Culture Wars General - KiA Diet Coke Edition

[CheezzyMach]

Right now, an interesting thing is starting to happen in Vidya journalism; basically the same thing happening to everywhere else with clickbait journalism - that nobody goes to these sites to read about politics and feminism; they go there to read about fucking video games. They basically polluted the waters to the point where the market for what they're selling is now dangerously oversaturated and starting to collapse. People don't go to hobby sites to read about fucking politics and feminism; they go there to read about their fucking hobbies, and the fact that they can means they're avoiding these sites like the ass cancer they are.

They're dying out - which is great for the industry in general.

The main issue we have right now, going into [CURRENT YEAR] is the unholy union of Social Justice and Corporatism, and good god are these two ideologies fucking compatible. You need look no further than Games Journalists claiming any opposition to the Epic Game Store is racist for a great example of that shit. The good news, however, is that the PC gaming crowd has proven willing to fuck those that offend it rather publicly in the ass (as evidenced by Ion Fury recently) so while things are still rough, it's getting harder and harder for the powers that be to get away with particularly egregious shit without backlash.

The big threats here are games-as-service and streaming game services, but considering how hard Stadia's failing and how bad the gaming community punched Microsoft in the dick over always-online shit, I fancy our chances.

Wish the same shit was happening in other hobbies.* comics,TBT,animation,film *

 

[SJ 485]

I'm sorry to say, the protagonist isn't white, don't think that decision doesn't have political baggage in this day and age.

I thought it was very appropriate given his place in the story, he's the son of an incredibly wealthy and powerful Chinese oligarch in an alternate universe where JFK's assassination failed and the space race never ended, the Talos 1 station is the result of an acquisition by TranStar of what was formerly a joint operation by Russian and American scientists, the international nature of the station and its staff to me seems well reasoned and appropriate, he's not just asian because "fighting back against privilege" or something, it feels more Star Trek than SJW.

how odd looking some of the female characters were

If having female scientists and engineers inhabiting a spacestation not look like supermodels is "SJW" then the SJWs are right, lol.
I never thought any of the characters were outstandingly ugly, I'm not saying that characters in video games should all look realistic or anything either but in a serious dramatic game like Prey is it really appropriate to have eye candy female characters? There's a time and a place for that and imo Prey is not it.

But there were also some other things like the fact that some of the crew members were playing a tabletop RPG, SJWs love tabletop RPGs for some reason, ya know, little details like that.

Could you be grasping any harder? I want you to read that back to yourself and tell me that's not grasping at straws lmao.

None of that kind of thing could have had any impact on sales though really, how could the fact that a group of chracters are playing a tabletop RPG have any fucking impact on anyone's decision to purchase the game, that's something that doesn't even become relevant until many hours into the game, the gay relationship stuff too, ridiculous honestly.

But really, it had no business being a reboot of a different franchise, that was probably the main thing that sunk it, it should have been it's own thing.

I don't think it was even intended to be a reboot, just a foolish and, to consumers, confusing choice of name, they should have had more awareness of the market before settling on the name.
Still, it's probably better than the name they had for it in the files lol.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I thought it was very appropriate given his place in the story, he's the son of an incredibly wealthy and powerful Chinese oligarch in an alternate universe where JFK's assassination failed and the space race never ended, the Talos 1 station is the result of an acquisition by TranStar of what was formerly a joint operation by Russian and American scientists, the international nature of the station and its staff to me seems well reasoned and appropriate, he's not just asian because "fighting back against privilege" or something, it feels more Star Trek than SJW.

If having female scientists and engineers inhabiting a spacestation not look like supermodels is "SJW" then the SJWs are right, lol.
I never thought any of the characters were outstandingly ugly, I'm not saying that characters in video games should all look realistic or anything either but in a serious dramatic game like Prey is it really appropriate to have eye candy female characters? There's a time and a place for that and imo Prey is not it.

Could you be grasping any harder? I want you to read that back to yourself and tell me that's not grasping at straws lmao.

None of that kind of thing could have had any impact on sales though really, how could the fact that a group of chracters are playing a tabletop RPG have any fucking impact on anyone's decision to purchase the game, that's something that doesn't even become relevant until many hours into the game, the gay relationship stuff too, ridiculous honestly.

I don't think it was even intended to be a reboot, just a foolish and, to consumers, confusing choice of name, they should have had more awareness of the market before settling on the name.
Still, it's probably better than the name they had for it in the files lol.
View attachment 907072

The game very clearly has a very 2010s feel to it, I don't know why that's so controversial a statement.

