No, I said exactly what I mean. Go back and reread my comments, 'cause I’m not repeating myself again.

This might be helpful for you.

I never said Biden was a fascist, though I am saying that now. Biden is a corporo-fascist, just like nearly every US politician.

What I said was that he endorses fascism, i.e. a fascist state, i.e. Israel.

The Biden administration may not be directly responsible, but just like Trump, his endorsement of racism and fascism emboldens the racists and fascists to act more openly.

My old job doing systems design for a predatory mobile game. I quit that job, moved half a state away, and got a job that pays half as much in a company with integrity. Best decision of my life.

The toys-to-life trend ended, as it wasn’t making enough money. The games remain playable, but they have no support and are old enough they they require hardware that I no longer have.

Toys-to-life video games. I went on a Skylanders spending spree less than a year before it officially died. $5-$15 figurines got sold at garage sales for $0.25-$3 each.

I had tons of fun getting into it and I was young enough that I could afford to waste the money, so I regret nothing.

This is the right answer. Hatred just breeds more hatred. If you approach with love and understanding (or at least a desire to understand), you’ll have a much better chance of changing hearts and minds. Try to meet in the middle and you might be able to point them in the right direction.

Are these insanely rich people?

Oh, yes. Emphasis on the insane.

The assumption around the office always was that they were Saudi royals or kids of oil barons.

Very right. As a content/systems designer, it was my job to carefully balance a feeling of progression with a frustrating lack of progression at key points, thereby pushing players to spend.

The first few levels are easy and free, then progression starts to slow, but you’ve already gotten to level 10 easily enough, so you can take a bit of extra time to get to level 15. By level 15, you’ve invested enough time that the sudden valley of progression from 15 to 30 convinces you to make that first purchase; after all, why not spend just $5 to instantly double your level when you’ve already spent a few hours in the game? Progression speeds back up from 30 to 45, letting you feel like you’re in control of your leveling, then another valley hits and you’re now even more invested, and, since you’ve already spent $5 to get from 15 to 30, what’s another $10 to get from 45 to 80?

Rinse and repeat, steadily increasing the cost of each purchase while seemingly improving the in-game value per dollar spent.

Our biggest whales were spending over $10,000 per day on that disgusting “game.”

I had to get out. My next job, one at a prominent console/PC game studio, only paid about half of what I was making at the mobile game company, and I loved it. No more panicked 2 AM meetings because our revenue dipped 10% over the last hour. No more convincing myself that players enjoyed wasting thousands of dollars on an endless treadmill. No more 28-hour shifts.

Rant over.

Bonus: I’ve since become a dad, I’m actually proud of what I’m making now, and I’m excited to share it with my child when they’re old enough.

Oh, console/PC without a doubt. Mobile development, at least in my experience, is a constant struggle for relevance and a nonstop sense of urgency. Creativity is only allowed if it answers the question “how can we better trick players into giving us their money?”

Console/PC development, however, is focused on making a good product that will last. Nobody ever asks “how much money will this feature make us?” At worst, the question is “how much will this feature drive engagement?”

I’ve only worked for major companies, so my experiences don’t reflect what it’s like at indies.

AI art is very easy to learn, but has a lot of intricacies and extra functions that can take a while to learn and master. The only free and open source one, Stable Diffusion, has a lot of resources online. Here’s a beginner’s guide to get you started.

I recommend running locally if you have the hardware for it. You generally need at least 8GB of VRAM for reasonably fast generation, though I’ve heard of people being fine with as little as 4GB. Check out Civitai for additional resources.

So true, especially when paired with Miyazaki. They’re the Japanese Williams and Lucas - a real filmmaking match made in heaven.

He’s hardly modern, having died nearly 30 years ago, but Kevin Gilbert’s Song for a Dead Friend still brings tears to my eyes every time.

I don’t like to torture myself (or see others tortured) anymore, but in my youth, in the early days of the Internet, when that kinda shit was easier to find and harder to avoid, yeah, morbid curiosity led me to watching a few gore videos.

It left me desensitized for a long while, but I’m happy to say that I felt quite disgusted last time I saw a video like that a few years ago.

When I was a kid, Nightmare Before Christmas. Must’ve convinced my parents to take me to see it at least eight times. I’ve watched it at least once every year since then, and it stayed my favorite movie for most of my life, until Everything Everywhere All at Once finally usurped it almost 30 years later. Saw that in theaters four times.

Oh, and Lord of the Rings. Saw all three in theaters at least three times each. And, for some reason, Superbad. Went to five showings of that.

Temba, his arms wide.

If someone tells you they don’t care about pronoun usage, believe them. I’m nonbinary and don’t care what pronoun people use for me, because I identify as both male and female. Most people default to “he” for me because of my beard, but others use “they” because of my proclivity for wearing skirts, nail polish, and lipstick. Rarely I’ll have someone use “she” (or I’ll use it myself), but ultimately, I’m just a person who exists outside of the gender spectrum (or right in the middle), and pronouns are just a grammatical tool to save time, so I prefer that people use whatever comes most naturally to them.

Yesterday, while watching Beastars on Netflix, I shed some tears. Show’s surprisingly good, despite its furry leanings.

But the last time I sobbed was during the finale of the Last of Us show. As a dad, that penultimate scene wrecked me emotionally.

Thanks for the correction! I’ve fixed the post. 😁

Maybe I used the wrong descriptor. I’m not into screaming, so I tend to group all screaming/growling metal into the “black metal” label. 🤷‍♀️