Asetru
@Asetru@feddit.org
- Comment on Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week? 8 hours ago:
So, I just got slice & dice and man, I’m hooked. Dunno if that qualifies for patient gaming, it’s a bit older than a year.
It’s a roguelike, but not really a deckbuilder. Instead, you keep upgrading and improving a DnD-like party that keeps going down a dungeon of some sort, where each person is represented as a six-sided die. Your magician has sides that produce mana, your fighter more sides that deal damage etc etc.
I’m several hours in, which for me is already a lot. Just lost my latest run on level 19/20 in normal difficulty, so it feels like I’m starting to get an idea of what works well. The game has lots of unlockables and achievements and looking for upgrades and characters that synergise well is fun. The balancing seems, as far as I can tell so far, outstanding - time will tell if that holds.
- Comment on Pop it in your calendars 5 days ago:
I’m adding some second hand experience here, but what made below zero much worse for my son when he played it was that it constantly crashed, resulting in a lot of lost progress. Often crashing when saving, too, so after having accomplished something. He got it on the switch as some kind of double-feature with subnautica and below zero on a single cartridge. He played through subnautica and loved it but ditched below zero after barely a handful of hours played, purely due to the frustration, not even being at the point where those game design points would have mattered.
- Comment on The UK Stop Killing Games petition has reached 100.000 signatures 1 week ago:
Demanding cars transition to clean fuel alternatives is not the same as demanding game manufacturers design and implement systems that must be fully functional in an offline state. This would be akin to demanding nuclear reactors be retrofitted to use fusion by 2035. Despite it not being sustainable or commercially possible.
Are you even listening to yourself? I’m pretty sure it’s harder to redesign a car’s engine and fuel system than it is to have counter strike call myshittyhomeserver.com instead of valvesmoneygenerator.com - and just the thought that you think it’s about as complex to disable some stupid drm system (which has been done numerous times before by kids with too much time on their hands) as it is to design a fusion reactor is just insane.
But again: they do not have to be fully functional in an offline state. Just release the server if that’s what’s needed. You already sold me the game, you stopped providing the one part that you wanted to provide, now just give me that. Done.
How do you enforce that? Legally compel a company to publish the server binaries with every copy of the game?
No! No no no! It’s after the game reached its eol! The idea is that the companies keep doing what they do, but once they’re done they have some roadmap to leave the game in a functional state. Once they’re done!
I’m talking in 9/10 cases you’d get a physical copy of a game and that was it.
Actual updates that were delivered over the internet came around the same time as Steam and DRM programs.
Bullshit. For games that ran from their ROMs (like snes-era) that was true because there was literally no way to modify them. But ever since they were used on media with write access, they got patched. You should just download a patch, point it to the directory where you installed the game and be done. If your connection sucked you’d buy a magazine that had patches on its CD or something.
Also, steam doesn’t guarantee updates either. If a developer doesn’t want to update their game, that’s it. If a developer wants to update their game, great, that works without any such system as well. Can you force people to apply updates if the game isn’t online? No. Does all of this have anything to do with the initiative? Not at all. This isn’t about patching games that are still supported. This is about what happens long after the last patch was released.
Okay explain to me what happens when Final Fantasy XI reaches end of life and all services that authenticate and host player data shut down? Who hosts that?
That’s not the question! If a developer decided to release server binaries after they shut down the service, at least I could host it. I could just run it locally, the community could come together to run an instance or whatever. This is about having such options, not about forcing publishers to keep hosting their stuff.
Are developers who want massive open worlds going to be expected, by law, to program a world that plays itself? Bots for NPCs, taking the roles of players, pushing events automatically? I am begging for answers because it keeps feeling like I’m the only one trying to figure out what’s going to happen to the games I play regularly.
None of that is demanded! Nothing! And I have no idea where you’re pulling those ideas from!
Massively multiplayer online worlds don’t have to be populated by bots. Multiplayer games don’t have to be redesigned. If a player opened a game to see a barren land, filled with no players and only dead npcs, that’s fine. But hey, they could occasionally stroll through the forest that they met their spouse in or something. Just like looking at a painting in a museum with your friends is different from looking at it at home hits differently, this would be the case here, too. But at least you can still enjoy your painting, unlike the game that’s been remotely disabled.
Most online only games are online only because they focus on players interacting with other players on a grand scale. They’re a social experience. Demands that it be playable offline defeats the purpose of it existing and we went over the server binaries thing. Nobody is going to jump at the chance to reset their progress for most of these games just for the shot to play it for however long this specific server is alive.
This is true. Except it might not be nobody. We’re talking about culture. Just like thousands of songs have been written to be forgotten, occasionally there are pieces that become culturally relevant. Sometimes even after the author dies. Imagine Franz Kafka writing his stories just to have Max Brod not publish them but lock them behind a shitty service that shut down after he wasn’t profitable enough, immediately burning all copies that were sold so far.
