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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2728 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 10, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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People here like to sneer at litrpg as slop - that's way out of date:

https://x.com/JerusalemDemsas/status/1976740387344814365

A new type of entertainment called 'vertical drama' has emerged: shows filmed in vertical format to suit smartphone users. Each episode lasts between two and five minutes, and after a few teaser episodes you have to pay to watch the rest. The dramas are usually taken from popular web novels. A title can be produced in less than a week, and the requirements for the actors are basic: they just have to look good on camera. Nuance and subtlety are the preserve of artistic films; verticals need as many flips and twists as possible. Production is often sloppy. If a line is deemed problematic by viewers, the voice is simply muffled, without any attempt to cut or reshoot. The stories are sensational. One that has got lots of viewers excited is the supposedly forthcoming Trump Falls in Love with Me, a White House Janitor. According to an industry report, vertical drama viewers now number 696 million, including almost 70 per cent of all internet users in China. Last year the vertical market worth 50.5 billion yuan (€5 billion), surpassing movie box office revenue for the first time. It is projected to reach 85.65 billion yuan by 2027.

See this is where AI is going to make insane profits, disrupting/expanding the immensely lucrative but radically unprestigious media formats you never knew existed. Just a few minutes, no need for fancy acting or cinematography, just stimulus in your face. I bet this will come to the West too and make Netflix look like a joke. Maybe it already has.

Trump Falls in Love with Me, a White House Janitor

Truly the humble H-doujin is the ultimate artform, primal neuron activation captured and distilled into pure animal spikes of dopamine. Perfect in its simplicity, universal in its application. Through dick, unity.

Sturgeon's law really does apply to every genre of media in existence. AI generated videos are probably 99.9% slop, because of ease of generation compared to the old way of filming and recording, and because the average user has negative taste. It'll only get better, those lambasting it because of a lack of consistency, weird physics, poor audio etc will be in for a bad time when it's all fixed. Who am I kidding? They'll probably retreat to every more nebulous concerns such as "effort" or "artistic intention".

AI-generated media is, I think, necessarily generic. Generating proper art is antithetical to how AIs function. People seek novelty, and LLMs learn through repetition, so novelty is precisely what they fail to learn. AIs are also downstream of human experience, and they cannot ever be otherwise, so attempting to solve this problem is like trying to turn hyper-processed foods back into healthy ingredients. An experience is more real than the memory of said experience, and for the same reason, AI generated content is necessarily lacking to anyone with taste (those who can taste the difference between home-made food and microwaved supermarket food)

I recently saw a clip of David Lynch speaking some time before his death. In stark contrast to his usual affable, Jimmy Stewart-esque demeanour, Lynch sounds not merely exasperated, not personally affronted, but positively wounded by the recent trend of people watching films and TV shows on their phones. He patiently explains that his films are designed to be watched on a big screen with a real sound system: how can you possibly expect to experience the intended emotional reaction watching the film on a screen smaller than your hand, using the integrated speakers which can't reproduce any frequencies lower than 200 Hz? He practically begs the viewer to watch his films the way they were intended to be seen. Boy, can I ever relate.

Personally, I cannot fathom the idea of watching a movie or TV show on a smartphone. I recall exactly one instance in which I've done it: myself and the girlfriend were on a long train ride through Italy and had neglected to bring anything to read, so we watched The Collector on her iPhone, each wearing one of her Airpods. (I think the movie was mixed in mono, thankfully.) The only kinds of videos I'll watch on my phone are ones devoid of aesthetic merit: YouTube reviews, Instagram reels and so on. But perhaps people like me are going the way of the dodo.

For what it's worth, I can't imagine the idea of watching a film on a phone or even on a computer monitor. It's practically the only thing I use my television for these days, but I still insist on watching films on a television.

Television sets or (preferably) projector screens are for movie watching in company. Watching something together is fun.

But when I'm watching alone, I prefer studio headphones and my 30" 4K monitor 3' away from my face. It feels more immersive than IMAX (except for the bass, can't beat feeling explosions with your diaphragm).

I watch the majority of movies and shows on my phone. I'm also not a heathen, so I use decent enough headphones or earphones. The only time my phone speaker gets any use is when I'm in the shower.

And it's perfectly fine. I own a goddamn OLED 4k HDR high refresh rate TV, it's not like I don't have options. My phone also has a large, high res, HDR HRR display, and - when it's held up at a comfortable distance - it takes up enough of my visual field to give a comparable experience. And the taller refresh rate means less letterboxing when in landscape watching things shot wider than 16:9.

I'm not missing out on anything, and the convenience alone is well worth it.

I watch the majority of movies and shows on my phone. I'm also not a heathen...

You can't tell us how you do heathen shit and then expect us to believe you when you say you aren't a heathen. :P

Hey, I draw the line at listening to TikTok on the bus, on loudspeaker. Any heathenism beyond that can surely be excused?

