One could make a community named “Anon Posting” or something, lock it so only a mod can post, and then make the sole mod a bot that would post anything it got via DM (probably after automoding, rate limiting, etc) to said community.

I do think it’s a good idea for the bot to keep a log in case it gets abused for sufficiently evil purposes. One could add some extra functionality to the bot that would give identifying information about the poster to instance admins on demand (via DM), but I think instance admins would have pretty easy access to all DMs made to the bot, along with identifying information anyway. (Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on that.)

Also, the bot could totally delete its logs and with them the identities of all posters after a while. Maybe a month?

And, of course, this wouldn’t be ironclad anonymity. But it would keep identities secret from anyone but the bot maintainer and instance admins.

Yeah, sounds like a pretty cool concept. Not volunteering to write such a bot (at least any time soon) or anything, but I support it.

Roughly in order of how much I enjoy them from most to least. (Not that the later ones are bad. Just that they’re more low-key.)

Mindustry is amazing, but as I mentioned above, really really addictive. (The commercial game it’s most often compared to is Factorio.)

Then there’s Shattered Pixel Dungeon. Amazing dungeon crawler.

Endless Sky is a great space mercantile sim.

Luanti is a Minecraft clone.

Unciv is a turn-based civilization development game.

And if you’re wanting to do emulation, there’s Lemuroid. Also, EasyRPG, an engine for playing RPG Maker games like Yume Nikki. Oh, FreeDoom is a great implementation of Doom for Android.

Those are the ones that’ll keep your attention for a good long time. There are tons of much simpler games that are still fun like Frozen Bubble and Hyper Rogue. And plenty of games that I haven’t really gotten into very much but that people really seem to like Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Man. There are a lot now that I’m listing them out. Lol.

Jesus. People get big mad about this stuff.

The problem isn’t mobile games, and it’s not console games, and it’s not PC games. It’s the profit motive and corporations and enshittification. And there’s plenty of that going on in games for mobile, console, and PC. (And, for that matter, TTRPGs. And it’s not like the 300 different collectors editions of Monopoly released every year aren’t enshittification at play.)

Addictive gotcha mechanics are shitty when they’re tied to microtransactions. Even when not tied to microtransactions, I think they can still be shitty depending on the specific circumstances, and it’s definitely wise to responsibly manage your (and/or your children’s) engagement to not cause other problems in your(/their) life. But is addictiveness in a video game inherently a bad thing? I don’t think so. All games cause dopamine squirts whether it’s Pong or a slot machine. That’s kinda the point of games. There are plenty of Open Source games out there that cause big addictive dopamine squirts. (Mindustry, anyone?) And such games aren’t made to milk whales. They’re made because someone wanted to create and play such a game.

Don’t be talking too much smack about shovelware! Low-quality games create their own vibes. Some are accidental masterpieces. Both of my favorite two YouTube gaming content creators do a lot of their content on really low-quality games. This series got me to buy Radiation Island and I had a great time playing it. And here is a great video on all the shitty official games based on the movie Avatar.

“Gaming is as much about socializing as playing” is an awesome outlook to have on gaming! Addictiveness in games can be… concerning. But sometimes particular games are the key by which your kid can be involved in peer group. I’m not saying that automatically trumps any downsides and you should let your kid spend $∞ on Fortnight skins or whatever. But I think probably in most cases a balancing act is superior to a hard “yes” or “no”.

I should probably specify that I’m admittedly an old fart who doesn’t know shit about mobile gaming. (The only mobile games I play are Open Source ones on F-Droid.) And the only modern console I have is a Switch, and I don’t have any plans to get one soon. I’ve played a lot of Breath of the Wild, though. And a fair amount of Tears of the Kingdom.

Some final thoughts:

• Open Source gaming is awesome.
• The way they’re doing anti-cheat on PC is fucked-up.
• But so is the way they lock down consoles and phones.
• Hack your games. Hack your consoles. (If you don’t hack it, you don’t own it.) Get your kids interested in hacking stuff.
• …responsibly, of course.
• Play games with your kids! (And not just the ones you want to play.)

Who’s going to tell them about prions?

I propose a replacement trend:

• “FUCK ICE we had a baby!”
• “BURN DOWN THE PATRIARCHY and come to my wedding!”
• “BE GAY DO CRIME it’s my Birthday!!”
• “ORCAS ATTACK YACHTS let’s have a goddamned LAN party!”
• “PUNCH A NAZI I got my PhD!”

Dad: Boning your mom is a social construct.

Mom: The fuck you just say about me?

Dad: Uh…

A salamander. I see what you did there.

I upvoted this before I saw what community it was in. Now I wish I could upvote twice.

It’s a vibe.

Disney is no stranger to hypocracy of that sort. Look at them making their billions off of the public domain (Snow White, Cinderella, Aladin, The Little Mermaid, need I go on?) while lobbying heavily for longer copyright terms to keep works they made from being similarly adapted.

Thank you.

Nah, that’s an organizer. You’re thinking of the type of aircraft that flies by flapping its wings.

What’s the deal with moths? Am I out of the loop and it’s just the new beans/stroganoff/poop-holding?

New fear unlocked.

I’ll try to say this delicately enough to not get banned…

The modlog (which also contains the full text of my post) cites as the reason for the removal of my post “rule 1” which according to the sidebar is “Be civil and nice.”

I think they consider any criticism of the government of Iran to be “incivility” and/or “meanness”.

(Hopefully I’m not misinterpreting the mods here. Mods, please feel free to step in and correct any such misrepresentation.)

My grandmother was similarly god-like at the NES Dr. Mario.

I gave you an upvote.

I could see a case for using “working person” instead of “worker.” It’s definitely not the sort of thing that’s agreed to be exploitative language (yet?) though.

What I do for sure bristle at a lot more is referring to people as “resources.” Like, when planning a project, discussing how many “resources” can be “put on the project”. Definitely feels dehumanizing.

Removed by mod

No, that’s a U.S. state in the north-west of the contiguous 48.

Not just something you call a very extraverted toddler. Got it.