Agreed. I know Yahtzee has crapped all over it (surprise) and that there’s plenty of criticism as GoT as an Assassin’s Creed-alike, but I don’t know, there’s just something about this game that clicks with me.

Part of the problem is that the executives goal isn’t always the long term success of the company or its employees and, sometimes, it never is. Very often executives are compensated for short term changes in stock price or or other maneuvers that allow a handful of people to profit disproportionately. That could…

Senior Exec, two months from now: “Usage stats of the new page are low? People keep going to /latest instead? Why don’t we just kill /latest?”

AOC is young, and is likely to have a long career at this rate. I don’t see these issues as a “big fat waste of time” so much as fights in smaller arenas that are less likely to draw immense heat and which can allow a diversity in thought (and frankly age) to flourish. Just look at the NYC primaries—there were a bunch…

Oof. My heart. Like so many, I stumbled into Cowboy Bebop at a pivotal time in my life (the start of college) and had no idea what to expect. Needless to say, the show, its themes, and its music played a formative part of my development, and every time I hear select songs from the soundtrack—Blue, Green Bird, Memory—my…

For a few decades now, Japan has heavily invested in exporting its culture and for the large part has been pretty successful. I think the result is that Japanese culture has been integrated into Western culture in a way not really seen with other nations; I’m hard-pressed to find an analog to how there are kids of all…

Yeah, that’s been fascinating, especially when I think about my take the aesthetics of many Japanese games and dramas, with stereotypically androgynous men and T&A’ed women.

Surprisingly, it’s not one of the things that really bugs me in this situation. Maybe that’s because US entertainment so heavily relies on Hiroyuki Sanada and Ken Watanabe as their go-to Japanese actors that I was relieved not to see them (no offense to them, I like their work). Meanwhile, I was pleasantly surprised…

It’s pretty incredible. I know Nintendo has their way of doing things and isn’t very keen on being, ahem, “open kimono” about these kinds of details, but as a creator I find them very encouraging: they just how much work goes into even the unused parts of a creation, and when you realize that only a fraction of all…

Agreed. There was a time when a game without an installed fan base could have shifted the cultural zeitgeist—think Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Mario—but for far too long we have been stuck in this cycle of pandering to what has already been done rather than doing what might come next.

Fair enough. I’ll offer you a different take on valuation—not to disagree with yours, but because learning about how other people see things can be worthwhile (I definitely appreciated your approach!).

I know this will be an unpopular opinion and it’s clear the developer put in a *ton* of work to make this, but the gameplay I saw makes it seem kind of... boring? The enemies seem to have lots of HP and the mechanics that were speedy and engaging in Bloodborne don’t totally translate to the top-down 2D view for me.

For Kylo, for sure. Though I don’t know why they had to beef him up so much and feed in to the already unrealistic expectations set for boys via impossibly jacked superheros and action stars but w/e.

Hm. I’m up to speed on streaming, but I’ll be honest—I’m confused. We now have: Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, but it’s still not immediately clear what the added value of a Peacock subscription would be. Are shows like 30 Rock or Parks and Rec leaving their platforms? Is there an easy way to check? Is…

If true, it’s a smart move by Sony. It’s not hard for even a junior analyst to look out at the world and see how many more people are gaming because of covid lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders (or spending more time gaming). Demand is likely to be higher than it would be otherwise and letting the profit on that…

For me, it depends on the trade-offs. If the Digital Edition is in some way more resilient or energy efficient due to fewer parts and less need to accommodate a drive, then that’s a strong selling point for me. I honestly cannot remember the last time I bought a physical disc for a game.

Hear you on this. I did have friends (well friends of friends) willing to pair up, but frankly I play games to get away from the human interaction I have during work and via other obligations. I don’t mind pairing up with randos and not having to talk while doing activities together, but heavy coordination activities…

It’s been ages since I SRL’ed, but I recall it being what... two courses? Three? I imagine people wanted Mario Kart in space! but instead got surprisingly enjoyable simple racer. It was a nice way to break up the grind, before I decided I needed to quit Destiny for good or eventually lose myself to it for good.

Let me just say: quack.

A little creative Google searching is all it takes to find it