can use it as a platform for my own creation through mods or custom game modes. Those are generally few and far between though. Something like Minecraft, primarily because it works great as a platform for multiplayer interaction.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A cool feature/mechanic you want to see in games again⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I think those were mind blowing when I first played hl2, just because real time physics and destruction was novel, but now I think they grind the pacing to a halt. I think they just don’t work in an action shooter IMO.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A cool feature/mechanic you want to see in games again⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh you mean a Jumbotron?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Settings you believe ANY game should have? (This is me advocating for a restart/reboot button on ALL games)⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Adding a reboot button is ONLY necessary if the game isn’t made correctly. There is otherwise no reason to ever need to restart the game. I would see the addition of a restart option as lazy or an admission of failure by the dev.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I respect choice for the name of the game⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  almost nobody has put an actual maximiser in a game.

  Turn based games would certainly have one. Generally it’s easier to create an AI that maximizes utility for the AI, it’s more difficult to tune it to not trounce the player lol.

  This reminds me of how L4D does have that sort of indirect dynamic AI that spawns zombies based on the player’s behavior. If the players have a lot of ammo and health, or are going too slow, the game cranks up the threat. If you’re barely hanging on, the game holds back. I guess that’s not quite adversarial though, more like the AI is trying to maximize the players’ perception of a fun/fair challenge.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I respect choice for the name of the game⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, certainly, sorry if that wasn’t clear. Up above I tried to stipulate that I was speaking from a game theory perspective.

  And yeah, you can model the AI in a game in whichever way is most useful. I said as long as they have utility functions that differ from the player(s), but then you also can recursively define games in terms of winning games.

  Ex. the famous case of the US deliberately losing battles to not give away that they had cracked the German cipher. Each battle could be modeled as a game, and the war could be modeled in terms of battles.

  Similarly, a single room in wolfenstein could present an contained “game”, the outcome of which is applicable to which ending you get in the larger “game” (I haven’t played it), and thus the AI would be agents at one level, but state/strategy at another.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I respect choice for the name of the game⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Depends if you define game ais as “agents”, otherwise your definition of game only allows multiplayer games.

  AIs are agents when they have their own utility to maximize that differs from other agents (including the player).

  their “win condition” is overwhelming you with dirt and hiding it in weird places.

  Is that a thing? Does the map create more dirt as a function of the player’s actions? Does the player need to account for this and adjust their strategy to counter it? That would change my categorization, yes.

  coop breaks your definition too

  It depends. If all players have the same motive and there are no competing agents, then it’s a simulation. If players have different motives, then it’s a game. If players compete against AI agents, then it’s a game.

  Maybe a better definition of “game” is needed

  The formal definition of a game is:

  $$ K_a, {x_K}K∈K_a, x,K_i, {≻K}K∈K_i $$

  I’m arguing that if the size of $K_a==1$ then it’s not a game, but that page is generous:

  For games with a single coalition of action, the set of all situations may be taken to be the set of strategies of this unique coalition of action, and no further mention is made of strategies. Such games are therefore called non-strategic games. All remaining games, those with two or more coalitions of action, are called strategic games.

  Which would include a person standing in a room doing nothing as a game. I’m saying that’s not a game, hope we agree lol.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I respect choice for the name of the game⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Well that’s not a good argument lol. That’s like saying doing quantum physics is just writing a bunch of shapes on paper and using words that most people don’t understand, so it’s basically the same as what a toddler does every day.

  Most FPS games require developing a strategy or skill in order to reach the win condition. If it’s multiplayer, then the strategy development and execution require social interaction or deduction. It fits the definition of a “game” from a game theory perspective. There is more than one agent, they each of win conditions, and their actions prompt reactions from each other.

  But this doesn’t, it’s a simulation. I assume it has an end condition, but the strategy is just “move towards it”. Maybe a game like Satisfactory is a more appropriate comparison. In both games you are making optimizations to move toward the end condition faster. You take actions, but there’s no competing agent with its own win condition responding to your actions.

  Maybe there’s a compelling story to be had that the trailer is underplaying, idk. I don’t think Powerwash Simulator is hooking people with its story, though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I respect choice for the name of the game⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think I’ll ever understand why games like this are so successful lol. I guess it’s just the dopamine hits without the microtransactions? It’s not a “game”, though, not in a theoretical sense. More like busy work simulator.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it's costing the economy⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  While it may seem to be a smart money move, it can result in a costly productivity and innovation lag for the economy.

  For the love of god! Won’t somebody think of the economy?!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pornhub is urging tech giants to enact device-based age verification⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Because they know the “party of anti-regulation/anti-nannie state” will never trust people to police themselves. They acknowledge either they will have to do a bunch of work and be liable when it fails, or some middle man will. So they choose the middle man.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Smaller makes it more expensive. I hope it’ll be under $1000, but I think I wouldn’t be surprised if it were $1200.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The ‘Great Meme Reset’ Is Coming: From Jack Dorsey to Gen Alpha, everyone seemingly wants to go back to the internet of a decade ago. But is it possible to reverse AI slop and brain rot?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Why not 2012?

  For Kony.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The simple test that blew up the FTC's case against Meta⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If they were required to leave all meta platforms, then what would the experiment show? It sounds like the intention was to see where people shifted their time when they stopped using one meta product. If FB users primarily went to IG and vice versa, then it would indicate they held a monopoly. But it sounds like IG users primarily switched to TikTok and YouTube, not FB, indicating they are different products from each other and have different competition.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alberto Mielgo defends the Marathon cinematic as "not AI," denies his team touched Bungie’s plagiarized material and calls the art theft incident a genuine mistake that was "blown out of proportion"⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  How does one even accidentally steal a texture someone else made?

  The fact that you’re asking this is almost like…maybe you don’t know what you’re talking about? And should defer to an actual creative who does?

