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Dustborn sees disastrous launch on Steam

Doomtrain

Member
This looks so goofy that I genuinely want to see it in action. I want more context for stuff like the Cancel mechanic. It seems so unintentionally hilarious.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Should hit single digits soon during off peak hours. Steamdb's yellow line graph shows it bottoms out at 12 gamers in the middle of the night. And at that time it's morning in Oslo (their head office).

No doubt some of those gamers are employees logging in first thing at work.

It's possible when that happens the only people playing the game in the entire world are employees in Norway as the studio has 20+ people working there.

It would be hilarious (and sad) if all of the devs have the game running in the background on their PC to boost Steams concurrent player stats.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Never heard of it.
giphy.gif
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Currently at 25 gamers. Skimming Steamdb charts, it looks like the all time low is 11 which happened a few times in the middle of the night the past week.

Weekends always show a pop in gamers, so it probably wont hit 11 this long weekend (Labour day). But by next week it should bottom out in single digits.

(EDIT: My mistake! I took a look at charts again and it did hit 8 and 9 CCU at some points)
 
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bighugeguns

Member
There's a disturbing little trend to try and spin this off as some kind of Paul Verhoeven masterpiece in irony, the bottom line is Ragnar belongs in prison for investor fraud. Really hope this dude faces the music for literally pissing away people's money.

If I put my trust and money in you to build me a house, and you instead build a giant dildo for twitter points, I'm calling the cops and we're going to court.
 
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Mobilemofo

Member
There's a disturbing little trend to try and spin this off as some kind of Paul Verhoeven masterpiece in irony, the bottom line is Ragnar belongs in prison for investor fraud. Really hope this dude faces the music for literally pissing away people's money.

If I put my trust and money in you to build me a house, and you instead build a giant dildo for twitter points, I'm calling the cops and we're going to court.
You'll get custody of the massive dildo and damages !!! Winning.
 

Heimdall_Xtreme

Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
This game doesn't even have action, you have to skip ahead 3 hours for the actual game and it's generic... It's too boring a game.
 

bighugeguns

Member
Oh Christ, this is only the beginning, isn't it? Waves and waves of government funded "message" shovelware incoming. Do these groups pouring money into this slop not understand that woke culture stuff is normie repellent?
 

Loboxxx

Member
In a capitalist world, you can't go against the market. You can try, but you're not going to succeed.

The creators of these types of conceptual “woke” works must understand that by being so obvious, so “aggressive” with their message, they create rejection. Inclusion and diversity should be represented in a realistic, normalized, non-forced way. In fact, I think they do a disservice to the necessary normalization by creating an obvious backlash. Even Disney has begun to understand this, and this is a big deal.

I'm not happy when a product fails for these reasons, but even I, who consider myself extremely open-minded, can't help but feel a sense of rejection just looking at the cover of these types of games. It bothers me to feel this way, but I can't help it.
 

bighugeguns

Member
In a capitalist world, you can't go against the market. You can try, but you're not going to succeed.

The creators of these types of conceptual “woke” works must understand that by being so obvious, so “aggressive” with their message, they create rejection. Inclusion and diversity should be represented in a realistic, normalized, non-forced way. In fact, I think they do a disservice to the necessary normalization by creating an obvious backlash. Even Disney has begun to understand this, and this is a big deal.

I'm not happy when a product fails for these reasons, but even I, who consider myself extremely open-minded, can't help but feel a sense of rejection just looking at the cover of these types of games. It bothers me to feel this way, but I can't help it.
It feels bad because it's hardcore insincere and its themes mandated, it seems a game like this is part of the wave of direct government funded "messaging" "games", China announcing big pushes into the space is no mistake, they can easily win this little "space race" in the gaming sphere by simply being normal, they'll be more profit driven than the Western "message" driven and I think these Western governments are setting themselves up for an expensive embarrassment, normal people do not like resetera culture, it's repulsive and weird, you can pour billions on that but it'll still be repulsive and weird, just shinier.
 
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Phobos Base

Member
Obviously it only counts people who have registered on the site, but True Achievements has 227 players total and True Trophies 106



Not a single person has completed it nor even written a guide for any of the achievements/trophies.
 

