The first time I thought they might actually get away with it was in 2021, when I first saw Mina Harker. Wizards of the Coast had just released a set of Magic: The Gathering cards titled Innistrad: Crimson Vow, an elegant set with vampires as its central motif. As always, the set came with the usual assortment of alternate illustrations for some of the marquee cards, which was something that I and most people who took the competitive side of the game seriously to an embarrassing extent made a routine of ignoring. This time though, the theme for the alternate art series wasn’t some stupid-looking sideshow—it was Stoker’s Dracula. A select few cards, including some that would be the strongest and most frequently played in the entire set, would have secondary but playable versions depicting recognizable characters from the literary classic.

The problem was that they nailed it. The illustrations were beautiful and restrained, a fun and relatively unobtrusive tribute to Stoker, released right in the middle of spooky season. This included Magali Villenueve’s new drawing of Mina Harker, Dracula’s protagonist, cast here as the alternate version of a card called Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.

The card choice mattered as much as the excellent art. Thalia herself is an iconic character in the world of Magic, and a powerful-enough card that, from a competitive standpoint, you’re usually either playing the card yourself or showing up with a plan to beat her. This meant that Mina Harker, a character with no relation whatsoever to Magic: The Gathering, was now constantly appearing in games of Magic. Between the quality of the art, the ubiquity of the card, and Dracula having a literary sheen far less offensive than both previous and future attempts at this sort of intellectual-property bait-and-switch, people got used to it.

Give an inch, lose a mile. I start with Dracula because of how quaint it is in retrospect, how tasteful. But anyone with even a passing familiarity with Magic knows where that impulse toward a “crossover event” would go. Spongebob Squarepants Secret Lair drops; basic land cards featuring illustrations of pizza from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; a full destruction of the standard format at the hands of a minor character from Final Fantasy. Perhaps something you love is undergoing a similar transformation—endless intermixing with other creative properties such that the barrier between the two wholly blurs, entries released at intervals so frequent that their creators can’t possibly have done a worthwhile job, a lurking sense that someone else is being pandered to in order to keep the line going up. But who? Who, apart from Hasbro’s shareholders or the WotC C-suite, is any of this for?

The answer is fandom. It was a culture of fandom that said We like this to the people whose job it was to exercise editorial control over the art and design of Magic. And if you yourself didn’t like it, well, you were probably already invested in the game enough that you were willing to put up with it. At root, that’s the bet, wherever this sort of corporate decision appears: if you care about something, you won’t go anywhere even if you notice its erosion, all while new customers show up. A Growth Opportunity was making itself clear, at least as extrapolated by sales data. And in the end, isn’t Growing the Game the most important thing of all?

Dude I remember when pcsx2 was struggling to run on my computer unless I heavily tweak some settings, now it just works.

Even more amazing and jaw dropping is that I could now emulate these games on my phone, I tried ARMSX2 and it was stable enough that I 3D printed myself a phone holder that snaps onto my controller for on the go ps2 gaming.

Everyone within videogames knows the term "Games as a Service", but we mostly use it when we talk about the business model of games that are aimed to provide a continuous experience to its players. However, you cannot run a Game as a Service, when you don't also design it as such. I compare this type of approach to something similar to a Restaurant, where customers are sold an illusion of comfort that actually requires a lot of effort to keep up. We all know the stories of angry restaurant customers, who love to yell at service workers and in a way, the most vocal elements of videogames are very similar both in their expectations as well as their tone when they are not met.

We have a big problem with videogames in that most voices who get to talk about game design as a craft are people who are very good at one very particular kind of game, those that are commercially successful. This also applies to games criticism, where even those pieces that do try and look at games from an angle that goes beyond treating games as consumer products, mostly look at games that come out of that very specific, industrialized part of videogames culture.

