+ º ¤ I Make Fun º ¤ +

Economy & Systems Game Designer for 15+ yrs.

[+ º ¤ I Make Fun º ¤ + @imakedotfun]

If you want to hear me talk about performance marketing, free to play games, game development, or the mobile game industry in general, check out this @GamesBeat podcast with @JeffGrubb that I was on!
https://t.co/frkr9y9PKN

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@slhamlet @quanticfoundry You're just validating my argument. The survey demo is 95% core/hardcore gamers who primarily play on PC/Console and are strongly against AI.

Yup. Those same gamers would likely have a similar opinion about f2p games, games on facebook, mobile games, microtransactions, etc..

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@slhamlet We've also seen a transformative shift in the way game creation has become democratized with UGC platforms, and that only shows signs of it growing more.

I sit in both camps. I still raid on Project Quarm in Everquest on week nights and build games with Claude on weekends.

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@slhamlet Yes, pitchforks from a small vocal minority who didn't stop the growth of free to play games, social games, or mobile games from reaching 100's of millions of people over the last 25+ years. The definition of gamers and the market has massively expanded and will continue to do so

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@fortwearable will we have access to all the data collected on our device in some way? (ideally like an API) Would love to explore building a gamified layer on top of this that people can opt into and link to their devices. Tracking is great, but leaderboards motivate.

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@slhamlet They don't have game designers on staff.

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@SimonLavigne @Slasher For anyone who wants to get the whole soundtrack for bonus nostalgia tripping:

https://t.co/2m3uXa3oGq

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@SimonLavigne @Slasher The soundtrack for RA3 still lives rent free in my head. So many bangers.

https://t.co/ZSj15ifwOI

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@dannyodwyer Hoping to see that Q3A Remaster announcement.

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So excited to see Supplement Researcher growing from the ground floor. This was a no-brainer for me to subscribe to, and is something I know will be part of my daily routine.

Cannot recommend this enough for anyone wanting to research and track the supplements they're taking.

[Sonicrida 🌀 @Sonicrida]

I created an app to help others find the best supplements for their individual needs. Introducing Supplement Researcher.

In addition to being the easiest way to stay updated on supplement news, studies, and findings, it also has:

- an easy way to track the supplements you're taking
- the ability to easily share supplement stacks with anyone
- personalized supplement stack recommendations based on your goals

and more on the way. It's in early development but I wanted to really wanted to get it out into the world since it's already such a powerful tool and the early feedback will be invaluable.

Give it a shot and let me know what you think!

Link in my bio and replies!

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@PUBG Don't feel like you're listening to players at all with the last several updates. Who asked for this?

Also removing the secret room keys from Casuals.. how is that unifying gameplay? Let the boomers/noobs enjoy the fun too.

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@VideoGameHstry Damn onions.

[Devin @DevinNash]

2025 will be one of the most significant years in content creation. In all my years in this business I’ve never seen a greater change agent than what’s coming. Below are some of my predictions for content creation and what creators should be thinking about and doing.

This thread will focus on video. As usual I’ll either look like a prophet or a fool but a lot of this is coming and those not ready will end up out of the game.

AI is going to change content creation in ways almost no one understands that isn’t using it daily. Many AI-generated still images are already indistinguishable from real ones, which alone has massive implications for image platforms (Instagram), photographers, and artists. You’re already seeing this debate about AI art vs. real art. Humans have an accuracy rate of about 48% when classifying faces as real or AI generated (CRJ, s41235-023-00499-6) - but this debate only exists because that gap hasn’t closed yet. In less than 2 years AI vs real art will be indistinguishable.

However this still is a tiny shadow of what’s to come.

Video and Youtube

The big leap in 2025 will be video. Most average, non-technical users (99% of viewers) will not distinguish AI channels from real ones. Youtube Shorts and Tiktok are dominated by AI voiceovers, and AI-driven channels are becoming increasingly popular (CourtroomConsequences for example with 1mil+ subscribers.)

To understand what will happen to Youtube, we need to talk about content creation on Youtube vs other platforms like Twitch. Right now almost anyone who uploads consistently and innovates can be successful on Youtube. But this is not so on other platforms like Twitch. Why? It comes down to the number of available viewers vs. number of videos/channels competing for that attention. Simple supply and demand. This is called a viewer ratio.

The viewer ratio on Twitch is 25.4 to 1. Meaning for every stream there are only 25 viewers available to watch it. This number is way less in practice though because most viewers prefer large broadcasts, then mid-sized broadcasts, and then finally small streams. Twitch has many problems but the largest, unsolvable one is simple supply and demand. There aren’t enough viewers available to fill up all the streams. We’ll talk about that more in a Twitch/livestreaming predictions post I’ll make later.

By contrast, Youtube has a viewer ratio of closer to 300 to 1. With 2.7 billion users, you can upload a video and if it’s not terrible, expect to get views. Youtube is top-heavy like Twitch, but because of the sheer number of users versus the relative lack of consistent content creators, if you build on Youtube in 2025, you can grow. Consistency in content creation is rare, with half of the Podcasts on Apple having 3 or less episodes, and less than 1% of Youtube channels having more than 50 videos. Most people give up. So there’s plenty of viewers to go around for those who work hard and stay with it.

