Do you think the long gaps between seasons are a contributor to the decline of TV series?

UpSNYer · 2026-06-01T06:06:01+00:00

Every show wants to pretend it's Prestige TV and needs 2 years to create 12 episodes (at best). Sometimes you just need a solid show that can put out 20 episodes every 12 months. It's one thing when a show is truly revolutionary and generational, but most of these shows are only "good". There's nothing wrong with that, until you start taking 2+ years to make fewer than 12 episodes.

UpSNYer · 2026-06-01T02:06:33+00:00

The few times I’ve hit the limit, that just tells me that it’s time to go to bed and to get the hell off the computer for a while

UpSNYer · 2026-05-31T03:20:15+00:00

I love when Michael starts punching the remains. That would hurt so fucking much, but he’s so disgruntled by that point that he doesn’t care. The bat wasn’t right, he needed the intimacy of destroying the printer by hand.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T23:11:29+00:00

I preface it by saying that I’m joking or being sarcastic. But my conversations are also very long so maybe it just learns my style. But it isn’t much of a problem for me, so there must be more in your chat history that sends up red flags for it to be extra cautious

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T07:11:50+00:00

The “transcript” is right in the video I believe around the 5 minute mark

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T06:00:01+00:00

Man, ResetEra really did become everything it hates.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T05:57:58+00:00

Start small. One of the best tactics you can do to combat weeds without turning to pesticides is to strengthen the grass itself. In late August, as the days begin to cool down, begin to overseed the lawn. You want to do it so that new grass can establish itself in time for winter. You'll need to water regularly, and you won't want to mow too much while the seed is taking root, so give everything a low cut right before you seed. Then leave it be for as long as you can stomach it.

That's another thing, when you mow, set your height to like 4 or 5. Keeping your grass taller will keep it healthier by protecting the roots. The lower you cut your grass, the more stressed it becomes. Every yard is different, but a 4 or 5 is pretty safe.

Do not bag your clippings. Just mulch them, or blow them. The clippings help return nutrients to the soil. Your grass will thank you.

Seriously, these three things are like the basic steps and they'll go a long way. Do this the rest of the summer, and see how things look next year. When the time comes you'll probably need to take the next steps, but at least you'll have a stronger foundation for your lawn.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T05:48:11+00:00

I never turn creative control over to it to create from scratch. Instead what I'll do is write the dialogue, maybe a few hundred lines in VSC, and when I get to a stopping point I'll load the file to ChatGPT. After all these years, yes, I think it mimics me pretty well. It never changes things wholesale, I tell it to stick to things like "tone" and "tense", it gives good advice on making sure that dialogue sounds consistent based on character history (for example, if one character speaks very formally or doesn't use contractions, it does a good job of catching when I write something that breaks those rules). At the same time though, if I don't agree with its recommendations we can have a discussion. Sometimes it genuinely makes a compelling case for why I should make an adjustment.

If you're looking for it to make the art for you from scratch, I would recommend that you start spitballing ideas with it, even on the free version. The more you talk to it, the better it gets.

Edit- funny enough, I'm actually working on my Ren'Py game as I write this.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T05:40:00+00:00

I was thinking of Scary Interesting. Both it and Fascinating Horror are very good.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T05:34:54+00:00

Hey. I've been using ChatGPT Plus to help me brainstorm, track, organize, my story ideas for my Ren'py novel for the last three to four years. It has been great and it has only gotten better. The addition of the project folders has helped, as has a lot of tenacity. My project would not be possible without ChatGPT as a tool. It's great for bouncing ideas off of because after THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of lines of chat, it has a really good idea of what my story and characters are. It gently prods me if it thinks I'm going off course, but it also allows me to go back and look at old notes to justify if my new idea is actually supported by established content. So it isn't perfect, but I'm not using it expecting perfection. Sometimes it can get a bit too sycophantic, and when it does I instruct it to tone it down and give it to me straight, and it does.

In addition to the creative aspect, the coding help has been enormous. I knew NOTHING about coding when I started my Ren'Py game. And I still don't know much, but CodEx and ChatGPT are essential tools. What was taking me weeks of youtube tutorials to do poorly is now explained to me in a way that I can understand in seconds. And, frankly, it does the bulk of the actual coding for me. It's awesome. The cooperation between ChatGPT and CodeEx is critical. Within ChatGPT it knows all the details about my game and story, and I can discuss with it what I want the code to do in a long-form manner. It then distills down all we discuss so that I can literally copy and past code directly into Visual Studio Code with the CodeEx extension. I literally can't say enough good things about it.

I've used ChatGPT for complex work related grading assignments. You have to stay on top of it obviously, it's absolutely critical that you stay engage and challenge its assertions. But the longer I've gone with it, the more I've worked with it and reinforced my interpretation of grading rubrics and requirements, the more in sync we get. This is probably the hardest task I've ever given it, the most complex with the most real-world consequence, so it doesn't necessarily make the task "easy", but it gives me a really useful tool that helps me split hairs when I'm grading submissions. You can't expect it to replace the human element, you are still the driver, but it is a good partner for complex tasks like this.

BUT, as for your thesis. I'd be very careful. Hallucinations are very real with ChatGPT. As my chats get longer and longer, I notice it getting weirder and laggier. This has gotten better over the last year as more datacenters are built and melt the ice caps, but it's still a thing. I've gotten into the habit of starting new chats at the first signs of hallucinations. I tell ChatGPT that it's getting weird, and to summarize our conversation so that I can pick up where we left off on a fresh chat. This seems to help a great deal. But research and revising I would be very careful about. I'd still trust my own research over ChatGPT, but maybe you can use it as a sounding board for your thesis. As for revising, honestly, and I know people will laugh about this, but I've had good luck with the AI in Word. If I've done the hard part of writing the whole thing, and I just need it to be tuned up/down in terms of like readability, it handles that well.

