General Video Game Thread

[Ganymede]

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

The problem with the game industry is that it's an industry, that any businessman worth their salt is going to look for a way to maximize return on investment.

Any businessman worth their salt looks for a way to ensure that their business will stand the test of time, even if that means not taking the maximum return on investment.

[Thenomain]

@ganymede said in General Video Game Thread:

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

The problem with the game industry is that it's an industry, that any businessman worth their salt is going to look for a way to maximize return on investment.

Any businessman worth their salt looks for a way to ensure that their business will stand the test of time, even if that means not taking the maximum return on investment.

Tell that to the fucking 90s.

[Ganymede]

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

Tell that to the fucking 90s.

You mean, to MBAs.

[The Sands]

@ganymede For the most part even the model of 'making sure the business endures' is a method of trying to maximize return on investment. It simply relies on the idea that if you make X dollars per year over Y years you will make more money than if you make 2X dollars over 1/4Y years and then go out of business.

The thing, however, is that those formulas are an awful lot more complicated than that. I'm not an MBA so if I mess up a term don't shoot me but I understand a lot of the mathematical theory since it has application in other things such as population growth curves. In short if you get $1000 a year for 1 year that is better than getting $100 dollars a year over 12 years because you can reinvest the $1000 and assuming a reasonable rate of return you will be left with more money at the end of 12 years in the first case than in the second. Sure, the business does ultimately take in an extra $200 but you still earn more money 'plundering' the business at the very beginning and then investing that money elsewhere.

That's not to say that there are no stupid MBAs. Usually when you get people doing this kind of thing its because markets are going crazy and so they are calculating that it is better to plunder the company since with 24% ROI they will ultimately make more money, completely ignoring the fact that 24% was last years market and there's no guarantee that the market will do that again this year (and it almost certainly won't do it for 10 consecutive years). It also isn't meant to excuse their disregard of the human cost of those actions. All I'm really saying is that in a lot of those cases where a business decision doesn't 'make sense' it is often because they are looking at something different then you are.

[Ganymede]

@the-sands said in General Video Game Thread:

For the most part even the model of 'making sure the business endures' is a method of trying to maximize return on investment. It simply relies on the idea that if you make X dollars per year over Y years you will make more money than if you make 2X dollars over 1/4Y years and then go out of business.

This is definitely true. This is not how "maximizing return on investment" is being taught, however.

[dontpanda]

I'm putting this here because the rest of the Internet has been useless. So... congrats, msb, you're my only hope. May God have mercy on us all...

Compy (my gaming desktop) used to have patrician 4 on it. I uninstalled it for unimportant reasons. I went to install it again, and suddenly Compy no longer believes there is a dvd drive. Put in another disc and the drive returns!

Lappy (non-gaming laptop) sees the Patrician disc just fine, thankyouverymuch, but doesn't have the chops to run the game. That tells me the disc works just fine.

What the hell is going on with Compy? Any ideas?

[Insomnia]

@dontpanda Windows 10?

[dontpanda]

@insomnia Compy is windows 7. Lappy is windows 10

[Insomnia]

No idea then! All I know is Windows 10 is an asshole, and I blame everything on it.

[Thenomain]

@insomnia

This is odd because the latest macOS, High Sierra, is also an asshole. Are the Big Two getting complacent? Grr.

[Jaded]

@dontpanda
What kind of PC is Compy? And is the dvd drive an aftermarket drive or one that came with the system?

At first blush if the disk works fine in other dvd drives but not in Compy, even if other disks work in Compy that would still point to a hardware issue. Also make sure that the Patrician 4 disk is not warped in some way, that you can only see by setting it flat on something.

There are some brand of dvd drives that start to show this problem when the drives are going bad - notably the optical drives in Dell pre-built systems and Samsung CD/DVD drives.

[dontpanda]

@jaded
Disc looks fine. Not warped.
Compy's a "local computer shop" special, so it doesn't conform to one manufacturer.

The drive is a "super rite master" so I guess we'll have to extrapolate from that.

I thought I'd clone the disc on Lappy, and try the clone in Compy.

[Jaded]

@dontpanda
Okay. At this point I would be inclined to think that it is a hardware issue without being able to do further testing. If you know someone with an external optical drive or who might have a computer they swapped out of in the last year with an optical drive you could borrow to swap with yours, that will expand your testing options.

[Packrat]

So I am going to try live streaming for the first time on Twitch and am choosing the most nerdy of all overly complex games, Aurora 4x.

Now to see if the software works!

Twitch Link

EDIT: It works, but this game is definitely the most overly complex thing ever and probably not the best choice for an understandable viewing experience.

[Insomnia]

@packrat People will watch anything. I've had people request I stream (and watched and participated) DOS games.

I have had people say they would watch me read a dictionary for hours.

People will watch anything.

[RnMissionRun]

People will indeed watch anything. I have streamed Evennia hacking sessions where I had over a dozen folks watching me code. Fun stuff.

[Packrat]

Well I am currently streaming early game Aurora 4x, so... No graphics solar system survey and colonisation extravaganza so detailed that you have to design not just engines, or missiles, but engines for your missiles.

Right now I am converting my shipyard to make a colony ship so that I can ship people to Mars.

Whilst I monologue. Which is harder than it looks!

[RnMissionRun]

@packrat I watched for 20 mins before I figured out that what I thought, at first, was just your tv playing in the background, was actually you talking. So, yeah. The video was clear and it was quite easy to follow what you were doing, but your mic was really, really low.

[Packrat]

@rnmissionrun Ahh, I will work on adjusting that before trying again then, thanks!

[Deleted]

So, Far Cry 5.

It's really solid so far, and I haven't even touched multiplayer yet. All the right-wing criticism of the game was unwarranted, as the game has some disturbing 'The gun hoarders and conspiracy nuts are the best hope for America' vibes.

Despite the main bad guy literally being 'David Koresh with Jim Jones glasses' I can say, as someone who grew up in an extremely religious household, that the game is not anti-Christian as the Evangelicals were worried. They take special pains to ensure that you are aware that the cultists are at odds with the local religious types. (I was a little weirded out to see the local pastor wearing a priest's collar, though.)

I'd say the game is worth buying if you love FPS games. It's better than Far Cry 3 and 4, if only because I actually get to shoot at people who aren't 'native savages'. I feel much less like a racist piece of shit for enjoying it than I did the previous ones.