To make a good game, the writers must have great creative influence over the development process

To contain their power, there needs to be books on shelves you can read

They won’t get a clue

Exactly, exactly. I’ve said it before, nine years ago I fancied myself a Cassandra, and now I just feel like Ren Hoek.

It was totally accidental, but that’s one one of the finest compliments I’ve ever been paid. I read Kitchen Confidential at a formative age, so I’m glad to have memorialized him however fleetingly in my dotage.

We’ve never owned the games themselves, only a license to use them (at best). Even the physical media of an older game was legally speaking a physical licence. Ownership rights in gaming started off minimal and got worse over the decades.

If you refuse to pay teachers right, you’re not going to attract top talent. I don’t make the rules.

Yes

I had you figured for a rather down to earth sensible sort

I see now I underestimated your silliness

I would just about tolerate the fuss of a resin printer if I didn’t have to think about fumes. That alone puts it out of reach for me.

I might actually press the button zero times. Genuinely. I am pretty well convinced by now that being a billionaire is a mental health disaster, and I’m cis.

But being thin again would be nice…

Bestie, I use this handle and people still don’t leave off about obvious sarcasm around here. Lemmy is serious business.

I barely have the energy to deal with such objections anymore. You’re spot on, and it’s unsatisfying, but when you’re faced with playing a rigged game or losing everything, the best you can do is ante up and plan your escape.

I agree. It does seem like media literacy vis a vis video games is not as generally strong as it ought to be, and if people did have a deeper understanding of game design, art, and writing in general even a brief look at gameplay would be enough for most people to make up their minds. If you have an even somewhat strong understanding of games I think it’s not too hard to sense at a glance how the game you’re seeing is trying to contribute to the conversation in game development. Between that, weighted reviews, and even the thumbs up or down from one familiar reviewer is usually enough for me to tell if I will get my money’s worth. I almost can’t remember the last time I bought a game on this basis and wasn’t happy - it was Nier: Automata actually, and that was basically because I didn’t like the feel of the combat, which is hard to spot. Didn’t even get to all the bleak philosophy stuff I was looking forward to, I just bounced off it hard.

Haze them, I beseech you

Couldn’t you have just fucking killed me instead

Indie games have never been better, there’s no problem here that doesn’t solve itself if people just stop buying bad AAA titles

I miss the days when Europeans would justly laugh in our faces about the size of our trucks.

A politician who tells it like it is? A guy you could, God forbid, have a beer with? A veteran even, but with working class cred and a love of video games. A total unknown on the national level, but beloved by his constituents… You couldn’t order a more perfect veep off a menu. It’s almost surreal

Unhung traitors kill republics