EldritchFeminity
@EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- Comment on Videogames: Then and Now 1 week ago:
I don’t have the data to back it up, but I disagree. By the time that lootboxes and micro transactions appeared, the video game industry was already in competition with Hollywood for profits - if not already making more.
One of the largest costs for the industry historically has been manufacturing the physical media. It costs a lot to produce all the cartridges and packaging, and to have that shipped around the world. As technology improved, however, those costs began to drop on a per unit basis from the cartridges of old to the cds and dvds of the 2000s, allowing for a higher profit margin on a per unit basis. But the biggest kicker was the development of digital storefronts. Suddenly, you didn’t have to make a single piece of physical media in order to sell a game, and companies suddenly began to make back a lot more of that $60 directly instead of having it spent on manufacturing. They make the game once, and then each copy they sell after the first costs effectively $0 to manufacture since it’s the exact same copy as the first. Then you also have every game selling a “digital deluxe edition” for as much as $100 (or more!), often for just some exclusive cosmetics.
Micro transactions and live service is what they call the “long tail” of a game - you already made the product and sold it, but it continues to bring in money after the fact. Companies don’t have to spend huge sums to make a brand new game when they can just trickle out incremental updates and skins and rake in the money.
- Comment on Videogames: Then and Now 1 week ago:
Whales are largely a myth told by video game (and gambling) companies to hide the truth of who they’re actually targeting and to keep you blaming the wrong people.
They want you to blame the dude with more money than the church and not enough brains to know the difference between cents and sense, but the truth is that the vast VAST majority of money made through lootboxes and other forms of gambling comes from 3 sources:
Kids aged 15 and under, people with addiction issues, and people with mental health issues like depression or neurodivergent conditions like ADHD.
Game companies hire psychologists to develop the most effective ways to exploit the way the human brain functions in order to maximize the amount of money that they can squeeze out of people, and all 3 of these groups suffer from the same issues that they exploit: poor impulse control and difficulty with keeping track of how much they’re actually spending. Kids because their brains aren’t physically developed enough yet, addicts (and people with ADHD to a lesser extent) because their brains are literally wired that way, and people with mental health issues have reduced capacity for both and are more likely to seek out things that promise quick access to dopamine and serotonin (think “retail therapy” or self medicating). Also of note is that researchers suspect that kids who grow up spending money on lootboxes and micro transactions in general are more likely to develop addictive personality issues later in life - basically being groomed into gambling addicts.
That’s also why they never let you buy stuff directly with money and use fake currencies that don’t have a 1 to 1 translation - it makes it 10 times harder to track how much you actually spent. It’s also why you can never buy the exact amount you need for an item: if you have currency left over, you’re more likely to buy more so that it isn’t “wasted”.
- Comment on The agenda 2 weeks ago:
Yes.
Who do you think is doing all the keyboard smashes?
- Comment on Fuckin' furries 2 weeks ago:
Don’t forget TV, movies, and video games. I met soooo many furries who went to school for animation.
- Comment on Fuckin' furries 2 weeks ago:
Go back to /b/ then, channer. The internet has moved on since the dial-up days and realized that furries are actually really chill people.
- Comment on Surviving a heatwave : Prison Edition 2 weeks ago:
You might also try a “swamp cooler” to cool down with:
Grab a bucket and a fan, and pour ice water into the bucket. Put the fan on behind the bucket and sit in the cool breeze it makes. It’s like having your own little a/c unit.
The one downside to this is that the evaporating water will eventually make the air humid and make it harder for your sweat to cool you down, but it works great in the short term.
- Comment on What do you think about the dead internet theory? 2 weeks ago:
I am constantly reminded of a song from the early 2000s called Bastard by Ben Folds, especially the lyric that goes “spread the facts on the floor like a fan. Throw away the ones that make you feel bad.”
