NightOwl

NightOwl, rok temu

I’ve never watched game awards. I don’t even know if there is even a main one. Watches speeches is boring which is why I don’t watch award shows in general.

Only goty I care about is the goty edition where the game releases with all the DLCs bundled at a discount.

NightOwl, rok temu

They started out pissing off Steam users with Metro Exodus going exclusives and pulling it from Steam. Not a great first impression and a lasting one at that. Not everyone will care and will buy from epic, but alienating a whole bunch of Steam’s core users off the bat is probably going to ensure they’ll never win them over.

I claim games from epic and have bought from even origin and uplay, but I’ll probably never spend any money at epic.

NightOwl, rok temu

I’m surprised since I’d assume most people don’t care where games are from and just buy it from whatever launcher. At least that’s what people claimed throughout the years.

NightOwl, rok temu

When I saw Alan Wake 2 was an epic exclusive my immediate thought was I can just wait for a giveaway like they did for Control.

NightOwl, rok temu

Short attention span leading to doing gaming in short bursts. Sometimes I lose interest in games for months and get more into the mood to watch TV shows and movies. Then lose interest in that and move to reading then lose interest in that and going back to gaming. Rinse and repeat. Has helped me avoid the whole not having fun with games anymore threads that I’d see a lot, since my focus just naturally shifts back and forth to keep things feeling fresh.

NightOwl, rok temu

That’s awesome news. I love these old games getting pc ports and quality of life features.

NightOwl, rok temu

Game industry is bigger than movies and music combined which was not the case back in the NES era. Game industry has become a juggernaut with a huge consumer target base, and lower barrier to entry that allows for even random people being able to publish games instead of a few larger companies. Rise in production costs has been one that has been self imposed the way some studios go for big special effects blockbusters because they are targeting billions. Meanwhile like with movies you get these indie 2D and last gen 3D looking games being hits right alongside these billion dollar company attempts.

I guess one area you can look at is how niche products get priced lower like mechanical keyboards, and then once productions starts ramping up and things go mainstream suddenly these niche expensive ventures with a few fans becomes more affordable as larger quantities are now being distributed.

You same thing with tech like SSDs and hard drives actually falling price over time while capacities offered grows. Lot of PC parts actually with the exception of GPUs.

NightOwl, rok temu

Yeah, it is interesting that with the exception of GPUs, PC parts like SSDs, hard drives, CPUs, and so on actually have felt like they haven’t increased in price in comparison to phones. If anything prices have dropped and capacities increased and speeds gotten faster for SSDs for example. Same with televisions and monitors where stuff like resolution and hz has seen improvements while being cheaper than in the past.

NightOwl, rok temu

Positive to come from this might be companies going with their own internal engine if they have the resources to do so.

NightOwl, rok temu

More resources are put in because there is an incredible amount of money to make with the game industry being bigger than movies and music combined. It’s no longer a niche upcoming industry but mainstream. And companies put in those resources because the market is that much bigger with more potential return on investment.

NightOwl, rok temu (edited rok temu)

Game would $100 but the same as they are now. Could be $200 and it’d be the same as they are now and still have mtx, since why would a company leave the option to get more money. Few companies operate with the approach of this is enough money we are content.

And games have only gotten worse if you are looking at triple a titles the same way someone might say movies have gotten worse because they think high budget super hero movies are the only ones that exist.

If the market could sustain $100 it would be, but barrier to making and releasing games has never been lower. So consumers would just move to alternative games that are cheaper or old titles they haven’t gotten around to. And worst of all to these comlanies the top sellers aren’t always these high budget titles, but some indie title that’s not even 3d. Then there’s game pass people would just turn to if game prices went up moving more people to subscription.

NightOwl, rok temu

Most companies needing $100 per unit for a game to be profitable aren’t going to bother approving that type of game to begin with over a game that can be priced $100 and have much broader mainstream appeal.

NightOwl, rok temu (edited rok temu)

Why would a company want to risk putting money into a game so niche it needs $100 per unit over a game that can make more money despite being priced $60. And you know… Just price it $100.

