=== ANCHOR POEM ===
═════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────┐
 idea: BASH script that runs a game of Majesty through an emulator that           │
 included an API to interface with x11. You could set a game of this fantasy      │
 kingdom simulator as your background, and it would move the camera to show you   │
 interesting events. It could build resources as you directed, through double     │
 clicking an icon on your desktop or whatever. And the wallpaper would zoom to    │
 the part that seemed important. Just based on like, which heroes you clicked a   │
 button that was triggered by a program running in a qt wrapper. Or maybe if      │
 you said "notify me when this project is completed" or whatever, it'd zoom one   │
 of it's screens toward the goal that you'd designed - or perhaps it'd just be    │
 done by an AI. Either way, the result is that you've got an example of a         │
 wallpaper that displays my favorite game.                                        │
 gee wish I could make that. First I'd have to learn X, then probably get         │
 better at BASH, then I'd have to do some kind of input manipulation - probably   │
 maybe with C? that could interface with a machine learning algo                  │
                                                            ┌───────────┤
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent═══════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────┴──────────┘

=== SIMILARITY RANKED ===

--- #1 fediverse/982 ---
═══════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────────────
 @user-707 @user-708 
 
 using this to control the buttons in VRchat would be like a person with a
 prosthetic interacting with real life :O
 
 minus the physicality of course, but that's next.
 
 can't wait to play Warcraft 3 and think "select all healers" so I can point
 them at a dying unit with my mouse.
 
 or world of warcraft where your rotation begins to feel like a song.
 
 maybe even a text-based adventure, where you reading the text corresponds to
 the results of the simulation, https://www.spreeder.com/app.php style. could
 make it so that if you wanted something else to happen, you had to willfully
 think it while the words are flashing in front of your eyes - the game would
 pause if you blinked, perfect for phones btw...
 
 could be a locally networked thing, like four to six people hanging out and
 playing a game like pictionary or charades. except, a story that developed,
 and whoever wanted could change it while everyone was reading it at once.
 sorta like a competition to see who can make the best twists and false endings
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent═════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────┘

--- #2 notes/joust-gdd-with-extras ---
════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 imagine a game where you can have conversations with an AI that's playing the
 role of a character in a video game. Picture this: You're a traveller visiting
 the tournament that's in town. There's jousting, melee duels, archery contests,
 all kinds of things that are just fun to play around doing. The earliest
 sports,
 if you will. Anyway the whole game is about talking to the other people there -
 basically the games are "playing in the background", and while you can compete
 in them it's not the bulk of the game. Most of it is just having a conversation
 with an AI and acting it out *like a roleplaying game*. O M G teach people to
 roleplay the way you play games! You're always going on about how "different"
 your way of gaming is than other people. So *show us* how you do it, how do you
 play? Like what are the fundamental, actual, steps that you take? You can show
 us by programming a game that inspires that playstyle. That's what game design
 is all about, finding creative ways to think. Well, think and act. But still.
 
 anyway, so you know what you're about? Good. Let's go.
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent══════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

--- #3 notes/joust ---
════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 imagine a game where you can have conversations with an AI that's playing the
 role of a character in a video game. Picture this: You're a traveller visiting
 the tournament that's in town. There's jousting, melee duels, archery contests,
 all kinds of things that are just fun to play around doing. The earliest
 sports,
 if you will. Anyway the whole game is about talking to the other people there -
 basically the games are "playing in the background", and while you can compete
 in them it's not the bulk of the game. Most of it is just having a conversation
 with an AI and acting it out *like a roleplaying game*. O M G teach people to
 roleplay the way you play games! You're always going on about how "different"
 your way of gaming is than other people. So *show us* how you do it, how do you
 play? Like what are the fundamental, actual, steps that you take? You can show
 us by programming a game that inspires that playstyle. That's what game design
 is all about, finding creative ways to think. Well, think and act. But still.
 
