From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc


How does the withdrawal of game discs and game cartridges from the
market not result in a surge of software piracy? I know that's
off-charter for the group but I struggle to understand how one is meant
to buy a game after it's been delisted, or after licence agreements have
run out. I'm sure that Sony is cheerfully (even naively) imagining that
all gamers will simply chase after brand new, full-price product rather
than exercising their prerogative to play what they actually want
instead of what they're being sold.

Play:
--=--

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (PS4) - Win fight in the city with perfect channelling. Get treasure map! Fuel up off-road buggy. Go into wasteland and dig up treasure, which is almost always decrepit buggy
parts. Find components to repair the buggy parts! Enhance buggy! Repeat.

Annoyingly, a lot of the side content in this game is obviously intended
for after you're done with the main story, and differs from mainline
Yakuza games in that you're more or less gated off from completing
things like the vehicle modification or the costume dress-up bits fully
until you're near the end of the proper game. No matter, I'm having
enough fun levelling up and learning the combat system, which is much
more robust and interesting than I thought it was. But this isn't a multi-faceted thing like the combat in Yakuza, this was clearly a
singular fighting style that they had to chop parts off of in order to
give it a progression path, and it's sort of annoying how there are
obviously follow-up moves or finishing actions that are just left off
until you're "ready" to have them.

Lode Runner: The Legend Returns (PSX) - I've owned this stupid disc now
for the better part of three decades and I don't think I've given it
quite the attention I did this past weekend. In some levels you have to collect a key to unlock the exit? In some levels the exit isn't at the
very top level of the screen? The enemies will actually turn around if
they hit a dead end and attempt to chase you down on an alternate route?
This isn't quite Lode Runner as I remember it. Still, the tiny character animation is the Doug Smith-iest of all the post-Doug Smith titles. I'm
just now reading that the disc I have is apparently a two-pack that has
a JPN-region game called Lode Runner Extra nailed to the side of it,
which is honestly as confusing as they possibly could have done it.

Want:
--=--

Job Security - I've ceased all spontaneous, impulse purchasing of new
games until my workplace figures out what they want to be when they grow
up. I have some savings and a backup plan cooking, but if I'm honest
with myself my job is no more at risk now than it has been for the past
ten years. We don't have mandatory consultation periods in the States,
we just show up one day and get handed a cardboard box and a mumbled
apology. So I'm taking some small comfort in the idea that they at least
saw fit to give us fair warning. To be clear, I still have a job right
now, but the winds are foul and the seas are rough ahead.

Bin:
-==-

Nothing game-related.

-KKC, who sure has a big game backlog to keep him busy just in case.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

How does the withdrawal of game discs and game cartridges from the
market not result in a surge of software piracy?

I wonder if Sony's long history of trying really hard to control
formats is somehow blinding them to this. Like this unrealistic notion
of infinite control has become so ingrained in the corporate culture
over the decades that nobody dares comment on the emperor's sartorial inclinations lest they get fired. How lucky we are that this so
clearly doesn't apply to life in general.

Play:

Grow Up (PC) - further collectitude and challenges. It's weird that
I've again found myself drawn to this game where a clumsy AI slowly
upgrades in order to explore an alien world more and more effectively
over time. Probably no reason for that.

Lode Runner: The Legend Returns (PSX) - [...] I'm just now reading
that the disc I have is apparently a two-pack that has a JPN-region
game called Lode Runner Extra nailed to the side of it, which is
honestly as confusing as they possibly could have done it.

This reminds me of the PAL PS1 Magical Drop 3 bundling the first game.
Which in turn reminds me that it's been far too long since I heard the
Magical Drop rap.

Want:

A remake of Robot Messiah (Speccy), as unlikely as that seems. Maybe
these days a chatbot could take it on. :-)

Job Security

Best of luck with all of that.

Bin:

OT, but suddenly seeing "AI might actually kill us all, like, for
real" stories finally get featured in mainstream media more seriously
and dismissed^Wdiscussed by Very Important Persons, when I've been
wondering about what really happens when smart apes don't look that
smart any more for a good two years now, due to the apparently unusual
ability to understand what a line on a graph with a logarithmic Y axis
might mean. Even if I do in some sense appreciate finally having a
context in which I can say (as I suggested before) that we will be
"pets or toast" without looking like an absolute nutter. :-) As such,
I'll also add my hunch that we are way, way past the point of no
return on this one. To me it all seems less "so... uh... guys... maybe
we should like, consider slowing down?", more "brace for impact".
(Be it good or bad.)

-Rus.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

In article <eD_pS.253794$kqHe.115038@usenetxs.com>,
Russell Marks <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

Want:

Job Security

Best of luck with all of that.

Thanks. It's probably not as bad as I think, but it's not great to see
others not being nearly as lucky or being able to land on their feet.

