There are lots of finger-pointing here. Funko said the takedown was done by their partner, BrandShield. BrandShield said it was a URL-specific (or is it subdomain?) takedown, not the whole domain. The registrar, Iwantmyname, responded said takedown by taking down the WHOLE domain.
I think Funko shouldn’t have trusted AI to do legal-related stuff. BrandShield is a stupid idea born from the AI-hype. It’s stupid and shouldn’t have existed. Iwantmyname is just as incompetent if not more–they haven’t even released any public statement about this. Their customer support are also slow to response apparently.
Itch.io should move domain registrar. Funko should stop using BrandShield, it only damages their brand more.
Also what’s up with Funko calling someone’s mom lol. that’s stupid
I also think that this is why AI won’t replace our jobs. I’ve seen many instances where technologies replaces jobs, but this ain’t it
I think Iwantmyname may be the worst player in this story.
Everyone else kind of did what they were expected to do:
Itch provides a platform for user generated content and took down some questionable content when asked.
Funko is an IP based toy company and asked a tech company to protect their IP online
BrandShield is a fucking cancer of a service that acted aggressively to protect its client’s interests
But:
Iwantmyname is meant to provide a domain name registration service, it’s a cutthroat industry where often times customer service is viewed as an unnecessary cost, but itch was their client and they should have been helping itch respond to the notice in a manner that allowed it to continue to exist. Instead they were willing to shut it down without any real dialog.
The rest might be decent business partners if you are looking for their kind of service but Iwantmyname isn’t to be trusted.
Agree, though I would not use the word “decent” about BrandShield or Funko. Being harmfully lazy and immoral legally and according to contract is still harmfully lazy and immoral.
While the registrar should have made more to understand the situation before acting, it’s important to keep in mind that according to itch.io, the request was not a DMCA takedown but an accusation of “fraud and fishing”. There’s probably a very large legal exposure for a registrar to let criminal website use their service if they are made aware of it, so reducing their liability is probably their highest priority.
BrandShield is inexcusable for using such a claim as a first step.
Also: brand shield says they only wanted the url gone but you don’t get that when talking to the registrar. Registrar are all or nothing, so clearly they knew they were doing this
The question is are they really that incompetent, or are they really that malicious? Add in mislabeling the report as fraud instead of infringement, I lean towards them being malicious, but I guess that could also be gross incompetence. Either way, Brandshield looks terrible.
The Idea to use AI to detect possible copyright infringements isnt even that bad. Its gets bad when you trust the AI to be able to tell things apart. If the alerts from the AI aren’t reviewed by humans it is doomed to fail.
Why are they hosting their code on Github? Switch to Codeberg or maybe self host. And yes I know Github has the most users but they’re dealing with something radioactive.
Codeberg can suffer from the same DMCA requests but at least is not managed by Microsoft. To really avoid(or ignore) DMCAs you need to self-host/use a vps for your own version control tool like Forgejo/GitLab or use a decentralized one like Radicle.
Game preservation is dying because of DRM. You want games you can still play in 10 years, pirate that sht and donate to those keeping up the good art of game cracking. It’s either that or buying remakes a decade later that are just thinly reskinned. I can live with sht like denuvo since newer games just remove it after a year and then I can buy it. Storefronts like uplay or egs that are dependent on a malignant profit only entity are at best mid-term rentals and at worst spyware you have to pay for the privilege to use.
Furthermore, if you don’t want to pirate: Buy your games on GoG. They are DRM free and you don’t need the launcher to play (GoG Galaxy is amazing though btw)
From what I gather, there is a real fear in develper spaces that executives will take the wrong lessons from BG3. They will want the same scope, choice, narrative, & mechanics but through crunch, shutting down smaller projects, & homogenized visual & narrative focus. IE all the shiny bits without the time, work culture, & creativity that came with creating BE3. It isn’t developers just being pissy this is their way of trying to stop their idiot boss from ruining their current project or making massive projects without enough time or staff.
So the answer is for the ones who make nice things because of a nice system they have to just stop because the other crabs can’t get out of the bucket. Maybe their beef should be with their idiot boss, not with the guys who do the work.
Whatever happened to companies learning from other’s successes instead of trying to keep others down?
The above post isn’t saying that Larian or other devs shouldn’t make games like BG3. It’s saying that we shouldn’t expect the massive amount of content and options in BG3 for every game
My bad, I have interpreted it as apologetic for the people yelling at Larian for ‘ruining it’ for everyone.