The Republican party is a cult through and through, and the way cults work is that they give the desperate and victimized an answer to their troubles. They tell them that it isn’t their fault, it’s someone else’s. Specifically, it’s the Outsider’s fault. They appeal to their emotions and create an insular bubble against anybody who says anything that goes against what they believe. Because if you aren’t with them, then you’re against them. And that makes you an Outsider, too. An enemy to be hated and vilified.
So they decide on their answers before they’ve even seen the facts, and any that don’t fit what they want can be safely discarded as the enemies’ lies poisoning their glorious truth.
And what makes this even harder to combat is that there’s a tipping point for most people beyond which it’s incredibly difficult to come back from. You have the real crazies who don’t care anymore, if the leader says babies are delicious, then they’ll start boiling cooking oil, but for most people in a cult, the thing that truly traps them even if they’ve realized that the cult is wrong, is that they’d have to admit that they’re wrong. And not just that they, themselves, are wrong, but that everything they’ve done, everything that they’ve believed, for years and years, is wrong. And it’s a rare kind of person who can look down from the summit of that mountain and accept that every step they’ve taken up it has been a step in the wrong direction.
I’m also reminded of Nazi Germany. The people turning in Jews weren’t the monsters at the top, like Heimlich Himmler, they were “good people” - the neighbor who always has a pocket full of dog treats when they go out for a walk, the owner of the local grocery store. The people you walk past every day at work or on the street. Your mother, father, aunt, or cousin. Your friends. “Bad people” are never “bad” people. They’re just people. There’s footage of Hitler that’s been floating around the web for decades at this point that people almost unanimously say is unnerving: it’s Hitler, sitting at a table outside, who turns to the person holding the camera and gets up, saying “What are you doing, filming an old man like me? I should be the one filming a beautiful girl like you!” People are unsettled by it because it’s simply Hitler being human, like anyone else. He’s not acting like the monster that we see in our heads. He’s just…a person. And that goes for all of the worst monstrosities to ever walk the planet - and the most gentle of saints. Each and every one of them is…just a person, who, like everyone else, believes that they’re the hero of their story.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 2 weeks ago:
It’s definitely a shower, not a grower.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 3 weeks ago:
It’s also 6 inches across. I don’t think my graphics card alone could fit in a 6 inch cube, let alone my full PC.
- Comment on Steam Machine pricing announced (from $1049-$1428 USD), reservation lists open 3 weeks ago:
Apparently they were originally intending for it to be around the $750-800 range for the base model.
You do also have to factor in that it’s about a 6 inch cube, though, so it’s no surprise that the specs are underpowered.
- Comment on Epic Games unveils Launcher V2 in re-attempt to topple Steam, says redesigned storefront is up to 6.5x faster — promises player profiles, user reviews, universal controller support, and much more 3 weeks ago:
They definitely lost sales because of how horrible the user experience was/is, too.
Remember how the store launched without a fucking shopping cart so you had to buy each game as a separate transaction? Pepperidge Farms remembers that Epic isn’t even capable of the most basic of features required for an online store.
Of course, they’ll never get a cent out of me after they pulled that scumbag move of putting games on sale without ever asking the devs - they put games that hadn’t even released at like 50% off!
- Comment on I hope they'll make it more contagious 4 weeks ago:
That’s also clearly a photo of Luigi Mangione at the time that that healthcare CEO died under mysterious circumstances.
- Comment on What do they put in this stuff? 5 weeks ago:
See, here’s the thing: they made a generalized comment on a screenshot of what looks like an Amazon order. That makes it seem like they’re talking about anybody who orders food online, regardless of whether it’s Door Dash or 5-7 day shipping. There’s no way to tell from that photo whether that’s a single can or a box of 30.
And that timesaving comment has the same levels of sarcasm as any “lazy youth” remark.
Besides, if you’re willing to pay somebody else a decent wage to deliver something for the convenience to you, what’s the issue? At that point it’s no different from ordering at a restaurant or deli - pizza places have had delivery drivers for half a century! Should we be upset with people who don’t cook all of their own meals?
