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musteladraconis · 3 months

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alright thats it this is my rant about palworld because i need to just speak about it. if you disagree with anything i say or have an alternative perspective then ill be happy to read them but anyways.

this game makes me so incredibly upset and just. enraged. pure unbridled anger.

just want to clarify some things before i start:

1. im aware of just how dogshit nintendo treats pokemon fans like myself, giving us the worst framerates imaginable, pushing out shitty low quality games so that people stay interested or whatever their motive is and so on and so forth, you've heard it all before i dont need to go over all of it again.

2. im not against using ai for some things. it can even be really beneficial. however when you use ai to steal from other artists and use it to make creative work then its inexcusable and should never be used. no im not talking about animation programs that use ai for tweening or any ai that's used to help make an artists job a tiny bit easier or faster, im talking about generative ai that takes artists work without their knowledge and uses it to make money. so when i say ai in this post i am specifically talking about generative ai.

alright with that said lets get into why i absolutely hate this game.

feel free to correct me if im wrong throughout this post.

ive been looking into the company's background and as many people already know the founder promotes the use of ai and greatly enjoys it. but yknow what i also found out? its that he also hates new and creative ideas! and he promotes using ideas that already exist to make games.

(citing SomeOrdinaryGamers video on palworld)

oh yeah. yeah that's right. pocket pair is the company that made palworld! lemme show you what else they made

notice anything? no? alright let's try again.

how about now.

yeah. yeah this is breath of the wild and hollow knight!

and also. it's one thing to steal from nintendo, it's another to steal from indie game developers and FAKEMON ARTISTS.

YEAH. YEP! EVEN THE FAKEMON ARTISTS ARENT FREE!!

WEIRD 'COINCIDENCE' RIGHT???? THAT THEIR DESIGNS ARE 99% THE SAME???

SURELY THIS GUY MUST ENJOY HAVING SOME KIND OF ORIGINALITY RIGHT? RIGHT???

WRONG!

"IF THERE ARE GOOD IDEAS IN THE WORLD I PICK THEM UP AND I DONT NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE PARTICULAR ABOUT ORIGINALITY"

nintendo hasn't sued him yet. i dont know if its because they cant find a 1 to 1 rip off or some other reason like them not needing to worry about him but i hope some of you understand just how bad this is for artists jobs. while yes there would have had to be artists that modeled the models in game there is basically no creativity or originality here. 'but what about the idea of giving pokemon guns' you might say. sure, thats a cool idea i will say. i like the concepts but i despise the methods used to achieve this goal.

many other games that are similar in using monsters like pokemon have successfully made their own unique creatures and people have enjoyed those games.

shin megami tensei has its demons for example! including... including... sigh. the green dick on wheels. yeah you heard me. the green dick on wheels.

BUT wouldn't you rather that than a 1 to 1 ripoff of wooloo?

you could say that oh wooloos just a regular sheep which yeah i can accept that argument but there are so many more that you can look at where the similarities are just... Bad. the cobalion one for example (just look up cobalion palworld youll see what i mean).

and not just the megami tensei franchise either. mutahar also mentioned other games, like cassette beasts which looks really fun

and those are good designs! the game itself looks cool and fun to play. digimon also exists!

if nintendo ever does anything to the pokemon franchise that just absolutely ruins it more than anything else they've ever done then ill rethink my opinion about this game, but for now im mostly just upset about artists jobs being taken from them and artists original designs too. while nintendo can be so shitty to pokemon at times, there are artists behind pokemon designs that had their work and original ideas blatantly stolen.

i highly recommend checking this link out to support your favourite pokemons artists directly if theyre on the list.

to finish this rant off, i just want to say that originality is one of the most difficult things to achieve in video games. i get that, im an artist too and being original is extremely difficult because everythings been done at least once. but it doesn't excuse how closely these games are 'borrowing' incredible, iconic and ORIGINAL ideas from others and not just once but repeatedly.

