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« Last post by JG on May 14, 2024, 05:33:38 pm »
In other really dumb gaming news, Sony Interactive Entertainment has really dropped the ball on their own PC ports of late. The Steam versions of Helldivers 2 and Ghost of Tsushima both require a PSN account to play all features. But Sony themselves apparently didn't realize that PSN is not a worldwide system like Steam is (minus a few purposely blocked regions), which means the games are being sold in regions where PSN doesn't operate. Sony will, curiously, neither offer a fee PSN account to players in more than 100 countries and numerous additional territorires of countries they do nominally support; nor will they transmit PSN data to those regions (under assumption that the latency for such regions will result in poor multiplayer prformance.) Thus, these games are not actually fully playable in those regions but are being priced as if they are. Players are buying these games under the assumption they can do multiplayer over Steam network and earn Steam achievements, which they couldn't do with the native Playstation versions, but becuase the Steam games actually tied to PSN's multiplayer and achievement system, it doesn't close the gap for them all. Sales have cratered in the unsupported regions with Steam having to offer no-questions-asked refunds (which they aren't fond of doing)
So Sony either needs to disassociate their popular PSN service from the PC platform (thus breaking cross-platform support) or get off their ass and make it a worldwide system (and figure out how to deal with latency from slow regions, and pair them up with other slow players.) The current lazy approach to just support regions where internet access is fast is not acceptable if you want to grow your brand. This is the same problem Microsoft and SquareEnix are having: not thinking worldwide but instead trying to solve your problems by doubling down on the region(s) you know best, even though it doesn't expand your brand recognition to new prospective clients.
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« Last post by JG on May 13, 2024, 06:40:26 pm »
SquareEnix released so many games with little to no marketing or poor quality control. Now that there's news that further layoffs are planned (this time at the internal NA & EU branch of Square), it's looking pretty grim, especially the prospects of DQX Offline ever getting localized. It's madness there'll forever be 1 mainline DQ going unlocalized. All that money being thrown around and they couldn't at least localize the game with an installed fanbase in the west. The decision not to localize DQX Offline immediately confuses the hell out of everybody paying attention to SquareEnix's actions in the west. The game was the answer to bring DQX to the west without the heavy investment of servers required for DQX Online. I'd still love to have DQX Online and all of its additional story chapters, but understand why SquareEnix can't do it. There isn't enough of people like me in North America or in Europe to justify the cost. But Offline affords the opportunity to bring it west - and with expected sales in the 2 to 3 million range it should be a no brainer to localize. We're talking between $50 and $80 million in net profit, at a localization cost under $10 million (closer to $5M is my guess.) Why is SquareEnix not going after this money? Its really dumb to say they'll lose $120 million when localizing DQX Offline for the west solves half that problem. (Though maybe they are localizing and have been very tight-lipped about it.) The only excuse that works is that they've got the localization teams at 100% translating DQ12, but that game still isn't expected until at least second half next year and doesn't explain why they couldn't have hired part time help to get DQX translated in the interim. So where has SquareEnix been on this for the last three years? Its inexcusable. When companies willingly turn down the ability to make money, and everyone can see it, that's a sign bad management. Take my money SquareEnix, and stop tripping over your feet trying to grab it out of my hand.  What even is the point of Xbox anymore? With every exclusive going third-party and Game Pass becoming less of a value with each passing internal studio closure, there's little reason for anyone to have faith in the Xbox brand anymore. Microsoft's only concern lately is seeing their numbers go up, and the only reliable way to do that is to just buy an already hugely successful publisher. It's crazy they couldn't accomplish that with their own ip.
I've always thought the decision to have all Xbox games on Windows as well was a short-sighted idea. Why pay $300-$500 for hardware to play games I can already play on my PC? I guess it works for people who don't own gaming PCs (an ever-decreasing size of the market), but it slices into your hardware sales. And if your hardware sales are lacking, third-party companies jump ship. And frankly, if you're going to go PC, Steam is the preferred method over GamePass - Microsoft never could overcome this hurdle. Phil Spencer is still running the Microsoft Gaming division into the ground and frankly I don't know why he hasn't been shown the door already. I guess he's able to keep his job because they make a lot of money, but they've also spent many fortunes buying up all the studios under their umbrella, so their profit margin over operating expenses is terrible compared to their competitors in the gaming industry.