- Comment on DOGE cut 20% of APHIS the agency that protects U.S. agriculture and now the screwworm parasite that wipes out livestock has returned to the U.S 5 weeks ago:
It’s all conjecture at this point, but there’s an argument to be made that increased funding (like when Biden quadrupled their budget, as someone else said he did during his term) could have pushed it back as the Darian Gap is a natural choke point that provides much better bang for your buck compared to having to fight it back across what could potentially be the entire continental US in a few years (or less).
If the feral hog population is a vector as well, we could see it explode like a wildfire out towards the east coast, and with climate change who knows how far north they will go. I don’t think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell of us ever being able to contain it like that again. In 5 years time Canada might be allocating funds towards trying to contain it at the US border.
- Comment on DOGE cut 20% of APHIS the agency that protects U.S. agriculture and now the screwworm parasite that wipes out livestock has returned to the U.S 5 weeks ago:
Always remember that 50% of the population is more dumb than the average American.
Which begs the question of whether or not the median would be pushed up by conservatives actually being a minority in the US (studies claim that 60% of the population is more left leaning than the government regardless of who is in office), or if it would be even worse because we’re all actually just that dumb.
- Comment on Fallout lead Tim Cain argues games industry crisis hasn't reached the level of the 1983 crash: 'I don't think there's ever been a worse time in the games industry' 1 month ago:
The “crisis now” part is the economic downturn. People aren’t spending as much on games as they were, especially after all these companies bet big on the idea that people would continue to spend money on games like they did during COVID forever. So now it affects the C Suite, and things only matter when they affect them personally.
- Comment on Anon plays Metal Gear Rising Revengeance 1 month ago:
If this man had run in any recent US presidential election, he would’ve gotten a noticeable chunk of the votes.
He’s basically Trump before Trump thought he could get elected. Talks a lot about changing a broken system, personal freedom, and how might makes right, while the system he proposes is basically identical to the system he promises to change, only more cruel because it will be run only by those with the strength to plant their boot on the neck of everyone else.
“We must tear down the oppression of the orphan crushing machine! Then every orphan will be able to make their own choices, and fight their own fights, in my new orphan gladiator arena!”
- Comment on Is there an "Avoid Amazon" community for people who want to support smaller online retailers? 1 month ago:
Not necessarily owned by Amazon, but plenty of websites are running on Amazon systems on the back end for stuff like payment processing and web hosting, or the business uses Amazon to ship their products. There are plenty of Amazon affiliate companies out there as well, but sometimes buying from an independent business still gives money to Amazon through delivery or processing fees or something.
- Comment on PlayStation boss says single-player games won’t come to PC going forward | VGC 1 month ago:
As of the end of the second quarter of last year, the PS5 was apparently just behind the PS4 in terms of lifetime sales, 84.2 million to the PS4’s 86 million at that same point in the PS4’s sales.
However, going into and during the November/December holiday season, sales dropped off compared to last year - selling 1.5 million units less during the last fiscal quarter compared to 2024.
So overall, the PS5 seems to be in a pretty healthy spot, having sold more units so far than the PS3 did in its “lifetime”, but it has not done as well as Sony wants it to. It hasn’t sold as well as the PS4, and definitely hasn’t outsold it. And if the downward year over year sales trend continues, Sony will find themselves in hot water. With the economic downturn, sales of everything will continue to suffer, and I think something that will hurt the PS5 (and PS6) that a lot of console players don’t think about is that PC gamers tend to also own at least 1 console. Many PC gamers owned a PS4 and a PS3 as well. But, with money becoming an issue, they’re not going to drop their PC for a console. They’ll drop the console for the PC they already own and accept that they’ll miss out on the exclusives. And Sony already had issues with people not replacing their PS4s with a PS5. For years people simply weren’t doing it. So far there are only about 8 PS5 exclusive games that aren’t also out on PS4 or were timed exclusives that are on PC as well. And we’re 5 years into the PS5’s lifetime, which is usually a decade at most for console generations. That’s not a lot of incentive to entice people to give up their money for a PS5 for. Why buy a PS5 for 8 games when I have the entirety of my Steam library going back to 2007? Plus, PC has its own exclusives. Practically an entire industry of them. The sheer volume of indie games exclusive to the PC means that you could play a new game everyday for the rest of your life and never spend a single cent on any AAA studio.
