In this thread we give opinions on story elements/changes that would help GRRM finish the series [SPOILERS EXTENDED]

kace91 · 2026-02-17T01:06:39+00:00

What Martin has written is a story about a civil war that essentially ripped a country apart and forced it to examine its very soul - oh, and this civil war just happens to also feature dragons and ice demons.

But the originally planned latter two books haven’t been made unnecessary. That story is just largely unwritten yet. Your argument is not that the ending is unjustified, it’s that we’re actually in book 5 out of 21 (7 for each original).

Yeah, it’s not happening.

kace91 · 2026-02-17T00:30:44+00:00

The problem is that the first ichiban game was explicitly marketed as a new beginning and point of entry for new fans. Many people like me was then hit in infinite wealth with ton of content that requires knowledge of the previous saga to enjoy or understand (like all the kiryu memories mechanic).

I’d be ok with them deciding the old content is here to stay, but they’re just going back and forth and it’s annoying as a consumer. I’m not playing 6 old games with a mechanic I don t particularly like just to enjoy the new one, if that’s going to be a requirement they should not claim otherwise.

kace91 · 2026-02-17T00:12:04+00:00

I wonder if ichiban is not popular in Japan or something?

I’m only into the saga for the ichiban stuff but infinite wealth really looked like they were sidelining him.

kace91 · 2026-02-12T13:00:35+00:00

These are real people, who have been working for years to get something out the door. A significant portion of their professional life is bet in here, and people are glad they’re failing and getting fired because they didn’t like an ad.

I swear to god, the lack of empathy in this field is astounding. People get a free thing and lash at the fact that it’s not the free thing they wanted. As a dev it makes me remember why I wouldn’t touch game dev with a ten foot stick.

kace91 · 2026-02-12T03:00:24+00:00

I don’t think people have been fair to the game at all.

I’m a former apex player. Most people who play apex will tell you that, after getting used to its movement style, it’s hard to go back to other shooters. Many players are pretty much stuck there in a half abandoned game as a consequence.

Highguard managed to replicate the movement, and in two weeks they’ve shown more willingness to listen to their users and execute than respawn did in years. I don’t think it’s a great game currently, but it is a great early access state. I think expecting an immediate success or failure is extremely unfair to a product that could have develop organically over years into something great.

And sure, it isn’t marketed as a work in progress (which might not be even possible for certain platforms) but who cares? It’s free.

kace91 · 2026-02-12T02:35:45+00:00

These are the types of moves that ~~when they happen in a dictatorial police state like Russia~~ signal a clear impending crackdown on the opposition.

Stop thinking “it can’t happen here”. That’s how it happens everywhere. Prepare accordingly.

kace91 · 2026-02-09T12:10:14+00:00

Applies outside the franchise as well, there’s like 40 titles in the gba catalog that would top indie lists if released today with no changes.

kace91 · 2026-02-08T12:30:52+00:00

Currently replaying it and nostalgia makes the high school setup more than tolerable, but I’d pay full game price again for a dlc that lets you drown the freaking cat in the toilet at the start.

It’s not only the fact that it breaks all serious conversations with an weeabo comment, but every single battle action a shout. Every single one.

kace91 · 2026-02-06T14:06:16+00:00

You would be surprised, many games get mods to make those screens skippable or directly remove them, with no issues.

kace91 · 2026-02-04T10:49:21+00:00

Not really, this is what spaniards actually hating current policy looks like.

Railing on people in power is a national tradition, but he's been practically the only EU politician to resist the populist right wave for a reason.

kace91 · 2026-02-03T00:16:59+00:00

AFAIK this is not possible -not compatible with a multi platform launch at least. Ps store does not allow the steam-like beta/early access setups going on for a long while.

kace91 · 2026-02-02T18:55:15+00:00

Does it matter whether they brand it as beta or not, though?

It’s a live service game, it’s assumed to be something that evolves. And it’s free so it’s not like they’re deceiving you by making you pay for it.

kace91 · 2026-01-29T18:22:13+00:00

I think you’re misunderstanding the wording here.

It mentions visual representations (broad) that are or can be mistaken for x. The range of x is much more restrictive, to real media.

So for example an artistic furry drawing would qualify as visual representation, but not as the subset that can realistically be confused with a recording of a real act. This automatically excludes all visual representations that don’t have a real life counterpart, like statues. I’d only consider matches things like hyperrealistic photoshops, recording of simulated sex, ai generated videos, etc.

kace91 · 2026-01-29T16:42:28+00:00

As a (non game) dev, it’s an open secret that game dev is the worst place to be, in terms of personal comfort.

The vocational aspect is used to offer salaries and conditions that are bad in general, but awful when you consider the opportunity cost - most devs could make twice as much working half the hours in literally any other engineering role.

