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There's no force wielded by man nor God that will convince me (With the exception of puzzle games, kid's/educational games and some forms of strategy and platformer. Multiplayer is also an obvious exception to this as well.) that a game having one difficulty setting is a good thing. People have the right to play games the way they want to, but there's more to it than that. I can't think of many games with one difficulty that were too easy, at least not recently, but the flaw with them is obvious. With the exception of interactive narratives like Life is Strange or a Tell-tale game, a game with no challenge has no reason to exist. If there's no challenge, there's no tension and the gameplay is almost completely pointless and will inevitably get boring very quickly. Games that are made to be hard with no alternant difficulty settings are no better. Take Demon's Souls, a game veteran members may know I despise. I despise it not because it's hard, but because it's cheep, but that's another rant and not the important part here. A side effect of the obsession with difficulty lead to an RPG with a dull colour palate, uninspired design, little story that was impossible to get immersed in anyway because one spent so much time repeating the gameplay. The gameplay itself was tedious and with controls that deliberately crippled the player and the game, in it's infinite arrogance, wouldn't even let you pause, all to support a completely pointless online mechanic. The game became comprised in other aspects because of how From Software obsessed with just making a game as difficult as they could and the fans let them get away with it because they did just that. The game's fans can't admit any flaws in the game or it's sister franchises in Dark Souls and Bloodborne because the game met the low bar that it set for itself. It's hard. Well done From Software, 10/10 obviously. I've been literally kicked of forums and communities that weren't "Soul's" focused just for criticizing the games. For a fanbase that takes such pride it's virility and how they are gods among gamers they really can't take criticism and far to quickly cry to moderators (I hate moderators ). Having difficulty settings that are designed for people who wish to explore the game world, design, graphic, music, narrative, basically everything else other than challenge forces game dev's to focus on those elements instead of being distracted by making a game as difficult (or indeed, as easy) as possible. The question I put forward is, what if From Software has made the game with multiple difficulty options in mind? I believe they would have spread thier focus so other areas of the game that wouldn't have been let down. Better story elements, better design, better controls, better music, better... just better. So I think you see why I believe multiple difficulty options make games better. If Demon's Solus had multiple difficulty options the challenge wouldn't have been lost. All those "Git Gut" pricks would have to do is turn the difficulty up and it would better as the game mechanics wouldn't have have so cheep and cryptic by design. My least favourite thing it does is the effect it has on people. People can get so arrogant when they master a game that the loose sight of what gaming is meant to be. Few people are better people when they get to that kind of level. They mostly just lord over others and don't offer constructive advice at all. Soul's fans are, by far, the worst. You can't look for advice on a related forum, reddit or social media on these kinds of games without encountering some extreme toxicity and it's the games own obsession with how hard it is that's the route cause. "Git Gut" has even become a traditional meme to dismiss other people seeking advice. I'm not painting every Soul's fan with the same brush here, there are just as many if not more perfectly nice and civilised people out there who play those games, but the assholes are loud and unavoidable, so that community should be avoided.

Now a little disclaimer before the mods close the door on this topic. This is NOT about piracy and I would expect any post drawing any attention to sites that allow access to illegal ROM's or BIOS' to be deleted and rightly so. I'm posting this topic because there are points and purposes to emulators that have nothing to do with piracy. The first one I'll point out is preserving gaming history. There are games that were released on older platforms and arcades that now cannot be played in any other way... Unless you have access to the original hardware but that won't last forever. Game's (including demo's like PT) should be archived and be playable because they are part of our culture. With the gaming industry moving more and more into the realms of DRM and digital distribution aspects of this piece of our cultural heritage is a greater risk than ever of being reduced or lost completely. The only way to save it is through emulation. The second is that despite continuous complaint's for publishers, there are game's that they are not making and most likely will never make any money on, often through willful negligence. One example would be Ubisoft and Driver San Francisco. This is considered to one the best if the THE best game in the franchise despite not being a huge commercial hit. To this day Ubisoft do not distribute the game on any platform, not even on their own UPlay storefront on PC. There have even petitions from fans asking Ubisoft to release the game on UPlay but they have refused. So unless you have an original disc there is no way to buy the game outside the second hand market which generates Ubisoft no revenue anyway. So should one really feel guilty about playing this game through other means? It is Ubisoft that continue to slam the door shut on it. The third being that emulators by themselves are not illegal. It all depends on how you get the ROM's. There are exceptions but these are mostly older games that can no longer be purchased by any legitimate means. So if there is no way for the publisher to make money off the game anyway is it really wrong to download and/emulate it for free? Well that's my two cents, how about you? Do you use them and if so which ones? Post but of course keep it clean.

