Modern_medicine_isnt
@Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 5 days ago:
I know the engines do that. But I mean even more. Like it could expand to the point that I could have a fully functional game just by adding some plugins. Not a great game. But something that was technically playable. I don’t think you can do that today. And as far as AI and testing. I am talking more mundane. Like say you already have good tests. But you just need to run them on additional hardware simulations or something. That is an edit it can do. Tweaking for that hardware and rerunning is also a pain. You could let it do that, then review the changed. That kind of stuff often requires digging through documentation and what not that can be very time consuming all for just one new peice of hardware. The AI can do that and iterate until things work. The dev just has to validate that the AI didn’t cheat to get a pass. For writing new test. Of course you can’t just tell it to make up tests. You have to dirdct it a lot. But once you tell it what you want it to test, it can write that, and interate on getting the test to work. It would be great if it was better at it than it is now. But I think over the next years it will get better. But I expect you still need to be the brains that tell it what to test. But also, if someone records a playthrough of a bug, you can probably tell it what the bug in the playthrough was, give it the playthrough and tell it to write a test. I’m not talking about expecting AI to do the real thinking. I am talking about it acting like a very junior dev that you can give well described tasks to, and like a reasearch assistant that can dig through large amounts of documention to get the information you need. Both of these things dev probably don’t generally enjoy doing.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 5 days ago:
We might be comparing apples and oranges here. You mentioned you worked in the industry I believe. Was that at decent sized companies where there were like 10 or more devs working on a game?
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 6 days ago:
Yeah, it could still be a good while away. AI can help a lot in some places. Not so much in others. Like if you had modules and plugins that can work like legos to make a very simple game. AI can help get your initial game wired up. For the work of making it unique or interesting, AI can’t help as much. Though it could quickly spin up lots of graphics to choose from and such so that a person with no graphics skills could make their game have its own look. The other place it can help is in running tests. Like for new hardware that an engine or what not needs to support. It can even help add tests to some extent, but you still need a skilled person to look over what it did.
My understanding is that there are a lot of boring mundane tasks needed for maintaining the framework and such. The kind of thing that turns off opensource contributors. So maybe some of that can be offloaded and help get more people involved for free on a product that they can then use for free. - Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 6 days ago:
I don’t work in games, but I do work in software. I do understand that there are already libraries and plugins. I am just talking about increasing the level of abstraction. An example of something I see in crafting games may help. So you go to craft something, and you are missing a component, but you are able to craft that too. In some games you can click on the missing component to go to the interface were you would craft it. But in most you have to go back to the crafting search and type in the name in a search bar then click on it in a list to do the same. This is a simple QOL thing. Further, after you crafted the component, a back arrow to take you back to what you were trying to craft originally would be nice. But you won’t see that in 90% of crafting games. But you will find mods for this kind of thing. My assertion is that devs don’t implement these sorts of things because they would rather spend thier time on the things that make their game different. So if this sort of thing was a plugin or what not, they wouldn’t need to spend time on it, and the overall quality would go up. Plus people who want to make games today, but are overwhelmed by how much they would have to do that isn’t related to the idea they have, my feel less overwhelmed, and we would get more games with more innovative ideas.
