lextorias

#JustFinished A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms E4 I almost stopped believing it was possible to make a show like this. Not only does it perfectly recapture the magic of early Game of Thrones, it adds a style so fun and a cast so lovable that it may stand even taller Must Watch

#JustFinished Hollow Knight: Silksong Managing to take a very good first game and upgrade it in nearly every way is an achievement for anyone, let alone a small studio It has balance and pacing issues, but the story, world, and gameplay are all so good I just couldn't put it down Must Play*

*I'm an advocate for intended difficulty, but since it does seem to be causing a lot of people genuine issues, I'd say if it is too hard to enjoy, maybe consider modding it They're very easy to install, and the ones I played around with do a good job making it easier, but still somewhat balanced

I… kinda agree with this? I’ve talked about difficulty and praised hard games a ton, but a lot of design decisions in Silksong seem made purely to fuck with the player I just couldn’t stop imagining how much fun I’d be having if the game didn’t have a grudge against me

And it does suck, because a lot of the non-difficulty changes make this game feel made to sink into. You’ve got hubs and quests and more RPG elements. It’s beautiful and has a much stronger narrative But the difficulty just turns any attempt at investment into stress and tedium

I… kinda agree with this? I’ve talked about difficulty and praised hard games a ton, but a lot of design decisions in Silksong seem made purely to fuck with the player I just couldn’t stop imagining how much fun I’d be having if the game didn’t have a grudge against me

Some of it is fair and balanced mechanical progression. The diagonal pogo, increased enemy and boss complexity, etc. But so much is just… trolling? I can’t find any better word for it

I… kinda agree with this? I’ve talked about difficulty and praised hard games a ton, but a lot of design decisions in Silksong seem made purely to fuck with the player I just couldn’t stop imagining how much fun I’d be having if the game didn’t have a grudge against me

Comms (like most transactions) are oppositional Commissioners want to pay as little as they can get away with. Artists want to get paid as much as they can get away with. The final price is just where those two overlap Arguing about how much artists deserve is just rationalizing your price range

Did a bit of bored phone research into Restricted Mode, YouTube’s recent AI age-verification censorship, and any reason why they might be causing views to go down across the platform For anyone who’s interested, here’s a thread 🧵

At best, minors are having their algorithms fucked with to “protect” them At worst, every person under 18 or on a public network is having guideline-compliant videos hidden from them and deprioritized without their knowledge That could certainly explain a drop in views

Did a bit of bored phone research into Restricted Mode, YouTube’s recent AI age-verification censorship, and any reason why they might be causing views to go down across the platform For anyone who’s interested, here’s a thread 🧵

If this is not literally just Restricted Mode, it is certainly using the exact same AI filtering model. And now that YouTube is forcefully “protecting” accounts that don’t pass age-verification, I wonder if they aren’t opting them in to some of these content settings

Did a bit of bored phone research into Restricted Mode, YouTube’s recent AI age-verification censorship, and any reason why they might be causing views to go down across the platform For anyone who’s interested, here’s a thread 🧵

Now comes the recent censorship drama, during which YouTube stated that they will use AI to verify a user’s age, and then automatically restrict their account if under 18 They explicitly say this will reduce recommendations. But what I’m curious about are those other layers

Did a bit of bored phone research into Restricted Mode, YouTube’s recent AI age-verification censorship, and any reason why they might be causing views to go down across the platform For anyone who’s interested, here’s a thread 🧵

Starting in 2019 (most likely due to SESTA-FOSTA, watch my latest vid for context) YouTube then posted a LOT about its features to protect kids This includes buffs to YouTube Kids and supervised teen accounts, but also, notably, using AI to “reduce recommendations”

Did a bit of bored phone research into Restricted Mode, YouTube’s recent AI age-verification censorship, and any reason why they might be causing views to go down across the platform For anyone who’s interested, here’s a thread 🧵

From this blog post all the way back in April of 2017 you can see people had problems with their videos being unnecessarily restricted (especially LGBTQ creators), and YouTube had to step in to tweak the automated system and clarify how it worked

Did a bit of bored phone research into Restricted Mode, YouTube’s recent AI age-verification censorship, and any reason why they might be causing views to go down across the platform For anyone who’s interested, here’s a thread 🧵

#JustFinished Max Payne 3 The quintessential action movie reboot, complete with a protagonist who’s clearly too old to still be doing this, and a bold attempt to change direction into something flashy and modern Thank god it’s the last one Should Play

Reminder that Collective Shout is backed by Christian fundamentalist groups who want to ban all pornography, and have used vague trafficking laws to pressure Visa and Mastercard to drop online platforms under threat of lawsuit

#JustFinished Max Payne 2 If the first game was a fresh new action movie, this is the late sequel that’s more technically impressive, but loses the charm and struggles to do something new They sure do put Max in some wacky situations as an excuse for fun action scenes though Must Play

#JustFinished Max Payne It’s just so fun. Goofy melodramatic story. Unbeatable high adrenaline gunplay. A metric ton of B-grade charm That being said, while I love Remedy’s future endeavors into surrealism, the dream sequence levels were kind of the worst part Must Play