I endorse the complete opposite of this comment!

You already have to move your thumb to hit the buttons on a standard controller - didn't they say these pads can be clicked - 'really did feel like pressing buttons'? It seems like they are simply in the same location.

It's important nerd history!

When I play an f2p game that doesn't feel exploitative, then I'll be glad to agree. That has yet to happen, though (but I also have no interest in MOBAs - if they are doing it better, perhaps that will filter out).

Yeah? There seem to be at least 2 - perhaps 4 - blocks for advertising on the main page in this screenshot:

All I'm asking for is an option to pay a few dollars more a month to have no ads - if they can't make a paid service profitable without ads (unlikely) at least let me pay more to opt out of them entirely.

It's on the side of every single bus in Philadelphia right now.

Yes. I find them ridiculously invasive and annoying - perhaps you've become inured to them?

There are plenty of things there that look like placeholders for ads to me. The lack of an ad-free Xbox Live option (I dunno - Platinum or something) is the reason for my divorce with the Xbox platform, I'm afraid.

Maybe this isn't what you wanted to see, but it's exactly the information I'd been waiting for this whole time: how ad-filled is the dashboard. Looks like the answer is: very.

I agree that stylized design can be sorely lacking in games pushing towards realism, but Spyro? No thanks.

"If the dickwolf joke had ended in a punchline about how the guy was going to killed by the dickwolves, not a single shit would have been given by anyone."

So they should never be able to publicly discuss an important event in their public lives without it being an act worthy of incredulous affront? They talked about a lot of things in the linked interview above, but you chose to cover this aspect, and that distillation is the fundamental act of editorial - one could say…

"Jokes that point out the horribleness and ridiculousness of rape"
But that WAS the intent of the original joke. The premise wasn't 'ha, ha he's being raped' it was 'even in the face of this horrible and ridiculous rape scenario, the player is unmoved by it because he isn't required to make a greater moral choice.'

Not to just post to plug my stuff - I love the Banner Saga art, and I love turn based strategy games, but I couldn't really get into it and largely blame the F2P gates - but here's a trailer for the early 80's fantasy rotoscoping short film I'm currently working on:

That's a good point - it's the least-invasive most-optional microtransaction system I've seen. I'm glad it's there for people who want it!

I simply can't imagine spending real money on those packs - you can get a Premium Spectre Pack even from being in 4th place every game for a few rounds on just Silver. I can't really relate to the desire to spend cash instead of the time you're going to spend playing it anyway.

This still doesn't solve the problem of 'if I showed this to my in-laws, they would think it was a tablet add-on for the Wii they already have.'

I don't watch or care about the NFL, but my wife was both Michael Vick's tutor and, since she was volunteering at the animal clinic, his dog vet when she was at Virginia Tech. I have heard so many crazy stories!

It's pretty silly to assume we can figure out the potential market better than the people who actually have the relevant statistics - it's not like console manufacturers don't know exactly how many units are online, where they are located, and the demographics of who's buying them.