NightOwl, rok temu

I’m happy they didn’t go for unity or unreal. Recent events showed just how unsafe it can be, and how having self reliance is a valuable asset.

NightOwl, rok temu (edited rok temu)

Like Walmart coming into a town to compete with the stores already there and then putting them out of business? Then moving onto the next town to compete again?

NightOwl, rok temu

You want Microsoft to own everything? What?

NightOwl, rok temu

Doesn’t explain all the other games sold for cheaper than steam when you take a look at isthereanydeals. Or the bundles fanatical offers with no charity involved.

NightOwl, rok temu

Yet, ease of access is what appeals to the average consumer which leads to preferring steam for Linux for the same reason people get hardware restricted consoles. If a company wants to appeal and expand their market making themselves more accessible is how they do it. Otherwise alternative is to be an overlooked option.

NightOwl, rok temu

Yeah, had Valve tried to push Linux again without trying to make it accessible for the average user it would have flopped like the Steam machine. Or at the very least users would have tossed Linux for Windows. Accessibility is very important, and technical users should not be looked to as guides on what is acceptable for the masses.

NightOwl, rok temu

I don’t want a curated store though and would rather have people be able to release games, and let users decide if it is something they want or not. I can access reviews myself and don’t need companies deciding what game is or isn’t worthy of being available. And users is who I trust more anyways, which is why for so long search term + reddit is what I’ve relied on.

NightOwl, rok temu

WTF? These old games are cheap enough that I don’t see the allure of the tiny library of this subscription service.

NightOwl, rok temu

Only good I see is pc ports, but then I see Microsoft having Nintendo shoving in mtx and potentially less quality Nintendo titles so overall bad.

NightOwl, rok temu

youtubetranscript.com/?v=ZOCTSp_U-KI

NightOwl, rok temu

What type of problems?

NightOwl, rok temu

I was hoping hall effects could be the solution. Maybe best that can be hoped for is ones that can be popped out for easy replacement like the dualsense edge.

NightOwl, rok temu

I’m a nba fan though, and I just stopped playing basketball games because I got tired of paying for roster updates. And now monetization is even worse so genre is dead to me. So as a former fan of 2k I don’t understand having to play the games so badly that people keep paying for it every year.

That applies to any game or franchise. If it gets bad enough that I detest it I’d just move on from it even if no option pops up. Especially one so predatory on top of being an annual release.

NightOwl, rok temu

Owning over a 1000 copies of physical games sounds like a nightmare in managing the space and searching for titles to me. And when I look at the market prices of old retro games and then the counterfeits I’m not too upset about the move towards digital.

NightOwl, rok temu

I don’t see a situation where digital distribution of games would have led to a space where games having no DRM would have been mainstream. Even with DRM companies continue to associate PC with piracy.

There was also the whole Sony rootkit after all with music CDs, so I’m just not seeing this whole argument of this space could have been different if it weren’t for valve. Not even sure PC gaming would have been as big as it is now if it weren’t for Valve and it really would have been a situation of PC gaming being dead and for niche titles as opposed to just some clickbait headline.

NightOwl, rok temu

Tell you what, we used to have 6 games and we were happy.

I am happy with the much wider variety of titles I have available. Only area where I still liked physical was consoles, but it was only because I was only buying it for exclusives which ended up being like maybe 10 over the lifetime.

But, if it were my main I’d go for digital too, but with console releases on PC I don’t even bother with consoles anymore.

I’m with you there, but maybe the prices are going up because new physical games aren’t being released any more, so I can contort my way to blame that on digital gaming, too.

I guess you can go ask consoles why they stopped making games after each new generation, and why Nintendo limited their supply of physical games even before digital compared to Sony to keep their prices from dropping.

For me games have been the cheapest they’ve been with stuff like humble bundles and being able to buy old games through direct channels as opposed to used sellers a decade later. Being able to buy something like KOTOR or system shock is cool to me over having to buy some used copy sold by a reseller that might not even be legit.

