Hello, gang. Once again, thank you so much for the great response to my latest video. After mulling the video over a bit, I’ve had a few more thoughts about the video that I’d like to share.
For one – there’s one point that I’ve been back and forth on wishing I included. In the PC Gamer article I referenced (www.pcgamer.com/the-metaverse-is-bullshit/), there’s a short discussion about whether Epic's open standards for the metaverse might actually hinder, rather than help, creativity in the long run. Here’s Raph Koster quoted in the article:
"There are no standards right now for 'what things can do' in a virtual world, and we shouldn’t want them. The act of setting the standard is also setting the limit, which would curb creativity enormously. There's far too much possibility to be explored still."
In other words, interoperability between different platforms may necessitate a flattening of the gaming experience, and put limits on what game designers can and can’t do with Epic’s suite of tools.
At the same time, though, you could make this argument about any set of new standards – that they make some things easier and limit you in other ways. I really wish I could have found more writing from game developers about how real of a threat this would be to game design. If any of you happen to have any resources handy – or maybe even have some insight yourself as a game designer/developer – I’d love to learn more.
And also (I don’t think this was the case but wanted to clear the air anyway) – I really hope that I didn’t give the impression that I was dunking on creators or framing them as complicit with what Epic’s doing. Even as a layman, it’s obvious how incredible and powerful a lot of Epic’s tools are. And indeed, the things people are making in Unreal or in Fortnite are just as incredible. I pray it came across that my ire was mainly targeted at Epic Games, the brands they associate with, and the roadmap they’ve laid out for the industry.
Hell, Epic themselves have even done some good things for the video game industry – promoting cross-play, for example. It just really bugs me so much how Epic loves to play “the little guy” in their spat with Apple, while being so coy about having these ambitions to completely reshape the internet for (let’s be honest) their own benefit.
Anyway, thanks again for your support and critique. If you all have any other thoughts to share, feel free to share them. Until next time!
one other great moment from Device 6 (that I omitted) -- in Chapter 2, the game calls you an idiot for pushing buttons haphazardly. It's funny how it's *technically* not guaranteed that the player would toy with the buttons, but the writers understood their game (and conditioned the player) well enough that they knew it was more likely than not. love these little gems.
Wow, I am absolutely thrilled by the reception of the Mobile Games video. Just wow. Oddly, the videos I feel like I put the least work into editing are the ones that end up doing well. That's just YouTube roulette for ya, I guess. And also – apologies to all of the Android users who want to play Device 6.
I’ve been going through the comments, and wanted to thank you all for your kind words and feedback. There have even been quite a few game recommendations that I’m intent on trying (SIMULACRA, Bad North, Sneaky Sasquatch, Fran Brow), and I was even reminded of some other gems from days past that I had forgotten about (World of Goo, Monument Valley, Dumb Ways to Die).
Some things I could have improved on – I would have loved to compare mobile games to other handheld platforms like the DS. The DS would have really made for an interesting comparison, considering how much special consideration had to be given when putting together a game for two screens, but it may have made the video a bit too bloated…idk.
Also – I realize now I should have shown a bit more discretion when choosing b-roll at some points. RAID: Shadow Legends would have been far more apt to showcase instead of Crossy Road, e.g., but I think my points still stand.
I also think I should have ruminated a bit more about ways to fix the incentive structures in place for mobile game developers, so that different sorts of games have a chance to shine, but that could also end up being a video in itself. Maybe getting AAA studios to port games to iOS isn’t such a bad idea, if it shows that studios can have financial success with games that aren’t “forever games.” Better curation systems definitely need to be in place, too, but I'm unsure what those would look like.
I also wish I talked about the one time I’ve seen ads in a game “done well.” There’s one game I played a long time ago called Skiing Yeti Mountain that has held a special place in my heart. At the end of some levels, you occasionally run into a businessman character accompanied by a billboard that shows you a video ad. However, the game played everything very tongue-in-cheek. The businessman’s dialogue was always super cheesy, and he always had a game-show host smile plastered on his face before showing you the video ad. Eventually, I paid a buck to get rid of the ads. But, funnily enough, paying the dollar doesn’t get rid of this businessman character altogether. He still occasionally shows up, but in ghost form. Hilarious.
