We all needed to enjoy our vacations. Alright, so because of all the shit that went down, ive had a lot on my mind. But mostly,  I just wanted to enjoy my time off. Though i’ve had plenty of discussions regarding these issues (Net Neutrality) and other shit. So I don’t think I’ll have a lot of time to make coherent thoughts in several different posts. So here goes:

1). Rogue Stormers and why Indies are idiots.

Rogue Stormers is a “Rogue-like” RPG made by . Now for those who don’t know what a Rogue-like is, it’s essentially the Arcade Centric RPG. You start at level 1 and work your way through a single dungeon with many floors, constantly fighting waves of increasingly difficult enemies. Gameplay varies game to game. The difference is once you die, that’s it. You lose all of your levels, your skills, and your inventory, and you start back at square one. And you do it all over again. Now to me, this sounds like familiar territory because I grew up without traditional save systems, but to you young whipper snappers, that is daunting as hell! But it’s ok. Rogue-like games aren’t meant to be finished. It’s mostly about seeing how far you can get into a game before you eventually fail. And you will fail no matter the effort. Almost sounds like that Dark Souls mess, actually. 

But if you didn’t know that, then I hope i’ve enlightened you…. because the doorknobs who made this shit just assumes you know what that means. 

On the back of the box, you’ll see only 3 features. One of which is “Rogue-like” action. Common sense would think “what’s Rogue? Is that an old game?”. That’s not a typo either, they would just think “What is Rogue?” Rogue-like doesn’t make any sense as a name of a genre. 100% of the population isn’t going to know what the hell “Rogue-Like” is because it describes nothing. Much like RPGs and Metroidvania. The problem is in the western world, we put too much effort into ascribing things into readily identifiable categories. It’s this drive to define things in our own terms that has perverted our perception of what expectations a game should live up to. 

Mario, Zelda, Mega Man. These were all considered as action games, mainly because they all exhibited. Games were not developed in accordance to a specific genre, but to replicate alternative realities. Pong is replicating Tennis or Ping Pong. Galaga replicates galactic dog fights. Pac Man replicates an eating disorder. The reason games were “magical” back then and not now was because they tried to take certain aspects of the world and put into a simple context to be enjoyed by mass consumption. 

But from the late 90s and onward, action games were considered “too broad”. So now they were put into the categories such as “Platformer” or “Action/Adventure”. Suddenly, every game was tied down to specific, set in stone elements that could be found equally amongst other games. Suddenly, games had this strict adherence to genre conventions. Some would argue that this had more to do with advanced technology making those replications easier, but if the brain dead indies are anyonebto go by, this is a result of the Miyamoto curse

IE “all games must focus on gameplay!  Everything else is not important.”

Rogue Stormers epitomizes this curse as the game is nothing but gameplay nonsense. Music is non-existent, the world is a copy-pasted nightmare, and the art is horrendous. But it’s a Rogue-Like (or just a game that replicates games made before save systems) so it’s not important. What has happened is that games have become avatars/Expressions for the genres, and not wholly unique experiences. You cannot sell people on gameplay! 

Some would also argue that indies have become blind to self-indulgence. Some would also argue that indies are too busy replicating other games (all the 8bit platformers and cash-ins on FNAF). If anything, the indies are no better than the video game industry. And this is a tragedy in itself. Many people looked to indy developers as some shining beacon of hope for their gaming addiction. Others wanted them simply to be an external middle-finger to the industry. And yet here they stand falling prey to the same exact fallacies.

2). Using internet to control access to content. 

I think it needs to be reiterated. I do not have internet where I currently live. As such, it is impossible for me to enjoy the full extent of my current video game consoles. PlayStation 4, for some goddamn reason, requires a PSN account before you can back up your save files. Essentially holding your save data for ransom. This is unfortunately expected from a corporation who gets their dick sucked for 3 console generations. Some games, like Doom from what I hear, requires a specific online patch to be downloaded and installed before you can even play the game (I have not confirmed this, so do not quote me), and a big FU to my nuts is Overwatch needs internet just to be played. But what I think was most damning…. was Redout.

