Gaming BS of the week

https://www.pcgamer.com/us-senator-...-banning-loot-boxes-in-games-aimed-at-minors/
US Senator introducing legislation banning loot boxes in games aimed at minors
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US Senator Jash Hawley announced today that he plans to introduce legislation that will ban "pay-to-win and loot box monetization practices" in videogames that are marketed to minors.

“Social media and videogames prey on user addiction, siphoning our kids’ attention from the real world and extracting profits from fostering compulsive habits," Hawley said in a statement. "No matter this business model’s advantages to the tech industry, one thing is clear: There is no excuse for exploiting children through such practices."

"When a game is designed for kids, game developers shouldn’t be allowed to monetize addiction. And when kids play games designed for adults, they should be walled off from compulsive microtransactions. Game developers who knowingly exploit children should face legal consequences."
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https://www.hawley.senate.gov/senat...nipulative-video-game-features-aimed-children
One notorious example of this practice:

Candy Crush, a free puzzle game featuring a Candy Land style cartoon aesthetic that offers players additional lives on a set timer, allows players to purchase a $149.99 “Luscious Bundle” including 1000 units of its “gold bar” in-game currency, a variety pack of temporary “boosters” to reduce game difficulty, and 24 hours of unlimited lives. The game touts this offering with a medal labeled “Best Value.” Candy Crush Developer King earns parent company Activision Blizzard $2 billion annually, boasting 268 million monthly active users.
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No, this is good news, it's not bs!
BS came shortly after as a reply:
In response to the senator's announcement, the Entertainment Software Association's acting president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis issued the following statement:

"Numerous countries, including Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, determined that loot boxes do not constitute gambling. We look forward to sharing with the senator the tools and information the industry already provides that keeps the control of in-game spending in parents’ hands. Parents already have the ability to limit or prohibit in-game purchases with easy to use parental controls."
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But of course, it's yet another CEO, who else would deliberately bullshit.
 
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Everybody forgets us :(
 
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Would you ever expect to see videogames used as means to preach against unionizing?
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-48225646
Delta Airlines staff told 'don't unionise, buy video games'
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Delta Airlines is facing significant criticism after posters discouraging its staff from joining a union were widely shared online.

"Union dues cost around $700 [£540] a year," one of the posters states.

"A new video game system with the latest hits sounds like fun. Put your money towards that instead of paying dues to the union," it continued.

The posters point to a website featuring Delta branding which encourages workers not to unionise.

Without confirming it produced the posters, a spokesperson for the airline said it had "shared many communications, which on the whole make clear that deciding whether or not to unionise should not be taken lightly."

_106899892_ursula_lawrence.jpg
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Honestly, of all kinds of bullshit, not even my wild imagination would be able to create the one above.
No, not because of mushrooms pic. :)
 
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Road maps are totally necessary, how else would you navigate your vehicle to the desired destination?
 
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If your employer puts up posters encouraging you to buy a PlayStation rather than join the union - join the union. :p
 
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https://www.pcgamer.com/hp-is-making-a-dual-screen-gaming-laptop-with-liquid-metal-cooling/
HP is making a dual-screen gaming laptop with liquid metal cooling
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These include practical gaming features like an Adaptive Omen Command Center UI and real-time performance monitoring and unrelated multitasking features like instant messaging, online video streaming and Windows apps. You can also turn the miniature display into a virtual numberpad, a la the latest Asus Zenbook 14. If you want, you can even view a cropped version of your gameplay from the main 15.6-inch screen and interact with it to some degree.
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The competition against abnormally noisy fans in ASUS gaming laptops (where ASUS is still not responding on the issue annoying both Windows and Linux users) by liquid cooling is not bullshit. Then why is this news here?
Because:

https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/14...MJHpDQrOxcZD0rK5yNc16kuFT2r1MIPEsmjqh9a88J5rX
Otherwise, the Omen X 2S hits all the right notes for a gaming laptop in 2019. It packs up to a 9th-generation Intel Core-i9 8-core CPU (with 5 GHz overclocking)
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That ain't no gaming laptop, that bullshit.

