Blemgo

I've read a lot that this generally puts a strain on things.

If you ever consider getting back into it, maybe suggest making DM'ing a rotating role? After all, it pays off to understand the role of the DM as a player too, and premade adventures can serve as a good way to ease into the role by taking the strain of world building from budding DMs. And even then, you could still play a supportive role for them at first so they can get the hang of things.

And if your players refuse to do that, then simply ask them to look for another DM. Your role as a DM is scarce, so you have all of the bargaining power. And why should you respect players that don't respect your role?

Were you a "forever DM"?

Well, piracy increases sales of a good game. Same as demos, though demos may misrepresent the actual gameplay if done poorly.

That is true. However, 2 things have to be considered here:

1. LLMs are easily manipulatable. So if the LLM says some advice, the person can easily spin it in a way where the LLM believes that its own advice doesn't apply even when it does. And admitting problems in oneself exist is harder in some people.
2. LLMs can talk like a person, but will miss out on details about the other, making their advice rather boilerplate, which can be very hit or miss.

In contrast, people can overcome both hindrances. They can either try to make the other realize the issues they are denying are going on, or coerce the other to still try the advice. Generally, our gift of reading little aspects of how the other talks/behaves helps us communicate with the other a lot more than we think.

Overall, not really, since with a competent talking partner you also would get ways to improve your situation, and help with pressing matters. It might be good in the short term, but there needs to be more to be good in the long run.

My guess would be the same phenomenon that existed with ELIZA. People want to be heard, especially lonely people, and LLMs are pretty good at that, asking questions and acting supportive, by design.

This whole situation reminds me of that fact that some people hire escorts to just have someone to talk to.

Apart from the vibe-coded stuff (though I guess that was due to it being a test run rather than something solid) this is pretty neat! I don't think anyone will really use it for competitive games (since you can't edit the levels), but I see how that would make it much easier to do virtual walkthroughs. It's cheap, relatively easy and uses a lot less resources, I imagine, than using classic rendering techniques. The environment itself reminds me a bit of the levels in SteamVR, where Valve digitised some locations for you to visit on your own.

I think another big problem that hampers the computer age in many places is bureaucracy and clinging to old structures.

For many companies there are checks that are enforced, simply because there is no trust in a new system, or the processes to be automated requires a major reorganisation that spans departments, and those departments might oppose such a restructuring, may it be for fear of their jobs, simply clinging to old processes or not having the capacity to carry out bigger projects.

And if that doesn't work, there's this method that even got awarded the 2006 Ig Nobel Price in Medicine.

That's sad to see. Granted, I haven't played Rec Room in ages, but when I still played VR it really felt like a great and safe playground for all ages. But yeah, I really often asked myself "how do they even make money?", as basically there was nothing really serious that cost money. A fear I had is that they sold my info or telemetry, but never too much.

It's nice that they chose to shutter things down rather than to enforce sustainability through scummy tactics.

I know of at least one that pretty much uses scummy tactics to keep things afloat, so it's heartwarming, although also a bit heartbreaking, to see that they would not let things go to shit and instead take the high road. Kudos to them and I wish the best for the team.

I mean, antitheists, a subgroup of atheism, are exactly that: people who are very vocal about their disdain regarding religion. And sadly often the vocal minority is seen as the majority.

I don't think that systemd is really bending the knee too hard on this one. Actually, I think this move is actually a great way to render any sort of age verification, when using systemd, inert. Because, let's think about it: it's an optional field, in a JSON file that NEEDS to be editable at all times. If a distro decides to implement any serious age verification, it will have to store the data, namely the date of birth, somewhere. The /home folder would be wrong, as the user could edit that at all times. The userdb on the other hand can be restricted, meaning that the user can only edit it with user privileges. So if a government questions the seriousness of this verification method, distros can just claim that it is the administrative duty of the parent to prevent their children accessing things they shouldn't, and that the Linux kernel itself provides the proper tool to do it without constant supervision. Yet systemd cannot enforce any stricter rules because service users, especially root, are not real people and thus cannot have any age verification. The only solution would be to tie these accounts to a person. This would cause an outrage at companies, considering that this role would most likely be the CEO or CIO, and if that device is stolen their identity could be linked to a crime, and I doubt any police station would bother trying to retrieve that laptop.

So this change will most likely be the maximum systemd can do without breaking distros for corporations, while at the same time allow classic Linux users, who most likely give themselves admin rights, a way to render any verification null and void by editing this optional field on their own.

EDIT: Also, being mad at an organisation trying to meet the laws in order to be usable will solve nothing. As you said yourself: a strong stance is needed. So complaining about systemd and trying to make them revert it will do nothing, because there will always be someone who bends the knee. If you want to do something, organize or join a protest and go to the streets, show that the law is for the people, not to be used as an oppression tool.