Getting tired of these “shock” youtube channels drumming up drama for views. It’s only a matter of time before someone points the youtube cannon at these channels.
I’m not even gonna lie up until a few months ago I was somehow under the impression that Valve and GabeN weren’t that evil. Learning about his 6th yacht and how they intentionally made loot crates as addictive as possible and target young people kind of put things in perspective. There’s still no such thing as an ethical billionaire.
I see your point entirely and I understand why you feel that way. Just want to give you my friendly opinion on Coffee. I wouldn’t consider him a “shock” Youtuber, personally. He is an entertainer and a journalist, and pretty good at both IMO. He is definitely drumming up drama to a degree but I think this topic is especially worth the attention. I’ve watched the series this is a part of and can tell you that dude has done his homework. He included several interviews he did with different people that offers up a few pretty interesting perspectives. I recommend checking it out! At the end of the day, clickbait thumbnails and titles work well on YouTube and for some creators that otherwise might not drum it up it can be a matter of, “if you can’t beat em, join em”, but I definitely think the ends justify the means considering all of his work is what I and many others would call “fighting the good fight”.
For fucks sake, Coffee is an investigative journalist, and he didn’t drum up shit. The problem has always been there, you idiots are just too busy sucking GabeN off that you can’t entertain the possibility that he isn’t the second coming of Christ.
that meme is sorta funny. that is actually normal behavior. disney was known for going after people making no money. like literally school plays or such.
At the time, Infamous seemed to get a larger share of the hype, but nothing about that game felt good to me, and Prototype felt great. Prototype’s protagonist might be one of the worst in all of video games, alongside Watch Dogs’ Aiden Pierce, but despite the video’s intro, his morality isn’t ambiguous; he’s the bad guy. In Infamous, every choice to be good or evil is so cartoonishly polar opposite that no one would struggle with the decision except for Cole MacGrath.
I get that I’m the minority with Infamous, but after going back and playing Sly 2 and having since tried Infamous 2, I think maybe I just don’t jive with Sucker Punch’s open world design, which makes me hesitant to start Ghost of Tsushima. And while I loved Prototype, alongside Crackdown, what I really wanted was that game again but in a different city, and both of those franchises reused the same city for their sequels, which would be like giving Mario new actions to use but having him run through the same levels all over again.
I love the inFamous games. inFamous 2 in particular is in my top 5. I’m trying to remember some of the choices, but some of them are execute the mass murderer or not in one (or multiple) cases. But also, they have a variation of the trolley problem which I thought was a nice touch. The ultimate decision in 2 is pretty extreme, but it’s also the culmination of two games worth of selfish vs selfless decisions.
The biggest morality question though is whether to use area of effect vs precision damage.
Having said that, I think it’s interesting how these two games are so similar on a surface level. But in my experience, most people heavily prefer one or the other. I remember my friend and I were each obsessed with one of the two franchises when they came out, but neither of us were interested in the other.
Side note: inFamous 2 had a standalone DLC which just used the map from 2 with an entirely new powerset, and it was awesome. But it was a lot shorter than a full game. However, I remember losing interest in Bioshock 2 because it felt like I was just replaying the first game.
It’s funny, because I’m much more forgiving of BioShock 2 and even Dishonored’s DLC, which reuse the same levels but chop them up differently and have you approach them from different directions. In an open world, you can go anywhere, so even if they deform part of the map, it still feels like the same map to me.
which makes me hesitant to start Ghost of Tsushima.
I haven’t played the other games you mentioned but GoT is a masterpiece. You should really give at least the first act a try to see if you like it. Pretty much everyone I’ve had try the intro has been hooked.
Maybe some day, but on top of disagreements I’ve had with that developer’s game design in the past, there’s also the looming threat that Sony patches in more dependence on a PSN login to give me pause.
Ghost of Tsushima felt the same to me. Great characters and a beautiful world, but the gameplay felt bland. I was happy to finally get to the end because I didn’t have to play anymore.
