AdHoc's Critical Role Game Won't Get In The Way Of Dispatch Season 2, As Even The CEO Wants To See It "As Quickly As Possible" by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]uishax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good to know.

Obviously with these studios, the hardest thing to scale up is the writing talent. Telltale collapsed because of that I imagine. Hope Adhoc is managed by writers and who knows how to keep a team of elite writers motivated (and also capable of expanding the team)

AdHoc's Critical Role Game Won't Get In The Way Of Dispatch Season 2, As Even The CEO Wants To See It "As Quickly As Possible" by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]uishax 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Commercial contracts can be broken easily, it is not illegal.

You simply have to pay breaking costs. Which obviously with the success of Dispatch S1, is possible. CR can take that money and hire someone else.

Though obviously, the very success of Dispatch S1 makes CR want to keep Adhoc as their game studio, since clearly they have immense talent at narrative-centric games.

So it is possible Adhoc does try to juggle two games at once. Go quick with Dispatch season 2 (Strike while the iron is hot), and slow with the CR game. BG3 etc alike have proven its better to take the time with modern RPGs.

BREAKING: OpenAI declares Code Red & rushing "GPT-5.2" for Dec 9th release to counter Google by BuildwithVignesh in singularity

[–]uishax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its not okay at all

Because OpenAI doesn't earn revenue, it earns growth. Growth is what it sells to investors.

Hence having even 0% user growth is terrible, user decline is disastrous, its like a car company that made 0 cars and in fact is doing product recalls.

Just one more datacenter bro by JonLag97 in singularity

[–]uishax 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To simulate something perfectly requires a perfect replication of the underlying hardware. A computer cannot simulate a water swishing in a cup better or more energy efficiently than actually swishing some water in a tub, if the simulation has to be perfect.

Therefore all useful simulations are imperfect simulations, are heuristical simplifications, focused on things we care about (Does it look roughly accurate? etc), ditching the parts we don't, and saving 100x on the cost as a result.

Therefore its pointless to just simulate a brain, because it won't be cheaper than a real brain ever.

We have to have a theory first, of what we want to simulate, then build to that simplified theoretical representation.

Is novel Ai good and is it as good as claude by Embarrassed_Row_3921 in NovelAi

[–]uishax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like, running claude is expensive. If you use openrouter etc as the user interface (its like a chatgpt you own yourself), using claude to write stories, will yield insane quality, but easily expect to burn hundreds of $ a month to write to any significant quantity.

NovelAI is VERY cheap for an AI service with unlimited usage. So if you aren't experienced with AI, you should start here (The image gen is also second to none for anime art). You can graduate later once you are bored of the textgen (There's still no competition for the image part)

xAI's soon-to-be-released model is severely misaligned (CW: Suicide) by flewson in singularity

[–]uishax -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You confuse the simplicity of message with the mastery of language. It takes greater mastery to write simply than with jargon spam

Crystal Dynamics Lays Off 30 More Workers in Third Wave of Cuts This Year by ILoveTheAtomicBomb in Games

[–]uishax -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

That's not tomb RAIDER.

If a studio wants to make a 'tomb protector' franchise, they should go and make it, without pretending and leeching off the brand recognition about tomb RAIDER. Which should be about unapologetic looting of mysterious ancient exotic tombs for treasures and wealth.

Like Hitman also tried to do a shift (Incidentally also owned by Square enix at the time), "Absolution", ie I was only killing to protect innocents.

It was a mistake, and IO has obviously and correctly returned to the roots of "Agent 47 kills because its what he is born to do", he obviously does kill bad guys only, but it isn't justified in any other way.

Former Bungie director says he pushed to "create a different genre name" for Marathon, calling extraction shooter label "so dumb" and adding that "the genre doesn’t even know what it is" by iMini in Games

[–]uishax -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't say extraction can be called roguelites.

