HarkMahlberg
@HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth
People keep asking me, and I haven't really had an answer, but now yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.
- Comment on Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage 1 week ago:
True on most fronts except one. On a personal level, I do hate AI lol. The large language model itself. I just don't think typing out or speaking out a series of instructions is that useful or efficient. If I want a computer to do something for me, I much prefer the more rigid and unnatural syntax and grammar of programming language. AI tools themselves just don't produce a result that satisfies me.
- Comment on Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage 1 week ago:
When I give myself the leeway to think of a less hardliner stance on AI, I come back to Joel Haver's video on his use of ebsynth:
It lets me create rotoscoped animations alone, which is something I never would have the time or patience for otherwise. Any time technology makes art easier to learn, more accessible, we should applaud it. Art should be in the hands of everyone.
Now my blood boils like everyone else's when it comes to being forced to use AI at work, or when I hear the AI Voice on Youtube, or the forced AI updates to Windows and VS Code, but it doesn't boil for Joel. He clearly has developed an iconic style for his comedy skits, and puts effort into those skits long before he puts it through an AI rotoscope filter. He chose his tool and he uses it sparingly. The same was apparently true for E33, and I have no reason not give Kojima and Larian the same benefit of the doubt.
On the other hand, Joel probably has no idea what I'm talking about when I say "surveillance state AI." People Make Games has a pretty good video exposing its use case. There's also...
- the global and localized environmental impacts of all these data centers,
- Nvidia and Micron pricing the consumer out of owning their own hardware,
- aforementioned companies fraudulently inflating an economic bubble,
- the ease with which larger models can be warped to suit their owners' fascist agendas (see Grok).
Creatives may be aware of some, or all, or none of those things, which is why it's important to continue raising awareness of them. AI may be toothpaste that can't go back in the tube, but it's also a sunk cost fallacy, you don't have to brush your teeth with shit-flavored toothpaste.
- Comment on Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage 1 week ago:
I have the same feeling about Kojima's and Vincke's latest comments on AI. Am I supposed to get mad at every single person who said they used/plan to use AI for something? I'd be as outraged as the average Fox News viewer, and it would be impossible to be taken seriously. I still won't be using AI myself (fuck surveillance state AI) and I'd be making every effort to encourage others not to use it, but there's no point in burning bridges and falling for rage bait.
They're creative people who care about the craft and care about the teams in their employ, which gives their statements weight, where some Sony/Microsoft/EA executive making an identical statement has none.
- Comment on Steam winter sale is now live 1 week ago:
I mean it is 6 years old. It is also possible that Project Aces' licenses for the aircraft is expiring soon, so they may have to delist the game.
- Comment on Steam winter sale is now live 1 week ago:
Ace Combat 7 is less than $5, that's a real solid deal if you're new to AC and/or interested.
- Comment on Sony's Naughty Dog Studio Orders Employee Overtime on ‘Intergalactic’ 1 week ago:
Why am I not surprised. Overtime is always ordered by the folks who clock out at 3.
- Comment on Video Game Physical Software and Hardware Sales Just Had the Worst November in the U.S. Since 1995 - IGN 2 weeks ago:
Well then I think your beef has nothing to do with the form of the media, but with DRM and lack of transferability. And I totally get the anxiety of having something and not wanting to lose access to it, but such is the nature of all games, movies, shows, books. Everything humans create has a shelf life and we're in a neverending fight against entropy.
- Comment on Video Game Physical Software and Hardware Sales Just Had the Worst November in the U.S. Since 1995 - IGN 2 weeks ago:
Almost got me with that hotness but I wouldn't necessarily disagree. In a perfect world, we would just own digital copies free and clear of any remote tampering.
Trouble is, physical media is relevant now because companies can't nuke your access to it once their licensing deals expire, like they can with digital streaming services and storefronts. Even digital copies are physical, they have to sit on a hard drive somewhere, and even those degrade over time. So let's say we own the hard drive, that's great, but I still need to transfer it once the disk/flash dies. It's unquestionably more efficient than disc media tho.
- Comment on What are your gaming highlights of 2025? 2 weeks ago:
- Finishing my first Baldurs Gate 3 campaign after 250 hours.
- Winning my first gold stake run of Balatro.
- Still alive to witness the Ace Combat 8 trailer.
- Comment on 2025 Game Awards Results Discussion 2 weeks ago:
Yeah Divinity went for shock value and boy did it pay off.
- Comment on 2025 Game Awards Results Discussion 2 weeks ago:
I saw some gossip about the cost of revealing a game on the TGA, which I didn't see in years past. Makes sense that they work like ads where the best spot (right before GOTY) is the most expensive.
So imagine: Larian paid less for that unhinged Divinity trailer than Wildlight paid for another generic looking hero shooter (we have Valorant at home).
- Comment on 'Slop Evader' Lets You Surf the Web Like It’s 2022 [404 Media] 5 weeks ago:
2022 was still not that good of a year for the internet guys.
