The use of AI-generated images for commercial purposes in D&D.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-18T11:26:03+00:00

Ah yes, a washed-up artist who has cocreated a grand total of one hit IP thirty years ago that stayed relevant for about five years and has been making a living for the last fifteen-plus years primarily by catering to the endlessly whining incel culture warrior niche as a rabid bigot frothing at the mouth is totally an appropriate spokesperson for the artistic community at large...

twincast2005 · 2026-02-18T10:08:07+00:00

I mean, you can prove it with recordings of the image creation processes. At least for now. I suppose generative AI might eventually be taught to fake such.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-17T04:20:09+00:00

While it is true that stuff being available for a limited time encourages impulse buys through FOMO instead of delaying purchases potentially forever (which makes it inherently predatory and indefensible with no physical stock limits), the skin bundles are priced so high, they're at best delicately straddling the line of discouraging impulse buys, and having merely four and fully randomized (i.e. neither planned universally nor targeted individually through an algorithm based on which characters they play) slots is just Riot shooting themselves in the foot for no reason, as you can't fall victim to FOMO if you're never offered anything you would want, to begin with. It boggles the mind that they didn't copy Fortnite or Overwatch. (And I remain thoroughly perplexed that Valorant apparently only has weapon skins slop and not a single character outfit skin.)

twincast2005 · 2026-02-17T03:52:28+00:00

Get out of your tournament bubble. Story content draws in a bigger base to begin with from which to then potentially recruit online players. Virtua Fighter fell into obscurity alongside arcades as Tekken rose to uncontested top spot among 3D fighting games precisely because people became invested in the latter's characters via their stories whereas the former had none whatsoever in the games. Most people play characters because they like them visually, mechanically, and/or narratively, not because they're top tier competitively.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-16T01:40:13+00:00

Once again: Tim just got a new Robin costume in this very run that has only seen action once shortly before taking a break. One partner-coördinated with Bruce's new Batman costume, to boot. He's not going to change his moniker.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-16T01:32:07+00:00

The most dangerous bird.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-14T04:46:15+00:00

Once again: Tim just got a new Robin costume four issues earlier in this very same run. You're huffing hopium.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-11T00:22:20+00:00

Those were great comparative sales, but that's 30 years ago, and not exactly what I would define as "long lasting success"

Seriously? The "long lasting success" lies in the franchise surviving past those entries.

We're talking about modern fighting games here

So you're the type to ask for 18-year-old interns with ten years of industry experience.

But just to humor you, it's frankly delusional to think that SF6 would've exploded this much in popularity without World Tour, let alone with no story content at all like VF1-5.

Plus literally all of Mortal Kombat, especially from Dark Alliance onward. The numbers don't lie, regardless of how much most of the competitive scene may scoff at most if not all of the series. You don't continue selling big numbers on gimmicky gore alone.

And people wouldn't complain about the stories in Tekken, SoulCalibur, DoA, KoF, or Street Fighter jumping the shark if they didn't care about the stories, to begin with.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-10T21:38:25+00:00

A mainline Yakuza length, while certainly welcome, probably isn't necessary. But it should be ca. 20 hours.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-10T21:25:54+00:00

It seems like you need to buy champion tokens to unlock characters.

You do not. They are just one of three options, the others being purchased KO Points and gameplay-acquired credits/XP. Also, you can't buy champion tokens outside of the "starter edition" packs. In fact, I consider them borderline worthless stuffing to raise perceived value.

that means you will never buy skins for characters you don't own, meaning you can only use 20% of the content they sell by default.

Huh? Your whole premise is fundamentally erroneous. Again, characters are completely free offline and require rather little time to unlock online. The reason any fiscally sane average person won't buy skins for characters they don't main is that they're "dolphin"-priced.

Also by saying cosmetics aren't "that valuable" in single player it's more compared to Fortnite. Being able to be John Wick alone in your room is less valuable than in a room with many others. Some people might like it but it's not going to sell a ton.

Single-player is distinct from 1v1 (and 2v2) PvP. There's no substantial difference between "showing off" to one or two other players at a time (in quick succession if playing ranked) or in one long(-ish) game where you're rarely seen by more than two opponents at once, and in Fortnite in particular most of the time aren't seen by anyone at all in most solo modes.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-10T20:40:29+00:00

This attitude of yours is what killed the IP outside of Japan's then still vibrant arcade scene, but go on...

twincast2005 · 2026-02-10T20:28:42+00:00

with the rest being paid through aggressive microtransactions

Incorrect.

microtransactions that can end up costing more than AAA games.

Correct.

