Random Game Thoughts Thread—December 11-December 17

[Brian Boru]

With free-to-play, fun isn't at the center

How's product placement these days? I was expecting to see posters and billboards for IRL products in Far Cry 6, but spared this time.

 

[Colif]

That Radeon 7900 XTX is looking pretty darned good for an AMD card. It kills in rasterization. And even though it gets pummeled in RT by the RTX 4090, it actually outperforms the 3090 in RT. I had no idea the 4090 was such a huge leap from the 3090. The prices of everything are insane, though.

The XT, while appearing to be a bad deal if you can get an XTX, is pretty close to a 3090 and given 2 years ago a 3090 would have cost me $3500 or more still for the TI version, paying half of that for an XT is a good deal for me. Prices in UK/USA really don't make it look worth the price. Clearly just an incentive to pay more.
Here the difference is a bit more after currency conversion, and tax, and moves the cost of the XTX too close to 4080 territory which still wins on RT.
Probably explains why 4080 sales are going up now as many people were waiting to see what AMD would bring to table. So many reviewers believed the hype and are now calling card a fail. It really depends what you starting from. Anyone with last gen top tier cards shouldn't be upgrading now. Its only reviewers who care that the uplift from last gen isn't as high as they expected, if you coming from a 2070 for instance, an XTX is 131% better. You probably notice then.\

don't read review of 7900 xt at base if you want to stay sane.

UserBenchmark: AMD RX 7900-XT vs Nvidia RTX 2070S (Super)

 

[Zloth]

How's product placement these days? I was expecting to see posters and billboards for IRL products in Far Cry 6, but spared this time.

Surprisingly rare. Death Stranding had its Monster Energy drinks, but dropped them for the director's cut version that I played. Fortnite, on the other hand, seems to be all about product placement - of just about every product I've ever heard of. They even have a skin for Kelsier from the Mistborn books, for pity's sake! (Soon to be movie? One YouTuber I watch sometimes had a geekasm at the thought of Henry Cavill showing up in that.)

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Me, either. The whole free-to-play model seems terrible to me. Our games certainly have issues with trying to make games that look great in trailers, and I expect there are shenanigans going on with "influencers" getting paid off, but the best way to make money with buy-to-play is still making a game that's really fun - at least to some part of the market. With free-to-play, fun isn't at the center. Getting the player to think they will have more fun if only they would pay just a little more money is.

P.S. Will there ever be a game that keeps track of your normal activities and stays fun for just a few days. Then, once it thinks it knows it has caught you, threatens to tell your boss how much you've been playing at work unless you pay $10/month AND get two of your (soon to be former) friends to sign up for the "game" with your special code?

I could probably be sucked in to a card game like Marvel Snap or Hearthstone, but avoided it so far. Keep my phone for communicating with people, its for the best in my case.

Influencers are way cheaper and easier to buy off than most media Im sure. Youtube and podcasts changed everything for games. You only need to send them an early access copy of a game or offer some sort of special treatment to get on their good side, and its mutually beneficial to a small content creator to have some early access and be positive on a game that is the focus of their own channel. Happened a lot with TW Warhammer, there were a few Youtubers I used to watch when I was into the MP with 5-10k subs at the time who would get invited into tournaments and get early access to dlcs to build hype. Obviously there were conditions to that access, just have to be aware as a consumer.

 

[Brian Boru]

In Far Cry 6 I tripped over "canted sights", don't see useful 'what it's for' info in a search.

My guess is it's for close range action when main sight is a magnifier with narrow POV. That true?

 

[Pifanjr]

I played a bit more of my tribal game in Rimworld. I got a nice spot in the mountains with a lot of natural defenses and put a bunch of traps down, so I haven't had much trouble with raiders or rabid animals since the first colonist died.

However, one of my colonists was resetting a trap that got triggered and right as he was done, an animal walked over it. Normally non-rabid animals avoid walking on traps, but this one just happened to stand on the same tile as the trap as it was finished.

Of course, it wasn't just any animal, it was a boomrat, a genetically engineered animal that creates a very volatile chemical that it stores in sacs on its back. A chemical that violently explodes and sets things on fire if the boomrat dies...

Luckily my colonist survived with fairly minimal burn wounds.


