RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS - NOW IN 5$ LOOT BOXES

[HoonDing]

lol just remembered I actually donated to both Dreamfall Chapters and Shenmue 3. What I thinking at the time

[Keyrock]

Honestly, KS and Co. is done for me. I sure as hell won't give money for any game this way anymore.

I've been done with crowdfunding for a couple years now.  I also don't do early access or pre-ordering either.  I'm trying to buy games the old fashioned way.  Remember the days a finished product would come out and then people would go out and buy it...  Okay, these days "finished product" seems to have lost all meaning, but you know what I mean. 

[ShadySands]

I've backed 62 successful projects and I'm still waiting for a handful and another handful I've given up on ever seeing anything from. I'd say more than half are as a good or even better than I was expecting and only a few were real disappointments and, to be completely honest, I just haven't gotten around to trying the rest.

[Fenixp]

Would anyone have cared about such a remake if they didn't try to make it more of a role-playing game?

Considering interest of the KS campaign, I'd say 'yes'. More importantly tho, the original SS was a much more focused and tightly designed game than the second one - however, it was released like 4 years ahead of the time I'd wage it'd be more successful, and it had a really weird control scheme combined with some old-school design sensibilities that didn't really fit what it tried to achieve.

 

Long story short: Design of the original System Shock would have been actively harmed by implementing RPG elements as they were seen in SS2. I'd even argue second game suffered by their half-arsed implementation itself, but it made up for that by a ton of other aspects.

[Labadal]

Dodging crowdfunding campaigns that seem to spiral out of control is my area of expertise.

[Katphood]

I backed 3 games:

 

-Wasteland 2

-Pillars of Eternity

-Torment: Tides of Numenera

 

The first two were okay-ish but my god....the horror that was Torment: tides of Numenera. That thing made me leave crowdfunding to the more enthusiastic people.

[Zoraptor]

 

Would anyone have cared about such a remake if they didn't try to make it more of a role-playing game?

Considering interest of the KS campaign, I'd say 'yes'. More importantly tho, the original SS was a much more focused and tightly designed game than the second one - however, it was released like 4 years ahead of the time I'd wage it'd be more successful, and it had a really weird control scheme combined with some old-school design sensibilities that didn't really fit what it tried to achieve.

 

Pretty much- though I wouldn't call SS1 'tightly designed', personally, as it's a sprawling game with as many if not more 'extraneous' systems as SS2 (the implant system: wraparound camera, flying boots etc; cyberspace etc). SS1 was an outright fps with little of SS2's RPG guff, just an early fps with some elements like the logs that became staples of fps/ rpg hybrids and some which were never or seldom used again like all the lean/ squatting modes. It has its own fan base which overlaps with SS2's but not as much so as most sequels.

 

Long story short: Design of the original System Shock would have been actively harmed by implementing RPG elements as they were seen in SS2. I'd even argue second game suffered by their half-arsed implementation itself, but it made up for that by a ton of other aspects.

SS2 would have been worse without its RPG system, apart from sound and aesthetics SS2's individual parts are all mediocre but add up to a whole far better than its parts. That system could have been (and would have, with more time) significantly improved and rebalanced.

 

The ultimate problem with adapting/ refreshing SS1 is that it was a game made for an immature genre right at the start of the 3d era. Those original and interesting 1994 gravity puzzles are just annoying and pointless and make no in game sense even so much as a few years later let alone 24 years later. There's a lack of immersive sim features: nowhere for the crew to sleep, no toilets and the level design makes sense as a game level but even less than the average fps level in terms of practical realism. You're always going to battle the contradictory urges to preserve the hokey old tropes wholesale and the desire to 'improve' things when you have the chance. How much time do you spend implementing Sensaround 360 degree vision that was seldom used by most people? If it goes, what if anything do you replace it with? It's very easy to end up doing a full scale redesign with RPG elements to replace or, heh, augment the implant system especially when SS2 is so highly regarded.

 

I didn't back the SS1 remake despite being a big fan and don't really trust Steven Kick, but I think there will be a result from the kickstarter. Probably a limited more or less direct remake. The first thing he should do is hire a good, hard headed producer or project director to scope it properly.

[Labadal]

[majestic]

I backed 3 games:

 

-Wasteland 2

-Pillars of Eternity

-Torment: Tides of Numenera

 

The first two were okay-ish but my god....the horror that was Torment: tides of Numenera. That thing made me leave crowdfunding to the more enthusiastic people.

 

Just checked my stats out of curiosity, across Kickstarter and Fig I backed 51 projects, not all of them games though. I spent quite a lot on a levitating lava rock from Japan (well where else would anyone come up with that idea)...

[Bartimaeus]

Microsoft Flight Simulator X DLC dev included malware in their DLC designed to extract Chrome user info and possibly passwords...for the purpose of identifying pirates to sue them (maybe - there was a report of a user suddenly having fraudulent payments almost right after having purchased and played this game).

 

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/19/flight-sim-group-put-malware-in-a-jet-and-called-it-drm/

 

...Of course, information obtained in this way is almost certainly not admissible in court (especially European), but at least it allows them to make threatening letters to try to extract payment out of scared people.

Edited February 19, 2018 by Bartimaeus

[Zoraptor]

Fairly sure that in most places it's actively illegal to download passwords and the like. That would certainly make it inadmissible in court as well.

