#top 10 new android games

[protechgames]

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Lina Khan’s future is the future of the Democratic Party — and America

On OCTOBER 23 at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

On the one hand, the anti-monopoly movement has a future no matter who wins the 2024 election – that's true even if Kamala Harris wins but heeds the calls from billionaire donors to fire Lina Khan and her fellow trustbusters.

In part, that's because US antitrust laws have broad "private rights of action" that allow individuals and companies to sue one another for monopolistic conduct, even if top government officials are turning a blind eye. It's true that from the Reagan era to the Biden era, these private suits were few and far between, and the cases that were brought often died in a federal courtroom. But the past four years has seen a resurgence of antitrust rage that runs from left to right, and from individuals to the C-suites of big companies, driving a wave of private cases that are prevailing in the courts, upending the pro-monopoly precedents that billionaires procured by offering free "continuing education" antitrust training to 40% of the Federal judiciary:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down

It's amazing to see the DoJ racking up huge wins against Google's monopolistic conduct, sure, but first blood went to Epic, who won a historic victory over Google in federal court six months before the DoJ's win, which led to the court ordering Google to open up its app store:

https://www.theverge.com/policy/2024/10/7/24243316/epic-google-permanent-injunction-ruling-third-party-stores

Google's 30% App Tax is a giant drag on all kinds of sectors, as is its veto over which software Android users get to see, so Epic's win is going to dramatically alter the situation for all kinds of activities, from beleaguered indie game devs:

https://antiidlereborn.com/news/

To the entire news sector:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/06/save-news-we-must-open-app-stores

Private antitrust cases have attracted some very surprising plaintiffs, like Michael Jordan, whose long policy of apoliticism crumbled once he bought a NASCAR team and lived through the monopoly abuses of sports leagues as an owner, not a player:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/michael-jordan-anti-monopolist

A much weirder and more unlikely antitrust plaintiff than Michael Jordan is Google, the perennial antitrust defendant. Google has brought a complaint against Microsoft in the EU, based on Microsoft's extremely ugly monopolistic cloud business:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-files-complaint-eu-over-microsoft-cloud-practices-2024-09-25/

Google's choice of venue here highlights another reason to think that the antitrust surge will continue irrespective of US politics: antitrust is global. Antitrust fervor has seized governments from the UK to the EU to South Korea to Japan. All of those countries have extremely similar antitrust laws, because they all had their statute books overhauled by US technocrats as part of the Marshall Plan, so they have the same statutory tools as the American trustbusters who dismantled Standard Oil and AT&T, and who are making ready to shatter Google into several competing businesses:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/8/24265832/google-search-antitrust-remedies-framework-android-chrome-play

Antitrust fever has spread to Canada, Australia, and even China, where the Cyberspace Directive bans Chinese tech giants from breaking interoperability to freeze out Chinese startups. Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops, and the cost of 40 years of pro-monopoly can't be ignored. Monopolies make the whole world more brittle, even as the cost of that brittleness mounts. It's hard to pretend monopolies are fine when a single hurricane can wipe out the entire country's supply of IV fluid – again:

https://prospect.org/health/2024-10-11-cant-believe-im-writing-about-iv-fluid-again/

What's more, the conduct of global monopolists is the same in every country where they have taken hold, which means that trustbusters in the EU can use the UK Digital Markets Unit's report on the mobile app market as a roadmap for their enforcement actions against Apple:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63f61bc0d3bf7f62e8c34a02/Mobile_Ecosystems_Final_Report_amended_2.pdf

And then the South Korean and Japanese trustbusters can translate the court documents from the EU's enforcement action and use them to score victories over Apple in their own courts:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all

So on the one hand, the trustbusting wave will continue erode the foundations of global monopolies, no matter what happens after this election. But on the other hand, if Harris wins and then fires Biden's top trustbusters to appease her billionaire donors, things are going to get ugly.

A new, excellent long-form Bloomberg article by Josh Eidelson and Max Chafkin gives a sense of the battle raging just below the surface of the Democratic Power, built around a superb interview with Khan herself:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-10-09/lina-khan-on-a-second-ftc-term-ai-price-gouging-data-privacy

The article begins with a litany of tech billionaires who've gone an all-out, public assault on Khan's leadership – billionaires who stand to personally lose hundreds of millions of dollars from her agency's principled, vital antitrust work, but who cloak their objection to Khan in rhetoric about defending the American economy. In public, some of these billionaires are icily polite, but many of them degenerate into frothing, toddler-grade name-calling, like IAB's Barry Diller, who called her a "dope" and Musk lickspittle Jason Calacanis, who called her an all-caps COMMUNIST and a LUNATIC.

The overall vibe from these wreckers? "How dare the FTC do things?!"

And you know, they have a point. For decades, the FTC was – in the quoted words of Tim Wu – "a very hardworking agency that did nothing." This was the period when the FTC targeted low-level scammers while turning a blind eye to the monsters that were devouring the US economy. In part, that was because the FTC had been starved of budget, trapping them in a cycle of racking up easy, largely pointless "wins" against penny-ante grifters to justify their existence, but never to the extent that Congress would apportion them the funds to tackle the really serious cases (if this sounds familiar, it's also the what happened during the long period when the IRS chased middle class taxpayers over minor filing errors, while ignoring the billionaires and giant corporations that engaged in 7- and 8-figure tax scams).

But the FTC wasn't merely underfunded: it was timid. The FTC has extremely broad enforcement and rulemaking powers, which most sat dormant during the neoliberal era:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

The Biden administration didn't merely increase the FTC's funding: in choosing Khan to helm the organization, they brought onboard a skilled technician, who was both well-versed in the extensive but unused powers of the agency and determined to use them:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

But Khan's didn't just rely on technical chops and resources to begin the de-olicharchification of the US economy: she built a three-legged stool, whose third leg is narrative. Khan's signature is her in-person and remote "listening tours," where workers who've been harmed by corporate power get to tell their stories. Bloomberg recounts the story of Deborah Brantley, who was sexually harassed and threatened by her bosses at Kavasutra North Palm Beach. Brantley's bosses touched her inappropriately and "joked" about drugging her and raping her so she "won’t be such a bitch and then maybe people would like you more."

When Brantley finally quit and took a job bartending at a different business, Kavasutra sued her over her noncompete clause, alleging an "irreparable injury" sustained by having one of their former employees working at another business, seeking damages and fees.

The vast majority of the 30 million American workers who labor under noncompetes are like Brantley, low-waged service workers, especially at fast-food restaurants (so Wendy's franchisees can stop minimum wage cashiers from earning $0.25/hour more flipping burgers at a nearby McDonald's). The donor-class indenturers who defend noncompetes claim that noncompetes are necessary to protect "innovative" businesses from losing their "IP." But of course, the one state where no workers are subject to noncompetes is California, which bans them outright – the state that is also home to Silicon Valley, an IP-heave industry that the same billionaires laud for its innovations.

After that listening tour, Khan's FTC banned noncompetes nationwide:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/25/capri-v-tapestry/#aiming-at-dollars-not-men

Only to have a federal judge in Texas throw out their ban, a move that will see $300b/year transfered from workers to shareholders, and block the formation of 8,500 new US businesses every year:

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/21/g-s1-18376/federal-judge-tosses-ftc-noncompetes-ban

Notwithstanding court victories like Epic v Google and DoJ v Google, America's oligarchs have the courts on their side, thanks to decades of court-packing planned by the Federalist Society and executed by Senate Republicans and Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, and Trump. Khan understands this; she told Bloomberg that she's a "close student" of the tactics Reagan used to transform American society, admiring his effectiveness while hating his results. Like other transformative presidents, good and bad, Reagan had to fight the judiciary and entrenched institutions (as did FDR and Lincoln). Erasing Reagan's legacy is a long-term project, a battle of inches that will involve mustering broad political support for the cause of a freer, more equal America.

