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"Swing your arms from side to side, because it's time to do Mario! In a Bad Quiz! Well, more of a scavenger hunt.
"Whatever, just watch and see for yourself."
"Kaley Chiles, a Christian talk therapist in Colorado, argued that the state ban violated her First Amendment rights."
*weary goddamn sigh*
Well, since it's just a freeze peach issue and that's apparently the only important thing here, I guess the solution to this is for trans/gay people to start opening up a bunch of cis/het conversiontherapydIsCuSsIoN clinics to try to "convert" straight and cisgender people. Cis/het people couldn't say boo to that, because if they did, they would be violating the free speech rights of trans/gay people, and that's what's really vital to preserve here. If they did say boo to that, why... that would be hypocritical, and gods forbid RWNJs act like hypocrites. Who gives a shit about all the cis/het kids who would be traumatized by such things, just as trans/gay kids are traumatized by trans/gay conversion therapydEbAtE horseshit, after all?
I say that maybe only half facetiously. (Because no, I'm not really suggesting that trans/gay people start trying to "convert" cis/het kids in the same horrendous way that cis/het people are trying to "convert" trans/gay kids. But if they did open up a bunch of cis/het conversiontherapyTEDTalk clinics, that would be clearly unassailable, right? Because of the freeze peaches.)
In any case, chalk up another grievous L for the Trump-stacked Supreme Court, I guess. (Except in this case, it was a 8-1 decision, so the "Trump-stacked" part doesn't even really matter, because even two of the lib judges were in on this one.)
With all of that said, I do get the (dubious) argument by Kagan that banning trans/gay conversiontherapycOnVeRsAtIoN would open the door for laws that ban gender-affirmation therapy as well... it's just that... oh wait, that's right, a lot of states have already passed such laws. Challenging and overturning those laws is the real solution to this situation, not the sarcastic thing I said up there. Though I still think somebody opening a cis/het conversion therapyFREEDOM OF SPEECH clinic in, say, Texas (even if knowing that nobody there would ever use it), and then immediately filing a lawsuit to get the laws overturned on free speech grounds would be pretty funny (and also great if it actually worked). But... yeah, no, wake me up when the Trump-staked SCOTUS ever actually does rule that any of those laws are just as unconstitutional as this law banning trans/gay conversion therapysUgGeStIoN supposedly was. Again, if they don't rule that way, it would be incredibly hypocritical of them. Not that they give the slightest shit about that.
*weary goddamn sigh*
Well, since it's just a freeze peach issue and that's apparently the only important thing here, I guess the solution to this is for trans/gay people to start opening up a bunch of cis/het conversion
I say that maybe only half facetiously. (Because no, I'm not really suggesting that trans/gay people start trying to "convert" cis/het kids in the same horrendous way that cis/het people are trying to "convert" trans/gay kids. But if they did open up a bunch of cis/het conversion
In any case, chalk up another grievous L for the Trump-stacked Supreme Court, I guess. (Except in this case, it was a 8-1 decision, so the "Trump-stacked" part doesn't even really matter, because even two of the lib judges were in on this one.)
With all of that said, I do get the (dubious) argument by Kagan that banning trans/gay conversion
5"
Here's a nearly half hour video in which Woolie and Pat spend the entire time spitballing ways for the modern video game industry (focusing on, but not exclusively talking about, Final Fantasy and Square Enix) to potentially stop sucking so bad. The gist: their main suggestion is to scale back and make smaller, less grandiose, less "biggest ever (until next time)" games. Which SE is actually already doing, apparently, it's just that they're not calling them Final Fantasy.
I think it's probably too little too late, but their suggestions would certainly be better than for the AAAAAAA industry to just keep doing things the grossly unsustainable way they're being done now.
The most recent Final Fantasy I've touched is still just FF13, back in 2010, and I don't foresee that changing any time soon.
Maybe if FF15 wasn't unfortunate enough to have gotten in early on those incredibly shitty lifetime Denuvo licenses (as opposed to the yearly subscription licenses that Irdeto sells now, which are way "better," in my eyes, due to the fact that they eventually expire rather than last forever), I'd have played that one by now. The way it looks at this point, though, I'll probably never play Final Fantasy XV (unless they remaster/remake it or something, such that it'd only be infected with Denuvo for a year after release, rather than in perpetuity, and then I see it on a huge sale afterward).
