Hangout The Games Hangout Thread

[Sanity Check]

If anyone wants to feel fancy smancy, you can preorder a 24k gold-plated (Or you can get rose gold or platinum if you prefer) PS5 wIth matching accessories.

BTW If anyone wants a 24k gold plated console.

Its more affordable to DIY gold leaf (as above), or pay someone to do it.

Than to buy it from a distributor who is likely to overcharge.



I bought sheets of gold leaf, they're very affordable. Its like $10 for 100 sheets on amazon.

Glue is also affordable.

Results may vary.

 

[Jammin]

Recently I've been putting a bit of time into Borderlands 3 now that it's on steam. Which has driven home two things.

One is that the main campaign in that game is really even worse than I realized the first time though. I loved the story of Borderlands 2 but 3 is just impressively bad. It's not even like the goofy/funny kind of bad either. Unless you can just completely tune it out, it's almost painful to play at times.

The second though is how much of a different story the DLCs are. I couldn't find any info on who wrote those but if it's the same people they have improved they're skill by an order of magnitude. And if it isn't they've found much much better writers. Guns, Love, and Tentacles was my favorite. But all three a very enjoyable 15 hours or so. And unlike the main story I wouldn't hesitate to play any of those again.

So it's a nice redemption story.

 

[xi0]

You know, this Horizon Zero Dawn PC port is kinda playable in between crashes.

 

[Ramen]

Recently I got a gaming laptop and I don't know what to play. Are MOBA's still popular?

 

[Faust]

MOBAs are particularly frustrating especially if you're playing to rank up with strangers.

A solo rank ladder for a 5v5 game is ridiculous anyway

 

[scav]

I just saw that Apple removed Fortnite from the Apple store because they couldn't get royalties anymore from in-game purchases. that's so petty

 

[xi0]

I just saw that Apple removed Fortnite from the Apple store because they couldn't get royalties anymore from in-game purchases. that's so petty

Not interested in going to bat for Apple or anything, but they removed the app from the App Store for trying to sell their in-game currency cheaper than it costs in the App store, which is against the terms of service. Epic was basically daring them and Google to remove it by doing that. And now there's this whole zoomer-fueled campaign against Apple and Google for doing it, as if Epic isn't throwing their weight around either.

 

[scav]

Not interested in going to bat for Apple or anything, but they removed the app from the App Store for trying to sell their in-game currency cheaper than it costs in the App store, which is against the terms of service. Epic was basically daring them and Google to remove it by doing that. And now there's this whole zoomer-fueled campaign against Apple and Google for doing it, as if Epic isn't throwing their weight around either.

you're absolutely right about the TOS violation but at the same time Epic are kinda right about that antitrust lawsuit. Apple have been hiding behind that TOS to do some shady stuff and taking a lot of money. they used it to block Microsoft Gamepass from coming to IOS while we all know the real reason is they dont want concurrence for Apple Arcade considering the service itself is no different from spotify or netflix.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 14, 2020, Original Post Date: Aug 14, 2020 ---

Apple will find a way to walk around that antitrust case without making much change but i hope that's gonna give them a little headache. but who know, antitrust charges caused lot of trouble to Microsoft in the past

 

[Jammin]

Epic makes it's money by selling microtransactions to kids and has brought platform exclusivity to the PC space. I could not possibly feel less sympathetic to them.

 

[xi0]

you're absolutely right about the TOS violation but at the same time Epic are kinda right about that antitrust lawsuit.

It might be valid in a sense, but I find this PR war they're starting stinky as hell. I have to wonder why they're taking this tactic with Apple but not with Valve, considering Tim Sweeney has repeatedly treated Steam like it's a monopoly despite not appearing to know what what the word means.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 14, 2020, Original Post Date: Aug 14, 2020 ---

Epic makes it's money by selling microtransactions to kids and has brought platform exclusivity to the PC space. I could not possibly feel less sympathetic to them.

Well yeah, and now they're trying to weaponize their young fanbase as well

 

[Jammin]

To me it really just seems like two companies fighting over money they should both be ashamed of.

 

[TrienDarkform]

Don't like Apple's policies, most especially their iOS stuff, restricting everything such that all apps/etc. must be purchased through their app store. Don't own an Apple device, and I don't see them coming off my boycott list anytime soon.

Don't like Epic's recent shenanigans either, particularly their purchasing the rights to have certain games exclusive to their store. Haven't purchased an Epic game in well over a decade now, and don't see that changing anytime soon either.

