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I'm tired of this new era of information and indirect-marketing the industry has come to

.Pennywise

Banned
I'm getting old guys.

Once upon a time this was how we got information about games: Gaming event > Developer announces new game with gameplay and gives a release date > Said date comes and people get to play the game

This is how we get information about games now: Obscure rumors of random people on the internet > Rumors from somewhat trusted people > "Insiders" start talking (tweeting) vague information about the game and possibles dates that may or may not be accurate> Developers tease with vague info (probably with a tweet) > "Very trusted Insiders" extra-officially confirms info on what's to come killing any little possibility of surprise > Developers announce a date to announce something > Here there's a high possibility of game trailer/screenshots "leak" > Developer finally announces a game, and announces another date where you can see the game > Said date comes and you get an "in-engine alpha work in progress may not represent actual gameplay" trailer > Developer goes dark > Developer appears and announces gameplay trailer date > Gameplay trailer arrives, but is very short and tells you there's more at insert big gaming event here > Big gaming event is here! Full gameplay trailer launches... no release date > Developer goes dark again > Go 5 steps back and repeat 2 to 4 times > Release date is finally announced! > Said date comes and people get to play the game :)

Exceptions may apply of course.

So, yeah, this industry has become such a shitshow and so full of themselve is just sad.
 

slade

Member
This industry was headed towards just such an endgame from the very beginning. You can't have an industry that is built on hyping up the fanbase and not have it spin out of control in an age where information is so widespread and easily available.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Well said.

Don't forget this BS that cropped up big during the past 10 or so years.

Legit PC beta test: A free download for a game in development probably 1-2 years out. Game looks sketchy, is incomplete, but that's the point. Gamers know it's sloppy, but they play a game for free and give feedback. Game releases a few years later polished, looks better, has full set of content.

Asshole modern day tactic #1: A "beta test" is a free download. The game looks and plays the same as the retail release, but is missing features because it's a limited content download. Despite being a "beta" the retail game has basically already gone gold and will be sold a month later.

Asshole modern day tactic #2: Dev shows a canned video a few years out nobody is allowed to get a test copy of classified as an "alpha or beta work in progress". Dev gives a hint it's WIP so expect better things to come when it's final. Game comes out and the 2 year old build looks better than the final game.
 
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Shantae

Banned
Agreed. I'm really not a fan of this teasing and teasing and teasing shit until finally when an announcement comes, I just don't give a shit.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I feel like we get shit held close to the chest way way longer, and right up to the last minute more. It's a double edged sword, it might be nice to have a game reveal and release so close together, but at the same time, this year has been especially terrible with how much we don't know about new consoles coming out THIS YEAR, and how long it took to get to know what we do know about them. In previous generations, I feel like at this point in time, we would already have a release date on new consoles at least, and a price.

Nintendo is especially pissing me off right now with how close they're keeping shit to the chest. Sure we heard rumors of a bunch of Mario games, but we still have no idea what Nintendo has planned for the last part of this year for the Switch. No idea, none. Nothing with any certainty anyway, just those rumors. In a year that's been barren already, I hate that I love my Switch so much, because I want to be mad at Nintendo for making this year such a dry spell, in a time when we could use the entertainment.
 
That's a topic that the 2020 Devolver Digital conference covered.
2fMr2HT.png
 
Eh, we gamers buy into and perpetuate it too. Just stop drooling for every tidbit of information and rely on actual trailers and launches if you want to avoid that trap. Companies exploit what works and stop doing what doesn't pretty quick, it's a reflection of our thirst really.
 
i hate this type of information system that the gaming industry has become no im not going to get hyped for an announcement of an announcement. Dev time I understand stuff not being ready to get shown because it still in alpha fine but if the game is coming out this year and there is still no gameplay cough cough UBIsoft farcry uuhhh how about I dont know show it one time and then move on instead of trying to drag it out for months on end.
 

reksveks

Member
Well said.

Don't forget this BS that cropped up big during the past 10 or so years.

