Official News topic

[Gigantis]

Donnie Dumb Dumb strikes again: will raise taxes 25% on game consoles with new tariffs.

These "taxation is theft!!!111!" GOPers have no leg to walk on now, LOL. Enjoy paying $600 for PS5/Xbox Scarlett.

Can't wait to see the mental gymnastics the GamerGate community will pull trying to defend him over this.

Hey I'm all for it. They more the video game industry is hurting, the better.

why? what's wrong with the gaming industry?

[Spuro]

Can't wait to see the mental gymnastics the GamerGate community will pull trying to defend him over this.

Hey I'm all for it. They more the video game industry is hurting, the better.

why? what's wrong with the gaming industry?

There is so much wrong with the industry that I'm honestly not sure how I could summarize it or where to even begin. I'll give a more in depth answer later tonight when I have the time, but for now let me just say that the video game industry, due in part to the quickly changing technology that has made it difficult for laws to keep up, has become an unregulated, seedy, and predatory mess.

[Demon Lord Gira]

Can't wait to see the mental gymnastics the GamerGate community will pull trying to defend him over this.

Hey I'm all for it. They more the video game industry is hurting, the better.

why? what's wrong with the gaming industry?

What is wrong is greedy publishers taking advantage of the law being years behind the advancement of technology. Primarily when it comes to monetization in video games and the treatment of developers and employees while doing so. Thanks to Overwatch's popularity, AAA publishers have realized that microtransactions and loot boxes in video games are a very lucrative business model that rakes in a lot of money, so you have 60 dollar titles with free to play economies strapped on for more money. However, thanks to EA pissing off the star wars fandom, the backlash against lootboxes is so huge, a lot of publishers are backing off of them and dialing it down to "just" microtransactions that aren't pay to win. There' salso carving up already finished games as parts or DLC, and a million different pre-orders to confuse customers and gate off parts of the game.

But even worse than that is the working conditions that have taken over the western gaming industry. Publishers are more than happy to force game developers to spend hundred hour work weeks on crunch time to get a product out in less than a year constantly (Take two games and Activision especially are well known for this), and employees in Quality Assessment and Quality control are often only paid 13 dollars an our and in constant fear of being fired. This is why so many games are in such bad quality upon release. Being in game development right now is a nightmare that most people cannot speak out on, because then you get blasklisted from ever working in the industry ever again, and you're left unemployed in a sea of tens of thousands of other unemployed people struggling to get a job and support yourself and your family.

TLDR: It's not a pretty world for video games right now.And a lot of it is to make those investors really happy; When Nintendo announced they were delaying Animal Crossing to early next year for quality control instead of cracking the whip on crunch time, investors got upset and angry, and Nintendo's stock dropped a bit as a result.

[Gigantis]

Hey I'm all for it. They more the video game industry is hurting, the better.

why? what's wrong with the gaming industry?

What is wrong is greedy publishers taking advantage of the law being years behind the advancement of technology. Primarily when it comes to monetization in video games and the treatment of developers and employees while doing so. Thanks to Overwatch's popularity, AAA publishers have realized that microtransactions and loot boxes in video games are a very lucrative business model that rakes in a lot of money, so you have 60 dollar titles with free to play economies strapped on for more money. However, thanks to EA pissing off the star wars fandom, the backlash against lootboxes is so huge, a lot of publishers are backing off of them and dialing it down to "just" microtransactions that aren't pay to win. There' salso carving up already finished games as parts or DLC, and a million different pre-orders to confuse customers and gate off parts of the game.

But even worse than that is the working conditions that have taken over the western gaming industry. Publishers are more than happy to force game developers to spend hundred hour work weeks on crunch time to get a product out in less than a year constantly (Take two games and Activision especially are well known for this), and employees in Quality Assessment and Quality control are often only paid 13 dollars an our and in constant fear of being fired. This is why so many games are in such bad quality upon release. Being in game development right now is a nightmare that most people cannot speak out on, because then you get blasklisted from ever working in the industry ever again, and you're left unemployed in a sea of tens of thousands of other unemployed people struggling to get a job and support yourself and your family.

