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this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026
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PC Master Race
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They really are trying alienate their users.
They never cared about their users -- only their investors.
Are their investors morons?
Money now! Future prospects? No care, money now!
More like out of contact with the working class
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Every day we veer closer to that Black Mirror episode.
I've lost hearing young due to a health condition. The sales model for hearing aids is depressingly close to the Black Mirror episode with Rashida Jones.
The hearing aid costs 15 per month on "basic", rising through eight different tiers, to "platinum plus" at 120 per month. The hardware doesn't change, only the software. So if you want to be able to hear nature sounds, that's an extra 10 per month. An extra 20 to hear conversations in the car. It's 50 if you want to be able to go to a concert, and so on.
The hearing aid itself is capable of doing all of that, all the time, but the functionality is just switched off.
The term is 4 years and then it becomes obsolete and receives no further updates; you have to get a new one.
This is in the UK.
What the fuck. Is this real?
It is. They tend to hide this until the hard sell, but here's a little bit of info that I could find: https://www.bootshearingcare.com/hearing-aids/hearing-aid-prices/
There's more info that's only revealed after your second hearing test, when they put the "platinum plus" software driven device on your ears, then reveal the pricing in a handily confusing leaflet. It's similar at Specsavers where I went after, thinking "is this real? Surely they're not all like this"
Capitalism strikes again. In a just society, the people who devise these extractive schemes would be in prison.
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Well, I am glad it is Microslop patenting this. That means it will only ever be used in a handful of games noone evert plays before xbox goes completely belly up.
"It makes games more accessible for everyone! If a player does not want to experience ads, then they can purchase the game at full price!"
They are tired of people not buying their shitty games, so they want a way to at least make a bit of money before the servers go down.
Or they just want to make more money off of everyone.
And then after a while, the rug will be pulled and paid tiers will have ads too.
No, no... Paid tiers will get relevant and targeted ads, to make the experience more immersive and personal! And if people don't want it, they can opt out with a small additional fee! This will enable us to provide a better experience for everyone!
Who doesn't want a better experience?
Optting out will just result in generic, untargeted ads, doesn't everyone want ads targeted to them specifically?! Don't we all just love ads?!? Everyone loves ads right? Especially when they are tailored specifically to you right?! So personal, what else could anyone want from anything?
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There’s enough old good games to last me the rest of my life without giving any money to these evil companies
killstreak reward: force entire enemy team to watch an ad break immediately in the middle of the match
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I'm pretty sure there's a black mirror episode on this.
"Open your eyes!"
yep, the second episode, Fifteen Million Merits, where the MC is forced to watch aggressive sexual ads or pay to skip in order to just exist in his room in peace
Let's make version of Proton to block all that when playing the games on Linux. It's gonna be hilarious.
Yeah, do patent this microsoft, good thing only your crappy games will have this
They patented so we can't get games with mechanics like this for two decades, right? They did this to protect us, right? Right? ...
probably going to be AI-GENERATED ads too.
Or, instead of ad-free playtime credits, don't inject ads in the first place.
Things like this tell me Microsoft doesn't care any more about what brought them to make Xbox. Only how they can get as much money out of existing users.
Reminds me of this video about Mature markets. https://youtu.be/_HJXSt7ofOU
Ah, yes, of course; let's screw with the player's flow by taking them completely out of the game, just so they can continue playing the game!
How could this possibly go wrong?
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Download your pirated copies now! I can totally see this being implemented in older games via updates.
What in the fuck...
Literally the Black mirror episode.
lol mobile platforms have been doing this for what decades at this point.
Lmfao
Yeah, and there's a reason a lot of us are unlikely to even try them. If I still bought consoles, the first one that did this would be the last I ever bought, and I'm not buying it if it's like that from the start.
I would rather read a book
Yeah good luck with that. I'll stick with windows xp games if I have to. I'd rather play playstation 2 games than sit through ads on modern hardware. Amiga games, even.
I've hated Microsoft since the late 90s. I refused to ever own an XBox. My friends rolled their eyes, but I get semi-regular reminders that validate my feelings.
I've been a console guy my whole life, but I'm starting to realize that PC is, indeed, the master race.
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I've seen this mechanism a hundred times already, and they want to patent it? Good luck
And yes, it sucks as bad as it sounds
Can we just drop the pretends and go straight to making everyone slaves?
Microsoft makes games?
They buy other companies that make games and then proceed to ruin everything about both.
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From the looks of this patent, no.
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