Well, there is an OpenSource client, and private servers with custom rules. That makes every modification possible.

Crazy talk, and you’re onto something… that’s been solved already.

First part: you hate that a 10+ years old game is only getting cosmetic changes instead of a rehaul of the whole character model. That’s crazy, nobody’s going to do that, not the ones expecting a profit, and not the modding community doing it for free. If you feel it’s a silly change, you’re right, but realize that it’s the only change they could do.

You’re onto something: body feature sliders. Male, female, giraffe, and turtle bodies, have some structural differences, that however mostly match to the same bones having different shapes. The solution is a body shape slider, or 50. It’s something that existed, in some games, since at least the 2000s. Others were lazy and didn’t do it.

For reference of how far this could go, the following all have the same bones, only change in shape, size, and muscle placemen:

Games could have multiple protagonists with different bodies, genders, personalities, etc… something like Overwatch did have that, you could even play as a hamster or a robot!

Looks like photo-edited AI? 😜

Could be a chat or email trail. People nowadays often forget the difference between talking something over at the urinal, and writing about it in an app.

As someone who’s never been into sexting… what’s the difference between “leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate”, and “actual sexting”?

Both:

dialog_error = Dialog_plain.create_modal(error_text)

Variable and class names go from more general to more particular, functions begin with a verb.

Global functions are either “main”, or start with one of “debug”, “todo”, or “shit”.

The best loading screen is: none.

Load levels in chunks, preload the first chunk of the next level before the player reaches the end of the previous one, and either have a smooth transition, or at most put a skippable cutscene.

Loading screens are for poorly developed games.

The following is somewhat similar, but it keeps changing, and there is a decent evolution of the characters (hard to pull off in just 8 episodes, but they did it). Basically it’s 3 shows in one: in-vault, surface, flashbacks. Each one has its own conspiracy, which all come to a joint conclusion at the end, with a slight cliffhanger for the second season.

It’s not the best show I’ve ever seen, but I’d say they did a good job.

There is an anecdote about a judo teacher from where I live: he also liked his motorbike, so one day he was joining the highway, when some car rear-ended him at twice the speed, crushing the bike into the barrier. Driver was all panicky, then weirded out when the guy showed up to check if everyone was all right. Turns out he instinctively jumped out of the bike, did a somersault over the car, and landed rolling, then got up and ran to check on the driver.

No game physics needed.

So yeah, go ahead and be “100% certain”. I’ve seen actual martial arts masters IRL, and you wouldn’t believe how quick a fight can end with a thug biting the dust, or a lamppost. Technique beats muscles any day.

If anything, that fight on the show was slowed down and drawn out for “dramatic effect”.

I’m not a “fan”, haven’t played the games, other than some of the shitty mobile one, but knew some of the lore.

Just binge watched all episodes… and judging all of them by just the first one, is a mistake. There’s much more to the show than what amounts to a basic introduction.

But to each their own, as you said.

if there were a bunch of those symbols (all on one single room I might add) that absolutely seems suspect

Technically, I could understand that… IF the in-game character living in that room, were supposed to be a Nazi sympathizer. Otherwise, it’s a clear dog whistle.

Otherwise, rules have changed, and that symbology would no longer get the game insta-banned in Germany… as long as it was only used “in an artistic way”:

Germany lifts total ban on Nazi symbols in video games (10 August 2018)

No they aren’t, as @chloyster@beehaw.org explained.

But I wanted to point a tangent, from the article you linked:

outstretched middle, ring, and pinky fingers to represent a Roman numeral “3.”

Coincidentally, the Romans would count like 👍👉👌… instead of “thumb, index, middle” for the numeral “3”, because that resembled the letters “IV”, which were the first two letters of “IVPITER”, or “Jupiter”, formerly known as “Zeus”, the God of Gods, and making the “IV” sign in vain was considered a blasphemy… similar to how Jewish people wouldn’t “use the name of God in vain”, which lead to the expression “hallelujah” from “hallelu-Yah***”, meaning “praise Yah***”… in order to also not say the whole name of God. Curiously, Muslim people have no problem with saying “Allah” or writing “ﷲ”, just with depictions of their prophet, go figure.