But maybe I'm wrong and that didn't effect the sales, I just know that the SJW culture is not popular among gamers and a lot of games in recent years that follow that modern cultural trend like Dishonored 2 or Wolfenstein The New Colossus have been flopping or under performing.

I mean the original Dishonored and The New Order was a hit, so what happened with the sequels?

I don't even really agree with that, mind you, I think that's going a little too far for gamers to pass by any game that may have a little bit of "SJW" flavoring provided it's not laid on too thick.

But we live in a world where a war has been declared on gamers and gaming culture and most gamers are going to pass by a game that seems in any way "SJW"

 

[moocow]

It looks like they changed their minds and the game will not be censored after all:

Joint statement from Voidpoint and 3D Realms:

We’ve caused a recent controversy suggesting Ion Fury game content was to be censored.

We will absolutely NOT be censoring Ion Fury or any of our other games, now or in the future, including but not limited to by removing gags such as gaming’s most controversial facial wash.

We do not support censorship of creative works of any kind and regret our initial decision to alter a sprite in the game instead of trusting our instincts. 3D Realms and Voidpoint stand together on this matter.

Last but not least, please respect our need to keep our community forums clean from hateful messages, spam, or off-topic threads. We recognize our mistake and have received your message loud and clear!

(archive)

The REEEEtards gloated too early and too much this time. The devs initially caved because of these noisemaking idiots, and it probably stung to see those same people declare they still weren't buying the game even after they got what they wanted. The review bombing probably didn't help either.

Now the question remains: will this reversal be enough to win back the fans they alienated by catering to the outrage mob?

 

[Ginger Piglet]

It looks like they changed their minds and the game will not be censored after all:


(archive)

The REEEEtards gloated too early and too much this time. The devs initially caved because of these noisemaking idiots, and it probably stung to see those same people declare they still weren't buying the game even after they got what they wanted. The review bombing probably didn't help either.

Now the question remains: will this reversal be enough to win back the fans they alienated by catering to the outrage mob?

Right, time to amend my negative review now they have decided to unbend the knee.

 

[Meaty Spaghetti]

since i don't know anything, what was supposed to get removed anyway

 

[moocow]

since i don't know anything, what was supposed to get removed anyway

There were a couple gay jokes, i.e. a soap bar was labeled "Ogay" instead of "Olay", in hidden/secret/debug-only areas. That's it.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

The entire "GAMERS ARE SO ENTITLED" shit started specifically because of journalists wanting to protect their buddies from criticism, and unfortunately, a lot of people have bought into it. Most of the time it's part of an attempt to rationalize their position but as you've seen, rationality rarely has much to do with it.

While I obviously can't say what motivated your acquaintance, it's very possible that he just buys into that narrative uncritically. The biggest reason for that isn't due to anything sinister; it's that these people, despite being fringe, delude themselves into thinking they're the mainstream. They aren't. But it's easier for them to believe everyone else is insane then that they are.

And it’s such an infuriating narrative too. I’m sure plenty of people involved with this tried to reason with people on the other side of this years ago, but got immediately burned every time. What’s happening to Voidpoint is unfortunate, but these are the only options when the other side laughs at the very concept of rules of engagement. This is an autistic guerilla war where people have the keep slashing and burning until these reetards flinch.

 

[BrunoMattei]

For reference, this is the gag that pissed off REEsetera:

It's not hidden away either. I beat the campaign but there were no gay or "transphobic" jokes on offer.

 

[OmnipotentStupidity]

Ion Fury have issued an official statement regarding REEEEra demanding the game have all references removed and censored.

Steam :: Ion Fury :: Ion Fury Game Content Will Not Be Censored

Joint statement from Voidpoint and 3D Realms: We’ve caused a recent controversy suggesting Ion Fury game content was to be censored. We will absolutely NOT be censoring Ion Fury or any of our other games, now or in the future, including but not limited to by removing gags such as gaming’s most...

steamcommunity.com

Ion Fury :: Ion Fury Game Content Will Not Be Censored

archived 26 Aug 2019 17:02:00 UTC

archive.fo

Spoiler: Ion Fury Game Content Will Not Be Censored

Joint statement from Voidpoint and 3D Realms:

We’ve caused a recent controversy suggesting Ion Fury game content was to be censored.

We will absolutely NOT be censoring Ion Fury or any of our other games, now or in the future, including but not limited to by removing gags such as gaming’s most controversial facial wash.

