Notices by atomicpoet (atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org), page 9

So I just tried opting into #BridgyFed (https://brid.gy/mastodon/@atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org).

I found it confusing. For one thing, it asks me for my Mastodon account. Though Akkoma uses Mastodon’s API, not all sites recognize this nor support it—I don’t know if BridgyFed would reject.

Secondly, it’s not clear how to opt in. I think I opted in but there was nothing to say “Congrats! People from #Bluesky can see you!”

Also, how do I receive #Bluesky posts? That’s not apparent to me.

@fediversenews

Today, 17 games were released on Steam. This was the game I found interesting:

Cat Meoir: Feline Detective

• set in 1950s New York City, this is a game where a cat uses its feline abilities to solve mysteries
• Price: FREE!

At one time, Psychonauts was considered a big disaster. It’s since become one of the most beloved 3D platformers of all time, and one of the defining titles of the original Xbox.

It was supposed to be a 1st party Microsoft title. But because it encountered numerous development problems – and Xbox head Ed Fries left the company – Microsoft abandoned it.

But it got a second life from 3rd party publisher Majesco. However, Psychonauts release was met with severe financial disaster and was one of the big reasons Majesco entirely abandoned AAA games.

At the time, people were simply not into 3D platformers. And they certainly had no appetite for something as off the beaten path as Psychonauts.

Psychonauts simply wouldn’t die, though. With word of mouth, more people discovered it, and it’s since become a classic. It’s easy to see why Psychonauts now has its fanbase.

For one thing, developer Double Fine Productions simply wouldn’t let Psychonauts die. They republished it on Xbox 360 and One, PlayStation 3 and 4, Mac, and Linux. And they’ve made sure that the game remains playable on high resolution and wide screen aspect ratios.

This is a case where game preservation has taken something from the dead and given it new life. Even now, you can get Psychonauts on GOG.com, buy it for a mere C$13.59, and have it DRM-free. You can even play it on the Steam Deck.

It’s still good even now. At a time when people were obsessed with shooters, Psychonauts quirkiness ensured it stood out. Sure, back in 2005, you could be a typical meathead asshole shooting non-descript enemies. Or you could wage battles of the mind in Psychonauts.

We all know what people pick back then. But what do people prefer now? Well, look at the reviews on Steam – which currently stand at 96%.

Or better yet, look at the reception that its recent sequel Psychonauts 2 received and we have our answer. People were so hungry for more Psychonauts that it became one of the standout games of 2021.

As for Psychonauts itself, this is a game that I continue to play. It never gets old. There is nothing like it.

Okay, so something that been living rent-free in my head today: a woman I know is distraught because she’s 37-years-old and doesn’t think she’ll find a man with small toes.

And small toes are a dealbreaker for her.

But for the life of me… aren’t all toes small? I really am empathetic towards her. I just don’t understand how small a small toe is.

EDIT: Oh yeah, this ideal man has to have big feet and small toes. Size 12 and higher. But this big footed man must have small toes.

The Adobe Flash aesthetic should come back.

I’m not saying that Flash itself should come back, just the unique look and feel that made it great.

Say whatever you want about the underlying tech, Flash unleashed a lot of creativity.

Turns out that, for gaming purposes, Steam Deck is the best way to emulate DOS.

The ability to adapt the gamepad for some DOS games’ weird keys is such a killer feature.

Thing is, “Ashkenazi” doesn’t even mean “European Jew”. It just refers to a specific tradition of practicing Judaism.

Besides Ashkenazim, other Jews have lived in Europe. Guys like Benjamin Disraeli, Baruch Spinoza, and Peter Sellers aren’t even Ashkenazi. They’re Sephardi.

Not that this matters to anti-Semites, though.

I was just out for a run by the park, and this psycho lady let her pit bull off the leash – it came running after me!

She yells back at me, “Don’t worry, he’s friendly!”