Simogo (developers of Device 6) also recently released a rhythm game called Sayonara Wild Hearts back in 2019 to wide acclaim. It’s on my everlong list-of-games-I-need-to-play, and I’d be curious to see how the iOS version stacks up to the console/PC versions, considering their history in the mobile game space.
Anyway, thanks again for your support and critique. Until next time!
Apparently, AI is getting worse (or at least GPT-4 is).
Pretty insane that these tools that people have come to rely on can so drastically break over a period of just a few months. Imagine if any other software just stopped working like this. And I have a feeling it’s going to get worse.
Researchers have found that we could potentially run out of human-written training data for these LLMs by 2026, and as soon as AI starts cannibalizing content that it or another LLM has written for training data, they start to break down.
Just a reminder that, while slightly useful in some situations, these LLMs leech off of the work of real people and fundamentally cannot function without it. AI certainly is not, cannot, and should never be a replacement for the work of real people.
And, as a side note, solidarity with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.
never would have thought that 10,000 people would care enough about what I have to say, but evidentially I've been proven wrong. sincerely, thank you all for your support. looking forward to the next chapter!
just wanted to say that I'm blown away by the reaction to my last video. thank you all for your support, subscribers both new and old! ALSO - new content is on the way. hope you like Shakespeare.
1C2
1C2
// “Beyond Fortnite” Postmortem //
Hello, gang. Once again, thank you so much for the great response to my latest video. After mulling the video over a bit, I’ve had a few more thoughts about the video that I’d like to share.
For one – there’s one point that I’ve been back and forth on wishing I included. In the PC Gamer article I referenced (www.pcgamer.com/the-metaverse-is-bullshit/), there’s a short discussion about whether Epic's open standards for the metaverse might actually hinder, rather than help, creativity in the long run. Here’s Raph Koster quoted in the article:
"There are no standards right now for 'what things can do' in a virtual world, and we shouldn’t want them. The act of setting the standard is also setting the limit, which would curb creativity enormously. There's far too much possibility to be explored still."
In other words, interoperability between different platforms may necessitate a flattening of the gaming experience, and put limits on what game designers can and can’t do with Epic’s suite of tools.
At the same time, though, you could make this argument about any set of new standards – that they make some things easier and limit you in other ways. I really wish I could have found more writing from game developers about how real of a threat this would be to game design. If any of you happen to have any resources handy – or maybe even have some insight yourself as a game designer/developer – I’d love to learn more.
And also (I don’t think this was the case but wanted to clear the air anyway) – I really hope that I didn’t give the impression that I was dunking on creators or framing them as complicit with what Epic’s doing. Even as a layman, it’s obvious how incredible and powerful a lot of Epic’s tools are. And indeed, the things people are making in Unreal or in Fortnite are just as incredible. I pray it came across that my ire was mainly targeted at Epic Games, the brands they associate with, and the roadmap they’ve laid out for the industry.
Hell, Epic themselves have even done some good things for the video game industry – promoting cross-play, for example. It just really bugs me so much how Epic loves to play “the little guy” in their spat with Apple, while being so coy about having these ambitions to completely reshape the internet for (let’s be honest) their own benefit.
Anyway, thanks again for your support and critique. If you all have any other thoughts to share, feel free to share them. Until next time!
6 months ago | [YT] | 9
View 0 replies
1C2
one other great moment from Device 6 (that I omitted) -- in Chapter 2, the game calls you an idiot for pushing buttons haphazardly. It's funny how it's *technically* not guaranteed that the player would toy with the buttons, but the writers understood their game (and conditioned the player) well enough that they knew it was more likely than not. love these little gems.
11 months ago | [YT] | 12
View 1 reply
1C2
// “Mobile Games” Video Postmortem //
Wow, I am absolutely thrilled by the reception of the Mobile Games video. Just wow. Oddly, the videos I feel like I put the least work into editing are the ones that end up doing well. That's just YouTube roulette for ya, I guess. And also – apologies to all of the Android users who want to play Device 6.