Or maybe if I happen to see FF16 (including the DLC) on a 80-90% off sale, I might bite on that one, since the Denuvo infestation has been cleaned out of that one, at least.
Here's a nearly half hour video in which Woolie and Pat spend the entire time spitballing ways for the modern video game industry (focusing on, but not exclusively talking about, Final Fantasy and Square Enix) to potentially stop sucking so bad. The gist: their main suggestion is to scale back and make smaller, less grandiose, less "biggest ever (until next time)" games. Which SE is actually already doing, apparently, it's just that they're not calling them Final Fantasy.
I think it's probably too little too late, but their suggestions would certainly be better than for the AAAAAAA industry to just keep doing things the grossly unsustainable way they're being done now.
The most recent Final Fantasy I've touched is still just FF13, back in 2010, and I don't foresee that changing any time soon.
Maybe if FF15 wasn't unfortunate enough to have gotten in early on those incredibly shitty lifetime Denuvo licenses (as opposed to the yearly subscription licenses that Irdeto sells now, which are way "better," in my eyes, due to the fact that they eventually expire rather than last forever), I'd have played that one by now. The way it looks at this point, though, I'll probably never play Final Fantasy XV (unless they remaster/remake it or something, such that it'd only be infected with Denuvo for a year after release, rather than in perpetuity, and then I see it on a huge sale afterward).
Or maybe if I happen to see FF16 (including the DLC) on a 80-90% off sale, I might bite on that one, since the Denuvo infestation has been cleaned out of that one, at least.
"Major layoffs at Epic Games are the latest sign that the once-unassailable Fortnite is in decline – with major implications for an industry that's spent a decade chasing its coattails"
Caption under the first image: "Fortnite is now on Chapter 7, Season 2." That, right there, is a big part of what is so fucked up about not just Fortnite itself but all the other Johnnies-come-lately trying to be the next Fortnite.
"What does the games industry look like after a decade of chasing Fortnite, if Fortnite itself is no longer a model to emulate?"
Fortnite was never a model to emulate, even from the start, is my answer to that. Fortnite has been nothing but a plague on video gaming, one of the worse things to ever happen to the industry. The phrase "you reap what you sow" has rarely been more true than it is now.
"If you're in an optimistic mood, you might hope that this realisation would prompt a broader rethink. If the forever game is a mirage, perhaps the industry can relearn how to build a portfolio of hits rather than chasing a single, all-consuming platform. Perhaps there's room again for games that grow slowly, that serve specific audiences, that succeed on their own terms rather than against an impossible benchmark.
"If your mood is less rosy – I leave it to the reader's intuition to guess where mine lies – you might fear instead that the lesson drawn will be the wrong one. For some, Fortnite's decline won't mean abandoning the dream, but simply transferring it. Roblox, with its enormous audience and significant share of PC playtime, already looms as the next candidate for 'this time it really is forever.' Different audience; same fantasy."
Yeah... no, there is a significant lack of rose in my mood when it comes to the modern video game industry.
"Fortnite was never the forever game, because there cannot be a forever game, no matter how good it would look on a balance sheet. It is our culture's greatest feature, not a flaw to be fixed, that innovation and creativity don't have an end state."
This.
Caption under the first image: "Fortnite is now on Chapter 7, Season 2." That, right there, is a big part of what is so fucked up about not just Fortnite itself but all the other Johnnies-come-lately trying to be the next Fortnite.
"What does the games industry look like after a decade of chasing Fortnite, if Fortnite itself is no longer a model to emulate?"
Fortnite was never a model to emulate, even from the start, is my answer to that. Fortnite has been nothing but a plague on video gaming, one of the worse things to ever happen to the industry. The phrase "you reap what you sow" has rarely been more true than it is now.
"If you're in an optimistic mood, you might hope that this realisation would prompt a broader rethink. If the forever game is a mirage, perhaps the industry can relearn how to build a portfolio of hits rather than chasing a single, all-consuming platform. Perhaps there's room again for games that grow slowly, that serve specific audiences, that succeed on their own terms rather than against an impossible benchmark.