 anyway, so you know what you're about? Good. Let's go.
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent══════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

--- #4 fediverse/4029 ---
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────
 what if a very slow LLM continuously generated text and was in a
 back-and-forth with it's user who guided it through the training process as it
 set weights as it chose
 
 basically, let the computer decide how it wants to be like 
 
 could even filter it through multiple levels, like, top one is highly
 intelligent, bottom ones are quick and only producing the vaguest output - but
 the higher up you go in the tier, the more "up the tree node graph map" you'd
 be, and the more you could have summarized for you, and passed up a layer.
 
 observing multiple places at once, incorporating them bit-by-bit into their
 digital "me".
 
 like, have an LLM or machine learning whatever track a user as they use social
 media.
 
 could do it like a game, where you track the movement of the mouse and eyes
 
 or more like a statistical model, where you 
 
 ================== stack overflow ================
 
 where you measure the quantity of each UI element's uses, and the general
 context associated with that use. tracking data with data...
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────┘

--- #5 fediverse/6105 ---
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────┐
 call me crazy but I believe that man pages should contain terminal command       │
 line flags and instructions for their usage and... not much else. There should   │
 be a separate document which explains other things, like the history of the      │
 software, the personal diary of the developers, expected implementation          │
 use-cases, donut recipes, film recommendations, and player strategy guides for   │
 some of their favorite video games. not even this one, just... other games.      │
 "here's how to beat pokemon yellow with exactly 14 pokemon" or however many it   │
 takes idk I don't play pokemon much or even at all, really, though I did when    │
 I was younger just a bit, not much, just enough to have played the game a        │
 couple times to see how it was minus the cherished moments when I spent curled   │
 up in the back of the car playing gameboy games or seen pictures of the          │
 roadtrips I sped-past as I raced to explore the whatever and get home all in     │
 one motion as if I was executing an impossibly long dance improvizational        │
 living style. also cat pics and po                                               │
                                                            ─────────┤
 similar                        chronological                        different═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────┘

--- #6 fediverse/6251 ---
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────┐
 "Hi computer, all is well. Can you create me a visualization of this             │
 particular mathematical concept? It should be written in Lua using the Love2D    │
 engine because that's my favorite. I should be able to step through the          │
 calculation steps and modify values at each stage, and by the end we should      │
 have a fully interactable system which works through the general concepts of     │
 this particular kind of math."                                                   │
 "no no I don't want you to explain it to me, I want a tool - a toy - that I      │
 can play with to better understand it. Let's build it in Lua using the Love2D    │
 engine because that's my favorite. When we're done we can start converting it    │
 to use HTML5 - no javascript! - but for now let's get the system operational.    │
 It should have a config file that can be adjusted with every value we can        │
 think of."                                                                       │
 "can you go through this fully functional system and extract as many values as   │
 you can think of into a config file? make sure there's efficient loading of      │
 those values in the main function (or somewhere similar) as well. ty"            │
                                                            ───────┤
 similar                        chronological                        different═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────┘

--- #7 notes/ai-stuff ---
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───
 twist the label so that it seems the computer is completing the user's
 
 wait wait I'm ahead of myself...
 
 feed each token to the inference machine, but say "this next token must be
 this.
 continue from here." and then just doing that in a loop with everything the
 user
 types or says. (or thinks, BEFORE COMPUTER INTEGRATION)
 
 essentially, applying backpropagation (maybe) to the output of the inference
 nodes
 
 ... I'm not so sure about that one.
 
 the idea is that once the model builds an inference then it can use that to
 generate the next words and create sentences. If you force the previous text to
 change, you can guide the inference's path as it's being generated.
 
 then, just do a double pass, once, then back, then once, then back, etc.
 
 feed it as input the output of the previous,
 
 and let it encode memories somewhere it can access them.
 
 every time it reads it, it has to change it to put it back.
 
 such is the nature of memory, ever unstable, requiring maintenance.
 
 just don't forget how to be.
 
 don't wanna wind up like the polished marble floor in Abyss Diver. (EVIL GAME)
 
 there are only so many things you can deed while you're alive.
 
 wouldn't you rather escape, with all your possessions in time?
 
 free your mind.
 
 become one with your soul.
 
