Best video recently about this from Yahtzee: https://youtu.be/4LplgYMiLhM

Yeah, I was going to mention that as well.

Longtime users and especially power users and mods have been on third party apps for ages. And because third party apps are the most “visible” examples of the API, that’s what drew the attention.

As soon as they tried to explain “it’s not only about third party apps, but also third party tools”, that’s when they lost people because explaining what those tools are and accomplish to users who aren’t mods (or even familiar with tech at all) becomes a subject without much clarity.

To a massive portion of users, there is no “reddit.com”, it’s just the app. The fact that so many subs are still using titles like “save third party apps” is a bad sign. It’s not “save Reddit from spam bots and other awful shit” (which is one of the things this is mainly about), but you’re telling a bunch of people to “save” apps that they don’t use or care about.

There’s an added cog in the machine here. Every time someone tries (and succeeds) in explaining the issues, the astroturfing (or just regular bootlicking) begins and suddenly there’s seeds of doubt.

One thing we can count on is Reddit fucking up again. And again. And each time, it’ll lose the more active users. It’s not ever going to be a mass migration, but waves over time. Even then, what can we say Reddit will be in another five years? Probably different from what it is now, with users who expect different things.

Because, while we know how shitty Reddit as a company has behaved, there are millions who have no idea (despite the popular posts by mods across thousands of subs) and now feel that the mods and subs which went private/restricted are the ones damaging Reddit, rather than Reddit shooting itself.

To be honest, not that many people seem to actually care and I think this would have gone better if they didn’t announce their “for 48 hours” bullshit. Imagine if the WGA said they were going on strike for two weeks and then getting back to writing. They would accomplish literally nothing.

Subs saying “for 48 hours” is the equivalent to that. If they just went indefinite from the start, they wouldn’t have to be polling people who are now mostly just annoyed that their experience has been unpleasant for two days.

Honestly, as much as I support the whole thing, it went about as well as expected. Mods kind of shot themselves in the foot, now the community blames them.

In a way, those users are right. Either go all in or do nothing. Middle-of-the-road shit doesn’t work for things like this.

Also, the constant image with the black background and large white text saying Reddit sucks (that’s at least how it appears to general users) is becoming literal spam. Regular users see it, and it becomes one of those things where it’s like “we heard you the first dozen times, please shut up”. Also, because it’s being spammed, it loses impact and people gloss over it or filter it out.

At best, they’ll annoy enough people to leave (kind of roundabout way of accomplishing things, but I guess it works). At worst, they’ve given reddit a reason to declare the mods as promoting and engaging in spam which “doesn’t benefit the users of the site, so we’re going to step in and get things back on track so everyone can enjoy Reddit” or some corporate shit.

Honestly, Reddit’s in a position where they may even have the upper hand now in terms of PR. Users angry, but not at them.

The thing is, the people who don’t realize what this is about are going to be having a really rough time in a couple of weeks when moderation slides. Of course, they’re going to blame the mods again and say they’re doing it on purpose because the “protest failed and now you’re just being spiteful and hurting the users”.

We know that’s not the case. The majority doesn’t and won’t care.

Thief. The first three, at least. (*)

Splinter Cell as well.

Basically, Splinter Cell got me into what became my favorite genre: stealth.

Then I went and played Thief because stealth, and just everything about those games furthered my love for not only stealth, but it was my gateway to immersive sims as well.

Also, the level “Robbing the Cradle” in Deadly Shadows will always stick with me. As someone who hates survival horror, that level was both fucking incredible and also a nightmare that I had to use a walkthrough to get through quickly.

KOTOR got me into RPGs, and New Vegas came around and has stuck with me ever since.

And Skyrim I guess, since I’ve played it way too many times.

Should probably add Prey (2017) as well. Incredible game. For that matter, Dishonored. Both have a permanent place in my mind. And when I say Dishonored, I mean the first two, although I also enjoyed Death of the Outsider.

(*) I actually enjoyed Thief 2014 for what it was. Not nearly on the level as the originals, but it was still okay, if a sadly forgettable entry which kind of put the nail in the coffin for future releases.

I love Elder Scrolls as well, but I kind of wish people would just give him this for now and stop badgering him about the next game. We know we’re getting it, we know it won’t be for a while, and yes, that sucks, but let the dude enjoy his passion project.

This has been a decades-long project for him, creatively and conceptually. Something he wanted before he even got a job at Bethesda. Like, there’s a significant amount of history with him wanting to make a space RPG, but only when “the tech is advanced enough”.