I could never get over how boring the gameplay of Infamous looked. Comparing it to a third-person shooter is pretty apt. Like, you’ve got these crazy lightning powers, but 90% of the time, you just use your hand buzzer to give folks a bit of a zap. Riveting.
You’re very right. Dick move of them to hear about Skyblivion and instead of thanking the heavens for plopping a marketing opportunity for minimum effort, went “crush them out of principle”.
The Bethesda remake is supposedly using some Frankenstein of the original engine shoved into unreal. It’ll suck.
Though in their defense, it’s not being done by Bethesda at all. It’s being done by some studio who has mainly only done support work for other studios bigger games. I think called Virtuoso?
My guess it’s to test out what they’re building for TESVI by getting a smaller studio to test it out in something they’ve already got design docs and scripts for.
I’m really excited for this. Moreso than with the rumored remaster. Does anyone know if it will be a standalone install or if it will need to take over the Skyrim install?
In order to play Skyblivion you will need to own a legitimate copy of Oblivion GOTY Deluxe (ALL DLC) and Skyrim: Special Edition. Our installer will not install the mod unless it can find a non-cracked copy of the original games.
and
Skyblivion will work the same as most other complete overhaul mods. Simply install the mod via the installer and press play.
So you’ll probably need a pure unmodded version of Skyrim for it to install onto, but we won’t know for sure until the actual release date.
Its likely what we’d get would be a tool to create a normal mod. The tool checks for their requirements and when satisfied, rips oblivion files and repackages them.
So a clean skyrim installed to create the mod with the tool, but once the tool is done, you could remove the clean install and use it like any other mod.
This has been my experience with other “created from copyrighted works” overhauls, like rollercoaster tycoon for openrct2.
“This mod will ONLY work on a legitimate copy!” is just a plain lie I’ve seen many times on various mods over the years. Problems and issues caused by mods have never been because of a pirated copy.
That addendum is there purely so Bethesda doesn’t sue their asses to oblivion (heh). I am certain it will be very possible to play the mod on a pirated copy but it’s not like they can just write that on their website.
A long time ago, I read one of their developers say you require the original games since the mod is specifically designed not to re-provide you with any copyright material from either game, and in fact I think it’ll look for and use the files you have like any other mod.
This was done on purpose so they can never worry about being shut down or sued if they ensure they never wrongly re-use or provide copyrighted materials. Probably a smart move for such a massive undertaking.
As an old person who only kinda knew that lootboxes exist, this series was a huge eye opener to the insane amount of money and industry that has emerged around them. 10/10 would recommend to my fellow olds.
Now to head back to Bioshock where the only cost to looting boxes is that I might get attacked by a splicer.
Just check how much money GTA online has made for Rockstar every year. It’s an 11 year old game that makes half a BILLION dollars yearly.
No wonder they’re not in a hurry to get GTA 6 out. It MUST be better than GTA online both for gameplay and microtransactions as well as have the tech for live service
What the heck. Half a billion in microtransactions for a game that (according to this article) sounds like a real turd of a user experience. I loved GTA 3 and Vice City back in the day…I got GTA 4 in a Humble Bundle, haven’t spent much time with it yet. Anyone know if it’s a decent experience for a solo, offline, lootbox-free experience?
The single player is pretty good. You can also mod the single player to launch you into a separate online mode that doesn’t interact with R* servers. I don’t think there’s a way to sample GTA:O without signing in to the actual online mode. But like 99% of Twitch streamers for the game are playing a modded singleplayer version that lets them connect to roleplay servers
There definitely is already a resale market for Steam accounts, mostly used by cheaters or scammers who want a legitimate-looking account with no game or trade bans.
Debit card is tied directly to your bank account with no rollbacks. If somebody gets that info and decides to clean out your bank account, that money is gone, period, and you’ll never see it again.
With a credit card, you have a degree of separation and the ability to contest or roll back charges. Debit cards don’t do that.
