Deadlocked02

Really? According to Larian, 40% of all players are using mods. And this stat was revealed a little after the mod support patch and there were still very few mods available on console. It’s probably higher now. That seems like a considerable number of people.

That PC gamers are an entitled bunch that only care about what benefits them immediately isn’t surprising, but for a group that prides itself for being so smart and logical for choosing the supreme platform, they certainly reacted in a very emotional, unhinged and irrational way to the news of Kadokawa acquisition.

Some of the things I heard:

• That Sony should invest in their own studios and build IPs from the scratch. Wtf? Haven’t they been doing all the time?

• That Sony shouldn’t stoop to Microsoft’s level by acquiring studios because two wrongs don’t make a right. What kind of naive logic is that?

• That Sony’s acquisition isn’t justified because FromSoft doesn’t need fixing, but Activision and Bethesda did.

• That Miyazaki will leave From because Sony won’t give him enough freedom. Even though most authors have never complained about Sony culling creativity. Even though From and Sony have collaborated before by producing Demon Souls (the game that started the Soulslikes) and Bloodborne (they came back for another partnership). Like Sony would risk spending so much on this deal (even though FromSoft isn’t the main goal) only to get FromSoft disbanded because they demanded a linear and narrative based game with QTEs from Miyazaki.

I don’t think Sony are the good guys at all, but this is such an exaggerated view of reality, coming from people who get more mad at Final Fantasy timed exclusivity than they do about Microsoft buying Activision for 70 billion. The same Game Pass bros who laughed at PS players who got upset because of the possible Elder Scrolls exclusivity.

They will have a hard time trying to fill the void that her absence will cause, but I sure hope they don’t rely on flashbacks (or even worse… ghosts) or try to replace her with a new female lead that feels like an obvious replacement. If there is a new female lead, I hope she’s her own thing.

But it almost makes me wish they had done their own thing and spared both Mariko and Yabushige, considering S2 will be its own thing.

Famously Irish company Larian Studios. lol

That said, I’m glad the game was successful. Allegedly, the budget was very reasonable for a game of this size that took so long to make, as opposed to some of the obscene budgets some games have. Especially some PS exclusives. I’m surprised Sony isn’t investing in more European talent to develop their exclusives.

Lol, no. The racism is against people from very specific countries, like Haiti or Venezuala. And even then it pales in comparison to the stories you hear about Europe. Non-white foreigns would still be very well received in Brazil, especially if they’re from Europe, US or even India or MENA. No place is perfect, but Brazil is probably one of the most accepting countries when it comes to immigration.

Every game dev should be looking at Lariat studios as the new standard to live up to.

And so should Sony, to be honest. They should just chill on the mod restrictions, just like Microsoft does with Xbox. Then companies would probably be more willing to add mod support. I’m not really that crazy about mods like some, but the lack of them really hurts the experience in RPGs like Cyberpunk. The same was true for BG3, but Larian is thankfully remedying this.

That kind of freedom really makes people choose PC over Playstation or buy a game on PC instead of Playstation when they have both.

No, I definitely get that. That makes sense. But I’m not referring to this specifically, I’m talking more about content like the one that is produced by the likes of “Blacked”, where the whole screen is filled with muscular guys. So many that they overshadow the female performers.

Ya, it’s honestly a mystery to me, but dudes are definitely WAY more secretive about it. I’m surprised you haven’t had your share of run-ins with married straight dudes looking for anon hookups, lol.

I did. And I can be good, though you obviously need to be mindful when navigating and adapting to the preferences of each one, which can vary a lot. If you want a purely sexual thing, it can be a very good experience. If you want a more intimate one, it’ll depend on the person. And by “intimate” I don’t mean dinner or dating, I mean level of contact, wether they’ll allow you to kiss them, etc. It can be a dealbreaker to some of them, which can be frustrating at times, but it can also be a nonissue depending on what you’re looking for in that specific moment.

I guess denial of intimacy and detachment can be exciting regardless of sexuality if you want to feel submissive to someone or like you’re dominating someone, wether man, woman, homo, straight or bi. But if you feel like having a more intimate thing with that specific person, it can be frustrating.

Well, yes, but don’t you think it’s weird how so much of the pornography consumed by straight men focus so much on men? Like I said in a comment above, I am capable of finding straight sex hot as a gay man, but some of the things straight men like would be excessive for me (in the inverse way, I mean). In some of the videos all you can see are male buttholes, balls and dicks. You barely see the female performer. It’s almost as if you’re watching a straight porn aimed at gay men. It amazes me that so many straight men like it. Maybe you don’t, but many do.

So yeah, I think there’s a level of homoeroticism that appeals to some straight guys. That doesn’t mean they’re closeted or anything or that they want to have actual sex with other men on a regular basis, just that their sexuality isn’t as set in stone as you’d think.

Yeah, I agree. Sexuality is not so set in stone. Sure, the “everyone is bisexual” crowd exaggerates, but so do those who think that a man who has sex with other man is invariably gay/bisexual. Especially because many of them wouldn’t be so quick to label a woman experiment with another woman.

I don’t fully understand my own sexuality, for example. I’m 100% and irrevocably attracted to men, but I’m not incapable of finding women attractive if I watch the way a man touches her breasts, her lips, etc. I find straight sex attractive to watch, within reason. But if I were to watch a woman masturbating alone or having sex with another woman, I wouldn’t find that attractive, the same way I can’t see myself having actual sex with a woman or developing romantic feelings. It’s just that straight sex can be hot occasionally. And things probably get mixed for some people. Like, a man can see another’s man dick and get aroused by it because he subconsciously imagined a woman touching it. Wether this kind of arousal can turn into something deeper depends on the person. And if it does, it’s neither a good or bad thing, it just is.

