AbsolutSurgen

Newey has been making $10M+ per year for ages. He may just retire, or move to a different sport.

Adrian Newey: Red Bull design chief to leave over Christian Horner allegations

WWW.BBC.COM

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Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey is to leave the team in the wake of the controversy involving allegations about team principal Christian Horner.

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Newey, regarded as the greatest Formula 1 designer in history, has told Red Bull he wants to move on, BBC Sport has learned.

The 65-year-old has been unsettled by the situation at Red Bull since Horner was accused of sexual harassment and coercive, abusive behaviour by a female employee, which Horner denies.

Red Bull and Newey did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

21 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I think it has been slowly going that way for a while. It also seems to coincide with the gender divide among gamers closing. We are not quite at 50/50, but we are getting closer and closer. There’s also more and more women working in game design and game development. 
 

I can’t imagine trying to make characters “sexy” will ever go away. But I can’t help but feel the idea of having to make a character look like an object to lust after as a way to pander to a certain demographic is not as necessary as it once was. At least not in the US. 
 

Maybe age has something to do with it too. That being the older you get less you need an exaggeratedly proportioned woman to see somebody attractive. I just saw a statistic that only 24% of gamers are under 18. I don’t know about you, but I have a much more broad level of attraction to the female body than I did at 14. It’s possible the average age of gamers in South Korea is much younger (as an average) than here in the US so targeting the gaze of the 14-21 year old boys makes more sense still. 

Absolutely. 

There is a broad range in sex appeal from porn stars, to just plain attractive people, to very average looking people.  Many Asian developers probably stray to far to the "porn star side", while some western developers are moving pretty far to the opposite end.  These trends go in waves, and as with most other fads, just wait and things will change again.

Someone brought up Arwen from LotR as an example -- my final thought on this entire discussion is that Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett were two of the most attractive women in Hollywood when those movies were filmed.  It was no accident that they were picked for two of the few key roles, in an otherwise male dominated cast, in those movies.

4 minutes ago, legend said:

 

 

So then were you not disagreeing with my original point where I said just that then? If so, great! But then I'm not sure what contrasting point you were trying to make.

 

I am disagreeing with the "serious game" point.  Aloy is a fucking mass murderer.  Very few games aspire to be on the level of a mediocre drama movie.

I think the industry has significantly changed the female characters (as well as male) in games.

3 hours ago, legend said:

IYou're going to have to qualify what you specifically mean

I noticed you cut this out.  You asked me to specify what I meant, then immediately strawmanned me.

45 minutes ago, legend said:

 

I'm responding to what you wrote, in two different places. Hence, why I quoted you in two places and responded to each separately  

Your response:

2 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I Something like Horizon: Forbidden West -- most of the characters are either overweight or beanpole thin.  No muscular dudes (except maybe the chief of the Tenakh).  No women with the exaggerated hourglass figure.

 

Your response:

1 hour ago, legend said:

This Horizon doesn't have attractive women?

 

Should I give you the benefit of the doubt that you weren't straw manning me?  I never used the words bikini, or attractive

This is what video games used to have for female characters.

Anita Sarkeesian laid out what video games used to be like 10 years ago:

A significant majority of the female characters were young (in their 20s or late teens), with large breasts (and revealing clothing.  That is for the most part no longer happening.

Characters like Alva, Beta, Tilda Van De Meer and Petra are the complete opposite.

Things have changed.

You can argue all you want about what you consider "attractive", but the "bombshell" that was the staple of action movies and video games is now largely gone from modern western video games.  You asked me to elaborate, and I have.

26 minutes ago, legend said:

 

Let me give an analogy. It would have looked dumb as shit if in the LOTR movies Arwen was running around in a bikini. Fantastical settings doesn't mean unserious in this way.

 

 

This Horizon doesn't have attractive women?

 

 

Are you responding to what I wrote or to someone else?

I don't think the Prototype series was very good in its day.

I haven't played the Infamous games since launch -- but really enjoyed the three of them.  To me, you can see the gampelay in the Spider-Man games being directly influenced by Infamous.  If you're OK playing older open world games, that don't have quite the same variety in terms of side quests, I am sure they hold up relatively well.

2 minutes ago, legend said:

I'm largely okay and can even enjoy over the top sex appeal for the same reason I can enjoy B movies. When Eve is pulled out of the pod in the beginning in the most over the top sexy way, it's good fun and you can laugh and enjoy it.  

 

 

 

You're going to have to qualify what you specifically mean. Fewer women with completely oversized boobs in tiny armor in an otherwise "serious" game? Less out of place fan service? Yes, I agree with that and yes I think that's a good thing. But no, I don't think the industry is otherwise lacking attractive female characters.

I'm not sure what a "serious game" is.  Most games I play are mostly fantastical -- robotic dinosaurs, paranormal evets, futuristic aliens, romanticised history, unrealistic tech and over-the-top violence. 

If you go back 10, years and look at the characters in most video games that were attempting to have realistic graphics.  Most of the characters were made to look young and objectively attractive.

Mass Effect -- Every single woman and alien woman had a thin waist, big hips and armour that contoured around their breasts.  And facially, they were modelled to have traditional female beauty.  Male characters were all buff with square jaws.  That was the norm in virtually all video games of the era.

