Kayin
@Kayin

I hate steam trading cards.

I hate them so so much. With every fiber of my being. It's not healthy to hate a minor UI inconvenience as much as I do but I do. I loathe these wretched things. I hate the implied insult that I should be excited to receive one. To collect a set. To cash them in for gems!!!?? I hate that I can't turn them off. I hate that I can't even turn the notification off. I hate that, if I google "how to turn off Steam Trading Cards" real, living, breathing motherfuckers will have the gall to be like "Why would you want do that? Hey you could just sell them. You know they make Valve a lot of money right? ;)". I fucking hate that I should, for some reason, be excited that a company is making a money while providing no meaningful value.

I HATE THAT TO SELL THEM I have to confirm every sale on a fucking awful, trash phone app, because my steam account is valuable when it really shouldn't be. I hate that some people think I should be EXCITED because valve made a fucking nickle and dime stock market for psychos. I hate the idea that I'd want to collect this shit to "unlock emotes" or "to have more friends", as if I should need to do that on a service that is ALREADY FUNDED BY ME SPENDING FUCKING MONEY

I hate them. I hate that, if given the option, I will add Cards to Brave Earth Prologue, and people will purchase my game, with real money, to get fake cards, to maybe sell for money? I hate that I will be excited for people to buy my game so they can turn it into an idler for monopoly cards. I hate the idea that I will make money, for making a game, without people actually wanting to play the game. I hate that I'm not financially secure enough to take a principled stance on this.

I hate that, after years of accepting "Yeah, when I play a new game, I'm just gonna get a bunch of dumb notifications in like the first few hours of a game", that valve decided, IN THEIR GENEROSITY to randomly give me a notification EVERY DAY, RANDOMLY for what amounts to spam because idk, it's fucking christmas?? I hate valve almost as much as I hate their fucking trading cards.

The one good thing about them -- the fact that my poor friends can get small subsidies toward purchasing games -- I also hate. I hate that my poor friends have to do the digital version of redeeming soda cans. I hate that shit in the world is so bad, that this infinitesimal way to leach money from weirdos is worth the time of my friends. I hate that it's a pain in the ass for me to even just give them all my cards, like handing a bag of cans to someone on the side of the road. I hate that, even if I do that, the thing that annoys me the most -- the random notifications an intrusive pop-ups -- still happen. I hate that I need a whole ass fucking chost cause putting all this in a twitter thread, a thousand angry little tweets, would be an act of violence toward my twitter followers that even they could not forgive and they fucking follow my dumb ass so their standards are already low.

I cannot escape. There is no reprieve from gamification. One might say "But Kay, why get so mad. This is just a papercut".

To that I would say... it is because it is a papercut, so small, so needless, so inescapabilty sharp, that I hate them so much. If it was worse I'd probably eventually go numb. But these things, these wretched little pieces of digital trash are so small, so minor, that the inconvenience of every one rattles in my brain like a fly that can't escape a room.

I HATE steam trading cards



lifning
@lifning

is having nostalgia for all sorts of 80s and 90s games, movies, shows, etc.

and seeing it manifest as brand worship at conventions, online discourse splitting hairs over details of the latest installment of a franchise, fans getting so excited to be drip-fed trivial fanservice with no heart of its own that it succeeds anyway

feeling the dissonance between some of your communities condemning Netflix's vocal pro-transphobia stance and others evidently willing to look past all that to promote their new scrimblo cartoon for them (unpaid)

and looking at how these are all 20+ year old properties
and just saying to yourself "...this should've been ours by now."
and cursing the name of Disney



bruno
@bruno

If you use a technology (large ML models that generate images, ie so-called 'AI art') that's explicitly pitched and marketed with the goal of immiserating artists, I don't think it should surprise you if people are mad about it or find it distasteful or don't want to be around it.

No amount of saying you're just 'having fun' with the 'tool' is going to change that. Arguments along the lines of "this is inevitable and the capitalists have won anyway so why are you mad at me" are not going to make people less mad at you.

Frankly what people are saying right now in defense of engaging with this stuff gives off similar vibes to what people were saying ten months ago in defense of selling NFTs. People are seeing a movement from capital that's aimed at turning their livelihoods into another grounds to collect rent, squeezing them out in the process. They want to oppose that without consideration of whether opposition will succeed. You're not going to make friends by saying "lol it's over anyway just let me have fun."

If you're using the large ML models put out by VC-backed 'AI' orgs, you're being subsidised to make generative art by organizations that are actively working to harm people. You're materially benefiting from the harm. Maybe in a minute or insignificant or pointless way, but that's still the case.

This is an ongoing conflict that people are angry about and have a right to be angry about; petulantly complaining that they should direct their anger at the capitalists and not you isn't going to change anyone's feelings.

If someone puffs cigarette smoke in my face, I'm going to be annoyed at them, and "you should be mad at phillip morris, not me" isn't an argument.