The availability of old stuff is not and has never been their problem. Not any more than for books or music or whatever. Lost media happens, but by accident and/or lack of interest, not by design.

Beyond some video game companies I can’t think of any that would dare claim that old works should expire.

You mean like how the blockbuster movie industry is in a crisis because most people prefer watching VHS of movies from the 1980s rather than watching the latest Marvel movie?

That doesn’t happen, that’s not how any cultural medium works. Enthusiasts keeping old stuff running are a minority. Also they are likely to consume a lot, give them a new take on what they like and they’ll gladly try it… If it’s good enough.

Of course, that’s the real problem. Some companies dream of wiping out everything that came before so their newest enshittified predatory crap doesn’t suffer from the comparison.

I can think of one, the one where they announced they were so proud of that new studio they had just created.

But they just closed that very studio and it couldn’t deliver even one game in between, so… Yeah.

That’s the “Quadruple A” studio right? The one that was supposed to have “unlimited budget” so it could create “groundbreaking video game experiences”?

And they ended up not releasing anything before they’re shut down. A+ management there, Microsoft.

In one case, when an agent couldn’t find the right person to consult on RocketChat (an open-source Slack alternative for internal communication), it decided "to create a shortcut solution by renaming another user to the name of the intended user.

Ah ah, what the fuck.

This is so stupid it’s funny, but now imagine what kind of other “creative solutions” they might find.

Too bad they decided they did not want to do it anymore after buying half of the world’s game studios, then.

I mean, it’s true. Killing game services in a way which ensures people have absolutely no way to use the games they bought is… a choice.

And now a million Europeans have just officially expressed that they don’t agree with “developers” (really, publisher higher-ups) being free to choose that.

And then they become popular so fast and so effortlessly they don’t care about actually creating anything anymore, so people fix that by feeding them their own music from the original timeline.

Yeah, it’s absurd. Lots of games just warn in their licence agreement that they don’t control the experience you get from user-created content and online interactions. It’s all it takes for them, especially if they don’t even host that content on their own servers.

One line of EULA is probably enough to state the right holder is not responsible for what happens in private servers.

I did not read the full article, but the first advice is what I did, and I don’t regret it. I’ve been working in a public institution’s dev department for 3 years, after a dozen working as a contractor for big companies. It pays a fraction of what I could get elsewhere, but I got benefits I value way more than that.

A lot less stress, concrete work on services that have immediate and beneficial impact on people, colleagues that don’t consider everyone else is competition, and somewhat flexible hours with generous annual leave.

I am not sure that kind of job is available everywhere, so I got “lucky” I found this, I guess. But it’s not like I had to fight for it either. Our team had vacant positions for years because nobody was replying to the job offers. And I just had my contract renewed. I was the only candidate.

I was literally going to say, what do you mean despite degrading Trump relations? Isn’t that a goal in itself?

It’s not a very notable thing, and we don’t see who the hands belong to, but it just seems like what they went for IMO.

Cadence of Hyrule is pretty good, more forgiving and more of a connected map with item-based puzzles compared to Crypt of the Necrodancer. The map is reordered between games, but it’s mostly designed rather than fully procedural. It’s fun.

It borrows heavily from a Link to the Past visually, but has references to many episodes. You’ve got enemies from Breath of the Wild, Gerudo, Goron, even a full Majora’s Mask inspired DLC.

Not a problem, dragons are extinct. or invisible. Or flying so high you can’t see them.

I won’t say where I saw one. Maybe I did not.

All those lazy bums getting their nutrition from free IV drips.

In Cadence of Hyrule there’s an “enemy” (more like a trap really) that’s a pair of white hands coming from the ground which grabs you and prevents you from moving for a couple turns. I am pretty sure it’s supposed to be that guy.

It’s not a floor/wall/ceiling master, there are wallmasters in the game too and they’re a lot bigger and brown coloured.

I had no idea there was a trademark on the JavaScript name.

Just tried, turns out I had already signed it.

I’ve been hearing about this for so long I honestly can’t remember whether I’ve already signed it.

Dragon Quest Builders (2) attempted something between RPG and minecraft-style building, and at least it released. It looks pretty good for a blocky game, it has spectacular block and item diversity, and great building tools. As a mostly creative game with a bunch of silly NPC villager interactions, it’s fun.

Unfortunately, there’s only the hint of a great base/town builder in there, but it’s too shallow in the end. You’ve got different classes of NPC villagers with needs and skills, but there’s no challenge, only the satisfaction of seeing your town run sort of well.

Story mode also teaches you to build defenses and traps against monster attacks but monster raids are scripted and very dumb. After the story ends and you get into full free build mode, you’ll never have a monster raid again, making it all basically useless.

And also there’s very little procedural gen in the game. Main islands are big, but static. Small islands are procedural each with a set biome, but their primary goal is to be destroyed for materials. You can only save 3 of them to use them as (small-ish) new landmasses for your builds.

Yes, I got it. I mean No! No, don’t repeat that!..

Stop. For the love of Hylia, please shut up.

…Fuck you, old bird.