"The Firefly Effect" was a term created to describe the self-fulfilling loop of shows only appealing to a niche audience getting cancelled because that same niche audience knows it's not gonna survive to another season so there's no point getting invested. We're seeing that everywhere now, even for the most popular stuff around
Do you know how rare and valuable a murder basement is. I can’t find one house listed with one and when you ask on viewing they want you out of the house fast and the police pay a visit. They always send Frank over, not bad for a copper, had a former music production company before the 08 recession. Even featured on Radio 1. He to would love a murder basement, he say the audio in one outstanding. No matter how much loud music you play and the artist screams into the mic, next door hears nothing. When I asked if I heard any of the artists he’s worked with, apparently “no one’s ever heard of them” strange that, I can see why he went under but top bloke.
I remember working for a company in Norwich where we were shown a flat that had a door that went downstairs that couldn't be opened from the inside....
The wildest thing about Love Live! School Idol Festival is that it was shut down after almost 10 years to announce Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live! A sequel none of the fans of the original wanted.
I played the original Love Live! School Idol Festival almost ten years ago (in the Japanese version), but fell off after a year or so. Looking at the brief glimpses of gameplay in this video, I kind of think the game pointing out "early" or "late" button presses next to a "good" or "great" score is honestly a feature I would have loved to see in the original game. Was that ever added in an update during the nine years I missed?
I'm starting to think that maybe letting capitalism run unchallenged infesting every aspect of the human experience might have just possibly not have been a good idea.
*Game industry announces new time-travel technology for publishers to go back in time and cancel their failed games before they are made* _When asked about the paradoxes not only erasing from the players' minds the experience they paid for, but possibly erasing the existence of present-time people; the spokesperson responded "Better get used to it"_
In a related story, Paradox Games denies ever using time travel to cancel failed games and thus causing a paradox. They even pointed out that Sword of the Stars 2 still exists in its perpetual buggy state. However, when asked about thier DLC cancer, everyone at the press conference suddenly found themselves at home with a note indicating the conference was canceled the previous day.
@@DrownedInExile That’s not even an exaggeration, we got rich morons these days like Musk looking at Bladerunner and Cyberpunk and thinking “Yeah, THATS a good future for humanity!”
It's funny because patch culture basically got cited as a big part of why FF14 1.0 failed in the famous GDC talk on that, the 1.0 dev team got comfortable with the idea that they could just release and patch the problems later and of course that leaves you just always fixing your old stuff leaving new content just as buggy in an eternal death spiral. Which is to say the industry does KNOW this, it's just there seem to be a lot of people who just think they're built different.
It's honestly baffling. Love Live (long "i" in Live) is a nearly decade and a half old multimedia project with millions of fans. The entire idea seems to be to sell in game stuff based solely on FOMO and literally nothing else. If that doesn't truly highlight the disgusting cynicism of this whole thing, I don't know what does.
As a LLSIF player since 2014, it's my baseline for blatantly cynical marketing. Every character in u's (not finding the Unicode character lol) is a blatantly archetypical character. It was created in a lab to be the essence of generic. Every ounce of flavour was an accident. It truly could be described as one of the games of all time. That being said, Snow Halation still bangs.
@@theMoporter yeah Love Live is average at best but the music slaps not as much as Aikatsu which is the better idol show but Love Live got some real bops (and the anime are pretty decent)
I can't tell the difference between Love Live and Idolmaster because they all look the same. I only that Berserk author Kenturo Miura and Tekken head patriarch Katsuhito Harada love it.
Was just thinking, "Toss a game out, let everyone know it'll be offline-only three months later" sounds like a very bare-faced FOMO gambit from a publisher whose reasoning amounts to, "Eh, whatever nerds actually fall for these scams will run out of cash a few months in, why waste service costs beyond that? They're only here to give us money. Let 'em bite, bleed them for a few months and then dump them. That's the business-customer relationship we want!"
I was a bit surprised on how steph didn't go just a teeny bit deep enought to realize how much of a scam Lole Live School Idol Festival 2 Miracle Life was, so bad the game failed even in Japan. Company wanted the player base to invest all the time and money... twice.
Hasn't patch culture come to movies with the original Star Wars movies already? I recently met someone who said he didn't like the original Star Wars movies because the CGI had aged so poorly. I was like "what CGI?" until I remembered that he had probably never seen the actual original movies because they've been erased from the surface of the Earth and the fact that we're allowed to keep our memories is probably just a loophole that's about to be fixed.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what George Lucas wanted. And they’re still futzing with the original trilogy on Disney’s streaming service. (And have outright memory-holed that recent Willow series.) The past is continuously being rewritten. Me, I have my laserdiscs of the original, unaltered, non-Special Edition movies. They’re not 4K or even HD, but Disney can’t alter or delete them. And I own them.
@@jellyfishjones4741 I mean, you can probably binge-watch video essays describing why the Special Edition CGI is bad until the Sun explodes, so let's not relitigate the reasons here ;D
Steph, I have to ask. In some shots of your murder basement, there is apparently a bricked-up door. Have you… have you checked whether someone cosplayed The Cask of Amontillado in there?
Opening the probable portal to hell isn't the best idea. No one wants to house share with the spirits of the damned. Those fuckers always leave the fridge open and eat the last biscuit without buying anything new ones.
What gets me about those older games is that a lot of them can still be restored and played! City of Heroes and one of the star wars games had their source codes simply dumped so people were able to replicate the server structure and play them. A lot of the old gamespy games have devoted fan workarounds that replicate gamespy so the game can be played again. For the sake of the argument, let's look at Splinter Cell's multiplayer. It's completely possible still to play the multiplayer of every Splinter Cell up to Double Agent, since they used Gamespy and there's a workaround for that. After Double Agent, Ubisoft switched to its own service from Gamespy. So the games that came after, Conviction and Blacklist, can no longer be played on multiplayer, and since they were using an internal, proprietary system, there's no way to reverse engineer it without the game's source code. Considering how multiplayer dependent Blacklist was, it devalues the game to an absurd degree, to the point where Ubisoft might as well not sell it anymore. It's comical and brazen that this disease has spread so far in the gaming industry. The entire fiasco where one hacker had both Titanfall and Titanfall 2 basically dead should have been a wake-up call to the entire industry to invest in the longevity of their games.
Well said. Ross Scott has an amazing video that goes into detail on this subject (ruclips.net/video/tUAX0gnZ3Nw/видео.html) but I think this one quote from him sums it up perfectly: "A game's support ending is inevitable. It's DESTRUCTION is not." Live service games can absolutely stay playable after the devs shut down the servers, they just have to be responsible with how they do that.
Thing is, this industry doesn't want nor care to invest in the longevity of their products. Not at least when it's "old news" and "unprofitable". They always want you to move on to the new next thing, start from zero again to tempt you with their scummy monetization tactics.
That's like if The Sphere Hunter and Civvie11 collabed on a review of Resident Evil 9. Suzi talks about how cool and hot the characters are while Civvie says the same thing about the weapons.
I think that video game archival combined with fan-servers is the best solution to the death of old online games. There are many old online games that only exist as fan-servers now like City of Heroes: Homecoming, and their communities are really cool. It'd be great if there were more games like this.
Could something like torrenting work for video games server hosting? The more people are interested in a title, the more people share not only the executable, but also the server infrastructure?
The true best solution would be that once an online-reliant game is going to go offline, the owners release the code as open-source so fans can host their own servers or even release patches to the game to keep it alive longer. But that's not gonna happen, sadly. Gotta shut it down completely so players are forced to go play the newest one instead.
@@DrownedInExile They've actually gotten explicit permission from them to continue the project without fear of being shut down! More games need to do that, where if they shut down, fans are given permission to run their own servers. I also had a blast with the fan run versions of Toontown and Pirates Online, even if the latter is kind of unplayable due to lack of active players making naval skirmishes nightmarish to try and solo.
There already was a game that was announcelled! Super Mario 3D All-Stars was announced in 2020 as a "limited release" and only on sale for six months. Unfortunately, not only did the FOMO tactics clearly work, but many people have clearly forgotten about it... probably because they purposely hid this detail in smaller, less obvious text and places at the time because even Nintendo knew it was a bad look. This also included Super Mario Bros 35, the one they went after someone's existing version of the year before. What a farce.
