Conveniente - Penny Arcade:

That's because even if you are playing all by yourself, alone, there is no single player mode because Diablo isn't a single player game.

One of the reasons I continue to love Warframe is they have this thought out - If you’re in a story mission, or any game mode set to Solo for grouping, you can actually, honest-to-goodness, pause by opening the menu. As a grown up with things going on with kids, cooking, etc. this is an affordance I use quite often and I bless the devs at DE for it.

Private Security Raids YouTuber’s Home Because of Unboxing:

Wizards asked to have him take the videos down (which he did), but it was far more than that. According to the video, the private security firm known worldwide as “the Pinkertons” showed up at his house early in the morning, talking about jail time and other consequences if he didn’t hand over the products.

Once they left, they gave him the number of someone to call at Wizards to talk about the situation. He said they were friendly and offered some free products (possibly) or ways to compensate for the money he lost. They said they needed the products to find out how they got sent out and to “fill the gaps.” Because of this, he’s asking everyone using his footage also to take down their videos.

here’s a chance they knew that if he bought them legally, there was actually nothing they could do about it. So it appears instead of going the legal route (which could also take some serious time), Wizards of the Coast hired a private security firm to go and get the products back ASAP. This is also scary because they found his address in a couple of days and knocked on his front door.

It’s not legal to go and take something from anyone (aKA stealing), and sending out one of the most infamous groups to do it seems almost unfathomable. Even if someone stole your property, you can’t just go into their home and take it back. From the outside looking in, Oldschoolmtg basically got his home invaded without a warrant to take something he paid for…

Four-titude – DORK TOWER 24.03.23 – Dork Tower:

This exactly sums up my feeling about GenCon now that I’ve been away so long…

Warframe: 10 Year Anniversary:

We’re kicking off Warframe’s 10 Year Anniversary, culminating this August when TennoCon returns to in-person celebrations in London, Ontario, Canada! Earn new and returning Rewards with 10 weeks’ worth of Anniversary Alerts and new in-game events while we reflect on Warframe’s most memorable milestones – and the amazing developments yet to come.

Warframe has been, hands down, the most influential game in my recent existence, with thousands of hours committed across multiple platforms even before Cross Play became an option.

There’s no way I can summarize how cool I think it is, how great the community is… And as part of the mobile play testing, how versatile it is. I hope more of you will join me there.

Beware the Gifts of Dragons: How D&D’s Open Gaming License May Have Become a Trap for Creators | Electronic Frontier Foundation:

According to leaks reported last week, the company that owns Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is planning to revoke the open license that has, since the year 2000, applied to a wide range of unofficial, commercial products that build on the mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons. The report indicates that this wouldn’t simply be a change going forward, but would affect existing works that relied on the license. The old license would be revoked for existing uses, and people who have used on it will be forced to adopt new terms or renegotiate with the company, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of game giant Hasbro.

Obviously, this would be a rude and unfair thing to do to people who have accepted the invitation of the open gaming license (OGL) to create new games and stories that build upon Dungeons and Dragons. But would it be legal?

Even more interesting, would revoking the OGL actually give some third parties more freedom to operate, given that the OGL forced them to promise not to do some things that copyright and trademark law otherwise permit?

Year in Review: 20 Best Tabletop Roleplaying Games from 2022:

It’s been an incredible year for tabletop roleplaying games, from both large publishers and indie outfits. Crowdfunding has firmly established itself in the ecosystem, and both small indie games and massive core rulebooks are making the most of the model.

I didn’t have space for all the incredible games that came out this year, but here, for your entertainment, in no particular order, are some of my favorite games of 2022.

-via Boing Boing

Diablo IV developers allege mismanagement, crunch and disturbing creative decisions in new report | Rock Paper Shotgun:

Employees also spoke about the "disturbing" creative decisions by Sebastian Stępień, the former creative director on The Witcher 3 and head writer on Cyberpunk 2077, who became creative director on Diablo 4 in 2019. Stępień allegedly undertook a rewrite of Diablo 4's entire script, creating what multiple employees called the "rape version" due to repeated references in the script to the rape of a love interest, and to the script referring "to this female character as the raped woman as her primary description," according to the Washington Post.

Two employees also told The Post of a line in the script which read, “And then she was raped, brutally”, and that employees would repeat the punctuation out loud to each other, “comma, period - alarmed by the direction Stępień had gone with the script."

Maybe it’s time to just let Blizzard burn.

