J Todd Coleman

My Apple Vision delay rumor take: After Meta's Orion revealed, there is a chance Apple recognized a longer term adjust was needed. It isn't just that there is a delay but I suspect leadership changed alongside AI incorporation alongside pointing toward a different product altogether. That M5 chip might have Apple Intelligence implications. We can see with Meta that there is a shift toward App Store models. If Android XR arrives in 2025 there will be two Android based storefronts fighting for the market. Meta and Google. Vision OS as a platform will remain but the M5 rumored model will possibly have local AI assistive capabilities. Meaning it works regardless of connectivity. In a world where Apple can know that two competitors will battle for market they might watch and build. This is very on brand. I hate that the cheaper model delay rumor has hit, but the overall business strategy unfortunately makes sense to me. Vision Pro is my favorite headset. I love it. But it had major issues... - Way too expensive - Comfort and weight - Interactive gaming oversight This put the Quest market at such a high value proposition in comparison. To Meta's huge credit! And fostering a gaming platform that works well for games has allowed for technological innovation and proven so many concepts. Meta did this very well. For Apple to catch up in gaming, it would take at least a year or two giving funds to devs to port because they would need to focus their IP for hand tracking use on a platform that is very small. This puts us in unrealistic territory. The push to 2027 makes sense if we see them going back toward a puck compute design. My suspicion is Orion hype's impact on financial industry was noted. We are seeing down wind shifts of these tactical adjustments. For developers, this means being realistic. Apple Vision Pro is amazing tech but look toward Meta XR and perhaps the incoming Android XR likely coming in 2025. Familiarity in all XR platforms is key. 🫡

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Come learn about Xsolla's strategies to improve your mobile games revenue.

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More #videogamelaw talk! You now know why #Roblox’s autopay function doesn’t always work for buying and selling percentages in Roblox games.   Let’s start with some solutions to the “cost and expense” problem.   The cost and expense problem: autopay pays out all revenue, minus only Roblox platform fees. So you can’t use it for sharing profits.   Let’s say you have a partner, and you want to split all costs, revenues, etc.    If you set your partner on 50% autopay, they’re getting overpaid, since they’re not sharing in the costs.    They’re getting 50% of revenue (minus only Roblox fees), but not paying 50% of the other costs (like development and marketing costs).    A potential solution!   Instead of doing a 50/50 split, you agree to be responsible for all costs except #Roblox fees.    But to make that work, you have to adjust the autopay (revenue) split.   So, using our example, if you know that costs are going to be 10%, you would agree in advance to be set at 55% on autopay, and your partner would be set at 45%. So let’s say the game generates $100k in revenue a month. Autopay will pay you $55k (55%) and your partner $45k (45%). Since you are responsible for costs (10%), your share is reduced to $45k.   Voila! It still nets out to a 50/50 deal! But what if you don’t know what the costs are going to be? Using this solution, someone might get a windfall. For example, what if you agree to pay for costs because you think costs will be 10%, so you agree to set autopay at 55% (you) / 45% (your partner). But it turns out that costs are actually 25%. Now it is no longer a net 50/50 deal. Using the $100k revenue example, on autopay, you get $55k (55%) and your partner gets $45k (45%). But then you have to pay 25% for costs ($25k). Thus, you keep only $30k and your partner keeps $45k. Now its no longer a 50/50 deal. The reverse can also be true. If costs are less than projected, the partner taking on the costs could get a windfall. For example, you think costs are going to be 10%, the other partner agrees to pay those costs, so you agree to set autopay 55% (the cost-paying partner) / 45% (you). But it turns out costs are only 4%. Now that partner is making more money. He gets $55k (55% autopay) minus $4k (costs) so keeps $51k.  You only get $45k. One way to think of it is risk allocation. Who is going to take on the cost risk? And who is in the best position to assess that risk? One partner may know more about costs than the other. And also consider incentives. If one party has to pay all the costs, he’ll be incentivized to keep costs down.  That could be bad. Maybe he’ll skimp on development and marketing costs so he can pocket more money.   All of a sudden this solution doesn’t seem so great. Well, it could be good in some cases, but in others it might not work. So if this doesn’t work, what should you do? Tune in next time!   #Robloxlaw #RobloxDev #RBXDev #gamedev #indiegame #indiedev #IndieGameDev #MarkowitzHerbold

