I was worried the remaster would take some of this away, but it looked just as good.

The PS2 version looks great after upping the internal res (not sure how much other stuff like filtering/other technicals has an effect). I haven’t compared it, but like most remasters I’m going to just say the data bloat is probably not worth potential fidelity improvements. That and I’d guess any design issues are still baked in, thus similar experience.

EDIT: In Okami’s case I don’t know if the data size is due to uncompressed files or just due to higher-res pre-rendered videos, but either seems wasteful to me. What is live-rendered and what is pre-rendered just seems arbitrary to me, I’d get if it weren’t viable on older hardware but you’d think a remaster could handle it mostly in-engine.

Well yeah, but mostly due to lacking any chance and I’m a shut-in (who probably has SzPD). Also time has already made a fool of me.

Are you challenging me?

For the most part, it’s not hard to find them if they’re doing the things I said and you pay attention while they do it. Look at how many titles a publisher has on Steam, see if they have a wikipedia page and if so if there’s monetary info involved. Recognizing a dev/publisher might also be part of it.

Also with self-publishing never being easier, some of my skepticism starts there. Another is games seeming somewhat shovelware-esque or like they’re trying to ride the wave of some other successful game/trend and that’s why targeting consoles early-on is likely important to them for the money.

I originally wasn’t, but off the top of my head some of the stronger examples:

Just because something is cute pixels that does not mean it’s indie. A good introduction to this is the existing discussion of Dave the Diver and its ties to Nexon. EDIT: Also, lootbox controversy with Nexon and Maplestory

One involving unpaid marketing and crowdfunding/early-access: tinyBuild. ~$473m IPO. Publisher of Hello Neighbor, which also has some controversy around it on quality (also mobile games with micro-transactions, because kid audience). While searching on this, I also saw someone angry about them doing testing on Steam and then a post-launch Epic exclusivity. EDIT: Also one of their games not having all content available on GOG.

The game Roots of Pacha had a license dispute (I do not know the cause, but the dev did end up getting the Steam rights) their original publisher had at least 6 different accounts on Imgur (and they also did the crowdfunding/EA thing too, and no it was not like 1 game per account either and some of those accounts are mysteriously gone now). Same publisher was in the news about controversy over boob physics, and I don’t doubt it was either suggested by the CEO for the headlines or just marketing clicks if controversy hadn’t have happened.

Even if people don’t care about stuff like this enough to stop buying the games, I hope they at least try to not enable or reward blatant self-promotion (particularly the more dipping and questionable practices involved) on the fediverse

And don’t confuse high budget indie studios with AAA game developers

On the other hand, there are a lot of publishers out there who really shouldn’t have things called indie when they’re involved.

The ones who have struck gold (perhaps multiple times) and are already worth multiple millions, publicly traded or even owned largely by investment firms. Some like this still footing everything on the players (crowdfunding and then early access) and on top of all of that going onto places like Imgur and Reddit and doing unpaid marketing there (doesn’t seem great for the actual devs, and then there are things like multiple accounts/sockpuppets/deleting+reposting etc).

And even without the unpaid marketing stuff, a publisher has a lot of ways to screw over developers and/or players usually with the goal of money in some form.

You could also call it a shopping plaza, either in a line or 2 (or possibly 3) sides along its parking lot.

Also bundled with those giant signs that list every store in the plaza.

“We want change!”
(votes for the asshat that fucked everything up previously).

Relevant comic.

I see ice-cream this tall and think:
YOU ARE DOOMED BY YOUR HUBRIS.
DO NOT DELAY FOR SMILES OR RECORD KEEPING.
EAT YOUR TASTY TREAT CAREFULLY BEFORE GRAVITY MAKES A FOOL OF YOU.

My thought as well, the video Tom Scott did on the mountain town that has bespoke electric vehicles (and strict usage on them for needed business) comes to mind (R2oD1ZHNMFE). I don’t know how much is law and how much is companies not caring to cater to that market (even with designs that they sell in Europe), but Kei-like vehicles can still be affordable without being fully unsafe (but the issue of safety is more about the market making larger-and-larger trucks and SUVs, and lack of viable car alternatives paired with high speed limits).