Ok, fair. There are definitely degrees of heathen and that is way further than watching stuff on your phone. I'm honestly surprised people are rude enough to do that, but maybe I shouldn't be.

I own a goddamn OLED 4k HDR high refresh rate TV

Wait but why don't you use this

I also watch movies/TV on my phone when I'm anywhere that isn't my home (bus, airbnb without smart TV, driving to grocery store, whatever) but when I'm home the TV blows the phone out of the water. My girlfriend watches stuff on the iPad beside the TV and it makes me slightly crazy.

It's just not as convenient. I live in a shared apartment, so I can't really blast the (surprisingly decent) speakers. But I genuinely prefer watching things on my phone, for everything from movies to pirated anime to TV shows and YouTube.

The TV has never been used as a dumb or smart "TV". It's a monitor in use, hooked up to my pc. I would need to buy a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to actually control anything from my bed, which is the only comfy place for a movie. I really don't care to get a portable HDD or use the in-built streaming apps, which is what I'd need for the old-fashioned experience. Poor thing hasn't even been hooked up to the wifi.

I own a goddamn OLED 4k HDR high refresh rate TV

Which you use as a monitor, right? How are you getting on with that? I nearly copied you but balked at the price.

As I have lamented before, I barely play video games these days. I've gone entire weeks without touching my setup. With important exams coming up, I suppose that's for the best.

I am quite happy with my choice (in terms of monitor) with a few caveats:

  1. 4k is demanding, even on a 5080. Quite a few games struggle to hit >70 fps, or require the use of upscaling which isn't always artifact free. Better optimized titles sing. I'm not CPU bottlenecked, I have a 9800x3d. This is mostly down to devs being bad at their jobs.

  2. This means I'm occasionally regretting not getting a QHD monitor instead, I don't care how unoptimized a AAA title is, my rig can handle that. I wouldn't actually make that trade, a QHD OLDED monitor would likely have been much smaller and more expensive than the TV.

  3. My bedroom is a bit cramped. I have to use that TV up close and personal. I'm mostly used to it, but this isn't the best from an ergonomic standpoint. If you're willing or able to use it from further away, it's a non-issue. If I was playing something like Forza, I could just kick back in bed with my controller.

Honestly, for that price? I couldn't have done better. It was this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DK46PM7T

It's currently out of stock, but I got it for £498, which is still cheaper than most QHD or 4k OLED gaming monitors! It's a fucking travesty. I tried looking for similar options for you, but everything is way more expensive, I'm lucky to have caught that sale.

For productivity purposes, it's pretty solid. A screen that big has a lot of real estate. I just don't use it for that purpose more than once in a blue moon.

As I have lamented before, I barely play video games these days.

True, and I apologise for not being around to play something as I said I might be. Work picked up a bit but mostly I’m too lazy even to be properly thoughtfully lazy…

I have my doubts about getting a massive screen because of eye strain. I’m told that if you have a big screen dead in front of you (ie you’re looking straight ahead rather than down a bit) your eyes instinctively try to focus on the horizon and it messes you up long term. I work on this thing most of the day so I want to be careful about that.

https://cluvens.com/scorpion-ergonomic-gaming-chair.html

A friend and I have a pact that when our careers takes off and we become immensely rich we will buy one of these lol

You have exams?

True, and I apologise for not being around to play something as I said I might be. Work picked up a bit but mostly I’m too lazy even to be properly thoughtfully lazy…

Not your fault in the least! We've both got other things going on haha. If you do ever get the hankering, just drop me a message, but I'm not playing much simply because I don't feel like it, not just because I don't have anyone to play with.

I have my doubts about getting a massive screen because of eye strain. I’m told that if you have a big screen dead in front of you (ie you’re looking straight ahead rather than down a bit) your eyes instinctively try to focus on the horizon and it messes you up long term. I work on this thing most of the day so I want to be careful about that.

I'm not an ophthalmologist, but as far as I can tell whoever told you that is misinformed. A quick search doesn't come up with anything regarding horizon seeking or longterm effects on vision. We both wear glasses, there's no harm in getting close to the TV.

Having the screen lower than your head/eyes? That's good, but mostly because of the ergonomics. You don't want to be craning up for prolonged periods of time, though if you're mostly looking straight ahead I wouldn't worry too much.

Eye strain? Best handled with brightness adjustments and regular breaks.

If you're using the TV from >3 feet away, you're peachy. You might want a lower desk to put it below eye level.

https://cluvens.com/scorpion-ergonomic-gaming-chair.html

Mom, hold me, I'm scared. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but it really cements the super-villain's lair look. I'm not sure that thing can mount a TV, but maybe?

A friend and I have a pact that when our careers takes off and we become immensely rich we will buy one of these lol

At that price, I get it.

You have exams?

Unfortunately, yes. Notoriously, unnecessarily difficult ones. And two more if I pass this one. And perhaps many more depending on where my career takes me. It's okay, I'm used to giving exams. I daresay I'm half-decent at them!

TVs kind of suck as monitors FYI

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