ThatCreeper's comments

ThatCreeper | 1 year ago | on: Ask HN: Predictions for 2025?

1. I don't know

2. I think this is probably right-ish. From what I hear LLMs are nearing what they do and I have never found any interesting use other than just laughing at them (which I could do with markov chains). AI-generated images are hideous and I have no opinion on AI-generated music as I just choose not to expose myself to it

3. Again, don't know

4. God I hope so. That would be such a funny trend. Plan9 comeback??????? #define nil (void*)0 in common parlance???

5. I feel like this is exclusively a novelty but what do I know

6. No it will not???

7. This will probably happen, but it won't be many games. It will not be a new class of games. AI--big shock--isn't fun. Mario but the levels are incomprehensible. BALATRO but I CONVINCE the GAME to give me INFINITE MULTIPLIER? (Part 3). The Beginners Guide but no one cared enough to tell a story. AI so far has been a hindrance where high quality work is concerned. Why will that change? The paint bucket tool has been slowly improved over time, but it was helpful when it first came out.

How many people do you know that have played the AI-generated Minecraft thing more than once or twice? It's interesting but utterly bland and bizarre. You're constantly having to tell the program over and over again what it means to be a person when you're in a world which doesn't even know what bird is in the sky. It gets infuriating.

The idea comes back again and again, though. "What if we made a game with infinite content so it could appeal to everyone? And then what if we added multiplayer?" I've thought it, you've thought it--everyone has. The important part is realizing that you're wrong. If everyone's had this thought, why don't we have this game? Well, we do.

Dwarf Fortress is perhaps the best example of a reality simulator standing at simulating a whopping 42% of everything ever. But if you asked someone to describe Dwarf Fortress they wouldn't just say "it's a pretty good reality simulator"--well, they might. Assume here you asked them to give a /good/ description--they would tell you it's a tough, slow game about minion dwarves going around and doing your bidding in order to build a civilization which will eventually fall. And they'd tell you that it's fun because of its deep interactions. But now we've lost the plot. It's not a game for everyone anymore, because now it's only for people who like slow games with deep interactions. And it's not a game where you can do anything because you can only do so much as your dwarves can do. But Dwarf Fortress is a fun game. And the fun of it comes from its rules. And rules are what AI is famously bad at.

Minecraft is another famous game and the same thing applies to it. "You can only interact with what your player can see," "one block at a time," and "everything is a full block" are all rules which bend it away from that "ideal" game, but they're all the things that make Minecraft fun. They're all the rules.

Games aren't fun when you can say "well I have better armor" and get out of a tricky situation. Games are REALLY FUN when you can say "wait, I have a bag of holding, don't I?" and then look around as everyone starts smirking at the implication.

That's what AI is bad at. There will not be a new class of AI games.

ThatCreeper | 1 year ago | on: Show HN: Don't let your billion-dollar ideas die

The frontend here only shows the 20 most recently published ideas which is arguably tragic as the other ones are still quite fun to read:

> Instead of just fries, let customers split their side order between different options (half fries, half onion rings) for the same price

> lawn sprinklers, but targeted with Ring

> Venmo for dogs

> website where you can pay people you know to shut up

I made an scrollable view here if anyone wants that

https://thatcreeper.github.io/IdeaWarehouse/

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