wccrawford

@wccrawford@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This is definitely one of the strangest cash grabs I've ever seen. Ll⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly, free-2-play economics are so baffling that nothing they do surprises me.

  There’s a Genshin Impact McDonalds collab where you have to buy a very specific happy meal to get some in game wings (which I very much want) and some other garbage. I actually considered just buying the meal and giving the food to someone else (homeless?) because I can’t eat that crap on my diet. But instead, I settled for telling everyone around me that I want the code if they get one, and I’ll just hope.

  How does that help Genshin Impact? I imagine it helps in the same way as this nonsense physical copy. People get excited about physical copies, even in normal boxes, and they get excited about exclusive items that can’t be obtained any other way. That pulls in a little money directly from the sales of the plastic, but it also creates a ton of buzz around the game like this whole thread.

  I think. As I said, it’s pretty baffling. I have to file it under “there’s no such thing as bad PR” most of the time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This is definitely one of the strangest cash grabs I've ever seen. Ll⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The disc is 100% trash. People that buy this want the cards, keychains, and (especially) the exclusive in-game items.

  I am surprised that it doesn’t also come with some in-game premium currency, though.

  As for $40 in-game… That alone is going to net you some trash. You’ll pull a lot more on the free gems you get just for exploring and playing. Sure, you could get a great character, but the odds are back-loaded so that you generally won’t pull a 5-star in the first 70 pulls. $40 is like 40 pulls, maybe?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someone finally figured out a good use for NFTs: Peter Molyneux is using 'land' sales from his failed blockchain game to fund the development of his new project⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Besides the other games mentioned here, there’s also en.wikipedia.org/…/Curiosity:_What's_Inside_the_C… . Read the completion section to see just how bad it was.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Masters of Albion trailer, an in development god game x colony builder hybrid with custom crafting recipes (food, armour), custom building design and an optiona third person combat from Peter Molyneux⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Back then, I think he has someone telling him “no” and filling out the rest of the game with sensible stuff.

  Now, he just throws ideas at the wall (see en.wikipedia.org/…/Curiosity:_What's_Inside_the_C… ) and sees what sticks. Since he went on his own, he hasn’t fully delivered a single game, and the ideas are wacky at best and horrible at worst.

  And unlike Hello Games, when Molyneux overpromises, he doesn’t spend years implementing every promised feature.

  BTW, the exaggeration goes all the way back to Fable, the launch of which was plagued by lies that Molyneux and his team told about the state of the game and the features it would have. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a great game, just that it wasn’t what he promised.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Braid: Anniversary Edition "sold like dog s***", says creator Jonathan Blow⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That does look good. Thanks!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Braid: Anniversary Edition "sold like dog s***", says creator Jonathan Blow⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I looked on the Steam page and didn’t see that, but I thought I remembered it from launch. Perhaps I was just tired and missed it, but I think they didn’t do a good enough job calling it out.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Braid: Anniversary Edition "sold like dog s***", says creator Jonathan Blow⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I liked Braid, but I liked his other games since then a lot more. Put out Witness 2 and I’m all over it.

  OTOH, put out a graphical upgrade and a couple new puzzles for Witness and try to charge full price again, and I wouldn’t bother.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨SAG-AFTRA Calls Strike Against Major Video Game Companies After Nearly 2 Years Of Contract Talks⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Right, which is why it’s put to a vote so that the members themselves can make that call. And that’s why I think the vote was a year ago with a contract that was probably quite a bit different.

  I clearly don’t know the details and they do, but from the outside, it looks weird.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨SAG-AFTRA Calls Strike Against Major Video Game Companies After Nearly 2 Years Of Contract Talks⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It seems weird that the union can put up a vote for a strike against an agreement and then almost a year later actually call that strike into play. So many things have changed, and I’m sure that contract has changed a lot since then.

