cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/7643915
As always in capitalism, video games have largely deformed from an art form into just another means to generate profit for large corporations
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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Tetris enters the chat
Yeah it being an incredibly addictive universally approachable game has nothing to do with it being widely played for over 40 years... π
Psst. Almost 40 years. Tetris was released in 1985 not 1983
This comment brought to you by an old fuck that doesn't need to be artificially aged to be even older
I've played about a dozen versions of Tetris over the last 30 years, a lot of which were written by just one dude and released to the world without the expectation of compensation. There are literally hundreds of ports/clones that run on everything from a Nokia phone to a Unix/Linux text mode interface.
Were it not for western publishers, I'm pretty sure it would have spread anyway just due to its addictive nature and it being an excellent time sink. Just like chess and checkers didn't need a capitalist to spread around the globe.
I'm literally using an entire operating system right now that not one capitalist controls. It runs most of the internet's infrastructure. Sure, the capitalists can use it and even contribute, but they don't get to dictate how you run your system.
How about your hardware? And the fibre that enables us to communicate? And the electricity?
Oh, funny you mention that, because in my country, my government paid to have fiber laid but the useless bloodsucking capitalist ISPs didn't do absolutely jack shit with the money and pocketed it. That's why were having to do stupid shit like Starlink now to connect the people out in the sticks.
My electricity is also provided by a co-op.
Anecdotes are just that though.
You moved the goalposts
How did the soviets make Tetris if technology only exists under capitalism?
No, I said make a decent game now. As in, a capital intensive one that uses top designers, artists, coders etc etc. Who is making those games today? The Vietnamese? The Cubans?
One game in 1985 versus the multi multi billion capitalist games industry?
No it wouldn't. Tetris was going to get played by millions whether someone licensed it or not. That's why there was such a mad scramble to land a deal.
You don't need licensing to copy that floppy. That's what your mind can't grasp.
The Soviet Union owned all copyright, there was no licensing let alone individual copyright.
Where are you getting floppies from? Where are you getting your computer from?
Computers and floppies existed outside of the USSR, as did Tetris.
The floppy, invented by IBM, one of the biggest capitalist companies ever??
I think you have me confused for someone else.
Thatβs only because in the West there was no way for the game to reach customers at the time. The game was popular in the βSoviet Blockβ just fine, because distribution model was different.
Today, it would spread through internet like fire.
Sure, I'm always playing Vietnamese and Cuban games. They're grrrreat!
And Tetris was only successful because of licencing, let's not create an alternative history here