I'm glad I have 3DAS physical. They'll have to come and get it. And this is why I dread the number of dumdums that don't care about the full-digital push.
Those models of the matrix twins at 14:47 were made by a friend of mine in college, when we coursed Digital Games at Feevale, here in Brazil! \o/ I'm so moved right now.
I didn't think we could get worse than Them Fightin Herds hiding the news that they were stopping development & never finishing the story mode in the same release where they announced a new character's addition, but congrats, LLSIF, you did it!
This was along the lines of they managed to get to the point they could release the last character the wanted for the game, but because the player base for Them Fighting Herds was so small to begin with even with their crowdfunding, so unless they get further funding, they aren't going to be able to do more beyond the scope than what they have declared. Plus they are an indie developer backed by an indie publisher. They would have to move on to another project to get funding to do anything else anyway even games they want to do. As much as that may suck, it is in stark contrast than what these bigger companies are doing and it would serve you better to give that context going forward.
@@EquinoxGTI doubt the developers of “Them’s Fighin’ Herds” are malicious, but am I to believe they released part of a story mode but never ‘declared’ that they had any intention of finishing it?
ADHD Hack: Have a little key Cup/Mug/Bowl right next to your front door. You'll remember making the little clangy sound as you drop them in when you get in and you're developing autopilot habits to hack your broken brain.
I do that, even though I don't have ADHD, but just tend to forget and loose things. I haven't had trouble finding my keys, since I started it 2 years ago. It's honestly kind of amazing how effective such simple tricks can be.
I bought a bowl that has a ring of frogs around it, like, on top of the bowl looking inwards. It not only helps hold my glasses and keys if they start sliding out, *but* 'it's in the frogs' or 'the frogs have it' is a very fun way to look at it. I've not lost my keys since getting this.
Bookshelf. I have a spot for the keys on my favorite bookshelf. In regards to your car, only close/lock your Driver Door AFTER you step out & have your keys in your off-hand.
As someone who was looking forward to SIF 2, this shit is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Love Live is one of the biggest (or maybe the biggest) weeb music franchises, the fact that they managed to fuck up this game so badly is mindblowing. While the gacha model is always inherently bullshit (though at least not intrusive at all for rhythm games), I can say from experience that the live service model for releasing content for these Bushiroad music franchises is honestly the best way to run them. Being able to get new story content and/or songs every week or so is more or less a similar experience to following a TV show that's really satisfying to keep up with, and the content is very much suited to that type of release cycle. Anyway, for additional context as to why this is so comically sad, there were two different School Idol Festival games, one of them being ancient and in dire need of an update and the other being the one with a different gameplay style. Both of those games were killed in favor of SIF 2 being the replacement. Which makes this even funnier. There was also some follow up tweet announcing that there was some issue with transfer codes (you were able to transfer some stuff from original SIF to SIF 2), but they were only giving out compensation if you shared the announcement and told your friends that the dead on arrival game has problems. You can't make this shit up.
Holy crap. I wonder how Bushiroad has gone incompetent. I also heard they're transferring the Bandori game's management from Craft Egg to themself, and before that move, they've already tried to do big changes, some of which fans don't think are good or necessary (like the artstyle change for example)
I understand Steph has absolutely zero awareness of Love Live and that's perfectly okay but every time they use "Live" as in "Give" and not "Live" as in "Five" it hurts a little 🤣
Oh for sure - I've always loved the goofy stories of amibiguously gay anime kids hanging out and trying to achieve their dreams this series has provided, so I feel you lmao
The real sad thing is that it isn't even "just" the entertainment industry. Every company right now tries to do the same it just looks slightly different. They all want to get their customers to be bound to them till the day they die. This might mean things like the razor and blade model or subscription services for everything from clothes, food or games to cutting up the market until it's the same 3 companies running an entire industry. It's all the same.
Myself I've dismissed mobile "games" from day 1 First because most mobile "games" were at best the equivalent of a warioware microgame, basically repetitive fluff by itself. Then when the intrusive ad and scummy microtransactions came in, it just made it even more justified to entirely dismiss mobile "games". Then that cancer spread outside of mobile too, ugh...
As much as I like Arknights and I want to play Honkai Impact 3rd and Honkai Star Rail so badly, I have to agree. Mobile games are basically shovelware games that are online only, for smartphones instead of consoles like they were in the past.
@@nobodyinparticular9640 Those are great reasons but preceding either one of those for me was the idea of using the screen as a controller. Touchscreens are imprecise temperamental shite at the best of times, but having to perpetually try to see around/through my fingers to play and/or have most of the screen obstructed by buttons is the opposite of an immersive or fun experience.
Once every streaming service started making us pay extra to not have ads when the entire point of them in the first place was that you’d pay this other company a premium to.. not have ads.. I started buying any and all physical media I could for the shows/movies/music I consume. This strategy obviously works better for movies/tv shows as those don’t become expensive and ineffective frisbees within a few years of purchasing them.
@@CayenneGaramondeHow? Just keep sailing West till we descover and can exploit the new new world! After all, the world is round, and therefor goes on forever, right?
Game preservation is hard enough when there aren't legal barriers in the way. A lot of my early time learning game dev was spent in RPG Maker 95, 2K, and XP communities. Majority of the game out of those, even the really good ones just don't exist any longer. Anyone was free to copy them and redistribute them but so few did or those of us that did had our storages fail to time before we could upload them to something like the internet archive. It's crazy to think but for awhile even though you could send the internet archive a backup the bandwidth requirements meant you needed a business class connection to even be able to.
I'm sure the people behind the game thought, "if we tell them the game they've been wanting is only going to be around for three months, they'll feel pushed to buy all the microtranasctions immediately! Isn't that awesome?"
That remark about investing in Netflix shows hits home. I have basically completely stopped watching anything on Netflix until I look it up to see if it's cancelled. Everything ends in a cliff hanger and I hate being left with lingering thoughts that will never be satisfied.
16:08 I think it's important to draw a line between KarmaZoo's potential unplayability and the planned death of online triple-A games. If a game is online-only, but it DOESN'T rely on a central server, then it's always possible for there to be an eventual resurgence in its playerbase. Among Us survived two years of near-empty lobbies before it took off in 2020, and there's always a possibility for an online indie title like KarmaZoo doing the same. But when a game DOES rely on a central server, it's gone for good. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood had an excellent multiplayer experience, but UbiSoft killed it and it's never coming back. An unpopular game is not the same as a dead game.
I was SO GOOD at Brotherhood's multiplayer. Just the right mix of complexity and simplicity. Then they just kept adding more and more complexity, destroying the simplicity that served to draw the crowds in the first place.
So. I played a lot of the first game. And I mean A LOT over the years. For a while it was basically the only game I had because I was a very very broke boy with with only a smart phone (and a gamecube but no money or retro game store to get games for it) and that was at probably the worst time in my life. It was pretty much the one source of joy I had in my life, so needless to say when it shut down I was completely heartbroken and REALLY looking forward to getting to play the new version. I’m an extremely hardcore fan of the series. The character you put in the thumbnail is both my wallpaper and lock screen on my phone, my room is covered in merch of the franchise, and I just earlier this month spent about 2,500 dollars going to japan to see a concert of the group. All this to say, no its ok to laugh. This is objectively EXTREMELY funny. Everyone in the community are simultaneously laughing our asses off and crying. You’re more than welcome to join in. OH also in case you were thinking “man they should at least give the fans an offline version of the app to keep playing since it really is a fun game.” Dont worry, at least in japan there will be an offline version of the app…. Where you can’t play the songs. You can just use it to look at your lootbox pngs. Fucking awful. If you do decide to check out the game though and find you enjoy the gameplay I’d recommend checking out Bang Dream or Project Sekai. Both are very fun games.