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Game History: Nintendo, SimCity, & Will Wright in 1989. In best 'Dr Evil' voice, "we want SimCity for... one million dollars" ----- "Building SimCity: How to Put the World in a Machine (Chaim Gingold) Date: June 4, 2024 Publisher: The MIT Press MIT Press: https://lnkd.in/gbKr73Np "Building SimCity: How to Put the World in a Machine" Paperback – June 4, 2024 Amazon: https://lnkd.in/g2qZe7HR ----- "Dr. Wright is the player's personal adviser in the Super Nintendo version of SimCity. He is based on game designer Will Wright. He has also appeared as trophies in Super Smash Bros Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl." Fan Wiki: https://lnkd.in/gyjNxUp4 ----- PCGamer: "In 1989, a Nintendo bigwig licensed SimCity on the spot by sliding a million dollar check across the table" "The road to SimCity's SNES port began with a 1989 meeting so vividly of its time that it almost sounds like it was invented for one of those recent period dramas about a product's origins, like Air or BlackBerry. As told in Building SimCity, a new book which chronicles the legendary simulation series, the deal was made in the summer of 1989 after Maxis co-founder Jeff Braun got a call from Nintendo informing him that designer Shigeru Miyamoto wanted SimCity on Nintendo's console. As author Chaim Gingold tells it, Miyamoto had "imagined a game where players created their own world," and after discovering SimCity, wanted to "put his own stamp on it." The very next day, Braun flew to Nintendo's US headquarters in Redmond, Washington to meet with Nintendo of America chairman Howard Lincoln and president Minoru Arakawa. According to Gingold, Lincoln made the following offer: Nintendo would handle the port, Maxis would get $1 royalty per SimCity cartridge sold, and if Braun signed immediately, Lincoln "would also slide over a check—a signing bonus for $1 million." (That's over $2.5 million in today's money.) Braun said yes, and a few months later, he and SimCity designer Will Wright flew to Kyoto where they were "welcomed as family and treated like royalty," according to Gingold's book—the three are pictured in Kyoto in the photo above, republished here courtesy of Braun. Wright spent a week working with Miyamoto on ideas for SimCity's console adaptation, and Miyamoto took the Americans out each evening, including on an excursion to play pachinko. This visit was also the origin of "Dr Wright," a green-haired character who acts as a player adviser in SimCity's Nintendo version. Miyamoto was known to fans as "Dr Miyamoto," and according to Gingold, "Nintendo knew the value of a good character and had clearly met one in Wright, whose unsettlingly wide-ranging expertise and taste for the absurd inspired the professorial yet whimsical 'Dr Wright,' a manga-style homage Wright was honored to accept." Dr Wright didn't only appear in SimCity: He's made Cameos in Smash Bros and two Zelda games." PCGamer: https://lnkd.in/gAN62JEW #gamehistory #nintendo #maxis #willwright

