What that thread is even suppose to mean?
That as always, the average player is casual and as long as they can play the typical game (FIFA/CoD/GTA/etc) they are fine with the next gen consoles and don't give a fuck about teraflops, SSDs and so on.
They will choose whatever console their friend has to play with them. So PS5 will continue dominating the market. And well, about Barcelona's dark alleys.
Do you have the typical issues with Gypsies there?
Well, yes and no. Pick pockets, drug dealers and so on basically it's a problem related to having very poor people who get excluded from society specially when it's not only them but the whole environment/community where they live. Let's say an isolated ghetto, specially if it's from a foreigner culture because they get excluded from the rest to they get isolated with the people they know. And if there is poorness, pickpockets, drugs and so on they very likely end doing that. And this happens here with Spanish, foreigners, white, black, gipsies, arabs... whatever. It isn't their ethnicity, origin country, skin color, whatever. It comes from being excluded from society because of being poor.
I live in the city next to Barcelona (El Prat de Llobregat, where the Barcelona airport is located). Back in the '80s we had there a poor district where there was a ton of drugs, poorness, violence, grand theft auto, gang wars, kidnapping and so on, all the horror stories you can imagine. Mostly Spanish whites and gipsies, but specially gipsies got stereotyped here. We're talking a place where they made a giant raid with over 600 policemen including helicopters and so on, and they only found 2KG of drugs. Some areas of the district were so dangerous that even the policemen didn't want to enter, they killed many cops there. Same happened of 2 or 3 areas of Barcelona.
But this was back in the '80s. Over the years the local community and the city hall (even though our mayor wasn't Mike Haggar) did a lot of community work helping the poor people, improving the quality of the houses, did a lot of (free) sports, culture, education, social activities, and social work of all kinds. Thanks to that (and well, many of these problematic guys moved to other places, died or ended in jail) right now this district is very peaceful and safe even if still there are a few bad guys and minor drug issues (like in any city), way safer than the center of Barcelona, where (non-violent) ninja pickpockets may steal your wallet or phone without even being noticed by you specially if you -like myself- look like a tourist (I'm Spanish but blue eyed blonde, not super common here).
Like in other areas of Barcelona, in that district now gipsies are totally integrated into the society and are almost impossible to differientate from the other people. The stigma is basically almost gone because now there isn't a specific dangerous area full of very poor people, drugs and so on, and people, don't live on ruined houses etc., everyone gets free education, free health care, and so on.
Now that stigma relies maybe in young guys who come from North African countries, but they are way less and aren't excluded into a specific ghetto, so it's easier to integrate into society many of them because even some of them being homeless they have a better environment around them which isn't full of poornes, drugs, violence and so on.
La Rambla concentrates some of the most expensive flats and shops and some of the cheapest flats and shops. It is also the tourist, cultural and recreational center. An explosive cocktail of "everything". Perfect for the pick pockets to pick on distracted tourists.
A very cool place to visit, just watch your belongings and you shall be safe
Yep, the most problematic place in Barcelona is La Rambla and the area around it (and nearby subway areas/lines) because of that: a lot of distracted tourists. Traditionally pickpockets aren't violent, they are sneaky and steal your wallet/phone/camera and you won't even notice them. Or may grab your camera or bag and run away.
Specially if you are a tourist and have an expensive camera, hide it in your backpack when you aren't in a place taking photos, and be specially careful with your wallet and phone. That's it, here they con't come to you with a gun, a knive or stuff like that.
These pickpockets are typically western Europeans (mostly non-gipsy Romanians), local Spanish, and these young North Africans. There are a lot of them, and since the law isn't very stict with them even if they are caught many times don't end in jail so the police is frustrated with them.
and those Africans selling fake goods on the streets.
In Barcelona we also have a lot of black guys ilegally selling fake goods in the streets, specially near the touristic places. But well, other than that they don't create any issue. They just sell shirts, sunglasses, bags and so on. So the shops complain because pay a lot of taxes and these street sellers don't. So basically they aren't an issue.
Many of these guys even joined and started to make their own brands, made some movements to sell their stuff legally (the non copied one) and even during covid were working masks and so on since we had supply issues.
A separate issue are the guys selling beer in the streets (so bars complain about them, and to drink alcohol in the streets outside bar terraces is illegal), many of them also sell drugs.
Other than that, like the guy who sell fake goods, they don't create any issue for citizens and tourists. Maybe a few of them may be a pickpocket too, and sometimes they are a group and compete with other groups for territory, sometimes ending in a violent fight.
I did not know there were so many catalans in GAF.
Yep, there are many of us here. I'm in gaf since 2007.
Jo sóc del Prat i he treballat gairebé sempre a Barcelona. I left Ubisoft Barcelona to make my own indie games, the first one will be a beat'em up set in a dystopian cyberpunk Neo-Barcelona. And btw now that we're talking about it, it will feature pickpockets, fake good sellers, drunk tourists, street beer sellers, police brutality and so on. And one of the main characters is half gipsy muslim.