RAND0M VIDE0 GAME NEW5

[melkathi]

Age of Wonders: Planetfall first DLC/Expansion announced:

 

[MrBrown]

PDXcon going on, so lots of announcement for their games. See https://twitter.com/PdxInteractive, not gonna list everything.

One morsel: Crusader Kings II is free-to-play from now on (base game, not DLCs), III coming out next year. 

 

EDIT: Actually, a summary here: https://www.reddit.com/r/paradoxplaza/comments/dk0s4a/pdx_con_is_now_live_on_twitch/

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by MrBrown

[Chilloutman]

I really dig age of wonders mechanics but I really can't stand their art style...

[Mamoulian War]

Very good video with a lot of arguments and a timeline of the Hong Kong protests by a guy, whom livelihood depends on Overwatch, and what is happening there, including slaughters. Watch it and think more about it.

Same thing was happening in central and eastern europe during the late 80s, when I was in my early teenage years. In some of the countries, there were also lot of people slaughtered. West gave us helping hand during that time, and I think West should do the same now as well. If you allow few shareholders to censor your freedom now, and do not speak up, you will end up in the situation in which my country was between 1948 and 1989. My Granddad was imprisoned because he also tried to express his freedom of speech during that time, because he openly critisized Communist Party. Shortly after being released from prison, he died with not so clear circumstances few months after my Dad was born. Afterwards my whole family was forcefully relocated to another part of the country, they got stripped of all of their possesions, with no monetary reimbursement, and the comming years some of father’s siblings were denied education and job applicatuons. 
 

Free speech matters now more, that anytime before. That’s why boycotting Activision Blizzard should matter for all of us as well... Our entertainment should not have bigger value than other poeple lives...

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by Mamoulian War

[Malcador]

US Congress members chiming in as well https://www.polygon.com/2019/10/18/20921313/blizzard-hong-kong-hearthstone-us-congress-letter

Not sure if Blizzard has much practical impact on what happens with Hong Kong, though.

[Mamoulian War]

5 minutes ago, Malcador said:

US Congress members chiming in as well https://www.polygon.com/2019/10/18/20921313/blizzard-hong-kong-hearthstone-us-congress-letter

Not sure if Blizzard has much practical impact on what happens with Hong Kong, though.

It has no direct impact on what happens there, but if the customers does not raise their voice now, it will have serious impact in the long turn, on all our lives. Because if nothing happens, big money will be encouraged to continue in their footsteps and CCP will through them continue to attempt to control our freedom of expresion...

[Humanoid]

Biggest news today is that the decade-old stickies in this forum are have been unpinned. I have a strange empty feeling in my heart.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Humanoid

[Malcador]

51 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

It has no direct impact on what happens there, but if the customers does not raise their voice now, it will have serious impact in the long turn, on all our lives. Because if nothing happens, big money will be encouraged to continue in their footsteps and CCP will through them continue to attempt to control our freedom of expresion...

Well, keep seeing it framed as helping the people of Hong Kong somehow.  Certainly is a funny situation for Blizzard here, let the dude say his piece with no repercussions and just take a hit from China and nothing different happens to HK, or punish him and take a PR hit and also nothing different happens to HK.  

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by Malcador

[Chilloutman]

I guess its more about not feeding China government with money, maybe some morals - if you expect any from corporations...

[Mamoulian War]

Well I agree more with Chilloutman on this.

There are two ideal outcomes of the situation. Typical Sith/Jedi choice.

a) you act as a Blizzard and care about money first, and CCP will force on you their morals and vision and let them control you.

b) you stay one with the western value and risk losing business there. Ideally, if this solution is condoned enough with western governments and corporations, that could mean some pressure on CHN. They will not be able to to ban every western company, because the needed money income. 

 

The situation at the moment is, that West feeds snake on its breasts for years, and this snake had grown up long time ago and starts to bite back.

[Hurlshort]

China has changed quite a bit in the last couple decades as they've become a major player in the world economy, so it's not like they aren't susceptible to pressure from the West. The fact they haven't driven tanks over Hong Kong protesters already is a pretty clear sign that it isn't the same country as it was during Tiananmen Square. So yeah, it'd be nice to see the NBA and Blizzard stop kowtowing to them and recognize that the money may not be worth the damage their brand may be taking.

[Malcador]

1 hour ago, Chilloutman said:

I guess its more about not feeding China government with money, maybe some morals - if you expect any from corporations...

Well they do so with the US government so that ship has long past sailed. Pretty tame offense on Blizzard's part.

So what do people want Blizzard to do now or just want to wreck the firm?

