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I've heard this one before! What we're sold: a low monthly price to enjoy all the content we could ever want. What we get: rapid balkanisation of service offe

by 0xy 6y ago

I've heard this one before! What we're sold: a low monthly price to enjoy all the content we could ever want. What we get: rapid balkanisation of service offerings. Disney+, Netflix, Peacock, Discovery+, HBO Max, Hulu, YouTube Premium, Prime Video, Crackle. Soon: Xbox Game Pass, PS Game Pass, Steam Game Pass, Ubisoft Game Pass, Take Two Game Pass, Activision Game Pass. It's worse than bundles! Not to mention publishers just giving up on live service games and switching off servers. Games are art, and art should not be ephemeral. I'll be able to fire up SimCity for DOS in 50 years. I won't be able to fire up SimCity (2013) in 5 years, let alone 50. This industry is rapidly hollowing out. Microtransactions permeate every single AAA release, everything is "always online", paywalls for content and disastrous releases.

me_me_me 6y ago
> This industry is rapidly hollowing out. Microtransactions permeate every single AAA release, everything is "always online", paywalls for content and disastrous releases. That's not true. there are good games that dont come with BS exploit gamers for every cent. Hades, Disco Elysium, Valheim are my most recent games i played last year that are without microtransactions. Also FUCK EA for destroying SimCity
- samwestdev 6y ago
  > Also FUCK EA for destroying SimCity Amen bro
  - henrikschroder 6y ago
    Well, we got Cities: Skylines out of their mistake, so...
    - ascagnel_ 6y ago
      I feel like I'm alone in saying this, but I found Skylines to be a pale imitation of SimCity 4. It's a city-building game, where SC4 is much more of a city management game; you fill the map in Skylines, and there's almost nothing else to do.
      - me_me_me 6y ago
        Skylines is sandbox and traffic simulator, or more less traffic jam simulator
- freddie_mercury 6y ago
  None of those games are from AAA studios, so you haven't exactly rebutted the OP's comment which was "Microtransactions permeate every single AAA release".
- dagw 6y ago
  Hades, Disco Elysium, Valheim None of those are "AAA" games. Don't get me wrong Hades and Disco Elysium where great (haven't played Valheim), but if your idea of a good time is CoD, Fortnite and Madden I won't blame you for not enjoying them.
dawg- 6y ago
> art should not be ephemeral Why not?
- mrec 6y ago
  It'd be a sadder world if modern audiences could no longer enjoy Homer, or Shakespeare, or P.G. Wodehouse, or Firefly. It'd be a poorer world if current art could no longer build on or remix older art. Does this really need an argument? Good art can and often does contain topical references which are mostly ephemeral, but I can't think of anything I've ever seen which was both a) entirely ephemeral and b) worth a damn.
  - falcor84 6y ago
    >a) entirely ephemeral and b) worth a damn. I can look back to some really really good fireworks shows.
    - mrec 6y ago
      Fair point, although this example is ephemeral by necessity rather than by design. If you could experience those shows again whenever you felt like it, maybe via some improved VR setup, and share them with your friends/kids/postman, wouldn't that be strictly better?
      - kemitche 6y ago
        Of relevance, Sand Mandalas are intentionally destroyed after completion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_mandala https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_mandala Not by necessity, but by design. The world and life are transient - I see no fault in embracing it (for certain things)
jboog 6y ago
Counterpoint: Most people get WAY more value out of their Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max subs than they ever did paying Comcast $200 a month. And at a fraction of the cost!
- josefresco 6y ago
  > And at a fraction of the cost! ...big fraction these days. I "cut the cord" a couple of years back and am now paying close to what I was paying before.
  - ThalesX 6y ago
    I’m in Eastern Europe, I pay around 15$ monthly for Cable TV with around 100 channels, and high speed giga level internet. Once Steam came up, and our standard of living increased, we pretty much stopped pirating games due to the convenience. When Spotify came up, and all the other music streaming services, we pretty much stopped pirating music. When Netflix popped up, most of the torrent sites dissappeared over night. Now, a lot of people seem to turn back to piracy, and I suspect money is not the primary reason.
- izacus 6y ago
  The counterpoint is renting and buying DVDs/VHS tapes, not Comcast cable though.
- supernovae 6y ago
  Exactly, and I don't need to keep them active to watch one or the other. When i'm done with Disney+, i cancel. When i'm done with HBO/Showtime, I cancel. The only ones I keep are Hulu+ an Netflix simply because they're so affordable and have so much content that i don't need to binge a show to cancel because there isn't anything else I want.
smattiso 6y ago
Just wait until all software becomes a streamed H.265 video stream. That's certainly the future once latency allows for it. No piracy, infinite subscriptions, total control. But if you don't like it, don't buy it. That's life.
- chii 6y ago
  only true if the platform is not open enough for arbitrary competition.
krageon 6y ago
> art should not be ephemeral I think this is a little too unilateral for my tastes, but I do agree that it shouldn't be almost exclusively ephemeral. Culture is worth preserving.

