"Good" and "great" are seldom the same man.
-Winston Churchill
I've actually just heard of all of this, so I had to go through the text messages and some of the commentaries concerning Zoe.
In terms of how she handled her personal and professional life I am actually kind of torn in how to criticize her actions.
Obviously Zoe was not the ideal mate (or spouse, since in one of her posts she inferred that she was married). Zoe was not a person I would ever want to be in a relationship with because of her proclivity towards unfaithfulness and lying. Her lack of moral character belies her "innocent victim" persona often employed by many who seek to hide behind a cloak of intelligently-spun tales to save face in the light of truth: for this, she ought to be ashamed. In her right mind, she should apologize to everyone she hurt: not only to her boyfriend/husband, a number of girlfriends which includes least one wife that were betrayed by their husbands/boyfriends because of her indiscretion, but to thousands of fans and followers who looked up to her and believed in her.
Zoe's business acumen, however, shows the ruthless resolve and the caste-like and isolated desperation of a Dickensian socialite. With this facet of Zoe's personality in consideration, you see that she elegantly wears a public personae that is strategically causing the current "uproar" regarding criticisms towards her. Basically, her public face is a construct cleverly crafted by a social tactician: if you attack her newly-manifested private face, you will draw the ire of netizens viewing her socially-acceptable and innocent public face. The duality here is that the formation of her public life of being a well though of and "buzzworthy" game developer came at the cost and destruction of her private life. Many things she has done to assure the upward mobility of her career has basically undermined and sabotaged every relationship away from her career, with significant ramifications, as we have all seen.
Although I am a fervent advocate for a level playing field, sexism (as well as a lot of other "isms") and the propaganda to continue such things will not go away. As long as people can use it to oppress other people you pretty much have to accept how certain people will react to being under such constrictions.
Although some of the relationship chatter is going above my head, what Zoe Quinn has done isn't new at all; for example, the "casting couch" concept is in everything from acting (where the term came from) to getting good grades in school to getting that promotion. Even heterosexuals do it to other heterosexuals, males or females, in the form we commonly call "sucking up", to be kind. What Zoe did there is not new at all, not even to gaming.
Even though other companies didn't do things as drastic as what she has done, no one can say that companies didn't (please excuse the term in light of the respective subject) whore themselves out to get good ratings. We all know that an early copy for review or a well-placed gift basket given or not given will sway the opinion of a game critic one way or another.
What she has done is deplorable but the sad part is that she, in her own mind, may feel justified in doing so being an indie with a great game, but no way to display what could be her one big shot. Unlike, let's say, a big company that can give out gift baskets, she could only operate with what she has: and that "tool" has been used to put people in high places since time immemorial.
As a matter of fact, if you compare her actions to keeping her game (and by extension her company) afloat, she didn't do much different when Cleopatra made "concessions" with Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony to keep Egypt from being a conquered empire. Through her feminine wiles, she was able to keep herself sovereign much longer than it would have been possible b herself. On the more self-serving side, Zoe's actions drew parallels to why Herod Antipas beheaded John The Baptist: Salome's mother in law had Salome dance in front the ruler and he was "swayed" to execute an innocent man.
Although the stakes are much lower in Zoe's case, the cause and effect are the same. People in desperate situations will use what they have to keep themselves in positions of perceived power; even if it means relegating themselves to deplorable circumstances and will be justified in their own eyes because of barriers they perceive as insurmountable.
What I believe she was trying to do was trying to accelerate her connections with the gaming industry to give her game some publicity, and by doing what she did, she exchanged her integrity for notability; and just like in the days of Caesar, she permanently altered, if not destroyed, her personal life as part of this Faustian arrangement to uplift what she valued above all else: her game. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of people who will not pass up an offer to either take advantage of remarkable individuals in a vulnerable position or people's willingness to sleep with people of "power" for their own advancement.
As it is written: There is nothing new under the sun.
Cleopatra: she is as beautiful as she is cunning.
