CloverSi

Respect to them for trying something new, can't blame them for it not working out. Though from the article it doesn't sound like they had any major issue with mastodon or its administration itself - their primary issue was the legal risks, which really should have been considered before launching. It seems disingenuous to use a headline like that when the main problem wasn't the running of the site, but a fear of legal repurcussions that could have been easily seen before making the site. That's my two cents anyway.

It is sad how regulation of social media seems to affect smaller sites more than the big ones. Legal liability looks very different to a company with flocks of lawyers than someone hosting a small server at home.

I never actually finished it! That's too bad. If it's not a great ending anyway, could you spoil it for me?

I rode Haunted Mansion recently and really enjoyed it, it had lots of elements that seem like they'd work well in film - shame it was kinda wasted. I wouldn't mind a kids movie or an adult movie but that no-man's-land between them can be painful. I might give it a shot just out of curiosity when it comes to d+, thanks for giving your thoughts.

making a big budget movie out of a ride concept is so dumb

I would agree if it wasn't for Pirates of the Caribbean lol. But yeah I'm with you, definitely not a theater-worthy movie, maybe I'll give it a shot when it's on d+. Sometimes star-studded duds can be fun to analyze if nothing else.

Anyone seen this one? The cast makes me interested despite the reviews.

This ended up a bit longer than I intended, whoops. Most of your examples are more conceptually unique than most of these, but I figured it couldn't hurt to mention them since they all do something 'different' you might find interesting. I've really enjoyed all these games myself.

• Perspective - Absolutely mind-blowing, this is the one that I think fits your question best. There's both walking around in a 3d environment and 2d platforming, but the platforming is based on your perspective. It's hard to describe, but it's free (college project), so go check it out!
• Cortex Command - I wouldn't exactly call it experimental, but it's certainly unique. The selling point is the fully destructible particle-based 2d environment. It may be 20 year old abandonware, but there's a reason it still has an active fanbase working to improve it (check out the Cortex Command Community Project).
• Antichamber - Reality-bending first person puzzler. It can be frustrating at times but it has some seriously mind-boggling challenges.
• Little Inferno - You burn things. It's amazing.
• Reassembly - Hard to describe, kinda like 2d space legos with some strategy elements? You build spaceship things and slowly amass your army, gathering resources and commanding your fleet. It's a bit sandboxy for my taste but I've never played another game with this unique mix of strategy and building. It's a lot of fun seeing the ships you create flying around independently, gathering resources, fighting enemies and even making more ships themselves.
• Melody's Escape, Beat Hazard (1/2/3), Symphony - I'm a big fan of games that use music for generating levels, and these are my favorites. It's a small 'genre' but it's fascinating to me to see how different developers approach it. Melody's Escape is a rhythm game which is pretty unique among this 'genre', Beat Hazard has spectacular visuals and adds in progression (with varying degrees of success), and Symphony is pretty similar to Beat Hazard in basic conception but executes things differently at every level.
• Sanctum 2 - Combination tower defense + FPS. The unique thing about this is less the idea and more how well it's executed. A ton of fun with friends.
• Yoku's Island Express - Pinball metroidvania-lite. What can I say, they make it work.
• The Beginner's Guide - A linear story / adventure game sort of thing. The setup is essentially about exploring different short games made by someone who committed suicide. It's slow and sad, but has a unique concept that it executes well. It has a couple of twists that really make the game.
• Shelter 1 & 2, Meadow - Shelter 1 is a linear adventure game where you play as a badger mother caring for her pups. Shelter 2 is a nonlinear survival game where you play as a lynx mother caring for her... kits? Then Meadow is a sandbox social MMO in the same universe, with little goal aside from just interacting with other players; but there's no text chat, only a limited set of emotes and some actions you can do. This is a great little family of games, each being an entirely distinct and unforgettable experience.
• The Messenger - Starts out as a linear 8-bit-styled action platformer that (spoilers) turns into a 16-bit-styled metroidvania. Conceptually that's all that really makes it unique but it's done well, lots of fun.