Duchess

Member
Not a single person has completed it nor even written a guide for any of the achievements/trophies.
As of right now, only two people have submitted times for the game to howlongtobeat:


Which is pretty funny. I'm honestly still not sure if this game is supposed to be parody. It's almost like we're looking at "Resetera: The Game".
 

Sentenza

Gold Member
As of right now, only two people have submitted times for the game to howlongtobeat:


Which is pretty funny. I'm honestly still not sure if this game is supposed to be parody. It's almost like we're looking at "Resetera: The Game".
Here's the thing: not only they are talking their story as something completely serious (to the point they don't even realize when they accidentally frame themselves as the villains), but it turns out that the lead developer, ONCE a somewhat respected figure in the scene of graphic adventures, went completely mental "after Trump won in 2016" (which is funny to me, since he's norwegian and all things considered he shouldn't be affected in the slightest) and since then that's ALL he talks about in every fucking interview.

EDIT: Some quote as proof.

PuvfMyn.jpeg
 
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Developers who don’t get it again.

Modern audience is in their eyes probably an audience where there are at least as many women and men and most of them queer.

1. The audience will remain forever mainly men, women and men have different interests and that is a good thing and that will never change.

2. Where are the queer people who asked for these kind of games or more representation in games. They were happy how things were like every gamer, but for some reason some stupid marketing people believe that they understand what queer people want.
 

CherryFalls

Banned
Here's the thing: not only they are talking their story as something completely serious (to the point they don't even realize when they accidentally frame themselves as the villains), but it turns out that the lead developer, ONCE a somewhat respected figure in the scene of graphic adventures, went completely mental "after Trump won in 2016" (which is funny to me, since he's norwegian and all things considered he shouldn't be affected in the slightest) and since then that's ALL he talks about in every fucking interview.

EDIT: Some quote as proof.

PuvfMyn.jpeg

dhzrSyn.png


That's actually very sad. A bit of his humanity and his mind has been taken away & now the media controls it.
 

Fake

Member
IMO they already know the game would flop, they got money from government and spend little on this game.
 
Here's the thing: not only they are talking their story as something completely serious (to the point they don't even realize when they accidentally frame themselves as the villains), but it turns out that the lead developer, ONCE a somewhat respected figure in the scene of graphic adventures, went completely mental "after Trump won in 2016" (which is funny to me, since he's norwegian and all things considered he shouldn't be affected in the slightest) and since then that's ALL he talks about in every fucking interview.

EDIT: Some quote as proof.

PuvfMyn.jpeg

Why does a Norwegian dude care that much about US politics that it makes him angry every single day he wakes up? That's some mental ill 5hit. Go enjoy the beauty of Norway man.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Why does a Norwegian dude care that much about US politics that it makes him angry every single day he wakes up? That's some mental ill 5hit. Go enjoy the beauty of Norway man.
You could say the same about people being "angry every day" on gaming forums. It doesn't always work like that.

People have opinions, and many still have time left to live a relatively calm normal life.

And, it’s not exactly news that US politics have an impact on people's lives worldwide. Thus US politics is a common topic everywhere.
 
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I remember liking the art style in this when it was announced since it reminded me a bit of Hi-Fi Rush. The characters and story don't seem interesting at all though, maybe if it gets added to a service LOL.
 

CherryFalls

Banned

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Are we sure they didn’t make this just to pocket the government funding, without believing any of it? I mean…

A “triggered” dialogue option to scream racism over literally nothing? Cancelling and bullying superpowers? Robots talking about not having gendered pronouns?

Really does look like satire. But based on the dev statements I suppose it’s real. Fascinating.
 

Embearded

Member
Are we sure they didn’t make this just to pocket the government funding, without believing any of it? I mean…

A “triggered” dialogue option to scream racism over literally nothing? Cancelling and bullying superpowers? Robots talking about not having gendered pronouns?

Really does look like satire. But based on the dev statements I suppose it’s real. Fascinating.

Aren't these two fake?
When the cancelling one was posted some users said it is fake.
 

Denton

Member
went completely mental "after Trump won in 2016" (which is funny to me, since he's norwegian and all things considered he shouldn't be affected in the slightest) and since then that's ALL he talks about in every fucking interview.
I like how he thought the game would be out in 2020, that's just precious. Ragnar got mentally ruined AND became incompetent in one stroke.
 

