nerfplayer135

[nerfplayer135]

Not all cops are bad - how media bias makes it seem otherwise

I'm sure you've heard all sorts of news stories about police abusing their authority. Cops targeting minorities, committing murder and getting away with it, etc. Maybe you heard from someone on the Internet that the police are capable of violating your constitutional rights, and you learned what ACAB means.

Here's the thing: Not all police officers are like this.

This is a case of a few bad eggs spoiling the bunch. Most of the police officers you will meet do not abuse their power, no matter how far it reaches. They are simply doing their job, which is to protect and serve their communities and uphold the law. There are certain politically-motivated laws that I'm sure many of them wish they didn't have to enforce (looking at you, Ron DeSantis), but that's beside the point.

If there are far more good cops than bad ones, though, why don't we hear about them? The answer lies in how we hear about things.

News media doesn't exist just to spread information - they're for-profit businesses. If a story isn't capable of drawing in viewers, it won't be given air time. Drama, death, controversy, politics, and crime tend to attract the most attention, which is why you see so much of those topics in the news. Corrupt cops hit all of those marks. A normal cop that's just doing their job hits none of them.

...Or does it?

Whenever the news media reports that someone has been rightfully arrested for a crime, or that an investigation has been launched for a recent criminal act, that's the police doing their job. That's the everyday part of being a cop. This shows up more often when looking at local news stations. A news media business with a wide scope can't afford to waste resources on smaller matters, after all. But proof of good cops exists.

You just have to look for it.

[nerfplayer135]

Nintendo's DMCA takedown of Vimm's Lair - why AI cannot work alone

Websites such as Gamebanana and Vimm's Lair were recently hit by DMCA takedowns from Nintendo. The video game company being overly protective of its IPs is nothing new, but many people noticed something wrong with what exactly got hit.

Let's focus on Vimm's Lair, which is a ROM-hosting site. Piracy is something that Nintendo despises, which is only natural, since it makes a lot of money from selling the same games over and over again. Yet the list of games removed is just... strange. Some games shouldn't be there since they're not owned by Nintendo, and others that you'd think would be on the list are absent.

Here's a couple examples. The DS game Drawn to Life, which is not owned by Nintendo, is on the list. However, only the Japanese version of the game, Drawn to Life: Kamisama no Marionette, was removed. At the same time, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii is on the list, but this isn't the case for the GameCube version.

Overall, it seems like the DMCA was targeted towards Nintendo's more popular brands, but there were noticeable gaps, and innocents were caught in the crossfire. Was the Japanese version of Drawn to Life removed just because "Marionette" has "Mario" in it? And I honestly don't know how to explain the Twilight Princess oddity. It's almost as if YouTube's copyright bots were responsible for doing the dirty work.

Unfortunately, that last sentence was only a half-joke.

The owner of Vimm's Lair made this news post on his site to debunk some of the more common myths surrounding the DMCA takedowns.

Regarding that last part: He took down the offending games shortly afterwards.

So, what's going on here? The answer to the first myth confirms that Vimm's Lair was hit by a real DMCA. If you've been paying attention to the news cycle recently, Garry's Mod was hit with a similar DMCA from the same brand protection company, MarkMonitor. This company works on behalf of Nintendo as well as many other billionaire corporations, so despite what many people have said, they are not a troll. I personally blame Nintendo for not being up-front about how they protect their brand, as well as being an •sshole for the ways they do it in the first place.

The second point doesn't really matter for the sake of my argument, so let's skip to the third, and this is where the bombshell drops.

MarkMonitor is using AI to file DMCA claims.

One of my strongest-held beliefs about AI, which has been proven true time and time again, is that it cannot work alone. If you let an AI perform a task without checking what its outputs are, it will make far more mistakes than a human would if they were given the same task. AI needs human oversight for this exact reason.

With the Vimm's Lair DMCA, it's very clear that AI was used to file it. The whole thing stinks of an algorithm gone wrong. I guarantee that no one at MarkMonitor even bothered to check and see if that was the case before sending the email.