All this will start changing in 2025. AI tools like Sora and Heygen will make video easy. AI influencers will start to show up everywhere. We will see an explosion of channels run by AI. In 1-3 years (and maybe even the end of 2025) you will not be able to tell if Vtuber personas are piloted by real people or an AI. A short time after that it will be the case for ALL videos. We are way closer to this than everyone thinks. Go to my Youtube channel to see videos of me speaking in perfect Chinese, AI influencers talking through products, etc. An AI influencer on Twitch currently has over 50,000 subscribers (that’s $175,000/month btw in revenue for anyone keeping score) and is in the top 100th viewership percentile at 10,867 viewers average. This AI is piloted by a skilled streamer (Vedal987), but the AI (Neuro) does just fine on her own on Youtube with music covers regularly breaking half a million views.

This is all happening right now. And today is the worst this technology will ever be. AI video and influencers will dominate in a way that will shrink the viewer ratio on all platforms. Imagine a world where millions (maybe billions) more videos are being uploaded per day because it will take no effort besides prompting to produce these videos. And this won’t be the low quality AI slop that you mostly see now. It will be LLMs trained on influencers and the content will be indistinguishable from the original creators. We are already doing this for my content on my Discord, and the advice AI gives is similar to mine, and I am an expert in my field.

Imagine a hundred, a thousand, or any number you want more trained influencers with PHD (GPT o3 current benchmarks) expertise in a field, and you will understand that most content creators on Youtube are facing an existential threat within two years. More creative entertainment, narrative, and documentary channels will come after that.

There will be pushback. People will react to seeing their favorite influencers get outcompeted in the algorithm. There will be a preference for human channels. There will be a problem verifying them. We’re entering a world where you can recreate someone like Asmongold talking about a hundred different subjects in a hundred different ways. People will not be able to tell the difference between videos made by him and those made by AI. AI influencers will masquerade as humans. Some will get outed in big controversies. It is going to get really weird.

This will be a problem for ALL information, including political leaders. Official channels notwithstanding, clips and video will be shared everywhere. Those of us in the advertising world already know this is a massive problem. People like Joe Rogan are being used to push supplements and advertise fake products. For 90%+ of people today, the fake Joe Rogan is indistinguishable from the real one. You cannot shut this down because for every single one you hit, ten more will spin up. Joe (and many major influencers) have addressed this on his podcast as an unsolvable problem.

As far as I can tell, Youtube (or any platform) is not ready for any of this. While official channels exist, the proliferation of clips and videos is everywhere. X is trying to solve this with verified users - the idea being that bots can’t spin up at scale to be paid users (Twitter Blue.) The bots would get shut down and it would cost the bot creators (who are usually second or third world agents) too much money to keep verifying them. This is a great idea, but it doesn’t address all problems, for example foreign agents, who have a lot of money and motivation.

Worse, there isn’t a platform incentive for Youtube to solve this. AI agents generate revenue for Youtube in the same way influencers do. They create interesting content so viewers watch ads. Viewers are already showing they don’t care if content is AI or not, they just care if it’s good. The hope is Youtube/Google chooses humans over AI for ethical reasons, and supports human content creators while suppressing AI-only channels. But this assumes Youtube has a way to differentiate the two, and as far as I can tell - aside from a manual prompt currently in the video upload section - it doesn’t. Especially as video gets indistinguishable from real video, I don’t know if Youtube even has a way to tell the two apart.

There are some early experiments to attach blockchain verification as a form of digital footprint. I believe this will work but there are way too few people thinking about this. The tsunami of fake content will hit way before these solutions are explored and adopted.

Many influencers in 2025 will start to lose viewership and not understand why. If you are a content creator, your best bet is to capture the audience now and build the largest foundation of followers/subscribers possible before the huge waves of AI competition hit. 2025 needs to be your breakout year. You need to hit 2025 harder than any other time.

Also certain types of influencers are far more protected than others. Innovators with creative sets and hard-to-duplicate storylines like Mr. Beast, Kai Cenat, and Mark Rober will be fine through the next several years. Talking heads, info content, and reacts without large existing subscriber bases are screwed, and I have no solution for you but to build now or buckle up.

2025 is going to be an absolutely crazy year. People who work with AI first will have outsized results versus people who don’t. They will be so far ahead. This is the year beyond all others to pay attention, study, and get to work.

Thanks for reading. If it makes you feel any better, I have no solution to this either and will probably be packing fries with the rest of you until the McDonalds robot steals that job too.

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@Zizaran Yo @elonmusk @tesla help ya boy out next year!

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@marcuslemonis A place to stream the latest few seasons instead of having to buy?

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@ArlanWasHere For the millions affected by these policies that expired, and for it to only be boiled down to "inflation".. how could they not feel incredibly let down and gaslit by everything around them?

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@ArlanWasHere I think the lesson is that there is a strong disconnect between the message being communicated and the reality of the masses. For the last 2 years we said "the economy is the best it's ever been, unemployment is lower than ever", all while child poverty is the highest since Covid

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@JeffGrubb (These 2 Images * Inflation) + "The economy is doing great" for the last 2 years.

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@umairh That would require facing things we don't want to admit we let happen while proclaiming our economic greatness.

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@JStein_WaPo If only there was some reasons people could point to...

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@LinkedInMktg @LinkedIn This message spam upsell for premium is terrible for so many reasons.
@
Spamming people already at a job with an upsell that disables most messaging functions is breaking the trust of your users.