Latest Gaming Articles

May 26

A Conversation with an Anarcho-Communist

He answers the burning question: will we have video games in the commune??

Welcome to the CHH Conversations series- I’m aiming to do one a week, detailing a person (or people) who belong to an interesting group which is either part of the current zeitgeist, typically unheard, or just something I find super interesting. Note that my interviewing someone doesn’t mean I agree with them or approve of what they say—in fact, I may s…

Cartoons Hate Her ∙ 7 LIKES

Vlad the Inhaler

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This made me LOL:

"Landlords would be groundskeepers for tenant unions, their job would be maintaining the homes the flow of money could stay the same but it would be a more level field between the tenants and those that would like to maintain homes for others."

Ah, yes, that well-known type of person who just enjoys "maintaining homes for others." One of the fundamental problems that any utopian, non-hierarchical society would face is: who's going to take out the trash? Who's going to clean the toilets? Who's going to dedicate their lives to technically demanding, difficult and periodically dangerous, but not necessarily intellectually or emotionally fulfilling jobs like electrical work, plumbing or any of a number of skilled trades? Who will choose to do road repair or maintenance when it's 90 degrees out? How do we get people to do the jobs that society needs to get done, but no one really WANTS to do?

The capitalist answer is: you require people to have money, and you pay them that money only when they do useful things. The communist answer is basically the same, but with the significant addition of central party control of the jobs and coercion of the workers. And the anarchist answer is... "don't worry, man, it'll all be cool!"

John Hennigan

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A "hotel front desk worker" enabling the system he purports to oppose.

Game File

May 13

Nintendo, Microsoft, Square welcome us to the era of fewer big video games

Data shows that Nintendo was ahead of the curve on this one.

Like big-budget video games? Hope you like waiting for them. (And hope there are enough developers left in this industry to make them.) There are abundant signs that we have entered an era that will see fewer major new video games from big game publishers.

Stephen Totilo ∙ 34 LIKES

Blacklisted

May 30

Breaking the habit

I’m spiraling so I’m changing my approach. 95% of my mental health distress stems, ultimately, from what social media has done to me. This is a fact. I was publicly shamed on Twitter four years ago, and faced a tidal wave of abuse that I did not deserve, and it has impacted my brain, my reality, and my life, and I really wish it hadn’t. But it has. It to…

Eve Barlow ∙ 238 LIKES

Allan W

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Eve, I don’t know you, yet I feel like I do. I didn’t know any of your previous life work. What you offered to me in your vulnerability and sorrow are words to help me express my own. Of all the post I get, yours are the ones I open first consistently. Please, please take care of yourself for yourself but also for me. By doing so, you model for me how to better take care of myself.

Sending so much love and blessings your way and to all Eretz Yisrael.

Dinah Tennent

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Eve, look after yourself and take time out to grieve. What is happening to the world’s Jews is truly horrible. I have seen people I know and love turn their expressions to hatred when they speak about Israel and it shatters me because they don’t know any Jews or anything about how important Israel is to the Jewish people. I have seen the abuse you get online and it fills me with despair, even though I know that much of it is from bots as well as fools. I keep in touch with my close friends from Calderwood and let them know I’m on their side. Most of the people I know who think at all are with you too.

עם ישראל חי

Knowingless

May 29

how to be respected as a teen girl

i think more women tend to have insecurity about their gender than men as a girl, like a young girl, maybe you get the impression that boys are cool in a way girls aren't. people praise and laugh at b…

Aella ∙ 218 LIKES

Rick Fox

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It’s very strange to hear the perspective of what a teen girl thinks being a boy is like. I suspect that the only thing so similarly and deeply incorrect is the perspective a teen boy has about what being a girl is like.

BruxomLady

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Thanks for capturing this feeling so well, especially the insecurity that comes with knowing that the world rewards (and that there seem to be genuine rewards, even removed from social validation) for being good at male-stuff. One thing I've noticed that really works to be respected while reconciling the facts of your nature, is to use masculine-domain stuff for feminine pursuits or feminine-domain stuff for masculine pursuits. And I think you do so much of that! The way you do rigorous quantitative (male) analysis to answer social (female) questions, for example. In my own pursuits, I also brought a coherent but niche feminine perspective into a male dominated space and noticed how it made me feel not just respected but also so much more comfortable with my female identity: and believe that it does bring value. Although I don't align with all the mainstream progressive/liberal ideals, one thing I do believe is that there is value in the representation of multiple perspectives and interdisciplinary pursuits.

