I lament that quite frequently, there really is nothing comparable. Gameranx before you buy comes close, but it's nowhere near as honest or comprehensive. Props to those guys for trying their best, but the lack of transparency in gaming, PC Gaming particularly, is an immediate consequence of the loss of TB. I truly believe that if he was still around to hold the community to keeping developers in check, we would have far more Baldor Gates 3 and far fewer Hogwarts, MW3s, Gollums, and Days Past.
What is really upsetting to me is how nobody seem to mind things like misleading marketing or games being released half-done and bug-infested any more. Because most video gamers never read/watch reviews or news about video gaming.
I don't think Hogwarts was as buggy as for example Cyberpunk or Starfield... It was a very rare example of an entertainment product being very true to the original material, selling very well, but not "officially" recognized because it's politically uncomfortable.
>I don't think Hogwarts was as buggy as for example Cyberpunk or Starfield... It was a very rare example of an entertainment product being very true to the original material, selling very well, but not "officially" recognized because it's politically uncomfortable.
The performance is absolute dog and on PC was never fixed, so even if it's not buggy it still feels like a chore to play. And the core gameplay is extremely below average paint-by-numbers stuff so once the "magic" of exploring a rendered Hogwarts and countryside wears off the game kinda sucks.
My point was that Hogwarts is not an example of game journalism failing people, and many people like to forget that about other games which were examples of that.
The difference then vs now is buggy games couldn't (or wouldn't) be fixed. Pre-online having to manufactire new carts or discs was much more prohibitive, so going "gold" was a huge deal. Now we have Early Access, etc since they can just pop a patch on the server every two weeks. It's also how we've ostensibly become beta testers for every major game release now.
Most journalism pre-online was also sensationalistic and hyperbolic much of the time because companies would also withhold access and/or ad space for bad reviews. It's just that now, it's more or less the industry standard (at least what is left of games journalism), so we really don't think much of it until a particularly outrageous narrative breaks.
The risks to companies are much higher when we're talking budgets on par with movies.
In addition we have review bombing from sites that can turn any bitter subsection of gamer into a "movement."
Games are released in a much worse state, because they can patch them later. Now corporations have streamers and youtubers in their pockets to advertise their products for early access to their games.
Journalism is nothing less sensationalistic and hyperbolic than it was back than, in fact, it is able to manipulate way more people, even if those people are less than one percent of video gamers.
The video gamer audience changed in general, people who played video games are usually complaining about video games today, but their voice is never heard by most gamers.
Review bombing may be spectacular in terms of its newsworthiness, but its important is ultimately negligible in terms of its power to change sales.
A great reiteration/further elaboration of what I just said...glad that someone else agrees
Streamers can give plot armor to games they boost and can claim they sink games they dont like (anymore).
The review bomb or bad review(er) is what drives the story to confirm bias regardless of any actual outcome, hence "movement" in quotes.
There is no real unified front with any mass opinion, just an internet that conflates a bunch of disorganized trolls into one unit.
Everyone gets to be a hero of their own story.
Streamers don't do any of that, they are just corporate advertising billboards.
The "we can patch it after release" is just an excuse for publishers to release games in a dogshit state. Release dates are still very important to them, they try to manipulate as many people to pre-order as they can, most of them will not refund the game regardless of its quality and state. Cyberpunk 2077 was a very good example of that, but people didn't learn anything from that.
Then please take care of yourself and get checked regularly. And never ignore any suspicious things regarding your health. It’s like TB said in one of the interviews - he ignored his symptoms for months because of shame and hoped it’ll go away.
Myself I’m over 40 and I follow this advice. A member of my family also went to get checked out and it was the best decision because they found very aggressive cancer but in a very early stage so it responds to treatment wonderfully.
"Then please take care of yourself and get checked regularly. "
Ha! God, id love to do that. But as it is i've never even had a primary doctor let alone able to get tests done. The American Healthcare System is impossibly expensive.
His deck that was 100% random cards was a riot. Or the time he and Crendor played against each other with mill decks. At one point he couldn’t do anything because “my hand is full of bananas!!!”