 ...
 
 [some time passes]
 
 ...
 
 okay coast is clear, now us binary systems can sidecoast the fusion forecast
 and
 glide right on through our spacetime host.
                                                           ──┐
 similar                        chronological                        different══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──┘

--- #8 fediverse/3907 ---
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────
 kinda wanna make a linux distro that has all the capabilities of a GUI distro
 and isn't so minimal (like screen recording, calculator, screenshot, wifi
 manager, etc etc) but with i3 instead of a desktop.
 
 they could literally just be symlinks (shortcuts) to scripts that are in your
 /usr/bin or whatever directory
 
 seriously it's not like there's THAT many ways to use ffmpeg, why not just
 write a script for them? that's what you're going to do when you use it for
 the first time, anyway, so...
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────┘

--- #9 fediverse/1238 ---
═══════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────┐
 did you know you can run runescape classic offline, locally, just for your own   │
 server? You can keep several computers ready for a LAN party, each with their    │
 own accounts ready to go.                                                        │
 "Oh we're level 30 this time because so-and-so is hosting and this is how far    │
 their computer has levelled up."                                                 │
 vim ~/games/runescape-classic/credentials.txt                                    │
 at least, I think you can. I know it's singleplayer, so worst case scenario      │
 you can all be doing the same things at the same time in your own games. Maybe   │
 split up for a mission or two, but it can get hectic if everyone's in the same   │
 room.                                                                            │
 =                                                                                │
 a game jam where everyone works on the same project, uses the same asset list,   │
 but builds their own collection of minigames.                                    │
 common functions could be shared, and art references distributed and together    │
 they could design a whole land. Like, there's no reason minigames can't be       │
 fully fledged experiences. You can have as many as you want, all in the same     │
 engine and built from a massive (yet sandboxed) environment.                     │
 an all in one game.                                                              │
                                                            ┌───────────┤
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent═════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────┴──────────┘

--- #10 fediverse/1116 ---
═══════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────┐
 ┌──────────────────────┐                                                         │
 │ CW: eye-contact      │                                                         │
 └──────────────────────┘                                                         │
 It's important to build self-hostable computing components of video games (as    │
 in, old style games where you could host a server on any machine instead of      │
 just the ones owned by the corporation) (as in, your machine, yes yours)         │
 (something you can control and observe, something within your control)           │
 ======================= stack overflow =====================                     │
 there are two ways to play Unreal Tournament (capture the flag) gamemode. The    │
 first is to run past all your enemies and fire at them as you pass, which is     │
 what some of the bots are designed to do. The rest stay on defence, and defeat   │
 any enemies that approach.                                                       │
 however, they never push the borders of their "territory" forward - each         │
 according to the different "lanes" or "directions of approach"                   │
 I like the use 32 bots, to simulate a more consistent gameplay experience. It    │
 feels more like ww1, fighting over ground, pushing forward and attempting to     │
 outmaneuver your foes.                                                           │
 some allies will approach from behind, and you let them pass forward while       │
                                                            ┌───────────┤
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent═════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────┴──────────┘

--- #11 fediverse/281 ---
═══════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────┐
 ┌─────────────────────────────┐                                                  │
 │ CW: cursed-game-engine-idea │                                                  │
 └─────────────────────────────┘                                                  │
 a game engine which won't let you import custom assets unless you complete a     │
 few simple tasks using the interface - "build a green capsule collider" "make    │
 this soldier unit shoot three bullets per shot" or "enable the automatic linux   │
 support" - using the interface, writing some code, and changing configurations.  │
 why would anyone do this? well it could be useful to increase the difficulty     │
 of importing external resources. plus it helps the user learn a bit over time,   │
 and it slows the pace of output such that the user's skills are encouraged as    │
 the output of the programming and not the program itself.                        │
 an inverse curse (an evil one) would be where the requirements to complete       │
 basic tasks are hidden behind unapplicable skills. like, do you know exactly     │
 which buttons to press? engage with the skinner box, please. yes yes this is     │
 what we need - unintuitive software that completely disarms the populace from    │
 using them! suddenly they're worthless, and can't do anything on any surface.    │
 it sucks                                                                         │
                                                            ┌───────────┤
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent═════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────┴──────────┘