[Zoraptor]

1 hour ago, Hurlshot said:

The fact they haven't driven tanks over Hong Kong protesters already is a pretty clear sign that it isn't the same country as it was during Tiananmen Square.

They are however confining more than a million Uighurs in 're-edurcation' camps, stealing their children, destroying their culture and harvesting organs for sale off those that cannot be re-educated.

China has not fundamentally changed at the top/ leadership wise (population definitely has, but they're also being suppressed more effectively too via 'Social Credit Scores' etc) and they'd happily drive tanks over protesters in any of the big cities westerners haven't heard of, or Beijing which can be sealed off effectively. HK is a special case though, since most of its value to China comes from a western legacy that would be massively reduced in a Tiananmen scenario. Only other city that might get away with similar is Shanghai because it too is a sea port and financial centre with a lot of ingrained foreign presence (Macau which was Portugese is probably just too small and unimportant).

One thing is for sure though, gaming boycotts are generally the most embarrassing and ineffective of 'protests', only beaten out by #Kony2012 style twitter slacktivism.

[Malcador]

Ck3 details https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/10/19/crusader-kings-3-is-happening-heres-ten-things-we-know-so-far/

 

 

[Chilloutman]

lol

 

n the years since CK2’s release, “Deus Vult” – an eleventh century crusader battlecry – has become a vile meme beloved of racists on the internet. I asked how Paradox’s community team felt about this, and was told emphatically that the words will not appear in Crusader Kings 3. That’s refreshing, but in a game set during a time of conflicts fetishised by modern fascists, it’s the tip of the iceberg. I’ll be writing more about how Paradox are handling the political sensitivities of making a game about the crusades, and how they’re handling the representation of non-European cultures, in the weeks to come.

Update – Henrik Fåhraeus offered this comment: “I feel like this issue has been miscommunicated thus far. We have not specifically considered which terms are used in the game apart from making sense in the historical context. The team will decide how any text fits or does not fit into CK3 in a way that feels appropriate.”

 

RPS butthurt about deus vult. Pathetic

[Oner]

I wasn't serious when I thought to myself "I'm surprised they're willing to talk about Pedo Incest Simulator: The Game", but good to see RPS is still RPS.

[injurai]

The sad thing is these things are never the dev taking a stand with the crazies, it's them casting the widest net possible for sales. Paradox knows excluding "deus vult" won't deter the average sane, sober, free thinking, person who only quotes deus vult with ironic love for the Paradox game that promulgated the memetic status of the phrase in the first place. In fact it's far more Paradox paying the "media troll toll" to not be blacked balled from receiving media partnerships for marketing purposes. It's sad but true. When you have "not journalist" journalists who approach games with a resentful framework, you have to placate those people who have their hand on the public's perception. Most people even if they follow a few things closely rely on second hand accounts from the media for the most part.

[Lexx]

Wtf can't say Deus Vult anymore because apparently it's used by racist or what? I swear this world gets dumber by the day.

[Humanoid]

It'll be a day one mod anyway, along with the nude mod since they're using 3D models now.

[Sarex]

14 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

b) you stay one with the western value and risk losing business there. Ideally, if this solution is condoned enough with western governments and corporations, that could mean some pressure on CHN. They will not be able to to ban every western company, because the needed money income.

Isn't the main "Western" (see American) value to make money? So in essence they are staying one with "Western" values.

[Blarghagh]

Did you guys read the whole thing? Paradox said no such decision was made.

[Chilloutman]

Just now, TrueNeutral said:

Did you guys read the whole thing? Paradox said no such decision was made.

 

I was making fun of RPS, but Paradox reply was very.. tactical lets say

[213374U]

6 hours ago, Lexx said:

Wtf can't say Deus Vult anymore because apparently it's used by racist or what? I swear this world gets dumber by the day.

Nah, not the world. Mostly just "journalists" and their social media cohorts. The dumber they are the louder they moan, is all.

In other (vg related) news, another DLC was officially announced that will probably not live up to its name:

It'll include the Marauder and Warhammer in the free patch, so at least there's that.

[melkathi]

My contribution to the Deus Vult discussion:

 

[pmp10]

On 10/19/2019 at 1:29 PM, Mamoulian War said:

Very good video with a lot of arguments and a timeline of the Hong Kong protests by a guy, whom livelihood depends on Overwatch, and what is happening there, including slaughters. Watch it and think more about it.

'Slaughters' might be just a bit exaggerated.
If this happened in Beijing there could well be one but Chinese approach so-far is not atypical from the rest of the free world.
And interestingly Blitzchung who was so victimized by Blizzard quickly reconciled with them after his punishment was reduced.