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DON'T NOD states that Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and Jusant underperformed

Vlodril

Member
Banishers was a good game with a serious bloat problem that seems to ail most modern gaming. The pacing was atrocious due to it and although i liked quite a bit i just became disinterested and dropped it midway.

Too bad because i do love Vampyr. Not sure why they are not making a sequel to that but it may be that someone else holds the ip rights (Focus Entertainment published it i think).
 

justiceiro

Marlboro: Other M
I finished jusant, but honestly I was underwhelmed by it. The history on the pages were much more interesting than whatever that boy and it's bob were going through, and I feel like I didn't get to see the end of those pages. Climbing was another let down, since sometimes the camera doesn't let you look what you want. Even worse, sometimes the character won't let you reach for the rock you want either. I felt this game was stuck somewhere between grow up and mirrors edge, and I don't like where it landed.

Also, didn't this company screwed up the team that made life is strange, it's most successful title?
 

solecon64

Banned
I absolutely loved Life is Strange and Captain Spirit, and Vampyr was pretty fun, with all of its faults. I still have a sealed copy of Remember Me and I want to try it out.

But Don't Nod went into the Kool-Aid HARD with Life is Strange 2 and everything after that, so I feel like all their failures are well warranted.

Honestly, I actually hope even more bad things happen to that studio, and looking at their upcoming game, I'm sure that's going to be the case.

It is funny, tho, reading the replies in this thread like "oh, so having a black woman in a game is now woke??!?"... yes - because they've made it so, for the past 7 years. Just look at the poster for Banishers. No gameplay or anything, just the poster. And if you're telling me you can't see why that game failed, you're being disingenuous.
 
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I played the Banishers demo a few months ago to see if it was worth buying and it failed to hold my interest as the gameplay seemed generic and the story was a snoozefest so I never bought it. I'm not surprised it underperformed.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
I still have a sealed copy of Remember Me and I want to try it out.
Season 4 Reaction GIF by The Office


Peak art design - neo-Paris is incredible.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Jusant was pretty interesting. Initially I really enjoyed the art style, and I thought the developers came up with clever ways to keep adding twists to climbing.

After a couple hours of what felt like never ending climbing, I began questioning why I was still playing? I mean, I figure out what’s needed to ascend a steep climb and I’m met with another climbing section. I just stopped caring.

They collected a check from Microsoft by putting it on Game Pass day one. So they pretty much expected it to not sell well. They still have ways to make money on it, even if people aren’t outright buying it.

I don’t know anything about the Banishers game.
 
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mdkirby

Gold Member
Banishers is an amazing game. It's the type of game a lot of people here ask for- a good AA single player game with no woke agenda no microtransactions, good story and interesting setting etc.
Yet no one bought it.
It was a good game, crazy good given the budget and team. But it was definitely very woke, to the point of it being pretty ludicrous. It was set in US colony days, a very patriarchal and super religious puritanical time, but was brimming with “boss women”, and a remarkably high % of gay or lesbian characters, many clearly stated others hinted at…including the main female lead who was revealed to be bi during a haunting involving a lesbian couple. The commonality of these themes and way they were handled was wildly unrealistic from the perspective of women’s rights, minority rights, and lgbt given its time setting.

It was like it wanted to pretend that our sordid history on such matters either didn’t exist or was nowhere near as bad as it is made out…this is a narrative that we see come up a lot on the right in recent years that “oh slavery wasn’t really all that bad” etc, and I find this sort of revisionism, or reworking the past through modern sensibilities plays right into those narratives. That sort of revisionism is way more problematic and damaging than any other things that are typically ascribed as being “woke”.

All that aside, it was a very well made game, it was a bit dragged out tho, and the hauntings became very repetitive and I started getting bored. Never actually finished it as shadow of the erdtree showed up when I was 2/3 through.
 

JayK47

Member
I am reading a lot of comments on bloat. That is not something I want to deal with when I have such little time to game. I may grab this when it is on sale and who knows when or if I will find the time to play it.
 

Spyxos

Member
I had to google to see what game it is. I think I saw it once in an announcement, but you can't generate sales figures with zero marketing.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Jusant's concept has so much potential but it really comes as no surprise that there isn't much of an audience for it.