#palworld #pokemon #digimon #shin megami tensei #rant #ramble #im still upset but less so I guess. as an artist it's just frustrating to see this stuff make so much money for stealing.#even if its not stealing directly or ripping off the models to use as bases its still not right.#its like someone tracing your art. which nobody likes.#character design #artist

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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While Marketing Anime, Crunchyroll Accidentally Proves Existence of Ghosts

So, long story short, a group of Crunchyroll staffers went to film a Mob Psycho 100 promotional video and uhhh……. accidentally proved the existence of ghosts. View the full video here:

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Tim Lyu, Miles Thomas, Andrea Ramirez, and their trusty producers, Chris Ambrosio and Jesse Gouldsbury didn’t initially set out to prove the existence of ghosts though–this was just supposed to be an innocent, spooky-themed promotional video for season two of Mob Psycho 100. The shoot took place on the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier built during World War II that is well known for its apparent paranormal activity. What they ended up coming home with was quite a bit of human-to-ghost conversation mediated through an electromagnetic field (EMF) detector.

Host Tim Lyu asked the supposed spirits plenty of questions, often wording the same question two or three different ways, and the responses were always logically consistent. At one point, Tim asks a spectre if he has watched Mob Psycho 100, and the EMF detector responds with an emphatic yes! We sat down with some of the cast and crew of the video to ask how this filming experience affected them and whether or not ghosts do, in fact, watch anime.

Tim Lyu

Crunchyroll Host, Likes Mob Psycho 100

Did you believe in ghosts before this shoot?

I want to believe… [Tim then waved his hands in a mysterious flourish while humming the X-Files theme] But yeah, I’ve personally never had a paranormal experience so before this trip I gave a strong “maybe” to me believing in ghosts.

What kind of footage did you think you would capture beforehand? What did you actually end up capturing?

I honestly had noooo idea what kind of footage we would get. The ghost equipment we bought just looked like knock-off products. So I thought we would be mostly getting footage of us being spooked of the creepy & dark atmosphere.

BUT what we did end up getting was some actual spooky encounters using THE most bootleg Tamagotchi-lookin-ass device. Seriously this ghost EMF meter aka a ghost... conversator device...?? It seriously looks like some product a third party Nintendo ripoff company would make… But, contrary to my initial thoughts, it was a highly effective piece of equipment and we got some solid back and forth convos with the ghost inhabitants! Fantastic stuff really.

What’s the weirdest/scariest thing that happened during the shoot?

One of the weirdest moments was when I asked a ghost if it’s name was Joe (I just kinda made it up on the spot) and the ghost gave a lil “yeah” [ghosts could answer affirmative with one beep on the EMF detector and two for negative–ed.] on the ghost meter. Also Joe was hanging around the torpedo storage area, so we dubbed him “Torpedo Joe”. Good times.

Do you believe in ghosts now?

I believe... [once again, he waved his hands while humming X-Files]

Do ghosts watch anime?

We asked a ghost in the kitchen if they have watched Mob Psycho 100 and they said YES. Incredible. Ghosts watch anime. Confirmed.

Miles Thomas

Crunchyroll Mascot, Swell Guy

Did you believe in ghosts before this shoot?

I was completely agnostic to the notion of ghosts.

What kind of footage did you think you would capture beforehand? What did you actually end up capturing?

I went in with no pre-judgements and ended up finding four ACTUAL GHOSTS.

What’s the weirdest/scariest thing that happened during the shoot?

There were multiple times where Andrea and I got a sudden sensation at the same time that told us “do not proceed” - and it was validated by the later ghost conversations Tim had in those rooms.

Do you believe in ghosts now?

No, but I believe that these four ghosts were definitely there.

Do ghosts watch anime?

Nah, they were messing with us.

Andrea Ramirez

Mob Psycho 100 Marketing Lead

Did you believe in ghosts before this shoot?

I’ve been obsessed with everything that goes bump in the night since childhood, so I’ve been on more than a few ghost hunts and have witnessed some pretty spooky stuff since I was a kid. Big definitely. I also believe in aliens, some cryptids (but not all), and have a really big fear of Bigfoot. (but I would investigate him if you paid me to.)

What kind of footage did you think you would capture beforehand? What did you actually end up capturing?

To be honest I thought the most compelling thing was going to be the me losing my phone and Miles hitting his head on doors. I didn’t expect getting any of the stuff we got and I certainly didn’t expect leaving feeling like I made a friend or two.

