ExplodingTuba

Wow, I'm glad to see I'm not alone with the number of people I play games dropping precipitously. Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one, and that it is possible to get back out there and find other people, be it from Twitch, or Giant Bomb or wherever. Maybe I'll just have to post in a game's forum's section once I find a good multiplayer I really want to dedicate time to. Thanks again duders!

Hey Duders:

It's slowly dawned on me over these last few years that, after college, I've exclusively become the only one of my friends who still continues to play and enjoy video games. Most of them have either gotten married, worked on their career, or found other hobbies that they find more satisfying, and left video games to the wayside. As a result that's left me the odd one out, as I still play games quite frequently, but am almost exclusively left with single player campaigns or random match-making. I was wondering if any of you encountered this and how you combated it: find other people to play with online, join a club, just be a vagrant at your local GameStop, etc. I have fond memories of staying up all night playing through cooperative campaigns (Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo Reach in particular), and I don't want my youth to be fading quite that fast that I'm aged out of games like DOTA 2, Counter-Strike GO, etc.

Sincerely, Isaac

Ok. Well after some quick Google searches I've found enough news stories and very awkward images to at least get a basic understanding of what's going on. Thanks for everyone who replied. Again, wasn't looking to try and stoke the flames of this controversy or anything. I was genuinely just really confused with everyone talking around the issue while never actually saying what was going on. As someone who wasn't on the ground floor of this, everyone talking around the controversy was just extremely aggravating. Thanks again duders!

During this morning's "Bombin' the A.M. With Scoops and the Wolf" Patrick and Alex both talk around some extremely bad thing that the Internet has done, mentioning Phil Fish and some other nebulous thing. I follow a lot of game developers and other people in the industry on Twitter and there has just been this extremely negative vibe going around, without anyone linking or posting what's actually happening. Can anyone please just send me a link to a story or two, or point me in the right subreddit, because all of this negative talk and now the hash tag campaign "#welovegamedevs" has me just really confused and ever-more frustrated.

Thanks @rorie! E-mail sent!

Hey Duders. I'm currently in the process of updating and storing all of my passwords through 1password and I can't seem to change my password on Giant Bomb. Every time I try to change it, it just pops up with a "Woops! Something wrong happened, we are working on it!"

Does anyone have any suggestions or links to point me to? Took a cursory glance through the bug-reporting forums and didn't find anything super useful. Thanks!

Hey Duders. I am looking for a graphic designer to create a logo for a dumb website I'm trying to make. I have searched e-lance and fiverr, but have yet to find anyone reliable on those services. I was wondering if anyone knew of a designer who would be interested in helping me, since I am woefully ignorant on the subject of freelance artists/ designers. Money isn't an issue, I'm just looking for someone to have a decent dialogue with before work is done, or money changes hands. So I would greatly appreciate any Twitter handles, links, or e-mails of people they can recommend or have used. Thank you so much!

@goreyfantod Yeah, I've tried that download numerous times. Every time I download it and start the installation process, it pops up and says "You have a newer version of DirectX, and do not need this." or something to that affect, and then promptly closes itself. I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and reinstall Windows 8. It's not a big deal, since I have save files and what not backed up, but it'll just be frustrating reinstalling all of the software and updating everything. Thank you all for your assistance though. Live and learn I suppose.

Thank you guys for responding. @goreyfantod I have run DXDIAG a number of times and every time I run it, everything says it is alright. No components are messed up as far as I can tell. I have been trying to re-install the latest version of DirectX a number of times, but the only way I can see to do that is to re-install Windows 8.1, which does not seem to be possible. That link you provided does not explain how to do a manual installation of Direct X, unless I'm missing something painfully obvious.

@tread311, I don't think it is a resolution issue, though it is possible. I have tried running a few of the games in Windowed mode, but they all still crash unfortunately. No laptop or other display for my computer games, just the one monitor.

@alexw00d, I did reinstall the old DirectX SDK, but games were still crashing and broken. However, I am currently installing the "Windows Software Development Kit for Windows 8.1" which should theoretically overwrite any setting or bad configuration that the 2008 SDK messed up.

This is what I get for trying to get a game from 1995 to run on my PC!

I recently purchased the "Command and Conquer Ultimate Collection" for Origin and was attempting to play the original "Red Alert". After reading this forum thread here,

http://

I attempted their second solution, which was to "Download & install the DirectX SDK from March 2008". I did so and followed their directions closely, but was still unable to get "Red Alert" to load. No harm, no foul. So I promptly uninstalled the DirectX SDK and went about my business.

Now, however, every game on my PC refuses to load and crashes to desktop, regardless of the launcher: Origin, Steam, etc. Here are a few error messages that I am receiving.

- Max Payne -

An error has occurred in the graphics engine. Try to downgrade your screen mode and/or other settings by pressing the "Options..." button in Max Payne startup dialog. Max Payne requires a DirectX 8 compatible display adapter. Please consult the troubleshooting readme in the installation folder.

Error: setFullscreen - creating the device failed: Unrecognized error: 0x80070057

- DMC Devil May Cry -

Failed to create the D3D9 Device! This can happen if the desktop is locked. Exiting...

- Fallout 3 -

Failed to initialize renderer.

Unknown error creating the Gamebryo Renderer.

- Dead Space -

Dead Space.exe has stopped working

A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

I cannot help but notice the timing of all of these game crashing and my recent "DirectX SDK" download and installation. Does anyone know what I did, and how it could be reversed or undone? I'm close to simply re-installing Windows 8 again, and starting from scratch. However, any help or assistance anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. If you need more information, just tell me what you need and how I can provide it.