Why FitGirl won't die: The repacker millions of gamers depend on in an age of surveillance
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Oh really? How come it installed fine the second time from the same file?
It’s well-known that installation of FitGirl’s repacks can fail, and the recommendation is exactly that one don’t touch the computer while it’s going on, and retry again if it fails. Mock yourself for not knowing this, as this very thread contains more ‘anecdotes’ about the same.
It’s some kinda super wonky compression that gives extreme space savings but is so fragile that the result isn’t guaranteed, which is precisely why it isn’t widely used.
it’s well-known that …
alright
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I don’t know which stores exactly are listed there. But at least with some shady key resellers, piracy might actually be better than buying from them according to some indie devs: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48908726
Isthereanydeal don’t list those shady resellers.
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it’s well-known that …
alright
Great rejoinder there. “I didn’t research how stuff works, but I have an irrelevant rebuttal, and when people point out that it’s not how stuff works, I will reply ‘alright’, that will really put them in their place.”
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It’s more likely that the devs are not being given the time or resources to do this kind of thing properly. Their bosses are too concerned with what will save money and generate shareholder value.
absolutely this.
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It’s more likely that the devs are not being given the time or resources to do this kind of thing properly. Their bosses are too concerned with what will save money and generate shareholder value.
Gamedev is notorious for basically having permacrunch so this is the most likely reason
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Great rejoinder there. “I didn’t research how stuff works, but I have an irrelevant rebuttal, and when people point out that it’s not how stuff works, I will reply ‘alright’, that will really put them in their place.”
(Sorry, I just wanted to come back and say my response wasn’t very friendly or constructive but I think took issue with your (perceived) tone mostly.)
I have had your issue once before in the past, but I genuinely don’t think it is such a pain point that it’s a frequent issue to prevent further use.
I can imagine from a consumer point of view that there will always be faster way to pack data so that people can start playing instantly and leave the problem of storage to online game libraries. But from an archivist point of view I genuinely believe that the format she has chosen for those of us who want to replay a game every now and then and can suffer the hour long unpack is efficient for the storage/playing tradeoff
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Bingo. And this means they’re effectively choosing who their games are for. And then complaining the ones they didn’t choose decided to pirate it.
I’m curious, are there countries where fast internet is way too expensive but video games are priced well?
Edit: I mean priced well on launch, btw, not on sale
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(Sorry, I just wanted to come back and say my response wasn’t very friendly or constructive but I think took issue with your (perceived) tone mostly.)
I have had your issue once before in the past, but I genuinely don’t think it is such a pain point that it’s a frequent issue to prevent further use.
I can imagine from a consumer point of view that there will always be faster way to pack data so that people can start playing instantly and leave the problem of storage to online game libraries. But from an archivist point of view I genuinely believe that the format she has chosen for those of us who want to replay a game every now and then and can suffer the hour long unpack is efficient for the storage/playing tradeoff
don’t think it is such a pain point that it’s a frequent issue to prevent further use
I don’t have statistics, but:
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I myself didn’t do any research specifically on this matter, and only learned of these problems through osmosis by randomly reading various threads on Reddit’s r/all
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I installed one single game from a repack by FitGirl
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my experience right away exactly mirrored that of which I’ve read previously
I don’t have problems with FitGirl using this compression, in fact I find it fascinating that such an algorithm exists. However, it obviously doesn’t meet standards to which a commercial publisher or storefront are held.
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Why FitGirl won't die: The repacker millions of gamers depend on in an age of surveillance
Ask almost any PC gamer from Asia to South America, and they will tell you the same thing: FitGirl is the one name in piracy that everyone recognises
The Business Standard (www.tbsnews.net)
Maybe fitgirl is the bbw porn actress named fitsidney or fitsid for short.
Both are girls.
One fucks on camera. One repackage games. Same thing probably.
Think about it.
Edit: I’m doing a thorough and deep investigation of her videos for any clues and I’ll report back on any findings.
Edit2: the results are inconclusive and I’ll need to perform more research. It’s worth mentioning that fitsid is adorable and very enthusiastic in what she does, and is also kind of adorable much like fitgirl’s photo of Amelie. But, like, with cum involved.
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It’s more likely that the devs are not being given the time or resources to do this kind of thing properly. Their bosses are too concerned with what will save money and generate shareholder value.
It’s basic math for these executives, the cost of bandwidth is magnitudes less than than the cost to pay someone to reduce it. They do not care about the cost to gamers.
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I’m aware that compression rates are a trade-off between space and processing time, and that there’s some balance to be had. However, I don’t see this balance from plenty commercial games; what I see instead is disregard.
