teawrecks

@teawrecks@sopuli.xyz

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie dev defends criticism of Steam refund abuse amid review bombing of his game: 'It's wrong to refund a game after having fun with it and completing it'⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re just making me wanna play this game lol

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie dev defends criticism of Steam refund abuse amid review bombing of his game: 'It's wrong to refund a game after having fun with it and completing it'⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  But all games have a rate of refunds, including refunds due to rage quitting. Our null hypothesis should be that the refund rate should be the same as any other game (controlling for difficulty).

  I don’t know what a normal rate of refunds is, that is probably data that is out there. But if the refund rate for this game is significantly higher than normal, then we can say that SOMETHING about this game is different.

  If we control for every factor besides hltb, and it’s still higher, only then could we say with high confidence that the difference is due to people finishing and refunding. But we technically can’t ever say that with 100% certainty unless we go to every person’s house and watch them do it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The End of Ownership. Sony’s announcement has fans worried they might never truly own their beloved games.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  We’re overloading the term “ownership”.

  • When a company says “ownership” they mean over the property itself. Copyright. Only the rights holders “own” the game, only they can make a sequel to the game.
  • When a player says “ownership” they’re referring to their copy of their game, i.e. their license. No copyright. They do not own the game, they just own a license to experience it, they cannot make a sequel.

  People then try to say “well the issue isn’t ownership, it’s DRM”. No. DRM that makes the experience worse for paying customers is annoying, but it’s not the issue at hand. Virtually all your games for all your consoles have some form of DRM, and yet you consider them “owned” in your collection.

  What we need to demand is: ownership of a license that grants perpetual access.

  • We don’t want the license to expire.
  • We don’t want it to change what it grants us access to after we’ve purchased it.
  • We don’t want them to stop making the content available because they don’t want to host their servers anymore.
  • We want the ability to play without needing an internet connection.

  If all of that can be guaranteed, then the license is on par with a physical copy.

  But until we have legislation forcing it to be the case, we have to assume they fully intend to take your money and one day not be willing to provide what you paid for.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie dev defends criticism of Steam refund abuse amid review bombing of his game: 'It's wrong to refund a game after having fun with it and completing it'⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  only 7% users have actually beat the game of the people who kept it. the people who refunded shouldnt be that different than the average

  You would need data to show this hypothesis to be true, you can’t assume it, the variables are not independent, that’s the whole point being made.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hideo Kojima ‘really sad’ about PlayStation killing discs, ‘frightened’ for future of ownership⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d be surprised if the arbitrage opportunities are that broad, but yeah, it would be dominated by automated trading. It would be the same as trading stocks. Every piece of content would effectively have a bid/ask spread for its licenses, and people would have bots that are constantly speculating on them. I suppose when trade volume is low and prices vary, the swings could be quite wide trade-to-trade.

  But this is what NFTs are, just with a decentralized exchange so that no single company can take a cut of every trade, and we already know how people felt about that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hideo Kojima ‘really sad’ about PlayStation killing discs, ‘frightened’ for future of ownership⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  the right of first sale in the digital space just need to be created to fix this mess

  That sounds nice at first, but if you think about it, the logical conclusion is that: rather than an artist making a sale per person who wants to experience their work, they would make sales proportional to the maximum number of simultaneous viewers. With digital ownership, it would be trivial to instantly transfer ownership, so the moment someone is done playing a game or watching a movie, they’ll sell it instantly to someone else.

  The only content that could benefit in such an economy is low production value slop that seeks to go instantly viral and issue licenses while there’s still demand. Then by the time it dies down they’re on to their next slop hit. That and live-service titles that try to keep people holding their licenses. Short single-player experiences, and games from small creators who rely on passive income from a few new people finding their game over time would sell a few copies at first, and then the licenses out there would just always undercut the purchase of any new license.

  Also the exchanges would make a bunch of money by taking a cut of each sale. Which is arguably better than just Sony or Valve taking their cut.

  I don’t like it either, but we can’t act like right of first sale for digital licenses would solve all problems and not create any new ones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"Piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue": Sony just proved why digital storefronts are broken⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  To publishers, if there’s no piracy happening, then they’re leaving money on the table. They’re offering too good of a deal to people. Piracy was at an all time low probably around 2010-2015 because there was a lot of disruption happening in the digital media space. But as the dust has settled, Netflix et. al. are now scooping up their spoils, and exploiting their advantage for profitability. Piracy rising is an inevitability. It’s a measure of how effectively they’re capitalizing on their content.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know what his point is. That we can mass produce slop for the lowest common denominator without needing to pay anyone? I legitimately don’t understand who he thinks he’s talking to! None of the players who would be fine with slop are listening (by definition), and he can talk to his rich buddies without the bad PR. And those are the only two groups who could possibly stand to benefit from what he’s suggesting.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Norwegians supporters in New York City⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So, wouldn’t it make more sense to say “fuck the US”? I assume you’re not saying “fuck the Olympics” just because Nazi Germany hosted it once for propaganda reasons, right?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You know the people being laid off are not the ones making those kinds of decisions, right?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I also just recently finished Forbidden West a couple of months ago! Just prior to that I had finished Silksong, and just afterwards I returned to Baldur’s Gate 3 and finally finished that!

