The final panel where the parents are so happy at (presumably) her/their misery is too relatable, lol. I wish more people wanted their kids, their family, and their friends to be happy.

2026 is so depressing, lol. I've noticed this with some (non-gaming) Korean media, where the writing feels very AI (and I'm kind of suspecting a lot of it is considering East Asia's quick embrasure of it).

All of this is easy to legislate (not necessarily fix because people will just lie and face no consequence if they're rich). Ban generative AI for commercial purposes.

Anything with art, being that games, illustration, even writing feels tainted these days. Those of us who don't want gen AI are going to have to find ways to form our own communities (and hope we can trust the majority of people in them).

On the bright side, I'm suddenly feeling okay with not getting to play a lot of the Switch 2 games.

Curious to see Nintendo's numbers in comparison.

And yeah, those prices are insane. At a certain point, just pay for a PC and have access to whatever you want. Plus, you don't have to pay an additional fee for online features. It doesn't have to be the best gaming rig ever, especially for most people. And recoup the money spent on a gaming rig by escaping the closed eco system. Wait for good sales on PC games or turn to the high seas.

And honestly, outside of Nintendo, I haven't seen a console exclusive game on Xbox or PS5 that I've wanted to play in years.

Those prices though. People can still game without consoles, and with the way they're destroying the economy, it seems people are realizing they can ditch the consoles for other options.

Of course it didn't. I don't think some people understand how completely irrelevant the individual is when it comes to corporate decision making. They don't care if you're upset. They're either going to do something extreme, then dial it back (on purpose) to something worse but not as bad, or they're going to ignore you. If they keep at it long enough, newer generations just grow up thinking this is all normal.

Look at DLC. Younger people on here probably think that's normal or good. But older people can remember a time where when a game was released, it was expected to run out the box or you'd immediately refund it because they sold you a broken product. And the game was whole, not locked behind paywalls. Even when PC games got DLC, The Sims still looked absolutely crazy for the sheer cost of all those expansions. To probably well over half of the users here, though, this is the new normal.

My best advice is to support and enjoy indie games that do things right (and can probably run on your PC without costing you a fortune), or start learning to enjoy older games (there's tons of great ones out there!), most of which can be found easily and played on just about any modern computer. SNES, Sega Genesis, Gamecube, PS2, 3DS, etc. There's so many good games out there.

And of course, don't be afraid to find other hobbies. If you really want to make a difference, stop giving any money to these corporations. Video games aren't a necessity. You can choose not to support Sony gaming, simple as that. Not temporarily, but until their business practices change whennever.

Because generative AI has been built off the backs of everyone, whether they consented or not. Because AI companies (Nvidia, Facebook, pick a company) have pirated enough material to keep any individual in jail for life, and yet they have no consequences and can profit off everything.

If generative AI can not be used for commercial purposes, it also cripples the ability to replace artists, writers, etc., with an AI that stole all their work in the first place and is regurgitating it. Generative AI isn't the issue, and it won't go away (I wish it would, but the world doesn't work that way). It's the way it's being used. Take the profit out of it, and we can all (to some degree) benefit from it. Take the profit out of it, and stop them from hoarding and destroying books/knowledge, destroying the environment, destroying your economy.

I'm sure people more well-read into generative AI can give a better example than a layman who is tired of billionaires and trillionaires doing whatever they like with no consequence, destroying our environment, our jobs, our economy, and now our souls along the way.

Sometimes I can't tell if these decisions are greed, or just rich people trying to make the world a more miserable place.

There's going to be massive 'attempts' to crack down on piracy soon, because in this economy, a lot of people are going to just stop putting up with this (and when I say a lot, I don't even mean close to the majority,but even optimistically 5% of people dropping this stuff would be huge).

100% they won't. Disney was very eager to join the MAGA crowd to throw trans people under the bus.

Disney Spokesperson about cutting trans character: "When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.”

Article on them censoring their stuff in regards to this quote and at other points.

Plenty of other sites cover this specific case too. Unless something changed, this was the last I heard of it.

Disney also restricting LGBT+ content for children on Disney+. Unsure if this was ever followed up on, as it's older news.

Yeah, if you're a Scrubs fan, it's good. It feels like classic Scrubs, and the new characters all work for the most part. It's nothing like the spin-off/season 9 if that's what you're afraid of.

I know people want to think this is the problem, but people paid for cable, which was all of this. High prices, ads, and lower quality experience as they started cutting and/or speeding up shows to fit extra ads in. And on top of that, people then paid for premium channels like HBO just to access some sort of quality. And cancelling could be a nightmare.

What's really killed the TV experience is shorter episode counts and less seasons. TV works as long form story telling, and a popular show gets everyone talking and speculating about it, but this can't occur with short episode counts and cancelling things within one-two seasons before they can build up their audience.

Then there's cancelling shows without giving them a proper finale, which leads to not wanting to get invested in TV in the first place, and is effectively worthless for a streaming platform because few people want to watch something without a proper finale. To be fair, this has been a problem since time immemorial for TV, but is far more noticeable when it's easy to rewatch and binge.

Add on top of that decreasing attention spans, and social media like TikTok and Youtube inevitably bleeds away your audience.

Sure, people whine and complain about price hikes. But do they actually cancel? I've rarely seen people actually care enough to do something. Obviously a place like this is biased towards dropping these services, but the average consumer doesn't care. And sadly, these price hikes are generally based around the idea that they'll lose some people, but the price hike for the shumcks that will continue to use it at higher prices will ultimately make them more money than trying to retain the customers who weren't paying. When that no longer becomes the case, you'll see them offer some 'buy a year' deal for cheaper price nonsense or something. Eventually, they'll create a 'value' bundle for all streaming services in one. And when that's too expensive, don't worry, they've got your back because they'll shave a few dollars a month off your bill if you sign a two year contract.

