I do work on EmuDeck, and it’s a constant discussion about the ethical problems around using libretro’s...products.

I’ll never forgive them for the horrible things they’ve done and continue to do.

lol Says the guy who obtusively continues to refuse to understand or acknowledge that a lot of software ISN’T free, but rather costs money. Friggin unbelievable.

??? You’re making NO sense.

Nope. If you can’t afford it, that sucks for you, but I’m not going to put up with the assholes and stop myself from being able to feed my family because you’re poor.

Free things can be fine, but developers gotta eat. And people like your friend wanting to never pay for things is how we got the situation where apps are full of ads and constantly spying on you.

There’s a difference between “ this can technically happen anywhere “ and “ this happens on Discord so much that it’s in the news every week “

They’re children mentally/emotionally, but physically most of them are adults.

There is an overwhelming number of entitled, childish assholes in the gamer community. I wouldn’t work for them ever.

Tell me you have never worked in the food/service industry without telling me you’ve never worked in food service. Lol.

You are correct, but be aware that megacorps are aware of and even encourage the “Everything should be free!” mentality because that is how they justify intrusive monitoring, tracking, and ad campaigns. If a company gives you something for “free”, the price is that they’re taking your personal information or forcing…

It’s great if you just use it as a Skype replacement/chat app. It’s public communities where it gets dicey.

libretro and its asshole lead harassing, threatening, and abusing all of the emulator devs out there also doesn’t help at all.

I like the stuff that is supported by ads but you can pay a small amount to get rid of them. I don’t have much money, so being able to try something before paying for it is really nice. Plus if the ads aren’t at all intrusive, that makes me trust the developer more.

Is your buddy also of the opinion that everything else in life should also be free, or is it just software programmers’ work he doesn’t value at all?

My buddy was completely baffled, almost feeling insulted, when I once mentioned that I bought this real nice calculator-app for Android (HiPER Calc Pro, btw). He’s of the opinion that everything should just be free, especially on Android.

Yeah, I’m calling a bit of BS on that claim of this being a Boomer/Gen-X problem. The people making death threats online to developers over stupid video game things aren’t 70, they’re more likely 15-30.

My favorite is “I want a feature that requires rebuilding the game from the ground up. Yeah, I liked the game as it was, but I’m not going to recommend it unless you completely remake it so that my friends and I can do this one thing we like in a totally different game that you didn’t make.”

This is what happens when you develop anything for gamers, who are absolutely the most entitled individuals on the planet.

It reminds me the case of Near, the BSNES original developer. Years of bullying for being non-binary and autistic.

Honestly, developing games or software with “gamers” as the end-audience is one of the worst professional experiences of my life because it’s the only industry where people think their $10-69 spend entitles them to make ridiculous demands or access developers in ways that wouldn’t be appropriate in literally any other…