MentalEdge

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu (edited 19 dni temu)

Oh that is gonna piss people off.

Your ads are not gonna work the way you think they’ll work, when every person who sees them is gonna feel like it’s a middle finger.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu

Yes. And that shit is a one-way door.

Every customer you piss off the way you are pissed off, is A LOT less likely to be a return customer.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu

Ok?

It’s not sustainable. Tricking people faster than they wise up to your BS is not a business model that leads to a healthy, content, customer base. And if it’s what EVERYONE does, you get an unhappy SOCIETY.

No-one will enjoy where that leads, and is already leading.

It’s a ratcheting mechanism. Unless something about capitalism changes SIGNIFICANTLY the masses will simply grow more and more discontent.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu (edited 19 dni temu)

It will work. Even if they get 10 new subscribers, it probably took them 20 minutes to whip up this splash screen. They’re wasting much more of your time. And people have proven time and time again that they will get outraged but they’ll never actually do anything about it.

For now. But eventually they do. That’s how entire governments have fallen time and time again.

They won’t stop playing Xbox. They won’t stop buying games. People grow increasingly accepting of advertising and invasive business practices every day.

Indeed. People can get used to a lot. But being used to something isn’t the same as being ok with it. No-one I know is ok with there being ads on their tvs, phones and laptops. Living with something isn’t the same as accepting it. People are tolerating more BS than ever, but that doesn’t mean they wont rally the second there’s a way out of it.

Remember how angry everyone was at horse armor? Most people wouldn’t think twice about it these days. It’s so much worse now.

I still am. So are many others. Remember when people thought NMS would be a good game on day one? Remember when Fallout 76 was going to be bigger and better than 4? Remember Concord? Remember when Overwatch was going to have a story?

Suicide Squad.

There was real hype. The second people found out it was a live service, they simply didn’t play.

Every fuckup, is another portion of the masses getting the memo. And the fuckups aren’t stopping. If anything there’s more of them than ever.

These corporations used to be afraid of looking bad, but mistakes happen. Except when they did, and stocks didn’t suddenly implode, their takeaway was they could be horrible, and still make a profit. Because yeah, most people don’t learn the first time. But what about the second? Or the third? Or the tenth?

If you ask me, given time, the one thing every person on this planet can do, is learn. Eventually.

The only reason Roblox and Fortnite keep growing is that there are markets they haven’t penetrated. Finding new customers faster than the old ones leave doesn’t work forever. There are only so many humans on this planet.

Meanwhile, indie games with actual passion behind them and fair business practices that still feed the mouths of the devs, without private equity firms in the middle sucking up all the value, are absolutely exploding.

XBOX is dying. MS won’t say it, but they are less involved in the game-industry than ever. This price hike is a death-throw. Not the next step in their master plan to dominate the market forever.

IMO, the only gaming mega-corporation with the goodwill to exist 20 years from now is Nintendo, and even they are burning through the nostalgia people have for them faster than ever before in their insanely long history.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu

And there’s always new marks.

If your market is small enough.

You bring up gambling. Its de-regulation and consequent proliferation via online casinos has made the problems it causes more likely to be addressed than ever.

The bigger your market grows, the more aware the cultural zeitgeist becomes, the more likely you are be ousted entirely.

A bookie in Vegas, one city, could keep running their casino forever, because there didn’t use to be a casino in every persons pocket, worldwide, that might’ve already taught every new mark to be wary.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu (edited 19 dni temu)

Why are you trying to convince me my omptimism is futile?

What good does that do?

You’re not wrong.

But all I’m doing here is saying “things can get better” and your replies are just you pointing out how bad things are right now, as if that proves the only way things can go, is to get worse.

The worse things get, the faster the number of people wanting to fix it will grow.

Am I wrong?

They’re desperately trying to find new things for people to bet on.

No shortage of marks you say?

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu (edited 19 dni temu)

Remember when gamers found out Suicide Squad, which at one time did have real hype behind it, would be live service BS?

And people literally just didn’t play it.

People. Even entire demographics, can a do learn.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu

Doesn’t matter if they’re okay with it or not, as long as they tolerate it and don’t do anything about it.

Not being happy about it is the first step on the road to doing something about it. How does that not matter?

Sure but many many more have accepted it. Otherwise they never would have done it again.

Who is doing it again? I’m not.

I remember Overwatch still being a wild success regardless.

Is it?

We are on like 2905295734th now.

And? It takes as many times as it takes.

Indie game studios could only ever dream of achieving the heights of revenue of games like Fortnite, that survives entirely on microtransactions.

Why? There are absolutely indies who’ve made millions. Why is there zero chance that one day, the next Fortnite or Roblox comes from an indie?

