Doom & Gloom

[674f3fd742130Join2]

Join2bro Tomb Raider Anniversary was awesome. Hell the entire Legend trilogy was awesome.

Delusional. Well, low standards technically but yeah. They are almost what Bioshock is to the System Shock games. Not quite that bad, but it is a significant decline in standards.

I think you're way too jaded. Yes AAA games suck now, but an indie developer in 2024 has more resources than a AAA dev in 1997.

Annnd delusional. In the late 90s the high budget games were already multi-million dollar projects. Modern Indie games today are not there, the vast majority of them. If they are, then they have publisher backing and are no longer indie by definition. Nobody has multiple millions just sitting around, and crowdfunding barely meets a single million in the best case scenarios. Except for that one game that still isn't even finished yet (star citizen).

Additionally, since you said resources which can mean more than just money...those 90s games had publisher backing, the indies do not. Which is a very handy resource to have, to handle marketing in all its forms, distribution etc for you.

Please no more video game talk. People don't know their video games so it just ends up getting annoying.

[674f3fd742352Pacmikey]

It's up to you dude. You can spend the rest of your incorporeal existence getting mad at video games, or you can seek virtue and love with what we have created. When I see creations like the FF7 remake (ff7 is my fave game ever) I get a rare moment where I'm glad to be human. Life sucks and we are born to suffer, but every one has the same base desire. Some of us suffer in silence, some of us make a name for ourselves. Which one will you be?

[674f3fd742570Join2]

I am mad about more than just video games. See the OP!

You...nooo Pacman. Please god no. FF7 remake makes you glad to be human instead of ashamed? I am very sorry you are afflicted by absurdly low standards. How can that piece of shit make you proud when it remade 5% of the game (midgar only) and turned it into a whimsical pantomime of zero substance aimed at banking off of simps and simpletons with anime titties and nonsensical filler? It like...well 97.5% of everything made and remade in the past 20 years is a disgrace to game design history and its series' roots.

Just play the original game with a particular romhack (FF7 hardtype) to make it the intelligent hardcore 90s standard game it should have been, way better result than any remake could ever be. Incredibly engaging. That garbage remake shits all over the majesty of the original game, absolutely dishonorable. You must be out of your mind. The original is your favorite game, and you're happy with a remake that claims to be a remake but only remakes 5% of the massive game, and the rest is filler, endless hallways, press X to hi-five, pansy pantomime stuff. That right there is the definition of abysmally low standards. Why are gamers like this?

[674f3fd7426c1Pacmikey]

I've finished the original FF7 4 times since 2018, I love the game so much. Top 3 all time material.

Real talk, I think you need a genuine break from video games. Yes, the AAA industry is shit, but that doesn't mean good games are extinct.

You genuinely sound angry at the thought of people being happy. You word the gaming industry like we live in the zombie apocalypse.

[674f3fd74291aJoin2]

I want to raise standards.

Of course I want to you to be happy brother. You misinterpret my intentions. It makes me happy that you find happiness in the original game, but I can't stand by while you celebrate packaged shit for the masses, that again is a disgrace to game design history, standards, and its series' roots. What this does is drag everything and everyone down to that level, and then I don't get happiness. And we don't get progress. That everyone is seemingly OK with all these new normals in society is why we're all so fucked. Though, it's nice to see all your responses generally agreeing with all I said in the OP (except video games lol) and many in the reddit thread are quite clued in to many of these issues finally, but it's all hard to ignore when you cant pay the bills eh.

Answer my questions (how can you celebrate something that remakes 5% of the thing it claims to remake with a straight face?), refute my points, or change the topic. Change it back on track, or we can geek out over the original game if you like.  That I don't mind. The classic 90s FF games are a bit left out these days which is not how things should be. They are 90s classics too, in ways even a cut above the rest (for example, 5 hour long soundtracks of very high quality is still not even touched today. At best you get 1-2 hours of music). Which 90s Final Fantasy games have you played other than 7?

[674f3fd742d06Pacmikey]

Join2Funny thing is, FF7 isn't even my favorite. That would be FF8 (THE MAN WITH THE MACHINE GUN)

I agree in the sense that the RATIO of good games has decreased massively, however the amount of good indie games has increased tenfold. Baldur's Gate 3 is the best RPG to come out in the last decade.

