Hard Copies or Bust || CheckPoint 550

[@AriArchangel]

Not to detract from the seriousness of the lawsuit story, but the direct follow up of Black Ops 6 is maybe the funniest thing you have ever written.

[@blip_bloop]

Beej did that so well

[@Griwes]

It has given me the strongest whiplash I've ever experienced. Good job.

[@aethertag1530]

the shocked reaction beej has to having to follow up Serious Voice Graham is my favorite (horrifying) running gag

[@PeterHaughland]

Greet timing guys. Perfect delivery.

[@redshiftproductions7158]

How are we on Black Ops 6? How have they not come up with a different name. Seeing the number 6 after any media title reeks of laziness and lack of ideas. I'm giving Final Fantasy a pass because its in roman numerals and some how that feels less egregious to me

[@DrBatman0]

Graham, (or probably Heather who reads the youtube comments), the way the story on the lawsuit was both written and presented was incredible. I have appreciated your comedy for nearly 20 years so far, and respectful moments like this bring me almost as much joy as rewatching some of my favourite sketches (like Daylight Savings Time). Checkpoint may well be the most responsible journalism that I know of, and it's also hilarious.

[@L337P1R4735]

Graham quietly proving that he could absolutely be doing a serious news channel if he felt like it. I'd watch it.

[@skillganon606]

I miss feed dump.

[@stevenfitzgerald2052]

Seriously. I got flashbacks to the daily show with jon stewart

[@arubinojr5670]

Old school Kurt Loeder energy.

[@dawgzilla2007]

And proving he could get a degree in law.

[@adiuntesserande6893]

I think a lot of people would. Myself included.

[@cameronjackson7443]

As an aditional note about the gun violence lawsuit, American laws generally protect manufacturers from being sued following acts of violence. Going after marketing is one of the only ways to get any results.

[@TrylleBanjo]

This.

[@erictarkowski5141]

It's so messed up, they basically have to sue everyone around the gun manufacturers cause they can't sue them directly.

[@JWK1101]

@@erictarkowski5141 In fairness, if you get run over by a car, you can't sue the car manufacturer for damages.

[@PlebNC]

​@@JWK1101Except a car isn't specifically designed for running people over. Running people over is the result of an accident or misuse. A gun is specifically designed to kill people and thus is being used as designed meaning the manufacturer, arguably, has a level of responsibility in making sure the weapon is only used by users who won't commit shootings with them. Additionally cars and civic infrastructure have a host of safety features to reduce the likelihood of a person getting run over like vehicle automatic steering correction that detects if you're steering out of your lane and corrects it while not overriding user control or roadside barriers/bollards. Meanwhile guns don't have any safety mechanisms to disable them in the event its used irresponsibly, the best being biometric safeties or remote locks but gun nuts are paranoid it will allow the "guverment tuh take muh gunz" so the slaughters continue unimpeded. You'd think for a country that holds guns so core to its identity America would actually be proactive to limit, control, regulate and educate on proper gun control and monitoring who uses them but I guess the rest of the world has had a few centuries more time to mature on gun usage than America. Heck, Sweden has a firing range that has a major motorway running across it with no accidents reported because gun safety is taken seriously and everyone gets mandatory military training on their use (as a precaution in case Russia does a Ukraine to Sweden). Heck, here in the UK we love guns too but they're a tool you earn not a right so they're treated with respect to the point knife crime is a bigger problem than gun crime.

[@TheKingsdread]

@@JWK1101 Sure but cars are also not made to kill as many people as possible.

[@GGCrono]

I have to commend LRR both for their commitment to real actual journalism when the situation calls for it and for their masterful use of comic relief.

[@drdca8263]

*LRR ?

[@GGCrono]

@@drdca8263 You saw nothing.

[@wormspeaker]

As a gun owner, I hope that that the lawsuit works. I don't think that guns should be marketed at all, least of all to kids.

[@PlebNC]

All that'll do is cause guns to have their names tweaked to things like JK47, N4 and Stallion .45 and maybe a slight model tweak but it won't stop guns being depicted in games. Even if they swapped them for laser guns or water pistols a gun is still a gun even if dressed up differently.

