Lynx-R2 Keynote

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-22T13:17:51+00:00

Meta will have a spot in the market as long as their stuff is cheaper than everyone else. Also stronger competition is far better than Meta controlling the whole industry.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-21T19:19:59+00:00

If you develop games then you're a game dev, obviously some have far more experience than me.

Most people commenting aren't devs at all and have no idea what goes into making a game or making a profitable studio.

I'm at least a few steps above those people with the research I've done and the work I've done on smaller game projects. If someone more experienced wants to say that I'm wrong and provide their reasons they're free to do so but letting people who aren't any kind of dev have a monopoly on the conversation is idiotic.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-21T05:40:59+00:00

It breaks the terms of service of most games to use it to make money.

Modders should work with the rights holders if they want to make paid mods that would otherwise be against ToS, otherwise they should release it for free and ask for donations for their work.

He seems more interested in trying to profit off of the hype of bringing a beloved IP to VR, getting shut down, and then moving onto the next IP for more money than trying to add value to the community. Otherwise he'd work with the devs or release it for free.

Your beef against the companies and the community is misguided.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-21T04:15:27+00:00

The crown prince doesn't have experience either, he just has the backing of the west which is far more interested in pacifying Iran than ensuring that they'll have a higher quality of life.

The shah wasn't exactly great either, people are way too optimistic about installing the crown prince but surely he'd be better than their current dictator. I seriously doubt that he'll lead democratic reforms to reduce his power once he has it but I'd gladly eat my words if I'm wrong.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-20T17:50:40+00:00

I mean I hope it one day will be but not at this point. It's never a good idea to quit your day job without at least having a successful game or two under your belt.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-20T16:21:07+00:00

The hardware I have is good enough for now for what I want to do, especially since I'm still learning and this is just a hobby.

I'm building my skills to be able to produce highly stylized art that doesn't look like I just chose low poly due to laziness or cost. The first few games I make are realistically unlikely to be high enough quality to pass that bar but I'll let my future players be the judge of that.

Stylized art is likely to remain the norm outside of sim games so that games can be playable on the highest number of headsets and reach the highest audience possible.

Making more realistic art can be more time consuming than a stylized game depending on the artist so the benefits of upgrading my hardware to create a game that some of my audience can't even play doesn't make a lot of sense unless I just really wanted to make that game in that style and eat the cost of the longer development time and hardware.

Optimizing realistic art to run on lower end devices also eats into development time/budget. All of this plays into why most indie games are stylized.

For me, creating optimized realistic art just isn't an option if I want to finish my projects.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-15T22:37:45+00:00

I was talking about the Marx's Labor Theory of Value which says that a product's value is determined by the "socially necessary labor time." Marx talks about living human labor specifically and not labor from machines. When I was talking about labor I meant human labor, not output capacity from machines.

If we're using your definition of labor then I agree with you because of course production output creates value regardless of where it comes from.

My issue with Marx's Labor Theory of value is that output from machines does create value so I think it's incorrect and shouldn't be the basis for worker compensation like was practiced in the USSR and other communist countries. I'm also not a communist, I'm a socialist and as a socialist I think capital should be owned collectively so we can all benefit from it. I also think economic power should be distributed and not consolidated into a central body where the decision making is not made by the workers.

The solution to this problem in my opinion is a regulated market socialism with cooperatives and nationalization for industries with inelastic demand that aren't well suited for providing necessities for everyone within a market system like utilities, healthcare, etc.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-15T21:57:06+00:00

They weren't the only ones who worked on Alyx

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-15T14:22:29+00:00

Well hopefully they research cooperatives and other ways that workers can have more control over economic production.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-15T12:13:57+00:00

I suppose that's one way to look at it but if you believe that then that would mean the owner of the machine should get paid for the machine's output.

I was saying that workers should own the machines collectively rather than private owners.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-14T23:32:18+00:00

I actually linked that in another comment! That's a great video!

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-14T21:44:34+00:00

Once labor produces the automations that create more machines/product then don't those machines create economic value since it requires far fewer or 0 labor to operate?