It already happened at least once. Minecraft.

They are doing everything they can to screw their own customers and yet they pile in by the millions every time they have something new.

Yes. But again. It takes as many times as it takes.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu

while turning a blind eye to the mountains of other people who don’t care

People, fundamentally, care.

That’s like the whole point of having a hobby.

No-one games because they don’t care.

You won’t find anything people are more passionate about, than something they do for fun.

I’m not claiming that there’s some point where people magically come together and stick it to the megacorps.

I’m saying that if you consistently burn your fans in ways that result in them hating you, eventually, you wont have any.

That’s not something that happens overnight. A slow-ass process that leads to a gradual decline, which you can only put off by duping brand new people who haven’t sworn off ever purchasing your product again. But eventually, you run out of those, too.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu

Well yeah. It was being developed by Rocksteady, beloved for the Arkham games.

But interest, despite the marketing, dropped off a cliff the second people smelled live service elements.

The game came out a died a quick death even more quietly than Concord.

MentalEdge, 19 dni temu (edited 18 dni temu)

Because optimism without realism is just a recipe for cynicism later on.

Dude. I’m not on my way to cynicism. I’m past it.

If I didn’t believe change is possible, then I’d be part of the reason it isn’t happening.

Looking for, and pushing in the places it might occur, is how you help it come about.

How is that not realistic? What am I missing?

Does the way you argue, not contribute to maintaining the status quo, even as you agree that it is not desirable?

The problem of systemic gambling won’t just fix itself.

Did I say it would?

Advertising and other propaganda creates a great deal of countervailing pressure.

That is a very verbose concession of a point.

MentalEdge, 24 dni temu (edited 23 dni temu)

You absolutely need to be switching characters.

The ATB bars fill very slowly when you aren’t playing as a party member, meaning that if you need to use certain abilites or spells, you should focus on playing as the character’s that can use them.

Same goes for limit breaks. On harder bosses you may need to build up a stagger, and then pull off a triple limit break during the stun. But you won’t have all three limit breaks ready if you didn’t evenly play as all three.

Also pay attention to ability effects. Some cause stagger instead of damage, some are single target vs AOE. The game doesn’t do a super good job of telling you what to use when, but read the descriptions and remember to check for weaknesses with assess.

Often assess will literally tell you how to beat a boss with specific instructions like “do a stagger ability during its charge up”, so always always always use it.

MentalEdge, 23 dni temu (edited 23 dni temu)

That was a fun one! I don’t think fully utilized Aeriths kit until that fight, either.

Intergrade still has some of my favorite fights.

I really wish Rebirth was more difficult right off the bat. When you go into it having played Intergrade, you already know to min-max character usage, and the fights are a little too easy.

A lot of the bosses are spot on tho, and the game absolutely SHINES as you juggle three characters and their full range of abilites. In longer fights you can also go past limit breaks, and use level two and three limit breaks. Lining up three level three limit breaks on a boss is 👌.

And the gameplay does improve massively. The addition of party abilities, powerful mini-limit breaks which you can use if two compatible party members both have the relevant bars filled, are an amazing addition to the combat system.

The combo moves are also a huge qol improvement. In intergrade flying enemies are kind of a pain when playing melee characters like Tifa, but in Rebirth you can have Cloud (if he’s in the party) launch you at flying enemies by jumping off his sword at any time. In Rebirth all the characters get additional combo moves depending on who is in the party.

MentalEdge, 29 dni temu

Crab Warden was where I think I really fell in love with modern FF gameplay.

Switching characters to min-max ability usage while keeping HP up was wonderfully intense and engaging for me.

Rebirth is a bit too easy in that regard, and the highest difficulty isn’t available from the start.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu (edited 28 dni temu)

I think they should make it a daily deal, but not for a week. They should also eat the discount cost, which they apparently aren’t doing, and entirely waive their cut.

What I think they should do instead of extending the deal, is reset the games launch.

There is absolutdly no reason Valve couldn’t re-launch the game, along with all the algoritm benefits an unbugged 1.0 launch should have had.

Also, you seem to have missed that the article says they are contractually obligated to complete their current WIP game. Valve giving them a bunch of money would not give them time to work on further updates for Planet Centauri before then.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu

Jack in BL2 was funny and entertaining tho.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu

I adore both of the FF7 remakes.

They aren’t flawless, and the obfuscated story that requires a lot of theorycrafting to keep up with isn’t for everyone.

But damn. The way these games make me feel like a pre-teen exploring my first game again, is pure magic.

MentalEdge, miesiąc temu

That is such a chad move.

It’s going to sell no matter what the price. But knowing that, they set the price low, trusting they’ll still make a profit on volume.

