Comment on Hee Hee Ho Ho Ha Ha

• bearboiblake@pawb.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  A good game with predatory monetization can still be enjoyable. Bad, boring uninspired game cant’t.

  Sure, but I’d say that predatory monetization does a lot more harm than a boring game does. A boring game is just “wow, this kinda sucks, guess I’ll refund it” or maybe at worst you lose the purchase price of the game, but games with predatory monetization can cause serious financial harm to people who struggle to control their spending habits, it’s a bit like gambling.

  They also implemented LGBT themes in a way thats actually enjoyable for normal player.

  Yeah, this was one of the reasons I asked about it - I think it’s a demonstration of how fun and enjoyable games with lots of diversity can be, and I was curious how you felt about it. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

  I think its different phrasing of the same issue. Instead of pushing the boundaries, these companies produce stuff that won’t cause any controversy, no risk taking, just one established scheme over and over again as long as revenue exeeds the costs.

  Yes, exactly! But my point is that I don’t see the root of that problem as political correctness, the root of the problem is greed, and they’re just making a game that tries to appeal (or panders to) modern gaming audiences, who are more and more diverse themselves by the day. They just do a really shitty job of it.

  Do you have insight of why UK left the EU?

  I sure do. Scotland is very pro-EU, and we had an independence referendum shortly before the Brexit vote (i.e. a vote to decide if Scotland should become independent of the UK or not) and one of the major points the anti-independence people kept making was that an independent Scotland would be kicked out of the EU and have to re-apply to join. It was probably a big reason why the independence referendum failed. Then we were dragged out of the EU a short time later by England anyways. It was a very frustrating time.

  As to why the UK voted for Brexit, there are a few reasons, but the central one is basically the same old story - cost of living increasing out of pace with wages, public services under a lot of strain and failing, etc. Another major component was the media, who constantly spammed pro-Brexit messaging. There was some other stuff mixed in there too - ideas of “sovereignty” - i.e. British chauvinism (“no damn frenchie is gonna tell me what to do! what if i want a flammable pillow!!”), and to some extent, racism also played a role, but in all honesty, if it wasn’t for austerity, I think we would still be in the EU. I really hope we can rejoin soon.

  I trade cryptocurrencies. Won’t say any more due to privacy reasons.

  Thanks for sharing that - I’m a software engineer.

  Shit happens, if things go bad, I’ll be there to support him.

  Good for you <3

  To be honest when I socialize, I don’t care about financial status.

  Sure, I get that, but what I’m trying to get at, is that you might not be aware of the issues that affect people who aren’t as well off as you are if you don’t talk to them about it, right? Like, I can speak from experience that there are lots of government programs in my own country which exist to provide support to people, but in practice, actually accessing those programs is very, very difficult. I’m disabled, spent my years 18+ in a wheelchair, and applying for disability benefits was/is a complete nightmare. My first request for it, which provided like 300+ pages of evidence, doctors notes, etc. was rejected, and from what I hear basically everyone is rejected on the first try. After appealing, it was accepted - but then, a few years later, they just arbitrarily decided that I must have gotten better, so I had to re-apply and go through an appeals process which is still ongoing over a year later, and I’m just having to scrape by without that much needed money. I’m really lucky that I’m able to work part-time and that I have a supportive partner, because if I had lived alone and was unable to work, I’d be homeless by now. My story is hardly a rare exception, either - I’m a volunteer at a local advocacy & support group for disabled people, and I hear stories like this from almost everyone.

  noone ever talks about actual money. People are quite privacy oriented around that subject. Is Scotland different in that regard?

  It varies a lot - in my experience, older people tend to be a lot more private, but younger people are more open. It benefits people to talk about things like this, especially at work, so that they can learn that they are being underpaid or paid fairly for their job. There’s nothing that motivates you to ask for a pay raise quite like hearing that someone in the office who does a worse job than you do gets paid more!

  I honestly dont know. I have suspicion that’s result of women doing careers all the way to their 30s spending most of their fertile part of life on working rather than building a family, but thats just my hypothesis

  I’ve heard this hypothesis before - I guess my first question is, if women have to spend their lives working, isn’t that just a second-order effect of financial reasons? It used to be that a single working man could make enough money to afford to pay for a whole family, but that is no longer true. Women need to take on a career so that they can afford to live.

  source

  • BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    predatory monetization can cause serious financial harm to people

    I’m strong believer in personal responsibility. Lootboxes are purchased both by responsible and irresponsible people. I don’t want to deprave one person of fun because other one can’t manage their funds. That aside, I very rarely buy them

    I don’t see the root of that problem as political correctness, the root of the problem is greed

    I disagree here. Every money making endeavor has greed factor in it. Everyone wants to make money, there’s nothing wrong with it. The issue is that this twisted version of political correctness is extremely selective, and doesn’t even sell well! It isn’t even greed! Look at Witcher 3. You have wonderful, deep quest about Bloody Baron that talks about domestic violence and abuse. You have quest about hunter who got cast away because he was gay. You have a hilarious quest with cross-dressing tailor that somehow ended up on Dandelions list of whores.

    Now look at Dragon Age Veliguard: There’s that trans character quest. It’s laid out so horribly bluntly it feels obnoxious, meanwhile gameplay itself was just very mid, as were player numbers on steam Or Concord: Game had literally character in the colours of the trans flag. It flopped so hard that developer refunded all purchases Or Black Samurai as main character in Assasins Creed: Shadows… Why would you want a black main character in game about japan? Why??? Sales were so bad, that Ubisoft refused to answer how many licenses they sold when asked about it during investors call. Or Netflix Witcher show, where they inserted people of color not bothering to even crosscheck it with lore (They invented elven dark skinned boy who came with Ciri to Brokilon… which according to lore, implied child rape, because Dryades always used captured males for procreation, and consent wasn’t a factor). At the same time they cut out the some important dialogue where elves were racist against humans… Or most hilariously, recent pick of black actor as Snape in Harry potter show. There are at least few lines in the book that they managed to make sound racist with this single manoeuvre.

    If this was a greed issue, these companies would just go with whatever sells, but they don’t.

    Sure, I get that, but what I’m trying to get at, is that you might not be aware of the issues that affect people who aren’t as well off as you are if you don’t talk to them about it, right? Like, I can speak from experience that there are lots of government programs in my own country which exist to provide support to people, but in practice, actually accessing those programs is very, very difficult.

    Your story about struggle with disability seems awfully familiar to what we have in poland. I’ve heard horror stories of people going through similar issues as you

    they just arbitrarily decided that I must have gotten better

    Also familiar. Don’t know anyone with severe disability personally, but I know this sort of thing happens way more often than it should.

    But the family subsidies are much easier to get. I remember few years ago my friend who’s works in housing market sales told me, that once government introduced subsidies for mortgages, number of signed sale agreements went up dramatically.

    source