Once upon a time, my twenty-year-old self walked into a second-hand bookshop and bought a book that took the Phantom of the Opera story, tore it into little pieces, and used those pieces to tell a vibrant, rich, and enjoyable story. That book sits on my bookshelf where it has followed me while I moved house at least a dozen times, allowing me to pick it up whenever I want and remind myself why I kept it. When I see the video game world and what it has become, I shake my head, enjoy the experiences I know will not be there in future, and realize that video games are now performance art: there for a fleeting moment, then gone save for the memories of those lucky enough to have been in the right place at the right time. And so much of it isn't worth that moment.
I was a big Love Live fan back then, with the first two groups. I've played the original School Idol Festival a lot back then, and even tried to get into the tournament at Anime Boston all those years ago. So seeing them shut down that game (and All Stars), then try and push a botched followup, which led to the EN version being delayed past its original release, only to be led to this point here. Yup, the School Idol Festival subline is burned in my eyes, and wished the EN version of SIF 2 was simply cancelled. I am looking forward to the Metroidvania Yohane game by Inti Creates though.
One point we wish you lingered on more was how this sets a really worrying precedent for other companies to start following suit. Before we thought announcing a game's end before it's out would put their profits at risk, but in practice it seems this could only generate fomo, thus bringing in as many people as possible in a short timeframe. (Shoutout to AccursedFarms) One of the only bits of leverage us customers have against the practice of companies selling live service titles as "games you own" rather than under a subscription license is the grey legality of it. Selling someone a perpetual license, knowing it's not perpetual, but not even telling the customer when the product will become bricked; we feel there's enough there for a legal case, to stop these companies from killing art. But if companies start realizing they can literally get away with publicly setting a date to pull their kill switches, and it *benefit* them to do so in both legality *and* profit, then we're effectively completely fucked. Customers protections be damned. There's also the side conversation to be had about the medium of art, and people who purposefully design their art to expire as *part* of the art; but given that we're mainly talking about greedy corporations who only pull this nonsense for profit and don't give a damn about art, it's not something we're trying to justify or defend in this specific case.
I think the existence of light novels like Overlord that basically revolve around living in a game that's been shut down is a testament to how impactful this topic is to the culture. I can't wait for the next video, I need more content like Accursed Farm's Dead Game series!
My favorite He-man villain is King Hiss! He had a toy (which I owned as a kid) but the cartoon had been cancelled before he could make an appearance, so he didn't show up until the 2002 reboot. His toy kicked ass though.
To put pre-internet patch culture into context, I remember back in 1994 when me and a friend were super psyched about a game called Zephyr, which promised to be a home version of the new hit arcade game Cybersled. A PC Gamer (print!) review then said that the promised multiplayer was not in the game, but that each box came with a note telling you to register and they swore they'd mail you a patch disk with multiplayer when it was done. The review stated, "Imagine buying the latest Stephen King book, only the last 4 chapters are all blank pages with a note taped to them 'Mister King has not finished writing the ending yet, but we will be sure to mail you the missing pages when he's done!' " The multiplayer was never released.
Neuron activation on that City of Heroes clip, as others have commented the Homecoming fan servers have gotten an official license from NCSoft to host City of Heroes. Though we'll see how long they get to keep it.
Announcellation really shows game companies getting even bolder: "We don't believe this game will be succesful, but why cancell it if we can milk a sinking ship?" The fact they just admit to this show they don't give a sh*t
"zilla takes too much time to make a single joke" seems to come from the same sort of mentality as those people who are using AIs to summarize youtube videos into 7 sentences, cause we are in such a RUSH guys. We are so busy and we really gotta optimize the time it takes to watch a Jimquisition video !
As someone who watches all RUclips at 2× speed (albiet because I struggle to process speech that is at normal speed), even I don't get "Zilla takes too long to make a joke." Taking TWELVE HOURS to make a joke's not too much really, not with the time I got.
It seems like a fix for this would be a regulation that if you're releasing an online dependent game and discontinue services, then you need to in your final patch release the server software so that owners of the software can host private servers if they want to.
City of Heroes didn't die of old age. And is a reason I would never touch anything while it's published by NCSOFT again, until, like Guild Wars it proves to be a rare case of a lucky survivor, not shut down or sold to some MMO graveyard the moment NC realizes it's not the next Lineage.
It's been a long time, and I'm still really glad the Homecoming servers were and are a thing. The good news about them being officially licensed now is even better, and a kick in the ass of NC - people are STILL playing this game, and they COULD have been getting paid for it for ten years!
@@0LoneTech If the last time you tried was still using the NCSOFT account, that's likely why, and getting it back now is a bit of a process... Had to spend like a day talking to Arena's tech support myself, fortunately I still had the original boxes and receipts with codes and got it back.
Bushiroad also made Bang Dream, which was a mobile rhythm game I enjoyed for a few YEARS, but had to uninstall because it started to run so poorly it would crash over and over again. I'm told its still going fine in japan and this is only a problem internationally. Still pisses me off, especially since its got me into one of their real bands, Raise A Suilen, and now i can't play their songs anymore
Watching this while reading that the Suicide Squad game is a) not sending out review copies and b) being forced to stop early access because it's bugged to hell and back was certainly a thing.
I could not believe it. When you had the build up at the beginning of the video, I thought it was announced, and then shutdown was announced in a reply. BUT IN THE SAME POST‼ This is something else.
This has the smell of a contractual obligation all over it. Like, the studio doesn't actually want to do a worldwide release (probably the game already failed in Japan and doesn't have much hope elsewhere) but they signed something earlier in development that means they have to.
Highly relevant to the endless shutdowns, have you been made aware of Ross Scott's most recent video? He's been railing against online-only games for a very long time and I think he's planning on potentially taking a bit of legal action to try and damage the practice. I'm sure with your reach you could be tremendously helpful in putting the word out, or getting contact with some relevant people! (You probably are well aware but y'know, just in case)
Saw your tweet on this and was incredibly amused. Thanks for covering it here too, it's just so ridiculous! Been a while since I've been watching your stuff but very happy to have caught this one! Liking and commenting to get more of your stuff recommended again :)
How about this executives - any game that you own the rights to, you put on a service to preserve them - because you see *THAT* is a service I would pay for in perpetuity. Make a Netflix for no-longer-in-print games. Heck, buy up the indie ones to add to you library. The man who gives me Koudelka, Shadow Hearts, Shadow Hearts Covenant and Shadow Hearts From the New World, gets all my money for the rest of my life.
4:51 Mork Borg page 13 says, "Hi!" I knew I recognized that image from somewhere, almost as fast as I saw it. Here's hoping you don't catch any curses from goblins in the future, Steph!
Was sure this episode was gonna be about palworld I appreciate someone talking about literally anything else I like that game a lot but geez I need some air
Lol. I love how the "don't read that part out loud" bit culminated in the "I'm looking forward to playing with something as it dies" line! Lol! Your comedic timing was SUPERLATIVE this week! Well done!!
I've never felt more represented by anyone than I do with Steph and her ADHD 👍 Stay awesome & good luck "staying organized" (we both know we're never actually organized but hey it's nice to aspire to actually being organized one day!)
The tip I use is to put things where I think they are. When you've lost something, there's always that place you keep going back to. If that's the place you most strongly associate with that items location...put it there.
I've started just waiting a year to buy any AAA games, it gives them time to actually be finished, is usually on sale so way cheaper, and weeds out any games that were so bad they were discontinued immediately
"I think that's a bit tasteless to say, but so long as I don’t name any specific illnesses I don’t think it will be offensive to say.” I don’t know why but I actually had to pause the video to laugh at that, it’s just so _exactly_ correct.
An old game that is getting gutted in the near future that was talked about in Accursed Farms' Dead Game News is The Crew 1. It's getting to the point where a potential lawsuit could happen over this. Steph, if you haven't seen any of that stuff, I highly recommend it, I think you might enjoy the thoughts of what could be considered a kindred spirit.
