Because gaming companies are all greedy fucks. They aren’t going to give a fuck about people’s signatures lmao. You have to not buy the game in the millions. Not sign a website, and still buy the games anyways
I assume by “gaming companies” you mean game publishers. No they won’t care, in fact this initiative is not meant for them. It is meant for EU lawmakers, which after a certain signature number threshold are required to look at the issue. Once a protection is written into law, these same companies have to, of course, comply with it, or face whatever consequences were prepared for this case (fines, probably).
This is not a change.org petition. This is a European initiative. Meaning if this gets the necessary number of signatures this could get brought forth to the European Parliament, where laws on the subject can get negotiated over.
It’s a formal, direct democracy style legal process in the EU, to get the relevant legal authorities to review and revise the laws that currently allow gaming companies to be greedy fucks.
A similar concept exists in many US states amd cities:
If enough signatures can be gathered in a defined amount of time, then the proposed legal concept that has been directly endorsed by enough citizens then is automatically either pushed to the legislators and courts to review, or to be included for broader democratic voting up or down on by the next local election.
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You apparently have no idea that initiatives and petitons can be more than just a legally non binding, essentially useless virtue signals on some random website.
In many, many parts of the world, something like an initiative serves as a way for the citizens of an area to bypass their own representatives and force them to directly engage with an issue.
If this initiative crosses the threshold, it stands s good chance at reforming the laws around games as a consumer product, from a consumer rights point of view.
Governments do actually have the ability to restrain and modify the actions and practices of corporations, by altering the laws that define what they are and are not allowed to do.
Further, because the EU has so many people, is such a large market for games… there is a good chance that if the EU reforms what game companies are allowed to do within the EU… well, developing an entirely different game for the EU and the US, totally different in the underlying internal design, more than just translstion/localization… from a business POV, it may end up making more financial sense to not essentially develop two games at once, and instead just develop a single, global game, that is compliant with with EU laws.
Go look into how digital privacy laws being different between the EU and US and other parts of the world are currently, right now, forcing many US based tech firms to alter their practices within the EU, and sometimes even in the US and elsewhere, due to the propagation effect of a huge market altering its laws.
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Another example of something like this is firearms in the US: California, and now several other US states, have passed laws stating that for certain kinds of guns, a magazine can hold no more than 10 rounds.
Prior to this, when such laws did not exist… not many firearm companies made and sold guns with only 10 round mags. Now, many of them actually do.
This has also occured at a Federal level with barrel length restrictions: Basically, you cannot sell a civillian a short barelled rifle, something that has a barrel less than 16 inches in length, or a total butt stock to tip of barrel length less than 26 inchds.
Before those laws were passed… you could buy those, companies could sell those.
But because a compact, higher powered rifle is the easiest thing to use in a confined space, for something like a school shooting… well, now all the guns have to be at least a bit bigger, so that they’re more difficult to use in a ‘moving from room to hallway to room’ kind of scenario.
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Laws passed by governments can alter industry practices, thats the entire concept of regulation.
Laws and legal review processes can be formally initiated within a government by formal, legal, citizens initiatives, that’s the entire point of them.
All I can say is you’re missing out… I can see that it’s a type of game that may not be for everybody, but it is honestly probably the most unusual game I have ever played in my life and I’m enjoying it a lot. I almost did the same as you did, I beat Leshy one time and then continued messing around with it sort of out of curiosity… and then the whole actual fuckin’ game started.
It just made me pick a file from my hard drive, made me a card based on it, and then told me if I let that card die, it’s going to delete that file. This game is nuts man.
As I understand it all of daniel mullins’ games have layers like inscryption, to put it mildly. I’d check them out when you finish inscryption if you’ve enjoyed it
Americans often incorrectly ascribe degrees to “unique.” At this point it’s so baked into all of their dialects that it’s hard for me to keep calling it wrong.
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unique definition 3 includes examples like “very unique” and “fairly unique.” So it’s incorrect only if you assume that American usage is wrong and British usage is right, I guess. According to the Cambridge Dictionary I think you are right about how it’s used in British English.
And I still don’t get what is the value proposition for the Junk Store when Heroic exists, seems like it allows for less tinkering and I don’t see it as a positive thing considering how janky the Linux experience can still be at times
I guess they’re trying to make it more integrated and covering every source they can, but something about taking an open source project and turning it into a subscription service to play the games you already bought on the computer you already bought is… not to my taste
Thanks for remembering! I kinda liked how they just threw you into Firebreak. I get why some gamers were confused, but I love it when a developer shies away from the hand-holding and over-explaining we all get these days. It’s got so much that it needs, really is a bit bare…but still, I’m enjoying it!!! And I’m glad you are too, the game doesn’t seen to have made much of a splash
Absolutely! I hope it can find an audience soon; it’s not perfect, but I love it so much.
I didn’t mind the slow ramp-up in jobs, but I’m guessing that the change to more easily unlock level 3 jobs can help more people see what makes it special (Hot Fix, in particular, is just spectacular in level 3). And I love a game that, as the devs said well before release, doesn’t want to hold you hostage and keep you playing indefinitely. In some ways, it feels like it was designed twenty years ago, and for me? That’s a great thing.
