The Spanish government is now petitioning its public for ideas on how to waste power.

Eating and drinking on set is notoriously difficult to pull off. You see one take, but the crew has done about 17 takes of the same scene. Even with chefs on hand, they can’t bloat the actors up with food. Hence why in most dinner scenes, there’s a lot of cutting and mocked chewing but little goes in their mouth.

So, anytime people say this, I’m compelled to remind them: Unlike movie depictions, malware is generally incentivized to not be apparent.

You install something, they infect, and then they do their best to ensure you don’t know that for the next few months, if ever. Meanwhile, anything as subtle as key logging or checking wifi-connected devices can give them info for some other attack.

So, I can only say I hope I don’t have a virus right now - but I don’t really know. And I’m pretty sure those pirating groups have profit incentives beyond littering their sites with ads.

Might be fun to have fiction that exposes this stuff - that giving coy, five-word responses to concerns of the organization doesn’t actually make someone a good leader.

Man I’m still trying to get one part for a gun that only spawns in a certain kind of weekly mission.

I log on, see that mission isn’t available, log off. Such engage, much gameplay.

If this helps the flame train derail a bit:

Most Source engine game trailers, like Half-Life 2, are “pre-rendered”. If you record a sequence of gameplay as a “demo” (kb-level file that records player movement in a level) then you can record that demo into a video at a much slower rate than the gameplay, capturing every frame; as well as add camera motions to it. There are guides for individuals to do this using the “startmovie” command.

It’s just a logical way to ensure the video is seamlessly presented, especially since framerate optimization comes late in development.

I’ve pretty much abandoned Xbox over this issue, and I’ve been an apologist for them for a lot of things.

The emulators are generally easy to get. The struggle is in getting the games themselves.

Even if you’re unafraid of Nintendo’s stasi, you aren’t the one assuming risk. Takedown notices tend to go to the hosting / discussing sites, not individual users. It’s not very brave to order Lemmy hosts to battle those notices in court on your behalf.

You talk about convincing people into emulation, but can you even do that on moderated websites? I mean, helping them get ROMs without going into “wink wink nudge nudge” communication or risking Nintendo’s lawyers invading that site.

Speaking plainly, I still buy games and hardware the normal way because I don’t want that complication. It’s not worth the effort and hassle just to risk putting viruses on my computer.

The third item, while it fits the narrative, was a quote directed more towards the option of subscription services. It wasn’t really directed to gamers, but to shareholders to explain low Ubisoft+ numbers, basically saying people may need time to warm up to the idea.

Considering how many interesting indies I’ve played on Game Pass (and, ever since Tango was murdered, PS+) I think there’s merit to that (just not on Ubisoft’s platform). There’s probably dozens of old PS1 classics we never would have tried out if our local Blockbuster hadn’t had them available for rent. I mean heck, $60 was a LOT back then for those polygons.

• For anyone done buying discs, it’s a removed point of failure in the device. The Series S sold well, so if your point is “No one wants a digital console”, then no, you are wrong.
• People wanted more storage in existing models
• For a lot of people, the $100 difference between models is a heavy consideration. Anything that can get trimmed out may make them more likely to buy.

If they add any patches, then Series S owners won’t be able to install it at all, much less own any other games.

Some things to say back to this:

Most people now have the console they prefer, and it’s lasting them. They don’t necessarily need new consoles. This is true EVEN if that console is a PS4, Xbox One, or Switch. They don’t get everything, but a surprising number of major releases still come to all those destinations.

It’s still nicely convenient to have consoles for less setup and configuration. Some people manage really complex problems for their work and home projects already - a desktop computer may be beyond their tolerance.

For added cost savings, boil laundry in the same pot to sanitize it without detergent.

(Can’t wait for Google AI to start echoing this advice to people)

I do not enjoy Soulslikes, but I really liked Tunic. Some things it has going for it:

• It is extremely nonverbal, but what it does give you is invested in helping you figure out a path to success. By intention, that’s not always obvious. You may need to work out for yourself when to dodge or to block.
• The atmosphere is bright and cheery, though it has its spooky and atmospheric bits.
• The camera is top down, so you don’t need to manage the camera while playing.
• Dying is not very punishing. You lose a bit of currency, which you can retain at the same spot; and that currency isn’t often critical to progress

What’s hard for some is easy for others, and vice versa. There’s definitely an appropriate level of intended challenge to any Soulslike game that makes it satisfying as you gradually overcome difficulties and adversity. Fall below that, for instance by spending 10 hours on the tutorial boss, OR breach that difficulty by never falling below 50% HP, and the experience loses luster.

No matter how much equipment is in it, Dark Souls is still on a pretty set level of difficulty, and it’s too high for a lot of people. Heck, there are other casual games out there that were “ultra hard” for some infrequent gamers I know.

I’m a little surprised it’s that low. I mean, considering their cloud and hardware divisions they’d be getting, shouldn’t Valve pay a bit more than $16m to buy Microsoft?

Whatever you think of Nintendo, it’s not encouraging that Google could end up being responsible for a leak of something put up on YouTube privately.

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The most agonizing debate is one you agree with, but not nearly to the extreme degree of the position you’re responding to.

There are some nuts out there that literally only buy a certain gun because “it’s in Call of Duty and it’s cool.” Worse, this demographic are not likely to be responsible gun owners - they are not buying for any perceived need. They don’t lock their guns correctly, or keep ammo separate. Those guns are the type most likely to be stolen for use in a mass shooting (or used by their owners). Arguably, those guns are designed to appeal to this exact crowd, not serve as a functional tool or hobby item.

That said, there are much better targets for gun legislation than “scary looking black guns” or Call of Duty’s choice of theme.