Oh I see. Sorry for the off-topic response then!

It’s a shame that multiplayer games really struggle with paid models these days. It heavily cut into a player base if things aren’t free to play. That kind of forces all but the biggest releases to turn to other monetization models in order to keep the base game free.

I think it’s tough with card games because they come from a physical form of lootboxes. Being expensive is kind of baked into their lineage. Collecting cards is a big part of the fun, and if you made it very easy to do I think it’s hard to say whether people would enjoy them as much.

I don’t play any collectible card games anymore because I don’t want to pay for it anymore, but there is something very entertaining about the model even if it’s easy to argue it’s a scummy business model by today’s standards.

I haven’t looked into this game beyond your description, but it does sound like a pretty weird model. Do you also have to pay for cards on top of that?

I remember kind of disliking the arena system in hearthstone because I liked the game mode a lot, but as a casual player it was really hard to get to play it much. I guess they wanted to keep people from spending all their time there since you didn’t need to buy cards to play. I much preferred magic arena’s drafts where you pay an upfront cost but get to keep all the cards you played with. Much more accessible for casual players and more satisfying, too, since you always get something out of it.

And by core business they mean their ad platform presumably.

You’ve sent me down a rabbit hole with these. Super cool!

Are there others of these for different games? As far as I can see some of the connection types in the legend never appear (or I’m just blind)

I think it’s a really important question though, and one that bears repeating again and again. AI was built on a complete disregard for consent, and that continued disregard makes it all very unconscionable.

I definitely agree with this too

My opinion is that if your data or work is within an AI training set you should be given free access to any tools using that data. That’s only fair considering these companies also think everything should be free for them to take.

This is a key factor. It’s not possible to avoid being in their system at this point unless you live under a rock.

I absolutely love online lunatics like this (and also they have way too much time on their hands 😅). Gaming wouldn’t be the same without 'em.

Well you see, they wrote the articles with AI.

I’ve only ever played 3 and I really liked it when I did. Sad that one doesn’t get talked about much cause the art style is my favorite of the whole series I think.

It definitely had its fair share of batshit insane puzzles, but overall it’s a great game.

No no no, see, your voice is only valuable for a one time sale these days. Stop being greedy! /s

I think most do and it’s a good way to look at it. There are definitely companies out there that people don’t think of as indie that are technically independent, so I just wanted to mention it. It’s still very cool to hear they’ve surpassed triple a!

It’s worth noting that indie is a pretty wide tent. Some studios are technically indie but they’re working with practically AAA budgets.

Definitely check out the myst remake, as it has modern movement available (and it’s gorgeous). These two games are basically puzzle game masterpieces and remembered so fondly for a reason. Hope you enjoy them. 🙂

Thanks for the ramble!

Would there be any interest (or does it already exist) for a community dedicated to indie shoutouts? I picture somewhere specifically for fans and devs to call attention to good games without marketing budgets or their own work in the case of devs.

There’s been ads in Google for over a decade now.

Same, never had this happen and I’ve also been in the woods many times.