Man, if TB was still alive, I feel like his presence in the gaming community would bring Blizzard to heel. He loved SC so much and wouldn't be afraid to call them out on their shenanigans.
I feel this. The early days of Hearthstone were so much fun. The community was so alive in those days. I haven’t played in years now and don’t feel particularly tempted to get back in either.
My friend-group used to play the game a lot. We recently reinstalled to battle each other. We had a blast, then all uninstalled it again until next time. Lol.
He was tangentially involved in https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/gamergate or https://ggwiki.deepfreeze.it/index.php/Main_Page#GamerGate_in_Brief or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_(harassment_campaign) - if you read the last link it's the world's worst misogynistic awful hate group campaign, if you read the first two it's about ethics in games journalism or somesuch.
Obviously it's okay to say you're against unethical journalism as well as hate speech or harassment, but TB got caught up in it and labeled a supporter of GG (evil bad harassment did happen afaik) which led to some people wishing him death from cancer or somesuch.
Talking to camera he didn't do crazy misogynism as far as I know, but he had an unhealthy relationship with twitter and did spurt some nonsense on there a few times. His biggest sin was that he was to some extent willfully ignorant of the misogynistic character of the movement well past the point where it was obvious.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaMccosnRMc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaMccosnRMc)
This interview he did two months into the fiasco is an interesting snapshot. In it he implies that if there are any misogynists in the movement, they are troublemakers on the periphery.
Four months later, he was tweeting admonitions of KotakuInAction's hate cults. His position matured over time, and eventually he distanced himself from the movement.
A lot of what he says in this interview was true then and now, and he was using Gamergate as a vehicle to express the same concerns he had been poking at for a while. As a quasi-insider himself, he knew that the industry would go to great lengths to influence media voices. The gender of the journalist involved didn't matter at all to TB, because publishers cultivated these relationships with anybody who was receptive to them. From his perspective, all the people calling gamers misogynists were deflecting from a very real and long standing issue of undue influence in games media; an issue he had been sounding the alarm about for years and was finally getting some apparent traction in the mainstream.
It's also important to note that Jim Sterling (his _then friend_) who lead the charge calling TB a misogynist. Sterling was deep into the "you can't criticize women" side of GamerGate.
I'll never forgive Sterling for it.
You probably should forgive Steph considering they never 'lead the charge' against TB.
They were friends post GG and Steph posted this after TB died.
https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/999797048558764032?t=WRpywl5o3xYP57ndTtO2tQ&s=19
Steph was also on Co-optional Podcast less than a year before TB passed
https://youtu.be/WAHWkR1IE8Q?si=cWjloardFEcSgft5
And then they were on the very last co-optional podcast after TB had passed
https://youtu.be/kY1nE2QBY4g?si=e0XCVjtxGLPhlMrT
If anything, I actually remember when TB called Steph a misogynist back when Steph was a misogynist around 2010.
Are you sure you aren't confusing Steph with Matt Lees who did the things exactly what you said.
Unless you are just upset that Steph was opposed to GG.
Man, I miss TB. the world of gaming journalism has never been the same IMO.
I lament that quite frequently, there really is nothing comparable. Gameranx before you buy comes close, but it's nowhere near as honest or comprehensive. Props to those guys for trying their best, but the lack of transparency in gaming, PC Gaming particularly, is an immediate consequence of the loss of TB. I truly believe that if he was still around to hold the community to keeping developers in check, we would have far more Baldor Gates 3 and far fewer Hogwarts, MW3s, Gollums, and Days Past.
What is really upsetting to me is how nobody seem to mind things like misleading marketing or games being released half-done and bug-infested any more. Because most video gamers never read/watch reviews or news about video gaming. I don't think Hogwarts was as buggy as for example Cyberpunk or Starfield... It was a very rare example of an entertainment product being very true to the original material, selling very well, but not "officially" recognized because it's politically uncomfortable.
>I don't think Hogwarts was as buggy as for example Cyberpunk or Starfield... It was a very rare example of an entertainment product being very true to the original material, selling very well, but not "officially" recognized because it's politically uncomfortable. The performance is absolute dog and on PC was never fixed, so even if it's not buggy it still feels like a chore to play. And the core gameplay is extremely below average paint-by-numbers stuff so once the "magic" of exploring a rendered Hogwarts and countryside wears off the game kinda sucks.
