I had no idea Mr Clean has a choking fetish…

And that’s the thing. Two years ago, I didn’t understand all the hate Epic gets.

Now? I’m viewing it as a temporary free service. I’ll download your free games…but I also know this could all be taken away from me at any moment. Even if they somehow fixed my issue today, at this point, I’d still be hesitant to buy from them over steam. Whereas, if they’d have fixed my issue two years ago, I probably still wouldn’t get the hate they get.

I get the hate they get now though, and they deserve it.

I just remembered I had to do the same thing with Sony, and Nintendo. Nintendo had me verify some games I had bought. Sony was a bit weirder. They asked me which games I had been playing. But it didn’t come off like verification. It sounded like the guy at Sony was bored and lonely. He was just like “Sooooo, what’cha been playin?” And I was like “uhhhhh…I guess Grand Theft Auto?”

I felt bad in saying that my playstation usage had dropped DRAMATICALLY the past 10 years. I barely turn it on.

And then he says “says here you haven’t played in a while. Any other games you’ve played recently?”

Uhhhhh, no?

And thats when I realized he was asking for verification purposes.

So far, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Epic are the only services that won’t let me back into my service. The rest have all had other ways.

Now to be fair, yahoo has a way you can pay them money to have an expert look into things. But I refuse to pay money for some guy in India to tell me I need to log into hotmail and give him the code. Then shut down and take my money without resolve when he finds out I can’t.

I know the passwords. I just can’t log in, because they both want security codes sent to other services I have no access to.

Well…I lost access to my email account assosiated with my Epic Games login.

I emailed them, and they kept refering me back to this automated process that just kept asking me to check an email.

I don’t have access to that email.

So I contacted them, and said I’m not going to buy any games from them, because as far as I know, this account could be taken away at any time, since I can’t access the assosiated email. All they gotta do is say “security check, we sent a code to your email. Use it to login”. If that happens, I’m locked out of my epic games account.

That was 2 years ago. I had the same issue with steam, since steam also used that email account. I forget what steam did to verify, but I remember I had to jump through some hoops. But then they switched my assosiated email.

I actually JUST realized that my tivo account had the same issue. I called them, they didn’t even make me jump hoops. They just said “oh, you have a new email? Yeah yeah, thats fine, it’s switched. Should we change your password? No? Ok. Have a nice day.”

So now it’s 2 years later. Total money spent on Epic? $0.

Total money spent on Steam? Well…I don’t have an exact total, but I figure it’s maybe $1000? Now keep in mind I’m 1 person. How many other people are in my situation who just moved on and forgot about Epic? They don’t fill any niche where they’re needed in the space. It’s not like GOG where it’s DRM free, and they’re the only ones that do that. Epic’s library is probably entirely available on Steam. Yeah, I’ll take your free games while I can still log in, but I’m not paying a dime until my email situation is resolved.

I feel zero sympathy for Epic games, and if they go out of business, oh well.

Canada is lovely nice cozy not hostile this time of year! I mean, it’s a frozen tundra, but you won’t be pulled out of your car and killed by secret police looking for people they don’t like.

I might be part of the problem. I bought a PS5 years ago, thinking GTA6 was close to being released.

Turns out no.

But what I’ve discovered is that with how the gaming industry has gone, I don’t see any need to buy games anymore.

I’m sick of games being an online focused experience, which requires subscription costs.

I’m sick of every game needing a multiple deluxe collectors editions that are the only way to play the full game, but cost $200 each and come with cheap plastic junk “collectables” to justify the cost.

“But you won’t get the super rare coin and lapel pin if you don’t get the collectors edition!”

“Thats fine. Just sell me the full game at $60.”

“The full game requires the collectors edition. But it comes with this lapen pin and rare coin!”

“How many copies of the collectors edition are there?”

“About 2 million.”

“So, not exactly rare, is it?”

Welp. Certainly can’t argue with any of that. I’ve said the same thing myself on many of your points.

Let me get this straight. When you think of the “linux experience”, you think of refridgerators, air fryers, and vacumes. Your words. That’s your mental image of Linux.

While at the same time discrediting the desktop experience as “a tiny specific section of computer hardware”.

Now personally, I think Android SHOULD be counted as Linux. I’ve even asked why there isn’t a Linux distro that’s just Android for the PC. However, whenever I ask that question, instead of anyone answering legitimately, I get told that’s not what Linux is.

And the sad thing is, I think that would BLOSSOM the Linux userbase on PC. The power supply on my PC died a month ago, and before I found a bandaid solution, I was using my phone in dex mode for two weeks. It was a flawed but decent experience. The type of experience that would be a lot better if it were more common. But it’s not. People just don’t use their phones as PC replacements like I did for 2 weeks.

So me reading your reply, it’s obvious to me that everything you’re saying is a strawman arguement. What’s not obvious is if YOU realize how much of a strawmans arguement it is.

Seriously. You used air conditioners to justify numbers of Linux marketshare. Hang on. I gotta do some photo editing. Let me go grab the dehumidifier and run GIMP on it!

Um…when it comes to desktop OS’s, they ARE the top, and always have been.

