I have no idea how Ben, during his defense of loot boxes in which he defends their existence as monetarily helpful for costume designers who churn out mediocre crap that no one actually would purchase except for by accident in an overpriced blind box, didn't have an epiphany right there about why loot boxes are awful for people who play games they already paid for.
I guess this is what happens when you're raised on garbage like DOTA? What the hell dude.
I also have no idea why people think $70/$80 games are the only counter to loot boxes. What about $20/$30 games instead? Not only would I be more forgiving of attempts to nickel and dime (tastefully, of course) on a $20 game, but I'd also be more willing to just impulse buy the game digitally or when it's brand new (instead of waiting for it to drop from $60 to $40, at which point I might as well wait until it drops to $30 or $20 or $15 or $10, because it inevitably will, within a matter of months, as used copies flood the market because people are motivated to recoup as much of a $60 purchase as they can). The economics of games are broken because the games are TOO expensive up front, not too underpriced.
Movies cost just as much to make, often more, but you'd call someone nuts if they tried to sell you a movie ticket or standard Blu-ray for $60. Yet when they sell Blu-rays for $15/$20, people just impulsively buy them without worry as to when/if they'll ever watch them. (Go ahead and count how many physical movies you have still in their shrink wrap. I'll wait.)
A little side note, Alex, in case you're perusing these comments: I recently watched a replay of the GBE Extra Life stream, and so enjoyed your segment that I'm getting my feet wet with Construct 3 (and gathering some info on other game creation engines as well). I used to make games on an old Apple IIc a good long time ago when I was a kid exploring BASIC, and I've recently been replaying them (and documenting the experience of playing them) while also thinking about what I'd do if I set aside some time today to turn some of my more recent ideas I've had into games. Seeing you work some magic on that stream was inspiring enough to just make the time, jump in and see what develops.
May turn into something, may just be for fun, may amount to nothing, but regardless, I just wanted to thank you. I'm sure I'm not the only one who tuned in to that show hoping merely to be entertained and, thanks to your segment, came away surprisingly inspired as well.
I get why it happens but I wish all the Extra Life stuff didn't seem like it had to happen in November/December. Crowds a lot of stuff together (and a lot of less prominent people out) when it'd probably be more beneficial to everyone if it happened here and there a few times a year instead of all at once.
I've seen worse, but after months of comically bad "I'm a witness to the power of X" marketing, this feels like a bit of a face plant for the self-described world's most powerful console.
Oof Abby. Consider, at least a moment, that you're not expected to work twice as hard or know twice as much as men, but that you're expected to work just as hard and know just as much, and instead you underestimate and undervalue how hard men in the field work and how much they know.
Also, who exactly is expecting this of women in the context of this industry, their bosses or the audience? How are you gauging the expectations of the audience, by comments that, even if they number in the hundreds, still represent a tiny fraction of said audience? From what wealth of experience do you draw on to make statements for the entire industry? How do you know your experiences aren't more a product of you being young and inexperienced (by comparison to your peers) instead of you being a women?
Gather round the manger for the divine birth of mansplaining. Wasn't there a thread a few weeks ago on this very website where some commenter called Abby's right to have the job she has into question because he decided, based on who knows what, that she wasn't as into games as all the males on the staff?
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