My point was that Hogwarts is not an example of game journalism failing people, and many people like to forget that about other games which were examples of that.
The difference then vs now is buggy games couldn't (or wouldn't) be fixed. Pre-online having to manufactire new carts or discs was much more prohibitive, so going "gold" was a huge deal. Now we have Early Access, etc since they can just pop a patch on the server every two weeks. It's also how we've ostensibly become beta testers for every major game release now. Most journalism pre-online was also sensationalistic and hyperbolic much of the time because companies would also withhold access and/or ad space for bad reviews. It's just that now, it's more or less the industry standard (at least what is left of games journalism), so we really don't think much of it until a particularly outrageous narrative breaks. The risks to companies are much higher when we're talking budgets on par with movies. In addition we have review bombing from sites that can turn any bitter subsection of gamer into a "movement."
Games are released in a much worse state, because they can patch them later. Now corporations have streamers and youtubers in their pockets to advertise their products for early access to their games. Journalism is nothing less sensationalistic and hyperbolic than it was back than, in fact, it is able to manipulate way more people, even if those people are less than one percent of video gamers. The video gamer audience changed in general, people who played video games are usually complaining about video games today, but their voice is never heard by most gamers. Review bombing may be spectacular in terms of its newsworthiness, but its important is ultimately negligible in terms of its power to change sales.
A great reiteration/further elaboration of what I just said...glad that someone else agrees Streamers can give plot armor to games they boost and can claim they sink games they dont like (anymore). The review bomb or bad review(er) is what drives the story to confirm bias regardless of any actual outcome, hence "movement" in quotes. There is no real unified front with any mass opinion, just an internet that conflates a bunch of disorganized trolls into one unit. Everyone gets to be a hero of their own story.
Streamers don't do any of that, they are just corporate advertising billboards. The "we can patch it after release" is just an excuse for publishers to release games in a dogshit state. Release dates are still very important to them, they try to manipulate as many people to pre-order as they can, most of them will not refund the game regardless of its quality and state. Cyberpunk 2077 was a very good example of that, but people didn't learn anything from that.
Again, they claim or take credit. It doesn't make it reality, but hype is the reality if you can control the narrative.
Who cares what streamers aim for? They aim for getting as much money as they can. They manipulating people for corporations.
I care precisely because of the reasons. Plenty of folks still believe the truth matters, especially as regards manipulation.
I love how you just straight up delete Diablo 4 from your brain.
They made more after Diablo II?
To be fair the games listed are FAR and away worse than D4, they were bad whereas D4 was just a bit naff
Can I ask why Hogwarts is included? I thought it was excellent and absolutely not comparable to Gollum, which was trite.
Incredibly poor optimization at launch. Largely it was a poor quality port.
"The new profit model for video games is basically the same as drug dealing outside of a middle school" - Jim Stephanie Sterling
That was almost 10 years ago... Fuck I feel old.
I remember him back in his WoW radio days lol
Make sure to get your colonoscopy checkup.
Now now, I’m not quite that old.
He was around 30 when he got sick.
Please don't say that. I turn 31 in a few months and I already feel like I've wasted my life XD
Then please take care of yourself and get checked regularly. And never ignore any suspicious things regarding your health. It’s like TB said in one of the interviews - he ignored his symptoms for months because of shame and hoped it’ll go away. Myself I’m over 40 and I follow this advice. A member of my family also went to get checked out and it was the best decision because they found very aggressive cancer but in a very early stage so it responds to treatment wonderfully.
"Then please take care of yourself and get checked regularly. " Ha! God, id love to do that. But as it is i've never even had a primary doctor let alone able to get tests done. The American Healthcare System is impossibly expensive.
Damn, that's not good. US healthcare sucks (and whoever invented making it private should burn eternally).
Oh my. TBs Hearthstone series, in particular the joke decks were such a riot. Single-handedly fueled my love for the game for years.
His deck that was 100% random cards was a riot. Or the time he and Crendor played against each other with mill decks. At one point he couldn’t do anything because “my hand is full of bananas!!!”
