As a privacy-valuing PC gamer, I’m afraid that’s a bad idea. As great as GOG’s way of doing things is/was, I need to transition away from Windows more than I need to transition away from Steam. I’m sorry, but as of 2025 Steam is less evil than Microsoft.

Whoops, you’re right. Sorry, my Canadian is showing. Tbf, American politics has always been a necessary thing to know about here.

Anyone think it’s weird the Republicans would choose an animal associated with Africa and the Indian subcontinent?

Well, it’s exactly that in technical terms, yes. Somehow, “complementary games included (subject to limited-time redeemability on a monthly basis) each month you subscribe” is not as marketable from Amazon as from Humble Bundle. Privacy is becoming serious business now that things outside the gaming industry are becoming… a game of chance? Eh, whatever, I’m not here for politics and this seems like an okay way to buy GOG titles.

Eh, I’ll take it if we’re talking about actual donkeys and not the Republican party of the US. Did you that, in lieu of a dog, a donkey is a perfect way to protect livestock?

I’m serious, a predator should think twice; A donkey can grab a cougar’s tail and literally beat it to death by using the wildcat as a living flail. Very protective.

That’s fair, just realize some of us are tired of online pessimism to such a degree that an AI - telling me there are in fact potential solutions and to keep trying - is actually good for our mental health. I only use Perplexity for research and musings that I sometimes post here to be discussed, not to completely replace human interaction on the Fediverse.

I literally refuse to buy from Wal-Mart because of that shit. Lied to their workers nobody was getting fired or laid off, bullshit.

“And the Inner Party was safe.”

“War. War never changes.”

“Back home, you guys were the Nazis.” “Maybe so, but does hating me make you any better?”

“People! Soylent Green is PEOPLE!”

“What is he going to find out there?” “His destiny.”

Context always matters.

I don’t know what AI these assholes are using but I only trust perplexity to research for me, I still check the answers and at least glance at sources.

If you’re a parent, the number one thing your child needs to have is knowing how to question things and think for themselves.

Beyond that, point them to a research AI such as - but obviously not exclusive to - Perplexity. The AI you choose needs to be able to fact-check things well. So far I only know of Perplexity but I’m not some spokesperson so I welcome other suggestions.

If you can get the former, they’ll live. If they get both, they’ll succeed. If they only get the latter, they’re doomed. AI will not fix this, only enhance the solution.

You can stop the Trolley at any time but the switch is on the tip of Mt. Everest

Fixed.

The Go S is basically the OneXPlayer F1 (a.k.a the “OneXFly”). I’ve also noticed that sales of the F1 series had occured frequently and they no longer seem to promote it now that the F1 Pro is out for a while. I can only guess the two companies are having a de facto handoff, trading the market share by swapping the roles of their primary devices.

That’s not what I meant. A developer version makes sense, but it’s not a special fun secret thing. There are what are known as developer kits or just “DevKits” for video game platforms like the Switch 2 or all the proceeding consoles since the 1980s. A developer version, while not the most benevolent approach, is plausible but not special.

That’s the one!

At this point, micro transactions for cosmetics are like candy. Kids will resent you and the values you try to impose if it makes them less able to participate in group activities. Restricting it to an allowance makes sense, disallowing it does not. I say this as someone who was banned from playing any video games as a kid for bullshit reasons.

There’s a reason that, when people realized smoking was toxic, they petitioned governments to ban them in increasing amounts and thus eventually de-popularize tobacco, rather than try to get kids to not smoke. If all your friends are allowed to, fuck whatever the reason is that you can’t.

Yeah, I’ve heard that before. “Oh, there’s a secret Mewthree that is only in the Japanese version. My uncledad works for Nintendo.” “There’s a secret island in World of Warcraft that the mods meet in to chat in private that if you manage to get there, you get admin powers from a developer. They ban- I mean, gave them to a friend of a guildmate.” “If you buy crypto, someday you’ll be video game rich and real rich, but the government don’t want you to know that.”

Fair, I wasn’t aware of stability issues.

Basically this.

I do want to point out, they COULD do BE ethically. Remove the subscription option and take a cut for all mod sales, and let private server operators and Realms use purchased mods while continuing to not charge players. Then put a legal ToS condition that using Realms requires such servers be operated without profit. Watch people set up private servers and Realms for their friends and charge private servers for API access. Done deal.

Of course, somebody at Microsoft wasn’t satisfied with that. They wanted complete control.

Protips for preparing for a potential end of java in a way that at least forces M$ to do something actually productive:

0. Don’t go quietly. Hold out if you are that determined to see Java continue.
1. NEVER get the Marketplace pass in Bedrock. It’s a bad deal meant to cater to fleeting, fad-chasing players. It also locks you out of purchasing limited-time items like any cosmetics and cancelling the subscription still leaves you screwed for 30 days.
2. If you’re a PC player, run a server or rent a Realm only if you don’t know anyone who has them and you can afford to. If you’re playing on Steam Deck or another Linux gamerdeck, do not host a local server, though Linux desktops are supported by the Minecraft Bedrock Dedicated Server software if you want to run one on a local, stationary setup.
3. Always buy Add-Ons, never Worlds, and never ever via “Marketplace Pass”. They rotate out mods in the pass, so it means you don’t even own a license to use it, let alone own the information you download as would be preferred (but will sadly never happen under Bedrock). I don’t know wtf Microsoft’s idiots were thinking at first, but Worlds are both useless and now functionally obsolete.
4. Avoid buying franchise “packs” and those sketchy “educational” sponsored content “adventures” exclusive to particular graphics cards. These are ultimately nothing more than an attempt to turn Minecraft into an advertizing medium like TV or social media, and support could end up dropped entirely for licensing reasons. Individual cosmetics appear to be an exception to this, as of April 2025.

Bugs seem gone, and you can make sideloadable mods for Minecraft. The issue is that many players just hate Windows (and tbf M$ wants too much if they think it shouldn’t be on Linux) and many others are long time fans of mods that can’t be replicated for legal reasons (e.g. Mystcraft) or who are not financially able to partake in a majority-paid modding experience.

Does anybody remember a mod for java which had something like “magic door to the Backrooms but it’s eldritch stone passageways”? And if you dug too deep you’d get stranded in an infinite darkness dimension with no light and only useless black voxels that break if you mine them. Would love to see that in Bedrock.

Eh, I never liked redstone. Everything else except Creepers was based on either reality or mythology. Redstone is just… Ugh.

Any recommendations for a good “realistic” replacement for redstone? Electricity, pneumatics/hydraulics, or even magic runes?

Well, I’ve never had a reason to play a nonexclusive game on Switch, fortunately. My condolences and I wish you a suitably-good laptop in the near future.