I know, especially if you don't have good background in C++, Image processing and software engineering. The UE is not beginner friendly and the source code is available on GitHub.
I do have experience with all of those and still prefer Unity because of how much easier it is to work with, especially with other people. Also Unreal's weird version of C++ is extremely domain specific and annoying to work with, Unity uses bog-standard C# with some minor changes (like using UnityEngine.Random.Range rather than System.Random)
But really, even if UE is on Github, they still force you to join a group to use it. It's a perfect example of "just because the source is available doesn't mean you have any freedom whatsoever to use or modify it". Putting it on GitHub is a token gesture, nothing else. And it's caused them problems, like the "reply all" fiasco from a few weeks ago.
The tolerance towards edginess has significantly decreased the past few years and you get to be called out more often if you're politically incorrect. I remember in 2016 when I first created my Instagram account and a lot of the memes were really edgy. The 'Golden Era of Youtube' also came and went with creators like Filthy Frank and Idubbbz, the latter of which is now a hypocrite and a shell of his former self.
An anon on 4chan said it best with "back then when someone called you a f@ggot you call them a n!gger right back".
The weirdest part is, everything nowadays is trying to be edgy. Just look at superhero movies for an example. They used to be all colourful, silly, dumb comedy/action films, and now they are all dark, depressing and serious. Everything seems to have gone that way. Hope no longer exists anymore, all the good guys are just less-evil bad guys, and media in general repeatedly tells us that everything is shit and that we should all give up and that life is meaningless and terrible.
But then you say a bad word and people ban you.
Our society is completely choc full of "corporate approved" edginess. Which is the worst kind.
Adults can watch cartoons comfortably and its not longer considered as children's stuff.
I have not found a single "adult cartoon" that isn't for manchildren. The simpsons was probably the last cleverly written, sophisticated adult cartoon and it died a decade ago.
It's why they are so acceptable now. Nothing changed, their audience just got older.
Don't say "rick and morty" or I will drive to your house and slap you for having a wrong opinion.
* Big corporations embracing open source software mainly Microsoft and Valve.
* The gap between portable and tv consoles is closing in terms of software and hardware thanks to Nintedno Switch. You can even run proper linux on Steam Deck and i like how they made a teardown video to demostate the users.
I really hate to be that asshole online, but both of these opinions are misguided.
Microsoft and Valve are really only pretending to embrace open source. Both of them still maintain a core product base of closed source software (Steam in Valves case, Windows in Microsofts case), and are mostly using open source as a corporate weapon. Valve wants to go open because they don't want to be tied to Windows, and the only way to do that is to funnel money into making games work on Linux, and Microsoft is countering by trying to take over and destroy Linux. It's why Microsoft never really releases anything of value as open source, they just make it easier to do Microsoft-controlled development on Linux (like open-sourcing the .NET Framework, which only really benefits Microsoft in the long run).
I would say Valve is probably more genuine than Microsoft about it. I have no doubt there are people at Valve who genuinely care about gaming on Linux, and who want to make it work the best it can because they are fans of free software. But when projects like SteamVR have basically been abandoned on Linux (it doesn't even have proper single-pass instancing working), when flagship games like Alyx take over a year from release to work properly on Linux, and when overall they are still adding most features to Steam in a proprietary fashion, with the only real exceptions being that their big open source contributions are Proton and gaming compatibility with Linux, it's pretty clear what their corporate goals are.
Microsoft really has no interest in promiting free software. They have already lost the Server war to Linux, now their only hope is to get people onto their shitty version of Linux that they control, which has been an abysmal failure because Linux users don't trust Microsoft (and for good reason). When they are still locking things like DirectX to Windows, and making the open source community have to play catchup with projects like DXVK with no help from Microsoft, it's obvious what their corporate goals are as well.
Don't be fooled. No company wants you to be free or have an option to use someone elses products. They all want to lock you in. Sometimes, supporting open source furthers that goal in a twisted, strange way. That's the only time companies will ever support it. Don't fall into the trap of thinking they give a single shit about community driven free software, other than seeing it as a threat to their business model.
As for gaming consoles, the main reason they are getting closer has nothing really to do with the Switch. The reality is most TV consoles now are extremely underpowered and overpriced, and that has largely allowed handhelds to catch up. That said, the handheld market is effectively dead at this point. The Switch and the Deck are the only 2 real competitors that aren't one-off Indie projects, Nintendo has the advantage because they can convince developers to port real games to their glorified tablet by stripping away a lot of the graphics from these games, and the Deck is largely using new hardware to perform reasonably well, but handhelds aren't really a thing anymore. The real battleground in gaming is between TV consoles and PCs, which TV consoles are handily losing due to the fact that every generation is usually worse than the previous. Sure, you get better graphics, but with each generation you get more lock-in, more features taken away and paywalled, less third party support, and generally a worse experience. I expect the PS5/XBSX generation to be the last real generation of home consoles as a result, as more and more people are going to say "fuck this", buy a $500 PC, and game on that instead, with games they know they will be able to keep/play forever without needing some cloud garbage, and free features that aren't constantly getting paywalled. My dumb housemate who has never had a PC in his life is thinking of getting one because the PS5 is getting so frustrating with the constant money grubbing and endless downloading he has to do when he just wants to play some games.
