It certainly would kill off the hypothetical functionality of it for me.

Even if I really like what I know about a game, I'll always check the reviews (both in general and negative specifically, since that's where information about serious issues is most likely to be found), then take a look at the forum (especially tech support/bug section) before purchase.

Frankly, forum activity (and information) seems a much more reliable indicator of a game's state than anything else to me.

It's hardly espionage when you're using public information the competitor provides.

And from all I read, intentionally so.

Then don't give them a reason in the first place? Most of "review bombing" I heard in the first place was the result of genuine grievance. Something the developer/publisher may disagree with as being seen the same way, but the owners of the game certainly have a right to use reviews to bring shitty business practices to others' attention in my book.

I look at reviews very frequently, and that is hardly my experience. Steam already provides tools for better access to "quality" reviews (and, I suspect, some degree of control over what displays in the first place). If somebody wants to drop ASCII "masterwork" in place of valid feedback, it hardly hurts anybody. You can easily scroll past. Meanwhile, removal of review system altogether just makes it that much more difficult for customers to make an informed purchase (which, I think, is very much the point for Epic).

This really needs to be mentioned more often than it is.

What we're seeing is exactly the opposite of "competition." Having exclusive titles tied to only single distro platform is just plain ol' market fragmentation.

As somebody living with our glorious 'murrican ISP regulatory-capture duopoly (if you're lucky...), I can tell you from first-hand experience that exclusivity does not work well for customers in the long run.

Especially when it turns out that for-profit companies will absolutely go and make non-competition agreements with each other behind closed door.

What else gives the spectators who saw the gala. Today videogame websites have many news of the gala and in all of them the epic game store is mentioned. As much as it hurts in the medium term, it is impossible for Gog to survive in the current conditions.

Shall i present you with numbers that dispute everything you just said? Will you stop spreading misinformation if i do that? I want your promise of silence. I will even do the work of gathering all the data and chewing it up for you. I really enjoy winning internet arguments but you seem unable to accept your defeat and keep replying with fantasies and falsehoods.

Do i have your word?

yess

Good thing we already have decades of gaming behind us which we can fall back on (and which many of us already do). It's pretty awful how "ownership" changed over the years. You used to own your game. Nowadays, you only have a license. In the future, you will have pretty much nothing.

That may change in the future though. Doesn't Microsoft intend to use Windows 10 forever (at least they said so)? That way, updating said media is finite. Luckily, we also always have emulators which don't require one to update said media. And as for Windows games, an alternative to updating is also a virtual machine with the relevant OSes. So in that sense, we are pretty much already good to go (or stay, rather).

Absolutely. For the VHS, the market is helping out. There are shops that will digitize your tapes. Who knows how exactly the future for gaming will look like? One thing is sure though, it will be worse for those of us who value ownership and privacy. For a more dystopian outlook, one can always look towards South Korea and nowadays also China (games can affect your social credit since you are required to use your ID/SSN for some of them).

Be very afraid of that. What they mean by that is Windows as a Service. That term she scare everyone. That's the road to a walled garden operating system that is completely controlled by Microsoft and it's already begun. They're even hamstringing their enterprise capabilities now in favour of this model, which is nuts.

They've removed a lot of important admin functionality you used to be able to control through group policies for things like updates and telemetry that seriously effect privacy and OS stability and backwards compatibility with software.

Yeah, I know. I'm still pondering about what I should do when Windows 7 support ends. I will probably either switch to Linux or stick to an unsupported Windows 7. Having to deal with Windows 10 at work is already bad enough. Didn't know they are going after the enterprise edition these days, ouch. The IT departments won't be happy about that.

https://www.githyp.com/almost-half-a-million-viewers-tuned-in-to-cd-projekt-reds-cyberpunk-2077-gameplay-reveal-live-on-twitch/
TGA barely registers on the scale and viewd negatively by a lot of people.This is how record views and a lot of coverage look like.8 separate videos on IGN and 5 separate videos on Gamespot. This is all on the same day. There are more videos after that. I would also like to add that this is a game that has its videos rated for adults so kids with parental controls on their youtube/twitch were not able to view it. You gave me your word so you better keep it. I gave you the numbers and i provided you with screenshots. Let's see if you are a man of your word.

Glad that I am not the only one that does this. For me I use the user generated reviews to see if a online game has a toxic community or not because I do not wish to buy or download a game that has this type of player base. And for the single player games I see whether or not its broken, filled with game breaking bugs that are making people quit the game, which I let the developers fix the game after a while or to see if they had abandoned it.

Pretty sure every sensible person does it and believe it or not, there are a lot of those on the internet, despite it often not seeming that way.

You mean you don't blindly throw money at companies just because you saw their ad in the passing somewhere?

Are you sure you're an American?! Why do you hate unconditional Consumerism and your own country so much! Quick, somebody smack this pinko-commie-terrorist with the Invisible Hand of the Market™! /s

Love the trade mark at the end.

And the party continues:

Rebel galaxy exclusive outlaw for 12 months in the epic store. I wonder what cd project can do against such powerful companies.