I’d love to see it being used by enemies so they’re challenging without cheating, though.

This is a different sort of problem that’s outside the scope of generative AI. Making a computer opponent that can kick a human player’s ass is technology we’ve had since Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997.

The problem isn’t actually making a computer that’s challenging, that’s been solved. The problem is that it won’t be any fun for the human if the computer is actually allowed to go all out, if Kasparov couldn’t win in 97 then you sure as hell aren’t winning today. But it also won’t be any fun if you nerf it too badly, low level chess bots are weird. The sweet spot isn’t just a matter of difficulty either, the nearly unsolveable part is getting it to play in a way that feels like a realistic human opponent.

And that’s just from a turn-based game, kinda the closest thing to a level playing field humans were ever gonna get. For any game played in real time, the computer is able to treat it like it’s being played at 60 turns per second. Is it “cheating” for the computer to have perfect reflexes, but otherwise still be following the rules of the game perfectly? How would you even try to take this away from the computer to make it see games the way humans do?

Generative AI doesn’t have any kind of solution for any of this. ChatGPT famously can’t play chess, at all. It’s a different type of AI that really can’t have any useful application here.

Kubuntu is part of Ubuntu. I don’t see why it would need to be mentioned separately that badly.

You’ll never convince diehard MAGA true believers. But it’s worth recognizing that that’s not all Trump voters, it’s not even the majority of them. Swing voters can always swing back the other way.

You can really only talk to those who are on the fence and willing to listen. If they’re not willing to listen, don’t waste your breath.

For those who are willing to listen, start with why they voted for Trump to begin. Many voters in this country were struggling to make ends meet and didn’t feel like the Biden administration was doing enough for them, so they were desperate for change. Trump preyed on that desperation, told them that it’s all immigrants’ fault, it’s trans people’s fault, it’s woke’s fault, it’s whatever scapegoat he blames next’s fault, so if you vote for him he’ll own the libs to Make America Great Again. A lot of people voted for him because they felt unheard by establishment politicians and were desperate enough to believe a con man who sounded like the only person in the room actually speaking to their fears.

If they are willing to have the conversation, get to the root of those fears. Ask if Trump has actually made their lives better. Attempt to deprogram anything directed to the scapegoats he blames it on. Try to pivot to Democratic policies that actually can help in tangible ways.

But again, I cannot stress this enough, this can only get through to people who are open to listening in the first place. If you try to preach at people who are not, they will dig their heels in deeper. Pick your battles carefully, figure out who is worth talking to.

I heard puzzle games and am legally obligated to shill Petal Crash (and it’s upcoming sequel). It’s a great accessible entry point into versus puzzles, and tbh it’s practically the only good thing to happen to the genre in a decade or so.

Can also check out Panel Attack as a FOSS clone of Panel de Pon, and FightCade for emulating all kinds of classics with netplay.

The original Xbox is older now than Super Mario Bros 3 was when the Xbox came out.

Almost twice as old, actually.

Canvas Curse might not be retro

Canvas Curse is older now than Dream Land was when Canvas Curse came out.

Miyamoto and Sakurai envisioned the original Kirby’s Dream Land as a My First Game for beginners. That was an explicit design goal for the game.

That said, many of the games do have some harder postgame challenges tucked away. In fact that too dates all the way back to Dream Land’s Extra Game that can be accessed by Up+A+Select on the title screen. Extra Game is arguably still not that hard, but it does set some precedent for what’s to come in later titles.

Super Star put a bigger focus on this with The Arena, a rather long boss rush gauntlet combining every boss from every preceding sub-game, with limited healing. The remake, Super Star Ultra, adds new sub-games that pretty much pick up where the original’s difficulty curve left off - the original Super Star starts with Spring Breeze, a condensed retelling of Dream Land, and SSU’s new content starts with Revenge of the King, a remix based on Dream Land’s Extra Game. Then SSU ends with The True Arena, incorporating all the new content, including harder versions of the original bosses and a new True Final Boss.

Super Star Ultra pretty much set the tone for modern Kirby after that. Return to Dream Land, Triple Deluxe, and Planet Robobot all feature a direct reprise of both The Arena and The True Arena, the latter incorporating other postgame challenges from those games, and all of which culminate in their own True Final Boss.

