This is a slight historical re-write.

Blizzard’s parent company since ‘98 (Vivendi) was the larger of two companies at the time of the merger in ‘08, and put forward $2b towards the merger vs. Activision’s $1b.

Vivendi remained the majority shareholder of the new entity, and chose to appoint Bobby Kotick as the CEO.

Activision-Blizzard didn’t buy-out majority control until ‘13 - well after the enshittification began.

…and more importantly, what about NFTs?!

Beyond just the pedophilia, his (Epstein) operation was largely one of socialising, and securing (probably coerced) introductions from people he helped facilitate and now held blackmail over.

e.g. using blackmail material on a Bill Gates to secure an introduction to another wealthy and influential individual, offering them a “massage” and then producing kompromat at a later date to bring them into his circle.

Now don’t get me wrong, everyone who found themselves in this position was a willing participant, not a victim - but I can understand how so many oligarchs eventually found their way into his little black book.

I remember the horrendous response times of the original GameBoy’s LCD panel, and when I mentally compare it to modern COLOUR panels…

…all I can think is, never say never!

What you’re looking for are commercial screens. They’re a bit more expensive for a comparable panel, as they are intended for 24/7 use- but are about as dumb as they get nowadays.

Silly goose, after 8K is 16K!

You’re using past-tense, did they fail?

I would, as an under-educated Australian, expect a lot of these migrants being from the Middle East - due in no small part to all of the US-led fuckery over the past 25 years (in particular).

So not colonialism, but something altogether worse?

They’re trying to redefine it to Profitable Computing:

I still like claiming the free games even if I don’t have any immediate intention of playing them, simply because I like the idea of developers getting paid, and Tim Sweeney losing money!

I want AI in games; Actual Innovation!

I’m in a similar situation with my wife not being particularly interested in games - I’ve had some success in playing LA Noire with her guiding the investigations and interrogations. The jazz soundtrack in particular helped convince her, funnily enough!

Not quite perhaps what you’re looking for, but may work for others with hesitant non-gamer partners.

I thought they were Canadian, though? Weird…

Echo’ing the other reply, but the Assassin’s Creed franchise (at least up to, but not including Origins) scratches my alt-history itch like nothing else has been able to.

Likewise, both Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 5 (inc. expansions) were absolutely fantastic IMO - and are some of the rare few FPS games I would willingly revisit.

Don’t take the above to mean my opinion of Ubisoft as a publisher is particularly glowing - let’s be honest, most publishers are absolute dogshit, due to perverse Capitalist incentives - and Stephanie Sterling’s segments about them on the Jimquisition should have been the final nail in their coffins.

I’ve found that as I’ve gotten older and more curmudgeonly, I’ve also become more nostalgic for the “good ol’ days” of gaming in the up-to-and-including the PS3/X360/Wii era - so my money has stayed largely away from AAA-publisher bank accounts.

The American Experiment is well and truly coming to an end, and I think we can mostly agree that it is ending an abject failure.

The big question is: what comes next? Will it be the age of the American Empire, or the start of America’s Century of Humiliation?

Mind you, neither answer is a particularly good one - seeing as how the rest of the world has basically built itself up based off the foundation of a unipolar world.

We are cursed to live in interesting times.

Police have never existed to serve the populace, they solely exist to protect the capital of the wealthy.