This is not about keeping the original experience. This is about museums being able to show people works of art fifty years from now. This is about me showing my childhood memories to my kids. Would they see my old friend dragonhaxxor9999 run into battle with me? Certainly not. But would they get an idea and would I be nostalgic about it? Certainly. And why would the profitability of some stupid service be a reason not to have that? Just let me fucking run the software I paid money for! I own those bits! Have my processor execute them if I want to!
- Comment on Breaking the generational barriers 1 week ago:
why would you bother with a jar? just leave the pan to cool then wipe it up with some paper and toss it in the
food waste bindrain. - Comment on The UK Stop Killing Games petition has reached 100.000 signatures 1 week ago:
That’s not how laws work.
It literally is. You pass a law that states that from 2035, cars must not emit greenhouse gases. The law doesn’t state how that’s accomplished. You can sell battery electric cars, you can sell hydrogen powered cars, you can even sell combustion engine cars as long as you make sure that they only burn biomass-based or green-hydrogen-based fuels.
Great. So the company shuts down the same day, declares bankruptcy, and is immune to further legislation because it’s dead.
Okay, valid point, but that’s the same for everything. It’s literally how capitalism wants it to work. If somebody builds a house for you, messes up the process and then declares bankruptcy, you’re fucked. If you want to change the system, fine, but that’s not what this is about.
However, if those companies have to have a roadmap to work through after they stop providing the service for their game, it might make it even easier for a judge to just tell them to go through with it after they filed for bankruptcy. If anything, your corner case is at least a bit improved.
Cite one.
Release Server binaries.
Traditionally, you’d get a game - then nothing. No update. No bug fixes. No dlc. THAT IS WHAT YOU’RE ADVOCATING FOR.
Are you insane? Patches and expansions have been around since forever. Certainly way earlier than saas infrastructure. The ability to patch games has nothing to do with shitty service based business models.
Internet matchmaking in general was a free service included with certain titles. It can’t be provided perpetually and you expecting them to basically open source their net code is absurd.
Nobody demands that. You’re again arguing against your own strawman.
We have games that cannot work on a LAN model but you’re intent on forcing that model on every game, even if it means killing those games or forcing them to not be made in the first place. That’s what happens when you don’t clearly outline legislation.
Bullshit. If a game requires a server that manages the connection between players then that server software can run on any computer just as well as the publisher’s. There’s no law of physics that requires EA to run a server just to have some jerks lust over loot boxes.
- Comment on The UK Stop Killing Games petition has reached 100.000 signatures 1 week ago:
Right. There is no clear solution to the problem, only a demand for a solution.
Yes. Because that’s how laws work.
At what point? When is a game legally considered dead and a company legally obligated to provide that? What happens if they just shut down prior to fulfilling it?
At the point at which they stop providing that service themselves. “What happens if they don’t?” Yeah duh, what happens if you break a law? Then courts can enforce it. Is this the first time you heard about laws?
You don’t actually grasp what you’re asking for or understand what legal measures even exist to enforce them.
I understand it just well. You telling me I don’t doesn’t change that.
Games today are not able to curtail to these absurd demands. Not because they refuse to but because the complexity of what they offer is not easily designed to be replaced.
Bullshit. Also, as I said, they could just release their shitty server once they shut it down. You’re taking one solution that doesn’t require them to do that that I suggested, assume that games are just too complex for that specific solution and tell me that this assumption (which is also debatable at best) invalidates the idea of playing a game locally. What nonsense.
You don’t like the current model but fail to provide an alternative that can replace it. That’s the critique. It’s beyond childish to look at a problem, offer nothing, then get pissed when someone tells you that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
I provided plenty of alternatives. If publishers or you don’t like it, fine, then come up with your own. Again, laws work like that: they provide guardrails. The idea that people should be able to keep using what they bought has been the core of trade for millenia but suddenly it’s insane to ask for that? What nonsense. Gog sells plenty of current ones without drm, so somehow it is still possible to compile games without attaching a shitty service model. But even if there’s a some shitty game that the publisher absolutely doesn’t want to release after they already milked it beyond profitability (what you say would be impossible, which I still think is bullshit), according to this initiative they could just stop selling perpetual licenses. At least people then know what they’re getting into.
you own the game, they can’t release a patch to fix bugs or it would be a violation of the law for modifying your property. That’s bad.
What the fuck? No! Nobody wants a law that prohibits changing games. Games have been patched since forever. Where did you get that idea? You keep coming up with nonsense that has nothing to do with initiative. Just because a company can’t shut down my car remotely doesn’t mean they can’t repair it! How do you come up with that crap?
