Ubisoft says another super dumb thing, yet again.

"Ubisoft's annual financial report includes claim that monetizing games with microtransactions 'makes the player experience more fun'"

I'll give them this much credit, I certainly have way more fun playing other games that aren't Ubisoft games, so I'm glad that they make the choice so easy for me by monetizing their "premium" games with microtransactions.

More seriously speaking, I guess they're not entirely wrong. Well, I mean they are wrong, because the whole damn thing is nothing but wrong. However, they wouldn't be putting all that horseshit in their games in the first place if people weren't spending oodles and oodles of money to buy it. So I guess somebody must think it's "worthwhile." The people who buy the shit are roughly on par with the people who sell the shit, as far as being the cause of the problem. But then, the fact that people still buy Ubisoft games at all is like... whatever. *spins finger around at side of head*

Saying "Our monetization offer within premium games makes the player experience more fun by allowing them to personalize their avatars or progress more quickly, however this is always optional," is completely asinine, though. But then, this was meant for sHaReHoLdErS.

"...or progress more quickly..." Selling worthless cosmetic crap is already bad enough, but they're admitting to literally selling the equivalent to cheat codes. Of course, it's not as if they're the first company to ever straight up sell as DLC what used to be cheat codes freely built into the game already, not by a long shot. Hell, it's not even the first time that Ubisoft themselves have done this bullshit.

"...however this is always optional." As owsf2000 first said probably a decade ago by this point, it's "optional" in the sense that, sure, you certainly don't have to buy the microtransactions... if you're willing to tediously grind for weeks or months on end. But assuming that you're a normal-ass person who doesn't want to waste your time doing that, then hey, guess what? Ubisoft has some "optional" microtransactions available to help you "progress more quickly" and speed up the process! In other words, the games are explicitly designed to be tiresome chores unless you cough up some (more) real world money to make the game you already paid for be less of a dreary slog to play. Isn't that "more fun"? *eye roll*

Come ooooonnnnn, modern video game industry crash. Come oooooooooonnnnnnnnnn, modern video game industry crash.

"Trump threatens to derail Washington Commanders' new stadium deal over team name"

Yet more frivolous, chaotic, (probably intentionally) distracting Donald Trump dumbfuckery.

(Via The Daily Cartoonist.)

"The industry filed false claims against the 'Stop Killing Games' initiative"

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"The 'Stop Destroying Videogames' initiative has received official accusations of it (and myself) of violating EU rules! These would be serious charges, except that they're false, using made up evidence. The industry is playing hardball now!"

---

"Anyway, the point here is that there is a lot of lying and shady stuff going on from the games industry against Stop Killing Games. And I guess, now, me too. So, if these attempts to shoot down the initiative keep happening, maybe assume the industry, which has been shown to be lying repeatedly, is lying again, and the whole point of their accusations is to make you forget the real issue, which is consumers are getting robbed by the industry. There are nuances to it, but the basic message is when you buy a copy of a game, you should get to keep it, and publishers shouldn't be able to destroy what you already paid for. This concept is so basic, it's still a joke we even have to fight for this."