I saw Vee's video about Sargon talking about a good take on beautiful women in video games, and I think it's rather compelling. It isn't necessarily just about "sex" appeal, it's about the idea that people like beautiful things. In the case of a video game, the "thing" is a character, and people like seeing beauty. some games like Cyberpunk 2077 lean very heavily on their aesthetic beauty, not just in characters, but in the world design. You don't go to see Michelangelo's David to get your rocks off, you don't go to see Greek sculptures to get your rocks off, it's to see a thing of beauty that speaks to something deep inside you that seeks beauty.
A lot of video game commentators back when such things mattered were incredibly happy when the end of the era of dark and gritty brown "realistic" environments ended because they were excited to see beautiful environments and designs again. It isn't because they wanted to pork the environments, it's because beauty is important beyond the surface, at least for those who behold that beauty.
Rejecting beauty for postmodernism isn't the future, it's the past, and it's a past that's already failed. Beauty isn't a set of shackles, it's something that affects our hearts and makes us strive for more beauty. We aren't logic machines with gears and sprockets and turbines, we're human beings who carry a piece of all life going back to the first single celled organism in each of our cells. The fact that we're humans matters, particularly to us. Any ideology that would reject our humanity will not continue and I think we're seeing the death throes of that ideology now. It was never going to last long.
A lot of video game commentators back when such things mattered were incredibly happy when the end of the era of dark and gritty brown "realistic" environments ended because they were excited to see beautiful environments and designs again. It isn't because they wanted to pork the environments, it's because beauty is important beyond the surface, at least for those who behold that beauty.
Rejecting beauty for postmodernism isn't the future, it's the past, and it's a past that's already failed. Beauty isn't a set of shackles, it's something that affects our hearts and makes us strive for more beauty. We aren't logic machines with gears and sprockets and turbines, we're human beings who carry a piece of all life going back to the first single celled organism in each of our cells. The fact that we're humans matters, particularly to us. Any ideology that would reject our humanity will not continue and I think we're seeing the death throes of that ideology now. It was never going to last long.
Even though I'm a canuckistani I'm not usually that gung ho about metric, but I have to admit metric heads are nice, it's like "the number of mm is the number you need"
Publishing my first book and also posting the audio version on YouTube helped me to realize something a lot of these people don't understand: You don't just magically get sales because you made a thing, you need to have a good thing worth buying, and you need to find ways to convince people to buy it.
Some people think "Oh, well these companies have established franchises", but established franchises got to where they are by making a good thing people wanted to buy, and once they stopped providing such a thing, the franchises collapsed.
Ultimately, it's simply that there are rules of reality we need to follow as people who produce something for public consumption. Part of the process of becoming a professional writer, or showrunner, or game developer, is figuring out what those rules are and following them, or else either your product won't sell if you're doing it on your own, or your company will have to stop letting you make stuff if you're doing it as part of an organization.
I think they're missing these basics because a lot of the tourists who injected themselves into the AAA space and the games journalism space grew up with a Marxist worldview that makes them think the capital is the building with fungible and faceless people inside rather than the output of specific, talented people who make things others want. It also assumes that the work that goes into the thing is related to the value of a thing, but that's totally wrong -- just look at games like Concord, which cost hundreds of millions and took countless man-hours, but is a worthless IP, or Dustborne, which is another expensive game that took lots of time to produce but is a worthless IP. Recall also this year that Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (which I'm sure also took a lot of time to make, and also had a pair of major franchises attached to it, first in the Batman franchise, and second in the Arkham franchise) was first discounted to 5 dollars, and then I think delisted entirely from game stores. Millions to create this media, only to have it worth 0.
Some people think "Oh, well these companies have established franchises", but established franchises got to where they are by making a good thing people wanted to buy, and once they stopped providing such a thing, the franchises collapsed.
Ultimately, it's simply that there are rules of reality we need to follow as people who produce something for public consumption. Part of the process of becoming a professional writer, or showrunner, or game developer, is figuring out what those rules are and following them, or else either your product won't sell if you're doing it on your own, or your company will have to stop letting you make stuff if you're doing it as part of an organization.
I think they're missing these basics because a lot of the tourists who injected themselves into the AAA space and the games journalism space grew up with a Marxist worldview that makes them think the capital is the building with fungible and faceless people inside rather than the output of specific, talented people who make things others want. It also assumes that the work that goes into the thing is related to the value of a thing, but that's totally wrong -- just look at games like Concord, which cost hundreds of millions and took countless man-hours, but is a worthless IP, or Dustborne, which is another expensive game that took lots of time to produce but is a worthless IP. Recall also this year that Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (which I'm sure also took a lot of time to make, and also had a pair of major franchises attached to it, first in the Batman franchise, and second in the Arkham franchise) was first discounted to 5 dollars, and then I think delisted entirely from game stores. Millions to create this media, only to have it worth 0.
Before he went totally nuts, I used to really enjoy watching Thunderf00t, but if you listened only to him you'd think that Elon successfully did this once barely. Successfully recovering rockets 100 times in a year is imo really a notable achievement.
I don't know about how much it changes the economics of spaceflight solely because I just don't know. But it sure seems like it ought to change a lot.
I don't know about how much it changes the economics of spaceflight solely because I just don't know. But it sure seems like it ought to change a lot.
Working class vs. the unborn.
"Thou shalt keep giving us money from our grandkids. Sell every last one of them to bankers so we can continue living a more comfortable life."
"Thou shalt keep giving us money from our grandkids. Sell every last one of them to bankers so we can continue living a more comfortable life."
"in other news, today hackers were able to successfully breach the only cans app, potentially exposing millions of smart toilets."
"day 761. It has been over 2 years since I have had to open a terminal window to do something relatively benign. I can feel my sanity slipping."
Ngl a lot of people made phylactory jokes about the elder litch rbg when she died, and I'm not apologizing for mine.
Just imagine if they could actually finish to the end of the thought and realize maybe that's why Trump won...
You know, I'm on the fediverse. The part of the fediverse that has basically everyone saying whatever pops in their head with no regard for how WTF it is. Not a lot of stuff shocks me anymore.
But.... WTF....
But.... WTF....