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[prokopetz]

So I’ve checked with the vet, and apparently the fact that my cat likes to eat phone books isn’t putting her in any danger – she’s not suffering from a dietary deficiency, and the local phone books are printed with a non-toxic vegetable based ink, so she’s not going to poison herself.

The fact remains that I have a cat who likes to eat phone books.

Not even paper in general: phone books specifically.

What the hell.

[prokopetz]

I want everyone in the notes who’s boggling at the concept of printed phone books in the year 2021 to think carefully about the events of the past 24 hours, and see if they can arrive at any conclusions regarding why an information technology professional such as myself might insist on keeping a printed phone book next to their wired landline.

[the-lucky-shadow]

I love posts like this, cuz it’ll take like 2 weeks to become incomprehensible when people forget that all of Facebook’s shit went down for half a day

[prokopetz]

The only thing folks are going to be uncertain about regarding this post in the future is which particular instance of some vital segment of online infrastructure shitting itself to death it’s referring to. Given the increasing monopolisation of online services by outfits whose corporate culture renders effective disaster preparedness impossible, it’s a safe bet this time won’t be the last!

[aliasisudonomo]

Heck, the “tech enthusiast eagerly buys up every half-baked gizmo, the IT professional has a landline, a trusty old Laserjet printer, and a shotgun to use on anything that even MENTIONS ‘Internet of Things’ on the box” is an old joke with plenty of truth to it. If you know about these things, you know how easy it is for them to break.

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[littlenobodys-corner]

[adrienaline-rushed-art]

ok so people are making fun of this but adding this with other anti-global warming tactics will work

This isn’t adding ice just for the sake of denial, it’s adding to the Earth’s albedo. This in turn actually makes the Earth’s climate cooler, and then more ice will be produced naturally because of this.

It isn’t a process we need to continue forever, in fact it’s one that needs to be calculated so that we don’t do it TOO MUCH. The only worry would be cooling down too much.

So yes, this is a good idea. It simply isn’t the only thing we should do because we still have gross pollution.

[the-adhd-society]

For the love of god do it . anything just do it. Give us hope.

[beatrice-otter]

Here’s the thing: Most environmental catastrophes humans have ever or are currently creating can be fixed. It’s not just a matter of “oh no, things are ruined, and maybe we can stop the degradation so that things don’t get any worse, but we’re stuck with how things are.” There are some things we can’t do, like bringing back extinct species. But there are a lot of other things we can definitely do, many of which are being done right now. The problem is that most of our willpower and effort is spent on bullshit tiny things that won’t solve the problem (individual recycling, etc.) and not on the large-scale things that can and will make a large-scale difference.

Ice caps are melting? Guess what! We know how to make ice. It’s not that hard. Designing mostly-automated robot ships to go to the poles and rebuild the ice caps is well within our current technical capabilities. We just need to fund it.

Deforestation on a massive scale? Destruction of other biomes? Guess what! We know how to plant trees. We know how to plant grasslands. We know how to take barren, lifeless land and turn it back into a viable biome. It’s not that hard. In a lot of cases, if there’s neighboring areas where that biome still exists, all you have to do is dump a few tons of biomass (plant clippings, food waste, etc.) on the barren land and stand back and wait. The biomass will provide nutrients and keep the topsoil from blowing away, and the plants and animals from the neighboring biome will move in. In two decades, even if you don’t do anything besides dumping the biomass on it, you won’t be able to tell what was the barren area and what was the still-existing biome.

Coral reefs dying? Now, coral reefs are a bit more fragile than most biomes, but guess what! We still know how to replant/rebuild them, and in fact are working on that in places affected by coral reef die-off! And we’re learning how to do it better every day.

Desertification? Guess what! We know how to turn desert back into green space. They’re doing it on a large scale in China and sub-Saharan Africa. There are several different techniques, none of which are even very technology-intensive. It takes money and time and labor, but it’s perfectly doable. We know this because we’ve done it.

Plastic in the ecosystem, particularly in the ocean? Guess what! There’s a lot of people working on this, both on “how to remove plastic from the ocean” and “how to reuse/recycle it more efficiently.” And the techniques are improving by leaps and bounds every year. This is a solvable problem. These are all solvable problems.

So if you’re crushed by the weight of the coming environmental catastrophe … don’t be. These are all solvable problems! We can stop things from getting worse, and we can fix the things we’ve broken. The issue is political, not practical.

On the political side, of course, is the need to tighten up environmental regulations across the globe. (What’s the statistic, that 90% of pollution is caused by 100 corporations?) And then of course, we need to fund these programs on a large enough scale.

