[What's your go to cheap store for games?]

G2A is not a seller it is a marketplace, they have been often accused of allowing stolen keys (ie keys purchased with stolen credit card information) to be sold on the site, so I'd avoid it.

I recommend cdkeys.com, it's at worst leveraging regional price differences, which I don't think is a crime. Publishers shouldn't price gouge different regions anyway.

And then there is greenmangaming, which is completely over the counter as far as I know, just acting as a reseller of keys.

[Do you like to sometimes stand when gaming?]

I'm probably one of the few people who liked the move controllers on the PS3, and with that it was much preferable to stand. Playing Heavy Rain, with the move was a much more immersive experience. it was such a disappointment that they already dropped move support for Beyond two Souls.

[Students will play video games as part of their curriculum at Japan's first esports high school]

2 hours ago, Reality vs Adventure said:

Wow, Japan really is embracing the gaming industry. That's pretty damn awesome. All high schools need to embrace some kind of niche to help prepare students for careers. I'll say it a billion times, high school needs to do away with junk and start becoming more internship oriented. And the esports program is probably one of the more interesting ones. Seriously, the senior level should do away with all courses and only work towards a career.

I agree that schools need to be more career oriented and need to teach the quest for knowledge instead of hammering in useless facts that make every kid miserable. But at the same time I don't think esports should be viewed as a career opportunity. Esports is a recreational activity, making careers out of it is not economically viable. I mean you never hear of "football high school" sports are always a side activity at schools and not the main focus. Everyone needs something to fall back on after their sports career is over, be it actual athleticism or esports.

[Students will play video games as part of their curriculum at Japan's first esports high school]

VGHS seemed far fetched when it came out a few years ago, never thought it would become reality and so soon.

[Tactical Shooter Ready Or Not Loses Publisher After Dev Promises School Shooting Mission]

9 hours ago, Shagger said:

 

I'm not gonna lie, I'm actually surprised you took that stance. To the point where I'm almost lost for words. Let me just put into words what you just did. When presented with a blatantly homophobic piece of media, you said "that's fine, that's thier freedom of expression." You know damb well that there are members of the LGBTQ community that post on this forum (one such person was recently promoted to a moderator), yet you were willing take that stance because you're stubbornly proud of your point of view and didn't want to admit the error in your point, so instead you said... that.

Banning ideas makes them go underground, and fester, where it gains a secret following. You can't see the forest because of the trees, that I'm actually taking the side of LGBTQ people*. Actual homophobes should be exposed and ridiculed, not hidden away from view to protect the feelings of those people. Sheltering is never the answer. You are being condescending to any non straight person by being offended on their behalf. They are not weaker, nor do they need you to be their straight saviour.

*I hate to use the word community, because that suggests they are somehow all the same and must act as a group rather than individuals. It's like saying the straight community, there is no such thing as a straight community, I Have nothing in common with most other straight people. So why should there be an LGBTQ community? Where everyone who is not straight is lumped together as if they are indistinguishable from each other. To me this seems more homophobic than any stupid game can ever be.

9 hours ago, Shagger said:

 

First thing, freedom of expression stops being freedom of expression when the intent is to hinder someone else's human rights, and that's the law pretty much across the board in democratic society. Here is how it is written in UK law, for example, officially known as Article 10.

In the UK there is no freedom of speech as such. I'm not going to be dragged into a debate about UK laws. You can be arrested there just for cursing in public.

9 hours ago, Shagger said:

Your own country will almost certainly have something similar, and I know that America does as well. In short even the law states that there is a limit to freedom of expression. If you ask me, artistic expressions like "Kill the Faggot" are obviously expressions of hate and so damage the rights and reputations of the LGBTQ community,

You think people have no agency and they need someone to tell them what is bad and what is not. But you already know this game is offensive, then why do you assume others can't see that? Why doesn't it turn you into a homophobe, but it turns others?

The only reputation that is damaged by such works of "art" are the people who created it. Can you imagine anyone who was not a homophobe but then decides to become one based on this ridiculous thing? If anything it could help exposing closeted homophobes, by looking at who liked the game.

9 hours ago, Shagger said:

so would not call that protected freedom of expression. Just because it's less extreme than, let's say, North Korea where they banned laughing for 11 days around the anniversary of Kim Jong Il's death (I'm not kidding, that actually happened), doesn't mean there isn't limits and they, in fact, necessary. It's freedom of expression to say "Manchester United are shit", but it is not freedom of expression to shoot somebody in a Man' U' shirt and claim "This is my way of saying Man' U' are shit.

Obviously there are limitations to free speech, like you can't threaten someone with violence.
But you are really grasping at straws here by trying to somehow imply that killing then also falls under freedom of expression.