[@wormspeaker]

@@PlebNC True, but there's a difference. Some people, especially the mentally unstable fetishize guns. I do believe that there will be some improvement (however small) when you remove the 1:1 representation of the item that they fetishize. It's not about removing the representation of weapons in video games (or movies or what have you) it's removing the induced desire to own that SPECIFIC weapon that leads the person to purchasing it. If they person hasn't purchased it, when they decide that they want to shoot up a school they won't already have the gun. It's not about the gun itself, it's about making people think that they should own THAT gun, causing them to buy it.

[@PlebNC]

@@wormspeaker Mate, people will fetishise anything. ANYTHING. And changing the 1:1 representation doesn't change it either, you're just adding extra steps between seeing a thing and getting it. People buy M16s to replace the foregrip and stock with wood ones to look like the NCR rifle from Fallout NV, people buy old guns to modify them to look like Star Wars laser guns. It's just extra steps. Especially when people realise a fictional gun is based on 1 or more real ones and will just buy the real one and call it the game version's name. The better solution mandatory gun education so any kid can safely render a gun safe if they encounter. And if your country is allowing "mentally unstable" people to own guns then that means there's a monitoring problem because half of gun control is checking periodically to make sure the owners are mentally safe to own one. For example here in the UK farmers with shotgun licenses are required to attend yearly monitoring sessions to check if the owner is showing signs of instability. This is because farming has one of the highest suicide rates in the country so it's very important to monitor such things. Perhaps if the US did more such monitoring they might get more help to unstable individuals before a shooting happens.

[@DayglowRed]

It's such an odd approach though as it being a Daniel Defense branded AR as opposed to literally any other AR is non difference aside from DD guns being more expensive than average. It's like when people went after Bushmaster back in the day like the brand mattered at all. I guess exclusively making in game guns not equivalent to any real world model would be as close as you could get to accomplishing something there.

[@wormspeaker]

@@PlebNC "you're just adding extra steps in between seeing the thing and getting the thing" That is exactly the point. It's not about stopping people from doing it if they really want to, but about making it less likely that someone will do it. It's like cigarettes. Stopping the marketing didn't stop people from smoking but it reduced the amount of new smokers.

[@brands248]

holy crap that black ops 6 delivery. Beej is a god

[@kobalt_ren01]

The sheer mastery on display both of Graham's delivery of the incredibly serious matter of the lawsuit, followed by Beej's delivery of the followup being well-timed by being intentionally ill-timed, I love it. Also, the full Checkpoint theme still slaps.

[@Lambda3141]

That tonal shift was... wow. Powerful yet hilarious.

[@WibblyWobbly1905]

Flaming clown spiders mentioned! That's a deep cut

[@TonyOstrich]

I was so excited to hear that! It's one of my favorite videos of theirs to show people.

[@Lilly-Lilac]

It always makes me so happy to seem them reference their own sketches

[@brev653]

I show people that vid *all the time*.

[@potatosordfighter666]

I recently rewatched that video in rebuilding my meme playlist, it's always good to see LRR sketches. My favourite one is still drugs though. The drug presentation makes me laugh endlessly. TBH, I'll watch it again soon.

[@Gulyus]

That thing Beej talked about is called the "Mere Exposure Effect". The more you are exposed to something (and thus the more familiar you are with it) the more you develop a preference for it. The more you see an ad about a thing, the more likely you are to go to that thing if you ever need something like it.

[@bhesselbach4836]

Thank you! This was such an informative story, that clearly explained the reality of the lawsuit that I was definitely misinformed about. Also, the rest of the video was hilarious.

[@CodeIndigo]

The whiplash between Graham and Beej at the end there was unbelievable.

[@345tom]

Honestly, gun makers ability to essentially advertise weapons through video games has always sat unwell with me. I'd personally love to see something happen legislatively in that field. I think it's hard to argue that it's not advertising- I mean I just think about how many guns I can name, in a country where I can't legally buy them. Plus, you see the lengths car manufacturers go in regards to racing games and the representations of their vehicles, Porsche being a prime example. Funnily, for once, GTA can't be dragged into it though, in that they have always used generic names for their weapons.

[@RobertJW]

Similarly, Hitman stopped using real guns years ago. Agent 47's signature ICA Silverballers are based on the AMT Hardballer, because the original game in the series did use real weapons, but the ICA has apparently been manufacturing weapons in-house for decades. All the guns in the Hitman games now are fake!