Video Games Industry Memo

May 23

IGN buys Gamer Network, 23/05/2024

Consolidation isn’t just for games businesses; it’s for games media too!

IGN snaps up Gamer Network’s entire media portfolio from ReedPop Keywords Studios subject of multi-billion dollar bid from private equity business Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga becomes the biggest game release in quite a while

George Osborn ∙ 5 LIKES

James Francis

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I think traditional gaming media is dying. The fact that all these titles sold for a paltry $20 million and nobody calls that a fire sale just shows how dismal that business model has become. The consolidation and layoffs shouldn't be a surprise.

Newsletters such as yours, Youtube streamers, and dedicated outfits like Second Wind are the status quo and future of game coverage.

Read Rodge

May 20

Welcome to Read Rodge!

After a long journey, it's time for me to start writing stuff again. Here's where I'm gonna write it.

To explain why I’m starting a Substack, let me tell you about the two things I can’t stop doing. The first is watching sports. Some people are interested in particular sports. Not me. I’m pansportsual. If there are sports on, I’m probably watching them. I am literally years behind on television and movies and video games, forcing me to nod my head and f…

Rodger Sherman ∙ 15 LIKES

Gregg Saunders

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May 20

as my good friend shea says, support people who do cool shit so they can keep doing cool shit. looking forward to your posts about arcane olympic sports that i'll immediately fall in love with.

Josh

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Thanks for doing this. I'm looking forward to seeing how Read Rodge develops, in large part because I've missed reading you at The Ringer. And just to second a comment below: for me, your writing is the thing; I'm not a podcast person.

I also wanted to say that I appreciate the clear statement about both why you're making the content free and why you need financial support. And so, to be clear in my turn, I don't subscribe to many paid Substacks/newsletters (TPM for politics; for sports: Joe Posnanski, Mike Tanier, and Holly Anderson's Channel 6, which sent me your way via a recent link) because so many of them fizzle out. But I really do enjoy your writing, and so ... I'm very open to moving up to a paid tier of support, but I want to see how things develop for a bit.

I hope you both enjoy this new project and are able to make it a success.

MusicEXP Newsletter

May 15

How Gaming Helped The Ink Spots Gain 1 Million New Listeners [Game Music Digest May 24]

The sync success stories from Amazon's Fallout TV series and Bethesda's video games

Game Music Digest is a wrap-up of the most interesting stories at the intersection of video games and music, brought to you by MusicEXP. This newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers can leave questions/comments and suggest topics they’d li…

MusicEXP ∙ 1 LIKES

The GameDiscoverCo newsletter

May 20

2024: what the ****'s going on? (In PC games?)

A general market musing, plus Team17 financials and lots of news.

[The GameDiscoverCo game discovery newsletter is written by ‘how people find your game’ expert & company founder Simon Carless, and is a regular look at how people discover and buy video games in the 2020s.] Welcome back, folks, and it’s another week on the

Simon Carless ∙ 24 LIKES

James Francis

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May 21

Thanks for bringing up that indie games are not necessarily the counterpoint to AAA woes (a topic you've covered and illustrated well in the past).

I'm seeing a lot of gaming commentators, especially on YouTube, try to build a narrative about the indie market as the shining light to gaming industry woes. But none of them point out, as you have in the past, that the majority of indie games fail because it's a very crowded and demanding market right now. I look at a lot of demos - the quality out there is astounding. But getting people to notice your game is so hard. These days, if you can manage getting 300 reviews on Steam, that's a big deal!

There is this narrative that indie is the new saviour of gaming. But I think it's primarily encouraged by people who don't have a lot of exposure to the absolutely saturated market - and that's just Steam. Let's not talk about getting noticed on something like Itch!