Legit PC beta test: A free download for a game in development probably 1-2 years out. Game looks sketchy, is incomplete, but that's the point. Gamers know it's sloppy, but they play a game for free and give feedback. Game releases a few years later polished, looks better, has full set of content.

Asshole modern day tactic #1: A "beta test" is a free download. The game looks and plays the same as the retail release, but is missing features because it's a limited content download. Despite being a "beta" the retail game has basically already gone gold and will be sold a month later.

Asshole modern day tactic #2: Dev shows a canned video a few years out nobody is allowed to get a test copy of classified as an "alpha or beta work in progress". Dev gives a hint it's WIP so expect better things to come when it's final. Game comes out and the 2 year old build looks better than the final game.
To be fair, a lot of modern beta’s aren’t testing the build of the games but are testing the net code. Also those wip builds usually have a lot less of ai and other stuff that gets added as the game develops.
 

Shantae

Banned
Perhaps because I'm getting older, but this hype management model has tuned me out of the hype train.

These days generally speaking I only care about gameplay footage.
Yeah. even though I like story telling and good writing in games, I am so tired of the "cinematic" cgi trailer that is totally not representative of the actual game. Just show me the fucking game, stop wasting money on this bull shit prerendered crap that exists only for their marketing, and to mislead the buyer.
 

TwiztidElf

Member
You're not old OP.
Once upon a time this is how we got information about games: Walk into the newsagent hoping the latest monthly magazine had arrived, and if it had, that it hadn't sold out already. Buy it. Read it repeatedly in excited anticipation, looking at the blurry off screen photos of upcoming games, while waiting for the next magazine.
 

Esca

Member
I agree, it's a giant headache now. Thankfully when I first see a game I have a good instinct if I'll like it or not. If it catches my interest ill avoid info on it till near release and can make my final decision.

Between all the bs, spoilers, and time for game info it isn't worth looking more than a few months out from current date.
 

ShadowNate

Member
Yeah, this has been going on since the nineties at least (I can only vouch for that far back).
It's just that now we have additional "outlets" and probably marketing tactics have advanced too with the years.

Anyway, I remember cases where a game was overhyped, especially if it was a sequel or a spiritual sequel of an existing game, and the false advertisement of its gameplay would even make it on its own box.

Huge delays, development hell (and cancellations of hyped titles) were also a thing back then.

As were sponsors by GPU/CPU vendors, optimizations and/or extra features exclusive on said GPUs/CPUs and, occasionally, you'd have a title promising to use an advanced GPU/CPU feature, provide proof-of-concept / tech demos and then pretty much under-deliver, severely reduce the scope, and/or switch platforms altogether (this was the Alan Wake case by the way -- if you look at what they were promising in the early years of the announcement).
 

CamHostage

Member
Yeah, this has been going on since the nineties at least (I can only vouch for that far back).
It's just that now we have additional "outlets" and probably marketing tactics have advanced too with the years.

Yeah, I was going to say, when was this imaginary time when the process was so cut-and-dry? Ever since there was an internet, there was a hype cycle for the life of major productions; you'd get word that somebody was hiring, you'd get a troll of what kind of designers and programmers they were looking for, you'd get rumors from "the janitor" about what game they were making, you'd get some screenshots on some website, you'd get many more screenshots on other websites, you'd get some preview articles about a short hands-on demo, eventually get a TV commercial with some crappy CG or animation or some actor kid doing something corny and maybe 5 seconds of gameplay, you would get a QuickTime video or two of 30 seconds of gameplay, and then it was off to the store to buy the game. And that was all in the internet era; I remember the hype cycle in magazines running back to when EGM showed the first screenshot of "Super Mario 4"...

(*I can't find the EGM picture, so enjoy this EGM spread of Mario World on Super Famicom instead.)
AJb0Kxp.jpg


The biggest difference now is that games don't take 6-12 months to make anymore; they take 3 years. So the hype cycle needs to be much, much more controlled, because if it burns out too fast, it can affect the game interest. That, and there's way more corporate dollars invested, and so many more studios involved in a production, so they lawyer up against their own staff to make sure nothing leaks until it fits on the marketing schedule.

Also, we're all older now, so that's another difference.
 
