Video Game Chat Thread - Pre-Alpha Experimental Version

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Are videogames for children?


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Is this a pre-emptive deterrent to a potential future of people dragging them on the forums or social media over some direction they plan on taking or product they plan on altering? This feels very much like a "Beamdog" flavor thing to do.
I'm not sure why exactly, the usual suspects are all "don't spam racial slurs on forums", which even as absurd as that is when real products are on the table, that leaves an awful lot on the table for "fuck you, that's why" bans.

Usually these rules are in response to "we make them as you break them" but I can't think of an inciting incident.
 
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So basically GOG has changed their terms of service to not only clarify you don't own your games (the ol' "license" again) but also said that forum bans can permanently lock you out of your account. Do not support this company.

Makes me glad I've never given 'em a buck, even though I have a whole lot of games I've claimed as freebies over the years.

Has Steam ever done anything like this? I don't think they have. I know you can get VAC banned for cheating which locks you out of Valve's servers, and you can get banned from the forums, but I don't think I've ever heard about anything that can lock you out of your games. Not that I trust that Steam will be solid forever, of course.
 
It should be noted that the Atari crash is way overhyped to the point of legend. There's the whole "E.T. caused people not to want to play video games anymore until NINTENDO came in to save the day!" narrative that has been around since at least the early 2000s, but the reality was just a bubble that popped and was enough to start bouncing back anyway, especially once supply and demand issues had been resolved.
I can't give enough agree stickers.

A crash would honestly be the best thing for gaming cause it would only hurt the AAA studios.
Unfortunately there's a lot of collateral damage. Yes, it's shit AAA devs that are getting the worst of it, but there's things like Microsoft announcing Xbox Live for 360 is being shut down in July, and that they're getting rid of their physical media division. Meanwhile Ubisoft is asking if people would pay $100 for a AAA game.

Has Steam ever done anything like this? I don't think they have.
They did jump on the bandwagon off added "You can't sue us ever and if you do it must be arbitration" bandwagon Sony, Patreon, and other tech companies were doing at the time. That was quietly reversed after some political pundit was kicked off Patreon and Patreon couldn't pay the arbitration fees as the guys fanbase did a bit of malicious compliance.

Steam's usual bullshit is a round of game bans and censorship, followed by a statement that it was a "rogue employee" and reversing the damage, though sometimes not completely.
 
Steam's usual bullshit is a round of game bans and censorship, followed by a statement that it was a "rogue employee" and reversing the damage, though sometimes not completely.
afaik valve never bans your whole account, just functions of it where you can't play multiplayer or use community features. anything else would open them up to an easy lawsuit, so why bother as long as those people can still spend money?
 
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Makes me glad I've never given 'em a buck, even though I have a whole lot of games I've claimed as freebies over the years.

Has Steam ever done anything like this? I don't think they have. I know you can get VAC banned for cheating which locks you out of Valve's servers, and you can get banned from the forums, but I don't think I've ever heard about anything that can lock you out of your games. Not that I trust that Steam will be solid forever, of course.

Valve's fraud detection can lock you out of your account. So far, they don't have any kind of "hate speech" or "you were an asshole on the community boards" clause for taking away your games. So far. But yeah, under this new policy, you can in theory get account-banned for saying Somali immigrants commit too many crimes on their forums.
 
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We might even get lucky and PS/XB collapse, and are left with Nintendo, PC, & mobile, but now I'm just dreaming.
Xbox is trying their all digital bullshit again so maybe that crash is closer than we think. I know I'm not going to be giving the cunts anymore money. I can't overstate how much I despise digital only consoles as they've consistently shown they can't be trusted not to try and squeeze us for every shekel. You can bet this will be when they bump up their prices too as they know all the wee kids who have no concept of money and have access to mommy's credit card will happily pay £90 for they newest goyslop game.
 
Not sure this has been posted yet, but the Unrecord devs have an open alpha or beta of a multiplayer version of the game.


Looks fucking incredible. Amazing attention to detail with the lighting and sound design.
 
Not sure this has been posted yet, but the Unrecord devs have an open alpha or beta of a multiplayer version of the game.
From what he says in the video/the comments, it seems like this is a separate, but very similar game to Unrecord, called Bodycam by a different studio. The Unrecord studio's site says that their game won't be multiplayer.
 
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From what he says in the video/the comments, it seems like this is a separate, but very similar game to Unrecord, called Bodycam by a different studio. The Unrecord studio's site says that their game won't be multiplayer.
Oh they’re a different studio and devs? The style and assets are essentially the exact same. They have to be working in collaboration with each other, there is just no way.
 
Xbox is trying their all digital bullshit again so maybe that crash is closer than we think.
Going to repeat what I mentioned a page back, but with more clarity.

Disclaimer: I could make the case the second crash has been happening since the early PS4. It's an unpopular opinion as people believe it isn't a crash unless games are dumped by the thousands in landfill sites. I'd argue games dumped by the pallet in second hand and clearance places is the modern day landfill. But I'll put that opinion aside for now.

According to a podcast/randoms on the internet, "the video game crash of 2024" might have just started. January started off with mass layoffs. In one month the industry is at 60% of the total layoffs of 2023, and 2023 was considered a bad year. Microsoft is axing divisions like physical distribution (will likely have third parties publish for the rest of the generation), their aquired studios like Bethesda underperform again and again, and they are shutting down Xbox Live for 360. Ubisoft is toying with raising the base price of a game to 100 usd, and I think their Prince of Persia game was a flop?* Sega recently announced that New Game Plus for the next Yakuza will be locked behind the collectors edition. There's some drama with Blizzard and Riot I'm not privy to as I don't play those games.

