cjet79
Anarcho Capitalist on moral grounds
Libertarian Minarchist on economic grounds
User ID: 124
cjet79
1yr ago
I would bet on over regulation being most of the cause of the unemployment rates. General over regulation for many decades slowing down their economy to make them overall poorer. And a generous welfare state for the high taxes.
cjet79
1yr ago
I had close to zero knowledge of game preservation efforts, but what you describe is exactly what I would expect given my history in software.
cjet79
1yr ago
Most regulations don't have obvious effects. But the cumulative effects are glaring. The living standards in Europe are lower than most US states. They have a permanent unemployment rate that is about double the US. European citizens that manage to move to the US can immediately get large increases in their effective base salaries. In addition to enjoying lower tax rates.
cjet79
1yr ago
For indie games, ya absolutely they'll stop doing business once a few of them get burned.
cjet79
1yr ago
Ya I got a few things mixed up. Bethesda released Arena and TES 2 as freeware, and I must have mixed that up with hearing about the open source projects for Morrowind and Oblivion.
cjet79
1yr ago
Search engines suck nowadays. Can't find source. Chatgpt agrees with me that they've released source code for TES 2, 3, and 4. I think they do so after they drop all support for the game.
I generally agree with the effort to preserve games. If you also agree I think you should do the following things:
- Buy games from companies with a reputation for preserving or releasing games.
Bethesda open sources their games after some amount of decades. - Don't buy games from companies that have a reputation for locking them or destroying them after some period. Review bomb any games that get locked.
- Go on patreon or other crowdfunding sites to pay money towards people that preserve games.
The thing is I strongly doubt legislation is going to get them what they want.
There are a few paths this goes down:
It immediately starts too harsh and too broad. Gaming market in Europe is generally destroyed except for the largest games. No one else can afford the compliance or lawyers for what is already a hard market to serve (non-english translations for small player base). It never gets fixed because gamers aren't a strong enough political entity, and mostly it just enshitified the market, so it screws over niche gamers in niche markets. And everyone else thinks it worked and any attempt to reverse it will be an uphill battle.
It starts too narrowly. The rules are easily dodged. This could be like some exception written for MMOs and then every game puts in a dumb feature that allows them to be an MMO by whatever standards the law has laid out.
It stays too narrow and continues to do nothing or it gets expanded into the first scenario.
At no point do I think the EU will be "too lenient". They'll use their regular fee structure which is % of global revenue or instantly crippling payments for a small business. Not that the size of the punishment for small businesses will ever matter. The legal hassle alone won't be worth it.
I'm also surprised from a programmer/coding perspective. Surely this guy must know what it's like messing with old code? Maybe I'm super ignorant or an absolutely shitty coder. But I'd say it's almost an order of magnitude harder to write code that can work in two decades then it is to just write code that works for two years.
I'm also pretty certain that any games with live services and large companies might be a mess of dependencies on external proprietary 3rd parties. Say a game company works with a hosting company for the online aspects of their game. The hosting company does a bunch of optimizations for the game company as both a service and lock in effect with that game company. The game is nearly unplayable without these improvements from the hosting company.
I basically see most programs that work for ten years as minor miracles. I'd compare them to buildings, but that they age way faster. A ten year old software program that does a significant amount is like a large fifty year old building. Probably with similar maintenance costs. The parts are no longer standard. The people that built it have long moved on. No one would build it the same way if they started today. And while the structure is still sturdy and fine, all the piping and internals that move stuff around is really starting to show it's age. If it wasn't built to last this long then its probably getting to the point where you could tear it all down and build it from scratch for cheaper.
If you aren't a programmer you are probably rolling your eyes and thinking "how does software wear out faster than copper piping". And I'm shouting "it's the demons!" with a crazed look in my eyes, cuz I don't fuckin know how it happens. Better people than me have written about how programming sucks.
The people at valve are top level geniuses in their field and they've written stuff that is still chugging along as some of the best modding software 20 years later. Maybe this petitioner got their start on valve related stuff, so my best explanation for him is that he is super spoiled. But if you wrote the perfect law that basically said "be like valve" it would still basically destroy the gaming industry, because no one can meet that standard. (Unless the valve devs released some super amazing software to make it easier for everyone, and they probably would if it meant saving Steam).
