Quoting: hardpenguinSo much value for free, feels criminal to take advantage of it without paying. Please buy Stardew Valley on ALL the platforms and for ALL your friends!

I've bought it for myself and a relative, and have treated myself to some of the official merchandise, too (these little guys [External Link] and this squishy feathered friend [External Link] for my gaming plush collection, plus a pre-order for the cookbook [External Link] ). :grin:

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Quoting: BlackBloodRumsomeone uncool has been sending me links to games and like "you should get this too!" :angry:

Yeah Yeah [External Link], I totally did! :grin: :tongue:

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There's not as much for me in this Fest as I'd hoped, even though on paper the robots side of it ought to be right up my alley! My best guess is that the overly-strict criteria [External Link] for robot-based games, which didn't apply equally to dinosaur-based titles, must've discouraged some submissions, even though games that don't meet them were allowed in anyway (I ran into several anime-themed 2D platformers where I didn't even notice any mentions or screenshots of robots, for example).

That said, I'll probably pick up Orebody: Binder's Tale [External Link], which I heard of due to it being included on an upcoming Evercade cartridge (though I didn't want anything else on that one so I'd rather get it for my Steam Deck), and maybe GB Rober [External Link], since I do still love the aesthetic of robot-themed Game Boy games and this one nails that look pretty well. :smile:

As far as recommendations go, I must give a shout-out to Gravity Circuit [External Link], which plays a bit like a combination of some of the SNES and Game Boy Advance Mega Man titles whilst also being very much its own thing, but with melee combat instead of projectile weapons. It's both really fun and packed full of personality, and it does a great job at worldbuilding and character-interactions without those impeding the gameplay. I really hope to see more games in that world - they're outdoing the anti-PC-gaming Capcom in every way, and it's a native Linux title to boot! :grin:

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Quoting: PoliticsOfStarvingAs featured on MTVs Cribs (but not really).

And who created the Roblox "Oof" sound (but not really [External Link] ). :tongue:

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Can't wait! :grin:

I played a ton around Christmas, and then took a break to play other stuff (I like how Stardew Valley respects my time by not being real-time, unlike some other sim games that are often mentioned in the same sentence), so I'll be jumping in to check out the update once it lands, if not before then.

I don't plan, or want, to start a new file any time soon, though, since I only picked it up late last year and feel like I've barely scratched the surface! :shock:

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Quoting: elmapulthose 2 billions include how much they pay their creators?

They pay them in the same virtual currency for which you can purchase microtransaction cards in supermarkets and toy-shops, which have an exchange-rate of a fraction of a penny each.

Quoting: chrI disagree here. I think the service provider (Roblox) is best equipped to to supervise what happens in the communal spaces they built and they have an obligation (not legally though 🤬) to spend more of their precious profits on platform safety.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I totally agree with you, and I wish it was that way! I'm just already resigned to not expecting companies like that to actually take responsibility for what matters. :sad: But on the family/community side, all anyone can do is supervise and educate - that's all I mean.

Quoting: constThanks for posting these links. More people should watch them and more people should care.

Thankyou, and, again, totally agreed. I think it's telling that we see crackdowns on services not aimed at children, whilst nothing is being done about stuff like Roblox.

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Quoting: elmapulthe sex offenders is the biggest issue, but this is a problem in any online experience , i dont know about an solution that dont require parents monitoring what their kids are doing and only allowing then to play online when they are arround.

Supervision and education really are the only things that can be done here.

Quoting: elmapulas for the exploiting young developers, the easy solution is introducing an proper game engine that wont take 80% of your profits, and give up on making anything commercial in easy to use tools like roblox, use then just to have fun instead.

You're quite right. The issue, though, is that they promote to children (who tend to want quick results and won't have an easy start with most game-engines) that they can make money making games in Roblox, and basically shuffle them into sticking with company scrip but for kids [External Link], and then that also sometimes ends up overlapping with the above, according to the stories covered in the videos.

Quoting: elmapuli never heard about the cannibal one, dont know what its about and dont have time to read /watch it.

That one is utterly bizarre, and definitely worth the watch to get an up-close look at exactly the sort of freaky stuff that's going on in Roblox. :tongue:

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Quoting: psycho_driverMy daughters were both addicted to Roblox when they initially released their AC and I refused to set up anything windows based in my home so they had to go cold turkey. They've been able to play again since September or so but the old one seems mostly weened off and the younger one isn't as susceptible to hardcore addiction as the older, so she'll be fine. Adios, Roblox.

Hopefully they were unaffected by the many problems affecting it!

Roblox Has a "Cannibal Cult"... [External Link]
Roblox: The children's game with a sex problem [External Link]
Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers [External Link]
Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. [External Link]
A 12-Year-Old Sued Roblox and WON [External Link]

And so on, and so on...

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Ultimately, every responsible company must ask whether it is worth the effort. Who is responsible when things go wrong?

I find it interesting how this gets asked about Wine support, and not about how anti-cheat/anti-tamper rootkits create large attack surfaces that usually affect people who don't know any better and don't know what's going on. Perhaps that's just me, though.

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Quoting: BestiaThere is a great two part history of that console by Shmup Junkie on YouTube. He mentions in the first part that 20% games for that console were shooters.

History of the Amazing PC ENGINE! Book I [External Link]

History of the Amazing PC Engine! Book II [External Link]

Hehe, thankyou! :grin: I've actually seen and posted about these before, too - it's an absolutely amazing documentary, and easily the most well-researched one I've ever seen about the console. :smile:

Everyone with even the slightest interest in shooters and the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 itself should give it a watch!

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