I agree with 90% of what you're saying, I just think we're focusing too much on entertainment. It's government budgets, salaries, and corruption that's driving us apart.

this thread is a perfect example. instead of getting mad at the ruling class, we're arguing on the internet about video games. we should be taking pitchforks to politicians houses instead.

[674f3fd742f1cJoin2]

"I agree with 90% of what you're saying, I just think we're focusing too much on entertainment. It's government budgets, salaries, and corruption that's driving us apart."

Agreed. We should dedicate ourselves to only post about video games if we also include discussion regarding the important topics in the OP, not just nerdy video game ranting. We have the entire rest of the website or internet for that.

It's such a problem how distracted and divided society is. Slaves to video games, social media, attention, money, or what have you. And our (in most cases) exploitative jobs of course. Divided by mass immigration/multi-culturalism, left vs right, gender wars, and other absurd shit. I don't think there' any getting off of this train we're on short of a miracle.

Funny thing is, FF7 isn't even my favorite. That would be FF8 (THE MAN WITH THE MACHINE GUN)

It's one of the lesser games thanks to absurd balance and a few other things, though still an undeniable classic. Requiem romhack makes it a great game though. Fixes 90% of the numerous core gameplay issues by very simple means, though it would probably be too hardcore for a newcomer. For replays its perfect though.

[674f3fd74325ePacmikey]

Join2This shit is so depressing. Every hobby and interest nowadays just HAS to be political. I love Final Fantasy games but I don't want to argue with someone for hours over the ethical implications of Mako Reactors. We're just pawns on an internet forum bickering about topics the corpos don't give a shit about. We all have more in common than we think, but the powers that be deny us.

As a modern day human, my purpose is to stare at LCD screens and burn my dopamine receptors as fast as possible then get recycled into soylent green.

[674f3fd743485Join2]

"As a modern day human, my purpose is to stare at LCD screens and burn my dopamine receptors as fast as possible then get recycled into soylent green."

We must be virtuous, and more than this. But we are selfish, self-serving creatures by nature. No one acts and does the right thing because they have themselves and their family to take care of. Many don't even see the problem at all. It doesn't help our testosterone levels are being suppressed and day to day living expenses are extremely tight for most, so it is a perpetual struggle. It doesn't help we've tasted the wonders of technology too (video games!) and can't let go. But everyone has their breaking point. This can't last...right? If revolution were to happen, yet more highly effective covert division and dismantle tactics would be rolled out, and the modern riot control technology is gonna be fun too. Dystopia is coming! Well, it's already here, but the final stages I mean.

What needs to happen is protest, western world-wide all workers just stop working. That is the only way. But the only way to organize that is through the internet, so it would just be dismantled/countered once THEY catch on. Not to mention all those that are living comfy who would not join, desperately holding on to what they have. Fuck you, I got mine! Which is a sizable portion of the population, especially the older half sitting on all their real estate exploiting the young. Then there's the fact that we don't have finances/resources to hold out for long.

[674f3fd743819Pacmikey]

we are selfish, self-serving creatures by nature. No one acts and does the right thing because they have themselves and their family to take care of. It doesn't help our testosterone levels are being suppressed and day to day living expenses are extremely tight for most, so it is a perpetual struggle. It doesn't help we've tasted the wonders of technology too (video games!) and can't let go.

Once you realize that we exist in Hell, Life makes a lot more sense.
I don't know what I did in a previous life to exist today, but whatever comes after? I deserve it, and I will face his judgement.

[674f3fd74398aJoin2]

Sounds like bitch talk to me. I am not religious, but agnostic. No miracle is coming...probably. The only option is to be a man and fight. There's plenty of that in the bible too. Fighting, that is.

Existing today is actually pretty good outside of these factors. Light bulbs and shoes on our feet and showers in our houses and such. And video games! It's what we're all scared to lose. I am very happy I exist today, especially because I got to experience the media of the 90s & retroactively the 80s (and yes, some modern shit too), but also sad. I will not cover my eyes to the widespread corruption, injustice, and eventual very dark future we are headed towards. A complete realist.

[674f3fd743c08Pacmikey]

Join2It gives me faith that humanity will progress regardless of technological stunts. There is more to life than warm showers. We need people to lead the future. The future is gonna be hard as balls, but it will be a future.

[674f3fd743d77Join2]

We'll see about that. The future.