"If your mood is less rosy – I leave it to the reader's intuition to guess where mine lies – you might fear instead that the lesson drawn will be the wrong one. For some, Fortnite's decline won't mean abandoning the dream, but simply transferring it. Roblox, with its enormous audience and significant share of PC playtime, already looms as the next candidate for 'this time it really is forever.' Different audience; same fantasy."
Yeah... no, there is a significant lack of rose in my mood when it comes to the modern video game industry.
"Fortnite was never the forever game, because there cannot be a forever game, no matter how good it would look on a balance sheet. It is our culture's greatest feature, not a flaw to be fixed, that innovation and creativity don't have an end state."
This.
Donald Trump is such a worse-than-worthless, narcissistic piece of shit.
"Under President Trump's leadership, we are on a path toward unprecedented economic growth, lasting dollar dominance, and fiscal strength and stability," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. "There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S dollar bills bearing his name, and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the Semiquincentennial."
"As the 250th anniversary of our great nation approaches, American currency will continue to stand as a symbol of prosperity, strength, and the unshakable spirit of the American people under President Trump's leadership," said Treasurer Brandon Beach. "The President's mark on history as the architect of America's Golden Age economic revival is undeniable. Printing his signature on the American currency is not only appropriate, but also well deserved."
What in the actual, serious shitting fuck is all this asinine, inane, banal hogwash? Sounds more like something Trump himself would """""Truth""""" out of his tumid asshole in the middle of the night rather than an official press release.
Oh well, at least they're not making money with his butt-fugly ass-face on it oh wait
(EDIT)
If we must put his shitty face on coins or whatever, can't it at least be one of the funny/stupid-looking ones?
(/EDIT)
Meanwhile, in other current events...
Anyway, in conclusion, to hell forever with Donald Trump, as usual, and the sooner the better.
"Under President Trump's leadership, we are on a path toward unprecedented economic growth, lasting dollar dominance, and fiscal strength and stability," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. "There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S dollar bills bearing his name, and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the Semiquincentennial."
"As the 250th anniversary of our great nation approaches, American currency will continue to stand as a symbol of prosperity, strength, and the unshakable spirit of the American people under President Trump's leadership," said Treasurer Brandon Beach. "The President's mark on history as the architect of America's Golden Age economic revival is undeniable. Printing his signature on the American currency is not only appropriate, but also well deserved."
What in the actual, serious shitting fuck is all this asinine, inane, banal hogwash? Sounds more like something Trump himself would """""Truth""""" out of his tumid asshole in the middle of the night rather than an official press release.
Oh well, at least they're not making money with his butt-fugly ass-face on it oh wait
(EDIT)
If we must put his shitty face on coins or whatever, can't it at least be one of the funny/stupid-looking ones?
(/EDIT)
Meanwhile, in other current events...
Anyway, in conclusion, to hell forever with Donald Trump, as usual, and the sooner the better.
Full headline, because it doesn't fit up there: "'We were there in the 80s for the crash, and this is definitely crashier.' John and Brenda Romero reflect on the industry crisis"
I'm going to go off on a very superficial tangent here, based on the headline, but do note that the article talks about other stuff, too.
( Superficial tangent behind cut )
I'm going to go off on a very superficial tangent here, based on the headline, but do note that the article talks about other stuff, too.
( Superficial tangent behind cut )
Pat: "Tim Sweeney is so fucking stupid."
At this point, gen AI might as well be dynamite, for all the damage it's doing to all the companies that keep trying to shoehorn it into everything. (And that's not even counting the literal damage it's doing to the environment.)
"Are the Critics Ever Wrong?"
Mar. 27th, 2026 09:50 pm"Lani and Jesse try to figure out just what rotten tomatoes score several popular movies received!"
This was a lot closer than the blowout it seemed like it was going to be at first.
"Well, It Finally Happened"
Mar. 26th, 2026 10:08 pmOne of John Scalzi's books was finally banned by the RWNJs, as he discusses in this post on his blog. (Though he says he'll have more to say about it later, once he returns from the JoCo Cruise. I look forward to it.)
Also, this, which Mr. Scalzi linked to in his post there. That link there contains this list of all the books that were "restricted" and "weeded" (because of SB13) by the New Braunfels Independent School District.