- Comment on Many Top MAGA Trolls Aren’t Even in the U.S - Elon Musk’s new X feature has been very revealing. 5 weeks ago:
I think about this comic often nowadays.
- Comment on 5 weeks ago:
The real question is if Valve plans to swallow the jumps in price. They must have designed the machine before the price hikes, so I wonder if they already had a price in mind and whether they're gonna stick to it.
- Comment on Google tells employees it must double capacity every 6 months to meet AI demand 5 weeks ago:
the next 1000x in 4-5 years
At the risk of stating the obvious, Ars is working backwards from this metric to get their headline "double every 6 months." 2^10 = 1024, to get that number in 5 years means doubling every half-year.
But Google didn't set incremental 6-month deadlines for 5 years straight, they set a single 5-year deadline. Because in 6 months shareholders can call their bluff quite easily, but in 5 years they're hoping everyone is A) distracted by some new disaster, or B) there's a new tech hype cycle they can push. They're trying to stall the bubble popping by pointing to a nebulous future where they magically scale to infinity, and hoping we all forget that they ever made this claim.
- Comment on Which year was the most stacked for game releases? 1 month ago:
It's probably not the most stacked but I think 2017 was still a monster year for games.
Breath of the Wild
Mario Odyssey
Persona 5
Nier Automata
Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice
Divinity Original Sin II
Doki Doki Literature Club
Cuphead
Prey
Star Wars Battlefront II
Destiny 2
Nintendo Switch itselfThese were, for one reason or another, some of the most monumentally influential games in the last 10 years, no matter if you're talking AAA, indie, platformer, shooter, open world, RPG, horror, you name it.
- Comment on 'Valve does not get anywhere near enough criticism': DayZ creator Dean Hall says the 'gambling mechanics' of Valve's monetization strategy 'have absolutely no place' in videogames 2 months ago:
- Comment on 'Valve does not get anywhere near enough criticism': DayZ creator Dean Hall says the 'gambling mechanics' of Valve's monetization strategy 'have absolutely no place' in videogames 2 months ago:
The price is off-putting because we can see the sticker in order to get sticker shock. But lootboxes and gambling have no upfront sticker, the cost is obfuscated and extended over years. In that regard, Paradox is much more transparent.
That being said, my beef with them is their "subscription for DLC" model, at least the version I saw being rolled out for EU4. That and the free updates tend to be fairly unbalanced if you don't also buy the corresponding DLC for that update. That seems skeevy... but still not as skeevy as lootboxes.
- Comment on Grandmaster, Popular Commentator Daniel Naroditsky Tragically Passes Away At 29 2 months ago:
Critikal created a great tribute to his mentor on YouTube, should go watch it. RIP
- Comment on Spit On, Sworn At, and Undeterred: What It’s Like to Own a Cybertruck 2 months ago:
It's a Jeep thing.
- Comment on GOG say their preservation program has been "harder than we thought", thanks to DRM and elusive creators 2 months ago:
That's journalism right there.
- Comment on 2 months ago:
I don't know, I think a rag calling itself Windows Central might have a bias towards Microsoft...
Even the tone of the article sounds like their arms are tired from carrying their water.
One thing after another, Microsoft is forced to respond time and time again to ongoing rumors that it's leaving the hardware space.
A new Xbox rumor started this weekend that's now blown out of proportion, as usual.
Can you bitch any harder?
- Comment on Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? 2 months ago:
I'm not allowed to say "huh, would ya look at that?" Calm down.
- Comment on Once again, looking for PS2 game suggestions! 2 months ago:
I think Jak and Daxter now has a native PC port.
- Comment on Once again, looking for PS2 game suggestions! 2 months ago:
Push 1v1 caused a lot of shouting matches between me and my brother. 10/10 would play again, that shit was genius.
- Comment on Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? 2 months ago:
100% with you, well put
- Comment on I finally decided to go full piracy against big companies 2 months ago:
I can relate. I played DOS when it had a camera locked to a 90 degree arc. XD
- Comment on Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? 2 months ago:
Sure as shit, there he is, lol
- Comment on Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? 2 months ago:
That is why I get tired about the "individual action" suggestion, that I alone could stop using Amazon and hurt their sales, I could de-Google my life and keep my privacy, or recycle plastic and save the ocean, or swear off AI to fuck with Nvidia.
But all that is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of people who all readily handed over their lives to these companies and haven't left (or can't). And governments who abdicated regulatory authority to them, which have allowed them to run rampant.
They're still making it so these massive companies have force in my life. I alone can't do anything about that.
- Comment on I finally decided to go full piracy against big companies 2 months ago:
Since you mentioned publishers that haven't been greedy, I'll throw a few more out there that I think are worthy of support. They don't need launchers, that don't need accounts, they don't have predatory subscriptions. They just make great games.
- Supergiant Games: Transistor, Hades, Hades II
- Larian Studios: Divinity Original Sin, DOS II, Baldur's Gate 3
- Playstack: Balatro
Otherwise, I'm totally with you. The account-walling of the Internet as a whole has pissed me off royally and I see no reason to give those bastards what they want.