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There are too many video games

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Re: There are too many video games

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The robots. The concept of UBI is precipitated on the idea that the gains from technological innovation have been unequally distributed since the founding of the country. It has just been getting to the point where it is very evident to many people now. In fact Thomas Paine wrote: "To understand what the state of society ought to be, it is necessary to have some idea of the natural and primitive state of man; such as…

The real secret is to be the guy who can fix the robots - the new blue collar. Doesn't matter which way the world turns out - either way you're living comfortably and coasting below the radar.

Private equity will own the robots. UBI is not all roses. It will be a way to give the masses a way to live their lives with a minimum amount of dignity and prevent a complete revolt once all jobs are gone through no fault of the people. This will likely also close off the remaining avenues to escape the lower middle class into upper classes. Whoever acquired capital early on wins and everyone else is stuck like in the centuries past. Think about it. Most of the 'new' billionaires are from tech which was an odd fork in history that the old elite clearly didn't see coming. Now the new rich will be pulling that ladder up from behind them once the robots do every job and UBI gives you a bread and circus.

Re: There are too many video games

#152
Regarding Steam, had anyone else noticed the increase in adult related games? As in full on porn "interactive stories". Are developers now getting so desperate that they've turned to porn to fund their industry?

I've had to turn on Steam's family mode as I don't really want that type of content.

Re: There are too many video games

#153

Seems like you're burnt out and you're trying to burn out everyone else as well. I create games in my free time for fun. I enjoy it. I have a game on Steam. It's not great but it's not nothing. And it's mine. Negative energy is what will make the world crumble, and this is a blog post full of negative energy.

I think Your reaction is why this blog post is on point. Everybody is thinking about themselves and their innner emotions, nobody is thinking about the system. Author is right that the sheer amount of artistic content created at this moment is unsustainable. And sooner or later this all will end when people doing actual work will come with forks and torches (this is of course a metaphor - I personally rather expect getting rid of dollar as global currency than actual people attacking artists)

Re: There are too many video games

#154

This is such an annoyingly simplistic take and such poison. Some of the things this guy says are outright nasty: like should you want to make your game to have only 10 people play it. Absolutely, yes. And if that detracts you, then maybe you don’t actually want to be making them. Games, like film, like music and like all the other storytelling mediums are a form of literature. It is completely normal and has always b…

I see more poison in your attitude than his.

Re: There are too many video games

#155

Oh wow, that's a depressing read but the guy might be right. We as society highly value art and artists and celebrities. But we don't value helping random fellow citizens that we've never met. The result is that people are eager to make art, but you won't find a similar level of motivation for repairing infrastructure or playing taxes to enable repairs. But if our infrastructure gets bad enough, life becomes frustrat…

I think this argument falls flat because for some things (mostly digital, or even interactive, like games) people are more likely to publish them.

I bet for every published indie game there are 50 paintings or drawings someone made and has not published - or musical performances not even recorded. I don't see anyone complaining about those. It's kinda like telling people what not to do in their free time. And I am 100% sure not all of those games mentioned were made as a way to make money or NOT in the creators' free time. Maybe they have aspirations to professionalize, but that's not the point.

Re: There are too many video games

#156
post #148

This is so cynical it overshoots the mark and lands way out there on the other side. Why make art that nobody wants? Because it's fun. I'm by no means a creative, but I've got a folder full of terrible drawings, loads of google docs of stories that don't go anywhere that I wrote while bored/drunk/high/inspired/depressed, and five different game prototypes on Github. Nobody's ever going to see most of them. This is fi…

Meanwhile 100000 russian troops is being placed around ukraine border, 20% of russian households does not have indoor plumbing and some of people I know still does not believe in pandemic.

Im not sure where Im going with this but somehow I feel that that You should not mistake Your inner optimism with what is really going out there.

Re: There are too many video games

#157
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like an interesting theory. Who will be the ones that do the productive work that pays for UBI?

The implication of your comment is that people only do productive work now because they are forced to, to avoid starvation. And that you think such a system is fine. Because if you thought people now do work which interests them, you'd still think that in a UBI world, and if you thought the current system wasn't fine, you wouldn't go straight to "but who can be forced to do horrible things if we take the forcing leve…

This is not about being productive. Productivity on its own is meaningless - when I draw I can work really hard but the effects of my work are literally wothless from the point of view of society.

I believe that capitalism works only because people need incetives that are aligned with society needs. Otherwise they will work really hard on stuff that uses resources but will not be part of sustainable system.

Re: There are too many video games

#158

Regarding Steam, had anyone else noticed the increase in adult related games? As in full on porn "interactive stories". Are developers now getting so desperate that they've turned to porn to fund their industry? I've had to turn on Steam's family mode as I don't really want that type of content.

I think they always had a ton of them, and they did generate money, but I remember a debate some years ago about I-dont-remeber-wich-game with "totally nsfw content" and Valve explicitely said they were open to the genre (probably to contrast with epic game or a platform like that). So developpers published their game on here too.

Re: There are too many video games

#159

Odd to focus on games when Seattle is propped up by a tech industry with people being overpaid by hundreds of thousands to make useless apps and websites. Indie game devs are usually making things at home during their downtime. As far as I know, there’s no volunteer hobbyist bridge repair club, so they’re not really taking away from anything. Meanwhile you have companies that have an easily replaceable service like S…

This. Games are IMO more valuable to society than quite a few startup products. Of course the real value of startups is in the money that employs people which then goes back into the economy, whether or not the startup survives.

Re: There are too many video games

#160
post #156
post #148

This is so cynical it overshoots the mark and lands way out there on the other side. Why make art that nobody wants? Because it's fun. I'm by no means a creative, but I've got a folder full of terrible drawings, loads of google docs of stories that don't go anywhere that I wrote while bored/drunk/high/inspired/depressed, and five different game prototypes on Github. Nobody's ever going to see most of them. This is fi…

Meanwhile 100000 russian troops is being placed around ukraine border, 20% of russian households does not have indoor plumbing and some of people I know still does not believe in pandemic. Im not sure where Im going with this but somehow I feel that that You should not mistake Your inner optimism with what is really going out there.

Remember Afghanistan vUSSR, Chechnya, and Ukraine v1.0?

I'm Australian. I see Russian aggression in the Ukraine in a historical context that includes a lot of proxy wars very far away from me. Sure, it probably sucks to be Ukrainian right now, but they're ~44 million out of ~7.8 billion. Maybe one day it will be our turn to be invaded, and that will be very bad for us, but I hope my inner pessimism won't be confused for what is really going on out there.

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