What’s new in tabletop gaming | Boing Boing:

Dungeons & Dragons: Journeys Through The Radiant Citadel (Wizards of the Coast, $30)

If there’s one compelling reason to buy this book it’s because of the racist reactions it has inflamed. It was written by people of color (and marketed as such). And it contains cultures and ideas not commonly found in Western fantasy literature and games like D&D. So, of course, that’s enraged snowflakey conservative players. I, for one, embrace our inclusive gaming future and especially appreciate the introduction of different cultures and mythologies to the game. The adventures in this anthology draw from Asian, African, Native American, Arab, Hindu influences. But, all great intentions aside, buying the book wouldn’t be more than a vote for greater inclusiveness if the content wasn’t good. It is. It all hangs around the Radiant Citadel, a hub-world on the ethereal plane that’s a crossroads and melting pot for diverse cultures from throughout the multiverse. It acts as a jumping off point for the other adventures in the book. There are 13 adventures in all, for levels 1-14, that are designed to be dropped into any adventure, or as a campaign setting. “From glittering night markets to undersea cities, from curse-afflicted villages to angel-ruled city-states—each adventure in this anthology takes inspiration from the writer’s personal connection to real-world mythologies and cultures, creating a rich tapestry of never-before-seen lands and stories for you to explore.” I haven’t played any of it, but reading through the handsome book, it’s definitely an excellent anthology and collection of usable content worthy of your support. And, for every copy sold, a Proud Boy gamer fails all of his saving throws.

Good enough reason for me!

Really - I haven’t delved into D&D at all during it’s recent revival, or any tabletop gaming really given the whole

GLOBAL PANDEMIC

but Wizards seems to be holding a cultural stride that I can’t help but love.

Nova Open Infuriates Hobbyists With Their Policies:

tl;dr - Nova Open cares about it’s attendees more than the venue, and some people are really angry about it.

https://assets.tumblr.com/post.js

This is one of the things I see in Star Trek Online sometimes when I play… People being like “Why is this corpocratic society being framed as Evil?” … Have you ever seen a Roddenberry production? He was flat out contemptive about using paper to keep score of power.

Mythforce looks like a first-person 80s cartoon | Rock Paper Shotgun:

Beamdog, the Canadian studio behind the 'Enhanced Edition' remasters of Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate, have announced their first original game: Mythforce. It's a roguelikelike first-person stabber with a striking visual style inspired by 80s children's cartoons.

I was excited about this until I saw it was an Epic store exclusive. Let’s see if I still care in a year.

jwz: Playing old PS3 games:

About once a year I think, "Hey, maybe I'll play that old video game that I used to enjoy." It never ends well.

With more recent consoles, PS3 and Wii U onwards, it can be a nightmare to keep access to old games working… A tide of Bit Rot is wiping away a ton of art in the form of games from this era.

Meet Minnesota gamers and game developers of color working to see themselves on screen | MPR News:

Some scoff at diversity in video games. But for Horn, who identifies as lesbian and Black, seeing herself in characters or stories is powerful — and further inspires others to dream big, which is why representation matters to her.

The only people I’ve actively heard/seen scoff at diversity are white dudes who are so over-represented in games that they don’t ever need to reach to find themselves… but if you take even a single character from them, their ire over “woke gaming” gets awfully loud.

“NFTs are a scam,” says indie game store Itch.io | Rock Paper Shotgun:

The store's Twitter tweeted over the weekend:

A few have asked about our stance on NFTs:

NFTs are a scam. If you think they are legitimately useful for anything other than the exploitation of creators, financial scams, and the destruction of the planet the we ask that please reevaluate your life choices.

Peace ✌️

— itch.io (@itchio) February 6, 2022

Sony slides on Microsoft-Activision Blizzard tie-up plan - BBC News:

Shares in Japanese technology giant Sony have slumped in Tokyo trade after Microsoft said it plans to buy mega games company Activision Blizzard. The deal worth $68.7bn (£50.5bn), would be Microsoft's biggest ever buyout and the largest deal in gaming history.

Maybe Sony would be doing better if anyone could readily get their hands on a PS5…

Penny Arcade - Comic - The K Word:

What wipes in Star Wars teach us about the brain and also interface design (Interconnected):

The brain has a limited amount of resources, so it has to choose what’s going to be regarded and what’s going to be ignored. The feeling of this resource allocation is what we call attention.

This seems to match with my experience.. From a technical point of view this was the point of the doorway transitions in Resident Evil, but narratively it really worked well too.

More on Roblox’s exploitation of children | Boing Boing:

Last year, People Make Games released a thorough expose of the company's practices. Roblox "pressured us to delete it", says presenter Quintin Smith. So they dug deeper, talking to employees and others, and today published a follow-up report.

I think the overall pitch - Roblox is currently a libertarian dream where there is 0 oversight or moderation, where the worst practices are amplified, and there can be no meaningful accountability.

Tiny Emulators:

A huge variety of tiny emulators for vintage systems to run right from your browser.

Warhammer Isn’t For Everyone, Especially These Nazis…:

Make no mistake, Warhammer, and the hobby of tabletop miniatures in general, is not for Nazis, PETA’s shenanigans, Politics, or just hatred of any kind.

The time for action is now, with no quarter asked for or given. Keep our hobby and its communities safe from events like these, and we will all be better for it!

Austin Powers Wakes Up in the Science Fiction Universe of the Video Game ‘Mass Effect’ in an Amusing Mashup:

[youtube www.youtube.com/watch

Delightful.

Former Blizzard Developer and ArenaNet, Undead Labs Founder: “We Need Unionization” - IGN:

I wish things like this were better covered in real-time rather than being a retrospective… I think if more of us realized how toxic Blizz was already starting to be way back when, it could have been steered to better outcomes.

