There were content farms pumping out "finger family" videos where the same video would be uploaded thousands of times but with a different JPEG swapped in so this video is "Spider-Man" and this video is "Joker" etc. And kids gobbled them up apparently. They'd sit there watching finger family videos on autoplay for hours.
I just see a lot of people in this thread (and other related threads) seemingly suggesting that since these videos aren't already better than Pixar or some other arbitrary level of quality they've decided that the technology "isn't ready". I'm suggesting that is a short-sighted viewpoint. Kids (and that actually includes pre-teens and teens) are not going to care. If people generate funny or captivating stuff using this technology then they will definitely overlook the uncanny valley. And the volume at which this content will be created, re-mixed and re-shared will soon outpace any other kind of content source.
I find it a bit amusing since I bet a bunch of nay-sayers probably grew up watching equivalents of Rooster Teeth Halo Red vs. Blue, which was garbage quality for its time. I predict that we'll see at least one massive new studio rise using these "not ready" technologies in the next couple of years.
edit: (As another data point, consider the huge success of Roblox with kids. It certainly isn't due to the visual fidelity of the game. Consider the Roblox equivalent of YouTube that is going to exist pretty soon.)
I'm new to HN, but can see that the thread is no longer active (as in I can't reply). There was lots of great (and entertaining) feedback on the thread (especially about the terrible font). I would love to reply to those who fed back on the game and the page, now that I have ironed out some bugs with the game, and importantly changed the font to something that is much more readable (and with much better CSS). I've also released a mobile-friendly version of the game. Do you know of any way I can engage with those that commented?
Again, thanks for your interest and the two days of excitement I had looking at those analytics.
That's funny. I checked out your Twitter after the submission started trending on HN and saw that you posted the traffic stats. I actually wondered whether you would figure out where it was coming from, so I'm glad you eventually did!
Regarding your question I don't think there's any good way to engage with people after the thread has been "archived", especially since there are no DMs on HN.
Glad I could contribute to some excitement nonetheless. I posted it because I thought it was a cool and novel approach to a classic problem. I also really liked the article (and your homepage/games in general). Keep up the good work!
BTW - There's a mobile version of the game too now https://nonzerosum.games/tetrings_mobile.html
It was really cool seeing all those comments about the terrible font, and the game of course.