Yeah that’s not great. To be honest for the most part I really like it. Most of the stuff you unlock is pure cosmetics (profile pictures or alternate looks for units—which only display as different for you, not your opponent). They’re just some good fun, and I find my completionist nature enjoys jumping into the game to get them.
But there have been a few of the things unlocked as part of the challenges—that 256x mod is one of them, and there have also been a couple of cheat codes more recently—that did feel like more substantial things to miss out on if you happened not to be able to play while they were on offer. I wasn’t playing when the 256x mod was around, but when the cheat codes first appeared I recall thinking it was pretty disappointing for anyone who might have wanted them that would miss out for whatever reason.
Huh, that’s very interesting. I’m genuinely curious to know what it was that you didn’t like about it.
Because the truth is that you’re seemingly in the extreme minority. While 2013’s HD edition seemed to split the community and received a bit of a mixed reaction, since 2019’s DE has been an unmitigated success in terms of both finances for the devs, and in terms of unifying and growing the size of the community.
I agree with the goal of this, but don’t necessarily agree with its specific assertions.
Like yes, 100% we would be way better off if companies would actively support emulation by selling super-cheap any games that they otherwise have no interest in anymore.
But actually, yes, I do enjoy paying $40 for the remake of an old classic, if it’s done well.
The Spyro remaster from a few years ago was extremely well-done and I loved being able to play a favourite from my childhood on my computer. It was exactly the same game, only with modernised graphics. Well worth it.
Even better, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. It upgraded the graphics, but also added an enormous amount of new content and (most importantly) quality of life features, all done in consultation with the community that had been playing the original game for 20 years at the time DE came out. It would be best if you could still buy the original 1999 version for five bucks, but frankly I doubt many people would if you could, because the Definitive Edition was done so well.
It’s obviously different when there’s a remake that’s nothing but a cheap cash grab. Or when there hasn’t been any type of modern update. I wish, for example, it was easier for me to get my hands on a copy of Battle for Middle-Earth 2 to play with my friends. But the company that made it isn’t even allowed to continue selling it, for complicated licensing reasons. Because copyright law sucks.
The formatting of the website looks completely different to me. The buttons don’t look similar, they’re not in the same place. It has its clear logo which basically tells you it’s not Randall Monroe’s site: “Making XKCD Slightly Worse”.
The only thing that’s similar is the art style of the comic itself. Which like…yeah? That’s the point.
Plagiarism, by definition, is taking the work of someone else without attribution. If you’ve provided attribution, it cannot ever be plagiarism.
Note that this is not the same as copyright infringement. If I upload the complete 3rd season of Knight Rider to YouTube, that’s copyright infringement, no matter what. But if I were to do it and say “created by Glen Larson for NBC” in the description of every video, it would not also be plagiarism.
The above site cannot be plagiarism because every single one points back to a specific XKCD comic or comics that it used as its source. It could be copyright infringement, although I suspect it would probably qualify for a fair use defence due to being parody.
Eh, the British “countries” are countries in name only. They don’t really fit any of the usual things people would think of as constituting a country.
In reality, they’re constituted like less than the state of a federation like the US, Germany, or Australia. A state has a constitutional right to its governance, and cedes some power to the federal government. The devolved governments of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are rights granted by Westminster, and could be taken away at will. Nothing Biden, or Trump, or Mike Johnson wanted could ever take away Maine’s right to its own governance like that.
I do know for a fact that the Pope has someone working at the Vatican who is precisely the kind of nerd that might be on this site. The Pope himself…probably not.
Depends on your source. I’m sure there’s some context on which that’s true.
If we’re talking the transphobic author’s world, a male witch is a wizard. Warlock, there, is a title kinda like “knight”.
In D&D a warlock is a person who gets magic by forming a pact with an otherworldly patron, like a devil or fey. A witch has meant different things at different times, but probably most strongly conjured images of an old-looking hag brewing potions with a familiar.
According to IRL wiccan lore a warlock is an evil male practiser of witchcraft, while a witch can be male or female.
Other contexts will have other explanations, I’m sure.
I had one today where it was click on all the squares that contain a bus. One square very clearly contained a truck, not a bus. When I didn’t select that square, it told me I was wrong.