One thing that you’re missing is why Sony games sold “poorly” on the PC, and that comes down to the port quality, the delay between console and PC release, and the price. Many Sony releases had/still have performance issues. And there was the PlayStation account drama, which probably hurt sales. Add to that that it’s at least an additional year before a Sony game comes out on Steam, and then they charge full console price. Is it any surprise why they “sell poorly”? PC gamers have already had to wait a year or more for the game, they might as well wait for a sale for it to be at a reasonable price. But look at a game like Helldivers 2. The PC makes up a major portion of the player base. There’s a reason that Sony said “single player” games, not all games. Games sell on the PC. PC gamers just aren’t willing to accept the quality for the price that Sony was offering for their tentpole games. If we base the size of the market on the total number of games downloaded last year, the PC makes up almost half of the PC/console market: 857 million downloads vs 626 million on Sony consoles, and 546 million on Xbox, for a combined roughly 2 billion total games downloaded in 2025. The PC market is no drop in the bucket by console terms. We won’t talk about the 52 billion mobile games downloaded last year.
Sony will try again if the PC market doesn’t go in on buying a PS5/PS6 like Sony hopes, which I don’t think they will. I don’t think it will be anytime soon, but the line needs to go up. Forever. They’ll cut costs where they can and increase prices as much as their customers will let them, but eventually they’ll turn to other options, and the PC market is a low-hanging fruit tempting easy short-term gains for little effort.
- Comment on Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Director Says It Did Gay Romance "Right" By Not Going "Woke" 2 months ago:
Yes, that is not what the word “originally” meant, yes it is
partiallycompletely the result of right wing propaganda, yes “political correctness” and “sjw” have similar issuesFixed it for you.
It is a common conservative tactic, taking the language of something meant to improve the lives of minorities in some way and turning it into a negative thing. As you said, they did it with “politically correct” in the 90s, “social justice warrior” in the late 2000s, “woke” in the 2010s, and are currently working on “DEI.” It’s how they control the narrative and normalize their hatred. And it’s why Tim Walz calling them “weird” was so effective and why they got so upset by it - and why I’ll never forgive the Democrats for muzzling him when we finally had a weapon to fight back against this insidious colonialism of language.
The fact that you believe that there’s a middle ground where the definition isn’t an attack on minorities means that they’ve succeeded in shifting the Overton Window and you’ve become used to the hatred yourself. Every single one of those terms that you mentioned was redefined for the sole purpose of being used to attack anybody who dared to openly talk about being a minority or exist as a minority.
The “woke” are as real as the “blue haired girls with pronouns SJW getting off the ‘Down With CIS’ bus and assaulting people” of 15 years ago, and the token representation that you’re talking about is what’s known as “rainbow capitalism,” not “woke.”
“Self-righteous, superficial, performative, and preachy” are the exact words used to describe a gay man daring to exist in public or talk about being gay in any way and not hide away like Section 28 and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell are still in effect. That’s what “woke” means when used under the new definition: a minority dared to openly behave like a minority in public and not be ashamed of it.
- Comment on weekend plans 2 months ago:
I think there’s a cliff between affordability/knowledge and payload capacity that has kept this from being practical. Then there’s the traceability aspect. Where and how you buy it, how it’s controlled, etc. A drone controlled by a smart phone can be traced back to that phone, for example.
