SethMode

Anecdotal evidence here but, guy I work with that plays COD on Xbox thinks that this is great, because now he doesn't have to pay 70 bucks to get the game, he can just pay for Gamepass for a month and if he wants to keep playing, re-up for two more months and still save money.

I feel like for people that use Gamepass like this, this will work great. For those that just want to play COD, they're just going to buy Call of Duty again...not buy an Xbox and/or commit to Gamepass.

A part of this that strikes me in particular as at least a little true, is that bots and "AI" generated stuff has zero transparency. It's obvious to anyone with online literacy and a healthy amount of skepticism to spot (for the most part), but it's crazy how many "people" online aren't real, and there is a definite attempt by some to obfuscate this information, which I feel like exacerbates the problem.

I like coming here (despite the poor website maintenance) for the reasons you mentioned, and because everyone here is at the very least thoughtful in their posts. Elsewhere is pretty bleak. Twitter is a nightmare. Reddit is completely hit or miss. One thing is for certain, for me, when it comes to browsing/just exploring the internet: I do it far less, and far less productively, than I used to.

@markminik: This is such a weirdly aggressive post. Console war junkies never go away I guess.

@bigsocrates: I feel like the simple answer is that they don't *actually* care, they just need to feel like they're a part of some righteous fury movement. If it wasn't this that they were pissed about, it'd be something else just as stupid and imperceptible.

@bigsocrates: I really appreciate how serious you are with these classifications.

Anyway, I love this and cannot get over how stupid it is.

This was the first FF I completed at around 11 or 12 years old. I have a lot of fond memories (because it is a wonderful game) but, oddly enough, my most indelible ones are anything that had a timer. I legit can still remember the sheer anxiety that the floating island/saving Shadow would bring me.

Favorite character theme song? Hard to pick but I've always loved Cyan's.

@cikame: "And if we have that conversation, we should also talk about why an 18 rated video game can't have sexy characters in it when Nicki Minaj is allowed to gyrate on tv in front of your children while singing about genitals."

What?

@cikame: This is probably an answer to somebody's request, but not mine. Is this game being censored? Is censorship being called for by any major outlets or journalists or industry people? Is anyone saying that this game shouldn't exist? Because I see a lot either alluding to this idea or saying it is outright happening, but I've yet to see the proof. I'm not saying you or others are lying, but it doesn't seem to be easy to find evidence despite how rampant people are claiming it is. Hence, why I'm asking for examples. It should be BEYOND EASY with how people are talking (yourself included).

Linking to MS business practices and goals seems....silly to say the least.

@cikame: Is that what is happening here? Because honestly, I'm not seeing much of it...I'm seeing far more of an overkill version of what you said. Admittedly, it's purely anecdotal, but I only learned about Stellar Blade because I've seen so many people yelling about how the wokes want to censor it yet....I've yet to see literally any call for censorship.

Can you give me an example, particularly from games media and/or criticism, that outlines this pretty juvenile idea of "sexy girl in game is bad"?

@efesell: Every time I see this thing mentioned it's in some "save this from the wokes!" or "THEY can't handle how sexy this woman is" and then I see exactly none of that in any analysis of it. The worst thing I've seen was a guy saying that what he played of the demo felt like a 7 out of 10 so he hopes the final game has more gameplay options and that was met with a "SORRY THIS GAME REFUSES TO BE WOKE".

I STILL don't even understand the controversy. Is it just literally COMPLETELY manufactured?