Eliza Crichton-Stuart

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May 21

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Video Games Industry Memo

May 28

Introducing VGIM Insider

Supplementary paid subscription service open for business...now

Good morning, I know what you’re thinking. Video Games Industry Memo is in my inbox on Tuesday morning? At 10am UK time? What is the world coming to? Fortunately, there’s a good reason for me to put out this one off extra edition of the newsletter. After much thinking, a little bit of teasing and an asto…

George Osborn ∙ 4 LIKES

Experimental History

May 28

The Summer 2024 Blog Post Competition, Extravaganza, and Jamboree

yeehaw

I am proud to announce the Experimental History Summer 2024 Blog Post Competition, Extravaganza, and Jamboree. Submit your post now! A THEORY OF BLOGS As a genre, blogging is under-appreciated and under-theorized. Most culture is produced by committee. Books, movies, music, video games, op-eds, scientific papers, etc. all have to pass thr…

Adam Mastroianni ∙ 92 LIKES

Julian Gough

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Wow, you linked to theeggandtherock.com ! Thanks Adam. Honoured to be called "a triumph of the format". (Am I doing "scientific reports/data analysis"? I guess I am. It's hard to have perspective on my own work...)

Anyway, I agree with your take on blogs ("...being courageous and idiosyncratic isn’t just bloggers’ comparative advantage; it’s their duty. I shed a tiny little tear whenever I see someone on Substack trying to do an impression of The New Yorker or Buzzfeed.") If you are blogging, go weird or go home.

You will, I hope, be pleased to hear that The Egg and the Rock will be getting even weirder over the next few months; I just got an Emergent Ventures grant from the highly idiosyncratic – I would go so far as to say wonderfully weird – Tyler Cowen, plus my dad just died (great guy, always encouraged me to be my strange self), so I find myself giving even less of a shit than usual about the conventional rules of writing. Going to honour my dad's memory by seeing how far I can push this unique contraption I find myself pushing. Top of Everest. Bottom of the Mariana Trench. Both. We shall see.

I look forward to seeing what your readers come up with. I may even steer a couple of talented freaks in your direction. Hope you get the fabulous food your brilliant brain deserves.

Charlotte Fielding

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This is so cool. I'm definitely going to work on something to send you. Thanks for the opportunity, Adam!

Racket News

May 29

Substack Q&A: Jonathan Haidt's "Anxious Generation"

One of the co-founders of the Heterodox Academy returns to his academic specialty with a hair-raising warning about the digital age

Every generation of adults thinks the next is growing up in a broken world. “It is the story of humanity,” says Jonathan Haidt, author of a new book on a youth mental illness epidemic called The Anxious Generation. Returning to his roots as a professor of moral psychology after a perhaps uncomfortable foray into the center of America’s culture wars, Haidt’s new work describes a “great rewiring” of childhood, whose most frightening feature is its alacrity. In less than ten years, Americans went from nearly 8 in 10 teens not having smartphones to the inverse. By 2022, 46% reported being “almost constantly” online, many steeped in digital addictions causing depression, dysphoria, suicidation. A parent reading

Matt Taibbi ∙ 438 LIKES

Tim Hurlocker

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I had just finished Haidt's book, The Righteous Mind, when I met a gal for a computer date. To break the ice, I asked her what she was reading, and she answered, "The Righteous Mind." I married her.

ptb

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He lost me at leaded gas.

After Babel

May 20

The Youth Rebellion Is Growing

Seven Gen Z Leaders Working to Reduce the Harms Caused by the Phone-Based Childhood

Intro from Zach Rausch and Jon Haidt: The most common argument among the critics of our work is that we are fomenting a groundless moral panic that is no different from earlier panics—from radio and television to comic books and violent video games. It’s a reasonable starting hypothesis, but you can’t cling to it as evidence mounts that

Zach Rausch and Jon Haidt ∙ 197 LIKES

Ruth Gaskovski

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May 20

What a breath of fresh air to read of these Gen Z leaders pushing back. In our writings on how to navigate life in a digital age, my husband Peco and I noted that in addition to practical advice, people are in search of inspiring personal accounts that model a different relationship with technology. As such we have been planning a post for the end of May calling for submissions of stories that offer insight into how some young people, especially teens, choose to live life differently in a digital age. We will curate a collection of these stories that readers can freely access to gain encouragement for change and inspiration to apply to their own unique circumstances. We hope that this will add momentum to turning the tide.

