#and I'm just like. man. that must be so alienating if you're able to access this book and you see yourself in it

[nazmazh]

So, I'm talking with my friends, who are relatively big into Fortnite.

And they're explaining to me what today's update did to the game (me and the one's husband who is likewise not a Fortnite person).

And like, even though I'm not a Fortnite guy, I'm listening to this, and looking at what stuff has been posted to the internet.

And like...

Holy fucking shit.

It sounds like they're aiming to gut the whole core appeal of the game.

We're all just sitting here losing our goddamn minds at everything that apparently got pushed through in the new update.

I can't believe the speed at which Epic is looking to completely shoot themselves in the foot here.

It's like they sat atop their throne, and saw Blizzard/Microsoft, EA, CDPR, Unity, etc., etc. make massive blunders that utterly alienated large chunks of their otherwise passionate fanbases.

And decided that they could do that too! "We should emulate the unpopular moves those guys are making!"

Guns/weapons in the art/assets of your 3rd-person shooter-game where people expressly are being told to kill each other in-game?

Nope. Can't have that.

Not even in personal loading screen images that literally only the user will see.

No, there's no option for "I am 18+, I'm fine if I see this imagery. Here, I can prove this."

No guns in a shooter game. Not even empty holsters.

Borderlands Psycho-Man? Nah that skin's fine.

Michael "I'm from the slasher-movie codifier" Myers? Totally fine.

Funny jellyfish man that has a bandoleer? "FUCKING RESTRICT THAT SHIT IMMEDIATELY!"

Anyway, here's our new licensed character: "Omni-Man, from the famously all-ages property, Invincible!"

They're even locking skins that came out as part of bonus content that was sent out with today's release.

They couldn't even be bothered to fix their own "controversial" art assets before releasing it.

Because that'd be the more reasonable fix, if say, you're committed to this whole "violence bad" thing in your assets. Edit all the models and skins to remove those things, not restrict the content from the users who have sunk time and money into being able to use it.

But no.

They did not do that.

As my friend pointed out - The cornerstone of their legal defense against children playing this game has been "We are aware that there are many children playing our game. However, the game is rated T. You have to have an account to play - You must be of a certain age in order to make an account. Or have a parent give explicit consent to allow you to play despite being under that age. If the child lied about their age, the account must be terminated anyway, because it's invalid. If you gave consent for your child to play without really paying attention to the content, that's on you. At any rate, we have performed our responsibility with regards to child safety."

But... If they're expressly making this game more appealing to children, while still having the rating of T, then... Aren't they themselves actively encouraging children to play their game that is not rated for children? Which kinda invalidates them saying that children should not be playing this game?

And, and! Burying the main mode (well, two mode - Standard Game and Standard Game/No Build) in a sea of uncurated fan/player-made creative mode mods?

Like, it's like they're trying to frame those modes as just another possible experience, instead of like, the core reason people play the game.

Apparently the person in-charge (they got rid a previous creative/content director, if I'm understanding properly) has said something to the effect of "The MetaVerse-type experiences are why people play this game".

Not "They're a big part of the appeal, so we want to see how we can make that better/easier to access."

Just, essentially "This is the only thing we really care about now."

Like, I'm usually pretty skeptical of fanboy-type rage. But, like, nah, I'm all-in with them on this one.

It helps that my design-sensibilities-type-rage is almost never reigned it. This is pure stupidity on many, many levels.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out going forward. Will they realize just how badly they fucked up and revert things? Or will they double-down and lose their entire audience that actually pays for things themselves, and hope that little Timmy raiding mommy and daddy's credit card will be enough to sustain them going forward?

#fortnite controversy #I don't go here #but like holy fucking shit

[sparrowsfallingfromthesky]

Flint going from being perceived as under-educated in the Navy to being perceived as over-educated in Nassau must have just been like okay here is just one more thing to mark me as other wherever I go... here’s one more thing to be hated for... exhausting...

#Black Sails #James Flint #also do we think he knew Latin?? #I'm reading (or at least skimming) the version of the Odyssey I think he probably read because I like wasting my own time #and the translator clearly assumes that his readers know a certain amount of latin #presumably because that would have been part of the upper class education. and the elite educated class would be the ones buying books #and I'm just like. man. that must be so alienating if you're able to access this book and you see yourself in it #but you're still constantly reminded that you're not the person it's meant for #most popular