I’d love to see more developers with this attitude.

Atmosphere? Love it. Dread? Great! Darkness? Tolerable. Jump Scare? No thank you.

Jump scares are like the fart jokes of horror. Cheap thrills, low craftsmanship, and turns people off of the market.

And that’s not to say I don’t appreciate the occasional jump scare. They can be tastefully made, or used sparingly. Less is often more with these, and it helps add to the tension knowing it might come up again. But if they’re just non stop they lose their payoff quickly.

Funny enough, I find taking the stuff out of the fridge is harder than putting it all back. I could be making much better sandwiches if I’d just dig the stuff out of the fridge.

I’ve actually heard a fairly common motivation tip is to not tell people when you’ve started a new project or healthy habit.

Some people believe that sharing the news with people is what ultimately gives you the feelgood chemicals, and then suddenly you have less desire to do the thing.

I don’t think this is to say that you shouldn’t share your accomplishments. In fact, if you struggle with perfectionism, you might never think that you’re totally finished a project. But if you’re in the tenuous first stages of a new activity, it might benefit you to wait until things are a little more concrete before sharing the fun stuff.

I agree that it’d be nice if they depreciated in value like in the days of physical media.

In those days though, the store only has a certain amount of shelf space. So in that sense it makes sense that they depreciated because a new game is always going to have a higher perceived value.

Digital storefronts don’t have that problem. The game can be shared infinitely without accruing a ton of publishing costs. There’s always more shelf space.

In this sense, there’s no financial motivation to depreciate. And we all know the social responsibility of big companies will be to only do what they’re forced to do.

We often feel games ought to depreciate because that’s how it’s always been. But just because that’s how it’s always been doesn’t mean that’s how it always will be.

Battlefield is an interesting case though where each game in the franchise is highly derivative of the previous game. So if each new game is essentially an upgrade of the previous one, then I’d agree that there should be an expectation that the older version is less expensive.

The same could be said about many of the giant titles. Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, and most major sports games come to mind.

One final thing to think of is that many games have continuing development. It’s basically the early access model (a whole other can of worms), and you could argue that many of these games appreciate in value. Some notables have - Factorio comes to mind.

I don’t think Battlefield 2042 falls into that category though

I’ve done a couple rounds in therapy, and in coming with that there’s a lot of reading and learning about psychology.

One of the concepts that keeps coming up is that the patient will often resist the treatment - even when they’re directing their treatment themselves.

Part of the reason for this is that the brain ultimately wants to keep you safe. However what’s safe isn’t necessarily what’s good for you. The brain craves repetition on a subconscious level because repetition is familiar and familiar is safe.

So if you’re in a bad mood, particularly if you’re in a bad mood all the time, on some level subconsciously you want to be in a bad mood.

Another way to look at it might be that if you’re already feeling bad, you have fewer mental resources to deal with. If your already in a position of scarcity, it can be difficult to come up with the motivation to change your attitude

Discounts on games creates a sense of urgency in the buyer, as most discounts are temporary. Since discounts are often shown on the front page of a storefront, it gets a lot of eyeballs on it. If someone’s wishlisted the game then they’ll even usually get a direct notification.

Another way to look at it is that the game is always available at the full price. But if you’re a patient gamer then you can expect to get a lower price eventually.

Depending on how much discretionary income you have, you might be forced to wait for a sale. Or the difference in price might be no object to you. Or you may have to hoist the black flag.

Something else to consider is that the perceived value of the game differs from buyer to buyer. If I’m a big fan of a niche genre, I might be willing to spend more on a weird game than the average user. A $30 game might be worth it for me, but you might only think it’s worth $20

And more to that point, it’s extremely difficult to nail down the exact value of a game. What honestly separates a $12 game from a $15 game when they both offer a unique experience?

Anyway, all this to say, I don’t think having sales on games is strictly a predatory thing. Sometimes a discount is the only way you’ll get eyeballs on your game, or a way to reach more of the market that wouldn’t have otherwise bought your game.

I do agree that modern AAA prices are out there. I don’t pay very much for games now, and usually AAA prices me right out of the market

I love to see They Bleed Pixels on this list. It’s an adorable game that got me into frustratingly difficult action platformers.

I’m not sure how I feel about captive trophy hunting. On the one hand, these animals live to die (don’t we all?). On the other, I have to imagine larger healthy trophies are more valuable, so the animals are probably leading a healthy life.

But if you’re the kind of person who has to murder a captive animal in order to possess something to display, then I have to wonder if you missed the point of trophy hunting.

Did anybody else have parents who made too much money to qualify for student loans, but never put away money for college?

That carpet - I can’t tell if it’s some kind of noodle or if it’s the profane sigils of the deep old outer dark

I’m feeling similarly about Sinking City 2.

The realities of game development are already fraught with risk, and that’s before you add violence to the equation. It’s pretty sad thinking of the games that won’t ever get made

I’m fighting for my life here, I need my payday to look as fancy as possible

Paycheque: Arrives

Bills: Yoink!

Yeah, my city has street sweepers and gardeners, so I wouldn’t imagine this would be a huge problem.

They could even put out compost bins like public trashcans. I wouldn’t mind cleaning up a couple of fruits here and there as I walk by.

If it’s in a public place in front of businesses and such, then the business has an incentive to keep things tidy. So all in all, I think it’s a fairly easy problem to solve.

Early is on time, and on time is late

Woe betide the child that jumps off a cliff with a bucket of water

I see “Lemmings” a lot and fairly like that

These boots were made for fuckin’

And that’s just what they’ll do

One of these days these boots

are gonna fuck all over you… 🎶

When a veterinarian puts you down you know you’re in trouble