Links roundup for the week of July 17, 2023
A very video-centric links roundup, since I've had a hurt back this week that's meant more watching than reading.
More links! More links! And videos!
gaming
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/07/game-tutorials-should-be-easily-skipped-why-is-that-so-hard/
This makes me so angry. There’s been a lot of good and bad examples of it in recent memory, some of which I should really talk about in their own blog posts. Monster Hunter Rise? Horrible, I actually can’t maintain the attention to play the game further. Jedi Survivor? Fantastic, well integrated, nice controls reminder.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/17/23798368/neopets-relaunch-website-flash-games
NEOPETS RELAUNCH. Sad to hear that it comes from the remnants of Math Blaster yet again shutting down, but good in terms of the fact that it has confused me for about a decade on how you mismanage something like Neopets so heavily.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6j3Tj7l820
Jenna Stoeber points out that Nintendo bakes annoyance into their animations on purpose, to gently prod you to take breaks. Good video (and channel!), would recommend.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/culture/study-finds-nearly-every-pre-2010-video-game-is-unavailable
Preservation of video games is in a bad place right now. This has been pretty widely reported in my circles, but it’s bleak.
economics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-gdHrINyMU
Great video about bartering and capitalism.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/20/23802277/federal-reserve-fednow-instant-payment-service
Neat! Bank to bank transfers in the US are finally modernizing, catching up to.. pretty much the entire rest of the world. Love this for us.
social media
I’m going to be honest, this is a … slightly awful way to tag this one.
https://shatterzone.substack.com/p/why-fake-kidnapping-stories-are-everywhere
Robert Evans on the fact that people are making shit up on social media to go viral, in the place of real tragedies.
hollywood
https://nebula.tv/videos/captainmidnight-hollywood-is-in-crisis
This is a Nebula link, same video is probably on YouTube, but, Captain Midnight goes into some of what’s going on with the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes and the overall collapse of Hollywood.
https://nebula.tv/videos/jessiegender-people-dont-understand-queer-art
More Nebula – sorry, I think this one is also on Youtube but named differently. Jessie Gender on “People Don’t Understand Queer Art”, which is fantastic. People think that representation only comes from an explicit “I am X” when things such as Nimona have incredibly queer/trans stories.
Last Nebula link, and this one’s exclusive to it. Jacob Geller rambles for a bit on how the third Pirates movie is both horrible and excellent, compared to how movies of the MCU are just CGI-fests.
websites
Truly incredible. Love it.
search engines
https://garrettdimon.com/journal/posts/searching-for-a-search-engine
Someone’s experience with a new paid search engine – I’m actually pretty tempted based on this! Google in particular has been giving a lower quality of results for a long time now, and Duck Duck Go and Bing are both… fine. Well, Bing is now AI garbage. Duck Duck Go is just fine, but not amazing.
transit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNwB9EGkKv4
Half as Interesting on unexpected reasons trains are sometimes delayed and neat new ways to deal with it!
music
This is probably not going to be a regular feature but I need to mention these released, so that maybe anyone else listens to them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CNFF0Ql0ME
GWAR did a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR. I cannot stress enough how much you need to see this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q0ULMlrIpw
New one from Survival Guide! Blood Perfume. I’ve been a huge fan of Emily Whitehurst in all of her projects for decades now.
EPILEPSY WARNING ON FLASHING LIGHTS FOR THIS ONE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_ulVpYs6vg
GUNSHIP going for an 80’s vibe in a new single that I just have to share, knowing nothing about this band previously.