averyminya
@averyminya@beehaw.org
- Comment on Development on retro immersive-sim Fortune's Run paused as solo developer sentenced to prison 2 weeks ago:
“it was not sexual in nature”
- Comment on Marvel game, developed with the Chinese firm NetEase, ‘bans’ the words ‘free Taiwan’ and ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ 2 weeks ago:
Censors
- Comment on idea for a controller that sounds good on paper and I wanna share 4 weeks ago:
They used to have these for star wars and similar games. May not have come with a screen though
- Comment on After years of holding out hope, 2024 was the year I finally gave up on BioWare 4 weeks ago:
It definitely could be, it just seems like there’s a pattern of fallen leaves surrounding EA. Also, EA is great to work for, that’s why they are so bad. I know that sounds silly, but I mean that in the sense of they offer the developers so much and all the dev needs to do is add a little MTX here and there.
Then all they need to do is do it again, but maybe follow something that’s trending. Then see if maybe the full game could be cut into pieces, to sell as DLC. Then see if you can implement more MTX, maybe this time add some smoke effects that you can pay to change the color of.
That said to your point, NFS Heat has MTX that were so bad and hated that EA again like with SWBF2 got the message and didn’t include MTX in Unbound. I wouldn’t really actually mind them too much in a way but it’s also somewhat more of a core aspect to the game that having it is just so… Odd.
But that’s the thing about EA. Why did it happen again. Why didn’t they keep the message they got the first time from SWBF2. Or Andromeda with $100 payment options for a lootbox system to get you to spend more.
These were all before Heat released, and EA still was fine with doing it again.
And don’t even get me started on The Sims. They have broken and killed so many copies of sims games for people that there are cracks specifically to circumvent patches. They don’t want people playing older games so they delist them, release a patch to break it (I’m not even joking, The Sims Medieval), and the user has to move on or never the game they paid for again. It’s cruel.
So maybe a tree is just a tree. Or maybe it’s a pattern that’s ebbs and flows and EA toes the line of what they can get away with nickel and dimeing players before they throw a fit, all while leaving studios to rot while the IP they bring to EA is marionetted every 8 years, 3 if it sells well.
Not only does this behavior always return, but it encourages other companies to follow suit – and moreso when you learn that all these executives just swap between companies and EA owned 20% of Ubisoft for a decade 6 years ('04-'10).
So those are some examples of what EA does, and I’m critical because they are good to work for, and their force in the gaming industry should not be the monolith of MTX but the big stick that delivers AAA games instead of junk that destroys a developers vision and standing with the gaming community while we beg for EA to get it through their thick skulls that games are better when you put passion into them. Anthem having flying be the best part of the game suggested by EA is like the bare minimum of what a leading studio should be accomplishing.
One last point that should indicate EA’s behavior is how they treated Star Wars games. When the mouse was breathing down their neck, they came out with Star Wars Squadrons without a single hint of microtransactions. The mouse was so peeved from the SWBF2 that EA wouldn’t dare add MTX.
And yet they don’t give that respect to their small studios. Bioware doesn’t get that pass. Dice doesn’t get that pass. Respawn doesn’t get that pass.
Anyway, hey: gamejobs.co/MTX-Software-Engineer-Intern-Apex-Leg…
EA has been hiring for Interns looking for Software Microtransaction Engineers. Still leading the charge in battle passes!
Sorry if this comes off as rambling. I’m trying not to.
- Comment on After years of holding out hope, 2024 was the year I finally gave up on BioWare 4 weeks ago:
Bioware cancelled Shadow Realms because Mass Effect and Star Wars MMO was more profitable.
"Today I’m sharing some important news about Shadow Realms and our BioWare Austin studio. We’ve made the decision to not move forward with development of Shadow Realms. We fully recognize that this news is disappointing to some of our fans, so I want to explain more behind this decision.
"While the team did amazing work on the game concept and we got lots of great feedback from our fans at events and through other game testing, right now there are other projects for the team to work on within the BioWare studios for the coming year and beyond. We’ve got an incredibly talented team here at the Austin studio, and they are excited and already deep on new projects within the BioWare family, ones that will make some great BioWare games even better.