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So people wonder how Activision could do mass layoffs while also funding or buying studios. Well it's really easy. Large public companies rarely think about an overall staffing pool except when doing layoffs. Activision already has a Call of Duty support studio in Poland. Now they had the opportunity fund and own a studios based around ex-CDPR Cyberpunk developers and similar. They didn't think twice, nor did they try to equate this to layoffs at Blizzard. These M&A and funding discussions are made regardless of cuts elsewhere. Further this isn't about shifting development costs to Eastern Europe. There has been continuous development on Cyberpunk 2077 for 10 years. That has ended. People will leave. New studios will start. This is a healthy process. This is publishing spend to acquire not some cost cutting measure. Activision is doing just fine. They're not reducing costs, they're reducing staff in areas where things hadn't been working out, like Blizzard. This isn't nice, it's business. And Activision has always been ruthless. ----- DigitalTrends: Activision forms studio to develop new narrative-driven franchise" (Carli Velocci) (May 16, 2024) Activision is known as the Call of Duty publisher, but now it’s trying something different. The company announced Thursday that it’s formed a new internal studio called Elsewhere Entertainment that is dedicated to developing a “new narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise.” An official blog post notes that Elsewhere is a “standalone studio” inside the company and headquartered in Warsaw, Poland. It’s employing a number of games industry veterans who’ve worked on franchises like Uncharted, Cyberpunk, Destiny, and others. According to LinkedIn, this includes Michal Madej, who worked on the original Witcher at CD Projekt Red and has been with Activision for the past few years. He’s currently listed as a game director. The post also states that the goal is to “craft a franchise with an enduring legacy that resonates far beyond games.” While the post doesn’t go into detail, this seems to imply that the IP could potentially be used for a TV show or film. This would go along with the success of many recent video game adaptations, such as the Fallout show, also owned by Activision Blizzard’s parent company Microsoft. Elsewhere’s announcement comes at a rocky time in the video game industry, with numerous layoffs and studio closures. Even Microsoft hasn’t been exempt. Just last week, the company shut down Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, and Alpha Dog Studios — all ZeniMax Media properties that were acquired in 2021. Earlier this year, Microsoft laid off 1,900 workers from Activision Blizzard and Xbox while also canceling a known but mostly unannounced survival game from Blizzard." DigitalTrends: https://lnkd.in/gYnVPVHy #gameindustry #activision #gamelayoffs #gameexpansion #mna

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Small productivity hacks for employers: when planning capacity for a new project, factor in "shrink." Shrink is a common operational / call centre metric that basically allows you to account for all the expected(and unexpected) unproductive time when a service rep won't be available to take calls - think: training, lunches, breaks, headaches, random things that come up but you can't think of right now. I hope managers never assume someone will be productive 100% of the time. So you figure out what 100% output would look like and then deduct shrink from that. Doing that gives you a more accurate sense of what you can accomplish with your bandwidth without setting false expectations and burning out your team. It creates a buffer in your operations. It also creates a sense of trust with your team, which will see you as a leader who really cares about them. Because now they know: - they can take care of their sick child,  - or they can go to the vet with their pet, - or they can even study new things that help them evolve professionally or personally, and still get their things done great, on time and schedule. If you want productivity, you must first understand people. Real leaders know that goals are hit when people are happy. They prioritise people over profits. This means you need to: - create a safe work environment  - respect their personal life - build a growing context - offer flexible work - give a fair pay. In other words, you need to step up for them. And you know who will benefit the most from this? Working Parents. #whatifthingsgoright

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Embracer announced a split into three companies and the structure is wonky and arbitrary It is like the person who designed it doesn't track the publishing structures of other game publishing companies, or analyze why. Basic breakdown: (1) Asmodee Group - Boardgame group, physical games. (2) Coffee Stain & Friends - PC Indie Game Group (Single A to Double A), also Mobile F2P, and PC MMOGs. (THQ Nordic) (3) Middle Earth & Friends - PC/Console (Triple A), plus Middle Earth license & Dark Horse Comics. (Deep Silver) The split doesn't make sense to me. It should be: (1) Boardgames - physical manufacturing & distribution. (2) PC/Console Games - budgets: Triple I, Single A, Double A, Triple A, Quadruple A. (3) Mobile Games - F2P is different in development, publishing, marketing, monetization, user acquisition, live service, advertising, & handles both original IP and licenses differently. (4) Transmedia IP - game IP licensing & interfacing with Hollywood & media companies across: film, tv, animation, comics, books, and games. ----- Game Developer: "Embracer splitting into three standalone companies to search for 'winning formulas'. 'Rather than imposing conformity on thriving businesses, we should foster an environment that amplifies existing success.'" "Embracer said the three companies will be Asmodee Group (tabletop games publisher and distributor), Coffee Stain & Friends (indie, mid-market and free-to-play games), and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends (top game developer, owning The Lord of the Rings, Tomb Raider and other IP)" "--The group will be split into three new businesses: Asmodee, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends. --Coffee Stain & Friends is billed as a 'diverse gaming entity' that will focus on indie and A/AA console and PC titles. --Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends will become Embracer's triple-A 'powerhouse' and will seek to leverage key IPs." "Coffee Stain & Friends will operate under two distinct segments: Premium and Free-to-play. Those premium console and PC operations will include studios like Coffee Stain, Ghost Ship, Tarsier, Tuxedo Labs, as well as THQ Nordic and Amplifier Game Invest. It will also comprise franchises such as Deep Rock Galactic, Goat Simulator, Satisfactory, Wreckfest, Teardown, Valheim, as well as more than 200 other IPs. "Free-to-play operations will include Easybrain, Deca, CrazyLabs and Cryptic. Intellectual properties include Sudokucom, Blockudoku, Jigsaw Puzzle and many other IPs," added Embracer. "Key published free-to-play games based on licensed IPs include Star Trek Online and D&D Neverwinter Online." 'Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends' will be split off to develop "immersive world-class entertainment IPs, including the iconic Lord of the Rings, leveraging in-house triple-A capabilities and formidable partnerships." It will also feature key video game studios." Game Developer: https://lnkd.in/gqcmpYTY #gameindustrybiz #gamepublishing #gamedev #embracer

