V-Rising, Valheim, No Man’s Sky, Palworld, Enshrouded, Conan Exiles.

Minecraft is probably the quintessential survival game and has a significant modding community.

That’s rough. I tend to cycle in and out of games (particularly ARPGs).

Paid DLC content acts as a deterrent to me going back to a game that I only play fairly casually. Not saying that I won’t do it, but it does raise the bar on my expectations.

Horizontal progression. Relatively flat power curve, but you gain more options.

Guild Wars 1 is a really good example of this.

I played on a Half Life (the first one) deathmatch server that had a grappling hook mod. It was awesome.

This seems fairly common among the survival games genre.

Bonus: if you have multiple gamers in your household, Steam family sharing can really shine compared to having multiple Gamepass subscriptions.

Game Pass is (was?) good for some gameplay patterns and bad for others.

It doesn’t fit my preferences, but I can see why it is appealing to others.

We all knew enshittification was coming, but it spooled up faster than expected.

Descent was ahead of its time. Are there any modern games that are similar?

Hope it stays forever

Oh boy, have I got some news for you

Gamepass is a super-obvious telegraphed trap for enshittification. Offer a good value (it is, for the time being), get people dependent on it, then pull the rug out.

How many times have we already seen this?

I rarely buy new AAA games. Mostly indie titles and heavily-discounted AAA games.

It’s worse with Nintendo too. Barring it becoming a mega hit like Baldur’s Gate 3, you can bet that you’ll be able to get this game for $40 (or less) within a year.

Nintendo games don’t get discounted like this.

I don’t buy every generation and skip 1 if not 2. I have a 40xx series and will probably wait until the 70xx (I’m assumimg series naming here) before upgrading.

Yep, last console I bought was an XB1. I really only use it for playing 4K discs and for couch co-op.

I don’t foresee buying another console unless I have a really good reason to.

Exclusives are good for the company making them, but they are anti-consumer. I’d be open to buying Switch games if they were available on PC. But I’m not buying a whole separate piece of hardware (complete with various accessories) so that I can play whatever exclusives that I’m interested in. I’ll just pass on it.

Dragon Age: Inquisition feels rather like a single-player MMO.

I bought a new computer a few years ago that has 11 on it. With how the Steam Deck has seemed to really promote Linux for gaming, I’m seriously considering it on my next build.

It is very obvious to me that Windows is becoming increasingly subject to enshittification.

I have 11, so not directly affected. But with “no more security updates” being the only real reason one needs to change, the obvious question here is if there is 3rd party software that can protect a Windows 10 system?

I remember when anti-virus software was in common use.

How much e-waste is generated due to equipment that could be redundant if not for exclusives. Not just the consoles either, but all the accessories.

My understanding is that the console hardware itself isn’t even that profitable, in the same way that lower-end printers are just platforms to sell ink.

Video games are probably thought of more as “tech” rather than “culture.” And obsolescence is a part of tech.

I don’t agree with it, but that is what I think their view on it is.

New technology to increase hard drive storage? “Get perpendicular!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb_PyKuI7II