Comes to mind as an example that already exists, https://store.steampowered.com/app/2183650/MEGA_MAN_X_DiVE_Offline/
audaxdreik
joined 2 years ago
gazeon.site articles keep getting posted, what is this source? Seems to be mostly a biased, pro-AI rag.
Distrust 😠
- About Us, unsurprisingly looks to be AI generated and tells us basically nothing
- Disclaimer, SENDIX?
- Editorial Standards, does a lot of talking about the ethics of their journalists but when I check, most articles are simply attributed to "GazeOn Team" or Eli Grid, https://x.com/eligrid00, account created June 2025 with no posts and what could easily be an AI generated image
More debunking than this deserves, honestly. It's AI shill garbo
I just can't get over how little we hear from academics RE: AI. It shows a clear disinterest and I feel like if they did bother to say anything it would be, "Proceed with caution while we study this further."
Instead it's always the giant corporations with vested interest in this technology succeeding. It's just so painfully transparent.
What kind of source is GazeOn? Based off the top menu items, looks like a pro-AI rag. Biased source.
To give them an ounce of credit, there are many factors that would prevent any sort of accurate reporting on those numbers. To take that credit away, they confidently harp on their own poorly sourced number of 75.
Whether AI is explicitly stated as the cause, or even effective at the job functions its attempting to replace is irrelevant. Businesses are plowing ahead with it and it is certainly resulting in job cuts, to say nothing of the interference its causing in the hiring process once you're unemployed.
We need to temper our fears of an AI driven world, but we also need to treat the very real and observable consequences of it as the threat that it is.
For sure, 💯
- secure players’ data: there should be no sensitive player data being stored on a private game server like that anyways, you're connecting to a server, not logging into a service
- remove illegal content: not the developer's responsibility in this case, it's the responsibility of the private server (admittedly this could get messier with net neutrality and safe harbor stuff? unclear, but point remains, it's still not the developer's responsibility here)
- combat unsafe community content: ditto. Not the the responsibility of the developer but the private servers. It's often been argued that the smaller communities of private servers do a BETTER job of moderating themselves)
- would leave rights holders liable: HERE IT IS! We can't let you self host something like Marvel Rivals due to all the copyrights and trademarks and brand protections. How dare you!
Absolute trash statement, I really hope this bites them.
They're just repeating a lot of the same misinformation that Pirate Software had been saying, the exact things that had riled the gaming community and caused this latest wave of action. We're already primed to discount the points they're trying to make and it shows exactly how disingenuous they're being.
Positively, I hope this reflects some true fear on their end.
Private servers are not always a viable alternative option for players as the protections we put in place to secure players’ data, remove illegal content, and combat unsafe community content would not exist and would leave rights holders liable. In addition, many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create.
As has been stated over and over and over again, private servers used to be an option until the industry decided they weren't any more. If the result of this is that it forces the industry to not make shitty, exploitative games, that's still a win for the consumers. I would rather have no game at all than something that psychologically tries to exploit my FOMO and drains my wallet.
There are so many ways in which big tech is complicit with what's happening in the US right now, but corporations have no home.
Lack of regulations, cozying up with an authoritarian, and a populace still with significant funds to drain keep them safely within bounds while things like the GDPR keep them at bay in Europe. But rest assured, once things become too difficult/drained over here, they'll start pushing the boundaries. Likely through grassroots campaigns to make Europeans distrust the GDPR (what is the general consensus on this anyways? as an American it looks pretty good to me but I've never lived under it).
Big tech is a behemoth unto itself, and will need to be fought as such. Put up strong protections now while you can.
You would hope, but this is the same thing we see across almost all industries these days. It's almost like there's a root cause for it, some sort of, Iunno, economic system we could blame ...
But especially cable companies, for example. Has a dwindling customer base caused them to rethink their business strategies? Or has it caused them to try and bleed that dwindling base dryer even faster?
There's no "learning" anymore, there's riding the bus to the absolute pits of hell and just hoping you're not the CEO to be the one that has to go down with it.
Spider warning (it's a jumping spider, so it's tiny): https://www.youtube.com/shorts/59fZMRVoHCc
Certainly nothing to the level of people or even cats and dogs, but handling does improve personality. Jumping spiders will often recognize their tanks and immediate location as safe territory. They will also start to recognize their handlers as the food bringers and "beg".
I understand if it's still offputting if you're not into creep crawlies, but jumping spiders are sometimes referred to as "octokittens" due to their tendency to be tiny little divas who sit around and clean themselves like cats. It might look a little scary, but when they start waving their front legs around like that they aren't rearing up in defense like a tarantula, that's their "give me uppies" pose. You'll see a lot of videos of them online leaping at the camera; that's not them attacking, that's them treating all of life like a jungle gym. Personally I think they're adorable and I recommend watching more videos from people who love them if you want to see more personality.
EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gEMPLrWh35g , tell me that's not a cat!
EDIT 2: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DZkaLAoREWo , I think my favorite thing about jumping spiders is you can tell how smart they are. The way they look around and scan their environment and really seem to see things and take it in. You can almost hear the tiny gears turning in their heads as they consider things.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/a-QpxmSD9jo , they'll also chase laser pointers like a cat.
Endlessly fascinating animals to me, I love them.
Good write up!
For my own perspective, I'd like to add that I think they're all worth playing even if you don't stick them out. I think Castlevania is one of my favorite series to discuss from a media literacy standpoint because it's easy to the ideas as they evolved over the different games. You don't even necessarily need to attempt to tackle them in chronological order because the old ones still have a direct and simple charm to them, if that's your thing.
While Metroidvania has half of Castlevania in it (and all of Metroid), outside of Igarashi's contribution the series didn't show a whole lot of interest in following through on a lot of those ideas, especially as it attempted to break into 3D. Curse of Darkness was perhaps the closest, but still not very. It doesn't surprise me that Igarashi broke off on his own eventually and now does Bloodstained. I think it's fitting, it's a good thing to give him his own series (while still holding clear inspirations) and let him do his thing.
I was never a fan of Lords of Shadow and for the longest time I couldn't quite put my finger on why. As you state, the series is loosely defined as "gothic action with Dracula" so to say something isn't a "true" Castlevania feels disingenuous. Especially when it was so open to remaking and reinventing itself prior, so what difference is another reboot? There was a clear conversation or thread of design going through the early series up to that point and Lords just kind of tosses all that aside to go in on game design of the day. God of War as you put it. I don't want to say it's a bad game or shame you for liking it, but it's just a bit too far of an outlier for me to really embrace in a meaningful way
OP, you did not mention Vampire Survivors. HAVE YOU PLAYED VAMPIRE SURVIVORS?!
I initially wrote it off because it didn't look like the kind of game I was into, but the "we have Castlevania at home" vibe is very much intentional and endearing. We 💜 you Antonio Belpaese! For $4 the game looks like a flashy mess, but it hits all the dopamine receptors in just the right way and the metagame of unlocking all the secrets is incredibly satisfying.
Which doesn't even get into the Castlevania DLC where Konami actually gave them assistance and let them use that delightfully crunchy authentic sprite art. The ending of the DLC (completing Richter's scenario) legitimately had me in tears, it's so good and the kind of love letter/wrap up to the series that Konami was never going to give us. Please don't skip this entry! 😭
Absolutely!