Over time, and subjectively I feel this has gotten much worse over the past 10 years, this has lead to a very stagnant idea of what a videogame actually is. In the landscape of 2026, a videogame can only be a Restaurant. Everything orbits around the player, even elements that sound like they might go against the player's interests are framed such that they are actually good for them.

I finally decided to return to Grimstone after a huge pause. I built a new team mainly because I wanted to play all the characters my GF didn't see on her playthrough (as she's watching my playthrough).

In an hour I managed to regain my progress and am already more confident with this setup than I was in my first try. Having 1 nearly useless character isn't as bad as having two such characters.

I also got creative with the names this time although none can stand alongside my GF's Anrse.

Luna is still my favorite character.

I really dislike their new DRM update even if its "testing the waters" , after being a fan for so long I'm set to completely drop them by the end of this year (yes I'm waiting for gta6).

I managed to convince my normie friends to switch with me to PC gaming by being their IT support 😂

Crossposted from https://piefed.social/c/games/p/2025041/subnautica-2-early-access-cinematic-trailer

Description from the video:

Subnautica 2 is an underwater survival adventure game set on an all-new alien world. It is the next chapter in the Subnautica universe, developed by Unknown Worlds.

Driven from your home by ongoing conflict, Alterra offers you the chance at a new life. But as the colony ship CICADA shepherds you and your fellow Pioneers to your new home, something goes awry. The ship’s AI insists that your mission should continue. Stranded and faced with near-insurmountable odds, you must do everything in your power to survive. The future of humanity on this world is in your hands.

Subnautica 2 enters Early Access on May 14th, 2026, at 08:00 PDT / 15:00 UTC.

After a lengthy preview period, Microsoft's Xbox Mode has landed on all Windows 11 PCs.

s&box, from the creator of the popular Source Engine sandbox Garry's Mod, released three days ago. s&box is based on the Source 2 engine, and not only a sandbox but a game development and publishing platform, including publishing on Steam.

The news post one day after release openly covers the mixed ratings, public finances, doubling their play fund that pays creators, and public roadmap.

I was surprised to see they openly and transparently publish day-by-day finances.

The public performance stats are interesting too.

Refreshing. I wish more publishers would do these kinds of things with deliberate open communication and transparency.

Caution: Massive spoilers for the game. This one goes deep...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/41873102

Wizards have joined the party!

The platformer Unless became free on April 12th. They felt it was not successful enough with the 5 USD price tag. They made it free, hoping that many more players would get to experience the game.

It's an excellent platformer, especially for a free title.

If you like platformers, I wholeheartedly recommend playing it!

My review:

Unless is an exceptional free platformer.

+ Great, colorful, varied, discernible pixel graphics
+ Great platforming, control, environment and gameplay variance, progression
+ Very good tech; snappy loading, resets, navigation, platforming
+ Good story characters (just two; they add character and meaning)
+ A lot of optional and bonus content, speedrun mode, challenges, leaderboards
+ A lot of settings to customize control, difficulty, game behavior, accessibility
* ~70/100 min playthrough (all levels/all levels+bonus levels+10 As)
* Non-voiced text story dialogues
* Limited character mechanics; there's only jumping, with height control; all variance comes through the environment, which I consider a good, well-implemented design

If you like platformers or jump-and-run games, play Unless!

Hi Everyone,

Starting as a teen playing browsergames (PBBG), I found the biggest issue, both then and now as an adult, is with three pillars:

1. The oldest players beat you with the wallet, not with the skills. I can tell you a lot of these situations I've experienced directly.
2. Stay at the top level of the guild, you need to pay like a monthly subscription, or you will be fired.
3. You need to set up an alarm to fleet the troops every day or alert with a huge sound for EACH attack you receive. It's like a job.

Recently I've spoken with my friends, he and I shared a lot of these games during the years, and we are searching for something new, and we have found only the usual games that survive the years. After some weeks of the game, we have found the same issue above. So I've decided to start a new game.

What is SeedLord?

