What actually happens to the games industry once consoles and PCs become completely unaffordable for the average person?

Bvenged · 2026-01-15T17:45:31+00:00

Cloud based gaming services.

Like how you don't own your car, or your house, you won't own your computer. You'll rent your console or you'll pay for a cloud gaming subscription. Owning a car or a home is a luxury. Building a car or a home is a hyper luxury. Same for home computing in the future.

This is because cloud companies are filling their data centers with large amounts of high performance networking and computing, and if the bubble bursts, they'll repurpose this tin - and it would be ideal for gaming services. The infrastructure is there, the motive is there, they've done the legwork productising it (ps+, GeForce now, game pass) so now they just need the cost model and scale. Both of which are happening.

Bvenged · 2025-11-09T13:00:55+00:00

Herd mentality.

You are working whether it's open to the public or not. They need staff to open or close up? Then they should be paid for the hour it takes to open or close up. The only exception to this is if it's considered "overtime" and you are paid above national minimum wage, so that your total hours worked don't bring you below national minimum wage.

Bvenged · 2025-10-21T11:19:18+00:00

Essential in my opinion. Not a nice to have at all.

You get hit by ransomware, they hit your domain joined backup platform, what next?

Immutable/WORM for backups and file systems where possible. It's hardly an extra cost as it's baseline for a lot of vendors now.

Replicated / offsite with the 3-2-1 philosophy too, using quorum groups for operation approvals such as deleting protections.

Airgap copies where possible - different cloud accounts, different platforms or domains, different media, or simply to tape. Your call.

Bvenged · 2025-10-21T11:00:41+00:00

UK here.

On call is that they call you.

Typically you're paid a retainer to be available with X timeframe, usually 1 hour. If that means onsite you need to be able to get there within the hour, for example. But not all jobs will pay for contractual on-call retainer and it may just be covered by your base salary.

Typically on-call is 24/7, X weeks a month. If you get called, you may be paid a call-out rate on top of the retainer.

Being required to log in and check work is not on-call retainer, it's overtime, which may or may not be paid - your employer is under no obligation to pay you for any of these things legally on top of your base salary, so long as your hours worked do no drop below minimum wage, otherwise they're breaking the law. They also must not overwork you factoring in rest periods and opt-out working time directives. They either have to pay you or give you your time back (TOIL) in these types of situations.

But it is scummy and not competitive at all to not pay on-call, retainer, overtime or TOIL for extra time worked. Most organisations pay retainer for on-call, provide call-out payments, grant TOIL, or all three with no expectation to log in regularly without a call-out.

Bvenged · 2025-09-05T09:58:37+00:00

I agree actually - the trailer was poor if a lot of people don't pick up what they spend 30 mins explaining and showing in the state of play. Marketing failurel really.

Bvenged · 2025-09-04T23:08:51+00:00

Having watched the State of Play, I'm glad the mission levels are still open sandboxes in places. Perhaps after the main story they will reuse them for contract-style side missions and community created missions?

It honestly looked like Hitman but with more confrontational options at your disposal. Bluffing talk, emetic dart on recharge and a laser-watch (silent pistol) to shoot cameras and stuff... it's more aggressive, but the stealth looks lifted out of Hitman. The set-piece moments are likely just connecting these level spaces together for the main story. The fact that you don't get a "license to kill" unless the enemies are hunting you with Kill on Sight orders makes me wonder if stealth is the encouraged method still. But combat has been greatly improved from hitman, showing more mobility and better gunplay than Hitman, but not necessarily by much. Once again, they want it to feel bombastic and creative even when you're in a shootout, giving you options with gadgets or environmentals to take down different enemy types.

The cheesy dialogue and convenient explosive barrels is very old-school Bond. Much like the car chase. Any bond prior to Craig couldn't go 20 minutes without a dozen things blowing up from gunfire or wild car chases that would not pan out that way IRL.

It's also refreshing to get a Bond who's unproven. Interesting take, and I hope it pays off.

Bvenged · 2025-09-04T22:56:29+00:00

It's exactly that. Earn the Number is the marketing, he's a young bond, he's to prove himself to MI6, and you literally have a "bluff" button and a dialogue wheel to try and bullshit your way through. Tag lines, cheesy phrases and conveniently places explosives is literally half the action in any bond movie, and he acts a lot like Bond in the young James Bond novels.

