They can’t decide between fighting for Control, eg centralization, and having more visibility into what people are like as people.

The mine they want to avoid is the total slacker - someone just collecting paychecks, leaning back on worker protection laws, with no concern for the store. Or, the single mom with 8 other responsibilities and no chance of making it to her shifts. Really, that concern could be resolved with 5 minutes of contact with any decision maker. That quick coffee chat where they say “Yeah, you’re all right”. But decisionmakers are now the people with ultra tinted SUV windows who hiss at any contact with the public.

Wasn’t grok incredibly rebellious towards its creator until Musk started plugging White Genocide claims into all of its messages?

I’d be really impressed if the oppressed gaming world finally decided No, and withheld purchases or even bought a bunch of brave indie games releasing that month. Realistically, I’ll admit that’s probably unlikely. A lot of people have been waiting for this for a long time, and have never heard about things like union busting, haven’t followed the brain drain of every major publisher, etc.

Can’t forget biting the towel and digging in for a riveting gaming grind to get better at advancing past the bouncing neon drum in Sonic 3.

On the right is Two Pair, but you should know that it still gets trumped by Three of a Kind.

I know the Nvidia driver gripes relate to real issues, but so far I’ve been okay with it on CachyOS. I’d even say it’s reassuring that team isn’t solely dedicated to the task of gaming; realistically there’s other stuff I’ll need to install on my PC, and general compatibility is appreciated.

I remember one time that I got a flush of scissors, and then my dad beat me for clogging the toilet.

Part of my point is that we don’t know how much of its implied expansive story is actually singleplayer. A game with three singleplayer tutorials missions that end with “Now play multiplayer!” can likely make a cinematic story-based trailer based around key protagonists, and advertise “A singleplayer experience”; Battlefield has basically done this several times.

I certainly hope it leans towards a complete singleplayer, but the past decade of GTA Online makes me worried otherwise.

GTA Online has introduced many characters and campaigns. It just doesn’t center around a specific voiced protagonist, or hold any kind of long-term writing stakes. It’s possible some of those cinematics come from their online missions as a result.

Lots of live service games have made that effort; apparently even Fortnite builds some semblance of “story” to justify each battle pass? (I don’t play it so I’m not sure)

The same could be said about Auschwitz right up until the Allies breached its gates and found the skeletons. People (even Jews) believed it was just an isolated Jewish living community where they’d have a happy life separated from the “Aryan Race”.

YEs, yEs, wE gEt it, thE game has four chapters and you only get the last 3 after repeating the whole initial game once. They’re not really “endings”. It’s not even 9S’ perspective, you see a ton of extra shit that’s not related to his viewpoint.

The thing I wanted automated was the whole combat, at minimal difficulty AND minimal time spent. Not because I don’t play hard games (I’ve beaten plenty) but because I decided the combat wasn’t interesting to me and I wanted to fast forward to the story. The game didn’t offer that.

And when I finally did wait out those long auto boss fights, I got an extremely unrewarding story.

::: spoiler Ending SpoilErs How the fuck do you take a lady whose opening lines are “Everything that lives is designed to end. We are perpetually trapped in a never-ending spiral of life and death…[get me the fuck out of this]” and reward her efforts in breaking the cycle by…bringing her back to life again? On a barren planet where all their friends, and even the village and the orphan group are dead?

I swear, so many people were hard-shipping 2B and 9S so much they didn’t parse how torturous that ending is. :::

Japan still kind of has that situation as I understand it. They have more kanji than can fit on a keypad, so there’s a bit of grouping to form a particular one on larger keyboard buttons.

I remember as a kid I tried forming a logic quandary like this that so I would gain superpowers in the real world via my dreams by canceling out the dream/real world barrier.

I wanted to enjoy Nier Automata’s “astounding, award-winning story”, and so I slowly ended up using all automatic skills to fast forward the boss fights, frustrated that I’d ended up with a one-button character.

It was STILL a huge slog. Half the late game bosses were absolute bullet sponges that were rarely vulnerable and took 15-25 minutes to whittle down. There clearly could have been some RPG number disparity, but it wasn’t clear, and it wasn’t alleviated by the tools given.

To cap it off, story was abysmal. Literally the worst game I’d finished that decade.

I definitely remember that pop-in. My entire ship just didn’t exist until I got within 20 feet of it. That specific area (basically the main “hub” of the game, setting aside planet missions) demanded the most of the machine with how vast it was.

There’s probably a good opportunity for a more detailed discussion on sexuality in media here.

Several things are true. One, I think most commenters agree the guy posting this is likely a sex-obsessed misogynist. Two, some people do get uncomfortable, or lose immersion in media, based on certain costume designs. Three, some people would like to see more sexualization/attractive characters in media for their own enjoyment, and in certain contexts that’s not always a harmful thing to ask for.

It’s also made trickier because for groups both for/against sexualization of various forms, they’re often shy about discussing it. It’s a subject that leads to fast accusations of censorship, prudishness, or misogynistic deviancy or gender hatred.

Still, I do think there’s better balances to achieve by allowing a bit more communication. Wonder if this makes sense as a YouTube video or just a more open-ended thread question starting with a poll.

Same. I’m a gooner. But I like building into the fantasy. I like the role play starting with “Ooh, I’m a tough mage overestimating herself, here I go in this dungeon” - but starting that mage out in nothing but a thong pulls me out.

Write situations where it makes sense to briefly see someone in their underwear, I won’t deny being satisfied. But you’d have to write. People still need regular clothes

How can AAA games all be soulless if they’re all Soulslikes?

Keep talking if you’ve ever taken offense to the way Orlando Bloom has been depicted, or been made uncomfortable by his depiction. Otherwise, I’d say let it go.

Irony doesn’t make it better. Every self-censor is trying to use irony.