Shagger

In my experience, I haven't found one to be better than the other. They both have discounts and sales where at times will be cheaper on one of the two, but this isn't a constant think. Typically, the game will be the pretty much same price. If your friend is look to choose between the platforms, he should consider other things. Is he interseted in the subscriptions available and what platform has the better exclusive games.

Welcome back. A lot has changed in 3 years, but I'm sue you'll come to love the forum as it is today.

To me, this is just another con. I'd rather pay money for a good game then waste hours of my life playing crap for a pittance. The only people than make any real money with these games are the dodgy bastards who publish them.

That's great advice. I'd like to add to that by saying make the meeting point somewhere as public as possible.

@dfarmer2001 The effort you are putting into pointing out these deals is appreciated, but there is an expected format and set of guidelines set for video gam's deals posts. You can read all about them in this pinned post. Please read these guidelines and follow them for future threads in this sub-forum.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to VGR. Looking forward to getting to know know you.

There is a pinned thread set up for discussion of mods, so @DudeThatsErin, whilst I know I speak for all of us when I say the topic is apricated, I'm locking this and inviting you continue this discussion there.

I'll offer my nomination to @Boblee. Active, kind and insightful.

For me, the Aminus is already more than enough lashings of the modern world in AC, the last thing an AC game needs is more of that. But that's me.

I think we have already had enough anti-Chinese xenophobia is this thread already. As it wasn't established already, China has absolutely nothing to do with this. So if it's not too much trouble, stick to the topic.

I've decided to have a casual go at editing my video game clips and possibly start sharing on YouTube and here on VGR. I also want to work on instructional videos to help newcomers to the forum itself. As I use OBS for screen capture that, as far as I can tell, can only be prompted to start and stop recording with a control on it's UI (if there is a keyboard shortcut or hotkey, I'd like to know how that's done if anyone knows), the vids I've recorded with OBS so far always have shots of me starting and stopping OBS recording at the start and end I would like to clip out as well as add voice overs and stuff title screens etc. I'm just putting this out there in case anyone on VGR has some experience editing videos can help me avoid some "beginner's traps" as it were and offer general advice. I did see a lot of video editing software both free and premium, but the one I've decided on initially is HitFilm Express. So, anything yu can say to help is apricated.

I'm going to ban you.

@Reality vs Adventure and @Empire Just a gentle reminder to keep political discussion to the politics sub-forum.

Yeah, it is basically a form of cryptocurrency. The only difference is than an NFT is non-transferable as if it were selling a good. And you do indeed hold a receipt for a (digital) good, but you don't really own it in a traditional sense, but you can sell it. Like most shady business things it's deliberately vague, yet also complicated.

Back on topic, and a spokesperson for PlayStation has stated they expect Microsoft to honour "contractual obligations" and thus continue to release multiplatform Activision-Blizzard games on PlayStation consoles. Full details from Video Games Chronicle.

I'm not here to alter his opinions. I only deleted two or three of his posts (and posts from others) because they were still going of topic after I respectfully instructed everyone to get back on topic. What I won't do is edit people's posts in such a way that the perception of that individual would be altered, for better or for worse.

I have to put a temporary lock on this thread to remove off-topic posts from several of you. When I re-open it, I expect the thread to get back on topic. Re-opening the thread, can we please try to keep this on rails this time?

First off, your profile and introduction on medium is proof of... what exactly? That you can link to some very obviously bias, right wing propaganda? Eh, no. If anything, that has cost you credibility. Trying to reply to quotes done the way you have is a far bigger pain in the ass than using the IPB forum tools, so I'm asking you nicely to please use them. I almost missed the entirety of your reply because the quoted text doesn't auto expand. Anyway, I'm not gonna quote the entirety of your reply and just summarise it. Like everybody here, I'm well aware of how controlling the CCP are and of the hoops western business have to jump through to do business in China because of it. So what if companies are "woke"! Inclusivity is not a bad thing in principle. I've spoken a lot about this, so I'm not gonna go into detail again about, but suffice to say if you have a problem with inclusivity and diversity, it is exactly that, your problem. I'm sick of people discrediting any attempt made for more inclusivity as some sort of evil force. I will confess, though, you're method of making that look like a bad thing is by far favourite yet. "Women in the workplace, being granted positions of authority and equal rights means he evil commie Chinese are taking over!" It's brilliant! The perfect message to send out to the Trump rioter crowd who would believe this garbage. If you have such a hate-boner for China, we should never hear from you again on VGR because you would have smashed whatever device(s) you use to type out these posts because it/they were almost certainly built there. But still, none of this has anything to do with Activision-Blizzard's issue with sexual misconduct, discrimination and bullying and even less to do with this merger with Microsoft. You have not provided any proof that links these things together. So please, address the topic hand or shut up. And the same thing goes for everyone.