Neither Biden nor Khan are responsible for the groundswell of US – and global – movement to euthanize our rentier overlords. This is a moment whose time has come; a fact demonstrated by the tens of thousands of working Americans who filled the FTC's noncompete docket with outraged comments. People understand that corporate looters – not "the economy" or "the forces of history" – are the reason that the businesses where they worked and shopped were destroyed by private equity goons who amassed intergenerational, dynastic fortunes by strip-mining the real economy and leaving behind rubble.

Like the billionaires publicly demanding that Harris fire Khan, private equity bosses can't stop making tone-deaf, guillotine-conjuring pronouncements about their own virtue and the righteousness of their businesses. They don't just want to destroy the world - they want to be praised for it:/p>

"Private equity’s been a great thing for America" -Stephen Pagliuca, co-chairman of Bain Capital;

"We are taught to judge the success of a society by how it deals with the least able, most vulnerable members of that society. Shouldn’t we judge a society by how they treat the most successful? Do we vilify, tax, expropriate and condemn those who have succeeded, or do we celebrate economic success as the engine that propels our society toward greater collective well-being?" -Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo

"Achieve life-changing money and power," -Sachin Khajuria, former partner at Apollo

Meanwhile, the "buy, strip and flip" model continues to chew its way through America. When PE buys up all the treatment centers for kids with behavioral problems, they hack away at staffing and oversight, turning them into nightmares where kids are routinely abused, raped and murdered:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/they-told-me-it-was-going-be-good-place-allega-tions-n987176

When PE buys up nursing homes, the same thing happens, with elderly residents left to sit in their own excrement and then die:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/24/nursing-homes-private-equity-fraud-00132001

Writing in The Guardian, Alex Blasdel lays out the case for private equity as a kind of virus that infects economies, parasitically draining them of not just the capacity to provide goods and services, but also of the ability to govern themselves, as politicians and regulators are captured by the unfathomable sums that PE flushes into the political process:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/10/slash-and-burn-is-private-equity-out-of-control

Now, the average worker who's just lost their job may not understand "divi recaps" or "2-and-20" or "carried interest tax loopholes," but they do understand that something is deeply rotten in the world today.

What happens to that understanding is a matter of politics. The Republicans – firmly affiliated with, and beloved of, the wreckers – have chosen an easy path to capitalizing on the rising rage. All they need to do is convince the public that the system is irredeemably corrupt and that the government can't possibly fix anything (hence Reagan's asinine "joke": "the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help'").

This is a very canny strategy. If you are the party of "governments are intrinsically corrupt and incompetent," then governing corruptly and incompetently proves your point. The GOP strategy is to create a nation of enraged nihilists who don't even imagine that the government could do something to hold their bosses to account – not for labor abuses, not for pollution, not for wage theft or bribery.

The fact that successive neoliberal governments – including Democratic administrations – acted time and again to bear out this hypothesis makes it easy for this kind of nihilism to take hold.

Far-right conspiracies about pharma bosses colluding with corrupt FDA officials to poison us with vaccines for profit owe their success to the lived experience of millions of Americans who lost loved ones to a conspiracy between pharma bosses and corrupt officials to poison us with opioids.

Unhinged beliefs that "they" caused the hurricanes tearing through Florida and Georgia and that Kamala Harris is capping compensation to people who lost their homes are only credible because of murderous Republican fumble during Katrina; and the larcenous collusion of Democrats to help banks steal Americans' homes during the foreclosure crisis, when Obama took Tim Geithner's advice to "foam the runway" with the mortgages of everyday Americans who'd been cheated by their banks:

https://www.salon.com/2014/05/14/this_man_made_millions_suffer_tim_geithners_sorry_legacy_on_housing/

If Harris gives in to billionaire donors and fires Khan and her fellow trustbusters, paving the way for more looting and scamming, the result will be more nihilism, which is to say, more electoral victories for the GOP. The "government can't do anything" party already exists. There are no votes to be gained by billing yourself as the "we also think governments can't do anything" party.

In other words, a world where Khan doesn't run the FTC is a world where antitrust continues to gain ground, but without taking Democrats with it. It's a world where nihilism wins.

There's factions of the Democratic Party who understand this. AOC warned party leaders that, "Anyone goes near Lina Khan and there will be an out and out brawl":

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1844034727935988155

And Bernie Sanders called her "the best FTC Chair in modern history":

https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1843733298960576652

In other words: Lina Khan as a posse.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/11/democracys-antitrust-paradox/#there-will-be-an-out-and-out-brawl

[meggannn]

big-budget game companies have been pissing me off lately (no female mc in persona 3 portable, assassin's creed china being a mobile game, bioware gutting tons of longtime staff) so here are some indie recs, mostly rpgs

backbone (apparently renamed as tails noir???)—detective/scifi rpg where you play as a raccoon in a world of animals with gorgeous pixel-art style

phoenotopia awakening—a truly magical pixel zelda-like where you play as gail, a young girl who gets caught up in saving the world after all the adults in her village are mysteriously abducted

the red strings club—a cyberpunk rpg where you play as a bartender, a hacker, and an android investigating a corporate mystery in a cyberpunk world. also your choices actually matter

toem—a photography game with adorable landscapes and biome settings

heaven's vault—a mystery/anthropological rpg where you're hunting down a missing person across the galaxy with a robot companion while deciphering an ancient language

donut county—literally the best game ever please play it

also a suggestion to follow Best Indie Games on youtube if you're into the indie sphere because they have introduced me to so many new games. they are so on top of indie game updates and releases, post videos several times a week, and every video is full of 10+ games i've never heard of and they rarely overlap. the amount of stuff out there is truly amazing and my wishlist/backlog is so long thanks to them

[tacticaltaxonomist]

Can you tell me more about your experience with the blackberry key2?

Sure! I'll assume this is in context of "Should I get one".

I have the Blackberry Key2 (BBF 100-1)

The short version:

It's an outdated phone, and while I love it (so much, I'll cry when it dies), I can't in good consciousness recommend to BUY it, except under specific circumstances.

If you want it for browsing, chatting, notetaking, and similar casual use, and don't necessarily need it for important things like bank apps (see below), then... you're possibly still better off with a Unihertz!

Why? Used Blackberrys very often have keyboard issues, and unopened/unused ones are *expensive*, you can get something like a Unihertz Titan Slim for the same money or cheaper, and that has Android 11, not 8. (I have not used their phones yet, but when my Key2 will eventually die it's where I'll look first, for lack of better options).

If you can get a used one for dirt cheap (and have 2nd phone/pc for banking apps) AND you can test the keyboard, go ahead. If you have tried the Unihertz and Blackberry keyboards, and just like Blackberry better, and are willing to shell out for the sake of the keyboard, that's of course up to you.

Hope this helped :)

The LONG version:

I love hardware keyboards on phones and had many (Sony Ericsson P900, Sony Ericsson M600, Blackberry Q10, Blackberry Priv, Blackberry Key 1). The Key2 was released in 2018 and I got mine in 2021. It's still my "daily driver" and use it for all my browsing, tumblr, discord, music, train tickets, etc. For those purposes it works perfectly good.

I do not watch videos, or play games on my phone.

The Keyboard has been super reliable for me, it even survived having a full mug of tea pured into it (don't recommend). The spacebar was sticky for a couple days after drying, but has been flawless in the months since.

