There's an old business punchline where the owner of a firm says "I'll sell at a loss but make it up on volume." I've heard the punchline in three slightly different variations but have never heard the joke that was once attached to it. A business owner maximizing their losses is the kind of galaxy … Continue reading When Exclusives Are Consumer Friendly
Category: Rant
Share and Share Dislike
The takes industry works overtime during earnings season and between EA reporting sales for Battlefield V and Activision Blizzard announcing layoffs, there was no shortage of material. Earnings should not generate the kind of hyperventilation they do, since they are a standard measure intended to provide everyone access to the same information at the same … Continue reading Share and Share Dislike
Diversity for the Amoral
The new year started off with a fresh set of outrages to scourge Real Gamers™: Kick McKeand wrote a good article about diversity in games, Emily Grace Buck (who's started a new program for story games) reminded us that old gaming quip about story and pornos isn't all that clever, and it turns out Soldier … Continue reading Diversity for the Amoral
Studio Closure
News of Telltale Games’ closure highlighted the fact that quite a few game studios have closed this year. There has been a lot of reflection on everything from the precarious nature of work in games, to the viability of certain types of games, as well as an outpouring of support for at least some of the … Continue reading Studio Closure
Your EA Takes Suck
EA is an awesome company that makes good games and you sound like a moron when you bash it. EA bashing is the gaming version of clapter. If you've ever watched Real Time With Bill Maher, you'll immediately know what I'm talking about. Clapter sounds a little something like this: "Hey, how about [politician] right? … Continue reading Your EA Takes Suck
L’Affaire le Laissez-Faire
A little over a month ago Valve issued warnings to the makers of adult visual novels and others which became publicized resulting in controversy and uncertainty regarding the status of games with sexual content on Steam. A few weeks later Valve reversed this implied decision and announced that they would open the store to anything … Continue reading L’Affaire le Laissez-Faire
Hot Sex Robot Takes
Ten people in Toronto lost their lives when a man drove a rental truck down a street with the intent of hitting as many people as he could. A screenshot of his Facebook post identifying himself as an incel was verified, Redditors cringed at the quality of mainstream coverage of that community, and commentators took … Continue reading Hot Sex Robot Takes
On “Where do you get your ideas from?”
If you would ever like to divest yourself of hero worship for creative types, look at their responses to the question "Where do you get your ideas from?" This cure is a little stale now as somewhere along the way somebody must have realized how insufferable they sounded and there are now thoughtful answers to … Continue reading On “Where do you get your ideas from?”
Copyright Revisited
I wrote a blog about copyright. I am happy with its content (perhaps not the style) but given the latest streaming controversy I thought it would be good to revisit the topic and make some ideas more explicit. Because so much of this topic deals with the recognition of an author's work, I would like … Continue reading Copyright Revisited
Advice
Given that this blog is still connected to my Twitch channel which seems to anchor all my other online encounters, I wanted to talk a little bit about advice. Specifically, I wanted to talk about the kind of advice you get on the internet, and how generally careless we seem to be about who we ask … Continue reading Advice
SystemTalk 