djidane535

djidane535, 4 months ago

I don’t think it matters that much. The users are very different. Most Threads users will be Threads users, regardless of what the fediverse does.

In the contrary, if a Threads user can interact with the fediverse, he/she could change his/her mind at some point because now he/she will be aware of the fediverse (eg Meta starts to put a lot of ads, many users will migrate towards the fediverse instead of paying Meta a fee).

As a consequence, I think Threads will stay « friendly » with its users in fear everyone migrates somewhere else. Otherwise, no one will leave Threads unless there are major issues (like Twitter or Reddit). Not federating because we fear the fediverse will not grow as much as a consequence is, in my opinion, the exact opposite of what will happen.

Just look at YouTube alternatives. People won’t leave the platform for peertube because they would lost all the content. Now, imagine that YouTube was part of it, do you really believe people would stay and endure as much ads ? I believe they would leave and YouTube would be forced to refrain itself in order to keep its users, and peertube would become much more popular.

TL;DR I don’t say we should federate at any cost tough. But I don’t believe the fediverse will grow because it rejects Threads (in fact, I think it will be the opposite). The question is more something like « Do we want the mass to be part of the fediverse ? » (with all the consequences like brands starting to put ads / communicate here, and a bunch of racists & cie that could possibly be impossible to moderate).

djidane535, 4 months ago

That’s what I said. People stay on YouTube because the content is locked there. If you could watch YouTube videos from Peertube without ads, I believe people would migrate and YouTube would be forced to be less aggressive with ads. I agree that’s partly because content creators do not post their content elsewhere, but that’s exactly why fediverse is nice : the content is everywhere, you can’t lock it into a single instance.

The reason for switching from Threads to fediverse is the same reason why you already left mainstream social networks. But people not aware of its existence, or locked there because the content and the people they interact with are only accessible from there, they can’t leave. That’s why many people keep a Facebook account, or why people tried Mastodon and came back to X a few weeks later.

In my opinion, if a platform can only be different from the other because of the services it proposes (instead of relying on its own content), people will be able to move easily from one platform to the other (and they will if Threads starts to abuse its position). You are afraid people will never leave Threads, but the truth is that as soon as they will have to suffer ads, they will try to find adblockers or alternatives to eliminate them. The fediverse can be this alternative.

djidane535, 4 months ago

I don’t say it will be massively the case of course, but closing the door is the best way to prevent such migration.

If I had the opportunity to move from Twitter to Mastodon without loosing any content, I would have done it way sooner (and in fact, it’s more like I had to abandon this content since it does not exist on Mastodon, the people I followed etc).

It’s exactly why people stay inside an ecosystem like Apple, YouTube, Meta Quest or Playstation, because if you leave you lose everything.

I don’t see why more people would go to the fediverse if you prevent everyone access to some content. Just like in the fediverse, if your instance does not federate with the one you want, you are free to migrate towards another instance. It’s not possible if you can’t transfer from one instance to another.

I don’t say they are saints or that we should federate absolutely with them, but I don’t believe that closing the door because we want the fediverse to grow is not a convincing argument.

djidane535, 4 months ago

Yes, it’s just a personal opinion. I don’t like Meta at all, but I don’t think the creators will come here on their own. Besides, I am convinced that what should differentiate the platforms (even for games, movies and music, not just social networks) should be the services offered by every provider, not the content.

Also, I think they are many other arguments against federation (Is fediverse capable to moderate content coming from Threads ? Especially if Meta don’t do its part ?).

Personally, I will likely move with the content. I left Twitter and Reddit because of the ads, but I will give Threads a try as soon as it’s available in my country, and even pay if there is no alternative and the price is “fair” (unless some fediverse accept to federate). I already did it with YouTube, it’s just impossible to find an alternative and I can’t stand the ads anymore :/.

djidane535, 4 months ago

I share your concerns. I was optimistic at first because kbin looked very promising and the app was evolving pretty fast. Just reaching the point of a functional mobile app would have been enough for me, since we can federate with other communities for more content (before they decided to create their own instance, it was good enough for me).

I am pretty sure the project is on a good track, but in the same time, I think it will probably take 1 or 2 years before we have a good mobile app.

djidane535, 4 months ago

Seems promising, thanks for the info :).

djidane535, 4 months ago

To be honest, I really enjoyed my run (100 hours in). If you omit the bugs, it’s a nice alternative to Skyrim with a very different setting (space) and some quality of life improvements (eg: having your ship to store shit anywhere you go, instead of traveling back and forth to your house if you have any).

But I admit the game feels very old in general (especially because of those loading screens, which should be a thing from the past in 2023), and is not original at all on its FPS mechanics. There is also this odd feeling that the game does not want to block you access to anything (while the new game plus, which is a very good idea and introduced in a clever way, should have been enough to be more « punishing » with the player).

