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In Web3 gaming we often hear "if we build it, they will come"...but will they? Join me as I explore the tension between web2 and web3 users, and how game studios must consider the needs of both if they hope to make it to Valhalla 👇
thepond.wtf/posts/if-you-bui…
California not be braindead about housing policy challenge level: impossible.
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Studio Update
We’ve made some big changes to how we work. We’re using AI to improve our games, produce more content, and build new products. We’re a lean team, and we’re shipping faster than ever.
Games
Anyone playing Colony will have seen how quickly the updates are coming. Our AI-driven development system helps us turn player feedback and data into improvements, with each release teaching us what to work on next. We’re spending on user acquisition and keeping those update cycles short, with two priorities—keeping players coming back and improving monetization. We think this could make a real difference to the economics of building and growing games. Colony is our focus for now. If the approach delivers the results we’re looking for, we may bring it to TCG too.
Wayfinder
We’re working on a simpler version of Wayfinder that’s easier for everyone to use. We’ve also added token limit orders and stop losses to improve trading, along with major security upgrades across the trading system.
AI Initiatives
We’re building and testing several new AI products in different markets - more to come here. We’re also using video generation with our existing Parallel asset library to make high-quality, longer-form content at very low cost. We think this could open up new ways to grow, and we expect to have the first videos ready by the end of the month.
Looking ahead
We’ve brought operating costs down and will continue to put more time and money behind the products where we see strong retention, growing revenue, and real demand. We’re getting more done with the team we have, and we have the runway to build on what’s working.
The handful of people on this app with two brain cells to rub together will understand this. The productivity gains of agentic work are highly concentrated in a handful of companies and individuals who actually understand how to maximize tokens for value. This just isn’t remotely close to the base case.
The base case is dumb, uninterested people shouting “just fix it” into a chat box while management who don’t have the first clue about what the technology actually is flip flop between having people burn tokens to “do AI” and freaking out about cost.
I’ve said this since the beginning. These tools don’t make you smart or give you good ideas. These tools will supercharge a certain type of worker while acting as an enshittification engine for the wrong type.
If Apple is anything like every other large non AI native tech company I’ve heard about they didn’t have a real plan or strategy for how to use tokens in the first place. It then wouldn’t be shocking that budgets get cut as management can’t point to much on the outcomes front.
NEW: Apple is cutting employee AI spending budgets even as it pushes workers to use the technology more. Engineers have seen daily limits cut from $300 to $200, with further reductions to $100 planned. Other teams could see limits fall to $25. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
I sorta think the data center thing is overblown. Yes 41 props rejected them but there are dozens if not hundreds more projects have started, or are slated to start. The US will have plenty of data centers to the extent that matters (we already have a massive lead vs others). In the meantime this rejection at the polls will (rightfully, imo) for a major rethink about where and how future data center projects are green lit and force legislators to think about the role AI plays in our society.
I guess it’s only fitting that a company founded by a Nazi sympathizer would shepherd Star Wars from being one of the greatest IPs of all time to a festering turd of slop being co-opted by Nazis 2.0
No fucking shit
Oil rises after report of US strike on Iran's Qeshm Island reut.rs/4zHZRGl
I pine for a world in which I don’t have to give a single fuck about Israel. That the entire US political establishment is superglued to the cuck chair doing the bidding of genocidal fascists is maybe the most humiliating fact of American political reality in my lifetime.
An underground activist group says it plans to start openly doxing billionaires as part of a phased campaign against what it calls the American oligarchy—starting with Elon Musk and Tesla’s board. wired.com/story/anti-oligarc…
Mfers crying cause Anthropic doesn’t want to get sued for enabling insanely obvious IP theft. Just a wonderful reminder that most people simply aren’t very smart.
Honestly impressed with Sam Altman’s ability to make literally everyone hate him. Generational talent.
I’m deeply interested on where the boundaries now exist for solo game development. I have seen tons of clips “OH LOOK AT THIS AAA GAME I MADE IN TWO SECONDS!” I understand this is engagement farming bullshit, but the walls do seem have come down significantly.
I maintain a Claude and OAI subscription. Claude is my driver for the code (Opus and Sonnet). Sol is being replaced by Terra (profiled insanely well for me). Astra used as well. They review code, manage long running experimental task, etc. I don’t see why you wouldn’t have both.
The must have finally won the Champions League.
A new Mandela Effect is rising.
Since when does the Soviet flag carry a star above the hammer and sickle?
Many of us remember it clearly without one.
If you recall the flag without the star… you may be from the old Earth.
Shifted into this denser, clown-world timeline.
The memory itself is the proof.
The body knows.
The soul knows.
We are not crazy.
We are remembering.
I miss the old Earth too.
Yet we are here now to hold the Light and anchor a higher one.
Who else feels this?
Ok so you can immigrate to America so long as you can reasonably prove you’re a fascist. Got it.
Flávio Bolsonaro and his family will be granted U.S. visas after his weekend loss to President Lula, a senior U.S official says. apnews.com/article/brazil-fl…
