AV_Gamer

I haven't finished the Lantern Rite storyline yet, but I think I see where the story is going in terms of the new character, Gaming. But on to the meat of this discussion. I can only speak for myself, but as someone who has been playing Genshin Impact regularly now, even replacing Warframe as my number 2 live service game, I've yet to get trapped by the monetization factor in the game. I'm at Adventure Level 55. Furthermore, I have a lot of characters I've unlocked over the couple of years I've been playing. Been lucky enough to pull some top tier 5-star characters overtime, with the latest being the Raiden Shogun, who was available last month and was a character I've been trying to get for some time. I've been able to upgrade my characters that I mainly use to make them strong enough to endure World Tier 8 battles, the highest Tier in the game so far.

I've done all of this, without spending a cent on the game. I haven't gotten any battle passes. Not only that, but I didn't pay for any in-game currency to boost any of my characters. Or used real money to pay for wishes. I get by simply by grinding, which itself is not that bad compared to other games I can mention. The whole Genshin Impact will take all your money to play it like you should, is one of the biggest lies ever told on the internet. The reason I stick with it, is because it doesn't do any of that. Once you reach a certain AR level, the whole game opens up to you, and you can just play it normally. I also play Destiny 2 a lot, and you must spend money to do anything meaningful in that game. You have to get the battle pass and the expansions if you care anything about the storyline. You don't have to do this in Genshin Impact. Final Fantasy XIV which I've yet to play, but might one day, is another example. Millions of people are playing this game, I'm willing to bet that most of them aren't clearing out their life-saving just to advance doing so.

And Paimon rules.

The future is easy to see. AI controlling every media that is digital. And once this is done, no, they are not going to care about preserving media and stuff people buy, if it gets in the way of their bottomline. This is why I don't mind a certain group of people existing, because they are literally going to be the only ones maintaining these things.

It was, as a side tournament for a good while. Now its featured on the main stage again.

Sadly, I understand them not including DBFZ as part of the main lineup. Those matches can go on forever and take up way too much time, because the characters have bullet-sponge like life bars. One competitive match can literally last between 15–30 mins, if it's really close. I've seen DBFZ tourney's last well into the mornings hours because of this, and the players insist on a 3/5 match up during Top 8. One common theme I've notice over the recent years, is that people want to get shit done quickly and go home before it gets too late at night, for obvious reasons. The other fighting games included, including 3rd Strike go by a lot quicker, making for a more timely tournament. And sure, DBFZ might still be there as a side tourney, but the point is, it's not one of the main ones taking up space.

As far as Smash not being there. I don't mind, either, because Nintendo pretty much gutted that competitive scene anyway. Also, I never liked how Smash players would talk smack about the FGC, while at the same time still using their events to hold tournaments, which for the most part they still do at other events. Frosty Faustings for example was a couple of weeks ago and they had a Smash tournament.

I honestly stopped playing these Dark Picture games, after a game breaking bug happened that wiped out my entire save. And then going online and finding out this problem happens in pretty much all of their games. Some are lucky to avoid it before finishing the game, others get screwed. And I was playing on PS5 not PC when it happened. And I believe it was the Little Hope game it happened in.

I predicted Microsoft would eventually go the way of Sega years ago. This announcement isn't a surprise. They simply don't have what it takes to survive in the console market, but can survive just selling their software products, like they have been doing from the beginning. They should be proud they lasted this long.

Jeff Gertsmann would agree with you. He said this during his Tuesday podcast. Many of them upscaled during Covid, not taking into account that eventually things would go back to normal or close to it.

This is not just in the video game industry. Economist predict 2024 is going to be a very hard year for people. This is just the beginning.

I read, listen to music, and binge-watch streaming shows. I just got finished watching Reacher Season 2 on Prime Video just a couple of days ago. Also, I've been watching a lot of True Crime stuff lately, from many popular Youtube channels to certain shows like Snapped.

Good stuff again.

I agree with you about the Soul-likes, but I will still give Lies of P a chance someday. I kind of disagree about Vinland Saga Season 2. While the overall episodes were good, the Thorfinn's becoming a complete pacifist and letting himself get nearly beating to death just to have an audience with the King was laughable to me, not some serious, empowering drama moment. With that said, I do find it interesting how Thorfinn embraces non-violence given his up bringing, but Canute who had a privileged and protected background grows up to be a tyrant, who eliminated his own brother to take the throne.