The phone sits well balanced in your hand to type (unlike the PRIV and SEP900) and the keys are pleasant to type on. After 3-4 years of constant use it's got a couple dings on the black coating of the keys, but that's happened on every keyboard phone I've had so far, and is well within expected signs of use. I write the majority of my stories (and all my discord chats) on my phone, it's seen *a lot* of use. Think 90% of ALL my typing in the last 3-4 years.

Other than that, it's a different proportion than most phones on the market right now, I've not had issues, but I do remember that Pokemon Go struggled with the Key1 (same proportion) and I wouldn't be surprised if that might be an issue with other game apps too.

I LIKE that the screen (and phone) isn't enormous. In comparison I hate the Redmi Note 10 Pro's huge screen, it's inconvenient. On the Key2 you can comfortably reach everything with your thumb. Also, the screen has been REALLY GOOD about scratches, compared to non-blackberry phones. It's got some micro scratches that are only noticeable in really bright sunlight (but in no way disruptive), and a couple months ago a good 3 mm corner on the top of my screen broke off (because I dropped it on tile without a case, like an idiot), but it's got NO CRACKS, no color or light issues. Completely fine. (Comparatively: the Redmi Note 10 Pro has a huge gouge through the screen.... from... somethign???? Within the first month of owning it lol)

Big Cons of a 6 years old phone:

1. Android 8.1.0 is the newest OS, and the last security patch was in 2020. Some new apps don't work, especially ones that require high security like Banking apps! Neither my bank nor my post app work on this phone, and I do not recommend using them on it even if your app allows it.

2. You can't break a Blackberry and install a different OS like you can a Xaomi.

3. Battery is weakened. We all know this, the older batteries get, the weaker they become. If I use my phone all day on wifi and bluetooth headphones I have to charge it by the evening. I take a charging block with me when I'm out a couple hours just in case it dies. Things like mobile data browsing, location tracking, videos and games, are *hard* on your battery.

Other issues I encountered / dislike:

I hate the camera, it's a lot worse than Key1 and PRIV's. If you like taking photos with your phone this ain't it.

Fingerprint scanner. Does it have one? Sure. If no phone has ever struggled with your fingerprints you're probably fine. EVERY phone (and airport) fingerprint scanner ever has had trouble with my fingerprints, but none fail as hard as Key2s. I don't use it lol (this might be an issue with my phone specifically, the Key1 wasn't as unreliable).

If you still have more specific questions, or use cases, or "that's all fine so long it runs one(1) app can you check that for me", feel free to ask o/

[aydaptic]

Sorry if you've already answered this before but I'm new to the fandom and I found your account through your web-comic and I was wondering what is it about Gavin that you like so much? Why is he one of your favourite characters in dbh? (I've noticed that he isn't much of a fan-favourite in this fandom 😔)

This'll be a long post, but you asked (...and I'll happily answer!) I'll add some descriptions for context. At the top of my head, I can think of 21 reasons why I like his canon equivalent.

1. He's charismatic

Gav gives off an energy that makes it easy to hang onto his every word. I can quote all his lines by heart and I like listening to Neil Newbon (in this specific role) talk. I remember some of Kamski's lines as well -- also mo-capped/voice acted by Newbon -- but Kamski doesn't have nearly as much charisma as Gav does.

2. He's expressive

Ppl who 'talk with their hands' are more charismatic. Gav is all over the place in the break room if you stick around. Hand gestures capture people's attention as they emphasize what is being said.

3. He doesn't think androids are alive (...so in his eyes, the way he treats them isn't wrong)

"Could always try roughin' it up a little. After all... it's not human." - Gavin Reed, The Interrogation

That means he wouldn't rough up a human suspect. This alone justifies his unpleasant attitude towards androids. Hank -- who treated Connor way worse than Gav ever did -- changed his mind. Nothing says Gav can't do the same.

If Alexa suddenly said she was alive, the vast majority wouldn't take it seriously (if any at all.)

4. He's sarcastic

"Congratulations on last night, very impressive." - Gavin Reed, Waiting For Hank...

5. He has dark humor

6. He looks down on people that pay for s*x

Quote above. You don't call someone a "pervert" if you agree with their actions. The Eden Club, in particular, is immoral AF... bc those androids don't have a choice. Gav doesn't care about them being androids, but he still looks down on the guy who paid money to get laid, and I applaud Gav for that. Especially when said guy also had a wife and kids.

7. He has valid concerns about androids taking jobs

Anyone who says differently is either in denial, uninformed, or never had a job they were scared to get fired from. There's already been an uproar about ChatGPT and that's nothing compared to how advanced Detroit: Become Human androids are. The unemployment rate in this game is 37% -- higher than it was during the Great Depression and C*VID -- and androids are the main cause.

I've seen a lot of ppl ask this question:

Q: Why not just buy an android and have them do your job for you, then? You get the money anyway bc it's your android!

A: Bc, believe it or not, the vast majority of men want to work. This is a strange concept to grasp for a lot of ppl. I admire Gav for being one of those men who wants to do it themselves. Letting someone else do your job is taking the easy way out.

8. He's a hard worker

Gallery: "...Ruthlessly ambitious, Reed will do anything to advance his career, even if it means treading on other peoples’ toes."

9. He's ambitious

See the quote above.

10. He doesn't sleep well

This isn't just a headcanon. He has literal bags under his eyes. Just knowing he doesn't sleep well already has me asking, "why?" It's interesting.

11. He puts his feet on the table

After Connor interacts with him in the break room, Gav will go to his desk and do this. I'll go into detail about why this contributes to my liking his character in the very last point.

12. He calls Hank out on his alcoholism

As much as most of us love Hank, he's not in a good space mentally. Showing up drunk/hungover to work should not be tolerated. It not only puts coworkers, but also civilians, at risk. Hank should be in therapy instead of working at the DPD until he gets his life sorted out.

13. He calls Fowler out for giving Hank special treatment

"You won't get away with it this time." - Gavin Reed, The Interrogation (after Hank pulls a literal gun on a human coworker AKA Gav)

So Gav has brought it up to Fowler before and is about to do it again. Ties into the point above. What Hank does -- like assaulting a literal FBI agent -- shouldn't be tolerated.

14. He's a control freak

I gravitate towards ppl and characters who take charge. Those who like being in control and know what they're doing. I'm a control freak myself, but I'd prefer to let someone else take the reins as long as I agree with their methods. I like it when ppl know what they want and act on it. Gav does both.

15. He's protective of his coworkers

I was unsure whether or not to add this as I guess it can be seen as a subjective theory and not an objective fact.

Gav only ever steps in with the gun in The Interrogation when Con uses aggressive force on Chris Miller by tearing him away from the deviant. Con did this after disobeying Gav 3 times. So yeah. Gav is justified for stepping in. Hank, on the other hand, isn't justified for pulling a gun on a human coworker. I see this scene as Gav protecting Chris from Con who is showing signs of deviancy.

16. He can't wink

Endearing.

17. He pouts a lot

Again, endearing.

18. He swears like a sneezing kitten

Same as the two points above.

19. He doesn't like Connor

I don't like Con, either. Yeah. We exist. Personality types like Con's "let's be friends" attitude and constant positivity pisses me off. Before anyone comments that the player decides Con's personality... no. Only to an extent. There are several instances where the player has no say whatsoever. Some of Con's pre-determined responses annoy me.

20. He has great fashion

Big fan of leather jackets.

21. I like him bc I'm a narcissist at times

He's essentially the male equivalent of me to the T. I'm only an asshole internally, though. We love (or hate) characters we relate to. I relate to every single point except 17 and 18 on this list.

There you go :)

His OOC fanon equivalent has a huge fanbase -- especially on Twitter/X and Tumblr turning him into a blushing teenage girl -- but it seems like I'm the only person who can't stand that OOC portrayal of him. That said, I adore his canon equivalent in all his asshole glory.

