In Europe they’re using the great replacement to mass import cheap labour and reverse this situation though.

BG3 has the same too.

I bought a new PC just to play Starfield (and BG3 with less issues).

It looks alright overall. But it’s pretty crazy that even 30xx cards can’t run it well (I had a 1070 though).

In terms of games that were so advanced they almost feel like they were made by time travellers:

• Elite (1984) - procedural open world space sim

• Ultima VII (1992) - full NPC schedules, open world and day/night system so you could rob stores at nights, follow people, etc. and awesome exploration. In 1992!

• X-COM (1994) - a voxel-based LOS system, destructible environment, z-levels, natural elevation on terrain (deforming the isometric grid), reaction fire, etc.

• Daggerfall (1996) - a faction system, procedurally generated areas and quests, a lot of options to get to different areas (climbing, levitation, etc.)

• Thief (1998) - a full sound simulation with different materials having different properties, the ability to extinguish torches (dynamic lighting!) and cover metal surfaces, a light system for visibility too (now commonplace).

• Baldur’s Gate (1998) - a semi open-world AD&D2e implementation - with co-op multiplayer! (most modern games don’t manage this)

• Deus Ex (2000) - a branching FPS/RPG campaign where choices matter with a basic stealth system and lots of approaches to each level. It was basically a completely modern game out of nowhere in 2000.

• Runescape (2001) - one of the first major graphical MMORPGs with a full player economy.

• Morrowind (2002) - a fully 3D open world with a lot of options for magic (including custom magic) and exploration.

• Hitman 2 (2002) - first stealth-focussed game with a full disguise system, map, etc.

• Oblivion (2006) - like Morrowind but with some NPC schedules (like Ultima VII), a stealth system (based on Thief) and Havok physics based traps.

• Red Faction: Guerrilla (2009) - fully destructible buildings and environments in an open-world campaign.

Those are the ones that really stick out (also Super Mario and Zelda on consoles, especially the SNES, N64 and recently on the Switch handheld). It’s a shame that the rate of progress seems to have slowed down a lot at least in terms of ground-breaking features and simulations.

But who knows maybe Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield will both be on future lists like this.

Ultima VII really sticks out as just crazy though, that game could have released 10 years later and held up.

Also the original X-COM was so far ahead of its time - a voxel-based LOS system, destructible environment, z-levels, natural elevation on terrain (deforming the isometric grid), reaction fire, etc.

In theory it’s easy to monetise - allow some targeted ads to communities and/or occasional relevant boosted posts, or paid awards like Reddit, etc.

The issue is greed / growth. They always need more and more - so you end up with more irrelevant ads, political ads, more boosted posts than natural ones, etc. - most companies aren’t happy to just do one thing well with a skeleton crew maintaining it and keeping costs low - they need constant growth.

Just look at Reddit and Twitter for example.

I’m a social democrat, not a conservative. But I live in Sweden where we had almost no facemasks and much better results.

Personal liberty matters. Freedom matters.

Nevermind the environmental damage caused by billions of disposable masks.

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The US is literally a world away with huge resources of their own.

It’s North Africa and Arabia that are going to bear the brunt of it, and Europe too to a lesser extent (they at least have more access to the Atlantic).

Software patents shouldn’t exist. You can’t patent the idea of doing something.

This is why I don’t understand the people that really want more “AI regulation”.

I don’t want a bunch of 70-year olds telling me what I can and can’t do with computers.

Yeah, this is a pain with faxes and letters too though - I had first-hand experience in Germany unfortunately.

It’s the same though.

To intercept the email you need to be on a network that receives it (i.e. ISPs).

It being stored unencrypted is a totally different problem (and also for letters, faxes, etc.)

therefore making them harder to intercept.

You mean far, far easier to intercept? You used to be able to just stick a coil around the wires.

The main issue is just a lot of countries governments’ don’t trust computers still. In Germany they insist on fax and post as it’s the only thing they can use as proof of signature in court, etc.

But it’s government laws and regulation that is behind. It’s not so much of a technical problem (although E2EE email standard would be nice!).

Because the videos are popular.

The influencer and podcaster stuff seems worse - women really think that $100k is like a minimum salary, the “princess treatment”, etc. - like feminism has changed from being about women being able to contribute to society in the same ways as men (science and engineering, etc.) to insane expectations.

Why protect? This is huge boon for the industry that will allow all games to become more accessible and feature-rich.

There’ll be fewer voice actors in the future for sure, just like there’s fewer radio stars and telephone operators. The world moves on.

Even trying to control it seems hopeless when the voice generation is getting so good with just a minute of audio etc.

Could be a British Longhair - the eyes and tail especially.

I liked how Neopets let you learn a lot with a fake currency just earnt from mini-games.

So like you could learn a lot about how auctions work, but without risking your real money.

I learnt the basics of hacking video games by hacking the minigames to win much faster.

I guess the closest thing nowadays would be Roblox, but it’s a shame how it’s all tied to real money transactions.

You should definitely look up how China works - where local politicians have to be civil servants first, and pass exams, etc.

It’s far from perfect either since it means the high-level politicians are all civil servants, but at least it puts a minimum level of meritocracy - and also means the “Deep State” of civil servants is clearer.