Elevator7009

Kind of surprised this is the take. Algorithms in general, just sorting by highest to lowest or whatever common problem that needs to be solved, aren’t bad. “Algorithm” has become a dirty word mostly because of the stuff pushing short-form content over long-form content, outrage that generates engagement over something you would enjoy that doesn’t enrage you enough to make you type fifty paragraphs and keep coming back to fight in the comments, etc. So I agree with the literal statement that algorithms aren’t always bad.

But as for what you meant, I’m super surprised at all the people who want an algorithm to feed them content and aren’t satisfied. I looked for the stuff I was interested in, subscribed, and am happy. When I run out of content I either log off and do something else or go seek out stuff I’m kind of interested in. In my most charitable possible assumption, people who want algorithms are probably a lot less suspectible to getting pulled in by outrage and scrolling all day, and just want to be able to discover cool stuff fast, and the algorithms somehow worked to show them the cool stuff. In my experience I had to strictly stick to my Home feed with just stuff I subscribed to on Reddit to not see outrage porn, could never poke my head into Popular or anything without seeing some outrage sub like r/noahgettheboat or /iamatotalpieceofshit. And then they started forcibly sorting my Home feed by Controversial… yep. Stopped regularly browsing there really fast.

I am just really wary of asking for algorithms back because I really don’t want the Fediverse to become another place catered towards outrage porn for max engagement. I really want users to have options if this is implemented, so as not to force this algorithm on users like myself who like the “chronological order of stuff you purposely followed only” algorithm. And for that option to not be taken away from me in an effort to “drive growth!” and all that.

I don’t want to refuse others a good thing just because it’s not for me, but I also have been burned by social media algorithms that were once nice chronological, and later became catered towards outrage and showing you content you never signed up to see without having an option to switch back to chronological and opt out of having RandomInfluencerYouDontFollow in your feed. Looking at you, Instagram. I signed up with my elementary school classmates, liked chronological feed, liked having Explore just be friends of friends… I still only follow people I know in real life but now Explore is a bunch of controversial memes, people selling stuff, and influencers who want me to form a parasocial relationship with them. This is also what my regular feed, which used to just show me chronological order posts only from people I follow, turns to once I scroll past maybe 7 posts my friends made. Have not fully deleted but also haven’t touched the app in months now.

I guess the real solution is giving people options and not taking them away because you decided to go public and need maximum eye-on-advertisement time. Hopefully Lemmy stays open source and different instances stay popular, so in case someone does try to take it public we can all flee to different servers and keep talking.

mm quality of life Quick Challenge features…

I’m waiting for the Steam release. Maybe I can play on my Mac. Hoping they add Linux support for more than just Steam Deck someday! I’d like a taste of the super high def graphics everyone else has, as a mobile player I thought my graphics were good, and then I saw everyone else’s in-game pictures. It is not a huge priority for me, I can still see my outfits just fine when adventuring. But my Mastodon pfp is a shot I took in Infinity Nikki, so… I should probably upgrade that someday.

I did like most of the puzzles. Most. Some of the “jump on a platform to tilt it correctly for the ball to roll” ones were so hypersensitive to like 1° of wrongtilt I actually had to look up solutions and it still did not work sometimes, I had to keep adjusting. But the Hamiltonian path ones (jump on all the platforms ONCE) were a lot of fun, as were most of the box pusher ones. Box pushers made me use my brain.

Combat is right where it should be for mobile folks like me ;-; I am sure I could take a difficulty bump on PC. Platforming on mobile feels like I am probably having the same difficulty as PC/PS5 folks while I see people in the Discord talk about how mobile platforming is difficult compared to doing it on PC/PS5. I guess growing up on PC, Nintendo DS, and Wii gaming trained me for this—I never ever learned how to use a conventional controller.

Game is actually very high-quality. A lot of girly games I grew up with were… not of the best quality, while more stereotypically boyish or gender-neutral fare was better. This game is aimed at women/girls and actually has very nice gameplay and graphics (and people of other genders can absolutely enjoy it too). As of now there are soft and hard timegates but they do not feel anywhere near as frustrating as typical mobile energy timers. I tried Ikemen Vampire and despite liking otome games, I bounced off super hard after a couple days of genuinely trying because so much was gated behind freaking energy. Progress on story can be soft-gated here (must level up clothes or get good enough clothes to certain amount, it takes energy to level up clothes or get certain—but not all—clothing materials) but you can still explore the open world, collect most materials, and dress up Nikki/play minigames to your heart’s content, so it feels way less bad.

At least, that’s why I am assuming such an innocent community ad has attracted downvotes so early on. It’s not some shovelware game or a Flash dress up game out of 2008 (though I did like the latter). In a period of my life where I am having trouble sitting down and just enjoying a video game, I have gotten quite hooked on Infinity Nikki. Tried on the recommendation of the OP once late December, have been playing almost daily ever since. It’s genuinely fun.