The Malgorian Blog

So according to this Netflix is looking to attract users back to their platform (losing 200k last quarter, and expecting to lose another 2 million this one) by having a cheaper ad-supported version of itself. While also trying to crack down on password sharing.

I suspect one of the reasons they're shedding customers is because they KEEP INCREASING THEIR MONTHLY COST. And for some reason I guess they don't realize that's a big part of what's killing interest in their service. Kinda typical of big media businesses honestly. In their effort to maximize profits by trying to find that 'sweet spot' between price and customers, they completely botched predicting how many customers are going to willingly accept their new price levels - so they're losing a lot more than they thought they would as far as I can tell.

And dropping the monthly cost back down isn't even on the possible plans.

1. Ads: People switched to Netflix and other streaming services to get RID of ads. You aren't likely to see them pay monthly to see them. And we all know even that cheaper tier will keep going up in price. So this is not going to gain sufficient customers.

2. Cracking down on Password Sharing: While I'll agree this is going to be a problem, in today's economy do you honestly think you'll keep the customers that are sharing their accounts if you try to crack down on them? To be honest I can see them just giving it up entirely and picking a cheaper service.

I have a 30 dollar giftcard for Netflix. I got it for Christmas so going to use it obviously. After that however I will not be buying any more giftcards (The only way I pay for Netflix. They ain't getting a credit card number from me.) and the account will become inactive except for the occasional time I may get a card as a gift.

The sole reason for this decision is because they raised the monthly cost yet again. They raised it a few times since I first started using them - at present it's getting close to double what the original price tag was for the same service. So in their greed for more, they've killed the proverbial golden goose and will be left with nothing. (from me at least.) I would never go with a cheaper option that included ads. If they want me to use an ad-infested service, it had better be free. (And even then there's a limit to how many ads I'd tolerate.)

I left cable because of the ads. I won't go back to anything trying to adopt a similar model. As for the account sharing issue, I've never shared my account so that wouldn't affect me either way.

I suppose at least one company in the game industry isn't in love with NFTs.

This has quickly become the second type of requirement that earns a Steam game an auto-ignore from me these days. I'm not signing up to a website to play a game on a platform I already had to sign up for. It's really the exact same reason why I have a zero tolerance for additional DRM on Steam - I already signed up and installed Steam, which is a form of DRM.

Reason I'm bringing this up now is because the last few game queues I flipped through had a bunch of these types of games. All of which are now ignored. You'd think Steam would try to keep track of things like this. "Hm. Every time we show this guy a game with third party DRM he quickly ignores it and moves on... PERHAPS WE SHOULDN'T KEEP SHOWING HIM THESE THINGS."

Steam recently started shoving in everyone's face via their personalized steam fronts, the Steam Deck. Despite how I frame it in the last sentence, I'm not actually turned off of the idea of a handheld steam machine. (It's more a critique about what I think about the personalized store front experience given how bad it is at predicting shit I want to see.)

It's actually quite an expensive piece of hardware, with Canadian price tags ranging from 499 to 819 dollars, but then I bought a Switch for 399 dollars. If I were to get one of these Decks it would be for two reasons perhaps.

1. Potential Portability.
2. Potentially removing the vice grip Microsoft would have on my desktop choices.

As a handheld, it's definitely intended as a portable machine - and that could be useful for me if I just wanna lie down on the couch or bed and play some games, or to take with me on vacation potentially. My entire steam collection at my fingertips! Additionally this thing is designed to be able to plugged into your TV - it'll even have a sold separate docking station to make that more convenient. Kinda Switch-ish in that respect but that's fine too.

With regards to Microsoft, if I do most/all of my PC gaming on the Deck then I'll be more freely able to use Linux without sacrificing the ability to play games. I wish a lot more games would simply run on Linux but we got that chicken and egg thing going on with game availability on Linux. People don't port to Linux because it doesn't make economic sense - people don't buy games on Linux because the games essentially aren't available.

Even if this Deck itself is running Windows (and it likely is given Valve bragging it'll play the bulk of games on the platform, even current AAA titles) that isn't as big a concern to me. I'm not 100% about getting away from everything Microsoft - it's just that Microsoft's vice grip on consumer choice over the whole games issue becomes far less a concern if it's possible to scoop up all the games and put them into a single dedicated unit designed to play them.

Also the Deck is at the end of the day "Just a PC" according to Valve that's essentially designed by default to run steam. However as they say in their advertising, there's nothing stopping you from installing third party games and software on it.

This makes me think "Ooo. Would be fun to install GOG Galaxy alongside it!" Whether I would or not I don't know, but it would be nice to have the option there.