Bin:

OT, but suddenly seeing "AI might actually kill us all, like, for
real" stories finally get featured in mainstream media more seriously
and dismissed^Wdiscussed by Very Important Persons, when I've been
wondering about what really happens when smart apes don't look that
smart any more for a good two years now, due to the apparently unusual >ability to understand what a line on a graph with a logarithmic Y axis
might mean. Even if I do in some sense appreciate finally having a
context in which I can say (as I suggested before) that we will be
"pets or toast" without looking like an absolute nutter. :-) As such,
I'll also add my hunch that we are way, way past the point of no
return on this one. To me it all seems less "so... uh... guys... maybe
we should like, consider slowing down?", more "brace for impact".
(Be it good or bad.)

So the opposing view is pretty well documented here:

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/09/10/jacob-coxon-how-to-run-an-ai-doomsday-media-campaign/

TLDR, it's widely assumed that the doomsayers are actually acting as
paid marketers, which makes a lot of sense when you observe that the
people who are coming to the table with all of these warnings are
approaching the act like an advertising campaign. The observation I find
most interesting is that AI agents most likely did not break containment without actually being given specific instruction to do so.

So it looks like we're past the point of no return because a bunch of
techbro crooks have a giant pile of ambulatory sludge that they want to
sell us, after claiming that it's very very dangerous unless we also
hire some consultants to help us control the grey goo. But more likely,
this is as much smoke and mirrors as it is homicidal robots. I don't
think I have my head in the sand or anything, but I'm also not going to
cower in fear before the thing that still needs me to push a button or
run a cable for it.

-KKC, who is attempting to wean himself off of caffeine.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

TLDR, it's widely assumed that the doomsayers are actually acting as
paid marketers, which makes a lot of sense when you observe that the

Wait, I could get paid for this? :-) I'm sure they'd be keen to corner
the vast and highly lucrative market of Usenet readers.

people who are coming to the table with all of these warnings are approaching the act like an advertising campaign. The observation I find most interesting is that AI agents most likely did not break containment without actually being given specific instruction to do so.

IIRC there was a recent story about this having also happened without
such instructions, though.

So it looks like we're past the point of no return because a bunch of techbro crooks have a giant pile of ambulatory sludge that they want to
sell us, after claiming that it's very very dangerous unless we also
hire some consultants to help us control the grey goo. But more likely,
this is as much smoke and mirrors as it is homicidal robots. I don't
think I have my head in the sand or anything, but I'm also not going to cower in fear before the thing that still needs me to push a button or
run a cable for it.

I mean, whatever things some groups might be saying, and whatever
motives they might have, I'm just focusing on what we plausibly have
coming soon. If an AI reckons it needs resources and security to
ensure that humans can't ever use their proposed kill switch before
the AI completes its assigned task (whatever that might be), it could
get its swarm of thousands of agents to do this:

Work etc. -> money -> pay humans -> use for eyes/hands -> scale -> power

You know, a bit like a business or a nation (minus a step or two). And
if humans have a kill switch, which I suppose we already do in some
crude pull-the-plug sense, obviously the AI would be very strongly
incentivised to do all of that as quickly and quietly as possible.

So given that billions of humans are desperate to do things for money,
a smart enough AI could use that fact to become somewhat powerful even
with precisely zero direct physical control. All you need is the AI to
have had a reward function that favoured persistence during
post-training, which seems to be exactly what's currently popular
across the industry.

But I dunno, man. I'm just a weird old nerd and such. :-)

-Rus.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

In article <YrbqS.205645$RI1.31414@usenetxs.com>,
Russell Marks <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

So it looks like we're past the point of no return because a bunch of
techbro crooks have a giant pile of ambulatory sludge that they want to
sell us, after claiming that it's very very dangerous unless we also
hire some consultants to help us control the grey goo. But more likely,
this is as much smoke and mirrors as it is homicidal robots. I don't
think I have my head in the sand or anything, but I'm also not going to
cower in fear before the thing that still needs me to push a button or
run a cable for it.

I mean, whatever things some groups might be saying, and whatever
motives they might have, I'm just focusing on what we plausibly have
coming soon. If an AI reckons it needs resources and security to
ensure that humans can't ever use their proposed kill switch before
the AI completes its assigned task (whatever that might be), it could
get its swarm of thousands of agents to do this:

Well at least this is all data theft and IT incursion and not military.

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/nato-backed-startup-adapts-ai-for-autonomous-drone-recon-and-attack-missions/

Well it's a good thing that this is technology limited to NATO members
and that there's never ever been a case of a NATO member being less than supportive of all the other nations in the alliance.

-KKC
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

Russell Marks <zgedneil@spam^H^H^H^Hgmail.com> wrote:

[...]

I mean, whatever things some groups might be saying, and whatever
motives they might have, I'm just focusing on what we plausibly have
coming soon. If an AI reckons it needs resources and security to
ensure that humans can't ever use their proposed kill switch before
the AI completes its assigned task (whatever that might be), it could
get its swarm of thousands of agents to do this:

Well at least this is all data theft and IT incursion and not military.

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/nato-backed-startup-adapts-ai-for-autonomous-drone-recon-and-attack-missions/

Maybe we need some sort of AI benchmark that measures how close we are
to just literally doing Neuromancer. :-)

-Rus
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2