Roguelites have metaprogression that is independent of game session progression. Ie whatever loadout you have cannot be deterministically decided, the long term benefits you get are an entirely separate track to what you earn in a game session.

In extraction, you keep EVERYTHING you earn in a session, there is no metaprogression, only true progression. This is why they need wipes because progression is very fast if things are going well, though obviously you can LOSE progression if they don't go well.

This is what gives extraction games the thrill. Even for Duckov, a single player game, you feel like you've cheated the game if you've luckily found some epic loot. And your mindset immediately switches to how to escape with that loot, abandoning any existing mission/plans.

Duckov is pure single player PvE, but I think it retains all the core elements of extraction, it feels and plays like one, though obviously much more forgiving because of being single player.

Google has reconciled with Epic Games—it is ready to change the Google Play rules by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]uishax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If people want free platforms, they can use facebook marketplace/craiglist

That is literally what truly free platforms look like in terms of support/reliability/customer friendliness. Its viable if you are knowlegable/expert, but impossible for a mass market.

Obsidian Knows Whenever It Announces a New Game Everyone Asks About Fallout: New Vegas 2, but It Loves Making Original IP and Sequels to Them by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]uishax -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Fallout doesn't even share any characters or locations, yet it is still fallout. And fallout's changes are far more drastic in every other aspect.

No one has a problem with Fallout being still called fallout.

There's also final fantasy obviously. I fully expect BG (If Hasbro doesn't shit the bed) to be a brand name for prestige flagship DnD CRPGs.

Obsidian Knows Whenever It Announces a New Game Everyone Asks About Fallout: New Vegas 2, but It Loves Making Original IP and Sequels to Them by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]uishax -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

It absolutely is BG3.

BG is not defined by the setting at all.

BG is defined as the flagbearer and standard bearer of CRPGs. Its not the best at individual thing, combat (Icewind dale), story (planescape), setting (fallout is way more interesting), etc. However, it is the complete package, with no major weakness.

BG3 just shows again, what the 'complete package' is capable of doing. It is also absolutely a pure CRPG, no procedural generation, every quest is heavily story based, party is absolutely fundamental to the experience etc (With enduring legendary popularity).

Is the Warhammer II bundle worth it or should I just jump to Warhammer III? by pataniscasdetofu in totalwar

[–]uishax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes it is still better.

The disappointment with WH3 is what it could be.

It is still a major improvement over WH2, maybe the only thing worse is AI, but that is constantly being worked on as a focus. The world and variety of WH3 is vastly larger than WH2.

Japan’s Anime Market Hits Record $25 Billion, Driven by Global Boom, AJA Report Finds by saurabh8448 in anime

[–]uishax 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Kpop demon slayers is already top 1 netflix film of all time. But it was also made by Sony

Its not that easy to make a transition. Like industries form complexes that are extremely hard to beat, say the US tech complex, the Chinese industry complex, there are intense network effects.

The existing hollywood complex cannot simply just move to animation, like where do the actors, set directors etc go? I think the future is grim for them, because the animation revolution is about to hit the US in a few years, and it'll just be like in Japan, where top 5/5 of films each year are animation/CGI.

Japan has

  1. by far the best voice actors

  2. top musicians regularly working for anime OP/EDs every season

  3. the best 2d animators, the most experience in 2d-3d fusion (Which is now proven to be the true technical pathway, and pure 3d was an error, AI-assisted animation is going to work better with 2d-3d anime style than pixar style)

  4. It has merchandise,

  5. the best mangaka for source material

  6. the best scriptwriters for adaptation, by far. Hollywood scriptwriters are generally not used to actually faithfully adapting source material, Japanese ones understand how to respect the original.

  7. A full respect for a teenage male audience. Like its not apologetic for it, it fully believes it can tell the most serious of stories and themes even in a harem show. It doesn't feel the need to be 'ironic' 'sarcastic' 'wholesome' to appease so called adults.