I agree that we should not expect this sort of quality from everything, after all Gauss’ curve applies universally and this is quite far from the mean as I see it. We would just maybe like… less shite.
But it’s not like Larian are the first to raise the bar. I remember the days when Blizzard was an awesome company. Then I remember Bethesda being awesome. Now it’s Larian on the spotlight. I may not have followed the news back when the others were good, but I don’t remember such attitudes around as mentioned in the original post, to basically discredit instead of leaving it alone.
I mean, we didn’t have nearly as much social media back then and a 24/7 news cycle that causes random tweets to be blown up into IGN articles. I think the initial tweet was just a random thought that got spun way out of proportion
It isn’t developers just being pissy this is their way of trying to stop their idiot boss from ruining their current project or making massive projects without enough time or staff.
Yeah, to the OP in the posted tweet... I did put a lot of thought into it. If a game that's just $60 can do this, then all new games are measured against it. Go compete. If your business model is outdated, convince your investors to change or be downgraded to B tier game dev.
Don't come me, the consumer, complaining about your poor ability to hedge business markets. You saw BG3 in early access for 3 years, you knew it was coming.
Technically an original source code was adopted to SNES, even including some (most?) glitches, so I’d say it’s more like a port or remaster than remake, even though graphics and audio were remade.
I played and enjoyed both of them, shutting down the first one instead of giving it offline functionality really pissed me off and was the final straw for me with Ubi. It had a fully offline playable story, NPC vehicles to race etc. and the game would’ve been preserved forever.
Instead we got the crew 2, always online AAA signature garbage.
The time between your purchase and date the game was discounted isn’t listed but most refunds need to be claimed within 2 months of purchase (Valve’s refund policy says within 2 weeks but that they’ll review requests outside that time period). So maybe if you buy a game and next month it’s on sale you could get the sale price?
The “review outside the 2 week period” is typically for when games are updated to no longer be playable. For example, when Helldivers 2 had the PSN account requirement, players who bought the game more than 2 weeks prior could get refunds.
Yup, in steam support you can say you have a problem with a game and one of the options is “it is now available for cheaper” and they’ll give you the difference if you bought it just before a sale.
This is a big reason why inceldom has risen imo. Not because of the content, but because of groups of men all reinforcing this behavior.
Now, I won’t lie, roleplay or imagination is one thing, but going online and normalizing this behavior in public is a very very different. Thing, and changes and normalizes that it’s okay to do around real women. Thoughts and behaviors change, and then they wonder why real actual women want nothing to do with them.
In essence, hey if impregnation is your kink, you do you. You talk that way in public? Pretty weird bro.
I haven’t seen it nearly this bad until this year. This is the worst year I’ve ever seen for it, and Hoyo games are by far the worst
hey if impregnation is your kink, you do you
It seems like it’s worse than that. I’ve seen people making extremely inappropriate comments about young characters. For example in Zenless Zone Zero subreddit, there are people that post pictures of the young characters that look like children, Piper and a few others that I don’t recall off the top of my head. But they are half naked and fan art of them in extremely suggestive positions. Borderline pedophilia but it’s a made up fictional character so they claim it doesn’t count and it’s perfectly fine. Such a strange view on reality
Not to disagree with anything you’re saying, but I hate the phrase “borderline pedophillia.” Either they’re sexualizing children or not. It’s like saying “non-consensual sex.” There’s no such thing. It’s rape or consensual sex.
That’s mostly down to a legal thing if I remember? And last time I read about it, related to a non-english language and in that case I have fuck all Idea how to judge whether splitting rape into two words for it makes sense or not. Sounds wrong to me, but I’m not someone to judge that.
I hate the phrase “borderline pedophillia.” Either they’re sexualizing children or not.
They hide behind the fact that character age isn’t expressly stated anywhere, so it’s technically not pedo behavior since it’s unknown what age it is. But me personally, I think they’re underage.
Example from Zenless subreddit. Piper is a character that looks like she’s anywhere from 10 to 15 years of age, and people are posting her half naked.
Here’s another post with a very one-sided discussion about NSFW art for characters who are clearly minors, in which the community basically downvotes anyone who tries to voice their opinion that creating erotica and other NSFW art for minors and adolescents is wrong. Truly disgusting behavior, and I’m in disbelief that there’s a gaming community out there today like this…
This is a dimension of the conversation I wish was talked about more. By linking strict norms to behavior in public, we’re telling petite women of the age of majority that don’t have curves that they can’t ever be sexually attractive because it’s extremely immoral and taboo. It’s especially a problem for trans women who can’t afford/don’t want breast augmentation surgery or otherwise can’t develop biological markers that we code as adult. Being told only pedophiles will be attracted to you is harmful to everyone involved.