What video game universe feels most like this one to you? For me, I’d say TLOU. Emotionally, it feels more relatable. There is real suffering, losses and consequences. And it has a bleak kind of optimism I find fitting.

70,000 forum posts surpassed. Onwards to 80,000!

Such things are bound to happen. Dark web is full of such illegal things. You can't completely secure your data, hackers will always come up with new tactics. Only after someone is attacked, then can take preventive measures.

Honestly, I do just see this woman as another entitled "Karen". She broke down because she realised that in that moment the world around her didn't exist to serve her. Oh, poor you. That fact that people didn't want to get involved, but more importantly, not get involved on her behalf only irked her more. That's why she tearfully pleaded "don't report me" because she knew she was in the wrong and her delusion of privilege wasn't offering he any comfort. It's also a fair assumption given the words spoken and the tone of the voice of the woman holding the camera phone that she is most likely black, so a further entitlement of "white privilege" is also playing at least a part here. When that didn't work, it's time for the next step in the Karen notebook, play the victim. This obviously was not the case and she knew the evidence said otherwise because she was being filmed. The next part is my favourite. She was literally charging at the woman holding the camera phone demanding she "get away from her" whilst there was a good 20ft, shopping counters and clothes racks separation them. To maintain a distance, all she had was stay fucking still. What was really happening was she putting out that message of "get her away from me" for benefit of everyone watching this unfold to try and solidify the false narrative or her being the victim. I also believe was combined with an effort to take the phone from the victim. Then there's the ultimate "Karen" play, call the police and lie your ass off. People who are genuinely threatened do not behave that way. Nor do people who genuinely mentally ill. This just another entitled, stubborn, bratty and most likely bigoted woman who lost her temper. People who are mentally ill are introverted and vulnerable and are more likely to desperately try to escape these these situations rather than aggravate them. People who are criminally insane are a different matter, that's a very different kind of mentally ill, and this woman is not that either. She was in full control of her actions and knew why she was doing them. I'm not a phycologist so don't take my opinion as fact, but I don't believe for one second that woman was mentally ill and she deserves no sympathy.

True, but if you take care of it, and know how to repair it, they can last much longer than people give them credit for. I've repaired dozens of NES and SNES systems over the years. 2 years of electronics taught me how to troubleshoot and repair damaged electronics. When my systems start to malfunction, I look into them to figure out what went wrong, and can usually fix it easily. Typically it's a resistor that burned out, or a chip pin that became unsoldered from the board. Easy fixes, and the system runs like new.

According to what I've seen and read, Nintendo with the switch has been very desirable for indie devs. Fair commission and QC policies have led some indie devs to say they prefer the Switch to steam in the past. That's not say much though as Steam's open door policy and complete lack of quality control makes it very difficult for genuine indie devs from getting much out of the platform.

The most contamporary universe is GTA, it has no magic, or any outlandish things in it, and its also similar in its indifference to the individual.

The rules of games are simple that's why we can know the exact path to success. The rules of reality are vastly complex, some of which we hadn't even begun to understand. So obviously we can't have the easy formula for success. p.s.: Besides games have clear goals, what is the goal in reality? You set your own goals, and thus you are always in control of your own success.

There really aren’t any rules in real life. There are laws which are created by man and always change. Depending on who is in power, those are the rules. And even then people fight wars over those rules. Then there is religion with guidance and principles that people pretend to follow, and people fight wars over. There is a quote in the Assassins Creed games that I love: Nothing is true; Everything is permitted.

We hit the member count. At the time I'm writing this there are 12,005 registered members. We're at 69.3k posts, so there's still a way to go on that one. But I'm working on it!

RDR2 though this is a tough one. All of our members! Possibly. If/when I have giveaways I will always let you guys know. Things have been slow, tbh.

Now that we're starting to come out of the pandemic, will you be able to start the auctions in the Bid For Rewards board again?

I hope you guys still remember this street. 😊 Just passed my mission here.

Throat stabs