PXAbstraction

PXAbstraction

Proud middle-aged, Canadian nerd.

Comments 79

Re: "To Enter Now Would Be A Deathwish" - Limited Run's Ex-Boss Thinks Boutique Physical Publishing Is "Oversaturated"

PXAbstraction

@firenze I've seen nothing about death threats. Not saying they didn't happen and I certainly don't endorse them in any way, but that's also par for the course with being a person of note in the games industry and they're never credible. I'm not saying that justifies it, it's just sadly the way it is. One of the reasons I barely use any social media anymore.

Maybe scumbag was too loaded a term, but Josh Fairhurst's shall we say, controversies, are well documented and based on those and the fact that he hasn't even denied many of them, I'm inclined to think he's not a good person and I don't have a problem pointing out what many with actual journalistic cred have reported on the subject. I'm not accusing you of cherry-picking, but I'm not just talking random people on Twitter and Reddit here. Companies that have practices such as bad support or missing deadlines or the other things that LRG has done often tend to have bad leadership and/or toxic cultures in them that cause people to have weak morale and at best, not put in their best effort. I've worked at a few places like that myself and seen it first hand. In IT and not gaming, but the concepts are the same.

Of course, if you or anyone else has had good experiences with LRG and wants to continue buying from them, have it it. You do you. I've never claimed that anyone who still supports them is bad or wrong to do so. But my experiences have been awful, as have many others and I do not intend to stop pointing that out, so that others can make informed decisions.

He's not at LRG anymore, which I think is a good thing, though the company's attempts at reforms seem at best, glacial. But he keeps chiming in on things, so I'll keep pointing out why I think is credibility is shaky.

Re: "To Enter Now Would Be A Deathwish" - Limited Run's Ex-Boss Thinks Boutique Physical Publishing Is "Oversaturated"

PXAbstraction

@firenze I call him a scumbag not because of his company's awful track record, but because of the many reports out there of the toxic work culture he created, how he drove many talented people out of the company and the frankly very aggressive means he's gone to in order to defend said company's awful track record.

If you don't care about those things and want to keep buying from LRG, fine. I'd consider buying from them again if they got their act together. They claim to be trying with no real results yet that I've seen. But I don't accept your whataboutism regarding other companies because a) I've never bought from them so I can't speak to personal experience there and b) Even if they are just as scummy, not only are they not what this article is about, but LRG is considered the poster child for this business and they should be raising the bar, not lowering it.

Based on my experience, they have not improved their practices recently. The last thing I ordered from them before writing the blog post I linked in another comment was only a couple of years ago and it took close to two years to receive it. It was a reproduction SNES game, something that companies a fraction of LRG's size like Retrotainment Games have no problem fulfilling much quicker. And while it's good you agree on the CD-R fiasco, this is a boutique publisher selling premium products at premium prices. That should never happen, period and it shouldn't take massive community backlash for them to own up to it.

Kind of embarrassing to be associated with “gamers” who bootlick corporations and their ethically questionable owners like this.

Re: "To Enter Now Would Be A Deathwish" - Limited Run's Ex-Boss Thinks Boutique Physical Publishing Is "Oversaturated"

PXAbstraction

@CopyX1982 On Josh Fairhurst you mean? He's just been known to run his mouth on a lot of things and was known to be a toxic leader who drove a lot of talent out of LRG. And well, this is a link to my own blog (no ads) about why LRG generally sucks: https://geekbravado.com/limited-run-games-sucks-heres-my-reason-why/

I'm at work at the moment so I can't find the best summary of things but if you Google "josh fairhurst controversies", it should point you in the right direction if you want to do a bit of research into it.

In this case, whether one likes the guy or not, I think there's validity to the point he's making.

Re: "To Enter Now Would Be A Deathwish" - Limited Run's Ex-Boss Thinks Boutique Physical Publishing Is "Oversaturated"

PXAbstraction

As a matter of course, I don't give a damn what that scumbag Fairhurst says about most things, but he's probably right here. Boutique physical publishing is just that, boutique and though the fans of it are passionate, it is a very tiny piece of the industry and there are probably more people doing it that it can sustain.

I am curious what the killing of physical games (at least for PlayStation but let's be real, it's coming for Xbox too and I'd be shocked if Switch 3 or whatever has a card slot) is going to do to these companies. I wonder if the other things they tend to bundle with their editions will be enough to keep fans interested when it's just a code in the box.

Re: Random: "This Is Cringeworthy" - Commodore's Callback 8020 Holster Gets Ridiculed By Fans

PXAbstraction

I get the idea behind this and New Commodore's want to not just be a retro products company, but they've made this "digital detox" thing part of their corporate mandate and it just comes across as a bit pretentious to me and not really something in line with what they're trying to achieve. If Parafractic wants to start a new brand around this idea, cool but I feel like he's diluting the purpose of Commodore that people associate with that brand with initiatives like this. But if people don't buy it, they'll learn the lesson quickly enough. I definitely won't be. I have a regular smartphone and it's easy enough to uninstall apps I don't want and I just avoid the cesspool of social media by and large.

Re: You Can Now Legally Rip Your Wii, GameCube, Wii And Xbox Discs Using A Blu-Ray Drive

PXAbstraction

@h3s I've ordered plenty of AliExpress stuff reliably, but I find when looking for "brand name" stuff like these drives, many people often either get the wrong model or a model that doesn't have the right firmware, despite what was advertised. Not saying you're guaranteed to get scammed, it's just a risk, especially when they're still charging $150+ for the drives.

I'm from Canada, but every listing I could find for these drives on Amazon, Newegg and elsewhere shows unavailable. LG and ASUS still have product pages for the drives, but they don't seem to be active SKUs anymore.

