@Acillatem1993: liken it to owning a car, if you want to drive it you don't need to check in with the manufacturer, if you want to modify your engine you can, if you want to paint it a different colour you can, if you want to lend it to a friend no problem, if you want to sell it, just find a willing buyer. Before DRM, games were like this, you owned them, they were yours, you had all the rights that came with ownership. Now the company maintains all control. Some people may not care that they can't sell or mod their games but some do and this used to be a basic right. Just because game companies have a mechanism to bind us to their will, doesn't make it correct.
DRM does effect legitimate buyers! Before it emerged you owned the product you paid for, now it's more like a lease. If I wanted to take MY game to my friends house install and play, I could, if I didn't want to use Steam or *gulp* Origin I didn't have to, if I wanted to add a mod or hack, no problem, playing offline was never even something you could imagine losing, if I wanted the game on multiple Pc's I could do this, no hoops to jump through no fuss. Are these not your rights as a consumer? You bought the product, it's yours, now game companies say nope, we own the rights you will do as we say. If a company shuts down and it's servers shut down this can lead to you losing it forever. I understand piracy is a concern but those of you saying it doesn't affect gamers don't appreciate the fact that gamers have different needs and consumer rights and freedom of use are being destroyed.
@mrougeau: Fair point from your perspective as a writer then but are you then telling me then that gamespots most promoted article for this extremely popular show is sensationalist opinion pieces like "game if thrones officially no longer makes sense" followed by "game of thrones finale just made up for everything" if that's the case I have thoroughly mistaken the purpose of this site. That content in place of an objective review is akin to the click bait articles that plague the internet. Again, not your fault as a writer if that is your actual purpose but then this site is of absolutely no use as a review mechanism.
Last week you obviously had a large amount of backlash, this week you can expect some lingering opinions despite your about turn and showing the show some love. The issue is last week you wrote about all the issues you had with the entire season, the problem is the season hadn't ended. Take Arya and Sansa as an example, you criticize the fighting in your episode 6 review, you then write an opinion on possible explanations and finally you praise the story arc here. This is problematic for a review site, sure what is a review if not an opinion but it is not constructive for you to so strongly give your opinion on pure speculation then let us as readers follow your constant flip flopping while we all had our own opinions already, you are 100% sure to generate hate. Rather follow the proper convention that is you review each episode on its merits alone and you review the season as a whole only when you have all the facts. Otherwise please gamespot do not let this be your main review but rather title it "opinion or "blog, this is a review site after all...
@george1989: 100%, in fiction you can often justify the reason the story is focussing on a particular character as oppose to anyone else in the entire world of unknown characters is because their tale is so unbelievable. I brought up the Lord of Light because even if people expect that GRRM should be brutal and realistic as he so often has been, this particular story arch involves an incredibly powerful force that does things like resurrection and divination as this possibly further discredits the writers views on coincidence beyond usual fantasy tropes..
@george1989: Regarding coincidences, deus ex machina and circumstances that seem highly unlikely like perfectly breaking ice, parties meeting up etc. Let's also not forget the fact that an actual god resurrected 2 members of the party that went North of the wall as well as showed visions to the Hound and clearly took notice of Gendry earlier in the series... Surely a god with such power can possibly orchestrate some unlikely events in pursuit of whatever it's goal is....
Regarding coincidences, deus ex machina and circumstances that seem highly unlikely like perfectly breaking ice etc, let's not forget the fact that an actual god resurrected 2 members of the party that went North of the wall as well as showed visions to the Hound and clearly took notice of Gendry earlier in the series... I think they made it rather obvious the Lord of Light has an interest in this particular mission and surely a god with such power can possibly orchestrate some unlikely events in pursuit of whatever it's goal is....
"Why is Arya angry at Sansa?" Seriously!? They never got along well as children and Arya has since gone on to become a cold blooded killing machine who feeds people their children in pies before brutally murdering them and their entire family and friends, all this to adhere to a list of people she wants dead. Arya just found out Sansa asked her family to bend the knee to Joffrey, JOFFREY! the number 1 name on her list per her own admittance! How could such a character with such a motivation not be angry with her sister!
On timing, sure the characters do seem to teleport around but so what, we all know an adequate amount of time has passed, do we really want to watch filler material from the road, I commend the series for not cashing in and pushing for an extra 5 seasons. The show has been building up to this point for 6 seasons of character development, backgrounds and lore. This season and next are the payoffs and big events playing out, do you honestly think it would be best to follow ghost and Theon around for hours, why don't we go watch Meera Reed be sad at home after Bran dismissed her, should Arya have spent 10 episodes with Ed Sheeran on the long road to Kings Landing, then 10 more episodes back to Winterfell? I get that some fans would love this kind of stuff but the show is not making a mistake by picking up the pace and showing the material that really matters at a pace that makes sense if you just acknolwedge the simple fact, time has passed without me seeing it and the events we witness are not all linear but like the book focussing on various characters at a time.
I agree the rationale for going beyond the wall was not great, Cersei surely will betray them if given the chance but Jon clearly is obsessed with stopping the white walkers and at that point Dany was in such a powerful position, what harm could an armistice do, what hope does Cersei actually have against 3 dragons as Jaime put it...
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