[Episode 52] Can’t We All Just Get Along




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Summary: I’m gonna warn you in advance, guys:  we’re venting a little bit this time around, in honor of my return to the host seat.  The last year or so has seen some pretty absurd things happen to the PC gaming market, and the Always-Online DRM Scheme For Single Player Games sits proudly at the top of the list of Incredibly Stupid Ideas we’ve had to endure.  We thought it was over.  We thought it had been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be not just ineffective but harmful, driving away legitimate customers while doing nothing to deter pirates.  We thought. Obviously, Ubisoft thought differently.  Luckily, none of us much care about a new Driver title, but it’s disheartening to see, y’know?  And then there was the news about Dragon Age 2 being pulled from Steam (later to be followed by the reveal that Battlefield 3 won’t be on Steam at all), and the whole EA vs. Valve kerfuffle in general.  And then there was Blizzard saying that Diablo 3 has essentially been turned into Guild Wars, where you’re always playing online and oh also we’re gonna let you sell your in-game items for real world dollars.  And… ugh.  We just needed to rant for awhile about all this jazz, so that’s what we did.  Companies: stop being dicks to us, and to each other.  Please.  Thank you. It’s not all doom and gloom, though.  We’ve been playing a lot of games, and Daniel wants you to know that with the help of the Lazy Newb Pack you too can dive into the deep end of the ocean that is Dwarf Fortress.  (While you’re at it, read this NYT article about Tarn Adams; it’s incredible.)  There’s also some listener mail in there, and more!  Probably.  You won’t know until you listen. I know we’ve had our differences… but Can’t We All Just Get Along? Hosted and Summarized by Eric [Ravenlock] Participants are James [Vigil80] and Daniel [danielOut] Produced by Clayton [Voodoo] (Have you followed our Twitter feed? That’s a thing you could do. Then come chat about things in the episode thread at Colony of Gamers.)