I've only heard of Love Live as a franchise because of the Weiß Schwarz ads Bushiroad bakes into Cardfight Vanguard episodes uploaded here on RUclips. It's also how I know the first Live in the name is also pronounced lyve and not leev. English needs Ruby text sometimes like Japanese when it's using Chinese pictogylphs instead of their own kana phonetic written languages I swear.. Also we need to get rid of wastebin letters like I, C and X.
like i guess it makes sense that one day steph would cover an idol game, since for years and years and Years she's been saying live service mobile games weren't good and i would just nod sadly as someone who's seen many many anime idol (and idol adjacent) mobile games fall out of service within less than a year, but also. love live jumpscare.
It baffles me because the first version of this game (Love Live School Idol Festival) went through remake after remake under the same app and (almost the same title) as the anime series progressed and then swapped over to Love Live Aquors, and it was running for probably about 10 years. The decision to make an entirely new app and then immediately sunset it is completely baffling. The first app only shut down in 2023. I used to love the game back in the day, it's a shame to see this happen to it and it's a worrying thing to see creep into the industry.
I mean, we could see this becoming an increasingly glaring problem when the studio execs behind The Day Before basically closed the game the day after launch, sunset the servers a month later (was it even that long?), and have since announced their next -grift- project.
I’m sure it’ll be brought up by others, but the “live” in LoveAlive is rhymes with “five” - it’s right there in the katakana. It’s short for “live performance, though “show” or “gig” or “set” is how you’d translate it depending on context. “Did you see GWAR’s ‘live’ last night?” “The band was tired after finishing playing their ‘live’”.
Yeaaaah, I really don't like this state of accelerated FOMO the entire entertainment industry is creating. I trust them as far as I can throw them when it comes to running subscription services, and I can throw them exactly zero!
I remember when my favorite online shooter had its servers pulled (Battlefield 2142). It became one of the reasons I don't bother with online games anymore. Now that execs seem to be speed running the process I feel nothing but sorrow for people who get even less time with games that they love than I did all those years ago. This is a major reason why I think single player is such an important game feature.
I have followed this show for years, since the days of the first incarnation of the Escapist. I value the news and insight and the jokes often land for me. Like many others, I am jealous of the murder basement. But no comedic skit could justify the murder of that Manta Force. I am truly appalled.
Tinfoil hat time: They’re testing a new strain of FOMO. If Love Live Et Cetera makes enough money in its three months of its Lofe Life…that’s a Love Live Service business model with minimal server upkeep. The coked-up businessman on my shoulder just soaked me.
11:50 The streaming wars are already over. They just haven't admitted it. Disney+ is getting folded into Hulu, Netflix is picking up a bunch of stuff that was supposed to be exclusive to other platforms and there's probably more writing on the wall here I haven't yet noticed.
Still waiting for Sterling to talk about Palworld. Although, at this point, I don't know what she could say about it that hasn't already been said. x_x
If they didn't want us to pirate everything, they shouldn't have created so many streaming services. We were happy and willing to spend when it was just a couple so content was easy to access, but it has gotten ridiculous. Most people can't afford all that on top of everything else we are already paying for.
Ive realised pretty recently that i'm always replaying my childhood games... But kids nowadays won't be able to replay their childhood games ._. Only watch VODs at best It's so sad
Interesting that you'd use a clip from the City of Heroes trailer (I think it was) since CoH is now more or less back as the premiere private server that was still running the game was recently given full license by NCSoft to run the game, and that is only able to be done because someone had stolen the server code many years ago (from my understanding, it wasn't reverse engineered like most MMO private servers so it was full quality, unlike most private servers).
14:24 City of Heores shut down because it failed in South Korea, which is where NCSoft is headquarted. Fans have brought the game back and the Homecoming serves are now officially endorsed by NCSoft. NCSoft also shut down several other games in ways much different from City of Heroes, including the short-lived Wildstar and Tabula Rasa. CoH's shutdown came without warning, in stark contrast to Auto Assault.
"this would have been a great gag if only the satirists thought of it before reality did"
your writer deserves a raise
stephanie's writer is stephanie
"The Firefly Effect" was a term created to describe the self-fulfilling loop of shows only appealing to a niche audience getting cancelled because that same niche audience knows it's not gonna survive to another season so there's no point getting invested.
We're seeing that everywhere now, even for the most popular stuff around
God I love that your new place has a murder basement for filming. Filming and NOTHING ELSE. Don’t look in the walls.
Not gonna lie, I’m kinda jealous. It’s a very nice murder basement.
Plus, I’m sure it’s a hell of a storm bunker…just don’t think about the smell.
There is only pain within. And cornflakes.
Of course! Nothing in those walls but a nice barrel of amontillado
Do you know how rare and valuable a murder basement is. I can’t find one house listed with one and when you ask on viewing they want you out of the house fast and the police pay a visit. They always send Frank over, not bad for a copper, had a former music production company before the 08 recession. Even featured on Radio 1. He to would love a murder basement, he say the audio in one outstanding. No matter how much loud music you play and the artist screams into the mic, next door hears nothing. When I asked if I heard any of the artists he’s worked with, apparently “no one’s ever heard of them” strange that, I can see why he went under but top bloke.
I remember working for a company in Norwich where we were shown a flat that had a door that went downstairs that couldn't be opened from the inside....
The wildest thing about Love Live! School Idol Festival is that it was shut down after almost 10 years to announce Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live! A sequel none of the fans of the original wanted.
Kind of reminds me of what happened to Maplestory 2.
or at least "2" was an expected upgrade but it is just a re-skin of the same game with new artwork but lacks half of the features of the original
I played the original Love Live! School Idol Festival almost ten years ago (in the Japanese version), but fell off after a year or so. Looking at the brief glimpses of gameplay in this video, I kind of think the game pointing out "early" or "late" button presses next to a "good" or "great" score is honestly a feature I would have loved to see in the original game. Was that ever added in an update during the nine years I missed?
@@ManuelSLaraBisch nope
It also killed the 3D game.
I didn’t know a game can be announcelled. That’s just insane
Beautiful new word. Awful news
@@JacobSantosDev it’s a word that shouldn’t need to exist
why even bother doing it?
@TallulahBangkok you say that now. Come back to this comment in five or ten years!
In capitalism you either shine brightly or die the second we see you. And yes I agree... It effing suuux
I'm starting to think that maybe letting capitalism run unchallenged infesting every aspect of the human experience might have just possibly not have been a good idea.
Careful now, someone's liable to scream at you for being an "evil godless commie" for wanting any kind of guardrails on capitalism at all. XD
In the words of Jack O'Neill, "ya think?"
@@Canadamus_Prime that’s O’Neill, two L’s. O’Neil is in a completely different department.
@backupplan6058 right, my bad.
Such thinking is Double-plus Ungood.
*Game industry announces new time-travel technology for publishers to go back in time and cancel their failed games before they are made*
_When asked about the paradoxes not only erasing from the players' minds the experience they paid for, but possibly erasing the existence of present-time people; the spokesperson responded "Better get used to it"_
Will the machine have a "failsafe" that allows executives to still keep the money people paid for those games?
In a related story, Paradox Games denies ever using time travel to cancel failed games and thus causing a paradox. They even pointed out that Sword of the Stars 2 still exists in its perpetual buggy state.
However, when asked about thier DLC cancer, everyone at the press conference suddenly found themselves at home with a note indicating the conference was canceled the previous day.
You know how people say “satire is dead, because society has become a parody of itself.”
It almost feels like the universe took that as a challenge 🤣
I'd recommend The Act Man. Somehow, he can make satire on the parodies the game industry shits out
@@darkangelgeneral I’ve seen clips of him and he seems funny. I’ll look him up, thanks!
It's like someone looked at Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the fictional CEO Morgan's book "The Ethics of Greed". And said "This is the future we want!"
@@DrownedInExile That’s not even an exaggeration, we got rich morons these days like Musk looking at Bladerunner and Cyberpunk and thinking “Yeah, THATS a good future for humanity!”
Tom Lehrer said it best "satire lost all meaning when Henry Kissinger won a Nobel Peace Prize."
It's funny because patch culture basically got cited as a big part of why FF14 1.0 failed in the famous GDC talk on that, the 1.0 dev team got comfortable with the idea that they could just release and patch the problems later and of course that leaves you just always fixing your old stuff leaving new content just as buggy in an eternal death spiral. Which is to say the industry does KNOW this, it's just there seem to be a lot of people who just think they're built different.