[@RoonMian]

I never made that connection. Living in the civilised part of the world this "seeing gun -> buying gun" never clicked for me because people don't just buy guns here. The USA are just so deeply, deeply weird and this lawsuit is a consequence of that weirdness.

[@PlebNC]

​@@RoonMianThe really weird thing is their constitutional ammendment about gun ownership is wildly outdated. Back when the USA was formed gun ownership as a right made sense because they just beat back an empire that might counter attack or cause a different empire to attack them while they're recovering from the war so allowing anyone to arm and defend themselves allows any citizen to form a militia in the event of invasion while they build up a trained national army. However today such an invasion is comical to suggest due to the strength, technology and rapid response of the US military that citizens needing guns is pointless any invading force that could gain ground against the US army could easily handle some disorganised rednecks with AR15s, Walmart body armour and a can-do attitude. Moreover such as invasion would likely start with the deployment of a WMD that civilians would be ineffective to resist let alone defend against. The lone bastion for keeping private gun ownership outside of needing it for work (like wildlife conservation or private security) is the farcical assertion they're needed if they want to start an uprising against the US government, which is funny because the US military has tanks, drones, choppers, jets and better body armour and equipment so good luck with that. Assuming the US citizens actually have the balls to actually do that, which considering Trump supporters grand attempt of that amounted to more of a mass squatting than uprising before getting subdued it's safe to say the days of US citizens beating back local tyranny are long gone.

[@feha92]

@@RoonMian this -^ I think it is a good thing when games decide to bring in real things, just for the feeling of authenticity. But it would _never_ translate to the idea that I could go buy it myself. Other than as a collector's antique, with key-parts detached to keep it from working.

[@RoonMian]

@@PlebNC "any citizen to form a militia in the event of invasion while they build up a trained national army" And that is another point. If you look at the language the authors of the US constitution used, when they talk about rights that individual people have, they used the word "person." But when they say "the right of the *PEOPLE* to bear arms shall not be infringed" then they mean exactly what you said, they mean that the nation in general and the federal states in particular are allowed to raise an army. That this meant individual gun ownership is a wild, willful and relatively recent misinterpretation from right wingers who blatantly lie about being "originalists." Edit: I had first written "feral states" instead of "federal states" and woooh boy, what a Freudian slip.

[@AStupidNewHandle]

Flaming Clown Spiders is secretly EVERYONE'S phobia, some just don't know it yet

[@letfireraindown]

Excellent run of the whole, but particular high notes to the serious story. Breaking it down to the advertising angle is good information and I'm glad this informed properly!

[@ArtFord]

About the League story: You forgot the funniest part, Players are actively banning the characters who are in the skin pack in matches to bar people from playing the over priced skins as protest.

[@LRRVG]

Hadn’t seen that twist when we wrote it. Amazing!

[@ArtFord]

@@LRRVG That's the beauty of giving a toxic community a target to be justifiably toxic to.

[@kristine9823]

I really appreciate that you look properly into the documents in these stories. I'd heard about the lawsuit and thought the same thing, so it's a pleasant surprise for Graham to go "Actually-". And to be fair, so far the data shows that getting rid of the Joe Camel marketing to kids really DID help cut down on kids smoking. So I hope it works here, too.

[@EForrest88]

The interesting thing that the cheat code law suit makes me think of is… tractors. Yup. There’s an ongoing fight between farmers and farming machinery manufacturers as there’s so much software-driven tech in their equipment these days and when something goes wrong with it the manufacturers just do not care, so farmers are forced to hack their equipment to be able to do any work

[@feha92]

Yeah the whole "we can sue hackers or people selling hacks" idea is imo stupid. Hadn't considered the repercussions outside of gaming even, but never liked the idea that a seller of a game could use the law to prevent others from doing whatever they wish _on their own machines._ Or selling tools enabling others to do so on _their_ own machines. Though I suppose this precedent could also be used by people to sue the game-companies. Just make a piece of software, designed in such a way that if a specific game is running the software operates incorrectly. Then you can sue the game company for distributing a software interfering with your product - that you made it happen intentionally surely doesn't matter? It is clearly their responsibility to verify compatibility with ALL other pieces of software, that it doesn't interfere with any other. Hell, you could even achieve this without intentionally targeting any game. Just make an exceedingly sensitive piece of software instead, that uses things that fail if other programs on the machine do certain stuff (maybe can't work if a fullscreen application is running? Then all fullscreen games with no windowed option are liable. Or maybe it uses the kernel such that kernel anti cheat can accidentally make it crash? Then again they are liable). Or maybe it's just doing stuff that is very likely to trigger anti-cheat softwares (but in a way that is actually innocuous)? Then any anti-cheat that aggressively shuts it down (instead of simply putting its own game into a failstate) is liable.

