Slashdot Mirror

Pertinent: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/10/11/

I've never been anywhere near either of the games mentioned in the summary and can't check their websites from the office. But if those prices quoted for in-game items are correct (and not a case of dollars being switched for cents) then I start to smell a scam.

Surely no parent would ever "ok" a purchase like that from their kids (and these do sound like child-oriented games). I sounds at least plausible therefore (though I can't say more than that without evidence) that some of these games are making it as easy as possible to circumvent payment protections and giving active encouragement to do so.

Normally, my response to such cases is "parents, watch what your kids are doing". Certainly, that mother the other week complaining about MS allowing her kid to spend money on Xbox Live got no sympathy from me. I use Xbox Live myself and know that it has robust protections built in if you take the 10 seconds needed to switch them on. However, if things do start to veer more in the direction of outright scam (and I'm not saying that this does, just that those prices, if correct, might suggest it) then things get a little murkier. It starts to feel more directly like asking kids to steal from their parents, which brings me onto the obligatory Penny Arcade.

Hi MR FOSSie! You do realize that when you write M$ everyone assumes everything you post is coming from this guy yes? BTW like your Star Trek uniform!

As for your "points" why yes nobody ever bought or pirates MSFT Windows when your free wonderfulness was there, it is all network effects because nobody tried selling Linux...wait a tick...Hasn't everyone from Dell to ASUS and Walmart actually tried selling your OS and thanks to the PITA factor and shitty QA (which for a nice example see this little gem about how the Dell Ubuntu offering breaks if you update it) was labeled by the public a giant DO NOT WANT in fifty foot letters?

Or do you think it was a secret "M$ conspiracy" that OEMs saw 4 TIMES the returns with Linux or that when given a "choice" (you as a FOSSie ARE for freedom of choice, yes?) the customers ran to Windows as fast as they could even on netbooks which were supposed to be designed to take advantage of the strengths of Linux in the first place?

It really is simple MR FOSSie, hell it is practically first day business school 101: Give the customers what they want and listen to them and you gain share, give them a mess of CLI and "RTFM Noob!" bad attitude and watch as they stay away in droves it really is that simple. look at how Apple just waltzed in and royally kicked your ass, why is that? It is because they listen to their customers and designed an OS around the philosophy of "it just works" with little to no hoop jumping required, whereas Linux despite the pretty on top is really just CLI at heart. Which would have been fine if this was still 1997, but it is 2011 and the customers have made it clear all the CLI and hoop jumping (not to mention the driver mess or "update foo broke my drivers" which frankly we haven't seen in Windows since the end of Win9x or OSX since 10.2) is a giant "do NOT want!".

It really is simple: you are busy growing or you are busy dying. The only "growth" we have seen in Linux is Android (which is gonna be TiVo tricked right out from under you and therefor is as useful to the FOSS movement as having a Linux router) and despite FIFTEEN YEARS you are still below the margin for error. I didn't make those numbers up friend, and if those numbers would have been posted by any business they would have closed up shop by now. But you keep on thinking that you can force users to do things your way and that it is a big M$ conspiracy when you find users don't actually enjoy reading man pages or trawling forums for fixes. You DO know what the classic definition of insanity is, right? If it ain't worked after FIFTEEN YEARS perhaps it is time to try a different approach, ya?

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/11/29/

Obligatory classic Penny arcade:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/03/21/

And what EXACTLY were they supposed to do otherwise, hmmm? For all the big talk here nobody seems to want to accept reality. Nokia is bleeding to death, dumb phones are going the way of 8-tracks (even the third world is starting to have home grown smartphones which all predict will kill the dumb phone), android is beyond saturated, MeeGo is a turd, and Apple and HP won't sell iOS and WebOS respectively.

So where EXACTLY does that leave them an alternative? They need a product RIGHT NOW this very minute, they don't have time losing share as quickly as they are to dick around for who knows how long to get MeeGo up to snuff, and NOBODY like Symbian for anything other than dumb phones.

so lets hear it...where were they supposed to go? I'm sure the militants here would have rather they simply close their doors rather than make a deal with "teh evil M$!! ZOMG!" but where EXACTLY could they go? Nobody wants another android, hell there is so many droids on the market now it is frankly saturated. MSFT was willing to spend BILLIONS with a capital B to have Nokia be their hardware division and frees up Nokia to concentrate on hardware, so where EXACTLY is the bad here, other than the usual fanboy "teh evil M$!! ZOMG!!@" bullshit?

