I'm honestly a little bit uncomfortable with how much of the discourse around SKG suddenly became focused on dunking on one person. It's a useless distraction from the cause, there's really no good reason to even be talking about him at all. This kind of 2 minutes hate is just never healthy.
If you want any amount of discoverability, you will have to go to Youtube or Twich since those really are the only platforms that have any amount of viewers. And even then, discoverability is pretty terrible, good luck promoting a new channel from scratch.
If you just want to stream for the sake of streaming and don't mind having zero viewers, you can try PeerTube or Owncast. But do be aware that you will have zero viewers.
As the article states, I think the biggest factor is just the slowing of Moore's Law. Not only is new tech improving at a slower pace, old tech just isn't getting cheaper to manufacture.
Though I think one more factor the article fails to account for is that console generations themselves are lasting much longer, and even bleeding into each other as last-gen games continue to get released well into the new generation. The steepest price cuts on the graph came at the end of a system's lifespan, those are just fire sale prices to clear out old stock. Comparing those numbers feels a bit misleading, because five years into an old console meant it was ready to be phased out, while five years now means we're only halfway through the generation.
I know there's a lot wrong with the industry, a lot that's worth circlejerking about, but the fact that we're seeing price increases isn't just some greedy CEO trying to pocket a few bucks, it's a sign of some serious extenuating circumstances. Whole damn economy's fucked, it's a problem bigger than gaming.
New arcade just opened up near me, they've got maimai, Chunithm, and Wacca all patched to connect to unofficial servers with most songs unlocked. Cabs are all in excellent condition, I'm never going back to Round 1 again. Location's perfect too, at the mall 10 minutes away from where my local Riichi Mahjong club meets, so this may be my new Wednesday routine to hang out there before club.
These games are designed to take advantage of addicts. The fact that you don't know how much it will cost to get what you want, the fact that there is no limit on how much you can spend, is a feature.
They're never gonna run demanding AAA titles, but Steam is full of simpler 2D and classic games they could handle. You could play Balatro or Stardew Valley on a Chromebook.
Out of all retro JRPGs from that era, I'd say Chrono Trigger is the one that has aged the best, but it definitely is still a product of that era and that can be a bit of an acquired taste. If you haven't played any other modern JRPGs, I'd suggest checking out how the genre has evolved today, you might have an easier time getting into newer titles.