Europeans are a willing partner in American imperialism. When their imperial empires crumbled they lined up to be American imperialism beneficiaries and in the case of France, they’ve never stopped being a major imperial power it’s just decade after decade post-WW2 their coercive power have receded to shorter distances around the world. Europeans are most in denial over their own imperialism
Consoles are a closed off wasteland
I find this a bit entertaining especially hearing advertisers and executives occasionally vent on stuff like this. A huge portion of modern people especially the younger they are:
Besides the not going outside and problems that can arise from being in a social bubble, it’s all good stuff to me. For decades advertisers and businesses have optimized everything for selling products and now people are so desensitized to it to not care. Like no one actually cares about times square takeover advertisements anymore. It’s not a big deal.
“OMG it was advertised all over time square.” Responded with: “I live in Wichita.” “I live in India.” “I’m from NYC and tourist just look at them, they don’t read them. Fuck no I don’t read them. I don’t fuck with times square.”
It’s actually incredibly hard to advertise media now. Advertisements have to manage to seem organic or come off as predatory. So in comes the influencers but no influencer is as influential and trusted as a prime time advertisement before social media/YouTube went mainstream with people children to elderly. The vein to sell souless AAA/blockbuster media is busted
Back in 2009 I was a lot more naive and optimistic. I really believed Steam needed competition to improve and needed major competition. I was pretty excited to see Amazon doing a store and Microsoft doing Games for Windows Live (until I learned they were charging to play online multiplayer and had a 3 time install limit until you had to call support to get that reset). I was excited for EA Origin. I kept Impulse installed. The only store that got better was Steam. In the case of Origin and Uplay, they got worse. GFWL died and the Windows 8/10 Store was worse. EA never changed. GOG at least released GOG Galaxy. Amazon never improved. Desura died. Bethesda Game Launcher and Rockstar Club were trash since day one. Battle.net/Blizzard was stable but just Blizzard games and I think a CoD showed up one year. EGS came out without a shopping cart and no user reviews. Steam kept getting better
That just sounds dumb. Amazon has been selling digital PC games since 2009 and it’s just about the most bare bones digital PC games store out there. Luna from my testing has great quality but a puny library. For local download and install gaming, it’s barely any more convenient than like itch.io. It’s takes the top spot as the most comically poor run digital games platform across consoles, mobile, pc because they been at it for 17 years while being one of the worlds largest companies all that time that also happens to specialize in both physical goods and digital goods retail. It’s incredible how bad they are at this and how few people actually know that Amazon has been selling digital PC games for 17 years
Ya I’d definitely say the US is more violent but in Europe casual and institutional racism is more accepted in my opinion. Especially in regards to non-white non-black people though I have heard comical stories from black friends in Germany of entering bars and like a TV show damn near every stops and stares.
Europe is the current home of, say racist/stereotype based joke then when the other person is upset, act incredulous and be, “it’s just a joke loosen up. You people can’t take a joke.” There’s at least cultural push back for some decades to be aware of racism towards black people especially in terms of microagressions and institutional prejudice but that hasn’t had the attention for the various MENA, Asian and native Hispanic people. Spain though is a place for preference for American Hispanic white immigrants over African and middle eastern immigrants because of racism/colorism and islamaphobia. East/southeast Asian people prepare yourselves for slant eye jokes especially from the drunks and country folks.