Here is a sampling of other books that were "weeded" (the vast majority of these just have "Adult Tag" as the "rationale," so I'll just note the ones that have a different "rationale."):
( Weeded list behind cut )
And here is a sampling from the list of books that were apparently "merely" moved to the "Restricted Section" with the "rationale" for all of them being "AP LIT." (Because, surely, we just can't let children and teenagers read any of these. Honestly, this list seems even more asinine to me than the previous one, which was already pretty goddamned asinine.):
( Restricted list behind cut )
And here is a different list, which apparently contains extras that weren't in the previous linked list (including the one mentioned in that The Bloggess post). It also has some that were deemed "SB13 compliant." I won't be sampling this list here.
...
*weary motherfucking sigh + smgdh + eye roll*
...
Anyway...
Just to note, Lock In is a pretty cool book (as is the sequel, Head On). Not sure why the RWNJs decided to ban it (or any of the others)... I mean, aside from the typical dumbshit asininity that is innate and inherent and intrinsic to RWNJs, of course.
Also, this, which Mr. Scalzi linked to in his post there. That link there contains this list of all the books that were "restricted" and "weeded" (because of SB13) by the New Braunfels Independent School District.
Here is a sampling of other books that were "weeded" (the vast majority of these just have "Adult Tag" as the "rationale," so I'll just note the ones that have a different "rationale."):
( Weeded list behind cut )
And here is a sampling from the list of books that were apparently "merely" moved to the "Restricted Section" with the "rationale" for all of them being "AP LIT." (Because, surely, we just can't let children and teenagers read any of these. Honestly, this list seems even more asinine to me than the previous one, which was already pretty goddamned asinine.):
( Restricted list behind cut )
And here is a different list, which apparently contains extras that weren't in the previous linked list (including the one mentioned in that The Bloggess post). It also has some that were deemed "SB13 compliant." I won't be sampling this list here.
...
*weary motherfucking sigh + smgdh + eye roll*
...
Anyway...
Just to note, Lock In is a pretty cool book (as is the sequel, Head On). Not sure why the RWNJs decided to ban it (or any of the others)... I mean, aside from the typical dumbshit asininity that is innate and inherent and intrinsic to RWNJs, of course.
I'll give Trump this much dubious credit: His response to Mueller's death was rather civil and mild in comparison to what I (and probably millions of other people) will be saying about Trump after he ceases to waste oxygen.
Anyway, in conclusion, to hell forever with Donald Trump, as usual, and the sooner the better.
Anyway, in conclusion, to hell forever with Donald Trump, as usual, and the sooner the better.
"CEO Tim Sweeney says cuts are necessary to 'keep the company funded' and to put it 'in a more stable place'"
While it sucks that over 1,000 people have lost their jobs, it's more unfortunate that Tim Sweeney himself wasn't one of those over 1,000 people, as far as I'm concerned.
However, if this might be a potential harbinger of the downfall of Epic Games as a whole, I can't help but feel minor stirrings of schadenfreude about that. Probably just pie in the sky, though.
(EDIT) So... ...did Tim Sweeney ever get Eminem to come to his birthday party? Also, that just goes to show that this isn't the first time (or even the second time) that Epic Games has laid off around 1,000 people. How many more thousands of employees do they even have that can be laid off at this point? Apparently, back in 2023, 830 employees was 16% of their workforce. So, they probably still have plenty more people to burn through before they have to start worrying about not having enough employees to add new asinine bullshit to Fortnite or whatever, I guess. ¬_¬ (/EDIT)
In any case, to hell with Epic Games. Fortnite was one of the worst things to ever happen to video gaming, so I'm more than glad about there being a "downturn in Fortnite engagement."
(This has been yet another "the 'fuck epic games store' tag also serves as the de facto 'fuck epic games' tag, because they don't deserve more than one tag to their name" posts.)
While it sucks that over 1,000 people have lost their jobs, it's more unfortunate that Tim Sweeney himself wasn't one of those over 1,000 people, as far as I'm concerned.
However, if this might be a potential harbinger of the downfall of Epic Games as a whole, I can't help but feel minor stirrings of schadenfreude about that. Probably just pie in the sky, though.