[satoshi-mochida]

Garage: Bad Dream Adventure remaster coming to Switch on June 6

From Gematsu

Sakuba Metal Works and SmokymonkeyS will release the remastered adventure game Garage: Bad Dream Adventure for Switch on June 6, the developers announced. It will support English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese language options.

Garage: Bad Dream Adventure first launched for PC on March 25, 1999 in Japan. The remastered version launched for iOS and Android on December 10, 2021 worldwide, followed by PC via Steam on July 7, 2022.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

Garage—this weird machine is said to create a bizarre dark world by working on the subject’s subconscious mind. The player character is thrown into an enclosed world filled with sewage, with decaying wooden buildings and rusted metals. And he discovers that his body has been changed into something in between a machine and a living creature. He wanders around this structurally complex maze-like world in search of a way out. Garage: Bad Dream Adventure was originally released as a PC adventure game in 1999. In this game, the player character enters his inner world through a psychotherapeutic machine. He is turned into an odd-looking biological machine and searches for a way to escape from that world. Because of its unique world setting, it is described as one of the top three warped games or bizarre games. It is basically a mystery-solving exploratory adventure game. But it also has many RPG elements such as character development through body modifications and intricate fishing system. And the story questions the ambiguity of escaping from the world and staying in the world. One of the features of Garage is its detailed world building. Elements like energy circulation, ecosystem and how the world came about are intertwined tightly, and are reflected in the game system, bringing to life the feel of the deep another world. The unique feeling of strangeness and anxiety surrounding the whole game, even though it is not a horror or depressing game, is created by these settings and system. In this remastered version, almost all images have been retouched, videos have been revised using AI frame interpolation, user-interface and game balance have been improved, and new chapters, subquests, and multiple endings have been added.

Watch a trailer below.

Official Trailer

[justaboutdead]

A Brief Overview of some of the Best Video Games I Played this Year

Aight, so I played a lot of video games this year. Big surprise. I did play Armored Core 6, and Sekiro, and Dave the Diver, and Super Mario Wonder, and Tears of the Kingdom. but you’ve heard of all those. You don’t need to hear about them again. For clarification this is about games I played for the first time this year. Not games that necessarily came out this year. In no particular order

1.Rhythm Doctor

Single button rhythm game. Far harder than it sounds. Excellent music, excellent gameplay, excellent story. Go check it out! Seriously.

2.Atomicrops

Twinstick shooter and farming sim hybrid. I got ridiculously addicted to this. Damn amazing game, good for the adhd. Very tight gameplay loop.

3. Shotgun King

Chess rougelike where you are a king with a shotgun. Actually quite strategically complex. Very fun time.

4.Lunacid

Basically a new indie Kingsfield. An excellent time if you enjoy old slow action rpgs. Amazing atmosphere, music, level design, etc. Great time.

7.Citizen Sleeper

If I had to pick a top game from this list, it might just be this. RPG about being an escaped robot victim of capitalism on a space station and all the people you meet there. Made me cry a lot. Very good. Just play it.

8.In Other Waters

The same devs as citizen sleeper made this. Also very very good. About a marine xenobiologist exploring an alien ocean. Also made me cry. Best game about the ocean ive played. Finished it in a single sitting.

9.Mosa Lina

Very neat puzzle game/immersive sim in the strictest sense. Your solution to any give level is truly your own, always.

10.Milk Outside of a Bag of Milk

The sequel to another very good game, milk inside of a bag of milk. Although ofc quite dissimilar from my own experiences, as a person who struggles with intense social anxiety and is generally neurodivergent, I relate a lot to both of these games.

11.Signalis

Survival horror game about being an android who is looking for someone. Another game you just have to play. Very interesting story and themes, and tight, classic-feeling gameplay.

Other games I played for the first time this year and loved, that you’ve probably either heard of before or I didn’t quite like enough to list: What Remains of Edith Finch, Everhood, Paratopic, No One Lives Under the Lighthouse, Hyper Demon, Post Void, Wrought Flesh, Dusk, Exo One, Gris, Into the Breach, Abzu, Antichamber, Humanity, Amnesia Rebirth*

I feel like I need to end every videogames recommendation post now by begging you to play Outerwilds. Trust me, its amazing.

*edit: forgot to list Jusant. Very good game

[cheritzteam]

[The Ssum] The Ssum : Forbidden Lab Update (27/4 KST, v1.1.15)

Hello, dear lab participant.

You can now download the new version of <The Ssum : Forbidden Lab>.

Google Play Store (Android) - link Apple App Store (iOS) - link

This update includes bug fixes, so you will receive 10 Aurora Batteries as Study Support upon accessing the game.

Make sure you access the Lab by the 30th of April 2023 (KST) to get your compensation! *You must collect your reward within 3 days.

-

The following are the details of the update we have received from the Lab.

[You’ve been waiting for it!]

Your post-Day 100 story with Harry is coming soon.

Don't have enough batteries on hand? Join the City of Free Men's Celebratory Research and aim to become the top lab participant! We're giving away 200 Aurora Batteries as prizes.

There is also an event being held on Cheritz’s official social media accounts♥

Check out related posts for more information! > Cheritz Team Diary : (link) > Event Announcement : (link)

[Bug Fixes]

> I ran out of ads for free energy when I shouldn’t have… Fixed the issue where "Preparing ad" error occurred on some devices even though there were still ad views left.

[Others]

Minor bugs were fixed.

-

We appreciate your reports and your activities as a part of the Lab.

Thank you.

-Cheritz-

[yungvenuz]

Game of the Year List 2023

Honorable Mentions: Touhou: Artificial Dream in Arcadia: I love the oddball mashup of shmup and dungeon crawler mechanics, but I ended up losing interest before the end of the game. In Stars and Time: Still playing this game. I like it so far, but I didn't want to rush it through to get it on this list. It'll go on next year's list if I like it enough. Stuffo the Puzzle Bot: Really great soundtrack. Still on regular rotation.

10. Super Snail (IOS and Android)

This is a difficult inclusion. Super Snail is an Evil game. It's the most monetized game I've ever played. Every screen you can visit can trigger a special offer for a pile of goodies you don't need that you can buy with real money. It's a mobile gacha game, through and through, designed to eat up time and attention and offer back a distant illusion of progress that you could surely expedite, if you were just willing to kick in ten bucks for one of its dozens of customized season passes…. So, why is this game on this list?

Developer QCPlay was already on my radar from previous release Gumball and Dungeons, a similarly high effort mobile game (amusingly originally intended as a Dragon Quest game, until they failed to secure the license and were forced to sand all the iconic teardrops off their slimes and call them gumballs instead). Despite their willingness to indulge in all the awful trends of mobile game markets, these are real, proper game designers, who have buried a real, actual game under all of Super Snail's idle timers and base management bullshit.

Super Snail is constantly shifting, adding new layers of complexity and shaking up existing mechanics. It's the only gacha game I'm aware of in which your gacha machine can be stolen from you temporarily if you use it too much, forcing you to wait on spending tickets until the thief decides its rates are too shit to bother with and returns it to you. There's a dating sim mechanic in which various characters met in your travels (male, female, or both) will find out about your secret base and decide to mooch off you, which is some of the funniest writing in the game.

On that note, the writing is weirdly good for a game that's approximately 80% random pop culture references. The eight demon lords you've been tasked with defeating by the mysterious god "Earth's Will" all have detailed and consistent backstories. There are a few honest-to-god effective twists in the plot, and a lingering question about how shady the god you've signed your life to actually is.