- Comment on The UK Stop Killing Games petition has reached 100.000 signatures 1 week ago:
Maybe we wouldn’t have to be such condescending dickheads if you cared to not make up stuff.
the initiative seeks to prevent the remote disabling of videogames by the publishers, before providing reasonable means to continue functioning of said videogames without the involvement from the side of the publisher.
That’s the core idea. Publishers should just make sure that after they milked their product it can somehow be run without their interference.
That doesn’t require sources. In fact, this doesn’t even state any method that is preferred. Could they release sources? Sure. They could also release server binaries. They could also patch out the connection to their servers and only leave people with local multiplayer mode or something. They could do whatever. The initiative doesn’t care.
The practice of licensing a product indefinitely but then just disabling it remotely is hostile to consumers. If they really, really want to keep their business model, they should sell licenses that are limited to a certain timeframe right from the start. Selling perpetual licenses and then disabling them without leaving consumers with any means to still access what they paid for shouldn’t be legal and probably isn’t.
Also this right here:
The initiative does not seek to acquire ownership of said videogames, associated intellectual rights or monetization rights, neither does it expect the publisher to provide resources for the said videogame once they discontinue it while leaving it in a reasonably functional (playable) state.
Nobody wants your ip. Just don’t break stuff you sold.
- Comment on The UK Stop Killing Games petition has reached 100.000 signatures 1 week ago:
Upon reading the UK version over again you’re right
:)
it’s even worse.
sigh
Why?
It states that companies no longer be allowed to ‘disable’ games which they often don’t do. They just stop maintaining them until the infrastructure for it disappears.
You’re close. Maybe read it again. Or something. I don’t know.
- Comment on The UK Stop Killing Games petition has reached 100.000 signatures 1 week ago:
Legislation will not compel a dying company to release code
Well I guess then it’s a good thing that the petition doesn’t demand that.
- Comment on The UK Stop Killing Games petition has reached 100.000 signatures 1 week ago:
No need to be so salty. Maybe instead just read what skg really is about because you obviously have misunderstood it completely.
- Comment on Uber Eats or something idk 2 weeks ago:
Yeah. He borrowed money for a house at 1.5%. Then inflation hit almost 10 during covid and our salary didn’t fully cover this but was raised way more than 1.5%. Money lost value much faster than his debt increased, so the banks effectively lose money on him while his paycheck grows faster than his debt increases.
- Comment on Uber Eats or something idk 2 weeks ago:
Or in more generic terms, inflation is good if you borrow money.
If your interest is less than inflation.
Like my colleague who bought a house for about 1.5% before inflation nearly went to 10. Man.
- Comment on We need to stop pretending AI is intelligent 2 weeks ago:
If you can bear the cringe of the interviewer, there’s a good interview with Penrose that goes on the same direction: m.youtube.com/watch?v=e9484gNpFF8
- Comment on Times change, but I stay the same. 2 weeks ago:
Not playing the anniversary edition?
- Comment on Steam Summer Sale 2025 has begun! 2 weeks ago:
No worries, just wanted to check if I’m missing something.
- Comment on Steam Summer Sale 2025 has begun! 2 weeks ago:
Not saying it isn’t, but if somebody tells me it should be less than half of what I’m seeing it for I might as well ask if I’m missing something, no?
- Comment on Steam Summer Sale 2025 has begun! 3 weeks ago:
7 bucks? Saw that and immediately opened steam.
Am I missing something? That’s the only bundle I found for animal well…
- Comment on Fairphone announces the €599 Fairphone 6, with a 6.31" 120Hz LTPO OLED display, a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chip, and enhanced modularity with 12 swappable parts 3 weeks ago:
It’s not a single bit worse than before the announcement.
- Comment on Tesla Robotaxi Freaks Out and Drives into Oncoming Traffic on First Day 3 weeks ago:
No no no, you don’t get it! Humans only have eyes, so cars that only have eyes should perform just as good as humans! Disregard that humans don’t perform well in fog or rain or generally anything that isn’t good weather and also disregard that to match our eyes’ resolution you’d need extremely high resolution cameras that produce way too much data for current computers and also disregard that most of the stuff isn’t happening in our eyes but in our brains and also disregard that the point that is usually being made to advocate for self driving cars is that they should be better than humans!
- Comment on Why is the progress pride flag so poorly designed (especially the intersex progress pride flag)? Will it be redesigned? 3 weeks ago:
Black and white are pretty overrepresented there though. Turning this into a sphere might help?
- Comment on ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Showrunners Talk Season 3 Premiere And “Retconning” The Gorn 3 weeks ago:
unless I am kissing something from the animated series
Well, are you?
- Comment on Switch 2 Teardown: Still Glued, Still Soldered, Still Drifting 4 weeks ago:
Anyone else getting a 404?
- Comment on Dave2D - Windows Was The Problem All Along (Lenovo Legion Go Windows 11 vs. SteamOS) 1 month ago:
Had my deck preordered and am still using it regularly. I’m really happy with it and just recommended the oled to a friend. Just out of curiosity: why would you want to upgrade it already?
