Essays about game development, thinking and books

Unexpectedly participated in a class action lawsuit in the USA

Recently, I unexpectedly encountered a justice system in the USA.

  • In 2017-2018, when there was a crypto boom, I invested a little in a mining startup: I purchased their tokens and one hardware unit.
  • The startup went up and began to build a mega farm, but it didn't work out — the fall of Bitcoin coincided with their spending peak, the money ran out, and the company went bankrupt. It's funny that a month or two after filing for bankruptcy, bitcoin played back everything. Sometimes you're just unlucky :-)
  • I had already written off the lost money, of course. I acted on the rule "invest only 10% of the income you don't mind losing."
  • Since everything legally happened in the USA, people gathered there and filed a class action lawsuit.
  • I received a letter stating that I would be automatically among the plaintiffs if I did not refuse. I did not refuse; when else would I get an opportunity to participate in a class action?
  • Everything calmed down until 2024.
  • In the spring, another letter came: "Confirm the ownership of the tokens and indicate their quantity. We won and will share the remaining among all token holders proportionally, minus a healthy commission to the lawyers."
  • But how do I confirm? More than five years have passed. The Belarusian bank account is closed, the company's admin panel is unavailable, and there was no direct transaction in the blockchain—I paid in Bitcoin directly from some exchange (although it is not recommended to do so).
  • I found an email from the company confirming I bought tokens (without the amount) and printed it as a PDF. I attached it to the application with screenshots of the transactions from the exchange for the related period. I gave the address of my current wallet, where these tokens lie dead weight. I sent everything.
  • Today, I received $700 in my bank account. Of course, this is not all the lost money, nearly 25%, maybe slightly more.

What conclusions can be drawn from this:

  • Sometimes, you just don't get lucky in your business.
  • Keep all emails. You never know what and when will come in handy.
  • Class action lawsuits work and do it in an interesting way.
  • Justice in the USA works slowly but, apparently, inevitably and unexpectedly (for me) loyally to minor participants in the conflict. At least sometimes.

Places to discuss Feeds Fun

I continue developing my news reader: feeds.fun. To gather information and people together, I created several resources where you can discuss the project and find useful information:

So far, there is no one and nothing there, but over time, there will definitely be news and people.

If you are interested in this project, join! I'll be glad to see you and will try to respond quickly to all questions.

Grainau: hiking and beer at 3000 meters

How it all looks from the ground.

How it all looks from the ground.

For her vacation, Yuliya decided to show me the beautiful German mountains and took me for a couple of days to Grainau — it's a piece of Bavaria that's almost like Switzerland. At least, it is similar to the pictures of Switzerland that I've seen :-D

In short, it's a lovely place with a measured pace of life. If you need to catch your breath, calm your nerves, and enjoy nature, then this is the place for you. But if you can't live without parties, you'll get bored quickly.

What's there:

  • The highest mountain in Germany plus a couple of glaciers.
  • There's skiing in winter. If you really need it, you can find a place to ski in summer, but the descent is short, and the lifts are turned off.
  • A large clean lake and a couple of smaller ones.
  • A huge number of trails for hiking.
  • A huge number of waterfalls, streams, and a couple of mountain rivers.
  • Restaurants with beer.
  • Beautiful fallen trees in the forests, private property, fences, cows with bells, and "racing tractors" (I don't know how to name this phenomenon better, but tractors are moving fast there :-D).

This is briefly, and now in detail.

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Concept document for a space exploration MMO

The expected poster for the game. (c) DALL-E

The expected poster for the game. (c) DALL-E

As a hobby, I write concept documents for games. This is first in English. I have a few more in Russian and will eventually translate them.

One more concept for The Tale 2.0.

Title

Lords Captains MMO

Yep, it's a rip-off from Warhammer 40k and Rogue Trader, but it will do for the concept.

One-liner

Explore the infinite universe on a starship with millions of souls on board, unite and develop abandoned worlds.

Platforms

Browsers, mobile.

Genre

Exploration-driven trade-political MMO PVE sandbox.

Closest analogs

EVE, Sim City, Crusader Kings, 4X games, Rogue Trader.

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Procedural news headlines without complex text generation

A screenshot of the interface for selecting a news connotation (from the prototype of the game about a news agency). News: the arrest of a teenage witch for drunk driving.

A screenshot of the interface for selecting a news connotation (from the prototype of the game about a news agency). News: the arrest of a teenage witch for drunk driving.

From the player preference survey, I gradually moved on to working on a game prototype.

The game will be about a news agency. You will be the chief editor, and your task is to manipulate public opinion by investigating events and choosing a connotation of news: where to draw the public's attention, what to hide, in what tone to present themes, etc.

Therefore, the whole game will be around the text of news.

Creating large blocks of detailed text for each news item looks pointless — the game is not about reading news but about managing them. Therefore, it makes sense to build interaction only around headlines.

But how can we make the displaying of news both interesting and simple?

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