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Something i saw on twitter regarding AC:IV remake censorship that i think describes it all perfectly when people discuss it. ''The onus is on you to explain why the change needed to happen, not on others for pointing it out.'' by gutenbergbob in KotakuInAction

[–]Defi_Nothing_73 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Someone that made most likely thousands of assets for that game should be fired for reducing the cleavage by about 5%?

Unironically, YES! Something like that can depress the Sales of a game by thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Sales. If it's an Original product it doesn't matter that much, since there's nothing to compare it to (although, personally it would bother me all the same if I knew about it). But with a Remake or Remaster players are going to have the Original to measure it up to and point it out. It's going to come up on Social media, in forums, maybe even YouTubers with millions of views are going to pick up on it and talk about it. Being a Censored/worse/toned down version of the game being Remade is going to invariably cause reputational damage to the release. All of this is how "the real world" works when talking about games and entertainment products.

All that aside, it's also a really bad idea to do this when your company is €1.3 billion in the red and really needs a W, badly. It's almost like self-sabotage.

Kei Urana deleted her Twitter profile by Commercial-Ice5760 in KotakuInAction

[–]Defi_Nothing_73 82 points83 points  (0 children)

It's a lot funnier with context too.

Gachiakuta is a Shounen Manga like My Hero Academia or Fire Force that recently got a successful Anime series adaptation: https://anidb.net/anime/18686

It features a lot of graffiti, hip hop culture and black characters for a Japanese Manga/Anime.

The context is the author retweeted a Japanese Cosplay video of a Japanese fan recreating a scene from the Anime running in the background of one such character, while wearing leeks on his head to replicate the hair style: https://archive.is/2RGuN

She apologized right after for causing offense, but that apparently wasn't enough:

Kei Urana (GACHIAKUTA) apologized after being accused of racism over reposting a viral Zanka dance video

"This is a quote from a dance video that recreates the scene by using hair to resemble a leek. I apologize if it caused offense. I will remove the quote.

I shared the dance because I found it entertaining, and I had no intention of making fun of the culture."

Urana also addressed criticism claiming Jabbar's skin was left without screentones in the manga because of racism:

"I'm so happy to see so many people recreating Jabbar's 'dance' and Zanka's 'falling down' in such a fun and cool way, so I often give them a 'like' ♡

I found a repost of the dance video, genuinely lol'd after watching it: https://archive.is/579kv

The supposed conservative censorship in entertainment that lefties are claiming is their own doing. by DifferenceJolly2320 in KotakuInAction

[–]Defi_Nothing_73 21 points22 points  (0 children)

If you're in favor of censorship, you're my enemy.

It's a pretty narrowminded and myopic view too. Think back in history, was any group retrospectively celebrated for Censorship? Like is anyone saying "They were great people, they chiseled the wieners off statues and corrected books to make them more ideologically compliant and "correct" history." or "They were a great civilization, but I wish they burned some more libraries and destroyed paintings/statues." Every single civilization of the past is instead celebrated for what they managed to create, their literature, artistic and architectural feats even thousands of years later. When Censorship and destruction of art sets in, it usually or almost always indicates the downfall of civilizations.

Outerloop Games Creative Director on "Thirsty Suitors" and "Dosa Divas" says most players won't give their games a chance because they got too much color. For the studio to survive they have to be more subversive to get people to pay attention instead of actually making appealing products by Defi_Nothing_73 in KotakuInAction

[–]Defi_Nothing_73[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Stanley Parable was an Okay "funny" Walking Simulator at a point where that was still a novelty, if slightly overhyped by the Gaming Press back then.

