Rockstar used to go pretty hard.
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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This game, appropriately, is where I learned there was such a thing as uppers and downers.
It’s likely they were trying to get the news riled up so they could cause a moral outrage that would attract attention to the game.
All right I'll ask the dumb question here, what am I looking at? From what I can tell they are tiny empty bags
Those type of bags are usually used to hold illicit substances, and typically only bought by small-time drug dealers.
awww youve never bought street powders thats nice
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I miss that era. Companies didn’t mind a bit of edginess and weren’t afraid to market to adults. The console culture itself also isn’t what it used to be.
These days, gaming consoles all need to be safe enough for five year olds to play on them. And it’s caused everything to be just too bland and safe, both in marketing and the console itself. Can’t really have things like Xbox 360 Uno with the live camera feed and no moderation. Or the wholly uncensored COD lobbies.
I like the part between your two paragraphs. The early gaming era was really shitty when it came to diversity and... It's not even representation, it's not having to play sluts or princesses or whatever.
The now-era is all AAA all-the-same sanitised stuff, nothing to do with lack of edginess. Just corporate safety in mainstream appeal. Currently, indie games are where the experiments and interesting ideas happen.
I'm certainly not going to say you're wrong on that first part. I've been online since 1996. At that time, the internet was the domain of white, heterosexual, nerdy, generally well educated guys. And me being a white, heterosexual, nerdy, well educated guy... well... going online felt like coming home. Those were my people. I still really miss those days.
But I also know that the experience of someone not like me would've been wildly different. I learned a bajillion slurs on COD lobbies after all. It's a good thing that more people now feel welcome online, as it led to platform growth and functionality that we otherwise wouldn't have had if it was just 'my kind of people'.
The current safe, sanitised, gentrified gaming sphere also has benefits: COD lobbies these days are very pleasant by comparison. You even have to sign a code of conduct to get on multiplayer. It feels more welcoming, less hostile. Of course, companies certainly have been financially incentivized to attract as wide an audience as possible. For example, the very first GTA game sold about 6 million copies. GTA V has sold 200 million. And with ever-increasing development budgets, you can't afford to cater to a niche, you want to cast as wide a net as possible to recoup those costs.
"the internet was the domain of white, heterosexual, nerdy, generally well educated guys. And me being a white, heterosexual, nerdy, well educated guy... well... going online felt like coming home. Those were my people"
Thank you for putting it so clearly. Yes, it is completely valid to long for a time where the own niche was the in-group. As someone who's been on the web from early on but a woman, it wasn't really "my people". It was never a safe space for me, but I totally understand where you are coming from. It's great to be on the side of the "default".
The only spaces I genuinely miss are phpbb forums. I honestly believe they are better than reddit, or the fediverse for that matter. Smaller interest groups have a self selection mechanism and better moderation. I think they could still foster a great environment today that would welcome nerdy educated people on a shared interest without specifically speaking to just one type of educated nerds.
I miss forums as well, and I'm actually moving back to them. Back in the early 2000's, I visited like a dozen forums each day. I was a member of like three watch forums, a camera forum, a Star Trek forum, some gaming forums and others. Just 'doing the rounds' kept you busy for a while. People also were insanely knowledgeable on those niche forums, and they all had their own specific culture and flavor to them.
Places like a niche subreddit are... OK at best. They are convenient and easy to visit, but don't tend to have the level of knowledge and discourse that I generally enjoy. You also run the risk of your sub getting ruined by people who are into the wrong aspects of your particular hobby. For example, on a watch FORUM, the discussions are about design, mechanical features, history, photography, how to repair, etc. etc. On the subreddit, a lot of posts tended to be drive-by posters who 'found a watch and wanted to know what it's worth'. or 'is this fake'. The subreddit didn't curb that, so eventually I and many others just stopped going there. It was basically too easy for people to post there just because, well, they could. Whereas on an actual watch forum, you can do a bit stricter moderation and the registration requirement weeds out low effort posting.
Some consider that 'gatekeeping', but I see it as a valid way of protecting one's chosen community.
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Bro here in Brazil, we have slurs in the millions since gaming took of in the 90s
The number reaches the Brazillions
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this isn't marketing to adults. it's marketing to teenage boys.
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PS2 is retro now? Damn, getting old really does sneak up on you.
I found my Green game boy Pocket and saw the 1989-1996 copyright.
It looks so pristine. 😭😭😭
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I find this funny, since I used to hide drugs like mushrooms inside consoles. I figured it was the one place literally no one would think to look. Just unscrewed them, put a baggie inside in one of those empty spaces (there's always a spot), and put the case back together.
Can someone make a version of this photo, but its acetaminophen and the girl is just up-aged to how old she'd be now?
thyroid medication
90s SEGA was the OG of this, we need 90s SEGA back
Coffee?
Tea?
SEGA!!!
There were some bizarre ads from around the late 90s to early 00s.
The Dreamcast Barber comes to mind.
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I don't think an ad with this kind of imagery would fly today
My cousin told me that she ODed so hard that they had to put her in an institution where she spends all day thinking she's at a rave.
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