bro really picking Fortnite over his girlfriend this generation is cooked 💀pic.twitter.com/5ZFWzKkPmo

— ryan 🤿 (@scubaryan_) March 4, 2024

I understand they went with more open world but it's still brutal

pic.twitter.com/6umlCBDWxL

— Citra (@citraemu) March 4, 2024

I hope these cucks keep themselves safe. Its one thing to shut it down publicly to avoid legal threat its another to slop on the Big N's knob this hard

!g*mers

I think people aren't really grasping how big of a precedent this may become.

In this lawsuit Nintendo argued all the following:

- That emulating any modern console is illegal
- That hacking your own console is illegal
- That dumping your own ROMs from games you bought is… https://t.co/GLYoOTa3Kb

— Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) March 4, 2024

Well I really hope it doesn't shut down before unicorn overlord comes out

I never wanted to be a politician and I still don’t. I’ve had two successful careers and have started a few small businesses. I’ve also worked for some big corporations. I was ready to retire and spend more time with my family – which I’ve done for the past 3 years. I think… pic.twitter.com/qlqcmi63Z9

— Marty O'Donnell (@MartyTheElder) March 4, 2024

Holy shit it's so easy to get lost in this game. Once I got it out of my head that it's not cribbage rules and back to poker I was addicted. Someone recommended I get this when I got my steam deck and forgot about it until now

She deleted the tweet so don't came at me for screenposting https://x.com/jasonjordan2814/status/1763274598043230209

If you're not familiar with https://metacritic.com, it's basically rotten tomatoes except it also covers video games and music. I remember looking at the list of greatest games as a kid and wanting to try them all and being excited when a new game got ratings good enough to be anywhere near the top

In short, metacritic is both a driver of game sales and a source of pride for neurodivergent g*mer fanboys

It has thus become a source of drama that the third-best switch game of all time is The House in Fata Morgana, a visual novel about inhabitants of a spooky mansion. With a rating of 96/100, it ranks higher than Zelda ToTK and every other switch game besides Mario Odyssey and Zelda BoTW .

If you're not familiar with the concept of a "visual novel", it's basically a game composed entirely of text-based, click-to-proceed cutscenes, with music and anime-style art to set the mood. So in other words with the exception of 3 or 4 "choose your own adventure" moments across 40+ hours of text, it's more like a book than a game.

So naturally, having been tricked into reading a book by metacritic, a lot of g*mers are not happy . It is a testament to how good the "game"/"book" is that it has maintained a user score of 8.6/10 when the review section is filled with seething reviews of people who are mad that they got tricked into purchasing a book:

https://9gag.com/gag/aYVz4p2#comment

chuds both on and off 9gag have been far and wide

This game is so awful even comparing to the same gen (HGSS). Everything is somehow slower, the main plot feels insanely short, the side missions are just “umm show me a pokemon and get three (3) random useless balls you can buy 150 of easily,” the safari zone is mid, and the selection sucks. Feels like half the stuff in the new gen are cross evolutions which aren't even available before post game or without trading. Also where the frick are the fire types? Got forbid I want the water starter and have zero good options for a fire line. Ponyta sucks, all my homies hate Ponyta because it's useless. Meanwhile there's 1,000,000 water options, why? Because frick you.

Don't get me started on the extreme autism additions that everyone hates. Guess I'm not getting Spiritomb because I didn't buy two copies of the game to play multiplayer with, and frick poffins, no Milotic either unless I decide to say frick it and use the event one, but then what's the point? Meanwhile you can get a Garchomp easy as pie, so why even pretend like this is to hold powerlevels down.

Also holy shit, comparing the Pokegear in HGSS to the pile of shit the Poketech thing is makes this came look intentionally bad. It makes no sense how awful that thing is. Makes me think I should play XY before ORAS in case there's anything as shitty a downgrade going back a game.

At least you can pretty easily get shinies in the non-existent postgame.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker/comments/1b4l1q5/is_it_true_owlcat_is_looking_to_use_ai_for_new/kszifm1/?context=8#thing_t1_kszifm1

It says concept art. Usually concept art is used internally or in promotion material.