  I’m now playing Expedition 33 and Fez.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I still can't get over Skyrim. Are there any games that can replace it?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, it’s definitely not a drop-in replacement. But the Witcher 3 side quests are excellent, made the world feel alive in a way Elder Scrolls never did (to me). I think Skyrim is just so ambitious that the NPCs feel robotic in their inability to act appropriately, and it kills my immersion.

  But I agree, idc about Yennifer or most of the main storyline. Basically the same for Skyrim too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I still can't get over Skyrim. Are there any games that can replace it?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  When I played Witcher 3 I remember immediately thinking Skyrim felt extremely dated. I would play any quest in W3 again before any quest in Skyrim.

  But yeah, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is recent and supposed to be for Skyrim fans. Haven’t played it yet.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox pulls Gears video featuring a PS5 logo, 24 hours after announcing it as an exclusive⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  According to their recent feedback hub, what gamers really want is exclusives.

  Why do consumers want so badly to be abused?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve raises Steam Deck prices by more than $200⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Don’t worry, trump controls the fed now. He’ll make sure the dollar becomes worthless, and everyone will be billionaires!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Exclusive Interview with Remedy’s New CEO: “Alan Wake and Control Should Have Sold More"⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  A Low Budget Alan Wake would have been better than one that doesn’t sell

  I don’t follow. As a fan, I get to play the game either way. Why would a lower budget version that more people buy be “better” for me? It might be better for the companies involved, it might even make future installments easier to sell to investors which means I get more games. But at the end of the day, as a player I end up with a worse AW2. Why would I want that?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Exclusive Interview with Remedy’s New CEO: “Alan Wake and Control Should Have Sold More"⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I do wonder how the crowdfunding route would have gone for them. I don’t know that they could have raised the full $50M though. The original had a cult following, and Control did really well, but it would be very risky. If they failed to hit their goal in a crowdfunding round, then they could be guaranteed going forward that no one, not even Epic would have seen it as worth funding. It would have been forever dead.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Exclusive Interview with Remedy’s New CEO: “Alan Wake and Control Should Have Sold More"⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, it’s an unfortunate reality that EGS was the only option. But still, my hope is that someone can crunch the stats and prove to future publishers that the revenue delta can be attributed to EGS exclusivity.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How is it possible that Bungie didn't get in real legal trouble due to all that "vaulting" bullshit during Destiny 2?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Everything is like that. You buy a CD, DVD, record album, painting, concert ticket, movie ticket, whatever it is, you don’t own the artwork, the creator retains the rights to the artwork, you just own a limited license to view it. You can’t go put on your own concert or show using that license without consulting the owner. You can’t create derivative works without consulting the owner. You can’t make copies without consulting the owner.

  It’s not just video games, that’s just how copyright works.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someone created a public domain version of Netflix⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re saying “we have to draw the line”. If I’m understanding the discussion at hand, I’m saying: we don’t. But I’d like to clarify what line it is you think we need to draw.

  I think this is an interesting discussion to have, but if it’s not enjoyable to you, we can end it here. Cheers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someone created a public domain version of Netflix⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  What you’re describing is “vibe coding”. For the difference between vibe coding and engineering, I’ll refer you to my previous comment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someone created a public domain version of Netflix⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  What line are we trying to draw exactly? I think that’s the part I’m still confused on.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someone created a public domain version of Netflix⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it will become more apparent over time. But consider that the practice of software engineering is a stochastic process. Give 10 different engineers the same goal, and you’ll get 10 different solutions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someone created a public domain version of Netflix⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Trying to understand where you might be going with this. Is the implication that non-deterministic/stochastic algorithms have no practical use in engineering?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someone created a public domain version of Netflix⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  For the record, not all agentic coding is “vibe coding”. It is possible to do real engineering with an LLM.

  In the same way the advent of the compiler helped us go from high-level human readable formal language to low-level machine readable formal language, an LLM helps us go from high-level natural language to high-level human readable formal language. The distinction between vibing and engineering is how much intention you have about what the tool spits out the other side.

  Vibing says “all I have is an input, I don’t know what the output should be, so I’m not even going to look at it”. Engineering says “I have an intended output in my head, and I’m using whatever tool will reliably create my intention the fastest”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox Player Voice Quickly Reveals What Players Want Most⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, but anti-consumer is soooo IN right now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gymnast stanning JoJo⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The accuracy is impressive. She makes one last non chalant movement of a hand or foot, and it exactly matches the illustration.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Alright, yeah if that was the intention of the headline, then fine enough. I think I’m not the only one in this thread who didn’t read it that way.

  Cheers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Utah tells porn sites to take the P out of VPNs, and it's their fault that they can't⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Why Hong Kong over Iceland or Switzerland?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Utah tells porn sites to take the P out of VPNs, and it's their fault that they can't⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Eh, I remember kids using proxy sites to get around school internet filters when I was 14. And now that virtually every Youtuber has a VPN sponsorship, I think that 14-18 range of kids definitely has a sizable chunk who knows what a VPN is and what they could use it for…