daisekihan

Even in the unlikely event that does happen, it won't be for months if not years. It would be a good idea to put at least this video on as many sites as possible to catch the attention of as many people who bought The Crew as possible. Not to mention, that would only ban TikTok in the United States, which is not even a major focus of Ross's campaign.

It looks like it's already been uploaded there at least once. But I don't think the account is particularly popular. Still, it's something. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLS47aFr/

Ross, you might recoil at this idea but, have you considered making a TikTok account to spread the message? You would be surprised how many people do most of their video viewing on TikTok. I was going to suggest posting on Instagram… But someone seems to have already done that https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5UKAqJBys9/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Damn, I must have missed it. I just hope that if this is successful, Ubisoft and companies like it don't decide to double down and keep killing games in the U.S. and elsewhere just to assert that they have the prerogative to do as they please with their intellectual property even if it makes no financial sense.

Ross, I was wondering, even if federal law won't do anything, have you looked into state law? New York and California have economies as large some of the European countries you are targeting, and they have pretty progressive laws.

Ross might try contacting Yahtzee / Second Wind to signal boost this issue. I got the impression that he and Ross had a rapport from when they resolved an issue where Yahtzee borrowed a phrase from Freeman's Mind without realizing it and apologized once Ross called it out.

Ida Auken, a Danish MP, was the one who made the the quote and she was a member of a Socialist party but switched to a Social Liberal party in 2014 and was a member when she said that. At least, all the information I can find seems to indicate her meaning was more along the lines of central ownership, though admittedly the fact that the WEF would publish such an opinion might be a matter of them trying to soften people up to losing property rights. The Baltic states and their weird mix of socialism and capitalism tend to muddy the matters.

Looks like Ross is aware of the EFF. I would personally consider making contact with them my top priority, even if it means becoming something of a nuisance. This is their bread and butter.

Ross, your points are as always well taken. Also, many years ago you and I got in a little tiff here where I derided The Crew and the genre of driving game it represented as having little value and an extremely limited appeal. Over the years I've realized I was just wrong, and I just had a too limited sense of empathy or too little experience to understand your perspective. One thing...I think the person who made that quote about owning nothing was coming from a socialistic model of centralized ownership rather than just corporate ownership, though it definitely gives a bad look. Have you gotten in contact with the EFF? They seems like they would be the go-to guys for this.

Okay, I thought there was more involved in it. Excuse my ignorance!

But like, what if no one is even willing to run such a server in the first place? I mean, we're not talking about erasing the full game, but just the multiplayer aspects of a game you can still play. The company can't run the servers forever, so the proposed other option is to turn multiplayer servers over to the fans. But someone will have to run and pay for those servers. That's just not going to happen every time even if the company does allow it. I'm not saying I agree but if this scenario happened, "but maybe in a couple years when a new game in that series is announced people will go back to the older ones", the companies would argue, "If such a demand appeared we would reopen the servers."

I'll put aside the CIA thing. But about multiplayer features, aren't there inevitably going to be some games that are simply not popular enough for fans to bother setting up a server, even if the company released the code for free? Even popular games can eventually have empty lobbies even if the server is technically running after enough time.

Ross, MintPress, publisher of the article on the CIA that you quote here, is not a credible news organization. They have been caught spreading lies that even other far left news outlets disavowed (https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2013/09/20/retraction-and-apology-to-our-readers-for-mint-press-article-on-syria-gas-attack/) If you are really opposed to misinformation, I think you should be more diligent about your sources. Furthermore, even this article, as flawed as it is, only said that the CIA *was* embedded in major media outlets during the Cold War.

I think Anno 2070 is kind of a bad example, Ross. You talk about burning Bram Stoker's Dracula, but they aren't purging the whole game, just the online elements. Is Anno 2070 even popular enough that someone would run a fan server for a city building game, even if they offered up the code like you've suggested in the past? As to why this is getting noticed and the other ones aren't--the ones you mentioned were only shutting down the online servers in 2021. We were hearing that people wouldn't be able to download the DLC for various popular Assassin's Creed games anymore even if they had already paid for them, and that pissed people off. People are fairly willing to except the fact that online services won't last forever (whether that's right or not is a completely different matter), but if they paid for a certain amount of downloadable data they are going to be affronted if they lose access to that data. I'm sure that the same thing has happened before, but Assassin's Creed II and Far Cry 3 were very popular.