A videogame is not equivalent to the act of murder, it is art, no matter how grass and distasteful it might be.  If you think that this game is a call to arms to let's kill the gays, then wouldn't that  make Carmageddon a call to arms to run down pedestrians?

9 hours ago, Shagger said:

Freedom of Speech" The reason why that's not freedom of expression/speech is because that so-called "expression" has impeded another persons rights, in this case that Man' U' fan's right to live. That's a blunt and extreme example, but it is the same philosophy of law that applies to artistic expression on the internet. The TL;DR is, you are factually wrong.

Nobody in the history of the world has ever thought that murder should fall under freedom of expression. Yet you hinge your argument against freedom of expression on that.

9 hours ago, Shagger said:

I do agree that public scrutiny is a great tool to measure where something sits in terms of it's acceptability, but that doesn't mean people have right to do and say whatever they want so the public can "gauge" whether it's right or wrong, and nor should they. 

Not whatever, direct calls to violence against people or groups is obviously not freedom of expression, just as divulging personal information without the involved people's consent. So obviously revenge porn isn't covered by freedom of expression. Neither is child exploitation, which some youtube channels borderline fall into, but I digress.

9 hours ago, Shagger said:

Ultimately, if Void Interactive actually follow through with this they will deserve all the ridicule they get and them some. At the very least it's disrespectful and tone deaf, it's just not the kind of subject you mess around with. If this is what Team17 parted ways with them then I applaud them. I know that @The Blackangel mentioned the game Hatred earlier in the thread and in that game you do literally run around brutally murdering innocent people, but the whole tone and them2e is the game is built around that premise and it made to feel uncomfortable, so there is context. For a game based around being a part of a SWAT team for them to just say, "I know, let's make level 5 a school shooting! That'd be awesome!" is the mark of somebody who I sincerely hope is deeply, deeply stupid, because the alterative is even worse.

But you don't know in what context would this happen in the game. By taking the publisher's side you are condemning all the developers involved. You'd rather  assume that everyone involved is morally bankrupt than give them a chance and judge the actual game.

A swat team eliminating a terrorist threat at an airport or an active shooter at a school, what's the fundamental difference? Both are being part of a swat team  There are children at airports too. If it's handled well I don't see why would this make the developers "deeply stupid"

9 hours ago, Shagger said:

Like I said at the start, this is not censorship, nor is it an overbearing dose of political correctness, it's common fucking sense.

There is no better textbook example of censorship than a publisher refusing to publish something.

[Early isometric games]

The first isometric game I can remember is  Racing Destruction Set from 1985 on C64. As for PC it might be little big adventure from 1994.

[What series have come out with consistently better games over time?]

I thought there were none, but Wing Commander might be one of those if we don't count the spinoffs. 

[Moments in games you are forced to do something you hate?]

I hate it when games force you into situations. Like walking into obvious traps, knowing fully well that it is a trap, but the game does not allow you to avoid it.

[Tactical Shooter Ready Or Not Loses Publisher After Dev Promises School Shooting Mission]

7 minutes ago, Shagger said:

 

Like "Kill the Faggot". That's not homophobic, it's creative liberty.

Yes, it is creative liberty, if someone chooses to do a degenerate game let them, and leave it to the audience to scrutinize it. If stupid ideas should be ridiculed, not banned, so everyone sees it for their stupidity.

7 minutes ago, Shagger said:

If think that all political correctness and censorship is wrong and there should be no stifling of creative liberty at all, then you have to say there nothing at all wrong with this game. You can't have it both ways.

One does not follow the other.  Just because I don't want something to be censored / banned doesn't mean I think it's a good idea. If something is distasteful and has no artistic value the audience will call it out, it doesn't need to be censored because word of mouth will prevail.

Bad games should be put out in the open to be ridiculed. If it's banned the creator can claim it was the best game ever, and nobody can call them bluff. If it's in the open everyone can see it for what it is.

As the saying goes: I might disapprove of what you are saying, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

[What makes a good video game trailer or teaser?]

A teaser trailer should sell the idea of the game. It has to be intriguing,it does not need to show anything about the game itself, it's job is to be memorable and to create an atmosphere that sucks you in.

[How do you plan for the end of a game?]

On my first play through of games I don't plan anything, I do what feels natural in the context of the story and character.  especially when the game's narrative suggests haste. Even if most games don't punish you for wasting time in those situations, I go for full immersion.

[How do you feel about character and location redesigns?]

Redesigning characters sends the message that there was something wrong with them. Which is quite hurtful to those who already come to like them and identified with the character as they were. So unless we are talking about a complete reboot of a series redesigns are a big red flag to me.