The problem is we’re linking it to appearances instead of maturity.
The problem with sexual relationships between adults and minors is two fold. First, the minor in question hasn’t had time to fully develop the emotional intelligence to healthily and safely engage in a sexual relationship. Second, there is an innate power differential between a minor and an adult: usually the adult has means of supporting themselves, something akin to solidified social supports and experience, education and knowledge necessary to live without the day-to-day support of others. You put these together, and you have a relationship that, even with the absolute best of intentions, becomes inherently abusive. The adult holds all the power in the relationship, and the minor is left with no choice but to worship the ground they walk on, and worse, they have not developed the emotional intelligence to identify it.
The problem with these 2000 year old loli’s is not their body; the problem is that they’re often child-coded. They act like children. They do things that highlights their lack of knowledge and inexperience. What is often played off as a cute girl anime trope is in reality an indication that this is someone who you can conquer, dominate, and hold power over in a sexual relationship, and you can feel “good” about doing so, because you’re, with the best of intentions, just helping them learn through your loving relationship. So what if you’re fucking her while you do so. (/s on that last sentence just in case)
There is nothing wrong with finding petite women attractive. 30 year olds who look like teenagers are not a problem. Hell, as long as we’re on the topic, I’ll shock most people by arguing that admitting that a 16 year old has developed into an attractive and desirable person isn’t even a problem, as long as you’re doing so from a position of respect rather than intent. The issue is neglecting to recognize the power differential between you and that 16 year old, and convincing yourself that it’s okay to engage in romantic and sexual acts with them while uttering deranged statements like “they’re very mature for their age” or “I’m helping them learn and grow so it’s okay”.
Child coded characters are a problem, and hiding the magic number that supposidly discerns whether or not they’re fuckable doesn’t suddenly make things okay.
By the way, imagine how Piper Perry would look if she was drawn as anime character. Would you consider that extreme lolicon? She’s almost 30 y/o and that is absolutely legal even in real porn.
I haven’t seen it nearly this bad until this year. This is the worst year I’ve ever seen for it, and Hoyo games are by far the worst
Congrats for lasting this far. I quit the anime world years ago when it became clear that that shit was becoming the norm, and 95% of products specifically catered to that demographic.
This, by far, was the biggest factor for me quitting anime, but also, it hasn’t evolved or changed at all since the 2000s. It’s all the same tired tropes and stereotypes. Throw in a few dashes of misogyny and bam, top anime apparently.
There IS a difference between reality and fantasy. We see it all the time.
There is an actual fetish for consesual non consent aka rape fantasy/roleplay. If we allow that people routinely engage in fake rape, then why are you surprised if anything else is sexualized. People are weird.
But is it not just as disturbing to you when people glorify violence and gore such as the Saw franchise?
I do not understand the attraction to these things either, but I dont think its healthy to pretend that reality and fantasy cant be separated.
and that’s the real issue I see, is that in inceldom, the line between fantasy and reality is so blurred that they don’t understand the social norms. If r*pe kink is your thing, and your partner and you like to do it, I think that’s fine. personally I don’t like it, but it’s you in your private home and it’s your thing, I’m not going to be the one to say not to.
The key though is that there’s a hard line between fantasy and reality, and if you start thinking that real, live women want that, that 's a huge red line you crossed, and same with most other things.
Idk, like you said people are weird, and we desperately try to fit them into boxes, and when it comes to sex that’s nearly impossible. The key is knowing that what you’re into at home is very different than what you do to real people. I’m rambling a bit, but consent is really the thing. Real people need to consent, unlike online fantasies.
Not because of the content, but because of groups of men all reinforcing this behavior.
I genuinely know more women than men that act like this. I can’t say you’re entirely wrong about the problems with normalizing behaviour and the like, but simplifying it to “men are disgusting and know nothing of 'real, actual women” when real, actual women are sometimes equally disgusting is, well concerning.
This particular brand of behaviour is usually about rejection of social norms far more than it is ever about the objectification of women. People who have been rejected by society like to take back the power by rejecting the norms of that society.
Girls are nerds too. They won’t admit it if you make it dangerous to do so. Like say, gatekeeping, calling them not true fans, pretending they don’t exist and leaving passive aggressive remarks when someone shares a story involving one.
