I play the Warhammer series, so I can’t speak much to Pharoh (their newest game release). The apology actually covers a lot of what the drama is about. Higher priced DLCs with okay content, old bugs from the previous installments unfixed, terrible communication with the player base.

I like the apology. It’s specific and they are putting their money where their mouth is. As long as they follow up, I think they can recoup a lot of goodwill. I’m hopeful because I love what they’ve done with the warhammer series and I want them to support it for years to come. It’s great right now and it has incredible potential.

I mean, this is literally my strategy. I’m okay not buying games from companies who utilize revenue tactics I don’t agree with. Some will adopt in game ads and a lot won’t. I’m pretty confident in my stable of devs that probably won’t have to drop them. And if I’m wrong? Oh well. They don’t get my money.

Not who you responded to, but I can’t follow a pre made campaign as a DM. My current campaign started as a pre made, but prepping for it felt too much like homework so we hopped the rails and I’ve been my own story.

To answer your question from how I operate, I have a rough idea of what the conclusion of the campaign looks like and a rough odea of how the party might get there. I only really know the specifics of what the party is currently doing or what they might encounter in the next months. At this point in the campaign the the players know who the big baddie is, what they’re up to, and know of means to stop them. It’s up to them to figure out a plan to stop the big bad. The party has taken some of my hooks to solve their problems and have gone completely off the rails at some points to solve their problems. There are some points in the campaign that are pretty linear (like right now, they need a macguffin from a particular place) and some where they’re given set pieces, a location, and a good luck slap of the ass.

As it pertains to the meme up here for me personally, sometimes I’ll build an encounter/boss/set piece and the party will completely fucking skip it. That’s okay though, now I have a partial idea for later. I hope that gives you some insight into the other side. I’m also interested in other DMs that make their own, what methods they use.

Lots of good answers so far. From my experience, most people know what the fuck to do or at least they know they have a few options, so they don’t need me to tell them how to solve their problem.

To specifically answer your question… sitting there listening allows you to figure out if the person needs to vent, talk out their options, validation about their reaction, validation for their own solution, social connection, to know they have a support system in you, encouragement, and sometimes, yes, advice or a solution. So to assume it’s only a solution they want leaves out a whole host of other possible reasons they might come to you. “I know I just need to send an email, I just wanted to removed about my boss being a bag of dicks”.

Am I your boy?

You good. People complaining about business practices of a company who has become known for those exact business practices are wild. II personally just stopped buying from them because they’ve shown they no longer want me as a customer. I do feel like people like those in the article might do better to just stop buying from them. There are so many fucking great devs and games out there from indie to AAA, why would I continue to support a company who I feel is being unfair to their customer base.

That was my plan. Are… are we not doing rhat anymore?

This isn’t a pissing contest and no one is acting like this is unique. We saw the same excitement for the last 2 Zelda games, God of War, Spiderman, Elden Ring etc. (post more examples, I don’t pay as much attention to the industry anymore so I’m sure I’ve missed a bunch). Let’s celebrate them if that’s what you’d like to see more of. They’re all awesome and they all add to the evidence that there is a large population that still want to experience games this way.

Why can’t it be both? These statements aren’t meant for us anyway.

I disagree. It’s not tech news. Twitter or X losing a few subscribers to mastadon or threads is a Sunday. And on Monday we’ll get an article about people moving in the other direction. Distilling entire categories of news to one person or company makes us less informed, not more. We’re just echoing the same talking points back and forth at eachother.

I’m definitely not saying Elon or Twitter is NEVER tech news but, jesus, I don’t need or want to know about every tweet he makes and every shit he takes. I also don’t think these things shouldn’t be recorded in some way. But the magnitude it’s posted is straight up Elon worship whether you hate him or support him.

I do what I’m able and willing by downvoting items that aren’t news or discussion-worthy and not interacting with those comment sections but there is just so much. Is there a place to just read news about technology and not tech business tweets turned into “news” stories? This is a genuine question if someone has info.

Also stopped pirating games when steam came around. And I stopped pirating shows and movies with the rise of streaming services. Now though, I’m looking into standing up a media server.

Got any fun fantasy themed casino games you can share?