iamjanco

Haven't forgotten about this, just been overly busy dealing with another data breach (ughhh...). Anyway, apologies for the delay, I'll add to this subtopic moving forward; what I want to get at are (imho) negative trends I've been monitoring in the pc gaming industry involving the buying, restructuring, and selling off of various gaming developer outfits and/or the properties they are vested in; and the impact of that to those employed by the gaming industry (mostly developers let go by the same companies). There's also the impact all that has to we gamers, but that's mostly not the focus of this/my post. I'm sure we all to varying degrees wonder about (or realize) how much the current gaming industry differs from the industry of yore. First, because it's a great example for my purposes, I'll start with Embracer Group, with special interest in the properties they've owned and have dumped (see this Wikipedia page which includes that info): Gamesindusty.biz - Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors: "I'm sure I deserve a lot of criticism" Kotaku - Embracer CEO Is Full Of Excuses; Lars Wingefors blames the company's collapse on many things, but buying up all those studios is not one of them GamesRadar - After at least 1,400 layoffs, 7 studios closed, and 29 games canceled, Embracer CEO admits "I deserve a lot of criticism" Gamespot - Embracer's Name Is Going Away, CEO Denies It's Due To Backlash And Controversy Next, if you've made it this far, read the Steam reviews for the recently released Phantom Fury, developed by Slipgate Ironworks, and published by 3D Realms. (pausing for the time being to give those interested in this topic time to digest what's above - to be continued)

I'm gonna drop this here for now while I work out what I want to post about what follows; in the meantime, I recommend not buying any of their recent releases until others have at least had a chance to properly vet them. Probably take a day or so to gather my thoughts: 3D Realms is not your mama's mama's Duke 3D publisher anymore. ...it's not only about 3D Realms.

True, but I think the blame really should be attributed to the idiots who shared classified information. While we probably can't be absolutely sure any of those people did so with harmful intent, their punishment should fit the crime. As for Spy-Pet itself, I can't help but wonder if its existence is more attributed to profit-taking than most anything else. Seems to happen quite a bit these days. For example, during the pandemic, existing clients of mine in search of profiting off the situation had me scrambling to put together a web site that they could use as wholesalers of protective medical gear. I got them started, but eventually dropped them because as people started getting seriously ill and dying everywhere, I really didn't want nor need that kind of money. That's just one example; and I'm not the only one who's acutely aware that a lot of people are in a hurry to get as rich as they can these days (not necessarily a bad thing, mind you), but those certainly are the times we live in now, as we have in the past; it's more or less our nature and the way we've been for centuries, to varying degrees, and for varying reasons. ...whether altruistic, or not.

...but i'd take them. p.s. here, have some free elephants:

...now i know where to send you stuff.

While I'll admit that I think the tech behind it is fascinating, examples like the rappin' Mona Lisa above seem to substantiate that we are devolving as a species ( it's got electrolytes comes to mind). Now show me the progress we've made curing cancer using such tech and you might be able to color me impressed .

Early Joplin:

^^^If you like 'boogie' blues, See the Youtube version for the entire playlist.

Witamy na stronie internetowej!

...much really hasn't changed in the ~60 years since then. about today's news this morning... maybe levity is in order?

Maybe, but given the pursuit of corporate profits these days (read the stock market(s)), it wouldn't surprise me if that sort of thing has become the norm (fudging numbers, regardless of industry).