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You don't read Penny Arcade, do you? From what I've heard its store has a bunch of emulators on it already.

A Hat made out of Money!

Obligatory Penny Arcade from 2000:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/10/23/

It easy for superman to solve all problems

This, basically.

As someone with anxiety issues, online FORUMS are fantastic, as they allow for shared discussion. I'll be damned how the gaming community, not known for there most sympathetic nature as a whole, would help in these situations.

I'm reminded of that all-time great, http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/07/22

Well, just start killing Bothas. I'll tell you when to stop.

Well, I thought I knew how big a console controller is until the Xbox came along.

Interestingly, the researchers also noted that, despite the lack of anonymity, gamers exhibited a higher rate of verbal abuse of other participants who failed to complete the given task successfully. This rate was shown to be independent of the gamer's biological age, ethnicity and social class, but a correlation appeared when plotted against the gamer's online age. The rate of abuse also increased as the gamers became more confident in their ability to outperform other participants.

The researchers have therefore proposed the following refinement of John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory: it is not anonymity per se but rather the expected impunity which is required to demonstrate the greater internet fuckwad theory. To confirm this, the gamers were divided into two groups and electric shocks were administered in response to abuse. At low voltages the rate of abuse unexpectedly increased and was directed at the researches, but as the voltage was increased above a certain per-gamer threshold, the abuse suddenly stopped. The authors have not provided further details due to time constraints and could not be reached for questioning.

This article on Penny Arcade Report provides some detail that the OP lacks: http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/microsoft-outlines-their-system-for-used-games-licenses-and-family-sharing

My wife and I played the shit out of this level over the weekend trying for hours to get the best score we could and claim a gold trophy. For me it’s a classic platformer with incredibly tight controls and beautiful graphics. For her it’s a touch based game similar to something you might play on the iPad.......

I have been married to my wife for 13 years and I cannot remember a time before this weekend that we un-ironically high fived. When we finally got the gold trophy we leapt up and slapped hands like two dudes at a flag football game. I will say that it took us hours of trying the same level over and over again before we got there though. There was a lot of communication that had to happen. “is it better for you if I leave this platform up or down?” “Should I run through this part or slow down before I jump?” There was were mistakes made by both of us. “Sorry, that was my fault I missed that wall jump.” “Crap I didn’t lower that spike wall in time, my bad.” and there were a couple (joking?) threats of divorce. At the end when we had the gold trophy I tweeted that it was the greatest thing we had ever accomplished as a couple. Someone asked about our kids and I said I was including the kids.

My wife and I played the shit out of this level over the weekend trying for hours to get the best score we could and claim a gold trophy. For me it’s a classic platformer with incredibly tight controls and beautiful graphics. For her it’s a touch based game similar to something you might play on the iPad.......

I have been married to my wife for 13 years and I cannot remember a time before this weekend that we un-ironically high fived. When we finally got the gold trophy we leapt up and slapped hands like two dudes at a flag football game. I will say that it took us hours of trying the same level over and over again before we got there though. There was a lot of communication that had to happen. “is it better for you if I leave this platform up or down?” “Should I run through this part or slow down before I jump?” There was were mistakes made by both of us. “Sorry, that was my fault I missed that wall jump.” “Crap I didn’t lower that spike wall in time, my bad.” and there were a couple (joking?) threats of divorce. At the end when we had the gold trophy I tweeted that it was the greatest thing we had ever accomplished as a couple. Someone asked about our kids and I said I was including the kids.

Here's the closest answer to the question, yet.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/the-kinect-is-mandatory-and-cant-be-turned-off-welcome-your-new-motion-sens

The Kinect Program Manager, Scott Evans, basically says MS isn't saying whether or not you can unplug it. “We’ve today announced that we’re selling them together. I’m not sure if we’re sharing details about what happens when you unplug them." “I think it’s a policy decision, we’re not going to discuss it . . . I don’t know what the policy is going to be yet, so I’m not commenting.”

