Gaming BS of the week

Evil EA at it again.:greedy:

 
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Until there is no law that would make spending millions within one worthless product pretending to be a videogame illegal, we'll continue to see stuff like that one from EA.
A videogame needs to be defined as a pay once product. Once that's set in every country's constitution, market atrocities like EA's microtransactions milking machines will finally stop being covered by gaming sites and will be called differently. I don't care if the words used will be immersive sims, ugoigo or other meaningless whatnot. We already have a word for a specific product type that isn't a videogame although is advertised as such (cowclickers - thanks to late TotalBiscuit, I miss you man). It's just that those are not videogames.

…………………

https://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2-is-going-free-to-play-on-steam-shadowkeep-expansion-detailed/
Destiny 2 is going free-to-play, moving to Steam
Any Destiny news is bs of course, this is just a reminder that there is a product that should be crowned as a bs game of the year.
 
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Never thought this will happen but it did: CDprojekt appears in this thread. :D

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...on-ebay-after-listings-pop-up-for-over-usd400
CD Projekt warns against buying Cyberpunk 2077 E3 jackets on eBay after listings pop up for over $400
Well excuse me, but you can't open an online store that doesn't operate outside of EU (with certain exceptions), a store that has like about a dozen pieces max of all CP related items listed so everything is sold out, then alert fans not to buy stuff from ebay because eventually, no date specified, Godot will arrive with normal prices.
 
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Don't see the complaint, really. It's a warning to those who may consider that this is their only option to get one. I'd never buy a jacket for $400 regardless, but there are people who might, who will now delay their buy given that information.
 
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Greed has always been a very strong force throughout humanity.
 
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Watch only the first few minutes. Or all of it, doesn't matter, the gaming bs that needs to be singled out as the worst of them all is the starting thing (number 10).
A gadget noone should care about, some plastic rubbish, priced at whopping $180.
I thought it's a joke, it's not. And I know instead of shoving them off, whales will buy it.
 
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It seems that CDP became an enemy for some social groups and journalistic activists. They continue to write about transphobic CDP.

www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/06/14...rketing-contributes-to-transphobia-right-now/
www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-art-...flect-corporate-exploitation-says-the-artist/

"Its just, as with any kind of sexualization, there’s a fine line between empowerment and objectification. It’s not at all apparent from the image itself that we are supposed to be disgusted by the exploitation. Instead, it looks like an image you’re supposed to laugh at, with trans people the victim of the joke."

Its interesting to compare angry RPS article about CP 2077 with this kind of flattery for Bloodlines 2:
www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/06/13/i-love-you-scary-lady-of-the-latest-bloodlines-2-demo/


Did CDP become "evil company" for them? Warhorse story again? :) Are they really butthurt about some CDP tweets or is there also some other reason for this campaign against CDP?
 
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Oh no CDPR an enemy of certain social groups and journalistic activists.:roll:

Still remember the outrage earlier this year that got a community manager fired over a few tame tweets. As for Warhorse I love their replies to certain social groups.


56c2f85b27ca81444a96ee11c28a0c0ebb70b6ff.jpg
 
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https://www.vg247.com/2019/06/18/take-two-ceo-strauss-zelnick-on-games-industry-unions/
Take-Two CEO can’t imagine why game developers would unionise
A CEO can't imagine something.
Ain't that a precedent of the decade.



https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...y-7-remake-developers-to-restrict-tifas-chest
Square Enix has an ethics department and it told the Final Fantasy 7 remake developers to "restrict" Tifa's chest
Luckily for the world, Square Enix isn't the only japanese company and all the best things (M rated dating sims with exotic perversions) come from Japan.
Modders however are united worldwide, earliest mods of any game are always nude mods. :)
 
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Because an artist should be free to design their characters any way they choose. You have the right to be offended, but not to deny others the right to create or enjoy it.
 
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https://www.pcgamesn.com/ea-loot-boxes
By EA, lootboxes aren't scam, fraud nor taxfree gambling, not milking and not cancer.
Not to you, not to me, but to UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee EA says:
They’re not loot boxes, they’re “surprise mechanics,” and they’re “quite ethical”

O_O

Checked, Oxford dictionary still didn't add it. Someone sue them for neglecting the world savior company!

