Kind of surprised this is the take. Algorithms in general, just sorting by highest to lowest or whatever common problem that needs to be solved, aren’t bad. “Algorithm” has become a dirty word mostly because of the stuff pushing short-form content over long-form content, outrage that generates engagement over something you would enjoy that doesn’t enrage you enough to make you type fifty paragraphs and keep coming back to fight in the comments, etc. So I agree with the literal statement that algorithms aren’t always bad.

But as for what you meant, I’m super surprised at all the people who want an algorithm to feed them content and aren’t satisfied. I looked for the stuff I was interested in, subscribed, and am happy. When I run out of content I either log off and do something else or go seek out stuff I’m kind of interested in. In my most charitable possible assumption, people who want algorithms are probably a lot less suspectible to getting pulled in by outrage and scrolling all day, and just want to be able to discover cool stuff fast, and the algorithms somehow worked to show them the cool stuff. In my experience I had to strictly stick to my Home feed with just stuff I subscribed to on Reddit to not see outrage porn, could never poke my head into Popular or anything without seeing some outrage sub like r/noahgettheboat or /iamatotalpieceofshit. And then they started forcibly sorting my Home feed by Controversial… yep. Stopped regularly browsing there really fast.

I am just really wary of asking for algorithms back because I really don’t want the Fediverse to become another place catered towards outrage porn for max engagement. I really want users to have options if this is implemented, so as not to force this algorithm on users like myself who like the “chronological order of stuff you purposely followed only” algorithm. And for that option to not be taken away from me in an effort to “drive growth!” and all that.

I don’t want to refuse others a good thing just because it’s not for me, but I also have been burned by social media algorithms that were once nice chronological, and later became catered towards outrage and showing you content you never signed up to see without having an option to switch back to chronological and opt out of having RandomInfluencerYouDontFollow in your feed. Looking at you, Instagram. I signed up with my elementary school classmates, liked chronological feed, liked having Explore just be friends of friends… I still only follow people I know in real life but now Explore is a bunch of controversial memes, people selling stuff, and influencers who want me to form a parasocial relationship with them. This is also what my regular feed, which used to just show me chronological order posts only from people I follow, turns to once I scroll past maybe 7 posts my friends made. Have not fully deleted but also haven’t touched the app in months now.

I guess the real solution is giving people options and not taking them away because you decided to go public and need maximum eye-on-advertisement time. Hopefully Lemmy stays open source and different instances stay popular, so in case someone does try to take it public we can all flee to different servers and keep talking.

Worth crossposting to !lifesimulation@lemmy.world

Very Into magic in fiction, life simulation games, good pixel art. Almost certainly going to play.

For people like me wondering WTF VGC is: https://www.smogon.com/smog/issue7/vgc

I’ll follow this project with mild curiosity, no specific asks from me. Best wishes! Also, if you have not already, I suggest asking !pokemon@lemm.ee

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I can usually read anything without having issues, but I just read the tropes page for this and this depressing game lived rent-free in my head for too long. And some of the themes are things I can usually read about no problem but actually seeing? Not sure if the game would show it on-screen, but if it did I know I would handle it poorly. Finally, I usually do not want to engage with fiction that depressing, and I am already familiar with some of the themes in real life so I don’t need a good art game to teach me about it or make some commentary. Dark things are usually not cathartic for me, just another painful reminder about the bad things in the world. So I am going to avoid this series and I think others might have the same reasoning. Of course, I’m aware others can like it and that’s totally fine! For others, it can be a good story or help them work through their own traumas. I understand how this series probably has lots of value. It’s just extremely not for me.

At least according to Wikipedia, the “f” at the end is indeed part of the intended game name.

I wonder how much of this is network effects? I cannot describe how many times I have fired up Minecraft all over again after not touching it for awhile because oh, a friend made a server and my other friends are playing too! At least in my experience, it seems to just be a thing that if a social circle contains mostly people who happen to enjoy video games, even if we formed around liking to sing or something and not our love of video games, it will try to make a Minecraft server.

Players will be able to toggle between the new and previously existing visuals of Minecraft with the simple press of a button, meaning a classic look can be maintained by those who desire it.

thank goodness, shaders are pretty but I am massively suspect to nostalgia bias and I do not want to dedicate performance to shaders if my computer cannot handle it

Please crosspost to !citybuilders@sh.itjust.works

I was one of a bunch of people who got Instagram because my friends did and used it basically as “in real life social media”—use it to see what’s going on in the lives of people you know in real life, as a method of contacting some of them if you do not have their phone numbers, etc. Is there anyone using Pixelfed for that? I’d love to help support another Fediverse platform, but outside of just posting my personal stuff (and of course I would have to check privacy settings too) I’m not a photographer or influencer and feel I have no real reason to be using Pixelfed.