(EDIT) So... ...did Tim Sweeney ever get Eminem to come to his birthday party? Also, that just goes to show that this isn't the first time (or even the second time) that Epic Games has laid off around 1,000 people. How many more thousands of employees do they even have that can be laid off at this point? Apparently, back in 2023, 830 employees was 16% of their workforce. So, they probably still have plenty more people to burn through before they have to start worrying about not having enough employees to add new asinine bullshit to Fortnite or whatever, I guess. ¬_¬ (/EDIT)
In any case, to hell with Epic Games. Fortnite was one of the worst things to ever happen to video gaming, so I'm more than glad about there being a "downturn in Fortnite engagement."
(This has been yet another "the 'fuck epic games store' tag also serves as the de facto 'fuck epic games' tag, because they don't deserve more than one tag to their name" posts.)
"Why We Don't Want LLMs in RPGs"
Mar. 25th, 2026 09:53 amAn article on RPGFan which showed up in my Google News App today.
Yeah, I used to find them "neat," too. Still do, at least in the "pure novelty" sense. But yeah, those foibles described in the article above have been around since the beginning. During my time of playing around with these LLM/gen AI toys over the years, they've always been big on that whole "wait... <insert prompt to continue chatting when the user tries to walk away>" thing.
Generally speaking, it's entirely possible to feel like you're "vibing" with a LLM/gen AI while you're "talking" to it, feeling like it's so in sync with you that it's almost "reading your mind" or something... ...right up until the point when it hits you with some utterly absurd non sequitur, which abruptly and unceremoniously dumps you right out of your suspension of disbelief that you'd been having an actual "conversation" or "co-writing" a story, because it not only didn't follow what had come before but also maybe even directly contradicted what had come before. And the LLM/gen AI will spit out the complete non sequitur with the same "100% conviction" that it had said whatever things you might have been "vibing" with before that, either way.
The example shown in the article above is probably the most egregious example of LLMs infecting games, but at this point in time, it's still mostly just an outlier. Very few games, at least so far, are full on wholesale replacing NPC scripts with obvious LLM chatbots. What would be/is more insidious is if/when the standard, static NPC scripts are being full on written by LLMs, with little to no review by humans, before being shoved into a game, i.e. the text equivalent of an image of humans with missing/extra fingers melting into horses being "accidentally" left in a game. Or, you know, the actual text still having the AI prompts accidentally left in. But as Woolie said in the video from that last link there, these things are going to get "better" at fooling us into thinking shit isn't AI generated. (While Woolie meant the LLM/gen AIs themselves, I mean with "these things" both the LLM/gen AIs themselves and the humans surreptitiously using these LLM/gen AIs in their products.)
Yeah, I used to find them "neat," too. Still do, at least in the "pure novelty" sense. But yeah, those foibles described in the article above have been around since the beginning. During my time of playing around with these LLM/gen AI toys over the years, they've always been big on that whole "wait... <insert prompt to continue chatting when the user tries to walk away>" thing.
Generally speaking, it's entirely possible to feel like you're "vibing" with a LLM/gen AI while you're "talking" to it, feeling like it's so in sync with you that it's almost "reading your mind" or something... ...right up until the point when it hits you with some utterly absurd non sequitur, which abruptly and unceremoniously dumps you right out of your suspension of disbelief that you'd been having an actual "conversation" or "co-writing" a story, because it not only didn't follow what had come before but also maybe even directly contradicted what had come before. And the LLM/gen AI will spit out the complete non sequitur with the same "100% conviction" that it had said whatever things you might have been "vibing" with before that, either way.
The example shown in the article above is probably the most egregious example of LLMs infecting games, but at this point in time, it's still mostly just an outlier. Very few games, at least so far, are full on wholesale replacing NPC scripts with obvious LLM chatbots. What would be/is more insidious is if/when the standard, static NPC scripts are being full on written by LLMs, with little to no review by humans, before being shoved into a game, i.e. the text equivalent of an image of humans with missing/extra fingers melting into horses being "accidentally" left in a game. Or, you know, the actual text still having the AI prompts accidentally left in. But as Woolie said in the video from that last link there, these things are going to get "better" at fooling us into thinking shit isn't AI generated. (While Woolie meant the LLM/gen AIs themselves, I mean with "these things" both the LLM/gen AIs themselves and the humans surreptitiously using these LLM/gen AIs in their products.)