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Ruminations on Mythos: The term is not "cinematic universe". Cinematic universe means one is making shared IP films. Mythos is the correct term. Myth·os - (in literature) "a traditional or recurrent narrative theme or plot structure". A mythos is a fictional universe for stories by one writer or many that has a consistency of characters, setting, events, style, and world. The Cthulhu Mythos is one of the best known examples. 78 writers have contributed to HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos over the past 96 years (1928-2024). While HP Lovecraft was alive, a circle of writers contributed to the Cthulhu Mythos including: August Derleth, RE Howard, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, Donald Wandrei, and Clark Ashton Smith. Many more added to the mythos after his death. They wrote stories in the shared universe of the Cthulhu Mythos. That is a mythos. Or one can just give a name to the universe that one creates. JRR Tolkien - Middle Earth, Terry Brooks - Shannara, CS Lewis - Narnia, George RR Martin - The Song of Fire and Ice, Fritz Leiber - Nehwon, RE Howard - The Hyborian Age, Larry Niven - Known Space Universe. Writers do this all the time, alone or together. Now if game creatives build the consistency of a mythos around their work, like with Halo, Resident Evil, and others, then the pitch process to publishers or consumers is different. One understands the basics of Assassin's Creed, Dead Space, Mass Effect, or Dragon Age. One knows what to expect not just for sequels but for different games around different characters in different genres in the same world setting. Fallout is more mythos than just IP. By contrast, Mario is more an IP than a mythos. Interestingly Mario as an IP has done more genre shifts than is often done with an IP that is a Mythos. The Legend of Zelda is more mythos than Mario, but in one genre. Mario is many genres in one world setting or IP. ---- VideoGameChronicle: "Dave the Diver’s creator wants to create a ‘Dave cinematic universe’ of games. Jaeho Hwang reveals future games will explore different characters and genres" “Actually, I want to expand Dave the Diver IP itself,” Hwang said, when asked what the future holds for Mintrocket. “I think that’s every director’s dream, since we have a relatable character. “But actually, we didn’t go really deep into the personal stories in Dave the Diver, because we wanted to keep the game very casual. “So as a director, besides the story DLC that we’re working on right now, I also want to make separate games about each character to show how they met, what they did before coming to the Blue Hole. “In that sense, the games’ genres can be different. Maybe one day, if we start to make a Dave’s backstory game, we could make Dave another profession. Hwang said he wants to flesh out the Dave the Diver story by telling the backstories of both its protagonist, and main side characters." VideoGameChronicle: https://lnkd.in/gUs-d23W #gameindustry #gamedev #worldbuilding

