There’s so many flashing lights and feedback systems to slot machines now, it’s kind of believable.

Like, you put $15 into Slay the Spire, and you KNOW you’re getting nothing back. But you get a bunch of flashy effects in the playing of it.

With gambling, you throw in $15, you get the flashy effects, AND you might get $30 back. When you look at it that way, it can become more understandable how people fall for it and feel happy to.

Ok, at first I thought it was a typo, but is “helldesk” intentional? Like “Micro$oft”, because they’re the only company that’s bad because they seek money?

There is one case for console exclusives I can think of.

Say a great singleplayer game, like Titanfall 3, or Hi-Fi Rush 2, is pitched. There’s a question from investors: “How will you monetize it?” Because even if it has a $60 price tag or higher, those ventures carry enough risk that they often want to have a strong profit margin on them; an opportunity for growth , not just capacity to make another sequel later. Hence, all the terrible efforts to make forever live service games.

With console exclusives, the clear answer is: This sells the console, which sells the other exclusives. And it means any forever-game people play, we get the 30% cut.

I would prefer it if studios answered with “We just want to make a great game!” or “Y’know what, $60 is enough!” But since we’re not getting those answers, exclusives seem like another approach.

If it’s uncomfortable and disempowering for men, you’re probably doing it right. It’s often a power dynamic.

But to draw back from a sour take: This will also turn off some people. Both ways. For instance: I love sexualized designs, but some games genuinely went too far. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Nier Automata had genuine, serious stories to tell, but fell flat on some people for sexualizing their main (female) characters in such an objectifying way.

I also think for women, the pure visual isn’t quite as important as their movements and actions. That part gets tricky since tastes vary.

There’s a few gacha games out there designed for women that can give an idea of an extreme end to take it to. Again, keep in mind, there’s not one universal appeal for a whole gender (same for guys) so it will often turn out that the most universally appealing designs are the relatively safe ones you already see.

But WINGS

Seriously, so many tasks take you through/past Central Park, it got annoying having no easy way to websling through. The wingsuit is a great part of the kit.

Only question being, how the hell does broke, near-homeless Peter afford all the gadgets.

The VR headset is only one thing. The gaming PC is another (for games like HL:A) , and that doesn’t touch on the biggest expense: Owning a living space with a mid-sized empty area that can be dedicated to one person’s entertainment. For a lot of people, that’s the biggest one.

I’ll admit, some of the earliest context I had on Chinese gaming was that they had a lot of cheaters; that there was even a greedy, cultural belief that the ends justified the means, and that if you got the win screen, it didn’t matter what you did to get there. Some game publishers even went so far as to block Chinese IP addresses/VPNs to keep them out of game servers.

I’m curious if you feel that was ever true, or whether that’s changed over time.

A solution that stops evil people from being greedy for all of future society, gaming whatever our system is to hoard resources? No, I don’t.

Whether under capitalism or socialism, either system would need frequent attention and intervention by thoughtful, socially responsible people to watch for abusers of the system.

Gonna slam people with a bit of reality here: I think it could’ve had staying power if people could afford it. And that’s not a statement on hardware companies making it too expensive - it’s a statement on people choosing to fight equality and encourage wealth hoarding.

If your market is the tiny group of wealthy consumers that can afford it, who will buy singleplayer games only, it’s not going to go far. You need. People. Able. To buy it.

A streamers I like played through Avowed, and didn’t feel it had nearly as many problems as the internet claimed.

It can be people budding into the genre. They’ve heard about how nice Steam is, and maybe play some games on a cheap laptop, but recognize a genuine desktop is the better experience.

One streamer I follow is in that situation. She streams off her PS5 and Switch, but has a donation incentive to help build her PC.

Hey, I fed your comments on my AI-generated MR into my AI, and it said it fixed it, but it didn’t change the code at all. Can you just approve it anyway?

I think the exclusive model could still work, but it requires a VERY compelling group buy-in. Remember back when there was a very wide set of games for which you had to have a PlayStation to play them. Even Nintendo still succeeds at this, albeit with a current dip due to a low number of Switch 2 exclusives. No matter how much anyone here would fuss about it being anti-consumer, eventually there’d be enough compelling reasons, and some people may just bite the bullet even if they’re regularly PC gamers. From there, that’s where the real money is; getting people to keep burning money on live-service games on that given platform, since people are locked in.

No way can one or two occasional console exclusives manage that wall of compulsion on their own.

Accumulation of power is a common motive regardless of political system. Money is just one way power gets expressed.

Not claiming our system is perfect by any means. But this thought, to me, always felt like kicking the can down the road.

I should get a cheap laptop and start self hosting…

People can run their own justifications for piracy, but god this has always been a shitty one.

It’s like not considering veganism because “The cow’s already dead. It’s been chopped up in that steak on the counter. Me refusing to eat it won’t change anything.”

Feels like many times I’ve heard in my life:

“We’d like to change this law.”
“You can’t change this law. See, it’s written here: It’s the law.”
“I’m…not contesting what it is. I’m saying I want to change it. We set it in place, we can make changes to it.”
“…But that’d be…against the law…”

I guess I’m lucky this never happened to me. I tend to do a lot of research on a console before I get it, and wait until mid-generation when it’s matured with some good games. The closest thing might be the Oculus Rift, since I never did find an addictive VR game I loved. If I hadn’t bought it, I might’ve never tried out Half-Life: Alyx, and would’ve been forever curious. But…it definitely wasn’t a killer app.

If it helps, I can recommend indie games that fit the mold.

I made a Steam curator group called “Objection! AA-Likes” to help

I get a nervous inhalation each time an acquaintance asks me for advice in buying a gaming laptop.

Their computing world started with laptops, and they want to extend the idea. It’s so hard to express to them it’s generally not a good one.