Tbh it would be absolutely fantastic if a game pulled this off today.

“Did…did this game just burn itself to a DVD-R before wiping itself from my drive? Where did it even get a DVD-R from??? Wait a sec, my PC didn’t even have a DVD drive before today! Why is there a charge to PCRepairGuy on my credit card?! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?”

It’s not a zero sum game. Once the FCC chair did what he did and the affiliate networks made their desires known, there were only two choices: gamble on the brand sentiment impact of pulling the show for an unknown amount of time (which we know now was short) or gamble by playing chicken with the affiliate networks and FCC chair.

As sad as it is to say, we have a lot of data about this: brand image problems are almost always transient while fights with corporate partners and regulators have drastic long term impact.

I abhor the fact that it’s true, but c’mon, it’s pretty clear what someone’s choice would be in that situation if they’re prioritizing shareholder value. Which, again, they are required to by law.

EDIT: I want to be clear here… You are talking as if “people get pissed but we bring it back a week later and then everyone moves on” wasn’t the best possible outcome for them given the circumstances. I think it was, and that was calculated.

Yup! Been doing this and got Nexstar too

I mean, I personally agree with the sentiment, but I’m not naive enough to think that’s the argument we should be having right now. We can tackle “should businesses be expected to self-immolate for the sake of morality” once the fascists are fucking gone.

Like, they did exactly what they were supposed to do here and managed the fucking crisis then got him back on the air ASAP. But people are pissed at Disney for playing the fucking game instead of at Sinclair and Nexstar, because Disney is a more visible target. It’s myopic and pointless.

There has literally never been a case where defending free speech or any other ethical/moral position in the face of imminent business contract impact has successfully been used to defend against a breach of fiduciary responsibility claim.

You are talking about an imminent threat of action from extremely powerful business partners vs a nebulous argument towards the impact of moral decision making on profitability. Quite the contrary, there is a huge body of evidence that shows behaving immorally is often the most profitable behavior.

Brand damage from taking a show off the air for a week is far easier to undo than the fallout from two major affiliates cancelling their contracts for your entire network.

Sorry, I know what point you’re trying to make, and you are theoretically correct but because it’s completely unprovable with no precedent you are practically incorrect.

Huh? What are you talking about? Sinclair and Nexstar are not in any way beholden to Disney. They are affiliate networks. They are not in any way a part of Disney or operating under their guidance

It’s not Disney’s fault, really. It’s Sinclair and Nexstar, the affiliate networks. They’re the ones that could have pushed back without drastic financial consequences, and they’re the ones that pressured ABC to can the show.

Disney management has a fiduciary responsibility they cannot ignore. They handled this as well as they could (and likely raised hell behind closed doors).

Put your ire where it belongs: the fascists and their supporters, not the businesses trying to survive this hellscape without breaking laws

There are LOTS of reasons to hate Disney and their management but this isn’t one of them IMO

Sure, this is just an example of how complex “feel” can get in game development. The video includes several examples where player perception changes drastically from very minor gameplay design changes

There are so many things that go into whether a game feels responsive or not. Your experience could be explained by anything from access to stable Internet, to trends in game design philosophy, and vary from game to game based on implementation.

Here’s one of my favorite GDC talks that looks at just one small part of what goes into making a game feel responsive: https://youtu.be/h47zZrqjgLc

• Wing Commander 4 - At the time, I was very young, and this game changed how I looked at videogames. For my little brain, the FMV cutscenes and genuinely decent acting (ffs, it has Mark Hammil) somehow made it click that games could have compelling narrative
• Kingdom Hearts - this game changed my life in many ways. I can genuinely say I wouldn’t be doing what I do today if it weren’t for this game and my involvement in the fan community around it. This game is very special to me because of its themes and major plot beats, and how those interacted with my life at the time. This game taught me that you could go beyond “compelling narrative” and break my heart with a video game lol
• Natural Selection 2 - I wish this game were more popular in its prime. This is the epitome of what I think good competition looks like, and a great manifestation of what I personally love in esports

In all seriousness, this is what happens when you write novels without doing any world-building and just put down whatever seems “fun”. The are sooooo many things in that series that make no sense once they are superceded by later plot devices. Rowling didn’t think any of it through ahead of time and gave almost no thought to internal consistency with previous content when she wrote new things.

It’s honestly a terrible series in most regards and it’s kind of disappointing how popular it became.

Also she a trans-hating bigot. Fuck J.K. Rowling. Can’t forget that part whenever discussing her or her work.

They’re not comparable.

If I’m at a firing range, where it is expected that people are carrying guns and ammunition, I can pull the same “oops, my finger slipped” excuse.

Similarly, if I drive my car around the side of your house and into your back yard to run you over, I can’t claim “my foot slipped”.

Seriously, stop with the mental gymnastics. We don’t need to reach for more reasons to say “fuck cars.” There are plenty within arms reach

This is incredibly reductive and makes us look like idiots who don’t understand “intent”.

I get it, fuck cars, but this is ridiculous and only serves to make us look like a joke