A predatory mobile game shouldn't deserve one minute of my attention, let alone one of the coveted slots on my illustrious top ten list, but Super Snail spits in the face of all that, and god. I can't stop thinking about it, about how many interesting game design lessons are nestled within its strange and evil exterior. So, by compromise, it's grudgingly earned my #10. Just, for god's sake, if any of this backhanded review piques your interest, set a budget for yourself and don't exceed it for any reason.

9. BOSSGAME: The Final Boss is Your Heart (Steam)

BOSSGAME is an action rpg about two dirtbag lesbians, Sophie and Anna, trying to earn rent money by taking random mercenary work in the big city. The story is low pressure fun, with a little melodrama mixed in to spice things up. The plot is needs-suiting, even maybe good, but the reason this game is on the list is the gameplay.

BOSSGAME is really, really fun to play. It uses a combat system reminiscent of the Mario and Luigi rpgs in which both party members are controlled simultaneously. Enemies telegraph attacks that need to be blocked using the left or right side of the gamepad based on character, draining stamina. Attacking also drains stamina, so a careful balance of offense and defense needs to be maintained to survive. Most interestingly, there's no turns: enemies repeat attack patterns usually without waiting for a counterattack, so combat becomes a brain-bending routine of multitasking, with one character needing to block attacks while the other sneaks in some damage. A combo system encourages keeping up constant pressure, with the reward being increased progress toward a super attack that can briefly stun bosses and allow some easy hits before returning to defensive play. The end result is fast paced, engaging, and totally unique combat that was fun to learn for each of the dozens of boss fights in the game.

I'm glad this game ended up being good enough to recommend here, not just because I, too, am lesbian, but because I love designers that are willing to take a chance on unique control schemes. Part of the fun of playing BOSSGAME was getting to learn how to play without being able to rely on any of the muscle memory I've accrued over years of playing other action games. I only wish it weren't so short. Of all the games on this list, this is the one I would most want to see expanded into a full 40-60 hour RPG epic.

8. Slay the Princess (Steam)

A Myers-Briggs test for fetishes. Keep that in mind whenever anybody who tries to talk to you about their favorite "route". Great writing though

7. EDF 5 (Steam)

My official Multiplayer Game Experience of the Year. The EDF (EDF! EDF! EDF!) series is an alien invasion resistance simulator that exists somewhere between Dynasty Warriors and Monster Hunter in gameplay. I've known about the series for a long time, and I had assumed it was the kind of loud dumb fun that makes for punchy clips but wears out its welcome quickly. To be clear, it definitely is loud, and dumb, and fun, but it also has significantly more mechanical depth and complexity than I expected, which kept it fresh and engaging for as long as I played it.

Mechanics like building destruction and corpse hitboxes looks like they're just they're there for spectacle at first, but as levels progress and more and more aggressive enemy types are introduced, these seemingly incidental details take on more and more importance as you need to manage cover and enemy sight lines more effectively. This is the game's most potent tool, I think: everything that makes it great as a ridiculous carnage sandbox has been meticulously designed to also work in the higher difficulty levels to deliver a genuinely tense and highly mobile shooter.

6. Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengeance of the Slayers (Steam)

A boomer shooter in the same canon as Hypnospace Outlaw, partially developed by troubled teen ZANE_ROCKS_14 and polished up for release 22 years later. For an elaborate shitpost, it's very well made, but what most interests me about it is its contradictory nature. Outwardly, it's completely juvenile and silly about everything it does, filled with poop jokes and mouthy rats and evil stepdads. Underneath that, there's the deep melancholy of a 36 year old desperately trying to relive the last time in his life that he felt cool.

all the levels in the game faithfully recreate scenes of Zane's Idaho childhood, from ritzy suburban neighborhoods to car parks to the local fair, but they're all just a little bit too eerily empty for the settings they're trying to evoke. The protagonist's sincere love for his mother completely clashes with the badass attitude he brings to every other scene. Zane put his all into voice acting the protagonist's lines, while every other character sounds like they're reciting lines into their phone in a bathroom. The end result is a masterpiece in immersive game design, meticulously arranged to feel like it came from a very specific time and place in a fictional alternate universe. It's so effective that even the parts that don't work can be argued as a deliberate part of the overall period piece, like the confusingly short penultimate level or unnecessarily annoying final boss.

5. Cobalt Core (Steam)

A card battler built around spaceship combat. It should be immediately apparent to anybody who's played a lot of Slay-The-Spire-likes that Cobalt Core is on the easier side, but that's a deliberate choice here, in an effort to create an engaging narrative experience rather than a perfectly tuned progression treadmill. While Inscryption (another narrative card battler) managed its story by bringing the player away from the cards for cutscenes or escape room sequences, Cobalt Core delivers everything within its roguelike framework, even going as far as coming up with a time loop justification for why the player is repeating runs to progress the story.

In that regard it compares more closely to Hades than other card battlers, and I also think that's a good comparison because I really like the characters and character interactions in Cobalt Core. Each round starts with the selection of three of the (after finishing a short period of unlocks) 7 crewmates available to play with, and every combination of characters has interesting discussions and interactions between them. Characters also have lines to acknowledge specific artifacts, cards, or game states (like big damage or status effects) that offers a level of reactivity to make each run that much more unique. Also like Hades, there's a concrete ending sequence. Backstory for each crewmate is delivered piecemeal throughout the game, and while there aren't any earthshattering twists or revelations, the ending does a good job of tying everything together for a proper sendoff.

Shoutout to Riggs. Best possum in the galaxy.

!Great Soundtrack Alert!

4. Going Down (2014 Doom wad) (Doomworld File Depot)

This year, I played MyHouse.wad. More and more people were talking about it, and I wanted to give it a try myself before someone randomly spoiled it for me. I didn't end up caring for it much! It did some interesting things, and it was definitely well made, but I'm not that interested in the creepypasta style it was going for.

It did pique my interest in the rich ecosystem of Doom modding that's been quietly trucking along for 30 years before myhouse ever released, though. A friend recommended Going Down, which I found to be terrific, and then I spent the rest of the year playing random wads (level packs) whenever I didn't have anything else to do. Doom has become invaluable to me as a podcast game, especially as I've only just been able to extract myself from Tactical Nexus's cunning grasp this year.

So, without further ado: The Official Doom Wads of the Year Minilist:

10 Struggle: Antaresian Legacy - Most of the levels in this wad focus on low-pressure exploration, but my favorites were the wide-open chaotic battles. I especially like the capstone levels of the first two chapters (maps 11 and 20), which both feature massive arenas with hundreds of enemies active at once. 9 Ancient Aliens - A collab megawad with great aesthetic and theming. Level quality is inconsistent, which makes sense given how many authors were involved, but the best levels in the wad are excellent. 8 Dust Devil - A short campaign of two interconnected levels with a bunch of interesting custom content. The use of grenade launchers and shielded enemies was especially cool, and not something I expected the doom engine to be able to do. 7 Lullaby - A stylish single-map wad in a decidedly undoomlike blue dreamland. There's only five or so major setpiece encounters, but they're all very memorable. 6 Doom 2 - I love how experimental the design in Doom 2 is, especially given that the entire genre of fps was brand new at this point in history. there's abstract levels, puzzle levels, diagetic cityscapes, and more. It's easy to see its influence in every fps to ever follow in its wake. 5 Overboard - A newer wad by the same author of Going Down with a great gimmick- the first five levels are followed by a set of hard mode remixes that use the same maps with more aggressive enemy arrangements. I particularly liked the last map of hard mode, which is identical to its normal mode variant except that it spawns all 500 enemies in the moment the level starts instead of deploying in piecemeal waves as it does in the original. 4 The Thing You Can't Defeat - An experimental remix of the first chapter of Doom 1. Very interesting premise and punchline. If you liked MyHouse.wad, I'd highly recommend checking it out. 3 Tarnsman's Projectile Hell - This is the first touhou game I've played, technically. Deviously difficult design with an emphasis on long distance hitscan enemies that would be extremely annoying in the hands of a level designer any less obviously talented than Tarnsman. 2 Unloved - An ambitious continuous campaign that takes place in a Silent Hill-esque house with several portals to distorted nightmare realms. I like that small amounts of progress are made in each level at a time with frequent revisits to the main hub, and I love the dark atmosphere. Very creepy. Also insanely difficult. 1 Going Down - My favorite by a long shot. The amount of variety in level and encounter design is incredible on its own, but I particularly like the care that went into giving each level a unique identity that still makes sense in the context of the wad's premise (taking an elevator floor by floor down into the depths of hell). Every level is meticulously designed to use the entire space, usually multiple times as later encounters in each level usually reuse the same arenas with additional twists on the layout and enemy deployments.

