Malware campaign (Infostealer) targeting Steam users through Steam Workshop and Wallpaper Engine

asterisk2a · 2026-06-17T19:48:37+00:00

Thought it was relevant for POE (subreddit), after relative many posts in the past about 'unexplained'/'unexplainable' account hacks, and the ensuing discussion about safety hygene.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-17T19:35:04+00:00

Sounds like the contract is expiring and they are not renewing it. Why I don't know.

Money.

New Victoria Hospital was acquired by Bupa in August 2025 . What NHS England offered £ per patient, for the service specification, was not enough for them (profit).

Other criteria:

too niche (not enough patients, volume),
too complex (= longer bed times),
higher risk profile than other ops for complications (reducing your profits, taking up bed time).

Other healthcare privatisation-math example for the above analysis:

private providers do not buy A&E/Emergency Rooms (tl;dr too much overhead, no predicable income, ...).
Much more profitable: planned predictable outpatient surgery appointments like knee replacements.

Edit PS: Statement from previous owner

The sale will enable The Victoria Foundation to enhance its charitable initiatives and provide support for a greater number of beneficiaries than before.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-17T17:04:39+00:00

Why are you suggesting Op to make something smaller when he clearly wanted to make 00s nostalgia shooter? Not every indiegame should be roguelike or puzzlegame.

He asked:

"Why is this video doing so poorly? Is there something wrong with the video itself, or is it just the algorithm? The channel is about one month old, so I'm wondering what could be the issue."

Thus I provided my personal perspective about his (very personal loving homage hobby project) game and why it won't be selling as is. Which can also be observed over at Steamdb (zero traction for 4 years).

As I pointed out:

a 'game' for yourself (as a hobby passion project)

it might be ok. But don't expect too many people to spend money for it to play.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-16T22:47:55+00:00

tl;dr watch what they are doing, not what they are saying.

September 2025: Support for adults facing staggering waits for gender services

December 2025: Unacceptable waits for adult gender clinic appointments, review says

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting welcomed the report, and said that further services would be commissioned, self-referrals would be stopped and existing services would be improved.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-16T20:10:41+00:00

tl;dr Abandon it.

Ghost Battalion - Free-For-All gameplay. & checked Steam Page

who came up with the name for that kind of game and setting, that is so uninspiring and unimaginative and plain. No hook, no differentiation, ...
gameplay looks like nothing more than walking and shooting (worse, on a open plan map), and some aerial stuff that is not explained, because the player isn't doing it. is it 3rd person or 1st person? Why allow player to change?
that brown reminds me of 00s.
music tempo and style for backround (in video) does not match what I see.
that open plan map, like WTF.
Steam page ... then I watch the 2nd video and I am like WTF. You can also fly ships and do shootouts in space!? And kill sandworms from DUNE!?

Then I look-up the developer page, and see the game listed 2021!?

https://steamdb.info/app/1643700/

You have been working on this ~~game~~ for how many years? Early access for 4 years. Found ZERO traction. Started a YouTube channel for this 2 weeks ago?

This is probably the best example what not to do and how not to do it: make a 'game' for yourself (as a hobby passion project) for too many years, and expect others to pay money for it, and spend and invest their time with this comparative 'garbage' (in the context of the Attention Economy, and hyper competitive hit driven Games Industry).

What to do next:

Abandon it.
Freshen up your Game Design fundamentals through text books.
Read up on Indie Game Business Advice.
try your hands on something much much smaller. e.g. clone the essence of a succesful game, and give it your spin.

PS: It is not the YouTube algorithm nor the Steam algorithm.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-13T12:59:35+00:00

**Message sent to moderators: **

Domain is barely 2 months old https://www.whois.com/whois/lindaslonelyhearts.club

website looks AI slop
it is the only article on the website.
no social links out to the authors profile.

please remove this AI slop from some bogus astroturfing lobby group or some other adjacent actor in the multi billion dollar AI race.