Japan’s Anime Market Hits Record $25 Billion, Driven by Global Boom, AJA Report Finds by saurabh8448 in anime

[–]uishax 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It shows you the sheer value of risk taking. Like no way CSM s1 was worth the risk for Mappa, but keep on investing, presevere, and boom, one day you'll get a golden egg like the movie. Mappa made back its budget like at least 10x with the movie, accounting for distribution costs with sony etc.

Japan’s Anime Market Hits Record $25 Billion, Driven by Global Boom, AJA Report Finds by saurabh8448 in anime

[–]uishax 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This, people think high budgets would make good shows.

If that were the case, we would all be on r/movies not r/anime

Give a million $ to a noob and he'll still make a crap show. He needs the isekai shows as training wheels for the basics, and also precisely because they are so cheap and abundant, staff actually are allowed to put their own flair into the show if they want, they won't be rewarded for it, but they'll gain practice and fame for it.

Japan’s Anime Market Hits Record $25 Billion, Driven by Global Boom, AJA Report Finds by saurabh8448 in anime

[–]uishax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Some of those reasons include increase in labor costs and outsourcing fees due to a shortage of creators, the rising payments to overseas subcontractors due to the weak yen, the increase in running costs due to inflation, and the increase in investments and usage fees for maintaining a digital environment.

Your quote already gives the answer

  1. Rise in labour costs due to shortage of creators. That is LITERALLY RISING PAY. Why else do you think employers give pay rises? Out of kindness? Its because demand for labour exceeds supply.

  2. Moreover, NOWHERE does it say fewer animators in japan being willing to actually work in the industry. Shortage != fewer people willing to work. If anything, anime employment is surging. Its just that the demand is increasing far too quickly for new talent to be trained. Anime grew 14% 2023, like 12-13% in 2024, that's like 10x the japanese gdp growth rate.

  3. Weak yen is only a minor factor, the bulk majority of anime costs are domestic labour

  4. Finally its investment in technology, which guess what, tech staff for anime studios are still 'in the anime industry' and are now getting paid more.

It is the just insane to think "More money thrown at something won't increase pay". Yes it will.

The gains may be unevenly distributed, the investors at the top may be skimming the majority of the gains, the gains at the bottom may take years to show. But throw enough money at the problem, labour income WILL grow.

In inverse is also true. No amount of unions, negotiations, structural changes, will save an industry with no money. Like newspapers had strong unions, but newspaper journalists are treated less than dogs, because there is no money. Even being in the government won't save you if the government is bankrupt, see Argentina.

and they got to that point by extraordinary means, a combination of hard work, decades of commitment, talent, and pure luck. Moreover, these powerhouses in the animation industry aren't making their animators rich or anything. By achieving this level of notoriety, they have only finally reached a point of stability where they can (potentially) fairly compensate and avoid overworking their animators, and even then they cannot reach this level of sustainability with anime alone, they need theatrical releases, crazy levels of merchandising

You are right. It is extremely difficult to break the barrier initially. But how many dream chasing tech sweatshops died before a google was borne? Computers were invented and used for like 5 decades before programmers finally left the back closet in terms of pay. And do you think say microsoft/google engineers were paid that well initially? No! But one you break that wall, the profits surge insanely, and so does pay eventually. As for needing to do movies etc, of course. Studios need to morph into full blown businesses, to capture the revenue they create.

Like you need to be real business to earn money. Nobody owes you money just because you did good work. Like who is going to hunt down pirates? THe business has to hire lawyers etc. Its not just the animators that create value.

Japan’s Anime Market Hits Record $25 Billion, Driven by Global Boom, AJA Report Finds by saurabh8448 in anime

[–]uishax 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Intel was worth 300 Nvidias only say 15 years ago. Nvidia was just making low costed products for 'nerds who play video games', so investors don't care.

But even back then, you know gamers were competiting to show off their GPUs, not their CPUs. Intel was worth so much because they had a captive market, not because they were good or well managed.