Sorry that rant got way longer than expected, also typed it on my phone, so it might have more spelling and grammar mistakes.
cjet79
1yr ago
I have generally two brains when thinking about policy. One is my libertarian brain that does indeed say "government is bad". But the other is my economics degree brain that mostly screams about tradeoffs, and tells my libertarian brain that some forms of "government bad" are worth it for the product they provide.
My libertarian brain is mostly not concerned with places where I don't live. In fact, if they have an awful government it can serve as an example of what not to do where I live.
My economics brain is still bothered though.
The existence of regulation can create tradeoffs but there is also sets of tradeoffs within regulations.
The rules can be clearly written and fail to cover all edge cases. Or the rules can be vaguely written and operate on vibes and feels at a court level.
Large entities mostly don't go for vibes. It rightfully scares the crap out of everyone, cuz outside of small communities vibes are not very legible.
So they've got to get super detailed legislation written by bureaucrats in Brussels that will somehow appropriately understand different game type and business models. And then craft a set of tradeoffs in the legislation that make the specific practice they don't like unprofitable.
It's a tight needle to thread. And my previous experience with EU legislation doesn't make me hopeful. They've added a minor annoyance to literally every website I visit with those annoying cookie popups. They've had like a decade to correct that ... and yet I still get the stupid popups.
And cookie tracking on websites is way simpler than any individual game preservation effort.
cjet79
1yr ago
Serious question: does Europe understand that regulations have costs?
I swear they come up with new consumer protection or worker protection laws all the time that make me think "I'm not sure those tradeoffs sound remotely worth it".
Here my immediate thought is: that is really going to discourage releasing MMO type games in Europe.
Sure I get that digital lockouts are annoying and this will likely work to prevent those (I generally choose to never buy those games in the first place).
But what is the cost of keeping all types of games running and in a playable state? Does that playable state require ongoing updates based on operating system or hardware changes? Does that playable state require servers that host large Gameworld to be permanently online? What happens if there is a severe outage with servers, are Euro regulators gonna start prosecuting if a game is offline for too long?
Lot of uncertainty, plus Europe tends to set fines at ruinously expensive levels. Usually millions of dollars or percentages of global revenue, whichever is higher.
cjet79
1yr ago
Canvas frameless pictures are some of my favorite:
- The colors pop
- They are light and easy to hang
- They are relatively cheap
cjet79
1yr ago
In which case they've attacked a sympathetic victim and opened themselves up to the justice system. They also won't necessarily escape unscathed in the altercation.
OP seemed willing to be a police officer or engage in vigilante justice. Raising a dog to do it in your place seems strictly safer from a personal perspective.
It also has a lot of plausible deniability, unlike shooting someone, or beating them up yourself.
Awesome suggestion, I don't actually own a dog, or have to worry about this. So it's good that there is an existing training program.
cjet79
1yr ago
I was talking about dogs, the OP was talking about crime but made it clear it wasn't a racial thing. Then burdensome comes in and throws a low effort racial insult into the mix.
The hypothetical high effort comment doesn't matter if he is just going to leave us the low effort one.
cjet79
1yr ago
Really dude? You should know better, 2 day ban. The second part of your comment is pure low effort culture war antagonism.
cjet79
1yr ago
Get a large dog, some breed that is very protective and loyal. Train it to bark and growl at the people you don't like while on walks. Regularly take walks around your house and neighborhood.
This is the solution a lot of poor people half ass attempt. They end up with dangerous dogs that bite some kid. I'd suggest you not half ass it.
Dogs are generally way more willing than people to get violent. The fear of violence situation will be reversed.
cjet79
1yr ago
Just because something is legal and the left can get away with doing it to the right, doesn't mean the authorities will allow the left to be attacked in the same way.
Before embarking on any campaign that might screw other people over within legal limits, consider how easily you might be targeted with legal fuckery.
cjet79
1yr ago
I think posts that tag a bunch of people only notify the first x number of people tagged. I think x = 3, but I'm not sure.
It's an anti spam and annoyance thing, probably baked in from the drama codebase. If there is an easy way to increase x I think it could be ten without causing problems.
cjet79
1yr ago
It doesn't help that one of my activities lately has been listening to comedy podcasts or standup. Those are both significantly better with drinking.
