No billionaire has clean hands. Think beyond just Steam. If an if an indy developer wants to independently release a game they’ll probably fail. Why? Because if you’re not on Steam or one of the other big services you won’t get noticed. They’re also big enough that no competing services are going to show up. They’re priced out. You’re automatically excluded from the market. Steam, Epic, et al by default are rent extractors first. You want to play as a dev? You’re forced to pay.

It’s rock music. It’s “reefer madness”. Then it’s metal music with satanic messaging when played backwards. Now it’s video games. Same old blame game while never tackling the actual problems of lack of psych care, real societal pressures like financial difficulties, and more.

It’s likely more than half of adults in the US play video games. About 40% of those play some kind of shooter. There are 258 million adults in the US. That’s ~129 million gamers, and ~51 million “shooters”.

Out of 51 million, they think they can link one to a game and condemn the genre?

Whatever. Try again. The only people that think so are the pearl-clutchers and the press.

Someone might knit them a legal team.

I always started out “Imma hide all these cables and make the insides perfect!”

By the time I’d run all the power, fan, IDE, front case, USB, etc. I was like fuckit, I just want to get this thing running. Half-assed jammed the cables out of the way or behind the case ITX backing. Looks like shit, put the case side back on, off I go.

Lots easier now with far fewer cables to be run, cases offer more space behind the mobo for hiding cables and not the 3/4” of space they used to offer.

Almost every major release ever f’s up the server demand. Whether it be downloading the content or players looking to join games.

They know the bitching will happen, buy everyone’s already handed over the cash, so too bad. They budget enough servers to just keep the complaints from lasting too long. Then everyone forgets and finds some other facet of the game to call “unplayable”.

I wasn’t debating that at all.

IMO the vast majority of people that use community mods are pretty thankful and just enjoy them despite any issues the mod has so long as overall it works well. They just play and keep their mouths shut.

There are a few that offer real and constructive criticism.

And the rest are the vocal trolls that just hate on everything. Unfortunately if they aren’t “fucking your mother last night” on whatever game chat you might be on they’re busy trashing on the “unplayable” game they’ve spent 500 hours playing in the last several months or on the forums berating the modders’ efforts. They’re just hateful people and hating on women in general is par for the course, if one dares participating in gaming they’re just another target for their shitty incel behavior.

Bit dated, but at the time Descent II’s Redbook sountrack was pretty good for ‘96.

Ads have ruined the internet. Truly.

My kids got a hand-me-down PS4, and I found out that we had to pay a connection fee to play online on top of my existing ISP internet fee. I had a what-the-actual-fuck moment. You’re forced into the walled garden of the console maker’s store and forced to pay more to play with friends? I built them both PCs and they’ve never really looked back.

I’ve never been a console fan simply for the proprietary nature of the devices along with the walled garden concept (and fuck controllers lol, I’m too used to mouse and keyboard) , but it really cemented my further rejection of the systems when it became apparent that online play was extra $.

A lot of the gaming subs on Reddit suck. Especially /gaming, but not all of them. They’re full of industry shills and “git gud kid” types, and don’t you dare criticize anything the hive mind is softballing like a gaming magazine review.

All good points.

Thanks. That’s actually not too bad an idea. However, I’ll offer that it could lead to critics being silenced. Not necessarily out of nefarious purposes, but people love the downvote train sometimes.

Does this mean “reviews that negatively affect profits” or does in mean genuinely removing irrelevant content?

Well, one is used as a massive government data collection tool, another does the same thing for private corporations and is profitable.

Profit. That’s why many refuse to make it standard.

I tried to spread it out. I don’t know if Ike was pro-civil rights, but he was certainly an advocate of investing in the country. His battleship speech certainly made him seem like an advocate of social programs.

Most republicans prior to Reagan are more like today’s liberals. They did things like make national parks, codify civil rights, and invest in social programs. Today’s liberals are trying to do what those republicans did - save natural lands, implement social programs, and enhance rights for people.

That said, just because a liberal does some things a conservative might approve of doesn’t make them a Republican, nor would the inverse be true.

When a decent gpu is ~$1k alone, then someone wants you to pay more $ for a feature that offers no tangible benefit, why the hell would they want it? I haven’t bought a PC for over 25 years, I build my own and for family and friends. I’m building another next week for family, and AI isn’t even on the radar. If anything, this one is going to be anti-AI and get a Linux dual-boot as well as sticking with Win10, no way am I subjecting family to that Win11 adware.

Maybe controversial opinion:

I’m very much against aim assist in crossplay and online multiplayer explicitly because of Xim and Chronos. Devices like the Xim are pretty much cheats and they exploit aim assist in online play to the detriment of the game. I play a popular online fps game and have thousands of hours of gameplay. I can immediately tell who is using a device that abuses aim assist. It’s blatant and often egregious, it’s essentially an aimbot, but just shy of not quite. It truly ruins gameplay.

