It's the internet. Pure and simple.

EDIT: The internet isn't pure and simple. The explanation is!

I don't think it's a matter of games being interactive. It's a matter of having to interact with other people. Video games didn't just get birthed around the same time of the internet -- modern video games are deeply integrated with the internet through online play. In some alternate reality where only single player games existed, I don't think we'd be seeing as widespread issues (or just look back at the early days of video games before the internet existed -- there wasn't such a thing as being a "gamer" back then). It's basically the worst aspect of internet culture seeping into gaming culture (i.e. being able to be a dick in anonymity from the comfort of your couch/desk).

Wonderfully weird.

i'd never steer you wrong, gimmy

Great song.

This seems to be aimed at consumers, not developers.

Fixed!

trivia, what is this:

an anti-gravity device can prevent objects from succumbing to the force of gravity, and allows them to float several feet above the ground.

The device uses electro-magnetic force-fields, projected around atomic nucleii to repel the falling objects, allowing them to maintain their altitude. At low distances these electric forces are greater than gravitational force, and can arrest the falling motion.

It's probably past the point of dialogue when they've already filed for bankruptcy.

Which begs the question of how/why Desura is still selling games after declaring bankruptcy with nowhere stating on their site what has happened?

https://twitter.com/Iron_Spike/status/607950367268012032 kickstarter deliver again

This is kinda interesting since I always assumed that Uwe Boll was pretty much in on the joke. But he seems genuinely pissed and surprised that people didn't shower him in free cash on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, making me think that he completely buys into his own bullshit.

Also, Boll should make an adaptation of Hatred. That game was made for him to adapt.

I partly agree. But there's definitely room for improving Steam's refund system.

They should make it so that Steam cards don't unlock until the 2 hours (or 14 days) have passed or you actively click a "I don't want a refund" button.

Dev tweeted that it's due to refunds. 72% sales were refunded. That must suck.

However, the dev had a 50% off sale that ended on June 1st, right when sales dropped. He says that he hasn't seen a similar drop between previous sales, but that's not entirely true. This chart the dev tweeted shows that sales (outside of Steam sales) were, of course, already going down and nearing zero (I added the red line):



Refunds certainly had an effect (it's a new system that people are trying out/it's a short game with Steam cards), but it's most definitely exasperated by coming right after a 50% off sale and being a game that's nearing the end of its cycle.

Hope nobody's getting hurt too bad by this.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/06/05/desura-bankruptcy-bad-juju-games/

so no it's not going to ban people who abuse this system by occasionally buying a 2 hour game, enjoying it, and then refunding it

You're right that they probably won't ban accounts, but their rules clearly state that:

Abuse

Refunds are designed to remove the risk from purchasing titles on Steam—not as a way to get free games. If it appears to us that you are abusing refunds, we may stop offering them to you.

You can speculate all you want that Steam won't do anything, but that's all that is, speculation. The rules make it pretty clear that they won't accept people abusing the system by asking for too many refunds.

Again, I think you're all making too big of a deal out of this. If you truly believe that your potential future customers will seize any chance of cheating you out of your $15, maybe making games isn't the right line of business for you? And I'm not saying that to be snarky, I truly think that you should all have a bit more faith in your customers if you want to sell games.

Could easily abuse of this system.

And then you'd likely get your Steam account closed. I don't get why everybody here is so up in arms about this (except for the obvious reason that we're developers more than we're gamers). Do you honestly think that Steam would just let you constantly get refunds without there being some consequence?

And the people talking about this increasing the risk of piracy. No it doesn't. If your game was going to get pirated, this changes absolutely zilch.

This is good for developers in the long run as it will increase consumer confidence. Right now there's this whole "wait for a Steam sale" thing going on. If people know that they can get a refund if the game is horribly buggy on release (like a bunch of AAA games were this and last year), they're more likely to take a chance and buy at full price on release.

The amount of people that would abuse this system is completely insignificant in comparison to the long-term benefits of having consumer-friendly refund policies. Steam is just getting with the program and following in the footsteps of EA's Origin -- which, as far as I know, hasn't suffered rampant abuse.

Yeah, that looks pretty darn good!

[he always wanted to make something similar but much more serious and creepy]

It isn't good satire, but it definitely is.

None of the interviews I've read with the developers imply or suggest that they were going for satire -- quite the opposite in fact. I think it's just so completely tone deaf and juvenile that it involuntarily comes off as satire.

Like this interview: http://www.entertainmentbuddha.com/hatred-interview-a-calm-talk-with-destructive-creations/

Our CEO is a huge fan of the first Postal game, and he always wanted to make something similar but much more serious and creepy, just a misanthropic, sad and evil creation. So he came up with the idea one day, and here we are.

Hatred gives you a totally different gaming experience from the games you are used to playing nowadays. You play as a bad character who hates everyone. It’s a dark misanthropic twin-stick shooter in isometric view. Not many games like that are seen every day. It’s a great shooting fun with various types of free roam locations. A great physics and a lot of destruction will give you a great time there!

That definitely doesn't read like they were going for satire.

Or this one: http://www.polygon.com/2014/10/17/6994921/hatred-the-polygon-interview

Why did you decide to make a graphically intense game about killing innocent people?

"The answer is simple really. We wanted to create something contrary to prevailing standards of forcing games to be more polite or nice than they really are or even should be.

"Yes, putting things simply, we are developing a game about killing people. But what's more important is the fact that we are honest in our approach. Our game doesn't pretend to be anything else than what it is and we don't add to it any fake philosophy.

Yeah, they were definitely not going for satire with this game.

I think it was originally titled Hotline Moscow or something, but they changed the name after getting contacted by Devolver Digital. Copying game mechanics and style isn't really illegal, since you can't copyright that, but you can trademark a name, and Hotline Moscow was clearly infringing.

Looks like they're just going with the bad ending? Or some more shit went down in the intervening 20 years? The Ethereals did talk about them wanting to prepare mankind for the real threat, so beating the Ethereals may have doomed us?

The Advent website is all about people mysteriously disappearing, so I guess the Unification and Advent are a front and the aliens are experimenting on the populace in secret?