[@potatosordfighter666]

@@feha92 "It is clearly their responsibility to verify compatibility with ALL other pieces of software, that it doesn't interfere with any other." "Just make an exceedingly sensitive piece of software" You don't know how coding works and also there are FAR too many programs, as well as custom made programs, so there is no way to ever verify that your game won't interfere with every possible piece of software. They can't even make sure it works on every piece of hardware, and there are far less pieces of hardware than software.

[@feha92]

@@potatosordfighter666 on the contrary, I do know how it works. And you clearly lack reading comprehension, as my entire point was that it is a stupid idea to make it possible for the developer of a program to sue the developer of another simply because of compatibility-issues. Even if said "issues" were intentional and targeted to cheat in the game

[@Santisknight]

Graham proving serious journalism is not only something they're capable of but something they can be very good at. I am so pleased with this channel and this group consistently.

[@theunwelcome]

ah, another satisfying episode of Beej Has an Existential Crisis

[@Notimagain]

One moment, I was about to ask what the exchange rate to Norwegian Krone was for that Faker skin. The next? I just sat down and shut up as Graham talked.

[@jonw1599]

Fantastic story on the lawsuit Graham. please keep up the good work

[@alexfranz817]

I hope they get a chance to mention Ross Scott on his quest to stop the death of video games

[@ShinjiSixteen]

I agree this would be an excellent story to cover, since signal boosting it would absolutely be a good thing while being on brand for LRR

[@ssgtmole8610]

The long, torturous drought without CheckPoint is over! Huzzah! 🤣

[@sordcooper2]

That was surprisingly close to real journalism

[@mxjosie]

I have the LEGO bamboo tree and there's the more normal green leafage and the spring blossom available in the box. You bet your butts I went with the pink frogs!

[@FeliciaRondo]

Bravo on looking closer at the lawsuit. It's important not to be so knee-jerk.

[@ssgtmole8610]

In light of the lawsuit, and listening to Beej (Fallout bonus episode 1) mull about enabling call back features on the LRR Merch store - an extra point of data: One of the mass shooters browsed an online gun store, put a gun in his cart, but logged off. The gun store contacted him later through the call back feature and "helped" the shooter go ahead with the sale. 😮 Fortunately, LRR doesn't sell merch that is designed to kill other people. It's supposed to let people show their fandom. 🥰🥰

[@potatosordfighter666]

Fucken YIKE man.

[@LexYeen]

​@@potatosordfighter666the cyberpunk dystopia is _already here_ comrade; it just isn't evenly distributed yet.

[@Sundraygo]

Understood immediately: "I must leave due to a biological imperative!" Requires explanation: "I must leave due to a moral imperative!"

[@rfactor1502]

Given that the lawsuit to take down Joe Camel was a complaint against a tobacco company (RJR), it sounds like having Daniel Defense as a co-defendant might have actually been the correct move. There might be some complex legal reason or strategic shenanigans behind why they weren't, so here we are with what will now look like a rehash of an old lawsuit that might well get ignored by the public because of that.

[@Jason820]

It’s been illegal to sue gun manufacturers and dealers for crimes committed with their products for about twenty years now. I think a sufficiently ambitious lawyer could argue that this advertising complaint is a different thing, but your case is going to end up bogged down in this side question with really dim prospects for success. Tech companies have more money, weaker legal protections, and fewer friends in Washington. You’d just rather be suing them instead.

[@feha92]

@@Jason820 The point is that the suit is not about the crimes, but rather about the marketing. Also, I doubt it is actually illegal to sue. Just that it won't succeed.

[@nibblitman]

@@feha92 Well sure it isn’t illegal it will just be tossed out before anything other than filing happens based on past rulings.