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Frostpunk 2 from 11bit Studios is a success and a worry at the same time. These seem contradictory, but both of these things below are true. A success and a failure in different eyes with different metrics. The game sold 350k units on Steam at launch weekend at $45 a unit which after the Steam 30% cut would have cleared about $10.5 million. It apparently paid back the development budget. But shareholders are worried about how much profit will the title make over time. Concurrency and player activity is important. Public shareholders and venture investors want a breakout success not a moderate one. This is the risk of going to investors (public/retail or venture and strategics). The bar gets set higher. Concurrency predicts long tail and long term sales. Even for single player. People don't want to understand this, but the market already knows it. ----- Metacritic PC 84% Metacritic: https://lnkd.in/gP5EHxch ----- SteamCharts Frostpunk 2 Steamcharts: https://lnkd.in/gw8gd4ze ----- PCGamer: 'Melts our frozen-solid hearts': Frostpunk 2 devs celebrate 350,000 copies sold—covering the production and marketing costs" PCGamer: https://lnkd.in/gZMp62cC ----- Warsaw Business Journal: Frostpunk 2 did not meet market expectations. Stock collapsed for 11 bit studios" "The launch of Frostpunk 2 did not meet market expectations, leading to a more than 30% drop in the stock prices of 11 bit studios. Despite selling over 350,000 copies since its debut on September 20, investors anticipated better performance. Initial player peaks reached 35,500, lower than the expected 40,000, causing concerns Analysts have revised their price targets for the company significantly downward, anticipating that sales for the first month would be around 800,000 copies instead of the previously forecasted 1.4 million for 2024." Warsaw Business Journal: https://lnkd.in/gvSRzzKV ----- GameDeveloper: "Frostpunk 2 sells over 350K copies in opening weekend 11 Bit Studios declares Frostpunk 2 a success, says it's made back the money it spent developing and marketing the sequel." GameDeveloper: https://lnkd.in/ghNmCTcr ----- Reuters: "Shares of video game maker 11 bit studios slump after 'Frostpunk 2' release" (Adrianna Ebert) "Shares in 11 bit studios slumped 38% on Monday to the bottom of Poland's mid-cap index after the number of players of "Frostpunk 2" game failed to meet market expectations. Frostpunk 2, the sequel to BAFTA-nominated society survival city-builder "Frostpunk", was released on Friday evening. The highest number of concurrent players of the game on the Steam platform reached 35,533 on Saturday. "We expected a significantly higher players peak in the 80,000-100,000 range, so we consider 35.5k as a negative surprise," Erste Group analyst, adding that "relatively poor" ratings may also affect the purchasing decisions of players who have Frostpunk 2 on their wishlist. Reuters: https://lnkd.in/gAcjWAeC #gameindustry #gamedev #gamepublishing

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Highlighting: "Kushanel Donerson says her 14-year-old has played Call of Duty, NBA 2K, Grand Theft Auto V and Roblox games so much over the past nine years that it led to brain damage, a stroke and seizures. Jaclyn Angelilli says her 9-year-old has been playing many of the same video games “at an increasing and uncontrollable pace” since age 6 and has been diagnosed with multiple psychiatric disorders." ----- THIS IS NOT NORMAL PARENTING. Folks, sometimes parents are the problem. Parents who do not set limits, who give their kids access to adult content, and who watch problematic behavior and psychological (and psychiatric) issues developing and blame media... THOSE PARENTS ARE THE PROBLEM. So a parent is trying to sue multiple game publishers and platforms for the generalize notion that all games are addictive. This is straight out of the NRA playbook. I have zero support for this approach. Further that parent says that her 14 year old and her 9 year old have both been playing games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto V for several years. Her 9 year old has been playing GTAV online since 6 ?! What the bloody hell. No. Absolutely not. This is not normal. Do some parenting. Set limits. Set some media as off limits. Introduce the kids to other media. Play with your kids. talk to your kids. Guide your kids. Other parents do. Older siblings do. Engage and discuss your kids' content. Don't complain. Instead don't give them access. Want to raise issues of lootboxes, gacha and free to play mechanics? Got suckered into predatory 'web3' crypto gambling during the pandemic? Got sucked into GameStonk (and AMC) buying and selling on robinhood in 2021? Please complain. Sure. Let's talk. But blanketly suing Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, Fortnite, and Roblox? And maybe add in Take Two, EA, Ubi, Acti Bliz, and others just for the hell of it? Nope. That's NRA tactics. That is saying that ALL or ANY games ae addictive. This is parents blaming Games as a bogyeman. Just like parents blamed D&D, Rap, Rock, CCGs, and everything else they didn't like or understand. This is parents blaming games like South Park "blamed Canada". That doesn't fly. My mom bought me my first D&D redbox set as a kid. that helped get me into game dev. Games are not addictive anymore than TV, Film, Music, Animation, TTRPGs, CCGs, Boardgames, or XR. Games are a MEDIUM. Mediums are not addictive by necessity. Be better parents. Is chess addictive? Are books addictive? Is soccer/futbol addictive? Is painting addictive? Activities and mediums are not by their nature ever addictive. There is no legal ground to stand on here. Just scare tactics and demonization of games. ----- Blomberg: "Kids Hooked on Video Games Prompt a Flurry of Lawsuits. Attorneys for parents say publishers are addicting users and causing health issues like ADHD and depression." (Rachel Graf) (May 13, 2024) Bloomberg: https://lnkd.in/ezYtk67R #gameindustry #blamecanada #blamegame #nratactics #ignorance

