[INFO] identifying stray 'rasters' on your system.

[queenie]

[POEME_ELECTRONIQUE]:
with the recent public release of the virtual pet game 'friendzoo', there appears to be a glaring oversight in how one certain feature affects computer operators all accross morbit. the virtual creature programs themselves, which i will refer to as 'friendzoo rasters' or simply 'rasters' from here out, are given a form of pseudo-autonomy. friendzoo rasters are given the luxury of not only living on the designated sector of your harddrive they were deliberately installed upon, no, rasters are given the quite risky permissions to move around your operating system by themselves -- this includes moving over your network if your machine has access to the morbit mwide mweb.

as far as i have been able to gather, friendzoo was not designed to be a malicious acting software, so this is by no means a call to remove your copy or to scrutinize the developer team. but you should be aware, whether you have the game installed or not, friendzoo rasters may very well find a way to access your system. in theory this seems like it some sort of intended feature for rasters to be able to venture out into other player's homes. but in practise, rasters tend to not be able to locate actual installs of friendzoo to place themselves into particularly well, nor do they come with a function to send them back 'home'. thus, you may end up with a raster present on your operating system that is stuck somewhere it can not be interacted with. this can cause issues, especially on older machines. if access the internet, specifically if you engage in file sharing or instant messaging, this leaves you open to friendzoo raster possibly tagging along your activity uninvited.

one of the most obvious tell-tale signs for a raster having nested its way into your system without you knowing is immense slowdowns in very specific locations. you may find yourself unable to load certain folders, or having sudden unnatural spikes in CPU usage that have no other reasonable explanation. this may occur in a few areas for you even, rasters seem very fond of moving around in no particular pattern.

getting to the actual point. in order to catch a raster and place it somewhere it is not causing problems, you can either attempt to find and relocate them manually -- this is easiest if you are already aware of what folder they may be inhabiting, remember to set your file explorer to 'show hidden files' and 'show extensions' (a raster's extension will generally be '.frn') -- or, the more accessible method would be to install (or start) friendzoo, and leave the game open with a sort of 'lure' item placed for a while. rasters, much like real animals perhaps, are programmed to be intrigued by their 'food' items. moreso than they are intrigued by the rest of your operating system, rasters are thankfully easily persuaded through digital snacks. in the simulation, if you leave the door open, the raster can safely make its way into the game by itself and operate as it was intended, with visuals and all.

what can you do with a raster that has been caught? i am unsure at this time. not everyone has time for friendzoo shenanigans after all, and even when inserted back into their intended folder they may still decide to roam again. my suggestion is attempt to contact the previous raster owner, or try to find a new owner to send the rasters to. alternatively, i have noticed that a raster's roaming behavior will stop entirely while they are inside of an archived/compressed folder, but that is more of a temporary solution than a permanent one. rehoming rasters seems like it would be ideal. raster files can not be deleted. hope this helps for now.

[Wilds]

[ABSTRACT_PSYCHOPOMP]:

oh... thank you for writing this up. i haven't tried the game yet but i've been worried about things just like this...

[skinstealer]

[TASTY_TREAT]:

hmm...yeah, this is good info to know...

but...if they're people, and the digital space or whatever is where they live- isn't this the same kind of thing as a person wandering around a city, if a computer or device is connected to a network?

idk! i think if you do look at a computer more like a house, maybe some security measures could be put up- like some kind of locked gate that marks your computer and not open to enter. i think that would be a good solution without putting blame on rasters themselves- after all, this is just the kind of space where they live!

(disclaimer i have not played FZ yet i am just theorycrafting bc this stuff has been on my mind a lot...)

[queenie]

[POEME_ELECTRONIQUE]:
@ABSTRACT_PSYCHOPOMP -- i do not think it is that much to worry about. while rasters act unpredictably and could be considered a form of unwelcome software, they do not actually do any... damage, as far as i have observed. a nuisance perhaps, but they are managable.

@TASTY_TREAT -- even if you do want to think of them as 'people', it is still not exactly proper etiquette to walk onto the property of someone else uninvited. implementing some type of prevention would be ideal, but it does mystify me why this was not considered during development... expecting people to raster-proof their machines after the fact instead of working on the security issues friendzoo clearly has feels like a weird bandaid solution. that is not to say that it could not work, though. i have been looking into what could possibly be done about this throughout the week.

[skinstealer]

[TASTY_TREAT]:

historically and currently, TCPs also spawn in people's homes without invitation, often with no knowledge of the world around them. out of all the species out there we're in the best position to understand that the notion of "property" is not always inherent to like...someone Existing in that same space. from what i can tell, the devs of the game didn't understand that they were working with constructs when they made it, either!

we just have a lot in common with them. i don't know if i'll ever install FZ on my computer because i've got a lot going on, but if a raster wandered into my laptop, i'd try to like. get them to a place where they'd be safe, at least.

[queenie]

[POEME_ELECTRONIQUE]:
no, i am aware - i house a fellow tcp who spawned suddenly, actually... that just does not seem comparable? computer programs do not exactly have the unpredictability that real life has, or at least they shouldn't. rasters supposedly only spawn through the use of the simulation, do they not? so is it far fetched to suggest that they should be kept within safer confimenents of only sticking to their game install instead of spreading uncontrollably accross a network like some kind of malware? with all due respect, it just feels risky to give anyone or anything this kind of unregulated access. that is not going to end well.

[skinstealer]

[TASTY_TREAT]:

...you are aware that rasters have legal recognition as sapient citizens, right?

[gyiyg]

[SLIPPERY_SPINE]:
So, hypothetically, if rasters can travel over the network to other systems, would it be possible for them to retrieve files or information from another system and then bring them back to their "home" system? Just wondering.