According to another article on this that I read, this is pretty common. This is why they have so many directors with little or no experience with action scenes, yet the action scenes are always good.

Well said. I found out from playing Overwatch that I have addiction issues. I’m in my mid-30s, I guess I was in my early 30s at the time, and I had no idea. But those loot boxes affect me. When I sat down to play Overwatch, eventually the gameplay didn’t matter. The games didn’t matter. All I could think about is loot…

The thing with 38 Studios was that the way they shut down was terrible, though. They didn’t warn people. People got to Friday, thinking they were going to get paid, and then they got a memo saying “there’s no more money. You wont’ be paid. Pack your shit.” So, those people worked for 2 weeks for no money, and didn’t…

If you have to shut down, that’s sad. If you have to lay people off, I understand that’s a necessity. When you have to do it without giving them the basic severance package they should be able to expect, that’s where I get mad. This reminds me of Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios debacle. When the money is running out, lay…

At the end of the day, they were built to protect the industry. Yes, that is what they are supposed to do. It’s supposed to be about self policing. And if they had done that in this case, the industry wouldn’t be in trouble right now.

That’s a fair point. M isn’t really high enough if the game involves something minors are not legally allowed to do.

Well... Kind of. The fact that you are guaranteed to get something is kind of BS. The fact that they have wildly different values to you in game should mean it’s still gambling, but that’s the ESRB’s defense of this.

Well, it’s not surprising. It’s an industry organization, founded by them to protect them. Sega originally started it, or it’s predecessor, because congress was pissed off about Mortal Kombat. Two decades later, it’s still just there to protect them. It’s rare that this type of thing comes up, but not surprising that…

It’s not legally gambling, at least by the US definition. You can’t win something of monetary value, and you are guaranteed something, therefore it’s not gambling.

Yeah, the one thing they had going for them was that the mainstream press, and therefore politicians, were not paying attention. EA managed to make the system so goddamn bad that everyone took notice. Dan Stapleton of IGN was on one of their podcasts the other day and pointed out the fact that this system was so…

Oddly enough, the ESRB was the on that could have saved them this time. People asked them to rate all games with loot box gambling mechanics as M, because children aren’t allowed to gamble. They said it wasn’t technically gambling. Now this Congressman is out in front of the cameras able to talk about how EA is using…

I don’t see any slippery slope here. I just can’t make the connection in my head between them doing this, and what that could possibly lead to.

Yeah, I think your headline is pretty accurate here. This isn’t quite true. I think it has a lot of truth in it, but it was oversimplified.

I think there is definitely a chance they’ll just re-institute them, but to do so, they are going to need to make changes, and they are going to need to find good spin. But, there is a strong chance they won’t. After all, that’s what they already did twice. They changed them after the beta, and then they just changed…

No, let me explain my analogy better, because I think I screwed that up. People have used evolution to justify racism. Not the creationists, but people who believe in evolution. The creationists just pointed that out, saying that the theory is inherently racist. However, the theory isn’t inherently racist. Is has just…

You make fair points. This definitely has a more direct tie to racism than some other art styles from the past. I don’t know where the line is, though. When does a whole art form become inseparable from the racism? If they were actually using racist imagery in their game, that would be one thing, but they aren’t. So,…

You make fair points. This definitely has a more direct tie to racism than some other art styles from the past. I don’t know where the line is, though. When does a whole art form become inseparable from the racism? If they were actually using racist imagery in their game, that would be one thing, but they aren’t. So,…

Yeah, this is what gets to me. I mean, if they were referencing a specific type of art that was only tied to racism, that’s different. But this art wasn’t inherently racist. It was just spawned in a time where society was far more openly racist than today.

I think you just failed to make the case. They wanted this art style. I’m all for games tackling serious issues, but I don’t think using this art style means this game has to, whether the creators want to or not. As long as they aren’t putting the racist imagery in their game, I don’t think they have to deal with the…

I’m not saying I like him. I think his policy positions are terrible. My problem is that you think he’s an enemy. You view him exactly the way Tea Party views the left. You all hate him for being a Republican, and are angry anyone would praise him for doing something good. This is a sign of our polarized society. They…