As for locations, that's an entirely another thing, with technical advancements locations can be made bigger and more detailed, which necessitates some degree of redesign. The important bit is that the location keeps its atmosphere and general vibe.

[Stupidest thing you or someone you know ever got banned for?]

I was banned from one particular forum where I was a member for 10 years simply for spam, without warning and recourse. I still don't know what did I do that was considered spam. But all my previous posts and account were simply deleted.

I was also banned for another forum because I said things are a bit slow / there aren't enough active posters, and the owner of the forum took offence.

 

[People will get used to NFTs - Ubisoft CEO]

14 hours ago, skyfire said:

I think people are already getting used to NFTs but in game NFTs make sense not the image NFTs anymore. I hate image NFTs which can be easily replicated. 

In game NFTs will and probably be replicated by the company themselves. But I couldn't care less about protecting the uniqueness of NFTs, it is the environmental implications that concern me.

[Tactical Shooter Ready Or Not Loses Publisher After Dev Promises School Shooting Mission]

2 hours ago, Shagger said:

 

Oh, come on! If the publisher did indeed drop the developer over this, this isn't them being overly politically correct, this is common sense in opposition to something conceived in truly horrendous bad taste. I for one don't favour censorship over artistic liberty, but there is a limit that most people can recognize without having it pointed out to them, and this crosses that line.

This is exactly what political correctness is, avoiding topics that are sensitive, so to not offend anyone.
How can you have thought provoking games if you refuse to put out something because it might upset someone?

Who decides what is bad taste and what is not? Let the audience decide if they want a game that tackles this topic.

Anything can be butchered to a point where it becomes bad taste, like the WW2 representation in Call of Duty Vanguard. It's not the topic, but how its handled that matters.

If every game was refused publishing that somebody somewhere thought was in bad taste, then not many games would make it into market.

 

 

[Ubisoft Employees Now Calling Times "The Great Exodus" As So Many Have Left the Company]

The gaming industry always had a high turnover rate. We don't know what is the usual turnover rate at Ubisoft, and how much worse was it in the period they are discussing. You always hear big names leaving all the time from other developers as well. So I can't draw any conclusions from this. This is anecdotal at best "We had to call someone who quit", happens sometimes, and it is not unique to them.

I could cry about the great exodus at my company too, I've seen so many colleagues come and go, some actually left, then come back, then quit again while I was there continuously. So I don't find people leaving a company to seek other opportunities or challenges automatically a sign of something sinister.

[Is there a time of year you game the most?]

I play more when good games release. So it's not up to me when I play more.

[Did your parents gift you the games and consoles you wanted during Christmas/Bithday/other holidays?]

Not really, I had to wait until my first job to get my first console. I didn't even ask for it, because even things that I did ask for sometimes were deemed too expensive that cost a fraction of a gaming console.

You have to understand that even after the communist bloc has dissolved videogames were prohibitively expensive for us living in the former communist influence. For example a videogame (not a console, a single game) cost almost as much as the minimum wage for a month in the early nineties.

[Collectors - Do you have an obsession for any particular game or franchise?]

I know I could never have a collection that is actually complete of anything, because some things are just too rare and expensive or hard to get. So I just get random stuff that I like and is cheap enough.

[Do you ever keep a journal about the games you play?]

Well if you count writing reviews on them then yes, I kept a journal about most games I Finished since about 2008.

And sometimes I do use it as a journal reading back some of my old thoughts.

[Ever try to break the game?]

I don't see it as breaking the game, I see it as finding alternate solutions to problems. And I think the best games are set apart from just OK games by allowing these alternate solutions to problems, and not just one specific solution that the level designer had in mind.

[How much would you say you spend on games/consoles yearly?]

It's been cheap because there were barely any games of interest this year.

And I didn't pay much even for the games that I actually played. For example I paid $1 for a games pass trial subscription to try a few games like Forza Horizon 5. And I played Far Cry 6 using uplay+ subscription, and promptly cancelled it after finishing the game.

I've spent just under $250 on games this year.

[Where do you take your anger out for a hard game?]

I used to break keyboards, but I managed to channel my anger and I'm glad to say that my current keyboard has to be replaced because it is getting worn out, rather than because of any physicial damage.

[Movies or video games which one you love more?]

I don't even remember the last time I've seen a great movie. And even if a movie is great it is 100-120 minutes of entertainment at best. Even the shortest games last 10-15 hours. So I'll always chose games over movies.

[How many games have you completed this year?]

I finished 4 games this year, three of which was not released in 2021. So I think 2021 was the worst year for gaming since I've started playing videogames more than 30 years ago.