I LOVED books as a kid. I was reading at a high school level by the time I started kindergarten, and I just absorbed every book I could get my hands on. I would bring a 100-200 page book to school every day and would finish it before I got home in the afternoon.
I also enjoyed writing and would write my own stories. I was part of an organization in elementary school called Young Authors that encouraged kids to write, and I wrote 3 books through that group. It was my dream to be an author one day.
Then the Internet became a thing.
Suddenly, I didn’t need to spend hours in a library reading through dozens of books to find information I needed. I could just do a quick search on Infoseek, or Excite, or AskJeeves, and have a repository of knowledge at my fingertips. It was life-changing!
As the Internet evolved and more data got dumped on it, I started spending more time perusing its depths and less time reading physical books. I ended up getting a job in IT because computers fascinated me so much. Eventually, I realized I hadn’t picked up a book in years. Everything I wanted to read, I could find online.
Now here I am at 40 years old and my dream of being an author is gone. In our modern age, most people don’t read physical books anymore and authors don’t make enough to survive, unless they make it on a best-seller list or something. Even Stephen King is more well known today for his political commentary on Twitter/X. I haven’t heard much about any books he’s been writing in a long time.
I once wanted a library room in my dream home. I still kind of do, for the aesthetic. But I don’t really read physical books anymore, and I could only fill maybe a single wall with the books I currently own; mostly treasured classics from my childhood that have been stored away in boxes for years. I’d be better off having a PC gaming/theater room in my dream home, as that’s more where my modern interests lie.
I love the Internet age. It revolutionized my childhood and brought us into a wonderful age of information. But I can’t help but think about how completely different my life would’ve been if it hadn’t been invented. I sometimes wonder if I would’ve been more happy and/or successful in a world without the Internet.
I kinda feel this way about streaming music. Something has been lost with all the convenience gained. I like streaming. I’ve heard more electronica and techno and chiptunes that I’d never heard before streaming. I like weird stuff and I get a LOT of it for essentially no cost… But I miss collecting things. Collecting albums and such was more expensive and I got fewer but I miss album art and having a collection of said art.
Check out a book called House of Leaves by Danielewski. You pretty much have to have an actual copy.
I’m younger, but this basically sums up my experience. I still try and make sure to do some (TTRPG) writing every so often just to keep myself sharp.
I used to go through a saga in a couple days. I once reread all of Harry Potter in 6 days. I struggle to finish audio books that I love nowadays
Very much same. I was an art kid. I painted and wrote and sang and played music, fast forward 30 years and I’m on a computer for 8ish hours at work, then another 8ish hours at home then sleep, with phone time scattered through out.
Writing
How so?
I was writing via pen and paper, and that was great. I was using a typewriter, and that was cool. At first, word processing was amazing to help with editing and my handwriting. But then I don’t know, it is much less sexy to sit at a screen. There are too many distractions. Feels much less creative.
Yea, there are a lot of writers who have gone back to dedicated writing machines because of this. Things like the Freewrite. Also means you have to manually transfer research content so its more firm in your mind.
Board games have been nearly ruined by kickstarter.
Instead of buying a well reviewed and recommended game from a store, you have to back a hyped up sales pitch, and then wait 4 months for delivery, if the producers don’t just bail with your money or go “oops, we couldn’t finish what we promised, and we already spent all your money…”.
And if you don’t back it to later read the reviews, the game is out of print and still waiting for the first wave of deliveries, meaning a second print is still at least a year off.
Also, the ratings are heavily skewed by people rating on the hype or early/review copies, meaning the rankings are heavily amazonified.
EtA: Also games are heavily bloated with social media candy: heavy and fragile minis, box stands, blingy crap periferals (branded dice holding toucan) and still needing organisers, player aids and mods from third parties who’ve gotten review copies to make said supplements…
Oh, and the stretch goal extras (get another 150 vanity minis/3D printed scoring tokens) for only $150 and an 18 month wait!
If the game is actually good there will almost always be another Kickstarter later if it doesn’t go retail, but it could be years. Except for CMON games which are based on FOMO, those do not come back and retail can be significantly worse.
It sounds like you’re describing the consequences of FOMO rather than the ruination of an industry.all of these issues can be circumvented by simply not participating.
What is this thread but people yelling at clouds?
Electric guitar and the quality of digital amplification. Takes all the pain, inconvenience and expenses of the traditional amp as a PA system away while letting you sound good. Really awesome TBH.