Surprising no one, another show is cancelled, lol. At least it made it to a 'season 3.' Hopefully it has a proper finale, and the change in showrunner doesn't shoot it in the foot.

Unfortunate for fans of the show. Honestly, it felt more like a Kingpin epilogue than anything else to me. ::: spoiler spoiler The Jessica Jones epilogue was what made it worth it for me. :::

But aside from that episode, the continuation did nothing for me personally.

Gamecube was the best. I wasted so many hours playing Super Smash Bros Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash. I had only gotten to play Ocarina of Time on a friend's N64, so I finally got to play that one too. I went through a ton of games. X-Men Legends, Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, there's too many to name. One of my favorite consoles of all time.

Recently finished Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle. I felt called out by the main character, especially what tips her decision in the climax. I felt like there was something missing in the book, but I did really enjoy its message and found it solidly enjoyable. It was never boring, although I would have preferred more outlandish deaths.

Recently started the final Marvel What If? book series (the DOOM one). It's been okay. It's been a minute, but compared to the previous book (at least in my memory), this version of Kitty Pryde feels like it's pulling from Evolution instead of the comics. I'm also incredibly dissatisfied with a certain happening fairly early into the book, and hoping that won't be the permanent state of affairs, but as is usual when it comes to these superhero things, it probably will be.

Also, just from a writing perspective. I feel like writing Doom has to be a blast for the author. I know I'd be having fun with it.

This. It's the poor kids who this targets the most in the first place. Equal access to uncensored media is absolutely essential for any society that isn't a fascist paradise.

It's not just libraries either. People need to reject censorship across the board. Why the hell is George Carlin's 'Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television' still relevant to this day?

Endless Blue Beneath - Shannon K. English

It was not good, unfortunately. Some cool mermaid vibes, but holy hell that ending. Imagine someone committing genocide telling someone who hadn't done anything wrong to 'be better.' Not to mention, it's mostly just miserable the entire time, the main character is insufferable and repeats her thoughts about her brother all the time, and then the love interest was a choice. For what little time was dedicated to her in the first place.

Not sure what I'll read next.

I've suspected some cover art I've seen for books has been AI (but I can't always reliably tell). Kind of gross that some of it probably is.

Sadly, as much as I see people against gen AI online, people in real life aren't (at least where I'm at). They're gobbling up the slop.

I don't even want to imagine what things will look like in twenty years, when the kids who grew up with this thinks this is the new normal.

Going forward, either you embrace gen AI, or you stick to media produced roughly before 2022 (or before 2019 to virtually avoid it totally). For writing, I'm not sure how the future will look for those who care. At least you can go see live performances of music, for instance, or even watch someone paint something.

For now, maybe writers will ban together and create trusted groups of human made stuff. If we're lucky, maybe AI slop for the most part will be contained to corporations. Indie publishers could become the place for human made stuff. Assuming the corporations don't find a way to drown out the indie publishers. But even if indie publishers take off in this direction, for how long will the people actually interested in art/writing free of gen AI care?

I love that one! I'd probably be miserable and broke if I actually had the money to buy one of those houses, but it's fun to see what's out there.

I remember when people used to get so angry that TV shows had 20+ episodes, and were very insistent everything needs to be 13 or less, no fIlLeR! Now we're lucky if we get 10 episodes and 5 seasons. That's basically the equivalent of a long running show (11+ seasons) like Mash or the Big Bang Theory these days.

I don't entirely miss the days of old TV. But outside of what Apple's been putting out (so far they seem to be sticking with their shows; Pluribus and Severance would already be dead in the water on Netflix), it's become impossible to actually enjoy anything now. I loved Star Trek Lower Decks. People who love and hate Star Trek have told me how much they love it. It's a crime it doesn't have more seasons. And that's a long running show by today's standards! There's way too many shows like that now.

Outside of one community I use to track sales for a niche hobby, my main use of reddit is looking up old threads. There's nothing new on there that's helpful anymore. I like looking up old episode discussion threads for TV shows that I'm watching for the first time, for instance.

I wish Lemmy was a good alternative. But without enough people using it, it can't really come close to a replacement. All my interests are more niche too, and I hate Discord, so it leaves me out here touching grass.

Reddit's always been toxic, it's just worse the more MAGA and AI came to prominence (also a lot of what appears to be Russian astrotufing, but that might just be the subs I used).

Unfortunately, Lemmy's not always better. I've been trying to figure out which instances to avoid, because I am really tired of certain people harping on about certain things.

On PC, yes. That's basically what an expansion pack was. But Sims 2 DLC was absolutely ridiculous in comparison. I realize I put 'Sims' in my original post, but I had been talking about Sims 2. It's actually mild compared to some games now.

Hard to read when they ban the books you're interested in and cut library services.

I would debate streaming services having that significant of an impact. It's likely the same impact that traditional TV used to have, especially when VCRs entered the mainstream (into DVDs, Blurays, and around the same time, Streaming).

I think mobile gaming and social media would be more likely to blame. Not to mention algorithms. Maybe it's only me, but most algorithms rarely pick out things I was interested in (it was very easy to tell that they were just ads). And as the younger generation depends on algorithms, not hard to imagine that they slowly become disenfranchised with what they're reading if it's not something they really want to read.

But the real reason behind this is the education system. High schools were effectively turned into diploma mills. There's also a lot of bullying for teenage boys that like reading in the school system, and many boys do not have a high literacy rate in public schools. Repeated Republican governments in America have decimated the education system as well.