Anne Lutz Fernandez

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May 20

Ben's interview speaks volumes to me as a high school English teacher. I keep banging the drum that the problem is not just phones, it's overuse of tech more broadly in schools.

I wrote a bit about my experience this year, which has been to make paper, not machines, the default in my classroom. Ben's attic discovery can happen in schools.

https://annelutzfernandez.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-paper

The GameDiscoverCo newsletter

May 29

Are conversion rates dipping over time on Steam?

And which month should you release your game in? Also: a DLC investigation.

Simon Carless ∙ 9 LIKES

Eliza Crichton-Stuart

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Read Rodge

May 24

They're going to pay the players

Here's what to know about the House v. NCAA settlement. There are still battles to be fought, but the war is over.

It can be tough to keep track of all the changes in college sports—realignment news, adjustments to NIL laws and enforcements, news about revived video games and returned Heisman Trophies, etc.—so maybe you’re unsure how to weigh the news about the proposed settlement in House v. NCAA.

Rodger Sherman ∙ 10 LIKES

Anarchonomicon

May 25

We're All Hitlerists now

The New American Religion

Follow me on Twitter: @FromKulak People don't get me when I say Esoteric Hitlerism is the most important religion in the world today. I'm not saying "This is the future religion of America" I'm saying "This is ALREADY the majority religion of America"

Kulak ∙ 138 LIKES

Forward Nebraska

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If Covid 19 taught us anything, it’s that Hitler didn’t need magic to propagate his reign of terror, he just needed to own the press. The people who wanted to kill the unvaccinated would have happily run the gas chambers. The people who are still wearing masks 4 years later would have happily walked into them.

The Water Bearer

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The Holocaust (lit. burned whole) holds much the same function for modern western types as the Crucifixion did for medieval Christians. Just as Jesus died for the sins of the world mythologically, so the Jews of Eastern Europe died for the sins of the white man. This is how the object of sacrifice is raised to divinity and imbued with memetic power, and until this core issue is resolved psychologically, leftward drift on all issues is inexorable. Intellectual arguments about how Mao or Pol Pot or whomever was so much worse don't work, because true power is the power over narrative. Hitler himself was a meth-addled histrionic who led Germany to Ragnarök, and whose myth has been blown way out of proportion–not least by organised Jewry itself.

The Take (by Jon Miltimore)

May 27

The Rise and Fall of Atari Is a Textbook Example of Creative Destruction

The Atari 2600 gaming console came on the scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s like a juggernaut—but its time as king was short-lived.

My family got a PlayStation 5 a few years ago. It’s a decision I sometimes regret because my youngest son, who is 7, likes to play it too much. (And that’s when it gets unplugged and stashed away.) But it’s easy to forget what a modern marvel the P…

Jon Miltimore ∙ 13 LIKES

Insurance is Fun (Luke Brown)

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I'm not a fan of video games, although my son is. Nonetheless, your discussion of the underpinnings of capitalism would make Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek proud.

ConcernedCitUSA

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There's an amazing story in "The Dead Hand" about trying to help Russians set up a bicycle factory in a defunct USSR munitions plant after the fall and the struggles to convey capitalism to lifetime socialists. Thankfully they wanted to learn.

The Free Press

May 20

Why Some U.S. Border Agents Are Contemplating Suicide. Plus. . .

The ‘Butcher of Tehran’ is dead. A backlash in Portland. Harvard capitulates to the student intifada. Harrison Butker’s commencement speech. And much more.

On today’s Front Page from The Free Press: The Butcher of Tehran is dead; Francesca Block r…

Oliver Wiseman ∙ 504 LIKES

Running Burning Man

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May 20

The only thing offensive about the Butker speech was the parade of outrage by idiot leftists. Lead of course by the once again dunce of the year NFL “DEI” official who denounced Butker.

WTF does the NFL have a DEI official for? To try to get more white players into the league?

PSW

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May 20

I’m sure if Butker had been named Mohammed and given a speech about Sharia law and the subservience of women and the evils of homosexuality, the MSM would be cheering him on, right?

