welcome to shareware

hi internet,

It's a little rough out there right now.

Reddit goes, Twitter goes, Facebook...went. The "algorithm" has reshaped our content, our perspectives, and our ability to relate to each other. Referral links on every article, a sponsorship in every video, and both creators and audiences suffer for it.

I grew up on GameFAQs, Cheat Code Central, GameSpot, GameSpy. I'd visit pspnewb on the PSP browser, which featured a thread about a pirated version of Steam.

Suffice it to say, I played my Source games on a shitty Toshiba with a trackpad. And I got some Vintages for it. And then after I bought Portal 2 for my PS3, I was in. They got me.

I expect there are plenty of other folks out there like me. Maybe you made a Pandora's Battery yourself, maybe you bought one on eBay. Made sure to watch every E3 showcase, and talked about who won on Mumble after.

Or, maybe you kept a LiveJournal for a while. Was big into Tumblr before they got rid of the porn.

MySpace? Piczo? Some other forum?

There is now an old internet. And it makes me feel old to say it, but I miss it. This internet is kind of a nightmare. Newgrounds was also a nightmare, but a substantially more enjoyable one.

I want Shareware to be a blast from the past. Shareware does what Nintendon't. Pre-Google Plus Youtube. Flash isn't dead.

Shareware is a publication focused on community supported criticism of modern arts and culture. It's fediverse focused, and aims to be independent of many of the revenue sources strangling the modern internet.

We'll discuss games, movies, anti-capitalism, maybe some open-source stuff. Idk, we'll see.

- justice