It wasn't like the company was hearts and flowers and then MSFT came along, the whole reason they got a new CEO was the company was bleeding out. You know, once upon a time /. was actually NEWS FOR NERDS not conspiracy theorists, and we had long discussions on the merits and disadvantages BASED ON THE TECH. Now the site is becoming Boycott Novell where everything is one giant conspiracy by Gates secretly running Redmond from a large tower that looks suspiciously like Mordor. More and more I'm starting to think the tech guys have been run out of here and been replaced by thousands of these guys.

Disliking WinPhone 7 because of the tech is one thing, from what I've read they still have several niggling bugs to iron out and app switching is hit or miss, but the ZOMG M$!!! ZOMG!" bullshit really is getting old. Is this /. or Boycott Novell?

Years after Bill Gates started doing charity work and Jobs started locking down all his new platforms, who is it that's still villainized on /. ? You don't see Steve Jobs as a Borg, do you?

Jobs isn't exactly Borg though.

How about Raven, the elitist asshole for the icon?

I agree. The borg assimilate, Jobs is more interested in controlling fanatics. Give him the pope's hat.

Years after Bill Gates started doing charity work and Jobs started locking down all his new platforms, who is it that's still villainized on /. ? You don't see Steve Jobs as a Borg, do you?

Jobs isn't exactly Borg though.

How about Raven, the elitist asshole for the icon?

"Gabe" from Penny Arcade proposed to his wife via a web comic.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/02/17/

Are you unable to separate work from leisure? Your acquaintance may well be able to, even if you're not.

Allow me to present to you a fundamental fact of the internet: Internet Fuckwad Theory

Sorry, it's hard to read your comment seriously because of the effect depicted here:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/7/22/

You do realize that "more advanced" graphics isn't just about upping the polygon count, right?

Crysis was not just the most technically advanced game of its time, but also had fantastic art direction. While the first half was set in a fairly generic location, the second half made my jaw drop. The interior of the spaceship was more impressive than any science fiction movie I had ever seen, but was rendered in real time. That's the kind of achievement that should have netted these guys the a "PC Gaming Academy Award" or something.

I upgraded my PC specifically for Crysis, and it was worth it. I wasn't the only one.

I've heard that logic before somewhere...

Solving one deficiency can occur in a separate channel and in a separate timeframe than other deficiencies and still be valuable in any sphere where development is not wholly homogeneous. Or, put more simply, where there are some people in the developing world that have all the prerequisites and still no internet, this potentially helps them (though I'm not sure how they're even expected to receive the signals).

Here I thought this was going to be about Nintendo Thumb.

That, or Soul Callous. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/11/2/

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/3/19/

...and I liked how Penny Arcade nailed it then, the strip is from January 27, 2010.

"It sucks when the guards are all coming down on your shit, and, like, taking your stuff, but it also sucks pretty bad to be beaten to death with a sledgehammer, which is what this guy did to get in there. Tends to dilute the sympathy."

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/1/27/

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/30/

oblig. Penny Arcade:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/4/14/

Fucking snakes, they think they can go wherever they want

I think Penny Arcade described it best: Green Blackboards (And Other Anomalies)

Why cain't we all just get along?!!!! /Reginald Denny

Anyone who is a serious enough PC gamer to look down on consoles should be experienced enough to know that the "aim-assist" console gamers get and an "aim-bot" are two incredibly different animals. Like the difference between getting barked at by a poodle and getting subjugated by Penny Arcade's Dickwolves.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/4/22/

Is there a modem app? I could set up a modem at home and dial into it and route data from my home broadband. Although my ISP doesn't want to supply the service they sold me either.
Maybe I should introduce a 'payment cap' ?

Obligatory Penny Arcade.

Tycho from Penny Arcade praising Bujold here:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/11/26/additional-boys/

Great series of books. My understanding is that Memory is on the CD, but not actually linked from the TOC.

