#old game devs

[loressa]

So back in the day this was actually what online moderation jobs involved: I worked for a major AAA console company and I basically just played games looking for aberrant behavior - dicks in player-made content, map hacking in shooters, rude behavior in co-op games.

And there's a reason people see that early 2000s era as a golden era of online play: it's because there were dozens of us around the clock working to moderate. It wasn't farmed out to folks adhering to metrics, it wasn't AI, we were actively playing the games and even infiltrating hacker clans to figure out how exploits were happening.

When people were ragequitting or spamming insults? There was a chance we were either playing that game or spectating it (depending on mod tools) and looking up their report history because that was our job, and that player was likely banned that same night. We'd celebrate whenever we found a repeat offender we could ban - the "ban process" was quite hallowed and exciting.

As mod tools became more sophisticated, our interaction became more observant - at the time I was working, this was becoming clear. Some games had no mod tools, whereas some were developing full mod spectator options....and it's interesting that once they could remove mods from actual gameplay it quickly made this jump to just having mods read reports.

Reading reports was definitely part of our job before this, but it shifted from watching for trouble to reading about trouble and watching them in game or checking our their player created content to basically confirm the behavior, but within a few years after I moved on from that role everything started getting fully automated. And then after that it became fully outsourced. I don't think my former job even exists in America, despite it being a rather huge department at the time I worked there.

As a sidenote: It was the "fucking best job ever lol", but it also broke me. Yeah, I got exposed to some horrific shit on a daily basis (and I'm glossing over some of the darker sides of the job, because who wants to hear about things like CP, death threats, extreme racism, extreme gore, etc), but I also got to play games so much that I could set SMGs in shooters to single shot fire for headshots (because we also low-key did QA/feedback work). Being a woman was an extra level of "oh god" to it all. There were times where it was fun af, but most of the time we were being clockwork-oranged to the worst part of the player base for 8 hours at a time.

Also the shift was graveyard :/

[lizzybeeee]

When you spend 20 years attempting to bring down the child slavery, murdering, human trafficking exploitation ring that stole your childhood, murdered your friends, and killed countless innocents only to have them rebrand as 'Noble Freedom Fighters™' off-screen.

[spitedemon]

i really don’t think it’s “typical dragon age fandom nonsense” for people to be genuinely upset about the world state choices. combat, level design, art direction, gameplay gimmicks, those have all varied across each dragon age game. the one thing that’s remained constant are nods to our previous choices.

i wasn’t expecting my HoF to come riding in on a griffon, but i can’t find a monument dedicated to warden tabris somewhere around the anderfels? lucanis couldn’t have some lines about the time that one arainai boy was stirring up trouble in antiva city? you’re gonna tell me that making a mage the new divine wouldn’t have some impact on nevarra and antiva? on the anderfels, the supposed most devout militant andrastian nation in thedas? you’re saying nobody in the north is paying attention to who rules orlais or ferelden? come on.

[skeletonmob]

Felt spurred to advertise my game again. Go play it if you support trans people!

Old Haunts

Old Haunts - DEMO

[egophiliac]

on the JP server, when does groovy art come out? cuz like ive been checking wiki gg to see if the rapunzel groovies have been released yet and idk it might just be the wiki holding off until the events over (but i haven't seen groovy art of it at all but it might just be me since im trying to avoid spoilers for riddles card specifically). but since EN is like a year behind JP all the cards and stuff have already been released so theres no wait time so idk if on JP you can only groovy new cards until like the event ends or smth

the schedule says the Lanterns groovies/personal stories will come out on the 5th, which is when the event ends! usually they release them along with the last part of the event (sometimes the SSRs afterwards), but this time they're waiting til after on all of them for some reason. 🤷

not too much longer to go though! the aesthetic of this one is sooooo pretty, I know already that they're going to absolutely ♪ murder meeee ♫ ( ᐛ )

[madgod-of-kvatch]

TES Devs: Mer live to be 200 on average. While some will live to be older, 200 is considered "quite old," while 300 is only achievable for those with a high level of magic and a low-risk lifestyle, usually only seen in nobility for obvious reasons, and Altmer live the longest in general.

Teldryn Sero: a Dunmer sellsword who is not a great mage, not part of a Great House, and does not by any means live a low-risk lifestyle. He professes to have met Saint Jiub, a man who died in the siege on Kvatch in 3E 433. Even assuming that Teldryn was a child when this occurred, this must have occurred in Morrowind, which pushes the timeline back to around 3E 428. Teldryn would have to be old enough to remember it, and therefore no younger than six, putting his latest possible birth year at 3E 422. Teldryn is introduced no earlier than 4E 201, which makes him 211 at the youngest—he isn't portrayed as old in any capacity.

Brandyl "Brand-Shei" Tenvanni: a Dunmer merchant who was definitively born in 4E 5, The Red Year, and was raised in an environment dramatically unsuited to his physiology by adoptive parents who weren't even the same species. He has some skill in Destruction magic that he rarely (if ever) uses, no firsthand experience with the Great House from which he was descended, and lives in one of the most dangerous cities in the country. He is also not portrayed or referred to as old at any time.