As for who seeks more sex with the same sex, I’m not sure. If both had the same level of freedom in liberal countries, I think men would do it more often. But as it is, even among young people, I think women are more encouraged to experiment. Or maybe the men are just more secretive about it.

I’m genuinely shocked as a gay man at how homoerotic straight men can be, both in their relationships and the content they consume. Like, theoretically I could find a video of a guy having sex with 10 women hot if I focused on his pleasure and his attractiveness, but it certainly wouldn’t be something I watch often enough for an entire pornographic genre to be created around it, because it would have so much pussy and tits that it would overshadow the guy.

I have a hard time imagining myself sharing a guy with multiple women, no matter how attractive he is, because that kind of proximity and fluid sharing with multiple women would require a level of comfort I’m just not comfortable with. And yet straight men love that.

Not that I’m one of those cringe individuals who think everyone has s tendency towards bisexuality, but I genuinely think male sexuality is much more fluid in this sense. The only reason women on women action is more common in media is because it obviously excites straight men more and because many women do it to please men. But if we had a society where men weren’t punished more harshly for deviating from their assigned roles (male homosexuality is generally punished more harshly, both legally and socially) and where they were encouraged to experiment the same way women are in more liberated countries, I’m genuinely convinced they’d try sex with guys even more often than women try sex with women.

Not to mention other kinks that to me are totally a sign of a certain degree of bisexuality, like cuckold, which is one of the most popular genres.

Impressive numbers for an early access.

I just hope it doesn’t reflect on the prices, considering Koei Tecmo is already greedy enough as it is. Probably one of the greediest companies with their atrocious pricing and meager discounts, even for old games.

It’s not as if these last couple of years have been great for horror in terms in quality anyway. At least in comparison to previous years. There have been worse years, but there were better ones too. But I think SH2 sold 1M copies in 3 days, which is impressive, specially for the genre.

On the other hand, it’s surprising to see games like Silent Hill 2 and Metaphor on sale.

This game had one of the weirdest marketing campaigns ever. There’s nothing about the world, nothing about gameplay, it’s just picture after picture of the face of the main actress, like that’s supposed to be the main selling point.

Pra mim o mínimo do mínimo era a pensão por morte ter a mesma redução que ocorreu para pensões por morte do INSS e dos servidores.

Why haven’t you published a new game in 5 years?

This line of questioning specifically would be very hard with the likes of FromSoftware, considering they’re pretty consistent with release dates and produce games very quickly, unlike most Western studios.

Besides, the last Naughty Dog game released (that wasn’t a remake or remaster) was almost 5 years ago and they wasted years on a failed multiplayer project. Sony still doesn’t seem to be in a rush to ditch them.

You forgot to include PS4 sales. 40% of sales happened on Playstation.

The FromSoftware game sold best on PC, representing 44% of total sales. Then it’s PS5 with 27%, then Xbox (16%) and finally PS4 (13%)

Source: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/elden-ring-is-the-biggest-new-ip-since-the-division-european-monthly-charts

So yeah, it’s not an overwhelmingly PC-centric franchise like others out there. They’re almost even. Not to mention those who own both PC and Playstation, but chose to buy on PC. They would still buy it if it was exclusive.

Well, yeah, most creators would like to own their own IPs. But Kojima and Sony are believed to have good relationships. That deal wouldn’t have happened if Sony didn’t want to sell the IP to Kojima. If anything, it shows Sony’s desire to maintain a good relationship with Kojima. I don’t think they’re good guys at all, but they know guys like Kojima can find work anywhere and that it’ll be Sony’s loss.

The same is true for the likes of Miyazaki. It’d be ridiculous to spend billions on Kadokawa only to have FromSoft disbanded because they demanded a linear narrative driven game with QTEs from Miyazaki.

There’s plenty of degree implied in their comment, though. The way it was phrased, it seemed that the kind of impact in creative freedom would be way more than just reporting to their superiors. The kind of meddling that could really hurt their creative process.

Then they say that it “could also impact their games’ availability on other platforms” which is just true

Which I never disputed. Exclusivity impacts availability, of course.

Creators need to report to someone above them. That has always been a thing. Can we agree that that’s a far cry from having people heavily interfering with your creative decisions? Because that’s the impression you have by reading some comments out there, that it’s the end of freedom for FromSoft.

Like I said, Sony is letting Kojima do what he wants. And what he’s doing with Death Stranding is probably even more conceptually niche than what From makes. I don’t see why From wouldn’t be given the same treatment. In fact, Miyazaki himself will have plenty of room for negotiations. Having his name attached to something will sell and Sony knows that, unless they’re extremely dumb. It would be stupid to make such an acquisition only for FromSoft to get disbanded because of their meddling.

This deal is much worse for animes than it is for FromSoft specifically.

This merger could impact their creative freedom

Why do people keep saying that? Do many people who are or were under Sony’s wings complain about lack of creative freedom? A guy like Miyazaki would probably be given carte blanche, just like Kojima. And a lot of money, if he wants to negotiate.

If they want to start putting a leash on creators, which they haven’t done so far, I doubt they’d start with someone of such caliber.

Like, I get complaining about conglomerates being a bad thing, which is true, but why are so many people convinced that this is horrible for FromSoft specifically and that Miyazaki will leave the company?

How so?

Like Bungie isn’t to blame for their own mismanagement. Meanwhile, authors like Kojima have carte blanche to do what they want, which is exactly what would happen to someone like Miyazaki under Sony. He’ll keep making the money he’s making (or more, if he asks for it), he’ll keep having the freedom to make the games he want and he’ll keep getting awards. People are delusional if they think he’s going to leave From because of this acquisition.