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« Last post by Moge on May 13, 2024, 02:47:24 pm »
SquareEnix released so many games with little to no marketing or poor quality control. Now that there's news that further layoffs are planned (this time at the internal NA & EU branch of Square), it's looking pretty grim, especially the prospects of DQX Offline ever getting localized. It's madness there'll forever be 1 mainline DQ going unlocalized. All that money being thrown around and they couldn't at least localize the game with an installed fanbase in the west.
What even is the point of Xbox anymore? With every exclusive going third-party and Game Pass becoming less of a value with each passing internal studio closure, there's little reason for anyone to have faith in the Xbox brand anymore. Microsoft's only concern lately is seeing their numbers go up, and the only reliable way to do that is to just buy an already hugely successful publisher. It's crazy they couldn't accomplish that with their own ip.
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« Last post by JG on May 13, 2024, 09:08:31 am »
PHP 5.6.40 has now been installed and it has resolved the TLS 1.2 requirement for email exchange. I have confirmed private messages can now be sent which means the registration emails should now be able to go through as well. If anyone notices odd behavior from this new version (inability to do something we used to be able to do - like say, post images) please let me know.
If you registered in last month or so and still did not get the validation email, let me know by sending a manual email to sognadigitalmuseum@gmail.com and I can manually activate the account.
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« Last post by JG on May 12, 2024, 10:56:08 am »
Some progress:
I've tracked this down to a recent TLS change implemented by Microsoft, which allows the forum to login to the email server but not do anything else on it (such as send messages). Backtracking how to fix this, it seems I'm still running a ten-year old version of PHP (5.3.28) that only supports TLS 1.0, and not TLS 1.2 as now required by Office 365 interfaces. So I must update to PHP 5.6.40 (latest 5.x branch available.) This should not break anything but I'll be crossing fingers on that.
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« Last post by JG on May 08, 2024, 09:39:04 am »
Microsoft and SquareEnix are taking opposite directions to arrive at the same non-relevance goal.
A short time back, SquareEnix sold off all their western studios, in part to pay for debt incurred by major flops in Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Balan Wonderworld. This has robbed SquareEnix of any insight into western player's likes and dislikes, and as a result their games have generally gotten worse. They are now so Japan-centric they are making bad management decisions based on a Japan-only sales plan, instead of the actuality of a worldwide sales plan. Dragon Quest X Offline being the prime example: a game designed with intent to sell outside of Japan to complement the Online version only available in Japan but yet hasn't left Japan because they don't want to localize it, even though they'd supposedly had it in the original development budget. As a mainline DQ game, its sales are expected to greatly exceed the localization and distribution costs, so no one really knows what the holdup is, except SquareEnix's own admission that it didn't sell as well in Japan as hoped (and expected by everyone else) and hesitant to pull the trigger on the action that would make them money, on the fear of losing more money because they no longer understand (or listen to) their fans in the west.
Microsoft just shuttered a number of their smaller studios, including their lone Japanese studio, TangoGames. So Microsoft Gaming division now has no presence in Japan. They've always had trouble selling Xboxes there, in part because their games are typically for western audiences and don't always get localized to Japanese, but to pull out entirely seems unwise in the wake of SquareEnix's similar troubles in the reverse direction. Microsoft, if they have any intention of continuing to compete in the hardware space, absolutely has to get their Japan sales problem solved. They can't be running at just 1-2% of market share and expect to get the Japanese third party studios to continue to buy-in to making Xbox ports (and recent trends are showing that they indeed aren't.) This worked in the prior two generations because they had a healthy 30-40% of the worldwide market, but now they're dragging at about 10% and I don't think many studios (Japanese or western) think its a worthwhile investment anymore. The real kicker is that one of the highest rated exclusive games for Xbox in the last year and change, Hi-Fi Rush, came from TangoGames, and it was widely assumed it would be one of the previous-Xbox exclusives coming to Switch this year (having just ported to PS5 in March) and was, until this announcement, a favorite to appear in the upcoming June Nintendo Direct. Why Microsoft would close a studio immediately after it's made a hit game that can potentially port to the most popular console is absolutely bizarre thinking.
It seems SquareEnix doesn't want to care about anything but Japan, and Microsoft Gaming doesn't want to care about anything but the west, to the detriment of fans and shareholders. Maybe, just maybe, if SquareEnix continues to flounder and finally goes into bankruptcy, Microsoft can buy them and together they can figure out a solution to each other's woes. (I personally don't want to see Microsoft buy SquareEnix, but can't deny they would make curious bedfellows.)