The Pillar

May 29

Priest facing Candy Crush theft charges due soon in court

Fr. Lawrence Kozak is accused of stealing more than $40,000 from his parish for cell phone games

A Pennsylvania priest is due in court next month over felony theft charges, after the priest was accused of spending more than $40,000 in parish funds in cell phone games. Fr. Lawrence Kozak faces a court hearing June 13, ahead of charges that he embezzl…

The Pillar ∙ 3 LIKES

Evan Cowie

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Pleasantly surprised by the mercy being shown in the comment section here. Truly, the Pillar has the best commenters anywhere on the web.

Sqplr

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I'm familiar with this priest from before this happened. He had a reputation as a particularly holy priest in the area before the archdiocese suddenly removed him 2 years ago. A large number of his parishioners and people who knew him through his time at several parishes and organizations all wanted him to just be given some help for what appeared to be either an addiction or the result of his past serious injury, and return him to some type of ministry where he didn't handle finances. If you knew this priest before he was removed, trust me he is the last guy you'd expect to do something like this, it was very out of character. I hope something can be done to help him.

Chop Wood, Carry Water

May 26

Extra! Extra! 5/26 👯‍♀️

All the good news that's fit to print!

Hi, all, and happy Sunday! Here’s your roundup of everything great that happened this week while we were busy focusing on the crazy headlines. It’s good to stop and remind ourselves that, while plenty of bad stuff is happening, there’s a parallel track where victorie…

Jessica Craven ∙ 116 LIKES

Mary Russell

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Your scope in reporting positive developments on the political front cannot be overvalued. Thanks, Jessica Craven!

Katharine Hill

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So glad I plowed through to the end. Randy Rainbow gave me the levity I needed! You’re a national treasure yourself, Jessica, for pulling so many threads together. Power to the People.

Understanding AI

May 28

Johansson's beef with OpenAI points to unclear laws on voice cloning

No one is sure if it's legal to reproduce a celebrity's voice without permission.

Last September, users gained the ability to speak to ChatGPT using one of five voices dubbed Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper, and Sky. Then earlier this month, OpenAI announced a new model, GPT-4o, that could understand the user’s tone of voice and vary its own tone in response. Due out in the coming weeks, this feature should enable more lifelike conversa…

Timothy B Lee ∙ 36 LIKES

Carter Williams

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The F/A-18 Mission computer incorporated speech in 1980. Digitized from a real voice. With audio cues like "Pull Up" when too close to the ground. Years later, pilots who had been saved by the gentle female voice wanted to know the name of the woman behind the voice. We tried to figure it out, but Gene Adams, the inventor, had passed away by then. Not sure we ever did get to the bottom of it.

Malcolm Sharpe

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On the specific case of OpenAI and Johansson, it's worth listening to back-to-back comparisons to judge for yourself whether Sky actually sounds like Johansson. Here are two examples:

- https://v.redd.it/qphc92w26p1d1

- https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1cx1np4/voice_comparison_between_gpt4o_and_scarlett/

To my ear, they sound distinctly different.

Crossplay

May 24

Kids, Routines, And Unexpected Delights

Ash "The Gamer Educator" Brandin on how to deal with surprising your child, only to find out it's not enough. It never is, and there's good reason for it.

Patrick’s Note: Chime in with topics you’d like Ash to cover in the future. And if you’d like to pitch on something to be published on Crossplay, I’m open to it. For now, back to Ash… During my child’s first visit to an amusement park, they took a break from screaming in joy while we were on a roller coaster to shout at …

Ash Brandin ∙ 14 LIKES

Alex

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This is really useful for me to think about. I realize my wife and I often try to keep details of a big plan under wraps—largely a lesson learned from the few times something in a plan went wrong and disappointed our kids! As they get older and can process those emotions more capably, having a rough plan could help them focus on where they are, AND for what comes afterward.

Jeff P

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I appreciate this post, especially as we get closer to the end of school year and upcoming trips.

Thanks Ash!

