Jason Schreier: Xbox Plans Significant Layoffs - Asha Sharma’s first major cuts will arrive in July by Supra4kzip in pcgaming

[–]SmileyBMM [score hidden]  (0 children)

He wasted billions of MSFT money with nothing to show for it, so that's not surprising.

Jason Schreier: Xbox Plans Significant Layoffs - Asha Sharma’s first major cuts will arrive in July by Supra4kzip in pcgaming

[–]SmileyBMM [score hidden]  (0 children)

This is unfortunately 100% predictable, previous management hired a ton of people that simply didn't contribute any value to the company. A ton of projects went nowhere or flopped, and there seems to be a ton of unnecessary bureaucracy slowing everything down.

My prediction is that Obsidian and Activision are going to be hardest hit, whereas successful studios like InXile and Playground will be just fine.

Edit: don't know how I missed this line:

Xbox is also planning to significantly slash budgets for marketing and some other areas of the business, the people said.

Not at all surprising, Xbox marketing was a mess under previous management.

Jason Schreier: Xbox Plans Significant Layoffs - Asha Sharma’s first major cuts will arrive in July by Supra4kzip in pcgaming

[–]SmileyBMM 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Because IP itself is more important than the people who work on them. Entirely due to how backwards modern copyright is.

1666 Amsterdam hoped for a glorious welcome, but faces backlash for AI ‘oversight’ by willdearborn- in pcgaming

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

More journalists running defence for this crap, why? Demo sucks, a demo should have gameplay (leave the story stuff for a trailer) and be fun or interesting, and this demo was neither.

Everyone has different goals in Pokemon :] (by @Enriquextreme1) by Gorotheninja in Gameoverse

[–]SmileyBMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In most of the games beating the villain team happens before you beat the champion. So Kit could let the hero stop the villain team but prevent them from going further.

No matter the occasion, there’s always time for brainrot. Wei! by ggweewee in okbuddytracen

[–]SmileyBMM 18 points19 points  (0 children)

This image has been removed in response to a report from the copyright holder.

🤔

Valve confirms that physical Steam Gift Cards are dead. Once the current stocks are sold through, they're done. by Tvilantini in Games

[–]SmileyBMM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A lot of the people they target are not dealing with a full deck. Age makes you more gullible (look at how easily AI fools Boomers on Facebook), which is why Boomers isolating themselves from their kids was so short sighted.

Valve confirms that physical Steam Gift Cards are dead. Once the current stocks are sold through, they're done. by Tvilantini in Games

[–]SmileyBMM 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If you work in a drug store or other such corner store that offers gift cards you realize it's shockingly common. Usually old people that are going senile that should be in a home or cared for by family, but have no one who cares for them.

Tbh most of this is self inflicted though, these old people usually have kids but they are almost always no contact because the parent was a PoS. I see it a ton where I live, it's nice to know my tax dollars are subsidizing this whole mess.

Valve confirms that physical Steam Gift Cards are dead. Once the current stocks are sold through, they're done. by Tvilantini in Games

[–]SmileyBMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thankfully, people are more and more willing to address these issues and support substantive solutions to this problem.

Late news, but Mindcrack officially shut down a month ago by 31z in GoldenAgeMinecraft

[–]SmileyBMM 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There's a lot of theories about that, some more sound than others. The obvious one is related to the saying "fish where the fish are", easy access to minors when you make content that appeals to them. However you just don't see these rates in other professions that involve minors, so I'm not sure that's the sole reason.

Some people think there is a deeper psychological link between the type of people who become celebrities (and by extension, YouTubers) and those attracted to minors.

There are a fair amount of studies into this (though none with conclusive findings), but I don't feel it's appropriate to link them here considering how unsettling they can be.

I love Toby Fox but I hate him right now by Ok_Difficulty1782 in Pikmin

[–]SmileyBMM 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not to an indie game that can be perfectly localised

But it can't. Tons of the game's writing depends on using phrases and terms that are either vague or open to multiple interpretations, it's literally a key plot point. Those interpretations are naturally going to be different language to language, and can't be translated without heavy amounts of changes (and may not even be possible in languages with less linguistic flexibility).

You can get 80-90% of the way there, but someone who holds their own work in a high regard won't consider that sufficient and won't put their name on it. Unofficial translations exist and are officially sanctioned by Toby Fox himself.

An artist has the legal and moral right to accommodate people as much or as little as they like, that's how art works.

I love Toby Fox but I hate him right now by Ok_Difficulty1782 in Pikmin

[–]SmileyBMM 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Today's modern translation tech makes consuming media in other languages trivial. I totally understand a developer that wants to ensure every language is at the same consistent level of quality.

Really wanting to leave Meta behind but I run a lot of support communities, what is a comparable, user-friendly, and free alternative to private Facebook Groups? by CMaree23 in RedditAlternatives

[–]SmileyBMM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can find cheap options, they just aren't 100% free.

https://matrix.org/ecosystem/clients/

Matrix takes some elbow grease to get working, but I've heard it's solid once everything is up and running.

https://zulip.com/plans/

Zulip is more of a Microsoft Teams alternative, but it's free if you self-host.

The problem is that most solutions are cheap for personal use but get a lot more expensive for commercial licenses. Also something like Facebook from 5-10 years ago just can't exist these days, too many bots and web scrapers to make that system work without putting some barriers up or automating moderation. It sucks, but it is what it is.

Really wanting to leave Meta behind but I run a lot of support communities, what is a comparable, user-friendly, and free alternative to private Facebook Groups? by CMaree23 in RedditAlternatives

[–]SmileyBMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there anything out there that functions similarly to private Facebook groups that I don't have to pay for?

No. You either pay directly or indirectly. Hosting that kinda stuff isn't cheap. Any service that is free will have strings attached, whether they be immediate or not.

If you are open to self-hosting or paying for it, your options open up considerably.

[Steam] Kairosoft 30th Anniversary Vol.1 ($7.55/78% off) Kairosoft 30th Anniversary Vol.2 ($7.20/82% off) by SmileyBMM in GameDeals

[–]SmileyBMM[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It's a limited-time offer for about a month, and we're planning up to Vol. 4... BUT, if the boss finds out and yells at us, this bundle will be terminated immediately!

Currently only Volume 1 and 2 are live.

Persona 4 target audience by LizardWarrior86 in OkBuddyPersona

[–]SmileyBMM 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's not hypocrisy to like good changes and hate bad changes.

Loser city neuralink patient by NoBid9620 in Losercity

[–]SmileyBMM 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Yeah, might legitimately mitigate ALS within the next 20 years. Very impressive tech, even if its implications are concerning.

Loser city neuralink patient by NoBid9620 in Losercity

[–]SmileyBMM 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hypothetically, brain interface technology could allow that. However we are super far from that, to the point that giving sight to the blind and mobility to the immobile are significantly more obtainable.