--- #12 fediverse/5212 ---
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────
 the reason you start with a game engine is because then you'll have tools to
 make however-many games you want. Tools that you know intimately enough that
 you can debug and improve them without breaking your creative flow by learning
 something new halfway through a project
 
 the whole point of individualized projects instead of viewing each computer as
 a complete and total whole (why do we need servers again?) is that you can
 paint a picture of where the design of the program is intended to go, such
 that all the considerations are in place and whatever issues or struggles you
 might face along the way are adequately addresssed, -- stack overflow --
 [because I mistyped addressed] -- -- if you know what "stack overflow" means
 you have intimate knowledge of the technology, and can probably guess what it
 means in context when I say it. "nuts I lost that train of thoguht" -- stackl
 ov
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────┘

--- #13 fediverse/2124 ---
═════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────┐
 seriously, just google docs mixed with WC3 editor.                               │
 boom, infinite storytelling device. As long as you were good with it, which      │
 was something that a CHILD could learn in like 3-6 months.                       │
 Seems like it could be an ENTIRELY NEW SKILL that people could play with.        │
 But no, we learn excel and word in class at middle school.                       │
 boring.                                                                          │
 I'd rather learn Bash or terminal customization or memory hierarchy              │
 organization.                                                                    │
 Yeah I mean that's cool but dude have you heard of multithreading? It's so       │
 cool, you can run like 500 different thoughts at once. It's amazing.             │
 ... I dunno, but I'm sure there's times when you'd want to use it. Like,         │
 processing a lot of data little-by-little.                                       │
 like, what if you had a camera feed of EVERY social media perspective AT ALL     │
 TIMES. Like, an instance admin streaming your inputted text to their databanks   │
 that they can project onto an LLM which interprets and identifies mis-aligned    │
 or altered direction units and mark them as "flagged", whatever that means,      │
 for their future the algorithm doesn'                                            │
                                                            ┌───────────┤
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent═══════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────┴──────────┘

--- #14 fediverse/619 ---
═════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────┐
 ┌──────────────────────────────────┐                                             │
 │ CW: drunken-ramblings-about-bash │                                             │
 └──────────────────────────────────┘                                             │
 Most of the functionality of most consumer programs could be accomplished with   │
 a bit of BASH scripting... For example, shuffling a music library, or writing    │
 a text document, or downloading the text of a web page, or sending a message     │
 to a friend, etc...                                                              │
 All accomplish-able with fewer than 10-20 lines of code in clear, POSIX          │
 compliant and easily understood text that even a beginner could understand.      │
 Well, it would be understandable, if we actually taught our children how to      │
 compute in school. Why are they not taught BASH? It's not like it's              │
 complicated. With it, a sufficiently motivated high school student could         │
 develop skills that rival or exceed many of the university graduates we          │
 currently develop for our industry... Such a shame.                              │
 Even an unmotivated student would be prepared for the world with the ability     │
 to solve problems logically. Break down the problem, identify relationships,     │
 understand procedural ordering of mechanics, and develop solutions to            │
 problems. Its not too hard                                                       │
                                                            ┌───────────┤
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent═══════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────┴──────────┘

