This is the second time I’ve seen right wing talking points associated with this game and it’s so pathetic to try and use that to cover over your middling review scores. I mean, you run a business. If you’re not going to self-reflect on why your product didn’t do as well as you thought, not sure you’re being honest with yourself on why your product failed. That same thinking would have been present in the design and development process, preventing their product from ever getting any better. One of those reasons companies even pay lip service to DEI: it genuinely brings fresh perspectives and refines your art and product.

Anyway, I even liked this game. It’s honestly pretty fun and the zombie hordes are relatively unique for the genre. The main character isn’t some right-wing asshole and even comes off as pretty empathetic and kind, if I remember correctly. It just came out at a time of open world oversaturation and played into almost every trope of the time. I think if it came out today, (and they managed to not show their ass online) it would do a lot better. As usual, the right-wing malding is weird on top of being gross and unnecessary.

People really don’t understand how many players there are who just don’t care about this stuff. They get none of the gamer rage, they don’t check reddit or lemmy, they’re not watching Twitter to see what the game journos are pissed about. DLC and MTX make buckets of money, even when compared to the profits from most full games, and they’re magnitudes cheaper and easier to develop. They’re not going away as long as they’re bought and they’re going to be bought, I guarantee it. It’s not even a bad thing, per se, as long as the player feels they’ve gotten their money’s worth.

If anyone is looking to return gaming to a pre-“horse armor” state where big DLCs were the only option, you are looking for a fantasy that will never, ever happen. I’ve seen the numbers for some of the orgs I’ve worked for and it’s hilariously skewed toward that stuff. The real answer is to pivot to different games. Embrace indies and games that don’t have MTX. You’re never gonna get the AAAs back in the bottle.

Give me Donkey Kong Country HD you cowards

Not like we aren’t feasting right now anyway. Baldur’s Gate, Pathfinder, Pillars of Eternity, Skald, Wasteland. I would love a Dragon Age spinoff that went back to its roots though.

Thanks for the info! I might check it out then, seeing as you mentioned FC3/4. Not my favorite games but they can be enjoyable when I want to turn my brain off and stealth kill across the land.

I think you’re in luck on your final point. This trailer is for the steam release this week, I think.

Anyone played this enough to compare it to something else? I’ve never seen the movies but I usually don’t mind a generic open world rpg-lite if there’s plenty to do.

There’s nuance in it, for certain, but there is a large contingent of people who play games that find most open worlds boring. I love a big open world, even a lot of the procedurally-generated ones are fine with me when it’s done correctly (looking at you, Starfield 😒). There are myriad options in between there, where it sounds like you might fall as well.

The key is, as you say, making the world in such a way that it drives the core gameplay loop. This is such a bizarre example, but I just played Animal Well recently and I think it’s actually a fantastic example of this. Every area of this large map that you retread over and over again has hidden, intentional elements that clearly drive at the core gameplay loop of “discover secrets everywhere”. It’s also a 7 year passion project not likely to be replicated. I do think though that the lessons can be learned and applied on less intense projects.

Sit down, consider your loop. Why is the player here, having fun with your game? Is it to discover secrets? Hide secrets everywhere. Is it to drive around in a souped up car? Add more space and interesting driving conditions. Is it to kill big enemies? Add huge roaming bosses. I think after that focus is determined, then you should shrink it as much as possible while still fitting into your design constraints.

This is all layman’s conjecture though.

I also love the Hinterlands, but you and I are in the vast minority based on the initial feedback to Inquisition. It was super common to hear “just push past the Hinterlands, it’s so much better afterwards”. Even more generally, I’ve been hearing “why are all the devs making all their games open world for no reason?”

I’m also an open-world junkie because I love exploration. I’m saddened by this design choice, but I do completely understand where it comes from. It can still be done well and I love the lore of Thedas, so I’ll be there to see, I guess.

Do you say this about all QoL updates? I’m not going to use this and also think Google sucks in general, but this is such a benign, optional little feature for people who might find it more convenient. Isn’t that what development should be all about?

I think we had the same experience with mobas! I distinctly remember getting flamed in that first LoL tutorial match and not even understanding why. I’ll now stay in my RPG safe space, thank you

I’m not even passing judgment on Gabe here. We live in a capitalist society and he came up with a pretty solid idea and built a fortune off of it. I do think we should be taxing the fuck out of it well before a person can buy a fleet of yachts, but I don’t think Gabe is the type that’s actively perpetuating this system either. He seems like a genuinely nice guy who had a talent and a fair bit of luck.

Lemmy is a hell of a lot more anti-capitalist than I am though and it was wild to see that thread.

And I hate guns and would happily amend the second out of the constitution. I’m sure we both have our reasons behind our beliefs and I respect yours, truly (I only bring this up to illustrate our differences btw, not trying to start a spat). I have my own objections to some Dem candidates and policies, certainly. I love you all though, because we are allies in a much more critical endeavor than any wedge issue: the continuation of our freedom and basic democratic norms. I just don’t feel that it’s hard to compromise this way and it’s the clear path to victory, even for the more divisive issues you care about.

You should stop thinking anything they implement is going to be fair and hurt them in any way. They don’t mind being hypocrites at all.

I’m really, really worried about it. The FDA is going to lose powers it uses to ensure our food and medicine isn’t killing us. The EPA is going to effectively be an advisory agency after this. The FTC looked like it might be back in business this admin, and it’s going to be neutered. I’m not even explicitly opposed to this if our legislative branch wasn’t inept and/or captured, but… we all know it is and it’s not getting better soon.

Hopefully they kill the FDA and all drink raw milk to death, idk.

I also have a soft spot for Steam and have likely bankrolled a few employees there on my own, but it’s been pretty funny seeing the usual anti-corporate sentiments set aside for Steam. This case looks pretty flimsy, but watching people defend Gabe’s billion dollar yacht collection with “everyone needs a hobby” gave me such cultural whiplash here on Lemmy that I might need to go to the hospital. That guy has a true “get out of jail free” card with gamers.

They. Cannot. Do. This. Legislators cannot just wake up really motivated one day and enshrine reproductive rights. They need numbers, and we have to give it to them for that to happen. There’s no alternative, no magical ideal route just waiting for the perfect congress person. Republicans will pull out all the stops on this, so you need a filibuster-proof majority. Give the Dems that and you’ll get reproductive rights.

4 months (with a flimsy proper majority due to Lieberman) gave us the ACA, one of the most impactful pieces of legislation regarding healthcare the country has ever seen. We need to vote in large numbers to achieve our political ends.

A perfect candidate for you is an imperfect candidate for others in the democratic coalition. There is no perfect democratic candidate and we will all have to compromise on as least some levels. Biden has delivered a lot of stellar wins for most democrats and even the side of the party further to the left. Our largest unifying belief right now is in defeating fascism at home. We cannot pursue purity at the expense of progress.

Not a lawyer either, to be clear. I think your general description holds, but the example wouldn’t. Individual drugs would still fall under the explicit granted ability to regulate “drugs” as a whole. I think the injunction power referenced in today’s NLRB ruling might be a good example actually, even if they didn’t explicitly reject it via this mechanism today.

I’m just wondering what the supposed benefit of a protest vote even is and how it stacks up against what we lost as a result of 2016? On one hand there’s Dobbs, weakening of every federal agency, millions dead from a fumbled pandemic response. On the other, there’s… Wait, what is there?