Lfrith

@Lfrith@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic Games needs Fortnite players to "help pay the bills" as the multi-billion-dollar company raises V-Bucks prices while making Battle Passes and Crew way worse in value⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The whole discussion started because guy I talked to defended it saying kids want to play games with their friends and I point out vbucks isn’t a requirement to play Fornite and even gives it for free. And they just keep shifting goal posts from there pointing to kids not getting concept of budgeting and so on. They just wanted to defend yhe existence of vbucks.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic Games needs Fortnite players to "help pay the bills" as the multi-billion-dollar company raises V-Bucks prices while making Battle Passes and Crew way worse in value⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The whole discussion started because guy I talked to defended it saying kids want to play games with their friends and I point out vbucks isn’t a requirement to play Fornite and even gives it for free. And they just keep shifting goal posts from there pointing to kids not getting concept of budgeting and so on. They just wanted to defend rhe existence of vbucks.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic Games needs Fortnite players to "help pay the bills" as the multi-billion-dollar company raises V-Bucks prices while making Battle Passes and Crew way worse in value⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You just keep changing excuses to keep defending buying vbucks. First it was kids don’t want to be left out of playing games. Then I pointed out vbucks isn’t necessary to play Fortnite. Then you said kids don’t have impulse control. I pointed out kids are capable of budgeting. You keep shifting goal posts.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic Games needs Fortnite players to "help pay the bills" as the multi-billion-dollar company raises V-Bucks prices while making Battle Passes and Crew way worse in value⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There are a lot of lousy parents.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic Games needs Fortnite players to "help pay the bills" as the multi-billion-dollar company raises V-Bucks prices while making Battle Passes and Crew way worse in value⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You don’t need vbucks to play the game or any of the modes. When I was little I wanted money to buy games I couldn’t play without money.

  And I guess I did understand budgeting since I had to save money to be able to buy games. And also learned pirating to try to further extend my budget when I was little.

  I think people underestimate kids and how quickly they catch onto the basic concepts of money and time required to acquire what they want.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic Games needs Fortnite players to "help pay the bills" as the multi-billion-dollar company raises V-Bucks prices while making Battle Passes and Crew way worse in value⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I did, but you don’t need vbucks to play Fortnite. Also, one thing didn’t keep my attention for long, so I preferred more games when I was a kid. Vbucks just buys skins. And you get free skins just playing the game and free vbucks just playing the game.

  So pretty stupid to spend most of the limited money as a kid on skins year after year when it’s pretty much thrown at you so you don’t have to stick to default skins.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨MidnightBSD Bans Users in Brazil and California, Warns More Regions Could Follow⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Cutting services as opposed to complyimg is the better approach, since the other is a endorsement of it without consequences for regions putting it in place.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube ads are about to get even longer and they’ll be unskippable⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Get a cheap minipc or laptop and get the same adblocking options that you get on a desktop. Best of all you can just disconnect the spyware behavior of TVs when they are connected to the internet if built in TV apps is what you’ve been using to watch videos.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube ads are about to get even longer and they’ll be unskippable⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Sports fans know well. Streams that just cut to silence instead of showing ads are so much better. Commercials just enrage me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube ads are about to get even longer and they’ll be unskippable⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Scariest ads are the ones if you accidentally click redirects and opens up another site on your browser.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube ads are about to get even longer and they’ll be unskippable⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I like freetube for desktop and pipepipe for Android. Both, block ads, let you subscribe and make playlists locally, skip sponsors, download videos.

  More reliable than browser and adblock. Only when it breaks due to some youtube change do I use browser, but the app still functions like a rss providing you with your subscription feed to launch it in browser.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New York Bill Would Force Age ID Checks at the Device Level⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Would be some next level stuff where governments would be able to track and shut down protest attempts before it even happened. And identify those who have expressed critical views of their government and disappear them. And disappear people who bring up people being disappeared.

  Until eventually just the thought of speaking freely in such a manner is killed off completely on the Internet.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New York Bill Would Force Age ID Checks at the Device Level⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Do you really trust your government to know every single account associated with you? Do you trust the current leader and future leaders of your country to have every internet activity easily linked to you? Countries like the US will no longer have to subpoena for that information like they recently did for reddit users critical of ICE.

  So does it really make you feel better to have the government in control of a universal ID system?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New York Bill Would Force Age ID Checks at the Device Level⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Does it not send off alarm bells seeing meta stated as one of the lobbyists? Do they really have a track record that makes you think device would be any better?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Age verification for R-rated games and websites raises privacy concerns⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Its sad entire world despite calls for boycott of US are letting themselves be controlled and joining hands with US based Palantir in the most important sector when it comes to tech and privacy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Age verification for R-rated games and websites raises privacy concerns⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Who is behind it? The whole world collectively decided to start pushing it. So what big money is behind it? It doesn’t seem organic.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are achievements still relevant in 2026—especially when mods disable them?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I like them. They’ve given me incentive to try out playstyles I wouldn’t have like the ghost achievement for Dishonored where you can’t alert or kill random npcs in the game.

  I haven’t run into many scenarios where mods disabled achievements and if they did I would play with the mod over achievements if it brought enough quality of life improvements.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New York considers bill that would ban chatbots from giving legal, medical advice⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I find it okay for writing programs since you can verify it to see if the output is correct.