I've also (re)played a bunch of the single player adventures in Hearthstone, but it seems one of the updates has broken something in the AI. Every once in a while the enemy just stops playing cards altogether. I'm guessing when they happen to get a card in their hand from the new expansions that their AI wasn't built to play with, so they end up doing nothing.

 

[Zloth]

Obviously there were conditions to that access, just have to be aware as a consumer.

Why? In radio, print, and TV, that kind of thing gets called quid pro quo, and the government comes down on them hard. But, if it's on social media, it's nobody's jurisdiction. Until the fans figure it out, the "influencer" gets money from all sides.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Why? In radio, print, and TV, that kind of thing gets called quid pro quo, and the government comes down on them hard. But, if it's on social media, it's nobody's jurisdiction. Until the fans figure it out, the "influencer" gets money from all sides.

Its a complicated one. And you went and sparked a ramble. Apologies in advance.

True that its easier and cheaper to buy off influencers than traditional media, publishers and marketers have capitalized on that.

I think its pretty clear top to bottom though in journalism just like business, people get buttered up all the time too. Exclusive interview? Goes without saying, be nice or you wont get another! Bottle of whisky for Xmas? Dont mind if I do! Do you need a job, friend? I know a guy looking. Dont forget who got you there later on though

An obvious video game example of shenanigans that comes to mind is Giant Bomb. The website started up because Jeff Gerstman who was Chief Editor at Gamespot, gave a negative review to a game that had bought a ton of advertising space on the site at its release, then got fired because of it.

I think that kind of thing is worse than a Youtuber getting starry eyed because a developer of one of their favourite game series wants to fly them to their campus and get early access to the latest game. As long as they are up front that they got special treatment the bias is implied. The better ones are.

On the other hand Youtube and Twitch has given a platform to a lot of independents who are much more likely to say what they think, because they arent beholden to shareholders who only crave the advertising revenue and the like. The problem is seperating those guys out from the ones who are in it for the quick buck.

 

[Zloth]

I think its pretty clear top to bottom though in journalism just like business, people get buttered up all the time too. Exclusive interview? Goes without saying, be nice or you wont get another! Bottle of whisky for Xmas? Dont mind if I do! Do you need a job, friend? I know a guy looking. Dont forget who got you there later on though

Not so much. Schmoozing the reviewer is as old as the hills and hurts the reputation of the company doing the reviewing if they let it affect them. So, most of them have put in safeguards and stick to them. Big gifts get returned, small ones get shared - preferably without indication of who sent it. {Though I think there is an obscure exception for statues of some old guy in a bathtub.}

An obvious video game example of shenanigans that comes to mind is Giant Bomb. The website started up because Jeff Gerstman who was Chief Editor at Gamespot, gave a negative review to a game that had bought a ton of advertising space on the site at its release, then got fired because of it.

Yeah, look how well that turned out for them. That was fifteen years ago, and we still remember.

P.S. Exclusive interview? So what? The other sites will give your site credit, but they'll be publishing the same info you have within an hour. In days of yore, competitors couldn't follow up until they published their next edition, but that's long gone now.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Not so much. Schmoozing the reviewer is as old as the hills and hurts the reputation of the company doing the reviewing if they let it affect them. So, most of them have put in safeguards and stick to them. Big gifts get returned, small ones get shared - preferably without indication of who sent it. {Though I think there is an obscure exception for statues of some old guy in a bathtub.}

Yeah, look how well that turned out for them. That was fifteen years ago, and we still remember.

P.S. Exclusive interview? So what? The other sites will give your site credit, but they'll be publishing the same info you have within an hour. In days of yore, competitors couldn't follow up until they published their next edition, but that's long gone now.

Seems to me then bigger media sites have less of an issue with potential review influence from the dev/publisher and more of a potential issue with corporate messages coming down from on high. Streamers and Youtubers vice versa, to varying degrees.

Like you say its easier to buy off a bunch of small time influencers than a large traditional outfit. Maybe more of an issue for the younger people targeted by free to play games I think, which was the point before I veered off .

Small to mid sized influencers with a following funded mainly by a Patreon have much more reason to keep up their reputation in the community that is their main source of income. So it comes down to the consumer to be aware and check their sources.