"These include additional ongoing enhancements to the award-winning Dragon Age: Inquisition, as well as the next game in the Mass Effect series and other new IP. But the biggest focus for our team in BioWare Austin will be on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. As every Star Wars™ fan knows, this is a massive year in the Star Wars universe. We have some great plans for expanding this epic game this year, and look forward to sharing the news about those plans with our players in the coming weeks.
Read between the lines. EA canned it so the studio would give us Andromeda and more Old Republic. Oh but sure, “it wasn’t EA’s decision”.
Big stick.
- Comment on After years of holding out hope, 2024 was the year I finally gave up on BioWare 4 weeks ago:
Are you familiar with the US foreign policy proposed by Theodore Roosevelt? “speak softly and carry a big stick”
EA may speak softly, but they carry a big stick. Bioware has clearly catered to EA, intentional or not, and their games have suffered from it.
Mirrors Edge was not a success either, btw.
DICE marketing director Martin Frain initially projected Mirror’s Edge to sell a total of three million units be sold across all platforms.[56] According to Electronic Arts, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions had combined sold over one million units by February 2009.[57] In October 2010, a court document pertaining to the legal conflict between Electronic Arts and Edge Games revealed that Mirror’s Edge had sold over two million units, with over 750,000 of those units having been sold in North America.[58] EA revealed the game had sold around 2.5 million units by June 2013.[59]
It took them 5 years to reach their initial projected sales, and that’s after combining every available edition. That’s a commercial failure.
They did still chase it with followup games, btw.
This was followed by Mirror’s Edge 2D, a browser game adaptation by The Fancy Pants Adventures developer Brad Borne.[41] A prequel to the game, also titled Mirror’s Edge, was released for mobile devices in 2010.[42]
Catalyst was going to be included, as it was shown at E3 in 2013 and 2014. And delay, delay, delay, all the way into 2016. Catalyst was quite literally EA chasing the money, because Mirrors Edge has only really gotten recognition long after its release – in terms of sales, and it’s availability on Steam really helped solidify it’s presence as a cult classic. The game of course was received well, it just didn’t sell (not much marketing and it’s not a game of the era, so to say, it is not an action heavy shooter game). So now after 8 years of letting this IP rot in development hell they said oh we can add some MTX and make another one, hm, let’s make it open world that’s what gamers like these days. It was actually decided in 2015 that it would be open world, since that wasn’t seen in any of the 2014 promotional. So 1 short year, since June 2016 is the games release.
Nah, I enjoyed parts of Catalyst but it’s a shell of its original. Dying Light and Ghostrunner are almost closer spiritual successors in regards to expanding on mechanics. The gameplay was the same but without any actual dynamics (gunplay wasn’t great in ME but it breaks up and gives variety), the writing was predictable and just really not that great, and that leaves new additions… Which you just avoid because it’s an open world and you only have running tools at your disposal. The mechanics of the game are horrible as well, inputs get dropped all the time it’s a huge problem. There’s just so little about the game that’s designed well, which is insane, because the game still accomplishes scratching the itch of Mirrors Edge, just very poorly.
No, what made Mirrors Edge great was the passion. It was a tight knitted and mechanically rewarding. These levels so carefully designed. Catalyst’s paths do not have the same care, they are just rushed together and it shows during the gameplay and how one path flows and the others are just ways you can go. There’s no depth and attention.
The developers freedom to pursue that passion was the very same thing that allowed Bioware to create the games they wanted to make (and like Bad Company 2’s story with DICE before dropping it entirely for multiplayer only).
BF3 may be a fine game, and 4, but you surely understand that they are copy pasted formulas that explicitly are not impassioned. What made Bad Company beloved was its improvements over the previous iteration along with its differentiation from MW2, on top of having a fair single player story. What made Mirrors Edge beloved was its direction and its gameplay. For both of these, these IP’s to EA became no more than how many zeroes they can generate. It’s a pattern with EA, from Mass Effect to Need for Speed to sports games to Battlefield. Once you have a formula you wait for it to be profitable to sell it again.
