I mean, Genshin Impact is an outlier in games out of China. A lot of the games, even the big budget ones, from developers there are freemium or gacha trash (and Genshin only minorly avoids that by having a decent story and gameplay).
The first step would be to produce proper single player games that aren't reliant on a paid store model. There are some examples of that, but they're incredibly rare.
It’s the first gacha game I tried and it is good, but the presentation of rolls for items and characters made me understand how people can get addicted to it. People can choose to ignore spending money on it, but the free rolls is an effective lure for the types that can fall into the deep end.
Still would not want to see any regulation of it though, since it being regulated would be a move towards handing over real identities to companies to manage which is terrible. I do wish it was just a regular game with DLC expansions than at its core a gacha game.
Shoutouts for my favorite Chinese developed game Gunfire Reborn. Borderlands-style Roguelike that you could almost SWEAR was going to have microtransactions. But no, it's one full price + character DLCs that is just start run, shoot dudes, complete runs. It got 99% good translations and a 100% mobile port! It's completely bewildering why this game didn't get treatment on par with Hades and Dead Cells.
I like Gunfire a lot but it doesn’t have story and av comparable to Hades and doesn’t have the replayability and difficulty of Dead Cells. A better comparison would probably be Risk of Rain 2, another game with a lack of story and budget art, that isn’t as replayable as its betters, but still an enjoyable experience.
You do realise the CCP data monitoring systems are known to be completely indiscriminate, right? They try to monitor everyone they can, as much as they can
What do you expect me to be able to do about PRISM, exactly? American made software and services aren't exactly avoidable like their Chinese equivalents are.
So where’s your xenophobic indignance at that? “That and I don’t live in China, so I don’t have a social credit file that I care about being affected.” You got a FICO score here, don’t you? That FICO score can lock you out of cars, apartments, and necessities to fuckin live, right? Where’s your indignance about that? Or is it just ‘you can’t trust those damn dirty thieving asiatics’ when American oligarchs bear you so much more potential harm, just like every other Kyle in this thread?
Are you fucking serious? Do you know how the FICO system actually works? I mean clearly you don't because you compared it to the Chinese social credit system.
To get a good FICO score simply requires 1) paying for things with a credit card and 2) paying off that credit card asap. That's it. The consequence of a bad FICO score means you cannot get decent loans because you've already proven yourself to be a risk.
The Chines social credit system is a WHOLE different scenario. Basically EVERYTHING you do can affect it. If what you do conforms to the CCPs dictates, it goes up. If you go against the CCP, it goes down. Buying too many video games can decrease your score, for instance. And the penalties are much harsher too. Low social credit scores means you get barred from high end jobs and your kids can't go to good schools. Your ability to travel is limited, no-fly-list style. They can even straight up take your pets away over a low score.
So how the fuck does that sound anything close to FICO?
That's why I'm fine with it on consoles. That and I don't live in China, so I don't have a social credit file that I care about being affected.
PC games though? Whole 'nother story. People often use their gaming PCs for more serious stuff too, plus it isn't nearly as big an opportunity cost to later ship a PC update granting remote code execution.
I hope you're asking in good faith. I'll try and give you a response as tl;dr as possible here.
Racism: hating people due to their ethnicity
Not racism: criticizing people (even of a single nationality or ethnicity) because of their politics
In the context of this article, most people in the comments are expressing privacy concerns over China controlling a larger percentage of the gaming market, and thus increasing the risk for demanding more data from the users installing that software on their machines. If anyone here were expressing racist concerns about this, people would be making disparaging remarks about yellow skin color or narrow eye shape, or something like that.
Furthermore, incorrectly identifying racism where there is none actually detracts from the actual anti-racist sentiment - in fact, the one I believe you hold - by muddying the definition of what is and isn't actually racism.
Hating a regime that commits ACTUAL RACIAL-BASED GENOCIDE is racist, I guess that means hating Nazis was racism against Germans? You are a fucking idiot.
If they want respect it’s going to have to be through quality Sony or Nintendo type single player titles that don’t have a gacha model that gets critical acclaim. Their own Breath of the Wild or Last of Us type game that holds up critically as opposed to being a game where “gacha mechanics can be ignored” in a best case scanerio.
But, most of the games that are well known games embody the perfect spirit of capitalism meant to try and squeeze as much money out of its users over years. Mobile gamers may give it a pass with how they don’t bat an eye to how predatory mobile games are, but the gamers that the writer is asking respect from are less likely to give those practices a pass.