As an « old » gamer, it was not a big issue (especially because I play ton of retrogaming games, along with recent releases), but I totally understand what a player expecting a modern SF RPG game might feel.

djidane535, 4 months ago

Yeah, I didn’t bother with a second playthrough because of this. It’s strange because the idea is great, so why not encourage the player to do a second playthrough by not allowing him/her to see everything on a single run ?

djidane535, 5 months ago

Same here. I love this little Pocket of mine (and even started a small collection). Probably one of the best purchase I made. I play it everyday, (re-)discover some of the best Gameboy games in the best possible conditions. Too bad Analogue communication is so bad and that they are unable to provide enough Pockets for everyone, leading to the classic scalping stuff :/.

djidane535, 5 months ago

Well, Analogue does not communicate that much. They promised a lot of features but did not deliver all of them yet (even 2 years after the Pocket release). It’s also difficult to buy their products, which attract the greed of the scalpers. And they generally rely on pre-orders, meaning you pay everything upfront 1 year in advance (tough this seems to change a bit, they have in stock the Pocket they sell now).

Amazing hardware but poor communication, software (very slow to get any update), and frustrating to buy from.

While I can understand the general « mood » about Analogue, I really love my Pocket, and I almost had all the features I wanted day one, so I do not complain.

djidane535, 5 months ago

Thank you for your work. I was really afraid this would happen when I heard the project was not open-source. The app was really great (especially for a single person in such a short time + no API at the time). It’s a bit annoying to use kbin without an app, but I believe we are not too far from a functional app since the API will be released soon 🤞.

No blame for Harriette of course, she has her reasons and owe nothing to us. Hope she is (or will be) fine.

djidane535, 5 months ago

Unpopular opinion here:

I much prefer to play on Gamepass at the moment. From my personal experience, I will simply never have the time to play again to 90% of my games. It’s just impossible (even if I stopped playing new games today, I am not sure I will be able to do so before I die). Since it’s way cheaper to play this way, I don’t see the point of buying new games anymore (I still buy a few games per year, and just cancel my membership while playing them such as Nintendo games or games I really want to play day one like Cyberpunk).

Besides, over the years, I built up an emulation setup with all the games I played (and old games I would likely play at some point, since I dedicate 50% of my play time to retrogaming). It’s not like it is necessary to own them to play them if you want a nostalgia trip a few decades after their initial release.

Besides, the vast majority of those games will still be available in the future (physical copies, online stores, remaster/remakes, piracy, emulation). I believe it is unnecessary to own every single game in the fear of the being able to (potentially) play it once again in 10 years.

I agree that the gamepass model will likely collapse at some point if it becomes too popular, but it’s not a problem to take advantage to it while it’s profitable and drop it when it’s not anymore (just unsubscribe when you don’t use it, which is what I do 4-6 months per year to play other games).

djidane535, 5 months ago

Depends on your taste I guess. I don’t play those games because they are there, but because they are « on my list ». I don’t think games like Ori, Hades, Hi-Fi rush, Call of the sea, Persona 5, etc are trash. And when nothing interests me anymore, I just unsubscribe and come back a few months later when there are at least a few interesting games. I agree that I wouldn’t only play on gamepass :).

djidane535, 5 months ago

Well, I am 30+ years old and have no problem to buy games full price. I would have played those games even if they weren’t on the Gamepass. That’s why I said it’s more a question of taste in gaming that explains why you consider such games just « decent ». I think if you try to list your « 9 or 10 out of 10 games », I will have no or little interest in most of them (and that’s fine, no one is wrong here ^^).

My message was more to take advantage of the Gamepass for the games that are worth it, for the time it is worth it. Even if 99% of the games were trash, it would still be worth it to subscribe and play those 1% (and unsubscribe when you are done).

djidane535, 5 months ago

Very excited to play it on GBA :D. Surprisingly, it looks very close to the GBC game (which is one if not the most impressive game on GBC).

djidane535, 6 months ago

That’s exactly how I feel. I always felt different than the others, but couldn’t tell what was « wrong » with me. It was by pure chance that I started to look seriously at autism a few months ago, and it offers a solid explanation to … my whole life indeed.

I don’t know « by how much » I am autistic (or even if I am really autistic to begin with), but reading about the insecurities, explanations, and solutions from autistic people helped me a lot to manage situations that were very difficult to handle in the past (and more generally, not being afraid to do things differently, which was difficult when I was not admitting that I am different, and that is not a problem at all).

djidane535, 6 months ago

I fight the urge to share too much of my own past experiences or knowledge by speaking to myself in my head during the conversation. I know it annoys people when I do this too often, but it’s so frustrating at the same time to remain silent that I came up with this trick to « unload my mind ». Took me too many years to come up with this solution to be honest ^^.

djidane535, 8 months ago

It was so cool to play it online :D.