I wonder how much Jusant cost to make. Either way it was a really good game. 9 out of 10 for me.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Banishers is an amazing game. It's the type of game a lot of people here ask for- a good AA single player game with no woke agenda no microtransactions, good story and interesting setting etc.
Yet no one bought it.

Makes you think huh?

Yeah, the latest purple hair gaas game really did set the world on fire during the few days it was available...

Everytime a game performs below expectations people here blame "purple hair" and throw that meaningless "woke" word around.
Its not that simple.


Jusant was brilliant, but obviously not a title that would set the world on fire. It was also on Game Pass day one.
Banishers was just middle of the road in every aspect, and it had some pretty heavy competition during its release window.

The anti-woke are some of the laziest commenters out there. Like you said it's not that simple. Sometimes good games with no "woke" agenda don't sell. And sometimes "woke" games sell great. But trying to have that conversation is too hard to have.
 

tmlDan

Member
i've never liked any of their games, but how is it shocking that these games are not for most people.

It really feels like game devs and pubs are just so out of touch, games like these should have extremely low expectations they are not games that are expected to make a boatload and you should set expectations accordingly.

On top of that none of their games get any promotional material, Banishers came out and NOBODY knew
 
Maybe market them more, and lower expectations.
Hmm…maybe I should change my rankings on which entertainment medium has the worst glass ceiling. I used to think it was the music industry, but I’m starting to think that the gaming industry has a worse one due to how both the fans and the publisher will fire at a developer (who’s trying to move up from indie to AA to AAA) from two different sides.
 
If some of you actually played Banishers you know the game is supposed to be set in the 1600s New England, yet the game is infested with feminist propaganda, gay couples and preaching about "tolerance".
The black woman also acts very manly, assertive and arrogant ,where our whitey ass little bitch of a protagonist acts like a pansy ass hipster with no backbone.
I'm sorry but this is not it, Vampyr also suffered from these issues but they were better masked and the protagonist was much better because he had a more neutral view of the world.

For the people saying that Banishers isn't "woke," is there a story reason why there's a black woman teamed up with a white man in the 1600s? Because I understand that this is a fantasy game, but setting it in 1695 also confers some historical grounding. So the question is, why did the developers choose to go with that protagonist choice versus a white woman, which would've been far more common in New England in 1695?

Anyway, it's on my list to play but the above combined with generic fantasy setting + uninspired name probably contributed to this game not getting any reach. I for one only saw buzz about it in the GAF threads. Justant got a lot more coverage because it was a UE5 title.
 

ungalo

Member
For the people saying that Banishers isn't "woke," is there a story reason why there's a black woman teamed up with a white man in the 1600s? Because I understand that this is a fantasy game, but setting it in 1695 also confers some historical grounding. So the question is, why did the developers choose to go with that protagonist choice versus a white woman, which would've been far more common in New England in 1695?

Anyway, it's on my list to play but the above combined with generic fantasy setting + uninspired name probably contributed to this game not getting any reach. I for one only saw buzz about it in the GAF threads. Justant got a lot more coverage because it was a UE5 title.
I think she's supposed to be cuban.
 
Theres also a trend of using ugly black women instead of the tons of beautiful black women such as

Panam_Palmer_Infobox_CP2077.png


but game developers only go with

CereJundaPose-JediSurvivor.png


I've said this many times but game developers and these DEI pushing nutcases are far more racists than gamers.

lol she’s not even Black. She is native American.
 

Doom85

Member
Honestly, I actually hope even more bad things happen to that studio, and looking at their upcoming game, I'm sure that's going to be the case.

It is funny, tho, reading the replies in this thread like "oh, so having a black woman in a game is now woke??!?"... yes - because they've made it so, for the past 7 years. Just look at the poster for Banishers. No gameplay or anything, just the poster. And if you're telling me you can't see why that game failed, you're being disingenuous.

Jurassic Park Ian Malcom GIF


Bruh just flat out admitted simply having a black woman period is woke, and of course plays the blame game (typical for some anti-woke) and also apparently supports the “judging a book by its cover” mindset since apparently games should be ignored due to a fucking poster of all things. Because I’m suuuure no film or game solecon64 has ever enjoyed has ever had a shit poster, no siree.