Here’s a made up example. Suppose you have a choice between compressing a game:
- to 10 GiB, and it takes 2min to unpack it in a certain machine
- to 3 GiB, and it takes 8min to unpack it in a certain machine
FitGirl will consistently pick the later option. And it would be fine if devs picked the former, or a middle ground… but they don’t. Instead, often you get a 10 GiB file that takes 10 min to unpack, the worst of both worlds.
And it isn’t just a matter of the compression algorithm. The developers also have the freedom to choose how they split files; but they often create 9001 files the size of an ant, that is going to hurt decompression times. (Paradox Interactive, I’m looking at you.)
Tagging @fiestorra@discuss.tchncs.de, as it addresses what they said too.
Here’s a made up example. Suppose you have a choice between compressing a game:
- to 10 GiB, and it takes 2min to unpack it in a certain machine
- to 3 GiB, and it takes 8min to unpack it in a certain machine
The download size difference of 7 GiB only costs me another 60-80s to download as long as the Steam servers are serving well. So funny enough the first option would be better for me.
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Folks here are like “everyone uses it. Eventually all gamers realize it’s better”
Me, having never even heard of this in my 30 years of gaming: 🫣
I mean, do you pirate games? If you’ve never gone to a torrent site in your life it’s not surprising, but FitGirl’s repacks are so numerous that it’s hard not to notice them if you do pirate.
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Steam gets around this problem by doing the decompressing on the fly as you download. Go check out your CPU usage next time you install a game.
Edit: I think this is also why it defaults to not downloading while you game. Steam doesn’t want you to have a bad experience from the decompression.
It will also use ALL your bandwidth by default. I can’t even watch a yt video or anything while doing a steam download unless I limit the bandwidth in settings.
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It will also use ALL your bandwidth by default. I can’t even watch a yt video or anything while doing a steam download unless I limit the bandwidth in settings.
What kind of router do you have? If it has any kind of “smart queue” or “smart qos” you could try enabling that and it will de-prioritize steam’s packets (as needed) so that web browsing and voip still work.
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What kind of router do you have? If it has any kind of “smart queue” or “smart qos” you could try enabling that and it will de-prioritize steam’s packets (as needed) so that web browsing and voip still work.
Awesome thank you for the tip. I’m not too well versed in networking so I never really dig around in my router settings. I’m just using the Modem/router supplied by the ISP right now and it doesn’t look like it has anything like that from a quick look through the config page.
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Note plenty FitGirl repacks are lossless; as in, she isn’t taking less important files out of the game, she’s compressing it better. 90GB→35GB seems accurate; you often see ~1/3 of the original size, like this. And it shows plenty game devs
- do an extremely bad job at basic tasks like compression.
- give no flying fucks about players, who might have really slow connections.
And then those same developers get amazed at the fact FitGirl is so popular. “Maybe we’re doing something wrong? …nah.”
A lot of devs stopped giving a flying fuck to disk space and performance a long time ago. “32GB of RAM and 500GB of disk space? Don’t mind if I do!” - for a pixel art 2D platformer
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I suspect FitGirl is a morbidly obese 58 year old man with a twisted sense of humor.
Omg He’s just like me fr fr
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A lot of devs stopped giving a flying fuck to disk space and performance a long time ago. “32GB of RAM and 500GB of disk space? Don’t mind if I do!” - for a pixel art 2D platformer
It’s so infuriating I’ve either got 3 brand new games or 30 older games installed on to my device.
Even mobile gaming is getting out of hand
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Why FitGirl won't die: The repacker millions of gamers depend on in an age of surveillance
Ask almost any PC gamer from Asia to South America, and they will tell you the same thing: FitGirl is the one name in piracy that everyone recognises
The Business Standard (www.tbsnews.net)
Piracy is the response when companies refuse to serve market needs.
I mean, there will always be people trying to get something for free when they normally have no problem affording it or obtaining it personally. It’s why the Parasite Class continue to drive down wages while raising prices for that sweet labour-free profit margin, even though they already have obscene amounts of wealth. Their boundless greed demands they squeeze even more out of the Working Class whose labour is the source of all wealth.
So yeah, there we’ll always be some people who will pirate purely for the fish.
But in the end, any significant piracy is 100% the fault of those very companies that complain about it.
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I mean, do you pirate games? If you’ve never gone to a torrent site in your life it’s not surprising, but FitGirl’s repacks are so numerous that it’s hard not to notice them if you do pirate.
I used to torrent frequently, but rarely software.
Since I graduated and started making adult money I haven’t really at all. When I want to vote with my wallet, I just don’t play it at all (usually these are live service games anyways).Although I’m going to start torrenting music and video again on principle.
![Lvxferre [he/him]](https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/333d03a0-bcae-434b-a8d1-7dfd18962d20.jpeg "Lvxferre [he/him]"){kind=avatar}