Solo play isn’t too rough, then? Some jobs have been incredibly hectic with just two, so I’m curious about whether or not it works alone.
Great Article AS always! There is probably one big new you missed. Mario Kart 64 got a Nativ PC Port including stable fps, higher resolut and a map editor.
Yeah, I’d travelled to Asia, had a bunch of jobs, and left university by then. Time flies eh.
Edit - probably my age is why I can’t abide games with the pixelated retro style graphics. Having grown up with that stuff I have no desire to return to the days of terrible blocky graphics. Though it’s nice if it enables younger ppl to enjoy older games.
I’m curious what you think of games like Dead Cells, Graveyard Keeper, Eastward, Stardew, Octopath Traveler, Sea of Stars?!
Are they just not something you’d enjoy because it reminds you of what gaming used to be? I like to think of it, in some cases at least, as a way independent developers can make games without having to be versed in a whole other world of 3D animation which might be a bridge too far. But, then again, I’m very much in the category of:
So, i started gaming as a kid on the Sinclair spectrum. Though I had a Tandy trs80 before that and a zx81, iirc they both had 1k ram so weren’t really able to do much other than pong. The spectrum, though, had 48k, the BBC b had 32, and they could load and save files to a cassette tape. You could do so much more with them, and on the BBC at least you could code both basic and assembly. Anyway, I really enjoyed gaming on both of them - the graphics were either 8 bit ASCII or basic line drawing, but that didn’t detract from the enjoyment. And I didn’t know that a better visual experience would ever be possible, I was just delighted that games existed.
Later on, I got more into coding and later still into stuff that wasn’t computer related. I had a PS2 for a while but didn’t use it much. Fairly recently I picked up a steam deck and have started playing games again, I’ve got a few decades worth of stuff that I missed - played bioshock for the first time a few months ago! I’m entranced by how much the experience has broadened and deepened from those early platformers on the spectrum - it’s incredible progress.
But I don’t get a lot of screen time so I’m cherry picking - a lot of my wishlist comes from recommendations on here actually.
And yeah, I’ve noticed that some of those recommendations are for games with retro style graphics. I understand that it’s maybe easier for smaller developers - but developers can surely manage 2D without that blocky 8bit look, I think they choose not to and I think it’s a fashion choice. Same goes for sound. I guess if you live long enough, your childhood stuff really does become cool again.
I’ve not played any of the games you mentioned - maybe I’m missing out, but there’s plenty of stuff I find visually pleasing, I’m unlikely ever to run out.
Otherwise, though, I’m happy - albeit slightly perplexed - to see that the pixelated look is somewhat en vogue. Maybe it’ll help the games I so enjoyed as a kid to survive and even find new audiences. It’s just not my thing, not anymore. Personally, I enjoyed games like that when they were all that was available but now my eyes have been opened, I’ve seen the future, and have no desire to go back to my pixelated past!
Oh man if nothing else give Stardew Valley an hour of your screen time. One of the absolute best casual and relaxing gaming experiences. You can feel the love of the developer in every aspect of the game. If you regret it come find me and I will publicly apologize! (Though find me quickly as lemm.ee is dying next week)
I was worried Subnautica 2 would be just a sloppy cashgrab, but seeing that dev-vlog with the awkward devs describing their work actually gave me hope that they’re actually putting some soul in this game.
Why would you pay for Microsoft Word? It’s so strange to subscribe to a word processor. I feel like I’ve landed on an alien planet and these people just are the type of creatures that you can’t see their faces because their faces are stuck up their own assholes. There is literally a free and open source software that just works the same as Word. That is free. And it ain’t going nowhere because it has European backing now. Because now the Europeans don’t trust Microsoft. Thank you spaghetti monster. It’s like you’re fucking up. You’re doing it wrong. Delete the virus that is called Microsoft.
I’ve been playing for about two months now, after a multi-year break from the game. Just casual, not competitive (although Stadium is classified as competitive). It’s great.
Two bad things for me. Flex Queue means Tank, which sucks, because I’d like to play all roles, but now have to just queue DPS/Heal. Also, the matchmaker is shit, so most games are relatively one-sided (Quick Play and Stadium).
Nintendo is just really good at making water i guess.
The first game that really wowed me with its water was Wave Race 64, so this tracks. I first noticed that home consoles were getting better graphics than arcades when I saw WaveRunner’s water compared to Wave Race. It was really a “writing on the wall” moment for seeing the end of the arcade.
Sea of Thieves is a yes, basically any game i play with water goes on it. Subnautica i have played but it was on a cheap laptop with a duo core CPU and 6 GB of RAM so… i didn’t but it on there out of courtesy to give it a fair shot. I want to pick it up again on Steam though to give it a try. I’m not to invested in the lore though so i’m probably going to hold off until the sequel too buy it so i can play with friends
Water Temple is one of my favorites, though i’m used to the 3DS version with the QoL changes so that probably helps. I do get why it can be annoying though
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