We do not support censorship of creative works of any kind and regret our initial decision to alter a sprite in the game instead of trusting our instincts. 3D Realms and Voidpoint stand together on this matter.

Last but not least, please respect our need to keep our community forums clean from hateful messages, spam, or off-topic threads. We recognize our mistake and have received your message loud and clear!

 

[SiccDicc]

Ehhhh... So a promotional team only hired women, where's the controversy here?

Did they go on a rant about men being bad? Did they outright say they've excluded men because fuck them?

Apparently they have no faith in the game. However, this is still a much more interesting controversy.

Remedy Entertainment’s CEO Tero Virtala and chairman Markus Mäki have sold company shares just days before the developer’s next major game release – Control.
Both of the company bosses sold their shares a day before the company’s stock value began to fall.

The news comes via Finnish news website Helsignin Sanomat (The Helsinki Message). Initially they interviewed Virtala on August 19th, regarding Control‘s budget of “€20-30 million,” and on the CEO’s uplifting outlook on the project. “Let’s just say we have a positive, enthusiastic atmosphere.”

On August 23rd, Helsignin Sanomat state that Virtala and Mäki had sold 170,000 shares on August 21st- six days ahead of Control‘s August 27th release, and two days after the interview. Specifically, they state Virtala sold 20,000 shares at an average of €12.53 (totaling over €250,000 in total), While Mäki sold 150,000 at €12.50 on average (€1.875 million).

Helsignin Sanomat state this was announced by management the same day. While uncited in the article, these can be found via Globe News Wire [1, 2]. We have also discovered a third financial announcement the same day. This is seemingly “S.à r.l. Ferdinand” selling €5,000 shares for an average of €12.02 each (over €60,000). They are marked as “A person belonging to a related party”and marked as a “legal person”.

Globe News Wire have handled Remedy’s financial announcements before. The news feed on Remedy’s official website for investor relations (Releases and Publications) announced their semi-annual financial report released on August 13th via Globe News Wire. It did announce list the three announcements made on August 23rd, with the financial report being the most recent announcement.

The financial report made note of how vital Control is to the company’s financial success:

“Based on its growth strategy and to enable frequent game releases in the future, the Company will continue working on Smilegate-owned Crossfire and on three game brands that are owned and significantly financed by Remedy. Control is the first one of these games to launch on 27 August 2019 and its success will have a significant impact on the Company’s result during the second half of 2019.”

Respawn’s shares over the past month began to rise to its highest point in the company’s history. This occurred after the financial report was released- reaching its peak on August 21st at €12.50 a share (the same day the stocks were sold). After this, it is shown to decline to €11.55 a share by August 23rd (after which the market is closed during the weekend)- a fall of 7.6% since its peak.

Helsignin Sanomat approached Virtala for comment, with Virtala dismissing the significance of the sales:

“We had not sold any shares in two years. The idea was that now the sales window is open after the half year report.
Everyone has seen the reception of the new game being good, but now we don’t have a complete idea of what pre-orders are. We have certain perceptions of the selected market and we wanted to say it openly.”

When asked why he did not sell stocks immediately after the financial report, Virtala stated “Our trading volume is not big. There was a perception that this week there would be a willingness to buy such quantities of what is being sold, so it was now on sale.” When asked why they sold after the game’s advertising campaign, Virtala then stated “We have PR campaigns all the time. It started as early as mid-June, after which we have visited our international media office.”

Helsignin Sanomat’s probing continued, asking “Should you have waited now for stock sales until the game was released?” Virtala responded “The game will be released on Tuesday, and once the majority of sales are on digital channels, we will then have a clear idea of what sales are and what can be anticipated on a daily basis. We felt that it was no longer a good time to sell.”

Helsignin Sanomat then asked “Do you think everything went according to the law?”

“Yes, I understand that questions of this type may arise. Our point of view was that we hadn’t sold for two years, and now between the announcement of the results and the publication of the game, there was an opportunity to sell.”

Finally, Helsignin Sanomat inquired if investors are “drawing conclusions” since the share’s value fell after the sale of the stocks. Virtala replied “That’s what I can’t say. I still have 95% of my Remedy ownership, Markus is probably 96%.”

This is most likely referring to how much of their shares are remaining after the sale (selling 5% and 4% of what they owned), rather than their share percentage of the company. This is currently 28.6% for Mäki (3.447 million shares), and 3.1% for Virtala (370,000 shares).

