… this joke made me audibly groan. Congratulations.

It’s like the “don’t think about a pink rhinoceros” thing. Saying it makes people do it as a reaction.

About the same brand of humour as “you lost the game” and stuff.

Then the joke lands wrong on two levels because, one, AI code is being enforced by higher ups, not developers (it is “cheaper” after all, as long as you don’t count the tedious shitty work needed to fix it), and two, the comic represents “Programmers” actually in control of that shit and (mis)using it for personal gain.

It’s true we don’t fear it as much as artists, because the thing with art is that it’s way easier for a cynical board of executives to go for “good enough” crappy pseudo-art and not break anything. It does not mean developers in general aren’t impacted negatively by that shit too, and it certainly does not mean they are profiting of it and enabling it.

However this is clearly what transpires from the comic.

Spread salt on the road.

Then you understand why “actual” developers feel insulted and protest against being part of that ridiculous, malevolent conspiracy theory in the comic.

This shit is trying to rile up an old, stupid “creative vs tech people” war. It’s completely missing who the real enemy is, instead misrepresenting and putting an easy target on the basic nerds like it’s fucking 1980.

It stinks. It’s reactionary bullshit, and they should be ashamed of it. If you still can’t see it, I don’t know what to tell you.

Those aren’t anymore. But these still are.

Developers have had easy employment for a long time, and it’s only beginning to turn to shit.

We simply aren’t used to protest a lot. It’s starting though. Look at the video game developers starting to unionize, for now it’s still making news when they do.

You are starting your point by saying you are perceiving a lot of developers advocating for gen AI. I am saying I don’t see that many actual, professional developers doing so, I actually see a lot who don’t, and I also see a lot of “not developers” who do. Yes, the AI bros are very vocal. They also don’t represent “developers”.

So, where are those in your assessment? Because they clearly aren’t developers.

This is not true. I’ve seen many posts from artists, or at least people who consider themselves as such, praising generative AI as just another tool magicking the boring parts away.

And to be clear, I am not for using gen AI professionally in either of these fields.

Right. AI shitting bad code is making developer work hell, not making them look good.

No developer enjoys fixing bad code, the core of our work is making our production neat and maintainable. There might be a small minority of assholes with the dead man’s switch mentality, but everyone hates those, including other developers.

Suggesting there’s some kind of conspiracy of developers intentionally sabotaging AI in their field is gross. AI is just incompetent.

I just tried with my 8bitdo (not a pro controller though, SN30 pro). Game over on 3-2, A+start brings me to 3-1.

Using joy-cons, it works for me. Are you sure you’re holding A? That is, whatever is mapped to NES A on your controller (the “jump” button).

Edit : also, if I remember correctly that only brings you to the beginning of the world, not specific level. So if you were on 1-4, you’re still going to 1-1.

That’s definitely not the kind of things they usually do. Here, take a “seed” as a gift.

Nah, they evolved way past that in the following decades.

Sometimes when they’re in a hurry they create GUI interfaces using Visual Basic to track IP adresses.

And sometimes, if they’re very good, a hacker can manually carve a virus in a piece of bone using fractal patterns. They can use that to hack the computer scanning the bone so it adds a zero in thresholds for CPU heat monitoring and make it instantly catch fire.

I’ve been replaying Dragon Quest Builders 2. The game isn’t voiced, most of dialogues are classic RPG text boxes that you can speed up and skip, BUT. There are special lines of dialogue that are “voices” in a character’s head.

They are unskippable, and they’re like a dozen words each that stay on screen for about 20 seconds or more. Some of those dialogues have about 6-7 of those. It’s unbearable, and it’s genuinely the worst part of starting a game again. Hell, it was the worst part of doing it the first time, too.

Somehow English localisation created this, in Japanese the messages go a lot faster. Though even those couldn’t be skipped, because… fuck you that’s why.

Bayonetta games do. Opens a specific pause menu with skipping option.

If we’re complaining about bad UX, and speaking about Soul Reaver, games with no subtitle option. Or bad, unreadable subtitles that spoil 2 minutes of dialogue at once (and that one’s for you, Bioshock).

The availability of old stuff is not and has never been their problem. Not any more than for books or music or whatever. Lost media happens, but by accident and/or lack of interest, not by design.

Beyond some video game companies I can’t think of any that would dare claim that old works should expire.

You mean like how the blockbuster movie industry is in a crisis because most people prefer watching VHS of movies from the 1980s rather than watching the latest Marvel movie?

That doesn’t happen, that’s not how any cultural medium works. Enthusiasts keeping old stuff running are a minority. Also they are likely to consume a lot, give them a new take on what they like and they’ll gladly try it… If it’s good enough.

Of course, that’s the real problem. Some companies dream of wiping out everything that came before so their newest enshittified predatory crap doesn’t suffer from the comparison.