*Google support has ended.

Alternative retro-friendly search engines are available, and the article even gives a shoutout to frogfind.

I don’t think the bot will reply

Technically true, but my (admittedly quick) searching tells me thinkpads with webcams were extremely rare and expensive. The first consumer laptop with a webcam seems to have been the Vaio C1, which also had a very limited release until after 1998.

So I guess the premise is plausible, but unlikely. More likely that they’re misremembering either the details or the year.

Not that any of it matters, of course. I just decided to pick a fight with a webcomic for no reason, and that’s on me.

You missed out the very next bit, which seems equally as important:

Normally, I'd write a game off under such circumstances, no matter how much or little it cost to make or buy. However, Diffusion's developer, who goes by Aynekko, has stated that the voices are "currently being rerecorded" with human voice actors. These will be added into Diffusion "for the next or after the next update".

No excuses for slop voiceover - especially when it’s apparently shit quality too - but at least it sounds like they’re replacing it. Just wish they’d not bothered with the AI to begin with, and it does call into question their creative vision overall.

I hate to be that guy (ok not really) but consumer laptops with webcams didn’t really exist in 1998 so this seems doubtful

Being repeatedly told subconsciously if not directly that your expertise is not valued or needed anymore - that really dehumanizes you as a person. And I’m still working through the pain of the two-year-long process that demolished my future in that profession.

It’s one of those rare times in life when a man cries because he is just feeling so dehumanized and unappreciated despite pouring his life, heart and soul into something.

Too easy sometimes to get caught up in technical debates, environmental issues, and snark, but it’s worth remembering that there’s also a real human impact to AI adoption.

Hadn’t heard of this but it looks fun!

Misery is not a contest

The fact they had to do this to earn a promotion is an institutional problem. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Why is there a button to unmute this comic strip?

I don't think we need an article to figure out the answer: Slay the Spire was a megahit and it's a copycat industry.

I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way either; there're always plenty of devs finding interesting new angles on the current hot genre and creating genuinely interesting new games in the process, but also a huge number of devs that end up just chasing the trend and releasing something uninspired/derivative.

Achievement % stats are so comically skewed by various factors that they mean basically nothing. There's an achievement in Minecraft for literally just opening your inventory for the first time but only 60% of Xbox players have it.