Want to do a chargeback with American express or similar credit cards: call the toll free number and do it in less than 90 seconds, instantly approved
Want to do a chargeback with a debit card: you need to go to the police station and report the seller for fraud, then find the chargeback form hidden somewhere on the bank website, fill it and send it back together with the police fraud report via FAX (no email) to the bank, which might or might not approve it in 90 days. If it approves that, they will take a 30 euro fee from what you will get
I just emailed my bank, that was literally all it took. When I log in to my banking website I can do it right there, too. I just emailed them because I was afraid there might be consequences, but they called me up saying they’d already done it for me and I should have no worries
Happened twice, so it’s not a one-of, and since I could even do it myself right from the summary of transactions… All direct debit. I don’t even have a credit card, so it can’t be mistaken.
I guess it might vary depending on how much we’re talking… If they’re correct that credit card companies are requried by law and banks are not, then I can imagine a bank deciding to refuse to refund a purchase if they feel as if it’s too much money. At which point, it becomes much more of a hassle (lawyers getting involved, etc.) to get the money back.
Here’s the thing, I hate the debt obsession in the US, however it’s also really not that difficult to not get into way more debt then you can manage (barring medical expenses) and having a high credit score (even though it is stupid) absolutely does help in a ton of ways here.
I would encourage Americans to play the game smart, use credit as if it were debit, do not intentionally go into debt unless absolutely necessary, and if you’re in that position you should start seeking help, because getting crushed in debt is fucking awful.
I learned a lot of what NOT to do from my parents and paying attention during the 2008 crisis.
Plus there’s extra protections for credit cards, at least in the UK. Spend a certain amount and if the company goes bust you get your money back. Saved my ass with two different airlines that got into financial trouble once they’d taken my money.
I think fraud is required to be refunded by banks as well as credit issuers, but I’m sure most people would rather have money to spend on food and bills while they investigate, and you’re not going to get that if your account has been drained.
Don’t most debit cards (the ones that have the “Visa” logo) get processed as credit cards online anyway? Unless you’re entering your pin number (which, I would highly advise against ever doing on the internet), then it is processed as a Visa purchase.
They might get processed via the visa network, but the money is still leaving your bank account. Visa never really had it.
So now you gotta deal with visa and your bank to get something back that was stolen, and no, you aren’t ending up with the same protections. They aren’t as motivated as none of them are out the money.
If it was a credit transaction, the credit card company is out the money, and if you say it’s fraud and refuse to pay them, well now they are on the hook. They’re now motivated to determine if it was fraud or not as their money is on the line. Also, they now lose out on a potential customer that gives them high interest on debt if they dont undo it (because most people don’t pay off their credit cards). There’s no debt when it’s a debit card and transaction fees are smaller so they earn less from you.
Edit: and even IF you get the money back, it’s going to take a lot longer, and that money is gone in the meantime. Needed it for rent? Sorry the fraud investigation takes 2 months. With credit, your rent money isn’t gone.
When they were asked to implement age verification in Germany, they simply pulled anything off their platform in the country that would require it instead. Mind you Germany has a system that makes age verification anonymous so if privacy concerns you, you could just implement it. (Almost no platform does because they want your data though.)
Valve doesn’t want to touch age verification with a 10 yard stick and that tells me it is probably the way to go here. Because once they have it, the path for more regulations is clear.
In this arena, more regulation is needed. Anonymous age verification is a good idea, but I question the actual anonymity. It usually depends on trust of some entity. And I just can’t fathom an entity that can really be trusted.
It uses the government ID, which has a built in NFC chip. You can use a phone in combination with your ID and it’s pin to verify your age online. The ID scanner app will tell you which parameters the website requests from your ID, and its possible to only request the birthdate.
I don’t like the system, but it is truly anonymous
Sounds like it is only anonymous if you fully trust the app. That app has all your information, and the site you are trying to access. And I bet it is completely closed source. It also likely has logs about what sires it is giving information to. Not who’s info in that log. But elsewhere it probably has logs on who’s id it verified. Get access to both, and software can start to crunch the numbers and figure out who went where. That if course is assuming they don’t decide in the future that it is worth just keeping that data together in one spot. There is just no entity that could manage that app which wouldn’t have a motive to use the data and power it has.