Internet privacy is a thing of the past. I remember as a kid we all learned in ICT class a lot about being private and whatnot, not signing up to websites or whatever, and be careful what you post. Good initiatives, even if the classes were bloody boring. Did they stop doing that now? because I'm seeing so many kids who have social media now. It isn't hard to imagine a ten year old girl on TikTok anymore even, whereas when we were twelve, we were all fawning over the one or two kids who were daring enough to have a Facebook account. On any social media, when we were kids we were all fairly careful even if we got lax as we got older, but now kids don't do that. I wish I could show people just how easy it actually is to find out information about people based on scraps of info: once someone I knew moved houses, and a friend of mine found out their exact address from his sister's latest bathroom selfie, plus some area estimation, online property listing information, etc... no mainframe computer whiz hacking or whatever, it's literally just playing digital detective with voluntarily given information. I've found various peoples accounts across sites using bits like handle names, interests, etc, and I know I'm not the only one who does this. Sometimes you don't even have to try. My niece made a Wattpad, obviously meant to be secret because it was full of rants, under her FULL FUCKING NAME and LINKED TO HER FACEBOOK. She is like eleven, so she's not stupid or anything. Just, no awareness of digital privacy?
I don't think it's a lack of awareness. Privacy being important and "big tech" being bad are so shoved down our throats these days from everything from concerned parents to politicians, there's pretty much nobody of any age who doesn't know the dangers. The problem is that people don't care and don't see it as a problem. In fact, being private online can be a detriment in the attention-seeking mentality of social media - you want all the clout for yourself, not for some pseudononymous avatar you created.
I think people are so used to having freedom in their daily lives that they take it completely for granted, especially in the west, and don't think ahead about how this will affect them in the future.
Worse, the way we approach teaching kids about online privacy is all fear-mongering. It's all about "don't go on forums because you will find child molesters" or "you'll get a virus if you go to dodgy sites", virtually nobody is teaching about the actual social dangers of expressing yourself, especially in the modern cancel culture of the internet. People don't realise that everything they say under their real name is permanent, even if they delete it, and can (and will) be used against them at any time it becomes convenient to do so.
I guess people are also naive enough to think that THEY are the ones with the correct opinions, and that public thought will never turn against them because THEY are on the correct side of history, so there's no need to watch what they say because it will always be agreeable.
Personally, I always approach privacy education from a perspective of control. You don't want to use social media because they can tailor content in a certain way to change how you think. You don't want to use proprietary locked-down solutions like iPhone because you're effectively at the mercy of the manufacturer, and they can set the terms for both the hardware (which usually manifests in dictating the rules for repair and maintenance of the device), as well as the software (which usually manifests in remote removal of "disagreeable" software or software that has a licensing issue, removing things from their storefront, and blocking users etc). By educating people about self-hosted solutions, like how to run a home server, how to root their phone and run a custom rom, etc, I am teaching them how to regain control of their technology. When they do this, privacy comes naturally, as by not using these systems you are naturally not giving them your data either.
Honestly, control is a MUCH larger and more important issue these days than privacy, and it's the sort of issue where we can show tangible, every day effects, whereas privacy is a much harder sell because it usually comes down to "this group you despise got censored" (which most people will see as a good thing anyway, and something that can't happen to them), or some hand-waivey wishy washy argument about how government and companies can do Bad Things™ with their data, like automated policing, which are still in their infancy and used rarely, so most people see it as conspiracy nonesense.
I think this is because in my childhood, the Internet was still like another place instead of occupying the same space as our own lives as it does now. It was never like that for these new kids, they were always living in the Internet when they came onto it, which for them was still like 9 or something. The next batch of kids will have been connected since they were 2.
It was mostly because of the hysteria around this new internet space being filled with murderers, pedos, and other undesirables. Parents wised up like they did with video games, which are also now accepted for the same reasons.
Addendum: Another interesting change is the presence of watched media in our lives has changed from being something set out by say, a television network to appeal to many people, to a service that provides anything you want, as much as you want. I remember as a kid checking out TV programs to see when a show I like would be on, missing out on a particular morning cartoon because I slept in, etc. whereas my brother just wakes up in the morning, goes and puts whatever on Netflix. He fucking churns through whole seasons like nobodies business, and he's five. Those experiences are worlds apart, and as you can probably tell, I don't think it's a very positive change mostly for kids growing up with this ability. Adults can do whatever they like for all I care.
Yeah, it has gotten much worse under this model too, because it becomes super easy to waste days binging shows you're not that super interested in but which were recommended to you by the algorithm™
-type manchildren who swallow the official narrative on any possible issue and skim across the surface of the most absolutely mainstream thing, proudly shilling for corporate daddy whenever possible.