A drone is far cheaper than a missile, but the military can drop thousands on a drone and not blink an eye. That’s not something that’s practical for the average person, and the skills required to build one are also at the higher end of hobbyist level skills. It’s similar to 3d printed equipment. 3d printed guns are a thing, but it’s generally easier to go buy some PVC pipe for a barrel and a nail for a firing pin. Or just buy a gun, they’re about the price of RAM nowadays. People have even printed RPGs and man portable anti-air/anti-armor missile launchers, but it’s not something even your average skilled hobbyist can do.
The day somebody makes a flying pressure cooker out of an R/C car, though, all bets are off.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
Yeah, and guns don’t kill people. People kill people!
- Comment on North America contains some of the longest continuous decididous forest records on the planet. 2 months ago:
This is also the second time that he’s tried this. The first time was during his previous term, and though he was forced to reopen everything by the courts, the fact that he sold some of the federal land to (I think) oil companies was never acted upon, despite it being illegal to sell public land to corporate interests.
- Comment on Anon is worried about AAA sales 2 months ago:
It absolutely does need it. It’s needed it for several decades at this point. Layoffs in the past few years have been higher than they were during the 2008 recession, and that’s a year after year stat, not combined. Every year has had worse layoffs than after one of the worst financial collapses in recent history. Wages have been stagnate since I was in college almost 20 years ago and realized that I made more at my summer job than I could expect to make starting out as an artist in the industry, and I’d be walking in with a bunch of college debt.
Let it burn and watch the new studios built by people who make games, not corporate finance bros, rise from the ashes like new growth after a brush fire, full of passion for making good games first and foremost.
- Comment on A handy reference guide for you 2 months ago:
Here’s a video she did of a 3d printed supersonic rocket. I think it’s the Mach 2 one, but I don’t exactly remember:
- Comment on A handy reference guide for you 2 months ago:
I remember watching a video from a physicist who failed her pilot’s license exam because she explained that and the modern theories of how airplane flight works instead of the old wingspan, weight, speed, and air density over the wings model.
Needless to say, she took the test again, gave the answer they wanted, and the video was about her building a plane out of wood about a month after she finished the launch of her Mach 2.1 capable model rocket.
- Comment on Confirmed: PS5 console prices are being raised by $100 | VGC 3 months ago:
Seriously. I have some DDR3 RAM and a motherboard with processor laying around somewhere that I recently was considering digging out to make a second computer out of as a home storage/media server/pihole analogue, and I bet I could still get low quality settings on most recent games to play nicely with whatever parts I can scrabble together.
- Comment on Confirmed: PS5 console prices are being raised by $100 | VGC 3 months ago:
I think a lot of the conversation around exclusives comes from the standpoint of what keeps a console player from switching from one console to another (whether that’s a PC, a PS5, an Xbox, etc.), so PC exclusives don’t really factor into it because PC players are almost always a PC gamer plus a console player rather than somebody who is switching from a PC to a console.
That said, I think a lot of people in the industry (and console gamers) really underestimate the vastness of PC exclusives that exist thanks to the indie scene. Most people will think of PC exclusive genres like RTS games, but few people think of
BloodborneNightmare Kart or all the tiny indie RPG/horror/etc. projects that come out all the time as a reason to switch from a console. - Comment on Google's Gemini will make its way into Dragon Quest X to power a "Chatty Slimey" AI companion, Square Enix has announced 3 months ago:
Yoshi P is the only man I know who has looked a board of directors in the eyes less than a month from release and said, “I’m pushing the release date back 2 weeks because the game isn’t polished to our standards” and gotten away with it.
I don’t think I’d give Square the time of day if it wasn’t something that he and the rest of the FFXIV team were proud of. I’m pretty sure that he’s said that he will never let them put any of that AI or crypto nonsense into his games.
- Comment on Tastes like lyme 3 months ago:
Apparently turkeys eat ticks. We just need to keep the wild turkey population up and they’ll help cull the infestation.