Mirrors Edge was received well but sold poorly. They tried to profit on some spinoffs, failed, 4 years later sort of began development and turned Catalyst into another open world microtransaction game without any of the heart that made Mirrors Edge work. Battlefield was mediocrely received until it did something better than CoD, then they focused on repeating that over and over, leading to BF3 and 4 and 2042, with the only “unique” Battlefield even available now being Battlefield One. Before Battlefield, it was Medal of Honor.
EA is a plight. I don’t know how you can say it’s not that bad and shift blame to the developers, that their games are their decisions. It’s just unequivocally untrue. Of course Bioware doesn’t have execs breathing down their necks, the execs are selling the game Bioware pitches to them - Mass Effect now with MTX. In that interview they literally even say, “EA wants to buy a company to do something well, if they ruin Bioware then they won’t get money. We make the games we want to make. They give input absolutely but we make our game.” Oh, and he mentions games, Shadow Realms, which never even came out because it was cancelled in 2015. And this is a video from 2013, so it may not have even been 2 years before this video with the timestamp you like is literally proving the point of the person asking the question (Q: Will Bioware be affected by EA’s acquisition; A: No, Bioware makes the games we want to make, EA wants money, EA gives input, Bioware makes the games we want to make) 2 years later, EA: Yeah, you can’t make that.
All that aside, I’m not really sure what the point of the video is supposed to prove… These people don’t even work there anymore if I remember right (head Bioware all jumped ship, no? I may be misremembering)? EA has the big stick. If you devs don’t follow them, you won’t be a dev at EA anymore. The devs at EA are inherently trapped because you cannot expect your game to be made unless it is within the expectations of the publisher, and thus you see the problem. When you pitch to EA, your creative work is already compromised. You think Bioware made the game they wanted to make with Andromeda? Anthem? Psh, Shadow Realms?
EA bought Bioware in 2007/8. EA killed Bioware in under 10 years and is now playing with its corpse. Literally 5 years after the acquisition is this video, the game of which he’s referencing 2 years later is cancelled and 2 more after that Andromeda releases. I really, really think you have mischaracterized EA and their relationship with their studios. EA is very hands off, yes. But they speak softly to you. And they carry a big stick.
You, too, would compromise your passion when working for this studio. It is actually impossible not to, by design.
I lived near EA’s SF studio for many years, that’s really honestly the main reason I even bothered to reply with something this lengthy. I know many former devs part of studios both made with and acquired by EA. It’s insane, they would be a great company to work for in so many ways. But their business practices ruin all of that. The last 20 years of EA being awful are true, just because you can point to BF2BC and say how could they be bad, you can also point to Madden Fifa and SWBF2. EA perfected this practice of seeping out the creatives from the studios long, long before Bioware was bought out.
- Comment on 'The Batman II' Heads to 2027, Warner Bros' Tom Cruise Movie In 2026 4 weeks ago:
Part of it is certainly the current DC studio timeline. This is a separate batman from James Gunn’s, so it’s likely placed around other DC titles.
- Comment on Jared Leto to Play Skeletor in 'Masters of the Universe' Movie 5 weeks ago:
Probably have the same politics
- Comment on Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far 1 month ago:
It’s the same for Samsung’s AI stuff, the only really useful one is it’s smart selecting features - cropping photos, taking out specific images for stickers/collaging.
Everything else though is just the creativity I want to do being done for me.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 15th 1 month ago:
I’ve been playing Marvel Rivals since it came out and I’m hooked, lol. It’s such a good blend. I put a lot of time in Paladins but it’s been a long time, so it’s nice having a little group of friends to play with again. Solo queuing also has been pretty good overall, but once in a while there’s a team that is clearly better and it’s just a stomping ground for 5 minutes.
It’s also funny how heavily it’s being compared to overwatch when it’s just hero shooters as a whole, and OW is hardly the closest match lol
- Comment on Amazon starts selling Hyundai cars, more brands next year 1 month ago:
Or even worse yet, Chrysler.
- Comment on Users from Other Instances 1 month ago:
I’m sorry to hear that, you’re one of my favorite instances (that I come across in passing)
- Comment on What do we think will be GoTY and which game do we think should be? 1 month ago:
Marvel Rivals, because it just came out so it’s fresh in people’s minds, it’s a free to play game with a popular IP and it does a good job as the game it wants to be.