I hope you're right, but it feels like Ross's approach to HL2 is more about critiquing the world and the story instead of trying to interpret it in an entertaining way. Part of the charm of FM was that Gordon seemed to be enjoying himself, but that side of him is almost completely gone now. The Freeman who thought of a rocket launcher was the perfect gift for the was who has everything is gone now. Using the gravity gun would be far too much fun for the current version of Freeman, so I could understand why Ross would write it out.

So Freeman thinks the Gravity Gun is out of power and is never going to use it again. Well, there's one more thing I was looking forward to in this series that Rose wrote out. I wouldn't be surprised if he modded the final level to just be a normal shooting one at this rate. Well, at least Freeman is making some jokes and only half of the lines are just Ross taking the piss out of the level design through Freeman instead of pretty much all of it like the last few episodes.

Ross, the whole point behind The Purge movies is that the psycho killers aren't really even psychos, they're hired by the fascist regime that staged a coup before the series began to kill off the underclass to stem overpopulation. Hence the title.

I just need to take a break from Ross's content, I think. Maybe the problem is with me not him.

The format just does not work for this game. And Ross thinks he is "holding Half Life 2's feet to the fire" by making him oblivious to every character not mentioned in the original game, as if Freeman came into existence on the tram to Black Mesa, when all he is going is reminding the viewer that they aren't really seeing into Freeman's mind but watching a game playthrough. Everyone looking forward to Ravenholm is in for a rude awakening. Ross has decided to make the Gravity Gun unusable (I can only imagine how he plans on getting through the Citadel where Freeman has no other weapon) and half of the enjoyment we all remember from that level is the Gravity Gun. Ross seems to be more interested in criticizing Half Life 2 than making an entertaining story, so if he sticks to form he is just going to dismiss Father Grigori as a lunatic and spend 90% of the time screaming.

I definitely hope I'm wrong. I hope Ross was just burned out by the canals and Freeman will actually do what he does best, thriving in chaos.

If Ross hasn't lost interest, that's great. But the fact remains that Half Life 2 is an NPC heavy game and if Freeman's only reaction to them is screaming about how unrealistically they're behaving and constantly reminding the viewer by proxy that the NPC's can't really hear Freeman, it's going to become unwatchable. It doesn't matter if it's "in character" it is. Freeman's Mind isn't supposed to be an Oliver Stone movie, it's supposed to be comedy. As for Ravenholm, if Ross continues the way he is now, not only will he not have chemistry with Father Grigori, he's going to do little other than complain about how annoying he is or how he's not behaving like a human.

I guess I'm going back on what I said earlier by continuing this, but it is not my belief that Ross should stop making them because I dislike them. I think Ross should stop making the series because he seems to dislike making it. On his streams, the most enthusiasm he can come up with for FM2 is that it's better than working a day job. If Ross really is still passionate about the project and a lack of care has nothing to do with the recent episodes, he should by all means keep trying to make them. But I highly doubt that to be the case.

In any case, I've said my piece, and I don't feel like an endless debate. I hope Ross knows that the fans who really support him will comtinue to do so with or without FM2.

I'm not bothered by disrespecting the story. In the original Freeman pointed out the level design, but now that is all he does, namely complain about the gamey aspects. In moderation, this is funny, but if it's all he does, it starts to break any sense of immersion that I'm really watching Gordon Freeman's perspective and not just a slightly exaggerated Ross doing a playthrough and constantly pointing out the plot holes. Even if you say "This is what the character would do", that doesn't make it entertaining to watch. He might as well just do a Half Life 2 Game Dungeon at this rate.

Fans are not donating for FM2, I suspect. Ross started taking donations before FM2 even started, after the beg-a-thon. There was no expectation he would do Half Life 2. The fans who donate are primarily not here for Freeman's Mind 2 (including myself when I can donate) or else the fact that there has been so few days episodes would be reflected in his donations. I am familiar with his schedule and it seems to me like he is far more interested in making the Game Dungeon, even to the extent thar FM2 feels more like a Half Life 2 Game Dungeon where Ross picks the game apart rather than making Freeman an appointment with enjoyable character to experience the story with. Like I said before, it's like someone in a D&D game who constantly points out the gamey-ness of the experience and won't even make an attempt to meet things half way. As for the Movie, while I have honestly started to doubt whether that project will ever come to fruition over the many years since Ross announced it, I am fairly certain that if Ross didn't have FM2 out, he would be closer to finishing it.