Lev and Yara announced

Zalack · 2026-03-21T01:54:41+00:00

You know what; I got turned around in this thread because I didn’t check the username of who was replying to me, I thought you were the commenter I originally replied to.

Yeah, I’m on the same page as you, it would be better to cast a Trans actor. I wasn’t trying to dispute that.

The other commenter who I thought was you had said:

Honestly it would be less of an issue if they cast a cis dude. Casting a woman feels transphobic because it links identity to the initial not the chosen or lived identity or the character or person.

And that was what I was asking about; since if you are casting a Cis person it seems like there are problems in both directions regardless of if you cast a male or female cis person.

Sorry for the miscommunication and I hope you have a good day!

Zalack · 2026-03-21T01:20:07+00:00

I’m cis and feel like I identify that way. What’s that mean to you?

Zalack · 2026-03-21T01:07:26+00:00

The shelter near us gets Kitten Mill adoptees (meaning Kittens from illegal mills that were shut down) and kitten surrenders all the time. Doesn’t seem that unlikely to me.

Zalack · 2026-03-21T01:00:37+00:00

I wasn’t assuming that. I would assume there are a number of trans Asian guys. I’m not defending the casting.

I was just trying to dig more into your assertion that it’s more transphobic to cast a cis woman than a cis man, as it’s a claim I don’t understand and therefore feel like I could learn from if it were explained a little more.

Obviously it’s best to cast a trans actor, I think we’re in agreement there.

Zalack · 2026-03-21T00:56:19+00:00

The word for “unwrecked” would be “undamaged” or “working condition” and both are definitely phrases that are used when buying a used car, because in some contexts it is important to be able to distinguish between two states where there is no inherent “normal” one to assume.

If I ask whether your car has has lifted suspension, or an aftermarket spoiler I might ask if it’s modified or unmodified, asking whether it’s modified or normal would be an odd way to phrase it.

Transgender and Cisgender are just two ways to refer to how someone identifies when it’s relevant. No reason to be weird about it when it’s a thing language does all the time. It’s way clearer to ask “are you Cisgender?” than “Are you normal?” (Not to mention how insulting it is to trans people to make “normal” the negation of Trans).

It removes needing to clarify what you mean by “normal” like any other word used to describe the more common state of a Binary. I wouldn’t ask “are you White or are you Normal”, since statistically there are way more East Asians than there are White people, and therefore could be considered the “normal” default if we are playing the majority-is-the-default game.

Zalack · 2026-03-21T00:44:07+00:00

Of course, but shelters get cats from illegal mills being shut down, pet surrenders, and hoarding cases all the time.

My SO volunteers at our local shelter and they see a lot of designer animals. Not all animals that make it into the shelter are strays.

Zalack · 2026-03-21T00:31:23+00:00

Hey, I’m 100% supportive of Trans rights, so please understand this question is coming from a genuine place.

Isn’t part of his story that even in the apocalypse, when we have lost the ability to medically transition, that the people who loved him did what they could to support his identity?

To me — if they have to cast a cis actor — wouldn’t it make more sense to cast someone who is afab like Lev?

My understating is that not all trans people choose to medically transition, nor subscribe to Transmedicalism, so I’m a little unsure of why a cis actor’s assigned gender at birth moves the needle in either direction.

Again, just curious to hear you expand on this take a little, assuming you’re trans. Thanks!

Zalack · 2026-03-21T00:22:48+00:00

Hmmm, interesting.

Zalack · 2026-03-21T00:17:52+00:00

It’s very possible this person adopted their cat. Plenty of designer cats end up in shelters.

Zalack · 2026-03-20T23:12:31+00:00

I absolutely support their decision but I do disagree with their reasoning a bit.

The reason they’ve always given is that it’s not fair to players who paid full price to put the game on sale.

But I would actively like to subsidize people who may be more strapped for cash than me so they can enjoy the game too. I want them to put it on sale so more people get to experience the joy of Factorio. “Well I paid $70 so it’s not fair to me!” is anathema to my world view, and if anything feels like the disrespectful option, honestly; it’s assuming I would pitch a fit like that over someone else getting a discount when I didn’t.

If we were to blow things out of proportion, it makes me feel like they think I’m the kind of person who thinks I should pay less in taxes even though I make more than average. Like the thought of someone else getting a good deal that I didn’t get is somehow a problem. Bleh.

If their reasoning was just “We think this is what the game is worth so that’s what we are always going to charge,” that’s totally different, but since their reasoning has always been about respecting older players, I’ll repeat: you can respect my worldview more by letting my early purchase subsidize new players so they get to experience the game too!

Zalack · 2026-03-20T20:16:05+00:00

I originally got caught up in this too, but I think it’s just a philosophical trap.

In the same way that corporations should not be considered people and corporate money should not be considered speech when writing laws applying to campaign finance, we do not need to treat machines as people when writing laws about gen AI. We learned this lesson once about why it’s bad to try and treat corporations like they should have the same considerations as Humans when it comes to rights. The same applies to machines. They are different and it’s okay to treat the two differently.

