Oh I’ve been doing it a while. I tend to interact with current students a lot (I play in a “University and Community” orchestra) and it’s terrifying that ten years can render you part of a totally different world.

I mean, when I was 21 and studying abroad in Southern California? That was before the economy went tits…

“It isn’t a sad sign of the times anymore than passively watching really anything else on TV.”

Ah, but now that’s a big question worthy of debate in its own right, isn’t it? For hundreds of thousands of years, human society evolved with only very *social* forms of entertainment. Theatre, for example, requires that a…

To be fair, I think it’s more a matter of anxiety than laziness. It reminds me of the current “idol” business in Japan, with large numbers of men of varying ages basically becoming the zealous fanbase for some... young girl and her aspiring pop career.

It’s easier for them, less demanding, with less of a chance of…

“so i tend to log into 1 or 2 big tournament streams every month”

Yeah, competitive stuff I can understand. I watch the Eve Online Alliance Tournament for much the same reason.

“But i agree in that i don’t get people who watch streams exclusively.”

I play in an amateur orchestra, and this one young guy... second year…

“Their fans literally tune in just to watch them eat.”

That’s a perfect example of what I’m getting at. If people are feeling the urge to share the experience of eating with other humans, that’s just tragic. That makes me feel horrible about western civilization right now; that we have such a gaping void. In normal…

“They usually centre around descriptions such as “pitiful”, “lonely”, “pathetic”, “virgins” etc, as though a new form of content creation and consumption is deplorable.”

People usually call it lonely and pitiful, when they’re not being outright spiteful (which they can be, I’ll say that right now) because those of us…

See now, I can understand *that*. Forming an actual gaming community? Yeah. That’s what I’m getting at; that’s what I was actually looking for. I mean, I used to play WoW... I currently play Eve. The actual act of playing games together, that’s a great thing. Hell, even playing singleplayer games together and sorta…

Yes, because that’s totally the same thing, isn’t it? Watching a *competitive* context of physical skill, and watching one lone person playing a singleplayer game?

Totally the same thing. I mean, personally, when I’m watching a streamer play Outcast, I’m actually an NPC supporter. I have a t-shirt and everything, and I…

As a gamer and child of the 90s, I will never, ever understand the streaming thing as anything other than a rather sad indication of how lonely everyone has become.

I tried. I really did. I’ve watched one or two “lets plays” over the years... but mainly for practical reasons - games that didn’t have demos and I was…

The second one was slick, with some very nice atmospheric moments and arguably better gameplay than the first (the first had some frustrating instant-death moments due to the high camera position and pretty hardcore game difficulty), but the first had a better story and a more compelling main character than the second.

…

Well this is bloody a bloody weird coincidence. Literally last night I was overcome by the urge to reinstall the game (I still have the original CD copy).

Discovered that the game wouldn’t even start on Windows 7. Why? Because it seems the copy protection the game used... just doesn’t work with Windows 7 these days.

So…

“Where other fantasy games are content to stay tethered to Tolkien’s traditional high fantasy realms with humans, elves, dwarves, and dragons, Arkane forges its own path. Dishonored’s fantasy world is unique...”

...unique, in that it’s basically one big throw-back to Thief’s medieval-steampunk-fantasy world.

I’m not…

“Now who’s gonna make Dead Space 4?”

We don’t need it. The grandfather of Dead Space is returning from the grave:

Eeh, that’s not such a bother. Just remember - we’re getting a System Shock 1 remake, and a System Shock 3.

In other words, the source material is on its way back.

“Look, I get that stuff like loot boxes help developers cover the budget of the game...”

That’s really not what it’s about at all. Publishers like Warner and EA would not be as obscenely wealthy as they are, if they were in any way struggling with the budgets of their games. EA rose to power spending less money on…

But then, the issue of legality is also a valid point.

America confuses the hell out of me, as an outsider. Like, this line:

“I sympathized with everything he was saying, but I know many people who’ve crossed the river without papers, and they are good people.”

...except they’re criminals. If you enter somebody else’s…

Yeah, I’d heard about that.

There’s something fundamentally wrong with how these men view the industry, and the actresses. They’re like old feudal lords in the darkest bits of European history.

The really horrifying thing is, this has been going on since the dawn of Hollywood.

Look at all those actors and actresses, back in the day, who were bound to such ridiculously tight contracts... they were basically slaves; living pretty much in and around the studios, doing whatever crappy movies they were…

“...It’s the very same instrument that made me dread the opening of every new Angel...”

Kinda feel like the developers should just replace the entire thing with “THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS”.

Written in anything other than Chinese, just to be churlish.