At least for me, I have a gaming PC. If I need to dock it, I’ll just switch computers. Though if it’s your only gaming PC then it could probably be more powerful.
Yeah, I’m in the same boat personally but there have been occasions where something is being played on the deck and then the TV becomes available, leaving a moment of “is it worth it to quickly switch over and eat the performance hit?”
It’s far from a deal breaker, but something has to be the worst aspect.
The steam deck rode the balance point between cost, heat, and power extremely well, in my opinion. It was cheap enough to justify the cost. Its battery lasts a respectable amount of time, and it’s computing power was enough.
I can see how it could have been improved much, given the tech and use limitations.
Plus I am sure someone will bring up how with x86 you can play some game no one has heard of/extremely old, but realistically switch is the only actual multiplayer console left. I gave away my xbox s because literally the only game that I could multiplayer was an old xbox 360 racing game. Meanwhile I havent met anyone is 30s-40s who does not absolutely love Mario Party and/or Mario Kart
Just wait, Microsoft will release their own version with an Xbox launcher to have a user friendly UI with Windows in the background allowing you to run any Windows compatible games.
Ubisoft launcher: what was your username, again? Microsoft can either use a locked down ecosystem and limit game compatibility or face numerous problems due to problematic 3rd parties, giving up the console experience.
These things are just ultra compact computers, it would be Windows running in the background with a simplified UI when launching it, just like the Deck is plain old Linux in the background with a simplified launcher up front.
Is the Switch doing a good job? Drift issues run rampant and Nintendo never fixed it. For all we know, they might use it on the Switch 2 as well. Between pricey games, drift, and their shitty approach with ROMs and enthusiasts I’ve soured on Nintendo.
Thank god I managed to get an older version of the switch that could be jailbroken by shorting the right joycon slot. Best thing I did to mine. Too bad the drift happens to every fucking left joycon i have.
What really annoys me is that the screws are 3 pronged instead of 4 and they also feel stuck as fuck.
The real irony is that I bought some chinese knockoff that actually lasted longer than the fucking originals. Oh, both originals also stopped registering the tiny L-R buttons. Way to go, Nintendo.
I sometimes play Switch at a friend’s. After a few hours my hands hurt. It seems the controllers were designed for toddler hands. Is a steam deck better?
Nah, I’d rather they keep speaking like this. Makes it really obvious from the get go who I’m dealing with. If they speak normally, they might blend in
Naw it’s more like “we did something we knew would make you incredibly uncomfortable; but now that you’re screaming we’re worried about the neighbors hearing it and we don’t want the cops called on us, so we’ll back off until a more opportune time.”
The potential for environmental(?) storytelling with this is amazing. Crew that have been hoarding fruit bringing it to you during restricted rations then the rest of the crew finds out and they just stop showing up, or being bribed to redirect better food from the captain’s table, or trying to manage the rationing requirements given to you by an increasingly insane captain while at the same time having to keep the crew happy or they’ll turn on you.
Parrots stuffed with crackers, long saltpork, barrels of infinte biscuits, huge oysters, eldtritch fish, trying to keep the nightmares from stealing your ingredients while still serving dinner on time, your knives all go missing so you have to improvise all your recipies without them…
I would also love it if they used real recipes for things, like the ones from Lobscouse & Spotted Dog, which is a tremendously well-researched and well-written book that has the recipes from the Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey-Maturin series. This includes a recipe for boiled shit and millers (rats) in onion sauce.
As food supply dwindles you’re forced to cook with more and more spoiled ingredients. Leading to sickness and hallucinations on top of the strange supernatural influence. Sleep won’t come any more. Whatever is on the ship makes it impossible to rest. Vision is blurry and hearing is off. Which voices are real, which are the ghosts, which are purely your own? The wind has stopped and the ship hasn’t moved is a week as the waves rock. People who you thought had jumped overboard are back making requests for dishes from their childhood. Spices you don’t remember stocking and couldn’t possibly be on board turn up in unexpected places. This looks like saffron. Does saffron taste like that all the time or is this something else entirely?
Add in increasingly brutal reactions to bad meals from getting yelled at near the beginning to getting knocked to the floor and some ingredients stolen then eventually a guy takes a couple of your fingers off with a clever and walks away laughing as he pops them in his mouth
I play lots of Black Widow. Bro plays lots of Venom. The first reaction new people who play with us have, is “woah that ass”. Our default response is “whose?”
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