Well, good for those that want it, I suppose. Honestly, I feel RGB has gone a bit too far in computers. Some can use it to great effect, I'll admit, but, more often than not, it really does just look like rainbow puke.

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Happy holidays to everyone and a happy new year!!

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Honestly, W4 charging that amount to port to the consoles doesn't bother me. If I developed a game I felt could bring in the money, then 2k a year shouldn't be that bad. Additionally, if I could find another group that can port for cheaper, W4 is not standing in my way to go that alternate route.

As long as Godot's development remains independent of W4's console efforts, I'm content.

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This is wonderful for Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan! Kinda envious of them, honestly!
Being from the US, it's sad not to see the Steam Deck at a retail store (probably because the US is letting the retail space die, I only say as half a joke). I was in a Best Buy a few weeks ago and stopped when I thought I saw a Steam Deck on display. Got a little excited thinking "Oh wow, Valve is finally putting their console in stores!"... then I realized I was looking at the Ally and immediately was saddened.

Not to rain on the Ally's parade at all! I love that there's competition in the mobile console space and bringing those prices down, but, I will admit I'm a Steam Deck fan boy of sort and I just really think it'd do even better if it was available in a way that Grandma and Grandpa could get one to give to little Tina or Timmy for the holidays.

Also, I have the original Steam Deck and would love to see/feel the new OLED version in the flesh (so to speak) to really see the difference before deciding to spend money on it.

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Amusingly, I'm starting to feel that, if the game developers are willing to sell their game(s) on Itch.io, then they're indie. Off the top of my head, I cannot recall seeing any AAA publisher ever putting there game(s) on itch.

In reality, the big publishers (Microsoft, Sony, Activision, EA, etc) do not want the term "indie" defined! Why would they? They'll let people debate over the term and, in the process, bring in customers that either don't understand what "indie" even means, doesn't realize a AAA publisher made their favorite "indie" video game, and/or doesn't care one way or the other. We can see this from their "Awards" show... worse than a Grammy or an Emmy show, these Game Awards are really just a circle jerk and massive ad spot with no real substance or meaning, and they're more than happy that most gamers realize that or don't care.

On a serious "what defines Indie" note, I think the term alone is too broad. Instead of an "Indie" category, the categories should definitely be more specific (with strict definitions). Like...

• "Best Solo-Dev Game" - Game developed without publisher by a single individual


• "Best Independent Team Game" - Game developed without a publisher by a team of less than 20 individuals


• "Best Small Publisher Game" - Game released by a publisher who only publish small studio (less than 100 employees) games.

Those are just some off the cuff ideas. A real award show (that actually cared about what they were awarding) would spend way more time thinking these details through, but, in my opinion, nowhere should the word "indie" be included in the category title... so as not to confuse the audience about intent or meaning..

That's my two cents, anyway.

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Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: Linux_RocksAlso, corporations being PC or inclusive cause it's good for business is annoyingly fake. But it's better than the other options.

Yeah, for me it's just bigotry in the other direction. Instead of Corps asking people to stop being bigots, they're asking you to put other types of people on pedestals. Which is still bigotry, because certain other types of people are not put on those pedestals.

Whether a company's display of support is genuine or self serving is a matter of debate. However, showing support for a group that has been treated (at best) less than acceptably in a historical context is not "bigotry in the other direction". At this point, as a society, it's not enough to *quietly* say "we accept you" because, like with any relationship, you do actually have to *say* it to that person. You have to let them *know*, unambiguously, that, yes, they matter and they're accepted. Maybe, on a societal level, that means, at the very least, they get a market display, or a few characters taking the spotlight in a show or movie, or they get to parade down main street. Maybe it's time those groups get a bit of the spotlight and the respect they deserve. There's plenty to go around

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The way licensing is handled in video games bothers me greatly. To build a product that you want people to enjoy and play but using a license that can either expire (putting a timer on your product) or be pulled on a whim... why do this? It's one thing if the developers, themselves, choose to withdraw their product, but for the IP holder to have the power to do this seems absurd. You either let developers create their game with your IP, and then, there it is, or you don't.