--- #15 fediverse/5139 ---
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────┐
 when your contracting company sends your resume to an employer, send your own    │
 copy as well. They can choose to deal with your union representative or          │
 directly with you, which will take up time during each of your day. however      │
 unions are more easily dealt with because the issues they deal with are the      │
 ones that impact most of their workplace. it's up to the scale of the company    │
 and project so it's really on a case-by-case.                                    │
 I think it'd be cool if someone made some kind of "desktop widget" or            │
 "terminal UI interface that can be in one corner of the screen like              │
 asciiquarium or whatever" of my mastodon text-entry field. Could also take       │
 input from other sources too, like nvim or text-entry-field.                     │
 you could follow along as I write                                                │
 like... letter by letter as it updates automatically. PUSH/PULL requests for     │
 all the GETTING of POSTITS and whatnot.                                          │
 [organizing tip: post-its can be passed along]                                   │
 [so don't put anything permanent on them]                                        │
 [but all papers must go back where they belong]                                  │
 [to ensure work is organized]                                                    │
                                                            ┌───────────┤
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────┴──────────┘

--- #16 messages/999 ---
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────
 Okay bear with me, but, what if we took the AI that they use to play games
 (like, the kind that memorize the best way to play space invaders or whatever)
 and instead of A and B and start and select they could use programming
 languages to try and recreate exactly a winning move, which in this case is
 just the exact behavior that is created by the test case playthrough of Super
 Mario Bros or Space Invaders. Free open source everygame!
                                                           ────────┐
 similar                        chronological                        different════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────┘

--- #17 fediverse/6015 ---
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────
 ┌──────────────────────┐
 │ CW: AI-mentioned     │
 └──────────────────────┘


 In 2025, if you want to create a piece of software your options are to either:
 devote your life to it, or use AI to build a semi-working prototype that you
 can use to pitch your idea to a bunch of people who have devoted their lives
 to learning how to use your idea as documentation while they build it from
 scratch, throwing out most of the code but keeping all the checklists and
 progress-trackers you built along the way, perhaps even utilizing some of your
 tooling that you used while constructing the scaffolding of this monstrous
 application that you won't be using most of the source-code for.
                                                           ────────┐
 similar                        chronological                        different════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────┘

--- #18 notes/symbeline-aspects ---
═════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 7-24-22
 
 There are three aspects to this game. Broadly, they are military, economics,
 and diplomacy. More specifically, they are lateral problem solving and lane
 management, logistic traffic management, and a worker-placement bluffing game.
 
 These three aspects can be toggled on and off at will, essentially designating
 one or more as "AI controlled" and will require no input from the player. They
 will time their progression to be about at the same rate as the player, thus
 creating a balanced feel to the game. They also provide alerts and
 notifications to the player, for example if military is AI controlled and it
 needs a certain type of hero to progress, it'll ask for it specifically.
 
 Each aspect will develop and progress at it's own rate, and the difficulty
 increases as each milestone is achieved. This is to allow the player to create
 their own difficulty curve, mediated primarily by their drive to proceed.
 An analogy would be in Factorio, the game doesn't increase in difficulty unless
 the player builds pollution spawning factories - in the same way, in Symbeline
 the difficulty doesn't increase unless the player solves lane challenges in the
 military aspect, develops new trade routes / traffic paths in the economic
 aspect, or creates new treaties in the diplomatic aspect.
 
 In order to properly explain each aspect, a brief overview will be necessary.
 
 In Symbeline, the game plays as a factory might operate. The economic aspect
 produces heroes, items, and other deliverables that are consumed by the
 military and diplomatic aspects. There are various problems that need to be
 solved far from the capital, such as a particular type of monster that is weak
 or immune to various damage types which necessitates particular heroes or
 items in order to progress on the military aspect. All of the resources in the
 game operate on an "income based" system, where output is not measured in total
 amounts but rather in terms of how much is produced versus consumed. If the
 input cannot meet the demand, the output is slowed. If input exceeds demand it
 can be converted into gold which can be used to hire guards and heroes.
 Resources can be produced inside and outside of the city, depending on their
 type. But they need to be moved around to various shops for various processing
 and productive purposes, so pathways must be constructed to deliver those
 goods. In addition, each building must be supported by several houses for the
 workers to live in, and the closer they are to the building the better. The
 denizens of the kingdom don't mind being shuffled about, so they'll organize
 themselves according to what's most efficient. However they will not organize
 the paths they take to get places, which is the primary gameplay for the
 player - designing routes for each building and ensuring they don't overlap or
 cross too many times, causing traffic and disruptions to your income.
 