Mostly kidding, that just seems to be the state of games these days lol. Whatever games release at the beginning of the year seem to falter to recency bias of games released later in the year.
- Comment on Water + hot oil 1 month ago:
Dev = working on game
Dev = game developer
Dev = whatever fits until further clarification is needed based on context
Game development requires writers, artists, coders, so they’re game devs. Could it be more specific? Sure. Does it always need to be? Certainly not.
- Comment on Germ Blaster 1 month ago:
It just gets a lot of water drops off your hands and the air drying helps
- Comment on Germ Blaster 1 month ago:
Can’t watch at the moment; is this the guy who says to shake 7 times before you dry?
- Comment on What happened to gaming? 1 month ago:
You may as well have typed this in 2009 or 2015.
It used to be that people argued that it’s worth getting the new game console because “better graphics”. The console wars hasn’t gone anywhere, it’s just expanded.
In any case, in regards to just installing a game and playing it, no, not really. When I was playing games in college in 2012 it was still a time when you would open a game and go to the settings menu to adjust settings.
Sometimes it was just turning off motion blur, but there was always settings to change to try to reach a stable 60FPS.
Nothing changed, it just expanded. Now instead of 60FPS it’s a variable 60-240FPS. Instead of just 720p-1080p resolution, unless it’s portable, it’s 1080p minimum otherwise variable up to 4k. Instead of “maxing out” we now have raytracing which pushes software further than our hardware is capable.
These aren’t bad things, they’re just now 1) slightly marketed, 2) more well known in the social sphere. There isn’t anything stopping you from opening up the game and going right away, and there’s nothing stopping other people from wondering about frame timings and other technical details.
Sure, focusing on the little things like that can take away from the wider experience, but people pursue things for different reasons. When I got Cyberpunk 2077 I knew that there were issues under the hood, but my experience with the game at launch was also pretty much perfect because I was focused on different things. I personally don’t think a dip here and there is worth fretting over, but some people it ruins the game for them. Other people just like knowing that they’re taking full advantage of their hardware, hence figuring out the utilization of their components.
There’s one last aspect not mentioned. Architectures. 10 years ago games would just boot up and run… But what about games from 10 years before then? Most players not on consoles were having to do weird CPU timing shenanigans to be able to boot up a game from (now 20) years ago. We’re in the same boat now with emulation, which while emulation is faring better, X360/PS3 generation games that had PC ports are starting to have issues on modern Windows. Even just 5 or 6 years ago games like Sleeping Dogs wouldn’t play nice on modern PC’s, so there’s a whole extra aspect of tinkering on PC that hasn’t even been touched on.
All this to say, we are in the same boat we’ve always been in. The only difference is that social media now has more knowledge about these aspects of gaming so it’s being focused on more.
The one thing I do agree with though is that this is all part of software development. Making users need better hardware, intentional or not, is pretty crazy. The fact that consoles themselves now have Quality vs Performance modes is also crazy. But, I will never say no to more options. I actually think it’s wrong that the console version of games often are missing settings adjustments, when the PC counterpart has full control. I understand when it’s to keep performance at an acceptable level, but it can be annoying.
- Comment on Free to play monster-hunting game Dauntless now on Steam and works on Steam Deck, desktop Linux needs a quick fix 1 month ago:
I’d rather just play Monster Hunter anyway.
- Comment on Ubisoft shut down multiplayer shooter XDefiant and lay off hundreds who worked on it 1 month ago:
That sucks but is expected. I played it for a short period of time and it was alright. It was a bit floaty and there wasn’t a lot of impact behind the actions in the game. That said, it felt alright for a point and click shooter.
The two biggest issues I ran into personally were the length of games compared to length of lobby times, and after a few hours, everyone just picked the best character, instead of working on team comp.
- Comment on Riot Games is cracking down on players’ off-platform conduct 1 month ago:
Toxic behavior being normalized leads to other people acting similarly.