Also, wow, hoping bad things happen to a studio (which would inevitably lead to a closure and thus them losing their jobs) because you don’t personally agree with their decisions in game development. Holy shit.

You got to love the “disingenuous” bullshit. Ah yes:

-me who actually played Alan Wake 2 (as I’ve caught several “OMG, it’s woke!” people who pretended they had at first, then they proceeded to goalpost move by acting like they had heard enough to “justify” acting is if they had played it. “Trust us, we flat out admit to lying!”) and actually knows how context works and thus the “white asshole” line is coming from an evil doppelgänger of Saga and thus clearly the message is “racism against white people is bad” because evil doppelgängers aren’t good people, because if it’s not the message then apparently the writers of Alan Wake 2 are pro-murder based on the anti-woke’s “logic” since Alan’s evil doppelgänger tries to kill innocent people yet “conveniently” the anti-woke don’t bring up Alan’s evil doppelgänger and his pro-murder stance in their “the developers want you to agree with what this doppelgänger says” narrative, hmmmm…….

-versus the countless grifters who posted that quote with zero context to get the parrots in a frenzy and write off Alan Wake 2 as “woke” and “anti-white” (ah, such an anti-white game, Alan is portrayed as flawed and makes a dangerous mistake but is still altruistic in the end and the other heroes want to save him, Casey is a great partner to Saga, the Anderson brothers are helpful once again, the sheriff is a reasonable nice guy, just look at all this “anti-white” messaging!) because apparently spreading disinformation is TOTALLY COOL

It’s not being “disingenuous” to not have the same ridiculous mindset some people have. Sorry I’m not looking to get triggered over anything I possibly can like a good chunk of the woke and now anti-woke love to do. Ain’t nothing disingenuous about that, I think both sides have largely become embarrassing and any reasonable person should steer clear of either. That’s my honest two cents, and if you need to convince yourself I’m being “disingenuous” about that, well, whatever allows you to sleep at night, pal!
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
You don’t launch a game like Jusant and expect it to “perform”. Come on.
It was a pleasant surprise for me, and I enjoyed my time with it, but it’s really a game for which there is, and never was, a market or a target audience. It’s something you stumble upon, or give a try to when it’s heavily on sale.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
You don’t launch a game like Jusant and expect it to “perform”. Come on.
It was a pleasant surprise for me, and I enjoyed my time with it, but it’s really a game for which there is, and never was, a market or a target audience. It’s something you stumble upon, or give a try to when it’s heavily on sale.

Exactly! I'm kinda shocked that we are supposed to act as if Jusant was gonna sell 10 million copies or something. It's clearly a passion project.
 
Banishers is an amazing game. It's the type of game a lot of people here ask for- a good AA single player game with no woke agenda no microtransactions, good story and interesting setting etc.
Yet no one bought it.
Most people likely brushed it off like I did when I saw the description

BANISHERS: "Confident black female protagonist avenges her old dead white love interest."

Banished women look Mary Jane Watson'd:
ss_7b846007db4ef32f2e7a112235b2032743f37567.600x338.jpg


EDIT: I guess they call him the "life partner" and not the "love interest". That makes it worse, not better.

I'm sorry it didn't perform, but it screams agenda - optics matter
 
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solecon64

Banned
It’s not being “disingenuous” to not have the same ridiculous mindset some people have.

Well that makes it even worse. Especially since you went on than unhinged tangent about Alan Wake 2. Which also failed, despite all the bootlicking.

And that's kind of the point. After 7 years of tokenism and forced inclusivity, I see a grossly ugly black woman on the cover of a game, and I know that videogame is going to fail. I just know it.

You, being super tired of all the woke and anti-woke, play the game, and come to enjoy it and bla bla bla. Which is great for you, I'm happy you found something you liked... but the game still failed.

And when there's a bunch of these games that continue to fail, and when the people making those games rightfully get fired, I'm going to feel like my opinion should have mattered more. You didn't help.