by 0xy 6y ago

me_me_me 6y ago

> This industry is rapidly hollowing out. Microtransactions permeate every single AAA release, everything is "always online", paywalls for content and disastrous releases. That's not true. there are good games that dont come with BS exploit gamers for every cent. Hades, Disco Elysium, Valheim are my most recent games i played last year that are without microtransactions. Also FUCK EA for destroying SimCity

samwestdev 6y ago
> Also FUCK EA for destroying SimCity Amen bro
- henrikschroder 6y ago
  Well, we got Cities: Skylines out of their mistake, so...
  - ascagnel_ 6y ago
    I feel like I'm alone in saying this, but I found Skylines to be a pale imitation of SimCity 4. It's a city-building game, where SC4 is much more of a city management game; you fill the map in Skylines, and there's almost nothing else to do.
    - me_me_me 6y ago
      Skylines is sandbox and traffic simulator, or more less traffic jam simulator
freddie_mercury 6y ago
None of those games are from AAA studios, so you haven't exactly rebutted the OP's comment which was "Microtransactions permeate every single AAA release".
dagw 6y ago
Hades, Disco Elysium, Valheim None of those are "AAA" games. Don't get me wrong Hades and Disco Elysium where great (haven't played Valheim), but if your idea of a good time is CoD, Fortnite and Madden I won't blame you for not enjoying them.

dawg- 6y ago

> art should not be ephemeral Why not?

mrec 6y ago
It'd be a sadder world if modern audiences could no longer enjoy Homer, or Shakespeare, or P.G. Wodehouse, or Firefly. It'd be a poorer world if current art could no longer build on or remix older art. Does this really need an argument? Good art can and often does contain topical references which are mostly ephemeral, but I can't think of anything I've ever seen which was both a) entirely ephemeral and b) worth a damn.
- falcor84 6y ago
  >a) entirely ephemeral and b) worth a damn. I can look back to some really really good fireworks shows.
  - mrec 6y ago
    Fair point, although this example is ephemeral by necessity rather than by design. If you could experience those shows again whenever you felt like it, maybe via some improved VR setup, and share them with your friends/kids/postman, wouldn't that be strictly better?
    - kemitche 6y ago
      Of relevance, Sand Mandalas are intentionally destroyed after completion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_mandala https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_mandala Not by necessity, but by design. The world and life are transient - I see no fault in embracing it (for certain things)

jboog 6y ago

Counterpoint: Most people get WAY more value out of their Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max subs than they ever did paying Comcast $200 a month. And at a fraction of the cost!

josefresco 6y ago
> And at a fraction of the cost! ...big fraction these days. I "cut the cord" a couple of years back and am now paying close to what I was paying before.
- ThalesX 6y ago
  I’m in Eastern Europe, I pay around 15$ monthly for Cable TV with around 100 channels, and high speed giga level internet. Once Steam came up, and our standard of living increased, we pretty much stopped pirating games due to the convenience. When Spotify came up, and all the other music streaming services, we pretty much stopped pirating music. When Netflix popped up, most of the torrent sites dissappeared over night. Now, a lot of people seem to turn back to piracy, and I suspect money is not the primary reason.
izacus 6y ago
The counterpoint is renting and buying DVDs/VHS tapes, not Comcast cable though.
supernovae 6y ago
Exactly, and I don't need to keep them active to watch one or the other. When i'm done with Disney+, i cancel. When i'm done with HBO/Showtime, I cancel. The only ones I keep are Hulu+ an Netflix simply because they're so affordable and have so much content that i don't need to binge a show to cancel because there isn't anything else I want.

smattiso 6y ago

Just wait until all software becomes a streamed H.265 video stream. That's certainly the future once latency allows for it. No piracy, infinite subscriptions, total control. But if you don't like it, don't buy it. That's life.

chii 6y ago
only true if the platform is not open enough for arbitrary competition.

krageon 6y ago

> art should not be ephemeral I think this is a little too unilateral for my tastes, but I do agree that it shouldn't be almost exclusively ephemeral. Culture is worth preserving.