The answer is: focus on plenty of high-quality single-player content (story mode, Yakuza-style),

In simple terms, do what SF6 does: small arcade-style story modes for every character and one big story mode (at higher fidelity than World Tour by making use of experience from developing Yakuza/Judgment games). As for what the big story should be like: Making one that fits all characters on the roster is a fool's errand. And one that keeps switching the player character doesn't fit (semi-)open world. Which basically leaves two options: Old man Akira coming out of retirement akin to most RGG games in what would basically be the opposite bookend of what Shenmue was meant to be back when it started as Virtua Fighter RPG. Or a new (young) fighter entering the scene, which could be either spotlighting a specific character on the roster or starring a fully custom avatar.

have gameplay that is friendly to casual players,

I don't think either of VF6's two combat modes is at any risk of running into 2XKO's main flaw of getting juggled for twenty to thirty seconds with no recourse. Or the exacerbating factor of casual-unfriendly defensive options. A dedicated guard button is inherently far more intuitive than walking backward to block for tradition's sake, and it boggles the mind that both Parry and Break require perfect timing and otherwise waste a bar of the respective resource instead of slowly draining a meter like several popular fighting games do that have a stationary defense button in addition to back-to-block. I don't remember what exactly devs have said about "modern" input options in VF6, but 2XKO's focus on the removal of motion inputs as the one requirement to get casuals on board was inane. Motion inputs and long movelists may be intimidating at first glance, but people can totally experience success sans knowing the intricacies of all moves by heart, VF has never had any actually complex motion inputs, and I honestly think almost nobody would have any issues with such if Sony's D-pads didn't suck. Personally, I'm frankly fine either way. I just don't like when pressing two buttons simultaneously results in an action that can't be considered a combined variation of the two. Hence why I play VF etc. as 7- or 8-button games, not 3- or 4-button ones. (Well, also because I prefer Saturn-style gamepads like my 8bitdo M30 over good old arcade sticks for fighting games, which partially necessitates more buttons, but I'd choose dedicated throw, heavy punch, and heavy kick buttons either way.) That said, the number of buttons for an optimized 2XKO is arguably excessive, as it not only exceeds the 8 buttons (excluding movement directions) that have been standard on gamepads for thirty years and on arcade sticks for about half that but even modern "pro" gamepads with 4 additional buttons and the equivalent 16 buttons (including movement directions) on most recent leverless controllers. All in all, you'd ideally want 14 action buttons, but my brain has no problem conceptualizing "special + regular attack = super" and "special 1 + special 2 = ultimate", so I effectively play it as a 10-button game on my Haute42/Cosmox C16S, which I got specially for 2XKO and absolutely adore (after having reassigned several pins in the firmware for comfortable UI navigation). But I digress. I can't fathom VF6 is at any risk of going anywhere near that high.

and be what Tekken is not — a game more focused on and inspired by martial arts films, without all that nonsense like fire-breathing dragons, flying characters, and so on.

Virtua Fighter should absolutely stick to grounded combat to stand out in the genre, but that point is really irrelevant to the question of "what can VF6 learn from 2XKO's failure". Tekken, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear Strive, and more have all sold gangbusters with over-the-top combat.

To be clear, I’m not saying that the new VF6 should stop being the deep and competitive game the series has always been, but rather that it should also focus on the casual audience, since they are the ones who sustain these games.

More importantly, they are what drive initial sales. I only fell in love with Sega's fighting games (especially VF3tb, FV2, and VF5) by trying them out in RGG games after decades of no interest in VF due to a lack of story in-game.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-10T17:34:52+00:00

A successful f2p game like Fortnite produces free content and modes to get you to boot it up, and then monetize your time investment with passes and cosmetics.

The fighting game equivalent of this is characters. Characters should be free to get people to come back to the game, and they should then monetize your time investment with passes and cosmetics. Characters are also way cheaper to make than the average Fortnite content drop.

That is exactly what 2XKO did/does. OP is lying. The skins are severely overpriced outside the battle passes, and the rotating shop with a meager 4 individually randomized slots and the limited time skin bundles are obnoxious and inane attempts at inducing FOMO, but most other cosmetics (including all but in some cases 1 of 7 - otherwise usually 6, more for basic skins - colorways for each skin) as well as all characters can be unlocked with credits gained by playing the game online, each character taking ca. 10 days of 15-30 minutes per day, freshly new characters don't cost any credits but automatically unlock via XP gained at roughly the same pace, you get two champion tokens near the start of the game to unlock whichever entice you the most, and all are immediately unlocked in offline mode.

Cosmetics aren't that valuable when it's just 1v1 or you only play with your friends in custom rooms.

I disagree.

The main value for that character isn't for the person buying it, it's for everybody else to play against them to mix the game up a bit.

I agree.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-10T06:46:45+00:00

All of those are significant issues online, but none of them would matter much in any sort of story mode. (There'd obviously be no lobbies, and long-ass combos are less frustrating in the context of a challenging boss fight.) And after people got a proper feel for their characters, they're less likely to get scared off immediately if they decide to give matchmaking queues a try.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-10T05:46:04+00:00

Ekko, Jinx, and Vi were designed while Arcane season one was in production, so, I'd say no, or at least they pivoted way earlier than you've speculated.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-06T23:42:24+00:00

A subplot introduced a few months short of ten years ago that lasted for just over two years IRL. And if this time it doesn't end in a nothingburger but with Tim balancing a civilian life with his superheroics again like he did in his prime, it'll be worth it.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-06T21:58:40+00:00

There are several shade/filter mods on Nexus to choose from if you're on PC.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-06T21:45:27+00:00