[@potatosordfighter666]

@@feha92 Unfortunately, it genuinely is illegal to sue gun manufacturers for crimes committed with their weapons, in the USA. It was a law passed in the early 2000s. School shootings didn't really start at all until the late 90s/early 2000s.

[@feha92]

@@potatosordfighter666 you seriously have a law about criminalizing _suing_ for something? The fact that you lose and have to pay all lawyer etc fees as punishment for losing isn't (I assume that's the standard over there too) enough? Why not make a law against suing the state too? Or corrupt politicians/cops?

[@mrdrprof8402]

I, for one, appreciate the flaming clown spiders callback

[@SirAlaran]

Daniel Defense is not a defendant on this case, but they are on another one. Before saying that the firearm manufacturer could not be sued, you should look into the lawsuit against Remington. It was originally blocked under the PLCAA as you implied (and as the law is intended to do), but succeeded under a trade practices act (marketing). It cost Remington $73 million to settle. By the way, it's the same law firm (Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder) in these new cases, so they're clearly going with what works.

[@empath69]

Yeah, and the court case only settled like last week, after YEARS of being before the court; it sounds like Remington were confident that they'd exhausted their defensive options, so why wait for the inevitable when they can try to reach a better compromise than what the judge would enforce? Sounds like this sort of suit actually has legs...

[@potatosordfighter666]

The thing about not being able to sue gun manufacturers is to do with being blamed for crimes. A gun maker cannot be sued because someone used their gun to commit a crime. If someone goes to a store and asks for the cheapest gun because they plan on committing crimes, and your companies gun just happens to be the cheapest one, that doesn't suddenly make your company responsible for the crime. Or if yours is the best, or if yours is the favourite of the gun store clerk who happened to be working that day, it's irrelevant. The gun company cannot be sued for what the gun user does with it.

[@rhvette]

Remington settled (stupidly IMO, the case was as equally baseless as any of the others, it just wasn’t preemptively blocked by legislation) because they were hemorrhaging money at the time anyway. Remington’s parent company at the time, Freedom Group (itself owned by Cerberus Capital Group), determined they didn’t have the money to pay lawyers sufficient to see the case to completion and that seeking restitution of said legal fees would have been a “bad look.”

[@biggerdoofus]

So, yeah. The video games to violence idea is pretty well debunked. However, has anyone investigated the possible causal link between online multiplayer and violence? I feel like at least some of the well-known epithets no one would want me to recite here could be harmful when normalized with no understanding.

[@WFierce]

I don't think anyone wants to open that can of worms for fear of being accused of "restricting free speech". That's not what it would be doing, but there's a very vocal group of people who would claim it anyway.

[@feha92]

nah, normalizing words is exactly that, normalizing words. Crude language has no actual harm in any shape or form (other than harming the users reputation for some demographics), and the more normalized it is the less meaning it holds. It is why when someone who never swears, swears, people tend to realize they are speaking from a deep place. It is why being upset about slurs general use is nothing but stupid (but the specific uses on the other hand...), and arguably _more_ harmful than the use was by itself. I do agree that online multiplayer _for toxic games_ can be worth investigating though. If only because it seems to be more connected to rage from people with anger management issues (or so viral clips from streamers show), much like driving cars do, which I imagine would be bad for the ppl around those ppl.

[@paultuck]

Checkpoint once again doing serious journalism. It is always appreciated, thank you.

[@NikiGothBunneh]

The marketing of firearms is one of the two things with videogames and violence I find uncomfortable. The other one is something I said years ago that videogames don't cause violence but they're bloody good propaganda for targetting it at certain groups.

[@Gledster]

Love that Checkpoint is back following your intense recording of other shows. The way you all handled the lawsuit story and the follow up was respectful, whilst being informative and then swinging to funny. Masterfully handled. You all rock.

[@ReynardWrecce]

Flaming Clown Spiders! Well, turns out that's everyone's biggest fear.

[@benmcelwain5301]

If you incorporate a company. Get a company card and set up a Steam account. Then you as the CEO purchase games as an agent of your company. Then you leave all 50 shares to someone else in your will. The Steam account belongs to the immortal company just switching out the CEO.

[@empath69]

The only catch would be the corporation fees you'd have to pay annually to keep your (let's be honest) shell company active.

