Doubtful. I already own Echolyn’s “Mei”. Hard to believe there’s any song I’d like more.
That being said, I’m always on the lookout for new music. I’d love to find a song better than “Mei”, despite how impossible that seems to me.
Doubtful. I already own Echolyn’s “Mei”. Hard to believe there’s any song I’d like more.
That being said, I’m always on the lookout for new music. I’d love to find a song better than “Mei”, despite how impossible that seems to me.
My old job doing systems design for a predatory mobile game. I quit that job, moved half a state away, and got a job that pays half as much in a company with integrity. Best decision of my life.
The toys-to-life trend ended, as it wasn’t making enough money. The games remain playable, but they have no support and are old enough they they require hardware that I no longer have.
Toys-to-life video games. I went on a Skylanders spending spree less than a year before it officially died. $5-$15 figurines got sold at garage sales for $0.25-$3 each.
I had tons of fun getting into it and I was young enough that I could afford to waste the money, so I regret nothing.
This is the right answer. Hatred just breeds more hatred. If you approach with love and understanding (or at least a desire to understand), you’ll have a much better chance of changing hearts and minds. Try to meet in the middle and you might be able to point them in the right direction.
Are these insanely rich people?
Oh, yes. Emphasis on the insane.
The assumption around the office always was that they were Saudi royals or kids of oil barons.
Very right. As a content/systems designer, it was my job to carefully balance a feeling of progression with a frustrating lack of progression at key points, thereby pushing players to spend.
The first few levels are easy and free, then progression starts to slow, but you’ve already gotten to level 10 easily enough, so you can take a bit of extra time to get to level 15. By level 15, you’ve invested enough time that the sudden valley of progression from 15 to 30 convinces you to make that first purchase; after all, why not spend just $5 to instantly double your level when you’ve already spent a few hours in the game? Progression speeds back up from 30 to 45, letting you feel like you’re in control of your leveling, then another valley hits and you’re now even more invested, and, since you’ve already spent $5 to get from 15 to 30, what’s another $10 to get from 45 to 80?
Rinse and repeat, steadily increasing the cost of each purchase while seemingly improving the in-game value per dollar spent.
Our biggest whales were spending over $10,000 per day on that disgusting “game.”
I had to get out. My next job, one at a prominent console/PC game studio, only paid about half of what I was making at the mobile game company, and I loved it. No more panicked 2 AM meetings because our revenue dipped 10% over the last hour. No more convincing myself that players enjoyed wasting thousands of dollars on an endless treadmill. No more 28-hour shifts.
Rant over.
Bonus: I’ve since become a dad, I’m actually proud of what I’m making now, and I’m excited to share it with my child when they’re old enough.
Oh, console/PC without a doubt. Mobile development, at least in my experience, is a constant struggle for relevance and a nonstop sense of urgency. Creativity is only allowed if it answers the question “how can we better trick players into giving us their money?”
Console/PC development, however, is focused on making a good product that will last. Nobody ever asks “how much money will this feature make us?” At worst, the question is “how much will this feature drive engagement?”
I’ve only worked for major companies, so my experiences don’t reflect what it’s like at indies.
I wasn’t upset to begin with. Was it not obvious that I was making a semantics joke? I mean, sure, the post I was replying to could be perceived as racist, since it was itself a reply to someone calling out racism, but it was clearly directed at wealth horders, not white people.
One extremely important factor that this article neglects to address: Valve is a private company - it’s not publicly traded in Wall Street. That is the reason Steam has remained the best in the business; it’s not beholden to shareholders’ short-sighted meddling. It’s also the reason Steam is effectively immune to enshittification.
AI art is very easy to learn, but has a lot of intricacies and extra functions that can take a while to learn and master. The only free and open source one, Stable Diffusion, has a lot of resources online. Here’s a beginner’s guide to get you started.
I recommend running locally if you have the hardware for it. You generally need at least 8GB of VRAM for reasonably fast generation, though I’ve heard of people being fine with as little as 4GB. Check out Civitai for additional resources.
There’ve been a few great games to recently release out of Early Access, so these:
Secrets of Grindea, a SNES-style action RPG with tongue-in-cheek writing and open character progression
Spiritfall, a platform fighter roguelite
Spell Disk, a roguelite with an interesting, intricate spell chain system
or to keep if they homeschool (to indoctrinate
I think you’ve got it mixed up. Public school is indoctrination. Homeschooling allows teachers/parents to teach kids how to think, not just regurgitate facts (and opinions masquerading as facts).
And I find it ironic that you blame Republicans for the poor public education in the country when California, one of the bluest states, has some of the worst public education in the country.
It’s not a left vs right thing; it’s a rich vs poor thing.
Edit: My humblest apologies, oh downvoters, for acknowledging reality. Just because you don’t like a fact doesn’t make it any less true.
I don’t like it myself; I wish I could just blame it on Republicans and fight back by voting against them, but it isn’t that simple. Rich people can afford private schools, so they don’t care about public education, or they don’t have kids, so they don’t care about public education, and they have the money/power, so they decide the rules.
Them’s the breaks, I’m afraid.
With how big a step down season 2 was from season 1, my hype train will remain in the station for this one. I’ll almost definitely watch it, but I won’t hold my breath.
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I played a little bit on my Steam Deck during my lunch break at work. 1.0 massively improved controller and Linux support, so it runs on the Deck perfectly out of the box now!
The one thing it’s missing is a way to turn in place. Makes precision aiming very difficult with a controller.
So true, especially when paired with Miyazaki. They’re the Japanese Williams and Lucas - a real filmmaking match made in heaven.
Would that be so bad, though? The Nazi wastes money on a useless decorative blade and you get to take some money from a Nazi that might otherwise have gone to something worse.