Higher cost really is not a fix. Other concerns like privacy seem like policy could mesh well with low-end (no internet connection, just-a-radio, common off-the-shelf parts, standards+no DRM etc). It would be nice for the option to exist in this space that US car companies are not trying to fill anyway.

@Fiivemacs

The bigger issue IMO would be that not everyone has quality sleep, so they might not have a long uninterrupted time in REM to properly dream.

Personally even when I’m in the right state to experience dreams (the type that I do remember) they usually aren’t very vivid, for the above reason or possibly something else. I also have aphantasia so it may be related (or other brain/life stuff). Once I did have a colorful-yet-still(ish) dream related to then-recent photography.

@Hegar

Sam has a nightmare: Paul* saying “You’re not perfect.”

*= Of DECtalk

I’ve also recently heard about VAs/creators (Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Space Ghost) not getting royalties (and living rough now despite their shows being successful). It’s also frustrating considering the style of stuff like this was low-budget in the best possible way.

If it is actual (local, in-engine) Text-to-Speech, I’d see that as more forgivable. Less space taken up by audio files, better for modding/user-generated content.

Though given the mention of AI and a AA/AAA game I highly suspect they aren’t going that route.

Couldn’t hard water be described an issue of natural minerals being “not water soluble”? It’s still going to be floating in the water, and I assume that hard water is a problem of excess and thus could be managed better. Maybe even the nano form, assuming that passes the safety checks (and guidelines for safe/effective concentrations can be established).

I’ve heard fluoride builds up in your bones so it’s one of those negative health effects that’s hard to study

I mentioned it in a top-level comment, but there is hydroxyapatite that would likely be a better water additive (and increases effectiveness of fluoride toothpaste) and would probably also be good for bone health rather than a potential long-term risk.

I am once again saying: Why not hydroxyapitite? A form of calcium, same as our teeth/bones. It even has water management uses because it adsorbs other stuff like fluoride and lead, which actually makes finding info about its addition to water for the purpose of teeth health difficult.

Though it seems like hydroxyapatite water would also make fluoride toothpaste even more effective.

The mineral ions introduced during remineralisation restore the structure of the hydroxyapatite crystals. If fluoride ions are present during the remineralisation, through water fluoridation or the use of fluoride-containing toothpaste, the stronger and more acid-resistant fluorapatite crystals are formed instead of the hydroxyapatite crystals.

I am all of the issues to some degree and AI outputs to me* just seem like dairy-free maple-coconut water cheese. So personally I’ll just stick with nothing (substantial) until the format/workflow that I’m looking for (hopefully) becomes viable for me.

Luckily writing a book or painting hyper-realism are not the only type of creativity.

(also funnily enough, AI currently is just a different set of skills/knowledge especially for the better results or wrangling custom inputs/training/adjustments etc)

*= Particularly what I can run locally, w/a 1050Ti. But also just really most examples of AI (aside from maybe the stuff that is either extremely overproduced/hand-picked or potentially faked)

Long enough to accept it. Lots of reasons that ultimately add up to being an inadequate person, but also no transportation/income in a semi-rural area (also health/personality issues) so I’m a shut-in and thus don’t ever meet people. That said, even in school/college it’s not like I ever really made strong connections with people, romantic or otherwise. Non-religious in USA (esp. given rural) certainly doesn’t (and more so didn’t) help with a dating pool either.

And even if none of those were issues, I’m just not that interesting. I suspect the people who might like to be around me are probably also in their house more-often-than-not, and not within any distance/likelihood of meeting.

Probably because it is, and then add in federation issues (at least that’s been my experience with Kbin). That and if I post about something niche people may have no reason to actually respond.

IMO I don’t ever see them allowing you to stop being a consumer especially not in such a way that makes them look bad. Best can be done is a cop shooting you when you have a mental health crisis. I also could see it being a genuine population crisis if it weren’t even more strict/bureaucracy-hell than MAiD.

Then of course, there will always be more people pushing back against programs like this than there ever will be for actually improving living conditions. People just don’t want to see or hear any reference to death, continued suffering is a lot more indirect and nebulous and thus ignorable.

If you’re a woman of the woods who will feed my brain to a bear, that’d put me at 80% on-board. As always, travel would be the issue.

Though if I was awake for the eating part, I’d definitely make the joke “Is this a Tally Hall reference?” even though I made it now.