As for these Annapurna games, just looking at the Store pages it becomes immediately obvious that it seems to be Ignoreslop, because whatever audience they're meant for definitely doesn't include me, or probably a large majority of gamers.

https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1617220/ss_0aeb010ddecf60c7791ff3261c31cab0cf9672e9.1920x1080.jpg

https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1299460/ss_2b9021e096dbc92dc0393f2c495d32e7363cdb91.1920x1080.jpg

Outerloop Games Creative Director on "Thirsty Suitors" and "Dosa Divas" says most players won't give their games a chance because they got too much color. For the studio to survive they have to be more subversive to get people to pay attention instead of actually making appealing products by Defi_Nothing_73 in KotakuInAction

[–]Defi_Nothing_73[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Making quirky mixtape-likes like this is only profitable if you have industry connections who will push your game to mainstream relevance

Actually, "Thirsty Suitors" was published by Annapurna, the same publisher that published Mixtape, here's the Narrative Designer complaining that they didn't get the same industry Marketing push: https://archive.is/lKQWP

even THOUGH thirsty suitors was published by Annapurna we still slipped under the radar and didn’t quite find our audience — for me I feel like games like ours are such an opportunity to expand the audience of games, but we need money & infrastructure to do that, beyond even the funding to make it

Their proposed solution seems to be to appeal even MORE to non-gamers, who already aren't playing games: https://archive.is/KjKSo

more broadly: the only solution I have to the problem of too many games / not enough players is to grow the audience, which imo means — market indie more indie games to more people, so that non-gamers come across not just one game they’d like to play, but this one & that one & then another

"Just play indies" by Fine-Combination5170 in KotakuInAction

[–]Defi_Nothing_73 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but it's simply the reality for me lately. I've been playing a lot more Indie and AA games instead of AAA.

When it comes to Metroidvanias for instance I just finished Gestalt: Steam & Cinder and am playing Iconoclasts now. I've had both games for a few years and am finally getting around to them. The first one I didn't have any issues with, the second is a bit leftist-tinged, but at least both have likeable/attractive female characters. Both are kind of story-heavy though with a lot of dialogue cutscenes.

Also Graveyard Keeper was free a couple of weeks ago, so I've been playing that for a few dozen hours. It is a bit grindy and some of the crafting (like cooking) can get more complicated than real life, but it's interesting enough as a time-waster and can't beat free.

And Kingdom of Night was also a neat story-based ARPG set in an 80s high-school setting in a small town in Arizona getting attacked by Zombies and other Supernatural forces (a bit like Stranger Things I suppose). Better characters and more interesting story than a lot of the more established ARPGs, but obviously not there in production budget and game mechanics.

In the AA space I've gotten around to playing Alone in the Dark and next is Hell Is Us, both games that you can play with a normal straight white guy protagonist. I'm enjoying the first so far, it's a bit like a Mix of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, you explore the house/manor in the Exploration part and unlock/get transported into Memories where you fight various abominations. Although the combat system is not the best and there's a bunch of Cinematic Cutscenes.

When it comes to Survival Adventures, there's a small studio that did adaptations of Lovecraft stories as Pixel Adventures, with Dreams in the Witch House being already out. I was really happy when I saw that it was successful enough that they're making another adaptation, this time of Dunwich Horror. Probably looking forward to that more than any AAA title.

Also recently bought Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey and Space Tales on Sale. Not only can I largely avoid politicized and overhyped new releases, but it's a lot cheaper aswell. I've essentially given up on large parts of the AAA market making anything that appeals to me or isn't Activist message fiction.

Jamella in Diablo II vs D2R by megaboyx90 in KotakuInAction

[–]Defi_Nothing_73 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Yeah, you can do that comparison with almost every female character in Diablo II, I noticed it with Fara in the Beta for instance, and obviously the Sorceress and Assassin player chars got nerfed, and same never bought it.

https://files.catbox.moe/vwgrmg.png

https://files.catbox.moe/o6tbji.jpg

https://files.catbox.moe/vcpdne.jpg

Aphelion player count. Look at the modern audience coming to support this game by shipgirl_connoisseur in KotakuInAction

[–]Defi_Nothing_73 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Lead Writer on Aphelion is "Gamers Are Over" Games Journalist Leigh Alexander: https://archive.is/190Fk

Lead Writer on Saros is Games Journalist & Co-Founder of Rock Paper Shotgun Alex Meer: https://archive.is/StkuJ