NightOwl, rok temu (edited rok temu)

I just don’t see the level of influence as you do when it comes to DRM. DRM is something that was going to be in place and had been in the works, and if it wasn’t it would be due to the market not existing to begin with. Epic or any other company deciding to not bother to try to enter digital distribution on a massive scale rivaling consoles for decades is a reflection of how little value companies saw in the PC space despite progress in digital distribution. One even music and movies were quicker to recognize.

NightOwl, rok temu

I don’t have the long term attention span demanded of live service games, since once I’m done with a game I move on.

NightOwl, rok temu

Wish they had asked him why the console version isn’t optimized either running at only 30.

NightOwl, rok temu

Why do people use entitled like it is a bad thing? Why wouldn’t consumers be entitled as opposed to spending money as though it is an act of charity? Pretty weird how mindset of gamers over the years has shifted in a way where the fact that they are consumers has been forgotten.

NightOwl, rok temu (edited rok temu)

Products are just products designed to get money out of people. I don’t have an appreciation like its some sports team for them. It comes down to simply if it is worth spending money on or not. Being entitled is a good thing, since it encourages less consumerist behavior with how lot of people can use less frivolous spending in their lives.

You can try to spin it as a negative, but I find this hail corporation approach to consumerism very odd. Wanting more value for the money is a good standard to have.

NightOwl, rok temu

People should expect more optimization for the games they look into and better price for performance offerings for hardware. Approach of just pushing what is acceptable further into the category of the premium tier leads to worse consumer offerings over the long run. What is considered acceptable hardware has gotten more and more out of reach each generation while disposable income has not kept up.

Complacency and constantly falling scale of what is acceptable is what leads to worse standards. Bad prices and optimization should not get passes. PR management of be happy with hardware or performance is not the job of consumers aside from those who are being paid to run those type of campaigns.

NightOwl, rok temu

Steam Deck rejoices with better offline support.

NightOwl, rok temu

Most I paid for a game subscription was the $1 3 month game pass. I don’t see myself paying for a regular priced month subscription like $10/month. I’d rather spend that buying a month of Humble monthly or a discounted game.

NightOwl, rok temu

I wonder how much stuff like streaming and esports contributed to PC gaming growing in Japan.

NightOwl, rok temu

I was upset when PS4 moved to paid online and never ever paid for PS+, and only got single player exclusives for it. But as time passed saw that I was in the minority and that other people fell in line and paid for PS+ and even argued for why paying for online was necessary.

So I expect the same to happen. When this is people complaining about a price increase a opposed to being against paying for online I expect people to keep financially supporting the subscription model enough for Sony to keep moving forward and be happy with the money.

NightOwl, rok temu

I never did. I only got a PS4 for single player exclusives back in the day. Refused to pay for online access and had no interest in paying a monthly fee for rentals when I already had a backlog. And had my PC for everything else.

NightOwl, rok temu

I stopped being amazed when console gamers argued on behalf of a billion dollar corporation for why online multiplayer had to be paid.

NightOwl, rok temu

And it’s capable of productivity with free tools like blender, visual studio code, and da vinci resolve. So that extra hardware can be used beyond just gaming.

NightOwl, rok temu

“rentals” since they cease to work once the subscription lapses. Just like how Netflix isn’t giving away free movies and TV shows.

NightOwl, rok temu

Sell the PS5.

NightOwl, rok temu

Yeah, looking for non video game related reasons to make use of the hardware makes me appreciate the flexibility that more open hardware allows.

NightOwl, rok temu

Played through this on rpcs3 at 4k/60. So highly recommend it for those that haven’t played it. Art design holds up really well.

NightOwl, rok temu

Expect without even having the functionality of Android. If it at least took an approach like the Nvidia shield so it could be a full on Android tablet or gaming or media machine it’d be cool. But, just a barebones streaming device is disappointing.

NightOwl, rok temu

At the very least even if it runs beautifully it ends up being an annoyance on Steam Deck and offline play interrupting your game session as though you are the pirate as opposed to an actual customer who paid. While the pirates laugh at the experience you should be getting.