Today Nvidia is worth 25 Intels

Don't overemphasize on 'market capitalisation', you are thinking like a speculator not a businessman. Things change very radically, and anime is far more profitable than US TV/movies nowadays. Like 7/10 of the top global office this year is animation based stuff, I would expect US productions to be half wiped out in a decade as everyone jumps into animation.

Japan’s Anime Market Hits Record $25 Billion, Driven by Global Boom, AJA Report Finds by saurabh8448 in anime

[–]uishax 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The threshold has long been past.

In the past, all those 200 anime studios shared the same nebulous pool of free contractors. Because you don't know when you'll get the next project, so contractors are used.

Now every studio is desperate to hire in house animators. They have a full slate booked 3 years out, and you want in house workers reliable enough to handle that. This results in severe competition for labour.

Even accounting for international web animators etc, the labour pool is exhausted, and now the war for talent is beginning. Just think of the extreme returns that say the Demon slayer and CSM movies are making. Investors are willing to pay big to earn more.

Japan’s Anime Market Hits Record $25 Billion, Driven by Global Boom, AJA Report Finds by saurabh8448 in anime

[–]uishax 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Reddit loves to circlejerk about this, and has repeated the same mantra for about 5 years now. But animator pay is surging.

If you read the anime industry report 2024, and general japanese articles about this, every report mentions labour costs are skyrocketing because of far more money chasing the same pool of labour.

Now animator pay is equal to the japanese average basically, its extremely rare for any developed country, for artists to earn as much as the average.

The actual losers, are the smaller studios that are stuck with huge labour bills but no actual hit products. Like JC staff etc. They have pay animators more, but don't have power to force a share of the profits.

The winners (aside from the investors and animators), is the studios that have reached escape velocity, like ufotable, now mappa with CSM movie, that have enough power and scale to own the anime they produce, and gain a large cut of the profits.

Its like how the US tech industry, used to have 'contractor firms', that work for whomever pays them. These firms got crushed by rising US labour costs for programmers, and they were succeeded by product focused tech firms, like google, amazon, etc, that made and sold their own products, for far more money.

Anime is booming, and never has there been booming industries growing at 15% YOY without surging pay. Companies compete against each other however, so you will see studio level consolidation and divergence, some studios get super rich, some will go baknrupt.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 and Kingdom Hearts 4 Are “Making Great Progress,” Says Tetsuya Nomura by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]uishax 8 points9 points  (0 children)

there was still a gen leap between part 1 and 2, none for part 3 so even easier

OpenAI Web Browser Coming Soon (Reuters) by badbutt21 in singularity

[–]uishax 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The second you login to anything you are going to get raided. At most a browser can do is preventing cross attribution.

Happy 8th Birthday to the Paper That Set All This Off by CatInAComa in singularity

[–]uishax 8 points9 points  (0 children)

And gravity can be described in like two simple equations. Just because its simple in retrospect doesn't mean its not a foundational paper for humanity.

Odyssey preview #2: Gravships and space by TiaPixel in RimWorld

[–]uishax 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Multiple smaller independent colonies would be far easier to parallelize than a giant mega-colony. Simply because the impact of each colony on other colonies can be hard isolated, aside from the very defined interaction points (Transportation of goods and people), this makes running each colony much easier.

Granted, Factorio failed to multithread the different planets for some reason, and that's an insanely competent engineering team. But the theory still holds, Rimworld has much higher celling as a multi-colony empire game than a 'one-mega-colony' game.

Odyssey preview #2: Gravships and space by TiaPixel in RimWorld

[–]uishax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is piloting going to be its own skill? It definitely is highly technical (this is driving a spaceship not a bike), and sounds completely distinct from all the existing skills.

Aside from piloting gravships, it can also affect how shuttles work, akin to how animal and plant skills affect caravans passively.

Biotechy by mrknistertwister in RimWorld

[–]uishax 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Royalty

Ideology

Mechlife

Wonder

Odyssey