Undeadpool

I know, and you're absolutely right. I mean there's definitely the persona "bikini" armor, but that's more a costume, even if it is an actual piece of armor in P5. I think a lot of MMOs would probably fall into that category.

@atheistpreacher: Yeah, I figured, it's just always good to point out the whole executive pay thing since people (not you) like to hide behind the whole "skyrocketing dev costs" talking-point. Which, of course, is SORTA true but also mostly due to keeping graphics bleeding-edge when most consumers couldn't care less about graphics looking .5% better.

I mean considering people keep voting with their dollars in that way too (the Switch still doing gangbusters despite the 'dated' graphics I can't stop hearing about) doesn't seem to stop the graphics arms race.

Half-Minute Hero is generally a weird, slightly too-meta puzzle/RPG, but there's one level where you're dealing with a very strange city and a woman who shows you around.

The twist being: it turns out the people you talk to are all actually zombies covered by an illusion, and after the woman showing you around makes you promises that you'll stay with her and you two can be friends forever, the game will tell you the final zombie "looks familiar." And if you kill it, a dialog box comes up that just displays the word, "...Liar." It was genuinely one of THE MOST shocking moments in any narrative game I'd ever played.

@atheistpreacher: The other issue with this is that it doesn't take into account that while worker pay has stagnated, executive pay has skyrocketed, so the notion that games "should cost more" becomes slightly harder to swallow when lay-offs happen during record-shattering profits, and now games ARE $70, and are STILL crammed full of live service BS.

If execs wanted to drive the prices down, they very easily could with minor pay cuts but that's about as likely as any one power-hungry giving up said power because they promised they would.

Loved this write-up! I have come to the conclusion that this game simply isn't "for me" at the moment, but I do love hearing people for whom it did resonate talk about it. Kind of like EVE Online or complex mathematics.

And speaking of heady concepts: pro-wrestling podcasters and naughty Irish lads OSW review pointed out something akin to the "armor that makes you more naked than being naked," and that's "pro-wrestlers in trunks or a singlet without knee and elbow pads look more naked than if they just whipped their flute out." This is made doubly apparent if they're wearing a hat or other headgear.

I'd be intrigued if this is any kind of seismic shift (per capita, anyway) away from MMOs or MOBAs or Battle Royales, even, in their day, and I'd like to see what that 8% actually constitutes in-terms of a raw number. Just throwing out a percentage doesn't actually tell me all that much, a lot of people just pick up 1 game and then play it until they get sick of it. If it's a live service game, it scratches a similar itch to MMOs, but with more robust solo content, so it's not exactly surprising that something like Warframe, Sea of Thieves, and Destiny have a ton of staying power with people who just want to hop on, do dailies, chat with friends, and hop off.

The problem for me is that major publishers refuse to learn from the past and are still trying to "make" new live services work (just like they did when ever new MMO tried to dethrone WoW) and, failing that, push the bullshit "graphics arms race" because that's what's always worked in the past.

Bespoke, artistic experiences have never sold better in any industry than big, flashy mainstream ones, it's why The Pixies never outdrew New Kids on the Block, it's why the year Abbey Road came out, the #1 single was "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies. Alan Wake 2 was never going to outsell Fortnite, because more people would rather floss as Ninja, Goku, or the xenomorph than play a meditative, meta narrative about a writer coming to grips with the very notion of fiction and the supernatural.

There's a reason The Lighthouse isn't as much of a draw as Transformers 4, I'm not sure this is anything new, it's just becoming hyperfocused as more and more the myth of "infinite growth" is further exposed.

I want to like this game, but I feel like I'm genuinely "playing it wrong." I've accidentally sequence broke 3 quests, one of which is a major one, and it feels like I am stumbling through things like character interactions and stories by doing nothing more severe than "fully exploring areas." That said:: the gameplay absolutely sings. I'm a tanky sword-and-shield fighter supported by a mage pawn, and whatever I rotate the other two pawns to: I have a blast with the "bigger" encounters. It's everything in-between those encounters that leaves me a little blase.

If that's "the point," then I might pick it up when I have a bit more time to really sink my teeth into it and get stuck in, but at this point: it feels to me like a medieval fantasy theme park with INCREDIBLE rides. But underpaid, underappreciated Renaissance Faire background extras playing every single character and NPC, all following a surprisingly strict script, regardless of what I do or in what order I interact with them.

Coming to this after Baldur's Gate 3 might have been something of a mistake, as it's clear they're going for VERY different things, but I can't help but feel like I'm having an oddly glitchy, unintentionally chaotic time.

Dan Ryckert continues to construct an increasingly elaborate stick with which to beat himself and I am here for it.

@bigsocrates: People might be sick of hearing it as an explanation, but "what happened to all these sites" is: late-stage capitalism. "Profits NOW NOW NOW NOW, why are we making $5 reporting the news and providing a service when we could be making $6 churning out crap and paying 1/4 of the staff so I can raise my salary?"

It really is just that simple: slash and burn for profit.

Oh my knees and hip flexors!

This lined up perfectly with me moving to a new apartment and picking up this game cause I knew I'd be able to play it, regardless of internet connection. The internet turned out to be fine, which was good because I could see this series debut and play along. Or get way ahead to avoid spoilers since the initial episodes were ~15 minutes long.

Vinny's "we'll just do 15-20 minute episodes" quote lives up there alongside Dan and Jeff swearing, "There's no way you introduce the brother of the main character and then kill just him 3 episodes later. We DEFINITELY haven't seen the last of Raditz."