TLDR: It's not a pretty world for video games right now.And a lot of it is to make those investors really happy; When Nintendo announced they were delaying Animal Crossing to early next year for quality control instead of cracking the whip on crunch time, investors got upset and angry, and Nintendo's stock dropped a bit as a result.

wow.. Never realized it sucked so hard for gaming developers before. I could never bear being forced to work in such a cramped time space

[Rhedosaurus]

Hey I'm all for it. They more the video game industry is hurting, the better.

why? what's wrong with the gaming industry?

What is wrong is greedy publishers taking advantage of the law being years behind the advancement of technology. Primarily when it comes to monetization in video games and the treatment of developers and employees while doing so. Thanks to Overwatch's popularity, AAA publishers have realized that microtransactions and loot boxes in video games are a very lucrative business model that rakes in a lot of money, so you have 60 dollar titles with free to play economies strapped on for more money. However, thanks to EA pissing off the star wars fandom, the backlash against lootboxes is so huge, a lot of publishers are backing off of them and dialing it down to "just" microtransactions that aren't pay to win. There' salso carving up already finished games as parts or DLC, and a million different pre-orders to confuse customers and gate off parts of the game.

But even worse than that is the working conditions that have taken over the western gaming industry. Publishers are more than happy to force game developers to spend hundred hour work weeks on crunch time to get a product out in less than a year constantly (Take two games and Activision especially are well known for this), and employees in Quality Assessment and Quality control are often only paid 13 dollars an our and in constant fear of being fired. This is why so many games are in such bad quality upon release. Being in game development right now is a nightmare that most people cannot speak out on, because then you get blasklisted from ever working in the industry ever again, and you're left unemployed in a sea of tens of thousands of other unemployed people struggling to get a job and support yourself and your family.

TLDR: It's not a pretty world for video games right now.And a lot of it is to make those investors really happy; When Nintendo announced they were delaying Animal Crossing to early next year for quality control instead of cracking the whip on crunch time, investors got upset and angry, and Nintendo's stock dropped a bit as a result.

What you said sounds a lot like the problems with retail via greedy higher ups and the workers doing 8 things at once without getting much help.


In any case, it sounds like the video game industry it at the beginning of the end. I wouldn't be surprised if they just died out in some form 10-15 years from now. You know what the old saying goes. Pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered.

[JAGzilla]

Well... unless something comes along to replace them, there's still going to be (likely massive) demand for video games 10-15 years out. The companies that make idiotic decisions will probably fail, yeah, but smart ones that don't treat their customers and employees like dirt should stick around for decades to come.

[KManX89]

Hey I'm all for it. They more the video game industry is hurting, the better.

why? what's wrong with the gaming industry?

What is wrong is greedy publishers taking advantage of the law being years behind the advancement of technology. Primarily when it comes to monetization in video games and the treatment of developers and employees while doing so. Thanks to Overwatch's popularity, AAA publishers have realized that microtransactions and loot boxes in video games are a very lucrative business model that rakes in a lot of money, so you have 60 dollar titles with free to play economies strapped on for more money. However, thanks to EA pissing off the star wars fandom, the backlash against lootboxes is so huge, a lot of publishers are backing off of them and dialing it down to "just" microtransactions that aren't pay to win. There' salso carving up already finished games as parts or DLC, and a million different pre-orders to confuse customers and gate off parts of the game.

But even worse than that is the working conditions that have taken over the western gaming industry. Publishers are more than happy to force game developers to spend hundred hour work weeks on crunch time to get a product out in less than a year constantly (Take two games and Activision especially are well known for this), and employees in Quality Assessment and Quality control are often only paid 13 dollars an our and in constant fear of being fired. This is why so many games are in such bad quality upon release. Being in game development right now is a nightmare that most people cannot speak out on, because then you get blasklisted from ever working in the industry ever again, and you're left unemployed in a sea of tens of thousands of other unemployed people struggling to get a job and support yourself and your family.

TLDR: It's not a pretty world for video games right now.And a lot of it is to make those investors really happy; When Nintendo announced they were delaying Animal Crossing to early next year for quality control instead of cracking the whip on crunch time, investors got upset and angry, and Nintendo's stock dropped a bit as a result.

But Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft don't employ shady working/monetization practices like the Western publishers and Konami do. The only ones who WILL suffer for it are the console manufacturers. The EAs, Activi$ions, Ubisofts, Take Twos, etc. of the world won't be hurt one bit by it, and those companies DESERVE to suffer.