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Generative AI Webinar next week with me and Peter Fodor, CEO of AppAgent, June 12, 2024 8am PST. We'll cover: 1) AI Pitfalls 2) What's Working Today 3) Keep Winning Ads Alive! 4) Expand Your Creative Matrix 5) Helpful AI Tools 6) Future of AI >>>> Register here: https://lnkd.in/gQvTDVmZ <<<< #generativeAI, #midjourney, #AIlimitations, #artificialintelligence, #webinar

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Generative AI Webinar next week with me and Peter Fodor, CEO of AppAgent, June 12, 2024 8am PST. We'll cover: 1) AI Pitfalls 2) What's Working Today 3) Keep Winning Ads Alive! 4) Expand Your Creative Matrix 5) Helpful AI Tools 6) Future of AI >>>> Register here: https://lnkd.in/gQvTDVmZ <<<< #generativeAI, #midjourney, #AIlimitations, #artificialintelligence, #webinar

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At Liquid and Grit, our hiring testing system was inspired by Van Halen's playbook. You might have heard of the infamous "no brown M&M's" clause in Van Halen's concert contracts. While it sounds like a frivolous demand, it actually served as a clever safety check to ensure that stagehands had read and followed every detail of the contract, ensuring the safety of the band, crew, and audience. Similarly, our tests always include a few intentional mistakes or omit key information. This was our way of testing a candidate's diligence and attention to detail. We want to hire people who aren't afraid to go the extra mile, do additional research, and find solutions to problems on their own. The candidates we end up hiring are the ones who spot the issues, fill in the missing information, and demonstrate their commitment to thoroughness. They understand that the devil is in the details and that small oversights can have big consequences. Just like Van Halen used brown M&M's as a warning signal, we use these hidden tests to identify the candidates who have the right mindset and work ethic to thrive in our company. It's not about catching people out, but about finding those pearls who will go above and beyond. #hiring #recruitingtips #attentiontodetail #vanhalenmethod

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I'm a massive Fallout fan. Going back to Wasteland, then the original Interplay Fallouts (FO1, FO2, Tactics), and into FO3 (still the best in the series, IMO -- don't waste your time talking to me about NV), etc. I've talked a lot about how FO3 was a big inspiration for TLD. So know that I am as big a fan as probably can be. I was really interested to hear from both gamer and non-gamer folks in my social circle who really bounced off of the Amazon series, due to what they described as the "extreme violence". This includes people who are fans of the game, and people for whom the TV series is their first entry point into the IP. I've only seen the first episode so far, but I have to say...I agree with them? It's very clear that Nolan/Joy are huge fans of the IP, and I know the show was developed under the watchful eye of Bethesda, as it should be. But IMO, they really missed the mark on the depiction of violence. It's massively overdone and 100% unnecessary. And I think it speaks to the challenges of adaptation from interactive to non-interactive media. Over-the-top violence is a hallmark of the Fallout IP, no question. Actually, I think it's fair to say that "OTT" is really the core pillar of the Fallout IP in general. There's a huge wink behind everything in the game. And you accept it, because you're the one pulling the trigger. You're the one choosing the "Bloody Mess" perk so you can see enemies literally explode (which I have to assume is an homage to Wasteland, and the "___ exploded like a blood sausage..." combat description). But this stuff just does not translate well to linear media. When we are playing games, we are immersed in those worlds, and we don't stop to think of how brutally violent we are in them, how casually we dispatch hundreds or thousands of enemies during the course of completing a game. We are desensitized to it in the game. And it's ok, because we know it's not real. It's part of the magic, part of the covenant we have between ourselves and the game. TV isn't real either. But it's made of the "real world". Amazon's Fallout is not animated or 3D, it's live-action. It's made of pieces of the world we live in. We can see ourselves in this violence. As OTT as the IP is, and as successful as the show has been so far, I personally feel that they missed the mark with the depiction of violence. I think they have unnecessarily alienated folks who would have otherwise really enjoyed the show. (And yes, I know videogame violence doesn't translate to violence in the real world. I'm not talking about that.) I'll keep watching, but for me I wish Nolan/Joy and Bethesda had had the foresight to recognize that straight up adapting the level of violence in the game was not necessary for the adaptation to be successful. I don't think the game fans would have enjoyed it any less if the violence had been less graphic, and I think a lot of the folks who are newly discovering Fallout might have had a better experience with it.

