I haven’t watched YouTube on a desktop in years so maybe you still can…

  • netvor@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    i assume was that some kind of way to pass time when the video was loading?

    because for me, nowadays, the video loads almost immediately so … i don’t know how fast you can play snake…

    i don’t remember that but get what you mean, there used to be time where it was more common for sw developers to put a little bit more love into what they are doing. I mean they still are, that did not actually to away, it’s just that they are outnumbered by the sheer volume of the more “serious, professional, sterile” output.

    as much as I hate big tech, to be fair, creating and maintaining a huge scale thing like YT is a feat of engineering. and I have to respect that often it requires being pragmatic (ie. saving every byte and removing anything that could possibly fail). so I understand the negative correlation, the huge things probably won’t be also the fun things.

    • MrQuallzin@pie.eyeofthestorm.place
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      9 hours ago

      Correct. Nowadays streaming video is almost trivial, but in early YouTube days it wouldn’t be uncommon to click a video and immediately pause it so it could buffer far enough ahead that it wouldn’t get stuck while playing. I don’t recall playing Snake, but it easily could have happened back then.

      • netvor@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Yeah I’m old enough to remember it. Also resuming or seeking would be risky as sometimes it would erase the prized buffer or break the player altogether. Sweet times…

        I don’t remember the snake, though…