"Let's all laugh at an industry that never learns anything, tee-hee-hee"
"It never works. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but... but it might work for us."
Maybe we shouldn't have told all the smart kids to go into finance and gamble on stonks for the last 60 years.
@@snigwithasword1284 I've talked to those kids. They're not smart.
It's honestly baffling. Love Live (long "i" in Live) is a nearly decade and a half old multimedia project with millions of fans. The entire idea seems to be to sell in game stuff based solely on FOMO and literally nothing else. If that doesn't truly highlight the disgusting cynicism of this whole thing, I don't know what does.
As a LLSIF player since 2014, it's my baseline for blatantly cynical marketing. Every character in u's (not finding the Unicode character lol) is a blatantly archetypical character. It was created in a lab to be the essence of generic. Every ounce of flavour was an accident. It truly could be described as one of the games of all time.
That being said, Snow Halation still bangs.
@@theMoporter yeah Love Live is average at best but the music slaps
not as much as Aikatsu which is the better idol show but Love Live got some real bops (and the anime are pretty decent)
I can't tell the difference between Love Live and Idolmaster because they all look the same. I only that Berserk author Kenturo Miura and Tekken head patriarch Katsuhito Harada love it.
Was just thinking, "Toss a game out, let everyone know it'll be offline-only three months later" sounds like a very bare-faced FOMO gambit from a publisher whose reasoning amounts to, "Eh, whatever nerds actually fall for these scams will run out of cash a few months in, why waste service costs beyond that? They're only here to give us money. Let 'em bite, bleed them for a few months and then dump them. That's the business-customer relationship we want!"
I was a bit surprised on how steph didn't go just a teeny bit deep enought to realize how much of a scam Lole Live School Idol Festival 2 Miracle Life was, so bad the game failed even in Japan.
Company wanted the player base to invest all the time and money... twice.
The mispronunciation of the name throughout the whole video really does it for me hahaha
Hasn't patch culture come to movies with the original Star Wars movies already? I recently met someone who said he didn't like the original Star Wars movies because the CGI had aged so poorly. I was like "what CGI?" until I remembered that he had probably never seen the actual original movies because they've been erased from the surface of the Earth and the fact that we're allowed to keep our memories is probably just a loophole that's about to be fixed.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what George Lucas wanted. And they’re still futzing with the original trilogy on Disney’s streaming service. (And have outright memory-holed that recent Willow series.) The past is continuously being rewritten. Me, I have my laserdiscs of the original, unaltered, non-Special Edition movies. They’re not 4K or even HD, but Disney can’t alter or delete them. And I own them.
@@CantankerousDave I recommend, if at all possible, to somehow make a digital copy and upload it to the internet archive if it's not already up there.
The CGI looks so weird since it's clearly not a match for the original film too. So it breaks the potential for immersion in old sci fi film effects.
@@jellyfishjones4741 I mean, you can probably binge-watch video essays describing why the Special Edition CGI is bad until the Sun explodes, so let's not relitigate the reasons here ;D
Steph, I have to ask. In some shots of your murder basement, there is apparently a bricked-up door. Have you… have you checked whether someone cosplayed The Cask of Amontillado in there?
Opening the probable portal to hell isn't the best idea. No one wants to house share with the spirits of the damned. Those fuckers always leave the fridge open and eat the last biscuit without buying anything new ones.
What gets me about those older games is that a lot of them can still be restored and played! City of Heroes and one of the star wars games had their source codes simply dumped so people were able to replicate the server structure and play them. A lot of the old gamespy games have devoted fan workarounds that replicate gamespy so the game can be played again.
For the sake of the argument, let's look at Splinter Cell's multiplayer. It's completely possible still to play the multiplayer of every Splinter Cell up to Double Agent, since they used Gamespy and there's a workaround for that. After Double Agent, Ubisoft switched to its own service from Gamespy. So the games that came after, Conviction and Blacklist, can no longer be played on multiplayer, and since they were using an internal, proprietary system, there's no way to reverse engineer it without the game's source code. Considering how multiplayer dependent Blacklist was, it devalues the game to an absurd degree, to the point where Ubisoft might as well not sell it anymore.
It's comical and brazen that this disease has spread so far in the gaming industry. The entire fiasco where one hacker had both Titanfall and Titanfall 2 basically dead should have been a wake-up call to the entire industry to invest in the longevity of their games.
Well said. Ross Scott has an amazing video that goes into detail on this subject (ruclips.net/video/tUAX0gnZ3Nw/видео.html) but I think this one quote from him sums it up perfectly:
"A game's support ending is inevitable. It's DESTRUCTION is not."
Live service games can absolutely stay playable after the devs shut down the servers, they just have to be responsible with how they do that.
Thing is, this industry doesn't want nor care to invest in the longevity of their products. Not at least when it's "old news" and "unprofitable".
They always want you to move on to the new next thing, start from zero again to tempt you with their scummy monetization tactics.
@@nobodyinparticular9640 Let's just boycott all new games until they make all old games playable.
Stephanie doing a video on Love Live is not the kind of crossover I expected to see this morning
The devs really Nico Nico Nii'd to explain their bullshit.
Steph did a crossover video on Love Live (short i), not Love Live (long i).
That's like if The Sphere Hunter and Civvie11 collabed on a review of Resident Evil 9. Suzi talks about how cool and hot the characters are while Civvie says the same thing about the weapons.
I think that video game archival combined with fan-servers is the best solution to the death of old online games. There are many old online games that only exist as fan-servers now like City of Heroes: Homecoming, and their communities are really cool. It'd be great if there were more games like this.
Could something like torrenting work for video games server hosting? The more people are interested in a title, the more people share not only the executable, but also the server infrastructure?
Homecoming FTW!
I'm amazed that NCSoft didn't shut them down years ago. Been playing it on and off since 2019, shows no sign of stopping.
This 👍
And emulation becomes more important by the day too.
The true best solution would be that once an online-reliant game is going to go offline, the owners release the code as open-source so fans can host their own servers or even release patches to the game to keep it alive longer. But that's not gonna happen, sadly. Gotta shut it down completely so players are forced to go play the newest one instead.
@@DrownedInExile They've actually gotten explicit permission from them to continue the project without fear of being shut down! More games need to do that, where if they shut down, fans are given permission to run their own servers. I also had a blast with the fan run versions of Toontown and Pirates Online, even if the latter is kind of unplayable due to lack of active players making naval skirmishes nightmarish to try and solo.
There already was a game that was announcelled! Super Mario 3D All-Stars was announced in 2020 as a "limited release" and only on sale for six months. Unfortunately, not only did the FOMO tactics clearly work, but many people have clearly forgotten about it... probably because they purposely hid this detail in smaller, less obvious text and places at the time because even Nintendo knew it was a bad look. This also included Super Mario Bros 35, the one they went after someone's existing version of the year before. What a farce.
I'm glad I have 3DAS physical.
They'll have to come and get it.
And this is why I dread the number of dumdums that don't care about the full-digital push.
Those models of the matrix twins at 14:47 were made by a friend of mine in college, when we coursed Digital Games at Feevale, here in Brazil! \o/ I'm so moved right now.
I didn't think we could get worse than Them Fightin Herds hiding the news that they were stopping development & never finishing the story mode in the same release where they announced a new character's addition, but congrats, LLSIF, you did it!
What 😬
This was along the lines of they managed to get to the point they could release the last character the wanted for the game, but because the player base for Them Fighting Herds was so small to begin with even with their crowdfunding, so unless they get further funding, they aren't going to be able to do more beyond the scope than what they have declared. Plus they are an indie developer backed by an indie publisher. They would have to move on to another project to get funding to do anything else anyway even games they want to do. As much as that may suck, it is in stark contrast than what these bigger companies are doing and it would serve you better to give that context going forward.
@@EquinoxGTI doubt the developers of “Them’s Fighin’ Herds” are malicious, but am I to believe they released part of a story mode but never ‘declared’ that they had any intention of finishing it?