  First off, it is a famously non trivial problem to compare every texture to every piece of art on the internet. It is trivial to add a bit of impercievable noise to deliberately foil even the best reverse image searching methods.

  I think you may be taking for granted the number of artists and the level of autonomy they are given over their craft for a project of this complexity.

  It’s actually more weird to me that you don’t understand why this is easy for a single dev to get away with. This is what happens when a studio trusts its artists to create something. No one is excusing it, but stop acting like Bungie did it on purpose. There’s no evidence of that. The only thing they’re guilty of is making a mediocre extraction shooter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft AI CEO pushes back against critics after recent Windows AI backlash — "the fact that people are unimpressed ... is mindblowing to me"⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  No, we think it’s great, keep going.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Windows 11 to add an AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders, warns of security risk⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If sufficiently advanced malware can break out of a VM, then it’s only a matter of time before an AI breaks out of a measly container 🍿

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Roblox to block children from talking to adult strangers after string of lawsuits⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Roblox is making absolute bank. They have the resources to actually solve this if they wanted. They just believe the inevitable slap on the wrist will cost them less than they stand to make in the meantime.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam Machine is huge for indie development⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Steam hardware has so far been pretty niche, though. If the user experience is smooth enough, a SM could replace many people’s xbox/playstation.

  We’re like 5y into the PS5/XBSX, new games are jumping up to $70-100 each, and hardly any are platform exclusives. Msft have all but canceled the next Xbox, and if Sony tries to push the PS6 in a few years, I think there’s a world where a good chunk of people say nah.

  And with the amount of attention Linux is getting from the win10 eol, we could be at the beginning of an historic inflection point in gaming.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valves first title with a 3 in it⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, and the best jokes are famously the ones you need to explain. Sometimes the audience is wrong and they need to be set straight.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Proton Offered Me Money... Then It Got Weird⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Very not weird behavior. Not worth the watch.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Then Minecraft is what you’re looking for.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's a recent game you've tried playing that isn't worth the hype?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Differentiation comes from role play, which is the least interesting part of the game for me.

  Can you explain why you would play a TTRPG if you’re not interested in role play? Seems like a battle sim like warhammer, or just a video game might be the thing you’re looking for.

  As a DM, the cooperative story telling IS the interesting part. D&D has never been an airtight game system, it’s a bunch if hand waving to give just enough illusion of structure and randomness so you don’t feel like you’re just arbitrarily deciding everything yourselves. But at the end of the day, you are. The characters and story you’re left with is the only thing of value.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨For those of you who enjoy open-world games, how big of a world is too big?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There are space games with procedural large scale galaxies to the point that the entire playerbase can only ever hope to see ~15% of the systems, but that’s why I put the >50% qualifier in there. That’s TOO big. Anyone can generate an effectively infinite procedural world, I want a large world.

  When I had originally conceived of this, it was in the context of a pokemon MMO. You would have your home town, and as a trainer, or researcher, or rocket member, etc, you’d travel at a real-time pace akin to the show.

  Alternative IP that it could work with are dragonball (imagine the playerbase on a months long search to find/fight over the dragonballs so they could awaken the dragon and make a wish to the devs), or Avatar (each player would have a chance to spawn in as a random bender. One player at any given time is the Avatar. Events happen to strengthen some benders and weaken others. Players make war and peace at will).

  There would obviously be challenges in running these types of experiences, but currently it feels like the cost of standing up an MMO is so much that no one ever does anything interesting. Instead they just copy WoW.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨For those of you who enjoy open-world games, how big of a world is too big?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t consider NMS to be an MMO. If everyone went to the same location, at best, you’d most likely only see a handful of players you’re instanced with (up to 32 from what a cursory search gives me). That’s kinda the sad state of what passes for an MMO these days, but I don’t accept it. That’s not even a full raid group in WoW.

  But yeah, you could squint and say that that otherwise effectively produces the experience I’m asking for. I am looking forward to LNF for sure.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨For those of you who enjoy open-world games, how big of a world is too big?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think that means it didn’t work, I think that just means it’s not for everyone. I’m a firm believer that, “given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game”. Small indie games take firm stances on their gameplay all the time, not every game is for everyone, and that’s ok, that’s how you get unique and interesting gameplay experiences. But that’s easy for and indie game to do because making an indie game is cheap.

  MMOs have the unfortunate reality that they’re architecturally complex, and expensive to operate, and thus need to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible to justify their existence to investors. They don’t have the luxury of making the experience they want, which is why they all end up just copying WoW’s enshittified gameplay, but with less polish.

  My hope is that this indie revolution we’re in expands to “large scale” multiplayer games. Not so massive that it’s prohibitively expensive to run, but not so small that it’s a ghost town. I think that’s when we’ll start to see interesting MMO experiences again.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨For those of you who enjoy open-world games, how big of a world is too big?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  WoW is objectively huge, but they made it feel tiny by putting fast travel options everywhere. I would guess that any two points in the world are no more than 5m from each other if routed perfectly.

  I want there to exist one MMO where you “live” in a city, and traveling to another city is actually so inconvenient that you only do it if you have to. Not because I want to make the trek, but because I want there to be a world just large enough that any one person has usually seen only ~1%, but the playerbase in entirety has seen >50%. I don’t know if any such game exists.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are your favorite games from a worldbuilding standpoint?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Hah, I had thought, well it’s not quite reincarnation, because you don’t come back as something new, you come back as yourself with the same memories. But I’m just noticing that it does seem like “the Big Problem” is very similar to what [my rudimentary understanding of] the Buddhist quest for transcendence is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[RANT] Why is so much coverage of "AI" devoted to this belief that we've never had automation before (and that management even really wants it)?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  People or LLMs?