Precisely this. Swear, or don’t, but don’t censor shit for advertisers.

Wishlisting and early access game seems a sensible approach - if it ever actually releases one might buy it.

Centralised platforms trying to be all things to all users are a terrible idea.

The notion of it being one pool is insane to me. I’m a bit too tired to get into it so “tremendously exploitative and problematic” will have to suffice.

Sick days and paid time off are the same thing? That’s horrifying.

Other countries are communist?

Do left wing shit and shout about it. It’s not rocket science.

A better equivalent would be a GTA game giving you a mission with a tank and then the mission givers seriously, not for comedy, giving the player shit for doing anything but driving on the road avoiding all cars.

My problem is with the tonal dissonance of giving the player weapons designed to be fun only for the game to complain when they’re used.

The opposite being a Bond game. Really he should only be using sneaky spy weapons but he’s given a ridiculous arsenal and expected to use it. If you give me a machine gun then why would you expect me not to use it?

To be fair, that’s the best explanation I’ve seen. It’s been too long for me to remember the specifics.

Whilst it’s been twelve years I remember returning to the between mission hub and characters literally complaining. The boatman in particular.

I think you’re confusing getting and agreeing with. I understand what it was going for, that doesn’t mean I like it.

Much like in Spec Ops: The Line the player can just stop playing. I mean, you’re not wrong, but it seems silly to me.

Some games handle this by making it the ultra-violent approach essentially non-viable but that’s not how Dishonored decided to roll.

the narrative framing sets you up to be a highly-trained stealthy assassin

I quietly took out guards rather than avoiding them. No alarms were raised, etc… Seems pretty stealthy to me.

Ultimately I just didn’t appreciate the mixed messaging of “here are tools for extreme violence” and “why did you commit extreme violence?”. If non-lethal means were such a priority why was I given tools that heavily favour lethality?

I’m reminded of a show I was watching and lampshading. One of the characters is exhausting to watch and the other characters comment on how much the character sucks. That’s great an’ all but I’m still stuck watching this character suck. Commenting on it doesn’t make it go away.

Similarly I could not use the tools the game gives me but they’re there for me to use. If I’m not supposed to use them then I might as well instead play something that wants me to play it!

I grew up playing Fallout 1/2, Deus Ex, stuff like that. Dishonored framed its morality system as “chaos” rather than good vs. bad but ultimately I had characters complaining about my methods. You brought in someone to specifically be an assassin and then you’re outraged that he kills people? I shot the damn traiterous boatman in the head at the end of the game.

I think I’m the only person who played through the entire game and didn’t like it. Yes, yes, I should probably have quit but I’m a bit of an optimist and hoped it would get better.

It felt to me like the game really didn’t want me to kill anyone. However it had any number of fun ways to kill people and then scolded me when I was naughty enough to (gasp) use them!

Also the rats were bizarrely low poly compared to everything else. Odd gripe, perhaps, but given how crucial they are to the setting it felt strangely shit.

Mobile-first seems to be the future 🤢

Please don’t post censored-for-advertisers screenshots.

I’m pushing 40 and I’ve never owned my own VCR. When I was at university a landline was thrown in with our internet connection but we didn’t have a use for it. Landlines have been irrelevant my entire adult life.

It can be but peer pressure seems to cause problems.

My wife and I give few fucks and do what we want because we can. Our house is full of laughter, music, silliness, and fun. We’re deadly serious about our whimsy.

Similarly the work I do, whilst not important, is quite dry and pedantic. I’m on international standards committees and jokes and silliness are commonplace.

Internally my team are very silly, but we also produce tremendously high quality work. A positive and lighthearted atmosphere makes concentration easier and helps with cohesion too.