*I don't know much about the game. People say it's good, but it's £45 for what amounts to an indie metroidvania with a license.


In short, MS going all in on digital isn't the cause of the crash, it's already here. Saying the crash is closer than we think is like driving your car into a tree at high speed, and as you're loaded into the ambulance saying "We nearly hit that tree."

Personally, I'd argue all of this is because they over hired post COVID, expecting the same massive growth they had during lockdowns, and now are going to the other extreme with cuts. But if you want a market collapse, this is it.
 
I hate the revision to the GOG license. Why does everyone have to be a pollyanna fuck nowadays? I don't want to "Be Nice".

I'm glad I've never interacted with the GOG forums, the few threads I've read there have left me wanting to slap smug fucks.

I remember one time I pissed off a steam mod, he started getting pissy, and then they fired him. That was great. Other users openly called him an asshole, and at least two of them got banned.
 
Valve's fraud detection can lock you out of your account. So far, they don't have any kind of "hate speech" or "you were an asshole on the community boards" clause for taking away your games. So far. But yeah, under this new policy, you can in theory get account-banned for saying Somali immigrants commit too many crimes on their forums.
A lot of the community boards, especially in contentious games, have handed out bans just for stating that the game is bad. I'm sure tranny jannies would love to have permission to lock you out of your account.

I don't trust any of GOG Forums' mods to not pull that bullshit.
 
Microsoft is axing divisions like physical distribution (will likely have third parties publish for the rest of the generation), their aquired studios like Bethesda underperform again and again, and they are shutting down Xbox Live for 360.

The Xbox 360 is almost 20 years old. It really is time to shut down Live for it.
 
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The Xbox 360 is almost 20 years old. It really is time to shut down Live for it.
I'm shocked it lasted this long.

Ubisoft is toying with raising the base price of a game to 100 usd
It's way too early for that. I doubt most people are still comfortable with $70. Whatever, Ubisoft's already on my blacklist.

Sega recently announced that New Game Plus for the next Yakuza will be locked behind the collectors edition.
Or $20 if you didn't get at least the Deluxe Edition. It's currently sitting at "Very Negative" on Steam:
1706505056601.png

I am wild about this series and I did not buy it.
 
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Going to repeat what I mentioned a page back, but with more clarity.

Disclaimer: I could make the case the second crash has been happening since the early PS4. It's an unpopular opinion as people believe it isn't a crash unless games are dumped by the thousands in landfill sites. I'd argue games dumped by the pallet in second hand and clearance places is the modern day landfill. But I'll put that opinion aside for now.
I actually completely agree with you there. People expecting landfills full of games to signal another crash are going to be waiting a long time.
According to a podcast/randoms on the internet, "the video game crash of 2024" might have just started. January started off with mass layoffs. In one month the industry is at 60% of the total layoffs of 2023, and 2023 was considered a bad year. Microsoft is axing divisions like physical distribution (will likely have third parties publish for the rest of the generation), their aquired studios like Bethesda underperform again and again, and they are shutting down Xbox Live for 360. Ubisoft is toying with raising the base price of a game to 100 usd, and I think their Prince of Persia game was a flop?* Sega recently announced that New Game Plus for the next Yakuza will be locked behind the collectors edition. There's some drama with Blizzard and Riot I'm not privy to as I don't play those games.

*I don't know much about the game. People say it's good, but it's £45 for what amounts to an indie metroidvania with a license.


In short, MS going all in on digital isn't the cause of the crash, it's already here. Saying the crash is closer than we think is like driving your car into a tree at high speed, and as you're loaded into the ambulance saying "We nearly hit that tree."

Personally, I'd argue all of this is because they over hired post COVID, expecting the same massive growth they had during lockdowns, and now are going to the other extreme with cuts. But if you want a market collapse, this is it.
All of the above are signals of the end for sure and they have been trying all this shady shit before (horse armour anyone?) but they have always been pushed back by the customers which makes them end up backtracking. The reason why I believe Microsoft's push for digital only is where we are truly fucked is simply because very soon we will have no options left to fight back. If you have a digital only service on the console you can say goodbye to cheap games, fairly priced DLC, actual ownership of your games in the long term, paying extortion fees for multiplayer and a host of other bullshit. PC gaming will probably never die, console gaming though is done. It's certainly done for me as I'll be fucked if I'm going to pay £100 for a digital game I don't even own. Fuck that for a game of soldiers.
 
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Horse armor was innocent, it was the other pay to play oblivion DLC that was dogshit.

If some fuck wants to get fleeced with cosmetics? Good for them. I never bought the ULTOR DLC for SR2, and it looks like I might not be able to. I have a bunch of the digital redemption cards for FO3, Forza 4, Skyrim, one of the COD's, and I need to run those before XBL 360 gets terminated.
 
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Horse armor was innocent, it was the other pay to play oblivion DLC that was dogshit.

If some fuck wants to get fleeced with cosmetics? Good for them. I never bought the ULTOR DLC for SR2, and it looks like I might not be able to. I have a bunch of the digital redemption cards for FO3, Forza 4, Skyrim, one of the COD's, and I need to run those before XBL 360 gets terminated.
Horse armour was where all the bullshit with DLC started. It's innocent enough sure until you remember that you used to be able to play a game in order to unlock extra costumes and what not. The new Yakuza game adding New Game+ behind a paywall was only doable because we've let them get away with this shit for so long. Those slope kikes take us for a bunch of mongoloids and the worse fucking part about it is that they are right, people will still spend the money to buy it.
 
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