And even if you remove windows entirely, Apple becomes number one. Not Linux.

Last I checked, the highest Linux as a desktop usershare ever got was something pathetically small like 5%

And the reason for this is Linux developers design their OS as if the user knows what they’re doing.

Windows designs their OS as if the user is clueless.

So users who know how to use their computer, use Linux. And idiots use Windows. Well it turns out the world is full of idiots.

I tried explaining how to install a program in terminal to someone who’s never touched linux.

“sudo apt install program”

And her response was “ooooh, no no no no no! That’s too much for all that! Ain’t nobody got time fo’ all dat!”

I have no idea which OS she’s using these days. Haven’t talked to her in years.

But if I had to bet my life savings, I’d bet she’s still never touched Linux.

I’ve said it a million times. The year of linux will come 5 years AFTER a distro is released which not only holds the users hand, but handcuffs it. Does EVERYTHING for the user, so the user never ever ever ever has to even know how to do anything. Update a driver? They don’t even know how to do it in windows! You think they’re going to try their hand at updating kernals and such in Linux?

When I was 5 years old, I used to go to a bakery. And it was locally owned.

I’d go in, and I’d buy a brownie. And I’d do my moms shopping. Just lite stuff. Gallon of milk. Carton of cigerettes. Loaf of bread. Sometimes pancake mix. Then I’d buy a brownie from the bakery.

Every Saturday morning.

This went on for years. Until one day, I came in, clearly something wrong. I bought all my moms groceries. I’m 15 by this point. But I didn’t get my brownie. And so when Abeer (shop owners name) put my brownie on the counter, I said no. She could already tell something was wrong before the brownie rejection. But now she had to ask. I said “I don’t want a brownie today”.

She said “I’ll give you one. It’s ok if you don’t pay this week.”

I said “No. It’s not about money. I don’t want a brownie.”

She asked “Whats wrong?”

I said “Papa died…” and I burst into tears. Papa was my grandfather. He had died the night before. I just wanted to get in, and get out. Without talking really. But when she heard Papa died, she rushed around the counter and hugged me.

Here’s a woman who I’d grown up with. Every weekend talking for 30-60 minutes. She was the shopkeep, yes, but she was also a close family friend.

I was in this trance/haze of doing what I need to do, because I need to, but my mind was elsewhere. I was just trying to do my moms shopping, and get home in 5 minutes so I could curl back up in bed. Not to sleep, but just to try not to remember that I exist.

So when she ran around the counter to hug me, I didn’t even know what was happening. I thought she was still behind the counter, and now suddenly she’s hugging me.

I’m 42 now, but I cannot imagine kids today being able to understand the core concept of old school communities. They’ve been ripped out and replaced by walmart and other heartless souless corporations.

Can you imagine a 6 year old leaving his house, walking 10 minutes, entering walmart, and spending 30 minutes talking to the workers, telling them about the week at school? Showing her your TMNT toys you got for your birthday? Telling them various things about your life?

I cannot imagine that, but that was how the whole neighborhood was growing up. Every store a small community shop. Every adult knew every kid. Every kid knew every kid.

One time I was walking home and it started raining. So I just went onto the doorstep of the first house I saw that I knew a kid lived at. I’m just standing on the porch, waiting for it to stop raining. Suddenly Andys mom opens the door. She says “Andys not here right now. He’s over at James house.”

I said “Oh, ok. I’m just using the porch as shelter until it clears.”

And thats when Andys mom drove me home. Thats just how it was. A whole community looking out for the whole community.

Now anytime I go back to my old neighborhood, I don’t recognize it. C-Town pizza is gone. Obviously the video rental stores are gone. One time I even went and knocked on the houses of the kids I knew. Wondering if anyone I used to know inherited their parents old houses. Nope. I had a woman yell at me for disturbing her time. Wasn’t anyone I used to know.

But just looking around, I could tell the street layout may be the same, but this wasn’t a community. This was an isolated set of houses.

And now I’m sad. Because I miss those days. I miss the idea of everyone caring about everyone. I miss the wholesome nature of a new family moving in, and everyone just bombarding them with welcoming arms. I miss the idea of just going to my friends house, and walking in, Kramer style (minus the racism).

Now life is just cold and isolated.

Enshitification has been a thing since the 1940s. I remember in the 80s my grandma saying she used to get pretzels from the corner store. Big soft gooey chewey pretzels.

Now, in the 80s, I could only get a factory made crunchy pretzel rod.

And today? Unless you’re buying a whole bag, you can’t get pretzels at all.

I’d be a better fit for the role. I’ve never played XBox, but neither has she, and I’ve been a gamer since 1985.

I’d LOVE to get in there, and do something with Rare.

Just commenting so I can find this video when I get home from work.

Sounds interesting.

Shoo! Shoo away from my garden, bird!!! SHOO!

I have a different conspiracy theory.

I think they’re planning on the reduced human population that’s already underway in America.

See, the boomer generation at it’s peak was bigger than Gen-X, the millenials, and Gen-Z combined. But, people die. And the youngest boomers are 70 years old.

The next 30 years will see a massive population collapse, and we’ve already entered the collapse of the work force of that generation.

