It has to do with how the statute is written (I used to do comparative international IP policy research and analysis). Japanese works are given fairly wide latitude in creative sectors based on artistic intent. For example, you’ll see knockoff brands all the time in anime or manga, but the intent is clearly world building (or parody), not appropriation for promotional use. That artistic intent standard is used in the courts. This is why all the side-by-side comparisons people here probably saw on Twitter when Palworld came out was more of an ethnocentric American approach. Plus, copyright infringement is frequently incidental and not the result of large investment (unlike patents), so, in a country that prefers to handle domestic disputes informally, these incidents are less likely to go to court.

As a country that more recently entered the world stage based on manufacturing, patent protection is simply going to be taken more seriously as part of the culture. And yes–while I don’t have numbers–patent litigation does seem to get thrown out often when it comes to video games, at least the high-profile stuff, anyway. Here’s an example between Koei Tecmo and Capcom since I was already on Variety.

Similar visual design happens all the time in Japanese media and there’s rarely litigation over it. Patent lawsuits are much more common in Japan.

I don’t know where you’re hearing retailers don’t enforce ratings. Yes, it happens uncommonly, but the FTC previously found ratings compliance was higher among video game retailers than at the box office, and not much has changed in the culture since then. I’ve worked at multiple retailers that sold video games, and the training for video games enforcement was always taken just as seriously as with alcohol sales.

Being the largest entertainment industry in the world now, video game publishers are serious about this stuff. Developers also still take steps to avoid a Hot Coffee situation from occurring again.

It doesn’t have to be jaded. As with the original quote I riffed off of, these particular Skinner boxes don’t have to always be pure evil and can provide net-positive outcomes, as long as we’re clear-eyed about the consequences of participating. The latter part is what I’m trying to drive home here. Consumer behavior psychology is part of every major live-service game.

Even if you do find the cabinet in the lavatory, the probability calculations for a simple use case are ridiculously complicated. It does reek a bit of “minimum compliance required by law.”

On the plus side, Hoyo (at least in Star Rail) doesn’t bombard the player in-game with pop-ups or the like. A zero-spend player that just wants to poke around in the story or the game world isn’t going to be harassed. Instead, it’s earnest marketing, by way of letting the player use characters on trial, featuring them in the story, or high-quality video productions published outside the game. They make as much money as they do because their production values on that stuff are among the best in the business.

As far as running a digital goods casino (where you don’t own the goods), I’ve seen far worse. I still don’t think we’re doing as much as we should to protect those with addictions to gambling or FOMO from these products, however.

Come on. We both know that legitimizing the RMT system increased the number of gold buyers and normalized the process. Not only does it now capture the players who were both a) squeamish about paying unproven third parties and b) had no recourse if they did get scammed, it’s also a far more convenient process. We know the gold-for-gear (and other services) market exploded in size because Blizzard was finally forced to make systemic changes to fight/redirect services spam. Service sellers are everywhere, and there was a point they were constantly in your whispers, your mailbox, your chat, your group finder. It’s nothing like it was 15-20 years ago.

No, gold buyers are not most players (and no, I don’t care that some players are doing it). Most gacha players aren’t whales, either. My point is that yes, your game is also chasing the whales right now and will continue to design systems to do so.

The AO rating is still the kiss-of-death for game content in North America, enforced by retailers. Even still, the ESRB only came about because the political climate at the time was very much “clean up your shit or we’ll do it for you.”

This reads like “the only moral Skinner box is my Skinner box.”

Also sounds like you haven’t played in a while. The addition of real currency to gold trading creates an even more direct pipeline from one’s wallet to in-game gear dice rolls. Guilds selling raid gear is even more common now, and with crafting orders, a whale can spend to reroll secondary stats on crafted gear.

With the way Warcraft is throwing currencies at players now, it’s clear Blizzard has taken more than a few cues from how gacha and other live-service outfits are doing things these days. Plenty of opportunities for ruinous, addictive behavior.

I just wish today’s tech wasn’t so blurry. I miss SSAA (and games being optimized enough to be able to run it sometimes without a supercomputer).

FSR doesn’t use AI hardware. The original comment is overselling it a bit, but something AI-driven like DLSS does offer substantial (if slightly blurry) framerate gains.

Yeah, after that time I really didn’t think consoles would be as much as a midrange PC. And yet, here we are. Feels like Sony’s back to late PS2 era levels of hubris now.

This is 100% an “it’s just not for you” situation. I mean, it’s not really my thing either, but it’s literally the best selling game ever in Japan. That’s not just the pandemic.

Started playing again with a duo partner and was a bit shocked at the toxicity in Trade chat. I’ve been playing the game less and less over the years, and I guess I was used to it at one point. I suppose I also just have less tolerance for bullshit than I used to.

I don’t know how it is now, but Classic was even worse at launch. Blizzard underestimated player demand for the product from the start, so a company that had already slashed their GM staff to the bone wasn’t ready for it (and players in public chat channels were aware and took full advantage).

Coincidentally, loot drama that wouldn’t have been possible in retail WoW is exactly why I stopped playing Classic a few months after launch.

Hrm, kind of an odd mix of classics and recent releases that aren’t going to be remembered five years from now. That said, I’m just glad Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is on here. It’s a wonderful hidden gem that barely gets talked about. I don’t even like puzzle games much, but the gorgeous pixel art and soundtrack helped me get really into it.

I’m also reminded that I need to get back to Citizen Sleeper. Was very surprised by it when I tried it (before I got sucked into Honkai: Star Rail).

This is a dimension of the conversation I wish was talked about more. By linking strict norms to behavior in public, we’re telling petite women of the age of majority that don’t have curves that they can’t ever be sexually attractive because it’s extremely immoral and taboo. It’s especially a problem for trans women who can’t afford/don’t want breast augmentation surgery or otherwise can’t develop biological markers that we code as adult. Being told only pedophiles will be attracted to you is harmful to everyone involved.

This point is premature for Wukong until we see some data that this was anything more than a domestic market success. Steam data scrapers speculate that China sales are over 80%, so we might be looking at (an optimistic) 1-1.5 million sold in the US so far. Not amazing numbers for a AAA project.

The real story here is that this game’s success is the clearest sign yet this vast market has been activated. I’m sure Japanese, Korean, and Western AAA publishers–especially those with a console focus–are very interested.

That’s exactly the issue here. ChatGPT’s current training set ends right around the time the Meta Quest 3 came out. It’s not going to have any discussions in there of No Man’s Sky with tech that wasn’t out yet.

I’d just settle for competent AI at any difficulty. I only ever had a few runs in Civ6 because the AI consistently fell apart in late game. Conversely, it’s why I had over 1000 hours in Civ5. Yes, it cheated, but once I started to ignore that, it was really satisfying to climb the difficulty ladder and still feel challenged even into the late eras most of the time.

Between this and weighing in on what defines Final Fantasy (in the original interview), Sakaguchi sure didn’t shy away from the controversial topics in the fandom.

“I understand and know that this is a very widely debated topic, but I really think it has turned into something that has a different meaning for everyone,” says Sakaguchi. “If I had to give some kind of core ingredient, I would say it’s the story and world. These two are a must for any Final Fantasy and the common denominator across all of them. The world setting needs to contain some kind of thematic element that is loosely tied to current events. I think the world itself needs to have some kind of thematic backbone or message that gives a different perspective, or a thought-provoking prompt for players.”