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Yeah, I was going to say, when was this imaginary time when the process was so cut-and-dry? Ever since there was an internet, there was a hype cycle for the life of major productions; you'd get word that somebody was hiring, you'd get a troll of what kind of designers and programmers they were looking for, you'd get rumors from "the janitor" about what game they were making, you'd get some screenshots on some website, you'd get many more screenshots on other websites, you'd get some preview articles about a short hands-on demo, eventually get a TV commercial with some crappy CG or animation or some actor kid doing something corny and maybe 5 seconds of gameplay, you would get a QuickTime video or two of 30 seconds of gameplay, and then it was off to the store to buy the game. And that was all in the internet era; I remember the hype cycle in magazines running back to when EGM showed the first screenshot of "Super Mario 4"...

(*I can't find the EGM picture, so enjoy this EGM spread of Mario World on Super Famicom instead.)
AJb0Kxp.jpg


The biggest difference now is that games don't take 6-12 months to make anymore; they take 3 years.

..and social media
..and YouTube
..and streaming
..and influencers
..and much more frequent fake leaks
..aaaand..

Sure one can simply suppress all this information by not consuming it. However, there seem to be only few in here who are successful at this.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
You could simply choose not to follow all that shit.

For the people that literally just watch E3 (when it exists) or other directs, get their trailers and dates, then buy the games when they're available, the process is largely the same. The key difference now is that there's a much higher chance the game will be delayed until a later date. All that other crap is mostly limited to gaming forums, Twitter and the like. The people in know in real life that play games all just buy games whenever they come out, don't follow any hype at all, and they're happy. We do it to ourselves and help perpetuate it by constantly talking about it.
 
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ZywyPL

Banned
The biggest difference now is that games don't take 6-12 months to make anymore; they take 3 years. So the hype cycle needs to be much, much more controlled, because if it burns out too fast, it can affect the game interest. That, and there's way more corporate dollars invested, and so many more studios involved in a production, so they lawyer up against their own staff to make sure nothing leaks until it fits on the marketing schedule.

I strongly disagree - just look at Apex Legends, the game came out of nowhere, literally appeared available for the end consumer with no previous marketing or news at all, and the hype was there. IMO the longer the marketing goes the worse/opposite effect it gets, just look at Below, Cuphead, The Last Guardian, Dreams etc. no one even noticed those games actually launched because most people simply forgot about them long time ago, because as more and more time passed people not only lose interest in the gems, but lose any hope that the games will ever be released, at some point you just give up and focus on something else that's actually within your reach, something you can actually look up for, something you can actually play.
 
Yeah but games are shit anyway. I've been playing Quack Shot yesterday on my PSVITA. It's crazy how great this game is. I mean why would i lost one single second with RDR2 when i can play such a gem thanks to Retroarch.... so yeah, communication can only be a problem when products are shit.
 

Tschumi

Member
I think that's been around mass media in general for very long indeed. "mad men" stuff imo.. i guess they've got to try to mix things up, i mean at the other end of the spectrum there's very little mystery about,say, AC games up until Unity?

Yeah but games are shit anyway. I've been playing Quack Shot yesterday on my PSVITA. It's crazy how great this game is. I mean why would i lost one single second with RDR2 when i can play such a gem thanks to Retroarch.... so yeah, communication can only be a problem when products are shit.
For real should i pick that up brah?
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Yeah it makes it harder to pay attention and to get hyped. So much fluff padded around the game from announcement to release date.

Budgets are bloated so it makes sense (big games = big marketing budgets) but I agree that the drip-feed only works if you actually have a captive audience. There are too many games, too many companies making stuff every year to waste time clinging to every tease and hint from major pubs.

Thankfully old games are always available. Go play some Street Fighter and become a family man!
 

PresetError

Neophyte
Have you watched the latest Devolver Digital Direct? They explained it perfectly.




I've time stamped it for you but if you don't want to clik the play button they joked about how games are a side effect, a chore, a thing that gets consumed and forgotten fast while the marketing campaign, the leaks and teasers keep people hooked and hyped and obsessed for years.
 