A number of leaks have popped up that reference Pokemon Black and White remakes in some way. Are they all coincidences or real in 2024?
The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth combat director has expressed that he wants the final part in the trilogy to offer players "even more freedom".
I love the game so far but please don’t make the final part a mini game fest
Everytime I get to a new part in Rebirth it’s “mini game time”
Hope ya don't mind me asking since it seems like you've played it, did it feel like a decent step up from the last game or was it more like the best from the last but more polished?
It makes Remake feel like a demo.
9.5/10 imo. And I think the “mini games” did a great job of adding variety to the gameplay. Purely optional as well.
Here's my thoughts
I think it's a big step up from the first instalment, I'm enjoying it way more.
I thought keeping it just in Midgar was silly, it felt dragged out and it didn't have much variation in terms of the scenery.
However with Rebirth, as soon as you get out of Kalm you have a big world to explore and it's great to just wander round and explore.
Now that I'm half way in though, despite still liking what I'm playing, the gameplay loop is now starting to slow down on me. I've got to a new region and I'm like "Yaaay...need to go and find those towers again, oh look another special beast marker, is that a bird I see in the distance? Better follow it to another Mako Crystal"
It's like....you know how Peter Jackson was only supposed to have two Hobbit films then Warner Bros wanted a third film so he stretched the second film out as much as he could so he could keep stuff for the third film making a trilogy? Yeah it feels like that, so these mini games are a part of that overall gameplay loop to keep us going and stretch the game out overall so they have something for the third and final game.
I personally think you could have had the first instalment get you out of Midgar and through to Grasslands / Junon and the second game finishes things off.
I had a weird cycle of love/hate for all the mini games as I played through. At first I really hated the seeming need to check all these boxes while exploring the grasslands. I didn't enjoy the Gilgamesh quest initially, and thought Queen's blood was fine but didn't want to commit to it. The side quests didn't really grab me either.
Then for some reason everything in Junon region changed my mind and I did pretty much everything. I liked most of the side quests, I actually liked playing fort condor (didn't care for it in the intergrade dlc). And my interest for completing these quests stayed pretty much through to Cosmo Canyon.
Then they added that horrible Lifestream memory/battle mini game and I started getting so burnt out of it all. I just wanted to do the story. I didn't do any side quests in neibleheim and beyond except for the summon. I abandoned Gilgamesh.
So what I'm saying is I would like the third part to go back to the focused progression from remake. Keep the mini games to the gold saucer. Start the game snowboarding if you want, but from there keep the story rolling.
That's funny you say that because I did everything in the Grasslands but once in Junon I started to slow down a little until Corel where by the end I was burnt out. I'm still currently going but I'm just doing what I can while things keep getting thrown at me.
I would have preferred half of these mini game side fillers / collectibles for some really beefy side quests that really adds onto the world of FFVII.
Sounds like they hadn't really figured out what they wanted to do with Remake and this one is more of what they thought of doing which is probably why they're dragging it out to make a trilogy. Disappointed to hear it has towers cause man do i hate towers lol. It's been a while since I've played the first and it'll be a while longer to play the sequel, but it sounds like I'll enjoy it. 7 really impressed me especially after being disappointed with 15, felt like Square finally realized that FF was THEIR big franchise again.
How many hours are you into it at this point?
My friend got like 20-30 in and pretty much quit because of its mini game era. He loved and basically binged through Gran Blue compared to Rebirth
As long as it comes out on PS5 to have the entire series on one platform, do whatever you want
The combat is my favorite thing about Rebirth. Would be really cool if they can improve it even more.
I hope after FF7 Square will either give a new FF game the remake treatment. Or give some of their older titles a remake treatment like Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, even Xenogears.
Wccf tech writes: "Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's scope was impacted by the Xbox Series S hardware limitations, as developers could only make a game that was 25% bigger than its predecessor."
This is the issue with things like this
Xbox Series X is apparently to MS the worlds most powerful console
However the Series S is obviously a limitation because it’s underpowered and developers have to go for parity.
