wordman

@wordman@dice.camp

Software engineer, tabletop RPG hacker/creator. I probably backed your Kickstarter.

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LeviKornelsen, to random
@LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

I swear, every time I boot into Windows, it does an update that reactivates some bullshit that gives me grief in Linux.

This time: It auto-re-enabled "Fastboot", locking my backup drive to Linux until I went back in, hunted it down, changed it back.

Such utter nonsense.

wordman,

@LeviKornelsen >squints< I think I see your problem…

robindlaws, to random
@robindlaws@dice.camp avatar

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    wordman,

    @robindlaws They all say that at first.

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

    If you take a big-ass list of conspiracy theories and replace whatever force is supposedly behind it with "this is a result / side effect of the same rich assholes you've already heard of trying to get richer", you will make a small number of them correct, and many, many more will take a big step towards being believable.

    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen A great many conspiracy theories already do this, but psychologically pigeon hole it to specific rich assholes. So its because of “the Rothchilds” or the “deep state”, and certainly not those “magnificent successful people that fund and push causes we like”.

    badastro, to random
    @badastro@mastodon.social avatar

    Premium subscribers to my newsletter today, assuming they have very very teeny tweezers, know just how much force to apply to shear apart a proton.

    https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/hard-shear-apart-proton

    wordman,

    @badastro I believe it is not tweezers you need for that job, but a quarkscrew.

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

    Tabletop gamerdom is, historically, largely defined by bespoke, hand-crafted folk art remixes of prior material, all the way back to Wesely, Arneson, and Gygax.

    Trying to figure how the widespread, strong reactions both in favor of and against AI, which is industrialized machine remix, are entangling with subcultural values on that topic is odd.

    It feels like they should connect all over the place, but aren't, that much? Like, there's compartmentalization or something on that score?

    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen One current difference between industrial vs human sampling is the mechanism by which something is chosen to be included in the remix. For humans, this comes down to “taste”. AI has to use something else, and has many, many ways to choose badly. Like, if the entirety of RPGs was the best game in the world and 100 rando vampire fetish games, a human might remix the best with a sorta good fetish idea. An AI might weight them all equally.

    LeviKornelsen, (edited ) to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

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    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen The difference is substantial, but not “in terms of where the credit is going”. The difference is what a “game” means.

    To me, the "game" is the experience that is created at the table by a confluence of players, "rules", "accessories", and "advice". (And, potentially, food, drink, etc.)

    The book(s) containing the "rules" and some of the "advice" (say Apocalypse World or Settlers of Catan) are often referred to as the "game", but this is incorrect to me.

    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen There are useful discussions to be had about the "game". There are useful discussions to be had about "rules" and "advice". But the distinction is useful because they are different things that feed into each other, not in who gets the credit.

    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen (And those two replies should have been one, but couldn’t be due to the fucking idiotic 500 character limit of Mastodon in general and dice.camp in particular, but not ActivityPub itself. Nothing about this limit make anything better.)

    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen If the aim is for a person to call attention to effort, then person A’s approach is more useful, as it clearly divides the effort of creating the rule text and creating the “game” (table experience). I can imagine this type of “taking credit” also running the risk of marginalizing the efforts of people that aren’t the GM or rules author (the players, bloggers with good suggestions, inspirational sources, etc.). But, again, I think there are better reasons to frame a “game” as pers

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

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    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen Envisioning the “victory condition” to determine if something has actually “killed D&D” is… difficult. And if you can do so, working to hit that condition massively colors how you do it. Do you want more active players? More profit? Reducing D&Ds player base to near zero? Better movies?

    masukomi, to random
    @masukomi@dice.camp avatar

    There's a new game on Kickstarter for Zinequest with these ikea manual inspired characters but i would swear that some of these (all?) are identical to an existing RPG that came out years ago which also had an ikea-ish name (& a kickstarter?)

    I swear I watched a YouTube about it where the creator was talking about how he fell into the trap of thinking his thing was awesome and going to be his new career & it flopped.

    I can't find it though.

    images from current kickstarter.

    a screenshot of ikea looking illustrations of characters holding a bow and arrow, or an ax, or other things like that.

    wordman,

    @masukomi How about we just ask? I’m already a backer, so posted a question about it in the kickstarter’s comments.

    wordman,

    @masukomi Response: “Although I always liked the concept of the beta version of the game I released for playtesting, I was never happy with the original rules. FÄNGELSEHÅLA has completely fresh mechanics along with 3+ years of improved design and layout skills.”

    wordman,

    @masukomi I dunno. Artists’ gonna art. Not everything is a conspiracy.

