[alt text: a post on twitter by @Ranting_Trans, posted in June 2022. The text in the post says: “People only ask ‘what is a woman’ and not ‘what is a man’, because that question was already answered by the greatest philosopher of our time: Dracula”. Below the text is a screenshot from the game Castlevania: Symphony...
Hate it hate it. This game is so good, and it’s like I’m playing my old favorite again. The fact that they marred my baby with MTX like this is just gross. DD1 should be more popular, and what they did to DD2 may keep it from being the powerhouse it could because people will see the “mixed” ratings and second guess. Or they’ll open the store page and see a wall of MTX and get the wrong idea.
But that’s just part of it of course. If this works for them, it’ll explode. And it will work for them. And everyone will get these fucking MTX in their full priced AAA games. And then once sales on MTX aren’t up to snuff – or if they are up to snuff, but in a few quarters when sales are merely consistent rather than continuing to grow – they’ll start pushing it. Just like they did with Shadow of Mordor where the gameplay gave you a nasty grind and a quick “buy your way past it” option.
I’ll never buy the “it doesn’t effect you in a single player game” argument. It will, because the market incentives a worse experience for those less willing to buy in.
Here’s someone corroborating you, but it’s impossible to Google at the moment for obvious reasons. I have 0 recollection of any MTX, though. FWIW, it wouldn’t be any less bad if they did it before too.
To be clear though, it didn’t ruin it. I said it “marred” the game. It is a mark that affects how the game is perceived and I hate that. The game itself is fun, and I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.
As with DD1, DD2 is fun and I don’t mean to say it isn’t. The MTX just provides a barrier to entry for folks turned off by it, and I wish it wasn’t there.
Despite Bethesda being kinda weird and shitty, I remain excited about the game myself. It still blows me away they decided to release without modding tools. But I’m looking forward to that quite a bit
This does suck though. To start, a counter-offer-based model begs discrimination. You should be getting yearly raises commensurate with (at absolute bare minimum, not even necessarily accounting for inflation) the increase in productivity from year to year.
This is to say nothing of work environments. Unions could reduce or end crunch. Not just as hard blockers, but mandating the kind of project management that doesn’t require crunch.
What I mean by this, is instead of when you fail and are met with a game over, the game finds some way to keep it going. Instead of being forced to reset to a previous save or an autosave checkpoint, the game’s story continues in an interesting path. Are there any games like this?...
US software devs are generally paid a lot more than other countries. Keep in mind we still have to pay for our own health insurance/medical bills, but I don’t know how Germany handles their healthcare and the bills won’t matter for everyone.
Health insurance is largely a benefit. It’s largely cost-prohibitive to do otherwise, and I believe coverage can often be better from your employer than what’s available on the open market.
You still pay for employer-provided coverage, but with your employer covering some portion of the cost. I think my out-of-pocket insurance is ~$300/mo as well, but most insurances will also come with a low-deductable plan that is sometimes, but not always, cheaper depending on how you use your insurance. Insurance only covers some part of a medical bill, and the lower price covers less. There’s a ton of caveats on all of that though.
If you’re unemployed, there are options. You can just go to the hospital without coverage, and apply for income-based relief once you have the bill. You can’t apply before you go though, and you may or may not have your costs covered. Not paying at all of course impacts your credit, but like 90% (number pulled from my ass) of the US has medical debt, and I’ve had landlords for instance straight up tell me that ignore medical debt on the credit report.
There’s some kinda public insurance available. I think it’s largely for retired folks? Idk, I’ve never heard of anyone actually able to use it. You also keep your employers coverage for about a year after you leave, but you have to pay for it still.
I love hearing about unique takes on game mechanics. Someone recently convinced me that limited inventories are kind of abused currently and that unlimited inventory systems would give more player choices.
I hate anything that stops me from playing the game. Stun mechanics, usually, but I also include quick time events.
The one that sticks in my mind was those dumb water mages in genshin impact. They trap you in a bubble and hold you there for a few seconds. If it’s an intense enough fight, a few seconds is an incredibly long time, and you’re just sitting there watching the game happen and you’ve lost your agency. It’s worse for me because I had built shields and healing into my team to shore up my shortcomings with dodging. It felt clever, but them the game sends in this mechanic which invalidates my solution.
With quick time events, I just get annoyed at the genre switch. Don’t get me wrong, there are cool enough cinematics out there… It’s just… Like usually I’m watching these and thinking, “wow, that would’ve been fun to do, you know, myself.”
Nevermind that I’m too ADHD. Like I have cats and a partner and a phone. If I get a buzz or whatever else, I might miss the prompt. Or if I ignore the buzz, whatever that might have been can sometimes get discarded in my brain.
I love team building. The interplay of abilities, the hard choices with limited slots and opportunity cost. Finding unintentional synergies, or even stumbling on them. Its all a dream, and it’s part of why I love ttrpgs so much.
I can sometimes get so bogged down (positive) with team building I never make it amywhere in the game itself.
Also love me a good physics engine. God knows how many hours I spent building stupid shit in Garry’s Mod. I learned to code before I played that game, so it was delightful to put those skills to use with wiremod as a little kid. LoZ: ToTK I have like 1000 hrs logged just fucking around in the builder spot at the base of Tarry Town.
he got his bachelor's in gender studies circa 1492 (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: a post on twitter by @Ranting_Trans, posted in June 2022. The text in the post says: “People only ask ‘what is a woman’ and not ‘what is a man’, because that question was already answered by the greatest philosopher of our time: Dracula”. Below the text is a screenshot from the game Castlevania: Symphony...
All five of you will get a free buggy when you next boot up Starfield (www.rockpapershotgun.com)
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 11th
Whatcha all playing!...
Dragon's Dogma 2 MTX
So there’s obviously been a lot of existing discourse on DD2’s micro transactions, and I’m curious to get the thoughts of people here....
Starfield will be getting a bunch of fresh features including "new ways of traveling" next year (www.vg247.com) angielski
Bethesda has confirmed that it plans to add a number of new features to Starfield in 2024.
GTA 6 trailer coming Tuesday, Rockstar announces (www.eurogamer.net)
CD Projekt Red devs unionise after its third round of layoffs in three months (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
What are some games that "spin" failure states? angielski
What I mean by this, is instead of when you fail and are met with a game over, the game finds some way to keep it going. Instead of being forced to reset to a previous save or an autosave checkpoint, the game’s story continues in an interesting path. Are there any games like this?...
Starfield's Numbers Surge in Early Access - Insider Gaming (insider-gaming.com) angielski
Starfield's numbers have swollen in early access on streaming and gaming platforms - and the global release is yet to take place.
SAG-AFTRA Seeks Approval for Second Strike Against Video Game Companies (variety.com) angielski
Archive link: archive.today/Z5F3X...
Why did Baldur's Gate 3 blow up? Larian lead writer says it's thanks to "a big gamble" with CRPG standards (www.gamesradar.com) angielski
"We believe RPGs are big ... So we always believed the audience was there," says Adam Smith
What game mechanics do you love and hate? angielski
I love hearing about unique takes on game mechanics. Someone recently convinced me that limited inventories are kind of abused currently and that unlimited inventory systems would give more player choices.