Take from that what you will, but it does prove that MS has not made a statement on whether it has to be plugged in. This could mean a lot of things. He could be saying yes. He could be saying you might not be able to unplug them and I don't know because I don't make that decision. He could also be saying no. He could also be saying we'll talk about that tomorrow (the reveal is a two-day event) so I can't say today. It's really a non-statement statement.

What we do know is that MS *could* make you keep them plugged in now, in the future, or for certain things. Right now the answer is "maybe."

And these people would then be liable for whatever legal recourse there is for online stalking/harassment, and deleting the video probably wouldn't curb that much anyway.

Yes, let's require the victim to file a few thousand individual lawsuits against anonymous defendants who posted offensive YouTube comments... then we can also disparage him for engaging in a mass lawsuit campaign like the RIAA.

Or we can just remove the biggest offenders in continuing the libel. Get rid of YouTube, Facebook, and Google listings connecting his name to the video, and the most reputable sites left in search results will be the news articles explaining that he's innocent. Potential employers won't be nearly as discouraged from hiring him, and he doesn't have to worry nearly as much about being the punching bag of the Internet. There will still be libelous statements out there, but the damage won't be as substantial. It's not perfect, but it's as close to justice as we can get.

I just don't think there's a feasible way, nor should there be, to prevent all future potential harassment. The GIFT is an unfortunate but necessary by-product of a free internet.

Further analysis of the theory by the author suggests a feasible mechanism for curbing such abuse. All we need to do is add consequences. Unfortunately, requiring the victim to file separate lawsuits for each libelous commenter is unjust in itself. Google could simply release the personal profiles of such posters, but that runs afoul of people's sense of privacy. This raises an interesting dilemma: Why should Mr. McKeough lose his privacy for having done nothing wrong, but we protect the privacy of stalkers?

The GIFT is not a by-product of a free Internet. Indeed, examples of similar behavior have been noted back to ancient Greece. What's apparent is that when people have no concern for consequences, they are abusive, but the consequences don't need to be as severe as legal punishment. We can still have an Internet full of free expression, but with restrained offense. Consider this conversation, for instance. You and I have diametrically opposed viewpoints, yet can still respectfully express our arguments. The only consequence for us launching into a tirade of profanity-filled ad-hominem attacks is that we lose respect among our peers, but that's enough.

Perhaps a better solution to this problem is for Google, et al. to replace the video with a nice montage illustrating the harm that's come from Internet vigilantism. Show the financial damage of a DDoS, show the death threats, and show the victims of harassment who committed suicide. Let's add some consequences.

Mod parent up. So many times I've done a drive-by asshole post here, and then been so ashamed of it that I would avoid /. for weeks. I'm really trying to stop this G.I.F.T. type behavior, and this username is a big motivator. (BTW, what was I thinking when I signed up?)

My favorite, describing this phenomenon: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
More in depth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect

-Rob

People at M$...

Obligatory Penny-Arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/07/22.

Relevant PA: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/13

See http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/05/01

Relevant link: The Fullness of Time

They plan to Zynga-fy their company.

Pity that they are sitting on IP worth millions in competent hands, but those are the breaks. (And they've been sitting on lots of great IP for decades, so this isn't a new phenomenon.)

Oh, as to treatment of employees... it seems I have to link to this at least once in any discussion of EA:

A Cut Above

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/08/29

Send this article to your CEO and recommend that they fire all the young, single, childless (white) males.

But then who will make all of your games?

Oh you're a fan of webcomics? Here, have a Penny Arcade.

I was aware that I was comparing apples and oranges but the juxtaposition of two similar thoughts in apparent discord was amusing. Particularly if you assume sexist guy that "can't" tell the difference between two women.

You did the right thing, the guys worried about your gender weren't worried about doing their jobs or you doing yours, this means an office full of the daily WTF and some light sexual harassment to go with it.