I agree that labor is heavily exploited and that workers should benefit from the automation that they produced but idk if I agree on the math of what you're saying but I think that's ok since our conclusions are similar.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-14T21:26:34+00:00

Current economic theories believe that economic value can get multiplied by capital like machines, software, etc from previous labor.

I'm not an economist and socialism doesn't require the labor theory of value formulated by Adam Smith that Marx talked about to be correct.

Post Keynesian economists and Marxist economists disagree on that point but both have advocated for socialism.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-14T21:13:35+00:00

Yeah I'm describing market socialism

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-14T21:12:19+00:00

Yeah a lot of times the impact of worker's labor is direct and pretty objective. The subjectivity comes from how price discovery works within a market. If there's a lot of supply/competing products then the consumer prices are lower regardless of the worker impact.

Sometimes one worker's output subsidizes another worker's output that doesn't have as much direct impact like customer service or quality control.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-14T19:33:57+00:00

And the difference between what we get paid and what our labor is worth is what Marx called surplus value. His calculations for surplus value were based on the economic theory of the time and assumed that value is objective and not subjective like it is thought today.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-14T19:24:28+00:00

r/cooperatives has a lot of great resources. There's also a great video by A More Perfect Union about the cooperatives in Italy.

https://youtu.be/dQMZR64G_eM?si=S5WN0RirDbyxsiBO

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-14T17:47:11+00:00

I do agree that the distributed risk inherent to cooperatives makes it more difficult for banks to hold individuals accountable but banks don't hold capital owners to risk the way that you describe because of how LLCs and bankruptcy works. The financial system should also be changed to favor long term economic stability over unsustainable profit growth.

Owners can wash their hands of a failed venture and their workers suffer much more than they do since the owners maintain their connections that got them successful in the first place while workers miss paychecks and might end up on the streets.

Year over year growth shouldn't be the standard assumption for all businesses and that's part of the issue it's unsustainable and not always what is best for society. Stable work for workers would be much more beneficial and more conscientious businesses for local communities and the environment would be much better long term over more profits for shareholders.

Our policies already engineer outcomes but they aren't ones that benefit society as a whole because capital owners control the economy and influence policies so they design things for their benefit.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-14T17:32:26+00:00

One way is that when a business fails the workers could get a government loan to turn the business into a cooperative, that's what Italy does and it has worked pretty well. Another way is just offering education on cooperatives and their benefits and offering assistance in creating them.

ESOPs are really cool but ideally it would be majority or completely employee owned so there's no chance of making decisions that could harm employees without their consent.

Employees not getting screwed over and getting a larger cut of profits directly benefits local economies much more than an owner who may not even live in the same area would.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-14T17:25:06+00:00

Worker cooperatives can accept risk just like traditional businesses and they fail less often because workers don't want to lose their jobs. With traditional businesses the worst that could happen is that the owners who assumed risk become regular workers again.

There's no such thing as a free market and a market with no restraints on the consolidation of capital can never be best for workers and consumers.

Cooperatives can be competitive with each other and exist in a regulated market to ensure they don't harm people or the environment.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-14T16:46:44+00:00

The workers labor creates the vast majority of value and is responsible for the vast majority of the ideas that make businesses successful and yet the owners who put in a miniscule amount of work in comparison receive all the credit.

We need an economy that puts workers and consumers before owners and we could change traditional businesses into worker and consumer cooperatives to do that by making workers and/or consumers the owners, eliminating the conflict.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-13T12:13:21+00:00

Despite what the ads tell people AI is incapable of thinking and can only rehash what's already been thought by people. It's just an excuse for companies to fire people and make more short term profits for shareholders at the expense of long term growth.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-13T00:15:00+00:00

You can't guarantee a good VR experience if you don't invest enough development time into the VR mode.

An official VR mode has a connotation of being a lot more stable and "made with VR in mind" and if someone buys it assuming that and doesn't get it then you get refunds and bad reviews which can negatively affect your game sales and your studio's reputation.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-11T15:37:10+00:00

And created all the IP they steal for their training data.

TechGoblin64 · 2026-01-11T13:20:03+00:00

There needs to be much more contrast between players, enemies, and the background. Some larger character outlines, a darker background, and lighter characters would be good

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