The biggest hurdle for me is how to pay for it. I ain't handing over credit card numbers for gaming shit. I made that decision years ago as I watched the Sony PS3 shit go down. I also don't hand credit card numbers over for things like repeated billing plans like Netflix. If they want my money they'll make prepaid cards available. This is the ONLY reason Crunchy Roll doesn't get any of my money. If they had prepaid cards available at stores in Canada I'd let my netflix subscription lapse in a heartbeat.

It does look like you can buy it via your steam wallet on steam, given that's where you have to reserve them currently for the Q2-Q3 2022 launch. This means I'd have to buy a bunch of prepaid cards for it!

However I'm not going to reserve it. Instead I just wish-listed it so that when it becomes available for general purchase I'll get a notification. This gives me time to watch how it unfolds over the next year in case it gets raked over the coals in early tests over various shit. Between now and Q2-Q3 2022 (Which I believe is Summer/Fall of 2022, so a little over a year minimum - most likely the general sales won't start until Q4 which would be Jan-March 2023.) that's plenty of time to buy some steam cards or at least put some money into savings for those cards later. If I find out I can't just buy it via my steam wallet on Steam itself, everything here is moot and I'll just pass on the system.

In short, the Deck does look nice. Steam is also trying hard to avoid any controller drift issues like we're seeing on the Switch and PS5 controllers (for example) these days. That's also a good reason to wait for general purchase in my opinion... the early birds can tell me if they're seeing a lot of drift despite Steam's apparent concern.

Kinda wanna do a rant on the whole controller drift issues we're seeing more of these years, but I'll hold off on that for now.

On a completely unrelated note (sorta) this Deck would be a good opportunity for Steam to try selling those controllers of theirs again. If people are going to be buying docks for the Deck, they're going to need controllers! While I'm sure a Microsoft controller will work just fine, and I'd probably buy one of their PC controllers for this if I go the dock route, I would like some options.

A couple years ago I backed my first (and currently still only) kickstarter project - Angry Joe's Street Fighters Miniatures board game.

It ended up taking longer than planned but really this was expected as it seems to happen with a lot of kickstarters anyway. Capcom slowed the process down by limiting how many items AJ could submit each week for approval. They wanted to limit it to like 30 pieces of art, etc, per week. Ok, fine no probs. ^^

Then covid happened which again slowed the process down with shutdowns and holidays. So finally this year it shipped. And I got my pledge in the mail this last Wednesday.

Probably should have realized board games need friends to play with these. :D

Either way, no regrets on pledging it. I'll have to post about actually playing it once I get a chance to bring this over to family and friends to force them to play it. ;)

For the record I pledged the middle tier which got me the base game, the boss expansion, and all the stretch goals. (Over twice as many miniatures were in the expansion compared to the other two, which shows how well the stretch goals were reached. The base goal of the kickstarter was blown past in the first 24hrs.) I did also pop for an extra set of purple boss dice however. I would have liked to add in the expansion sets that were extras, but didn't really have the money for it at the time.

I didn't have much fear about this kickstarter not delivering btw. Angry Joe has a reputation to uphold and he was obviously quite determined to make this game with quality. He also partnered with Jasco who had already released a mega man miniatures game - so I knew they had both the drive and the resources/experience to get things done.

Their next planned kickstarter I believe is a Mortal Kombat miniatures game. It'll have a compatible rules system as the SF game so you should be able to use characters from both games at the same time if you want to. I'm thinking I'll likely back that one as well so long as I have the money when the kickstarter goes on.

I picked up Blaster Master Zero 2 a few weeks back during a sale on PSN - also picked up Blaster Master Zero on PSN in the same sale although I already bought that one on Switch.

Blaster Master Zero 2 (BMZ2) continues on what the previous game accomplished by having the new character Eve (who wasn't in the original NES game) infected by the mutants. After modifying Sophia Zero for space travel they took off to return Eve to her home planet so they could heal the infection.

That sets the tone and purpose of the game and explains why the game isn't one huge connected world the way the first game was. Instead you'll be launching from and landing on new planets/ships that you'll navigate to on a simple 2d map. Just don't assume huge worlds on each of these planets. The vast majority of them will just be a tiny place where you land and do a quick challenge and at times a boss. Only the central/main planet on a star map will have larger world to explore - and most of the time that world won't be too much larger than a normal sized area of the original game.

You start the game without most of the skills of the previous game, as per usual. You officially have the Hover module and the Crusher cannon but Hover is damaged when you land on the first planet at the start of the game. Naturally the point of the first planet is to get the parts to repair the Hover module as it's the part of the system that enables planetary travel.

Additionally the SP system has been changed from the original Zero game. You can still collect power-ups to restore it on the fly, but otherwise a new system is in place that lets Sophia Zero to regain power from impacts - either with the ground or against enemies. Naturally the preferable way to do this is to fall from a high height as that won't damage you. Any fall done that's higher than you're ability to jump will qualify. This becomes an important gimmick for defeating one of the final bosses.