[@feha92]

@@empath69 That depends on which country you made it at. Honestly, that whole claim that you can't gift/sell/put_in_will/etc is just stupid, and I would argue very likely illegal. Even if you argue they don't own the game, then then could still transfer the license you argue they own instead. No, the only way steam could block this imo, is by invoking their "we can arbitrarily unilaterally terminate the license without any refunds/penalties, whenever we want and for whatever reason"-clause. And explicitly telling people that they are blocking such transactions by having a policy of invoking said clause when they find out people do such things. This would also prevent that company idea, as their policy would simply be that they terminate them when the company gets a second employee (or switched out the sole one).

[@crushcastles23]

Plinking is target shooting. Makes a "Plink" noise when hitting a metal target.

[@tuxbeej]

I KNEW IT

[@TheCaptainObrian]

Flaming clown spiders? that's my greatest fear!!!

[@psikker]

No way, mine too!

[@Quiltfish]

Beej, I feel you about the ad attrition, I've been training myself to feel revulsion whenever I've seen an ad, no matter what it's for. Yes, it's effort and could increase the negativity in one's life but I feel like having no respect for people trying to sell you things is just business as mutual.

[@potatosordfighter666]

If I see an ad, it makes me actively more likely to not buy from them in the future. 90% of the stuff I buy is used anyways. Most of my money goes to other people, not to corpos.

[@grelgen]

holy moly the whiplash

[@stevethepocket]

Congrats, Microsoft. You wanted to own the _Call of Duty_ franchise, now you do. And all that implies. Is it worth it yet?

[@PantherAssaultCannon]

Amazing episode. Just getting punched in the gut repeatedly by the firm hands of an enormous goth woman. 10/10

[@rickbowker4179]

Poor Graham, Running with a Ready Load.

[@ashdog9235]

3:20 I love my pink frog bonsai so fucking much

[@jophmac]

With fronds like these who needs single piece trees?

[@marcushead9985]

Bungie, learning about the Sony leak, being handed a check for $65000: "What a pittance!"

[@Obstreperous_Octopus]

I just wanted to express my appreciation for Beej's Wind Fish shirt. That's all.

[@erlendlunde2968]

Been watching you guys since the escapist days. Now i have a job, so have some of my norwegian kroners

[@tuxbeej]

I love this so much. Thank you.

[@WFierce]

Petition for all spoiler threads in future to be named 'The No-no Zone'

[@IbunWest]

I just want to say I very much appreciate the pink frogs joke.

[@feha92]

I would always argue that if you bought a game, you bought it. And can do whatever you wish with the copy. Mod it, bop it, gift it, sell it. etc. But I know that there are arguments that you buy a license to use the game on a specific service, until they decide to terminate the deal without any refunds. I would also argue that that claim can't hold, since I never signed such an odd contract in triplicate with witnesses present, no matter how much ppl argue that I checked a checkbox for some huge legalese document I never read. And on checkout it clearly listed a game's title, and a button with the words "purchase"/"buy"/etc, so it is clear that I bought that. The checkout didn't list "license for use of game's title in [insert service] service that can be unilaterally terminated for no refund at any time service wishes", it literally only said "game's title". But I know some people would argue that corporation's feelings are more important than humans, so for sake of argument, let's assume I *_did_* sign said contract in triplicate with a witness. And there were no false advertising at checkout. Well then I would argue that I *absolutely* have the right to transfer or sell said license to anyone, however I wish. I would still literally own it (even if it's not the game copy itself), so it is my right to do whatever I wish with it. So that whole "can't transfer in a will" honestly sounds illegal. Only recourse steam has would be to admit the transfer to be legal, and then tell the recipient that they invoke the "arbitrarily and unilaterally terminating the license with no refund because we hate you"-clause.

[@egriffin4164]

LMAO WHO PUT POONHUNTER420 ON THE TOMBSTONE GRAPHIC!?

[@shadowmaster1313]

What's the damage modifier on the checkpoint desk?

[@inajar7947]

A preprerelease? A proper one? Contract issues with WotC finally got sorted out?

[@PartisanGamerDE]

"Contract issues" also known as "Giant, evil corporation does not want to pay for marketing, because that will cut into the shareholders profits by a fraction of a cent per share"

[@viowof]

I believe it's set by set now.