What’s the weirdest/scariest thing that happened during the shoot?

I really hated being in the boiler room. My chest felt really tight and unlike the other rooms where we’d had encounters, that was where I was the most uncomfortable. When I had first boarded the ship, my mic started malfunctioning and at first Chris Ambrosio thought it was pretty normal - until we left the boiler room and he informed me that my mic was making the same weird noises only when I asked questions and after we had completely switched mics and battery packs since the previous malfunction. Hearing about my mic making those messed up sounds in that room sent shivers down my spine, I won’t ever forget that.

Do you believe in ghosts now?

I feel like I personally met all of those people like I was introduced to your average living person and I don’t really know how to better explain that.

Do ghosts watch anime?

I mean, that’s what the guy in the engine room said. I would have hooked him up with Premium if he was nicer to me.

Chris Ambrosio

Producer, Held The Cameras

Did you believe in ghosts before this shoot?

Prior to this experience, I’ve always wanted to believe in ghosts or the like, but had never had my own encounter. That left me skeptical, but eager to be proven wrong.

What kind of footage did you think you would capture beforehand? What did you actually end up capturing?

Going into this shoot, I expected us to get some fun moments with our hunters being scared or spooked simply from being on an old aircraft carrier with the lights out. It’s a spooky place to wander around alone! Despite buying a bunch of ghost hunting equipment, I never expected it to really work, and mostly saw the devices as a gimmick to play with on camera.

What we ended up capturing was way more interesting and surprising than I think any of us had expected. Yes, we definitely got some funny moments of our hunters being spooked by the ship itself, but when we actually started communicating with something I can’t explain, I was floored.

What’s the weirdest/scariest thing that happened during the shoot?

I think the scariest thing was when we had established communication in the engine room. After a few minutes of back and forth, Tim asked if we were overstaying our welcome and if whoever was there wanted us to leave. It was a pretty quick “yes, leave” which was a bit spooky to begin with, but then Tim followed up asking if we should “leave, or get the hell out” to which they responded to the latter. That’s when I felt it was definitely time to go.

Do you believe in ghosts now?

I know I believe in those ones for sure!

Do ghosts watch anime?

I guess? I mean, they said they did, and they also didn’t care for Tim’s explanation of Mob Psycho so I think it’s safe to assume they knew it better.

Jesse Gouldsbury

Producer, Held The Other Cameras

Did you believe in ghosts before this shoot?

Kind of? I’ve always been like “I wanna hang out with some chill ghosts” while also being scared in certain areas. There’s a part of my brain that knows that a large portion of ghost sightings are from a radiator rattling at a certain frequency or umm gas leaks as seen in my favorite ghost-related show, Paranormal Home Inspectors. Then there’s the other part that is like “yeah but that ghost is up to something”. Also had a real spooky encounter as a child and years later when going back to that home my mother, unprompted, was like “this place is haunted. I’ve seen a ghost here before”.

What kind of footage did you think you would capture beforehand? What did you actually end up capturing?

Oh gosh! I was so anxious leading up to the shoot. I prepped by watching other ghost hunting shows who have explored the Hornet and knew about all the activity. I also know another group that recently went and got nothing...I assumed worst case we’d have Tim, Drea, and Miles getting scared in the dark and maybe an unexplained knock or cold chills. I was afraid I was going to have like my camera strap tugged though or see a person at the end of one of those long hallways.

What we got blew me away! We actually had ghost interacting with us and giving responses that actually made sense. I can’t explain what we ended up capturing.

What’s the weirdest/scariest thing that happened during the shoot?

Towards the end of the night after we were leaving an area known to have a lot of activity (I believe we were exiting through the sickbay), the moment we started to go to the stairs there was this sharp, cold tingling around my forearm…almost like there was something grabbing onto it. We were moving so fast to shoot the next scene that all I could do was look at it and go “Oh weird” and look around. That moment and in the torpedo bay, Chris Lightbody [another producer] and I were both getting weird vibes when Tim was yelling at the ghost with the megaphone. Good footage but I wanted OUT of that room.

Do you believe in ghosts now?