One thing about the new SP system however is that if your SP gauge completely runs out, it shuts down temporarily as it starts to recharge (flashing red/blue until it maxes out). During that time you can't use most special powers and your Crusher Cannon shuts down and you're left with a cannon comparable with the cannon you start the first game with. You can still try falling to speed up the SP refilling process.

Overall the game plays mostly the same way as the original Zero did except for the areas not all being connected directly. How important that was to you in the original game will probably determine how you feel about this game.

Throughout the game you will meet and need to fight other 'Metal Attacker' pilots. Pilots of vehicles like Sophia Zero are called Metal Attackers - I think that's a new term in this game, as I haven't seen it yet in the original Zero as I replay it... Either way, you'll end up having to fight them all in one way or another. You'll end up befriending them after whatever misunderstanding is cleared up. Be sure to visit them again afterwards to help them out.

I assume there's a good ending and a bad ending to this game similar to Zero. I haven't seen the bad ending however - looks like I picked everything up needed on my first run to get to the good ending.

Similar to Zero in the final leg of the game for the good ending they change up your vehicle and a few other things. You'll have to learn a few new things to get through all that and approach a few old bosses with new tactics.

Ultimately an enjoyable game although it felt a little short to me. It's probably because you don't have much in the way of backtracking to do with all the sections separated by simple 2d maps. There are both familiar and new powers gained throughout the game to keep it interesting.

During the final battle with the new vehicle I will say this - you'll need to make use of most of the special powers of the vehicle to damage it. Don't worry about it too much - just keep pushing on as the boss's HP gauge is a lie.

Wow. Middle of May without a single post since January. Obviously haven't tried that hard did I.

With the whole pandemic thing going on I guess I haven't really been feeling like writing up anything in particular. Haven't played too much for video games either with the exception of Minecraft and Romance of the Three Kingdoms III. Yes. III. Genesis version. Beyond Rot3K6, I haven't had much fun with any of the other games in the series I've tried - admittedly I've only played II, VII, and VIII. Wonder if I even know how to play VI anymore.

The places around here are beginning to open up again - our numbers are actually pretty good, being down to just 1 known active case. Like most of the cases we've had, it's travel related so there's no evidence of community spread. We would have seen a spike in numbers by now if there was anyway.

That being said I doubt I'll be going to the stores very much anyway. Ebgames will be opening up soon (Big surprise 9_9) on Tuesday but I suspect they'll be getting VERY little attention from me due to the whole stunt gamestop went on with refusing to shut down and calling themselves "Essential Services". For those who don't know, Ebgames and Gamestop are essentially the same company and have been for a very very long time. Case in point, I remember seeing a copy of the covid response letter gamestops in the US had put up detailing what they were doing to keep customers and staff safe - I saw pretty much the exact same letter on the front of the ebgames here in town. I doubt they were any more truthful up here than they were down there given all the things that came out afterwards. Just my gut instinct on that of course, and while it may be unfair to say it, that's the kind of vibe I get from the ebgames up here no matter what store I seem to go to.

Regardless of that - I was planning on doing less business with ebgames for a long time so we'll just let this be that tipping point. There's just one game that I'd like to buy there that comes out in June (or was..) and then I doubt I'll step foot inside the store much at all. I won't call it a hard boycott, like say the hard boycott I have on Sony Music (Haven't bought a CD from that label since their whole rootkit bullshit, and I don't feel like anything of value was lost.) but it does mean I won't be going in there most days on my way to work just to see what they have and potentially let myself buy something. Will I buy games from them after that? I won't say 'no', but I'll have to know in advance of a game I want, when it releases, etc. At which point I'll at least make an effort to pick up a copy. If they don't have a copy on launch, I'll just amazon it. Yeah, I just verbed it.

The only other store I'm actually hoping to go to again is Chapters. You know, that place with ground up dead trees and ink. I finally started buying from their online store indigo since the backlog of things I was waiting on was piling up. finally got "the first shipment" on Friday. And noticed I accidentally bought 2 copies of one of the books. X_X Returning shit like that, usually, is easy. I just have to take the book and the indigo invoice form... to a Chapters store! So hopefully they'll actually reopen the stores soon as it has to be done within 30 days. I might be able to get some leeway on that given the stores are closed. If not, oh well, I'll have to shut up and pay the "stupid tax".

This weekend I'll try to finalize the second order. Things are delayed these days due to the Christmas level volumes at the post office, but I'll probably still get the next package in the first week of June or earlier.

I should also take another look at Bloodstained. Never did get back to that after the apparent new character play through dropped a week ago.

So more out of curiosity than anything else I bought one of the two "DLC" characters for Utawarerumono Zan as mentioned in my game night review. The idea was to see if unlocking these "bonus" characters would add more battles to the story mode as well - a very painfully clear sign that they deliberately cut material out to sell separately. Especially if it's just an unlock code for content on the disc.

