Yeah. I just mention it because I’ve generally just used VNC myself; and wondered what the fuss with fancier tools was about.

But then I realized home Internet has getting worse for some folks, and so folks might be using a service to get VPN-ed together, or whatever.

I’m also a big VNC fan, but I imagine RustDesk is solving for CGNAT better? I’m not aware of anything in VNC that solves CGNAT being a PITA.

I think I just read “we’re spending big on AI because it maximizes our profits. Now we aren’t as cost competitive. Let’s talks about what else we can cut to save money.” before I stopped reading.

Let me take a wild guess: It’ll be about using AI to deny claims to recoup the money spent on AI…

Whether the article goes there or not, that’s the playbook.

Even while aware of how little classic scifi or fsntasy covers usually have in common with the book contents… This is still surprisingly weird.

Perhaps it’s just me, but to me this article feels like belittling the problem by not differentiating between “hated” products and “harmful” products.

Exactly!

Hated product? Oh well. My paycheck still cashes.

Harmful product? Oh shit. Sorry boss. I’m still working on that. It’s been confusing, but we almost got it. Annnyyyy day now, boss. Pretty sure we will get it on track next sprint. Or the one after. (Source: I once got well paid to “accidentally” kill at least one truly shit-head idea. It probably cost me a pay raise, but I left soon after for more money, and I’m still proud of that every time I reflect back on it.)

Do you need a specific game mechanic for that?

Not really, I suppose. But having it explicit can help players realize they have the option.

“Concede” is also handy for situations where a player feels that their character winning this particular battle would be out of character.

It’s a particularly helpful rule for cases where the player wants their character to do something particularly foolish, maybe to reach a specific story outcome, but still wants some influence on the final outcome.

It can go along the lines of:

Player: My character doesn’t have the brains to not start this fight, but even if we roll lucky and win this, it would feel broken. Can I roll an attack and then immediately concede?

GM: Sure. What would that look like?

Player: What if my character is disarmed somehow?

Etc.

I’ve seen where a few outcomes get discussed, and if the group doesn’t have a strong favorite, we just ranked them in order of luck, and then determined the full encounter with a quick single roll.

Why reference the imperfect copies gen AI makes when you have databases of the real original artists and pictures and 3d scans of real things in the world out there to reference.

I think it is because one of these approaches requires skill and time, the other requires a ChatGPT subscription and George Jetson to push one idiotic button.

It makes people feel that they can contribute in fields where they were previously (and still are) useless.

Pandora’s box is open and will never close again.

Yes…but this Pandora’s box just had a fart in it.

We know we can’t put the fart back in the box.

We just want people to stop acting like it is about to revolutionize modern cinema.

All it is going to do is clear the room.

Even if you get past the technical reasons of why this won’t work well, artistically, your avatar will clash with any game that’s not targeting these avatars.

You would think so, but my Mii fits in perfectly.

(Uh, hopefully it’s obvious that I’m bullshitting. I can’t believe how stupid Mii looked in various Nintendo games. It takes a special kind of leadership at Netflix not to have learned from Nintendo’s… experience.)

But they’re too late! I’m too entrenched in the Nintendo ecosystem, with my perfectly formed Mii that I demand to play as in a variety of games.

If only they had thought of this sooner!

Diced.

Nice! Thanks for sharing this analysis.

I thought our primary way of producing new Linux users was sexual reproduction and then indoctrination from birth…

Interesting. I would have guessed that Mint gave ChromeOS a run for it’s money, by now.

Yes. By the porn stats, Linux already crushes ChromeOs. Let’s not take any advice from it.

I’m not sure Grandma and Grandpa would want a steam machine as a replacement for their aging Windows 7 home computer.

Fair. But for my gram, it would have been a slam dunk day one buy. She loved her playstation and only tolerated her PC. She would have called a Steam Machine “my game console that can check email” and would have adored it.

Good points. I feel like Fate does a better job staying in the interesting in-between for longer, and also supports “epic” stories a bit better (than other systems I have played).

But I haven’t tried to force Fate to support the newbie to epic growth, because the rulebook calls out that the Fate rules intentionally ignore supporting the ability to play as a helpless nobody.

Hence the number one rule: cool stuff should be done in the game, not your backstory.

I prefer Fate, where the rules practically require having cool stuff in each character’s back story.

Yes. That’s one reason that the Fate system basically disallows characters ever being low level. Low level starts aren’t actually particularly fun, and they can prevent characters from having diverse epic shared backstory.

I tolerate continued existence out of a morbid sense of curiosity.

That’s beautiful, in it’s own way.

I felt that way at one point. It led me, eventually, to moments that I later decided mattered very much, to me.

If I hadn’t had that morbid curiosity, I’m not sure I would have made it to those moments I now cherish.

Here’s to morbid curiosity!