I’m 99%. We’re going back to the ship for a “team building exercises” so we’ll see if I hit 100.

Do ghosts watch anime?

Yes?? I mean, we have a ghost telling us they watch Anime. SOMEHOW. I can only assume that someone else has brought their phone or computer to the engine room and just watched Mob Psycho there.

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At the end of the day, we tallied up everyone who went to the shoot as either a ghost believer or denier, and EVERYONE BELIEVES IN GHOSTS NOW 100%*

*Technically Braith and CL said they don’t believe but they totally do you can see it in their eyes.

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Watch Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 here!

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Are ghosts real? Do they watch anime? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

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Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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pkgam · 6 years

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The Evil Of Video Game Microtransactions And Patches

Yep, this is the post that the Zelda Season Pass inspired me to finish. It’s like the one about pay-to-download games, which is similar, but not the exact kind of topic. Also, my posts about Microtransactions on Nintendo’s Miitomo and Konami’s bologna and talk about Cow Clicker. aren’t super detailed or anything. So it’s truly time I finish this one because it’s more important than ever. In fact, if there’s anything that I utterly detect about the game industry right now it’s this.

Let’s paint a picture. Let’s go back... back to the past... *holds flashlight in front of face* OoooOoOoOOOOoOooooooo... Gaming once did not have DLC. When you got a game, you got it as-is with no DLC, patches, etc... So companies had to put everything they wanted or could get in it in that one cart’s release and polish it to boot. So they could not release a game unless it was actually finished-finished. Occasionally devs will knock off a few bugs in revisions, but that just meant there were two or more versions of games (the first version, then tweaked copies) on the market and not a game with intended content another one didn’t have. However, the thing about it was that the first version was still perfectly playable. Ocarina Of Time on the N64 had three for instance if you want a notable example. Heck, Pokemon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow were some of the glitchiest games ever but they are well loved. It’s not glitches that make a game bad, it’s gameplay-hindering glitches and bad design that make a game bad.

This of course led to a lot of notable delays in the production of the best titles of their time. Games that were rushed out to meet a deadline such as games based on a movie being released or something were often sucky, buggy or even completely broken because it was less about the quality as it was trying to meet demand. So a game that was released bad, stayed bad with no fixes or whatnot. While the concept of not fixing up a bad game may seem archaic to many modern day gamers, there were still great games to be played. See, you’d think that there would be better quality games on the market now than there were back then because if you released a stinker, you could at least patch it to a semi-good quality. But that sure isn’t the case is it? In fact, it’s not unheard of for a patch to break a solid game, lol! In those cases they’re usually rectified by a simple rollback or re-issuing a fixed patch fast of course, but what I’m saying is that patches aren’t really making the overall gaming experiences you can have better than just releasing them in a good state to begin with. Unless the game is broke to begin with of course. But that brings me to my next point...

Both Microtransactions and patches have been quite the sneaky little moneymakers. What a lot of people aren’t realizing is that they are often paying a lot more for less. Which is astounding since game price has gone up in itself from $50 to $60 (Not all games of course, but I mean the general price of console games) AND in order to get all you could for a game, you have to pay for their online and downloadable extras. Some do online for free like Nintendo, but that of course is about to change not because they can’t do online for free of course since they have been for years, but likely because it’s just more profitable. So what game publishers are doing when they pull that is selling incomplete games at a full price (often just to release games as fast as possible for maximum profits) and charging you more to get them complete and/or playable through online. Some “retail” games are actually not even physical in that they only contain a game code or only a small part of a game so you have to download the rest to play it too. So what’s even the point of retail in those cases other than to sucker in people who don’t otherwise buy digital that just so happened to not read the box?... That trick won’t work forever. Mind you that there are still games made out there that are great on their own without downloadables, but the thing about it is that game companies know that these sorts of things are highly profitable because people are oblivious to how much more they’re spending overall. Even just $5 per game, if you got just 12 DLC packs, that’s $60 or the price of another whole game (again, it varies. :P). They aren’t only $5 either as DLC varies greatly in price. Online services alone are usually START at $10. PS4′s is at $9.99/month, but you of course get discounts at longer terms. :P