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https://www.vg247.com/2019/05/14/wanking-simulator/
What’s “the best wanking experience known to mankind, from the comfort of your home”? No, it’s not actual wanking. Instead it’s Wanking Simulator, according to the game’s Steam page.
You play as Winston Gay, in a town called Gay Bay, a setting I’ve seen no reason to believe isn’t a cheap homophobic joke. Your objective is to destroy as much of the neighbourhood as possible, before masturbating over the ensuing chaos to collect points. Eventually you’ll be caught by the police.
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I bet this is the pinancle of phoney genre people call immersive sim.
 
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joxer said:
Gamesindustry made an IMO brilliant article which doesn't belong in this thread as such.
But I have to add it in here because it points onto EA/Activision recurring bs:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...ivision-need-to-show-us-something-new-opinion
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The industry's biggest publishers now focus on pumping old franchises for incremental growth rather than honing their ability to create the next big thing
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Well, in a way that's a good thing : Because that's what all dinosaurs do - and suddenly, one day, they meet changed public / consumer exdspectations without having something ready. And that's usually the point where companies go bancrupt.

Putting it more cynically, they're behaving like ticks now.
 
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Probably you've already heard, Google hopped on the train of consequences and decided to blacklist Huawei too. Which means, Huawei's phones won't receive any new android update nor will android be supported on new Huawei phones.

But why is this here? Because not all phonegames are scams. There are still quite a few games on phones you pay once and have everything unlocked without attempts to milk you for eternity with content quality being less than mediocre.
While I don't care what will happen with fraudes, banning the second most popular phone manufacturer is bad for selling proper games. But that's not all what will happen because of this bs ban.

https://wccftech.com/huawei-statement-after-android-ban/
the Android ban means Huawei-branded devices will not run Google services such as the Play Store, YouTube, Gmail, and more, even though the company’s phones will still be a part of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Following the ban, Huawei has issued its first statement, revealing that the company is confident about its future, while also leaving out a few details.
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If previous rumors are to be believed, Huawei is apparently been working on an Android OS alternative that we earlier reported about being called Kirin OS.
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Have no illusion, Huawei's own OS won't ban milking schemes for sure, why would they if scamming people is still legal everywhere except in Belgium. Most probably proper games that aren't trying to charge you $100 for thin air just won't appear on it.

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Speaking of scamware that's usually gambling falsely advertised as videogame to avoid taxes and licensing, the horrid Rockstar's mmo called Red Dead Online just disabled poker for players in countries where it might cause them some headaches:
https://kotaku.com/poker-in-red-dead-online-is-not-available-everywhere-du-1834849762
We certainly understand your concern regarding not being able to play poker. We appreciate your interest in using this feature in the game.
We are sorry to let you know that the availability of Poker in Red Dead Online is dependent on regional laws and regulations and may not be available to all players. In short, poker won’t be available in countries where online gambling is restricted or illegal. We apologize if this had caused any inconvenience.
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Was it easier to just make sure ingame poker can't be played by using real $?
Seems that to Rockstar, it wasn't a question what's easier or harder to code, it was where is easier or harder to milk people dry.

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Rockstar aside, any other fresh lootboxes bs? Why of course there is!
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...ed-over-engine-features-for-gambling-industry
Unity found itself under fire on Friday for supporting the gambling industry with its first release of 2019.
In a since-deleted post on Twitter, the engine provider said its new release included over 300 new features, "many of which are especially helpful for developers in the gambling industry."
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Seems only RPGmaker remains "independent" and needs to join the club of scammerfriendly engines.
 
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https://www.pcgamer.com/a-windows-10-bug-is-bricking-some-pcs-that-use-system-restore/
A Windows 10 bug is bricking some PCs that use system restore
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MMOgamer trying also to be phonegamer.
No.
Windows won't brick anything, just will be unable to boot due to poorly designed system restore where an unwanted effect occurs (I'm not even sure it should be called a bug).
Also, it doesn't happen on some PCs but only on PC where an user restore point overlapped with an official update.
Finally, if this does happen to any gamer, a mere entering windows restore environment on unsuccessful boot and disabling driver signature enforcing makes Windows 10 operational again.

Simply put, the "bug" will not brick anything. Bricking something would mean hardware locked and impossible to unlock by a common user. PC is not phones, with a few clicks anyone can sort the (superrare) problem mentioned above.

Why is PCgamer obsessed with terms meaningless to PC I have no idea, but that obsession only produces bs.

