DC

It's all good. I was trying to do the same thing.🙂

I was just trying to get back on topic.

We aren't giving @Boblee the award just yet. Anything can happen between now and the end of the voting. @Withywarlock and @StaceyPowers have gotten no votes yet, but either of them could end up winning.
So as we say here in redneck Missouri, don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Hi everyone 🙂
I'm not the youngest gamer at 46, but I do love gaming. Looking forward to meeting you all.

The vote doesn't close until February 5th, you're jumping the gun.

Let's get back to topic everyone. 🙂

If you don't know the best thing to do is politely ask.  I know it's kinda awkward but it's hell of a lot better than the mess that's going right now.

It's those darn Pizza roll boxes, they slap the code on the bottom.

@Kane99 @Heatman @Boblee @Withywarlock @Darth @kingpotato @StaceyPowers
Please cast your vote in the poll above for this month's Member of the Month. The winner will receive $5 USD delivered via Paypal or Amazon digital giftcard.
Member of the Month is generally awarded to the individual who had the biggest impact on the VGR Forum. This is generally in the form of contributing the most amount of posts in terms of quantity and/or quality, but can extend to referrals/promotion and other efforts to benefit the community.
Voting closes February 5th at 10pm EST. You may vote for yourself and you are encouraged to ask your friends to sign-up to VGR and vote for you!

Yeah but it still pisses me off when someone calls me a man.

Branded games are basically advertisements in game format, they are games designed to promote a commercial brand. Not to  be confused with games that feature licensed brands.
Have you played any game like this, and were they any good? 
 
 

Happy Saturday! How is everyone?

@Kane99 @Heatman @Boblee @Withywarlock @Darth @kingpotato @StaceyPowers
Please cast your vote in the poll above for this month's Member of the Month. The winner will receive $5 USD delivered via Paypal or Amazon digital giftcard.
Member of the Month is generally awarded to the individual who had the biggest impact on the VGR Forum. This is generally in the form of contributing the most amount of posts in terms of quantity and/or quality, but can extend to referrals/promotion and other efforts to benefit the community.
Voting closes February 5th at 10pm EST. You may vote for yourself and you are encouraged to ask your friends to sign-up to VGR and vote for you!

Let's just hope that this is still a vote about quality than quantity.

I am back on this forum after 3 years. I seem to have almost forgotten this amazing community. Recently, when I landed on the forum I was surprised to find my account there. If I has not saved my password on my browser, I would have never known I was a member here.
 

Welcome to VGR, hope you stick around. And don't worry about making every post a paragraph, some of us just smash our keyboards and then post it.

Hello everyone, 
My name is Devin, I am 20 years old. I enjoy bowling, playing video games, spending time with friends and family, and I enjoy posting in online communities such as this one. I hope you guys are just as excited for me to be here as I am. If you should have any questions for me, please don't hesitate to let me know! 
 

The only traffic I really hate is on the road. I have a real problem with road rage. Otherwise, I don't care. Except here.
More traffic = more members.
More members = more posts.
More posts = more knowledge.
More knowledge = more opinions.
It's a win-win in every way that I can see, as long as the members aren't shit stirrers, or spammers. If they're legitimately here for a love of gaming, they will most likely only be a plus for the forum.

One of the biggest concerns for FFXIV players is the often long-winding process of completing Main Scenario Quests, or MSQ for short. FFXIV's story is a delight to experience, but the trouble with the game's MSQ is that it involves a plethora of sequential quests that must be completed in a linear fashion. This means you can't take on another part of MSQ without finishing pre-requisite quests firsts.
This has been a point of frustration for newer players because some may just want to get into the action of FFXIV without going through a tedious questline; in which case, they may be setting themselves up for disappointment because FFXIV deals with its story a lot. Part of the FFXIV grand experience is its rich story and events. While players may use an FFXIV mount to get from point A to point B, main quests will still require you as a player to defeat mobs of enemies or bosses at key parts of it.
Alternatively, players may choose to get an FFXIV account that has already completed the story so they can just choose to do the Bahamut Coil raids — the Bahamut Coil represents the biggest challenge in the game and is an absolute blast to experience and a worthy obstacle to finish, and not everyone gets to finish it.
What do you think of the game's MSQ so far? Will Endwalker do a good job of tidying things up for it?

Not gonna lie, Shagger, despite our differing opinions on this news I do appreciate what you did there as moderator. What you followed up with is a staggeringly good response, I envy you for having the time and energy to be diplomatic regarding that response.
China has its own problems, of that nobody here has any doubt, but we don't need to use this acquisition to go on xenophobic tirades that I'd expect from the Disqus comment boards of other websites. My faith in this forum is being rapidly restored of late.
Back on topic, in response to @Kane99 I fully expected Activision-Blizzard to have the net thrown over them, but by which company and when was difficult. I was prepared for any other company such as Electronic Arts, Take-Two, THQ Nordic... anyone before Acti-Blizz. But this goes to show that just about anyone's for sale (barring Nintendo and Sony), and it's scary to think Microsoft might become the next THQ or EA: swallowing up IPs and not doing anything with them. Add to that they're a console manufacturer and are likely viewing things beyond the 'console wars,' and there may be more than just gaming companies up for grabs.
I can see using King properties such as Candy Crush: Saga to generate revenue from the amount of money they've spent, which means Xbox on your mobile, everywhere you go. That's a huge leap in market control.