  I’d love to know what the final piece says that they just can’t come to an agreement. It’s clearly about AI voice acting, but the detail matter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨NCSoft president: "The games industry's evolution towards acceptance and diversity is ongoing"⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Intent does matter.

  But the vast majority of complaints about a game being “woke” are just the inclusion of a character this a minority in some way. The complaint isn’t about how they’re included, just that they are, usually as a main or highly visible character.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sony Confirmed To Be Behind HD2 Delisting Of 180 Countries, Not Valve⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Perhaps. Or perhaps they’re a giant behemoth where 1 hand doesn’t know what the other is doing, and the person with the authority for this hasn’t bothered.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sony Confirmed To Be Behind HD2 Delisting Of 180 Countries, Not Valve⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They delisted them before they announced that they wouldn’t require accounts after all.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Favourite controllers⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Gamesir T4 Kaleid. I love the hall effect joysticks, and it feels like it’s the right size. The one negative is that it’s wired-only.

  OTOH, the GameSir Nova (not lite) is hot garbage. I hate almost everything about it, and its wireless PC connection (without the dongle that it does not come with) is trash. It’s basically only good as a Switch controller… And I haven’t even actually tried it for that.

  The GameSir Nova Lite is much better, but still too small and you need to use the slightly-older 4200 firmware (from the official app) instead of the latest, because they got stupid about things.

  I somewhat like the Xbox Elite controller, but you have to get a good one. A bad one will have really crappy triggers that sometimes won’t work. I think I’ve even heard that the sticks are sometimes wonky. And it’s not hall effect.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Glorious Victory⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think politely asking people to change their review so that it reflects reality is a “karen” move.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nintendo DMCAs Yuzu forks on GitHub⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it’s by design, not because they’re stupid. They saw those forks right away and decided to let them get settled in and comfortable, and then removed them. Knowing that the hammer will come down eventually is really demoralizing. Knowing it’ll come down right away means you can test the waters and see how it goes without much personal investment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Content Warning Blows Up on Steam With Free-to-Keep Promotion for First 24 Hours⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Why would it be illegal to give away your game for 24 hours?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Talos Principle: The Most Underrated Video Game of the Last Decade⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s “hidden gem” rather than “underrated.”

  But I agree with others that are saying it’s just niche. It’s a pure puzzle game. There’s no exploration, crafting, combat, survival, etc. You have to really like puzzles to play a pure puzzle game.

  I do, and I’ve still been struggling to make it all the way through. I’m just starting on the last of the first 12 sections, and some of them have kind of been a slog rather than a joy.

  I can’t even give any particular complaint, though. Each puzzle really is different from the others, so they aren’t duplicated in any way that was obvious to me. It’s just a lot, I guess.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Game genres where "It's just more X content" is more than enough⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I somewhat agree with you, but some innovation is necessary. There are very few games that are still fun after a dozen levels of the same thing, and most of those are either pure puzzle or pure mindless violence.

  When people complain about “just more of the same”, they often are overlooking that there was some innovation in the new levels. If it’s really the same thing over and over, it’d pale pretty quickly for most people. New levels need to do something differently than the past to keep people really engaged.

  There’s a middle ground between massive innovation and stagnancy, and all games that get huge sales numbers are hitting that sweet spot, regardless of what people are screaming about.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bungie CEO Claims Layoffs Were Due to Destiny 2 Underperformance - IGN⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I hate grind, but I used to enjoy just playing D2 weekly, way beyond the weekly content.

  Then they decided that literally everything needed to be a slog, and that being overpowered was bad, and they ruined my fun. I went from 80 hr weeks (I know this isn’t healthy) to 1 hour weeks over the course of a couple seasons. I still spent a lot of time after the launch of the latest DLC, but after that was done, and they upped the base difficulty by removing the effect of levels on almost all base content, I struggled to stay engaged. This season, I just gave up. I’ve got like 15 levels, when I usually have 200-300 in the battle pass.

