Pheonixdown
@Pheonixdown@lemm.ee
- Comment on Elon Musk has another secret child with exec at his brain implant company 1 week ago:
There are women who intentionally choose to be a single parent. Like they’re single, they get a sperm donor, have a kid. It’s not some insane thing. Kids should have a supportive and caring environment, whomever raises them. Not every kid with a single caregiver is neglected, nor is every kid with 2 or more caregivers properly cared for.
- Comment on It's out now! The prologue for my solo project, a roguelike tower defense, is live. Check it out. 1 month ago:
Yep, UI mouseover is fine with it unplugged, issue returns when replugged.
- Comment on It's out now! The prologue for my solo project, a roguelike tower defense, is live. Check it out. 1 month ago:
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PC, other than M/KB, I have a Razer Tartarus.
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I was using the scroll wheel, might have missed the cue to use keys, that’d fix it for me.
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- Comment on It's out now! The prologue for my solo project, a roguelike tower defense, is live. Check it out. 1 month ago:
Played a couple runs. Definitely seems up my alley.
Feedback:
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Idk why, but when cursoring UI menus, it just ticks from where I cursored to the top like I’m holding an up arrow. Happens in Menus, Stats, Level ups and Shop. Clicking works fine, just really couldn’t read any stat descriptions.
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When teasing the locked towers/skills, when you obscure the text with the X of locks, it’s hard for me to read and get excited about getting access to that thing. Maybe move the lock indicator somewhere there isn’t text (top right?).
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This is maybe more fundamental, and idk how it fits with your vision, but scroll wheeling between skills feels clunky, could it maybe be key based (either as well or in addition), think that’d feel snappier to me.
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- Comment on Xbox Console Sales Are Tanking 2 months ago:
Any new purchasers (I am one) are also probably waiting for the mid-generation update coming later this year.
- Comment on Microsoft’s VASA-1 can deepfake a person with one photo and one audio track 2 months ago:
Gotta crank up that dystopia meter.
This is slowly moving toward having Content On Demand. Imagine being able to prompt your content app for a movie/series you want to watch, and it just makes it and streams it to you.
- Comment on Couple suing Google Maps after it sent them to a notorious crime hotspot where they were brutally attacked and robbed at gunpoint 4 months ago:
It’s not a coincidence, nobody wants to live near an airport let alone an international one, the noise level is insane. My grandparent’s house is less than a half mile from the edge of one, and even with soundproofing, the dishes still set to rattling far too often. The airport was basically forced to buy out like half the neighborhood because it was so bad.
- Comment on Supermarket responds after Reddit user’s warning about self-checkout overcharge — ‘Was annoyed that the total amount due on my supermarket purchase did not equate to the individual items I purchased.’ 5 months ago:
Nah, this wasn’t an issue with the scanner, it’s an issue with the core design of the software. For whatever reason, it uses different value fields when determining the price to display for an item and the price used in the total, that means this problem can occur for any number of items and the only way to detect it is to manually total the receipt. It’s a fundamental problem with the software and their pricing change control process and a good PSA, the negative headline draws better attention than the positive, which is that anyone could be charged incorrectly. That the store was able to fix it is also good to include, but it is an expected responsibility of the store to do so, not some positive spin.
- Comment on Has any of you ever tried the "Ragnok 2 gun mouse"? If so, how good is it? 5 months ago:
That looks awful.
If you want an actual egro vertical mouse, don’t buy a gimmick. I’ve got both wired and wireless zelotes vertical mice from Amazon, would recommend.
- Comment on What are some of the best mini-games youve played? (games inside games) 5 months ago:
FFX Blitzball is the mini-game that I sunk the most time into by far (100+ hours), and always had fun.
Gwent from Witcher 3 kind of goes without saying, the framework is so good it’s spawned 3 full games that I can think of.
Best Hacking mini-game goes to the newer Deux Ex games, quick, the right amount of challenge but if you didn’t like it you could basically never do it.
Best lockpicking I’m going to give to Starfield. Literally the only part of the game I actually enjoyed, each is a great little puzzle.