No, the app is completely open source and has reproducible builds. And the site you are accessing only gets the information it requested, and you see which information it requested in the app before scanning your ID
Now you are starting to sound like you know what your talking about. But I’m not convinced yet. So when the app sends just the requested data to the site, how does the site verify that the data is legit. A person could fork the app and hack it. I am sure they thought of this, I just don’t know what thier solution is. And I can’t read german.
Yeah, something like that. But while your device can validate the cryptographic sig for the app, the site requesting proof of age can’t, since it isn’t running on the same device as the app. The best I can guess, the app could request verification from the state run site, and specify what information it wants (based on what the requestor site asked for). The state site could use a private key to encrypt the response and give it back. The app could use a piblic key the state makes available to decode and confirm that only the intended information is present. Then the app can pass that to the requestor, who can get the public key from the state site and decrypt the information. But, the gap there is how does the requestor know the app it is talking to hasn’t been modified. I don’t think there is a way that it can. Only the device the app is on can verify that. And the requestor can’t trust the device either.
Some Authentication that I remember has a component where the requestor would then talk to the state to confirm the info it got from the app was requested from the state by the same app the site is talking to. This prevents using someone elses response as your own. But in this case, that would tie the site to the request which means the state would have both peices of info, who and what site. So I don’t know what there solution here could be that wouldn’t result in the same problem.
They could (but didnt) do it with zero knowledge proofs as well. Then the website could go back and verify against the state site and no private information would be leaked.
The state would know the site requesting it via IP, but they wouldn’t know which proof they were validating.
It’s often talked about in the blockchain crypto space, but it’s not the only way to use them. You could use it in a centralized system like this too.
I looked deeper are read up. Everything I can find says the age verification function is not anonymous. There is an anonymous login function, but that doesn’t seem to include age verification.
As long as the part asking for ID trusts the part verifying the ID, there is no need for anonymity to be broken, since the verifier just has to confirm what the asking part needs to know.
Think of it like someone owns a bar and needs to know if a patron is old enough to drink, and the bar owners brother or best friend says “I know that guy, he is old enough”.
Foreign corporations are much more aggressive about harvesting data than the German government so you should think twice about using their products in the first place. Most of the time the German government is under fire for privacy concerns it’s because they trusted products from Microsoft or Huawei and the like.
My bad, I had the german government mixed up with probably the brits who are constantly saying they need to be able to read everyone’s messages. That said. It’s hard to know what the intelligence arm of a government is really doing. So if they give themselves a backdoor, it’s hard to ensure only they come in. And the government is always only one election away from dramatic policy changes.
Not going to happen since Valve doesn’t want to manage a database of IDs. It’s why sex games with real life actors aren’t allowed on Steam since that would require Steam to have IDs and consent contracts of all the actors stored on their side.
And Gaben is a hardcore libertarian, probably despises government IDs.
Previously, I had mused over vague ideas about whether blockchain technologies could go into a “proof of real person” system, by one-way-hashing information used to verify only basic details about a person. Eg: They exist, are a unique person, and are over a certain age. Ideally, it could be set up in a way that cannot easily correlate them between company databases.
That said, no real need to poke holes in the idea, because…that was the easy part, and it will probably never happen (or be far more draconian than I describe)
It absolutely can be done with zero knowledge proofs, but it needs to be from an authoritative source.
It could prove you are over the age of 18 (or 21) without having to divulge any other sensitive information, and be untrackable between sites or any outside agency (e.g government doesn’t know and can’t know you visited a site or location that verifies your age)
They could add it to our drivers licenses or passports or whatever which would cover the authoritative part. Your ID is an NFT at that point, and could be fully digital.
Edit: they might even tie generating the proof to requiring a biometric verification (fingerprint) so you can’t give your ID to someone else.
No one has ever denied the math wasn’t cool. It’s just that the usecase (NFTs) were terrible. I guess the hype has now died down so we might see some actual uses, like land ownership information.