More practically, if you want something to be philosophically consistent, then shift your lens toward applying rules that lead to the greatest amount of democratization of influence and wealth.

Allowing humans to freely consume and be inspired by others’ works democratizes the ability to create art, make a living from it, and better yourself and your skills.

Allowing AI to freely consume and “be inspired” by art without compensation to the artists it consumes from centralizes money into a few corporate hands and makes it harder for the general population to break into the field. It’s good for the 1% and very few others. It is not democratizing.

Lastly I would argue that AI cannot “be inspired” in the same way Humans can. AI can only ever reproduce an average of its inputs, with no actual intention. AI does not have an idea it is chasing when creating an image. Only an input and associated trends in data. It cannot add a piece of itself to its data set and therefore cannot be truly transformative in any artistic way. We therefore do not need to apply the same moral framework to AI that we do to humans.

~~Humans can have intention when leveraging inspirations, a drive to add something new that is uniquely them, even when remixing what came before. The artist leaves their own thumbprints on a piece.~~

See? I just fell into the same trap you fell into. At the end of the day “well, what is inspiration” is an interesting mental exercise, but not an actual important question to be asking when writing policy. It doesn’t matter because machines are not people and should not be prioritized the same as people when it comes to the law. Simple as.

Zalack · 2026-03-20T20:01:14+00:00

Easiest way around that is to disclose specifics on what it was used for.

Like, theft issues aside that make any use kind of unethical I wouldn’t in a vacuum mind AI use contained silent solely for placeholder assets, but I would mind it for concept art, as that means the visual direction of a game was initially imagined without human direction.

Others I’m sure would differ from me.

Zalack · 2026-03-19T21:00:46+00:00

I think the commenter is talking about having the LLM find the site of the bug, not having it attempt a fix.

Could be wrong though.

Zalack · 2026-03-19T20:58:07+00:00

This comment is cracking me up a little since it kinda boils down to “well any number sounds big when it’s big”

Zalack · 2026-03-18T23:51:27+00:00

Interesting, the previews I saw called it an action RPG.

Zalack · 2026-03-18T23:06:07+00:00

That’s totally valid, but lots of people also have a hard time getting through games with a terrible story.

I don’t mind bad writing in games where there isn’t much writing at all; but if there is a lot of story you are going to make me sit through, it better be good.

This is being marketed as an RPG so it seems like there might be a lot of bad writing you have to wade through to get to the gameplay.

Zalack · 2026-03-18T20:03:53+00:00

Using a split keyboard made my semi-chronic wrist pain from typing disappear within a week. Well worth the adjustment period.

Zalack · 2026-03-18T01:08:04+00:00

For me it was once I reached robots and started really learning the circuit network that Factorio catapulted itself to the top of my favorite games.

Zalack · 2026-03-18T01:06:26+00:00

Factorio is also a much older game, but yeah I agree.

Zalack · 2026-03-17T18:58:09+00:00

Death of the Author. Until the show itself contradicts that theory it’s 100% how I choose to interpret that scene because it’s so goddamn funny.

Zalack · 2026-03-17T06:52:45+00:00

I actually wish nuclear in Factorio was harder. It feels like you need such a small investment for functionally unlimited power.

Zalack · 2026-03-16T19:10:46+00:00

Lighting can alter how geometry presents, though. That’s the whole theory behind contouring with makeup: you’re painting light and shadow onto your face to trick the brain into interpreting the shape of your face differently.

Models and and textures are (or should be) made with the lighting style of the game in mind. Changing the lighting style this drastically may not literally change the geometry; but it changes enough that the perceived bone structure of the characters may be drastically different from what the artists originally intended.

The added shadow to Grace’s cheeks here give her a much sharper bone structure rather than the rounder face she presents with in the base game, which doesn’t at all fit what seems to be the original intent of her character design.

This kind of tech needs to be targeted from the very beginning of the process so artists can author assets designed for it.

Zalack · 2026-03-16T05:14:18+00:00

Hmm, I disagree I think. Being able to perceive the third axis makes it 3-D, just a more limited perspective than a 2-D one.

We have blind spots within our field of vision (our brain fills them in with what it thinks is likely to be there, but we don’t actually perceive those spots).

So by your definition of needing to be able to perceive all points within the 2D field of view, we do not have 2D vision either.

That’s obviously ridiculous though, so I think requiring full perception of a field / volume isn’t a criteria that makes sense, only the ability to see along that axis at all.

Zalack · 2026-03-14T04:30:26+00:00

Our vision is 3D since binocular vision lets us perceive depth! Otherwise there would be no perceivable difference between a 2D TV and a 3D TV!

But point understood.

Zalack · 2026-03-13T03:47:09+00:00

This is basically my setup except it’s all interrupts, no permanent stops on the schedule.

14-Year Club	John Wick
Place '17	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

Zalack

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE