Seems like a peaceful hobby. [email protected] has a whopping 3.4k subscribers, so it seems to be relatively popular around here too.

Not too different. The bot problem started in… early 2020 maybe? Then it took about 2yrs for community leaders to start the first push of #SaveTF2 in 2022. Valve did a little bit back then to help (votekick changes especially helped), and things were good for a few months… but ultimately, things have slowly gotten bad again (if not worse). It’s been 2yrs since #SaveTF2, so it was about time for another round, this time rebranded as #FixTF2.

Save.tf has the full rundown. But basically, if you join TF2’s casual mode (TF2’s most popular game mode), there’s a 50/50 chance the server will be overrun with user-created bots. These bots have aimbot, pick sniper, and instantly kill anyone who comes into their line of sight. They also try to votekick real players, and if there are enough bots in the match, usually succeed. The bot hosters are trolls who just want to ruin the game for everyone, and have gone as far as swatting the lead developer of MegaAntiCheat, a user-created anti-cheat for TF2.

There’s been a big #FixTF2 / #SaveTF2 social media push recently, trying to push Valve to do anything to try to solve the bot problem. After a day or two of getting no response from Valve, people resorted to review-bombing the game.

I thought this might be a similar situation to Ghost of Tsushima where a PSN account is only required for online play, but Ragnarok has no multiplayer.

I don’t understand why Sony is so insistent on this. PSN is still unsupported in 170+ territories; this requirement is just going to turn most of those “would-be” buyers in those territories into pirates.

Non-reddit link: https://save.tf

SteamOS uses PipeWire, Pulse Audio isn’t even installed

You didn’t list your distro, but I had the same issue on Pop!_OS. I fixed it by modifying the ALSA properties in /usr/share/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua. I’d first try uncommenting headroom and changing it to 1024, then logging out and back in. If that doesn’t work, go 2048. If that still doesn’t work, then I’d maybe try adjusting period-size.

For me, a value in the ~1200 range for headroom fixed it completely. But it will entirely depend on your sound card/hardware. And note, these values will probably be overwritten with any wireplummer updates.

Also keep in mind, increasing headroom will increase audio latency, so try not to increase it too drastically.

Note the vast majority of these bots are either trading bots or idler bots - NOT the “hacker” bots that infest casual mode. The hacker bots are actually included in the real player counter, and are estimated to be <1000 (from the recent “TF2: Nobody’s Home” video).

Keep in mind this is still in open beta, according to Moonlight.tf’s steam announcement. Still, looks fun!

Still exclusive to Google/Samsung proprietary apps. AFAIK they also do extensive SafetyNet attestation checks, so it isn’t even possible requires a bit of work (see below) to use RCS on a custom ROM like GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, DivestOS, or LineageOS, or even a rooted stock OS. Unless that does a complete 180°, I’m sticking with Signal

These don’t exactly “fit in” with the rest of the list, but on Deck I’ve personally had a blast with CarX Drift Racing Online and the Sonic &ASRT Collection

This is already fixed in proton experimental bleeding-edge.

Unfortunately they block old reddit for VPN users now

For anyone wondering why the first-past-the-post voting system (used by most countries) is bad, what the alternatives are, and why those alternatives are better, Nicky Case has an excellent write-up that covers all of that: https://ncase.me/ballot/

There are major cheating and botting issues in Valve’s games because Valve has ~360 employees, where a company like Riot has 4,200+, 10x+ Valve’s headcount. The manpower issue is the problem, not the lack of kernel-level AC.

I specifically bought a Pixel 5a because it was the last Pixel with a headphone jack. Then after a year, it died on me, and they sent me a 6a as a replacement.

I miss the jack. A lot. But it’s hard to justify buying a whole new phone for one. Once this one dies, I don’t know what I’ll do.

I would check the linux gaming wiki’s distro recommendations: https://linux-gaming.kwindu.eu/index.php?title=Getting_started_with_Linux#Recommendations

Mint is fine for daily use type stuff, but there are some odd gaming bugs. IIRC Cinnamon (Mint’s default desktop environment) specifically has higher input lag than Gnome or KDE, and Lutris dropped official Mint support due to issues from Mint’s tweaks.

I personally use Pop!_OS and it’s been pretty good, although I have been a little frustrated about the 22.04 base, as I’ve noticed some packages (like Mangohud and GOverlay) are very out of date. But aside from that, I have no complaints.

This game has been free on Epic, free on GOG through Prime gaming, and free through gamepass. Does anyone know if they’re counting those free claims as “sales”?

Gamepass isn’t for me, but dual booting for it is understandable. But office? I’ve found LibreOffice and OnlyOffice are usually “good enough,” and if you really need true MS Office, I believe they offer web editors now

Note this vid was part of a marketing campaign for the 2014 movie Into the Storm. Although part of me definitely wishes it were real