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This is nice stuff man. Was just thinking, might be able to do something if we collab, pool our resources together. Create something 3D, including animation if want to take it that far. Currently on a commission atm (next 20-30 days), but if you're interesting in collaborating to be happy to. Primarily make models via Blender/Substance for Virt-A-Mate. (and this isn't a plug for it) See my stuff here if interested. https://hub.virtamate.com/media/users/phantasystarfan.4058/https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/authors/phantasystarfan.4058/Been experimenting doing more stylized stuff, namely Black Widow Cannery from the DCAU, which is obviously more Western animation style but should also be applicable to Viper. Although it's called Virt-A-Mate, don't need a VR headset for it, for animations it's fairly easy to use as well. But if want to wholly ignore it and just make 3D models in Z/Blender be down with that.
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« Last post by redhome on May 07, 2024, 01:20:08 pm »
Sorry I dont really think AI can make u arts imo and many others, I rather just do my own art yes I use programs to make digital art but not AI.
AI dos not make ur "Skills" better or make u be a better arts, just a easy way to make art if ppl plan to call them self arts by making AI art will never be art and ar not arts them self, it the program that did it all.
I do think toos work (Photoshop, etc) to help make digital art. Editing and making drawings and stuff is not the same thing.
My usual way of doing things, is to be open to anything and the most important part: to try it out for myself. That broadens the perspective and is usually the way to go (for me). But I see we both look at this from different sides. It is what it is.  Maybe this reddit thread might give you a little different view: https://old.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/comments/1cmuj4h/ai_art_is_good_for_everyone_especially_artists/A YouTube video was also posted, which describes the workflow from an artists perspective, maybe interesting, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dDBWKkt_Z4
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« Last post by Saika on May 06, 2024, 11:35:33 pm »
Sorry I dont really think AI can make u arts imo and many others, I rather just do my own art yes I use programs to make digital art but not AI.
AI dos not make ur "Skills" better or make u be a better arts, just a easy way to make art if ppl plan to call them self arts by making AI art will never be art and ar not arts them self, it the program that did it all.
I do think toos work (Photoshop, etc) to help make digital art. Editing and making drawings and stuff is not the same thing.
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« Last post by redhome on May 06, 2024, 06:18:20 am »
I know its a little off topic talking about AI, my feeling are sticking about it specially to just for ppl that think they are arts when there really not. Im a high beliver that anyone can draw and be arts, we improve over time, I havent spend 20+ year drawing just to see other ppl using AI to call them selfs arts. Many ppl specially arts are againts it. AI is super easy to know when its use and I do hope it dosent come a "tool" like u just stated.
Using AI for this type of things I dont fine much of a problem, I cant control u or aint ur mother. I know ur just using AI to "provide" nw stuff and imo restore art I have no problme with how ur using it in this way. Viper already ran its peak and dont think it would come back... and thats a maybe, I really have no idea.
Im a old school arts, paper and pencil and I really dont sell my hand work even tho I do digital I rather not at the moment, I rather improve my own skills even more as well my art style but thats me talk.
As long as ur doing it for the love of the what u like (Sogna) and doing it for good motives and I do think I can hope to see more AI stuff, ppl still do fan art of Sogna characters even tho fue ppl know about the games in general, but ppl still draw some of the popular characters after all.
just do what U wanna do with AI and hope to see some good stuff and well dont benefit and call it ur own art, do hope I make a little sences.
I think I know what you're getting at - and understand your point. The question is: do you think digital art is art? Or is "pen and paper" art - everything else is "easy", because of low effort. You see, digital art in itself (see Photoshop, Krita, Affinity etc.) are also tools that support the artist - or allow others to create art (not sure, if there is just one definition of art - or if art is the process of creating something that wasn't there in the first place?). In any case the world turns. Which means there are people who love art that was created (and mastered) in real life. Others do the same with art that was solely created with digital tools (see above). AI art is also art - and believe me when I say that you can spend countless hours to perfect "AI art", because the AI output is not always what you want, but something that was created by your "prompt" - but doesn't match your imagination. That gets me back to the "tool" - AI (in the sense of AI image generators) are tools you can use to perfect your own art. But it's not limited to that and that's the beauty of that technology. People who just enter "Big titty goth woman sitting on a chair, style of Leonardo Davinci" and then print that on mugs and sell it, is very low effort. But AI can do so much more. And that's why I think (personal opinion) that it will become much, much more in the future. I suggest looking a bit at the Krita Diffusion plugin I mentioned in my first post. It's really magical - and if anything AI can help with shifting the perspective and then do it by hand. This doesn't invalidate any real artists effort to do it "by hand" or get better at her/his craft. But the world is not black and white, I think that is what I am trying to say.
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