Although come to think of it, I wonder if Instagram was made for photographers first and then all the people trying to use it as just regular social media took it over. If it is private enough I might just put my personal stuff there anyways even with 0 followers, a Monthly Active User is a Monthly Active User, and eventually I’ll probably meet someone who uses Pixelfed in real life.

This game is very much outside of my wheelhouse, but it sure is nice having indie devs come to the Fediverse to advertise, not just Reddit. Best wishes to you and your brother!

I am not sure if this qualifies for this community or not, but I think ttrpg.network would be happy to have you if you have not posted on that instance yet.

Happy to see an idle/incremental here as a lover of that genre. Wish the Mbin side of incremental.social worked, I’d love to participate on !incremental_games@incremental.social or use my account there.

mm quality of life Quick Challenge features…

I’m waiting for the Steam release. Maybe I can play on my Mac. Hoping they add Linux support for more than just Steam Deck someday! I’d like a taste of the super high def graphics everyone else has, as a mobile player I thought my graphics were good, and then I saw everyone else’s in-game pictures. It is not a huge priority for me, I can still see my outfits just fine when adventuring. But my Mastodon pfp is a shot I took in Infinity Nikki, so… I should probably upgrade that someday.

I did like most of the puzzles. Most. Some of the “jump on a platform to tilt it correctly for the ball to roll” ones were so hypersensitive to like 1° of wrongtilt I actually had to look up solutions and it still did not work sometimes, I had to keep adjusting. But the Hamiltonian path ones (jump on all the platforms ONCE) were a lot of fun, as were most of the box pusher ones. Box pushers made me use my brain.

Combat is right where it should be for mobile folks like me ;-; I am sure I could take a difficulty bump on PC. Platforming on mobile feels like I am probably having the same difficulty as PC/PS5 folks while I see people in the Discord talk about how mobile platforming is difficult compared to doing it on PC/PS5. I guess growing up on PC, Nintendo DS, and Wii gaming trained me for this—I never ever learned how to use a conventional controller.

Game is actually very high-quality. A lot of girly games I grew up with were… not of the best quality, while more stereotypically boyish or gender-neutral fare was better. This game is aimed at women/girls and actually has very nice gameplay and graphics (and people of other genders can absolutely enjoy it too). As of now there are soft and hard timegates but they do not feel anywhere near as frustrating as typical mobile energy timers. I tried Ikemen Vampire and despite liking otome games, I bounced off super hard after a couple days of genuinely trying because so much was gated behind freaking energy. Progress on story can be soft-gated here (must level up clothes or get good enough clothes to certain amount, it takes energy to level up clothes or get certain—but not all—clothing materials) but you can still explore the open world, collect most materials, and dress up Nikki/play minigames to your heart’s content, so it feels way less bad.

At least, that’s why I am assuming such an innocent community ad has attracted downvotes so early on. It’s not some shovelware game or a Flash dress up game out of 2008 (though I did like the latter). In a period of my life where I am having trouble sitting down and just enjoying a video game, I have gotten quite hooked on Infinity Nikki. Tried on the recommendation of the OP once late December, have been playing almost daily ever since. It’s genuinely fun.

I enjoyed this as a hater of walking simulators and lover of puzzlers. I personally had no issues with the controls and graphics, so YMMV. Thanks for the review though! Just because we disagree does not mean your opinion is invalid, or that nobody else will share it.

If you browse a lot on mobile and cannot install extensions, all you have to do is replace the “fandom” in the fandom wiki URL with “antifandom”

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I was like that until Epic released free games that I decided to claim just in case my tastes changed or I was with a friend who enjoyed that game, but that I myself was very uninterested in playing. And then I got busier, and bought games I have high confidence I’d like but did not have the time to play just then past maybe a demo or a short while to check if I did actually like it—I’d get to it sometime later when I had more free time. My tastes tend to expand to include more things, but not to reject more things as well, so I thought the risk of tastes changing was an okay risk to take in order to capitalize on the sale of a game I am interested in now, even if I would play it much later. So far I have proven pretty good at guessing future me’s tastes.