tegan

I Had a Random Thought (About Video Games)

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The days of owning games are coming to an end

 

I am so tired of articles like this. Why do people have such a strong tendency to boil everything in the world down to an either/or situation. Tablets are going to kill off desktop PCs, digital distribution will kill off physical media, eBooks will kill off actual books, etc. It's amazing that we live in a world chock full of things that coexist in harmony and yet people still insist that humanity is so united in its tastes and preferences that thing B will inevitably lead to the end of thing A.

 

It would be nice if articles like these could at least acknowledge the more likely possibility that both things will most likely continue to exist with one diminishing in popularity and one increasing in popularity. Especially in the case where there is a well reasoned argument for both things to exist.

 

One-sided opinion pieces garner more of a discussion.  And discussions mean people stay on the page longer, and potentially come back to continue to contribute.  If he acknowledged the other side trolls would still go nuts, but the "more reasonable person" wouldn't have anything to contribute to the discussion.

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I am so tired of articles like this. Why do people have such a strong tendency to boil everything in the world down to an either/or situation. Tablets are going to kill off desktop PCs, digital distribution will kill off physical media, eBooks will kill off actual books, etc. It's amazing that we live in a world chock full of things that coexist in harmony and yet people still insist that humanity is so united in its tastes and preferences that thing B will inevitably lead to the end of thing A.

 

Probably because we're used to a lifetime of new forms of physical media do kill off old ones (audio cassettes and VHS tapes say hi) and are only now starting to see a world with multiple concurrent methods of distributing a product. It's especially notable in games since the console model has traditionally pretty much ensured that you kill off your older hardware.

 

(I'm not disagreeing with you; I'm just saying)

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Probably because we're used to a lifetime of new forms of physical media do kill off old ones (audio cassettes and VHS tapes say hi) and are only now starting to see a world with multiple concurrent methods of distributing a product. It's especially notable in games since the console model has traditionally pretty much ensured that you kill off your older hardware.

 

(I'm not disagreeing with you; I'm just saying)

 

That is definitely true in a lot of cases. But I feel like the examples I outlined at least have well reasoned arguments on both sides (which I tried to clarify at the end of my post). I just think it is dumb for people to proclaim things like "Tablets will kill PCs!!" and "Digital media will kill physical media" when there are clearly good arguments for both things to exist. A more reasonable argument to make would be something like "Gee, most people don't seem to agree about which direction this thing should go in so maybe both will coexist for the foreseeable future.".

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The only thing that sucks is only the "best" comes out on physical media, especially in terms of movies and shows. The DVD days of releasing every fucking thing ever are over.

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I think physical media eventually will die out (except for a few die hards, special editions, and niche markets) but I don't think it's going to be any ONE thing that kills it.  It'll be a gradual fade into obscurity that we may or may not even notice given the rate technology grows and changes.  Articles like that exist to me for the purpose getting clicks or so that someone down the line can point to it and say "SEE!  I TOLD YOU SO!"

 

(to be fair, I didn't fully read the article, just skimmed it)

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So now that we have Tomb Raider Definitive Edition and The Last of Us Remastered, there must be a lot of increased pressure on developers/publishers to come up with their own creative term for their remakes. I just wonder how ridiculous it will get.

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That is definitely true in a lot of cases. But I feel like the examples I outlined at least have well reasoned arguments on both sides (which I tried to clarify at the end of my post). I just think it is dumb for people to proclaim things like "Tablets will kill PCs!!" and "Digital media will kill physical media" when there are clearly good arguments for both things to exist. A more reasonable argument to make would be something like "Gee, most people don't seem to agree about which direction this thing should go in so maybe both will coexist for the foreseeable future.".

I think physical media eventually will die out (except for a few die hards, special editions, and niche markets) but I don't think it's going to be any ONE thing that kills it.  It'll be a gradual fade into obscurity that we may or may not even notice given the rate technology grows and changes.  Articles like that exist to me for the purpose getting clicks or so that someone down the line can point to it and say "SEE!  I TOLD YOU SO!"

