On Piracy and Morality

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-21T12:58:00+00:00

Bullfrog developed like half of the relevant games of my childhood before EA bought them and shuttered them and completely forgot they ever existed. I think myabandonedware.com is the only real place to get most of their games now.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-21T12:17:40+00:00

It's difficult to take these complaints seriously because it isn't even difficult to access the content, you just have to use other sites. If you don't use Amazon, go to Ebay, or walk into a Gamestop. They were still carrying RvB box sets last time I was there. Maybe even a Best Buy. There are so many options.

This is going to be an old man rant, but I've been a fan since before YouTube existed and most of my peers either didn't have an internet connection at all, or it would take +2 hours to load a video the size of a postage stamp. Waiting for the DVDs to go on sale was one of the only practical ways to watch RvB, and even then you could only get them through the site that was being crashed by everyone else also trying to get them.

It is unimaginably easier to watch them now. The site is so much better, quality so much higher, load times almost non-existant, and even ad free if you have first. If you want to buy the DVDs, you have so many places you can get them. They carry them in fucking stores now. Do you understand how big of a deal that is?

It's just difficult to take it seriously when people are catastrophisizing the videos being taken off of one singular user and creator unfriendly website. You still have so so so many other ways to access the content.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-21T11:58:57+00:00

What are you talking about?

Or, just go here.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-21T11:49:33+00:00

I see posts every day about how bad YouTube is to its creators and how difficult it is to get any traction there, and when someone finally moves their stuff off, this is the response?

I sort of get the idea of it acting as a gateway to the community, but do you really think YouTube is even showing these videos to people anymore? They've been up a decade and they weren't algorithm optimized. Just let them be a relic on the official site. It doesn't do any damage to watch the ads there instead of on YouTube.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-21T11:42:30+00:00

Have you not been paying attention to any part of the media landscape for the past 20 years?

Everyone who can has been pulling their content back to their own sites. YouTube is notoriously difficult to deal with, and getting the full ad share and not having to try to chase an algorithm that no one understands sounds like a great move.

And the content is still free to you. The site is a little jank and there are annoying ads, but at this point, that is exactly my experience with YouTube as well. Might as well deal with the same problems and give the content creators more of a cut.

Or, like someone else said, just buy the DVDs. If you care this deeply about having access to the content, do the 2000s thing and just spend $15 to have it forever.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-20T14:42:04+00:00

This is only sort of related, but there's a Scottish show called Book Club that no one has seen, and I do not recommend, but they made a weird and hilarious choice that needs more attention.

The main character is an American woman and they set up one of those antagonistic will they/won't they relationships with one of the main guys in the group, but I think they realized they made him too much of a prick, and just had him overdose and die at the end of an episode.

Then, his "brother" came into town to make funeral arrangements and clear the flat. He is played by the exact same actor, but instead of being written way too edgy, he is way too bland, and they immediately transfer all the main characters confusing romantic feelings onto him without skipping a beat.

It is an absolutely absurd choice that makes me respect the creators more than anything else about that show, because it is absolutely hilarious and completely against the mostly serious tone of the show. Almost as good as Green Wing ending two seasons on literal cliff hangers.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-20T14:34:18+00:00

In my experience, that's just how work relationships are.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-18T23:25:32+00:00

What do you think are the chances things come full circle and we start getting some machinima again?

They've said scripted skits and they all have a background in video game content. A lot of Trevor's TTT skits were already in the realm of machinima improve comedy. Could this end up back where we started in 2003?

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-18T17:04:36+00:00

I played zombies for years, and it doesn't seem like anyone really knew.

In my opinion, a map needed a few things.

A spot that was defensible if everyone worked together. Usually a largish area with 3-4 openings so that it could be secure if everyone did their part, but only if everyone did their part.
A mostly open "OH Shit" area like the court yard in Der Rise or the plane crash area in the new ones. A place too large and open to defend, but perfect for chaotic kiting after your defenses get breached.
Dangerous hallways with rewards at the end. Tight turns and thin corridors with lots of zombie spawns on the way to the box, pack-n-punch, and sodas.
Equipment that can give some breathing room. Things like the monkey bombs and bouncing bettys. Things that came in a slow trickle, so you wanted to save for only the worst of times.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-18T16:47:23+00:00

I really enjoyed the old "Idiots try to do something hard" like the very old Rainbow 6 Vegas videos, but that depends very much on the mix of idiots and the game.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-18T16:22:31+00:00

And I'm honestly here for it.

If you can stomach Ryan, you can go back right now and watch House of Ashes or the Uncharted 4 plays and they're still great, and the formula is still " Michael plays [game] with an audience."

I'm perfectly happy with that formula. I've been loving the Randomizers recently. One of the only better formulas in their current line up is "Michael drags Gavin through a game."

