Notices by Chris 👾 (chris@mstdn.games)

Adding meaningful alt-text is not only important for everyone using a screenreader and an essential #inclusion and #accessibility requirement. Alt-text is also searchable and used by filters. People who prefer to filter certain people and topics for mental health and other reasons can't filter memes or images without it. Please use alt-text and cw generously 🙏

Added bonus: with added alt-text you can find images in your own posts with "from:me" and people are more likely to boost your posts.

#screenreader #fediverse #Mastodon

It's easy to spent hours in the #monsterhunterwilds character (face) designer, it's one of the most detailed I've ever seen. These are just the eye shape options (default character #1). I just wish there would more than one body type.

@killyourfm Let's just hope it won't be another 3 week outage. At least we had plenty of offline games on PS2 and PS3 back then. Today's generation couldn't cope with an outage like that, the panic and distress on /r/playstation is real. Most of us are hopelessly dependent on online gaming platforms. Can't wait for the memes.

Oh no. #PSN still down 😱

#playstation #monsterhunterwilds

@killyourfm Out of touch, oblivious, bad news for the Mass Effect team. And for ME4 - laying off half the BioWare staff won't make it a better game.

EA has been the scourge of the gaming industry for years and they'll always get away with it because the majority of their customers don't know about these issues and they don't care: parents, grandparents and sports fans will continue to buy the new FIFA, Madden NFL, Need for Speed and Sims game every year, no matter what.

Interesting enough Sony seems to think differently, they have cancelled several Live-Service games recently 🤔

Dear @Mastodon can we have a setting for: "automatically hide/collapse all #hashtags except for 3" please?

I really appreciated the recent influx of new photographers (many coming from Instagram I presume) but the excessive hashtag use is getting out of hand. No hard feelings, it's hard to break old habits - but there is NO #algorithm here that needs gaming. Very few main hashtags will suffice. Choose 3 that fit best. Write hashtags for people instead, i.e. #silentsunday #fediverse #photography

I often see posts with more than 30 hashtags, sometimes taking up more space than the actual picture. That's unnecessary keyword stuffing and it's not helping accessibility and screenreaders either. Please use a meaningful ALT-text description instead 🙏

(The image below is auto-generated, not an actual post - but it could have been one 🙈 )

@killyourfm I know 😭 but it is what it is. Individual seasons are 40$ PER season in the UK and these are not even available in Germany or the rest of EU, except for some older DVD S1-S3s. And with all the licensing shenanigans I seriously doubt we will get a worldwide collection or even 4K release anytime soon.

@killyourfm Screw it.
Ordered from Amazon US. #TheExpanse is of my alltime favorite tv series, I'd rather have the box set on my shelf. It's mindblowing that this box set or individual seasons 4-6 aren't even available on BD in EU (and you'll need a multi-region player). There is a 32$ tax and shipping fee on top in case you were wondering. Arriving Feb 28 - Apr 16.🤞

@killyourfm Good news indeed. All PCs in our home are between 5-12y old and I can already tell that I won't buy any new 'gaming pc' but instead a handheld gaming console at some point in the future. Opening up the market for handheld consoles based on SteamOS is a gamechanger - I hope we will see some real innovation (not just Steam Deck clones) and a wide choice of consoles for every budget in the next few years 🤞 :vaultboy:

Would I be interested in backing a new DRM-free Marty Hench novel and audiobook by @pluralistic read by Wil Wheaton? About Marty Hench's first case in the 80's? Absolutely, yes please. I happily backed this 15 seconds after receiving this e-mail. Both Red Team Blues and The Bezzle are brilliant, gripping and entertaining reads - not just for techies.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/picks-and-shovels-marty-hench-at-the-dawn-of-enshittification

"Picks and Shovels is a rollicking tale of the AIDS crisis, queer hardware hackers, gifted punk rock Unix programmers, Reaganomics-fuelled pyramid schemes, and the moment where the seeds of tech's enshittification were planted in Silicon Valley."

#bookstodon #martyhench #retrocomputing

@killyourfm Already found a nice jar, now I just need to make some nice memories 🤞

@killyourfm I was thinking Perfect Days by Wim Wenders and maybe I'll be re-watching Godzilla Minus One 🤔 I love your gratitude jar, it's a wonderful idea that I'll be totally stealing for the next year.

I've been grateful for many things throughout this year but it must be nice to sit down and go through these physical, written notes. It's sometimes easy to forget some of these moments when time flies by so fast. Great way to start into the new year with some positivity.

My plans for #newyearseve are simple:
🛋️ hunker down at home
🥙 prepare some slightly more fancy dinner and snacks than usual
🍿 watch 1-2 good movies
:cat_cheer: hang out on Mastodon

What are your plans?

Today's free game REDACTED has been on my wishlist for a while, it looks like a wild mashup of #Hades #TheAscent and #XIII - a comic book style rogue-like with guns if you will and it's got mostly very positive reviews. Free on #EpicGames for 24h:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAiAk9L3uKM

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/redacted-d9d21e

#gaming #freegame

@killyourfm Good luck with freeing your books! I just recently went trough the whole process (and over 1000+ comic books that I originally bought on Comixology before Amazon bought and killed the platform). Calibre with KFX and DeDRM 10.0.9 worked fine for me except for some new books published in 2024 🤔 I'm done with Amazon, I'm using Kobo, Libbyapp and epubs from our local public library now.

@killyourfm Amazon's renaming of titles and keyword stuffing has become so ridiculous. With The Expanse its obviously Amazon advertising Prime Video (in a book title!). Some publishers aren't much better, these are actual book titles 😱

Fourth Wing: DISCOVER THE GLOBAL PHENOMENON THAT EVERYONE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT!

Gild: The dark fantasy romance TikTok sensation that’s sold over a million copies!

@killyourfm Finished Metaphor, moved on to the Cyberpunk 2077 DLC Phantom Liberty and really enjoying it. Lots of changes since I left 2y ago but now I'm back chooms! I loved Tomorrow.. wonderful book, especially for everyone who loves gaming, so many references, it really resonated with me.

Control is free on #EpicGames for 24h, it's a great game - you can grab it here:
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/control

#freegames #gaming

The critically acclaimed fishing horror role-playing adventure indie game DREDGE is free today on EpicGames. Only 1 day, that's until 12/25/2024 at 5:00 PM.

Trailer on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF7RQtsTuno

You can grab it here.
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/dredge-3e3a5f?lang=en-US

#gaming #freegame

:ablobcatheadphones: That's' something you don't hear every day: Indian Folk Metal from New Delhi, India featuring Japanese kawaii metal #BABYMETAL - released today. I've been listening to Babymetal a lot at the gym lately. Pure energy 🤘Interesting new collab - I dig it. They even made an animated video (including lyrics), check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skXlKxjlUoo

#bandcamp #bloodywood #metal
https://bloodywood.bandcamp.com/track/bekhauf-feat-babymetal