THREAD OF DISAPPOINTMENT AND HATE

[Anarchic Fox]

Let's face it: that symbol now means the coup attempt to overthrow American democracy. Neutrality on the symbol now means you're staking a position of impartiality on whether USA should become a fascist junta or remain a representative democracy.

I hold out some hope that American conservatism's turn toward radicalism is ultimately self-defeating, but it's scary to be part of a country that's taken so many steps on the road to fascism.

[Aja]

PS5 update: my refund is processing; should have it any day now.

And in the meantime, I got a notification that Costco had bundles in stock, so fuck it! Bought one. Here we go again! This time with a doorbell camera that I installed on the weekend

[faetal]

Still time for a xmas miracle.

[Brethren]

The nice thing about ordering from Amazon on expensive stuff is you can have it delivered to a locker at a nearby Whole Foods or something similar, and then just pick it up there.

[Aja]

Playstation arrived safe and sound, finally, although the replacement courier, UPS, just left it on my doorstep without ringing the bell or leaving a slip despite the fact that it clearly said that a signature was required on the tracking app. So hear's a last sloshing of disappointment and hatred over all of the American courier companies (Canada Post is the only delivery service that's been reliable this year). But much love for the PS5 itself, that I'll talk about in the nice thread <3

[Starker]

If you want to see some karma, there's a guy who makes glitter/stink bombs for package thieves every year:

[EvaUnit02]

I'd say citation needed but I know that you won't present any meaningful evidence of this, just anecdotes and biased conjecture and bad-faith readings and general absurd reactionary paranoia... over a racist symbol.

My stance was already clear, it was about being against censorship absolutely. (Modders uncensored the flag in the end, so it was a non-issue.)

Why don't you get mad about something that actually matters? You earlier brought up the way subsequent releases of GTA remove licensed music -- why aren't you more mad about that? Why don't you get mad about how Rockstar treats its employees? (Or Ubisoft... or Blizzard!?) Or hell, you even touch on the fact that the industry is prone to flooding the market with the flavor of the month (zombie survival games, battle royales, soulslikes, roguelikes, Amnesia clones, basically anything that tastes like money) -- but you'll never have the insight as to why that is.

There are so many things wrong with the gaming industry, but the stuff you choose to get upset about is so minor. I guess that's what this thread's for, but jeez.

Whataboutisms fallacy and an attempt at trivialising concerns by invoking First World Problems meme. Yeah nah, I'm not going to bite.

(Modders restored the removed licensed tracks, BTW.)

[EvaUnit02]

Again I was right, censorship of GTA trilogy PS2 remasters confirmed. The Confederate flag has been removed from Phil Cassidy's shirt in Vice City.

The days of Rockstar behaving like rock stars and trying to sell on controversy are long over. They're afraid of upsetting the establishment like everybody else.
https://files.catbox.moe/zza16c.png

What else could be censored? Radio station and/or billboards satirical content? Picking up hookers? The little that some people seem to care about game preservation and/or artistic expression when it comes to games is astounding.

Whatever, people who support censorship like this get the industry that they deserve. No skin off my back, I own the originals on several platforms.

Oh hey, I was right once again. If Bloomberg's leaks are true, Rockstar are too afraid to act like rock stars.

It is also rumored along with these changes that the developer team is being cautious not to “punch down” by making jokes about “marginalized groups”, which is a stark contrast from the previous entries in the franchise. Again, these are all rumors as more information comes out from known sources with some healthy skepticism attached.
https://nichegamer.com/grand-theft-a...female-protag/

Since the release of the GTA PS2 trilogy "Definitive Edition" remasters came out, the recent PS5/Xb Series remaster of GTA 5 had "transphobic jokes" censored.

The content seemingly removed from the GTA V next gen release was first discovered over on Reddit, where a user noticed the Captain Spacetoy action figure that had “interchangeable genitalia” has been removed entirely in the next-gen ports.

Other users noticed several “Drag Queen” NPCs that used to spawn outside of Cockatoos, an in-game club, are no longer appearing in game.

“In new-gen GTAV/GTAO, Rockstar appear to have disabled the trans caricatures or ‘drag queens’ from spawning outside Cockatoos,” Rockstar Games community admin Kirsty Cloud said.
https://nichegamer.com/content-seemi...e-transphobia/

The creatives who made Rockstar SP campaigns the iconic games (eg Sam Houser, who co-wrote all of the games since GTA 3, Lazlow Jones) they were left after RDR 2. Rockstar purged the "toxic" elements from their management, i.e. likely the people with some talent (People who're good at the jobs often become cocky assholes).The Rockstar of even a decade ago would've made fun of everyone, GTA of old was like South Park, they made fun of EVERYBODY. The soul of the studio is gone. I fully expect only "safe targets" will made fun of GTA 6, eg straight white people and Christians. GTA 6 will undoubtedly be a massive success, likely a billion $ earner, but it'll likely also be a watershed moment that marks the decline for the publisher.

[henke]

Good.

[faetal]

What a weird set of things to be upset about.
I'm mostly hoping that the game will be good, not really sure what confederate flags and drag queens specifically add to games which makes the difference between good and bad.
Other than you being annoyed, how does this mark the publisher's decline?

[EvaUnit02]

What a weird set of things to be upset about.
I'm mostly hoping that the game will be good, not really sure what confederate flags and drag queens specifically add to games which makes the difference between good and bad.
Other than you being annoyed, how does this mark the publisher's decline?

Where have you been for the last 20+ years? Satirising every aspect of American society has been the soul of the GTA series since at least the PS2 entries. Everybody was a target. Censorship is the antithesis of comedy.

As for decline of the publisher, we usually don't get to witness the damage left behind by hugely divisive products until the NEXT ONE comes out. Eg Solo: A Star Wars Story being a financial bomb in the wake of The Last Jedi.

[EvaUnit02]

Servers for Babylon's Fall being turned off less than a year after release. Ouch, what a flop! Another L for Platinum Games and Squeenix.