The first thing I wanted to say is that I was very close to deleting this post entirely as it really has almost nothing to do with the topic at hand. I decided against this as I wanted to address the post because I found it as interesting as I did worrying. With all due respect, I think you dropped your tin foil hat, and you're talking nonsense. And, to be frank, this looks a little concerning from a perspective analysis of prejudice and one's understanding of other cultures. Sexual harrasment and discrimination may happen in China, but it isn't something indigenous to the Chinese anymore than it is anywhere else, including America. So you attributing Activision-Blizzard's "issues" to a rather vague association with a single Chinese company sets of alarm bells to me about you. Your claim doesn't have any evidence to back it up and makes no sense. First, both Activision and Blizzard have been in business longer that Tencent and the allegations stretch well before any alleged Chinese influence was imparted to them be it from Tencent or otherwise. How the hell could Tencent be responsible for these problems at Activision-Blizzard before the company even existed? Secondly, lots of American companies have offices and holdings in various countries around the world to run local interests and markets. Why is Activision-Blizzard's holdings in China a sign of "subversion" when thier holdings in France, Holland, the UK, Australia, Singapore, The Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Ireland, Canada, Korea and the list goes on not suspect at all (Source of that information)? This is just how huge companies like Activision-Blizzard operate. For your own sake, come back to reality. Thirdly, just because a Chinese company has a stake in an American business, doesn't change the management structure or how the business is run and organised. Control like that is only handed over when a shareholder (or group of shareholders) attain majority control. Tencent owns less than 5% of Activision, trust me, they get NO say in how the business is run day to day, especially on US based infrastructure. Tencent also own around 4% of Tesla, so why hasn't this so called "influence" created similar problems with them? Face it, you're talking a load of shit here. Next, yes, there is a law is says California that states that a certain number of board members need to be woman. An American law that has absolutely nothing to do with China, or any other country for that matter. And that law is no bad thing either. It's there to try and kill off the kind of toxic, discriminatory culture that has plagued American businesses for decades. The very same culture that landed Activision-Blizzard in such hot water in the first place. All that you have proven there is that the system, despite being in place for the right reasons, maybe doesn't work that well. Either way, it clearly has nothing to do with China, nor does it tie into this weird subversion theory, or anything to do anything else in this thread frankly... And that brings me neatly to my final point, and I am going back to mod speak to some extent here. Please present evidence to back up your points that is actually relevant to the topic. Like I said, very little of what you have posted here has anything at all to do with the topic at hand anyway, but how is bringing up a (now former) PlayStation executive attempting to groom a minor got anything at all to do with Xbox buying Activision-Blizzard? Or the ridiculous claim that China is in some way responsible for Activision-Blizzard's "frat boy" work culture that has got them in trouble? Or this alleged subversion that, frankly, sounds like the sort of thing American, right-wing conspiracy nuts would print about the Soviets back in the 70's and 80's? None of these things make any sense on thier own, much less together! If you want to discuss this "subversion" or what happened with regards to that PlayStation executive, reply to or create new threads for them in the appropriate sub-forum, don't attempt to derail this or any other topic again.

I get the concerns people might have about this becoming a monopoly, but even with this acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft are still a long way from that point. They will still only rank third in terms of the largest gaming conglomerates (Behind Tencent and Sony) and there are still a lot of major video game publishers still operating outside of those three. EA, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Take Two, Capcom and CD Project Red to name a few. How long the situation will remain that way remains to be seen, but I'm not overly concerned about a monopoly just yet.

First, this is a gaming news topic and thus this thread is in the wrong sub-forum. And secondly, a thread already exists for this topic. Locked.

I understand your confusion. Reading any attempt at an explanation of what an NFT is reads like something written by a snake oil salesman. But, I'll do my best to explain it. I don't claim to be an expert on this, so take this with a grain of salt. An NFT (Non-Fungable Token) is a block of data that essentially serves as a receipt for a digital good that says you own said good, except you don't, at least not in the traditional sense. The same digital good and associated NFT can be replicated over and over and nobody who "owns" the NFT can control the distribution of the digital good it's tied to, but NFTs can be re sold and used like a Blockchain currencys, like bitcoin. The only real difference between NFT's and Blockchain currencys is that that NFTs are not interchangeable (Non-Fungable) with other Blockchain currencys. NFT's are sold as they are, so it's kind of like stock in that way. Like all Blockchain currencys and cryptocurrencys, NFTs use the internet and computer power to re-authenticate constantly to the original distributer of the NFT. The more people and power overall being used to authenticate the NFT, the higher it's value. That's the best I can do. If anyone has a correct to make or something to add please let me know.

You read that right. Microsoft's Xbox division is closing in on a deal to buy Activision-Blizzard in the largest acquisition in the companies' history. Full details form Variety here. The deal isn't set to close until the end of the next fiscal year (June 2023) and still needs approval from Activision-Blizzard shareholders, but this is looking for now like it will happen. I must say, bravo Microsoft! The more I think about it, I better understand the genius of this move because of the scandal surrounding Activision-Blizzard that came to light during 2021. Not only have Activision-Blizzard's share prices plummeted by 30% over the past year, making this great timing, but Activision-Blizzard are also a company desperate to shake the horrendous image that scandal brought to them. Who better to do that than Xbox? A brand that's really been impressing gamers with thier business decisions in recent years. I know that there will be concerns among PlayStation and Nintendo fans about Activision-Blizzard games becoming exclusive to the Xbox brand, and those concerns are justified, but for me, they publish almost nothing but crap anyway, so it doesn't bother me. And this might genuinely be a turning point for Activision-Blizzard. With Xbox in control, we might finally see an improvement in thier output. Let's face it, it can't get much worse at this stage. And if this leads to the culture change that the company so desperately needs, than even better. So...yeah. I find myself strangely optimistic about this.