NFTs in general are still cool. Concert tickets, tokenzied stocks, land ownership, car ownership, digital keys (that can open digital or physical things), digital IDs, it’s endless what can be done with them, but it’s a long way until some of these things get adopted.
It’s one thing to put those into the blockchain and it’s a completely different challenge to have a software infrastructure which incorporates the tech end2end. Example - someone put a random image of someelse else’s ticket into the blockchain. The ticket checker needs to have a checker app on his phone which can verify this in real time. It’s trivial using centralized DBs.
I don’t even think the business software side is that problematic for a lot of good use cases, it’s the general non user friendliness of wallets and having to guard your seed phrase properly and just general technical knowledge.
As soon as your concert ticket is an NFT people can risk losing their ticket, and people will lose tickets.
Making the ticket and scanning the ticket for entry isnt too difficult a problem, and it’s entirely fraud proof.
Edit: and so many people get scammed out of their seed phrases while trying to get help because they just don’t understand.
That’s not a solution at all. First of all, depending country, you will need a gambling license. This is a PITA as gambling laws will differ per country. In my country gambling is heavily regulated and you would need to check ID and keep track of how much a person gambles. You have a duty of care and if you notice a person’s gambling habits are becoming problematic you have to refuse them.
Someone mentioned Neural Radiance Caching to me recently, which Nvidia's been working on for a while. They presented about it at an event in 2023 (disclaimer: account-gated and I haven't watched - but a 6-minute "teaser" is available: YouTube).
I don't really understand how it works after having skimmed through some stuff about it, but it sounds like it could be one of several ways to improve this specific problem?
It’s at least used in RTX Global Illumination as far as the nvidia site mentions it, and I heard rumors about Cyberpunk getting it, but unsure if it’s used in current tech or not. I think I heard mentions of it in some graphics review of a game.
Yeah I'm also confused about its current state / status in currently-released games. It looks like a significant enough of a feature that I would naively assume that if it was implemented in a currently-released game that the devs would boast about it, so I guess it's not there yet?
As someone who grew up when you could physically count the bloody pixels on the screen, this whining about a miserable invisible miniscule artifact makes me palmface very hard.
Also as a person that grew up when game consoles could connect to the TV via an RF Switch, the image-damaging effects of Temporal Anti Alias smearing are extremely visible, and NOT a “miserable invisible miniscule artifact.” They’re massive on the screen. The particular examples shown in this video do not show it particularly well because it only focuses on raytracing, but the effects of TAA are still visible because turning on raytracing almost always forces on TAA, since the low resolution raytracing benefits from the smearing TAA causes.
Gamers massively overstate minor inconveniences. TAA smearing, upscaling artifacts, VA ghosting and blooming, ray tracing noise, all of that you get used to it on a day or two and never notice it again but leave it to the gamer to go on a crusade like their lives and the world are doomed because of it
Different people also have different sensitivity to different types of artifacts. No doubt a degree of the complaints is overblown due to a big of tribal / mob mentality going on, but a few of the people complaining might just be more sensitive to it.
With TAA specifically there's probably also implementation differences going on, where someone has a bad experience with it once or twice and then generalizes that experience to all implementations of it.
No, I don’t focus on realism over the playability of the game. The last “photorealistic” game I played was Ready or Not. But I have recently been enjoying Vintage Story, The Legend of Dragoon, Koudelka, and other games with “bad” graphics. Aside from Vintage Story, it should be noted that these other games were considered “cutting edge” graphics for their time, but they are by no means photorealistic.
My issue is that TAA (among other things such as UE5s Nanite and Lumen tech when incorrectly used) typically ruins games it is used in, both from an image quality perspective and a performance perspective. I wish that developers would stop using the default or current implementations of TAA so that better, more performant algorithms that don’t have the downside of smearing and has the upside of being faster can naturally emerge. Really, these are mostly problems that have already been solved but are ignored because big game studios operate via “Checkbox Development.” Rather than spending the time and money to implement these better solutions, they instead just check the default box for the default effect because it is faster and costs them less money.
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