I got out of the cycle when I finally realized how many cheaters there are. Worthless to play an extraction shooter under those circumstances. www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5LfGcDB7Ek
That’s simply not true, projects are usually done in stages. You got pre-production, production, testing, launch, post-production, …
So take an employee who mainly works in pre-production. Based on what you said they’d be laid off after everything is done and production starts, right? But that’s not how it works. Those people immediately start with the pre-production work of either the next project, or the DLCs for the current one.
There’s always more to do, after launch of a game you can’t have your developers sit around idle, you need the next project already prepared and ready to go. That’s why game DLCs sometimes release only months after launch, they have been worked on for a while.
What has that to do with this argument? The lay-offs in the last six months were mostly due to massive overhiring while money lending was cheap. Now interest rates are up and those companies are trying to keep their profits up (or become profitable in the first place).
And the thing is: They hired so many people, even with the lay-offs the headcount is still higher than it was a few years ago.
Some of Steam’s oldest user accounts are turning 20-years old this week, and Valve is celebrating the anniversary by handing out special digital badges featuring the original Steam colour scheme to the gaming veterans....
Really? I was against Steam when it came out, it felt like insanity: I have to create an account, then register my CD key and it’s gone!? How will I be able to share this game with my friends?!
But after a while it’s straight up better. Do you still remember SecuROM (which shut off its servers, so you can’t even get games with it to run nowadays)? Or having to go to the developer’s website to manually download update 1.0.1a to 1.0.1b to 1.1 to 1.1.2 to 1.3a to 1.4 to … (if you were lucky they offered bigger patches where you could directly jump from 1.0.1a to 1.4 or something). And then years later the developer was bought up or shut down, so the patches were no longer available.
Don’t even remind me of having to stand up, go over to my pile of games, find the right box, open it up, grab the CD, go back to the PC, put the CD in, then start the game I want (hopefully the CD wasn’t scratched). Nowadays I don’t even have a CD drive anymore and I currently have ~70 games installed that I can start in a second or two.
I grew up with sharing CDs (and keys) with friends, or putting a CD into one computer, boot the game, put the CD in a second computer, boot the game, then play on LAN. Steam is way better still. If you don’t like it, buy from GOG.
Not every game on Steam has DRM. There are plenty of indie games on there where you can download it, copy the files away and play them offline. And for what it’s worth: Gabe Newell did promise that if Steam ever shuts down they’ll offer you all your games as downloads (though so far they have been solid).
I’ve never heard of a legitimate Steam account getting banned. You might be thinking of VAC bans (where your account is flagged as a cheater), which can force you out of multiplayer servers. But losing your entire Steam library? Unheard of so far if you don’t mess up on purpose (like trading stolen items, excessive account sharing, using a stolen credit card, doing chargebacks, etc.).
Go and do a chargeback on literally any other service on this planet and see what happens, whatever account it is will get nuked from orbit.
Reselling didn’t even work back in the day with physical copies. The CD key was often only good for x activations, then at some point you had to call a support line. It’s a dubious argument.
Yes, pay to license a game that doesn’t belong to you isn’t great, but I’m confident that at least in the EU Valve wouldn’t get away with taking access away from an entire game library. Especially for random TOS violations.
But we haven’t had a single legitimate case so far, so discussing what might or could happen is moot.
and there are absolutely examples of people losing access to large libraries out there.
Do you have an example? I’d love to read it. I only find people who lost their account (like forgetting their credentials), who got hacked or did illegal things (stolen credit cards, scamming, selling stolen items).
I can’t find someone legitimate so far who lost all access to their Steam account for ToS reasons.
For detailed ships all you need to do is hire a 3D artist, you don’t need a game for that.
The rest is a mess. Free fly weekend? I load in and all the NPCs are T-Posing and standing around. Or sitting half in the ground. The surroundings are lifeless, there is absolutely nothing to interact with besides some doors/elevators. And don’t even get me started on the bugs and performance (I have a 3080 and 5800X3D at 1440p, so it should run fine…).