While signs may point to insider trading, and even releasing a glamorized financial report to increase the value of shares artificially, we are awaiting to see what actions will be taken by Finnish authorities. We will keep you informed as we learn more.

In case you missed it, we reported on Star Breeze Studio’s HQ being raided after allegations of insider trading.

Control is launching across Windows PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on August 27th. What do you think? Sound off in the comments below!

 

[moocow]

Apparently they have no faith in the game. However, this is still a much more interesting controversy.

They sold 4-5% of their shares? That's not exactly controversial, regardless of timing. It'd be one thing if they sold a controlling interest or flat out dumped all their shares, but just 5%? Nah, that's a nothingburger.

I'm not really sure that's "insider trading" even if they came out and said "yeah, this game's going to suck" after they sold -- they're still holding 95% of what they had. That's pretty badly-executed insider trading.

 

[Secret Asshole]

The only power fucktard era has is the power you give them. They should have told them to fuck off.

 

[Manwithn0n0men]

What we did to Japan makes Dresden look like a campfire. I am not talking about nukes. We firebombed the ever living FUCK out of their cities which were mostly wood, turning them into raging infernos and death traps. City after city. You'd think being burned alive would be enough but no. They wouldn't surrender even after that. It was then concluded only a land invasion would work, which would lead to horrific casualties on both sides. So we did the only option we had.

And we were considering escalating it by using Bats

 

[Secret Asshole]

By the way, for anyone confused about what @Manwithn0n0men is talking about, he is talking about literal bats. The US tried to steal timed firebombs to bats to make them start thousands of fires.

 

[Y2K Baby]

By the way, for anyone confused about what @Manwithn0n0men is talking about, he is talking about literal bats. The US tried to steal timed firebombs to bats to make them start thousands of fires.

War has changed.

 

[Manwithn0n0men]

By the way, for anyone confused about what @Manwithn0n0men is talking about, he is talking about literal bats. The US tried to steal timed firebombs to bats to make them start thousands of fires.

Curtis LeMay (who once ran for VPOTUS and said he would bomb Vietnam to the stone age) was the mastermind behind "Fuck it, lets use Bats."

 

[AnOminous]

Curtis LeMay (who once ran for VPOTUS and said he would bomb Vietnam to the stone age) was the mastermind behind "Fuck it, lets use Bats."

We can't stop here. This is Bat Country!

 

[Gar For Archer]

It looks like they changed their minds and the game will not be censored after all:


(archive)

The REEEEtards gloated too early and too much this time. The devs initially caved because of these noisemaking idiots, and it probably stung to see those same people declare they still weren't buying the game even after they got what they wanted. The review bombing probably didn't help either.

Now the question remains: will this reversal be enough to win back the fans they alienated by catering to the outrage mob?

I really hope it does. By all accounts the game itself is actually really good, and unfortunately in #currentyear can you really blame them for making a hasty judgment? The fact that they actually retracted their statement says a lot to me about how they really feel, and I commend them for having the balls to stand up to the loud minority. Even though the one dev urging people to just pirate the game and “fuck politics” already gave away that the bullshit was coming from up on high.

Just reading through the comments on the page you linked, it’s pretty much exclusively praise for standing up against the outrage mob, so it looks like they’ll be fine. I’m glad that people are rightfully viewing them as the victims of the situation, rather than the instigator.

Also, it’s further proof of who’s *really* the majority here. SJW’s spent so much time and effort trying to curb people’s speech, that they forget that it’s people’s beliefs that matter. The normies are finally waking up to the fact that the vast majority of people are like them, and that they don’t have to stay silent anymore.

I never heard of this game before the controversy, but fuck it, I’m gonna buy it just to support this decision.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Why do pretentious SJW hipster fuckwads hate the concept of fun so much?

I have a couple of ideas.

One idea is, back when all this SJW shit was starting, there was this autistic need for games (specifically games journalism) to be "taken seriously". And since "true art" is angsty or progressive political pablum, all the fun stuff had to go. It's easy to imagine a hipster game journalist getting laughed at in Starbucks, and try to defend himself by wheeling out the corpse of Gone Home or Sunset for the one millionth time.

Another reason could be competition. They shill their friends games and games by their corporate overlords. These games are not fun. Even if we have the semantic argument that "fun" isn't the only kind of entertainment, it's still the same concept. Nobody likes boring shit, but instead of saying "This game I'm shilling should be less boring", everything fun has to be torn down to the level of boring shit.

In both cases, fun has to be sacrificed for the benefit of hack journalists and hack game developers.