Lady, I don’t care how friendly you think your dog is. I want him nowhere near me. Besides, this isn’t an off-leash park anyway.

That was terrifying.

Many console gamers think PC gaming more complicated than it actually is. Yet here’s all the steps it takes to have a console experience on a PC:

1. Turn on PC
2. Open Steam (if it’s not open already)
3. Press “Big Picture” mode

Voila! In three steps, your PC pretty much becomes a console. It’s easy to view on a TV and controllable with your gamepad of choice.

@chriswho @QueenieBeanie @Gargron @damon Sorry, but I don’t link to toxic servers on the Fediverse. If you want to find them, there’s plenty of blocklists available for you to peruse.

@chriswho @QueenieBeanie @Gargron @damon A simple web search will show you a plethora of toxic Fediverse servers that host content so toxic, I’d probably be on an FBI list just for mentioning them. So for good reason, I’m not linking.

If you’re unaware, good on you—your moderator shields you. But I run my own server, so does @damon, and we both have seen the worst that the Fediverse has to offer.

But whatever, if you want me to give you a specific example, there was a particularly infamous circumstance where someone deliberately pushed CSAM onto someone’s new Fediverse project so they would leave the Fediverse. Not a conspiracy theory, a fact—it was even discussed at the recent Fediforum.

If that’s not enough to convince you that highly toxic individuals harass Fediverse developers, nothing will convince you. But maybe talk to @stux, who moderates your server, before accusing me of working for Elon—which, by the way, is an even more incredible conspiracy theory than the one you think I’m peddling.

To people sounding alarm bells about Mastodon becoming worse, what are you doing to make it better?

It’s one thing to scream “enshittification”. It’s another thing to contribute edification.

If you’re not contributing to the solution then you’re contributing to the problem.

It’s not a conspiracy theory to say that certain people on the Fediverse, who have a long track record of harassing developers, got kicked off other social platforms for toxic behaviour. In fact, I know this to be the case because some of them have told me.

No, I’m not linking to them because I’m not amplifying them—or to their problematic servers either.

However, it is a conspiracy theory to say I’m working for Elon Musk for acknowledging this is a problem.

How does it even help Elon Musk to say harassment of Fediverse developers is a problem? Wouldn’t more harassment mean less developers working for the Fediverse—which inevitably helps him?

RE: https://atomicpoet.org/objects/6c71418e-9a2e-4958-a2c8-646def8e8765

Eventually the HOA of the Fediverse will realize that they have no control over open protocols and how people use them.

There’s how you think things should be and then how things actually are—they are not the same thing.

@joeo10 Explain your concern. Are you donating to Mastodon? Contributing code? What’s your degree of ownership over the project?

It’s worrying that Mastodon’s non-profit status in Germany has been revoked—especially since the European Union themselves signalled a big commitment to the Fediverse last week.

I hope this all gets sorted, but I’m glad a U.S. non-profit entity has been established in the meantime.

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2024/04/mastodon-forms-new-u.s.-non-profit/

“A.I. is not factual nor accurate.”

Yeah, but most of what I want A.I. to do is make stuff up. For example, provide unique dialogue for NPCs in procedurally-generated levels for video games.

That would be incredibly cool.

I had no idea itch.io had their own game launcher. All this time, I was just buying and downloading games from their site. But here it is:

https://itch.io/app

WOW!!! 😲

Microsoft really just made MS-DOS 4.0 open source.

This is 38-year-old operating system. Why should anyone care?

For one thing, people have been trying to make an open source version of DOS for decades. FreeDOS is the most well-known example of this. And now, suddenly, the actual MS-DOS is open source.

But also, DOS gamers are going to love this. Right now, people are using emulators for most DOS games. But how cool will it be to use FPGA and tweak the OS for a better experience?

RE: https://mastodon.social/users/reiver/statuses/112335750397384712

Weeaboos believe the strangest things about Japan.

One of them is that Japanese game developers would never sully themselves with Western influence.