This doesn't happen with movies! If a movie is made by a studio using some other company's IP, you don't see those movies suddenly disappearing from distribution once some license expires. If this happened, I'm sure that Super Mario Brothers movie from the 90s would have disappeared a long time ago, but it didn't. All those Uwe Boll movies, that butcher the IPs they used, are still available.

Why do video games get abused this way by IP holders? This bothers me greatly.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyIt sucks. More consolidation is bad. I have no fondness for Activision Blizzard, but then I'm not a big fan of Microsoft either and neither of those is the main point. Corporate behemoths are too big; in general they should be getting chopped into smaller pieces, not allowed to stitch together into even gianter Frankenstein leviathans.

I feel most countries (USA especially) have long ago abandoned even the pretense of fighting against monopolistic behavior. I cannot say how bad this merger will be over time. I fear, in maybe a decade, it will be bad for people not on Windows or XBox... then again, I have a very negative bias against Microsoft and A/B (especially the Activision potion), so take what I said with a grain of salt, I suppose.

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I feel the biggest risk to the Steam Deck is the ROG Ally actually being in a store. As far as I'm aware, Steam Deck is only available from Steam (at least in the US). That means most customers would either have to already be familiar with Steam or (to a much lesser extent) be willing to "risk" the Steam eco-system sight unseen. The Steam Deck had a *HUGE* amount of positivity after it's release (definitely a key benefit to not over-hyping your hardware before release), so Steam Deck saw converts who were not normal PC gamers.

But ROG Ally will be in a store. This means it will be *A LOT* easier for (grand)parents to buy the Ally for their gamer (grand)child's birthday or as a holiday gift. This is a huge deal! Even if the ROG Ally is only half as good as the Steam Deck (and more likely it'll be, all around, on par) that could lead to more ROG Ally units in gamers hands after a year than Steam Deck units.

I feel Valve *really* needs to find a way to get at least the base-line model Steam Deck on store shelves (including Amazon, Walmart, etc). Otherwise, I fear the Steam Deck (and more directly, Steam OS) will be drowned out by more easily purchasable devices.

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Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: ObsidianBlk

Quoting: slaapliedjeFallout 76... the game failed so hard that they are now giving it away on Humble Bundle and PS4/5 at the same time.

It's not the greatest game that ever exited, even for a live service, but, to Fallout 76's credit, it's going a lot stronger than many other such games that both released after and died before it has... like... IDK... Anthem? Fallout 76 was never worth it's original sales price, but, it's often on sale for $10, which, even ignoring all the added FOMO stuff, gives you a decent game to wander around in and shoot stuff... doubly so if you have a friend or two to play with.

Was watching a video about all of the games where the live services were killed off. Makes me think that some of those should basically have some consumer protections in place, like if someone spends X amount of time into it to make it worth the money they spent (including loot box type purchases) that if the company doesn't just go under, but instead cancel a game's support to try to make more money with another one, then they should provide some sort of refund (or bonus stuff for their new game) or something...

Can you imagine if something like World of Warcraft decided to end, and how mad all the people who have dumped their lives into playing it for a long time, and the money people have spent on it? Granted this is one reason of many why I stay away from MMOs.

I feel this very much falls under the category of Consumer Beware. These businesses are under no obligation to make sure your time/money investment is secure or given some form of compensation, and, as much as I hate the capitalist system at times, nor should they. If consumers are not aware that a publisher/developer can yank their online game from them at the slightest whim, then that's on the consumer for being ill informed.

Like I said, as far as Fallout 76 is concerned, I wouldn't spend more than $10-ish on that game alone, but, if you even have a passing enjoyment of the Fallout franchise, then you should easily get at least $1/hr of entertainment or better out of the game without needing to drop more money into it. If you do buy any of the "extra" stuff (for Fallout 76 or any other online service), that's fine, but it's your responsibility to know there is always the probability that as soon as you drop real coin into the game, it will up and poof on you.

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