Shouldn’t be allowed. Companies shouldn’t be allowed to buy each other. We already know what happens with consolidation.

I would so much rather just have a full timestamp. I can do the delta fine myself.

I honestly forgot that game even existed!

Controversial take: doom 1 is better than doom 2. Doom 2 has a bunch of awful levels.

I didn’t really like doom2016 or eternal that much, either. Too much start-and-stop.

Microsoft and Bethesda are creatively incompetent. They don’t really want to say anything. They just want a funny theme park full of kitschy shit so they can pander to fans.

They’re fucking soulless morons.

The first fallout was interesting because it was pretty fresh. The 2nd was a bigger exploration, with some interesting questions about remnants. I don’t really remember 3 but it had some weird narrative problems, I think.

New Vegas actually asked a new interesting question: who rebuilds after?

And then 4 just shits the bed because Bethesda has no soul. It’s also mechanically a mess. Power armor in the intro, except it sucks? Fuck everyone who thought that was a good idea.

Most people don’t really care about abstract or long term things. You can tell them that buying the game supports bad stuff, and they could at least wait for a sale, but they’re no better than a toddler.

I’m still in the “Microsoft can fuck off and die” camp, so I don’t imagine I’ll be using this.

Business Idiots. Microsoft and other large corporations are run by idiots who are out of touch with customers and the product.

Microsoft should be broken up. None of these corporations should be allowed to get this big. It’s a simple solution, but it would make some rich people upset.

If they know the social media algorithms are harmful why don’t they deal with that? Like Facebook tried to see if they could just make people sad by tweaking their algorithm (they could) and no one faced consequences.

The answer is money and corruption, I expect.

I will continue to not buy EA products. Fuck 'em

You are correct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astoria

The one in queens is maybe he most famous, but I might be biased because I live nearby.

Played it a bit. Mouse and keyboard. Computer details:

Firefox 153.0, 
Operating System: Pop!_OS 24.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.12
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.13
Kernel Version: 7.0.11-76070011-generic (64-bit)

• Sometimes clicking to attack… doesn’t. Not because of stamina, but feels like the input was lost. One-two-three, one-two-three, and then i can’t attack anymore. It’s not missing stamina, but you might want to add feedback when that is the case. Edit: Some areas might be no-combat and maybe I was on the border of one?
• Dodging is very stamina expensive
• Stamina regen is slow
• The dialogue is… passable. I might be an outlier, but I really don’t care about story until after I’m invested a little. The protagonist is kind of a weird mix of blank slate and has-a-personality, which is odd.
• Fetch quest for honey? …okay
• Why do i have to explicitly equip the sickle and pick? they’re in the inventory already. Would prefer that was automated.
• These starting bees are kind of sturdy. Seven or so whacks to finish them off seems excessive. They also have big iframes on their dodges. Even with the axe, they take quite a few hits. Feels like trash mobs should go down in at most one combo.
• Wasn’t able to get the riposte to work after the tutorial
• I prefer the estus model of healing. Have a set number until you hit a checkpoint. Is this going to turn into grind-detours to get crafting materials? The signposts only heal you once?
• There seems to be no benefit to fighting. No xp, no items. Guess I’ll just run past everything. Feels weird.
• Killed the big bee after getting the axe. Competent fight, but not that exciting. Not a lot of counter-play. Mostly just whacked it and walked away to let stamina recharge.
• Bandit-mook guy has incredible poise. Finishes his move even when I’m hitting him in the face with an axe. Also, like the bees, very sturdy. I only fought one because the bandits are too sturdy, and there’s no reward. Feels weird, though.
• Killed big bandit by spamming attack and potions. Don’t have enough dodges to feel good avoiding his smash. Not sure why I have 99 potions.
• I don’t get anything for killing him? No xp, no cool sword?
• I didn’t explore much because it didn’t seem like there was a point
• And then I lost interest

Games I’d want more inspiration from:

• CrossCode. Similar visual style. Combat system is more robust
• Titan Souls: If you want complicated boss fights
• Valdis Story: 2d side scroller, but has a rich combat system. It has animation canceling as a core concept, which feels great.