- Comment on Having to work during the apocalypse sucks 1 week ago:
At my job, we have dependencies on teams that are in the warzones. I would say they have it worse. From our side we are like, how do we know if we need to escalate things to get them prioritized over other teams requests vs that person is hiding in a bunker right now, no amountnof escalation is going to help.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
Right, and I was pondering how long until developing a game on opensource components becomes an equivalent effort to what modding is today. With well polished games becoming less common, large mods that overhaul games becoming more common, and AI improving over the next years. That feels like a direction that things may go.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
What I was saying is that if they aren’t intentionally breaking the standard, then there is no reason not to use the standard. But what I see is games that are focused on where they are trying to break the standard and be different (which they should) and then leaving basic functionality half assed. It’s that half assed stuff that reduces the quality of the game, and also even though it was half assed, it still took dev time, and may even be a thorn in their side that they just never get to. Having off the shelf plugins for that kind of thing means they can focus on what they are innovating, and still produce a game that has decent polish in the other areas like inventory and such.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
Well, if you lower the barrier to entry. More people are likely to use the stock offerings. But that isn’t really a plus. Ideally the games would be visually different. But if you have a simple mechanic like inventory, it could and should generally be similar to others, unless that is what is supposed to be different about your game. W, a, s, d at least is pretty standard now. But it wasn’t always. I have noticed games solving the same problems as many other games, but doing it much worse. And clearly not by intention to be different, just because that wasn’t thier focus. So for those cases, it would improve those games.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
I am talking even lower. Like a made for modding framework that is totally open source. And yeah, that means games will end up with a somewhat common look and feel. But a lot of games end up that way anyway after mods. I am not sure that players need tons of unique games. I think they want games that are comfortable and replayable. In many cases they just want to hang out with friends, and the game itself is almost a pretext. Fortnight is actually a decent example of that. It leaned into that with lots of events that weren’t really much more than window dressing. But if it is completely opensource, you can end up with a ton of flavors to try and a lower learning curve for each.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
Exactly, but that is what I am pondering. How long until those engines get easy enough to maintain that they really take off. Software coding tools are starting to take off. If constrainable by verification test, those tools can do a lot. I don’t know what it takes to maintain a FOSS engine from experience, but I can imageing that a lot of the effort goes into supporting different hardware and OS changes. That is the kind of thing that software coding tools should be able to greatly reduce the effort of. Usually such engines have large quantities of tests for both functionality and performance verification. So you can set the tool to add support for a new peice of hardware, and instruct it to test both that and others, than iterate u til it gets it right. Right now, I think the costs for that are still too high. But the day is probably coming when those costs get low enough, and the coding tools good enough to greatly reduce the maintenance aspect of engines. Since that is the boring part of FOSS, that could drive an explosion in that area.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
Right, so now if some common tools get pulled together by a few people, such that the base game itself is essentially opensource, that could make creating a game is more like modding. And the result would be free. It would also be forkable, and of course easily moddable since it is all open source. That could lead to community created games. No more complaining the devs should do XYZ. Just mod it. I mean some people will always prefer to complain, but lowering the barrier to entry could open the way for enthusiasts to make their own games with less effort. And with AI getting half decent a coding, someone will probably write an agent to lower the barrier even more, especially for the QOL tweaks that current mods often cover.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
I think you are still thinking from a perspective of making money. I am thinking more like opensource software. A free engine or engines that handle generic stuff. Then some plugins for common features on top. After that, opensource licensced graphics for tons of things like lights, tables chairs… with associated sounds for moving or breaking. A total noob, could use AI to slap together a concept. Then they or others could tune it if the concept seems fun.
And of course at any point someone can fork it and go in their own direction. Essentially community, not “developer” driven games. - Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
I was thinking more like RPGMaker. Some open source engine or what not that anyone can contribute to and read the code of that supports the easy building of games. AI can help with the graphics that most people good and design aren’t good at.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
No, not a platform to sell games. There are plenty of those.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
I wonder if there are metrics on % of players using mods across lots of games to see if there are patterns.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
Well, recently I have played rimworld, 7 days to die, satisfactory, raft, and subnautica. They all have mods. I can’t recall the last game I played that didn’t. Now some of those didn’t suck on thier own, but seems like a lot do.
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
Sure, but the engine. My understanding is that even the game companies often license something like unreal engine or what not. Those cost money. How long berfore modders create their own engines for the various common game mechanics that are very mod friendly?
- Comment on How long until the rise of games with mods turns into user created games. 1 week ago:
I did in fact play games then. But back then, modded games weren’t anywhere near as common as they are now. And the games that were modded to make new great games were great to begin with.
Now adays we seem to start from trash and use mods to make it playable. Soo, do we need the trash? - Comment on Why don;t most of us Americans only need like one foreign language to pass high school? Why not make it mandatory for like 3 or 4 languages?Would that not give us the upper hand when traveling? 1 week ago:
The general idea of school is to learn how to learn. Most of the core subjects are just the tip of their iceberg.
Take the older software devs who didn’t have computers in school when they went. They technically use almost nothing they actually studied in school. So you don’t really want to requie an overload on any given subject. Schools are even dialing back the math requirements. Like pre-calc. Not everyone needs that. The required algebra is more about problem solving than equations now. Which is good. Let the kids follow thier interests a little more. - Comment on Why don;t most of us Americans only need like one foreign language to pass high school? Why not make it mandatory for like 3 or 4 languages?Would that not give us the upper hand when traveling? 1 week ago:
It’s not.
