Deyis
@Deyis@beehaw.org
- Comment on "It's extremely frustrating and also f*cked up" - one of the world's best indie studios is facing shock closure following confounding Steam ban [Eurogamer] 4 days ago:
The majority of countries where Steam sells games have strict laws regarding the depiction of minors in any kind of situation which could be considered sexual, whether it’s a real child or not. It’s a very strange hill to die on when the devs clearly identified that was the issue and removed it from their game.
- Comment on "It's extremely frustrating and also f*cked up" - one of the world's best indie studios is facing shock closure following confounding Steam ban [Eurogamer] 5 days ago:
Whether you believe a platform should get backlash for platforming something in questionable taste and legality is entirely separate to whether they actually will.
- Comment on "It's extremely frustrating and also f*cked up" - one of the world's best indie studios is facing shock closure following confounding Steam ban [Eurogamer] 6 days ago:
Sure but you must realise that if Steam were to platform a game featuring a child riding a naked adult in a horse mask, a sequence that the devs have removed in order to have the game on any platform for sale at all, Steam would face a significant amount of backlash and potential legal action for doing so. Why should Steam be obligated to publish a game?
- Comment on Valve responds as indie horror studio accuses Steam of 'censorship' for banning its game about nude human 'Horses' (Update) 6 days ago:
There’s already been extensive discussion about this already; the whole thing stinks of the dev trying to get extra publicity because the fucked around and found out.
- Comment on "It's extremely frustrating and also f*cked up" - one of the world's best indie studios is facing shock closure following confounding Steam ban [Eurogamer] 6 days ago:
Have an X rating doesn’t absolve you of criticism or protect you from backlash when you include a sequence involving a naked adult and a child.
- Comment on Activists Are Using ‘Fortnite’ to Fight Back Against ICE 6 days ago:
do you honestly expect the average 13-year-old (or younger) to be capable of anything other than performative activism relating to the genocide in Palestine?
Children can still protest, fundraise, and engage in other forms of direct action. Children are not helpless or incapable.
- Comment on "It's extremely frustrating and also f*cked up" - one of the world's best indie studios is facing shock closure following confounding Steam ban [Eurogamer] 1 week ago:
Given that it’s being allowed on multiple different platforms now that the “child riding a naked person in a horse mask” sequence has been removed, it definitely stinks of spin from the dev trying to get more publicity.
- Comment on "It's extremely frustrating and also f*cked up" - one of the world's best indie studios is facing shock closure following confounding Steam ban [Eurogamer] 1 week ago:
Even rating it X/AO/Whatever, calling a sequence where a young child rides around on a naked masked person who is forced to comply “contentious” is putting it mildly.
- Comment on "It's extremely frustrating and also f*cked up" - one of the world's best indie studios is facing shock closure following confounding Steam ban [Eurogamer] 1 week ago:
The article details how the refusal to platform the game was before the calls for games to be pulled by that weirdo conservative Christian group whose name I can’t remember.
- Comment on "It's extremely frustrating and also f*cked up" - one of the world's best indie studios is facing shock closure following confounding Steam ban [Eurogamer] 1 week ago:
The refusal to sell the game on Steam was apparently before all the champing and gnashing of teeth which lead to a bunch of games being pulled; having a young child ride around on a naked masked person who is forced to comply would be contentious either way.
- Comment on Activists Are Using ‘Fortnite’ to Fight Back Against ICE 1 week ago:
Whilst children may not be able to help in the same way as adults, I believe that children absolutely can help in material ways. Children can still protest, fundraise, and engage in other forms of direct action. Children are not helpless or incapable.
- Comment on Activists Are Using ‘Fortnite’ to Fight Back Against ICE 1 week ago:
That would be practicing what you’re preaching instead of just leaving comments online.
I mostly leave comments online whilst taking breaks from things like transporting donations to local secular food banks, volunteering at an initiative for rehousing displaced Ukranian people, and my day job; your magnanimous faux concern about how I spend my free time when not making a direct difference to important causes isn’t appreciated.
