If cloud gaming is all that’s available, read books, go for walks, hang out with friends instead. Do what we did before the internet. Do not let them win, stop using it.
I said the same for Amazon (personally ordered 1 item from Amazon, received maybe 5 items from Amazon as gifts, I otherwise do not use them but I am 1 insignificant point well outside the graph) and expect the same results
Certain hobbies just aren’t supported locally anymore. And if they are they’re at ridiculously inflated prices. I always check nearby first but 90% of the time I end up ordering online. Half the time when I do, the place I order from charges 10-15 dollars for shipping, or redirects to Amazon to complete the order anyway.
I put a lot of work in to not using Amazon, and frequently find myself with little else in the way of choice. I fucking hate it.
I feel you there. I have said this from the beginning but everyone said I was overreacting and here we are, and they are in it up to their eyeballs. Even my gf orders a ton from there, thankfully I have few needs and am a bad capitalist
read books, go for walks, hang out with friends instead
Still time to learn.
You of today can’t help being illiterate today, but you can make it so you don’t stay illiterate. Unless you’re like blind or something, in which case get rekt by us deaf folks
But how will they ready this uplifting message?
Dunno, how they on a text based site?
You wouldn’t be suggesting they’re a damn dirty no good liar, would you? :P
I just have questions…
They can’t understand what you’re saying
Remember, things got this shitty because most people were fine with Big Tech gradually making things shittier. I look back and realize I’ve been waiting for the One Enormous Dealbreaker for over a decade, but consumers keep moving the red line.
I don’t think it’s just the ignorance of consumers. Big tech knows a lot about how to activate our endorphine centers. Things seem to be great and then gradually enshittify. It’s a bit like the metaphor of the frog in hot water.
Oh, most definitely. They have teams of people with degrees in psychology for this exact purpose.
For everyone being all fatalistic and the whole ‘there is nothing you can do’ approach. Vote with your wallet. No money for them means no power for them.
We are the customer, not their bitch. If they don’t provide value, they receive none in return. They go broke and someone else will provide the service we all want.
No way the junkies will quit playing early-access AAA titles at any point, no matter the cost.
Exactly this
It’s not the informed customer that is in control.
The sheeple that will shill out money endlessly are the ones in control. The ones buying lootboxes instead of paying their mortgage are the ones in control. The idiots are in control.
So there remains a market for that content, just like there is a giant market for free low effort mobile games with micro transactions.
Can still seek out and reward passionate projects that clearly actually care about their output. Those projects may not get the same obscene revenue, but they frequently get a viable amount and consistently get recognition for just how well done they are.
Steam is cool and all but I think I’m going to go with GOG a lot more going forward.
And I’ll never stop buying discs for consoles
I wonder what percentage of disc-based games for this console generation are unplayable without at least a one-time Internet-connected update.
11%-49% depending on platform and qualifiers https://www.doesitplay.org/
This is a fair point.
A lot of console games won’t let you play, even offline unless you sign in to Activision/Epic/whatever.
And then yeah, a lot of them are broken on day 0.
So yeah, so much for the joys of physical media.
Not to mention how careful you have to be when actually buying the games…if you aren’t paying attention, it’s easy to buy a case with boxart and a voucher inside.
Gamepass was a good value for me, because I rarely replay games and usually only am playing one game at a time. But since they jacked up the price a couple months ago, it’s no longer worth it.
Much better just to watch dekudeals for sales and get games cheap when I feel like playing.
Don’t forget a good chunk of them are borderline unplayable without an internet update.
Many of them are just a key to download the game.
I’m never using a cloud to play games, that’s just stupid.
If I cant own it, then I cant steal it.
Yar har.
I’d rather play only board games and TRRPGs for the rest of my days.
I miss having people that I can play board games with
Imagine paying some rando to rent their computer. You can totally trust them, right? They’re not in the Epstein files, right?
Before we even say what company, I know I’m not betting a single penny that they’re not.
Can run on a tiny computer, all your games and saved on local disk, compatible with retro achievements org, save state hotkeys, use basically any USB controller, etc. I use it more than any modern console I’ve bought in years.
My biggest regret is going with 32 of instead of 64GB of DDR5, when I built a new Ryzen 7000 PC in 2022 to replace my aging 4th gen i5.
But what I don’t regret is ignoring everyone telling me not to do all sorts of unspeakable things to snag a $1600 4090 at launch, especially given that it was never sold that cheaply ever again. It’s a beast of a card and I’ll easily get a decade of gaming out of it. Saw 4090s going for over $3K used on eBay lately, so yeah I’m happy with making what was a dumb decision at the time.
I also regret going with 64GB 3200 instead of 128GB 3600, which I thought I would just save up for.
GPUs were already hardly available.
Unfortunately, 4090 is already going into the obsolescence by power cable fire hazard territory. Keep your eye on it as it ages.
It’s been over 3 years now and I haven’t had a single issue. I made sure to plug in the 12VHPR cable all the way and avoid bending it. I also made sure to buy a top tier PCIe 5 PSU.
The issue was vastly blown out of proportion. Don’t be an idiot and you have nothing to worry about.
I can’t lie, I saw some eBay listing for 4090s when the 5090 came out for like 1300 and was tempted.
There’s more old, retro and indie games out there than you could ever finish. If the situation will get worse people will start sharing install files on offline media like decades ago with movies. Don’t worry, it’s going to be great.
My backlog is so large that it would take forever to get through. I have no need to upgrade my setup to play more modem games.
Some new consoles don’t offer physical media anymore, and some games aren’t able to be played without an Internet connection and a yearly account charge? I just won’t play them, then.
Something to be said about ttrpgs and board games with friends and family. Corpos can’t sequester that into a rental only model.
Despite Hasbro’s best efforts with its pet lifestyle brand lol.
cough Dnd Beyond coughcough*
Fortunately they still sell the books and fortunately if you wanted to sail the 7 seas…
If there is no ownership then there is no stealing/pirating by sailing the high seas.
IMO the only thing the cloud is useful for in this context is maintaining and syncing saves. Other than that I want my games running locally, thank you.
The death of Stadia was so enjoyable for me