And yes, I am going to feel good about Don't Nod's fate next year, because looking at their next game... oh boy. But I hope you'll continue to like that one too, I'm sure it's going to help 👌
 

Doom85

Member
Well that makes it even worse. Especially since you went on than unhinged tangent about Alan Wake 2. Which also failed, despite all the bootlicking.

And that's kind of the point. After 7 years of tokenism and forced inclusivity, I see a grossly ugly black woman on the cover of a game, and I know that videogame is going to fail. I just know it.

You, being super tired of all the woke and anti-woke, play the game, and come to enjoy it and bla bla bla. Which is great for you, I'm happy you found something you liked... but the game still failed.

And when there's a bunch of these games that continue to fail, and when the people making those games rightfully get fired, I'm going to feel like my opinion should have mattered more. You didn't help.

And yes, I am going to feel good about Don't Nod's fate next year, because looking at their next game... oh boy. But I hope you'll continue to like that one too, I'm sure it's going to help 👌

Andrew Phung Laughing GIF by Kim's Convenience


Do you even know bootlicking means? Pretty sure Remedy isn’t on this forum, so way to use a word nonsensically, well done. Also, tangent? Do you live in some alternate reality where Saga isn’t a black woman? Or do you just not like when your grifters get called out on being actually disingenuous, seeing as you didn’t even attempt to retort my points there. That’s to be expected, when disinformation gets called out, all they can do is conveniently not respond, change the subject, or use the laugh emoji to delude themselves into thinking that disproves anything.

Of course, as we know, go woke, go broke…….well, except for:

Arcane
Baldur’s Gate 3
Barbie (2023)
Black Panther and Wakanda Forever
Get Out
The Last of Us Part II
Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse and Across the Spider-verse
Spider-man 2 (2023)
Wonder Woman (2017)
Zootopia

And spare me the, “uh, some of these aren’t woke!” Fucking puhlease, the fucking anti-woke are so quick to label stuff “woke” that all of the above should easily qualify.

But of course, the grifters and their parrots ignore the many contradictions to their brain dead slogan and attribute stuff that fails purely to “wokeness” and can’t seem to grasp the concept that stuff can fail due to A) bad marketing, B) a poor release window with strong competition, C) bad writing/directing/etc. that are independent of wokeness, etc. Why, it’s almost like business is more complex than something that can be dumbed down to one absolute sentence? Whodathunk?!

After all, if “go woke, go broke” was true, then going anti-woke should be a 100% recipe for success all the time, right?

Well, let’s see what the Daily Wire, a very clear anti-woke site, has to offer:


Tom Hiddleston Reaction GIF
Captain America Lol GIF by mtv


3.8 and 3.5, oh man, they’re kicking those wokies’ asses! But I’m confused! They went anti-woke, they should be well loved! Why, it’s not like something could just be shit regardless of “wokeness” levels!

God, people with such a basic mindset they can’t escape from are so unintentionally hilarious. Like, I should feel sad you’ve all been brainwashed by the grifters and don’t realize the illusory truth you’ve fallen for just like the woke have, but at this point, I can’t help but laugh at you all, it’s a way healthier alternative than being mad all the time like all of you enjoy being.

So yes, I’ll continue to have fun. You continue to be angry, scream about your issues with black women, and wish for people to lose their jobs AKA their means of providing for their families (seriously, you’re such a class act). I’m sure you’ll be a huge hit at parties with such an outlook on life.

Jim Carrey Lol GIF
 

sachos

Member
It pains me that the anti-woke are often more unbearable than the woke. Takes some real effort and dedication.
Its the damn social media culture wars man, it is rotting people's brains. I wonder how much of it is an actual orchestrated psy-op.
 

solecon64

Banned
So yes, I’ll continue to have fun. You continue to be angry, scream about your issues with black women, and wish for people to lose their jobs AKA their means of providing for their families (seriously, you’re such a class act). I’m sure you’ll be a huge hit at parties with such an outlook on life.

Ok so, you went on a lot of different tangents again, but you came back in the end and we can work with that. Going off your last paragraph. It's great that you'll continue to have fun playing those games, I promise I'll also continue to wish for the people making those games to lose their jobs... but that's the problem, see?

