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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
In simple terms, the Reactionary Right is a bit like Andrjez Sapkowski in they don't actually realize the video game industry is bigger than the NBA and several other sporting leagues combined revenue. They are under the impression it's a niche hobby and blaming it is a "safe" option. They're operating under decades old information like when they took on the music industry.
The video game industry can and does have billions of dollars to burn and they don't want to get them politically lobbying—but I almost hope they do.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Aug 9th 2019 at 6:46:52 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Today's and yesterday's WTF Just Happened Today entries can be found ont he bottom of the last page here
, if anybody wants to see them.
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To be fair (not to the Reactionary Right, though), I know from experience that industry actually makes a lot of effort to obfuscate just how insanely much money is involved in it.
The big names in the video game industry use a tactic where they can make tons upon tons of money while barely paying any taxes. One they copied from the movie industry and then 'improved' on.
Basically what the big AAA publishers do is always make sure that they have a couple new projects going before the end of the fiscal year and then put basically everything they made in revenue from the last few games into the budget of the new ones. Because they're reinvesting all their money in the new games, they are, on paper, barely turning a profit or even operating at a loss and therefore pay very little in taxes.
This is why AAA game budgets are so ridiculously bloated. They don't actually need to put that much money into their games to make a profit. Most of that money goes into the marketing budget, the spending for which is... Well...
It's why AAA release parties are so lavish (it's so publisher big wigs and studio management can party it up on the company dime and have it be tax deductible because there's also some journos there). It's why you see management for mid tier publishers and studios pull shit like having business meetings in strip clubs or Hooters (They're copying what they're seen management for AAA publishers do, but unlike them, they don't quite have the budget to rent out classy restaurants or mansions to keep their debauchery behind closed doors.) It's why industry CEOs give themselves fat bonuses, but somehow can't seem to find the money on the books to pay their workers a living wage, hire enough people so they don't have to go into crunch or go without firing sometimes as much as 70% of their in-house studio's employees in the two months between the end of development for one game and the start of development for the next.
If they ever do suddenly need access to liquid funds, they simply cancel a game and take the money reserved for that budget for their expenses, then start development on a new game, the budget for which is the budget of the old game minus however much they needed in liquid assets.
The game industry is by no means the only industry in the US or elsewhere that pulls this kind of shit, but they are the most successful at it, particularly because the perception that video games are a very niche market and not at all big business and they're working very hard to keep that perception alive, at least as far as politicians and the parts of the media that don't focus on games are concerned.
Edited by Robrecht on Aug 9th 2019 at 4:44:03 PM
Angry gets shit done.Well, in better news, TRMS is talking about a woman who won a lawsuit against the Daily Stormer to the tune of like seven hundred thousand dollars for the harassment the site caused against her. And evidently she's not the only one winning against that website right now.
https://www.newsweek.com/neo-nazi-ordered-pay-jewish-woman-14-million-damages-troll-storm-1453416
Edited by AceofSpades on Aug 9th 2019 at 11:39:16 AM
Yup, I already mentioned that. The little fuck is residing somewhere overseas. They are never going to get that money and he'll continue business as usual, sadly.
Also, Daylistormer is back online again.
Edited by Forenperser on Aug 9th 2019 at 7:55:21 PM
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian@Charlie Phipps I just find it extremely entertaining how desperate the boomers on the Right are to blame video games. We hit the point so long ago where you can't just blame vidya for mass shootings but here they are. It's full blown denial at this point.
Like you said, not only is the video game industry a billion dollar entity right now, and not some niche thing you can only attach to basement dwellers but it's just such an outdated deflection. Like trying to say that bullying is the leading cause of mass killings.
Just Having FunTo say nothing of the fact that violent games have been a thing for decades at this point, while any significant spike in mass shootings only really started a few years ago.
Below is an article on this dated 2014 that uses data from 1976~2012:
Mass Shootings Aren’t On the Rise
So even if 2012~2019 has shown a significant upward trend, it's unlikely that violent videogames are related. Violent videogames have been a thing long before 2012.
Disgusted, but not surprisedIt'd be hilarious if not for the fact it's because they're desperate to defend terrorists. Not even the gun manufacturers who they're at least being bribed by.
Actual fucking terrorists and they can't say, "It's because they're racist pieces of shit."
That removes all the humor.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.It was around Gingrich and Clinton that the Republicans started acting like the Democrats were an existential threat to humanity.
Or maybe that I just noticed.
It was Obama that I noticed some people were suffering Sanity Slippage and just did not get it.
I knew this guy who was an actual Birther. He was appalled in a visceral way that Obama was elected and assumed it could be magically undone like a magic spell.
It makes me sick realizing he couldn't cope with a world where a black man was President.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.I posted this in the Gun Control thread and then it died, so Imma try again
https://popculture.com/trending/2019/08/10/suspect-arrested-with-rifle-missouri-walmart-allegedly-wanted-honored-second-amendment/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-body-armor-armed-rifle-sparks-panic-missouri-walmart-n1040676
In Missouri, a (white) man walked into a Wal-Mart armed to the teeth. He was immediately arrested. I don't think he was an attempted active shooter, I think he was one of those assholes that take it upon themselves to be a one man militia and waltz around town with their guns and other weapons on display primarily just to make people uncomfortable.
Everytime I hear about those people and how they're "protected" by the 2nd amendment it just reminds me how badly these germs want to be action heroes. He doesn't care about how scared people were, in fact he found it amusing, and when confronted he goes on a tangent about open carry.
As much as some people try to dress it up with questionable things that did admittedly happen during Obama's term, the real reason the GOP and so many white voters hated the guy was quite simply because he was black. I'm probably beating a dead horse but that was always the root and I hate when conservatives try and claim he was just a shit leader.
Edited by Codafett on Aug 10th 2019 at 3:25:14 AM
Just Having FunIt's also an example of a good guy with a gun in action (not the idiot).
Edited by Soban on Aug 10th 2019 at 8:02:13 AM

I agree, ~DrDougsh. I have been having similar thoughts about fictional villains.
Do not obey in advance.