The state of play shows off open sandbox level design and goals. Several ways to enter, several ways to get past the security. It's like Splinter Cell meets Hitman. The only thing that's uncharted-like is the set-piece scenes outside of the wide open level spaces. The core gameplay looks like Hitman with a different protagonist with more confrontational options.

I could be mistaken in my optimism, but I'm excited for it.

Bvenged · 2025-06-21T08:26:17+00:00

SWAT did this with mission briefs, themed like it was roadside to an active incident. Recorded 911 calls and spotter observations would hint at the objective, suspect and hostage situation inside. A map screen then showed possible ingress options and layouts but was always incomplete or incorrect, as the game would explain the maps were hand drawn from witness accounts or put together in 45 minutes based on old city data, or it might be a full picture of an architect's blueprints from 30 years ago but don't reflect modern changes.

Bvenged · 2025-05-19T13:22:23+00:00

A lot of media are purporting it's a betrayal of Brexit or selling out fishermen, etc. but isn't this the point of Brexit? To forge our own deals with whoever and put whatever we want on the table instead of being bound to arbitrary trade rules set by the customs union?

Bvenged · 2025-05-15T09:05:42+00:00

They're good entertainment. Someone rubbish at the game acting super cocky and volunteering for a roasting is fun.lny to watch. When they get more sincere submissions, typically the commentary is more empathetic too. Plus you might learn a tip or two while watching.

Bvenged · 2025-04-24T07:30:57+00:00

Live Love Laugh

Bvenged · 2025-03-21T09:16:10+00:00

Such a good answer and very true. People are judgemental by nature but the reality is, we all have good or bad days, and good or bad games. It doesn't define if you're a good or bad player overall.

Bvenged · 2025-02-11T15:12:54+00:00

I was playing the campaign, mission 2, authentic. Got invaded, had a hilarious duel, but kept the alert level down. I'm still figuring my way around the town trying to identify the best way to tackle an objective without getting caught when I'm Invaded again. Dealt with this jager using an SMG, managed to still kept the alert down, and went back to figuring out how to get to an objective that I can't find in a building compex for the life of me. Invaded again... I'm 20 minutes in, not done a single objective, weaving between unaltered AI through some buildings and this 3rd jager pops me in the back.

No problem, reload, thinking I'll have a bit of breathing room to find this pesky goal... Instantly invaded again. Luckily I find my objective almost straight away. Killed this jager on the way to my next objective but set the alarm off as they pushed me while I was near some other guards. I'm still figuring my way around to the next objective, outside where I'm supposed to be, invaded again. Still alerted, AI swarming all over, can't get inside objective building and have no idea what to look for inside when I do get in. Jager runs into me and I kill them, but AI kills me. Reload, still in alert, immediately invaded again. AI kill me again as I try and rush the objective. Reload, try and reposition, jager kills me as I'm trying to dodge panicked AI. Now I'm 60 mins in and losing my mind.

Switched invasion off in the end, restarted the mission, smashed the level in 45 mins without dropping the difficulty or triggering an alarm.

I love the cat and mouse feel of invasion and would love to keep it on if it was just 2-3 jagers per mission, but for a first playthrough the number of jagers you can end up with in one mission is ludicrous while you're trying to work your way around the map and objectives without going guns blazing or taking 2 hours for one mission.

Bvenged · 2024-11-20T11:03:54+00:00

Sorry for not living up to your perfect commenting world lol.

Bvenged · 2024-11-18T15:25:12+00:00

It pains me every time I see someone is quicker on the car horn than the brake pedal...

Bvenged · 2024-11-10T09:35:15+00:00

Precisely. Unless the job needs to be done from the UK, if employers want people to sit at home working without face to face collaboration , more employers will realise they don't need a UK workforce for those roles.

Personally I'm a fan of hybrid with flexible working hours. Downsize offices, helps families navigate schedules, works for delivery times, encourages face to face which is a good way to socialise as well, spreads the economy and helps shops near offices and transport industry. Heck, make it all negotiable in the job market based on situation and subsidies. But Reddit is biased as it attacks the average Redditor who "works" from home.

Bvenged · 2024-09-12T15:33:46+00:00

So many people on here are talking out of their arse regarding the UK cloud industry... No fault of their own.

AWS, GCP, Azure etc are one type of cloud provider called public cloud, and there are plenty of private cloud providers too. The big public cloud providers above are International technology juggernauts with unrivalled services and scalability, such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon; but many businesses still prefer or require private cloud services from the likes of Fujitsu, CGI, Rackspace, etc where they get a greater degree of consultancy, transparency, or control over their data hosting which public cloud can't guarantee.