Whether it lives up to expectations is another story. No game ever lives up to every expectation, but even if this lives up to a few, I think he’ll consider it a success.

My only concern about post-TES: VI is who takes over for the series. I kind of trust Howard to put someone he believes in to take over, but it’s not going to be the same regardless. Maybe someone who works on ESO would be good, but I don’t know.

But in the meantime, I’m just going to (hopefully) enjoy his passion project and I can wait a few more years for the next Elder Scrolls. I know it’s become kind of a meme that it’ll be another decade or two, but I honestly don’t think it’ll be that long.

Ah, the business world.

Fucks over Ellen Pao so that all hatred is directed at her, discovers a few years later that corporate can do the same to him.

surprisedpikachu

Although, I think he hasn’t actually learned this yet and still believes he’s doing a great job. His comments a few years ago about how he “sees [himself] as a leader, rather than a slave” speak to his arrogance (and also his weird philosophies; I’m pretty sure this is a dude who unironically considers himself a real life Hank Rearden… shiver).

It’ll actually be really funny if they just knock him out of the way just before the IPO. CEO makes bad decisions and proves to be a liability. IPO not looking as profitable. Get rid of CEO to gain trust from investors? Launch IPO. Take the money and run. Of course, the decisions were on them as well, but of course they’ll claim no credit for it.

I’m sure he has contingencies in place, but still. It would be a hilarious end to his tenure if something like that happened.

Still new, but this was gaining a bit of traction a few days ago:

https://github.com/derivator/tafkars

Oh, man. Thanks for this. Just subscribed.

Probably niche, but /r/skyrimmods. Nexus is a toxic hellhole, but that sub was relatively chill (although had the occasional bit of drama, admittedly).

I’m really excited as well, but man… Don’t think I’ve preordered anything in… Like ten years?

On reddit, there was a sub I sometimes frequented called /r/patientgamers. Was good to have some compatriots in either waiting for sales or just enjoying old games because they’re still fun.

Only two times did I relent and buy games at full price over the last few years. BOTW and Spider-Man PS4 (which I actually just got bundled with my late entry into owning a PS4).

Considering this is Bethesda, as much as I like them, I might just renew my Game Pass subscription for this, rather than pay full price. (Side note: I’m 100% expecting the Game Pass price to jump just before Starfield is released.)

Once it’s on sale, I’ll get it on Steam because I can guarantee the modding scene is going to have way more freedom there than they’ll have with the Windows Store version.

So maybe play it near release on GP, buy it a few months later on Steam.

It’ll take a few months for major mods to start hitting the scene anyway because they won’t release the Creation Kit immediately. Of course, a lot of mods will be out there within a few days, but I’m expecting it to be mostly unofficial patches (thank fuck the community has agreed on ignoring Arthmoor and doing it with open permissions this time) and silly nonsense like replacing models or whatever, plus a few cheaty things here and there.

I mix and match.

DuckDuckGo is my main one, but I often find myself just using bangs and either throwing in !brave or !g before some searches because sometimes the results aren’t as relevant as I’d like.

I obviously don’t like Google, but if I need super quick results, they’re typically better for me, though they’ve honestly become ridiculously terrible over the last couple of years.

Not just because of promoted content, but because they don’t even seem to care about syntax anymore.

If I put quotes around a search term, Google seems to ignore it. Why? Who knows.

As much as I have… let’s say mixed feelings about Brave, I find myself using !brave more and more on DDG. More relevant results, at least in my looooong experience of using DDG as my primary.

Startpage doesn’t like me because VPN or whatever, otherwise I’d use it more.

I sometimes use a SearxNG instance as well, but that’s only if I’m really struggling to find something.

Yup! That was it. Apologies for the confusion, then.

I think when I was checking “show bot accounts”, I must have flipped that as well. Attention apparently isn’t my strongest suit.

Anyway, thanks for the quick response! Much appreciated!

Is there a way to message the mods/admin without messaging them directly (individually)? Can’t seem to find the option.

Only curious because for some reason, my account got labeled “bot account” next to my comments and I have no idea why. Maybe because I posted from Jerboa or something? It’s weird.

Not a bot, beteedubs. (Yes, yes, that’s what a bot would say, I know.)

Stealth edit: Yeah, even this comment. Am I like not fully approved or something?

Maybe Squabbles? Seems to be kind of a hybrid Twitter/reddit thing with profiles and whatnot. Still part of the Fediverse, so you can continue to post wherever, I think.

Oh, good. Not just me. Even got a 502 earlier.

I wonder, will there ever be a user cap in order to keep things sustainable?