Flash forward to 2023/2024.  Something like Horizon: Forbidden West -- most of the characters are either overweight or beanpole thin.  No muscular dudes (except maybe the chief of the Tenakh).  No women with the exaggerated hourglass figure.

Same thing with commercials.  10-years ago, most commercials were filled with objectively attractive people -- remember how people used to say "sex sells".  Today, not so much.

We could debate whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, but let's not pretend it hasn't happened.

Anyone know the typical length of AMD exclusivity deals for features?  I assume it is 6 months?

2 minutes ago, legend said:

I think this game is a victim of the fact that it's liked by people insisting that western devs are deliberately making female characters ugly and insisting that all women in games should look like super models. Those people suck, but I think it's making a lot of people hate on this game merely because it's liked by those people.

There shouldn't be a problem with people wanting characters in the media they consume to be a certain way, and to consume that media; while simultaneously not consuming the media they don't want.

There has been a trend in movies/TV/commercials/games to feature less conventionally attractive/sexualized characters.  It's been super evident over the last 10 years.  It's somewhat ironic that social media has leaned heavily in the opposite way.

On 4/5/2024 at 3:27 PM, BloodyHell said:

But you have all that representation in other games. This game plays up the sexiness and suddenly it’s sexist. I really do agree it’s manufactured outrage, but its coming from the people who are truly supposed to care about free expression. People need to speak with their dollars instead of attacking people over playing a game. It didn’t work with Hogwarts Legacy.

 

and im not talking about here, im talking about attacks Ive seen on social media and resetera towards fans and devs of the game. 
 

and yes, the Bayonetta thing is a complete double standard. 

Preach.

In reality, there is enough room in the gaming world for a variety of different games.  Not everything needs to be for everyone.

I have no interest in games that focus on how hot a girl's butt is, nor the ones that have you select the right three dialog prompts to fuck an NPC.  But, I'm OK with those games being available for others.  If someone gets off by staring at a hot digital ass for 15 hours; who am I to judge?  it's 2024, there are enough games with over-the-top representation for those who want that experience as well.

5 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

You're in for a graphical showcase my friend. I was interested in this game myself so please post impressions. Reviews are solid but I respect your opinion on most things. 

I will play this once I'm done with H:FW.  It takes me quite a bit longer to finish games than you, so it may be a month or so before I start it.

I loaded it up, hoping to get a benchmark (which I couldn't find), and instead watched the VERY long intro to the game.

I'll post my opinions in the Avatar thread once I've actually sunk my teeth into it.

Just picked up Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Gold Edition.  Mostly because I've heard so much about the graphics, and how much I enjoy the IP.

Normal Price -- $150 + Tax = $169.50

What I paid = $169.50 less 40% sale = $101.70 less 20% off for spending 100 Ubi points = $81.36 less $15 Wallet credit earned from previous purchase = $64.44

I've been a big fan of the single player DLC from Ubi, and since they never seem to put the DLC on sale, it made sense to bundle it in the Gold edition if I was going to effectively get 50% off.

12 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

I preordered the deluxe version 

10 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Well that's just silly. 

That’s why I stopped watching. 

How the NFL views the NIL era: 'This whole draft landscape has changed'

THEATHLETIC.COM

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It's not just that NIL money is helping lure players back to school. Some coaches are concerned it's producing a more entitled prospect.

It’s bizarre to me how invested some Americans are with college sports. 
How does a college QB playing in a 2nd tier conference make $10 million?

I stopped watching the video when it became apparent they didn’t understand Roblox is a gaming platform, not a game. 

And as far as gaming stories go, SW:JS had one of the better ones. 
The combat and exploration are what made it great, though. 

31 minutes ago, Biggie said:

The plot. The characters. The lore. The fact that they give a Jedi a blaster pistol is blasphemy. No actual real Star Wars characters except for Storm Troopers. It’s mid as hell. 

Don’t all EA games come to EA Play after a year?  What am I missing. 

48 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

I think on easy difficulty you don't have to harvest parts in any particular fashion. For instance, in the main quest I was supposed to kill a machine for parts but was told I needed to knock off a specific part before killing the machine to get it. BUT, you get a message that on easy and story difficulty you didn't have to worry about that. Just killing the machine was enough to harvest even he most specific parts. 

 

I can't comment on pc visuals but Burning Shores on PS5 is the best graphics to date. 

Without RT, Burning Shores would need to be a huge step over Horizon: FW to beat something like AW2.

7 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

I opted to give this one a few weeks after launch to iron out any day 1 issues and so fell to Playing Fallout 4 instead. Looks like I can hop in this weekend as it apparently launched in pretty good shape. 

I've had no technical challenges whatsoever.

2 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Yea, I just beat this two days ago. I didn't do any side quests but I had an utter blast. 

Half the fun in this game for me is the Cauldrons and the Hunting Grounds.

12 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Asmodee assets are being used to obtain a €900 million loan from JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, SEB, Societe Generale and Swedbank. The loan is ringfenced to Asmodee's assets but we'll be used to refinance Embracer Group debt.

 

This isn't a particularly great start to Asmodee's existence as an independent entity.

The fact that revenue in Asmodee was mostly flat from 2021-2024, but EBITDA was down ~30% leads me to believe Asmodee was being run really poorly by Embracer.

It's a lot of debt, but the good side is that the board game industry has very little CapEx.