In that case, this has come a long way since then! Good work!

Did I play this at a PIG Squad event way back when before it had a name and was just a kart racer that had some animals in it? I'm only mostly sure it was this.

Labyrinth Cats when?

Will have to give it a listen, sounds up my alley.
It's getting harder to ignore with its size, and the video game industry has teetered on the edge of regulation before they decided to self-regulate by forming the ESRB, so I see this as potentially similar, but farther along.

I feel like @rohangrey.bsky.social's Law, Money, Tech class could have an interesting discussion or at least be a good topic for a student paper on digital "assets" in games and their speculative markets.
There's something here on the question of securities as well.

(And yes, there's an entire black market and casino sites that are enabled by and contribute to this speculative market, but that's another topic.)

The interests of market traders (i.e., also blockchain/crypto) oppose those of actual players. If you reduce the friction for players, market traders are hurt. In order to benefit that market, you often have to make your game have more friction and be a worse experience.
It becomes game vs markets.

This gets called a "rug pull" because people have treated CS cosmetics as a speculative market. People buy, sell, and trade these skins at incredibly high prices. But that's the kicker- by reducing friction for players of their game and making it more enjoyable Valve hurt this speculative market.

The update made it so that you can now get knife skins, the rarest drop, more easily. Previously it was random, with a drop rate around 0.26%. Now you can trade 5 items of the highest rarity for one. This reduces friction for the system. You can trade up to cool stuff without having it be random.

By contrast, in something like 2XKO (as one possible example) the developer makes an equal amount of money if you play any character. They all cost the same to play- $0.
Are there still situations where monetization could affect balance at some point? Sure. But the incentive is not nearly as strong.

I'm not saying that it's always the case that DLC characters are stronger (game balance is hard) but only that there is some incentive for developers to make a DLC character stronger. They make a sale if you buy the game, but they make an extra sale if you also want to play that new character.

That at least has the start of a creative process or decision making, even if it still doesn't rise to the level of submission. Generative AI is a pale imitation of the process.
Looking at the tracks of a MIDI and how they come together invites you to think about being creative and make your own.

Enemies in general feel faster and more aggressive, but the game gives you better tools to deal with them like casts that slow enemies. You play as a witch in this game after all, not a warrior like Zagreus was.

I use my fight stick for platformers and other 2D games all the time, it's great fun. Would do the same for leverless as a way to get used to it, plus it just feels great.

It was a great tournament run for everyone here, love to see the SSF vs SSF grand finals.

And here's Nintendo in August increasing prices for the Switch 1 (not 2) in the US "based on market conditions" which is somehow even dumber.

In all three cases, call them what they are. Taxes that the US government is choosing to impose on you for imports.

To not exclusively throw shade at Microsoft, here's Sony's similar statement when they increased the price of Playstations in August due to "a challenging economic environment."
Again, come out and say exactly why you're increasing prices.

Some people still somehow don't understand that a tariff is an import tax, not a bill that you send the other country for sending their goods over. Especially where there is no alternative good that's produced in your country. Call them what they are so people can feel it directly in their wallets.