I’ve always maintained that it’s a library, not a backlog. A backlog is a chore, a task I have to finish.

A library is a catalogue of new, exciting experiences waiting for me to have them!

I also happen to live in a rural area with radio Internet so when I decide I want to play a game it’s many, many hours for it to install and be playable. Heck, sometimes I can order a physical game and it’ll arrive by delivery faster than I can install it.

Also some console games are still physically on the cartridge/disc and it’s becoming more and more of a rarity. As long as the media and systems hold up you can still actually own these games. It’s sometimes worth not sleeping on these because, as I’m sure we can all see, they’re a drying breed. Same thing with (most) GOG games: if you download and save the backup installers you can have actual ownership over titles purchased there.

https://www.doesitplay.org/ is a wonderful resource to find out if a physical game you buy is actually on the media it comes on.

And, unfortunately, some digital games are going somewhere. Delisted games have become a real problem for preservationists. You can find a whole list of them here: https://delistedgames.com/

All that said I support the notion of less consumption and more meaningful consumption when it occurs. Don’t let FOMO get the better of you, be aware that these corpos are not your friend, and take measures to secure the things you wish to have available to you! Host servers, seed torrents, and have backups.

I’ve been on and off with Linux for about 15 years and just want to counter some of the people trying to troubleshoot or criticize to say: it can be really tough.

We need our computers to work and we expect things to function correctly.

I’ve used dozens of distros over the years. I was a super early Arch adopter, mained Gentoo for about three years, ran my own BSD server for programming projects, and still maintain several small home Linux servers. And even I sometimes want to pull my hair out trying to get semi-new hardware working right in my distro of choice. I spent three hours today fighting Nvidia and sound drivers and eventually just had to give up on that machine after being told that what I want just flat out isn’t supported in Linux on the hardware I have.

Take a breath, set it aside until you’re ready to take another crack at it, and know that it’s a journey. You’ll get there or the software will catch up and meet you halfway. No shame in being frustrated :)

Not mine, but my sister accidentally kicked a tall floor lamp over in her sleep. It landed right next to the glass aquarium her hamster was in. It had one of those really bright incandescent 100w bulbs.

Poor little guy cooked to death like a Thanksgiving turkey.

My twelve year old self is screaming in excitement at this.

Not op, but:

Many games aren’t profitable to port to older or less relevant hardware and community porting efforts often takes years to properly disassemble and reassemble to work on new platforms. FOSS is easier to access and port to different hardware.

Expanded mod support. Mods are great but they always have limits and there are often certain parts of a game that either cannot (due to tech) or may not (due to developer wishes) be modified. FOSS games wouldn’t have this limitation.

The ability for the community to own FOSS and forks in the event that a company buys the rights to a game and either closes off access or stops supporting certain versions of it.

Likewise your access to a FOSS game cannot be revoked my a marketplace. If a game is for some reason pulled you’re not guaranteed continued unending access to it. The marketplace in question holds all the cards.

FOSS games may also continue to be updated, improved, and worked on after the original dev loses interest or is no longer around. Stardew is well maintained right now, but what about in 15 years when hardware is very different and the dev has stopped updating it?

IDDQD

Unfortunately options are becoming increasingly limited. My guess is that they’re making more money cramming in ads for people that tolerate it than they are losing money from people who refuse it.

I’ll have to sit down tomorrow to go through these ones, but thanks for listing them all out in such a nice format!

Sounds awesome! On the list.

Well the allure of Rhys Darby might be enough for me to stomach some of it. Time will tell though.

It’s not though! I’ve done 500 episodes of my own podcast and we never charged for a single episode or ran a single ad. Not one single time. We have a Patreon, and it’s optional.

And yes, I’m willing to pay for podcasts if I think they’re worth paying for. I’ve donated to shows I enjoy and paid for others before. I see no issue with people getting paid for their work.

No apology necessary! Many of these are still ending up on lists that may or may not get listened to one day :)

I’m looking to avoid doing that and avoid ad-driven shows in general, hence the original question. I have a few that I tolerate it on, but largely looking to avoid it where possible.

I assume the first one was a typo and you meant Cryptid Factor? Seems like a really cool show, but unfortunately opens straight up with ads. First one was for 1-800-Flowers and then on to one for Rocket Money.

I’ve listened to this one before! Pretty interesting show, but unfortunately opens with several minutes of ads. Latest episode is about two and a half minutes of ads right off the bad, although one is their Patreon.

Unfortunately not a thing on RSS, and I try to spend little time on YouTube. Thanks though!

Any corporate sponsored advertising. Platform, sponsorship, whatever.

The ads on their RSS feed seem to be auto generated and inserted. Lots of shows use that kind of service.

Gaaaaah look at that face! ♥️

Oh wow I didn’t realize it was so simple. I couple just slap that into a bash script and save the effort of going through a website…maybe even use it for bulk processing when I get lots of recommendations.

Thanks for this clarification. Certainly something to be aware of and pay attention to, but a little less instantly alarming than the OP title.