Absolutely. Age verification sucks. It’s just an example of the complexities between a two sentence concept and an actual software implementation. I lived through SOX, GDPR, and many others. They sound simple. “Right to be forgotten” but they are complex as hell and often have unforeseen side effects.

I wasn’t referring to you but rather the heavy downvoting that my comments are receiving. I know when I’m muddying the hive mind’s cherished narrative with complications from reality, and that’s a stoning offense, no mistake.

I believe you’re trying to make it sound like “no it would be simple, just don’t go out of your way to do the bad thing.”

I know people just want to root out only the most obvious most insidious cases where online is totally unnecessary so it can seem like a simple matter of not doing it. But what about all the rest of gaming? How are we going to define these concepts? Write this law so that it will work for Fortnite, Among Us, MOBAs, and Hearthstone. Just try.

If someone wants to write ten paragraphs defining “single player games” with due precision and “unnecessary online components” and the required remedies for games that do have online components I’d love to hear it. No one here will take this time even though ten paragraphs is a laughably small length for such legislation to be written.

This bound/enforce bit is a distinction without a difference. In each case you need to understand the letter of the law and dance around it. SB2420 has plenty of things to “simply not do” and any “ensure offline play” law would absolutely have things you must do.

Yes it’s video games and people want what they want and always think it’s simpler to deliver than it is.

Take Among Us. It is not some huge bullshit live service game, but it makes use of the internet. It was created by a small developer.

The game includes local network play which is a good thing because I assume it would have to under this law, so it can play “offline.”

Do we think that local network play was zero effort to include? Would it really have no effect on small developers if they all had to include this always?

I know what you mean about small indie games being simple but the reality is a little more complex than that image. Small developers do also create online games. They aren’t big shit shows like Fortnite but that doesn’t mean they don’t use the internet.

No one ever wants to hear that it’s more complicated than they think it is, but that’s the truth virtually all the time.

I understand the core case that this man wants to stop. But laws have to be written for all, with precise language, and can’t just say “you know the kind of game we’re talking about.”

And that’s where this gets difficult.

I would, but it’s video games and the mood in the room is not one of curiosity and discussion, but of pounding fists on the table. But suffice it to say that people think they can explain a law like this in two sentences while I despair that it can even be written at all, even with 100 pages, and function recognizably.

If you want an example, take Texas SB2420, the recent age verification law which said “the App Store has to ask your age and then tell developers so they can only show age appropriate content.” And now go read the full text, which I did at work. And look up Apple and Google’s implementation guidance and API specs. A “simple” thing people think can be explained in a few words is much, much more complex underneath. Like I said, I don’t even think this law can be written and come out the way we want it to.

I’d only be repeating myself.

Spoken like someone who’s never had to implement regulatory measures in software.

This is a masterclass in “pick your one thing in life and focus on that.”

I’m highly pessimistic that the spirit of this legislation, which I wholly support, can ever be enshrined in law with enough specificity that it works the way we want it to in the cases where we need it to, without becoming a truly undue burden on small developers or forcing all publishers to just work around it in some way: like taking everything to a subscription model going forward.

Both of them can grow profits, which is what’s demanded. Yes, investor demand for constant growth is the pressure that causes it, but the dichotomy is all too real.

A software giant like that can only go two directions:

1. suck the installed base tit for paychecks while cutting costs as much as possible
2. grow, innovate, expand

They are still trying to be 2 when a lot of people would like them to be 1, and they have to show new feature adoption statistics to prove that all their expensive employees are still worth paying.

I’m a little confused by the opening paragraphs. So the advent of computers was hailed as a great productivity booster, but in the beginning, productivity actually went down.

Is the article seriously contending that computers have not improved productivity? So there were grandiose expectations of huge boosts that would arrive immediately - so what? That’s naive and dumb.

But in the long run, computers found their applications and people figured out how to put them to productive use. The world is unrecognizable today as a result.

So what’s the implication for AI? Thousands of CEOs admit that their hamfisted shoe-horning of AI into the workplace has done nothing? Big surprise. Are we just in the awkward adjustment phase, though?

I forget: is it Fortune or Forbes that started putting out gaming guides a while back?

Why make it complicated? Just hit them with a “we hate you” tax.

almost write

Indeed.

It was this coalition of big tech companies that blocked Texas SB2420 from going into effect on Jan 1 of this year.

Believe me my dude if they wanted your birthdate they would have gotten it before. Or more likely they already have it without this.

Folks, this is coming from your government. The phone makers want nothing to do with it and are actively fighting it in court as best they can. Switching between phone makers will not help, and is not the right place to put your energy. Address your concerns to your governments.

Yes every single iPhone owner also bought those 🙄