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

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    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen Quanta Magazine, ProPublica, Wikitribune, Damn Interesting, deviantArt’s Daily Deviations feed, Marginal Revolution, Lowering the Bar, Flowing Data, XKCD, The Brothers Brick, Information is Beautiful, Smashing Magazine. You can also follow Pinboard feeds of people (like me: https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:wordmanward/), subreddits, etc.

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

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    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen None of these are open or free, but I use inoreader to coordinate all my feeds on all devices, and Reeder as a front end GUI.

    matdevdug, to tech
    @matdevdug@c.im avatar

    The thing about that people who haven’t been through it often don’t understand is that morale never recovers. The employees who remain will never have the same relationship with that company, bosses or peers.

    Watching people you respect pack their stuff and crying on the phone with their spouses is something that never goes away. When I survived a layoff in my 20s I became a “do exactly what the ticket says” person. I stopped suggesting ideas, providing feedback, believing anything a manager told me.

    If you are a company considering layoffs, especially a profitable company, you should approach it as “this department will have 100% turnover”. The second I got another job offer I left that company and six months later nobody who had been there at the time of layoffs remained.

    I’ve seen that pattern play out multiple times.

    wordman,

    @matdevdug Something that layoffs taught me: don’t build your social life around coworkers. However the job ends, you’ll never really see them again.

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

    So, Apple's stance on 3rd-party app stores is basically "You will be permitted to do it at your own risk; we will provide zero support, zero services, zero integration", phrased deliberately ominously as "Many of your apps will likely not work well with such downloads".

    Aaaand it looks like their third-party browser stance is even worse.

    All of which is likely legal, etc; just that they are... Really not taking regulation gracefully.

    Observe: My surprise.

    https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/26/24052067/mozilla-apple-ios-browser-rules-firefox

    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen It will be interesting to see if battery life suffers as third-party stores roll out, as Apple has been vocal about suspecting. And, if it does, and the inevitable class action law suit/EU complaint about battery life materializes, if Apple will be able to just blame apps from third party stores.

    LeviKornelsen, (edited ) to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen I went with Pelican (https://asteroid.divnull.com/2023/04/pelican-era), which “compiles” into just plain HTML files.

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

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    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen 4. All adults are idiots.

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

    Having now attended a children's birthday party as a parent: Yup, I'm really useless at interacting with regular people.

    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen Try this game: get them to reveal as much about themselves as possible, without revealing anything about yourself. You’re deep cover.

    quixoticgeek, to random
    @quixoticgeek@v.st avatar

    Well fuck.

    Just did a Google image search as part of some research into something in the medieval era. Well over half of the results are from some kind of ai image generation site. Argh. Totally useless for research purposes.

    Search engines need an "exclude AI content" option.

    wordman,

    @quixoticgeek While not a universal “exclude AI filter”, it is possible to exclude specific sites from Google results, adding something like “-site:shitsite.com” to your search.

    jamesthomson, to random
    @jamesthomson@mastodon.social avatar

    It's technically a 3D About screen.

    wordman,

    @jamesthomson I’m hoping there is an option in this version where the calculator looks so big you have to walk back and forth across the room to use it. Also, flat on the floor mode, so you have to dance-dance-revolution your calculation.

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

    It is my belief that the sweet deluxe version of "RPG in a three-ring binder" would be "Five-hole-punched RPG with menu-style covers, bound with Chicago Screws".

    I'm just saying.

    https://www.chicagoscrews.com/

    wordman,

    @LeviKornelsen Anyone know of any hanging binder covers that work with these?

    robindlaws, to random
    @robindlaws@dice.camp avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    wordman,

    @robindlaws The real test is when the replacement arrives. Does the old chair get hurled into the street, or does it wind up lurking in a lesser used room, glaring resentfully?

    lumpley, to random
    @lumpley@dice.camp avatar

    Tuesday I listened to the AP's live audio stream of the immunity appeal.

    Today it's the closing arguments in the NYC fraud trial, but they aren't streaming audio from inside the courtroom. (This is a matter of court policy, as I understand it.)

    Anyway, I'm watching it, but the livecam outside the courtroom isn't as riveting somehow...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oDEolr5ye4

    wordman,

    @lumpley Soon, there will be a Netflix documentary about the film crew who covered that live view. And then a podcast about that documentary.

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