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I think that's been around mass media in general for very long indeed. "mad men" stuff imo.. i guess they've got to try to mix things up, i mean at the other end of the spectrum there's very little mystery about,say, AC games up until Unity?


For real should i pick that up brah?

I'm 40 so i really feel the same fatigue towards this media and how bad it is. But PSVITA is great.
1. The oled screen changes EVERYTHING.
2. The dpad is the best for generations.
3. It's a sexy and powerfull hardware (it's possible to unlock more power thanks to homebrews).
4. You know nothing about video games if you haven't play Rayman Origin on PSVITA (others versions are trash on trash hardwares, and yes i own Legend on WiiU).
5. PSVITA is the home for EVERYTHING but what makes this media toxic aka the big guns (call of duty, bordeland are shit on it 😂).
6. So many japanese devs + great indies + Tearaway + Little Big Planet + Personna 4 Golden + PSX + PSP on the greatest screen in the industry (most of the games can be upgrade to 540p aka the resolution of the screen, thx to one of the greatest homebrew scene). Parodius Portable, Street Fighter Zero 3, Darkstalker Portable should be play on PSVITA only by anyone pretending to ❤ video games.
7. MEGA CD videos even look good on this screen !!!
8. It's the home for some great Atlus, Tecmo Koei, Marvelous gems.
9. Play the best racing game on the go aka Sonic and Sega alls stars racing, DOA 4, SFXT, and many 2d Fighters.
10. PC ENGINE, NES and Genesis on it.... it's the same than Rayman Origins... if you haven't play those with that screen you know nothing about videogames. 😉
11. RPG, visual novels are killing it... and guess what? Most of them are both great and unknow by "gamers" you know the RDR2 gamers... 😂 don't say it too much... let's hope the PSVITA stay a niche forever.
12. Game prices are rising! But there are simple and simple options to get iso.
13. The YouTube scene is not about drama! 😂
14. Fuck Sony for no vita 2. Love Sony for the vita.
 
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JimmyRustler

Gold Member
I said this in another thread already but especially these fake leaks are a fucking cancer. Like again just a few weeks ago when it was rumored that a new SH will be announced at the PS5 reveal. Of course, there was nothing I ended up being disapointed with the show despite it being quite solid. What a load of shit...

I generally hardly getting hyped any more. All this bullshit really tainted it for me.

I honestly long for the old days where I only had a monthly magazine with some pictures and actually seeing the game in motion was something special. All the mystery... Talked about this with a mate the other day. Remember when MGS2 fooled us until it's very release that Snake would be the main character? Imagine a stunt like this today... Impossible.
 

Tschumi

Member
I'm 40 so i really feel the same fatigue towards this media and how bad it is. But PSVITA is great.
1. The oled screen changes EVERYTHING.
2. The dpad is the best for generations.
3. It's a sexy and powerfull hardware (it's possible to unlock more power thanks to homebrews).
4. You know nothing about video games if you haven't play Rayman Origin on PSVITA (others versions are trash on trash hardwares, and yes i own Legend on WiiU).
5. PSVITA is the home for EVERYTHING but what makes this media toxic aka the big guns (call of duty, bordeland are shit on it 😂).
6. So many japanese devs + great indies + Tearaway + Little Big Planet + Personna 4 Golden + PSX + PSP on the greatest screen in the industry (most of the games can be upgrade to 540p aka the resolution of the screen, thx to one of the greatest homebrew scene). Parodius Portable, Street Fighter Zero 3, Darkstalker Portable should be play on PSVITA only by anyone pretending to ❤ video games.
7. MEGA CD videos even look good on this screen !!!
8. It's the home for some great Atlus, Tecmo Koei, Marvelous gems.
9. Play the best racing game on the go aka Sonic and Sega alls stars racing, DOA 4, SFXT, and many 2d Fighters.
10. PC ENGINE, NES and Genesis on it.... it's the same than Rayman Origins... if you haven't play those with that screen you know nothing about videogames. 😉
11. RPG, visual novels are killing it... and guess what? Most of them are both great and unknow by "gamers" you know the RDR2 gamers... 😂 don't say it too much... let's hope the PSVITA stay a niche forever.
12. Game prices are rising! But there are simple and simple options to get iso.
13. The YouTube scene is not about drama! 😂
14. Fuck Sony for no vita 2. Love Sony for the vita.
Hahaha man thank you so much but i actually own a vita (2000, but i may get an oled just to complete the collection) i was actually asking any the game you mentioned :p