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🌪 Fast Tips to Enhance User Feedback: Independent studios are often time and money restricted. One easy change that can instantly make a game better overall is to improve its user feedback. This involves providing immediate, clear, and satisfying responses to player actions. Here are (relatively) easy and inexpensive ways to enhance user feedback: 🎆Visual Effects: Add particle effects, animations, and screen shakes for significant actions or events, like scoring points or defeating an enemy. 🎵Sound Effects: Use high-quality sound effects for player actions, ambient sounds, and background music to create a more immersive experience. ✅HUD and UI: Ensure the user interface is intuitive and provides instant feedback for player inputs, like changing colors or highlighting buttons when interacted with. Also ensure rewards are clearly stated. 🎮Responsive Controls: Make sure controls are tight and responsive, so players feel directly connected to the game. Ensure players don’t ever feel like they are failing by “accident” ⚠️Feedback for Errors: Clearly indicate when and why something went wrong, helping players understand where they went wrong and empower them to improve their gameplay. Is there additional items I am missing or that should and could be added to the list?

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I'm supportive of this but doubtful of the leverage a strike has. The reality is that voice acting typically impacts the last 10% of a game development cycle. And if it is being used in as much as 50% of the game dev cycle, its probably due to non-union actors, either internal staff doing placeholder voices during dev or indie talent getting involved early on. Nothing much will change in game development, but this pressure on larger game publishers to negotiate is still a good thing. ----- GamesIndustryBiz: "SAG-AFTRA calls for a "video game strike", effective from tomorrow. "Frankly, it's stunning that these video game studios haven’t learned anything from the lessons of last year" "The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has called a strike, effective at 12.01am tomorrow (July 26). National executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, acting under the authority delegated by SAG-AFTRA, says the strike comes "after more than a year and a half of negotiations [about the Interactive Media Agreement] without a deal." The convenience bargaining group with whom SAG-AFTRA is negotiating includes Activision, Blindlight, Disney, Electronic Arts, Formosa Interactive, Insomnia, Llama Productions, Take 2 Productions, VoiceWorks Productions, and WB Games. SAG-AFTRA says it was campaigning to offer critical AI protections for members by asking "any game looking to employ SAG-AFTRA talent to perform covered work must sign on to the new Tiered-Budget Independent Interactive Media Agreement, the Interactive Media Agreement, or the Interim Interactive Localization Agreement." However, SAG-AFTRA claims that although agreements have been reached on "many issues important" to its members, "the employers refuse to plainly affirm, in clear and enforceable language, that they will protect all performers covered by this contract in their AI language." "The video game industry generates billions of dollars in profit annually. The driving force behind that success is the creative people who design and create those games," said Crabtree-Ireland. "That includes the SAG-AFTRA members who bring memorable and beloved game characters to life, and they deserve and demand the same fundamental protections as performers in film, television, streaming, and music: fair compensation and the right of informed consent for the AI use of their faces, voices, and bodies. "Frankly, it's stunning that these video game studios haven’t learned anything from the lessons of last year - that our members can and will stand up and demand fair and equitable treatment with respect to A.I., and the public supports us in that." (keep reading) GamesIndustryBiz: https://lnkd.in/gG4HpeK5 #gameindustry #gamedev #gamepublishing #strike #voiceacting #sagaftra

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