In January, Penny Arcade said the Devs confirm [ouya] best in class performance

What has changed in a couple months that this isn't the case now? Maybe some faster phones came out to drive the curve up? In the link above, Ouya states this thing isn't meant to compete with the "big boxes" and points out the cost of $100US. I don't think there is anything different performance-wise than what Ouya originally stated. It still outperforms the Nexus 7 which isn't so bad.

What's Gabe going to do now?

Is there something wrong with such usage, though? A small, completely-silent little box tucked away that can play all the tens of thousands of games of the past, all at your perusal with just a push of a power button and a few menu-items.

If you see nothing wrong with a piracy (oh, excuuuuse me, copyright infringement) based product feature, why, golly, there's nothing wrong at all.

The people at Ouya seem to be doing a sort of "wink wink, nudge nudge" type thing about emulation but they'll probably get bitten in the ass in the end.

And the market will show that the vast majority of gamers could not care less whether an Internet connection is required or not, so long as the game is fun. And since game development is all shifting towards multi-player anyway,

Fun fact: it's actually not. In fact, it's actually moving away from multiplayer-in-everything that was so common a few years ago. The percentage of games without multiplayer on consoles has almost doubled.

I'm trying to think of what you'd actually do with it though. In spite of Balmer's "developers developers developers" rain dance, it never did end up raining.

In spite of what their PR department says, MS has a rather hostile attitude towards developers.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/tales-from-the-trenches-how-microsoft-is-losing-the-battle-for-indie-develo

It especially shows in RT due to the lack of apps that actually do anything that a web browser can't already do better. In fact a lot of those apps are basically just nothing other than a walled garden IE instance of a link to an already existing web page.

Analog buttons (R2 aside) have always made The Problem far, far worse for me.

...Apple and Microsoft are not pushing computers with 16GB total storage and 9GB of free space...

Microsoft is pushing a tablet with 64GB of total storage, but only 23 GB of free space. Apple sells devices with 32 GB of storage, and only 24 GB free space.

Google is pretty much the only one that's heavily pushing users towards being slaves of their cloud. And yet the Linux crowd seem to cheer them on.

That's because we know that most folks should be slaves to some cloud. Tycho of Penny Arcade says it well:

But what I like about this laptop is that it is not gregarious in any way. It barely exists; there are many, many things it can’t do, which is fucking great. If I was going to spend over a thousand dollars on some sliver of mobile computing, I would buy a generalist device: I’d get a MacBook Air, or emulate Gabriel’s example with a Surface Pro. That cover/keyboard thing is no joke. But those machines are much, much more than I want, let alone need. And what I need is very, very simple: a window that looks out onto the Cloud.

Thus far, I’ve gotta say: I like the view.

The Chromebooks fill a niche market for a device to just use the Web. Not to play video games, run heavy computations, or manage a company's network. They are a generic interface to everything on the Web, as the Web was designed to have.

By the way, Google reports the Drive outage is fixed.

To me that is the sad thing, Orwell didn't need "big brother" as all that was needed to get the people to go to 24/7 surveillance is social networking crap like FB. Now you have people tweeting every second of the day what they are doing, taking video and pictures everywhere, hell the only thing that keeps it from being big brother heaven is there is so much info overload the feds would need 30 Blue Gene supercomputers just to process all the info!

To me the only interesting thing to come of this will be to see how the courts react, after all you have cops being more jackbooted than ever and busting people for filming them while you have this explosion of video equipment so it will be interesting to see which will trump in the courts. One thing is for sure the days of authority (or anybody for that matter) being able to pull shit in public without anybody filming is well and truly over, I've seen everything from cops beating the helpless in FLA to tank battles in Libya and the one thing they ALL have in common is dozens of people holding up camera phones to get the shot. In fact I would argue that will probably be the defining image of this decade, the image of dozens of people holding up smartphones recording events.

Perhaps they moseyed.

Robin,

Thanks for your response (I found your yahoo email just off of a whois of your main domain).

