Minor things that bother you

[CNGL-Leudimin]

People complaining about the price tag Mario Kart World is going to have. When accounting for inflation there have been past games as expensive or more at launch.

[kernals12]

What is with this forum and fictional AI controlled everything? 

As I've been trying to explain, AI is the hot new thing and offers the potential to revolutionize how we live.

[Max Rockatansky]

What is with this forum and fictional AI controlled everything? 

As I've been trying to explain, AI is the hot new thing and offers the potential to revolutionize how we live.

Meh, I don't tend to see a group of road fans on a road forum as a viable sample of what the average person talks about. 

[Max Rockatansky]

People complaining about the price tag Mario Kart World is going to have. When accounting for inflation there have been past games as expensive or more at launch.

A SNES cartridge costs about $130 in modern money.  No wonder we had a Blockbuster account and rented so much back in the era.  I recall being elated during the PS1 and PS2 era over how cheap new games were because of the CD based format. 

[Scott5114]

I don't understand why they don't just build a fucking subway train.

You and the rest of Las Vegas.

The only part of it that really concerns me is the digital art. Given that I'm a wannabe actor and a music producer in LA and I'm still a nobody at that, it gives me a lot of cause for concern to see just how easily AI could take over my career one day.

The problem that AI in general has is that it can generate words, sentences, images, sounds, etc. and sometimes it is even pretty close to the real thing in form, but it has no substance to it. An AI novel cannot precisely choose words to convey the emotion of its characters, because the AI feels none. An AI can generate a drawing of two people holding hands, but it cannot draw a couple in love because it has no concept of what that means. And as a result, AI art tends to feel samey, rote, and boring if you look at it for too long. As far as I can tell, this is a fundamental limitation that cannot be worked around, no matter how fancy the model gets.

I think eventually we will see AI be harnessed as a tool for artistic creation in much the same way that Photoshop or 3D modeling was. It could become a tool to help automate repetitive or tedious parts of the creation process. Humans will always be in the driver's seat when it comes to true art. But generating an image and treating that as a finished product will become the province of the lazy, and it will garner much the same reaction as someone publishing a bad drawing, or ignored entirely.

[ZLoth]

A SNES cartridge costs about $130 in modern money.  No wonder we had a Blockbuster account and rented so much back in the era.  I recall being elated during the PS1 and PS2 era over how cheap new games were because of the CD based format.

I'm part of the "PC Master Race". I rarely purchase games on release day when they are $60 or over (rounded up). Given enough time, the price will drop to below $20 for a game of the year edition which includes all of the DLC, become part of a monthly "Humble Bundle", or even given away as part of the weekly "Epic Games" giveaway.

[Max Rockatansky]

A SNES cartridge costs about $130 in modern money.  No wonder we had a Blockbuster account and rented so much back in the era.  I recall being elated during the PS1 and PS2 era over how cheap new games were because of the CD based format.

I'm part of the "PC Master Race". I rarely purchase games on release day when they are $60 or over (rounded up). Given enough time, the price will drop to below $20 for a game of the year edition which includes all of the DLC, become part of a monthly "Humble Bundle", or even given away as part of the weekly "Epic Games" giveaway.

I don't really play games in general anymore, but I did use to play a lot on the PC.  I miss the concept of Shareware since it enabled you to try a good portion of a game before deciding to buy a full copy (or copy from someone).

[kkt]

What is with this forum and fictional AI controlled everything? 

As I've been trying to explain, AI is the hot new thing and offers the potential to revolutionize how we live.

Meh.  AI can maybe handle controlling a lawnmower or maybe someday even a car (though we aren't there yet).  Maybe it could replace a 3rd rate hack writer.  It's nowhere near replacing a 1st rate writer or even a 2nd rate writer.

[Plutonic Panda]

I don't understand why they don't just build a fucking subway train.

You and the rest of Las Vegas.

The only part of it that really concerns me is the digital art. Given that I'm a wannabe actor and a music producer in LA and I'm still a nobody at that, it gives me a lot of cause for concern to see just how easily AI could take over my career one day.

The problem that AI in general has is that it can generate words, sentences, images, sounds, etc. and sometimes it is even pretty close to the real thing in form, but it has no substance to it. An AI novel cannot precisely choose words to convey the emotion of its characters, because the AI feels none. An AI can generate a drawing of two people holding hands, but it cannot draw a couple in love because it has no concept of what that means. And as a result, AI art tends to feel samey, rote, and boring if you look at it for too long. As far as I can tell, this is a fundamental limitation that cannot be worked around, no matter how fancy the model gets.