JS reacted promptly:
 
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Gaming journalism bs:
https://www.vg247.com/2019/06/20/cyberpunk-2077-immersive-sim-rpg/
Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t quite an immersive sim
Of course CP isn't nothing. Nothing is that nothing.



RockPaperShotgun goes sjw clickbait mode and actually succeeds to generate enormous amount of clicks:

Are clicks really worth a site's reputation? There was a time I've enjoyed visiting RPS, then I got bored with it and now I probably won't visit them ever again.



It wasn't just EA who bullshitted brit MPs, Epic joined EA's effort to defend scam practices in Products that are supposed to be videogames and not taxfree gambling:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...-execs-squirm-under-scrutiny-from-british-mps
During one particularly fractious exchange, committee chair Damian Collins MP said: "If I was a parent who was concerned about my child's use of Fortnite, I think listening to your testimony would not give me any encouragement at all that this was an issue that you cared about."
His comments were echoed by Ian Lucas MP who took to Twitter after the hearing.
"Quite extraordinary session of @CommonsCMS with Epic and EA games companies who appear to think they have no obligation at all to those who are addicted to games," he said. "They do not appear even to have considered it."



You can't slap "microtransactions" or "pay2win" tag on Steam catalogue products. Yes, I've tried it many times, no dice.
Valve however thinks it's of uttermost importance to add "LGBT" tag instead of protecting customers from scams, thus they've officially added a tag for games that contain sexuality varieties:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-06-21-steam-now-has-an-official-lgbtq-tag-hub-page
Valve has added an official LGBTQ+ tag and hub page to Steam, allowing developers and users to sort games into it for easier discovery.
What's next? Adding "slavery" and "sexism" for games that don't contain scammy microtransactions, Raven's Cry for example?

Whatever. Valve's policy is clearly "we get 30% of everything, scams are still profitable for us".
 
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Still remember the outrage earlier this year that got a community manager fired over a few tame tweets.

Ah, yes, thats the reason I think that its not the main or only reason. It seems its really about clickbaits. Or maybe they are fanboys of some US studio(s) and hate CDP as a successfull studio from "Eastern Europe". I dont know.


joxer said:
RockPaperShotgun goes sjw clickbait mode and actually succeeds to generate enormous amount of clicks:

I also noticed that video from YongYea. See 3:34… I used to think that I saw a lot of stupid claims from journalists (not only them) but those comments from John Walker, chief clown… ehm, editor of RPS… How can imbecile like him ever got in his position? It seemed to me like his tweets are "self-sabotage of RPS" - of course if RPS fans would notice and read it.

But there was also reaction from CP 2077 devs….


Mike Pondsmith strikes back at "fake offense" groups :)

There are few great comments from Mike. especially as he "is tired of ppl who tells him what he - as a black man - should be offended by"

8:05 + 10:40 - Mike comments are here


 
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You know, all that shit RPS flings surely creates the desired clicks. But I'm optimistic it will have very little effect on CP77 reception and sales, if any. I think Mike Pondsmith made some good and valid points, but if RPS et al. keep this up he should stop responding at some point. Don't feed the trolls.
 
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Maybe the next thing should go to political controversies part, not sure.
Thus won't comment, but have to say a few things.

1. LoL is probably the only so called f2p game that's definetly f2p - you can unlock everything and anything without paying a single dime ever in your life and you won't face retarded timers (which would make it free2wait rubbish) nor the game ever drops advertisments to pay for gambling (lootboxes) although it does have those - but nothing that would help you win ever drops.

2. Riot Games, LoL's developer, is fully owned by Tencent. Tencent is a chinese company.

I'm saying LoL is not an usual mmo scamware, there is no fraud, you fire it up, play, have fun and nothing is out of your reach. Still, the company earns 2 billions per year as you can, if you want, support it by buying skins that don't contain any powers only change the way your charcter looks.

In some perfect world, games that aren't operating like this, advertised as f2p yet you can't play everything in those for free plus you have to pay real $ to gamble as those are de facto slotmachines, those scams should be banned and their publishers incarcerated for decades so noone tries to scam the people worldwide ever again.

