The original graphics, physics, and performance were incredible for the time, but to be fair, that’s not what you’re running when you download HL2 on steam today. The textures have been silently updated many times over the years. Your mind’s eye says “yeah, this is how I remember it”, and I’ve seen multiple streamers playing it for the first time thinking they’re seeing the original textures from 2004.
I hope the reviewers all made really positive, upbeat videos praising the way they chose to stick to such a proven pay-to-win strategy. The cosmetics and in-game currency that you spend real money to acquire really gives players a way to dispose of their bothersome disposable income. And earning daily login bonuses has never been so streamlined!
I know nothing about this game, but I would bet money this is the formula.
Seems orthogonal. I don’t care how regulation is accomplished, just that it is. I feel like the tax levels and safety nets we had in place ~70 years ago were fine, until red scare propaganda convinced everyone to vote against their own interests.
Also I feel a bit like you’ve hijacked this discussion about the importance of video games in child development.
In theory, capitalism is supposed to create exactly that environment. The problem is we have a society that doesn’t believe in proper regulation to prioritize the wellbeing of the society over that of the achievements and desires of individuals.
So much like how modern WoW has transformed into this uninteresting, solved meta that requires weakauras to do your thinking, gold buying to have gear and reagents, and no interesting competition for loot, our society is now an uninteresting solved meta where the wealthy nullify any possibility of competition, everyone is employed as wageslaves with a corporate handbook doing their thinking for them, and there’s no safety net to allow anyone take a chance at working together on interesting projects to actually compete.
The problem isn’t that we have capitalism, it’s that capitalism is synonymous with patriotism.
I’m glad you can recognize how important this is to a kid. So many wow raiders in the 00s were ostracized by society for being this dedicated to a team of other humans and a shared goal. It really is something we need to learn to embrace and harness. I love the unique emotional responses that video games are capable of eliciting in people that movies and tv never could.
I haven’t finished it yet, but AW2 is a dramatic step up in the entire experience. They still “pay homage” to the original combat, but there aren’t nearly as many enemies. If you’re familiar with the Control story and like that universe, I’d say it’s a must play.
I wouldn’t say that past generations wanted to be marketed to, it’s just that before the internet, marketing was the closest a customer could get to being spoken to by a brand.
And at some point in the history of marketing, I think companies used to see it that way too, marketing was a means of communicating with potential customers what your product offered. But as capitalism progressed, and media outlets expanded (print, radio, film, TV, etc.), honesty was optimized out in favor of “bamboozleism”.
It’s now easier than ever for a brand to have a direct, two-way conversation with their customers at any time, but marketers are still stuck in that 20th century mindset of “we just say whatever we want, and you just accept it”. The internet is in the process of popping that bubble.
They’re like Japanese Disney. They’re nothing without their IP and they know it.
They also know that the only reason they have DK as a character is because Universal dropped the ball in protecting their IP. If they let Garry’s Mod casually have a “Mario” character in it, it dilutes their ability to legally go after some other studio who straight up makes an unofficial Mario game.