I think eventually we will see AI be harnessed as a tool for artistic creation in much the same way that Photoshop or 3D modeling was. It could become a tool to help automate repetitive or tedious parts of the creation process. Humans will always be in the driver's seat when it comes to true art. But generating an image and treating that as a finished product will become the province of the lazy, and it will garner much the same reaction as someone publishing a bad drawing, or ignored entirely.

And I don't know too much about this sort of stuff, but does AI art not flirt with plagiarism? Because it seems to me it uses concepts from other people's work to form its own art. But it does it in a way where it's very vague.

[Max Rockatansky]

All the AI posts related to road stuff on Facebook has been complete dog shit.  Most of it is done by engagement harvesting pages who seem all have the same army of bots liking everything.

[GaryV]

I think eventually we will see AI be harnessed as a tool for artistic creation in much the same way that Photoshop or 3D modeling was. It could become a tool to help automate repetitive or tedious parts of the creation process. Humans will always be in the driver's seat when it comes to true art. But generating an image and treating that as a finished product will become the province of the lazy, and it will garner much the same reaction as someone publishing a bad drawing, or ignored entirely.

Exactly. Who needs accurate images to put into a business presentation (unless you're trying to show the product)?

It can also be used for generic background music. Think elevator music or on-hold music. Who needs sophisticated scores for that?

Yes, this use of AI will cause some graphic designers or some musicians to lose work. But if it's throw-away graphics or music, it's a whole lot cheaper to say, "Create me an image of a boy playing with a dog."

[Molandfreak]

It can also be used for generic background music. Think elevator music or on-hold music. Who needs sophisticated scores for that?

I wish on-hold music would transition into a simpler format, taking inspiration from old 8-bit video game music. Any music with actual instruments requires testing to ensure the frequencies are actually audible through a call, since frequencies are dropped to reduce bandwidth. Since this is not a priority, the royalty-free muzak call centers play sounds terrible over the phone.

[1995hoo]

A surprising number of attorneys have been sanctioned by courts when they've used AI to draft their briefs and the software fabricated case citations. Of course, if they're too stupid to double-check what the software does, it's their own darn fault.

[LilianaUwU]

People complaining about the price tag Mario Kart World is going to have. When accounting for inflation there have been past games as expensive or more at launch.

That price isn't defendable even if inflation is a supposed factor.

[Max Rockatansky]

People complaining about the price tag Mario Kart World is going to have. When accounting for inflation there have been past games as expensive or more at launch.

That price isn't defendable even if inflation is a supposed factor.

Who's to say Nintendo is wrong if people complain but yet still purchase anyways? 

[Mav94]

People complaining about the price tag Mario Kart World is going to have. When accounting for inflation there have been past games as expensive or more at launch.

A SNES cartridge costs about $130 in modern money.  No wonder we had a Blockbuster account and rented so much back in the era.  I recall being elated during the PS1 and PS2 era over how cheap new games were because of the CD based format. 

My dad paid $34 for an Atari 2600 Pac-Man cart when it came out in 1982. That's like $113 in today's money, for Atari 2600 Pac-Man.

[jeffandnicole]

People complaining about the price tag Mario Kart World is going to have. When accounting for inflation there have been past games as expensive or more at launch.

A SNES cartridge costs about $130 in modern money.  No wonder we had a Blockbuster account and rented so much back in the era.  I recall being elated during the PS1 and PS2 era over how cheap new games were because of the CD based format. 

My dad paid $34 for an Atari 2600 Pac-Man cart when it came out in 1982. That's like $113 in today's money, for Atari 2600 Pac-Man.

But at the time, Atari was the highest tech thing that existed.  Almost no one had computers.  If you were lucky you had an electric typewriter or 10-key calculator with paper printout.

[ZLoth]

Who's to say Nintendo is wrong if people complain but yet still purchase anyways?

Let me throw in this news report from 1991...

[Max Rockatansky]

Who's to say Nintendo is wrong if people complain but yet still purchase anyways?

Let me throw in this news report from 1991...

And all that parental outrage was powerless in front of children complaining "I want it!"

[Max Rockatansky]

People complaining about the price tag Mario Kart World is going to have. When accounting for inflation there have been past games as expensive or more at launch.

