That standard would be an excellent first step. Honestly I think advertising specifically targeted towards kids should be banned in general though.

But you had something new to look forward to when you were older, I hope?

Not one that required a subscription to operate, but I’ve heard those are out there too.

I guess I’m not surprised enshittification of physical objects is becoming more of a trend than an oddity, but it’s still happening sooner than I expected. :/

You could almost call it… a mouse trap
(I’ll show myself out…)

Per hour? It’s all a blur to me at this point.

Thanks for the link. Not a bad distraction! I hope there’s a large catalog in case I want to treat it like the random Stumble button of yore (which I must have hit hundreds of times at least).

StumbleUpon was the best. I do miss it.

How about when they inevitably share user data with advertisers (assuming that isn’t the plan from the start)?

On top of making sure everyone is housed, healthy, and fed, nuclear fusion energy instead of nuclear fission would be really, really nice.

It’s not just related to gaming. There’s a lot of material out there about the effects of consumer culture on children, in case you’re interested.

Since a lot of it is marketed to kids, I’d bet it’s more than 1/10 who have bought into useless microtransactions (with or without parental consent).

Thanks, I’ll have a look!

So I’m a “patient gamer.” Neat, I didn’t know there was a name for it.

In the 2000s, before Steam or other online stores were a thing, and while I still bothered with a console, I was hitting up used game sections at various local stores. Main difference between that era and now to me is that there’s a better selection online, and prices are indeed cheaper if you don’t care about playing AAA games. I don’t understand how anybody “struggle[s] to find new games” as the article claims.

I mean he’s probably right, but he’s also CEO of a company that was just successfully sued for privacy violations and exploiting kids.

Unfortunately, I was just coming back to comment this myself, and link this: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/09/unity-attempt-to-clarify-new-install-fees-as-developers-revolt/

If so, at least anyone whose project was completed beforehand can be grandfathered out of the new arrangement.

That really sucks for new projects, though. A few months is not going to be enough time for a lot of projects out there.

WTF. Luckily it isn’t an issue for me right now, but I guess I won’t be using Unity in future like I once thought I might.

I couldn’t find it in the article, but I assume this is only going forward and not somehow retroactive? Lots of amazing indie titles I’ve played run on Unity.

Well that’s disgusting. It reminds me of a vid I saw a while back about the evolution of BS marketing tactics in games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g16heGLKlTA

I’m lucky I get to (mostly) avoid this kind of thing as someone with a preference for the types of games smaller indie producers are more likely to make, but I still care what’s happening in the rest of the industry.