So no matter how much content they might add in the future, it doesn’t feel like they have the technical side down at all. And the technical part is the entire make or break it topic as they are trying to build something on a scale no one has done before (and a MMO on top…).
For years now my personal bet is that the game will never come out. And if it ever does it will get negative reviews for being an unplayable mess.
That might be the way it works in your head, but the reality looks different.
AAA games make the most money on PC. And even those games despite micro transactions, DLCs and so on are easily overshadowed by mobile games.
My favorite games are indie games, but indie is simply not feasible in some genres. Take MMOs for example, every stab at it has burned to the ground or was abandoned (or a scam).
Criticizing the big publishers is the only thing we have, because obviously voting with your wallet doesn’t work. You might not buy it, but several million other people who saw a shiny cinematic trailer did. And they will continue to do so, even when Call of Duty 23 sucks they’ll go and buy 24 next year.
If you liked Witcher 3, grab Cyberpunk. Better gameplay and very similar approach (main story quests with decisions to make, side quests, tiny bit of exploring). And it’s a western game on top.
Of course this only works if you’re actually interested in the Cyberpunk Scenario and you don’t want to play mostly Fantasy games.
Building upon the foundation of v1.2’s massive changes (now in public playtesting!), we are proud to announce that Grim Dawn will be receiving a third expansion: Fangs of Asterkarn!
Maybe you just played the wrong masteries (classes). I’m not a huge fan of guns, grenades and so on, so style wise it took a bit to find something I enjoy playing in Grim Dawn. Playing a mage also didn’t vibe with me too much.
The furthest I got was with Oathkeeper + Soldier (Warlord), throwing your shield, charging groups etc. was super fun.
As for gameplay: The secret areas and chests are neat, you’re getting rewarded for actually exploring the world. Loot is pretty good too, especially as you can target farm because the monster type you kill matters.
Story is there too, but to get fully into it you need to read a lot (as the meat of the world building is in the messages/logs you find strewn around).
The base game is nice, but they really knocked it out of the park with Ashes of Malmouth, it’s a huge expansion with really good set pieces.
Elden Ring – Patch Notes Version 1.12 (en.bandainamcoent.eu) angielski
They nerfed blasphemous blade’s ability. It’s so over....
Diablo 4's new mount costs more than the actual game (www.pcgamesn.com) angielski
And have we come full circle to god damn horse armor.
What game fits this? (lemmy.world) angielski
Employees Say ‘Sizable Portion’ Of Gearbox-Owned Studio Has Been Laid Off (aftermath.site) angielski
Today on “the gamedev community literally can’t catch a break”…
Tru Story (lemm.ee) angielski
"The Day Before" makers Fntastic are shutting down. (lemmy.world) angielski
Source: twitter.com/FntasticHQ/…/1734265789237338453...
Grim Dawn Version v1.2.0.0 coming November 16th! (steamcommunity.com) angielski
Grim Dawn’s most comprehensive free update ever is coming November 16th!...
How do you moderate yourself? (kbin.run) angielski
I seem to have a problem with moderating myself when it comes to playtime on Video Games, How do you keep yourself from just endlessly playing games?
Over 50% of all steam games have never made over $1000 (gamalytic.com) angielski
Steam's Oldest User Accounts Turn 20, Valve Celebrates With Special Digital Badges - IGN (www.ign.com) angielski
Some of Steam’s oldest user accounts are turning 20-years old this week, and Valve is celebrating the anniversary by handing out special digital badges featuring the original Steam colour scheme to the gaming veterans....
Star Citizen reaches $600 million raised but the game future is really worrying (gamerkick.com) angielski
Baldur's Gate 3's success is not about setting a new "standard" (www.gamedeveloper.com) angielski
Game recommendation, looking for easier western 3D ARPG angielski
I am on the older side, really like everything about Elden Ring, except the difficulty. Is there games like Elden Ring but easier?
Announcing Grim Dawn: Fangs of Asterkarn! (steamcommunity.com) angielski
Building upon the foundation of v1.2’s massive changes (now in public playtesting!), we are proud to announce that Grim Dawn will be receiving a third expansion: Fangs of Asterkarn!