weird thought but the problem of “Linux demands too much tech-savviness for the average person to be able to use it” might be sidestepped by having strong, diverse communities

like imagine a community with ~30 non-techies and 1-2 Fedi transfemmes who want an excuse to fuck around with Linux anyway, and the transfemmes get everyones’ computers up and running and fix technical problems when they arise and help with hardware compatibility. that way nobody is dependent on Microsoft but also nobody has to learn the intricacies of systemd or package management or the command line unless they want to

beginners: music theory is bullshit i can just play notes and it sounds good

music theory nerds: nooo you're meant to use the chromatic harmonic mediants as a way to modulate towards the fifth of the sixth and then modulate downwards to the fourth with a backdoor progression!

jazz musicians: music theory is bullshit i can just play notes and it sounds good

It appears that I have drawn yet another entry for my portfolio of fantasy glamour models. I can only apologise.

Slightly more seriously, I think I'm fairly happy with how this one came out, though as usual I had lots of conflicting thoughts about colour schemes. I think I reined back my worst excesses... this time.

Comments/suggestions welcome as always.

#MastoArt #FediArt #ArtistsOnMastodon #Fantasy #Tiefling #Devil #Illustration #Procreate #Turquoise

since we only listen to music made by the top 0.01% of artists who have been training for years or decades at using their exact instruments and making their exact genre of music, that becomes our only basis for comparison. so once we see someone try to play music IRL, or we try it ourself, all we can think is “wow that’s so dogshit. I have literally never heard anyone this bad before and have no frame of reference other than to know that this is beyond terrible”

and the same thing happens with all other forms of art: poetry, writing, drawing, etc.

I think this causes another, subtler problem too. because the assumption becomes - implicitly - that the only reason to learn these forms of art is to become another top 0.01% artist who is then good enough to sell their art to the world. because those are the only artists we ever see, so how can another form of artist exist if we never see them? so at that point there’s no reason to learn art at all unless you’re going to dedicate your entire life to it

but interestingly, this is starting to happen with video games too, because we only see the top 0.01% ultra pro challenge run speedrunning esports gods break the game wide open and use every tech and optimization imaginable. and then they get money for how skilled they are - either through youtube views or esports contracts or etc. and that’s probably a big part of why twitch chat is so full of “why are you so dogshit” every time they encounter a non-pro player, and it must be a big part of why gaming culture has become so optimization-poisoned as well

I don’t like the phrase “given a chance, players will optimize all the fun out of the game” because I don’t think this has to be the case - I think this is a cultural problem that we can and should fix, and the disproportionate focus on highly skilled players is feeding this problem by normalizing the idea that the only reason to play a game is to try to win as hard as you can (instrumental play)

and then of course - because everyone approaches gaming as an optimization problem - new games are designed under the assumption that their only value is as an optimization problem - accidentally punishing any other form of play. which just compounds the problem

so how do we fix this? I’m honestly not sure, but I think a good start would be to reward more Let’s Play type content and watch players start multiplayer games without knowing all of the optimizations and techs - and enjoy watching them learn. I especially like those “granny plays Skyrim” or “I teach my dad Dark Souls” type videos because they show the viewer the exact opposite of a speedrunner esport pro god, and they celebrate that lack of experience and the process of learning

I think it would also be helpful to invent new types of casual play that don’t focus on winning (ludic play) - like roleplaying in a PvP game - and make content around that for people to watch, to help drive home that games don’t have to be a rat race to win every time, and even playing a competitive game doesn’t have to be treated as a competition

Many thanks to folks using the content warning (CW) feature on posts as needed (especially violent photos or videos). Thanks also for adding hashtags, helpful for filtering / searching / following ❤️

FYI, a CW does not hide information, it adds information. It only takes one click to reveal the body of the post. It gives folks with PTSD or other issues a chance to prepare.

Anyone who finds CWs annoying can set an option to expand all CW posts - see attached image.

#CW #FediTips #ContentWarning

how can a language just, not have a module system

should be illegal tbh

I should be able to set a flag in my browser that tells websites “I’m broke af so don’t waste bandwidth asking me for donations”

https://noelberry.ca/posts/making_games_in_2025/

I was just sent this amazing article - which is by one of the Celeste devs - about how you don’t have to use a huge monolithic engine to make games. and not just in the sense of “well if you really want to I guess you could make everything from scratch but it would take like 30 years” - it’s actually practical and somewhat common to do things this way

so that has me hopeful that I can still make games at some point in the future, without having to learn something enormous and horrifying like Unity

a few weeks ago I joined a WoW Legion private server and I’m currently trying to figure out if I’m bored of WoW in general or if Legion is an especially bad expansion for me. I made a rogue and it really felt like a lot of the satisfaction of the rogue’s abilities was gone or at least muted, and I’m not sure exactly why - although Eviscerate doing noticeably less damage is probably at least part of it

I might try a WotLK private server next. I feel like the closer I get to vanilla, the better the class fantasy gets - at the cost of things being a lot less convenient (class trainers, limited ammo, etc.)

I can’t believe Deadlock is actually fun. I was starting to think that Paladins would be the only hero shooter that I’d ever like but I think Deadlock might actually be even better

also Vindicta’s mechanics are a little bit gender

2026 internet

there are certain game genres that I’m pretty sure I will never understand the appeal of:

• strategy games
• management games
• most RPGs - especially JRPGs
• fighting games

and as someone with a special interest in video games it feels kinda bad to simply not understand these games. but oh well - everything can’t appeal to me lol, and I think there are certain emotional wants/needs that are served by video games that I just don’t have and can’t relate to

i keep forgetting straight women exist

I think FATE’s approach to {when to roll dice} might be my favorite advice for random chance in game design in general. like:

• if both the good and bad outcome are fun and interesting, then you should roll dice to see which one happens
• if only the good outcome is fun and interesting, then the good outcome should happen with no dice-roll needed
• if only the bad outcome is fun and interesting, then you should bribe the player(s) into getting the bad outcome

I think this also illustrates why {random chance to miss in games like X-COM} is so unfun (IMO): only the good outcome (hitting your target) is fun and interesting. missing is basically “nothing happens but you have to watch a little cutscene about it” which is pretty boring and a little frustrating tbh

I think if I were to design X-COM’s {random chance to hit} system, I would make it so that every miss also gives a positive buff or some kind of advantage. for example every time one of your soldiers misses, they permanently get better at aiming because they’re learning from their mistakes

Ubisoft Is Dead, Long Live Ubisoft? | Unpacked

here’s a really interesting video about how Ubisoft’s restructuring is not going to help, because none of the corpos at the top are taking accountability for their mistakes