TroublesomeTalker

joined 2 years ago
[–] TroublesomeTalker@feddit.uk 10 points 2 days ago

They did this with "plays for sure" DRM protected music files too, way, way back. Never bought content of any kind from them after that and then killing Windows LIVE.

Just assume everything from them has a "destroy after" date set in the near future.

[–] TroublesomeTalker@feddit.uk 2 points 5 days ago

When the scores are settled sure, doesn't mean there's not mechanisms in any particular country that make this harder. Work two Jobs in the UK without carefully sorting PAYE and one of those will be collected at 40% emergency rates. You get it back eventually, but if you are paying transport, meals and other expenses to attend the second job I can see how it could get close to nothing. You get most of it back later, but that doesn't help marginalized people trying to earn extra right now.

[–] TroublesomeTalker@feddit.uk 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
  1. And yet almost every single one had a "Buy" button on the purchase page, not a "licence" and I sure as shit didn't sign a damn thing. I act like I own them, and will continue to do so. Half the EULAs contains some illegal bullshit anyway and the "also is any of this invalidates local laws, just ignore that bit" clause is relatively a lot newer than a lot of classic games which I probably do own because of this. With the greatest respect, laws are - effectively - requests when the entire population willfully ignores them.

  2. Absolutely true. And this is where I have difficulty with this initiative. I am a heavy collector and patient gamer, I get to stuff years after release. As such I have always avoided heavily on-line stuff so I can use my own schedule, and that's the sticking point here for me. In the current environment where it's easy to see network requirements, and even refund games after testing it seems like this could be handled by vote with your wallet for the most part. However, I take a very different view of the current bait-and-switch of taking games without a hard online requirement and changing the terms in some way after release, and this alone is enough to make me support the movement. Adding launchers, additional account requirements, micro transactions post release should be heavily controlled. If you don't state at release you will be adding MTX - or even DLC honestly - you shouldn't be able too in my mind. It's a different product.

I think the other thing that so many are either too young to remember, or perhaps not technical enough now, but in the 90s, you ran your own game servers, and it was awesome. It was hard back then, someone seemed an ISDN or leased line to handle the traffic and access to a decent PC or server - requirements that are now in reach of everyone with a joke connection, a multi core machine and a docker install. There's no reason this couldn't be handled that way again with the companies monetising "content packs" for the servers and letting communities flourish. But they like the control.

It's going to be interesting seeing the outcome here!

[–] TroublesomeTalker@feddit.uk 8 points 2 weeks ago

This was the Xbox One release. In the initial announcement it was all online, all the time with fully Digital licening. As you can imagine, uproar followed. This was their reasoning for everyone who couldn't download a few TB of games and updates on the regular. They relented on almost all of their points, but the damage was done.

[–] TroublesomeTalker@feddit.uk 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm curious what the 'right' amount of people being supported that makes it magically sustainable. UK pop is close to 70 mil, with half a mil in Leicester (ISH). Let's be generous and say 0.5% of the population gets these PIPs then. Tax Rates are upwards of 40% for some folk, logically we can afford to care for this many people (and more). Hell the massive Social Security bill is always 2/3 pensions. I'd suggest raising the retirement age a year, which would more than cover the discrepancy, but there's some evidence that life expectancy is going to decline in the coming years, which in concert with the raising ages means retirement is going to be a luxury if they aren't careful. Of course the actual solution to this is the same one that never ever gets discussed. Raise wages and increase Tax take, given it's the wagies that actually pay tax, not the massive mega corps. I'd hoped for a visionary take on the Labour party, the focus being Great British Energy to get energy security, followed by a modern farms initiative to get food security. Instead we get the same old shit sandwich we've been being fed for thirty or forty years.

[–] TroublesomeTalker@feddit.uk 6 points 1 month ago

Have you read the news lately? We're just training for the next few years.

[–] TroublesomeTalker@feddit.uk 3 points 3 months ago

ALVR isn't awful. I needed new hardware and bit the bullet knowing I was likely going to lose VR, but with the hardware upgrade, it's nicer in the new machine (Bazzite, 7900XT) than the old (Win 10, 2080 Super Max Q). Definitely not a drop in replacement yet though.