But I'll savour your passionate Vita rant forever :p :D <3

Ps i live in Japan and they still put out annual baseball games and jrpgs for vita here :p
 
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Laptop1991

Member
I agree, i don't trust any publisher anymore, and stopped pre ordering because of their marketing and sales nonesense, i wait and see if the game is worth my money after it's released now.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
By and large there's a method to consuming information, we live in very unique times.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
I find it really weird that as anonymity became easier we lost most, if not all genuine leakers. The cynic in me thinks these are now the people who tease and tease the faintest whiff of actual data because ultimately they wanted everyone knowing who they were. And it had to be a username, but now they can tease safely and on a massive platform. Gettign more and more attention. Most of the leaks on forums and reddit now never materialise, and the ones that do are almost always nailed on anyway. As the years go by the 'leaks' and predictions get less and less interesting or megaton. Big leaks now would be prices, a game list of the July event, titles ready for launch etc. and there's nothing.

We even have devblogs and dev diaries now for the likes of D4 which are basically just reaction parties of everyone saying 'duh, dat sux'
 

rofif

Banned
Leak of a teaser for a teaser for a release date of a trailer with nothing but cgi in it... but first leaks and rumors that some studio is maybe making a game or hiring
 
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.Pennywise

Banned
That's a topic that the 2020 Devolver Digital conference covered.
2fMr2HT.png

Have you watched the latest Devolver Digital Direct? They explained it perfectly.




I've time stamped it for you but if you don't want to clik the play button they joked about how games are a side effect, a chore, a thing that gets consumed and forgotten fast while the marketing campaign, the leaks and teasers keep people hooked and hyped and obsessed for years.


Yeah but the sad part is that they're talking about something real and are not exaggerating it like they seem to be.
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Meh.. I just don't pay that much attention until a game is nearly out.

I think you are being way too kind to how it used to be though. There's always been tons of BS in game marketing; long delayed games.. vaporware... games that end up nothing like they are promised, etc.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
I think I might actually prefer this format. I loved E3 but the 6 weeks leading up to E3 was a drought and the 6 weeks after E3 was a drought.

What I don't like is all these presentations sucking but then I remember the last few E3s have sucked as well.
 
Hahaha man thank you so much but i actually own a vita (2000, but i may get an oled just to complete the collection) i was actually asking any the game you mentioned :p

But I'll savour your passionate Vita rant forever :p :D <3

Ps i live in Japan and they still put out annual baseball games and jrpgs for vita here :p

I've been playing in the last months with Dragon's Crown, Tolyo Xanadu, 1001 spikes, BlazBlue CP Extend, Lunar Silver Harmony PSP, Rainbow Moon, Sine Mora, Toukiden 2, Death Mark, Hakuoki, Atelier Shallie Plus, Aracana Heart 3, Loaded PSX. And now Utawarerumono Prelude to the fallen and YS8... and Crazy Taxi PSP and Battle Mania Daiginjou MD.

Lucky you! The baseball game is great. 😉
 

CamHostage

Member
I strongly disagree - just look at Apex Legends, the game came out of nowhere, literally appeared available for the end consumer with no previous marketing or news at all, and the hype was there. IMO the longer the marketing goes the worse/opposite effect it gets, just look at Below, Cuphead, The Last Guardian, Dreams etc. no one even noticed those games actually launched because most people simply forgot about them long time ago, because as more and more time passed people not only lose interest in the gems, but lose any hope that the games will ever be released, at some point you just give up and focus on something else that's actually within your reach, something you can actually look up for, something you can actually play.