I mean, “haha screaming so funny, I do same thing cause I want to be funny”
- Comment on Anyone know of a good QR code generation service for high-res images? 2 months ago:
This was what I came to suggest for you
- Comment on The world is ending but here's a side quest - will RPGs ever solve their urgency problem? 2 months ago:
I agree with the other user who said it’s a writing problem e.g. choosing the immediacy of end of the world plot device. Unless it’s done with very specific circumstances, like Overcooked 1 where the first level is the Spaghetti Monster Apocalypse and then you jump back in time through a portal. I think Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a good example of this exact problem the article raises though. It’s a relatively short game, but there is no end of the world. There are 2 major events, your destiny as the Arisen to fight the dragon that killed you, and the in-world politics of a government and some corrupt individuals working to prevent this event for their own plan.
I mention this game primarily because it uses a mechanic that many completionists tend to dislike - there are “timed” quests. Not all of them, usually ones that make sense to run out of time on (but again, not all of them.) So for example, at one point there is a quest to attend a masquerade ball, which is a permanent main story quest until you choose to attend. This is the exact issue the premise of the article brings up, where time is infinite until you decide to continue.
And yet, at the same time, there are a few quests where you may encounter a random NPC who is asking for help for someone who goes missing, and if too many in game days pass by, well… They die.
Ultimately I had other pacing issues with the story, but I did really enjoy how it goes about “solving” urgency when an in-game world timer exists. I’ve never been the biggest fan of time-managed items, (for example, raw potato, ripened potato, rotten potato over the course of 1-3 days), but Dragon’s Dogma 1 and 2 both did it fairly well since the items that do expire 1) make sense, it’s food, and 2) are in fair abundance. It helps solve the hoarding of your items, gives you a little extra money if you sell it as the right phase, and allows for varied item combinations as well (raw+item = curative, ripe+item = stamina, rotten+rotten = oil for lantern or status effect combinations).
I think really the issue just comes down to what is fun gameplay mechanics? Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu for PS2/Gamecube had timed levels, a mechanic that makes sense for a game centered around saving people before they kill hostages. Star Ocean had an in game timer matched to clocks, so the only way to stop the timer was to turn off the game. After (24?) hours, it’s game over. Quite frankly… timed mechanics are usually seen as gimmicky and are not very popular - they may have moments of appreciation, but I’m not sure if it’s a beloved mechanic.
Which in turn results in, “I have you now Spider-Man! In just 8 hours my bomb will blow New York to high heavens!” And then the player goes to help every child get their balloon back before the main story progresses.
- Comment on Valve must address swastikas and other hate on Steam, writes US senator in a letter to Gabe Newell 2 months ago:
Pepe was a neutral meme. He is not anymore.
The sad reality is that he is a politicized figuredhead for fascism. You can try and use him, but you need to be aware of how others use him, and it will end up reflecting more poorly on you than it will help reclaiming him.
I suggest looking the links on my comment linked, but at the very least on your own look up, “Pepe meme Putin”, and “was Pepe at January 6th”. People are using him to storm the capitol and dressing him up in an iron cross to assassinate political figures. That’s not just casual memes :(
I say this as someone who grew up with his era of memes (my first memes were icanhazcheezeburger which was the precursor to RageFu). I remember his good days too man.
But Pepe got Alex Jonesed. He got assaulted by the MAGA cult and they put him on a cross like Jesus and now he’s dying for their sins. I don’t think we can save him.
- Comment on Valve must address swastikas and other hate on Steam, writes US senator in a letter to Gabe Newell 2 months ago:
Sadly it’s like that for pretty much any game.
On the bright side, a lot of them are bots just trying to influence real people. Unfortunately, it is people who made these bots who probably do have that hatred. And of course, not all of them are bots…
Remember to check the discussion board posts themselves (each comment), if there is a mouse icon, it means they own/play the game. If there is no mouse icon, they do not.
With this in mind, you’ll notice the bot propaganda posts 90% of the time have not played nor own the game. At least on Steam, they may have pirated the game to play it, then decided to post on discussion boards about how empathy and recognizing of othe- sorry, “wokeness” is killing gaming.
It’s so stupid how hatred stifles discussion. Ironically hating the things just makes them focus on it more.
