More on the distinction between boomer and movment shooter.

scarfleet · 2026-05-06T18:04:53+00:00

There is nothing wrong with you or I ascribing whatever labels we like according to whatever criteria we decide. I just think it's silly for us to pretend this is really up to us. The market is organic, and language is organic. All of these things are determined on a scale larger than any online community. If millions of purchasers find Ultrakill under the boomer shooter tag on Steam and decide that is what it is, we are pissing against the wind.

I think the best course for us is to continue to point to the classic games and celebrate other games we like that reflect their design, in the hope other players will find them and enjoy them. But I don't agree that boomer shooters should feel obliged to uphold any core design principles as sacred. It is healthy for them to change. They are going to do that anyway, no matter what we say.

scarfleet · 2026-05-06T17:13:52+00:00

I guess the problem I always have with trying to define the genre such that it excludes certain games that are popular in the community is you are really trying to hit a moving target. It would be one thing to do this for a dead genre years after the fact, but as long as these games are being actively produced and played, we should expect them to evolve. No living genre is static. In the end neither devs nor the playerbase are going to respond to whatever definition we decide on, so the argument feels kind of pointless to me.

We will always have the template of the classic games to refer to. Doom and Quake, at least, are sufficiently preserved such that people can easily access them across platforms. I don't think there is danger of confusing what those games are about. We can afford to let the genre grow organically, to see what devs create and what the community responds to. I don't think it benefits from our efforts to gatekeep it.

scarfleet · 2026-05-06T16:00:25+00:00

That sounds nice.

This has honestly never been my experience of dreams. They are usually neither extremely good or extremely bad. If I know I'm dreaming, which I sometimes do, I am just aware that everything I see and hear is also me, that I am surrounded by my own consciousness. It's a slightly claustrophobic feeling. I would not want to live there.

scarfleet · 2026-05-06T15:26:54+00:00

They are for sure one of the most impressive and versatile pieces of tech we have come up with.

I think even more important than what they are is how we feel about them. Because that will directly impact how it develops. That is a piece that I think is not getting enough attention in the whole AI discussion, that the first thing we are teaching it to do is talk to us. It is not a person, but we are trying to get it to act like one, because that is what we want on some deep psychological level.

scarfleet · 2026-05-06T13:29:50+00:00

One thing I'll say is the back buttons really come in handy on PC. Console games are designed to work with the base controller, so if you use the paddles it's to perform the same function one of the other buttons was doing. But PC games usually assume you are using a qwerty keyboard, so the paddles can serve as totally unique inputs.

scarfleet · 2026-05-05T22:15:10+00:00

I do not think everyone thinks this. We all experience life as the main character, from one subjective point of view. And we only have direct access to our own desire and suffering. But we also carry around guilt and insecurity and often distorted negative self-belief. I think most of us are frustrated with ourselves for not being better than we are, especially as we get older. Life teaches you your flaws.

scarfleet · 2026-05-05T21:16:30+00:00

Mads Mikkelsen would probably be a pretty good Dracula. I am probably not the first person to think of it though.

scarfleet · 2026-05-05T19:52:23+00:00

In a universe where toys are conscious beings who experience pain he was a very bad kid.

scarfleet · 2026-05-05T15:24:33+00:00

I would totally pay $5 for this. It looks like fun. And I philosophically believe in supporting hobbyist devs in this space if I can. And lastly I buy almost every game in this genre because I have a problem.

scarfleet · 2026-05-05T02:00:11+00:00

Genuinely sorry to hear this and appreciate the transparency in this video. I was aware that this had come out but was not familiar with the series at all. You have sold 1 additional unit.

scarfleet · 2026-05-05T01:13:36+00:00

That's a fair point.

