I think it’s a combo of the two. I watch a lot of panel shows and the first thing that comes to mind is pandemic filming. It actually was a bit awkward at first not to have the studio laugh because it was traditionally filmed with a live audience. That’s still half an argument as certain shows will have cues for the audience.

At the end of the day we are very social animals and appreciate feeling emotion together so if we find something funny/scary/exciting we get positive feedback when others around us (at least sound like) they feel the same. It’s the main reason a decent amount of people enjoy going to the movies.

This will fall flat when laugh tracks are added over frequently; but when used properly (and with actually good jokes) they encourage the audience to fully engage.

Imagine the embarrassment of being the only person to clap/laugh/scream at a performance; thats the intended buffer for ‘canned’ responses.

Edit; when I started this comment there was only one response. What I cover was also brought up by other commenters, but I’m slow at typing while I’m sleepy (RIP)

To put into context; Microsoft bought Activision/Blizzard for 69 Billion dollars. A huge portion of that was actually King.

Around 2014, over 93 million people were playing Candy Crush Saga, while revenue over a three-month period as reported by King was over $493 million. Five years after its release on mobile, the Candy Crush Saga series has received over 2.7 billion downloads, and the game has been one of the highest-grossing and most-played mobile apps in that time frame. As of September 2023, it had reached over $20 billion in revenue.

Safe to say mobile market makes a lot more money we’d be comfortable with.

I shared my arcade membership with my mom a while ago (I had gotten it included) and it put her purchases on my card. This bio-chemist (very smart lady in some specific subjects) spent over $25 on ‘micro’ transactions in a week or so. They prey on the group that just want to get things done.

Wasn’t the new CEO just talking about how they were counting on PC players to go out and buy the console for sequels? I’m over here still waiting for Spider-Man 2, no intention of buying a console again.

I’ll be a minority voice considering the other comments. But maybe just pay for onlyfans or whatever you guys use. I’m a generally attractive woman (I can surmise from interactions while trying to date) and I really don’t like the idea that my likeness would be used for something like this. Get your jollies off, but try and be a bit consensual about it. Is that so much to ask?

Babylon 5 also had an episode with that theme. They show the heavily edited broadcast at the end and it always pisses me off (which is the intention)

That’s not what I got from the article. It’s a culture piece, and as a Westerner I appreciated the look into how other societies treat their young.

Got in! It was a really silly mistake on my part; I was trying to log in with my username instead of my email 🙃 in my defense I was very sleepy haha

Thanks for the quick response as well ❤️

I’m really interested!!! Unfortunately I keep getting an ‘invalid credentials’ notification after clicking the link to verify. I’ve tried to reset the password but still can’t get in. I’m happy to send a donation, but want to make sure it’s linked to an account.

Do you have a character limit? I also can’t show the password while trying to log in to verify it was inserted correctly. I’ve tried both with and without special characters and am using iOS ‘suggest a password’ feature if that helps at all.

I’ll be trying again in the morning to see if goes through as I can totally understand there being a delay in verification.

They acquired far too much as they expected a $2B deal with Saudi Arabia. That fell through and they’ve been shedding everything but the CEOs (at least from what I can find)

I was in the same boat for ages and was happy paying as I kept the original rate. Then they bumped it by almost 50% end of December. Quit before the change took effect and have been using ad block ever since. The ONLY thing I miss is YouTube music as I’ve gotten too lazy to rip the remixes/soundtracks that aren’t on other streaming services.

Man, I miss Legend of the Green Dragon

I’ve had some fun with ‘Hosted Games’ on iOS recently and remember enjoying Lone Wolf as well if that helps

For free? Absolutely me, I knew well enough not to purchase the game, but I am curious just how bad it is.

Yeah, some youtube videos that cover basics and hiring a firm after a breech is pretty standard it feels.

I’ve got all the expansions on mobile and steam, I do really enjoy this game. It’s RuneScape but even more idle, perfect for a desk job. It also has great mod support; mostly QoL, but the time skip is kinda game breaking.

Yeah, there’s this weird agism I’ve seen. Maybe they think the ‘young people’ (30 years in this case) are bragging? I just view it as someone adding their context, nothing abhorrent ¯\(ツ)/¯

Only as strong as your least paid worker.

Honestly disappointed with the combination of batch awards and probably the shortest acceptance speech timer I’ve seen. This game awards felt solely for producers and publishers, not for the people who actually made these games. I get not wanting another 8 min speech, but it left a bad taste in my mouth

Oh cool, rampancy is contagious

I desperately want a steam deck for comfy jrpg gaming. I prefer my action/adventure/FPS to be on desktop, yet also find turn based a bit slow while at my desk. Don’t have the funds, so I just hacked my vita instead haha