- Comment on ‘AI is already eating its own’: Prompt engineering is quickly going extinct 2 months ago:
Today, strong AI prompting is simply an expected skill, not a stand-alone role.
If a company tells me they expect me to be good at writing prompts at least I know I can dodge that bullet and just never ever work there. Nice.
- Comment on Balcony solar is all the rage in Germany. Why not in the US? 2 months ago:
The pv panel just provides the electricity to your house. Essentially, if it provides electricity, your devices use that before using the grid. If it provides excess electricity beyond what you use, it feeds back into the grid. There’s nothing to it, just plug it in. Just remember that if you disconnect a circuit to work on it, you may also have to disconnect your panels because the wires may still be “hot” (they shouldn’t because the PV usually stops providing electricity once it loses the grid frequency, but better safe than sorry).
- Comment on The Fairphone 5 price has been dropped to €499. The phone is designed to be the most advanced environmentally friendly smartphone. 2 months ago:
I just explained how they are effectively doing that because a dongle is such a terrible solution that it’s essentially not usable. I can repeat my points, from charging over being pulled out, and add that they are either incompatible with some devices that don’t supply the analogue audio signal over USB (so you’re usually just buying one of those to see if they work, are happy if it does and then annoyed when you need to use it on another device where it doesn’t and boom you’re suddenly left without working headphones despite having one of those stupid dongles) or come with probably the cheapest, suckishest piece of shit DAC some underpaid Chinese procurement jerk could find anywhere on the market, so the audio quality will probably be terrible even when using wired speakers on a fucking dongle.
Is there a law that prohibits me from trying to keep using wired headphones? No, so you’re right there that they’re not technically forcing anyone. But in anything but making it technically impossible, they’re making it as unusable and unlikeable as possible, so effectively, there’s no way around using Bluetooth headphones.
- Comment on The Fairphone 5 price has been dropped to €499. The phone is designed to be the most advanced environmentally friendly smartphone. 2 months ago:
when a better one already existed
Agree with everything, but it’s not just that it existed, it’s that it was also already widely adopted for literal decades. This was an established solution that is now getting replaced with something worse. This isn’t betamax that just lost the adoption race against a competitor.
- Comment on The Fairphone 5 price has been dropped to €499. The phone is designed to be the most advanced environmentally friendly smartphone. 2 months ago:
You keep arguing that people can just use a dongle. I can keep arguing that a dongle solution sucks ass. I have used a dongle and even the way it’s just used sucks because it’s pulled out of the socket with much less force than headphones, so it keeps getting disconnected. If you like it, fine. I don’t and I still think that removing the jack is a dumb decision. This is getting nowhere.
- Comment on The Fairphone 5 price has been dropped to €499. The phone is designed to be the most advanced environmentally friendly smartphone. 2 months ago:
I can’t have them connected to my headphones all the time because I connect headphones to other devices that all have a fucking headphone jack.
- It’s an additional, and to most people superfluous, point for water ingress. Water damage is the most common type of damage in phones.
I’ve had watertight phones with a headphone jack over a decade ago.
- It takes up space which could be utilised otherwise, like with a slightly larger battery or larger speakers or camera modules.
Yes. Anything you add to a phone is a tradeoff. No shit. These points are what is usually used to justify the lack of a jack. But maybe, just maybe, they don’t save as much money as they make with selling wireless headphones and this is just an excuse? Especially the big companies like Apple or Samsung that sell their own peripherals? And this whole thing is just an excuse to sell overpriced gadgets that need to be replaced every few years because of their batteries? Maybe, just maybe, it’d be valid if consumers still had a choice and could pick phones with or without a jack and would have to pay for the luxury of using decent headphones with a few milliamperehours?
- It’s an additional part which needs to be manufactured, stocked, installed and purchased. Extra cost which only benefits a few. This is especially important to Fairphone in particular because they don’t use off-the-shelf components and promise to supply replacement parts pretty much indefinitely. I.e. Fairphone would have to design a custom module and then have that module in stock and manufactured specifically for them for the lifetime of each of their devices. That’s not a trivial expense.
Manufacturing a phone is not a trivial expense. Removing features is a business decision and a headphone jack costs money but doesn’t earn any whereas they can produce more cheaply without one. I get it. It’s just that doing so requires you to buy and use battery powered headphones that are much less sustainable than traditional magnets tied to a cable. How a company that lives off its promise to safe the world jumps on that wagon is a miracle to me. Companies that remove headphones don’t care about audio quality (which is why Sony still produces phones with audio jacks, I guess) or sustainability. Which is odd for a company like fp.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
But there are other people in parks. Why the fuck would I want to deal with their bullshit when I can just have my own park?