Okay, now with bs:
https://www.pcgamesn.com/league-of-legends/banned-in-iran-syria
Escalating tensions between the United States and Iran have now led to League of Legends being effectively blocked for players in both Iran and Syria. As of June 22, players trying to log in to League of Legends from either nation were greeted with a message informing them that U.S. laws and regulations prevent Riot from running the game in their countries.
 
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RPS are just looking for anything to be offended by relating to women, gays, or trans folks (for the record I love and support all 3 of those). But John Walker was one of the founders of the site…nobody hired him…he created the place back before it was a SJW shithole. He's also gone now and doesn't work there anymore (except the steam top ten sales list I think).

RPS is still a burning trash fire that I still visit every few days for some reason. Bad habit I guess.

I don't see this bs affecting Cyberpunk at all really.
 
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The movie streaming scams plague spread to Steam:
https://torrentfreak.com/scammers-abuse-steam-to-trap-would-be-movie-pirates-190623/
Indeed, an activity that appears to have taken root on the platform over the past few months shows that accounts don’t have to be limited to just one type of the above suspicious activity. Steam is the last place one might expect to find links to pirate movies, but that’s part of the trap.

This bait-and-switch subscription trap is repeated on dozens of Steam pages too numerous to outline here. However, if readers want to see more of them (not recommended), typing site:steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ “full movie” into Google will bring up pages and pages of results.
And what does Valve do about this? Nothing. It's not piracy where Valve wouldn't be silent, it's scams and Valve doesn't care if their customers are scammed - if it cared, lootboxes would be disabled in that store.
 
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PC Gamer notices a trend but still doesn't geddit or is just playing dumb:
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-battle-royale-gold-rush-is-over/
The battle royale gold rush is over

So there are many more BR games to come, and the genre is still a massive one with lots of games fighting for a piece of it. But if E3 is any indication, developers and publishers are being much more cautious about diving headlong into battle royale than they were a year ago.
The craze started with PUBG. Not a new idea but was made somewhat different, a plain buggy trash that sometimes ended with winner winner chicken dinner and a reward. A reward you can auction for real $. And while we were wasting time on Candy Crush Saga or usual timewasting mmos recommended by the very same PC Gamer that should rename itself into MMO/phone gamer, people earned their pension with PUBG.
Then came Fortnite. The first BR game with lootboxes. And then gamblingloving whales from phones just installed it then spent their mortgage.
Cut the bs PCGamer, you know why there can't be a third one. Okay, it can, but it again needs to suck people's wallets dry with useless "digital goods" in a new scams. Ingame pachinko maybe?




https://www.pcgamesn.com/epic-store-tim-sweeney
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says exclusives “ultimately benefit gamers”
Yes, I feel the spectacularly positive effect of not being able to play HZD on my PC with scifi hardware inside, a game held hostage by some company on inferior hardware.
My life is fulfilled thanks to exclusivity bullshit, I can now die happily.



https://www.pcgamesn.com/account-boosting-south-korea
You can now spend two years in jail for account boosting in South Korea
No, that's not bs.
Bs is that no other country made the same law. Yet. Do we really always have to wait till Koreans make the first move?
 
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This isn't bs article or statement itself, but it points at ongoing bs in games industry - neglecting subtitles.
Surprisingly, this doesn't come from any indie dev but from Ubisoft:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-06-26-ubisoft-sees-high-acceptance-for-opt-out-subtitles
Ubisoft sees high acceptance for opt-out subtitles

Even in games that ship with subtitles off by default, publisher sees more than half of players turn them on

"Subtitles matter to _everyone_," Tisserand said. "We hope it helps spreading best practices throughout the industry."
Subtitles don't really matter to everyone, I mean, who needs those for Tetris, Candy Crush Saga or nostory grinders like Dark Souls?

But I've, or better to say, we've, seen horrible subtitles with too short time on screen, with no border hard to read, with font so small one needs a microscope, etc. On another hand, some developers understand not only hearing impaired people love games but also people who'd always pick subs instead of dubs, recently Square Enix blessed different VO depending on a country visited in the game with subs of player's choice (Shadow of TR).

Subs need to be enabled by default and need to be good, not amateurish. It's a shame no developer/publisher who screwed up subs was asked by gaming journalists wtf was that (who claim they ask questions *all* players want to ask). Then I'd have a proper bs answer entry here.
Ubi's hint on it above, hopefully, works too.
 
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