And gamepass gets more expanded. Honestly this is a huge move for Microsoft. A scary one for gamers and the gaming industry as a whole. Some of the biggest franchises possibly not releasing on PlayStation. And some past exclusives dropping to MS now. It's crazy. 
I didn't see it coming either. I don't think anyone did. 
But, it does feel like a big monopoly is brewing here and I don't like it. What studios do you think they'll try to go for next? 

The first thing I wanted to say is that I was very close to deleting this post entirely as it really has almost nothing to do with the topic at hand. I decided against this as I wanted to address the post because I found it as interesting as I did worrying.
 
With all due respect, I think you dropped your tin foil hat, and you're talking nonsense. And, to be frank, this looks a little concerning from a perspective analysis of prejudice and one's understanding of other cultures. Sexual harrasment and discrimination may happen in China, but it isn't something indigenous to the Chinese anymore than it is anywhere else, including America. So you attributing Activision-Blizzard's "issues" to a rather vague association with a single Chinese company sets of alarm bells to me about you. Your claim doesn't have any evidence to back it up and makes no sense.
 
First, both Activision and Blizzard have been in business longer that Tencent and the allegations stretch well before any alleged Chinese influence was imparted to them be it from Tencent or otherwise. How the hell could Tencent be responsible for these problems at Activision-Blizzard before the company even existed?
 
Secondly, lots of American companies have offices and holdings in various countries around the world to run local interests and markets. Why is Activision-Blizzard's holdings in China a sign of "subversion" when thier holdings in France, Holland, the UK, Australia, Singapore, The Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Ireland, Canada, Korea and the list goes on not suspect at all (Source of that information)? This is just how huge companies like Activision-Blizzard operate. For your own sake, come back to reality.
 
Thirdly, just because a Chinese company has a stake in an American business, doesn't change the management structure or how the business is run and organised. Control like that is only handed over when a shareholder (or group of shareholders) attain majority control. Tencent owns less than 5% of Activision, trust me, they get NO say in how the business is run day to day, especially on US based infrastructure. Tencent also own around 4% of Tesla, so why hasn't this so called "influence" created similar problems with them? Face it, you're talking a load of shit here.
 
Next, yes, there is a law is says California that states that a certain number of board members need to be woman. An American law that has absolutely nothing to do with China, or any other country for that matter. And that law is no bad thing either. It's there to try and kill off the kind of toxic, discriminatory culture that has plagued American businesses for decades. The very same culture that landed Activision-Blizzard in such hot water in the first place. All that you have proven there is that the system, despite being in place for the right reasons, maybe doesn't work that well. Either way, it clearly has nothing to do with China, nor does it tie into this weird subversion theory, or anything to do anything else in this thread frankly...
 
And that brings me neatly to my final point, and I am going back to mod speak to some extent here. Please present evidence to back up your points that is actually relevant to the topic. Like I said, very little of what you have posted here has anything at all to do with the topic at hand anyway, but how is bringing up a (now former) PlayStation executive attempting to groom a minor got anything at all to do with Xbox buying Activision-Blizzard? Or the ridiculous claim that China is in some way responsible for Activision-Blizzard's "frat boy" work culture that has got them in trouble? Or this alleged subversion that, frankly, sounds like the sort of thing American, right-wing conspiracy nuts would print about the Soviets back in the 70's and 80's? None of these things make any sense on thier own, much less together! If you want to discuss this "subversion" or what happened with regards to that PlayStation executive, reply to or create new threads for them in the appropriate sub-forum, don't attempt to derail this or any other topic again.

I get the concerns people might have about this becoming a monopoly, but even with this acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft are still a long way from that point. They will still only rank third in terms of the largest gaming conglomerates (Behind Tencent and Sony) and there are still a lot of major video game publishers still operating outside of those three. EA, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Take Two, Capcom and CD Project Red to name a few. How long the situation will remain that way remains to be seen, but I'm not overly concerned about a monopoly just yet.

Here is how many studious they know own.
 

You read that right. Microsoft's Xbox division is closing in on a deal to buy Activision-Blizzard in the largest acquisition in the companies' history. Full details form Variety here. The deal isn't set to close until the end of the next fiscal year (June 2023) and still needs approval from Activision-Blizzard shareholders, but this is looking for now like it will happen.
 
I must say, bravo Microsoft! The more I think about it, I better understand the genius of this move because of the scandal surrounding Activision-Blizzard that came to light during 2021. Not only have Activision-Blizzard's share prices plummeted by 30% over the past year, making this great timing, but Activision-Blizzard are also a company desperate to shake the horrendous image that scandal brought to them. Who better to do that than Xbox? A brand that's really been impressing gamers with thier business decisions in recent years. I know that there will be concerns among PlayStation and Nintendo fans about Activision-Blizzard games becoming exclusive to the Xbox brand, and those concerns are justified, but for me, they publish almost nothing but crap anyway, so it doesn't bother me. And this might genuinely be a turning point for Activision-Blizzard. With Xbox in control, we might finally see an improvement in thier output. Let's face it, it can't get much worse at this stage. And if this leads to the culture change that the company so desperately needs, than even better.
 
So...yeah. I find myself strangely optimistic about this.