Ambarys Rendar: a Dunmer barkeep and proprietor of the New Gnisis Cornerclub. He immigrated to Skyrim as an adult in the Red Year, 4E 5, setting down roots in Windhelm. His only magical aptitude is in Destruction, which he basically never uses, his business is based in the single most hostile social environment for his people in the entire country, and he is not indicated by anyone at any time to be old in spite of already being an adult 196 years ago.

Aduri Sarethi: the younger sister of Avrusa Sarethi, immigrated with her in the Red Year, possibly as a child, although Avrusa was already an adult at the time and had her own business prior to the destruction of Vivec City. Is an artist and a farmer, and considered "too young" to go off on her own at her introduction in 4E 201, in spite of being at least 200 years old.

Runil: an Altmer priest who fought as an extremely capable battlemage in the Great War, which he describes (in cut dialogue) as the time when he was "at the height of [his] power." He left the Thalmor after the war, which lasted a total of four years and ended just over 25 years ago, and is now considered a very old man in spite of having been in the prime of his life no more than a quarter century prior.

Nurelion: an Altmer alchemist who literally dies of old age on screen.

TES Fandom: Yeah so mer live to be like 200 on average unless they're really good at magic, and even then 200 is considered to be "old age" for all mer, except Altmer who live longer than everyone else.

[whipbogard]

Just finished Gotham Knights

Many thoughts but here's a quick doodle of the bestest boy ever ❤

[alleesaur]

twilight train

[vaultureculture]

kickstarter update nº 45 info on tags <3

[falmerbrook]

TES Summer Fest Day 1 - Forbidden

A 7 year old Vanus "Trechtus" Galerion stays up late one night reading with his dad.

[homeofhousechickens]

So sad tumblr doesnt seem to know about this game. You breed your own beetles then attack other bugs. You also feed and pet your beetles and its all very cute and funny. I havent beaten it but its cute and reminds me of older games.

[miyku]

[skeletonmob]

Second attempt at trying to advertise my game! More details under the cut.

Old Haunts

Old Haunts - DEMO

For the past few years, Hunter Greene has been saving money for his transition. But his dreams are dashed just as he approaches the finish line, when the powers that be block the biotech company that he was going to transition with. All hope is not lost however, as his manager, a robot named Aster, has been brewing something behind the scenes for quite a while now . . .

Old Haunts is a choose your own adventure style visual novel set in an alternate, cyberpunk-esque present. There are a total of six different endings, each route taking about 3-4 hours to play through, depending on how fast you read. I wanted to do multiple things with this project. Including commenting on the current wave of transphobia in our society and also try my hand at making a proper choose your own adventure style game. Something that didn't boil down to 'do you want to be a good person and rescue the puppy? or do you want to be a bad person and murder the puppy?'.

[groovyfrog420]

You don't seem very grateful of the cake I made you, Pure Vanilla...

[project-sekai-facts]

Do you think An's mourning went too quick?

if we consider the amount of time between lutf and oyf (a few days), then maybe. first off, you gotta consider genre and storytelling here. vbs is very shounen-like, not that i really know anything about manga but they're basically always working towards the goal, most conflicts are resolved within the event, maybe with some things lingering afterwards but the main conflict (for lutf it was obviously the truth around nagi's death) is always mostly/completely resolved.

also in terms of event pacing, the next event had to be their arc ender (both lutf and oyf are very clearly rushed but the 2nd arc enders are an issue with like 2 other units as well so this is not a vbs exclusive problem). they didn't have the time to stretch out an's grief to more events, plus there was already the in-universe issue of taiga leaving for the US like 3 days after lutf. and yes, an did have let's study hard, but that was always going to be 1-A focused since they didn't have an event yet and needed it before there was no more 1-A.

however, there are multiple card stories and area conversations that show an grieving, and we get to see this in events like break down the wall and the ending of over rad squad to some degree. obviously less intense since time has passed, but there's still an obvious impression that she's mourning nagi. also this.

and as i said earlier, maybe. people grieve differently and for different amounts of time. people will also show it differently. a few days is a bit quick, but again you can put that down to the storytelling. in this kind of game that needs to tell its story quickly you don't have that kind of time. for the type of person an is and the age she is at, i think it was handled quite realistically. i do think it was rushed, but i don't think An would spend a very long time in a state of mourning. also lutf plays with the idea that she kind of already knew. she didn't know nagi was actually dead so she couldn't experience it fully, but there was always that slight sense of anger and denial at nagi having left without saying goodbye and never once talking to her for years. she was already grieving nagi, she just never once seriously thought about the situation.

[forsythiaproductions]

This game would not exist if not for Hugo's complete obliviousness to his own gay thoughts.

No, we didn't set out to make a slow-burn romance.

Yes, he really is just that dense...🙈

Wishlist and play our demo! 💌