In all seriousness this was the only thing I could think of myself and then I had a moment of thought about a dwarf (irl not rpg) having a stalker. It is something that never crossed my mind. Not to say they couldn't or anything but I could just feel the realization hit.
Anyway, cheers for the actual definition before the brain rot set in too hard.
I quit a couple years ago for good, but my main account on RuneScape was created in classic as a kid. I had about a year and a half of PLAY time on the account, mind you the vast majority of that was back when you had the hard 5 minute afk timer, so that was at least moderately active play. Then if you add my ironman account I have nearly 1/15th of my whole life logged into RuneScape. I don't regret it, my whole friend group as an adult stem from those friendships I made online during my young teen years. However, as a modern game as much as I have a place for it in my heart, I found I had more of a negative addictive relationship with it. Maybe I always did, but I didn't feel a negative mental effect at a young age.
I have over 1k hours in The Long Dark and 7 days to die. Around 500 in space engineers, darkest dungeon, binding of Isaac, enter the gungeon, grim dawn, and satisfactory. ~300 hours in ToME4 and Caves of qud each. That's just steam stuff though, there are a lot of games that I know are up there that aren't on steam.
I'm sure I have at least similar numbers to 500-1k if not much higher in Diablo 2-3, and I'm sure more than a few thousand in wow though I lost my og account after wotlk because I forgot the details when I quit so I'm really not sure.
GSC made a decision to not sell the game in Russia considering they attacked their home country. It is also a large part of why they were targeted by Russian hackers. Seems weird to ban a game that isn't allowed to be purchased (I'm aware there is likely going to be ways around it) but to me it just shows how scared Russia is of it potentially doing well. The game doesnt even NEED anti-russian sentiments, its existence IS one.
100% agree with your message, but just for clarity's sake I believe you meant "the intolerant will eventually 'seize'" as in take, like a seizure of assets. Cease is putting an end to something.
Normally I wouldn't bother to correct someone, but the irony of the mistake is that it contradicts your intended message by saying that if you tolerate intolerance, it will cease to exist.
When we were first learning about it, there were some misconceptions about radioactivity and health. There were even business minded individuals who widely sold it as a miracle cure. This public belief was reinforced by the fact that around that time we discovered hot springs have radioactive elements, (and people have always believed hot springs heal your ailments) which lead to a mass conception radioactivity was actually a miracle cure. A large part of that down fall was when the "Radium Girls" started literally dying because they were told it was totally safe to work with radioactive material, began falling apart and then worked for legal pushback.
I'm not an expert on the matter, so I might be a little off but that is a good overview on why some people have that belief still. As always it's shitty people looking to make money off of hype. The Radium Girls had a tragic but ultimately fascinating life/story. They would even rub the material on their teeth to glow. Check it out if you're interested.
I would agree with your last statement, but in the case of Xbox i think it is by design. They already excitedly talk about windows handhelds being the future and its because the console market has almost always been a loss, even back to the Sega selling massively under production cost to try and take ground from Nintendo. Games were always what made the profit.
In the case of Xbox, their business model for a long time has been moving to a live service streaming model, i don't think they want to be in the console market. If they can move their app on all kinds of devices, they can skip the investment of the console and instead focus on what the real profit driver was all along.
The long dark.
Assuming the game mechanics are still in place? I'll be fine. Maybe I'll even live a few years on the Great Bear island.
However, if I am in that scenario with real world mechanics? I'm Fucking dead, so hard, so fast. Then again I guess the wildlife would be less aggressive and maybe people would actually be around. Still probably dead, though.
I think you could benefit from having this explained.
"Leopard Eating People's Faces Party refers to a parody of regretful voters who vote for cruel and unjust policies (and politicians) and are then surprised when their own lives become worse as a result. It has been commonly used to parody regretful Brexit and Trump voters."
It has nothing to do with Caitlin's actual face and it is a perfect example of what type of content is relevant here.
Obviously this is just me, but here is a list of the last 5 games I purchased that were not smaller indie titles:
Stalker 2, Elden ring, remnant 2, bg3, dragon's dogma 2
You could argue that remnant is intended for multiplayer and you could argue that maybe only bg3 and stalker and really narrative driven but the truth is, anymore I tend to buy single player and stream to my friends than I do actually play mp games. The only mp game i was tempted by was Helldivers and I was just too busy at the time.
Anything else are steam deck friendly indie games. I buy a lot of those, and bought a lot even before I had a deck.
In my anecdotal experience, when I see x game is multiplayer, or live service, or just not an experience I can enjoy on my own time I tune it out. For example, I always bought Diablo games but I don't own 4.
I also immediately think of some other big ones that I opted out of, like Wukong. People fucking love single player games when they are good games. I think the real issue is developing a good game is hard. Developing a game with dark practices and otherwise addicting (but not necessarily fun) gameplay is a much easier way to make uninspired games made by committee.
It's just easier to point the blame at the market than actually admit that upon self reflection you realized it is best to avoid the hard part of game development.