Overall it’s a very technically competent game - better than I could do - but it’s not enough to make me keep going after the big bandit.

Did you name it after the neighborhood in Queens? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astoria,_Queens

That might do things to your games discoverability.

Sometimes they give some people a few crumbs so they’ll fight other poor people instead of the rich.

We might be at an impasse. I just don’t think someone is entitled to a decade long lock down on their ideas. If you don’t want other people involved, don’t publish. Fan fiction has been part of human culture for like all of it. The idea that you can’t profit from it is comparably modern.

basically just harkens back to what i said back up there. what about an author that does great world building, their world never becomes popular or makes money, and then someone else 7 years later sees their world building and makes their own story within that world and makes all the money and fame from it while the original author gets nothing?

Tough? Like in your scenario the work is just wasted and no one reads it. That’s no better.

Many endeavors fail.

just don’t want to pay people who are profiting off someone else’s ideas but not compensating them for it.

That’s how humanity has worked for thousands of years. Disney didn’t write snow white. They made a new work based on it.

You gotta put the > before the text to make it a quote, not after.

tell that to a guy like george RR martin, or JK rowling, or whoever created dune that “okay, it’s been seven years. now everyone can make stuff in your own universe that you spent your entire time world building and can make money off your universe without your permission. you had 7 years, your time to make money on it is up. if someone can make a better story in your universe it’s theirs now for them to make profit on.”

I would be happy to tell these extremely rich people so. I don’t see this as a problem. That’s how human creativity worked for centuries.

my claim is that people wouldn’t create as much and it would encourage more spinoffs of existing ideas,

I just don’t think that’s true and I don’t think there’s a reason to believe it’s true. Go look at fan fiction. There’s whole thriving, rich, communities of it. Fascinating ideas and remixes. Almost all of it violates copyright. But it’s creative and people love it. Some of those authors go on to write their own original work. Why would you want to kill all of that?

I really don’t think it “fucks over” the author. They got their art out there. They inspired people. They can still sell copies. I don’t think they are entitled to a lengthy copyright.

The scenario where someone gets fucked over, in my mind, is they write something original and a megacorp scoops it up without payment or attribution. That’s something a short copyright could protect. So when some nobody writes a cool story or song, Disney can’t use their massive budget to capitalize on it without paying the author anything. That’s why I would accept a short copyright.

I’d rather break up megacorps and not have ultra-wealth, but that’s a separate topic.

You were saying people wouldn’t create without copyright. And yet, copyright didn’t exist for much of humanity. Therefore, copyright is not necessary for people to create. If it was, they wouldn’t have created all the stuff they did.

Slavery and other horrors are irrelevant

Edit:

do you think after george RR martin released his first book 7 years after that everyone else could make their own ASOIAF books, movies, tv shows, etc without having to get permission or compensate george in any way? i feel like this is shafting the creator

7 years is plenty of time to profit.

And they can still profit by creating new work, or selling people the authentic copy. People go see live music despite video existing. People buy designer bags despite bootlegs existing.

If anyone can write a spiderman comic, then the ones that are the best will presumably do the best.

would just lead to people creating constant spinoffs of other peoples creative ideas without an original thought of their own and without rewarding the original creator. there has to be some incentive to make something of your own, and right now that incentive is ownership and monetizing of that IP.

Counter argument: the entirety of human history where people created, without a system of copyright.

Furthermore, I would accept a short duration of copyright (perhaps 7 years) as a compromise. The current length is far too long.

Edit: and another thing! Disney! You think they made up Snow White?

Copyright is a very new concept compared to how long humanity has been telling stories. The idea that “oh no someone will make fan fiction!” is silly. That’s how shit was. People would take stories and change them. It’s not theft. It’s how you get Shakespeare.

Interesting. Bundles of this size are a little overwhelming for me- anyone want to call out what they think are the highlights of what’s included?