If MS, EA, UBI, or any other publisher were in control, they’d set the price high, no matter how big the actual game was, knowing they’d make even more because of the hype train around the game.

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu (edited 2 miesiące temu)

It’s not even that vague.

Valve basically said: “we are not doing anything illegal”.

To which mastercard responded: “yeah but you’re making us look bad, so tough”.

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu

Of course they did.

They just did so from behind a veil of plausible deniability.

You think a citatation of a specific mastercard contract clause came from a concerned partner?

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu

What?

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu

Yes.

Plausible deniability.

“Oh so sorry that wasn’t us, one of our partners just overzealously applied our policies”

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu

Maybe.

But Valve asked mastercard directly.

A lack of a response is a also a response, in this case essentially an endorsement of whatever their partner was telling Valve.

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu (edited 2 miesiące temu)

You really buy that?

Valve asked mastercard directly.

A lack of a response is also a response, in this case essentially an endorsement of whatever their partner was telling Valve.

Even moreso when that partner is citing mastercard terms.

May not have been mastercards mouth, but it was LITERALLY their words.

If they had something to add, they had their chance. They’re only officially saying anything now that they have to.

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu (edited 2 miesiące temu)

Valve asked mastercard for direct communication.

“Hey, your partner is citing your terms and pushing us to pull certain titles, you ok with this?”

Not responding to that is a response.

MentalEdge, 2 miesiące temu

Oh wow that is A LOT more similar than I was thinking.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu

That would have been Quantum Break. I don’t recall Control having any one cutscene that long.

But Quantum Break did the whole video-game/TV-series hybrid media thing, and was full of “episodes” that were essentially 30-minute cutscenes.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu

Like for real.

Were the people who actually do nothing really the ones to get axe for once?

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu

You are being stopped from stopping people playing their games.

That’s a double negative bruh, as in, it reduces overrall limitations in the world for what people are allowed to do.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu

!gameart

Have you done other characters?

You say “your style”, so my first thought is to wonder what else you’ve done since must’ve done enough to land on a style.

Edit: ah, found your other posts! Feel free to cross-post to gameart, we want to see and celebrate all the art that games both contain and inspire.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu (edited 3 miesiące temu)

I like your Heather Mason. You’ve found a perfect level of detail to make these work.

Like they’re just barely “too detailed”, making them just a little unsettling, the way horror game art should be.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu

Unless they were looking, they wont have seen it. And as far as I know, just the cursor being active sends the “typing” indicator in some apps. When I see it for just a second I just assume someone hovered over the chatbox for a bit.

No-one thinks it’s weird for it to pop up for a second and then go away. Or for it to appear for a good while and still not get you a message. Sometimes I’ll write a first draft of a response right away, then leave it there for hours while I think about it some more, before finalizing it.

It would be smart if chat apps implemented a minimum, where “typing” won’t apper until you’re three words into writing a response or something.

That way it wont go off over nothing. It’s still useful, it lets you/them know whether you’re getting/giving an immediate response, so you/they know whether the conversion is continuing right away, or later.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu

https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/adedbe0f-ed46-488b-a3a3-c41d260bfe95.webp

In case you’re wondering, the graph looks like this. There have currently been 16k new signatures today. The required pace to make it would be 10k a day. Yesterday the count increased by about 30k signatures.

TL;DR Keep spreading this to people you know, and keep signing. It’s working.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu (edited 3 miesiące temu)

I… What?

Botting something like a citizens initiative, where every signature WILL get scrutinized by government would be seriously stupid. Or are you saying commenters like me are bots?

Is it really that hard for you to imagine the possibility… that people care?

Or are just not aware of the chain of youtubers doing a call to arms on this, getting millions of views, completely explaining the signature spike?

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu (edited 3 miesiące temu)

Right. Because caring about A means you can’t care about B. If you support legislation, you must be boycoting nothing, because no-one in the history of existence has ever done both.

You’re claiming mutual exclusivity where none exists.

You sound more like you’re scared of the implications of this passing, because you’d have us voting with out wallets rather than… actually voting. Nevermind that even games not worth buying should still also be preserved.

Pre-orders, micro-transactions and battle-passes are still a thing, no matter how much we’ve shouted about “big company bad”. This type of crap isn’t something we solve by any one method alone.

And you don’t need to engage with youtube or any other social media, to accept that the phenomenon they enable, occur. To dismiss that reality would be idiotic delusion.

Millions of views is a lot, when all you need to get started, is one of those millions to sign a petition.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu (edited 3 miesiące temu)

Citizens iniatives may be a form of petition, but the difference is they come with actual legal requirements.

This isn’t some change.org bs, a list of names totaling some arbitrary number. That’s why it has a hard deadline. And requirements for how signatures have to come from more than one country.