Love Live finally broke into the mainstream media but at what cost
Love Live more like Love Death amirite
(Putting this at the risk of the joke being in the episode already)
ADHD Hack: Have a little key Cup/Mug/Bowl right next to your front door. You'll remember making the little clangy sound as you drop them in when you get in and you're developing autopilot habits to hack your broken brain.
Can confirm. Even when I'm on steroids that make my brain extra ADHD, I still remember the bowl.
I do that, even though I don't have ADHD, but just tend to forget and loose things. I haven't had trouble finding my keys, since I started it 2 years ago. It's honestly kind of amazing how effective such simple tricks can be.
I bought a bowl that has a ring of frogs around it, like, on top of the bowl looking inwards. It not only helps hold my glasses and keys if they start sliding out, *but* 'it's in the frogs' or 'the frogs have it' is a very fun way to look at it. I've not lost my keys since getting this.
It only gets difficult If my add brain starts questioning whether i put the keys there yesterday or today.
Bookshelf.
I have a spot for the keys on my favorite bookshelf.
In regards to your car, only close/lock your Driver Door AFTER you step out & have your keys in your off-hand.
As someone who was looking forward to SIF 2, this shit is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Love Live is one of the biggest (or maybe the biggest) weeb music franchises, the fact that they managed to fuck up this game so badly is mindblowing.
While the gacha model is always inherently bullshit (though at least not intrusive at all for rhythm games), I can say from experience that the live service model for releasing content for these Bushiroad music franchises is honestly the best way to run them. Being able to get new story content and/or songs every week or so is more or less a similar experience to following a TV show that's really satisfying to keep up with, and the content is very much suited to that type of release cycle.
Anyway, for additional context as to why this is so comically sad, there were two different School Idol Festival games, one of them being ancient and in dire need of an update and the other being the one with a different gameplay style. Both of those games were killed in favor of SIF 2 being the replacement. Which makes this even funnier.
There was also some follow up tweet announcing that there was some issue with transfer codes (you were able to transfer some stuff from original SIF to SIF 2), but they were only giving out compensation if you shared the announcement and told your friends that the dead on arrival game has problems. You can't make this shit up.
Holy crap. I wonder how Bushiroad has gone incompetent. I also heard they're transferring the Bandori game's management from Craft Egg to themself, and before that move, they've already tried to do big changes, some of which fans don't think are good or necessary (like the artstyle change for example)
I understand Steph has absolutely zero awareness of Love Live and that's perfectly okay but every time they use "Live" as in "Give" and not "Live" as in "Five" it hurts a little 🤣
Oh for sure - I've always loved the goofy stories of amibiguously gay anime kids hanging out and trying to achieve their dreams this series has provided, so I feel you lmao
Well the game is not living anymore!
XD
Same haha
The real sad thing is that it isn't even "just" the entertainment industry. Every company right now tries to do the same it just looks slightly different. They all want to get their customers to be bound to them till the day they die. This might mean things like the razor and blade model or subscription services for everything from clothes, food or games to cutting up the market until it's the same 3 companies running an entire industry. It's all the same.
Holy shit...clothing? Companies are _that_ brazen now?
@@empanada223 always have been. The Dutch east India company was the harbinger for things to come.
We’ve been saying for years _live service_ mobile games weren’t very good, but now’ve they’ve sunk into a new low with a cancellnouncment
Myself I've dismissed mobile "games" from day 1
First because most mobile "games" were at best the equivalent of a warioware microgame, basically repetitive fluff by itself. Then when the intrusive ad and scummy microtransactions came in, it just made it even more justified to entirely dismiss mobile "games".
Then that cancer spread outside of mobile too, ugh...
As much as I like Arknights and I want to play Honkai Impact 3rd and Honkai Star Rail so badly, I have to agree. Mobile games are basically shovelware games that are online only, for smartphones instead of consoles like they were in the past.
I have a GameBoy Advance and a PSP, those have actual _buttons!_ Why I would I ever want/need games on my phone?
I mean, fgo has some of the best writing in gaming history from the last 10 years, but that's basically the exception.
@@nobodyinparticular9640 Those are great reasons but preceding either one of those for me was the idea of using the screen as a controller. Touchscreens are imprecise temperamental shite at the best of times, but having to perpetually try to see around/through my fingers to play and/or have most of the screen obstructed by buttons is the opposite of an immersive or fun experience.
The live service game model has managed to push me more and more out of video games and back into TTRPGs and Reading, so there is that.
Ditto. Made me re-realize how awesome libraries are and why people need to care about them again.
The state of streaming has pushed me into purchasing physical media and building my own home media server. ❤
@@affsteak3530when I get more money, I’ll start doing that as well.
Once every streaming service started making us pay extra to not have ads when the entire point of them in the first place was that you’d pay this other company a premium to.. not have ads.. I started buying any and all physical media I could for the shows/movies/music I consume.
This strategy obviously works better for movies/tv shows as those don’t become expensive and ineffective frisbees within a few years of purchasing them.
Haven't been able to play more table top games, but it has given me incentive to go through my backlog of video games and start playing them.
Game companies don't want Money, they want All Of The Money.
Not just game companies, EVERY major business, and they don't just want ALL of the money, they want more money than actually even EXISTS.
Capitalism is an utterly broken system.
@@CayenneGaramondeHow? Just keep sailing West till we descover and can exploit the new new world! After all, the world is round, and therefor goes on forever, right?
I bet there's some real bomb-ass Amontillado behind that wall.
Game preservation is hard enough when there aren't legal barriers in the way. A lot of my early time learning game dev was spent in RPG Maker 95, 2K, and XP communities. Majority of the game out of those, even the really good ones just don't exist any longer. Anyone was free to copy them and redistribute them but so few did or those of us that did had our storages fail to time before we could upload them to something like the internet archive. It's crazy to think but for awhile even though you could send the internet archive a backup the bandwidth requirements meant you needed a business class connection to even be able to.
8:02 "Really would've been the perfect gag if satirists had thought of it before reality did" is becoming frighteningly status quo
I'm sure the people behind the game thought, "if we tell them the game they've been wanting is only going to be around for three months, they'll feel pushed to buy all the microtranasctions immediately! Isn't that awesome?"
I think this was an accident, publishers arent smart enough to walk and chew gum at the same time
That remark about investing in Netflix shows hits home. I have basically completely stopped watching anything on Netflix until I look it up to see if it's cancelled. Everything ends in a cliff hanger and I hate being left with lingering thoughts that will never be satisfied.
Those cliffs are entirely a vain attempt to dodge a cancel...
16:08 I think it's important to draw a line between KarmaZoo's potential unplayability and the planned death of online triple-A games.
If a game is online-only, but it DOESN'T rely on a central server, then it's always possible for there to be an eventual resurgence in its playerbase. Among Us survived two years of near-empty lobbies before it took off in 2020, and there's always a possibility for an online indie title like KarmaZoo doing the same.
But when a game DOES rely on a central server, it's gone for good. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood had an excellent multiplayer experience, but UbiSoft killed it and it's never coming back.
An unpopular game is not the same as a dead game.
I was SO GOOD at Brotherhood's multiplayer. Just the right mix of complexity and simplicity. Then they just kept adding more and more complexity, destroying the simplicity that served to draw the crowds in the first place.
So. I played a lot of the first game. And I mean A LOT over the years. For a while it was basically the only game I had because I was a very very broke boy with with only a smart phone (and a gamecube but no money or retro game store to get games for it) and that was at probably the worst time in my life. It was pretty much the one source of joy I had in my life, so needless to say when it shut down I was completely heartbroken and REALLY looking forward to getting to play the new version. I’m an extremely hardcore fan of the series. The character you put in the thumbnail is both my wallpaper and lock screen on my phone, my room is covered in merch of the franchise, and I just earlier this month spent about 2,500 dollars going to japan to see a concert of the group.
All this to say, no its ok to laugh. This is objectively EXTREMELY funny. Everyone in the community are simultaneously laughing our asses off and crying. You’re more than welcome to join in.
