Quoting: NezchanIt's worth noting that the majority of people are not immune to psychological pressure and manipulation, even if they think they are.

Ofc. We all have our moments of weakness. I have at least. For instance I remember years ago once, in a 2 weeks long business trip abroad, during the week end in an hotel room in the middle of nowhere, far from friends and my girlfriend, tired from a week of long hours, bored and lonely... I bought a hearthstone pack bundle. Normally I wouldn't but that time I did because I was weak and I thought why not threat me some instant gratification.

But the difference is that for me it ended up there. Literally. A moment of weakness that resulted in a negligible financial loss and some new "antibodies" released in my system thanks to the experience. For other people though that would have been the beginning of an addiction they could never recover from without help.

It's not just wrong that videogame publishers business today is to disseminate traps around waiting for the inevitable moment of weakness of a helpless whale out there so they can harpoon it and slowly suck all the life out of it. It's sad. Because they are not whales, they are people.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: namikoIt's an issue of responsibility: How much should the average citizen be responsible for their own foolish mistakes?

Your average citizen has little issues with loot boxes. Apart from playing a game that is made purposely inconvenient and more frustrating to make loot boxes more appealing and the constant psychological pressure that derives from that. But when it comes to fork additional money, the average user will just pass.

Your minority of gambling vulnerable/addicted individuals instead (be it for education issues, brain damage, genetic trait), the so called whales, they'll do have issues given that they simply can't control their spending when stimulated in specific ways.

In this society it's immoral to build stadiums and train stations that are hard to access just so that the service owner can exploit people with handicaps and sell them "premium entrances" or "golden exit passes" so they can move without inconveniences for a price. And because of course predatory entrepreneurs have already thought of that, there are laws that regulate this matter strictly everywhere.

Yet when it comes to behavioral handicaps many people believe that everything should be allowed and the disadvantaged guys (the "whales") exploited and abused. Micro transactions to stimulate collectionism instincts and hide total prices. Loot boxes with flashy special effects to trigger the instant gratification chemistry. How vicious mechanics like these fits into a videogame where ideally one would just sit down and relax instead of stay constantly on the alert to avoid manipulation is beyond my comprehension. Especially because it's nothing new: these are well understood mechanics that are already strictly regulated when it comes to physical games. Why are we discussing this again on digital games? Brains are still brains. We didn't evolve in a new specie. The vulnerabilities that were here yesterday are still here today.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Ah the punic wars. That's when the political and cultural bond between US and Rome begun. I hope the dlc will include that. :D

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I'm glad to see a sequel to ck. I would have preferred Victoria but ck it's OK too.

The only thing is that due to the missteps with their last releases I don't feel like it will be a day 1 purchase for me. I want to see some 1-2 weeks reviews first. But I definitely look forward to it.

Moreover, I wish best luck to Pdx with their console and mobile efforts. But I hope that as opposed to Blizzard they find a good balance between their pc core projects and all the rest. We really need good games like ck2 and eu4 around in pc gaming future.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoteso perhaps it will be the next Crusader Kings?

World of Crusader Kings for PC(EGS), PS4, XBOX1, Apple and Android.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

To me it reminds spores instead. :D

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: HoriWhat about Stellaris? IMO that game actually needs 64bit more than CK2, as it seems to me more memory consuming mid-late game.

If I have to bet on the reasons behind those memory footprints it's because the game has more sophisticated graphical assets which ofc occupy more memory.

Personally I think graphics is the best thing of Stellaris. Then the game could use even more ofc. But in this regard, the old CK2 can definitely benefit more from 64bits than Stellaris. :)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

This is irritating. I start to believe that I will see half Life 3 before Victoria 3.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: orochi_kyoIf people doesnt like lootboxes, dont buy or play games that use loot boxes, this is not a sensitive sector like health, communications or education, this is gaming and people doesnt need to play these "loot boxes videogames" to have a dignified life.

The same can be said about tobacco, gambling and drugs. Yet these are restricted when not straight forbidden. And the reason is that like lootboxes they prey on weak minds.

And the fact that I personally don't smoke, don't gamble and don't consume meth doesn't mean that I can just not care. Because eventually all that stuff would hurt me too if left unchecked. Even if it is said that we live in individualistic societies, we live in societies nonetheless. When the lives of the people around you get ruined it will affect you in multiple ways.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Well... this way of thinking is typically american. Europeans have less issues with regulations. Personally it's a matter of finding the sweet spot. Regulations can kill or greatly hurt new, small, immature markets. That's one of the reasons America always come first with new economies. Land of opportunity indeed. But there is a clear point when companies are not small or frail anymore, they become giants in mature markets. And accumulate to much power compared to consumers and citizens in general, making exploitation possible. Once one turns to the dark side, the others have to follow for survival, since free market by design does not forgive companies that spit on easy revenues. That's when regulations is needed, to protect the weak by increasing the costs of actions that hurts the community. And imho Europe usually gets this last part better. Quality of life for everyone.

It might be that I'm European but imho gaming industry is mature enough to deserve some good regulation. Whaling is abusive practice. It's immoral and exploitative. It leverages natural weaknesses in people minds and as such it should be, if not forbidden outright, at least confined in protected spaces away from the reach of the weak. Valve, Epic, Microsoft, Nintendo, 2K, Activision and whatever else cursed gaming giant in mobile will perfectly survive and thrive in profits without that dirty money ripped off the hands of clueless childrens and gambit addicts. And if some small f2p indie has to disappear in the process, good riddance. Their space will be filled by non f2p indies.

View this comment - View article - View full comments