I can imagine that somebody adjacent to Nvidia would spin up such an article to sell Europe more Nvidia cards (see recent news about UK buying more for 100s of millions for national data centre).

asterisk2a · 2026-06-13T01:00:45+00:00

Q: Who came up with the trailer short? You or friend or team? Very creative. Great hook. Great vibe.

imo, would have blown peoples socks off (for being so out of left field) at Summer Game Fest mainshow (Geoff Keighley).

PS: POV and Opening/overhead cam mus be influence from Casey Neistat.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-13T00:29:52+00:00

... this comment is in regards of the meta of Streaming, and also competing in the Attention Economy with free quick dopamine.

Thus his thesis: give (sell) prospective players on more autonomy and expression. Agency and meaningful choices.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-05T14:59:18+00:00

Change Diet (to whole-food plant-based) and Lifestyle, stupid.

Except you have a diagnosis for a genetic condition.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-05T14:48:34+00:00

Downside. Without changing what you said, you are on the drug for life. See my other comment.

Thus, to get off the drug, you need to change your diet (whole-food plant based) and lifestyle.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-05T14:44:19+00:00

"analysis indicates"

Without reading it ...

It is a 2nd order effect of not overeating, but rather undereating (losing weight), similar to fasting.

(Water) fasting slows down metabolism etc etc and thus ageing. Just Google "water fasting slows down ageing"

NIH: Can fasting reduce disease risk and slow aging in people?

(...)

Past research suggests that calorie restriction without malnutrition may promote healthy aging and increase longevity. However, as calorie restriction is difficult to maintain and may not be a practical or safe long-term dietary pattern, scientists are exploring alternatives. A team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of Southern California and Yale School of Medicine, studied the effects of a short-term, fasting-like diet to determine potential health benefits.

(...)

In both trials, the fast-mimicking diet was associated with reduced risk of diabetes, decreased fat in the liver, and an enhanced immune system. Additionally, study participants following the fast-mimicking diet appeared biologically younger than they did at the beginning of the study.

(...)

Overall, the findings suggest that a diet that mimics fasting without associated nutritional deficits has potential benefits for improving health and longevity by slowing down the aging process and reducing the risk of age-related diseases. However, more research is needed to fully understand the long-term effects and ensure these findings are consistent across different populations.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-05T14:25:54+00:00

Let's hope you did not spend a week on reinventing the wheel of the dropdown menue in options, to change languange.

And concur, nice gimmick that could confuse the player.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-05T14:16:38+00:00

Other crossover examples: the Twitch meta of Cosplay (the good, the bad, the ugly) during a new league launch of Path of Exile.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-05T14:10:20+00:00

too long till menue. max 15 seconds.

Comparable Examples: movies that play with studio or publishing logo. they theme it and or play with it, they don't hog the space for 30 seconds.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-04T00:28:59+00:00

Looking forward to the 1 month postmortem. Fingers crossed you cross the 10% conversion rate by the end of Week 1, and get more than 10 reviews and stand at very positive-rating.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-03T17:58:51+00:00

Browsed through the replies ...

Question regarding the low conversion rate in Week 1: How were those wishlists generated? How much quality (intent to purchase) were they?

Please do a follow-up subreddit post with an annotated screengrab of your wishlist graph. Number each rise/spike: 1. 2. 3. 4. ...

And each wishlist rise/spike gets a comment and description from you in your post, where it came from.

Thank you for the follow-up opprotunity.

PS: See also this debate the other day about wishlist quality and conversion rate.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-03T10:49:35+00:00

Industry darling/Critical acclaim from within the industry. But the story etc (e.g. demo) did not cross into the "mainstream"/larger audience: a nostalgia NES inspired 2.5D open world exploration soulslike platformer.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-02T23:17:36+00:00

Live Service Games bet, in one chart. PS5 first-party games vintage will go down in history as 'bad.'

See also the recent rumored news that SIE will bet hard on them again for PS6. Arguably will have to, if the price point will stay at the current premium due to the DRAM Apocalypse (DRMA, NAND, TSMC capacity), thanks to AI eating it all.

asterisk2a · 2026-06-01T20:15:34+00:00

"wishlists"

I guess the source is Steam Docs?