I agree wholeheartedly, but I think you’ve misread the post
Ha. Oops! I got the vibe that the conversation had become more general. But also I’m genuinely tired and tired and not wearing my glasses. Sorry!
Computing and Gaming both being internet reliant in the most part has destroyed the industry completely as it is used as a weapon to monetise everything pay or don’t play or you know that game you could play well don’t pay you now can’t play scenarios rule, and servers deliberately being shutdown to recapitalize on an updated game it’s just monoply and capitalism gone too far. They don’t need to login to play offline either so why the need for server access to verify ownership more than one time then provide a unlock key that’s for offline for life should be the way it is done for comoputers and consoles a occassional reconnection to update the built in database file that stores the keys encrypted resides on all machines would be the way around it you only need update once a game doesn’t exist in the current database and it happens automagically without any input other than one time in the life of the machine with an export to usb option and or cloud option to boom problem solved.
Well I play video games, and woo boy, let me tell you about microtransactions, crap DLC content, season passes, never ending early access, unfinished releases, and anti cheat root-kits! If you’re on console you pay a premium to play online, if you’re on PC you have 18 different game launchers and DRM bullshit. Digital only stuff means you don’t own your games, cant loan them or trade them or sell them. I’m sure there’s more, and admittedly there’s good with the bad. Graphics have come a long way, and some rare innovations are fun to see. I still have fun with it, but wow it is a fucked up landscape full of way more land mines than it used to be.
Not to mention every OG single player game now becoming heavily multiplayer focused.
Halo, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Rainbow Six, Grand Theft Auto…
Can’t just make a new IP. No…we need to ruin the old game you love playing and focus only on players who want an online exclusive experience.
I quit following Halo Infinite updates because it only ever was something new for multiplayer.
Rockstar canceled all DLC plans for GTA V and waited 10 years to unveil its successor. I’m not even interested in GTA VI because it’s inevitably going to be multiplayer focused and forget about the offline single player experience.
Rainbow Six Patriots got canceled so we could get Rainbow Six Siege which has pretty much become a CounterStrike knock off.
All these companies forgot what made their games great and who the original fanbase consisted of in favor of the flavor of the month players.
When I was a kid me and my friends who lived on my street would always trade or borrow our NES and SNES cartridges
You can still do this with physical console games.
Steam also has the family sharing support where you can burrow games from people.
I casually bicycle around town and like to see who I can keep up with to test how fast I am. More and more folks have ebikes now and it’s getting way less fun.
I’ve been on social media for a little over half a year. With the introduction of AI image generators, I have had my art stolen by an AI image prompter, who took my art and made it look like a congealed mess, in addition to being accused of using AI on another site back in June, even though I’ve posted progress pictures, timelapses of me drawing and PaintTool SAI files with many of the layers being intact. The AI image prompter was locally banned by a moderator, while the other person had their account removed by the administrator, who then apologised to me about that person’s rude behaviour.
Go has been changed a lot by technology, mostly for the better. The ability to review every game you play with AI, for free, is an invaluable resource, and we’ve also learned a lot about the game from AI.
But, there are also several limitations that it’s important to be mindful of. The AI likes to play on the razor’s edge because it can read well enough to know exactly when it’s actually in danger. A human player trying to emulate that style will often just get themselves killed. Human teachers can still be more useful, despite being weaker, because they can better identify trends in a person’s thought process and explain the “why” behind a move, communicating the general principles that we as humans need to rely on because we aren’t computers and can’t read out every variation every time. Sometimes people get too obsessed with trying to play the “top engine move,” and it can blow up in their faces.
I was at a go event a couple years ago where a professional from overseas was reviewing people’s games, and somebody got in an argument over a move because the pro criticized his move, but the player said the AI backed him up. I can kinda understand both sides of that. On the one hand, if the AI says something, it’s not wrong. But on the other hand, I think it’s important to consider multiple perspectives and incorporate them into your play, and you’ll always be able to put things into the AI, so I think there’s something to be said for biting your tongue and just letting the pro give their perspective with the limited time you have them for. I guess I’ve never been one to be afraid of telling stronger players when I think they’re wrong, but it feels kind of disrespectful to me to pull AI on a visiting pro.
I guess one part of the game I find appealing and beautiful is that there’s so many ways to play it, and your moves can serve as an expression of your personality. Introducing this sort of objective lens can get in the way of developing your style and making your own judgements. On the other hand, getting feedback that tells you when your judgement is way off can help your refine your instincts going forward. It’s just that it’s important to understand why the AI is saying something, and to understand that a minor percent loss can be worth it to push the game in a direction that’s easier for you to play. It’s a complicated subject, all-in-all.
Programming and Linux is my hobby I guess but new languages, distributions, and frameworks spring up all the time. On one hand the innovation and creativity and variety are inspiring and impressive. On the other hand it makes analytical types like me more likely to spend time researching solutions than actually implementing them. It’s also too easy to find the perfect tool for whatever your problem is or get invested in solution and before you know it the project is abandoned or flipped into a commercial product so you have to start the hunt all over again and convert all of the stuff that depends on it. I think it’s a “good problem” to have but still a bit of a problem.
It would be nice if open source software had a more reliable way to be sponsored so contributors could have some monetary support for their efforts. I say reliable because some very popular projects have little to no sponsorship so we could be one pissed off dev away from Y2K.
Somewhat tangential, but Eddy Burback recently posted a YouTube video talking about AI, and how it’s being marketed in a way that’s intended to rob people of wholesome interpersonal experiences. Or at least dilute them by horning in.
Nothing is safe from tech bros. Certainly not hobbies.
So, first they create phones that make it easy to ignore other people. Then they create machines to give you the ‘interpersonal experience’
fyi, that URL can be trimmed. the ?si=asdkjlfhasldkjfhaslkdjf is just tracking metrics. https://youtu.be/IZ4HOCld5nY works just fine.
I love board games, and own a game shop. Many companies are creating board games (and other types of games) that require their app, then after a few years they abandon the app making the game useless and unplayable.
This is why I don’t buy toys and other items that require a specific app.
The last one I remember buying was that little robot and the company that made it went under and a new company bought them and resurrected the robot but now required a monthly subscription.
Great example of why this kind of crap needs to stop already. I don’t need a damn app for everything I do and it doesn’t have to be specialized.
The other side of it is those things I have, like an older RC helicopter, that still has the app available on the App Store but not for modern devices because the specifications changed and the app no longer is compatible for modern devices.
Fun stuff…
Similar situation - those board games are honestly pretty rare and almost universally shit, app or no. Plus, they’ve been trying to do that for years. I had a clue board game that would text you clues throughout the game. I played that on my first flip phone. It was absolutely horrendous
I remember having an old boardgame with a VHS. It has a countdown and would interrupt you every so often with events or punishments.
It was fun, but after the first time you play it you’d know every “surprise” coming on the tape.
The industrial revolution resulted in climate change that makes it borderline impossible to be active outside in the summer.
The industrial revolution resulted in climate change that makes it borderline impossible to be active outside in the summer.
Eh, not yet. For me it’s much worse to be inside in a building without A/C, then being outside doing activities. You just need to be careful and do not expose yourself too much to the sun.
The ability to midweek things in 3D let modelers out way too many details on miniatures, making them fragile and hard to paint
I think you’re going to have to clean that up a bit before I fully understand.
I don’t know how to midweek things in 1d, let alone 3.
All right I did it. Thanks for letting me know
Bike lanes and paths are now full of people buzzing by at 25mph or more.
I would take that over the hunters on our hiking trail.
That just sounds illegal.
2nd amendment and all
No I’m pretty sure that the DNR prohibits hunting to specific areas on public land.
No one is willing to enforce it here. The local pd and the sheriff’s department said to start carrying and fire back at them.
😰
Honestly everyone going 25mph on an ebike is taking a motorcycle or car off the road. And im happy with that deal
Anyone going that fast on a bike IS a motorcycle.
Yes agreed, although i prefer electric motorcycles to ICE. At least they dont wake me up at 3am, brrrpbrrrprrrrrrrrp
I saw a Vespa today for the first time in ages, and kind of wondered why mopeds have fallen so out of favour. There used always be a few 16 year olds belting about on them.
But why would anyone get one when they can have an ebike? Vespa is likely more expensive, needs petrol, you need a licence, a (relatively) expensive helmet, you need costly insurance.
Compared to an e-bike that’s half the price, doesn’t need a licence or insurance, can be ridden with a normal cycling helmet, and is allowed use bike lanes. It’s a bit of a no brainer.
