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Latest Comments by scaine
Valve tweak Steam AI disclosure form for developers to clarify it's for content consumed by players
17 Jan 2026 at 11:35 pm UTC Likes: 27

Man, I can't believe we're still defending genAI. As I've pointed out in many other comments, the top reasons I hear for the "negative resentment" are, in no particular order:

1. Negative impact on environment, slap bang in the middle of a climate crisis.
2. Driving job losses based on exaggerated claims of "efficiency".
3. Lowers IQ (I can't be bothered digging out the link yet again)
4. Slows down development (even in cases where developers claimed it sped them up, evidence showed otherwise)
5. Driving a nuclear age (Meta, Google and Microsoft have now all commissioned their own reactors)
6a. Societal impact - talking people into hurting others and/or themselves, sometimes leading to deaths)
6b. Societal impact - driving non-consensual nudity on Grok, including child pornography. When Musk learned of this, he paywalled the "feature". He paywalled it... not removed... paywalled it. FFS. Also see deepfakes of politians, or fraud using social engineering techniques.
6c. Societal impact - genAI "slop" now devalues everything on the internet. When you see something cool, you think "meh, it's probably just AI shite". Or it actually IS shite, in which case, genAI is on a race to the bottom, since the next generation of genAI will be taught on today's internet - mistakes will be compounded, biases reinforced.
7. Loss leading pricing - hoping to hook consumers/enterprisesthen putting prices up (see OpenAI adding adverts to ChatGPT)
8. Hallucination (multiple cases of invented bullshit, including court filings, leading to lawyers being debarred).
9. Obnoxious marketing (see MS especially).
10. Diverting investment away from targeted solution, and into a financial bubble (because #7).
11. All genAI engines are built on plagiarised work, for which the original authors/artists got no recognition, nor commission. Same with code - all code was scraped, regardless of license, and that code can be regurgitated in new, OR snippet form, by genAI, without recognition of that license.
12. Impact on website scraping from multiple companies building genAI models. Wikipedia in particular has had to actively block enormous ranges to prevent the scraping from leading them into financial run. Again, can't be bothered to find the link, but there's a Wikimedia blog talking about it.

Anyone offering the "it's just a tool" argument, is being deliberately obtuse. They're basically arguing that the ends absolutely justify the means, no matter the cost.

And the cost is high. Big tech has absolutely no morals, and this is a race to the bottom, fueled by literally hundreds of billions of investment that could have have so much difference elsewhere.

But hey, it's just a tool, right?

No Rest for the Wicked co-op update lands on January 22 and it hit a big sales milestone
16 Jan 2026 at 2:49 pm UTC Likes: 7

I discovered this game by accident just before Christmas, a couple of days into the co-op beta, and me and my three mates played it for over 50 hours over the Christmas period.

It's absolutely stunning. My Steam review goes into detail, but basically, even in early access, this game has launched itself into my (ever-changing) Top Ten Games of All Time.

I'm a sucker for fantasy RPGs, but the way they mix meaty combat, progression, and puzzles is sublime. The graphics and animations are simply five-star too. Incredible game.

Amazon confirm New World: Aeternum will go permanently offline next year and is being delisted
16 Jan 2026 at 2:05 pm UTC Likes: 1

Some chat reported in my Google feed that Facepunch (who make Rust) have offered Amazon $25M to buy the game and turn it into a community effort. Well see. The screenshot of their offer looked like banter to me, not a serious offer, although Facepunch CEO Alistair McFarlane went on to say that he values game preservation, so maybe its real.

Cygames announced an AI studio, and then put up an apology over it
14 Jan 2026 at 6:04 pm UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: minidou
Quoting: scaineI've seen some enthusiasm for GenAI in the general public, but (and maybe I'm in a bubble of my own making now), most people I speak to simply ridicule it, or more often, actively revile it.
The vast majority of people do not care.
That's not my experience. Working in an enterprise of nearly 2000 staff, there are plenty of opinions and cooler-chat about GenAI and as I say, most people revile it. Maybe you meant the general public... but again, I see mostly negativity on various social media platforms.

Surveys tend to agree. https://civiqs.com/results/ai_impact [External Link]

Cygames announced an AI studio, and then put up an apology over it
14 Jan 2026 at 5:29 pm UTC Likes: 15

I always find the disconnect between enterprise/management and the general public on GenAI absolutely amazing. There's such enthusiasm for GenAI in the enterprise (at least at the owner or senior management level) based on quotes like "38% efficiency gain", which, it turns out, enterprise translate to "wow, we can get rid of 38% of our staff".

I've seen some enthusiasm for GenAI in the general public, but (and maybe I'm in a bubble of my own making now), most people I speak to simply ridicule it, or more often, actively revile it.