I'm no leader...well, I have been in leadership positions throughout numerous phases in life, but I kind of suck at it or get overthrown from that social standing eventually. Haha. Though I am stronger and wiser now. Perhaps that wouldn't happen one day.
Unfortunately, I think I am too much of a pussy bitch. But, I have surprised myself many times in the past. Who knows.

[674f3fd7441c3Join2]

Another thread that nobody with power is reading. Or is reading and laughing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1b3y1oy/comment/ksz180n/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

My contribution this time:

Taxation is very good for society, in theory. But too much tax is taken, too much of it is misspent and obviously stolen for personal gain. I think there should be heavy independent monitoring of the cashflow, voting on tax % allocation into what causes and with frequent intelligent public debate revolving around each topic (good standing members of society chosen to head the debate each session, chosen at random like jury duty, if IQ is over 110), as well as potential executive override of votes (sparsely used, say max 2 per year, and can't be used on the same topic twice in consecutive years. Can't be abused this way), but this override needing to be explicitly justified (e.g everyone says cut military spending to 2%, but that would be dumb and leave nations vulnerable), and that's it. Kind of simple really. Oh and those votes, and all votes, should have to be earned by the populace. No extensive criminal record, IQ over a certain amount perhaps, and an age of 25 minimum. I would say traditionally educated but that doesn't really count for anything, especially these days. though the field does matter a lot here. So, we can include that too. The less you qualify, the less your vote is worth/weighted (e,g age 18, 5 criminal records, IQ of 60 = vote is worth 0.05. Age 50, 0 criminal records, IQ of 140 = vote is worth 1.0. Maybe even more). Age is the least influential factor of score though to prevent generational divides, like we have now (old people generally have no idea what the hell is going on with young people and their struggles). An individuals voting power is not public information, does not extend to any other aspect of society (to prevent it being social credit type garbage), and is a golden rule that cannot be changed, like the constitution. It can be challenged in public court if numbers appear to be fudged. Shouldn't ever happen, but as a failsafe.
Oh and if you don't log in online and watch the debate, you have no vote on that particular subject. The whole nation can grow together. Those that don't care, get no say.
The debate involves 50% debate between the heads, experts and politicians, and 50% question time people at home are writing in a feed on the side. Every household is guaranteed a question is addressed at some point over the years, based on a number of factors, to prevent the narrative being controlled. What those factors are, I haven't thought about yet. Something to keep the debate within a reasonable time frame but ensure the people are actually involved.

Forget infallible, this may very well be utterly retarded. It's not something I've ever thought much about and I am not the sharpest tool in the shed. To me, this sounds like actual REAL democracy though, and the system does need an overhaul.

I think the biggest problem with this system is potential security threat. Maybe. e.g Russia recruiting citizens to influence votes. Not that that would have much impact unless they recruited huge numbers of the country, which is unrealistic. And anyone caught could just be jailed harshly. Right now, I am skeptical votes actually mean anything at all. It's all just a circus show. Like Mark Twain said, if your vote actually meant anything, they wouldn't let you do it. So it's not really a problem with this system, but one of any system where votes actually mattered.

[674f3fd744546Nameless Voice]

I agree with your overall point - that how tax money is spent should be decided democratically, and carefully audited - but I don't agree with your qualifiers.

• Why should young people have less weight?  So long as they've done the research, they're as capable of making decisions as anyone else.  We already have a society that's suffering from all of the decision-makers being really old.
• Basing things on IQ is extremely elitist.  Intelligence usually means that you can work things out faster or with less effort, not that your conclusions are somehow better or more valuable.  Also, IQ tests are notoriously inaccurate and biased towards certain attitudes/cultures.
• Criminality is... subjective.  It makes sense in theory, but currently a lot of "criminals" have done little to nothing wrong, and a lot of the worst of humanity are not technically criminals because they've never faced consequences for their crimes.  This wouldn't work within the current legal systems in the world.
• Finally, the weighting system overall is a terrible idea, because it makes the process opaque.  Put simply, people will not trust a system if it's too complex to easily understand, and it's also much easier for someone to interfere with the system without being detected, as it's hard to check the outcomes.

I'm also absolutely against an executive override, especially as the example you gave (military) is the single worst use for tax money.

Also, uhm, foreign interference would be a far lesser worry than internal interference from oligarchs.  Remember that whole investigation into election interference in the USA, which found that all of the interference came from parties inside the USA, rather than from Russia.