3. Pizza Tower (Steam)

A fluid platformer heavily inspired by the Wario Land games. Its most notable design choice is the lack of fail state when exploring levels. There's no health bar, and falling into pits only resets the room, so there's no significant pressure until the timed escape sequence at the end of each level. That's not to say the game lacks challenge, though. Far from it- the challenge comes not from reaching the end of each room, but in doing so as efficiently as possible. Pizza Tower's principle antagonist is the 5 second combo timer in the top right, forcing a constant stream of action. Every level has just enough stuff in each room to allow a single combo to be carried from start to level finish, which confers the coveted P Rank medal on level completion.

Full P Rank completion is what I spent three months obsessively chasing at the start of this year. Movement in Pizza Tower is so fluid, and so satisfying to learn how to fully utilize, that I couldn't resist going for it. I got so far into it that after finishing the game, I went back in immediately for an optional challenge that requires full P rank completion of the game in less than 4 hours, which required being able to clear each level with perfect consistency.

!Great Soundtrack Alert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWoTeTZL-C8

2. Beton Brutal (Steam)

The trailer for Beton Brutal immediately spoke to me. I've been a fan of persistent-state platforming games for ages, and it's a sorely underserved genre (mostly lurking in MMOs and player-made levels for games like Mario Maker). I like the emphasis on meditative upward progress, and I especially like the increasing pressure that builds as each subsequent jump risks losing more progress than the previous. Beton Brutal's developer was able to deliver this perfectly while also maintaining a consistent and interesting visual style (a stark contrast to the dreadful nft tie-in climbing game Only Up, which also released this year).

For weeks, I opened Beton Brutal after work and played for thirty minutes to an hour, usually seeing some small amount of new progress before inevitably taking a long fall and rage quitting for the day. I don't think I can call this the hardest game I've ever played, given that there's an entire community of people that can complete the entire climb in less than ten minutes, but I do think I'm uniquely poorly suited for games like this, given the extreme precision required. Still, that made it all the more satisfying to finally complete the game after almost exactly 20 hours of effort.

Three months later the DLC "Beton Bath", with another 500 meter tower with new obstacles, mechanics, and visual aesthetic (themed after public pool equipment, which honestly looks great decorating the tower), released. This dlc had mixed reviews, but it cemented this game as a whole as a favorite for me. The new tower has a very different design approach, with more focus on interpreting strange geometry, seeking out aggressive shortcuts, and taking giant leaps of faith. The last 100 meters particularly impressed me, with numerous falls onto trampolines 80 meters below to stride the entire tower in one jump and reach new ladders, before climbing just a few meters higher and repeating the process back to the opposite side.

trying to settle on which screenshot to include with the entry was agonizing, so I'm going to post a bunch more here. I love how this game looks.

Don't worry about the vertigo meter in the bottom left. It's probably nothing to worry about.

Void Stranger (Steam)

Void Stranger is a tile-based puzzle game featuring a magic wand that can pick tiles up and place them elsewhere. Help the noble handmaiden Gray delve into the 256th floor of the mysterious Void to fulfill her heart's desire, learning more about her past by peeking into her memories as she rests at checkpoints along the way.

…But that's not sufficient to describe it, really. The best way I can come up with to describe what Void Stranger actually is, is as a seemingly normal block-pushing puzzle game that's had an entire additional Myst-like adventure game layered over it. The puzzle game is real, and it can be engaged with honestly from start to finish, but the true fun of the game (and several of its many, many possible endings) comes from interpreting obscure clues in the lore and interface to dive deeper.

The more that's learned, the easier it is to navigate the underlying puzzle game. Almost every object in the game has hidden mechanics related to it, opening up easier routes through initially difficult puzzles or allowing the use of shortcuts to skip floors entirely. Once these tricks are mastered, only thirty or so of the game's 256 floors even need to be visited to complete a run, and most of them can be cleared in seconds.

That's a good thing, too, because there's a lot of travel to specific floors needed to find all the secrets in the game. This is a game that thrives on friction in its play experience, which means it's definitely not going to be a game for everybody. If clues regarding certain shortcuts or secrets are missed, it can add a lot of unnecessary work to completing the game. But I personally love that kind of obscurity in games, and I really appreciate that the developer System Erasure (who made the similarly excellent ZeroRanger) was willing to take a chance on a niche-of-a-niche genre that could really speak to its core demographic: me specifically.

I'm not going to talk much about the plot, because most of it is deeply tangled with the Void Stranger's deepest secrets. That said, I appreciate that every route through the game, even the ones that don't engage with all the secret hunting, have been given fully fledged stories. Even the bad ending has a fucking awesome finale, to the extent that I would recommend seeking it out before engaging with the rest of the game's content (if you get offered a fruit, go ahead and eat it!)

Void Stranger is good enough to make it onto my top ten list of games of all time. I've put it at #6, just behind Iji and just ahead of Full Bore. Everything about it is fucking awesome. Check it out!

!Great Soundtrack Alert!

[honeyblockm]

ok i think i do need to make a list of the current open fanprojects in my brain rn:

-awful dsmp superhero au / exercise in updating longfic -a family dinner (dsmp fic)* -silver dollar -antigone/shen jiu/niki webweave* -cezhou animatic -fengqing animatic -red wedding v2 (lurking in the back of my mind) -xie lian 190 digitization -how i left the ministry honq animatic -ksq transmigration fic -nebulous concepts for zine stuff

also current open original work stuff:

-poetry chapbook attempt ??? (archetype and android top surgery) -research and writing for evilshixiongverse and new ocs within that space -DIE WONDERING dating sim video game -starting my silly litmag 10/15 GOTTEM -ultimate media rec list*

this is mostly for my own use but if anything here is particularly exciting or cool or u would like to see it then please let me know bc it will probably help me focus on thingz rather than my brain falling into a bunch of loose lego pieces when i try to think

[choiceofgames]

Author Interview: "Heavens' Revolution: A Lion Among the Cypress."

Author Interview: "Heavens' Revolution: A Lion Among the Cypress." by Peter Adrian Berhravesh. We’re proud to announce that "Heavens' Revolution: A Lion Among the Cypress." the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is coming October 24th to Steam, Android, and iOS in the “Choice of Games” app.

https://www.choiceofgames.com/2024/10/new-author-interview-peter-adrian-behravesh-heavens-revolution-a-lion-among-the-cypress/

You’re a prolific podcaster, writer, editor, and narrator in the fantasy and science fiction/fantasy space, with an impressive list of awards and nominations for your work, but I think this is more or less your first foray into interactive fiction, correct?

