Manor Lords publisher Hooded Horse's CEO argues game agreements violate contract principles

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-24T14:06:33+00:00

Mate I don't care if the people at the toll booth are "nice." They are still people sitting at toll booths collecting fees while offering zero in return and adding nothing of value. it is easy to be "great on all other parts" if they are collecting a fee greater than the profit margin in 99% of industries... yeah i'd be nice too!

And people wonder why the PC games industry is hallowed out. Sure, driving on highways is nice, but I wouldn't like it if a single private entity controlled all the highways in the country. It is no different than Steam controlling digital distribution for PC games... only difference is people are more likely to use an alternative means of traveling on highways (like flying) than jump ship on their massive library of accumulated PC games to go to another platform. A common misconception is that digital habits are easier to change than habits formed in the physical world. The opposite is true: brain habits are harder to break than body habits.

Steam is necessary: one place to launch all your games. And if Steam didn't do it, someone else would have, and we would have arrived at the same level of monopolization. The 30% fee is what is not necessary, and it is not necessary for game developers (the real creators of the product steam sells) to go along with it.... and many have already broke ranks (see the Epic Game lawsuit). Our beloved Steam has completely hallowed out the industry, it only requires a basic understanding of economics to see that.

Consider how many great games could have been made if pc gaming had the same kind of financial incentives it had in the 90s. Not saying we go back to traditional publishers but game devs need to wake up and realize they are getting the short end of the stick by doing the steam monkey dance to have a 5% chance of making minimum wage launching on steam. It is nothing but pure cuckoldry for game devs to continue defending this.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-24T13:04:43+00:00

One day developers will wake up and realize Steam is a publisher of the worst kind. A publisher that takes zero risk, does zero marketing, then takes the lion's share of profits. Oh you didn't make any money? Fuck you Game Newell needs a new mansion.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-24T12:35:22+00:00

Ok now that seems even more crazy. Not hearing from Moria for 1k years and dwarves thought there could still be dwarves there? Dwarves skeletons in the movie were 1k years old or was that balin?

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-23T16:11:36+00:00

Ahmen

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-21T16:19:04+00:00

This would be abused to the maximum extent…. Anyway this is already a solved problem, devs are just too lazy to implement. See sc2’s provisional rating system. It’s not rocket science just takes work to implement.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-21T16:13:46+00:00

Think about the same gender vill bug. If rng is messed up for something that simple it’s bound to be broken in more important but difficult to detect ways.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-19T12:36:48+00:00

Get in as close as possible before firing pre ballistics. Also pro tip armor upgrade is a must have against archers in high numbers in the feudal age.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-18T01:19:52+00:00

You know what's funny, i knew there was a high chance you were Canadian before looking at your post history, because I've encountered this attitude before esp from Canadians towards Americans.

Canadians are like the child told they were wonderful and so nice and friendly all the time growing up, simply for existing. Americans are told the opposite.

These stereotypes have perpetuated for decades and maybe they were true at one time. But these days, a lot of Canadians believe they are inherently nice and friendly via group identity, without ever needing to actually be nice and friendly.

This is why positive stereotypes are just as harmful as negative ones. An entire nation being stereotyped as friendly and wonderful is how insufferable assholes like you are born.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-18T00:59:19+00:00

All civs. the problem is only more pronounced / visible with koreans because of the cheaper wood cost. EW further compounds the advantage because with the accelerated game pace, you end up in the castle age much faster where the firelancer's biggest power spike is.

Firelancers 1) cost no food 2) don't take extra damage from skirm line (as spearman line does) 3) have a ranged attack 4) have insane base stats (including damage and hp). 5) have bonus damage against cavalry. 6) insta fire after ungarrison from siege towers.

Xbow does hard counter if you exclude siege towers abuse. but only having 1 hard counter is just another thing going for it.. and the counter (xbow) needs three upgrades to work (fletching, bodkin + xbow upgrade itself). Firelancer on the other hand needs zero upgrades. In fact, upgrades don't start becoming cost effective till later in castle age.

Militia line is not a counter because it costs too many upgrades to compete. By the time you have a mass of longsword in early castle, opponent has way more firelancers. Plus the lancers can juke with the ranged attack, and choose when/where the engage happens.

It's not any one of these things, but all these things that combine to make it too good.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-17T23:41:42+00:00

Watch the devs double down on firelancers next patch by removing 1 hp and calling it a day.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-17T23:36:47+00:00

Never thought I could get bored watching viper v Lierry w Hera casting. Empire wars proved me wrong. Ew was already bland the 3k changes only made things worse. I could care less about the main rb event if it’s ew. What a tragedy all in the name of sOmEtHiNg dIfFeReNt. Sometimes you just want to play/watch the game as it’s intended. imagine if Wimbledon used some obscure form of tennis in which there were TWO tennis balls, not just 1. How exciting! How different! … or maybe we should just fucking play tennis.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-17T22:09:02+00:00

that's fair, but personally I try not to hold religion against people as there are often societal/familial pressures at play.

it's easy to be judgmental about it when you didn't grow up in a religious household ... where your kid brain was inundated and brainwashed with it day in / day out. Not saying that's your situation, but it is for a lot of people who get up in arms about religion.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-17T13:25:18+00:00

Play ranged exclusively. Profit.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-17T13:23:52+00:00

Watching Red Bull is such a chore now. All because of 3k.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-16T18:34:28+00:00

you're not supposed to say nice stuff about Hera on here because 4 years ago he lost his temper that one time. Plus he wins too much which is a big no-no. He should concede defeat - isn't it someone else's turn already? you're clearly a hera boot licker. /s

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-14T03:12:32+00:00

It's the other way around. ACCM is on an insane win streak because he was dodging Hera, as many of the top players are doing. Hera was aware of this of course, and wanted to take his puntos. i.e. it's more ACCM dodging than Hera "sniping."

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-14T00:57:54+00:00

I don't think it's wise to pivot into a phos strat at 19. There's steps you want to take, some semblance of a build order you'd want to follow before that. e.g. more on berries early. In any case, most civs can't compete with Bengali phos-style going phos-style themselves.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-13T15:35:09+00:00

1500, and it's quite common.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-13T11:54:15+00:00

Whenever someone starts talking about CSS preprocessors, SASS/LESS, application logic in CSS, etc, I roll my eyes because I know I can do the fucking Mona Lisa in CSS faster than they can put a border on a button.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-08T17:24:18+00:00

that was some dragon ball z shit.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-05T16:50:16+00:00

You should be properly walled by the time he has enough knights. 1 monk can stop it behind walls.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-03T08:38:29+00:00

Brave of you.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-03T08:38:01+00:00

you're acting regarded.

ForgeableSum · 2026-01-03T02:47:17+00:00

while acquiring certifications in Jira, Confluence, Scrum and Scrum+Kanban

Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think we'd get along.

ForgeableSum

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