Sure, the breadth of possibility of exposing a product has widened in unfathomable ways. A game can be marketed for 2 full years, or it can surprise-launch in a day with no advanced marketing. (Similarly, of course, a NES game could just show up on shelves on day without ever appearing in GamePro, and you just had to decide on the boxart if you wanted to buy it because Toys R Us kept all its games in a cage and didn't let you look at the back of the box before buying...) It's a bigger range of possibilities, I'm just saying, we didn't go from zero to this.

But also, I disagree about the gems having no hope (though it's really hard for anything to beat the AAA evergreens, the flood of indies, and the F2P market glut.) Death Stranding was in the news for 4 years before launch, and is still one of the 20 most talked-about games out there. Cuphead made a big splash. GAF is pretty full of console-talk right now (that, and political-era fallout...), but in just the first page or two, we're talking about PES, we're talking about Warface, we're talking about Orcs Must Die, Tunic, Stanley Parable, we're talking about Spellbreak, and yes, we're talking about Dreams. I think it's incredibly difficult to get a lot of traction going for any one game when literally hundreds come out every month and each major platform gets at least 15 new titles a week, but if you go beyond the macro audience and seek out micro communities (try message boards for like Switch fans or SHMUP blogs or otome visual novel subreddits and you're sure to find games elevated that fit your interests.

(And again, the gems not being noticed, that's not necessarily anything new. I've been shouting about the greatness of The Guardian Legend and Terracon and Kinetica for decades, and maybe some day, somebody will hear me...)

I find it really weird that as anonymity became easier we lost most, if not all genuine leakers. The cynic in me thinks these are now the people who tease and tease the faintest whiff of actual data because ultimately they wanted everyone knowing who they were.

Yeah man, it's weird. I remember back in the day there was a webforum called FatBabies, and it was a place where game developers and studio workers would go and openly shoot the shit about their company or what they heard friends were up to. You'd get game confirmations, you'd get info about canceled projects, you'd get the dirt on studios that were having a hard time or publishers that were making changes that were about to affect the market in a positive or negative way...

Now, all that seems to be silenced. Even when a major studio closes down, you barely get word of it, much less gossip behind the scenes. Telltale employed dozens of people, and it had economical projects (albeit with big franchises that sapped the profits,) and we've gotten fairly few words of why and what was lost in the closure (even with an hour-long documentary.) Visceral Games closed and we no virtually nothing about their or EA Vancourver's Star Wars Ragtag project. Capcom Vancouver at least leaked some of its Dead Rising 5 plans & beyond, but that's a rarity rather than a regular occurrence. So much history of the video game industry is locked in a vault (and that vault is often decaying, as old media is sometimes not easily compatible with current computers,) and it's looking more and more that the public will never get to know of it.... probably for the best, at a macro level (video gamers are cranky children who can't handle a cancelation without being enraged at the publisher for ancient history,) but as somebody interested in the wider story of game making, it's a shame that so much effort will never be seen.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
Ubisoft's rollout of Valhalla has gone to the level of farce, but I also understand that these studios are dropping 9 figures on these games and need some way to keep people interested. I didn't watch that stupid Ubisoft Forward event, but I went looking for Far Cry 6 gameplay footage until I realized that yea, there was no way they were going to show it there. But I don't see what the point of telling me there's a Far Cry 6 without showing gameplay.

I personally think it's super dumb, but I am old, maybe that's just how you have to do it in an age where people have gazillions of things put right in front of them constantly.


Yeah man, it's weird. I remember back in the day there was a webforum called FatBabies, and it was a place where game developers and studio workers would go and openly shoot the shit about their company or what they heard friends were up to. You'd get game confirmations, you'd get info about canceled projects, you'd get the dirt on studios that were having a hard time or publishers that were making changes that were about to affect the market in a positive or negative way...

Oh man FatBabies was amazing. The videogame industry sucks so much compared to back then. You young people don't know what you missed out on.
 

junguler

Banned
i love the drama and the cringe that comes out of the rumors, this way we always have something to talk about and things are rarely boring. i always have time for a good trash_fire and we have been blessed with them lately and i don't want it to end. think about it, a good game is rarely talked about and all the conversations about it is one-sided, but a divisive game is a source of countless pages of entertainment.
 
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