OH also in case you were thinking “man they should at least give the fans an offline version of the app to keep playing since it really is a fun game.” Dont worry, at least in japan there will be an offline version of the app…. Where you can’t play the songs. You can just use it to look at your lootbox pngs. Fucking awful. If you do decide to check out the game though and find you enjoy the gameplay I’d recommend checking out Bang Dream or Project Sekai. Both are very fun games.
Once upon a time, my twenty-year-old self walked into a second-hand bookshop and bought a book that took the Phantom of the Opera story, tore it into little pieces, and used those pieces to tell a vibrant, rich, and enjoyable story.
That book sits on my bookshelf where it has followed me while I moved house at least a dozen times, allowing me to pick it up whenever I want and remind myself why I kept it.
When I see the video game world and what it has become, I shake my head, enjoy the experiences I know will not be there in future, and realize that video games are now performance art: there for a fleeting moment, then gone save for the memories of those lucky enough to have been in the right place at the right time.
And so much of it isn't worth that moment.
Do you mean literally tore it into pieces and glued it back together? because that's awesome. I'm gonna call that "paperback modding" from now on.
@@whoisthisguy128 Now I want to do this. What have you unleashed?!
I was a big Love Live fan back then, with the first two groups. I've played the original School Idol Festival a lot back then, and even tried to get into the tournament at Anime Boston all those years ago. So seeing them shut down that game (and All Stars), then try and push a botched followup, which led to the EN version being delayed past its original release, only to be led to this point here. Yup, the School Idol Festival subline is burned in my eyes, and wished the EN version of SIF 2 was simply cancelled. I am looking forward to the Metroidvania Yohane game by Inti Creates though.
I'm glad I found Akari Kito at some point. That's all I can say about Love Live. And I don't think she was OG.
The YohanVania's out now, and it's a solid buy.
One point we wish you lingered on more was how this sets a really worrying precedent for other companies to start following suit. Before we thought announcing a game's end before it's out would put their profits at risk, but in practice it seems this could only generate fomo, thus bringing in as many people as possible in a short timeframe.
(Shoutout to AccursedFarms) One of the only bits of leverage us customers have against the practice of companies selling live service titles as "games you own" rather than under a subscription license is the grey legality of it. Selling someone a perpetual license, knowing it's not perpetual, but not even telling the customer when the product will become bricked; we feel there's enough there for a legal case, to stop these companies from killing art.
But if companies start realizing they can literally get away with publicly setting a date to pull their kill switches, and it *benefit* them to do so in both legality *and* profit, then we're effectively completely fucked. Customers protections be damned.
There's also the side conversation to be had about the medium of art, and people who purposefully design their art to expire as *part* of the art; but given that we're mainly talking about greedy corporations who only pull this nonsense for profit and don't give a damn about art, it's not something we're trying to justify or defend in this specific case.
I think the existence of light novels like Overlord that basically revolve around living in a game that's been shut down is a testament to how impactful this topic is to the culture. I can't wait for the next video, I need more content like Accursed Farm's Dead Game series!
it'd be a neat crossover episode to get them both going, although I'm not sure the internet can contain a combined Steph and Ross rant.
This has to be a game death world record.
GameDev Speedrun Annoucellation%
Doesn't that record still belong to The Day Before?
nerdSlayer Studios is gonna be eating good shit year!
@@tubensalat1453 Yeah, that one will be hard to beat.
And it's still January right now
My favorite He-man villain is King Hiss! He had a toy (which I owned as a kid) but the cartoon had been cancelled before he could make an appearance, so he didn't show up until the 2002 reboot. His toy kicked ass though.
*SERIOUSLY?!*
XD
To put pre-internet patch culture into context, I remember back in 1994 when me and a friend were super psyched about a game called Zephyr, which promised to be a home version of the new hit arcade game Cybersled. A PC Gamer (print!) review then said that the promised multiplayer was not in the game, but that each box came with a note telling you to register and they swore they'd mail you a patch disk with multiplayer when it was done. The review stated, "Imagine buying the latest Stephen King book, only the last 4 chapters are all blank pages with a note taped to them 'Mister King has not finished writing the ending yet, but we will be sure to mail you the missing pages when he's done!' "
The multiplayer was never released.
Neuron activation on that City of Heroes clip, as others have commented the Homecoming fan servers have gotten an official license from NCSoft to host City of Heroes. Though we'll see how long they get to keep it.
IF ONLY SOMEONE TOLD US ABOUT HOW THIS WOULD HAPPEN SOONER! (jimquisition literally did for years)
As Marx did before Stephanie.
@@eleSDSU but which one looks better in a corset?
ok, again probably Marx...
Announcellation really shows game companies getting even bolder:
"We don't believe this game will be succesful, but why cancell it if we can milk a sinking ship?"
The fact they just admit to this show they don't give a sh*t
The lobster leather necklace is such a VIBE.
It is, but I think it's a purse.
"zilla takes too much time to make a single joke" seems to come from the same sort of mentality as those people who are using AIs to summarize youtube videos into 7 sentences, cause we are in such a RUSH guys. We are so busy and we really gotta optimize the time it takes to watch a Jimquisition video !
As someone who watches all RUclips at 2× speed (albiet because I struggle to process speech that is at normal speed), even I don't get "Zilla takes too long to make a joke."
Taking TWELVE HOURS to make a joke's not too much really, not with the time I got.
It seems like a fix for this would be a regulation that if you're releasing an online dependent game and discontinue services, then you need to in your final patch release the server software so that owners of the software can host private servers if they want to.
Zman, you rule dude. the haters can have a big dose of copium.
heck yeag!
Best editor Steph has ever had
❤❤❤ Aw shucks, thanks!
City of Heroes didn't die of old age. And is a reason I would never touch anything while it's published by NCSOFT again, until, like Guild Wars it proves to be a rare case of a lucky survivor, not shut down or sold to some MMO graveyard the moment NC realizes it's not the next Lineage.
It's been a long time, and I'm still really glad the Homecoming servers were and are a thing. The good news about them being officially licensed now is even better, and a kick in the ass of NC - people are STILL playing this game, and they COULD have been getting paid for it for ten years!
It's been a long time since I played Guild Wars. Longer because they locked me out of my account with no reason or recourse.
@@0LoneTech If the last time you tried was still using the NCSOFT account, that's likely why, and getting it back now is a bit of a process... Had to spend like a day talking to Arena's tech support myself, fortunately I still had the original boxes and receipts with codes and got it back.
@@nebufabu So did I, but they refused.
Bushiroad also made Bang Dream, which was a mobile rhythm game I enjoyed for a few YEARS, but had to uninstall because it started to run so poorly it would crash over and over again. I'm told its still going fine in japan and this is only a problem internationally. Still pisses me off, especially since its got me into one of their real bands, Raise A Suilen, and now i can't play their songs anymore
Just play the Japanese version. It’s the only thing you can do now unfortunately
@@Dave102693 naw I switched to hatsune miku colorful stage a while back. I was already a miku fan anyway
@@melle-d9971I’m glad for you. I like Vocaloids over idol group multimedia anyways
Today years old when I realized the song is "Born Depressed" and not "Born Different"
Remember the arts being a contributor to culture, worthy of preservation and study? Good times.
I thought that was a myth!
I guess there's no art in video games!
Watching this while reading that the Suicide Squad game is a) not sending out review copies and b) being forced to stop early access because it's bugged to hell and back was certainly a thing.
Also the demo is revealing the ending randomly😂😂😂😂
I could not believe it. When you had the build up at the beginning of the video, I thought it was announced, and then shutdown was announced in a reply. BUT IN THE SAME POST‼
This is something else.
This has the smell of a contractual obligation all over it. Like, the studio doesn't actually want to do a worldwide release (probably the game already failed in Japan and doesn't have much hope elsewhere) but they signed something earlier in development that means they have to.
And don't forget they killed the first game with people's massive in-game collections, high scores, full combos and stats for THIS, lol.
Highly relevant to the endless shutdowns, have you been made aware of Ross Scott's most recent video? He's been railing against online-only games for a very long time and I think he's planning on potentially taking a bit of legal action to try and damage the practice. I'm sure with your reach you could be tremendously helpful in putting the word out, or getting contact with some relevant people!