- Comment on Nvidia CEO Foresees AI Competing with Human Intelligence in Five Years 5 months ago:
- Comment on Apple has seemingly found a way to block Android’s new iMessage app 6 months ago:
They said if you’re buying solely based bubble color then it’s based on peer pressure, there of course are other valid reasons for someone to choose one and there are also other bad reasons.
- Comment on Boffins convert typing sounds into text with 95% accuracy 6 months ago:
Dvorak?
- Comment on Walmart, Costco and other companies rethink self-checkout, some stores removing them 6 months ago:
Have you considered switching to pickup when you can? pick what you want from the comfort of your home, drive to the store at the designated time, an employee has picked all your goods and it is brought out to you. Same price for you, more labor for the company to pay for.
- Comment on The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion 6 months ago:
RoboQuest has been my main jam for a bit, decent little roguelite shooter. I like how you unlock travel to different areas by finding things from other paths.
Wish it scaled to more than 2 player though…
- Comment on The Pentagon is moving toward letting AI weapons autonomously decide to kill humans 7 months ago:
You’re headed towards the Star Trek episode “A Taste of Armageddon”. I’d also note, that people losing a war without suffering recognizable losses are less likely to surrender to the victor.
- Comment on The Pentagon is moving toward letting AI weapons autonomously decide to kill humans 7 months ago:
I feel like it’s ok to skip to optimizing the autonomous drone-killing drone.
You’ll want those either way.
- Comment on Why Washington wants to treat Apple and Google like Big Banks 7 months ago:
I just checked an Amazon purchase that had the option for a payment plan, my options were to use my Chase card affiliated with Amazon or Affirm which is a 3rd party that is offering the structured payment. Not sure what it looks like for others, but if it’s similar, then Amazon wouldn’t be doing anything bank-like with those payments.
- Comment on Youtube Abblock Reckoning as a service problem? 7 months ago:
You could do banner ads, shrink the video, randomly add a banner to top/bottom and a 2nd left/right. If you skip the ads, you skip the content too.
- Comment on Grown Adult Coward: 'I'm OK With Just Watching Alan Wake II' - Aftermath 7 months ago:
I’ve been watching and enjoying Jesse Cox (on his CoxClips youtube) play it. He knows a lot about the universe lore and does some explaining for people who may not be as familiar. Someone related to the game also mailed him some ARG stuff related to the game before it came out and he did a few videos on his jessecox channel for it.
- Comment on Youtube Abblock Reckoning as a service problem? 7 months ago:
I’m expecting someone smart at Google to figure out how to encode ads as part of the video file as it is delivered, making it literally undifferentiatable in the data we receive, and then there’s no way around it. They’ll make millions in ads and billions licensing it out.
- Comment on Google employees typically work more than eight hours a day: Internal memo 7 months ago:
Your talk of providing estimates just reminds me of this scene from Star Trek TNG.
Geordi La Forge: I told the Captain I’d have this analysis done in an hour.
Scotty: How long will it really take?
Geordi La Forge: An hour!
Scotty: Oh, you didn’t tell him how long it would ‘really’ take, did ya?
Geordi La Forge: Well, of course I did.
Scotty: Oh, laddie. You’ve got a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker.
- Comment on I tried over 20 Steam Next demos so that you don't have to! 8 months ago:
Everyone has a bias and that’s expected and the stating of opinions as opinions is good, the line is stating opinion as fact or review bombing.
I didn’t play it because I didn’t want to log in, isn’t a review of the actual game, it’s at best review bombing against secondary logins. It tells anyone interested in playing the game nothing other than that a secondary login is needed.
The definition of the minimum criteria for what makes a game is pretty nebulous, but survivor styles are well above all but the most disingenuous definitions of what makes a game. Saying it isn’t a game because you don’t enjoy it is not having a bias that causes you to like something less.
The trending of most games to be 7+/10 is largely driven by idiots who tied the success of a game to metacritic scores and publishers who retaliate against games journalists for “hurting” that success by not cooperating with them on future products by providing review codes.
