@bluebird_teaching Why wouldn't they? #SteamOS works great. The most important game segment they leave in the dust is a large chunk of the #EA Sports offerings and League of Legends but that might change down the road. @gamingonlinux

"I would fight it tooth and nail": The Sims artist would challenge any mandate to reduce diversity after EA Saudi buyout - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/i-would-fight-it-tooth-and-nail-the-sims-artist-would-challenge-any-mandate-to-reduce-diversity-after-ea-saudi-buyout #Birdview/Isometric #ElectronicArts #LifeSimulation #TheSimsStudio #SinglePlayer #SaudiArabia #Firstperson #Thirdperson #Simulation #TheSims4 #XboxOne #Maxis #Mac #PS4 #RPG #PC #EA

I thought the Saudis were supposed to bring money to the deal.

As its sale to Saudi Arabia approaches, EA lays off its third wave of staff this year, with the full scope of the cuts currently unknown

https://www.eurogamer.net/ea-more-layoffs-june-2026

#SaudiArabia #EA #Layoffs #Labor #Gaming

If you've ever worked on technological systems, you know that building a complex system on top of massive datasets is one of the slowest tasks there is.

They're literally advocating for ineffective decelerationism.

#EA #e/acc #EffectiveAccelerationism #TechnoOptimism #TechoUtopian

One thing that stood out for me, which hadn't really sunk in quite the same way for me before: longtermists cite things like runaway #AI and bio-engineered pathogens as so-called "existential risks" that might cause human extinction, but they downplay environmental degradation as a non-existential risk. Yet, experience is the reverse of this: we have exactly zero examples of AI causing the extinction of a species and few/zero examples of a bio-engineered pathogen causing a species extinction (1), whereas we have piles and piles of examples of species extinctions caused by environmental changes. In fact, we have loads of extinctions we ourselves caused via our alterations of Earth's environment in only the last few decades! We don't even have to resort to the fossil record, which includes many more examples, to make the case; we can look at recent, carefully-documented studies using modern techniques.

Of the many flaws with #longtermism, which the essay goes to pains to spell out, this one really nags at me. Longtermism being a goofy worldview held by wealthy and powerful people is concerning enough; the fact that its primary proponents say things running directly opposite to reality makes it very dangerous, in my view. I think this is a tell.

#TESCREAL #AI #AGI #EA #longtermism

(1) I'm hedging there because I am not knowledgeable enough to say with certainty whether anyone's ever engineered a pathogen that did cause an extinction event. I can't imagine something like this happening often if it has, though.