It not may not be violent currently but it was in the past and racism and prejudice is a far bigger discussion in the former colonies of Europe in the Americas and Oceania than in Europe. And that plays a role in things like opportunities in media representation, upward mobility and where one is likely to cap out at in a company and in politics, expectations of pricing for services rendered. A whole lot of things that extend beyond violence. It will become more a discussion in various European countries as non-white and non-christian communities grow in them
And the violence of the US is no excuse for European racism both current and historic nor should it be used as attention cover for incidents in Europe especially when it does get violent. Europeans need to observe their own issues of racism and xenophobia rather than paying so much attention to the US. Same for Canadians, Australians, New Zealander, etc. It feels like the whole past 25 years I’ve been watching countries in Europe sliding closer and closer towards racist and xenophobic mainstream governance all the while the people left of center focus on American news rather than their own. It’s not just racism and xenophobia. It’s happening with mass surveillance and censorship. The current trend of, in opposition to Trump sabre rattling, Euro-washing marketing to sell products or push legislation
Racism and xenophobia isn’t new to Europe whether in the west or east. Especially not in soccer matches. I don’t know a year where racist chants weren’t a problem for non-white players in Europe. Don’t hear about it as much as before. If you’re not white, you will experience racism in Europe especially outside of the major cities with large historic immigrant populations and you’ll less likely have bystanders come to your defense compared to like in the US, Canada, Australia
Before Trump 1, I thought the neo-Nazi groups in Europe were better organized and closer to mainstream. Trump just gave the movements in the US a major boost. All the focus on the US is distracting leftist Europeans from their own internal decay. Even if national rally loses the next election in France, they’re seemingly getting closer each go around
And imperialism, marketing says Europe had some humanist epiphany in its period of decolonization, but that immediately ignores stuff like Algeria, Vietnam, Suez crisis. Stuff like French coups across the Sahel. Assassinations of leaders in Africa by former European colonial master countries. Assassination attempt on Iranian prime minister. Afghanistan in general since the end of the Durani empire. Sterilization of intuit people of Greenland. European nations haven’t been unwilling benefactors of American imperialism. It was a failure to maintain their own imperial power that had them volunteer to playing the gang leaders posse members
Large anti-immigration marches have been happening across numerous European countries for years now. They seem to be growing. In western Europe I recall Spain and Italy are standouts in terms of growing xenophobia with non-white immigrants and tourists
If available in your area, you should try out the 5g services. I use one and I play counter strike well and I get 200-300mbps down normally. When I got it, the first month was a trial period where you set it up and if it sucked, it was no charge. Plus sign up offee was good so look out for anything offered
I’ll wait for a complete version for like 75% off. It’s been almost 3 years of bad word of mouth. After the PS5 release, it shouldn’t be too long until that game falls to obscurity and stays relevant with deep discounts
That looks good. Will be fun to play what people make with it someday
I swear this is like the third date in the last ten years that is supposed to be the flashpoint year and it will probably pass like the previous. After 2027 it’ll be another year to try and get people hyped up for war
After Fallout 3’s success, they should have expanded into a multi team studio. By then they’d been a publisher and developer for like 20 years. Since then they became a major publisher owning studios like iD and Machine Games and then bought by MS in 2020. It took another like 15 years and a successful TV show to realize 15+ years between entries in a series is pretty inoptimal. It’s a pretty bad fostering of talent. Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Skyrim - there’s got to be at least a few people that worked on those games that could have succeeded leading development on a Bethesda style RPG
Whoa, end of 2027. I guess it’s not end of the world because really it’s just targeting the Windows store environment GDK so a specific dev kit isn’t a barrier to develop for it. It’s not like anyone’s going to optimize for the pillar Xbox Helix hardware. I’m betting it ends up being the lowest selling Xbox
Ubislop 2.0
PS5 will keep being a dust collector for me. Unplugged it once the ROM keys leaked. It may someday be useful as a normal PC
I’m interested in what levels of locked down it may be. Fully open software platform where I can install any OS on it. Maybe locked soley to Microsoft/Windows signed OS image. Open to install any software or only open to a selection of software stores so like Windows/Xbox store, Steam, EGS, etc. Expectations low. Microsoft and hardware devices have no consistent long term vision or identify so they keep pivoting strategies
Nice. It’s been ao long since the last game
Sweet. Favorite fighting game back on the OG Xbox. The only fighting game that I felt good button mashing
Checking the Steam forums, people say online required. There’s a to of ARPG these days recent and upcoming. Skipping
They’ve been doing a bad job of writing new stories. Fumbled it already with 4, 5, and Infinite. Maybe put enough time after Infinite for people to not groan as much as before about the next antagonist pivot