So yeah, don't like either of them, so my only wish would be that the outcome create more consumer-friendly policies and behaviour from both companies. Of course, I also expect that not to happen at all.

 

[scav]

lmao Google also kicked Fortnite from android store, EPIC gonna take a big L trying to sue both of them.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 14, 2020, Original Post Date: Aug 14, 2020 ---

here's my take, EPIC know they can't win. they're just doing it so they can negociate new terms, apple and google take a 30% cut from in-app purchases. If they don't solve it, both Apple, Google and Epic gonna lose a lot money.

 

[Jammin]

lmao Google also kicked Fortnite from android store, EPIC gonna take a big L trying to sue both of them.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 14, 2020, Original Post Date: Aug 14, 2020 ---

here's my take, EPIC know they can't win. they're just doing it so they can negociate new terms, apple and google take a 30% cut from in-app purchases. If they don't solve it, both Apple, Google and Epic gonna lose a lot money.

Epic is going to be fine. Until the day Fortnite falls out of fashion, on that day they're boned unless they figure the store thing out. The people who love Fortnite are going to move to other platforms. PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC. Honestly, they probably want more people to play on PC but that's probably not going to happen.

There aren't really financial pressures on any side of this, I would think. Fortnite for Apple is small change. Same for Google. The potential loss in revenue of microtransaction companies violating the terms of service so they get less of a cut of that dirty money is probably far less than they would by not having Fortnite on the platform. Epic is much smaller so the hit will be more noticeable for them. But really the majority of paying players probably aren't playing the game on their phone. So I'm really not sure how big that would be.

 

[Hardy]

Epic is going to be fine. Until the day Fortnite falls out of fashion, on that day they're boned unless they figure the store thing out.

They have unreal and are buying predatory games, they will be fine.

 

[xi0]

Yeah they have Tencent money now, if Fortnite evaporated tomorrow it wouldn't be good for them but they still make crazy royalties from Unreal Engine. And now that publishers are also incentivized to take EGS exclusivity because those royalties are removed/reduced if they use their engine, they'll make even more money. They've bruteforced their way into the vendor market at the expense of consumer choice, all the while trying to convince people outside of the gamedev realm that that this somehow benefits consumers.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 14, 2020, Original Post Date: Aug 14, 2020 ---

But really the majority of paying players probably aren't playing the game on their phone. So I'm really not sure how big that would be.

I'm not really sure how that shakes out currently either. I remember Fortnite kind of flopping on mobile while PUBG didn't.

 

[Jammin]

Yeah they have Tencent money now, if Fortnite evaporated tomorrow it wouldn't be good for them but they still make crazy royalties from Unreal Engine. And now that publishers are also incentivized to take EGS exclusivity because those royalties are removed/reduced if they use their engine, they'll make even more money. They've bruteforced their way into the vendor market at the expense of consumer choice, all the while trying to convince people outside of the gamedev realm that that this somehow benefits consumers.

The issue there is the way they brute forced there way onto the market was with waiving those royalties and paying out money to get games on their store. So they're paying out money to make all that happen. Which they can afford to do as long as they're making it hand over fist from Fortnite as an investment for the future by establishing a market presence with their store. That would make them stable long term. Problem is I don't think that's really happened.

That money goes away. Suddenly they can't make those deals because they need that money. If they can't make those deals the store tanks because consumer feature-wise it's not competitive.

 

[xi0]

The issue there is the way they brute forced there way onto the market was with waiving those royalties and paying out money to get games on their store. So they're paying out money to make all that happen. Which they can afford to do as long as they're making it hand over fist from Fortnite as an investment for the future by establishing a market presence with their store. That would make them stable long term. Problem is I don't think that's really happened.

That money goes away. Suddenly they can't make those deals because they need that money. If they can't make those deals the store tanks because consumer feature-wise it's not competitive.

Yeah I guess it's true they might not be able to fork out money, though sometimes it seems like there's enough Epic sycophants that have nothing to do with Fortnite that would still support them. How many Fortnite players are buying Total War Troy because they saw it on EGS?

 

[Jammin]

Yeah I guess it's true they might not be able to fork out money, though sometimes it seems like there's enough Epic sycophants that have nothing to do with Fortnite that would still support them. How many Fortnite players are buying Total War Troy because they saw it on EGS?

Well it was free on EGS for day so... probably a lot. I know at least two people that picked it up for free and will never play it.

 

[xi0]

Well it was free on EGS for day so... probably a lot. I know at least two people that picked it up for free and will never play it.

Ah but I meant outside of the free thing. Seems like most of the exclusive titles they grab have zero crossover with the average Fortnite player.