I don’t think it would hold my indefinite attention to be honest. The reason why I use escapist media: video games, tv shows, books, fanfiction, etc. is because there’s a reason to them. There’s an ultimate goal, or plot. There’s a certainty that I can’t get in real life and it’s bounded by stipulations that I find acceptable (limited map size, max level, resource management, storyline, hours to complete, etc)

If the simulation was just like real life. I think I’d be too lost. Would I try it for the novelty? Probably. But after a while, I think I’d be too concerned about the “trueness” of my experiences.

If it was reliant on my will/my desires, I think I would be addicted but it would eventual feel meaningless/not enough. I think it would also feel too wrong to interact with simulations of the people I know in real life. Even if the interactions were benign, there’s just an ick-factor for me. With the other option, having to interact indefinitely with AI would just introduce a weird dysphoria with the world, like if I fell in love with a character in the simulation and I have to deal with the reality that they don’t actually exist. That would break my brain and suck tremendously.

It would be like when you render your likeness in the Sims and you play it for too long, but then you start looking at your character and all they’ve accomplished, and you begin to think you could’ve spent the hours playing to actually work on your real life. 😅

As for playing with other people in public worlds, I think it would have the same issues I already have with playing with random people online: wherein some people are rude, some carry this looming sense of betrayal as to who they actually are, and some I would come to miss in real life, but exponentially made worse by how well it’s all rendered.

And this doesn’t even include the various ways this technology would logistically work. Will I have to deal with ads? How expensive would it be? How much of my privacy do I have to give up? Are there physical dangers to using the machine? Etc.

So, I don’t really know but I’m leaning away from using it. 😅

I’m having the same issues too. I’ve even had the scenario of writing a long comment on a thread and getting error-ed away once I hit “Add comment”. I don’t know why it happened, but it certainly made me stop using kbin for the rest of the day. 😅

It hasn’t fully discouraged me though. I remind myself that it’s early days so it’s going to have a bunch of hiccups along the way.

Honestly, same. I don’t even know all the options yet, wanted to keep the suspense.

Prince of Persia trilogy could work. It’s more linear than assassin’s creed so it could offer a change of pace.

I mean, AI can be used to design a lot of robust yet efficient structures. In engineering and architecture, with enough data, AI can generate designs for buildings, and parts that are not only sturdy but can be built with less resources along with other design considerations. There’s a really cool nasa video where competitors are trying to 3D print structures for habitation in space.

AI is also used in medicine to come up with new protein structures to create new medicine. It’s also used in environmental sciences, to help predict earthquakes or monitor land use, etc.

There’s a lot of practical uses for AI.

For music I tend to use Spotify’s similar artists feature or have the Youtube rabbit hole take me somewhere new. Sometimes I’ll even find new music from other media; like if I’m reading a fanfic and the author posts the song they were listening to when they wrote it, sometimes I check those out.

For books, it’s usually word of mouth, and for a games, a mix of that as well as reviews from people and a perusal through Steam Sales. I’m not too big on movies though, I just let my loved ones drag me into what they want to watch and they tend to have good taste. For TV shows, I let spontaneous mood choose for me.

I think it’s a matter of content type. We have a lot of links to interesting articles or pictures of memes with no additional input from the poster. Those make me less inclined to comment. I just tend to upvote/boost and move on.

I think for more discussion/opinions, people need a spring board to jump off of.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

-Dune, Frank Herbert

I didn’t really like the book, but that quote stuck out to me.

Base building games sound like they could work for you, Terraria, Frostpunk, Don’t Starve. If you want something even chiller, you could go for games like Stardew Valley or My Time at Portia.

There’s:

• skribbl.io it’s a draw and guess game, kinda like charades.

• Transformice was also pretty fun. They have a steam version of the game now, I don’t know if they still have a browser port though.

And microtransactions, it’s on steam now.

I think when social media became more broadly adopted or even necessary for use outside of the internet. I still remember being forced to make a Facebook account to access schoolwork and notices from my school.

A lot of people were also just not taught about safeguarding your information on the internet. So when the human need to connect got more convenient, people ended up sharing whatever they thought without thinking of the consequences.

Yup. I never used any of the apps (always opened reddit through my mobile browser) so I wasn’t affected that way. I am sympathetic to all the issues brought up, and I do really like the fediverse, but I don’t think the users are here yet.

I like going to reddit to read about opinions or someone more knowledgeable than me talk about things. I find there’s a lack of discussions in the fediverse at the moment for me, and maybe that’s due to me having to curate my experience more. I don’t know. But for now, yes, I still use it.

I wouldn’t say it’s unaffected. The quality of the content has dropped, less people are posting which makes the feeds look and feel stagnant, and some subs are just gone now. Whether or not that stays the same months or years from now, who can say?

I don’t think any censorship is happening though. Reddit is still very much an internet subculture thing and fediverse apps even more niche.

There was a subreddit that was all about posting NSFL content, “eyeblech” (play on “eyebleach”-a wholesome sub). My stupid ass got curious enough to have a look at it. The worst thing I saw on there was video of a father who was breaking down trying to hold up his very young son. His wife had committed suicide by hanging, and she had included their child in the act. So they were both there hanging side by side as he broke down in what looked like their living room/kitchen.

After that, I no longer let the morbid curiosity win and will only look at NSFL pictures/videos when necessary (ergo, for news).

Maybe they’re trying to cover their bases? I don’t know what contracts they had with BWF for appearing on the channel during their whole streaming journey, but I imagine they didn’t have ironclad contracts when they were under Geek & Sundry, and only got the particulars down more concretely when they established their own company/channel. Those terms may have also changed once BWF was let go.

From how I understood it, BWF was also trying to blackmail Ashley for money, and the fact that he still appeared on the channel while no longer being paid may have contributed to that sentiment. So by having BWF-centric content wiped out officially, it cripples any murky legalities he can claim.

I’m sorry you’re suffering right now.

Edit: I don’t want to offer you empty platitudes, but I truly hope you’ll be ok and I wish you the best of luck!

Android for me. I just don’t like feeling stuck to use Apple products.

Have you tried Hannibal? Although it follows two characters primarily, I consider it more psychological crime drama than character driven.

I’m pretty sure you just click on it again. I just tried with your post.