Epic Games Storefront - A Good Incentive for Piracy

Slaanesh69 said:

I........wat!? Wasn't Epic Games store all China Numba Wan from the get go? Wasn't that the whole conspiracy that the Chinese were using it to watch you masturbate through your web cams or something?

And Sweeney thinks this is going to turn-it-around for Epic Games Store? Jesus, I think I just got whiplash.

Edit - I've stayed away from Epic Store for two reasons - (1) the Chinese backing, which is hypocritical of me because until recently I was backing Path of Exile, but it was moreso all the rumors and shit floating around and (2) the throwing of money at publishers for exclusive rights which is fair enough but annoys the shit out of me because enough platforms is fucking enough.

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Tim is not evil, jesus people get over yourselves.

gshurik said:

Yes, because Tim Sweeney has always known to be a paragon of truth.

You retards reacting like this toward Blizzard, like you're an activist or something make my dick hurt. Blizzard is retarded, laugh at them. Stop pretending to care about Hong Kong you SJW-light.

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Ehh I give a shit about people trying to better their situation and people in power trying to fuck them. It makes it even more cringey when it's a major company capitulating to a government that isn't even their home soil. Have some back-bone, chinese are more dependent on us than we on them. If you cut off all the shit from the US to China it would make one of the biggest black markets for common goods ever seen. Shit you see it even now with dry baby formula entering from outside of China because trust in Chinese companies by actual main-land Chinese is always super low.

In the case of Blizzard, their SJW shit has been running deep for years and it's been apparent in their products for a while (from my seat). I stopped buying into their shit and stores around the time of 2ish patches into legion. Overall the message hasn't really seeped into WoW but the game just feels bland and tired. Other blizzard games and their social media presence? Oh hell yea the message is loud and clear.

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Ravishing said:

Tim is not evil, jesus people get over yourselves.

Billionaire Behind 'Fortnite' Invests Millions in N.C. Forest Conservation

Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games and "Fortnite," is using the popularity of his virtual worlds to make a big impact in his home state of North Carolina.

www.mnn.com

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Dom said:

I detest Sweeney, but I'll give him credit for that (provided he isn't saying one thing and doing another)

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From the article:

"Back in November 2008, the wild beauty of a 1,500-acre parcel of undisturbed North Carolina wilderness known as Stonehill Pines appeared headed for oblivion. Developers were eyeing the dense stands of pine and oak nestled off Interstate 74 to be repurposed as a world-class, mixed-use golf resort community featuring 1,050 homes and up to 90,000 square feet of retail and office space. "

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So basically he's doing a citizen arrest of land, kinda like California is doing with their wildlife refuges surrounding the Bay Area. The intent of that was to keep the Bay Area looking amazing, so far it's working...if you look at the hills around the bay area it looks stunning but you better watch where you walk or you'll hit a needle or step in human shit. Sure it's unlikely that in North Carolina they will have a multi million dollar swing on home prices within a 2 decade period so all I see is some asshole swinging his dick around for accolades.

Also, lets just say a logging venture bought the land for harvesting. Logging in the states was into the area of sustainability a LOOOONG time ago.



Nothing in the states is logged and burned, it's all harvested in such a way that within a few years that same section is back to being harvested. The area I posted above is filled with logging camps, some are obvious and others aren't. With engineered wood coming along developers and sellers don't even mind having scrawny trees in their harvest.

So in my opinion, Sweeney isn't being altruistic, he's being an egotistical asshole, yet again...

Slaanesh69 said:

Evil is definitely the wrong word and pure hyperbole. I certainly attribute no malice to the man, nor do I think he is in cahoots with the Chinese dictatorship to oppress people.

I DO think he is using what is essentially bribe money to secure exclusives to his store, and as I stated, I believe it is entirely above-board but I don't have to like it. It is within my allowable actions to make judgement and response to this. I also don't rally people to do the same. My choice, my action.

He also tapped into the seemingly bottomless Chinese investment fund, and is certainly a drop in the bucket when it comes to this. I feel like his tweets are a cheap way to capitalize (pun intended) on this situation. He's got lots of money, so let's go the side of free speech and hopefully we can gain what we may lose from Chinese investment but we will be fine regardless. But do you think he went into this original partnership with Tencent and the Chinese government with his eyes closed to what is behind the curtain? It is just straight up hypocrisy....but I will laud his decision to make a final stand on the side of "the people" in spite of that.

It's the same as the whole Facebook thoughts and prayers - in the end it's all virtue signaling and meaningless, but does call attention to stuff one hopes.

Anyway, if I was a billionaire I would be swinging my dick around all over the place. Every one of you would have its tiny indentation on your foreheads.

Also, just because a rich dude does some philanthropic gestures does not also make him virtuous, to use your own logic against you.