Nikodemos

Member
Making a game based on your personal mindspace is a risky endeavor at the best of times. The chance it will be outright rejected from the start is enormous, given that its founding concept is not validated by any market research. It's very likely the people who resonate with your internal worldview either don't know about it, can't buy it (for any number of reasons), or don't play games in the first place. Sure, you're externalized your innerspace, and I guess that could count as art, in a way, but any expectations of wider success are unreasonably optimistic; commercial failure should be accepted as the most probable outcome.
 

Haint

Member
Why does a Norwegian dude care that much about US politics that it makes him angry every single day he wakes up? That's some mental ill 5hit. Go enjoy the beauty of Norway man.

Norway and Sweden are ultra liberal and super leftist. Helldivers 2 (Sweden) is earnestly making fun of most of the people who like it and play it.
 
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Embearded

Member
Norway and Sweden are ultra liberal and super leftist. Helldivers 2 (Sweden) is earnestly making fun of most of the people who like it and play it.
I don't think Sweden is super leftist.
Helldivers is using satire, they don't make fun of the players.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
Are we sure they didn’t make this just to pocket the government funding, without believing any of it? I mean…

A “triggered” dialogue option to scream racism over literally nothing? Cancelling and bullying superpowers? Robots talking about not having gendered pronouns?

Really does look like satire. But based on the dev statements I suppose it’s real. Fascinating.

This was my exact cycle on this too.

But sometimes you just have to come back around that there is no rational explanation, the dude is just broken and gone crazy.

Intrestingly some of the most poignant examples of art in other media have come from individuals exactly like this.

Which makes me lose all faith in the creative process when someone like this with just the right amount of unhinged, farts out Dustborn... sometimes people just go crazy and throw feces on the wall, thats what this game is essentially.

Theres no deeper meaning, this is what he wanted to make, this is what he wanted to show the world, shit smeared all over a wall.
 
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Filben

Member
Here's the thing: not only they are talking their story as something completely serious (to the point they don't even realize when they accidentally frame themselves as the villains), but it turns out that the lead developer, ONCE a somewhat respected figure in the scene of graphic adventures, went completely mental "after Trump won in 2016" (which is funny to me, since he's norwegian and all things considered he shouldn't be affected in the slightest) and since then that's ALL he talks about in every fucking interview.

EDIT: Some quote as proof.

PuvfMyn.jpeg
Damn, that dude should stop reading news. I mean, there are even studies claiming there's danger for your mental health by excessive news consumption.

Nothing wrong with being concerned and wanting to make a difference, but dude needs to recharge his battery and decompress, release his stress. Also, games do contribute positively without being all that political; they contribute to entertainment, recreation, stress relief, escapism, evoking emotions. This guy has absolutely no clue at all.
 

Nickolaidas

Member
It feels bad because it's hardcore insincere and its themes mandated, it seems a game like this is part of the wave of direct government funded "messaging" "games", China announcing big pushes into the space is no mistake, they can easily win this little "space race" in the gaming sphere by simply being normal, they'll be more profit driven than the Western "message" driven and I think these Western governments are setting themselves up for an expensive embarrassment, normal people do not like resetera culture, it's repulsive and weird, you can pour billions on that but it'll still be repulsive and weird, just shinier.
The only way for wokeness to survive and resist people voting with their wallets is to be funded by the taxpayer. This is the only way our boycotts cannot work, and I am pretty sure we are headed there.
Here's the thing: not only they are talking their story as something completely serious (to the point they don't even realize when they accidentally frame themselves as the villains), but it turns out that the lead developer, ONCE a somewhat respected figure in the scene of graphic adventures, went completely mental "after Trump won in 2016" (which is funny to me, since he's norwegian and all things considered he shouldn't be affected in the slightest) and since then that's ALL he talks about in every fucking interview.

EDIT: Some quote as proof.

PuvfMyn.jpeg
The next time someone accuses you of being a paranoid sad little incel who believes in a non-existent culture war, show this screenshot.
A Norwegian dude reading Twitter first thing in the morning and getting angry about US politics is most likely the saddest existence I have seen. No wonder the game turned out like it did.
I am Greek and I am just as invested in American politics because it affects my entertainment via the culture war. He is probably a very liberal left-leaning person who watches American politics for the same reason, but expecting the opposite results that I do.