In any case AI cowtools are integrated into modern design cowtools, for example generative fill in photoshop can be a huge time saver. There's no reason to make any judgments on the subject before you even see the result.

I'm talking about the second line.

That specifically mentions Stable Diffusion which would imply in-house training as Owlcat maintains their own visual assets. Outside of the the word "AI" being present in the page, what is the actual concern here?

Young artists not being hired for the same job one Artist will do using AI

This thread goes on for awhile with one Redditor saying that it's probably only going to be used for in house assets while the naysayer keeps asking for a source source source on that ad naseum.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker/comments/1b4l1q5/is_it_true_owlcat_is_looking_to_use_ai_for_new/kszqhih/?context=8#thing_t1_kszqhih

Crazy how there's no room for nuance. No tool is specifically bad. It's all in how a tool is used. Concept art generation is one of the few reasons I'd say AI is pretty much always moral to use, as it's always kept internal.

Are these cowtools trained on images with the proper copyright purchased? Are the copyright laws up to date with the use of AI?

You can certainly talk about nuances, if you knew the nuances. It is not necessary to always pick a stance over an area you aren't educated on.

(This gets like four replies clowning on him).

It doesn't matter. If its internal and only used for inspiration, as per this post, its no different than going to Google to look up images.

That is a real nuance and something you need to consider.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker/comments/1b4l1q5/is_it_true_owlcat_is_looking_to_use_ai_for_new/kt224ye/?context=8#thing_t1_kt224ye

To put this in a very blunt, easy-for-you-to-understand manner, you are a fool.

You were instantly angered by the word 'AI' and didn't bother to read into what this is whatsoever.

Its for conceptual purposes. That means they say "Hey AI, show me a cool picture of a barbarian in a bikini" and it makes a photo just like that. > They then use those photos to conceptualize the game. The actual art comes from artists; its just for planning purposes.

There is no fundamental difference between doing this and simply going to Google to look at photos. None. Neither require a copyright or trademark or any licenses. One is just looking, the other is just looking in a more lazy manner.

The Anti-Ai posts are the downmarseyd ones. Not really too surprising as Pathfinder CRPGs are kind of crunchy RPGs that neurodivergent moids like. Though some are basically like “lel time for artists to get a real job”, which is also downmarseyd.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker/comments/1b4l1q5/is_it_true_owlcat_is_looking_to_use_ai_for_new/kt0wu0s/?context=8#thing_t1_kt0wu0s

This is highly disapointing to see. I thought Owlcat was better.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker/comments/1b4l1q5/is_it_true_owlcat_is_looking_to_use_ai_for_new/kt1puos/?context=8#thing_t1_kt1puos

If they do begin using AI cowtools, that'll spell the end of my support for the company. Which will be incredibly disappointing, as they've been consistently making some of the more enjoyable modern cRPGs for me.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker/comments/1b4l1q5/is_it_true_owlcat_is_looking_to_use_ai_for_new/kt04xt5/?context=8#thing_t1_kt04xt5

I'm pretty sure /u/Asmongold mentioned how no one cares about ai in games. They only care if your game is good, I agree with him. Palworld had the controversy and yet it reached 20 million copies sold, I loved it but the thought of ai making me not wanna play it never crossed my mind. Fun games > bad games. If they want to save money to make a game better, I'm all for it.

What about the people working on games and getting paid less? The Lost jobs?

That's a really weak argument. What about coal miners? Should we stop using renewable resources because the miners will lose their jobs? Of course not.

(This continues on).

There's a lot more bickering further in the threads but I was tired of copy pasting on my phone lol.

And it's on switch I'm gunna pirate the shit out of it. Apparently it's really good with a demo that lets you play the entire game but only for 7 hours. Like the demo just ends when you hit hour 7 but like I think the whole game is technically the demo no one is sure.

Today is one of those days where I feel urges to self-harm. It's hard to feel any self-respect when you're a 28yo unemployed hermit. Hence, it's either writing another shitty article, or slicing myself. I've chosen to take the less violent route.