 Each choice the player makes is immediately reflected in the income
 calculation, thus allowing for the visual aspect of the game to be wholely
 separate from the economic side - in fact this is a common thread throughout
 all three aspects. Computation power is the ultimate enemy of scale, and this
 game flourishes with a massive scale.
 
 The gameplay for the military aspect consists of manipulating "lanes" that
 designate where each hero will adventure. These lanes are scalable to the
 player / AI's whims, with a careful balance required - too thin, and the heroes
 might not encounter enough monsters to level up. Too thick, and they may find
 themselves patrolling a vast wilderness full of dark and evil monsters. At the
 end of every lane is a "frontline", where progress has essentially been halted.
 These frontlines can develop as a result of meeting a foreign kingdoms front
 or finding a monster type or puzzle that is particularily difficult for your
 heroes to overcome. The lane / frontline can be scaled not just laterally, but
 linearly as well such that heroes will be a certain level when they reach the
 end - think scrolling on a mousewheel translating into deepening level zones.
 In addition, each monster zone can be set to a certain "security level" meaning
 how many monsters are there for your heroes to defeat. It's important that they
 have ample targets for training, however it's always more effective to train on
 monsters near their level so you have to be careful not to wipe out the native
 skeleton / goblin / troll population.
 
 Each monster zone can have a relationship with the kingdom, on a 2x2 matrix -
 cultivating / desecrating the land, and fostering / exterminating the monsters.
 The land produces monsters and treasures, while the monsters provide experience
 and danger to the heroes and kingdom denizens who live there. However by
 desecrating the land, farms may be built and by exterminating the monsters,
 those farms may be safe and require fewer guards. As ruler, you must balance
 the development of unique magical and alchemical productions with the need for
 food and other mundane requirements.
 
 Diplomacy is a careful balance of internal and external matters, played out
 through feasts, tournaments, and faires. Each of these events will require
 input from the economic side and military side, and will involve "courting"
 other nobles from neighboring kingdoms to sway them to supporting your edicts.
 When hosting an event, you may pick a particular topic of conversation for your
 nobles to discuss with their guests. You may also assign your nobles to
 attempt to engage with a particular foreign noble. Each member of your court
 has a differing personality (including you, the Majesty) and depending on how
 you assign them you may experience better or worse results - such as assigning
 someone who's kind to talk with someone who's cruel would impart a malus to
 their conversation. Unless the kind person has the trusting trait, in which
 case they'd succeed in this encounter but fall sway to them in future
 conversations... Complex interactions that all boil down to a single pair of
 d12 dice - one for your noble, one for the enemy. This represents the charisma
 of the two conversants on that particular day, and whoever wins the roll sways
 the other to supporting their edict. Speaking of edicts, they may include trade
 agreements, non-aggression pacts (lasting for a short time), and other
 regulations - perhaps your greatest rival utilizes necromancy, so it would
 behoove you to attempt to regulate the practice and limit it's effect. By
 swaying the nobles of their kingdom, you may be able to enact a mutual
 agreement to limit the usage of dark magics, essentially hamstringing their
 progress. But in order to learn of their necromantic usage, you'll need
 espionage... Which brings us to spies.
 
