Lyonid

I am mostly here to find cool mutuals and share my art stuff every now and then. I like to say that my ultimate home is my website: unartur.de

If I follow you, it's because 1. I think you post rad stuff, 2. I would like to recruit you for a study (I'm a researcher on how AI impacts social digital spaces), or 3. both.

Mostly into gaming fandoms on here: Bloodborne, Rune Factory, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy XVI, probably way more but some fandoms creep me out.

Furry in spirit because I am crazy for virtual pet sites and Tamagotchis. I like to be a part of art communities like PaperDemon.

I've been sniffing out AI-assisted coding (or vibe coding if you hate yourself) on virtual pet sites, and it really makes me wonder about the future of our spaces. I do LIKE the THOUGHT of it giving devs the opportunity to refactor their ancient, crusty code and refresh some of the old systems to stay relevant. However, WHAT I currently see is a pile of uninspired, badly designed systems that no one is actively asking for – and that definitely checks out when you think about what asshats have been doing with genAI in the first place.

Aside from that, I am incredibly confused by the site as a whole. I am making the very bold claim that they literally copied most systems of Pixel Cat's End, but none of them are cohesive or communicated well. I do love a good spreadsheet game, but there's a very strong dissonance between "looking at cute cat" and managing/battling. Also all the messy pelt stuff aside, I am getting some Lorwolf vibes (derogatory) with the overall presentation which may come from a similar tech stack.

There's a lot of interesting stuff, but I kinda hope they manage to put it all together. There's so many people working on it, and there are so many backers. I hope it doesn't turn into yet another kickstarter nightmare like Santae. This is also a good motivation to revisit older pet sites that I love.

I can't stop thinking about this lately. I've been on so many virtual pet sites, art RPGs, fucking Pokémon clicker sites, and they've left me concerned. They're some of the few safer spaces left for us queer disabled creatives online. There is something so comforting about even new sites opening because it's a new promise of community and inspiration when we're on the internet. To me it has always been like an anchor for when I am "exploring" the internet when watching videos and reading stuff. It's like a club house where we do this very weird, niche thing of collecting weird pets and celebrating little events. Something feels off now, though.

New sites that have emerged seem hostile. It's not the site members, but the site itself. Of all the things to take inspiration from, most devs and admins go for the most vile dark design patterns. It's about boosting artificial numbers to get some shiny creature. It's about clicking mindlessly every single day to have the chance for exclusives. It's those creepy-ass mods and admins that will sugarcoat their shortcomings and keep members in the dark. Instead of making an effort to make people spend intrinsically, FOMO, exclusivity and prestige become the backbone of those new spaces. It's exhausting, and it pains me to see a once queer concept of socializing online to become so difficult to navigate.