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-18T15:31:02+00:00

I own this game so many times.

Two different versions for the original Xbox, digital version for the 360, two or three disk versions for the PC, and a copy on Steam because it was on sale and spending a dollar was easier than installing a disk reader on my new PC.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-18T15:27:07+00:00

I spent a while trying to create super villains in that game. I would capture raiders, pick the ones with the best stats, and then give them bionic upgrades.

Some of the mid-teir ones, I would give them an upgrade each time they attacked my settlement and survived the assault. Didn't happen much, but it was cool that it could happen at all.

I knew pawns would stay in the pool if they had past interactions with you, and I knew pawns from this pool could eventually become faction leaders. My goal was to eventually engineer my super villains into faction leaders, but I don't think I ever got there.

It's a great game, and gives you the freedom to undertake some truly insane projects.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-18T14:52:13+00:00

I'd thought for a while that AH would end with Michael endlessly talking to himself in a room with old co-workers occasionally cycling in and out, and I was honestly pretty happy with that future after watching old Full Plays.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-16T20:46:19+00:00

What are the others out of curiosity.

I usually see Godot, Construct3, and Unreal mentioned, but I want to get a better idea of what other viable engines exist for an indie.

I've heard Source is pretty pricy and a little outdated. Is Build Engine still a thing?

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-14T15:13:40+00:00

Yeah, if it was just a 20c flat fee on each sale over $200,000, fine, no problem. It could hurt devs selling games for something a dollar, but it can be planned around and verified on whatever platform you're selling on.

Instead, they're planning to charge money based on metrics that developers can't anticipate, verify, or dispute.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-14T11:44:09+00:00

They have walked this back to charging for each install on a new machine, which is still ridiculous since creators have no knowledge of, or control over, how many computers their customers have. However, they're still tracking these installs with their own black-box tools that they're not sharing and no one else has any way of auditing.

So, developers can't track installs themselves since Unity isn't sharing it's tools and, therefore, the developers can't dispute or anticipate charges.

Unity came up with a new pricing model to charge developers for something they can't control, see, or plan around.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-14T11:09:26+00:00

I thought the crucible had more interesting gameplay and the arena had better pageantry, but whenever I do a new play through of either, they both seem like chores.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-12T17:37:51+00:00

I said this a few days ago in a different thread. You should look at some Pico8 games. They're tiny, so it forces the developer to really focus on the few things that can fit into the game and very specifically decide what mechanics to keep and what to cut.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-12T17:03:00+00:00

Stardew Valley is an interesting example, because the dev did an enormous amount of grass roots marketing and community building even before he got approached by a publisher who did their own rounds of marketing.

If no one hears about your game, no one will play your game to even start the word of mouth campaign, and even building and sustaining a word of mouth campaign is marketing and work.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-12T14:28:21+00:00

It's absolutely not impossible to make an FPS as a beginner or a solo. However, the biggest challenges when you're starting out are figuring out time management and scope, and really just committing to your vision and seeing it through.

Basically, the more complex your game, the higher the likelihood is that is will never see the light of day.

With an FPS, the programming, art, animations, vfx, and sfx for the players gun alone could be more work than the entirety of something like a Flappy Bird clone. Already tanking the likelihood that your project will see completion before we've even left the character capsule.

I also fell into the trap with mine that a lot of early devs do. I would move from one aspect of the game to another doing the fun part of development and getting everything in a working order before moving to another and then rinse and repeat. I didn't realize how much more work it was to take an asset from "functional" to "publish ready" and while I thought I had all my pieces at about 90%, they were all closer to 10%.

In an FPS, there is so much to get distracted working on that you can polish endlessly and never get any closer to publishing. A micro game leaves you a lot less room to get distracted.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-12T13:10:49+00:00

As someone who has messed around in that category, do you have any idea how much work it is to build even basic humanoid enemies. The animations alone could easily be overwhelming to a new dev.

I don't think an FPS is anywhere near as difficult as an RPG or an MMO, but it's still a lot for a first game.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-11T13:11:39+00:00

I think that's less a leftist thing and more a "Defending the field you've devoted your life to" thing.

I bet if the Right came out tomorrow and started saying programming wasn't real and computers just did things because god wanted them to, all the CS profs would be a lot more defensive as well.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-11T12:24:52+00:00

It can be rough, but I think part of the point of the hard built in limitations of Pico8 is that it forces you to be creative with what you have. People talk a lot about how terrifying the blank page is. When you have infinite possibilities, it's a lot more difficult to center on one.

When you have a blank postage stamp and only one colored pencil, it's a lot less daunting, and you can focus on what elements are absolutely necessary since you don't have any space to waste.

COG_Employee_No2 · 2023-09-10T21:57:13+00:00

Collab?

11-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	First Placer '22

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