A SNES cartridge costs about $130 in modern money.  No wonder we had a Blockbuster account and rented so much back in the era.  I recall being elated during the PS1 and PS2 era over how cheap new games were because of the CD based format. 

My dad paid $34 for an Atari 2600 Pac-Man cart when it came out in 1982. That's like $113 in today's money, for Atari 2600 Pac-Man.

Amusingly later that decade you could get a 2600 and a small bundle of games at Toys R Us for about the same price.

[Scott5114]

I think eventually we will see AI be harnessed as a tool for artistic creation in much the same way that Photoshop or 3D modeling was. It could become a tool to help automate repetitive or tedious parts of the creation process. Humans will always be in the driver's seat when it comes to true art. But generating an image and treating that as a finished product will become the province of the lazy, and it will garner much the same reaction as someone publishing a bad drawing, or ignored entirely.

Exactly. Who needs accurate images to put into a business presentation (unless you're trying to show the product)?

It can also be used for generic background music. Think elevator music or on-hold music. Who needs sophisticated scores for that?

Yes, this use of AI will cause some graphic designers or some musicians to lose work. But if it's throw-away graphics or music, it's a whole lot cheaper to say, "Create me an image of a boy playing with a dog."

Sure. And I'm saying that eventually a company using such things will get the response "Gee, if my call really was important to them, they probably would have hired an actual human to compose the hold music."

[GaryV]

eventually a company using such things will get the response "Gee, if my call really was important to them, they probably would have hired an actual human to compose the hold music."

If my call was really important to them, they'd hire enough workers to answer the phones.

Why is it that 80-90% of the time I call anywhere, it's at a time when they are encountering a higher than normal number of calls? That's what they always claim before the music starts.

[Molandfreak]

eventually a company using such things will get the response "Gee, if my call really was important to them, they probably would have hired an actual human to compose the hold music."

If my call was really important to them, they'd hire enough workers to answer the phones.

Why is it that 80-90% of the time I call anywhere, it's at a time when they are encountering a higher than normal number of calls? That's what they always claim before the music starts.

Yeah obviously that sucks, but there's other reasons why a real worker would put someone on hold in order to help them with an issue. That's where having an audio track or music that actually sounds decent over the phone comes in handy.

[formulanone]

People complaining about the price tag Mario Kart World is going to have. When accounting for inflation there have been past games as expensive or more at launch.

A SNES cartridge costs about $130 in modern money.  No wonder we had a Blockbuster account and rented so much back in the era.  I recall being elated during the PS1 and PS2 era over how cheap new games were because of the CD based format. 

My dad paid $34 for an Atari 2600 Pac-Man cart when it came out in 1982. That's like $113 in today's money, for Atari 2600 Pac-Man.

I recall most of the cartridges being around $30-40, but we bought Yars' Revenge for an eye-watering $52 at a Toys R Us near New York City in 1982, during a family trip. (To be fair, I got a lot of mileage out of that game compared to most. It took me about 15 years to finally achieve the purple/pink waves!) So sometimes I cringe for a moment when today's new-release games are $50-60, but then I think back that it's relatively cheaper than when I was kid.

And then some time around 1985-86, you could get Atari VCS/2600 games for $10 or less. People donated a few to us because we stuck with it regularly until about 1988, and I even took it with me to college. Unfortunately, some of the Activision cartridges stopped functioning, and they were some of the best games on that system.

[Rothman]

People complaining about the price tag Mario Kart World is going to have. When accounting for inflation there have been past games as expensive or more at launch.

A SNES cartridge costs about $130 in modern money.  No wonder we had a Blockbuster account and rented so much back in the era.  I recall being elated during the PS1 and PS2 era over how cheap new games were because of the CD based format. 

My dad paid $34 for an Atari 2600 Pac-Man cart when it came out in 1982. That's like $113 in today's money, for Atari 2600 Pac-Man.

I recall most of the cartridges being around $30-40, but we bought Yars' Revenge for an eye-watering $52 at a Toys R Us near New York City in 1982, during a family trip. (To be fair, I got a lot of mileage out of that game compared to most. It took me about 15 years to finally achieve the purple/pink waves!) So sometimes I cringe for a moment when today's new-release games are $50-60, but then I think back that it's relatively cheaper than when I was kid.

15 years?  Dear heavens...

Still have the system.  Still play Yars on it.