So what’s the point of the world’s most powerful console if you are holding third party developers back? They aren’t going to push themselves if they have to think about the weakest console.
The issue wouldn’t be as bad if it was just Xbox but you are also affecting the PS version aswell
I think developers need to start just taking advantage of a console and if one of them can’t do X Y and Z then f*** them…why should the others suffer. What’s MS going to do? The bigger the franchise the least chance MS are going to tell them to f*** off. Baulders Gate 3 seemed to have stood their ground and suddenly their “strict” parity rule didn’t really matter. We suddenly got super optimisation efforts for the Series S that got things sorted.
I agree, and the sad part is use normal folk saw it the second they announced their plans.
Agree 100% this is why I didn’t want the M$ Monopoly, now PS5 version will be held back too.
If PS5 Pro comes out and Series S is still a thing it’ll be interesting what differences and what devs choose to do. Really hoping Rockstar pushes the PS5 pro with GTA6 and we get the best version possible.
Good ole S indeed. Everyone knew this all along. S was holding games back...Now where the hell is Orchard i want a word with him.
More info from the author of the article, I think: https://www.reddit.com/r/ki...
Quote:
"1) I was told this info from the producer of the game Martin Klíma.
2) He specifically said the game will have only one mode.
3) And this mode is 4K 30 on PS5/XSX and 1440p 30 on XSS.
4) He said that the game is already running north of the 30 FPS cap so the performance should be stable on launch, much better than KCD1.
5) The limitation was XSS because of the 10GB memory. He said that's why they wanted to make the game 25% larger.
6) Speculation on my part: the output resolution is probably upscaled and the reason why there won't be a 60 FPS mode is because it'll most likely be very CPU heavy, like Dragon's Dogma 2 for example."
Doesn't seem like they're adding a 40fps mode on PS5/Series X for launch even if they can handle it.
I'd much rather have 1440p/60fps or even 45fps. Having just one, even with the Series S in mind, is disappointing.
Remember when xbots were adamant that the series s won’t hold back the gen?
Microsoft just needs to let go of the mandatory parity. Who cares if your grandma doesn’t understand that a game cannot be played on the S. It’s not like it she can buy you a physical game for it anyway. Before buying the game put up a notice that it only works on series X. If you’re buying for a friend-allow for a refund.
Bam. Everyone is happy. Most series s owners are for casuals that want Game Pass anyway and most likely don’t purchase most games.
If the developers want it to run on S, let them figure it out.
If it were Series X only then they'd only be selling to 25% of the Xbox Series userbase, and that's certainly not worth the time and effort into doing a port. Could just do PS5 & PC instead. No compromises needed.
“During the event, the Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 producer also revealed that on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, the game will run at 4K resolution and 30 frames per second“
Another “creative decision” right? 🤦♂️
Since you're not an amateur and clearly know more than them, can you over there and help get the game running on the S without having to sacrifice their true vision. Us gamers would really appreciate you using your wisdom for good 🙏
Thousands of games run just fine on S.
But Kingdom Come is the game that can’t. Must be one hell of a game!
Thousands of games run on PS4 and on Switch. If developers want them to run on those systems. Fine. Those two platforms still get new games. Sony isn’t making studios also make a ps4 pro version, or Nintendo a wiiu version. Microsoft technically is.
If games like Alan Wake 2, GTA6, COD, hellblade all run on S, no excuse for this 100x smaller and 100x worse looking game to be held back.
"Thousands of games run just fine on S.
But Kingdom Come is the game that can’t. Must be one hell of a game!"
Kingdom come 2 runs just fine alright. Its the SCOPE that they want. They had to cut it because of the stupid S series. Hellblade2 ran just fine too..but im pretty confident if it was just the X in mind, the scope of the game would have been much bigger.
"Zoe's business acumen, however, shows the ruthless resolve and the caste-like and isolated desperation of a Dickensian socialite"
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N...
This is a very insightful blog.