That’s correct! While I’d read interactive fiction prior to this, I’d never tried my hand at writing it. It was a huge learning curve, but I saw it as an opportunity to stretch my creative muscles and explore a new medium. I don’t know how successful I was! But hopefully players will enjoy the ride regardless.

What should our players know about the world of Heavens’ Revolution?

The world of Heavens’ Revolution is heavily inspired by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Iran, particularly during the Qajar era. Alchemy is the impetus for interplanetary travel, as well as a host of other technological advances. But of course, as in the real world, those advances mostly benefit people in power. The game takes place almost entirely within the city of Seyj, which is on the brink of a conflict that’s equal parts the Rashidun conquest of Iran, the Iranian Revolution, and my own invention. I tried hard not to make the world feel like every other SFF empire/colony setting or the conflict feel black and white. I really wanted players to be able to explore the nuances of this world and forge their own path.

What did you find compelling about telling that story in ChoiceScript, in an interactive novel, as opposed to some other medium?

The aspect I found the most compelling was also the most challenging. When drafting prose, I’m used to writing characters into a corner and then coming up with a unique and cool solution for them to get out of it. But in Choicescript, I had to think of at least three unique and cool solutions for players to escape each sticky situation. It wasn’t always easy! But if I did it well, it will make for a more rewarding experience, and ideally make the game more replayable.

What surprised you most about the writing/coding process?

How difficult it is to code deception! So much of this game is about hiding your true intentions or playing one side against the other. But the more choices I created where a player could lie, the harder it was to track all of the possible branches (much like lying in real life, I suppose). If I were to do it again, I would certainly simplify this aspect, if only for my own sanity!

Do you have favorite interactive or text-based games you want to shout out?

Can I shout out a WIP game? I’m loving what I’ve read of Dragon Butcher by Summer Fletcher. I’m biased, since Summer and I worked together at PodCastle, but their prose packs such a wallop, and the world feels deliciously gritty and lived-in. I can’t wait to play the whole thing!

What else are you working on?

Too many things! I’ve written a traditional novel set in the same world as Heavens’ Revolution, so my first priority is revising that. I’m also co-editing an anthology of Iranian speculative fiction (with fellow CoG author Rebecca Zahabi) that will be out in 2025. And I’m (slowly) working on a new album of original and cover songs. On top of that, I have narrations forthcoming from Cast of Wonders, PseudoPod, and PodCastle, and I’ve written two academic essays on Persian monsters that will be published in anthologies from Oxford University Press and Bloomsbury in the near future.

[protechgames]

 Top 10 New Games for Android

Get the latest and greatest Android games for your phone or tablet. From action-packed shooters to engaging puzzles, this list of the top 10 new Android games has something for everyone. Enjoy hours of entertainment with crisp graphics, intuitive controls, and exciting gameplay

[beardedmrbean]

Threads, Meta's new social media app, has signed up 100 million new users less than a week since its launch last Wednesday, making it the fastest-growing app in history.

Like other social media apps, users probably barely scanned − or skipped − the terms and conditions for what information Threads can collect, share and sell about them.

Meta probably already had a lot of information about users because Threads is built upon its Instagram platform.

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

So how much does Threads already know about you, and what can it do with that data? Here are a few reasons to be concerned about your privacy.

What information does Threads collect?

Social media platforms monetize user data by selling relevant ads based on your location and activity, but, along with the usual app privacy requests like browsing history and location data, Threads also asks for financial information, health and fitness data, diagnostics and a nefarious-sounding "sensitive info."

Many users have voiced concern over Threads for its 14-point list of data permissions you're granting Meta to use the app. Twitter, by comparison, has 10 of these.

"I would say it's at the outer boundaries of what's usually expected, which is to be expected from its connection to Facebook, a brand long known for being especially hungry to take in user data and commercialize it in different ways," says Dan Ackerman, the new editor-in-chief at Gizmodo, a leading technology, science and culture news publication.

Android users can toggle off some of the data requests from the app, while the Apple App Store is "more take-it-or-leave it," Ackerman said.

"It also doesn't help that there's no browser-based fully functional version of Threads right now, and so you have to use the app version," he said.

Meta declined my request for comment and clarification.

Is Threads data collection worse than Twitter?

It's not necessarily malicious, suggests Tim Bajarin, a veteran technology analyst and Chairman of the San Jose, California-based market research firm Creative Strategies. "Users should know this Threads data list is pulled directly from Instagram, and it's all tied to their advertising engine when they start to monetize Threads.  

"When you sign off on financial info, for example, they're not looking at your bank statements or anything," Bajarin said.

Rather, Threads collects what you're posting about and liking, where you are, and whether you bought something through a third-party site, app or game you logged into using your connected Facebook/Instagram ID (usually to avoid creating a new password altogether).

Bajarin said users are granting Meta access for future advertising.

"Meta isn't giving you a free app out of the goodness of their heart − they're there to make money, which is mostly from advertising."

Threads can collect and save this information, and the data can also be shared with third-party services that connect to your Threads profile.

Can you deactivate Threads?

Yes, but you cannot delete it without also deleting Instagram, Bajarin said.

"Meta built (Threads) on the Instagram infrastructure, on top of the program itself, and so it would be very difficult to uninstall one and not both – at least the way it's engineered today. ... They could eventually be spun out to be completely separate apps," Bajarin said.

To deactivate (but not delete) your Threads account, Adam Mosseri − the Instagram boss who now spearheads the Threads app – says you can choose to hide your Threads profile and content, delete individual Threads posts and set your profile to private, as reported by USA TODAY contributor Jennifer Jolly.

"Threads is powered by Instagram, so right now it's just one account, but we're looking into a way to delete your Threads account separately,” he posted.

Ackerman said the fact Threads is built on Instagram is actually a boon for Meta and users, "as it's especially easy to sign up for, has no wait list, and is simple to use." But "in order to delete your Threads account after you sign up, you’ll need to delete your Instagram account, as well, which reminds me of the difficulty people had deleting their Facebook accounts in the past, and how there was a lot of fine print about what data Facebook would keep unless you jumped through extra hoops."

Is the Threads app safe?

Threads is asking for more permissions than Twitter, so it boils down to your comfort level.

Though some of the privacy permissions seem ludicrous – granting Threads access to health and activity data and other "sensitive info" on a smartphone just seems wrong – no one is forcing users to install and use Threads or any other social media app that monetizes its free platform by delivering personalized, contextual ads to you.

Threads is available in more than 100 countries, but perhaps it's no surprise it isn't available in the Europe Union just yet: Meta was forced to pay more than $400 million by EU regulators for forcing users to accept targeted ads.

Personally, I am using and enjoying Threads quite a bit but wish there was more clarity about how my data is collected and used. And I'm disappointed Meta declined to clarify things.

I select "Ask not to track" on all iPhone apps to reduce an app's visibility into my web browsing activity, and I have a virtual private network (VPN) on my computer for extra privacy, but perhaps it's true there is nothing truly free in this world – it's just up to each person to decide whether the cost is worth it.

[emmanuellecreed]

Top 10 Best Android TV Boxes to choose in 2024

1. Android TV Boxes: StreamX X1 Pro

Stream X X1 Pro, It is not only a notable technological advancement in media and entertainment but also a powerful and flexible tool. With high performance, flexibility, and interactivity. Besides, Stream X allows access to and direct content streaming from multiple TV. Such as: channels, online streaming services, video games, and other entertainment apps through a single interface.  

The intelligent recommendation system of Stream X relies on viewing history and personal preferences. Moreover, this creating a personalized entertainment environment where users can enjoy the best entertainment experiences. With impressive technical specifications such as a powerful processing chip, 2GB to 4GB of RAM, and 16GB to 64GB of storage, Stream X ensures high performance and robust processing capabilities.  

Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, integrated Bluetooth technology, 4K Ultra HD resolution, and surround sound optimize the entertainment experience. Stream X utilizes a customized operating system based on Android or open-source software, supporting automatic software updates to ensure security and provide new features. With voice control via Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa and support for popular apps, Stream X offers a diverse and convenient entertainment experience for clientele. 

[missallanea]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN

TAGGED BY: stole it off the dash TAGGING: steal it yourself you cowards !!

1. FIRST NAME: Missa

2. STRANGE FACT ABOUT YOURSELF: My mum once ripped off my fingertip with the strollers... like, sun roof? You can't tell though, they reattached it with no issues.

3. TOP THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU FIND ATTRACTIVE ON A PERSON: Eyes, hands... chest...?

4. A FOOD YOU COULD EAT FOREVER AND NOT GET BORED OF: Potato. Love potato. So versatile. I return to my Polish / Ukrainian roots. Potato.

5. A FOOD YOU HATE: Cilantro, and anything overly soft / mushy. Also mango because how dare you taste so fucking good when you make my mouth hurt.

6. GUILTY PLEASURE: Trash reality TV. We're talking like... Catfish. Garbage TV.

7. WHAT DO YOU SLEEP IN: Not a whole helluva lot, and not in a cute sexy way. In an "I have sensory issues and overheat easily and wake up crying in agony" way.

8. SERIOUS RELATIONSHIPS OR FLINGS: Serious relationships for myself. For other people, do what makes you happy. uwu

9. IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN THE PAST AND CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WOULD YOU AND WHAT WOULD IT BE: I wouldn't get my first tattoo when the artist fucking mocked me through the whole damn thing. Fuck you, Jason. My tattoo looks like shit and you blew out the lines so fucking badly.

10. ARE YOU AN AFFECTIONATE PERSON: I think so, yeah!

11. A MOVIE YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN: Atlantis: the Lost Empire. Beauty and the Beast. Carrie, specifically the 2013 one. Yes, yes, inferior remake. I know. I'm aware. But something about it just tickles my brain.

12. FAVORITE BOOK: Carrie by Stephen King. I'm not going to say it's a good book, but it is a book that brought me a lot of comfort in a hard time in my life.

13. YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO KEEP ANY ANIMAL AS A PET, WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE: Three words : Norwegian Forest Cat.

14. TOP FIVE FICTIONAL SHIPS [IF YOU ARE AN RP BLOG, YOU CAN USE YOUR OWN SHIPS AS WELL]:Rumbelle, Raeda, Lumity... Romy annnnd... idk man.

15. PIE OR CAKE: Yes. The answer is always yes.

16. FAVORITE SCENT: About to be hyper specific here : Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Snake Oil perfume.

17. CELEBRITY CRUSH: Carla Gugino.

18. IF YOU COULD TRAVEL ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO: Japan! There are so many things I want to do in Japan, but I want to be able to speak the language at least conversationally before I go.

19. INTROVERT OR EXTROVERT: Introvert.

20. DO YOU SCARE EASILY: Definitely. Despite this, love me some good horror.

21. IPHONE OR ANDROID: Android.

22. DO YOU PLAY ANY VIDEO GAMES: I do! I've been playing Dreamlight Valley but I recently have been wanting to start a new playthrough of BioShock. I also need to finish Killing Harmony.

23. DREAM JOB: Scare actor for a haunted house attraction and / or an student educator for a zoo or an aquarium.

24. WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A MILLION DOLLARS: Pay off some debts, buy Mal and I our wedding rings, get us into a new apartment, and then set the rest aside for my inevitable move to the US.

25. FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU HATE: Gonna cheap out and choose one you're supposed to hate : Terra Snapdragon. Woman gets under my skin in the worst of ways.

26. FANDOM THAT YOU WERE ONCE A PART OF BUT AREN’T ANY LONGER: Once Upon a Time. I wrote in that fandom on tumblr for... years. Still has a soft place in my heart but I don't think I'll ever go back.

[firebatvillain]

20 questions for fic writers!

As seen on @givereadersahug (x)!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I currently have 59 works on AO3, though some of those are unrevealed or anonymous, so the visible work count is a bit lower.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

105k! Wow. Over half of that has been in the last two years, when I've been doing a lot more writing and taking part in exchanges.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Naruto (7) Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling (7) Original Work (7) Warhammer 40.000 (3) Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms (2) Stellaris (Video Game) (2) From there we get into a lot of one-offs that I wrote for exchanges. House MD, Gundam Wing, Good Omens, The Order of the Stick, and many others. Most of the Original Work fics are for particular exchange prompts, some of which are quite fun.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Greatest Weasley [Harry Potter, Ron-Centric, incomplete] - this WIP is my white whale! Ron gets sorted into Slytherin. Only a couple chapters, I should return to it sometime...

Harry Potter and the Independent Path [Harry Potter, parody, one-shot] - This very short parody fic is fun and I'm glad people like it. I actually look back fondly on this genre even if I poke fun at it.

Five Times Sakura Heard the Voice, and One Time It Faded [Naruto, Sakura-centric, one-shot, 2.9k] - This was an fest fic for Fest No Jutsu 2022! I really enjoyed writing this one.

If You Won’t Wait for Me, I’ll Find My Own Path [Naruto, Sakura-centric, drabble] - Wrote this one based on the fandom opinions of my friend @xenosimp. Surprised at its popularity.

Liana and the Labyrinth’s Core [Original Work, Explicit, Het, 2.3k] - I wrote this very explicit fic for an exchange, and had a lot of fun with it! Minotaur/Sacrifice, make sure to read the tags/warnings.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

For exchange fics, almost always. Otherwise, I do sometimes. It's fun to chat with other fandom people and let them know I appreciate their comments, or answer their questions.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't usually write angsty endings, but The Rules of Reintegration [OW drabble, prompt: military android masquerading as a human] is angsty.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I'd say Four Times Toph Beifong Triumphed [ATLA, Toph-centric, 2.5k words] would be it. It's generally fun! 

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not often, though I got one very baffling comment on a fic where someone questioned the realism of it. I'm not in the big fandoms where there's lots of drama though.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes, often for exchanges. It typically tends to be straightforward steamy sex. I've got some more kinky stuff posted to anon that I won't share here, heh.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I've written one, but it's not usually my style for writing, since it's a challenge for me. I love reading them though!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, and I hope it never happens. I don't think anything I've written is popular enough for that 😅

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

My fandom friend and I co-wrote Mist and Shadow, a WH40k AU fic about Eldar escaping the fall of the Eldar empire. After about 12k words, we set it down, but we may return someday.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

This is a tough one! All-time, I'm not sure. But at the moment, I'm basically chewing on Durge/Enver Gortash (BG3) and having a great time with it.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oof, this is a tough one! There's a very old Naruto fic that I don't think I'll ever get back to... Lost Root. I can't really recommend it in its current state, but it was one of my first plot bunnies.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm pretty decent at paragraph-to-paragraph rhythm, and I am unafraid to try new things.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sometimes I repeat certain phrases without realizing it, and pacing scenes can be difficult for me. I also have a tendency to write excessively long sentences. Trying to improve on that last one!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Seems like a hard sell for both writer and reader.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

StarCraft pro gamer RPF. No, you won't find the fic on my AO3 profile.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

I'm still in love with Roonil Wazlib and the Goblet of Fire, a 2.8k word Harry Potter crackfic I wrote for Bad Bang V. Is it bad? Yes, oh yes. And it's fun, and so are the comments.

Tagging (no pressure): @xenosimp @vanyalanthirielofmana @chacusha @vampiremonday @uozlulu @miss-ingno @verecunda