- Comment on "It's extremely frustrating and also f*cked up" - one of the world's best indie studios is facing shock closure following confounding Steam ban [Eurogamer] 1 week ago:
. . . it’s about to venture into even stranger, darker territory with Horses, an unsettling first-person narrative horror adventure set on a farm whose livestock consists of naked masked humans.
“While we strive to ship most titles submitted to us,” Steam’s automated response read, “we found that this title features themes, imagery, or descriptions that we won’t distribute. Regardless of a developer’s intentions with their product, we will not distribute content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor. While every product submitted is unique, if your product features this representation—even in a subtle way that could be defined as a ‘grey area’—it will be rejected by Steam.”
. . . the studio now suspects a work-in-progress scene from day six of Horses’ narrative (the game follows the player across 14 days as they work as a hired hand on the farm where the “horses” are held) might be the culprit. In the early build reviewed by Valve, day six featured a scene in which a man and his young daughter visit the farm. The daughter wants to ride one of the horses, resulting in an interactive dialogue sequence where the girl rides on the shoulders of a naked “horse” while it’s led by the player. “The scene is not sexual in any way,” the studio notes in its FAQ, “but it is possible that the juxtaposition is what triggered the flag.”
. . . notably, the final version of Horses has been reviewed and approved for distribution across numerous other PC storefronts, including the Epic Games Store, GOG, the Humble Store, and Itch.io. And while Horses won’t be launching on consoles due to porting costs, Pietro says the console makers who’ve seen Horses have said they’d be “happy to have the game on [their] platform”.
From the description of the scene which seems to have triggered the refusal to platform the game, the studio probably pushed the envelope too far.
- Comment on Activists Are Using ‘Fortnite’ to Fight Back Against ICE 1 week ago:
Speaking as an activist, nothing brings my piss to a boil quicker than people essentially doing nothing and hiding behind the excuse that they were “just trying to raise awareness”. Holding a pro-Palestine candlelight vigil in Roblox, for example, whilst there are still Palestinian civilians being murdered is a woefully inadequate use of time and effort if you actually want to help.
If people read this criticism and feel hopeless or depressed, there are direct actions they can take for any cause to help which should make them feel better. It’s more difficult than changing your social media banner but doing the right thing to help is rarely, if ever, easy.
- Comment on Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it's costing the economy 1 week ago:
Personally, I cancelled Netflix due to a drought of content I actually wanted to watch and things disappearing from it with no notice. This combined with releasing shows weekly or one ‘part’ now and another in a month (so I have to stay subscribed) made it so it couldn’t compete with piracy anymore.
- Comment on Activists Are Using ‘Fortnite’ to Fight Back Against ICE 1 week ago:
Maybe I’m old, maybe I’m just jaded… Has any kind of protest or activism in a video game lead to change outside of the game itself?
- Comment on Pornhub is urging tech giants to enact device-based age verification 1 week ago:
parents can be morons so don’t give them that excuse.
I promise you that they will still find a way to fuck it up. Badly.
- Comment on Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it's costing the economy 1 week ago:
Think about how many additional phones you could buy each year if you cancelled your Netflix subscription and didn’t eat as much avocado on toast.
- Comment on a Landscape of Knowledge Games 2 weeks ago:
Chants of Sennaar is by far one of the best games I’ve played. I had an absolute blast getting it to 100% and wish it had just a little bit more to do or vocalisations of the various languages.
- Comment on There Are No Weird Blogs Anymore Cause It’s More Fruitful to Drive Them Out of Business 2 weeks ago:
In the case of online magazine equivalents though I really don’t get it. What is there to sell off? Shouldn’t any potential long term profits be priced in at the point they get bought out? If the company has tangible assets like offices, couldn’t they just sell those without firing anyone and have people work from home?
Oh god no! The tangible assets like buildings and land only increase in value, you don’t get rid of those. You sell it to a holding company and lease it back to the original company for a profit (and probably several other companies who want space, too).