I'll try to be a little more entertaining this time around because I haven't been abusing benzos and Ambien today. I'm still depressed over losing my job, but I refuse to be defeated. Lastly - and it really doesn't matter - but I don't use AI. When my writing is shitty recently, I was just abusing pills which treat my creativity like Chris Watts treated his wife and children. My past true-crime articles weren't AI either, I'm just a shitty writer sometimes. But, for me at least, the process of writing is more important than the outcome, so I'll keep writing even if I have no audience.

This time around, I'd like to cover just how bad layoffs have been for the entire gaming industry, and what that means for consumers. Instead of treating my job loss as an end, I'll treat it like a new beginning. How about, just for this article, which switch things around a bit. Instead of Holly Willoughby, we'll post Brittany Venti. I know this will be a controversial choice, but I find her attractive.

Why are the layoffs occurring?

The first question to ask is why? The trend began in 2023 and since then we've seen mass layoffs on a scale that is hard to comprehend. We'll get to the numbers a little later. The source of the problem began around 2019-2020. This was when Covid-19 hit, and suddenly, people were stuck at home. Television and Hollywood came to a screeching halt due to the need for social distancing. Gaming, however, didn't have this problem as work could be done remotely. Consequently, instead of shrinking, gaming's popularity grew exponentially and the demand for this entertainment platform grew greater than ever.

To this day, gaming remains the most profitable form of entertainment. Likely, you don't completely understand what I mean by this. What I mean is that it's more popular than movies and music combined. A single game can make more than the most popular books of all time. There's also the availability of games. Even the third world has access to gaming devices. It is because of this that Xbox's fastest-growing region is not any Western country. No, it's BRAZIL. There, 82% of people say gaming is their primary source of entertainment.

So you had people sitting at home playing Animal Crossing, and movies were out of the way, leaving gaming to expand tremendously. Microsoft and Sony made $45 billion selling consoles alone, and this was during the global chip shortage. Some of that popularity continued in 2021, but all good things must come to an end.

Gaming gets ready

With such a high demand for games, studios and companies began hiring staff by the boatload. People wanted games, and goddammit Sony and Xbox had billions to make. Many people found themselves in the gaming industry to some capacity (including myself), and that was great.

You also have to consider the nature of the games being made. To make a AAA game takes hundreds of people. Let's take a trivial example like God of War Ragnarok. It began with a team of 40 people, which is already more than most studios' entire staff. By the end of development, 400 people had worked on the game. You can expect the same amount of inflation with other hit AAA games with high production value.

The same was occurring with gaming journ*lism. People are going online to read about games more than ever, whether it's news or finding a guide for a game's tricky section. Forbes claims the following: "We saw a 200% increase in the number of people aged over 60 searching for games on our platform" during the pandemic. Furthermore, "Twitch — the world's leading live streaming platform for g*mers — saw an 83% year-on-year uprise in viewership when the pandemic hit, with over 5 billion hours of content viewed in the second quarter of 2020 alone."

The biggest problem, and the one I loathe the most, is the fact that the acquisition wars began. What's easier: training new employees or just buying a studio with staff already working on projects? Microsoft went ballistic, purchasing several studios, including ZeniMax Media (owner of Bethesda) and Activision Blizzard which is the most expensive gaming-related acquisition of all time. Sony wasn't shy either and it did its fair share of acquisitions, including Housemarque, Bluepoint, and Firesprite.

Then we have Embracer to consider. Embracer is a Swedish company that I promise you will be the reason gaming is shitty for the next few years to come. What's your favorite game that isn't published by Sony or Microsoft? Embracer probably has a stake in its studio. From the time COVID-19 hit, Embracer spent at least $8 billion acquiring studios and stakes from around the world. It is this little gremlin right here that pumped money into these studios, promising them stability and creative freedom. The Swedes are so nice, aren't they?

