To answer your questions: this is posted in !games because this specific petition relates to the interests of this specific Lemmy community, this does not mean it’s “so important”, or that it’s a priority, it’s just one of the many topics the users that frequent this community are interested about.
On the topic of other petitions, there are actually a lot of different petitions by European Citizen, that are available on the website dedicated to it: citizens-initiative.europa.eu. For example, there are two other petitions that are at the same stage of the Stop Killing Games petition (they’re in the process of verification). One calls for a ban on conversion therapies, which are discriminatory and harmful towards LGBTQ+ citizen, the other calls to “Stop Extremism” within the European Union, but is rather vague about what it’s about.
The “My Voice, My Choice: For Safe And Accessible Abortion” was verified as “Valid Initiative” on September of this year, and on the 1st of October, its representatives met with Hadja Lahbib, European Commissioner for Equality, and European Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management to discuss it, they will later have the opportunity to present it publicly to Parliament Members, which may hold a dedicated debate session. So far there’s been 11 “Answered Initiatives” of varying subjects (this means the parliament debated on it, and reached a conclusion, and made a statement, you can learn more about the process here: citizens-initiative.europa.eu/how-it-works_en).
It’s a great system that’s underused in my opinion (lots of reasons for it but that’s another subject matter). If you’re a European Citizen and feel like there are topics you would like to bring to the European Parliament, I highly encourage you to create one and fight for what you believe is important!
Biased because I’m pro steam deck, but yes, Steam Deck will offer you the full steam library of games, on top of games from other platforms / consoles through emulation
I think the common denominator is a strong / immersive story and universe that appeals to me (big fan of sf), interesting mechanics and gameplay in a way that makes the game unique in its own way, and the artistic approach behind the game, so for each of those :
Outer Wilds was a fantastic experience that you can only live once, the freedom of exploration is crazy, the feelings you can go through in the span of a single minute make it so memorable, I connected with this game like no other
Death Stranding I played during one of the lockdowns, and after hiking in Iceland, it was a continuity of these two experiences that felt very personal. It was also my introduction to Kojima games. I found it to be such a premium experience and statement about video games, I loved the insanity of the plot, and once you dug deeper, you find all the artistic inspiration and process that went behind the game, it’s an insane work of interactive art
Disco Elysium I was already fully on board just learning about the game, I sympathise with the authors, the fact that it started as an rpg campaign, with immense lore behind it, love the art style, the narration, the story and its themes, I haven’t lived in post USSR Europe but the game make me nostalgic/melancholic for a time, aesthetic, struggles I didn’t know
They’re my absolute favourite but some games come close, Inscryption, Pyre, Spiritfarer…
It’s not you, I’m probably on the opposite spectrum, being overly pessimistic. I’m not criticising this acquisition in particular and you’re right, we can’t know how this will go ; it’s more of a jab at the industry as a whole : a lot of new releases are advertised as being made by ex devs of whatever studio was once praised, and turn out to be ersatz of the original material (Back 4 Blood, Stormgate, Kerbal Space Program…). This kind of marketing is super disingenuous!