  I’m not saying they don’t have a grind problem, too, but it wasn’t what killed it for me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Devolver Digital acquires System Era, creators of Astroneer⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Interesting! I love Astroneer and tend to think that Devolver publishes good games, so I’m interested in seeing what this means in the future.

  My hope is that Astroneer 2 is on the horizon and this is in prep for it! So far as I know, they haven’t said anything about making a sequel, though, so I’m not holding my breath.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is Destiny 2 Still Worth Playing in 2023? - IGN⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m a casual who put a lot of hours into the game, enjoying it over a few seasons. Then they decided that what the community wanted was more difficulty, even at the lowest levels, and it has ruined the game for me. I used to just fire it up and shoot my way through a bunch of stuff, having fun.

  Now everything is a slog. I find myself having to get serious about getting through the most basic levels, instead of just running through it like a madman.

  As a consequence, I now play no more than a couple hours a week, and I’ve even skipped weeks entirely lately.

  You’d think this would resonate with someone, but I’ve heard nothing but complaints about this change. High-level, serious players aren’t in favor of it because it makes low-level content slow and boring, but doesn’t actually engage them any better than before. New players find it difficult when it should be teaching them the game. Mid-level players like myself get nothing from the increased difficulty, either.

  And yet they persist, adding even more modes that strip the point of levels from the game, and homogenize all the content.

  I’m hoping they smarten up next season, but I’m not real optimistic.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unity's controversial Runtime Fee policy was "rushed out", says report⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, just like the original rate change, I can’t imagine who would think this was a good excuse, or that it makes them look better at all. Now, not only was it a really bad idea, it was done on a whim as well.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Review Thread - (92/100 OpenCritic)⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve played it for a bit, and I enjoy it in short bursts, and then I get tired of it. Maybe 2-3 levels, max, at a time. But I do keep going back and enjoying it again, so…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Humble Choice October 2023 Review - A spooky month⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think I’ve seen a lot of overlap from the titles I get on GamePass and the ones I get from Humble monthly. I do have a lot of overlap from Humble and the ones I have already bought, though, which is always a bummer. Each time, I have to remind myself that I enjoyed that game and it was worth the price at the time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s a stay of execution at best. At some point, you’ll need to upgrade to a new Unity. It might be because IOS and Android require using an SDK that’s not more than 2 years out of date, or because nVidia/AMD invented some new amazing tech, or a host of other reasons. But eventually, you’ll need to upgrade.

  The worst part is that Android is actually removing apps that haven’t updated in years, even if they still work perfectly. So you’ll get screwed by that eventually if you do mobile at all.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam is lying about their discounts⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Steam has rules intended to curb this behavior.

  partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/discounts

  Specific Discounting Rules

  You can run a launch discount, but once your launch discount ends, you cannot run any other discounts for 30 days.
  It is not possible to discount your product for 30 days following a price increase in any currency.
  Discounts cannot be run within 30 days of your prior discount, with the exception of Steam-wide seasonal events.
  Discounts for seasonal sale events cannot be run within 30 days of releasing your title, within 30 days from when your launch discount ends, or within 30 days of a price increase in any currency.
  You may not change your price while a promotion is currently live or scheduled for the future.
  It is not possible to discount a product by more than 90% or less than 10%.
  it is not possible to create new discounts for a product that would result in the price in any currency falling below Steam's minimum possible transaction price. See details.
  Custom discounts cannot last longer than two weeks, or run for shorter than 1 day.
  

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Creators of Slay the Spire will migrate their next game to a new engine if Unity doesn't completely revert their changes⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I would love to know what they would port to. UE and Godot seem like obvious candidates.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Starfield players create famous faces in-game, and a Todd Howard flashlight⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, most of them are “we have X at home” quality.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Starfield players create famous faces in-game, and a Todd Howard flashlight⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  There are “enhance” locations in the game that you can pay 500 credits to remake your character. No, not real money.