This is a pre-existing system for the people of the EU to force it to tackle an issue. Most EU countries have equivalent systems locally, as well. This isn’t new or unusual for us.

Legal precedent is how the US works. Where lawsuits catalyzing the setting of new standards for what is legal, is the most common way the law changes. If you thought that’s how EU legislation got done, then you have no fucking idea what you’re talking about. Almost everything the EU does, is based on proposals. Not legal cases.

Those can happen in the EU, too, but we have additional ways to propose law as citizens, and legal cases are more common on the national level, rather than the continental level.

If you can gather proof (signatures) of concern on a given issue, you can force a proposal through the door that normally has to come from elected representatives.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu

Oh shit forreal?

Does that mean I can pay for shit online with made-up credit cards?

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu (edited 3 miesiące temu)

No, I’m not.

Ok

I’m saying this is a waste of time.

I… What? Is that not a mutual exclusivity argument? For you to have a point, this time and effort would need to be better spent elsewhere. I not only disagree with that, but I have the time and energy to do the other things you are claiming will make a difference.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu (edited 3 miesiące temu)

This isn’t change.org or a twitter poll.

It’s an official EU citizens initiative, hosted on the EU web portal. The one maintained by the EU for the very purpose of digitally facilitating any and all citizens initiatives.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu (edited 3 miesiące temu)

Yesterday we saw the biggest increase in signatures in a single day, even compared to the start of the initiative.

MentalEdge, 3 miesiące temu

I don’t actually think you can call it that.

I’m pretty sure they’ve spent every cent, considering how much they have in fact produced.

The part that boggles me to this day, is that they spend the money on making a litany of insanely high quality assets and features, with seemingly no plan for how they’ll fit together.

And then they proceed to spend even more money, and time, on trying to fit it all together into something that functions like a complete system.

And that’s before you discuss their obsession with “realism”. What there is to play, is marred with balancing issues. Better ships are just… Better. Because they insist on weapons and ships functioning “logically” within the game universe, rather than in whatever way is the most fun.

Fighters beat bigger ships because equipping the same weapons, a fighter can hit every shot it takes at a slow moving giant. Meanwhile the travel-time of weapons make the fighter completely unkillable for the big ship, because the fighter can land shots from a range where its own speed allows it to dodge literally everything the big ship might send its way.

They’ve been buffing the shields and ammo counts on bigger ships, but all that does is make the fight last longer.

The project is real, but it’s a mismanaged catastrophe.

MentalEdge, 4 miesiące temu

They don’t.

That’s why Hasbro can’t just make another BG game, Larian isn’t willing.

So now they’re looking to make it anyway. Without Larian, or even the people at Hasbro that Larian worked with.

MentalEdge, 4 miesiące temu

Yup.

Unless they just take the IP, and assets they’ve made, and use that to make something else, Marathon is likely DOA.

If by the time it comes out it even whiffs of a live service long-term nickle-and-diming, people will dismiss it.

MentalEdge, 4 miesiące temu

I for one am happy they didn’t twist the original game into the bullshit that bedrock edition has become.

MentalEdge, 4 miesiące temu

Yes, since most games are simply unrated.

But the “playable” rating does not require full steamdeck support, it just means the game runs. A “verified” rating means a game is a fully seamless experience on the deck.

MentalEdge, 4 miesiące temu

They do, though?

There is a “shared/splitscreen co-op” filter option.

https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/e15a2c53-e374-4e61-99ca-b769146fd423.webp

Combine that with a controller support filter.

MentalEdge, 4 miesiące temu

Do you know about co-optimus.com? Is that the “third party” you mentioned?

I don’t know of anything better. Setting your filter and sorting by user rating is pretty effective. Aside from that I sort by release date and check back every now and then.

MentalEdge, 4 miesiące temu

With a duo, if the second player is walking around the ship/not aboard, Buddy will man the guns. If the second player is manning the guns, it will reload the guns (even crafting the required supplies when doing so). It does not seem like it will put out fires, or do repairs.

In solo, he will use the sensors, he will man the guns, perform repairs, empty the materia collectors, accompany you on space walks, carry items back to the ship for you… Basically a ton of stuff.

What I was really impressed with is that Buddy still helps out in a duo. We would have been in trouble otherwise. Keeping the ship together during a big fight is a full-time task, so when a fire starts up, mines grab onto the hull, or repairs become necessary, the second player can hop off the guns and Buddy will take over while you put out fires, fight off boarders, etc. It’s great.

And reloading the guns just means a duo can keep fighting as long as nothing is going wrong with the ship.

Essentially, you get to do the fun and chaotic parts, while Buddy picks up any slack when too many things need doing at the same time.