The concept of “ever increasing cost of development” is a lot of bull though. The cost of producing a game and selling them has never been this low in the history of game development (per game copy). A lot of the increase in AAA game development cost is due to the marketing budget. It is costly to make a CGI trailer…

Because from a game point of view,“Live Service” means literally nothing. There is no proper definition of what a Live Service game is. It’s a monetization term. It’s a term for a constant flow of revenue without outright saying “subscription” (because subscription is fixed). It’s a scheme of “how do we keep making…

I just love it when developers are following the mantra of the publishers’ *MARKETING* team. Instead of “what kind of game do we want to make to realize our artistic vision”, it’s “how do we make a product that would fit into the marketing campaign’s buzzword”.

There’s “racist” that end up as all talk. And then there’s “racist” that end up with people dying in gulags.

Nobody is actually scared of any person’s statements. They’re scared of the follow up. If a person in Call of Duty he’d come to your house and rape your dog, you’d just chalk it up as an asshole raging because the follow up is extremely unlikely. If no one ever did harm to another person then any “empty threat” will…

We are actually in agreement here. If a consumer is given adequate and clear information and still chose their own option then it is their own responsibility. But at this point, it is impossible for a consumer to get the proper information when the venue owner is refusing to create a rule that the sellers must provide…

Whether they have been effective or not is another discussion. It does not detract from the function of a government.

There are exclusive games that you cannot play anywhere else. But most importantly, it can play games on the go. It fills a niche for that sweet spot for console gamers who doesn’t like gaming on their mobile gadgets. It’s dipping into two market segments. The price point is also low enough to be affordable as your…

“HEY, THIS THING IS SUSPECT. MAYBE DON’T CLICK IT WITHOUT THINKING,”

If we demand that corporations protect us from ourselves,

Correct. Reviews should be about something subjective, like personal preference. “I used this product but my schedule conflicts a lot with it so I don’t find it useful” compared to “I used this product and it set my house on fire”. It’s a *customer review* not a *product safety analysis*. We pay taxes so we don’t have…

Yes, there is. You go by a lengthy certification process and identity checking. You cannot comb through every line of code but you can comb through the *person* submitting that product. You don’t see this kind of problem in most of the world (anymore) because they put laws in place. There is none for digital products…

The stock exchange actually demands an audit before listing so yea, they’re making sure that the companies are not scams.

No one is willing to buy malware. None of them knew they’re buying malware. Steam can be caveat emptor as much as they want, doesn’t mean it’s not shitty and if another marketplace said they will protect their users then customers will flock there.

I would not purchase a car before reviews were available.

You based your decisions on the casualties report? And somehow you think this is being “smart”? It’s like your entire point of survival is “when a lion is chasing me I just need to run slight faster than the other guy”. Instead of, you know, figure out how to not have that lion be there in the first place.

Listen, game developers don’t keep track of finances and economics and business models. This is why publishers exist. You are claiming game developers “should have known”. I’m saying they don’t, because that is usually not their thing. It’s one thing if it were a veteran studio who handled their own finances in the…

The problem with that that would still promote addiction with spending with the MTX option.

I’m all well and for people stirving to make change and fight the system, but let’s not pretend that companies making F2P games are this fucking naive.

Anyone—and I mean everyone—in the field of videogame development at the time these guys made CH1 knew how predatory the market was and how exactly whales affected it, targeted advertising/their intent or not.