In some ways the political aspect is the hardest, but consider this: we are at a tipping point. Things are changing about the way politicians talk about climate change and ecological degradation. More ordinary people are concerned about this, which means more pressure on politicians. One of the ways that things are changing is that people–even conservatives–are starting to talk about “job opportunities in new green fields” and switching the conversation so that it’s not “rainforest vs. jobs” makes political action a lot more possible. And no, it’s not going to happen on its own, but it can happen.

This is a solvable problem.

[izze-bizzle]

I *needed* this. Climate change has had me feeling SO helpless, having a list of things that can actually potentially be done is beautiful

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[prokopetz]

Saving Curly Brace in Cave Story may not be objectively the most difficult side quest, but basically everything about how it’s set up offends my game design sensibilities, so it’s The Worst™ by default.

[prokopetz]

@booxmowo replied:

Never played Cave Story. Anyone willing to give a recap why the questline is so bad?

Okay, so.

Keep reading

[revalistan]

To be fair, another game published by Nicalis (Cave Story was originally an indie game that they bought by taking advantage of its creator not being good with English), The Binding of Isaac, does this exact same bullshit with some of its secrets. (Spoilers for the entire game and DLC below the cut)

Keep reading

[aliasisudonomo]

As pointed out, it’s very different for a roguelike, for an action you’re likely to take as a player anyway (try to speedrun) as opposed to a highly obscure sequence in a lengthy shooty platformer where you can’t try again.

No, if you wanted to use Binding of Isaac as an example, you should have brought up the original procedure to unlock the lost which required four *highly specific* deaths in order, and the last run couldn’t even use a seed to make it easier with a known good run for that fate. (It is far easier now.)

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[prokopetz]

One of the big reasons I write the kind of games that I do is because I truly love stupid dice tricks, but so much of the real innovation in tabletop RPG mechanics is tied to settings that are defined by a lurid preoccupation with degradation and misery, and character building frameworks that expect a nearly voyeuristic level of personal disclosure, which – taken together – seem determined to find out how many deep-seated traumas they can make their players relive in the span of an evening’s play.

So I take those stupid dice tricks and use them to build games about jellyfish committing real estate fraud.

[peregrinramblings]

I want to play that game, what’s it called?

[prokopetz]

It’s currently in development, but if you want to give the playtest version a spin, you can find it here:

https://penguinking.com/jellyfish-felonies/

[aliasisudonomo]

re: the ‘preoccupation’ thing in the notes: there’s a lot of games with really cool dice tricks that are all about focusing on basically miserable experiences and really digging deep into them. There is nothing wrong with this, they often center disadvantaged, underrepresented groups and this is great. But at the same time, *even members of those groups sometimes just wanna goof off and have fun*. It’s why I still play Exalted, ornate system and all: The world permits you to have characters like that, but it’s in more of a high ancient world fantasy adventure direction that encourages throwing goddamn clusterbombs of dice and taking out entire armies single-handedly.

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[prokopetz]

I really appreciate how, while Serious Gamers have been having Serious Discussions about what the genre nomenclature should be for the 2D Legend of Zelda games and their various imitators, the community-driven tagging systems on various online storefronts have simply settled on calling them top-down metroidvanias. Like, you had your chance, Serious Gamers, and you let it pass you by – the mob has spoken! It’s all metroidvanais now!

[prokopetz]

@kemayo replied:

I mean, I think I object to that only on the grounds that it’s retroactively applying the names of later games to earlier ones. Clearly, metroidvanias should actually be side-scrolling Zeldalikes. Except there was that side-scrolling Zelda bit. Fuck.

Honestly, the perfect game for me would probably be one that plays like A Link to the Past in the overworld, but switches to a Super Metroid style platformer inside caves and dungeons. Every item and upgrade works in both modes and has distinct top-down and side-scrolling functionality. There are boss fights of both types, and the final boss somehow contrives to switch modes between phases.

(Yes, I’m aware that Link’s Awakening plays with the idea a little, but its side-scrolling gameplay is really half-baked, even in the remake, and doesn’t do anything interesting with it outside a handful of one-off setpieces. I want to see someone do a proper job of it!)

[ferrousferrule]

Am I misremembering Zelda 2 doing that exact thing?

[prokopetz]

The Adventures of Link has precisely the opposite problem: its overworld gameplay is so thin it’s practically nonexistent. Basically, the franchise has one decent side-scroller with terrible top-down gameplay, and several decent top-down puzzlers with very perfunctory side-scrolling segments, but not once has it put the good bits of both together!

[aliasisudonomo]

What I’m hearing is NES Rygar is very close to the perfect game.