I'm sorry but I think my "pretentious radar" alarm is kicking in a bit--for example, how is Zoe's situation in any way "caste-like"? Is it because she's an indie? Female? In what way is she oppressed by some system that caused her to inherit the belief that her situation is fixed and that selling her body was the only option? Who (other than herself) told her that this is the way things must be in order to get your indie game noticed?
Phil Fish didn't blow anyone to get noticed. Nobody told excellent female indie game designers such as Kim Swift or Kelley Santiago that they had to drop the drawers just to get noticed in the industry. I doubt that Quinn's decision to exchange sex for favors wasn't originally initiated by HER (what's the chances that each and every one of those male journalists would have simultaneously thought up of the idea to approach her first for sex, let alone have even met her in person, had it not first been at her request to meet up)?
No there isn't a caste system. There isn't a rule that says that her game won't be noticed because of some perceived oppressiveness or classist/sexist social norm that says she can't advance in this industry due to being an indie, or female, etc.
The reason why she did this is most likely due to a lack of confidence in her own game (from what I hear it isn't all that impressive). And she turned to a trick that only 2 types of people would resort to using it: Either a person who is living in a society that only objectifies women and never embraces them for their contributions as hard workers (Think: The world of "Mad Men" tv show); or a woman who in modern times is aware of the great opportunities for an ever-increasing equality for women in the workplace, who instead of taking it for granted, decides to resort to victim-like mentality of sexually submitting herself to men (who never asked her to do it in the first place) so that she can convince herself that this was "necessary" for her to get ahead in an industry that already proved that women can be discovered based on skill alone, not sex or even gender-bias. Santiago and Swift BOTH were award winning indie game designers STRAIGHT out of college. They didn't have to defile themselves with strangers to win an award. If anything, gamers who played their games demanded they be awarded due to the quality of their games.
So to conclude, there is no caste system in terms of indie recognition--not gender-wise, not budget-wise, not anything. Quinn did it because she lacks confidence in her ability to shine in her field of work. Plain and simple.
Any "perceived insurmountable" obstacles that Quinn thought were in her way are due to her lack of skill in design, or lack of confidence in it. Not due to some real threat like Cleopatra (whom is used as an example in this blog) had to endure. Quinn is disgusting, a cheater (getting ahead of QUALITY female and male designers by offering sex with perverts), and an opportunistic coward who tries to pretend that her gender gives her yet another pass to avoid criticism (first using sex to avoid criticism by journalists of her game, and using her gender/faux female victimization to protect herself from a new kind of criticism).
She's such an embarrassment to the women who had to actually work hard to make good games. What a loser.
One more thing: The journalists had no power over her for her to think that she must submit to them sexually. The power was in HER hands: by making a QUALITY games. Had she done that, we would be discussing her for the right reasons, not the bad humiliating reasons she is known for today.
I smell an apologist...lets condense what you just said. She is not that bad guys men to it toooo!!1!
"What I believe she was trying to do was trying to accelerate her connections with the gaming industry to give her game some publicity"
"What I believe she was trying to do was trying to accelerate her connections with the gaming industry to give her game some publicit"
If she's trying to give her game some publicity, she wouldn't have destroyed a charity event that's sole purpose was to get more women into game development, even if they lacked the ability to code or do other things that are necessary.
I'm sorry, but you're coming off as an apologist who's trying to do the same thing many others have tried before and many, so called, journalists are doing today;
-This is nothing new
-Why are you getting mad, this doesn't affect games
-Who cares if she slept with five men, it's her life
-It's already in all sections of life and some women have to sleep with men to get somewhere
And every single one of these are bullshit "arguments" concoted to defend an honorless, disrespectful, self centered nepotist sh*tstain, her honorless boyfriends and her band of merry followers.
Here, for your education;
http://i.imgur.com/Lk7YJ7s....
It's a "somewhat" known fact that Cleopatra was in fact not as beautiful as the legends make her out to be. Maybe she did some beautiful things behind closed doors, but she wasn't beauty to look at.