Despite your fun, the people making bad games like that ARE losing their jobs. And between both of our opinions, I feel like mine would be more helpful.
 
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Doom85

Member
Ok so, you went on a lot of different tangents again, but you came back in the end and we can work with that. Going off your last paragraph. It's great that you'll continue to have fun playing those games, I promise I'll also continue to wish for the people making those games to lose their jobs... but that's the problem, see?

Despite your fun, the people making bad games like that ARE losing their jobs. And between both of our opinions, I feel like mine would be more helpful.

Yours is not more helpful because focusing on complaining about “wokeness” distracts from actual discussion. The new Dragon Age looks iffy due to the different gameplay of combat, potential lowering of RPG elements, dialogue choices being more limited, etc. But the grifters saw the color purple on the cover, the characters weren’t drop dead gorgeous, and there was an OPTION for surgical scars, and suddenly all discussion about gameplay (which surely should be discussed more for a video GAME) was ceased because the grifters and their parrots would not stop shouting about those superfluous elements.

But what about a so-called “woke” game that isn’t suffering in the gameplay department? What about that predicament?

Well now, let’s see, is Banishers a bad game in actual relevant areas? I mean, you wished for them to lose their jobs due to making bad games, so surely either the critics or the audience will support your stance-


The Office Turns GIF


78 and 7.7, nothing amazing, but clearly not bad at all. And critics and audience seem to be relatively in agreement.

Why, it’s almost like this game underperforming had barely anything to due with wokeness! Maybe a lack of marketing or tough competition during that release window, I mean it’s not like this thread has had a bunch of people saying EXACTLY THAT. But also in terms of Alan Wake 2, why it’s not like the fact that the game didn’t get a physical release for a year or wasn’t on Steam could have affected sales, it was “the wokeness”…..which as I pointed out didn’t hurt Spider-man 2 sales which had a physical release, was well marketed, and was on Steam, but surely those three factors couldn’t have helped, amirite?

This is the issue with the culture “war” (LOL at both sides thinking they’re relevant enough to call this a “war”). It distracts from actual discussion on why projects succeed or fail. And those of us who are beyond tired of both sides are also annoyed any legit discussion gets drowned out by either side constantly bringing “woke” and “anti-woke” up.

Either side constantly deploy ragebait tactics to hook you in. They position more suspicious, flimsy, or objectively false ideas around a bunch of more seemingly reasonable ideas (though often not providing full context so it fits their narrative they’re building). If you value your intelligence, do not label yourself as the modern definitions of “woke” or “anti-woke”. Because then you’ve allowed yourself to fall for the deceptive manipulation both sides deploy.
 
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Denton

Member
One can deny the evidence of their eyes only for so long.

Forspoken - fail
Flintlock - fail
Dustborn - fail
Banishers - fail
Alan Wake - fail

Now obviously, these games failed for multitude of reasons - but one of those reasons is that people who are not black women are not particularly drawn to playing as one. And most gamers are actually not black women.
 
A shame. Both those games are on my to-play list.

Vampyr was great; that game was absolutely dripping with atmosphere. Sadly for me, it crashed constantly on PS4, which made it completely unplayable. I'm talking at least once an hour.

I'm looking forward to Life is Strange : Double Exposure, though. It will be cool to play as Max once more.
Was something wrong with your ps4? I had a ps4 that sounded like a jet engine near the last 2 years before I traded it in. It also raised the tempature of the room by 10-15f , was nuts, but never had a Vampyr crash out. I don't recall many games crashing at all.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Greedfall 2 releases in early access today on PC actually! Big fan of the first one, and I am replaying Steelrising at the moment. I love Spiders games too. Now lets hope that Dontnod and Focus make Vampyr 2.
The issue with Greedfall 2 is that they seemed to have gone full on “anti-colonization” route so I think storyline might be a bit suspect. I did like the first game.
 

Doom85

Member
One can deny the evidence of their eyes only for so long.

Forspoken - fail
Flintlock - fail
Dustborn - fail
Banishers - fail
Alan Wake - fail

Now obviously, these games failed for multitude of reasons - but one of those reasons is that people who are not black women are not particularly drawn to playing as one. And most gamers are actually not black women.