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[prokopetz]

I don’t know why folks act like Batman is the odd guy out in DC Comics’ “holy trinity”. When you come right down to it, they’re all fantastical creatures: a space alien, a demigod, and an ethical billionaire.

[aliasisudonomo]

In fairness, original flavor Batman was just from a ‘well to do’ family; Thomas and Martha Wayne had enough money to live in a nice mansion and have a butler, but they weren’t world-class rich. That’s largely an invention of trying to keep ‘normal guy with gadgets’ on the same level as Basically Gods.

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[prokopetz]

It’s actually kind of fascinating to watch the sort of obtrusive, privacy-violating, actively misleading online advertising practices that twenty years ago were the exclusive domain of porn sites gradually being “discovered” by mainstream advertisers as the Web 2.0 continues its long slide into comprehensive user hostility. I just saw a banner ad visually designed to trick you into clicking it by masquerading as part of the hosting site’s UI, and its was for Sears.

[zanmor]

Turn everything into a questionable torrent site 2020

[prokopetz]

Given the increasing number of ostensibly respectable websites that are running banner ads for anime ninjas with huge boobs, we’re halfway there already!

[aliasisudonomo]

Not to mention continuing to make it so NoScript and ad-blockers are a must, and no, I *don’t* care if your site wants to put up little guilt-tripping things about how terrible I am for blocking the ads.

I may be an exception, but I pay for friggin’ premium Youtube just so I don’t have to deal with ads. I get it costs money to make cool things and the creators want to eat; I’m fine with paying a modest amount if it means they don’t have to pimp themselves to every shady advertising firm under the sun.

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[keuhkopussirotta]

DnD concept: A villain whose evil plan is literally just a pyramid scheme. Not even a magical or fantastic one or anything, or one involving anything supernatural or an otherworldly evil. It’s just a straight-up pyramid scheme that sells horse wax that doesn’t do any of the amazing things to the horse that it’s supposed to. It’ll just give your steed a rash.

[aliasisudonomo]

Basically the fantasy version of Cobra Commander from the old GI Joe cartoon, then. (He started out as a talented used car salesman who started a MLM scheme that somehow turned into a *powerful terrorist organization that tried for world domination*.)

[keuhkopussirotta]

I’m sorry but what

[aliasisudonomo]

I admit, I was wrong.

It was the Marvel Comics version, trying to rationalize the crazy-but-weirdly-charismatic version OF the show. But yeah, he moved to an economically depressed small town, used his scamming skills to direct money to the town, winning loyalty and followers and eventually he just assumed control and that was how Cobra came into being. Because hey, taking over a town, taking over the world, just a difference of degree right?

[Untitled]

[keuhkopussirotta]

DnD concept: A villain whose evil plan is literally just a pyramid scheme. Not even a magical or fantastic one or anything, or one involving anything supernatural or an otherworldly evil. It’s just a straight-up pyramid scheme that sells horse wax that doesn’t do any of the amazing things to the horse that it’s supposed to. It’ll just give your steed a rash.

[aliasisudonomo]

Basically the fantasy version of Cobra Commander from the old GI Joe cartoon, then. (He started out as a talented used car salesman who started a MLM scheme that somehow turned into a *powerful terrorist organization that tried for world domination*.)

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Hey folks,

[bladekindeyewear]

I know I’m not going to sway any opinions here, but could as many of you as possible please, PLEASE vote for Biden in November?

My mother is immunocompromised with a bevy of issues.  My younger brother looks strong and healthy and does physical work, but has pneumonia damage to his lungs and some circulatory damage.  EITHER has a very good chance of dying if they’re allowed to catch COVID-19, which – even if it doesn’t kill them – has a reputation of bouncing through bodies like a pachinko machine in those who get seriously ill from it, causing long-lasting lung, heart, brain, or other damage at random.

Trump is now officially pursuing a herd immunity, “everybody is going to catch this thing eventually” strategy, trying to get people to discard all protective measures.  He won’t stop that after he wins.  If he’s reelected, that’s my mother or my brother or both, likely dead or crippled.

(Plus the whole, yknow… committing crimes and election interference with such impunity and his whole party not enforcing laws against him that he’s breaking in broad daylight to the extent that this time around will be the last anywhere-near “free and fair” election if he wins.)

If he steals this election, or god forbid even wins “fairly”, I’m going to have to uproot my life and apply for asylum in Canada with most of my family to keep them from dying.  And then staying there because we’d prefer to live in a democratic country that isn’t going to find a DIFFERENT reason to let us die for its own convenience.

Please don’t make me do that.  I like living here.  Please vote in numbers too overwhelming to manipulate.  Mom and I are even going to vote in person with as much protective gear on as possible, since Texas doesn’t allow mail-in.  Please, please vote.