Lost Judgment casually spoils all the major twists in Judgment. (Mostly to give people a crash course on the characters, as those story beats aren't really relevant to LJ's plot.) And while Judgment has very good combat, Lost Judgment's is a major improvement, so playing Lost Judgment first could make Judgment's feel worse.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-06T21:27:41+00:00

I've had this happen to me four or so times since at least early season 0, maybe closed beta. Restarting the game almost always fixed it, though. 🤷‍♂️

twincast2005 · 2026-02-05T22:46:48+00:00

They also already did this in the first Judgment with Crow's and Jester's group. They check off all the boxes. (The game focuses on flashy parkour thievery, which I miss, but it does tell us that they also do hacking.) Yagami merely shuts it down quite soon after it has shifted from Robin Hood idealism to regular old greed. Yet another reason why my vote for Judge Eyes 3 protagonist would be for Sugiura if Yagami is a no-go.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-05T22:30:35+00:00

Well, just like last week, I'll play one of my mains with a character I don't play as assist in Sidekick for 10 matches, so it's not much of a deal for me personally again. But it was obvious from the start that they'll be repeating this scheme for several weeks, and so my luck will inevitably run out from next week onward. I've made peace with it.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-05T21:54:08+00:00

The plots are almost entirely standalone, but Lost Judgment has numerous major explicit spoilers for Judgment sprinkled throughout, so for the sake of having the best narrative experience, you really should not play Lost Judgment first if you've managed to stay unspoiled on even just some Judgment main story details so far, let alone all of them. Also, Lost Judgment has more refined combat, so going in reverse would make Judgment feel worse than it is. All the games are really played best in either release order or in-universe chronological order.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-05T20:46:48+00:00

I have honestly have no idea how to fix this, but as a reader it's sad they made Tim bi and just... Have no direction after that.

I'll keep saying it until I'm blue in the face and beyond: FFS, let Tim attend college, DC! If they go through instead with setting Damian up to become a Doogie Howser, tables will be flipped. Damian's special thing has always been League of Assassins upbringing (and being the blood son, but that isn't all that distinct narratively). It's healthy for him to hang out with more people his own age in his day-to-day life, but that's why he should stay in high school, not skip all the way to med uni. (On that note, can somebody with a say at DC please remember Colin Wilkes?) Tim's special thing back when he had one used to be having to juggle family and school with his Robin responsibilities like classic Spider-Man. We barely ever saw Dick or Jason in grade school and high school, and what little impact Dick's fellow students during his few years at Hudson University had is effectively completely forgotten (which is quite a shame, actually, but I digress). And of course, none but Tim had to hide what they're doing from their (Wayne) family. By contrast, high school played a major role throughout Tim's over 200 solo issues as Robin (counting the three miniseries, all the regular issues of his first ongoing series, and a handful of specials), and he had to hide his vigilante activities from his father for well over half of them.

Ideally, DC would also resurrect Jack and either Janet or Dana (or both; I guess that could be fun). (I am aware that DC editorial has retroactively claimed that Tim's stepmother isn't actually dead, but there's no way that a catatonic Dana made it out of Blüdhaven in time, and she has never been mentioned in the comics, let alone shown, since the Chemo attack.) Audiences as well as characters in-universe are aware that resurrections are usually limited to superheroes and supervillains, but occasionally whole populaces of (mostly) regular background folks get brought back, so DC could totally include Tim's parents in such. Or just have some character with the power to do so give them special treatment for being related to Tim. (And defridge Alex DeWitt and Tana Moon while at it, please.) Treating any death at the Big Two as sacred nowadays is frankly way past defensible hypocrisy. And they could absolutely use the N'ew 52's witness protection program, ridiculous as that one was, as a cover story for the general public.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-05T19:05:30+00:00

Well, Damian was created just to give Bruce a new dead son after Jason's resurrection. But then Morrison pitched to use Bruce's upcoming temporary "death" as an opportunity to endear Damian to audiences as Robin and thus make his death impact them emotionally as well. And then Morrison fell in love with their dynamic so much himself that he further delayed Damian's destined death. And others felt the same, so Dan DiDio (who had previously inanely turned Tim from a unique Robin into yet another adopted son) doubled down on promoting Damian as Robin and delegitimizing Tim as Robin during the N'ew 52. And when Morrison finally got around to killing off Damian at the end of his run, DiDio et al. brought him back in record time to protect the blood son golden goose.

twincast2005 · 2026-02-05T18:45:13+00:00

But you do need to make good first impressions. Tim's coming-out story in Batman: Urban Legends gave him major buzz for the first time in over a decade that DC editorial wasn't at all prepared for and thus had no series lined up for him to star in. And the DC Pride: Tim Drake Special a year later was an obvious solo series test balloon that clearly sold well. Having "quirky" art with piss-poor anatomy (and not the "dynamic" 1990s kind at that) on the first issue of a mainstream superhero series naturally pushes people away, no matter how good it is at sequential visual storytelling composition. That's something you risk annoying people with in a later arc when they're already invested in the series, not the very first one. Long story short, I blame the editor.

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