I love how you just “know” that is one of those reasons, and think gamers are so shallow they don’t want to play as a black woman. Way to insult gamers, pal.

Seriously, if someone out there actually is willing to play a woman, or play a black man, but won’t play a black woman, I mean, come on, that speaks volumes.

But I like to think gamers, and even most of the “anti-woke”, aren’t that shallow. Christ, Resident Evil 5 is the highest selling RE game, and I can’t say I remember people who used the co-op, “ugh, why do I have to play the black woman?!” Tons of people play Claudette in Dead by Daylight, and I’m pretty sure a lot of those players aren’t black women.

Are there shallow gamers? Obviously. But nowhere near the level to what you’re suggesting that they would refuse to ever play a black woman specifically but playing a white woman or black man is okay despite not being one either.

I mean, apparently movie goers ain’t shallow either.


Oh look, all pretty profitable or extremely profitable films “despite” a black woman(en) being the lead. Well, I guess one can’t “deny the evidence”, can they?

Office Space Reaction GIF
 
The issue with Greedfall 2 is that they seemed to have gone full on “anti-colonization” route so I think storyline might be a bit suspect. I did like the first game.
Say it aint so.... like there is merit to playing the middle and having two stories play out how they would. Why is this not done anymore? BG3 did it, hell their game technomancer had multiple paths the story could take.
 

Denton

Member
I love how you just “know” that is one of those reasons, and think gamers are so shallow they don’t want to play as a black woman. Way to insult gamers, pal.
I didn't say it is a main reason, but only a moron would claim that it plays no role whatsoever. It is not an insult at all, hell, I am sure lot of black people are tired of playing white protagonists too. Most people are more drawn to people who look like them. It is not shallow, it just is.
When game has a character creator, do you think majority of people create characters of different ethnicities and sexes than they are? I doubt it.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Say it aint so.... like there is merit to playing the middle and having two stories play out how they would. Why is this not done anymore? BG3 did it, hell their game technomancer had multiple paths the story could take.
Well, it’s 2024 and apparently thing to do is to sell to non-existing “Modern Audience”, lol.
 
I love how you just “know” that is one of those reasons, and think gamers are so shallow they don’t want to play as a black woman. Way to insult gamers, pal.

Seriously, if someone out there actually is willing to play a woman, or play a black man, but won’t play a black woman, I mean, come on, that speaks volumes.

But I like to think gamers, and even most of the “anti-woke”, aren’t that shallow. Christ, Resident Evil 5 is the highest selling RE game, and I can’t say I remember people who used the co-op, “ugh, why do I have to play the black woman?!” Tons of people play Claudette in Dead by Daylight, and I’m pretty sure a lot of those players aren’t black women.

Are there shallow gamers? Obviously. But nowhere near the level to what you’re suggesting that they would refuse to ever play a black woman specifically but playing a white woman or black man is okay despite not being one either.

I mean, apparently movie goers ain’t shallow either.


Oh look, all pretty profitable or extremely profitable films “despite” a black woman(en) being the lead. Well, I guess one can’t “deny the evidence”, can they?

Office Space Reaction GIF
I think you are neglecting the elephant in the room, and that is the passage of time and aesthetics. Also before anyone says it, yeah this shit applies to all women protagonists not just black ladies, all women and men should be somewhat pleasing to look at.

Resident evil 5 had a sexy protagonist. By definition, she is non woke. HOT, HOT, HOT!!!! beauty knows no bounds. Everyone from every ethnicity can recognize her beauty and sexyness. The poses, the curves, and the bad assery.
No one bitched about Sheva being a "girl boss" why because she just was. She didn't try to explain, she just did it and exhumed that energy. When you have ugly females blasting men and calling them mysoginists or privledged for existing, then preaching how they are the best, the future is female, and smash the patriarchy... .well you expect the large co-hort of most male gamers to like that? There was also no problem with Halle Berry and Storm as again she exhumed femme fatale badass in a sexy pose. Same way other woman like Buffy the vampire slayer, lollipop chainsaw juliet, bayonetta, Eve, etc.... All knew they were the shit. All knew they had shortcomings too but didn't blame the men for them (how a non woke, aka normal woman would react).

