How do you react to Company/Middleware logos while a game loads?

My reaction is "yay, another game that won't let me skip the splash screen". I also hate things that have front credits. They are completely useless.

We live in an age where loading screens of any kind aren't that big of a deal because I can always take a quick looksie at my phone whenever the game is doing it's thing. So it doesn't bother me much.

As long as you can button past them I don't mind. It gets a little (just a little) bit annoying when there are 3 or 4 of them and you can't speed them up in any way. But even then...it's not really that big of a deal.

I do agree that I sorta don't see the point in having to put a Scaleform splash screen in the final retail product. I'd like to think that middleware companies have better ways to advertise their existence to developers.

I care only if it's Halcyon.

To be honest, I'm sometimes interested when there are three or more middleware logos in a row. It sort of makes you wonder about how games are really made when so many hands and so many tools needed to be used. There is an interesting through-line behind seeing one middleware being used for a lot of very different games.

For instance, when you see the same physics engine used for a FPS shooter and a weird point and click adventure - that would seemingly not have much physics. I'm never jaded by people efforts or their desire to be recognized for teh work they do - it is nice to be appreciated. I'm less charitable to people who crow about their lousy games, when it is OBVIOUS to an entire industry they didn't really give a damn...lookin' at you Randy Pitchford.

@cloudymusic said:

Yeah, so long as I push start or something to make them go by faster I don't mind too much. Like Dark Souls 3. Unskippable ones though, damn annoying. Another good thing about PC gaming, you can likely mod out all those long openings.

Mentally, this plays:

They always seem to be vamping for loading time, or maybe just someone somewhere had better contract negotiators.

I'm sure most people don't really care all that much, but the licensing on most middleware and game engines (Unity, Unreal, etc.) have very specific requirements about when, where, and how (min size, spacing, etc.) you have to display their logo. I don't really know how much it benefits those companies to have that info front and center, but I'm sure that at least on some level there is a benefit to them by raising brand awareness even if their tech is used in a bad game.

I simply wish we could get away from Bink Video already. Otherwise, I tend to ignore it and skip if possible.

I kinda don't even register that they exist most of the time.

But I do sometimes think both "Challenge Everything" and "It's In The Game".

Also SPEEDTREE.

If I can I go into a game's files and edit the ini or whatever to take them out. :D

I kill myself multiple times.

Where is the spam the skip button as fast as I can option? Yeah, that one.

I just hate it when they're not skippable. I really give kudos to devs that let you button past them.

Speedtree isn't paying to get their name at the front of a game. It's part of the contract. Speedtree says you can use our code if you pay us and include us in the credits.

I always smile a bit when I see Speedtree. I assume I'd be waiting for a load anyway, so why not give kudos.

Also, Havok means I'm in for a good time.

I remember back in the day I'd get excited when the Havok logo popped up. Now that I like to dive into game development a bit, I like learning about the different systems that bring a game together.

I only care if it's achieved with CryEngine.

A long drawn out sign or yawn followed by sliding deeper into my couch or computer chair while I wait for the fun to start.

I delete them in there folder on PC so it's goes straight to the main menu I love PC gaming.

Not a fan of the unskippable ones, but I do enjoy reading/watching them at least once, especially when they use open source middleware and often have a line about mailing the publisher a self-addressed envelope with a blank CD to get a copy of the source code (Electronic Arts games often have this).

I think whoever owns BINK Video is sitting on top of a mountain of cash

I literally think "fuckyoufuckyoufuckyou..." while hammering the facebuttons over and over again - usually to no avail.

Yup, Bink and FMod have been in pretty much everything for decades at this point.

I start to daydream an elaborate soap opera developing between the different logos, advancing the narrative bit by bit every time I launch the game.

I miss hearing "EA Sports... BIG!"

I vomit with rage.

Where I can't do the PC trick of editing a config file, I think I use the time to try to remember the last thing I did in a game and which button does what because I jump between games too much. (I did manage to finish a couple in the last couple of months so there's hope yet for my designs on my backlog).

The games are never loading behind those logos it's always just forced advertising based on contractual agreements. It's always fun to put something a long the lines of -SkipIntro in my launch settings for most games and I never have to watch them again.

I used to go to the net to see what launch prompt or ini file I need to delete but lately that just replaces it with a black screen so I live with it. MGSV's 10,000 reminders when you sign in was pure hell though. That said whenever I see the Havok logo in a Souls game I laugh because of how shit/amazing the ragdoll is in those games, so its not all bad.

None jokingly I do go "oh shit, they got speed tree in this." Then I play the game and I do critique how the tree look.

The one two punch of the playstation 1 start up sequence and the capcom get me hyped. I mean just look and listen to this thing.

I immediately think where on my hard drive are the .bnk files (it's pretty much always Bink) so I can delete or replace them with 0 byte files and never see these things again.

A delete or replacement of those BNK files, or a line modified in an INI and no more middleware videos.

Space space space space enter enter enter escape aw3lv5q3906b [-0awb5