Matoyak

Just so long as Persona continues to exist as a series its devs have absolute control over, and s'long as Atlus continues to exist as a thing that does what it does, I'm cool with it.

This could go either amazingly or frightfully bad. Time will tell. I'm optimistically hopeful? Hopefully optimistic?

Oh man. :( The world has lost a tremendous person. So sad to hear this. :(

My condolences to his family and friends.

And if it's every game? Related: Do you buy stuff on Steam, by any chance? [I ask both of these questions without sarcasm or bad intent. Legitimate curiosity here.]

(I should note that I'm well out of the consoles at this point. Have been a PC gamer almost exclusively for a few years now, and I don't see that changing any time soon. I also haven't bought a used game since 2006, and have literally never traded in a game because it was such a ripoff. Next to none of this DRM stuff, used games stuff, online authorization, or the like affects me, as even the always-on style stuff wouldn't change my gaming habits as I'm lucky and have a mostly stable, really fast connection. That being said, when my internet does go out it tends to mean something's gone really wrong and it will be out for a good long while.)

That is my main thought right now. Seems like a good way to ensure a lot of third-party exclusives for Microsoft. The other possibility is that while Sony said THEY won't have any DRM, they said nothing about preventing it on the Publisher's side. So equally possible that while the PS4 will have nothing about online verification, drming, used game prevention...maybe publishers can do all of that on their end, at which point I kinda shrug and go "OK, so that just means that instead of Sony getting money from it, now the publishers do.".

Thief is a series I've always wanted to play, but never have managed. Huge fan of the original Deus Ex [played it many years after its release, however], I'm currently playing through DE:HR and mostly liking it, I have loved every Metal Gear Solid game, enjoyed most of the Splinter Cell games (though Conviction was hit and miss with me), and Dishonored is one of my favorite games in recent memory. I'm quite looking forward to this game, and if I can find the time, wouldn't say no to playing through the first three in preparation....hmm, now where to buy them...

Yup, there's a reason in the development space it's a well-known fact that for semi-equivalent jobs you will often get paid double in a different field than what you can make in the games industry. That thought is built in to the game design and game programming curriculum at basically every college that bothers having said programs.

For further perspective if this math checks out: I work as Customer Service at a sporting goods store. (General returns/exchanges and cashier-work). I am paid roughly 9.50 USD/hr ('cause I've been with the company 2+ years, my pay was boosted .50 cents up from the .75 cent bump for moving up from regular cashier-work. Woot.) These guys who are in a WAY more technical field are being paid roughly double what I am for my non-technical, non-salaried "field' in which I've only been working for 2.5 years.

That's kind of nuts.

The cost of this stuff isn't quite so arbitrary. Yes, you can cut the salaries down to the bone (and doing the math: they have.), but beyond that, there isn't much to cut from this list. You have to have an office, and that costs rent. You have to pay for cert, and that's a hard number with very little give. You have to pay IndieGoGo's cut. You have to pay shipping on the physical goods. I'm really curious as to what you feel could realistically be cut, or lowered on this list. Heck, I'm shocked it's so low to begin with...those devs must be really tightening their belts.

(Granted, I might have misunderstood you and you were just speaking in general broad terms, or might have even been agreeing with what I'm saying here, it's hard to tell tone via text on the internet. Apologies if I misunderstood in advance).

EDIT: because I'm an idiot and quoted the same guy/gal twice. Derp.

@xMrSunshine said:

@iAmJohn:

2. NO victimization of others or use of discriminatory language: Includes but not limited to hateful personal attacks against other users, sexism, or any racist or homophobic slurs or statements. Similarly, you may not release the personal information of another user without their consent.

I'll bet my ass that if a regular user would do something like this it would result in a ban, warning or some other method of punishment.

Doesn't cover what Patrick did here. He made no personal attack against the guy. He simply asked that people not troll, and not post irrelevant, empty statements in an attempt to keep the discussion on topic, using this guy as an example. If the guy didn't want to get quoted, (which is all Patrick did here, it's no different than quoting him in the comment thread), he shouldn't've said it in public on the site.

Wow. Reading through the comments of this and the previous thread are... wow. People are actually defending sexism. Even more people are actively saying "who cares, shut up, we don't want to hear it, so don't bring it up." Still others are promoting letting it go because "all industries are like this, it sucks but it won't change".

Holy shit, guys and girls, it's fucking 2012, y'all. This kind of shit shouldn't fly.

Was a HUGE fan of Halo 1 and Halo 2, but I came into the series in a weird way...I read the books years before I had a chance to play the games (owned a PS2, not an XBOX), and Eric Nylund really shaped the way I viewed the series. Halo 3, I felt, was a major letdown, ODST an interesting aside, and I never bothered with Reach...I'd already seen the story, and felt the guys who had done Halo 3 would have no chance of doing the same story even remotely as good. (And it felt almost like a game based on a book, which [similar to movies based on books] rarely work out well). From all the preview coverage, and developer commentary I've been able to find, it seems that 343 are dead set on incorporating aspects of the wider Halo fiction, which Bungie never truly seemed to care about. They also seem willing to make it their own, and take it in a direction that frankly fits more in line with the books, especially as far as tone is concerned. The books have always been a bit more serious than the games, and this one seems to be falling more in line with that.

Basically, I think 343 has the potential to be the best thing that could have happened to Halo. (Granted, it could also be an abject failure, but I'm optimistic)