Your posts aren't marked as paid ads, but they're consistently construed as such by /. commentators, which is certainly of note.

The thing that many Slashdotters may be missing (I certainly did) is that you're not an official /. editor, per the FAQ, which could help explain how your posts differ so much from the actual editors. I certainly find the commentator confusion and frustration understandable.

My apologizes for any vitriol you felt from my original email to you, I really didn't intend on any! Penny Arcade sums it up best - http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

Thanks

See, I read the PA comic today and thought: "Yeah, that's pretty shitty!" but if it's $1 to fix your car or wait for a few hours, that's not such a bad thing to me. It punishes the impatient, provides impetus to go do SOMEthing else for a couple of hours, adds a real-world consequence to poor play (either time or money), and besides, realistically, you're going to need to fix your car more when you first start playing than later when you've gotten good at the game so even if you do pay to fix, the cost should taper off dramatically.

I think this is way better than the subscription model; paying a non-trivial, fixed fee every month for the privilege of accessing a game no matter how much you actually play is a little stupid to me. And paying all the cost up front is a little less palatable than being bled slowly over the course of time.

I get where you're coming from, but I don't think this particular instance is that bad in practice.

You'd think they'd have gotten a clue from the interview.

See the second part of this article as to how Blizzard chased away a lot of their old D2 fanbase from Diablo 3. Note that although the real money auction house transactions are between players, Blizzard does take a significant cut.

Theres also the hilarious saga of the PSN breach, dont forget about that.

Jetpacks. Tricksy holograms. Shrink-rays. I mean, there are entire games based on individual Duke features. Timed detonators! It’s like they had access to a different alphabet, and somewhere they are still hoarding those secret letters. Why are all of those ideas in the same game? It’s from 1996, and it still comes up in conversation. The Subway. The Bank. Virtually unlimited levels to play on, 20k or less in most cases. I shot Gabriel once with a shrink ray, and he used his jetpack to fly out the window like an insect. Fifteen years ago. Still talking about it, about scenarios that to this day no game has managed to top.

But I guess he was talking about the past. At the moment M$...

You lost me there: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/07/22.

At what point do facts somehow become less convincing than John Broder's fabrication? Facts should be cut and dry, end of the day. If John is on one "side" and Musk is somehow on another, then you are simply misrepresenting "sides" to the story that don't exist. The opposite of facts is not another side to a story, it's called bullshit, and appropriately so. NYT doesn't get an all clear to do that any more than Faux news.

Good thing we have penny arcade to sum up Broder:

http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/i-5xVV2tB/0/950x10000/i-5xVV2tB-950x10000.jpg

Consoles have been a money pit for Microsoft.

I would agree that historically that was true. But ever since they start experimenting with the 'Metro' dashboard on the xbox, it has been stuffed with Adverts.

I'd have a hard time believing the xbox team is still in the red.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/ads-up-games-down-the-ugly-profitable-truth-about-xbox-live-advertising

this abortion of a device

I really think (hope, I suppose may be more accurate) that you were looking for "abomination" or something other than "abortion" which is really meaningless in this context and serves no purpose other than presenting yourself as an Internet Fuckwad

It's too late for Micro$oft. Everybody now knows there are other options. Buh buyy M$! Good riddance!

From my parents' home in Wyoming, I stab at thee!

obligatory

Anonymity brings out both the best and worst of society.

I disagree. I think that anonymity just brings out the human condition in general. Your judgement thereupon is yours, and yours alone.

Many people feel the need to hide who they are from the world, and are able to express their needs in an anonymous setting. Whether that need is to express their frustration with a corrupt totalitarian regime, or self-medicate with substances frowned upon by a government, or even simply to call somebody a fuckwad for whatever motivation compels them, anonymity does nothing but lay bare the desires of a person when they feel nobody is looking and judging. If you feel any of those are prima facie good or bad, it's difficult to know without understanding the context that person is coming from. Maybe buying pot helps the person with anxiety, maybe calling somebody a fuckwad is somebody's only outlet in life, maybe that struggling dissident is a con artist who simply wishes to weave a tale of woe... you can't know. Which is the beauty of anonymity.