I don’t talk about them much, but I love racing games. And this looked really good. A futuristic racing game akin to F-Zero (Yes, I know I just complained about it) that just looked so clean! And it didn’t internet for multiplayer so that’s a big plus…. except

Now what does this kiss ass mean? Well… when you first start the game, you have access to all cars.. and 2 tracks. One would assume that “Ok, they’re unlocked in Career mode”. However…. in order to play career, you…. need… internet. Imagine my dismay upon this realization. I was stuck with the content that was already there. I’m assuming this was some sort of antipiracy measure, but the stubbornness of gamers would negate this nonsense. There’s a lesson that the industry needs to take to heart.

Believe it or not, even without internet, people would still play games. So something like this is a slap in the face. Internet used to be supplemental to videogames. Online multiplayer and (yes, even) DLC were merely there to enhance the experience. But as with all industries, those involved tend to get some rather shady ideas of how to handle these supplements. On-disc DLC was the most egregious offender. Currently, microtransactions are coming under fire as well as loot boxes. But the fact that something like this isn’t getting attention frankly…. it’s troubling. The internet is being used by the industry to control how you access content in your games. And they expect top dollar for every purchase. 

This is what happens when you consistently give corporations a free pass on everything they do. They start pulling shit like locking your ability to unlock anything unless you make an account. And not just that, console manufacturers all are demanding a fee to use their network services. So you would effectively have to pay more money just to unlock content on your disc. This might as well be unintentional racketeering. The industry has become so corrupt that it’s holding out for more money even after the initial full price purchase. I think back to all the would be defenders of DLC practices and think them all fools. Their unwarranted praise for such practices gave way for the exploitation we have now.

Ironically, this might be an unintended positive effect of Net Neutrality’s repeal as it’ll be far too expensive to keep using the internet as a barrier to entry for extra content, and those Devilish advocates would be forced out of their comfort zones to see what is happening to videogames. The now called….. “couch multiplayer” (some dudebro term, im sure) would be back in style…. or the industry would stubbornly cling to the upper class and lock out everyone else. A pack of corporations who see EA as the example to follow regardless of public outcry. 

3). Review Tech on Ajit Pai

Speaking of net neutrality, ReviewTechUSA came out responding to a group called anonymous who managed to get Ajit Pai’s personal information and put it out for the world to see. Frankly, he is upset at the idea as it could help Pai’s case than hurt it. Congress could use that as probable cause to support the repeal because someone needs to be able to block information like that from getting in the wrong hands. Not to mention, Pai’s family has nothing to do with the repeal, so putting their lives in danger is ethically wrong on many levels.

I must respectfully disagree. At this moment, Ajit Pai and the FCC are certainly guilty of identity theft of millions of Americans considering that an Attorney General is trying to investigate comment fraud including Identity theft of DEAD PEOPLE…. to falsly support a repeal that no one outside of politicians and lobbyists want….. and they are outright blocking the investigation. 

If you actually tried to comment on the FCC site, you’d know there’s a lot of personal info you’d have to give out. And if these organizations have your personal info, then perhaps some equally tech savvy people could come along, hack the website, gather all that info, and bam. You just put 2 million lives in danger just to vote on taking down a protection because those same people could release that info and say “THESE ARE THE TRAITORS OF AMERICA! FIND AND KILL THEM ALL!”

Hyperbolic? Yes. Possible? Absolutely. You don’t underestimate anything in this world if your life depended on it. And quite frankly, as you stated, when civilized opposition fails, then uncivilized opposition is inevitable. This particular argument essentially goes in favor of saying that the lives of the few outweigh the lives of many. Of whom the few care not about the many anyway.

Also, since America is becoming a multicultural China, this is exactly how they punished treason! Kill off the traitor, and extinguish their bloodline. Harsh and irrational, but it gets the point across. 

As for Net Neutrality itself, well… fingers crossed, I guess.