The idea behind SeedLord is very simple: it’s an economic game where you can’t attack other baronies. By its very nature, it must be a “NO-PAY-TO-WIN” game, and the main goal is to win through skill, not through a snowball effect or the size of your wallet. I therefore decided to implement a "reset" limit: more specifically, after 120 days, the current world will end and a new one will begin, to ensure that players don’t win simply because they signed up first, rather than for other reasons.

The core of the game is trade and diplomacy, and how these are managed:

1. You start with a single seed, which grants a multiplier for harvesting a specific resource (for example, more wood per hour) after that you must specialize in a specific "role" such as the Wizard (explained in detail below).
2. Now you must produce resources, focusing on trade or diplomacy during the day.
3. As the game progresses, harvesting zones will be created. Some are event zones. There, you can collect specific resources needed to construct certain buildings and rare resources, you must control them to win the game. The zone will also provide you with Sigils based on specific criteria.
4. The goal of the game is: collect the gold and Sigils needed to "win the world" before the others. Each world has specific settings. If you and your guild win, you’ll earn a permanent title in the Hall of Fame.
5. Dominate the world, you can participate in multiple worlds at the same time.

Choose your specializations!

At the start, you can choose a specialization, which isn’t a limitation but a multiplier for your economy. Each specialization relies on the others.

Farmer: This is the first specialization that produces a LOT of food and other plants based on their rarity. If you manage it well, it will guarantee you a boost in gold right from the start. Everyone needs one.

Herbalist: You can create many potions and other items based on the plants needed in the shared area.

Wizard: You have intelligence-based abilities: for example you can decode messages intercepted by spies or predict where event zones will appear.

Blacksmith: You have the power to create a specific building that others cannot build, you can control "scalability" for other players.

Lumberjack: You can build a larger warehouse to store items and other specific buildings that require "wood".

Rancher: You can raise animals like horses (to boost movement) and other animals to sell.

General: You have a military boost, so the zone is easier to defend, BUT you have to buy EVERYTHING, your internal production is very limited.

Why no PvP?

A quick behind-the-scenes look: I hate it when you spend 3–4 months building something that will be destroyed in 10 minutes. Let me be clear about this: if you lose because of a "skill in the game" that’s PERFECTLY FINE.

But if you lost everything because of, for example:

• "double-crossing" guild leaders.
• bug abusers.
• troops boosted by real money. And so many others of you have likely had the same experience.

So, I’ve thought long and hard about this mechanic, and the only solution is: the combat will be brutal, but only in shared zones, event zones, diplomacy, and the market. No buildings will be destroyed.

The monetization rule

This is very crucial for me. Before writing ANY line of code, I put it at the top of every file, and the line is:

"Real money purchases cosmetics and comfort features only. It cannot buy resources, troops, production speed, or any advantage that interacts with other players competitively."

It’s not a brilliant idea, but it’s simply unreasonable, and for me, it’s a non-negotiable. To uphold the community guidelines, I’ve created a rigorous community review process before any feature is made public.

Here’s how it works:

1. Has the idea been conceived and is it feasible? Good.
2. Will it pass the test of the phrase above? Fantastic!
3. Post the details on the public page and wait X days for the community to validate it. Did the community rate it as fair?

If you fail ANY of these checks, the idea will be rejected, FULL STOP, NO EXCEPTION.

What is the current status?

I’m in the pre-alpha phase; I don’t have a release date yet, and I’d like to gather honest feedback and criticism about the project. I want to develop the game together with the community, not just for it. This feedback is very useful for every stage of the project, even after launch.

I’ve created a public page where you can learn more and join the project as "founding lords". This is the fastest way for me to gather initial feedback on the project and discuss its key aspects with the community. It’s completely free, and you can sign up in a minute.

Join here: go.seedlord.com

For any questions or more details about the project, please write your question below. I'm very happy to answer you!

PS: This message has already been approved by the moderator.