The hard truth is that the average person only cares about what affects them personally.

To use a more “fun” example, Nintendo fans freaked out about having to pay $80 when Nintendo’s been scummy towards their most dedicated fans for years prior. The truth is, Nintendo nixing AM2R and Pokémon Uranium didn’t affect the average fan, so they didn’t care.

$80 games? That directly harms their personal finances, so now they’re actually upset (I think people will buy the games anyway barring a recession, but I didn’t major in economics so what do I know).

Might as well still try. Trump can’t win in 28 even if he runs, swing states with nonpartisan legislatures won’t allow him on the ballot. Maybe some of the R’s realize that the closer we get to 28.

The most recent versions of UBR had no portraits, so that file just adds them back from an older version. Cyberfaces are for if you notice any missing player models. Have fun!

I did some digging and still had them saved. I updated the archive here: https://archive.org/details/nba-2k14-mod

Welcome! I came in with the blackout a year or so ago, it’s been fun to see more people show up over the months!

It’s not just about dopamine/cope either. Knowing that people saw the state of the world they lived in, and came together to make good art anyway, is good for the soul. It reminds us that there is still good in the world worth fighting for.

It’s easy to forget that when algorithms show us the worst and stupidest of humanity every day for peak engagement.

How they treated professional Melee and especially Project M was the moment I realized Nintendo was just another out-of-touch company. So many indie devs would kill for fans that passionate, let alone a modding scene that robust. Nintendo threw it all away.

Edit: and that ignores the graveyard of fan games Nintendo has killed. AM2R, Pokémon Uranium…

Very true. Sadly game dev is a risky endeavor at the best of times. Steam/other storefronts are very noisy environments for devs with little spare change for marketing. On the flipside, digital distribution and storefronts mean that it’s way more feasible to self-publish than it was twenty or thirty years ago. At least, as far as I’m aware. I know there were standouts like Cave Story in the early days.

Some YouTube videos came out that launched both into wider discussion. Both never had proper sequels or successors, so they stand as unique experiences even twenty years later. I don’t say this to diss modern Bethesda, but that they are both distinct enough from Oblivion and Skyrim to have staying power in their niches.

Daggerfall Unity makes that game playable and smooth on modern hardware, and Morrowind modding projects like Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel (just released an Anvil expansion!) bring in new and old fans alike. OpenMW does for Morrowind what Unity does for Daggerfall, although stock GOTY Morrowind still runs fine IIIRC.

AAA may be all but dead, (so far gone that even E3 died) but indies have been in a perpetual golden age since Shovel Knight and Undertale came out. And if boomer shooters and Morrowind/Daggerfall can have a modern renaissance, it can happen to other games/genres too.

In my experience with TF2, many popular community servers have common-sense rules like no slurs, cheats, etc. The great thing about a player-run server is that, if you want, it can be stricter than official guidelines, as Valve for example is pretty hands-off beyond the obvious in-game cheats. It allows pockets of the community to shape the experience they want to have more adeptly than official servers ever could.