[674f3fd744933Join2]

Young people can indeed be very smart, but will always lack real world experience; wisdom. So think of it as not so much age, but experience that defines weight. Generally.
Indeed old people are fucking us hard. I don't propose major change, 25 is still very young, and also I specified that age is the least determining factor in final voting weight/score. Let's say a small deduction from age 18 (-0.2), reducing every year until age 25 (0) where it remains until death. That's very reasonable.
At that age 90% of people have zero interest in politics, but the opposite sex, video games, cars, adventures etc anyway.
It is said the brain doesn't fully develop until age 25. I don't think that's quite accurate, but there is definitely something to be said for even a few more years of experiencing the world before making big decisions.

IQ is indeed a highly imperfect qualifier. However, it is a reasonable general idea of what broad category you fall under, be it idiot, average, or intelligent. at the very least it can determine who the utter idiots are, right? That's the main data to conclude from it, attained in a simple way, I think. Idiots should have less pull in how a country is run. But then again there are idiots that can present themselves as smart quite well until the veil breaks away. like they know things, are well spoken, but eventually you realize they're just not logical and reasonable. and that is a major issue. Not knowing things isn't a big deal as long as you can listen to reason, not get overridden by emotion or delusion and such, and have a good perception of reality. If I recall, the IQ test does cover perception and other general areas of thinking though, not sure. It's been a very long time. I don't even recall my score. Above average but not maxed out I remember that much.

Criminality...most of the time it's on the mark though. Many people in jail are there when they shouldn't be, but most are there for good reason. I also specified the more records you have, the less weight. So say you fucked up, in the wrong crowd when you were 21 and picked up say three records, that is only taking your base value of 1.0 down to 0.85. lets say. Not the end of the world. You still have voting power, stay out of trouble next time. even if you have ten records, your vote still counts for something. Really not a big deal. even though you're that much of a repeat offender.

"Finally, the weighting system overall is a terrible idea, because it makes the process opaque.  Put simply, people will not trust a system if it's too complex to easily understand."

The people that can't grasp a pretty simple system based on three straightforward factors probably shouldn't be voting in the first place! Perfect! It filters for us.

"and it's also much easier for someone to interfere with the system without being detected, as it's hard to check the outcomes"

Code is fully viewable at all times, including during runtime. All calculated during the debate event when people are sending in their votes. Maybe? Probably is indeed easy to manipulate, hack or fake. But the same is true for the current system.

What do you think, this just can't be done even with some modifications? It does seem too vulnerable. Have any ideas for reform of your own?

[674f3fd744ae6Nameless Voice]

It's a really interesting question.
Personally, I'd like to see easy, online voting for everything.  At minimum, if we have to have "representative democracy", every citizen should be able to change their vote at any time and throw out someone who's proven to be corrupt or not acting in their interest.

There are huge problems with online voting though, mostly in terms of transparency and vulnerability.

The system would be complex, and even with the source code available to all, most people are not programmers and wouldn't be able to decipher it.

The other problem is that it would be the single most tempting target for hacking and manipulation, with the first point making it hard for people to spot and verify issues.  Which in turn would lead to a lack of trust in the system.

I don't think those problems would be insurmountable, but they'd definitely need a lot of care to mitigate.

The bigger problem, of course, is that the people in power don't want a real democracy, and will do everything in their power to make sure that such a system will never exist.

[674f3fd744d23Join2]

"The bigger problem, of course, is that the people in power don't want a real democracy, and will do everything in their power to make sure that such a system will never exist."

We're wasting our time indeed. A man can dream though! I was actually considering discussing it at length, especially since I know there's some great programmers here (not me I suck!), going over everything conceptually, every possible scenario. Refining it the best we can, then creating an online easily digestible pitch, simple text, two or three paragraphs, and spamming it over the absolute entirely of the internet with a brief message (PSA). If nothing else, to get people thinking. Create some discourse around the problem, and the broader related problems. Make them ponder how things could be better. But it would most likely just be all for nothing. Precisely because of what you just said. Nobody wants a civil war, and if there were one it might just be unwinnable at this point thanks to misinformation and such. The internet needs to be destroyed or completely overhauled, I don't know. It's a major problem.

