The most interesting part of this is that Musk allowed it to happen. Either he genuinely did not realize he had been working with and supporting other foreign actors attempting to destabilize the US, or some X dev is about to get fired/disappear/“fall” out of a window. There’s no way Musk knew these accounts were dishonest foreign astroturfers and permitted this feature go live.

Olympics ends Esports plans

Aww…

with Saudi Arabia

Oh. Nevermind. Carry on, then.

What the actual fuck is this article, lmfao. They act like they’ve cracked the code of what a “gooner” is, and likened it to this almost religious state of being. It’s slang for someone who unapologetically gives their time and energy to one of more targets of their sexual fantasy. That’s it. They’re not trying to ascend to a state of goonvana, or whatever the fuck this article is trying to paint it as. It’s literally just a culturally accepted way of referencing obsession with sexual fantasy.

So fucking weird, dude.

While you are absolutely right, that doesn’t make it engaging to listen to. Perhaps ludonarrative harmony can go too far.

Fantastic response tbh.

It’s a good game, and very unique in what it does, but it’s not the objectively best written masterpiece it gets praise for.

My friend who thinks it is also thinks the same o Shakespeare, which I think explains a lot. I tend to be impressed with works that say more with fewer words rather than say little with very many. If the author could pull his head out of his own ass and get to his points, I think it would be a better game, but I suspect Disco Elysium fans would argue that that would ruin the best part of the game, so I just accept I’m not the target audience.

I don’t think this is about enthusiasts buying less games, though. We’re not talking about the average number of purchases the consumer makes. This is more evidence that there are a lot more casual players out there, who will make their 0-2 large game purchases a year and play their games over a long time. The college guy who literally only buys a couple sports games that they play online with a friend. The burnt out parent that can only make time for their 2 open world adventure games all year. I know a few people in my life who own a Switch, Mario Kart and Animal Crossing, and that will be literally the only two games they load all year. And this is to say nothing of people who strictly play F2P tirles, which apparently are 33% of players.

“US game players purchase 1-2 games a year on average” is not the same thing as “the bottom 60% of purchasers only purchase 1-2 games a year.” This is evidence that, one, the medium is reaching a much more widespread market and, two, the casual market is often more engaged with F2P titles.

I think if we looked at enthusiasts and hobbiests, there would still be a decline in purchases. I don’t think this is evidence that games have become too expensive for most.

I’m not convinced this is worse than being publically traded. Now instead of being beholden to faceless investors who only care about number go up, it’s one specific owner? I mean, considering who it is, it isn’t better. But I struggle to imagine it as worse.

Doesn’t matter, I’ll still either avoid their games or pirate.

My Pixel 6’s battery recently started expanding. I considered getting a new phone, but when I asked the dude at the kiosk what my options are for something that isn’t filled with AI integration, he laughed.

I ordered a new battery online and had my phone fixed.

I’d hardly call $50 games “budget titles.” Is paying $30 for a meal at a steakhouse a budget meal just because that high-class $50 a plate reservation-only place exists?

I agree that price doesn’t equal quality, but I don’t feel so good about trying to normalize AAA $50 games as “budget titles.” And the link to the article is broken, so I am not sure what the greater context and points of the article are.

Okay, this is a cute way to push Linux and all, but Windows 10 reaching end of service really doesn’t mean we have to give up using it. We could easily have years before the end of support causes compatibility issues for the average home user.

God fucking dammit.

Convinience. I’m a gamer first and foremost, and more of a hardware person than a software person at that. I have a friend who games on Linux and I’ve seen the fights he sometimes goes through to make things run. Sometimes it’s great, and it’s awesome, and others… Well, we’ll lose a night or two before finally getting in, or deciding it ultimately won’t work.

I know there are distros to ease these problems, improve capatibility, etc., but when compared to Win10, which I am comfortable on and understand, it’s just easier to stick.

That said, I have my limits, and a forced Microsoft account is a hard no-go for me.

As an aside, if you have any distros that you think would allieviate/solve my issues, feel free to link.

We might be on the last version of Windows that I am willing to run.

By design, the bots have to be where the people are. If the only people left on Twitter are already indoctrinated, it doesn’t help their cause to be over there. That place will spread disinformation all on its own.

And originally created by a university design team with a female design lead, at that.

Even as Portal 2 adds male characters, one is greedy and responsible for all the conflict in the franchise, acting as something of a caricature for masculine stereotypes, and the other’s only defining trait is that he’s an easily corrupted idiot.

Portal is perhaps the best example of, and should be held up as the golden standard of, feminism in gaming.

I think it has less to do with gender politics and more to do with delivery, though.

The writing was just better. They make Joel to be a complicated, sympathetic character, and create a situation in which, even as Joel/the player murders relative innocents, you know he is doing a bad thing from a complicated and genuine love. Then, they take that character and reduce all his love to “he did a bad” and shoot him, make you chase his killer for half a game, and try to make you sympathize with his killer after the fact? And it’s all tied together through this tired, “cycle of violence” trope that another major post-apolcolyptic zombie survival media has already bastardized and beaten to death.

The “fans” who defend Joel as the hero are insane, on that point I can’t agree more. But I think the dislike of Abby and the love of Joel is deeper than “guy good, girl bad.” I’ve seen far fewer complaints (though not zero complaints) about playing the notably more “woke” surrogate lesbian daughter than about playing as Abby.

As an aside, I’ve been thinking recently about how the game would feel if you spend the first half of the game as Abby, chasing her father’s killer, only to have the rug pull later that the killer is Joel. Then, you spend the second half playing as Ellie, dealing with the consequences, while the player is trying to reconcile what just happened. Though it prob would have been harder to sell a game that doesn’t open with Eillie and Joel.

No. They’re whining about Witcher 4 using Ciri as a protagonist because they think she was made ugly.

Attractive women designed solely to be the object of male affection are allowed to be protagonists. When a woman stands on their own as a unique complex individual, they take issue.

I think I disagree about the severity and urgency of some of the things you’re talking about, but I do agree with your sentiment. I restate: the only thing I am criticizing here is the ambiguity of language. It’s the “side quests” that give life flavour, and to give them up to deal with the “real problems” would be choosing to stop living because you’re too worried about surviving.

But still, strange headline choice.

I can’t help but read this headline as, “with climate change and the rise of fascism, the real world is ending, but how is this for a distraction: why can’t RPGs get the sense of urgency right?”

And like, this is genuinely an article and discussion I’m interested in, so this is not a criticism of anyone or anything other than the ambiguity of language.

They already do have power over other people, and they like it that way. What they’re fighting against is anyone who wants to take away from their fake meritocracy where they can continue to control and abuse the lives of the people who are under their thumbs in the workplace.

This is the part that needs to get repeated over, and over again. What we’re fighting against is a group that wants to maintain the status quo because it advantages them. Nothing more, nothing less. If we want to win, we need them to see that cooperation is in their greater interest. Unfortunately, the left-most available political parties have failed to show them that time and time again, so they’re turning the other direction.