I mean, Ive been begging for a new media and gaming mode since the failed Windows XP Media Center Edition.

The only benefit to Netflix games is that these games have no ads or IAP.

Direct report from the FTC. ISPs are DIGGING into your web behavior. https://www.ftc.gov/reports/look-what-isps-know-about-you-examining-privacy-practices-six-major-internet-service-providers

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I’m back to a full computer again too, and if you don’t have a laptop handy, the new little mini PCs are surprisingly affordable too. If you don’t want to build a raspberry pi.

My fave travel keyboard. So sad MS never made a USBC version.

That’s rad. I know I’m gonna take the plunge at some point, but I might wait to bundle a few hardware swaps. Definitely my fan too.

I got in pretty deep on Marvel Future Fight a couple years back. It really bothers me how a family friendly franchise will be packed with pressure points and gambling mechanics.

The game starts fine, as a short mission based story line, and progress happens fairly quickly. You play missions to get character bios (points) to unlock more marvel characters, and then you can build small teams for different missions.

As you start unlocking more characters, you also need to rank up the characters you own to make them more powerful. Again, the basic level upgrades are easy, as you collect material per mission, but as you start getting into the middle game, ranking a character happens through RNG.

You upgrade a character though multiple resource points, Rank, then Tier, then weapons, uniforms, gear, and crystals. There is no set “cost” for upgrading one part of a character. You build up a bunch of materials, and then you take a spin. There’s a random amount of progress made spending the material, and each upgrade path becomes its own slot machine, with its own materials to spend. You MIGHT get lucky and get a full upgrade to a power crystal in one turn, but more than likely you’ll need to burn HOURS of game time grinding to build up the materials, spend all the materials, and be left with nothing.

If you want to shortcut that progression, it can cost HUNDREDS of dollars to rank ONE character to a point where you can be competitive in online events and in guild play. You won’t be competitive with just a couple high ranking players, you need a FULL roster for the multiple events available.

At present, Marvel Future Fight includes over 250 playable characters. Each needs to be ranked and upgraded through multiple game mechanics, and new uniforms are regularly released that also require RNG mechanics to own and upgrade.

Whales will spend THOUSANDS of dollars at the start of a new event, and when new characters are released, to chase the game’s meta. Sure, you aren’t “buying a lootbox”, but players are spending money to build up resources, only to throw those resources away at multiple slot machines built into EVERY character. It’s one of the most insidious games I’ve ever played, and it’s marketed at kids and teens.

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Spot on.

A lot of folks are finding out that their bosses never REALLY cared that their job was done well, or even competently. If the company can save money with an AI that gets a bunch of stuff wrong, that’s “good enough”.

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We’re almost at that point. PS3 emulation on the Steam Deck is ALMOST there. Another generation of hardware improvements should push us over the edge. Then it would be up to Sony to decide “hey, we want to make money on the titles we can license and put back in an online store…”