 

Historically speaking, the scenario of one form of a medium entirely replacing another only happens over many centuries and only once the advantages for one entirely replaces the advantages for the other. Until the past fifty years or so, which have experienced huge leaps in technology and a corporate-fueled culture of competition, it was much more natural for them to coexist and serve different audiences and markets. That's why scrolls and codices stayed around forever even after traditionally bound books were popularized. Digital and physical media are so different that there's almost no overlap to allow them to replace each other, not until the technology itself changes and probably changes the meaning of "media" with it. The attempt to identify a tipping point anyway is so incredibly inane that the act itself kinda pisses me off.

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I think physical media eventually will die out (except for a few die hards, special editions, and niche markets) but I don't think it's going to be any ONE thing that kills it.

But I mean we are already sometimes seeing that just a plain disc release will sometimes be called a "special edition" just for existing. At least this is what I notice for PC games that tend to only get released on disc in the U.K.

 

But it's still physical media and that's sort of a better deal because you will usually get the stuff with extras in it because it no longer becomes a premium package you pay for but instead an incentive to buy. Still a win win, and there's always going to be a market.

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Oh god, I don't know where to put this, but it's wonderful.  May be slightly NSFW due to swinging Speedo package physics:

 

That is the best.

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That game is also the best. for £3 it's up there with Nidhogg with how much fun you can have.

 

Oh, I'm going to buy it the next time I have a couple of friends out to the house.  It looks like a helluva time!

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Junk physics! Finally!

 

I'm glad that they didn't go over the top with that stuff, but tried to keep it more or less realistic.

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So, that whole Steam Streaming system, where you can get one computer to process a game and run it then just stream the video to another one. The idea being you could have a powerful computer running the game while any old laptop can be the controller and monitor for the game itself.

 

I found out that if you're logged onto steam on two machines in the same Wifi network, it automatically just allows you to do this without having to set anything up. So I figured I'd try it out to see what it's like.

 

First game: TF2... utter disaster. It was laggier than just directly playing on my terrible laptop, and also in a weirder way because the inputs lagged more than the actual video did. But I suspected this may have been partly because when playing TF2 it was an online multiplayer game, plus I was skypeing, plus my brother was streaming with Netflix.

 

So I tried Divinity: Dragon Commander... and it just outright works as well as I'd want so far. I haven't actually gotten to gameplay yet cause I accidentally turned off the tutorial. But what I did get to do ran as smooth as I would with my desktop.

 

Then I tried Transistor, worked the majority of the time. Had minor stop and starts for a bit and the performance indicating UI in the corner told me I had a slow network and occasionally some other issue I was too slow to read. It actually warned me more often than I had real issues but it still got in the way a bit... and then after a bit it just went to a black screen. I'm not actually sure why, and it just stayed black. I checked my desktop and it was running the game fine.

 

So overall it seemed to be decent, especially cause my laptop is REALLY bad and my desktop was cheap and bought a year ago(€400, which'd be $500 range I think) but not something to play if you care a lot about latency.

 

 

...I didn't intend to write this much on this thing I tried out on a whim but well, here we are.

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So, that whole Steam Streaming system, where you can get one computer to process a game and run it then just stream the video to another one. The idea being you could have a powerful computer running the game while any old laptop can be the controller and monitor for the game itself.

 

I found out that if you're logged onto steam on two machines in the same Wifi network, it automatically just allows you to do this without having to set anything up. So I figured I'd try it out to see what it's like.

 

First game: TF2... utter disaster. It was laggier than just directly playing on my terrible laptop, and also in a weirder way because the inputs lagged more than the actual video did. But I suspected this may have been partly because when playing TF2 it was an online multiplayer game, plus I was skypeing, plus my brother was streaming with Netflix.

 

So I tried Divinity: Dragon Commander... and it just outright works as well as I'd want so far. I haven't actually gotten to gameplay yet cause I accidentally turned off the tutorial. But what I did get to do ran as smooth as I would with my desktop.

 

Then I tried Transistor, worked the majority of the time. Had minor stop and starts for a bit and the performance indicating UI in the corner told me I had a slow network and occasionally some other issue I was too slow to read. It actually warned me more often than I had real issues but it still got in the way a bit... and then after a bit it just went to a black screen. I'm not actually sure why, and it just stayed black. I checked my desktop and it was running the game fine.

 

So overall it seemed to be decent, especially cause my laptop is REALLY bad and my desktop was cheap and bought a year ago(€400, which'd be $500 range I think) but not something to play if you care a lot about latency.

 

 

...I didn't intend to write this much on this thing I tried out on a whim but well, here we are.