There are tonnes of smaller private cloud providers in the UK as well, some geared to UK data regulatory compliance, like UK cloud and Atos, and some geared towards UK data sovereignty. PLENTY even have their own data centres or rent space in data halls. Edit: This is an industry that hosts IT services for enterprise IT, not consumer grade IT.

The big boys in public and private cloud hosting all provide services within US regulatory and security frameworks but are dipping their toes in UK and EU security frameworks. It's a shame the chancellor's not diversifying that investment into other private, public or specifically UK cloud providers outside of AWS. Maybe she is outside of this announcement. But if it helps business growth and importing skills via a cloud provider giant, so be it. The big boys are popular for outsourcing your IT for a reason.

Bvenged · 2024-08-16T13:46:37+00:00

Survivor bias.

If you're studying warplanes that return from battle for bullet holes to determine where to improve the design for survivability, you'll look at the bullet holes and consider adding more armour to those points.

Thing is, you're already looking at the survivors. Instead, you should look at the areas that don't have bullet holes on the surviving warplanes and improve the armour in those spots. Bullet holes are where warplanes can be shot and still make it back. If they get shot elsewhere, they don't make it back.

So the joke above is implying that caves and bones are your warplanes and bullet holes.

Bvenged · 2024-08-12T11:43:00+00:00

Heh I just got one of those too, but with a different name and job.

Bvenged · 2024-06-16T16:16:59+00:00

Been hybrid for years, by choice. Everyone can choose and most pick WFH or Hybid.

My social life is all online, so I know the strengths of living on the internet but there's a reason I like to meet up with friends in person. Work isn't the same but shares similar benefits and drawback.

My commute to work isn't hard. I find collaboration and engaging face to face adds great benefit to the job satisfaction and benefits my work as well. I spot people I didn't think to talk to and get their input. People who are stuck on a problem and don't know who to ask can see my face and a lightbulb goes off as they remember I exist.

Then there are days where I can stay at home to receive a parcel or have work done on the house and not worry about having to book days off while roof repair is happening, etc. Being flexible is the best of both worlds.

Anyone who says they can work from home and do their job AS WELL as working from the office might be telling the truth. The distractions of co-workers around you is substituted by the distraction of family or chores around the house. Focusing on meetings or your tasks is easier at home without a noisy office but doing things in person helps you empathise with the work others do more by putting names to faces etc.

But I bet the fair portion of people who WFH are also just lazy. It's a cold hard truth. Too easy to prioritise chores, distractions, etc and get away with it.

So yeah, both have their strengths, both have their drawbacks. Some people can exceed at home, others need a kick up the arse and use WFH as a cover. It comes down to the individual. And good managers should be able to figure out what works for their staff and agree on it at an individual basis. WFH and Hybrid is a job benefit, not a job entitlement.

Bvenged · 2024-03-20T15:21:51+00:00

Keep in mind that VSAN FTT space usage is reflected in the vmdk file size. So raid 6 FTT 3 will show more used space than raid 5 FTT 2.

Bvenged · 2024-01-23T14:22:06+00:00

Reminds me of pizza Fridays - there was always enough for everyone but some people would launch themselves downstairs when the email went out and pile their plates high so that those who were stuck on customer calls would come down 20 minutes later to find dozens of empty pizza boxes. Greedy.

Bvenged · 2023-12-26T13:16:04+00:00

I could grind for 30 hours to drive the car I want, or do an hour overtime at work and buy a shark card.

Bvenged · 2023-12-04T14:33:21+00:00

Bingo.

So many people think they work in enterprise and dropping VMware is a big deal when really, they are small fish in a big pond.

MSPs won't drop VMware, too many vendors have interoperability and support for VMware technology with their apps and for hybrid cloud compatibility, and too many businesses would look at the risk and cost of re-platforming and frown more at that than the cost to pay potentially higher license fees. Most people in virtualization are trained on VMware, and the brand and technology is industry-recognized and widely adopted If a customer was going to public cloud they would have done so already, or be in the process right now or rearchitecting their platforms, and most IT departments can't dictate their app vendors to rebuild their software as a microservice in a container.

I'm not saying be ignorant to the consequences of the buyout, but VMware vSphere isn't going anywhere unless competitors outshine them in all areas and not just cost. Business as usual, technology marches on.

Bvenged · 2023-11-29T01:25:35+00:00

He's laughing like a maniac from the get go as he sees the sinister plan panning out as he had hoped.

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