[Rhedosaurus]

MAD magazine will being publicated this year.

https://comicbook.com/dc/2019/07/04/mad ... 9gz69qBkSI

[Smuggers]

But Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft don't employ shady working/monetization practices like the Western publishers and Konami do. The only ones who WILL suffer for it are the console manufacturers. The EAs, Activi$ions, Ubisofts, Take Twos, etc. of the world won't be hurt one bit by it, and those companies DESERVE to suffer.

This is correct. Potentially making consumers pay more for hardware will not curb predatory practices from publishers in any way.

[KManX89]

But Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft don't employ shady working/monetization practices like the Western publishers and Konami do. The only ones who WILL suffer for it are the console manufacturers. The EAs, Activi$ions, Ubisofts, Take Twos, etc. of the world won't be hurt one bit by it, and those companies DESERVE to suffer.

This is correct. Potentially making consumers pay more for hardware will not curb predatory practices from publishers in any way.

But that's all fine and dandy, donch'ya know? The big 3 should have their business stymied.

Because EA, Activision, Konami, Ubisoft, Take Two, etc. are dicks.

[Breakdown]

I can't believe they tried to defend lootboxes by calling them as mind-numbingly stupid as "Surprise mechanics". Fuck off, EA.

[Spirit Ghidorah 2010]

US Labour Secretary Alex Acosta resigns over poor handling of Jeffrey Epstein child sex trafficking case.

Huh, I guess Alex Jones was right. PizzaGate does exist...it just happens to be in the White House.

[GodzillaFan1990's]

So an fire went on at Kyoto Animation studio as a result of arson.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190718_25/

My condolences goes out to the families deceased and prayers out to the injured they make a full recovery. Hope to also see the arsonist receive the punishment he deserves.

[LSD Jellyfish]

So an fire went on at Kyoto Animation studio as a result of arson.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190718_25/

Recently there`s been a string of weird and bizarre murder suicides in Japan.

A few weeks ago, a man stabbed a young school girl in Kawasaki.
A few weeks later, a father killed his daughter and then drowned himself, the body of the daughter was found in the fridge.
There was also a young man who stole a police mans gun, I forget if anyone was killed/injured.

This is unfortunately just part of a new trend of random freakos doing this type of shit. A lot of this stuff is also big and major conversation because it really is unusual for any violence or anything like this to occur. The japanese media rarely really explores motives or why things like these happen, so It`s curious.

Added in 5 hours 51 minutes 58 seconds:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190718_51/

Holy shit the death count is 25+, easily the biggest Japanese disaster in a few years. Crazy shit.

I wonder if anyone will bring it up tomorrow at school.

[G2000]

Death toll currently at 33, this is bigger than Aum Shinrikyo ‘95

The attacker allegedly claimed that KyoAni “ripped him off” and “copied his work”

Added in 1 day 5 hours 12 minutes 42 seconds:
Iran seizes 1, possibly 2, British tankers in Persian Gulf

[Stump Feet]

Not sure why this threads been so void of life lately but within a span of 15 hours, we’ve had two mass shootings, one in El Paso, and the other in Ohio.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oOjjnV1VuT0

[Spirit Ghidorah 2010]

Right-wing radical who targeted Hispanic and Latin Americans in El Paso, TX being investigated by FBI for domestic terrorism and hate crime.

[G2000]

After days of troop buildup in the region India strips Jammu and Kashmir of special status under the Indian constitution and seeks to absorb it wholesale as an Indian state. Mass unrest expected as a result of this decison

[KManX89]

Trump calls for curbing of violent videogames, blaming them for El Paso shootings, not eased access to assault weapons.

Ooooooooooooooof course Donnie Dumb Dumb and the GOP blames videogames for the violence and not guns, lol.

Which BTW, I played Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat and GTA3 when I was in 7th grade and below, I turned out okay.

[Spirit Ghidorah 2010]

Trump calls for curbing of violent videogames, blaming them for El Paso shootings, not eased access to assault weapons.

Ooooooooooooooof course Donnie Dumb Dumb and the GOP blames videogames for the violence and not guns, lol.

Which BTW, I played Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat and GTA3 when I was in 7th grade and below, I turned out okay.

Did you see the video compilation of "video game violence" the White House posted on their YouTube channel? It was hilarious, like the late 90's all over again.

Even funnier is that the video featured lots of footage from Wolfenstein and Sniper Elite 4. I wonder why Trump seems so disgusted by Nazis being shot...