- Submitted 1 week ago to games@lemmy.world | 80 comments
- Comment on Why do pot or other drug dealers "lace" their drugs knowing full well it will pretty much kill their customer base and rep? Is this not like a retail store telling customers everyday FUCK YOU and hope 2 weeks ago:
Not sure what retails stores you go to, but most basically say fuck you multiple times per visit. The easy one is the self checkout, or if they don’t have that, the one checkers with the massive line while the manager looks on from not too far away. Then you got the grocery stores constantly moving things arpund even though everyone hates that. And the fake sales price that is really just the price… I could go on.
- Comment on I am an American. I used to be proud of my country. Now it feels like a turd circling the drain. Is there anything going on behind the scene that America is actually doing good in? 2 weeks ago:
Anyone who was proud of america before was just drinking the coolaid. There are things america did that were worth being proud of individually, but soo many more not to. It’s the same idea as idolizing a person. The vast majority of the time they are really a bad person overall. Instead focus on the event or achievement and not the person.
- Comment on A Fallout 4 QA tester nuked the RPG so hard that Zenimax executives got emails about it: "I was running around super-nuking the entire wasteland and found 4 crashes in a single morning" 3 weeks ago:
This vid is almost obligatory when talking about qa testing… youtu.be/baY3SaIhfl0
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
On your edit… yes, and the problem there is that should be considered coercive for all work. We shouldn’t work for money. We should work because the work has value to the population. A lot of work is the opposite, and yet people do it because they have to pay the bills. Working in scam call centers is an extreme example. There are people who go to sex clubs and such where they have sex with semi strangers and what not. There would probably be a lot more if it wasn’t considered taboo. So the “industry” as it is would not go away, it would change if paying the bills wasn’t the driver.
- Comment on Why are public school teachers so underpaid in the US? 3 weeks ago:
There are two parts. First, they aren’t as underpaid as most people think in most cases. The union isn’t dumb. When they negotiate they look at the long term. A career teacher (30 to 35 years) can retire at about 55 give or take depending on the district. And they will get something like 80% of thier salary for the rest of thier life. They will also get subsidized health insurance. And in some states, all of that is tax free. That is a ton of money and a ton of security. And for many, they can retire, collect pension, and go get another job at the same time if they want. I make more than double what teachers make best case, and my wife works too for a 6 figure salary. I can’t possibly retire at 55, let alone feel secure doing so. I also have been laid off twice over the last 30 years, where as most teacher don’t have to worry about that after 10 years. Now, I get to take vacation anytime of the year, I can change jobs or move and not mess up my future benefits. I don’t have to deal with parents. Lots of intangible benefits to not being a teacher. But the point is the union ensures those less obvious benefits, which keeps the current salary low. This keeps the optics of drastically underpaid teachers so that the union can still negotiate for more with public sentiment on thier side. So while they are still underpaid, it isn’t as drastic as it would appear.
The other reason is simple. There are a lot of teachers. Like a lot a lot. And schools are generally built to a higher standard of saftey, so they are much more expensive than other building types. All of this adds up to a very high cost. Education is typically one of the largest expenditures for a state budget. Poloticians could dump more money into it, but it isn’t likely to be enough to make a difference that will get them reelected. So they put money other places that will get them votes.
That’s your reasons why.
- Comment on What to do with an old iPhone that I no longer use? 5 weeks ago:
Lol. Unless you know where to smash, the data is still recoverable. And she is paranoid.
- Comment on What to do with an old iPhone that I no longer use? 5 weeks ago:
Yeah, it’s a very old one. Iphone 4. It’s been collecting dust for years.
- Comment on What to do with an old iPhone that I no longer use? 5 weeks ago:
Any idea how to do that if it was say your mother in laws, and she doesn’t remeber any of the related passwords including icloud?
- Comment on Americans: How the hell do you meet new people or get into relationships after college? 5 weeks ago:
Coed recreational sports team. Lots of them are mostly social with a little bit of sports tossed in. And almost all of them are looking for more players.