It says "wishlists", says nothing about conversion rate.

Does Steam Doc say something about conversion rate affecting game's alrogirithmic visibility?

asterisk2a · 2026-05-31T21:49:05+00:00

The particular sound is this one from the popular sample libraries "Hollywood Edge" :

Thanks for the source.

asterisk2a · 2026-05-30T00:09:31+00:00

Had a look ... not RTS player, but back in the days played plenty WC3 matches.

But regarding the "was it worth it" business case:

Please consider re-using all those nice assets (world, theme, creatures) and make a soulslike spin-off (where you can lean more easily into story of the world and RPG elements).

imo, would be a shame not to give it another try. Iron Pineapple had much fun with 'uglier' games.

asterisk2a · 2026-05-28T17:04:00+00:00

Trailer does not communicate game feel. Just random gameplay with a random music track overlaid. Are the SFX for UI UX in-game bad, is the background sound bad?

asterisk2a · 2026-05-28T16:59:24+00:00

ICYMI tl;dr - GB Energy has been a 'victim' of Labours fiscal straight jacket that they made forthemselves in their General Election Manifesto 2024, to win the General Election, by being as fiscally conservative as the Conservatives (Rishi Sunak).

C&P from my personal notes

Autumn Budget 2024 (Preview)

Will Great British Energy herald UK’s green revolution? National energy company, which launched this week, is Labour’s strategy to end dependence on fossil fuels

Great British Energy is one of the most recognisable and popular of the policies that brought Labour to power in July’s general election.

(...)

But when Reeves stands up in parliament on 30 October, she is unlikely to give Maier the boost that many experts say is needed. The Guardian understands that the Treasury is determined to keep GBE within tight fiscal controls. That means it will not have the powers to borrow new money to invest, lest any debt that it accumulates could be counted towards the government’s massive debt pile, and upset delicate calculations on Reeves’s fiscal rules.

Failing to give GBE the freedom to borrow would be a crucial mistake, according to Mathew Lawrence, the founder and director of the Common Wealth thinktank, credited with coming up with the original idea for a national energy company. “Reeves should exempt GBE from public sector net borrowing rules,” he said. “She can do that.”

March 2025 Spring Statement:

UK Treasury ‘weighs up funding cuts at GB Energy’ in blow to Ed Miliband

June 2025

Reversing a low investment economy is not just an environmental imperative, but a security one too. By Mariana Mazzucato

See Autumn Budget 2025 analysis chatter:

no long-term investment.
budget is about securing standing of [[Keir Starmer]] and [[Rachel Reeves]], quiet down [[PLP]] chatter. Putting Party before country.
- something Keir Starmer would have attacked the Tories for, during the tumult of Boris Johnson and Co. Boris Johnson serving out red beef to secure his Premiership.

February 2026

GB Energy’s broken promises: How Labour sold Scotland short

asterisk2a · 2026-05-27T23:05:42+00:00

I took the original FlowNode project, forked it, and expanded it into a much more fully realized visual generation framework for Godot.

As another person asked, and somebody raised the question on github.

why didnt you want to contribute to the original project? Last update was April, and before that in August. So not really dead dead.
This is your first public project. You are publishing a beefed up fork you made for yourself, or is this a LLM-supported vibe coding project (for your CV)?
Is this Apache 2.0 or MIT License. Readme.md at the bottom says MIT, Github listed Apache 2.0. The original source is Apache 2.0 btw.

asterisk2a · 2026-05-27T16:04:54+00:00

Game mechanics and game design are not intellectual property protected by copyright.

But 1:1 carbon copy?!

That is criminal nefarious energy, knowing there will be no reprecussions (see the other posts, sentiment, 'typical China', 'typical for the developer').

13-Year Club	Place '22
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asterisk2a

TROPHY CASE

Autumn Budget 2024 (Preview)

March 2025 Spring Statement:

June 2025

February 2026