The patch thing also has a funny way of making more “versions” of games than ever before as well because there are games that people have never patched or did any microtransactions for, there are games people have fully patched and paid for all the DLC. Plus everything in between and every combination. So there can be an awkward division of sorts as well in that people rating a game better with a patch and someone not being able to get a patch for some reason (no net connectivity, online patch services canceled/shut down, etc...) that will end up creating forever bad games in the process because they put out junk and games not patched get shut out. There’s also the inevitable end of online patch support for a game to tangle with in the future. Meaning if people get a game that is no longer supported and it’s a stinker that could be patched into something better, they are stuck with the stinker unless they sell it to someone who is not in the know of the need for a patch or they locate or create some sort of fan-made hack-patch out there.

This also has a way of making it so that games are becoming less and less your’s. See, certain sections of the game industry hate stuff like the used game market and game sharing because they don’t get sales from after-market stuff. If a retail disc is just a key to get a game’s full download that you can only use once, you basically can’t resell or let someone borrow a game. The Xbox One back in development was going to be just like that until massive backlash hit them over it. As a matter of fact, that happens with a lot of publishers who try to pull that because people of course don’t like the idea of not owning what they buy, for good reason. So instead they got a bit... sneakier with it. Games that you buy digital for instance are locked to that system and if your system goes, so does the game, well, when they stop supporting it online. Think DLC/patches are any different? Think again.

I’ve seen people argue that the microtransactions are only to extend the life of a game engine and whatnot, but that’s what SEQUELS are for! Instead though a great increase in patches and paid downloadables on the very first day of release happened. Star Wars Battlefront was probably one of the most notorious examples of this in that the game was made to be small and to get everything you’ve gotta pay upwards of $100 total. Compare it to a fully complete game such as Ocarina Of Time and you can tell that there’s issues. Speaking of Battlefront... EA did it again with the next Battlefront, only FAR worse than before as you need to play 4,528 hours to unlock everything or $2,100 to “conveniently” speed things up ON TOP of the retail price of the game. That’s ludicrous! Then there was a whole debacle after that they they were going to fix it and semi-did, but this has happened with so many of their games in the past that you can basically see it as a cycle by now. They release a game > people point out how much of a ripoff it is > they “apologize” and “fix” it > they do it again with the next game. Why people even buy into it after all these years of them doing it I have no idea as it’s illogical. Maybe it’s like... an addiction or masochistic tendency. But they take advantage of that sickness like predators. Even a good chunk of those who aren’t addicted to it may not make much of it because it never seems like a lot to pay few bucks for some DLC but when so many do it, it adds up for their profits gained on basically lies.

Talking addiction of course means it’s time to cover these bad boys: LOOT BOXES! They can be cleverly disguised as anything from Pinata Llamas to Trash Cans. But when I say “loot box”, I mean “you pay for something and you don’t know what you’ll get”. They have been largely equated to gambling which I couldn’t agree more with because it’s like rolling a slot machine’s wheels: The adrenaline of whether you win or lose is what is addicting but most of the time you will lose as the items you are going for in these monstrosities often only have less than a 1% chance of showing. So people who get addicted like with gambling addiction often open up hundreds and hundreds of these boxes to no avail. People who do this, even if it’s just over a bunch of DLC and whatnot, game publishers have called “whales”. Yes, they actually have a term for it. Not only that, but they also have a “science” to getting people to pay for such things. Behold! The hold grail of all things bad in the industry. The original video I linked to was removed, but you can still see it at 3:42-4:37 of this video, though you may want to watch it all anyway as it’s pretty good:

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“Turning players into payers” huh?... They aren’t the only ones to do it either. Activision actually patented their own little scheme in 2015 (which amazingly they claim they never used) and you can bet that many others also have sneaky little plans of their own.

There are some extra tricks I haven’t went over yet that may still sucker people. Like remember the extra levels/stages/areas/gear/etc... that could have been added to a game before release by just delaying the game like they used to do? They could just put it on multiple discs/cards like they used to as it wasn’t uncommon for games to have 2 or more discs. But they don’t. Why? Well at this point you can guess there’s something extra sneaky about this one because the extra data doesn’t go on the disc, it goes on the game system’s hard drive or some other storage space. As the MBs add up, you need to buy more space. Who then gets in the market to sell more space? Game makers of course. While people can get stuff like external /hard drives and SD cards from other sources, you can bet that game publishers will partner up with someone that makes them (I have a Sandisk SD Card for my Wii with “Nintendo Wii” on it for instance. :P But for game data backup, not downloads.) or make em’ themselves.

