cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/7643915

As always in capitalism, video games have largely deformed from an art form into just another means to generate profit for large corporations

  • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1245·
    1 year ago

    Bollocks, any decent game needs a fuck ton of capital to develop

    Please share all the greatest communist games

    Agree that loot boxes suck, they are gambling, not gaming

    Edit. Yes, Tetris. One game made in 1985. Brilliant example Tankards.

    So the score so far for games made:

    Communism - 1

    Capitalism - 831,000

        • crypticthree@lemmy.world
          122·
          1 year ago

          Yeah it being an incredibly addictive universally approachable game has nothing to do with it being widely played for over 40 years… 🙄

          • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
            3·
            1 year ago

            Psst. Almost 40 years. Tetris was released in 1985 not 1983

            This comment brought to you by an old fuck that doesn’t need to be artificially aged to be even older

          • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            110·
            1 year ago

            You know that copyright export was illegal under the Soviets though yeah? So it only got released because a UK software sales guy faxed them a contract and they didn’t realise it was binding

            Robert Stein, an international software salesman for the London-based firm Andromeda Software, saw the game’s commercial potential during a visit to Hungary in June 1986.[18]: 302 [25]: 11 min  After an indifferent response from the Academy,[25]: 12 min  Stein contacted Pajitnov and Brjabrin by fax to obtain the license rights.[25]: 11 min  The researchers expressed interest in forming an agreement with Stein via fax, but they were unaware that this fax communication could be considered a legal contract in the Western world;[26] Stein began to approach other companies to produce the game.[17]: 89–90

            Stein approached publishers at the 1987 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Gary Carlston, co-founder of Broderbund, retrieved a copy and brought it to California. Despite enthusiasm amongst its employees, Broderbund remained skeptical because of the game’s Soviet origins. Likewise, Mastertronic co-founder Martin Alper declared that “no Soviet product will ever work in the Western world”.[17]: 90

            Stein ultimately signed two agreements: he sold the European rights to the publisher Mirrorsoft,[17]: 90 [27] and the American rights to sister company Spectrum HoloByte.[28] The latter obtained the rights after a visit to Mirrorsoft by Spectrum HoloByte president Phil Adam in which he played Tetris for two hours.[17]: 90 [25]: 15 min  At that time, Stein had not yet signed a contract with the Soviet Union.[27] Nevertheless, he sold the rights to the two companies for £3,000 and a royalty of 7.5 to 15% on sales

            https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris

            Would be kind of hard to play a game that didn’t get published by the evil capitalist lol

            • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
              8·
              1 year ago

              Would be kind of hard to play a game that didn’t get published by the evil capitalist lol

              I’ve played about a dozen versions of Tetris over the last 30 years, a lot of which were written by just one dude and released to the world without the expectation of compensation. There are literally hundreds of ports/clones that run on everything from a Nokia phone to a Unix/Linux text mode interface.

              Were it not for western publishers, I’m pretty sure it would have spread anyway just due to its addictive nature and it being an excellent time sink. Just like chess and checkers didn’t need a capitalist to spread around the globe.

              I’m literally using an entire operating system right now that not one capitalist controls. It runs most of the internet’s infrastructure. Sure, the capitalists can use it and even contribute, but they don’t get to dictate how you run your system.

                • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
                  3·
                  1 year ago

                  Oh, funny you mention that, because in my country, my government paid to have fiber laid but the useless bloodsucking capitalist ISPs didn’t do absolutely jack shit with the money and pocketed it. That’s why were having to do stupid shit like Starlink now to connect the people out in the sticks.

                  My electricity is also provided by a co-op.

                • RoosterBoy@lemm.ee
                  31·
                  1 year ago

                  1. You moved the goalposts

                  2. How did the soviets make Tetris if technology only exists under capitalism?

            • Even_Adder@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              7·
              1 year ago

              No it wouldn’t. Tetris was going to get played by millions whether someone licensed it or not. That’s why there was such a mad scramble to land a deal.

        • MxM111@kbin.social
          81·
          1 year ago

          That’s only because in the West there was no way for the game to reach customers at the time. The game was popular in the “Soviet Block” just fine, because distribution model was different.

          Today, it would spread through internet like fire.

          • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            210·
            1 year ago

            Sure, I’m always playing Vietnamese and Cuban games. They’re grrrreat!

            And Tetris was only successful because of licencing, let’s not create an alternative history here

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
      222·
      1 year ago

      Minecraft

      Terraria

      Astrox Imperium (this is a single player version of EvE Online, so definitely not for everyone)

      Dyson Sphere Program

      Factorio

      UFO:AI (admittedly this is a FOSS XCOM game that started as a clone of XCOM Apocalypse, and morphed into something bigger)

      All developed by either a single person, or tiny teams with basically no start up capital. I’m sure I can find more, since the FOSS list of games is enormous.

      Labor develops society. Capital enshittifies society.

    • Wakmrow@lemmy.world
      181·
      1 year ago

      Capital doesn’t cease to exist under communism, guy. It just stops being controlled by one person.

    • алсааас [she/they]@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      173·
      1 year ago

      A few (good and one time buy) games off the top of my head (is that how you use the expression/idiom?):

      Obviously commie games:

      • Disco Elysium
      • Cruelty Squad

      Might or might not be commie, but definitely progressive:

      • Bioshock series

      honourable mentions:

      • Vitoria 3 (who would have thought that a democratically controlled and publicly owned economy would be meta? does have a nasty dlc policy tho)
      • Partisans 1941 (you play the story of soviet partisans on the eastern front, what more is there to say?)
      • everything from the studio “Kremlingames” (they make political sims about eastern block countries, without glorifying them)
      • Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic (eastern block “City: Skylines”)
      • VA-11 Hall-A (good vn in a cyberpunk dystopia, does not rly have a political theme tho iirc)
    • culprit@lemmy.ml
      91·
      1 year ago

      Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks

    • macniel@feddit.de
      62·
      1 year ago

      Sure but does it need that money when it’s released or is it simply there because of publisher greed?