I understand the desire for a Xim’s legit capabilities, it offers some assistance to handicapped players, it allows direct use of a joystick in games that don’t allow them, etc… but I think those are the minority. The vast majority use it because “aimbot”. That counts for the console players that use them , but PC players seem to get the most benefit as they’re used to mouse/keyboard setups vs the consoles that may not be. There’s not much need for an actual aimbot/esp/etc. if you have a Xim. Yes, they’re that good.

IMO there should not be aim assist in online gameplay, and yeah, *uck these clowns using chronos/xims. They really screw everything up.

Doesn’t help that plenty of games have stripped down controls that don’t allow you to change keybinds because they’re built for controllers. I don’t know if embracing is the right word.

Edit: I’ll also offer that devices like the Xim look like controllers, but still allow use of mouse and keyboard.

TBF but a parody of what? Sure it has a satirical look and exaggerates aspects of modern society, however we are trying to balance that against the book.

We could even say that the movie is taking shots at Heinlein’s own personal beliefs because arguably Heinlein’s personal politics paint him as a rabid anti-communist, pro-nuclear and -projection of force.

Personally I viewed the commercials and over the top stratified society based using a trope of a somewhat Roman or Spartan militaristic society, but it’s been a long, long time since I read the book to remember enough to actually compare Heinlein’s politics to the book and then the film to that book and modern society.

Sorry if it came across that way, but no…the book is not like the movie. No disagreement there.

I don’t understand why people wouldn’t take it at face value without any further context offered to them beforehand. It’s a campy action film that’s a lot of fun but with just the faintest dusting of authoritarianism that could be easily disregarded as just part of the ambience of the filmmaker’s decisions. It ends on a hopeful scene implying better understanding of the Bugs in order to reach victory.

You’ve got to read the book to get it, but even then that doesn’t really shift the film out of being a Big Action Shooter that’s fun to watch.

“Choosing beggars” is someone who wants more or better than what they were offered. Criticizing the offering for flaws and problems is not.

IOW - I get a free chicken sandwich. I demand better toppings, a free drink and chips on the side. There’s a roast beef available, how come I didn’t get that? That’s a choosing beggar.

The chicken sandwich is undercooked, the bread is dry. That’s what’s happening here. Criticism.

That’s not how things work at all. Just because something’s free means you can’t criticize it? Where is that written?

I still have mine. What an amazing card that was when it came out.

If I remember this study it required a formulated liquid for “feeding” the good bacteria that kept away the bad bacteria. Not sure what came of it.

Edit: not the same. Getting my studies mixed up. This is the one I was thinking of, it’s a mouthwash to get rid of destructive bacteria.

Another uber-wealthy tool like Musk that is insulated from the consequences of anything they do or say while surrounding themselves with sycophants.

Yet somehow the ads usually load first and just fine.

In before the capitalist apologists telling us how bad all the other systems are that nobody suggested we use and how great capitalism is while rejecting any suggestions to how it could be reined in.

There are no haters like fans.

“They changed it too much! This sucks! It’s nothing like the (books, characters, game, storyline) we love!”

“This sucks. It’s just a retread. They didn’t do anything new, or was all fan service.”

Because EA games is weak. It’s all retreads of ancient franchises or bloated games with no risks taken.

I use devs to generically describe the company that produces the game, markets it, and sells it. You are correct.

A game being called “literally unplayable” has been around since devs allowed early/beta access. Starfield is just the latest victim. No Man’s Sky is easily one of the worst, but they over-promised and far, far under-delivered.

Maybe if devs stopped talking their games up, making promises they don’t keep, showing gameplay that never makes it into the release version and then releasing buggy, broken junk they might stop receiving so much justifiable backlash.

I don’t assume making games is easy. However, devs constantly bowing to financial pressures in order to build hype, release unfinished games, and cut features is the real problem.

Public gaming is toxic by default. We’re not talking one person playing with their friend group, we’re talking gaming in the wild. Yeah, there’s gonna be exceptions, but the vast majority is mockery, lashing out, trolling, superiority and the like. I’ve disabled in game chats and voice for more than a decade because I’m sick of the BS.

So it’s not “happening” as a change, this is its normal state.

The real reason behind anti-piracy efforts: They might find out our software sucks without having to buy it to figure that out.

/s. Sorta.

Fair enough, but as far as NMS goes they way over promised what was coming out on release day. They have since really done a good job of cleaning it all up and making a good game, but all they had to do was set realistic expectations rather than the PR nightmare they stirred up.

Like devs are disconnected from the promises they make and gaming in general.

Why?