(for being based on plagiarism, for its impact on the environment, for job losses, for talking kids/adults into hurting/killing themselves, for kick-starting a new nuclear age, for bumping the price of gaming tech through the roof, for impacting sites by scraping them constantly, for being obnoxiously rammed into people's faces over and over again while being demonstrably worse than simpler or even existing alternatives... take your pick and let me know if I've missed anything)

Fair to say I'll never buy from Cygames now. Here's their creator page on Steam if you want to "ignore publisher".

https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43153491 [External Link]

And of course they posted on Twitter. Looking at some of their content, maybe that's the best place for them.

Nexus Mods retire their in-development cross-platform app to focus back on Vortex
14 Jan 2026 at 5:16 pm UTC Likes: 14

Short-sighted middle-management decision based on a complete lack of vision. Also, fear: a cop out on true improvement over time. Nexus Mods' future is bleak. Can you imagine working in an environment governed by such cowardice? Oof.

The best Linux distributions for gaming in 2026
14 Jan 2026 at 12:28 am UTC

Quoting: haobiantaiThe attitude from Linux old-heads and their gatekeeping desire that new users "learn the ropes" is incredibly cringe.
I'm neither sure what you're complaining about here, nor how we should change it!?

What's wrong with Bazzite, or Mint, or Ubuntu? Who's doing the hand-waving you mention, in this article/thread? What would you suggest for newcomers to Linux?

Hytale pre-orders have been so strong development is secured for two years
13 Jan 2026 at 9:44 am UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: juliandelphiki
Quoting: scaineGonna nitpick here, but
Speaking on X/Twitter
...actually puts me off caring about this game. I know it's shallow, but there it is. I don't care if you're "reaching your audience" - first of all, you're not reaching me, and second of all, you're helping fund and justify the child porn platform.

I wonder what it'll take for genuine brands to realise that association with Musk's toxic hellscape rubs off on them. At least for me.
You are definitely more than welcome to your position, but I'm genuinely curious why would you black list a developer for trying to pitch their game? You can follow them on multiple social media platforms, including bluesky and 7 or so others, if that's your thing, and there are hundreds of millions of people to market to on these other platforms.
Not quite a black list, but I think less of them. Twitter's response to users creating child porn imagery in grok wasn't to fix the tech, or ban the users. No, they put the capability behind a paywall, so grok will still generate these images, but now you have to pay for it. Which actually sounds worse when you say it out loud.

Quoting: juliandelphikiPersonally, I don't do the social media thing as I believe it is the worst thing to happen to humanity across our entire history, but I don't begrudge anyone for trying to reach potential customers.
Sorry to say, but the fact you don't do social media is pretty obvious. Hypixel made this announcement on Twitter, but didn't do so on their Bluesky account, or even Insta. Hell, they didn't even post this on their own forums! That's just numbers of course - they don't even have a thousand followers on Bluesky, compared to half a million on Twitter. But if they closed Twitter, people would follow them to wherever they're active. They don't want to take that risk, clearly. And so, I judge them for that decision.

Quoting: juliandelphikiOn the other note, trying to hold a company's feet to the fire because of a horrific AI error.
It wasn't an error. It's a conscious decision by Musk to allow his AI to generate child porn.

Quoting: juliandelphikiI like to hear as much from those who disagree with me as I can and talk to people in person about it, because otherwise the echo chamber just forces you into compliance/group think with no innovation or real improvements to your ideology.
I disagree. You don't argue with fascists. Again, it's clear you don't do social media, since any engagement with fascists will result in abuse and dogpiling.

You also don't debate paedophiles. Why would you? Lock them up.

So when I say that a brand is tarnished for being on the child porn platform, I can't be any clearer. I think less of them for being there. They enable and justify the absolutely worst people on the planet... for outreach.

Hytale pre-orders have been so strong development is secured for two years
12 Jan 2026 at 4:55 pm UTC Likes: 12

Gonna nitpick here, but
Speaking on X/Twitter
...actually puts me off caring about this game. I know it's shallow, but there it is. I don't care if you're "reaching your audience" - first of all, you're not reaching me, and second of all, you're helping fund and justify the child porn platform.

I wonder what it'll take for genuine brands to realise that association with Musk's toxic hellscape rubs off on them. At least for me.

The striking-looking number puzzle game Stip is more than meets the eye
12 Jan 2026 at 3:36 pm UTC Likes: 2

Oh god, that looks really good. If it was just a numbers puzzle game, I'd be vaguely interested... but the sub-narrative reminds me of things like Doki Doki, or Antichamber.

And argh!!! Just went to buy it, and you've sold me a dummy! It's "out in 2026". What does that mean!?!? Goddamit!! 😆