 

Funny that the MS Flight X people aren't doing the same to Internet Explorer MS Edge users. Both of them must be quite relieved.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Zoraptor

[majestic]

Funny that the MS Flight X people aren't doing the same to Internet Explorer MS Edge users. Both of them must be quite relieved.

 

Yeah, market shares and ease of access is of course the reason to only target Chrome users. It's cheap, effective and will most likely catch that damned plundering and murdering pirate in the act.

 

I wonder if Microsoft will pursue some course of legal action here as well, assuming that's even possible. Doesn't look good for them when third party companies sell malware bundled with addons for their games that specifically target their greatest competitor.

[Gfted1]

Its a smart idea. By checking the serial numbers against the known pirated versions maybe they can gather the IP information of the pirates instead of passwords and direct the authorities to the exact locations.

[Fenixp]

Its a smart idea. By checking the serial numbers against the known pirated versions maybe they can gather the IP information of the pirates instead of passwords and direct the authorities to the exact locations.

I didn't play a pirated game in years now (Thanks to Steam/Origin and automatic refunds), but I'm using the first serial key I manage to google for a whole bunch of games and other software that I legally own - simply because it's often faster than finding box/manual/whatever.

 

So yes, it's a smart idea until poorly encrypted personal information of a paying consumer gets sent over the internet, due to losing a serial, trying to save time or simply a software bug.

[Gfted1]

So yes, it's a smart idea until poorly encrypted personal information of a paying consumer gets sent over the internet, due to losing a serial, trying to save time or simply a software bug.

So if you don't specifically put yourself in that position, you should be good to go?

 

I swear to god I must have purchased Pink Floyd The Wall a half a dozen times over my life and I always lost, or loaned it out and never got it back. I suppose that's mine for life to freely download?

[majestic]

I swear to god I must have purchased Pink Floyd The Wall a half a dozen times over my life and I always lost, or loaned it out and never got it back. I suppose that's mine for life to freely download?

 

You have a right to a private (backup) copy of any record you acquire (with some exceptions that certainly don't apply to a 40 year old album). So, essentially, yes. There's no real difference between a downloaded or self-ripped set of MP3s you can legally have. Some governments (including yours from what a quick googling revealed) place a surcharge on recordable media ("blank media tax") to compansate copyright holders for loss of sales from these copies.

[Gfted1]

Well that's good enough for me! If Ive ever owned anything ever, I guess I own it into eternity!

 

And let me guess...this is totes all on the honor system. If a person says they owned something at one time it must be true.

[Malcador]

Its a smart idea. By checking the serial numbers against the known pirated versions maybe they can gather the IP information of the pirates instead of passwords and direct the authorities to the exact locations.

Isn't it illegal though?

[majestic]

Well that's good enough for me! If Ive ever owned anything ever, I guess I own it into eternity!

 

And let me guess...this is totes all on the honor system. If a person says they owned something at one time it must be true.

 

What in the blazing hell are you on about? The current legislation across a lot of EU states (and some others) is that I'm free to create a personal copy of a recording I own without it being considered copyright infringement. In turn we we pay a so called private copying levy on literally everything (even FAX machines) that could be used to infringe on copyrights.

 

Said levy is then used to compensate content creators for any (supposed) loss from private, non-commercial copying.

 

The US has the Audio Home Recording Act's § 1008 that allows home recordings. House Report No. 102-780(I), August 4, 1992: "In short, the reported legislation [section 1008] would clearly establish that consumers cannot be sued for making analog or digital audio copies for private noncommercial use".

 

You don't even need to own the original copy. Your friend could have made a copy and then given it back, the royalties owed coming out of your tax dollars anyway.

 

There's  a discussion whether or not a computer is a recording device as covered by Section 1008 but I don't really know that much about US copyright law. *shrug*

 

Edit:

 

Of course the US bit only applies to audio recordings, but that was your example.

Edited February 20, 2018 by majestic

[Lexx]

Apparently one of their planes costs $100. That's a damn serious amount of money and these things must look and feel like a real world plane to justify THAT price tag, imo.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Lexx

[Gfted1]

Isn't it illegal though?

Probably.

 

I just contacted iTunes support to tell them that it is my god given right to get this AC/DC album for free since I have previously owned every title they ever made (I swear). They told me to go piss on an electric fence.

[Gfted1]

The current legislation across a lot of EU states (and some others) is that I'm free to create a personal copy of a recording I own without it being considered copyright infringement. In turn we we pay a so called private copying levy on literally everything (even FAX machines) that could be used to infringe on copyrights.

Let me guess, these payments are also the honor system?

[Gorgon]

Nope, It's the hard drive tax. They slap it on any media capable of storing data. So whoever you are you have already contributed to the piracy eco system.

[Gfted1]

Flat rate or per gigabyte?

[majestic]

Let me guess, these payments are also the honor system?

 

Sure, up until the point where the revenue service shows up and screws you hard up the rear for tax dodging.

 

Flat rate or per gigabyte?

 

Depends on the country and the medium or device in question. Smart phones in e.g. Germany are taxed by 36€ if they are at or above 8 GB storage capacity (16€ if less). Blank 25GB Blu Ray disks were 3.473 € a piece (this has now been overturned and is subject to renegotiation). Blank DVDs are in the range of 0.2€ per piece. Video tapes and audio cassettes are taxed by per hour of recording capacity, assuming they're still sold, of course.