Even if the DLC or online service is free, chances are it’s not entirely “free” anyway as you often have to see a bunch of advertisements to tempt you to spend money on other stuff. For instance, Call Of Duty WWII has a mission where you watch others open loot crates... But if you have the willpower and time to sit through that junk, it’s officially free I spose’. Again though for all of this they know not everyone can resist the temptation. It all keeps rolling back to tempting people in these ways really:

How badly do you want to fix your game?

How quick do you want to make progress?

How much more content do you want for the game?

How unique do you want your character to look?

How much do you want to play with others online?

How much do you want to play the same game as others?

How close do you want to be to your friends progress-wise?

etc... to make games cost far more than ever by having you pay for it.

But free online gaming even though companies clearly can do it and free DLC is not how the industry has shaped has it? Instead they have you pay for it with a grin basically saying “see you there because we know you won’t resist!”. The temptation thing ended up screwing everyone over, even people who resisted, because they are losing out on the content. All at virtually no extra development cost because it’s often already made and they just held it back.

Yes, I know some is genuinely made after a game if they feel there is more they can add, but it’s such a common “business model” that you just never know who is doing it. Though some slip up like Capcom, lol! But in any case, why not at the very least release extra stuff for free? Not make you pay for the online on top of the DLC. I mean logically they “should” be getting profits from online service sales to support further development of games as it was proven they are able to do online for free. If not, they are doing a pretty bad job.

I don’t see those unethical business practices changing any time soon either because they have been remarkably successful. It’s giving companies a lot of bad PR, but they don’t care as long as they get more money than ever. Which is a really sad state because it means that you no longer have to make a good game to profit off of it, you just have to make something that hooks people enough to get them to pay into it. Many indy devs are guilty of this too of course (especially the shovelware makers that put their crappy ((often copied)) games with paid DLC on every platform they can), so don’t think I’m ignoring them. I’m just using some of the most prominent examples here.

Now for some common rebuttals I hear:

-“But you don’t have to pay for it! It’s optional!” You also don’t have to pay for the game. Companies should be honored and humbled that you are interested in buying a game so they should offer you the full package, not a watered-down version of something and taking you for granted.

-”It’s only appearance DLC like clothing. It doesn’t affect the game!” Oh, but it does. Not having them is actually taking away a whole section of a game that people find fun: Character customization. Maybe it’s not gameplay-related, but it’s certainly something that people love to do and thus affects their experience. Games used to have stuff like that hidden in them as unlocks (See Bomberman 64 Custom Parts as an example), not as paid DLC.

-”They NEED to make more money because games nowadays are more costly to make!” How do you know? Games like Cave Story and An Untitled Story (6th from the bottom) are free and extremely well designed. But I’m also seeing a ton of asset-flipped games in that companies are basically re-using engines and whatnot. In any case, assuming they are pricier, then it should be in the initial cost of the COMPLETE game, NOT made up in DLC. You tell me that all of Battlefront 2′s content is worth $2,100 and I’ll call you a liar or blind because there’s no way they put that much work into it and there’s no way anyone should have to pay that much for a SINGLE game.

-“But there’s just so much content they didn’t have time to put it in at release so they offer you the service!” Yet they are able to magically churn out other games at the same time along with said DLC. Funny how that works right? Again talking EA as an example because they are just do good at providing them, they create a “new” sports game yearly (Madden, FIFA, NBA, PGA Tour, NHL, etc...) with the usual DLC, oftentimes of stuff that was in past installments of the game with the same engine.

-”They are companies, so of course they are trying to make money.” Nothing wrong with making money, it’s “how” you make it that’s the issue. When there’s a whole “business” model built around lies and deceit, I’d argue it starts to lean towards the scam side of things.

Your thoughts? Thanks for reading and have a good one!

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