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Nintendo. LOL
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...bile-games-in-belgium-over-loot-box-law-fears
Nintendo mobile games Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes will be shut down in Belgium at the end of August.
Both are being pulled over the "current unclear situation in Belgium regarding certain in-game revenue models". In other words, the country's recent stance on loot boxes.
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What's unclear?
Everything is clear in Belgium. Gambling falsely advertised as a videogame is illegal in Belgium. It's not gambling? Yes it is, saying it's not is plain bs.

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https://kotaku.com/epic-games-store-will-block-your-account-if-you-buy-too-1834905266
Epic Games Store Will Block Your Account If You Buy Too Many Games Too Quickly
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So I can confirm that me buying a whopping 5 games (ranging from 5 bucks to 50) on the Epic Store flagged my account for possibly fraudalent. Maybe if you guys had a fucking shopping cart jesus christ.
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Nick Chester from Epic PR confirmed with Game Revolution that “This was a result of our aggressive fraud rules,” and that “If players run into this issue, they should contact player support so we can investigate.”
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At the same time there is no cap, control or bans on the $ amount you can spend on gambling.

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https://kotaku.com/top-streamers-said-to-earn-50-000-an-hour-playing-new-1834898693
Top Streamers Said To Earn $50,000 An Hour Playing New Games
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Another poor use of terms, not PCgamer but Kotaku.
It's not playing. It's stalling.

Sure, some of us play our games by stalling the main quest. But we do it for fun, not because stalling is a best paid job on twitch.

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So many bs, so little time:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...c-people-in-dota-2-charges-for-the-privileges
Valve lets players avoid toxic people in DOTA 2, charges for the privilege
Experimental Avoid Player feature included in $9.99 battle pass
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Anything else remained to monetize? Oh yes, breathing air, but that's probably a roadmap bs for the next year.
 
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Edits will kill me thus a new post. Is some world bs day today?
I mean, another one:
https://www.vg247.com/2019/05/21/ps5-video-spider-man-backwards-compatibility-next-gen-hardware/
PS5: watch PS4’s Spider-Man running on next-generation hardware

“What took 15 seconds now takes less than one: 0.8 seconds, to be exact,” Wired wrote of seeing Cerny demo a bit of fast travel around Spider-Man’s Manhattan-based map.
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Making headlines about (re)discovering warm waters called SATA3 and SSD.
What's next? Demonstration of PCIe 4.0 when PS6 gets announced?
 
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Zynga. Farmville. Remember those?
Well, they're making Game of Thrones games now:

gameofthronesshare.jpg


Ought to say, "games".
 
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Square Enix is publishing a game Avengers. Yes, Marvel's Avengers. Coo!?
https://www.pcgamesn.com/avengers-e3-coop
Square Enix’s Avengers game has four player co-op and character customisation
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Wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy Destiny and Anthem junk instead of just cloning it while paying for cosmetics license?

…………………………

Computex ended so PCGamer refreshed their "Best CPU for Gaming" article. This article was already mentioned in this thread, maybe it doesn't need to be listed here any more. So let's see the top 3 "best" gaming CPUs:
https://www.pcgamer.com/best-cpu-for-gaming/
1. Intel Core i9-9900K 8/16 cca 500€
2. Intel Core i7-9700K 8/8 cca 400€
3. Intel Core i7-8700K 6/12 cca 350€
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O_O

Obviously, the article still belongs in this thread. Wouldn't - if they changed it's title to "Most expensive CPUs noone needs for gaming".
In fact that article should be #2 bs of the year when it comes to gaming industry (#1 would be ongoing lootboxes scamware) because:
https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-5-36...k-leak-crushes-coffee-lake-price-performance/
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6 Core CPU Benchmarks Leak Out, Knocks Out Intel’s i9-9700K At Price/Perf
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That's about 6/12 CPU with an expected price of $200. Oh, and additionally, it's chipset will support PCIe4.0 where new GPUs that'll know how to (ab)use it are supposed to show at least 50% better performance than on PCIe3.0.
Even if the leak made a mistake somewhere, I don't see how the luxurious trio PCGamer listed as top CPUs are a better choice for a gamer than i5-8400 or R5 2600.

I called that site for certain reasons PhoneGamer and MMOGamer, but it seems I should just use BSGamer while refering to it in the future.
 
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