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People are blinded by FortNite money which was a 180degree turnaround for a game that was almost instantly dead. Epic as a gaming company has historically been much less successful than their Unreal Engine division, which has revolutionized the industry for decades now, and people also don't realize they made it FREE to use (until you publish) way before FortNite money started coming in.

FortNite was lucky but Epic is an old company that really hadn't had a single top hit until FortNite. Of course they had Unreal Tournament and some others, and they are successful, but not that mass-market success that companies like Blizzard, EA, BioWare, Riot, have experienced previously.

So I completely understand why they needed a big investor and I wouldn't be surprised if Tim tries to wrestle back some of the shares if Tencent is displeased. But lets not forget that Chinese companies are also in it for the $$$, so of course they're going to keep quiet if they can.

Slaanesh69 said:

This is an interesting point. The question is, ARE they going to keep quiet? With the government intimately involved in most (all?) major corporations in China, will they secretly keep investing in companies that defy their requests for censoring, or will they pull 'chute outright? Is there enough room in the communist regime for this duality? That is ALMOST a rhetorical question, I think.

I almost hazard the guess that there are enough greedy pricks in the world willing to take every drop of Chinese money that they pull from companies that don't follow their requests and so they can pick and choose when and were to put their investments - and that would be places they retain control.

With regards to the NBA thing, it looks like the Chinese Government is going full bore withdrawal, although that does not mean they won't stop at any point or trickle back to the starting point. But all their actions so far have been hardline.

I listened to an interesting vlog last night about how the West sold investment in China as a way to try and export democracy, and how it ended in the West importing censorship and oppression. China got richer and powerful a lot quicker than anyone expected - they took all this tech they were given and used their massive (slave?) work force to make it cheaper and quicker - the West in their snowflake, all lives matter state can no longer compete with that.

Edit - I just bought a Chinese made computer - I am part of the problem.

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At this point they could pull 'chute and it's not going to effect Epic. They don't have control and they would be liquidating their shares, which Tim could buy back. The only reason to be scared of China influence is if you care about your company doing business in China. If Epic has all products banned from China, maybe he'd flinch. That's the real power behind his tweet, he's taunting China to ban any use of Unreal Engine, Fortnite, EGS (if it's available?), etc.

Just cause a Chinese company has some share in the company means nothing other than they get 40% of the profits (which understandably feels bad as a US Consumer)....
But China is in every entertainment industry atm...
Mainly because the Chinese Govt has helped Chinese businesses to infiltrate our entertainment industries. I'd like to believe a lot of currency manipulation assisted in this assault and Trump's stance vs China will help bring an end to it.

Caliane said:

Conservation doesn't mean they don't log. just means they don't develop. Most state forests, conserves will rotate cuts.

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Cutting is the wise way to conserve a forest but it's not the only way these groups do conservation.

Some have what I'll call "the vegan" approach to conservation which is they don't touch the property at all and they basically let nature do its thing. What they don't comprehend is that nature's way of doing things usually involves fires.

But yeah the forestry department's way of doing things is pretty amazing, I have family that works for the forestry department and my grandfather did a lot of his doctorate in forestry inside of the forestry department. So I generally hold them in pretty high regard, they aren't without their faults but they try their best and they work with the best information they have at the time.

GuardianX said:

Cutting is the wise way to conserve a forest but it's not the only way these groups do conservation.

Some have what I'll call "the vegan" approach to conservation which is they don't touch the property at all and they basically let nature do its thing. What they don't comprehend is that nature's way of doing things usually involves fires.

But yeah the forestry department's way of doing things is pretty amazing, I have family that works for the forestry department and my grandfather did a lot of his doctorate in forestry inside of the forestry department. So I generally hold them in pretty high regard, they aren't without their faults but they try their best and they work with the best information they have at the time.

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He purchased 1500 acres to stop a golf course+housing. Not sure how we got into conservation here lol... 1500 acres isn't even a lot but it was something "small" in his area that he did. He could have gone the opposite and bought it to develop himself, making millions off the land.

Seems like a lot of people just assume every rich person is bad/evil. Idk.

Ravishing said:

He purchased 1500 acres to stop a golf course+housing. Not sure how we got into conservation here lol... 1500 acres isn't even a lot but it was something "small" in his area that he did. He could have gone the opposite and bought it to develop himself, making millions off the land.

Seems like a lot of people just assume every rich person is bad/evil. Idk.

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To associate bad or evil with it assumes intent and I can't do that, I will say he is possibly an asshole for doing it though.

My logic on that is pretty simple though, it all depends on how much growth was expected in the area by bringing a new jobs via all the construction all the new jobs created for the area all the new homes built and the maintenance of all the above. Major consideration why I say he's possibly an asshole, easy if there were any ongoing bids that were looking to develop the area for job homes and area growth.

Generally I'm not really a fan of when a person buys a billion of something in order to control something, but that is how a lot of federal land or grantland kind of came into existence and then became protected.