Detection Engineering Weekly

May 30

Det. Eng. Weekly #71 - AI next-gen cloud-based detection data ocean

Branding so good not even Kevin Mandia could leave my company

Welcome to Issue #71 of Detection Engineering Weekly! I had an amazing time at SLEUTHCON last week! It was a privilege to be around so many like-minded threat intel and research professionals. I’ll make sure to link some talks once the recordings go up on YouTube, but if you have a chance to go, please do!

Zack 'techy' Allen ∙ 4 LIKES

After School by Casey Lewis

May 20

Cologne Boy and HIFI Obsessions

addicted to cheese

Watch Sabrina Carpenter make her musical debut on Saturday Night Live; Kai Cenat’s latest blockbuster stream is a 156-hour ‘Elden Ring’ marathon; Iris Law is the new face of Guess Jeans; and Baby Coppolas are taking over Cannes. WHEN DID TEEN BOYS GET A NOSE FOR $300 COLOGNE?

Casey Lewis ∙ 27 LIKES

Latika Takes

May 24

What I'm Reading

May 24: Five reads that piqued my interest this week

Modi’s God complex This astonishing story tops my list this week, because it has been largely missed by Western media, and provides a great insight into concerns held about India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I have written before that Modi’s carefully cultivated image in India is one of a messiah. But…

Latika M Bourke ∙ 7 LIKES

Amy Ward

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Keir Starmer is set to win but the Labour leader is about as motivating as swiping right on a guy who begins with ‘hey.’

Love it!

martin.english@gmail.com

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I'm curious as to why Modi's revelation only came AFTER his Mum died. Was it because he was scared of getting the Indian equivalent of the "I bought you into this world, and I can take you out" talk ?

The GameDiscoverCo newsletter

May 27

Deep dive: inside Manor Lords' 2 million-selling success

Also: how companies like Square Enix need to pivot, and lots of discovery news.

[The GameDiscoverCo game discovery newsletter is written by ‘how people find your game’ expert & company founder Simon Carless, and is a regular look at how people discover and buy video games in the 2020s.] It’s a public holiday in some parts of the globe today. But GameDiscoverCo decided to queue up one of our more-awaited posts for detonation (when yo…

Simon Carless ∙ 17 LIKES

Dungeon Investing

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Nice review of the success of Manor Lords. I think the work they are doing at Hooded Horse as a publisher, developer aside, is fantastic. Comparing the evolution of this and another similar title (in that it had hype with a single developer and without a publisher), like Hard Ancient Life (Builders of Egypt, for the uninitiated) is eye-opening. It is clear in Manor Lords there has been a lot more support not only in economical terms, but also in supporting how to do communication and promotion. Not the only game they have managed well either.

As for PlayWay's fast follower... don't think it will ever be finished, looking at the legal troubles between the developer (also part of the group, or at least formerly part of it) and PlayWay https://www.pb.pl/wielka-awantura-w-grupie-playwaya-1207379

Eliza Crichton-Stuart

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Top 25 Gaming Articles on Substack

Latest Gaming Articles

A Conversation with an Anarcho-Communist

Nintendo, Microsoft, Square welcome us to the era of fewer big video games

Breaking the habit

how to be respected as a teen girl

IGN buys Gamer Network, 23/05/2024

Welcome to Read Rodge!

How Gaming Helped The Ink Spots Gain 1 Million New Listeners [Game Music Digest May 24]

2024: what the ****'s going on? (In PC games?)

Introducing VGIM Insider

The Summer 2024 Blog Post Competition, Extravaganza, and Jamboree

Substack Q&A: Jonathan Haidt's "Anxious Generation"

The Youth Rebellion Is Growing

Are conversion rates dipping over time on Steam?

They're going to pay the players

We're All Hitlerists now

The Rise and Fall of Atari Is a Textbook Example of Creative Destruction

Why Some U.S. Border Agents Are Contemplating Suicide. Plus. . .

Priest facing Candy Crush theft charges due soon in court

Extra! Extra! 5/26 👯‍♀️

Johansson's beef with OpenAI points to unclear laws on voice cloning

Kids, Routines, And Unexpected Delights

Det. Eng. Weekly #71 - AI next-gen cloud-based detection data ocean

Cologne Boy and HIFI Obsessions

What I'm Reading

Deep dive: inside Manor Lords' 2 million-selling success

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