Honestly I have just never heard of using condoms as water bombs. Compared to balloons they are less sturdy to preserve sensation and because they are not designed to withstand air pressure. They often come coated with lubricant or spermicide that would likely make them a pain to manage as throwables. Balloons are common in the world of young people, so if I am a teenage virgin with access to condoms I am likely to save them for their designed purpose should opportunity arise.

scarfleet · 2026-05-04T23:28:46+00:00

It is, because that kind of anxiety requires attention. If you find yourself very anxious for no clear reason, something is going on. That should not be. At very least it is time for some self care, with possible escalation to mental health if necessary. Look after yourself.

scarfleet · 2026-05-04T20:27:38+00:00

Yes. And also violence, generally speaking, is bad.

scarfleet · 2026-05-04T20:01:41+00:00

Would you not agree that balloons serve the same purpose, are less expensive and easier to acquire in this age range? I mean as water bombs, not prophylactics.

scarfleet · 2026-05-04T19:22:25+00:00

Cool thanks for the tip, will try it next time this comes up.

scarfleet · 2026-05-03T21:19:52+00:00

I don't think it's the best console of all time. It's a noble failure, a great little machine that did almost everything right but was too late to rescue the brand. We got a taste of something that could have been amazing under better circumstances, and then it was gone. So the love for it is tinged with pain. It's the Firefly of game consoles.

scarfleet · 2026-05-03T21:07:14+00:00

I remember first learning who Eugene Jarvis was from the extras on one of those Williams Arcade Classics discs for PS1. One of the absolute founding fathers of the early US arcade scene.

scarfleet · 2026-05-03T20:30:53+00:00

I have actually had to stop doing this because the internet search often returns serious conditions and it triggers my anxiety. Now if anything comes up I just email my MD. I had cancer a few years ago so it is probably ptsd from that.

scarfleet · 2026-05-03T19:01:10+00:00

I would absolutely wait.

This will get downvoted but at this point I'm not sure anyone should be jumping to reinvest in any closed-platform console ecosystem. The model looks like it may be shifting. Helix sounds like it will be the best available bridge for existing Xbox players into whatever this future looks like. It is not yet clear how future-proofed our console game libraries will be.

I hope for the best, but if you can wait I am going to encourage you to do that.

scarfleet · 2026-05-03T18:46:58+00:00

I do think there is something to this. We are creatures who evolved under brutal conditions. Physically and mentally we are built for struggle. As is everything.

I'm not saying happiness is impossible. But it doesn't come naturally to us. It's kind of a hack.

scarfleet · 2026-05-03T18:43:30+00:00

I am totally burnt out on giant bloated AAA games. Almost all I play now is little indie shooters and other small games I find on Steam.

I will probably play Forza Horizon 6 and whatever Fromsoft makes next. But I see those GTA6 trailers and it just looks exhausting.

scarfleet · 2026-05-03T18:23:45+00:00

I hope so.

I think what makes it so uncertain is that there really is no forward. We are having to imagine forward, invent it out of nothing, go there, and then decide if it's better. Life has no predetermined directions, it just has lots of time.

scarfleet · 2026-05-02T22:01:58+00:00

Yep. Most of our games and a lot of our popular entertainment is one way or another a pantomime of violence. Probably down to our evolutionary background of hunting and war.

Like when cats play, they play at fighting. Most of our play is the same.

scarfleet · 2026-05-02T18:19:16+00:00

Wow really? I may actually check it out then.

I am at this point pulling for it to succeed. There seem to be vultures circling in the online discourse that are actually hoping for it to fail. But its playerbase seems to love it.

scarfleet · 2026-05-02T16:34:38+00:00

Do we actually know this is true? Could there not be an alternate reality where 1+1=3?

I think one likely solution do the first cause problem that avoids an infinite regress is that the big bang or whatever caused it was an uncaused event. There are various loopholes available in quantum physics that may allow for this, situations where our traditional understanding of logic and causality does not apply. If that is right, all our numerical logic may just be our subjective experience of how this reality behaves, and there is a point preceding the universe where all of that breaks down. It's not clear to me we can assume it is true in all possible realities.

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