These sign shenanigans have been going on for thousands of years, only difference is now a “meme” with 10 comments on 4chan, can become a hate sign used by thousands or millions in less than a decade.

PS: another curious one, is the ✋ “Hi!” vs. the Greek 🖐 “I smear 💩 on your face”… best not to confuse them 😉 (“oops, got something in my eye” /s)

Game asset development is one of the places where versioning systems are least used. Not only versionong “binaries” is taxing for the system, but even game code itself (¹) is often not version tracked, or controlled at all, with more of a “cowboy coder” approach.

It all stems from most non-online games (²) being sold “as is”, with no intent of supporting them long term; the moment a studio/producer gets the money, they stop caring about their user base, until it’s time to promote the next game. Even games with post-release DLCs, are regularly developed this way, and they end up as a giant clusterf… mess.

If Deck Nine was the “lowest bidder”, with 70-80 hours a week “crunch” months, chances are they cut corners on everything, starting with proper asset versioning.

(¹: engine code is a separate thing, which gets suported across multiple games, so tends to be properly developed

²: online games, and games with microtransactions, tend to be kept in better shape, since their income depends on them working for more than a single playthrough)

Heh, I’ve read it all… I used to go onto SL like 15 years ago 😬

is there actually any child abuse content being thrown at people?

Unclear. The proof they give are drawings, and the possibility of adding IRL photos as avatar textures.

Is there any way to see this stuff without being into it?

Apparently yes. It claims the areas are not age restricted, and while some content might appear only when a whitelisted user is present, the content, and any avatar interactions, would be visible to anyone in the same place at the same time.

The whole article smells a lot… but other than the toxic environment, it also claims other problems:

• Removing age controls
• Grooming
• IRL human trafficking

If true, those are punishable pretty much everywhere.

The part about removing ban lines from an invite-only explicit area, would also be quite suspicious.

Wow, that’s some wall of text. Between the language used (royal “we”?), the severity of the accusations, the mention of a smear campaign against “the authors”… why is that thing on Medium, instead of on police reports?

The livelihoods of too many people depend on Second Life

Maybe they shouldn’t, they’re the original NFT peddlers before NFTs went blockchain.

The whole thing reads like a hissy fit between some internal factions. I’m also kind of surprised SL is still a thing, I thought it went free/self-hosted with alternative clients and grids many years ago.

I guess a “patriotic story” could be made in any country about its respective fight for independence, and/or any war. Something like every character having a well built background, then sacrificing it for the greater good.

Maybe with the goal being to unmask the traitor, but the traitor being an NPC, then everyone learning of everyone else’s sacrifices as the game progressed, empathizing and ending up crying?

Dunno, I guess there could be many ways to make a mostly scripted game a patriotic one, when nobody can say “I throw a box of lit dynamite sticks into the air and cry Leeeroooy!!”, or “A book? I read aloud whatever it says. Ph’nglui mglw’nafh…”

Interesting the difference in approach to censorship between the “West” and China.

Coming from CS with a focus on formal logic, I’m familiar with RFC2119 and understand the importance of precision… but also try not to put too much of it in “informal” conversations. I don’t really think it’s needed for the comment I made, but I’ve added a disclaimer and a clarification to it anyway.

If people are able to create business around this, it’s clearly […]

That’s a high assumption; people create bullshit businesses all the time. Litigating a non-compete can be a bullying tactic on part of an employer, but redacting a contract full of BS clauses, then litigating an unenforceable contract afterwards, is at its core a way for lawyer firms to milk employers for extra “services”. Judges have less leeway than people often assume, for the most common decisions they’re bound by precedent or encoded law (depending on the legal system), and the main cause for different rulings on the same case, is either a lawyer who doesn’t present the case correctly, or someone deciding to represent themselves.

(PS: as a scientist, if you ever do work for the private sector, you should get familiar with the basics of non-competes and NDAs, even before consulting a lawyer… and if you ever get into litigation, you’ll want to ask for counsel, but also to oversee your lawyer)