Well first and foremost you are making a big assumption, namely that the people who bitch about a game on a forum have any stake whatsoever in the game at all. Oftentimes they are essentially complaining that the game isn't x, despite the fact that the makers never intended the game to be x, never said it to be x, and most rational people don't want it to be x. For instance I've seen people who essentially go on boards and say "XYZ game is just another lame JRPG. JRPGs suck, play Halo instead". That comment isn't even remotely helpful and the poster probably never even PLAYED game XYZ so is in no way a "stakeholder". Penny Arcade probably sums up this kind of poster best.

Oblig. Penny-Arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/12/24/

Maybe when this is all over, we can achieve our ultimate goal of putting a warning label on Tetris.

Sort of like this?

When Bush and Gore were head to head and the elections had to be repeated.
And when Bush came up with millions of additional votes by raiding democrat villages and terrorizing and killing people there, Gore withdrew from the election and Bush got himself inaugurated as president.
But later on, democrats and republicans got together and negotiated for Gore to be appointed the president of The Congress.

And during that negotiation, which is still taking place, Gore mentioned during his meeting with our alien overlords how it would be better if the Earth was not given alien technology (including holodecks, warp drive, cure for cancer, food replicators and the global climate adjuster) - just yet, as we are not yet ready for such advancements, being barbaric 0-worlders and all.

Unfortunately, Bothans got their grubby little hands on transcripts of those talks and beamed them directly to every satellite floating around this planet.

And I'm just guessing here, but I suspect that the solution would be to start killing Bothans.

 
 
 
WHAT?! At least my bullshit story has SOME relevance to the topic at hand.

It seemed like they left it wide open for a sequel. I too was disappointed with the lack of bits and plot holes galore but ultimately the film still entertained. I'll just leave this right here Penny Arcade.

Their worst failing (which is shared by people like Dawkins), is that they are so convinced that the believers are wrong that they never consider the reasons intelligent theists have for their belief.

I do consider them. I just haven't heard an intelligent reason.

they only really debate with the fundamentalists, not with anyone who can give then an intelligent argument.

Mostly because they're the ones who speak up, and they're more fun.

In general, I don't pick religious arguments. Most of the more intelligent believers don't pick arguments either, which has the unfortunate side effect that I usually end up arguing with loud idiots.

But I do prefer to argue with intelligent people, even if we don't agree at the end of it, because it's an opportunity to learn something.

There is nothing I can think of in the New Testament that can be used to justify torture etc

Closest I can find is 1st Peter 2:18, which is disturbing enough anyway. But why are you dismissing the Old Testament?

Saying it was written centuries after Christ is also misleading,

Decades is closer, I think. However, whenever they were written, it is difficult to reconcile the fact that they give at least two separate dates for Jesus' birth, about 10 years apart.

Even if they were actually contemporary, I don't see what it proves. We have plenty of stories of alien abductions today, but they're considered harder to believe than religion, despite the fact that the witnesses are still alive.

Unfortunately, thanks to the GIFT, the drive to not look like an asshole doesn't apply online.

Gratuitous PA link:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/12/17/

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/9/20/

Kinect Sutra

By their own mouth they claim that they are not an authority on the Kinect, http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/11/17/

Well, its not XKCD but since its about gaming in think Penny-Arcade has more authority on the subject....
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/11/29

Yeah, since when did Slashdot become CmdTaco's blog?

Is he going to start SlashPooping now?

a 6 digit ID number should indicate that you already know the answer to that.

Yeah, since when did Slashdot become CmdTaco's blog?

Is he going to start SlashPooping now?

Hi

Shitcock!

Since I wasn't around in the 'old days' (for any reasonable definition of the term, anyway), I can't comment first-hand, but I'd theorise that the changes are based on urbanisation and corporatisation destroying the small community groups that people used to inhabit. If your action has a negative consequence to you personally, or someone you know, that obviously serves as a disincentive - basically, a person only has a direct incentive to be considerate if their actions are likely to affect someone within their 'monkeysphere'. It used to be the case that most of the people you regularly interacted with had some level of connection to you personally, so no problem there. In general, people don't immediately default to 'asshat' as soon as they think nobody they know is watching (although there are exceptions), but there's a secondary driving factor: this level of disaffection doesn't just appear spontaneously, it's engendered by the fact that those who shape the society we do live in do so in a largely impersonal manner - when the organisations we deal with every day don't care about whether they're screwing us over, it tends to rub off. People are left with no disincentive against bad behaviour, and little incentive for good behaviour. I'm not saying this excuses the people being asshats, of course, but it does provide some reasonable explanation of "what the hell happened to us" (which was quite possible meant to be rhetorical, but anyway...).