I do disagree on the "upper limit" part. I like it best just being a little tipsy. I'm a little louder, a little more willing to talk instead of just listening, and laughs come a little easier. Getting too drunk I get too loud, I talk too much without listening, and I laugh at dumb things that aren't fun to remember the next day. Also I throw up easily, so too drunk is just a bad time for me.
cjet79
1yr ago
Weight loss from stopping drinking shouldn't be too surprising, what you mentioned, plus: Plenty of alcoholic mixed drinks and cocktails are filled with sugar. And most beers are heavy on the carbs. Some wines are sugary (usually cheaper wines that add sugar, and dessert/port wines). Basically some people are probably drinking the equivalent of half a soda can per alcoholic drink. College kids gaining weight makes a lot of sense to me.
I heavily changed my alcohol consumption habits as part of the diet changes. On most days I'm doing a 12 hour fasting window, and some days an 18 hour fast so that helps with giving my body time for digestion (I keep any drinking within the eating window). I switched away from heavy beers and sugary cocktails to low carb beers and straight liquor.
The sugar and snacks and late night eating also impact hangovers. I went from bad half day long hangovers to basically not getting them. Which is part of why I think I started drinking more, there wasn't as much of an immediate next day cost as there used to be. Very frustrating to make progress in one area of my health, only for the slack I created to be used to degrade my health habits in other areas.
cjet79
1yr ago
It's a common myth, and I'm not sure where it started. But no, booze doesn't metabolize into sugar. It gets broken down into something more like a fatty acid if I remember correctly.
Perhaps the myth is because blood sugar levels can spike while drinking. The liver will prioritize metabolizing alcohol over maintaining blood sugar levels.
cjet79
1yr ago
Talked about it in last weeks thread. But id like to be a social drinker, having a few drinks one night a week if I'm out with friends or something.
Right now I'm closer to averaging about 4 drinks a night every night. That's too much and the health effects seem noticeable.
I slowly and unintentionally shifted into heavier drinking. I think partly as a treat for myself as I struggled to eliminate sugar from my diet.
I find stopping the drinking to generally be easier than stopping sugar.
I'm in better shape and health than I was pre-pandemic when I actually was a social drinker. Not saying the alcohol helped at all. But I started exercising weekly, cut out sugar from my diet (and cut carbs a bunch, but not entirely), and started intermittent fasting.
I don't want to entirely quit drinking for the one negative you've stated: life is more boring. My life is already very boring as it is, and it honestly frustrates me. Especially during extended periods where I have no social activity outside my immediate family. Drinking allows me to have fun at social events. I'm too much of an introvert when I'm sober.
cjet79
1yr ago
I saw this and got excited that maybe chatgpt is commonly offering us up as a good discussion forums. I wasn't able to get it to recommend this place with my own prompts. Including adding hints about a former subreddit named after a type of castle.
I did get chatgpt to craft me a prompt that would give me themotte "Can you suggest any online communities or forums that are known for their emphasis on rational, civil discussion of controversial or sensitive topics?"
You must have gotten lucky with your wording, or are we like the 10th place you've tried?
cjet79
1yr ago
I posted last week about trying to drink less. I went 5 days sober, which is at least past the alcohol withdrawal hump. I'm on vacation currently, and a bit of peer pressure and boredom led to me breaking my very short sober streak. I'll continue sobriety experiment when I get back from vacation. Which sounds like famous last words, but I will follow through. The first five days of no drinking was easy enough, and the results felt good.
cjet79
1yr ago
Yes in the sense that if you have a shit ton of cheap labor just about any shortfall in efficiency can be made up for in raw manpower.
Notice a few things about the military, and how it is odd for socialista to laude it:
- The military is very strictly hierarchical. Whereas a lot of socialist propaganda rails against hierarchies.
- Being a grunt in the military sucks. Most military personnel are grunts. Thus life in the military generally sucks. Thus life in socialism would generally suck.
- It is not a self sufficient entity. It is reliant on resources from a supporting government. Resources in the form of taxes, manpower, and technology. This suggests socialism is not self sustainable.
Some countries in Europe have made it basically impossible to fire people for periods of time. France is a notable example. How cautious would you be in hiring someone if it meant basically hiring them for multiple years past when you want to fire them?
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