  But, actual analysis not so much, since when verifying what comes out that its not completely reliable even for things it should be like numbers. Now numbers might be close, but still off

  Abstract stuff might be fine. But, its still not something to entirely trust on analysis because of errors. There’s a lot of double checking that needs to be going on.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, and by turning it on you are opting in to allowing your ISP to decide what information you get access to. Making that the default is a TERRIBLE idea.

  So turn it off.

  Yes! What I’m trying to describe is that process, but in a digital space. Swap the store with a LOCAL app (ie: one that doesn’t phone home, and can generate the tokens on your device), and swap the ID with the cert file, and you’ve got the same process in the digital space, with all the same benefits

  I dont trust the digital space version because you’d have to trust the code and to be approved as an approved verification system would require the government to sign off on it. Third party doesn’t exist in a independent space for something like this when government oversight is required.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Your idea LITERALLY lets those in charge decide what information you get access to, so maybe you should be a little more skeptical.

  My idea is already in place. When you log into your ISP to pay bills or manage your plan you can already toggle on or off parental control. Its just changing it so its enabled by default since so many parents seem clueless it even exists.

  Turn it off and its just the way it already is now.

  I trust neither. That’s why I like the system I’m describing. It puts ME in charge of MY data, and gives me controll over who gets to use it, and exactly what they’re allowed to do with it

  Your new additional system puts trust that those who wrote the system will not end up exposing which tokens were used for your accounts by your ID that is linked to it. Either because the program was written for the government or corporations to do so, or eventually incompetence leading to exploit that exposes it.

  Only proposal I’ve liked is being able to buy tokens at a store without any ID being logged and buying new ones when it expires. Like the mullvad VPN gift cards.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  People will find a way around verification. I definitely would when I was little. To have a perfect system you’d need an authoritarian approach of complete surveillance.

  You either accept that system isn’t perfect or push for complete surveillance.

  You seem willing to risk what will turn out to be surveillance in hopes of a perfect verification system. While I’m more skeptical and not trusting of those in charge that trying to protect people is even the goal.

  Maybe it’s the difference between how much someone trusts their government and corporations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Just starting it at the ISP level than a site by site basis handing over info for every site seems better to me. Its already a utility to begin with where people have to give their info, address, and payment method when they sign up. Its already a verification system to begin with.

  Let households themselves decide if they want parental lock or not, and ISPs already offer parental block.

  And I dont care about the social media justifications for verification anymore. You, me, and many other people accessed the Internet at a young age and turned out fine.

  This hysteria of parents not wanting to take responsibility for raising and monitoring their own kids and demanding the government remove everything seems like boomers back in the day wanting games banned.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think easiest method is one that has already existed before. Just do a blanket parental internet block for ISPs and mobile providers.

  Account holders who want it lifted can contact the company providing them their Internet access to do it. Or leave it in place and use a login whenever they attempt to access blocked sites.

  But, there’s a reason that’s not the method proposed or used as an example with it already existing. Government wants surveillance like 1984 over their citizens and companies want to collect and sell data like Meta.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Law…politicians don’t seem to be following them these days. They seem more like Judge Dredd finding out the law is more a suggestion when it comes to themselves. Being able to even start wars without calling it one.

  Past year has seemed more like people going, but that’s against the law you can’t do that. And them going okay who’s going to stop us?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Now that we see groups pushing for age verification are third parties like Palantir and the US government having demanded account info on those who were critical of ICE I don’t think third party entities going forward can be trusted anymore to be unaffiliated with the state.

  Maybe when Estonia got their program implemented. But, now such a system being put in place for other countries is going to be untrustworthy in their motives and methods.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New York considers bill that would ban chatbots from giving legal, medical advice⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Problem is people treat it as reliable when AI itself isn’t able to verify or know if what it is generating is correct.

  Would be better if it provided direct links for people to go to and read. A list of citations if you will than the proclamations it makes know. Its too “opinionated” making it give advice when it would ideally be neutral just providing links for people to read further from sources that hopefully isn’t AI.

  AI has even gotten sports trivia I know incorrect. I don’t think people realize AI is just generation. Not as reliable or trustworthy authority just because it strings together sentences.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New York considers bill that would ban chatbots from giving legal, medical advice⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Funny thing is LLMs are bad as calculators too, since I’ve seen it get simple multiplication wrong.

  It’s capable of generating content, but unable to verify or know itself if it is correct. But, lot of people don’t realize that because the less they know about a subject matter the smarter it will seem to them not knowing its well…a language model. As in just outputting what can be complete gibberish.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Switch emulator Eden is surviving life after Nintendo kicked it off GitHub⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  When I tried it on my switch, gyro was broken when playing with a controller with no way to turn it off. So if emulator doesn’t have bugs then it’d be better for that reason too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sony is testing dynamic pricing: one game - different prices on the PlayStation Store⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I haven’t kept up, since the exclusives I wanted to play worked on the low firmware and new ones stopped coming out and later ones like Ghost of Tsushima endsd up coming to PC.

  Last I remember is higher ones than mine requiring a usb stick.

  I guess higher firmware requiring bluray now isn’t any more strange than the RCM jig method on older Nintendo Switches.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Switch emulator Eden is surviving life after Nintendo kicked it off GitHub⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think the Bayonetta games are really fun and closer to the old school God of War trilogy than the new God of War games. Its a fun hack and slash that you can button mash your way through, but is a lot more fun if at the very least you learn how to dodge offset. www.youtube.com/watch?v=subkGpouSeo