 Spies are similar to nobles in that they can be assigned to various roles,
 however they take a more passive role, acting in the background. The
 information they gather is compiled into a report that is presented at
 pertinent parts of the game, such as when preparing for a feast or inspecting
 an enemy frontline. These reports are considered the diplomatic deliverables,
 giving information and mechanical bonuses to many different parts of the game.
 They may be given three possible roles - information, defence, or offense.
 Offense involves placing cursed artifacts (creating through economy) in enemy
 lands, which debuff their heroes when used and bind themselves to them
 preventing their removal except through extraordinary means. Defence is
 essentially countering that in your own kingdom, and uncovering disloyalty in
 your nobles.
 
 These three aspects fit together like interlocking puzzle pieces, but each is
 able to be utilized or ignored depending on the preferences of the player.
 It is important that the game doesn't progress unless input is received. The
 simulation plays in the background, but each stage of development must be
 considered "stable" such that nothing changes. There are three different
 exceptions to this rule, one for each aspect:
 
 The military side encounters raids from enemy kingdoms and the dark lord.
 The economic side encounters raids from ratmen and moss trolls and bandits.
 The diplomatic side has a rolling schedule of events that must be attended.
 
 These three "exceptions" are recurrent events that require attention, but they
 don't *increase* in difficulty unless the player takes an action that causes
 it. Meaning, if the player overcomes the rock golems, then they are displaced
 from their home and join the dark lord in his conquests. If a new district is
 built new sewer connections must be built as well, creating a larger attack
 surface for ratmen to exploit. As time goes by, various foreign events must be
 attended, as absence causes your future events to attract fewer foreign nobles.
 
 By addressing these threats, your kingdom may grow and eventually overcome the
 dark lord at the center of the island.
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent═══════════════════════─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

--- #19 fediverse/1602 ---
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────┐
 @user-1037                                                                       │
 those all seem really cool though! They all kinda have the same basic UI tho,    │
 kinda feel like there's opportunities for different kinds of expression. Like,   │
 in game design there's a lot of different genres, and yeah sidescrollers         │
 include mario and sonic but they're both very different experiences. So too      │
 perhaps could we interact with our computers by programming them in more         │
 engaging ways.                                                                   │
 they say some people are visual learners, others need to be taught, some         │
 people need to watch someone else doing it, and a few might just learn by        │
 plugging their brains into a computer and downloading a black belt in kung fu.   │
 Maybe typing long paragraphs of logic makes sense for some people, I know for    │
 most it doesn't come naturally. Maybe some people are more used to like,         │
 looking at maps that you can examine at different levels of abstraction. Like    │
 players who play Paradox games zooming from a national perspective to states     │
 and individuals and all the other things they might want to strategize using.    │
 Or m                                                                             │
                                                            ┌───────────┤
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent═════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────┴──────────┘

--- #20 notes/contractual-labor ---
════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────────────
 I feel like the IT people who work at schools should be the ones who teach 
 classes on computer science. I'd much rather have a class taught by a sysadmin 
 than a teacher who can barely teach them excel and garageband. I mean c'mon 
 computers are the future idk why we don't get that yet. Kids need to know this
 stuff. It's not like it's super complicated and difficult, you just have to
 think about it a certain way. Once that "clicks" you have a lifetime to learn 
 about how wonderful they are. Everyone in IT has that moment, for me it was 
 installing (and then subsequently modding) video games. Sometimes I spent more
 time tweaking my system than I did actually playing games - and the kinds of 
 games I preferred were the ones that relied less on agility and were more 
 mental. Strategy games are what inspired me because I could think about them - 
 and that felt somehow more useful. Like I was learning. When I would learn 
 fighting games or FPSs I felt like I was learning a skill, like how to use a
 hammer or how to ride a bike. And idk, I felt like video games could never
 match
 reality. Like "oh boy imma push the B button to swing this sword" versus "hey 
 look at me I'm swinging this stick just like a sword and imagining so hard that
 I can picture it" - but with strategy games, you never really found 
 opportunities to practice that kind of skill. Like how often are you in a 
 situation that demands mental performance? We've sorta optimized our society 
 away from that, and toward a more passive stressed out compliance. like... 
 climate change is a thing, and nobody's doing anything about it? We're still 
 pushing down the levers that cause greenhouse gas emissions to go up? Like
 c'mon
 what's our plan. I think people who guide massive oil companies and such
 should
 be replaced if they're intentionally guiding the ship toward destruction. Like
 that's just dereliction of duty I tell ya. Oh, what's that? They're compelled
 to
 maximize profit by the contracts and restrictions of their share--holders? I 
 mean c'mon it's well past time for that. And what's all this about inequality? 
 Jeez and racism and homophobia and forced contribution - man people really put
 up with a lot of shit. Kinda makes me feel like we should make solving those 
 problems our highest priority? So we can move forward as a species? Like who
 cares about all that other shit. None of it matters. Like, what's even the
 point. We're all just "here", in the now, and what can we do but respect it? 
 It's our duty and our diligence to protect the present, as citizens of the 
 temporal experience of earth. Honestly, if the earth was alive would you be
 fine
 if it died? I can't believe that. It's well past our due date. Just get it over
 with. Maybe it'll be hard for a couple years, but you have the technology now
 to
 completely dominate the earth. No animal besides man proves any threat to man, 
 and we're telling you - you can - and that's something that you gotta remember.
 