(You probably are well aware but y'know, just in case)
9:45 is that how PALWORLD was made? I think it's not complete yet... If I heard correctly
Dear ZManzilla:
Thank you for the awesome work that you do. You make Steph's already cool videos even cooler somehow.
Sincerely,
A fan
Saw your tweet on this and was incredibly amused. Thanks for covering it here too, it's just so ridiculous! Been a while since I've been watching your stuff but very happy to have caught this one! Liking and commenting to get more of your stuff recommended again :)
How about this executives - any game that you own the rights to, you put on a service to preserve them - because you see *THAT* is a service I would pay for in perpetuity.
Make a Netflix for no-longer-in-print games. Heck, buy up the indie ones to add to you library.
The man who gives me Koudelka, Shadow Hearts, Shadow Hearts Covenant and Shadow Hearts From the New World, gets all my money for the rest of my life.
Rerelease metalstorm for NES and I would buy it. You heard me, executives? (They didn't)
I gotchu fam, I can easily get ya the games. Now, I accept either physical cash or credit, thank you :p
The intro is becoming more and more like it's your Tron while your entrance music plays. Love it.
Early for Sterly
4:51
Mork Borg page 13 says, "Hi!"
I knew I recognized that image from somewhere, almost as fast as I saw it. Here's hoping you don't catch any curses from goblins in the future, Steph!
SHE CRIES OUT FOR COLOR AND WARMTH
Was sure this episode was gonna be about palworld I appreciate someone talking about literally anything else I like that game a lot but geez I need some air
Lol. I love how the "don't read that part out loud" bit culminated in the "I'm looking forward to playing with something as it dies" line! Lol! Your comedic timing was SUPERLATIVE this week! Well done!!
"Zero stones? ZERO CRATES!" Such a good movie
As a long time sufferer of St Shriven’s Disease, thank you for drawing attention to our condition
I just love when developers are throwing left overs at their clients.
Did not ever expect to see JSS talk about Love Live, much less an entire vid on it, what a day
I've never felt more represented by anyone than I do with Steph and her ADHD 👍 Stay awesome & good luck "staying organized" (we both know we're never actually organized but hey it's nice to aspire to actually being organized one day!)
The tip I use is to put things where I think they are.
When you've lost something, there's always that place you keep going back to. If that's the place you most strongly associate with that items location...put it there.
*their
I've started just waiting a year to buy any AAA games, it gives them time to actually be finished, is usually on sale so way cheaper, and weeds out any games that were so bad they were discontinued immediately
Thank god for Jim Stephanie Sterling, Son!
"I think that's a bit tasteless to say, but so long as I don’t name any specific illnesses I don’t think it will be offensive to say.”
I don’t know why but I actually had to pause the video to laugh at that, it’s just so _exactly_ correct.
An old game that is getting gutted in the near future that was talked about in Accursed Farms' Dead Game News is The Crew 1. It's getting to the point where a potential lawsuit could happen over this. Steph, if you haven't seen any of that stuff, I highly recommend it, I think you might enjoy the thoughts of what could be considered a kindred spirit.
I've only heard of Love Live as a franchise because of the Weiß Schwarz ads Bushiroad bakes into Cardfight Vanguard episodes uploaded here on RUclips.
It's also how I know the first Live in the name is also pronounced lyve and not leev. English needs Ruby text sometimes like Japanese when it's using Chinese pictogylphs instead of their own kana phonetic written languages I swear.. Also we need to get rid of wastebin letters like I, C and X.
Live services announces death date before international launch.
Points for honesty?
Steph, I love you. But I immediately realized that Zilla is back. And that Strong Bad reference.. man I feel old.
like i guess it makes sense that one day steph would cover an idol game, since for years and years and Years she's been saying live service mobile games weren't good and i would just nod sadly as someone who's seen many many anime idol (and idol adjacent) mobile games fall out of service within less than a year, but also. love live jumpscare.
It baffles me because the first version of this game (Love Live School Idol Festival) went through remake after remake under the same app and (almost the same title) as the anime series progressed and then swapped over to Love Live Aquors, and it was running for probably about 10 years. The decision to make an entirely new app and then immediately sunset it is completely baffling. The first app only shut down in 2023. I used to love the game back in the day, it's a shame to see this happen to it and it's a worrying thing to see creep into the industry.
I mean, we could see this becoming an increasingly glaring problem when the studio execs behind The Day Before basically closed the game the day after launch, sunset the servers a month later (was it even that long?), and have since announced their next -grift- project.
I’m sure it’ll be brought up by others, but the “live” in LoveAlive is rhymes with “five” - it’s right there in the katakana. It’s short for “live performance, though “show” or “gig” or “set” is how you’d translate it depending on context. “Did you see GWAR’s ‘live’ last night?” “The band was tired after finishing playing their ‘live’”.
Yeaaaah, I really don't like this state of accelerated FOMO the entire entertainment industry is creating. I trust them as far as I can throw them when it comes to running subscription services, and I can throw them exactly zero!
I remember when my favorite online shooter had its servers pulled (Battlefield 2142). It became one of the reasons I don't bother with online games anymore. Now that execs seem to be speed running the process I feel nothing but sorrow for people who get even less time with games that they love than I did all those years ago. This is a major reason why I think single player is such an important game feature.
I'm going to suspect that it was a mandatory global release contract.
Thank you for what you do Zilla- you're doing great!
Setsuna Yuki jumpscare
11:30 Stephanie casually teaching her audience about dialectics
Good stuff
Zilla, your jokes are perfectly paced, and those who don't understand extraordinarily dry humor will have it lost upon them
I have followed this show for years, since the days of the first incarnation of the Escapist. I value the news and insight and the jokes often land for me. Like many others, I am jealous of the murder basement.
But no comedic skit could justify the murder of that Manta Force. I am truly appalled.
Tinfoil hat time: They’re testing a new strain of FOMO. If Love Live Et Cetera makes enough money in its three months of its Lofe Life…that’s a Love Live Service business model with minimal server upkeep. The coked-up businessman on my shoulder just soaked me.
11:50 The streaming wars are already over. They just haven't admitted it. Disney+ is getting folded into Hulu, Netflix is picking up a bunch of stuff that was supposed to be exclusive to other platforms and there's probably more writing on the wall here I haven't yet noticed.
Paramount+ and Peacock are on life support right now
You got that cursed gift of prophecy where no one listens to you and it always ends badly. Something something Cassandra etc etc.
I've always thought it was a bit of a missed opportunity that Steph didn't decide to take on the name Cassandra more officially.
Still waiting for Sterling to talk about Palworld. Although, at this point, I don't know what she could say about it that hasn't already been said. x_x
Why should I pay for all of these streaming services?
Why should I *NOT* torrent everything?
If they didn't want us to pirate everything, they shouldn't have created so many streaming services. We were happy and willing to spend when it was just a couple so content was easy to access, but it has gotten ridiculous. Most people can't afford all that on top of everything else we are already paying for.
Ive realised pretty recently that i'm always replaying my childhood games... But kids nowadays won't be able to replay their childhood games ._. Only watch VODs at best
It's so sad
Interesting that you'd use a clip from the City of Heroes trailer (I think it was) since CoH is now more or less back as the premiere private server that was still running the game was recently given full license by NCSoft to run the game, and that is only able to be done because someone had stolen the server code many years ago (from my understanding, it wasn't reverse engineered like most MMO private servers so it was full quality, unlike most private servers).
"Stolen" is such an ugly word. I prefer "creatively acquired"!
Hey if purchasing isn't ownership, then theft isn't theft.
WHAT DID YOU DO!!!!
That was a Manta Force ship you threw into the wall!!!
(Pats Zilla on the head) You're funny and I like your edits, don't be down! :P
14:24 City of Heores shut down because it failed in South Korea, which is where NCSoft is headquarted. Fans have brought the game back and the Homecoming serves are now officially endorsed by NCSoft. NCSoft also shut down several other games in ways much different from City of Heroes, including the short-lived Wildstar and Tabula Rasa. CoH's shutdown came without warning, in stark contrast to Auto Assault.