Posted anonymously for hopefully obvious reasons :-)

First of all a public service announcement: To everyone that writes "M$" in 2013...This...Is...YOU! and this is what everyone sees and instantly dismisses when you write that lame ass M$ in 2013. You could write the most brilliant post in the history of Slashdot but a good 80%+ will NEVER read it because they see M$ and think "douchebag" and move on. So don't waste your time unless you want people posting your group photo as the very next post.

Second of all lets get something VERY clear for those that don't seem to understand how these things work, okay? ALL OPERATING SYSTEMS that would be what we consider "modern" are some of the most complex pieces of software EVER written, we are talking millions of LOC in the kernel alone and thousands of little sub-programs that ALL have to work in concert to give the user the illusion that its all one program that "just works". Is Linux even close to immune? Not only is that a big NO but to even suggest it is is a symptom of what is known as "magical thinking" such as "If you buy (product X) then you will magically be safe!". We in IT have seen magical thinking used to sell everything from OSes to firewalls to routers and reality will blow holes in that lie every single time.

So if Linux is vulnerable why don't we see Linux attacks in the news? We do only they are called "Android attacks" and in fact its predicted that later in the year Android will reach the one million infected mark which considering that Android isn't even a decade old is pretty impressive.

Look its actually VERY simple, and evidence has bore this out time and time again. Criminals ARE LAZY and want to do the least amount of work for the biggest bang so they want to go after the biggest targets to yield the most infections they possibly can. I mean writing a OS/2 virus today would probably be the most trivial thing in the world yet you don't see anybody doing it, why? Because the fact is even though eComstation still sells OS/2 there are too few using it to make it a juicy target. But the malware writers WILL go where the targets are, used to be it was always Windows, then Vista bombs and everyone in the press starts talking about how Mac adoption is climbing, what happens? Mac Guardian and Mac Defender. Android phones and tablets explode in usage, what happens? Thousands of Android malware released weekly.

So anybody who thinks their OS is gonna magically protect them from malware because "(product X) doesn't get bugs!" is merely deluding themselves with magical thinking. There are even articles that helpfully helpfully explain this and point out how switching platforms just for the sake of magical thinking (in the article OSX for Linux but you can insert any from and to in there and it still fits) just doesn't work. Be it Linux, Mac, or Windows you can find plenty of bugs, I could spend 5 minutes and cover this page in reports of bugs for all 3, I already listed the 2 biggest Mac bugs of recent memory, TFA is a Windows bug, and just off the top of my head there was the KDELook theme bug and the infected Quake 3 that was served up by most repos for a year and a half on Linux. NO OS is safe, NO OS is immune, and if you are gonna claim security by obscurity is actual security you might as well run Win95 or BeOS because hey, there aren't any bugs circulating targeting those OSes either.

UX designers and experts have been clamouring for simplification for years, but clients refused to change until everyone started asking "why doesn't this work on my phone/tablet".

Perfect example:
Cascading drop menus that require click+hold, or click+hover to keep open. These are almost impossible to keep open multiple levels deep with anything other than a keyboard or mouse. Touchpads, thinkpad nipples, trackballs, all require precise movements, and even a mouse is less than ideal. But we tolerate it because that's what we're used to. Since click+hold, or click+hover doesn't make sense on a touch device, people are finally beginning to accept UX recommendations that it's not a good menu behavior to use.

Depth of functionality != Complexity. Watch this video for more understanding. It describes video game design, but the same idea applies to any user interface.

As Penny Arcade put it so succinctly:

It is a very odd sort of patriot that would destroy the first amendment to protect the second.

How bout we leave it there?

Obligatory Penny-Arcade.

Saw this video on game design and balancing for player skill. They also mention "truly balanced" games like Chess and Checkers and why they can be bad. Balancing for Skill