Re: You Can Now Legally Rip Your Wii, GameCube, Wii And Xbox Discs Using A Blu-Ray Drive

PXAbstraction

@ddlevine I personally don't care about violating an outdated law written by people who didn't understand the technology they were regulating, but from what I can tell, you are right. You are legally allowed to make backup copies of media you own, but you aren't legally allowed under the DMCA to bypass encryption to do so. I'm Canadian so the DMCA doesn't apply to me, though our copyright law doesn't allow it either. Not the case worldwide though.

Re: You Can Now Legally Rip Your Wii, GameCube, Wii And Xbox Discs Using A Blu-Ray Drive

PXAbstraction

@h3s Yeah, USB-based peripherals are always tricky like that because as you say, the USB chipset introduces its own layer of communication that isn't always standards compliant. It sucks cause I have a barely used Pioneer 3.5" drive, but it's not compatible. The only ones on the supported list I can find for anything approaching sane pricing are on AliExpress, which it's a crap shoot if you'll get what you order and they're still like $150.

Re: Guide: Where To Pre-Order The Neo Geo+ AES

PXAbstraction

Question that maybe people here would know: Does the Ultimate package include a memory card? It doesn't look like it based on the web site. If not, are you able to save games and scores directly on the console or do you need a separate memory card? Really hoping that if you do require one, that they didn't fail to include that in the supposed "Ultimate" package.

Re: "We Know Trust Is Something You Earn Over Time" - Limited Run Games Reveals "Renewed Fan-First Focus"

PXAbstraction

LRG is a terrible company, in no small part because Josh Fairhurst is a terrible person and had an iron grip on the place. Everyone deserves a second chance, but they have a LOT of work to do to earn my trust back before I'd give them a dime again. It is interesting to me though that they announce this shortly after Fairhurst left so maybe they can finally do the things they've known they needed to for years.

My story and one of MANY with this company: https://geekbravado.com/limited-run-games-sucks-heres-my-reason-why/

Re: This Long-Running Website Has Apparently Been Nuked From Google Thanks To AI-Written Resident Evil Review

PXAbstraction

As it should be. I'm frankly surprised that Google cared to deindex them given how much AI slop dominates results now. Meanwhile, my hobby blog that is completely written by me is completely unindexed by Google despite meeting all their requirements (and Bing having no problem indexing it) and they refuse to tell me why.

I didn't know The Escapist got sold yet again, but that site has been under a constant string of failed management almost since its inception. I think literally every company that has owned the brand has either gone bankrupt or is very close to it. I'm amazed it's still going at all.

Re: Apparently, The PSP Counts As A Failure To Some People Now

PXAbstraction

It wasn't a failure in terms of unit sales. However, a lot of game developers and publishers do consider it a failure and many abandoned it for the second half of its life because piracy became so easy and so rampant that developing a commercial PSP game was almost guaranteed to be a money losing proposition. I used to have friends who sold jailbreaking services on local classified sites. They weren't techies at all, but it literally took them like 20 minutes to soft mod a PSP and they could sell the services for $50 a pop.

Re: Gaming Legend Rebecca Heineman Could Really Do With Your Positive Vibes Right Now

PXAbstraction

@MapsBam You're projecting if you think I believe Democrats are perfect. They are merely the lesser of two evils. Much lesser in this particular case.

And no, insurance is not universally affordable. Speaking of propaganda. It's funny that when you could have just wished her well, you instead chose to focus on regurgitating falsehoods about the US healthcare system hocked by grifters instead. Speaking of things that make you go hmmmm.

Re: Gaming Legend Rebecca Heineman Could Really Do With Your Positive Vibes Right Now

PXAbstraction

@MapsBam A few thousand dollars? Do you have any concept of what American health care costs or how expensive insurance is, especially for the self-employed? And how is she supposed to get government assistance when Trump just shut down the government because Democrats are fighting wait for it...massive health care cuts!

My best to her. An OG game dev legend who deserves better.

Re: "It's Just Not Working" - FreePlay Arcade Will Close Its Doors Later This Month

PXAbstraction

@nocdaes We have several of these kinds of arcades where I live in Canada. Most charge between $10 and $20 for all you can play, not per hour. If you want to draw in more than hardcore retro people (many of whom know how to use emulators), you have to have a low barrier to entry.

What these places do to make up the difference is selling food and booze. I've talked to a few operators because I briefly toyed with the idea of opening one myself and they said the entry fees only help cover some costs, the food, booze and sometimes, merch is where the actual profit is generated. Much like with movie theatres who make nothing on the tickets, but make profit on the overpriced popcorn and pop.

If you intend to survive on just entry fees and especially if you're charging by the hour (I'm curious how he's enforcing that), you're either probably not going to survive or will have to operate in a very cheap area.

Re: More Than 20 Years Later, Acclaim Is Back From The Dead, And WWE Legend Jeff Jarrett Is Involved

PXAbstraction

This is like the third time the name has been resurrected. It came back as a free-to-play publisher that blew up similarly to the original one, an indie studio in Montreal that makes new games for the NES was using the name (curious how that worked out), and now this. It's funny to me because while it's a name many in retro circles remember, it's often also remembered for publishing a lot of shovelware.

Re: Please, Please, Please Treasure Your Offline Multiplayer Buddy

PXAbstraction

Didn't expect an article from Time Extension to hit me in the feels, but here we are. I still play games with friends online all the time and love it, plus I play a lot of single player stuff too. But I agree, it's just not the same. I used to play games in person with friends all the time in the 80s and 90s and even in the 2000s, I remember hanging with my buddy and his stoner friends in the house they shared, playing hours and hours of 4 player Gamecube games. It was a blast and something I still treasure greatly. Time to get some people over for some retro nights I think.

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