Shit you don't even need to
PwN9GVNWalwxEggIftT83ke22i3sFwJuidScbkmTQaiVf-boMriiCWYUyzWkqZesCtQ7NrXLUB-yrj0E_e1d9VgvIJUoh2ODGKbydO9A9nLGxINwy5RB4_zHlKubWjFvEyTzah3ZK1oHgrDAgd0n_mjY866pf1SeKtekc5YZhRamm7DqY4BC-kJoZ8hJKlugqBI86qA2
5a7b32959be49086ef5068097b7ee4c3.jpg
Ec9FKnKYcHP0nLBw9bOod1DzpvuwPIWFJMVpA4jFRQw.jpg


See, even some woke devs get it:

gcbs4m7q4j8d1.jpeg


Now look, I am not saying they all need to be smoking like Sheva or Storm, but characters need to be appealing and have some beauty. A side npc, sure whatever, but a main character you have to want to look at. Mod sites blew up in popularity due to character npc mods.

We have all the men being strong and good looking but the women play by different rules. In the woke world they would react by making ugly male characters, then the feminists among them would pipe up and say all women deserve hot guys, so they don't dare touch the male protagonist.

This all started with Anita and her ilk poisoning the well so to speak. She pushed her ideology into dev's and publishers. Publishers who wanted a bigger slice of the pie and seen the un-tapped market. The thing is, it doesn't work. You can piss off your existing fanbase to get a small sliver of people. You have to either be niche and please one set or go with your bread and butter and please your existing base, with some side bone to the new crowd.



People are tired of the girlboss and forced stuff, the last 8 years or so happened and its grown tiring. A lot the games coming out now were from a time where this was being pushed in the mainstream. That time has gone. Its time to move to the center of this and come back to normality. Not every game needs a female protagonist, and not all female protagonists need be ugly or not sexy at all. They have been set out in force to "turn the tides, right the imbalance " that sociologist write about. The problem they never understand is where that line is. When has it gone too far. When to pull back. This never happens, once released it will build up as they don't know when to stop (it happens in other things too). It builds up until there is a backlash and you have what you have now where people aren't buying. They got sick of being lectured or having ugly characters. They want something else.
 
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mrabott

Member
There is something that publishers need to understand about today's market.

Young people and children don't care about games anymore. They play what their friends play, and it's usually some online game like Roblox, Stumble Guys, Fortnite, COD and Fifa.

These players don't buy games.

And for those of us who are over 30, time and money are scarce, so we end up buying the flashiest games, usually sequels within a franchise or a game that has been heavily marketed.

I didn't even know that Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden existed. And Jusant is on my list, but what time do I have to play it if I spent over 150 hours on Persona 3 Reload and the expansion. And I'm not going to buy the game just out of the goodness of my heart so that a company can make a few bucks.
 

JusticeForAll

Gold Member
These were both great games, but the marketing for them was non existant. They are exactly my kind of thing, but I feel like I got to know about them basically by accident.

I know it's a woke company, but these games were great and deserving of a bigger audience.
 
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Alan Wake

Member
Seems like game after game I've enjoyed this year is underperforming. Sad to see. The studio behind Alone in the Dark was even shut down.
 

Duchess

Member
Was something wrong with your ps4?
Nothing wrong with it, no. But I believe the game was updated about a year after I gave up on it to fix the constant crashing.

If you Google the issue (Vampyr PS4 crashing) you'll find plenty of those saying they've had the issue (as well as those saying it never happened to them).
 
Jusant was a cool concept and idea but felt undercooked, too short and just generally left me wanting way more. I like left field ideas like that so I'll always buy some weird shit but no surprise that nobody buys it.
 
Jusant was a cool concept and idea but felt undercooked, too short and just generally left me wanting way more. I like left field ideas like that so I'll always buy some weird shit but no surprise that nobody buys it.

I thought the Banishers demo was fun and interesting enough to get when it’s about $20. I haven’t seen it drop below $45. So it sits on my wishlist.
 
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