[@SuperFlik]

Okay, yeah this lawsuit might get some traction

[@jackielinde7568]

I have YLANDS... Had it for better part of a decade or more. Have bought two copies, so my daughter could play it with me. (The PC version is multiplayer...) I stopped playing that game during the whole Red Shell debacle! THEY WERE SPYING ON MY DAUGHTER! Not even a fucking "Oh, I'm sorry". Their response was "We're taking it out of the game now because we have all the data we need." FUCK BOHEMIAN INTERACTIVE. Not surprised they added microtransactions to the game, as it was heading that way when I uninstalled it and left a scathing thumbs down on Steam.

[@pyredynasty]

Sometimes you just need a Beej.

[@GG-dt5hh]

Flaming Clown Spiders? That's my greatest fear, how did you know?

[@ravensbreedsmyth1367]

Because it's everyone's greatest fear.

[@nibblitman]

It’s like hights, get high enough and just about everyone has a fear of it.

[@ofrutsra]

Oh, this is a STRONG one this week

[@IanSrewop]

you guys are comedic geniuses.

[@gobgobbins4529]

Great journalism, thanks

[@Vmcf1968]

ty for bringing some real real to the checkpoint brother

[@themystic8634]

From your description it sounds like the accurate description isn't "Video Games cause violence" it's "THESE Video Games cause violence" which is definitely a more viable argument (To be clear 'cause' should actually be 'promotes correlated behaviours' but that doesn't flow so well.) A genuine massive thank you to Graham and LRR for presenting the nuance of a case that would be so easy to dismiss in the context of our past experiences.

[@RiverGloom]

Surprise check point awesome 😎

[@JuanPerez-cs1gx]

I used to play online games a lot in the past but then I kind of just stopped because of responsibilities and just got older and started feeling embarrased. It was not uncommon that after some game sessions I ended up just disgusted of what other people would be chatting in the games, the tantrums, and so on; but perhaps some of the most disturbing experiences (besides people clearly over 30 expressing interest in young game or animated characters, etc...) was when people started discussing in a very excited manner technical details about their favourite real world weapons and weapon attachments, specially when it was kids.

[@JustNilt]

In the US, no legal precedent until an appellate court rules on a case in certain manners. Not all rulings from appellate courts even do so. These folks would need to appeal the verdict and lose before any actual legal precedent is set. Rulings such as this, which is a jury verdict in district court, can be brought up in other cases and may be persuasive but they are in no way binding. That being said, the losers have claimed they will appeal. That costs a fair bit for attorneys to do, however, so it's not a guarantee that they will actually do so.

[@桜場娃夜]

Wow Beej, that CoD news... excellent segue and tone!

[@lordmanimani-]

Legit question I have is whether the accounts actually terminate. In theory one could simply maintain family library sharing between accounts (something they've apparently been making updates to recently) but if an account went away there would go thay library. Also the gap in Checkpoints has me mourning the loss of "Rodney Dangerfield, Gamer" as a potential running bit. Maybe it could appear as a Crapshot one day.

[@LordDeathington]

Oh cool, video games

[@davidpacker7602]

flaming clown spiders, is that a sketch reference?

[@dremoralorde5215]

Yes. 2012's Fear Itself.

[@roganzar]

In the US you can’t sue gun manufacturers for any gun violence perpetrated with their weapons. They lobbied, read bribed, politicians to enact laws preventing that.

[@OctopusOwl]

Congratulations on the PPR! Hope it goes well tomorrow!

[@stevejolly8231]

The new steam family sharing thing is pretty cool, if that sticks around could have multiple generations sharing gramps game library

[@joe.5103]

Best transition ever lol

[@mrmorganiser]

That black ops story was great.

[@karlkewbz]

Flaming Clown Spiders: The ultimate cause of death to us all since July 2012 (as far as LRR is concerned)

[@Neo_Way]

Oh the irony at 12:45 vs 9:05

[@violetto3219]

Hopefully we can see what Mr. Daniel "The D-Man" Defense has to say about this lawsuit.

[@krystlvines]

It's about time someone went after the horrifically blatant gun marketing

[@kkrampus]

as an australian i actually forgot you could buy the cod guns, that sort of gun doesn't exist here, not even on the grey market

[@BrotherAlpha]

Great show. You clearly didn't lose anything during that break.