Here's the results.

It was most certainly an unlock code. Nothing was downloaded/queued to download for the character.

It converted the two dialogue-only entries in the story mode that dealt with the character into complete battle entries.

It added those two story-mode battles to the Battle Recollection mode, with normal and hard modes as per the usual for those.

It added a brand new Special Ops level to the free mode.

It added a battle arena stage for the character (where they unlock an extra special attack.)

One of the story modes and the special ops level included a brand new boss character.

All of this of course without downloading anything.

So yeah, it's all been cut out of the game as far as I'm concerned. So I hope NIS America and the developer behind the game enjoy that extra 6.99 I paid for the character to satisfy my curiosity. It's cost the developer any chance of me buying Zan 2, and apart from the original Utawarerumono game due out early next year I'm placing NIS America on the boycott list for another few years. I doubt I'll miss much of any substance anyway.

It'd be nice if we had an industry that spent nearly as much money into trying to make video games more mainstream so as to massively increase their actual sales numbers rather than trying to maximize profit from each and every gamer, causing a drop in overall sales and turning gamers off. The only reason they're making billions right now by doing this is because there are quite a few whales out there that currently make up for the lost sales imo. Sure there are always new gamers to fill the ranks, but I suspect fewer of them stick around after they realize how fucking expensive it's become to play a mainstream game.

I buy too much crap and then never get around to watching/reading/etc it. So starting today I'll begin tackling my backlog of crap I've bought over the years. (I still have some PS2 games in shrink wrap for crying out loud.)

There's a couple things I will be wanting to pick up later this year if it comes out, but that stuff can be counted on one hand. Otherwise I'm going to go back and start reading/watching/playing/etc the games/shows/movies/comics/books/etc that have slowly piled up over the last decade.

Consider I have probably 2 crates of random movies/anime that I bought from HMV when they were liquidating. That alone is going to be able to keep me occupied for the rest of the year or more.

Naturally one of the things that's prompting me to do this is to save up cash by not spending it in the first place. We'll see how it goes by Christmas. ^^

Ok, the degree of desperation from big name game companies is getting crazy as they try to redefine loot boxes.

"Loot Boxes" are pretty much accepted as gambling now. (Because they are.) So what's the next step in EA's path to avoid massive legal fines and to enable them to continue preying on those with gambling addiction problems that are ruining their lives? To make sure Congress understands that EA has NEVER had loot boxes in their game ever. They merely have "Surprise Mechanics" built in that are "quite ethical".

(Quick note: Gambling is a very basic example of 'surprise mechanics' but let's continue!)

The representative compares them to little toy capsules. Personally I'd still consider that gambling but on such a small scale that it never becomes a problem for the vast vast majority of people - nobody cares enough about the little worthless toys you get in toy capsules. You understand when you buy them for a dollar that whatever you get from it will be worth at MOST 50 cents and 20 seconds of fascination. That's not the case with loot boxes in games where what you receive might be (And will most likely be) something completely worthless that you spent up to 5 bucks or more on or it might be that limited edition onlyavailablethismonthsogetitwhileyoucan costume, or that bad ass gun that will definitely help you top the leader boards.

Incidentally this is also an example of why you NEVER let an industry regulate itself. It won't regulate itself honestly for the good of it's customers if it means giving up an easy and massive payday.

Also incidentally, I hate those "blind packed toys"/capsules that she's trying to spin as ethical. For capsule toys, fine, they're paying a buck for a shit item. You know what you're getting is shit. But that's spread further into the figurine market for instance. Nowadays it's very common to find mini-figurine sets where one random figurine is sold in a small box. You're not told what one of course. To find out you have to buy it and open it. It costs about 10-20 bucks or so to buy one of these on average.

The problem is you may only want 1-3 of the 12 characters possible. If they were being honest proper manufacturers they'd sell them individually with predictable packaging so you know what you're getting. However to maximize the profit off of you they include a bunch of extra characters of various quality and make you buy and rebuy and rebuy boxes until you get the one you want. If you're unlucky you'll have spent 150+ just to get that one 12 dollar figurine. Only way to make sure you get the figurine you want is to buy a full box of them which usually includes 1 of every possible figurine.

Does that sound familiar? Yep, that's pretty much loot box mentality except in digital loot boxes there's no way to buy a "box" of everything. (They made sure of that by axing out actual Season Passes that give one of everything or making sure the loot boxes aren't a part of it!) Meaning these "Surprise Mechanics" driven toys are actually cheaper than the utter bullshit EA and others do on a regular basis - and even then the toys are still complete bullshit in how they try to make you fork over a lot of extra cash by making it harder and more expensive to buy only what you want.

tl;dr: EA is as full of shit as it's always been and "Surprise Mechanics" are still LOOT BOXES.