It's not all bad, though. The flipside is that the socially-enforced conformism of small communities is much more conducive to discrimination, repression of the 'out group', and ostracism of those who fail to follow the (often unwritten and/or illogical) 'rules'. Small communities protect the status quo, for better or worse. Whether it's a worthwhile trade off is a matter of personal opinion.

It's kind of hard to play through a game like Assassin's Creed and then get excited about WoW. I'm constantly astounded that Blizzard can constantly demonstrate how much money one can make and still not have any viable competitors. Oh well, maybe cataclysm will allow us to rescue that sixth slave.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/8/25/

Relevant: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/4/7/way-explanation/
And meat is murder. Tasty tasty murder.

That's people's answer to everything these days.

It's a though terminating cliche. People say it because, odds are, none of us really do all of these things. If someone doesn't like you complaining about something, they can just trot this one out to shut you up.

Think of it as the grown up version of "There are children in the world dying for want of that broccoli.", and "You should be outside on the street corner instead of gawking at that video game.". It's a rather meaningless disparagement which is based on the premise that certain things are _always_ more worthwhile than others, for everyone, all the time.

I'm reminded of this recent Penny Arcade strip and the accompanying commentary. One of the writers--Gabe's--son spend his time playing a 3D sandbox construction game, and is (almost) chided for this an encouraged to play outside in the cold instead. Tycho--the other writer--sums this up succintly.

This is how Gabriel the Younger invests his leisure hours - in the construction and demolition of imaginary worlds. You can't tell me, or at any rate I will refuse to hear, that this doesn't have value.

And it does have value. I'm not saying that play outside doesn't; but games like minecraft are how our future architects and engineers will find their profession. Saying that people should be outside playing instead of this is like saying they should be outside instead of reading a book. The platitude does not stand up to serious scrutiny.

Eating fruits and vegetables and getting lots of exercise is NOT going to reduce your stress levels or help with your anxiety. It's just going to make you more riled up, exhausted, and eat free time that could be spent on far better things; such as meeting people, going out for a meal or just plain relaxing with a good book. That's how you deal with stress and anxiety. You go on an Olympic regime when you want to lose weight.

That's people's answer to everything these days.

It's a though terminating cliche. People say it because, odds are, none of us really do all of these things. If someone doesn't like you complaining about something, they can just trot this one out to shut you up.

Think of it as the grown up version of "There are children in the world dying for want of that broccoli.", and "You should be outside on the street corner instead of gawking at that video game.". It's a rather meaningless disparagement which is based on the premise that certain things are _always_ more worthwhile than others, for everyone, all the time.

I'm reminded of this recent Penny Arcade strip and the accompanying commentary. One of the writers--Gabe's--son spend his time playing a 3D sandbox construction game, and is (almost) chided for this an encouraged to play outside in the cold instead. Tycho--the other writer--sums this up succintly.

This is how Gabriel the Younger invests his leisure hours - in the construction and demolition of imaginary worlds. You can't tell me, or at any rate I will refuse to hear, that this doesn't have value.

And it does have value. I'm not saying that play outside doesn't; but games like minecraft are how our future architects and engineers will find their profession. Saying that people should be outside playing instead of this is like saying they should be outside instead of reading a book. The platitude does not stand up to serious scrutiny.

Eating fruits and vegetables and getting lots of exercise is NOT going to reduce your stress levels or help with your anxiety. It's just going to make you more riled up, exhausted, and eat free time that could be spent on far better things; such as meeting people, going out for a meal or just plain relaxing with a good book. That's how you deal with stress and anxiety. You go on an Olympic regime when you want to lose weight.

Re: Prototype

What more could you want?

There was a boxing game in the arcade where you actually put on a pair of gloves that predates the Wii. There was also a fighting game that involved you getting into an actual little ring and the game sensed your movement that predates the Wii. Check out this 2002 strip from Penny Arcade and the accompanying news story.

I think this guy would disagree about Tetris reducing PTSD.