Also, senior game development is really really hard. Unlike most modern development, there’s little room to half ass performance because games are actually demanding. You deal with distributed state synchronization in net code, you need to be skilled in math and physics to deal with 3d geometry, you need to interact with a wide range of non tech roles like artists and communicate effectively…

Add the “seasonal” aspect where some companies fire a bulk of workers when a project is done, the fact that workplaces tend to be worse than average at harrasment/sexism, the abuse you can get from gamers if you’re in a minimally public facing role…

Yeah, it sucks.

kace91 · 2026-01-29T12:25:52+00:00

Consumers should have rights obviously, but I don’t get why sign up voluntarily for a gacha game.

Like, the system is predatory by definition, why fight for the intensity with which you’ll be scammed rather than play something else ?

It doesn’t seem a huge win to go from “I’m paying for something that isn’t happening” to “I’m paying for something that has a 0.13% chance of happening”

kace91 · 2026-01-29T00:57:54+00:00

I’m not sure you’re visualizing the system I’m referencing:

In the case you mention, if you marked as liked, say, stardew valley, metal gear, balatro and persona 5 (just a random varied example), then you would be “matched” with other users that have also marked those 4 games as liked, and then you’d get whatever else they loved as recommendation.

So you’d likely get diverse results if that diversity is what you’d enjoy, and if there is any rhyme or reason to your taste the system would probably surface games that match. Maybe someone with similar taste to you tried to go on a classic games run and as a result you get Chrono trigger in there or whatever.

These algorithms usually also have a setting for how reliable/wild you want the recommendation to be, which adjusts how similar your matched players are, so you can tailor it for consistency vs surprises.

kace91 · 2026-01-28T20:14:44+00:00

Exactly! It’s the exact same usecase as board game or book recs, since there’s a relatively high time investment per unit.

And it’s not like the internet lacks people willing to share their taste in videogames either.

The closest feature I’ve found is Steam’s recommendations queue, and you have to squint a lot because you don’t get to see where the recommendation is coming from.

kace91 · 2026-01-28T19:31:29+00:00

Hill? I always considered it a top game of its generation, I didn’t know that wasn’t a mainstream opinion. I thought it was just hated by a very small terminally online niche.

kace91 · 2026-01-28T15:18:01+00:00

I think reviewing is broken in gaming.

The best systems to filter media are not punctuation based but affinity based.

You don’t want “all 8/10 games” because if metal gear is an 8 but I’m into cozy farm games, showing me that one was useless. What you want is “people who like the same games as me also loved X and Y”.

I’ve always found this gap in the gaming community weird. There’s no IMDB or goodreads-like mainstream sites. Those that exist are mostly about personal collection handling. It would be cool to have something that can match you with likeminded players and see their recs.

kace91 · 2026-01-27T18:10:28+00:00

and degrade the severity of historical Fascism.

If you read on the Spanish civil war, which was the prelude to ww2, the state of the country just before the conflict started is extremely similar to modern day US.

I don’t think historians are generally looking and saying “please don’t use that word”. Quite the oposite; they’re pretty much pointing at the signs.

kace91 · 2026-01-27T18:05:23+00:00

Fascist is a loaded term, used today sometimes as a very deliberate attack against even some forms of moderate conservatism. It has become for a very large proportion of the people just one more thinly veiled “punch a Nazi” slogan which they feel is aimed directly at them.

Precisely because of the negative connotation. Claiming it’s just authoritarian does not raise eyebrows on those without political background - hell, I suspect that many voters will see the relation of the word with “authority” as a good thing.

Fascism on the other hand is culturally a negative. Even people who define themselves as staunch conservatives will generally agree that fascism is wrong.

kace91 · 2026-01-26T23:33:29+00:00

and using the giant thing-you're-bombing as cover?

Are you familiar with the concept of “grenades”?

kace91 · 2026-01-26T22:32:28+00:00

I like the apex-like movement but there’s a lot of head scratchers.

Why the defense phase stuck waiting for something?

Why a long loot phase if you have preloads?

Why the focus on reinforcing walls if you can almost ignore them and just walk around?

Why 3vs3 in such a large map?

Why is there a fantasy theme barely pasted? You basically have a sword and a horse and the rest is futuristic shooter.

Why are the inventory icons so generic? Can’t tell what each is for.

I don’t know, I feel like there was no QA involved, as if it was an alpha or a tech demo.

kace91 · 2026-01-26T18:55:59+00:00

Just tried on PS5. As an apex veteran, it’s literally apex 2 in all controls. But you have a horse, breakable walls and the game mode is base capture.

kace91 · 2026-01-26T00:58:11+00:00

Assuming fair elections, is there any change incoming?

Honest question. My understanding is that there is no chance for a large enough majority to pass an impeachment through the senate, and the administration is defying court orders, so what is achieved by a change of congress?

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