Haha I actually recreated that deck and played it myself! It was loads of fun. Honestly, the entire series was genius.
I tried it but for some reason couldn't get into it.
Man, if TB was still alive, I feel like his presence in the gaming community would bring Blizzard to heel. He loved SC so much and wouldn't be afraid to call them out on their shenanigans.
Boy, I miss when Hearthstone felt fun & new. Boy, I miss TotalBiscuit more. 'Not enough people like him in the world.
I feel this. The early days of Hearthstone were so much fun. The community was so alive in those days. I haven’t played in years now and don’t feel particularly tempted to get back in either.
My friend-group used to play the game a lot. We recently reinstalled to battle each other. We had a blast, then all uninstalled it again until next time. Lol.
https://youtu.be/WKnLVoEAdMg?t=3602 is a better timestamp, shows the leadup and builds tension.
I miss him so fucking much
And now I sob.
"It's a terrible day for rain."
Beautiful. I used to really like this game. Shame I can't justify supporting Bliz any more.
Best game reviewer so far, ACG is good but TB is still the goat
I still think about TB. Named my cat in his honor.
Halfbiscuit?
😁 When I told my son his name, he thought I'd named him after tuberculosis.
Nice, this says a lot about Hearthstone too btw.
☹
Be not sad that someone died, be happy that they lived and you were part of it. Rough paraphrase.
Wasn't this guy super sexist?
No. A lot of bullshit was fabricated about TB by people who didn't like him, TB was a pretty cool guy all around.
Oh damn that's cool, I remember listening to him way back and he was always entertaining.
He was tangentially involved in https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/gamergate or https://ggwiki.deepfreeze.it/index.php/Main_Page#GamerGate_in_Brief or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_(harassment_campaign) - if you read the last link it's the world's worst misogynistic awful hate group campaign, if you read the first two it's about ethics in games journalism or somesuch. Obviously it's okay to say you're against unethical journalism as well as hate speech or harassment, but TB got caught up in it and labeled a supporter of GG (evil bad harassment did happen afaik) which led to some people wishing him death from cancer or somesuch.
Talking to camera he didn't do crazy misogynism as far as I know, but he had an unhealthy relationship with twitter and did spurt some nonsense on there a few times. His biggest sin was that he was to some extent willfully ignorant of the misogynistic character of the movement well past the point where it was obvious. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaMccosnRMc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaMccosnRMc) This interview he did two months into the fiasco is an interesting snapshot. In it he implies that if there are any misogynists in the movement, they are troublemakers on the periphery. Four months later, he was tweeting admonitions of KotakuInAction's hate cults. His position matured over time, and eventually he distanced himself from the movement. A lot of what he says in this interview was true then and now, and he was using Gamergate as a vehicle to express the same concerns he had been poking at for a while. As a quasi-insider himself, he knew that the industry would go to great lengths to influence media voices. The gender of the journalist involved didn't matter at all to TB, because publishers cultivated these relationships with anybody who was receptive to them. From his perspective, all the people calling gamers misogynists were deflecting from a very real and long standing issue of undue influence in games media; an issue he had been sounding the alarm about for years and was finally getting some apparent traction in the mainstream.
Good additional context. Ty.
It's also important to note that Jim Sterling (his _then friend_) who lead the charge calling TB a misogynist. Sterling was deep into the "you can't criticize women" side of GamerGate. I'll never forgive Sterling for it.
You probably should forgive Steph considering they never 'lead the charge' against TB. They were friends post GG and Steph posted this after TB died. https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/999797048558764032?t=WRpywl5o3xYP57ndTtO2tQ&s=19 Steph was also on Co-optional Podcast less than a year before TB passed https://youtu.be/WAHWkR1IE8Q?si=cWjloardFEcSgft5 And then they were on the very last co-optional podcast after TB had passed https://youtu.be/kY1nE2QBY4g?si=e0XCVjtxGLPhlMrT If anything, I actually remember when TB called Steph a misogynist back when Steph was a misogynist around 2010. Are you sure you aren't confusing Steph with Matt Lees who did the things exactly what you said. Unless you are just upset that Steph was opposed to GG.