The Triumph of the Mediocracy
The Triumph of the Mediocracy
[Yes, actually, the title of this essay was intended to be 'the triumph of mediocrity'. I mistyped. Sometimes, to err is divine.]
The Game Engine Problem
The Game Engine Problem
[this note was first written on the 18th April 2024 and substantially revised on the 25th of May and 24th of June]
The Dogs of War
The Dogs of War: a review of Phantom Liberty
Phantom Liberty is the only extension planned for Cyberpunk 2077. I've had it installed on my big computer since its release last September, but until this week have not seriously played it. I've not played it partly because, with all the technical failures I've had over the course of this winter, I rarely had enough electricity to run the computer; but also because the first two hours of Phantom Liberty are an utterly miserable experience, shockingly poor game design, which really do not encourage you to explore further. If you're caught in this trap, take comfort: it does get (much) better.
Cyberpunk 2077, and flawed art
Cyberpunk 2077, and flawed art
This essay is unfinished: come back later to see a better draft.
Thinking about USENET
NetNews, otherwise (and these days, more commonly) known as USENET, was the first social media system I experienced, back in the early nineteen eighties. Usenet was a huge, sprawling thing, connecting tens of thousands of servers, and carrying tens of thousands of 'newsgroups' — essentially discussion groups on specific topics.
Like modern ActivityPub, and unlike contemporary systems like 'bulletin boards', it was global (for values of 'global' that primarily covered western University campuses); unlike other contemporary systems like for example AOL or CompuServe, it was not owned or controlled by any one entity, but, like the modern Fediverse, was a loose confederation of heterogeneous servers owned by a wide variety of different organisations, including many individuals.
This meant, like the modern Fediverse, different servers might (and did) have different policies about the content they would carry.