- Comment on I tried over 20 Steam Next demos so that you don't have to! 8 months ago:
“I don’t like X game/genre” is a fine take, calling something you don’t like “not really a game" is not, unless you can really justify it not meeting some minimum criteria to be called a game (doesn’t present a challenge or problem to overcome, doesn’t have a fail-state, has no player agency, etc)
- Comment on I tried over 20 Steam Next demos so that you don't have to! 8 months ago:
Most of your write ups seem decently done if you clicked with the game at all, but if you’re going to continue to review things, you might want to do reign in your personal biases a bit.
Low scores for games you didn’t play or realize you don’t understand the appeal of are pretty bad takes.
Vampire Survivors was quite literally one of the hit games of the year when it came out, to call other games of the genre that are following on its coattails “not really a game” and saying people shouldn’t buy a literal genre is just ridiculous. Is FatalZone trying to be some huge blockbuster, no, it’s just iterating on the survivor concept (same as Deep Rock Galactic is doing, which has more polish but less features than most). The game is literally $5 to buy right now in early access and as one of the many who do enjoy the genre, it’s probably worth the price with the content it has now (unknown if it’ll be same insane value VS has been).
- Comment on Cities: Skylines 2 "absolutely cannot" have the decade of DLC features that the original game added | GamesRadar+ 8 months ago:
While that’s true, there’s also a huge difference from like 20+ years ago when they more often than not released games as a complete functional product as opposed to a “we hit the date” buy-in beta test. Games just tend to release with less features and polish than they used to, for the most part companies will keep working on it and get it where it needs to be so the final product is comparable, but it makes for a murkier cycle, buy in at release and probably suffer or wait and try to time when it’s actually ready.
- Comment on Mike McMahan Calls On Fans To Help Keep ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ From Facing The Same Fate As ‘Prodigy’ 8 months ago:
The point the other person is trying to make is that if a person wants to watch something, but the price is higher than they value or can afford for the experience they will not pay the price, so the company will not profit. If the person then pirates the content to view it, the company has lost nothing additional.
However, one could also make the argument that the viewer having the ability to pirate lowers what they are willing to pay, thus the company does lose some amount of profit in aggregate over time. This though is not necessarily true for those who lack the means to pay, rather than just the willingness.
Ultimately for people who do have the means, piracy is a symptom more of a service issue rather than a price issue. People generally will follow the path of least resistance to acquire what they desire. For most people a small payment and easy access will lead them not to pirate, but as prices rise, content fractures and UIs enshitify, the aggregate effort crosses the line and they start to withdraw and turn to other methods.
Everyone has their own willingness to pay for things on the demand curve, if companies pick an optimal price, they maximize profits, and aren’t harmed by people who cannot or will not pay that price utilizing a non-consumable resource without payment.
- Comment on Phones should have FM radio again 8 months ago:
Honest criticisms: It’s a bit of a brick for sure. I turned the RGB ring off. The multi-function button isn’t as usable as I’d hoped, mostly just a flashlight/screenshot button. The headphone jack and USB port are behind a protected rubber flap, so I keep opening/closing it frequently, but that’s to help with being waterproof. While the optional case functions as a good stand for horizontal viewing and for holding, it is inadequate for vertical, and it just would’ve needed a small internal brace to fix that. The case also blocks their wireless charging connectors, if you were planning to use a dock for that. Attaching the endoscope requires removing a tiny screw. The lack of a bottom button bar has taken some getting used to but I’m fine with it now, the side fingerprint scanner is similar.
Overall I am happy with it. The battery lasts a whole day with high use, it has decent internals for games, the screen and included protector are appropriately unobtrusive, it isn’t running a very outdated version of Android. Perhaps most importantly, it should survive my child who likes to throw my phone and my dumbass who left it in my pocket getting in a pool.
- Comment on Phones should have FM radio again 8 months ago:
I’ve an Armor 21, it has the radio, headphone jack, IR blaster and the memory card slot, plus a loud and clear speaker, actual night vision and is rugged as fuck. Base price sub-$250, upcharge for an attachable endoscope.
- Comment on An Instacart customer said she discovered the app's higher prices cost her nearly $100 after accidentally seeing the store's paper receipt 10 months ago:
In the US, lots of stores are doing free curbside pickup on your orders, their employees pick it and bring it out to your car, in-store prices, no additional fees.