I’ve been going through the comments, and wanted to thank you all for your kind words and feedback. There have even been quite a few game recommendations that I’m intent on trying (SIMULACRA, Bad North, Sneaky Sasquatch, Fran Brow), and I was even reminded of some other gems from days past that I had forgotten about (World of Goo, Monument Valley, Dumb Ways to Die).
Some things I could have improved on – I would have loved to compare mobile games to other handheld platforms like the DS. The DS would have really made for an interesting comparison, considering how much special consideration had to be given when putting together a game for two screens, but it may have made the video a bit too bloated…idk.
Also – I realize now I should have shown a bit more discretion when choosing b-roll at some points. RAID: Shadow Legends would have been far more apt to showcase instead of Crossy Road, e.g., but I think my points still stand.
I also think I should have ruminated a bit more about ways to fix the incentive structures in place for mobile game developers, so that different sorts of games have a chance to shine, but that could also end up being a video in itself. Maybe getting AAA studios to port games to iOS isn’t such a bad idea, if it shows that studios can have financial success with games that aren’t “forever games.” Better curation systems definitely need to be in place, too, but I'm unsure what those would look like.
I also wish I talked about the one time I’ve seen ads in a game “done well.” There’s one game I played a long time ago called Skiing Yeti Mountain that has held a special place in my heart. At the end of some levels, you occasionally run into a businessman character accompanied by a billboard that shows you a video ad. However, the game played everything very tongue-in-cheek. The businessman’s dialogue was always super cheesy, and he always had a game-show host smile plastered on his face before showing you the video ad. Eventually, I paid a buck to get rid of the ads. But, funnily enough, paying the dollar doesn’t get rid of this businessman character altogether. He still occasionally shows up, but in ghost form. Hilarious.
Simogo (developers of Device 6) also recently released a rhythm game called Sayonara Wild Hearts back in 2019 to wide acclaim. It’s on my everlong list-of-games-I-need-to-play, and I’d be curious to see how the iOS version stacks up to the console/PC versions, considering their history in the mobile game space.
Anyway, thanks again for your support and critique. Until next time!
-----
More reflections available on my Patreon at www.patreon.com/1C2
11 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 44
View 6 replies
1C2
I’m curious — for those of you who saw the video and aren’t Adblock-pilled — did weird mobile game ads play before/during my mobile games video?
11 months ago | [YT] | 29
View 9 replies
1C2
A video that's been nearly a year in the making -- check it out!
1 year ago | [YT] | 6
View 0 replies
1C2
Apparently, AI is getting worse (or at least GPT-4 is).
Pretty insane that these tools that people have come to rely on can so drastically break over a period of just a few months. Imagine if any other software just stopped working like this. And I have a feeling it’s going to get worse.
Researchers have found that we could potentially run out of human-written training data for these LLMs by 2026, and as soon as AI starts cannibalizing content that it or another LLM has written for training data, they start to break down.
Just a reminder that, while slightly useful in some situations, these LLMs leech off of the work of real people and fundamentally cannot function without it. AI certainly is not, cannot, and should never be a replacement for the work of real people.
And, as a side note, solidarity with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.
twitter.com/matei_zaharia/status/16814679619059261…
arxiv.org/pdf/2307.09009.pdf
www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/24/1063684/we-cou…
futurism.com/ai-trained-ai-generated-data
1 year ago | [YT] | 73
View 13 replies
1C2
never would have thought that 10,000 people would care enough about what I have to say, but evidentially I've been proven wrong. sincerely, thank you all for your support. looking forward to the next chapter!
1 year ago | [YT] | 23
View 2 replies
1C2
just wanted to say that I'm blown away by the reaction to my last video. thank you all for your support, subscribers both new and old! ALSO - new content is on the way. hope you like Shakespeare.
1 year ago | [YT] | 34
View 3 replies
1C2
heard you like content, folks
1 year ago | [YT] | 8
View 0 replies
1C2
what video idea would you prefer to see made first?
(the second one is about Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West)
1 year ago | [YT] | 5
View 8 replies
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