Hey man, i can see this topic is very important to you. and you might have strong feelings about it.
but there’s no need to attack me. Ad hominem won’t really get us anywhere.
I’ve made my point out of my own thoughts and experiences.
If you don’t agree it’s part of life, it does not mean anyone who does not agree is an enemy that needs to be attacked.
I don’t need to defend myself nor even explain my point. I’m just presenting my view, like any one would do.
I only speak up so that people at epic knows that it’s not a 100% consensus and or that i don’t care. which is called silent agreeing.
I don’t need to explain myself or justify. But just to satisfy your curiosity:
Quoting a latin american:
“Siempre supe que es mejor, cuando hay que hablar de dos, empezar por uno mismo” - Shakira
I’m glad and flattered you checked my profiles and project.
But it seems you have missed that my profile was created in 2017. As in fact i took the time to fill out, and expose my personal info. So i think i’m a bit more trustworthy that what you implied
On top of that i have about 700 posts.
And while most of them might be not from a genius level engineer, you can see that my aim is to help people, and not scam them. As can also be seen by the amount of answers in the forum. which is less than what i wish, but about 20. In any case, i really love to help people.
For each answer i’ve manage to accumulate there are 5 or 10 posts trying to help and failing.
At any rate, it means i’m interested in the community.
There’s no need to be mean.
I know the quality of the project that i make in my spare time, while i’m falling asleep very tired, only two hours a day, and first time modelling meshes and writing narrative, looks poor quality. It’s something i do out of love and moral.
I’m proud its almost all done by myself, even if some people can’t appreciate it. I could have asset-flipped if i wanted to scam people.
And having spent more than 2 years on it, i don’t think i qualify as someone who wants to make a quick buck.
I dont plan on earning money with it. I have a day job, and i work really hard.
If you were to read the description on itchio, you’ll notice that i proudly claim that it’s 100% organic.
i don’t use ai, including copilot and gpt.
And as you can tell by the way i write, i don’t even bother asking gpt to correct it.
Ive stated cleary in the forums before that im not interested in ai content.
Also please check my plugins, the ones i want to publish on fab.
About 9 plugins. They are free, as in beer and freedom.
Opensource. MIT license.
If i wanted to scam people i wouldn’t put 2 years of hard work of my 22 years of experience for free.
Also its on codeberg, because i care that much about opensource.
I do them out of love and desire to expand and help the community.
It’s what i can do with what i have.
Yeah, i went through some very very rough stuff.
Those 22+ years are real, and its because i worked as much as i could since i was legally allowed.
In fact i’m proud of those 22 years of work.
That is an excellent question.
I could not afford rent at the time. I was living with someone else.
I could not afford a reasonable 3d accelerated graphic card maybe after 10-12 years of work.
Which, unfortunately, and it’s a big point of my story.
this reason alone kept me away from my desire to learn UE.
In fact, out of those 22 years, only 12+ are in games, and only 7 on unreal. Mostly because of the lack of hardware (also because ue was not free, so another reason against fees). You can tell the date of this profile is about 7 years ago too.
I confess my dark past: i could not afford a graphic card and enough ram to run ue.
Not even multiple hard drives (in new condition).
How did i do it? well, you work really really really hard. At the same time you study very hard to get ahead. and then you stop eating nice things and going out, you dont buy any fancy clothes, nor video games.
then you save for about 3 to 6 months, sometimes even more. and get whatever you can, which is usually very low end old hardware.
paying a ton because of the import taxes, and the exchange ratio.
my first 3d video card, was actually a very low end one. i doubt it could run ue reasonably.
But i think i had the luck to have the ability to do programming, and find some jobs, as well as have the help of family and friends. Not everyone has such luck…
I can also tell you first hand that in argentina technology is like 4 years behind.
there’s tech that doesn’t even arrive in arg due to that. (Like laser disks and hd dvd, i never saw them).
As for the software, a lot of people don’t pay for software in arg.
i used opensource. so i never touched photoshop (maybe a bit), but i used gimp and krita now.
On my linkedin profile you can see i’ve focused on opensource techs, like linux, postgresql, python (<3), php, javascript, flixel, haxe, openfl, phaser, unity, etc. Only started using UE when i got the hardware and it became free.
Now since ive talked about me let me tell you a story.
I wanted to publish some apps on the google store when i was younger. The fee was “small” in usa, but it was really hard to pay for me.
And i had to pay with an international card. It was very difficult to get one. I had my brother get a credit card and lend me the money. It was very painful. Would not want to do that again.
Having lived in argentina i can tell you that the gov loves taxes. Its quite a contentious topic.
I tried not to talk much about it because i dont like politics discussions and i felt it could turn into one.
My dad is an accountant, and my first job was with an accountant. So i got to hear a ton about economics. Doesn’t mean i know much, but..
Anyone knows in arg that when taxes increases, everything increases.
While is true that taxes are used to coerce people’s behavior that’s a side-effect and an abuse, and not their primary goal. And also it does not mean they are effective.
Is well known that in arg, paying all the taxes can easily bankrupt some companies.
And that people still find workarounds to not pay them, that make all matters worse.
Other examples, if you work for a non argentinean company, you have to pay a considerable hefty tax.
And if you get paid in usd, the gov forces you to change it to ars before getting them. So you never touch a single usd.
Also most companies, based on usa or other countries, do not pay salaries in argentina in usd, they pay in ars. so you sign a contract in ars, and then it’s harder to raise the salary.
And i dont remember but i think you’re forced to exchange them at the “official rate”.
20 years ago the gov made all they could to keep an exchange rate low. But 10 years ago it has been sky rocketing, making everything cost way more.
Any payment with an international card incurs in extra taxes and an abusive exchange rate.
A reason why steam failed so much in argentina for the most part up till now.
So yeah you might say that taxes are a touchy topic for me.
Ive known a ton of truly talented ppl in arg, and i know their struggles.
People really talented.
Even if i can afford a fee, it does not mean i can not expose the situation, empathize with them, and propose my pov of why it might not be the perfect solution, and what other alternatives are available.