- Comment on Democrats bet on women showing up in force. They didn’t. 2 months ago:
A key part of educating people about progressive causes and initiatives is running progressive campaigns and motivating people to get involved in those campaigns or to support them
Then I suppose our state ballots should be separate from our federal ones. It is wrong to not vote for anything if your one reservation from the rest of your ballot is the choice of president.
- Comment on Democrats bet on women showing up in force. They didn’t. 2 months ago:
It seems short sighted to throw away all of your local election voting power just because you don’t like the presidential options you have available.
And, as mentioned, particularly when one of them is specifically meant to be able to pick a better presidential candidate. Seems like the kind of thing one would want to go vote for.
- Comment on Democrats bet on women showing up in force. They didn’t. 2 months ago:
I think if that was the case, people would have showed up to vote for ranked choice voting which was on a ton of state ballots this year.
Oddly, they all failed since people didn’t bother to vote for those either. Not voting for the thing that will change the system that put these voters in this situation in the first place…
Suffice to say, it’s a lot more than just one reason.
- Comment on Sockpuppet network impersonating Americans and Canadians amplifies pro-Israel narratives on X 2 months ago:
Makes sense, although sadly the elder you look the more likely they are to be pro-Israel. If I’m lucky, the person I’m interacting with recognizes that Hamas are not the people of Palestine, and even then it’s a dicey conversation.
This has been my experience in Oregon at an elder care facility, at least.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of November 3rd 2 months ago:
Well, the Monster Hunter Wilds Beta test ended. I’m devastated honestly, because I didn’t get to play it enough! It started the day I had work and ended 2 hours after I got off today. I misread the timezone and I thought it ended on the 4th and 11:59am in my timezone. It ended at like 8pm or so.
So that’s too bad! Other than that ~8 hour treat that I thoroughly enjoyed, I’ve finally gotten around to Dragon’s Dogma 2 and I’m enjoying it as well (though slighted now after my favorite series was ripped away from me). It feels a little floaty for some of the characters, but it so far has been a good experience. I’ve been in a bit of a gaming slump so it’s been nice to relax some and play some nostalgic games right as winter is hitting.
The gaming slump I was in had me pretty much only playing Phantom Brave and sifting through little games like Sonic Mania, so I’m looking forward to the games I have on my radar cause it’s really the first time in a while!
Oh also, Amanda the Adventurer 2 came out and my partner and I played through it a little bit. It’s pretty good, although it isn’t the most straightforward. We had to use a guide for quite a bit of it and, while we were close to the right track for each puzzle, we just were not on the ball with what the developers wanted from us. I think the first game was a lot like that though if I remember, and so really what matters more with that in mind is how they continue the story and the atmosphere, which they really nailed. The perfect amount of corporate conspiracy supernatural demon cult technological red herring horror.
All in all, I guess being an adult means winter is gaming time cause I’ve been pretty much too busy the rest of the year to really want or have time to game. For me, a big part of gaming is how I’m feeling, sometimes I want point and pop, sometimes I want laid back, sometimes I want something new, and sometimes I want to make numbers go big. And sometimes, I want to do other things that aren’t gaming, which makes actually gaming feel a little guilty.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of November 3rd 2 months ago:
That’s funny, I feel the opposite about Deadlock! There’s not really a MOBA first person shooter that is out there, particularly one with such an in depth movement system that is fairly ubiquitous for each character. It does have a skill ceiling, but I would say for casual play, especially starting out, it’s mostly about being patient brick wall and playing the denial game to force mistakes that you can punish.
It’s effectively a first person MOBA with characters that you might see in Paladins. It feels really good, but it is intense for sure – my biggest issue is map navigation and learning it as a whole. But I also really like technical gameplay, one of my favorite games is Smash Bros. Melee so this is just an extension of that love.
I would say if you wanted to give it a shot (if you haven’t already) give each character a shot in the training ground. Get a small feel for their abilities and it’ll help you get a sense of not only what feels fun for you, but also what to expect from the opponents! And for items, that’s a bit harder, I personally don’t care much and just go by passives that sound helpful. Just click once though, double clicking will buy and then sell the item.
Which, in a way is a testament to my first paragraph. Patience is key ;)