Unfortunately, this blind reliance on AI seems to be happening more often, which should be setting off alarm bells in your head. AI is not a be-all end-all solution to any problem. The more clueless CEOs that believe otherwise, the more trouble it will cause for everyone.

[nerfplayer135]

Video game piracy, and why DRM doesn't work

Trying to fight digital piracy is like trying to kill a hydra. Cut off one head, and two more will take its place. It's a futile effort.

So then why are so many video game companies so concerned about it? The answer is simple: money. A person that plays your game without paying is a person that isn't generating revenue. At the end of the day, money is often the only thing that matters to companies, especially ones on the stock market that have shareholders to please.

This is why there have been so many copy protection schemes for video games over the decades. Video game companies want you to prove that you've bought their game, and will prevent you from playing it if you don't meet their standards. The methods of doing so are known as digital-rights management, or DRM.

Depending on how strong the DRM is, it can seriously hurt the reputation of the game and the people who made or published it. Many games these days require you to have an internet connection or an account login to play, even if such things aren't necessary. Games that are primarily singleplayer, such as the Doom 64 remaster that needed a Bethesda.net login pre-patch, will get the most flak for this.

There's also DRM used as a service, with Steam being one of the best examples. On top of dissuading casual piracy, Steam provides a host of services to players and developers alike, and is a social media service on top of that. Other examples include Origin, the Epic Games Store, and uPlay.

This system also has its faults, as seen with Rockstar and their game launcher, which garnered major controversy when GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition was released. On top of delisting its games from other platforms, Rockstar's launcher was as much of a broken mess when it first came out as GTA: The Trilogy was.

And then we get to the DRM that people really hate. Activation limits, CD keys, software that opens up security holes on your PC, the works. Oh, and I can't forget about Denuvo Anti-Tamper, which constantly phones home (read: requires an internet connection), increases the size of any executable it's merged into, and can negatively impact a game's performance. It even makes modding harder, since Denuvo is constantly making sure the game's files are intact. There have even been cases of games activating anti-piracy features on legitimate copies, leading to (for example) Command & Conquer players instantly losing matches because all their units spontaneously exploded.

However, none of these DRM schemes will deter pirates. As long as someone is sufficiently motivated to crack a game (and there always will be), the DRM will mean nothing in the long term.

Unfortunately, this is what video game companies often bank on these days. They build up hype through trailers and preorder bonuses, and implement DRM to ensure that the game isn't cracked in the few days after its release. Figuring out how to bypass DRM does take time, and companies typically have more resources than pirates.

If you ask me, though, the problem of piracy is overblown. Contrary to popular belief, even pirates will support a company, both financially and through word-of-mouth, if their products are of good quality. Yet the measures taken to address piracy are often so drastic that paying customers get caught in the crossfire. There have been several cases of games with DRM so crippling to performance that cracked copies run better than legitimate ones. (AAA games are already incredibly unoptimized, but that's a story for another time.)

DRM only really works without issue if you give customers a reason to use it, as seen with services such as Steam. In pretty much any other case, it's essentially a trade: lose reputation to gain money. I personally don't think that kind of exchange is worth it.

[nerfplayer135]

Mission statement

I don't normally use social media. It's far too easy to get caught up in pointless drama and obsess over numbers that don't mean anything. But in this day and age, I've got so many thoughts circling through my head that I need to put them somewhere. Twitter's a cesspool (I refuse to call it X, that's stupid) and Facebook isn't exactly what I'm looking for. I suppose this will do.

This is effectively a dumping ground for some of my personal thoughts. You'll likely see things related to politics (mostly that of the United States), video games, philosophy, and whatever I feel like yelling about. And believe me, there's a lot I want to yell about.

I'm also going to state my biases right out of the gate. I'm a Caucasian male, born and raised by a middle-class family in the United States. I vote for Democrats, but I'm not beholden to them - I will praise and criticize politicians for their actions, regardless of party affiliation. I have a bachelor's degree in English. I have Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD, and anxiety. And I fully support any and all personal identities and beliefs - as long as you aren't hurting anyone or using your identity as a blunt weapon, I will respect you.

If you don't like any of what I just said and want to antagonize me about it, you can make like a tree and leave. Hate has no home here.