 

Well, also wifi. I get very little latency over my gigabit ethernet switch.

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So, Twitch is still playing Pokémon. Right now they're playing X and just caught Xerneas a few minutes ago. The best part of the run so far though...

 

Ce1M9dT.jpg

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THE RIDE NEVER ENDS

 

49V0CxZ.png

 

Her HP IV is either a 29 or a 30, everything else is a perfect 31. Impish nature with Sturdy. I couldn't ask for better. I maxed out her Defense and Special Defense EVs and dumped the rest into HP, with the eventual goal of using her as Mega Aggron, which is virtually indestructible.

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Ah, Danielle is the best.

 

I'm actually not a fan of that piece.  I know there's been a lot of joking lately on the podcast about Sonic fan art and stuff, but I have to say it makes me feel kind of uncomfortable.  Not because of the subject matter (because frankly Sonic porn is NOT the strangest thing you can find) but rather it's the idea of mocking people for their interest in a thing.  Maybe erotic Sonic art is a weird thing to most people but so what?  You're not likely to find it unless you're specifically looking for it, and at that point you're going out of your way to ridicule something.  We talk a lot here about how disgusted we are when people rail on women or minorities.  Why is it ok to make fun of people for liking and making weird Sonic stuff?  Her article doesn't flat out call people freaks but there is a tone of "eww, look at this gross stuff that's probably going to happen".  Danielle recognized this on twitter and apologized for kink-shaming so I don't hold anything against her at all but the whole concept makes me unhappy.  This is coming from someone who doesn't really care for Sonic fan art either.  I've probably made fun of it myself in the past but thinking about this has made me realize it's something I need to stop doing.

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I dunno, I think people need to relax a little when it comes to joking about weird things people like. Growing up my friends and I always ripped on each other for stupid things we liked, it didn't mean we believed anyone shouldn't like, or was wrong for liking things. To me the piece didn't seem to be even hinting at these people being gross, but more was just a "isn't it funny what some people will do with a cartoon?" vibe. There's also a huge difference between marginalising a group of people due to genetics and chuckling about people using characters from a 90's game in porn today. 

 

I guess my point is that it's ok to laugh at people weird stuff, just don't be a dick about it. Nothing in that article was mean from what I read, and I found myself laughing mostly at the idea of interviewing a rather reluctant Sonic fan art "expert" than anything else.

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Sometimes the act of laughing at a thing is enough to be considered "being a dick about it", especially if you're laughing AT them and not WITH them.  Maybe there's not any malicious intent, but I don't think anyone really enjoys it when people point at them and laugh which is sort of what's going on here.  I do agree there is a difference between being insulting to women because they're women and being insulting to fan art because it's unusual but that doesn't make one right and another wrong.  Like I said, the article doesn't flat out say that the community of people who like doing this are freaks.  I understand that there's a joking tone, but it's also a mocking one because nothing positive was said.  I don't think there's anything wrong with saying it's weird or unusual because I don't think those words alone are insults.  Quite the contrary, I like weird stuff.  But saying "Holy shit, what is wrong with people?", even in a joking manner, without any positive follow up leaves me with the impression that you're just making fun of people for being different which is never cool.

 

You're more than welcome to disagree but that's how the article came across to me.  And I want to be clear, I'm not trying to shame Danielle or anyone else.  Consider it more of a cautionary warning that your intended action is not always going to be the perceived one.

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For completeness, Danielle did tweet a contrite apology in response to that line of criticism.

Some of the reaction to the Sonic art piece has me re-evaluating my own biases. I'm a sex positive left-wing queer lady, and enjoy the hell out of fan art - good, bad, ugly, what have you. I apologize for not being more proactive, and for kink-shaming. That's on me. Please, everyone, be the kinky (or not kinky) person that you are, be proud, do everything you want to do and live joyfully. (as much as that is possible, given the shitty systems we live in.)

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Those are the tweets I was referring to in my first post and what got me thinking about the whole subject to begin with.  I can't pull them up at work so thanks for doing that Noyb.

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I've been thinking about the relationship between enjoying something ironically and schadenfreude lately. I'm having a hard time coming to any conclusions. Is enjoying uber-niche for its wackiness always insulting? Or is it just insulting when someone who is pointing it out makes sure to establish that they are not one of those people?

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