[@Chooch1080]

Incredible reporting🤙🏿🍻

[@gideonseymour]

Beej is really out here watching youtube without an ad blocker?

[@jackielinde7568]

Silly Beej, but transitioning means a whole new wardrobe at the deceptively expensive prices fast fashion was hoping you wouldn't notice while they were busy "abusing" their customers, their employees, and the environment. Also, I have a kid in college who has a boyfriend that had a birthday around the Chicago MagicCon that I promised to buy tickets for the Las Vegas MagicCon in October for both of them. So I *CLEARLY* have no money for Steam Summer Sale (sorry Valve) or games related merch (Sorry Lego). Also, I hope they remember to catch you guys and gals and everybody in between at the Vegas MagicCon. I got them Desert Bus playmats to take with them in an excuse to collect your signatures. I also gave them a point list of who's signatures and pictures are worth what. I also didn't tell them you're the "Wild Canadian Beej", in hopes they go looking for whatever Canada's version of a Jackalope is. (Hey! I'm a Mom-Dad... or is it Dad-Mom... This is so confusing. Anyways, the dad part decided to have some fun even though I won't be going. D&D is more my jam... Or is it preserve... This is so confusing.)

[@ASpaceOstrich]

I'm surprised they haven't gone after the algorithm. The fact that we're all just okay with all social media deliberately making the world worse by prioritising engagement at the expense of health and, as you said, marketing guns to teenagers, is insane to me.

[@Ugunark]

Tonight: Funny man does actual journalism.

[@TK-_-GZ]

Algorithmic punch!

[@michaelhoerr2468]

I need to add "whoopsie fuckems" to my lexicon.

[@lostmarble540]

I guess this is just part of the "you don't own your games, they're just licensed to you" thing. Still feels weird, like steam has a feature that lets family members access your library, your kids can play your games as long as you're alive but once you kick the bucket they'd better stop playing your copy of Spiritfarer

[@RoonMian]

What I don't get is... Why do my kids have to tell Steam I'm dead?

[@diamondmx3076]

They don't, but valve might figure it out at some point (due to their eerily precise demographic info) and just delete things, which I imagine would be an extra sting after a funeral.

[@potatosordfighter666]

That COD lawsuit is going to be interesting, because it's absolutely on point. As a fellow Canadian, there aren't really guns here, but playing COD and counterstrike and stuff like that made me buy airsoft guns. I played a little bit of airsoft, but not enough to make the purchases worth it. I mostly bought them because I felt cool with them. That's really it. Marketing does work in that way at least.

[@Lynxiro]

tbh the real gun lisencing is actually really smart. I have not though about it from a product placememt perspective. I have only thought it was a way to add immersion and make modeling potentially easier. The consept of advertizing a gun seems a bit ethereal as a non NA andy.

[@RoonMian]

Yeah, living in the civilised world where people don't just buy guns just like that, I never made that connection either.

[@lexslate2476]

Can't leave games in my will? Goddammit. Now I don't want to die anymore.

[@shaden489]

You know at first i was expecting that lawsuit to eb the same old tired trite of video games cause violence etc but honestly i think they make a very valid point about cod and other similar shooters being a hige marketing tool for the gun industry as whole and for once i may be on the side agasint video games here

[@lostblank6082]

If you need some spicy stories for check point I would suggest checking out Wuthering Waves launch along with the JPN weapon mistranslation, it just keeps getting more crazy.

[@Eclyptical]

Maybe this is a hot take, but I feel like the best way to prevent assault-style firearms from being marketed to 18 year olds is to make it illegal for 18 year olds to purchase them in the first place. But thats just the ravings of this old loon.

[@Agt-Maine]

So how would steam be able to tell that you died and left your account to someone? Are they going to look at the accounts age and say “This account has been active for 100 years and will now be deactivated ” ?

[@erikdavis3584]

Where can I get a wind fish shirt?!

[@tuxbeej]

Nintendo had them in their store for a while. I bought one from their booth at PAX during the release of the Switch remaster of Link’s Awakening.

[@TheCandyManTeam]

Sony: Sign up for PSN to play Helldivers, you can trust us with your information! Also Sony a few weeks later: oops accidentally leaked one of our studio's expantions haha