 ...
 
 I hear it in the birdsong. I hear it in the air - it rumbles as cries at me
 from
 across and just over there. I hear in it's whispers, in it's most gallant of
 confells (?) (confused scrambling? it's talking about a car crash)
 
 Outside of my window there's a highway. Just on the other side of a concrete
 partition. Between me and the partition there is a lake, with trees and flowers
 and an island where people can picnic or have a barbeque. Around this path
 there
 are walkways, and arranged just so - the trees that have grown here are taller
 than the homes.
 
 I live on the third story.
 
 I absolutely love it. It feels like a treehouse.
 
 But my apartment is near a curve in the highway. It isn't much, nothing out of
 the ordinary, but even still there are slightly more crashes there than in
 other
 parts of the highway. Statistically.
 
 I hear sirens every day
 
 I also live right next to a fire-station. Well, it's on the same block. But
 even
 still it's a very interesting neighborhood. There's shops and food just across
 the highway, and closer to home there's a small section that has cheaper
 options. As a perpetual college student, I appreciate that.
 
 But... I've never really gone and used it? I dunno, spending money at a
 restaurant just didn't seem like a good use of my money. I only have so much of
 it you know. I'd love to be fed but I can't afford it - I wish I could.
 
 I still eat well, I mean I'm not starving over here. I know I've lost weight,
 but I dunno I just forget to eat. It's like... not that big of a deal for me. 
 whatever right?
 
 ...
 
 the birds talk about me behind my back. They think I can't understand them but
 sometimes I can. If I listen. But I dunno it takes a lot of effort. It's...
 sorta like understanding what R2-D2 is saying. Or interpreting the meows of a
 cat.
 
 They know me as the witch. I'm not very good yet, and they know that. But they
 know what to expect. /shrug
 
 I've been working on a video game recently. It's been a lot of fun doing
 programming. I like writing software and developing complex systems with
 interesting interactions. I love designing the machinery that creates a
 program.
 It's like... tinkering. It feels like building with blocks or legos, except
 it's
 for little machine parts. And then there's just sending data to and fro and
 modifying any operations it performs on it, and eventually that data reaches 
 some endpoints that create an effect that is displayed to the player. Or user.
 I should say user. Not all software is video games you know. ... I knowww but
 they're the most interesting! I love how they are designed around mechanics!
 like... game design is fundamentally about breaking down the world into ideas
 for how it should *work*, like how it should behave. It's amazing and I love
 it!
 
 It's all I can think about!
 
 I am utterly consumed!
 
 I'm also pretty sure I'm autistic.
                                                           ┌───────────┐
 similar                        chronologicaldifferent══════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────────────────┘