NSFW Best Thread Ever [No SJW-related posts allowed]

[ERYFKRAD]

why

So it's easy to fold along the lines.

 

[Twiglard]

Bet he talks dirty in bed.

I assure you, only while asleep.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Bet he talks dirty in bed.

I assure you, only while asleep.

How would you know? You're sleeping.

 

[CryptRat]

 

[catfood]

 

[hello friend]

Good video, but pretty much all examples of aesthetically pleasing UIs was anything but.

Here are some examples of purdy UIs that work with the theme/setting:

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Grim Dawn's UI is actually pretty good up until the crafting UI, which blows so hard people complain about it constantly on their forum.

 

[LESS T_T]

How the fall of the big box happened according to former VP of Sales at GT Interactive, via John Romero: http://rome.ro/bigbox

The Fall of the Big Box

The big box PC game has been extinct for a number of years. They are now collector's items, and some Indies have decided to create their own collectible big box for their games – for nostalgia's sake (see Thimbleweed Park and Rad Rodgers). The story of how this came to be was told to me by an industry executive, Tom Gross, who was VP of Sales at GT Interactive (GoodTimes Entertainment) starting in 1986 through 2003 (after GTI sold to Infogrames).

Here's the story.

Ultima II, 1982, Origin Systems. Published by Sierra Online.


The first big box game I can remember was Ultima II. It's still a big box, bigger than many "big box" PC games were. Over the years, to get more eyeballs on the game, publishers would create a massive box that you couldn't keep your eyes off of, such as Might & Magic: Clouds of Xeen, Ultrabots, and World of Xeen. Retailers everywhere would carry these boxes and they ate up a lot of shelf space. In retail, owning an endcap (the area at the end of an aisle) was prime real estate and publishers paid dearly for that space.

GT Interactive was in a unique position in the middle of the 90's. They were an offshoot from GoodTimes Home Video (a label owned by GoodTimes Entertainment Ltd.), tasked with bringing video games into the retail spaces where they had a presence, and expanding from there. In the United States, Walmart was one of the largest retailers of video games. The buyer at Walmart wanted to carry video games, but didn't have anyone with expertise that knew what to stock. GT, having a relationship with Walmart already through GoodTimes Home Video, was asked if they would be the gatekeeper for all video games in their stores. Of course, this was a gold mine for GT. They controlled the game inventory in the biggest retailer in the world. Luckily for id Software, we were GT's favourite, and only, developer partnership at that time. Based solely on id Software's game sales (cumulative revenue of $111.3 million in 2 years), GT Interactive went public in 1995. They had a lock on retail with Walmart, then Target, another massive American retailer.

GT Interactive, in an effort to put more product in the same amount of space, worked with publishers of monster-sized boxes like Broderbund and Sierra, to standardise their box size to the DOOM II-sized big box dimensions. Even Microsoft acquiesced. The new standard size around was 7" wide by 9" tall. The standardisation succeeded for almost a year.

Walmart told GT Interactive that they were having to cut back on the size of the computer software department because they were about to start expanding into DVD movies, a new media type back then . That meant less computer software SKUs. Tom asked the buyer rep if they could keep the same number of software SKUs if they downsized the boxes again. The rep asked Tom what size he was proposing, so Tom just reached over and picked up a DVD box and said,"This size." The rep said they'd think about it.

The next day, the rep told Tom that it sounded like a good decision, and asked GTI to mock up a bunch of boxes, which they did in one day, and they saved the computer software department at Walmart. The game publishers were not happy to have to squeeze into such a small box, especially after having done so less than a year prior, but at least Walmart allowed the box depth to be deeper than DVDs because some games have thick manuals, maps, and other ephemera.

Publishers only wanted one box to manage, so the DVD-dimensions stuck and everyone finally converted over to the pure DVD-style plastic packaging around 2008. That's the story of how the big box PC became extinct.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

That article is missing at least a couple of dates to make any sense, like when GT Interactive contacted Sierra and Bröderbund to standardize their box sizes, and also when Walmart decided to scale back the computer software department.

Also I strongly doubt that this was the deciding and/or overwhelming factor in standardizing PC video game retail sizes. I've heard similar claims from other sources that they're responsible for this, so it looks like it was a series of events that led to it, not just Walmart.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Gerrard]

The Sims Battle Royale, I'd play that.

And I'm not sure if he is the one who should be making jokes about it.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Cyberarmy]

God of Whore?

 

[Fedora Master]

Without watching the video, my first thought was: Consoles.

 

[catfood]

Without watching the video, my first thought was: Consoles.

There are worse things than console interfaces.

Spoiler

mobile interfaces

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Guru Larry (or his ghost writers) are slipping, or maybe he just sucks at math. The #2 game in the video is the Atari Lynx version of SSI's Eye of the Beholder. He starts by going on about Dungeon Master's release in 1987, and then how it took almost "five years" for a successor to come along with 1991's Eye of the Beholder.

Dungeon Master arrived in stores just a few days ahead of Christmas in 1987. The initial 20000 copies of Eye of the Beholder were shipped to retailers in February 1991. That's 38 months or so, or just a little over three years.

If his book is about as well-written as his videos, I would have serious reservations about buying a copy.

 

[Siveon]

Seems like an honest mistake to me.

 

[Viata]

maybe he just sucks at math. The #2 game in the video is the Atari Lynx version of SSI's Eye of the Beholder

It's the #4 though.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

maybe he just sucks at math. The #2 game in the video is the Atari Lynx version of SSI's Eye of the Beholder

It's the #4 though.

Right you are. I was thinking that he was following the usual "Top X-videos" formula he has used so often, which would make it the #2 video.

That's an honest mistake, and speaking of such...

Seems like an honest mistake to me.

Could be, but I doubt it. I think it's just not professional research/journalism. There are so many games out there for which the exact release date is not easy to find. The year is easy (though not always accurate) but nailing down the day and month takes effort.

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

 

[markec]

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Damn I want this on my bed.

I immediately thought of this. If only my visual memory of things more recent than 30 years ago was so accute.

 

[kintake]

snip

Streamers are morons, in other news: water is wet and the earth is not quite as flat as some people seem to think.

 

[SerratedBiz]

snip

Streamers are morons, in other news: water is wet and the earth is not quite as flat as some people seem to think.

Not all streamers are morons; however, if a developer pays $5,000/hr for a retarded streamer that doesn't even like your game (a fact that you somehow manage to be unaware about), then the developer or publisher should consider seppuku.

 

[Average Manatee]

Isn't Destiny 2 completely awful? Should come as no surprise that he sucked and had poor opinions.