Tbh it would be absolutely fantastic if a game pulled this off today.

“Did…did this game just burn itself to a DVD-R before wiping itself from my drive? Where did it even get a DVD-R from??? Wait a sec, my PC didn’t even have a DVD drive before today! Why is there a charge to PCRepairGuy on my credit card?! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?”

It’s mind boggling how much people outside the US don’t realize the barriers we face to doing the things they suggest we do. “Why don’t you riot and blockade your congress?” Because it would take me 8 days of driving - 4 there and 4 back - to protest at the capital for just a single day, and I’d lose my job for being gone that long. “Why don’t you walk more?” Because I’m 100x more likely to get killed by a car due to street design, and the store I need to go to is no less than 5 miles away if I’m lucky. Etc etc etc.

Internal simulation gang represent

Sure, this is just an example of how complex “feel” can get in game development. The video includes several examples where player perception changes drastically from very minor gameplay design changes

There are so many things that go into whether a game feels responsive or not. Your experience could be explained by anything from access to stable Internet, to trends in game design philosophy, and vary from game to game based on implementation.

Here’s one of my favorite GDC talks that looks at just one small part of what goes into making a game feel responsive: https://youtu.be/h47zZrqjgLc

From passing out. Locking knees can reduce blood flow

• Wing Commander 4 - At the time, I was very young, and this game changed how I looked at videogames. For my little brain, the FMV cutscenes and genuinely decent acting (ffs, it has Mark Hammil) somehow made it click that games could have compelling narrative
• Kingdom Hearts - this game changed my life in many ways. I can genuinely say I wouldn’t be doing what I do today if it weren’t for this game and my involvement in the fan community around it. This game is very special to me because of its themes and major plot beats, and how those interacted with my life at the time. This game taught me that you could go beyond “compelling narrative” and break my heart with a video game lol
• Natural Selection 2 - I wish this game were more popular in its prime. This is the epitome of what I think good competition looks like, and a great manifestation of what I personally love in esports

Kingdom Hearts

Yoko Shimomura is outrageously talented. Obviously there’s a lot of Disney-esque stuff mixed in, but there are a bunch of original tracks that are epic af

Since nobody else will provide the actual clarity

EscobarVape and Elfbar are created by two separate Chinese companies, Shenzhen Innokin Technology Co. Ltd and Shenzhen iMiracle Technology respectively. Mi-Bar is created by an American company but has partnered with Elfbar to distribute Elfbar products in the US

Really wish more people would just provide the facts that speak for themselves, rather than point fingers about who is and isn’t doing their research

I’m 90% sure that it was originally in the form of “to go <there/place> and <verb>” and has just been shortened over time. A refined colloquialism, if you go for that sort of thing

This is misleading and dangerous rhetoric.

Autonomous vehicles - actual autonomous ones, not Tesla bullshit marketing “self-driving” - are already significantly safer than human drivers. Yes, they are limited to certain conditions (they don’t handle inclement weather very well yet) but the point is that they are already improving safety over human drivers.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Additionally, once autonomous vehicles become the standard, you will see a dramatic shift in how the insurance industry operates.

Think about it: if I’m not the one driving, why would I be the one taking on liability? I wouldn’t. The manufacturer would. Suddenly, the insurance industry would be targeting vehicle/software producers instead of individuals. And anyone who chooses to drive themselves anyway? They would almost always be liable by default. Premiums for drivers would skyrocket and this would be a huge disincentive to getting behind the wheel in the first place.

Don’t. Let. The. Perfect. Be. The. Enemy. Of. The. Good.

We all lose out. And it costs lives.

I grew up in Ohio, lived in NYC, and now live in the PNW.

Ohio is bad, as a whole, about bigotry. Very bad.

Urban areas will always be more tolerant, on average, than their rural neighbors.

But a semi-rural area in a blue state might be more tolerant, on average, than an urban area in a red state.

Columbus is one of the most tolerant areas in Ohio, because of The Ohio State University and the educated, young community it fosters.

But things get bad pretty quickly as you move further away from the college areas.

My recommendation: you are more likely to find your people - the family you choose to have, whoever they are - in your new area. However, there are still significant risks to being completely open, including things getting back to your family.

Find the people who correct bigotry or misgendering, etc, and learn how to be yourself around them. When you are ready, you can either confront your family and become an outspoken lgbtqa+ ally, or peace the fuck out to somewhere better :)

Called this a while ago https://urusai.social/@neatchee/112255667073894754

Polkadot Stingray

And anything else on my Japanese music playlist :D

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1qp2kWRqMd77nsVXr2jG5um4DpMWNn5Y

I never said anything about the quality of the games. I’m speaking specifically to the monetization bullshit.

As I said elsewhere: budget bloat happens in a lot of places. Greedy executive and publishers is one place. Overambitious design goals that get scrapped is another. There’s also bad tools workflows, mismanagement, and any number of other contributing factors.

But even indie devs are getting screwed on pricing and making far less than they deserve to be in many cases.

If people keep buying CoD and Assassins Creed, devs will keep making them. And if they can’t increase retail price to cover the budget they will find other ways to do it.

I almost replied from my inbox; glad someone said it before I even got to it haha

Oh don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the capital structure is fair by any means. I understand all the reasons why people - especially right now - are struggling to justify big purchases.

And I will readily agree that inefficient and improper use of resources is one of the contributing factors to ballooning development budgets

That said, video games are - and I challenge you to disprove this - easily one of the best investments for entertainment. Dollars-per-hour of fun on a 20hr, $60 game is $3. For a live service game where people spend hundreds of thousands of hours playing it can get below $0.10 per hour.

EDIT: I also agree that demos need to make a comeback because I’m sick of wasting money. Though people also need to read some reviews before they buy occasionally :/

While that may be true, the costs and budgets we’re dealing with today are orders of magnitude higher than they were back then. Physical product manufacturing doesn’t even come close to making up the difference when you factor in digital storefront costs.

I simply chose two big, well known, and beloved titles for the sake of expediency.

This problem is not unique to big budget games.

Indie devs are getting screwed too. You saying that you’ve found great games for $30-40 from indie devs isn’t an argument against more sustainable pricing like you think it is.

If the dev budget for the indie game was 5% of the AAA game but the price was 50% then you’ve literally just helped prove my point

The fact is - and I challenge you to prove me wrong here - video games continue to be hands down the best dollar-per-hour investment for entertainment. Even a $60 game that only lasts 20 hrs is still coming in at $3/hr of entertainment, which is very hard to beat. When you look at live service games where people will spend literally thousands of hours after paying anywhere from $60-200 you’re looking at $0.10/hr in some cases.

Fun facts incoming!

Cost of “Mario 64” on release = $59.99

Development budget for Mario 64 = ~$1.56mil

Inflation adjusted Mario 64 cost in 2022 = $111.91

Inflation adjusted Mario 64 budget in 2022 = ~$2.91mil

Cost of “Elden Ring” on release = $59.99

Estimated dev. budget for Elden Ring = $100mil-200mil

Mario 64 units sold = ~12mil

Elden Ring units sold = ~28mil

These details are provided without comment. You do the math and decide whether the fact that prices haven’t changed since 1996 might be the reason for some of the enshitification we continue to see.

And now for the comment:

Consumers are horrifyingly resistant to price increases for games. It is directly responsible for many of the shitty monetization models we’ve seen. Development budget continue to rise, even on indie games, while consumers pay less and less in “real money value” over time.

It’s completely unsustainable and the very reason the “business types” get involved, forcing unpopular monetization schemes