Also there's a lot of stupid people, but also a lot of smart people. Many know the problem, we just all feel powerless. But we've been here many times before as a species. Our forefathers had balls, and actually did something about it. Likely because they didn't have all these wonderful distractions though. Going tearing shit up and setting fire to buildings was their dopamine. Who knew video games would be the end of us after all. The parents were right! work of the devil. Not because of violence, but dangling endless irresistible temptation. At least, it's primarily what keeps me subdued anyway. Without them life would really suck the way things are, and I would be absolutely full of rage.

[674f3fd7453b0fox]

Hope you're not implying I am having a midlife crisis!

No offense but I believe most, if not all people writing here, are in the age bracket eligible for some sort of prolonged midlife crisis, including myself and right on top of some increasingly troublesome changes of the state of the real world. From my point of view, a thread like this accomplishes absolutely nothing apart from making everybody feel bad and sorry some more. Fuck that (again, no personal offense).

[674f3fd7454f5Nameless Voice]

There's a good video by Tom Scott about electronic voting which explains a lot of the pitfalls.  I personally don't agree with his conclusions, but he does explain the potential issues very well.

[674f3fd7456c7Join2]

None taken you feisty fox. Feel free to ignore the thread. Personally I'm getting a lot out of it. And I think it's incredibly important to talk about. Yeah it sucks and feels bad, but sheltering yourself from reality and eternally burying our heads in video games or stupid internet crap is...weak asf.

If nothing else, that all my thoughts met little resistance from you guys, that's massive validation and justification for all my negative feelings I've been having for nearly two decades now. so huge thanks for that. Very healing. I've often just felt isolated in that regard, especially on specific things like my thoughts on pop music. The amount of "but there's always been bad/degen music!" I've got in response to that is absurd. Yes there has always been bad music, but there's many differences and nuances that makes radio music on the whole different between the two eras. It's absolutely not the same.

The only point that saw notable resistance was video games, which I already knew my perspective is the true objective reality and would bet my life on it. At least in regards to the many genres I enjoy. They were generally respectable, then they were generally dumb, just like that. so I didn't need validation there : )

[674f3fd745849voodoo47]

yes, ultimately, this accomplishes nothing. so off you go, back to your mods, keep making old works of art amazing, and by extension, someone's existence less miserable. because people need art in their life.

and that might just be enough.

[674f3fd745998Join2]

Lol no more mods. Nice try though. I buried myself in those too to escape reality for too long. I absolutely refuse to commit to anything further of significance unless it's real game dev that will benefit me. Another thing the economy wont allow.
Real dev has always been my true passion anyways, but again, isolated. Don't know anybody IRL with the interest, talent and dedication to go indie. There's an EA office a city over, but I have zero desire to go be their game tester doormat or whatever for what should be obvious reasons. Even when I see they have their own full sized football field, swimming pool and other absurd riches.

[674f3fd745f02Join2]

I've never seen a time when it's more obvious that the things which are supposed to be the pillars of our society are a joke.
Democracy. Journalism. Human decency.  They've all been proven to be lies in the last few months.

All we have is people in power who trick us into electing them, and then work directly against our interests and our wishes.


Maybe I was just naive.  Maybe it was always like this.  But, before, we at least had some pretence.  I at least had the impression that our governments were trying to do things for their citizens, even if they were generally very bad at actually doing so.  But it used to feel more like incompetence rather than actual malice.

It's always been like this. Because nepotism, cronyism and privilege etc. They have their families, and they take care of their own. JFK spoke against them and they shot him in the fucking head in front of everyone to set an example.

It has NOT always been like this in other regards. Journalism did used to have some degree of warranted credibility, though given that it is a human institution was obviously imperfect and open to manipulation.

At the end of the day though, feudalism never left us and never will. Almost every country the world over naturally resulted in the same hierarchy of power (and evil) independently. It just takes one evil fuck to clamor for power and manipulate others to this end. Then it's too late to do anything without huge resistance and loss of life. Often in vain, as they have much more power than you. Knights with swords and armor.

always has been a depressing image and always will be. The king instead of being oppressive could unify "his people" towards a noble goal, could extend the castle grounds indefinitely over time, aim to increase standard of living for all, and few rare exceptions did...but most did not. Just exploited, taxed, intimidated while living very comfy by comparison. Many of the castles still stand across the UK and Europe, not particularly big in size.