Cethin

I had the idea to use an old phone as a server recently. Phones are pretty energy efficient, so it seems like it’d be a smart way to recycle one. Does anyone know if this is actually a good practical idea for a lightweight personal server, rather than just a novelty? I haven’t heard of anyone doing it before so I’m assuming there’s a reason it isn’t a good idea, but I don’t know what that’d be.

I guess fair enough, though every other federated site I know of uses some other algorithm, and you seem to have been talking about the fediverse in general, not Mastodon, except for the example. Still, Mastodon’s sort is still an algorithm. You can’t display anything without an algorithm. That word just means a set of rules to complete a task. Mastodon uses one that only uses who you’re following and time to decide what to display.

Algorithms aren’t the issue. We can have sophisticated algorithms that help users find the content they want. That’s great. It’s when there is an incentive, and ability, to influence the algorithm by the platform controllers when there’s an issue. The fediverse solves this not by ditching algorithms, but by having no singular controller.

I’m curious how the Counter Strike subreddit was. It wasn’t that bad I don’t think a long time ago, before Reddit was as large as it became, and also before it was free. Now that Reddit is a hell-hole and the game is free, is the subreddit horrible too? I’d imagine it is, but I’d expect it to lean a little toward older audiences than the other games, so there’s a chance it’s fine.

I hate this phrase. There are several algorithms. There’s new, hot, rising, etc. There’s no company manipulating content discovery. That’s the difference. Algorithms are great. For-profit companies with an incentive to control content is bad.

No browser with third party investors can be really independent, they always will obey more the interests of the investors as on those from the users.

That’s why they limited donations to $100k per organization. No one is allowed to make themselves indispensable to the project.

No, it’s can’t not have an algorithm. Just “sort by new”, for example, is an algorithm.

LLMs don’t have no utility. They just aren’t good for everything. This is a reasonable use for them. Actually giving accurate information, not so much. Definitely not doing that require intelligence or creativity either. They’re text prediction algorithms. Using it to find the right text is what it should be good at.

Discord has quite a few good features that IRC doesn’t. I will agree that it being used as a replacement for a forum, while also being unsearchable, is amazingly stupid. However, it’s used by almost everyone for a reason, and to ignore that (if you were to develop and alternative) ensures you won’t succeed. Yeah, we don’t need every feature from Discord, but easy voice/text/video chats, image/file sharing, and all the other useful things are required. Yeah, we can probably lose the emotes and crap and be fine.

Well, Hollow Knight you upgrade what, like 3 times, maybe 5. I don’t remember. It’s not many. Dark Souls is designed such that you do it much more frequently. If you want to do the spelty upgrades though, you’re in for a trip. That and many shops are total pains in the ass to reach in DS. HK does include a shop near the main base, as well as a lot of other important characters. (Also, it definitely isn’t 5m each direction. Maybe if you fight everything on the way, but not if you just run.)

It’s fine to not like it though. I think you’re misremembering how bad it was, but it isn’t as easy as most games make things. In my opinion that’s good. It makes things feel more real and earned. If everything is just conveniently at the hub or in your menu then it would just feel far too gamey and simple. There’s already plenty of games like that. HK is something different.

The term “application” far precedes iPhones. I don’t know why that term is associated with them. I usually use the term app for any application, on Linux or Android.

For fast travel, part of the design is about shortcuts, which I prefer. It’s closer to the Dark Souls 1 philosophy instead of the later games. One cohesive world that makes sense that you exist within and learn, instead of fast traveling every 10 meters.

I agree with the dash though. Spamming it to move a little faster was so annoying. I’m playing Silksong and the new dash you can hold to sprint, and it’s much nicer.

I think one issue with the game is that you should probably play largely unguided. Most gamers today can’t play games without a guide up though. Yeah, the game is going to suck if you aren’t engaging with the main premise of exploration and discovery.

I do get those, but not that I think they’re good. You have to understand the design philosophy is not to make a good game. It’s to make a game that’s addicting and wallet draining.

The timer does two things. It makes you plan your time around it, always coming back as timers end (often with notifications when they finish). It also creates an obstacle they can sell you the solution to. Its pretty antithetical to good game design, but it’s profitable game design.

Which have you played? There are multiple eras for them. I’d say Morrowind is easier to enjoy personally, but you have to be OK with reading. The later you go the more brain dead they become.

For the average person, it was the first experience with a multiplayer shooter. Yeah, there were many available on PC for much longer, but most people had no contact with them. Halo was the one to bring the internet to mainstream gaming.

Other than that, yeah, it didn’t change that much. It did revolutionize controller shooter controls though, more than any game since Goldeneye probably. Gameplay is just standard arena shooter though —maybe a little (or a lot if you’re looking at the likes of Quake) slower to accommodate controllers.

Yeah, that’s what I said.

I assume the planned release date for 1.0 is staying the same though. This doesn’t buy them any more time. It only delays the time where they’d get feedback from the community. You can always wait for early access to be over if you want. This is all that was delayed, not 1.0.

Early Access is being delayed. They were releasing early access to let users give feedback. Now that feedback will be delayed, which allows them to make mistakes that may have been avoidable if they heard from players sooner.

That being said, the current course of action, regardless of justification, is actually going to get us a better game in the end.

Eh, I’m not sure about that. Sure, a more complete initial launch (probably still early access), but will 1.0 be better, or after that? Part of what made previous games good was getting user feedback early in early access. Sure, they played less complete versions, but it allowed them to direct where the game was heading sooner.

Also, how much does this hurt morale of the team? Are they still going to care about the project as much with their owners fucking around with the project? If they don’t care as much, the final product is almost certainly worse.

I agree, but Subnautica was more about exploration than just survival. Sure, you could keep expanding the world to add new environments, but eventually that gets out of hand. For a Subnautica type game, making new ones makes sense, especially to address tech debt as well and start fresh.

They did not take the money and run. From my understanding, it just ended up with everything they’re working on being tied to some critical update, and making it effectively impossible for them to update the existing version of the game until it’s out. It was bad version control management, but not malice.