There are a few great Chinese single player games out there like amazing cultivation simulator, but they are all indie games. The Chinese government restricted how Steam works in China so I have no idea how indie Chinese games are getting out there, if at all. https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-china-launch/
I played a little Genshin after it first released but was put off by the underage characters being portrayed sexually. The sad fact of the matter is that its a great game made with passion, and many Chinese games have a """lolicon""" issue. I tried the game Mahjong soul after getting into Mahjong from Final Fantasy, and it has the same issue.
And when I say """lolicon"", I mean kids as young as 11-13, maybe even younger. it's disgusting. Otakus seems to run the industry there as far as I can tell, or at least what makes it to the west because to know real stuff about Chinese culture you have to be at least kinda a weeb for Chinese stuff. I got into Xianxia from my love of manga which lead to Manhua. The Xianxia scene has a lot of problems but """lolicon""" hasn't been one of them.
TL;DR The chinese video game industry is run by otakus, at least for whats made it into the west. The worst part is that HoYoVerse WAS an indie developer whose motto was "by otakus, for otakus" they aren't hiding what they are about, but unfortunately have become #1 for pandering to the lowest possible denominator
China has spent decades building up their reputation of a place that produces cheap, inferior copies of better products and they aren’t going to shake that overnight or even in a few years.
Are they even trying to change that reputation? The last I heard was that if you published a game app that was any sort of popular, you could expect it to be stolen and resold in China.
I also generally find it hard to trust any software produced in any totalitarian state.
I have huge respect for the makers of Genshin Impact. The story is simply amazing and makes you want to pay attention to every little detail during your quests (especially the main ones). The Gacha aspect can be ignored as you definitely do not need to pay to have a really good team.
Genshin actually has a surprising amount of horny teenage girls who play it, too. One article says its 55% male to 45% which is honestly very impressive.
Pulling off a game of pretty vast scope, supporting several very different host platforms, on a multi-year development timeline, and having it thrive in a hypercompetitive market is still an impressive technical achievement.
If all they wanted was to deliver “casino for horny teenage boys”, they could have done far less and still achieved that goal.
You’re responding to someone frequenting !conservative and who obviously is projecting as he, like the vast majority of conservatives, always sweep under the rug things like Christian family members and priests molesting children and at the same time claim to be against the “grooming” of children. He’s talking about “horny teenage boys” because that’s exactly how he sees kids and also himself.
I don’t respect any developer that can’t properly render melanin or coarse hair; or anyone who makes excuses for broke-dick hack ‘developers’ who can’t properly render melanin or coarse hair
W środę doszło do zaszczelenia Fernando Villavicencio - kandydata do prezydenckich wyborów w Ekwadorze mających się odbyć 20tego sierpnia. W swojej kampanii krytykował korupcje i przestępczość zorganizowaną. Obiecywał uszczelnienie systemu podatkowego.
Do ataku doszło podczas spotkania wyborczego w północnym Quito. Zamachowiec został postrzelony przez ochronę, ujęty i przeniesiony do jednostki prokuratury generalnej w Quito. O jego śmierci doniosła załoga ambulansu straży pożarnej.
Partia Fernanda Villavicencio - Movimiento Construye zamieściła wpis na X, w którym donosi, że ich biuro w Quito zostało zaatakowane przez nieznanego sprawcę.
Villavicencio miał 7,5% poparcia, był na piątym miejscu wśród ośmiu kandydatów na prezydenta.
I enjoyed reading this so much. I am ashamed that I am British and a big fan of video games, but never knew that Rare was a British company. I’d never even heard of Ultimate, but I’ll put that down to age.
Rare made some of my absolute childhood favourites. It’s a shame they fell from glory, but it’s good to remember that a company is only as good as it’s people - and people move on - much like the previously adored Blizzard.
yeah those tactics from fucking gambling industries really worked like the industries he came from. how this barebones stock asset using trite got so popular is a genuine surprise, i palyed a couple of game and was bored out of my mind
Nice read and very happy for Galante! He is clearly a fan of gaming who made something awesome for fans of gaming. It’s not exactly a game I got addicted to (played maybe 10 or 15 hours total?) but it truly is such a refreshing treat. If you haven’t tried it, give it a go. It’s super nostalgic and super easy to pick up immediately. Mostly, I’m excited to see what other things Galante and his team can do! But as long as they are happy continuing to make Vampire Survivors as good as they can, I’m happy for them.
It’s amazing how addictive VS is without being predatory or manipulative. The feedback loop to play one more game is solid, in the best way.
So it’s just refreshing that Galante actually has principles enough to stay away from micro transactions. I hope we’re at the point where more developers move away from that - I feel like after the 2000s and 2010s, where game monetization went full nihilistic capitalism, we’re all ready for a change.
theguardian.com
Gorące