When things go too far

Miscellaneous Topics
#1

So today we have been learning about islam , actually a very interesting religion and its teachings are nothing like that of the current situations that isis or sharia law would make you believe. The ideology behind it is peace , equalism and modesty which actually make perfect sense. This got me thinking about games for some odd reason , when do you think a game goes too far? I mean this in any aspect such as either too many sequels COUGH Call of Duty COUGH the game play becomes abhorrent and despicable or that the actual systems behind the game are so pathetically thought through and design that they aggrevate the player and just generally suck ie all of EA DLC systems or free to play systems.

Naturally I got home and started sifting through some of these , DLC crimes are an utterly huge number mainly committed by EA along with games such as fifa or COD (new game every year and with fifa you “can” buy new characters). But then something caught my eye , specifically a post quite oddly made on a comedic mockery of the Britain first movement , Britan furst. They posted a link to an article that suggested the Eu were attempting to make buildings “sharia built”? what ever that means , as usual I went to google and searched for sharia law and it’s really really unfortunate that this is the tainted view we have of an actually peaceful religion.here. This topic does jump about a bit , anyway I guess im trying to start a discussion on when anything in general just goes too far , away from the truth and away from what it originally was . Call of Duty originally a fairly fun WW2 fps game with some modesty is now a tattered wreck of bugs crappy reskined weapons and ugly ugly maps that they keep calling inovative (dare I mention apple?). Lets see where this goes.

#2

Dangerous thread.

However, I will partake.

This problem you describe, were things are taken too far and way off the original idea that they become a complete mess, is common throughout more things than I would like.

For instance, I am an avid cyclist, I love to bike off-road and on-road (bit less fun but still, I appreciate it). The cycling industry is an absolute disgrace. The whole “Bicycle” design is built on marketing and not R&D, sure there is R&D involved but they no longer build things to improve them, they now build them purely to sell them. Of course this has always been a factor involved when “invented” and “innovating” new ideas, now it is all they are concerned about.

Some examples would be the new fad that are “Fat Bikes”, which were designed specifically to tackle deep snow and muddy conditions, these types of bikes were used throughout Russia for decades, they have recently came to light in the UK.

The original design consisted of 3-4.5 inch wide rims, with a rigid frame (no front or rear suspension), this was a design choice for pedal efficiency over soft terrain. Now, this is probably the “cheapest” fat bike I have seen, which in all honestly has barely £300 worth of actual components on it. Why is it so expensive? Because they feel like it, it’s hyped up to the point people are willing to pay hands over for shit like this.

This is the design the industry is aiming for now, notice the $5000 price tag. Although the bike has around £1800-2000 worth of components, the rest itself is just the frame. But as soon as you start paying over £3000, it’s impossible to get a garbage bike.

The entire industry is like this, it’s got to the point now that the whole original design of whatever a bike used to be, is getting lost in what these people call “advancements in technology”.

Aluminium replaced steel, high end bikes are using carbon. I have ridden a carbon mountain bike and I would never ride one again, it might be light but you can feel it flex and the bike gives you very little feedback.

Hell, you can buy a Di2 Groupset for £2000, full electric gears. Or, you could just not be an idiot and buy the XT set at a fraction of the price (which btw, is considered high end).

Gone too far.

#3

Sharia isn’t Islam. It’s tribal law.

#4

Will just leave this here, again.

#5

Comparing DLC to terrorism?

#6

Terrorism and religion are very touchy subjects, hence I will not comment on that.

However, I will comment on the philosophy embraced by AAA developers.

I think DLC from AAA developers can be compared pretty well to the college professors with publish-or-perish. In both instances, people make sacrifices to do what makes them money or keeps their job. Professors must publish often and if they put teaching too much higher than publishing, then they suffer. AAA developers must keep making games and new profit to preserve their companies.

This puts AAA developers in a bad position, because a good new game will often take years to make, but profit margins need to stay high enough to keep the company making profit. This means that they either lose profit or they squeeze more money out of a game by tweaking it and releasing that or producing DLC. I could only imagine (because I don’t consider myself one) that with indie developers the stress is not as bad because it involves a small team needing salaries versus hundreds of people needing salaries.

Even though I don’t like DLC or tweaking games and releasing the new version, I do think people need to also look at it from a business perspective and profit margins.

#7

Yer I didnt put my meaning very well in this , it was supposed to be how I came onto thinking about games going to far not a religious arguement :-\

#8

ANYTHING a government or the media EVER talks about.

Once upon a time everyone talked about the H5N1 epidemic and Tamiflu was sold like hotcakes. Years later the highest death toll was like 100 deaths A YEAR GLOBALLY.
Basically the government and media will twist every piece of information to their advantage; in the case of media its revenue and in case of government its political.
The islamic extremists issue is of course no exception.

#9

I guess interminable COD sequels and RL holy wars both boil down to the same aspect of base human nature, or specifically that of young men, i.e. the desire to solve all problems by simply killing everybody else, ideally with a big penis substitute gun, and with a minimum of thought required to understand the pretext.

As an aside it always makes me sad to see people with a vested interest in videogames citing “proof” that brutal violence on screen doesn’t encourage violence in real life, when at least to my eyes, the link’s as clear as day :-\