That said, no, I don't wake up and see what the Washington Post wrote this morning. XD
Are we sure they didn’t make this just to pocket the government funding, without believing any of it? I mean…

A “triggered” dialogue option to scream racism over literally nothing? Cancelling and bullying superpowers? Robots talking about not having gendered pronouns?

Really does look like satire. But based on the dev statements I suppose it’s real. Fascinating.
I didn't realize it at first. Robot characters get shat on a LOT in this game, which I thought it was weird because robots are supposed to represent the non-binary people. But THEN someone pointed out that the robots are basically the A.I. tech which artists loathe and hate and fear that it will 'steal their jobs'. Hence the aggression from the protagonist. Robots are the A.I. which 'is here to help' but you should actually hate it because it 'will replace you'. Which is doubly ironic when a lot of locals have similar sentiments about immigrants, and the leftists are all about tolerance yet they react the same towards A.I.
 

Sentenza

Gold Member
Nickolaidas Nickolaidas it’s all a matter of scale. I’m SOMEWHAT interested in every other foreign country’s political decisions, but I don’t lose sleep and mental health getting irrationally angry at what other countries do.

Hell, if I have to be completely honest my mood only improved once I started to tune down a lot how much I paid attention to what MY country was doing on the political front.

For instance our current prime minister (Giorgia Meloni) used to be just one of the countless shady henchmen hanging around Silvio Berlusconi, which I used to despise fiercely, so I have very little reason to like her… And I still scoff and laugh every time I hear some 20 years old crying their eyes out that “She will bring back fascism in Italy”.

She will hardly do anything that matters in the long term. Exactly like most of the Governments that preceded her, both on the right and left side of the political spectrum.
 

Holammer

Member
Nickolaidas Nickolaidas it’s all a matter of scale. I’m SOMEWHAT interested in every other foreign country’s political decisions, but I don’t lose sleep and mental health getting irrationally angry at what other countries do.

Hell, if I have to be completely honest my mood only improved once I started to tune down a lot how much I paid attention to what MY country was doing on the political front.

For instance our current prime minister (Giorgia Meloni) used to be just one of the countless shady henchmen hanging around Silvio Berlusconi, which I used to despise fiercely, so I have very little reason to like her… And I still scoff and laugh every time I hear some 20 years old crying their eyes out that “She will bring back fascism in Italy”.

She will hardly do anything that matters in the long term. Exactly like most of the Governments that preceded her, both on the right and left side of the political spectrum.
Before the last Italian election I saw certain people, mostly Americans saying how Meloni would make Italia great again, leave the EU and NATO.
All of them have so much pizza pie in the face, but I'm too kind to mock 'em.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Here's the thing: not only they are talking their story as something completely serious (to the point they don't even realize when they accidentally frame themselves as the villains), but it turns out that the lead developer, ONCE a somewhat respected figure in the scene of graphic adventures, went completely mental "after Trump won in 2016" (which is funny to me, since he's norwegian and all things considered he shouldn't be affected in the slightest) and since then that's ALL he talks about in every fucking interview.

EDIT: Some quote as proof.

PuvfMyn.jpeg

You don't think who runs America affects the rest of the world, not even in the slightest?

But ah well, that's off topic.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Norway and Sweden are ultra liberal and super leftist. Helldivers 2 (Sweden) is earnestly making fun of most of the people who like it and play it.

That doesn't really even make sense, because liberals are center-right in European politics. Only in America does "liberal" mean left.

Yes, Sweden and Norway are pretty liberal. But super leftist? I don't know about that, we (Sweden) currently have our most right-leaning government probably ever. Of course, that's still pretty left compared to the American hard right, that barely exists here. So in that sense I guess you're right.
 

Sentenza

Gold Member
You don't think who runs America affects the rest of the world, not even in the slightest?

But ah well, that's off topic.
Not even remotely to a degree where I need to lose sleep over it as the citizen of a different country, no.
But more importantly, I don't think ANY presidential candidate will have enough autonomy AND power to change significantly things on their own.

IF we will ever get to the point of a "third world war" it won't be because Trump or Kamala Harris will want it, but because the powers behind both will make that decision.
 
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