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3883 points kuroguro | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0.014s | source
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breakingcups ◴[] No.26296724[source]
It is absolutely unbelievable (and unforgivable) that a cash cow such as GTA V has a problem like this present for over 6 years and it turns out to be something so absolutely simple.

I do not agree with the sibling comment saying that this problem only looks simple and that we are missing context.

This online gamemode alone made $1 billion in 2017 alone.

Tweaking two functions to go from a load time of 6 minutes to less than two minutes is something any developer worth their salt should be able to do in a codebase like this equipped with a good profiler.

Instead, someone with no source code managed to do this to an obfuscated executable loaded with anti-cheat measures.

The fact that this problem is caused by Rockstar's excessive microtransaction policy (the 10MB of JSON causing this bottleneck are all available microtransaction items) is the cherry on top.

(And yes, I might also still be salty because their parent company unjustly DMCA'd re3 (https://github.com/GTAmodding/re3), the reverse engineered version of GTA III and Vice City. A twenty-year-old game. Which wasn't even playable without purchasing the original game.)

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thrwyoilarticle ◴[] No.26297961[source]
The popular view is that companies who write software know how to prioritise, so if a problem like this isn't fixed, it's because they've done the calculations and decided it's not worthwhile.

I disagree. If there are no internal incentives for the people who know how to fix this to fix it, or if there's no path from them thinking fixing it could improve revenues to being assigned the ticket, things like this won't get fixed. I can fully believe the load times will result in fewer users and lower expenditure.

I think we'll see this happen with Facebook Messenger. Both the apps and the website have become slow and painful to use and get worse every month. I think we'll start to see engagement numbers dropping because of this.

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saghm ◴[] No.26298540[source]
> I think we'll see this happen with Facebook Messenger. Both the apps and the website have become slow and painful to use and get worse every month.

The messenger website has been atrocious for me lately. On my high-powered desktop, it often lags a bit, and on my fairly high-end laptop, it's virtually unusable. I thought it must be something I changed in my setup, but it's oddly comforting to hear that I'm not the only one with such issues.

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1. ianlevesque ◴[] No.26299011[source]
Try https://www.messenger.com/desktop
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2. lethologica ◴[] No.26300943[source]
[tinfoil hat] A part of me believes that this was their intention in slowing down their browser site to the extent it has (and there is absolutely zero reason as to why it should load as slow as it does) in order to drive downloads for this application. [/tinfoil hat]

It's funny. That page says "A simple app that lets you text, video chat and stay close to people you care about." If it's so simple, then why does the browser version of the site take forever to load?

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3. gocartStatue ◴[] No.26302797[source]
Yeah, it used to work well in mobile browser, then only in desktop mode in mobile browser, then not at all. Now it only "kinda sorta" works in desktop browser on ridiculously overpowered PC. Gotta keep the walls tight in that private garden.
4. saghm ◴[] No.26304761[source]
Unfortunately I'm on Linux, and they don't seem to provide a Linux client. I did try out https://github.com/sindresorhus/caprine/, which worked really well, but I'm one of those weirdos who prefers websites to desktop apps.