“The Activision Blizzard disclosures this week have left me disgusted and repulsed — but not at all surprised,” Strain writes. “I joined a very early stage Blizzard as a game programmer in 1996 when there were several dozen employees.”

Strain recounts how in 1998 “after a cataclysmic meeting with one of the founders over our objections to dismembered and impaled female body parts in the beta version of Diablo, my wife and I began planning to leave Blizzard. Ultimately, I joined with a few like-minded colleagues and moved a thousand miles away from the Blizzard sphere of influence to start an independent studio.”

Blizzard will rename Overwatch’s McCree, who was named after fired employee | Rock Paper Shotgun:

Overwatch character McCree is going to be renamed, the game's development team have announced. The change comes after the character's namesake, Blizzard developer Jesse McCree, left the studio amidst a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard by the State Of California which alleges workplace sexual harassment and discrimination at the developer.

“We built the Overwatch universe around the idea that inclusivity, equity, and hope are the building blocks of a better future,” begins the statement released through the official Overwatch Twitter account. “We believe it’s necessary to change the name of the hero currently known as McCree to something that better represents what Overwatch stands for."

This is a start, but it’s cosmetic for all intents and purposes. Until devs themselves say that they’re satisfied with changes, I don’t see how the gaming public can support them.

Activision Blizzard have allegedly shredded documents related to their ongoing harassment lawsuit | Rock Paper Shotgun:

"DFEH is also informed and aware that documents and records have not been maintained as required by law of the DFEH's Document Retention Notice," the lawsuit alleges. "Including but not limited to documents related to investigations and complaints were shredded by human resource personnel and emails are deleted thirty days after an employee's separation."

They further claim that, due to non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), employees must talk to the company before coming forward to the DFEH. They also criticise Activision Blizzard for calling in the third-party legal firm WilmerHale to conduct their own “confidential” investigation, saying this “directly interferes with DFEH’s statutory mandate to investigate, prosecute, and remedy workplace discrimination and harassment violations."

Despite listing a number of actions they've taken to make Activision Blizzard more "welcoming", the employee group A Better ABK say that none of their demands for a better workplace have actually been met.

I love some of the games Blizzard has produced. Overwatch’s PVP focus isn’t for me, but the gameplay would be fun with a PVE focus… The Diablo family is the perfect representation of the genre it birthed, where no other entry really matches the chemistry of the originals… Starcraft and Warcraft are some of the most fun RTS gameplay in their genre… And WoW’s siren call is amplified by the fact that it’s one of the first big games to make an M1 native version a priority.

All that being said, no matter how much I love the games, I can’t give a cent to the company that also breeds these stories:

Activision Blizzard sued by California over constant abuse of women employees | Boing Boing:

At one point Activision Blizzard is described as a "frat house", but that doesn't begin to capture the scale and gravity of the allegations. Women punished for becoming pregnant. Women kicked out of lactation rooms. Women punished for leaving the office. African American women denied full employment and subjected to unique requirements. A woman committed suicide on a business trip with a male colleague who brought along lube and butt plugs.

In the office, women are subjected to “cube crawls” in which male employees drink copious [amounts] of alcohol as they “crawl” their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees. Male employees proudly come into work hungover, play video games for long periods of time during work while delegating their responsibilities to female employees, engage in banter about their sexual encounters, talk openly about female bodies and joke about rape.

Female employees are subjected to constant sexual harassment, including having to continually fend off unwanted sexual comments and advances by their male co-workers and supervisors and being groped at the “cube crawls” and other company events. High-ranking executives and creators engaged in blatant sexual harassment without repercussions.

In a particularly tragic example, a female employee committed suicide during a business trip with a male supervisor who had brought butt plugs and lubricant with him on the trip.

Its response to this lawsuit is libertarian dogma about "irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State's best businesses out of California."

Activision Blizzard says interviewing diverse candidates for every opening “unworkable”

Activision Blizzard attorney told the SEC in January, "While the Company has implemented a Rooney Rule policy as envisioned [for director and CEO nominees], implementing a policy that would extend such an approach to all hiring decisions amounts to an unworkable encroachment on the Company's ability to run its business and compete for talent in a highly competitive, fast-moving market."

Activision Blizzard’s attorney further said the proposal was micromanaging in nature, and “leaves no room for the Company’s management or Board of Directors to exercise discretion in how new hire decisions are structured.”

Costs and poor leadership were why Blizzard’s Warcraft 3 reboot bombed

With Activision focussing on larger titles, such as Overwatch 2, and laying off 800 of its workforce in 2019, Classic Games would never receive the full support required to recapture Warcraft 3. Nevertheless, they plowed on, and even started taking pre-orders for the game. That left the team committed to releasing the title. A Blizzard spokesman told Bloomberg: “In hindsight, we should have taken more time to get it right, even if it meant returning pre-orders.”

Despite getting help from other Blizzard departments during the final development push, it was too late. The game was so poorly received that demands for refunds were upheld. Even now, 18 months on, the game is missing much of the promised content that it was sold on.