Recently I've been exploring flash games again. I played them a lot as a kid, but in revisiting them I'm blown away at how unique and interesting so many of them are. Here are a few of the more unique ones you might enjoy, you'll have to use something like Flashpoint to play them:

• This Is The Only Level - There's one level, but the mechanics change each time you complete it. Super fun.
• Demons Took My Daughter - A combination 2d platformer and tower defense (complete with mazing). It's worth checking out all of the developer Nerdook's games, he has a habit of mixing genres in completely new ways.
• This is not a minimalist game - A short adventure game, nothing groundbreaking but has some interesting ideas.
• The Day - This is a weird one, kind of hard to describe without spoiling it but it's like <20 minutes to beat, mostly just a walking simulator sort of thing. The game's dev, Gregory Weir, has a lot of experimental games, if you like this one you'll probably like more.
• Sugar, Sugar - A really unique puzzle game, its basic idea is simple but it makes the most of it. Another dev to check out more from.

There's also Pony Island that has similar fourth wall breaking mechanics. I think the developer Daniel Mullins has made a couple other games in a similar vein, though I haven't played any of them. Stanley Parable comes to mind too, though that's a little different.

Time zones and limited schedules are the issue there. Smartphones for texting are difficult for him. But either way, that's beside the point; what I'm trying to get at is that an inconvenience to you might be more than that to someone else. Learning a new platform might be easy for you, but it's basically impossible for someone with dementia. Leaving a job that requires you to use unethical tools might be fine if you can get another one easily, but some people can't. Not talking with friends on unethical social platforms might be fine if you have more social opportunities, but to someone with social issues, finding a group of people that you can be comfortable around isn't trivial.

The comment I originally responded to was saying it's unfair to compare oil/plastics industry with social media, because you have a choice with the latter but not the former; while that's the case more often than not, it's far from universal, and applying the same standards to someone for whom the opposite is true is unreasonable. You never know how much someone has to sacrifice to do things that might seem easy, and you never know how easy the things that seem hard might be.

Wow, this seems really useful! What a neat feature.

I believe you responded to the wrong comment, as I didn't post that comic. Either way-

It isn't always a matter of convenience over necessity. For a personal example, my grandfather knows how to use Facebook and basically no other communication technology; he isn't really able to learn new things now, so my options are to use Facebook or to not talk to him. If you're saying I'm acting unethically unless I do the latter I don't think much more needs to be said; if not, well, that's my point.

It seems like we're having two different conversations; I reread your comments as you suggested and it seems as if you're responding to someone else. You're talking about things completely unrelated from what I'm saying, and then implying I'm being unreasonable for being angry over something I'm not even angry about.

communications are a fundamental public utility and should be treated as such.

I agree completely. This was never in question and it feels like you're implying I think otherwise when you keep reinforcing this point.

expecting your friends and family to use a billionaire’s private network as one of the sole ways of communicating is not really the same thing as being stuck buying your food with too much plastic on it.

one of these you really do have control over its not a forced choice its just one people think is.

at some point everyone made a choice here, they arent necessarily bad people for those choices but ignorance for whatever reason is on the menu.

This is what I take issue with. As a personal example, my grandpa knows how to make phone calls and use facebook; he doesn't use technology much more than that, and he's not in a state to learn how to use anything else right now.

So I use Facebook to talk with him. Not because I support Facebook, I just want to talk to my grandpa. I find it offensive when you imply those who use closed and/or 'unethical' platforms inherently do it out of ignorance, and that there's always a choice; my only other choice is to not talk to my dying grandfather, and I won't feel guilty for not taking that.

To be clear, in terms of big picture I'm with you on everything else you said.

communications are a fundamental public utility and should be treated as such.

That sums up my thoughts nicely.

I don't feel this discussion has been in good faith; your last comment has some gaslighting (whether intentional or not) that I don't think has a place in respectful conversation, so I won't be responding further.

If you're implying that the belief that companies should be held accountable for their actions and that communication platforms should be democratized is mutually exclusive from not villainizing people for wanting to communicate with their loved ones, I strongly disagree.

I'm not making excuses for the companies. I'm making excuses for the people at their mercy, who are just trying to survive with the hand they were dealt. People can't be blamed for following the path of least resistance; the blame lies squarely with the path and those who made it, and fighting the people on that path who would gladly follow another is counterproductive.