Also, for a self-imposed challenge, you can always try playing without copy powers.

https://wikirby.com/wiki/Difficulty
https://wikirby.com/wiki/Extra_Mode

If the collectibles aren’t satisfying to obtain on their own, I don’t think putting an unlock behind them makes them retroactively better.

A good collectible is something like Strawberries in Celeste, each one requires you to take a more difficult path or do an additional screen. They’re fun to go for, and I think it actually would’ve detracted if some unlock made them feel like a required task rather than a bonus challenge.

I would prefer to have it come from someone who… is not Andrew Yang.

Mamdani won by focusing his campaign on the most pressing issue to voters today: affordability. The cost of living keeps going up, wages stay the same, and everybody’s scared and frustrated looking for someone to promise they can do something about it. And he had answers.

In increasingly uncertain times, we can win voters over by appealing to their fears and frustrations and promising change that will directly address their needs. This is, in a way, how Trump won. He told voters, “I know you’re upset and scared in a changing world. Well it’s the immigrants’ fault, it’s trans people’s fault, it’s whatever target I tell you to hate next’s fault, and when I own the libs, I’ll bring the price of eggs down.”

Of course you and I both know Trump was full of shit. But as long it sounded like he was addressing their fears, the most frightened people struggling to make ends meet latched onto whatever false hope he gave them. And I believe we can win people back by speaking to those same fears, but this time we offer real solutions.

However, there is a very important catch. Do not ever say the word ‘socialism’. The legacy of McCarthyism has ensured that that word is still political suicide on the national stage today. You can get away with it in a city as deeply blue as NYC, but not in a general election.

But it’s really only the word that’s the problem, not the ideas behind it. People really are fed up with capitalism, they just don’t know that that’s really what they’re fed up with. And as long as you avoid the word, I think you’d be surprised what you can get people to agree with.

Look at Obama in 2008. He ran his campaign on universal healthcare as his main issue, knowing that healthcare in America is a major problem voters wanted addressed. Detractors called it socialized medicine, but as long as he never said that word himself, voters just understood that he was offering change and they wanted to try change. They were fed up enough with American healthcare that red scare tactics didn’t stop them from considering change.

I believe a viable next step that could work in 2028 could be to campaign on universal basic income. The job market is becoming increasingly unstable, especially with the AI bubble. People fresh out of college can’t get jobs because everything that claims to be entry level wants three years of experience, and they can’t get that experience because they don’t have experience. We’re coming to a point where it’s time to rethink one of the fundamental flaws of capitalism, that everyone must work or else they starve and die, as this is about to break when too many people lose their jobs. But don’t use the c-word, don’t use the s-word, just talk about UBI as its own issue and I think people will warm up to the idea.

I miss my old Motorola Droid 2. I don’t need a thinner phone, give me that slider form factor.

Active users are what matter. Dormant accounts aren’t doing anything.

Miyamoto says: If the player is not locked into a succession of inescapable and slowly plodding text boxes where they’re offered neither choices nor agency, it must mean they’re not sufficiently engaged!

What Miyamoto game is this describing? If anything I’d say he’s got a reputation for being anti-text.

Did you have a modded console? Without modification, the 10NES lockout chip prevents PAL cartridges from running on NTSC or vice versa. But it is possible to disable the chip to get around this.

The real point here is that they don’t have the ability to manufacture at the scale of the big three. It literally can’t be in direct competition.

I don’t think that’s had much of an impact when Nintendo sold more Switch 2s at launch than Valve has manufactured Steam Decks over its entire lifespan. The Steam Deck is still an enthusiast product for a niche crowd, and will likely never be in direct competition with the big three.

NES and SNES were region-locked. In addition to an actual lockout chip, they even had different cartridge shapes so you couldn’t physically fit Famicom or Super Famicom games.

Handhelds were not (until DSi and 3DS), but I specifically said home consoles.

It’s early and there aren’t a lot of heavy hitters yet. But for me, Kirby Air Riders alone was well worth it, I waited 22 years for this sequel and it delivered.

That was always the case for Nintendo’s home consoles, not like it was a new thing that started with the Wii. Switch was the first one to be region-free.

These seem a little pointless when you can barely only see color under the analog stick. Unless you detach them from the console, but even then don’t they want you to reattach them to the grip thingies?