Which means for the next 30 years, everybody else is paying for the boomers social security. But when it comes time for our time on retirement, we’re not going to have the same support they did. Boomers will be dead, Gen Z is statistically having less kids (and I get why, but it still means less social security income).

So their plan is to regulate all the work to AI, and take all the profits. The problem is, it’s a really stupid plan. It doesn’t matter how advanced AI is. It will never fully replace humans. Which means the concept of work will always need to exist. And the end result is, I think they’re preparing to figure out how to get AI to do enough of the jobs, and then enslave the people to do the rest.

So that middle management can justify their existence!

Out of all the artists/bands, your image has Tessa Violet. Which is insane to me, because I can remember watching her like 15 years ago on a show called =3 with Ray William Johnson. Which was essentially a comedy show that brought you 3 viral videos, and then RWJ would try to be funny over them. Nobody watched =3 for RWJ, and nobody watched Americas Funniest Home Videos for Bob Sagat. We watched both shows for the same reason. To watch idiots get hit in the nuts.

Then one episode, a 15 year old Tessa Violet, then known as Meekakitty, shows up and starts the episode by saying “Betcha didn’t think you’d see ME here!”

And I’m like “BITCH I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!”

But then RWJ tried making music, and she was in his videos. Then she started making music. And I never heard from either of them again because both of their music is terrible.

Tessa is like accoustic guitars, and whiney crying lyrics. And RWJ, despite being close to 25 at the time wrote novelty comedy songs all based around the idea of having sex with your mom. As if written for an exclusively 14 year old boy audience.

Now I see this, and I’m like “eh? She’s STILL making music???”

Wouldn’t the originals just be either NES or SNES roms? If you want those, they’ve been available for decades on various websites.

Am I the only one who finds this story laughable? As a mostly console gamer, if feels like Nintendo releases games for $70, and they NEVER drop in price.

If you can find a walmart that somehow still has PS2 and gamecube games, the PS2 game will probably be some sports game, and it’s been reduced to $0.10.

The Gamecube game will be some kirby game, and still 2002 MSRP of $60.

Meanwhile over on steam, they’re like:

"Ok, this is a AAA game, came out in 2025, MSRP is $60, but we’re running a sale to pick it up for $5.

Also, here’s a shitton of free games. Go nuts."

You were a teen in the late PS2 days, but still got tricked by nude samus??? I’m so confused by your timeline. I was a kid in the NES era, but still heard the samus stuff in the 80s. By 1990 we knew it was BS.

I was in my 20s by PS2 late stage.

Unless you wanted some…hot coffee.

Oh come on! I live in the united states, and…

…uhhh…

looks around

…uuuuuhhhhhhhh…

…yeah, ok. Fair enough.

Fun fact, Bandcamp was started after this one time, at band camp…someone made a mix tape called “Quickflip Tricks Mix '96”

Can it work on these android retro handhelds?

And you didn’t invite me???

The irony of using Steve Harvey of all people to make your point…

You got me like oooOOOoooo!!!

Found the guy whos 6 year old somehow spent $900 on their credit card in minecraft

Maybe I’m stupid, but, I don’t see system requirements. I see it’s linux compatible. I have a retroid flip 2, the snapdragon 865 version, with rocknix. So it’s running native linux. Think that could handle your game? I think it has 8gb of ram.

That’s just saying overall revenue is up, but that includes digital sales like subscriptions and mobile storefront sales.

While physical sales are down, the digital sales make up for the loss to the point of actually being a 1% gain.

Why would any of that affect physical software? Does steam and gog sell cartridges or discs that I’m unaware of?

Either of the two remaining Batman games, please!

I never got around to playing the sequal. I get like 20 minutes of freetime a week these days.

Nah. This is a chucklefish game. Best to just give chucklefish all of the $15 they charge. They’re worth it.

Also, check out wargroove!

I wish my grandmother were still alive. She’d be the type to go down there and play along with me.

“Hi, I’d like to trade in my 103 year old grandmother for $5.”

And then we both poker face our way through a gamestop employees reactions.

FINALLY a good parent!

Please have more babies!

a game for everyone is a game for no one

Not true. Pong is AMAZING!

See, there’s this square dot, and these two paddles…oh, I won’t spoil the plot! Just play it!

I feel out of touch. The only one I saw nominated for anything that I’ve played was no mans sky.

The only other one that I haven’t played but heard of, was that silksong game.

The rest? No clue what these games are. But I see everyone saying this was a great year for games.

You want someone to test your games for ways to break it? I know just the guy!

“Hey there, it’s Josh. Today we’re checking out The Milgram Experiment. Thank you devs for the complimentary game code. This is a horror/moral choice simulator. And we all know how trustworthy MY morals and choices are! But enough about that, it’s time for NEW GAME!!!”

20 minutes later

“Well, everything’s on fire. Everyone’s dead. And the frame rate is a staggering 3 frames per year! So that seems like a great place to call it a day. I hope you had fun, I know I did, and I’d like to thank the devs for this copy of their broken game. I’ll see ya next time!”

…oops. Yes I did.