"Was Anything Sold on TV Useful?"
Mar. 23rd, 2026 08:36 pm"The guys get back together to watch more informercials, ranging from stuff sold by the late-great Billy Mays to those metal bands that were apparently magical."
They said it better than I could. I probably would have just made some lame joke about how flying was already hell, even before this.
The thing is, though, what made flying hellish for me was more the "actually being on the airplane" part itself, not so much the process of having to go through security or whatever. I mean, that aspect of it wasn't great, either, but adding ICEstapo into the mix never improves the thing they're mixed into[1], and this is not an exception.
[1] - Including the process of "Immigration and Customs Enforcement" itself.
The thing is, though, what made flying hellish for me was more the "actually being on the airplane" part itself, not so much the process of having to go through security or whatever. I mean, that aspect of it wasn't great, either, but adding ICEstapo into the mix never improves the thing they're mixed into[1], and this is not an exception.
[1] - Including the process of "Immigration and Customs Enforcement" itself.
"'This is not in line with our internal standards, and we take full responsibility for it,' says developer"
Hey, do you know how you can avoid "unintentionally" including AI """""art""""" in your game and having to then do a "comprehensive audit" for such things when it's found out? (And also [maybe] avoid being massively shat upon by consumers of your product who you should already well know by now really hate that kind of shit?) You avoid that by not using gen AI at all at any stage of your video game creation process, including shit like how "some 2D visual props were created as part of early-stage iteration using experimental AI generative tools" or whatever the unholy fuck.
This is not rocket surgery. If you don't make AI assets for your game with the intention that they "were meant to be replaced" later, you don't run the risk of those AI assets not being replaced. But more importantly, the problem isn't necessarily that you accidentally left AI """""art""""" in your game that you had meant to remove but then didn't, the problem is mainly that you used AI """""art""""" in your game at all, to begin with, even if it was supposedly "intended" to just be placeholder shit.
Hey, do you know how you can avoid "unintentionally" including AI """""art""""" in your game and having to then do a "comprehensive audit" for such things when it's found out? (And also [maybe] avoid being massively shat upon by consumers of your product who you should already well know by now really hate that kind of shit?) You avoid that by not using gen AI at all at any stage of your video game creation process, including shit like how "some 2D visual props were created as part of early-stage iteration using experimental AI generative tools" or whatever the unholy fuck.
This is not rocket surgery. If you don't make AI assets for your game with the intention that they "were meant to be replaced" later, you don't run the risk of those AI assets not being replaced. But more importantly, the problem isn't necessarily that you accidentally left AI """""art""""" in your game that you had meant to remove but then didn't, the problem is mainly that you used AI """""art""""" in your game at all, to begin with, even if it was supposedly "intended" to just be placeholder shit.
Full headline, because it was too long for up there: "Crimson Desert's in-game artwork shows telltale signs of AI courtesy of missing fingers and human bodies melting into horses"
You know what, maybe I actually will just forget about this game altogether, rather than giving it even as much as the usual "wait a year for the Denuvo infestation to be cleaned out and then maybe give it another look" thing. Pretty much everything about this game so far has been textbook "modern video game industry bullshit."
You know what, maybe I actually will just forget about this game altogether, rather than giving it even as much as the usual "wait a year for the Denuvo infestation to be cleaned out and then maybe give it another look" thing. Pretty much everything about this game so far has been textbook "modern video game industry bullshit."
What a colossal waste of gold this is.
Mar. 20th, 2026 10:26 am"Trump commemorative gold coin approved for U.S. Mint to produce for America's 250th"
Given that it's Trump, it would be much more appropriate for it to just be a little slab of iron or aluminum with some gold-colored paint sprayed on it. But then, that would still just be a colossal waste of iron or aluminum and of gold-colored paint.
Given that it's Trump, it would be much more appropriate for it to just be a little slab of iron or aluminum with some gold-colored paint sprayed on it. But then, that would still just be a colossal waste of iron or aluminum and of gold-colored paint.