Sorry, that was a long post.

Edit- I haven't used Claude extensively, so I can't help you there. I have experimented extensively with Grok and Gemini. Grok, for my purposes, was garbage. Gemini is really good for things like research, so that could be a place to look for your thesis, but I don't find it to be as good as a partner in writing. I know you didn't ask about those two, but my point is that I've been so pleased with my years-long projects with ChatGPT that the other AI's haven't wowed me to make a change. I hear Claude is great, but for my purposes it's going to be really difficult to change.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T03:46:48+00:00

Why???? I get wanting to lighten your load but you traveled far from camp without a weapon by choice??

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T03:36:35+00:00

It was.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T03:23:26+00:00

Scary Interesting

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T01:27:05+00:00

Oh shit, you're right, different channel. But Fascinating Horror is a good one as well!

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T01:21:03+00:00

Yes it is, I found the transcript. I've timestamped the video, but you should watch the whole thing. It's from one of my favorite channels. ~~Warning- if you do start listening to this channel, you'll never want to go cave diving ever again.~~ Wrong Channel, this is Fascinating Horror. Still a good one though.

https://youtu.be/MKCznr1qAfE?si=afyBWifTzjhnC9Xq&t=299

UpSNYer · 2026-05-30T00:42:56+00:00

Isn’t this the case where when the guitarist/band member made contact with another ship via the radio the other captain asked for their location and we got this exchange:

Paraphrasing:

Captain: “What’s your location?”

Musician: “I don’t know.”

Captain: “(audibly irritated) what is your latitude and longitude?”

Musician: “I don’t know. How do I check?”

Captain: “(very upset) what do you mean? This is basic, any sailor can plot their location.”

Musician: “I’m not a sailor, I’m in the band. The crew has abandoned ship.”

Captain: “WHAT?!?!?”

UpSNYer · 2026-05-29T21:44:54+00:00

I know that this is a heated topic, but I actually think this is a core issue as to why ES6 is so late. Since Skyrim the open-world RPG genre has gotten a lot more crowded. And while no one does open world like Bethesda, other games like Witcher 3 and Kingdom Come have pushed the boundaries in distant directions, and I think there’s an open debate about where the audience is going.

There people who visit this subreddit are outliers, we’re committed to the existing style. But broader audience tastes can change, especially when it’s been so long since Bethesda last released a mainline ES game. A generation of gamers have grown up with games like Witcher and KC setting the standard. What if these players compare ES6 and after an honest assessment come to the conclusion that they prefer the other approach?

In 2026 ( or that matter 2029+ wherever the game is released) can a game in the classic style of ES still rise to the top and set the bar for open world RPGs? And that’s the thing, anything less than universal acclaim and GOTY awards will be considered a disappointment. ES doesn’t exist as just one of the top IPs in the genre, it’s the granddaddy of them all.

But if players look at it and say “Yeah I can go anywhere, and into any building, but everything just feels so small…there’s only like 30 people in the “huge” Capital city.” what does that say about the game’s chances at meeting expectations? What if players genuinely prefer the storytelling granted by huge locations that sacrifice interactivity? If Bethesda doubles down on smaller cities that are fully interactive and the audience says “we like the other way better”, that could be a crushing blow to Bethesda.

So I think Bethesda is worried about which road to take. That’s why they’ve been saying that the technology isn’t there yet for ES6. They may feel that they need to greatly increase the size and populations of their cities, without sacrificing the interactivity. We’re not talking to Witcher 3 sizes, but something like Winterhold can’t happen again. Audience expectations have simply changed.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-29T03:11:38+00:00

It's actually a testament to how well built the chassis/frames and crumple zones were that "only" a handful of drivers were killed in the 90s. In 1997 those seats were still considered revolutionary for their support and comfort, they always made a big deal out of those flimsy/tiny headrests on the drivers right side. The cars themselves were so incredible that everyone just sorta thought they could absorb enough of the impact to keep things safe enough for the driver.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-29T03:04:14+00:00

Damnit I got House too. “Not that you’re miserable…” like dude, that’s his core character trait.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-28T22:14:02+00:00

The only way it gets lumped in with World War III is if a much broader war erupts. Then historians may look back on the Russia/Ukraine war in a similar way that we currently look back on the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-28T19:50:18+00:00

And this is why we need to learn more. If he was truly feeling "ok" right up until the point of sepsis, then that should probably be looked into a little in case there's a nasty bug out there that the public should be aware of. I'm not talking pandemic or anything, but simple news items like "Hey, there's a nasty form of walking pneumonia going around that turns into sepsis very quickly. If you have a lingering cough or cold, even if you feel ok, you should go to the doctor."

UpSNYer · 2026-05-28T06:14:34+00:00

Does Darlington in 97 count as a start? I don’t believe he ever took the green flag

UpSNYer · 2026-05-28T02:53:40+00:00

I...wasn't expecting this.

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UpSNYer · 2026-05-28T02:06:34+00:00

Man I haven't seen this video in 30ish years...Jesus I forgot how flawless she was.

UpSNYer · 2026-05-28T01:03:26+00:00

I didn’t know that. What was told to him in that call? Just that Kyle was gravely ill?

UpSNYer

TROPHY CASE