The bubble pops

Well, the coof didn't last forever, and people went back to work. Gaming is still the most popular form of entertainment, but it's been seeing a downward trend. In 2022 alone, profits fell 8.7% according to Reuters. It took a little time for investors and managerial teams to digest it, but they soon realized they had bitten off more than they can chew

So 2023 rolls around and we begin to see massive layoffs. All those employees hired during COVID-19 weren't needed anymore. It was a matter of redundancy. There was also a steep increase in the act of not hiring workers but instead working with them as contracted "freelancers". I could go on and on about all the studios that closed down or cut staff in 2023 alone but I'll highlight something important Embracer said. In an open letter, it claimed that it was past the mass purchase stage and was now transitioning to become a "highly cash-flow generative business this year" and of course this requires cutting down its staff which is around 17,000 globally. Basically, the bosses made bad choices and employees pay the price by getting the boot.

At the same time, the journ*listic side of gaming was also experiencing a downturn. Managing teams are only concerned with profit not quality, so they realized they could get away with firing staff and simply using AI to write articles. Go to a website like G*merant, sites owned by the Gamurs group, or any of the hundreds of shitty g*mer sites and you'll notice that AI quality. Your favorite gaming site probably uses AI now. Basically, it's over in that industry and it no longer needs writers.

How big is the impact?

According to the Verge, about 11,000 people lost their jobs in gaming in 2023 alone. In January 2024 alone, we're at 6,000. Sony recently announced it will be firing 900 staff members, Twich fired 500, and 530 folks from Riot were let go. Embracer is in severe debt, leading to the closure of studios like Volition. If you're in the gaming industry, it's over. You can browse LinkedIn and if you're in the right circles, it's fricking depressing how there's a new person DAILY posting that they've been laid off. A lot of them have specialized creative jobs, and nobody's hiring right now, they're busy firing.

Think of a good gaming website. One that provides quality writing. I'll wait. They don't exist anymore. Everyone's been fired. It's all AI. Resetera and /v/ are literally better than mainstream gaming sites, and some of them used to be good. Not even joking, there's probably like 100 people globally who have jobs in that industry and that number is only going to shrink. Even sites that used to be respected, like Eurog*mer, are relying on freelancers.

How will g*mers be affected?

You can say goodbye to passion projects, unless they're indie. It's Joever. Risky ideas, moving away from common trends is a thing of the past. Look at a recent game like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It's generic as frick with no soul. Studios like Gearbox want to be creative, but they're getting shut down by Embracer. As a Kotaku article reveals: "2023 also saw a creative shakeup within Gearbox. Following the Embracer budget shortfalls, the studio shelved work on some exciting new projects and IPs to focus primarily on the next Borderlands games which are published by 2K, according to two sources familiar with the changes"

Most importantly, get ready for GaaS to permeate everything. I'm sorry but everyone is trying to replicate GTA Online's success and the sad thing is that it's the multiplayer online games that are the only ones catching headlines these days. Yeah, Helldivers 2 is fun. But it's also indicating to the higher-ups that there needs to be an online component to everything, yet they have no idea how hard it is to get right. So be prepared for a shitload of single-player games requiring internet access to play and featuring unnecessary online elements. Also prepare yourself for a deluge of live service games that don't know how to get it right.

The entire industry is depressed. As Jim Ryan leaves PlayStation he gave the following dark warning: “I would just say that nobody can ever be complacent, and nobody can ever feel that anything's forever.” So be prepared for some shitty times ahead whether you're in the industry or not. Anyone who is invested in games is in for a bad time.

Conclusion

It's beyond Joever. Like, however bad you think it is, it's worse. So enjoy your Helldivers or whatever crap you're playing. The gaming industry you knew as a kid or even 5 years ago is GONE. Personally, there's nothing I'm looking forward to this year except Hellblade 2: Senua's Sacrifice but that's just because it features a schizo like myself.

So it's off to job-hunting on my side, trying not to abuse drugs for a while as I get my life together, and ocassionally admiring my collection of Pokemon cards. I sincerely hope you have a great weekend, and that you have a grea time with your friends and family. I probably won't be writing these for a while.

I know his organs are screaming for help pic.twitter.com/mp0WpD5dq8

— non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) March 1, 2024

He's missing the fricking tendies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Edit: found they TikTak

https://tiktok.com/@big.johns/video/7153179291834912002

It's the good boy points kid irl.