You then strip operations down to the bare minimum. A couple of writers at most and they’re only really there to make sure the automated AI article generator doesn’t accidentally publish a napalm recipe or some shit. You want to run it with as few people as possible to still generate enough content to run ads. Utilise your fanbase to submit content that you can run ads on because they’ll do it for free or a chance to win a t-shirt or some shit. No fans? No problem! Rip everything off relevant subreddits or other sites doing the exact same thing. Make up unsourced slop to piss people off because it generates engagement like you wouldn’t believe. More eyeballs, more ad revenue.
And you make damn sure that the company never makes a profit on paper so you don’t have to pay the relevant taxes. You made $50k more than you expected? Better pay a consultant (you) $40k to find out why. Then increase that rent by $15k.
- Comment on Lionhead's secret best game, and one of the greatest ever abandonware games - The Movies - turns 20 today [Eurogamer] 3 weeks ago:
I occasionally feel like I hallucinated that whole game so it’s nice to know that other people have played it.
- Comment on The oldest Minecraft server, MinecraftOnline, is being shut down by Microsoft 4 weeks ago:
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him.
- Comment on ‘I’ve never used it and probably never will’: Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu says he won’t use AI to make music [VGC] 5 weeks ago:
i have a hard time imagining a scenario where AI output is preferable to the alternatives.
Oh that’s easy, it’s when you need the thing cheap and now.
I used to work at a friend’s start-up where, charitably, his approach to business was archaic. “We don’t need to advertise because good word-of-mouth is good enough, and what’s the point of having a website and social media?” kind of archaic. Without a doubt, he would be using AI for absolutely everything.
- Comment on What is the most overrated game gamers hype up? 1 month ago:
Red Dead Redemption 2
It’s the same old Rockstar formula of having you travel back and forth over the map just to do a normal mission and falls short of giving the cowboy fantasy everyone touts it as being. They added enough detail that your horse’s balls shrink in the cold but made it so easy to get money that whilst your merry band of outlaws are complaining about how little they have, I struggled to find more things to buy with immense hoards of cash. And the bounty system doesn’t work. And the multiplayer was total ass. And part way through the fantastical cowboy simulator, it adds goofy sidequests of time travel and robots. Rockstar couldn’t decide what to make the game so they tried to make it everything, leaving it lacklustre.
- Comment on Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without an online account 1 month ago:
It’s very easy, if a game doesn’t have invasive data thieving anticheat, then it will run on Linux, otherwise it won’t.
Can you be clearer about this? The majority of games I play on PC are online multiplayer.
- Comment on Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without an online account 1 month ago:
So I’d need to check that site for every game I want to play? Presumably if there isn’t a user report for whatever distro I’m using (how do you go about choosing one? Guessing from your comment that some work better with certain components than others) the only option is to buy the game in the hope of it working whilst preparing for X hours of faffing about to get it to work?
Protondb also looks to be focused on Steam, I’m guessing it’s like MacOS where if it’s a game not on Steam then you’re shit out of luck if there isn’t a Linux specific version?
- Comment on Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without an online account 1 month ago:
Gaming on Linux is better than it ever has been, but there are some games that just won’t run on Linux.
Is there any way of telling which ones will and won’t run on Linux? How does running them on Linux differ from Windows?
Avoid Nvidia graphics due to driver complexities.
Well, I’m fucked if that’s the case as both my machines have Nvidia GPUs.
- Comment on RUMOR: 'The Future of Xbox is Software Publishing' as Next Console Generation Faces Doubts 1 month ago:
So you also like it? You disagree with everything I said… including the part where I said I don’t like it? It sounds like you just want to be antagonistic.
If you’re deliberately misinterpreting what they said like that, you’re the one being antagonistic.
- Comment on Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without an online account 1 month ago:
I think more people, myself included, would be willing to consider Linux we weren’t met with people being complete assholes when asking for help or direction.
- Comment on Discord customer service data breach leaks user info and scanned photo IDs 1 month ago:
As ever, no negative consequences at all for Discord.