Probably the task furthest from experience as an engineer/architect, but when it's not enough to tell them (boss, executives, legal) that it's a "potentially bad thing," also include some dollar figures.
As a tangent, you should also always have the right to contact Legal without supervision. In this case, you could even tell that person in the legal department you're doing a risk-impact report (without lying) and need an estimate for how much it would cost for the company to legally defend or settle a class-action violation of those COPPA guidelines/regulations. Because that suddenly becomes the development budget for making sure everything is in compliance.
"In an apparent about-face, San Francisco Fire Department officials said Monday they will revisit restrictions on firefighters' use of helmet-mounted cameras after concluding that footage from the Asiana Airlines crash showed the value of the devices."
Yesterday was too productive then, I could have procrastinated backing up the server to an external HDD until today! How can I make up for the loss of slacking now?...Oh, right, posting comments on the internet.
Yep. I think it was 2017, grain blight, global food shortages, riots, disintegration of civilization, and we're left with algae-based burgers, beer, and Mad Max style electric cars. I'm already moving away from the current questionable burger meats, so an algae-based veggie burger is nothing, I don't drink beer anyway, and I can't complain about a green vehicle with weaponry. So this is a good thing, right?
If I wanted the annotated versions, to explain just what people were thinking when they designed the game, I'd either wait for that version or read their blog. So far I still havn't read anything to impress me about this system; nothing as drastic, experimental and "fun" (rtfa) as say, the player's option books were to 2nd ed.
Somehow I see A Tale in the Desert as a "reasonable" platform for the NASA game; collaborative effort, resources from the environment, public facilities, goals and accomplishments. Behind the scenes, they can work out such details as, "almost everyone makes their own small reactor instead of sharing one larger public one; reactors are only at 10% of capacity; 22% of a person's online time is spent sifting for Uranium; Copper is overused on connecting personal reactors to experiments and under-utilized in other areas; only 7% of players achieve their weekly quota of science experiments." Which might be what they really want to know when astronauts/players are left to fend for themselves in the game environment.
Secondlife? Other than pioneering some odd intellectual property (IP) rules, where they don't own things in the game, how is it even vaguely interesting, much less "hottest on the internet?"
WoW is certainly a hot item, but it doesn't need a news outlet to let the outside world know what's going on....Actually, come to think of it, news outlets have reported on it fairly often.
Obligatory: So did you see the South Park episode?
How often do you pass over useful, society-benefitting projects because some other novelty has a better bottom line? Is there funding for such beneficial projects, that may not have a strong commercial opening?
"Cables holding me down.." No, I can just barely see the wires the's suspended by, in his backyard, with his mom watching as he lifts his feet off the ground to pretend that he's flying....I'm sorry, even if it's legit and that's not his mom, the video is kinda funny.
"In this envelope I have the research that PROVES this so-called 'global warming' effect is not an unusual phenomenon to the Earth. Here, I'll read some excerpts- Hm, a stack of $100 bills. Guess I brought the wrong envelope..."
How can a guide be written for creating "big hits" based on a single instance? Contrapositively, it'd be like writing a postmortem for Daikatana and hoping that there'd never be another Duke Nukem Forever. (Ok the timeline might make that a bad example, but you get the idea).
And as others have mentioned, it's not like SL is a model environment for demo game development. I'm sure plenty of others have gotten into the industry by starting with a Free* graphics engine. So, how does this relate to SL anyway? Mmmm Slashvertisement perhaps?
But of course, the real story behind it would have been the development of the game, spreading word of the game, and pitching one's self to developers to get hired. How about a writeup of that? That seems the be the overlooked, but relevant part of this story that at least I'd like to hear.
...the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through our star system, and our planet is one of those scheduled for demolition! All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in the local planning department on Alpha Centauri for nearly fifty years! For heaven's sake, it's only four light years away you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own lookout.
Sounds like some producer wants a magic-bullet program to replace some bad-performing designer. Even in the case of a 'useful' tool to apply to projects, this is likely to become an excuse for when an inconsistency is found later on by QA- "the program said it was good!"
It's not going to find everything, let alone fix it. See Turing: the halting problem.
... will end up as first against the wall when the Revolution comes!
No really, isn't this true of any studio? If all your investment in the R&D for titles on a new platform falls through on a lame title, you're dead, right?
I dunno if going the Hollywood live-action route is a good idea at all. They have 5M+ subscribers, do they really need to expand their audience? Nevermind relating to the other posts about whether or not their servers can handle expanding their market..
How about they just make another DVD of their own CGI? It's more of what we want to see than who they'll likely for actors, directors, locations, etc., and they could put in the voices that we're already familiar with.
Less risky too, since a flop in the box office could kill those hopes of expanding the market.
I for one welcome a return to serving my Apple Overlords! 1982-1990 were fine years for me, with an Apple IIe, IIc, and IIgs. Not that I have (much) against my current overlords, whom I still faithfully serve! (Until the revolution comes).
Don't forget the funny dice with wierd shapes! Content is good and all (depending on the developer/DM), but you know some people play just because of the innovative system. Just imagine, instead of black-box results which can only be understood by statistically analyzing the game for hours or days on end, we *give* you the numbers and the random number generators from the start!
Well okay, you have to go buy your own dice... but then you get to choose cool-looking ones, too!
Slashdot Mirror
Probably the task furthest from experience as an engineer/architect, but when it's not enough to tell them (boss, executives, legal) that it's a "potentially bad thing," also include some dollar figures.
As a tangent, you should also always have the right to contact Legal without supervision. In this case, you could even tell that person in the legal department you're doing a risk-impact report (without lying) and need an estimate for how much it would cost for the company to legally defend or settle a class-action violation of those COPPA guidelines/regulations. Because that suddenly becomes the development budget for making sure everything is in compliance.
"In an apparent about-face, San Francisco Fire Department officials said Monday they will revisit restrictions on firefighters' use of helmet-mounted cameras after concluding that footage from the Asiana Airlines crash showed the value of the devices."
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SFFD-backtracks-may-allow-helmet-cameras-4744090.php
Yesterday was too productive then, I could have procrastinated backing up the server to an external HDD until today! How can I make up for the loss of slacking now? ...Oh, right, posting comments on the internet.
Yep. I think it was 2017, grain blight, global food shortages, riots, disintegration of civilization, and we're left with algae-based burgers, beer, and Mad Max style electric cars. I'm already moving away from the current questionable burger meats, so an algae-based veggie burger is nothing, I don't drink beer anyway, and I can't complain about a green vehicle with weaponry. So this is a good thing, right?
Hydrogen in our own garage? Fantastic idea! Just needs the right spark of an idea to set off a firestorm of homemade invention.
It might not be Jetsons, but I could see making a 30's styled "flying car" this way. Might lose bouyancy as you run out of fuel though.
...but I have no idea what this game is by these Hasbro/WotC people.
If I wanted the annotated versions, to explain just what people were thinking when they designed the game, I'd either wait for that version or read their blog. So far I still havn't read anything to impress me about this system; nothing as drastic, experimental and "fun" (rtfa) as say, the player's option books were to 2nd ed.
{ // no time for prose, there's software to be written.
if(article) delete [] article;
}
Somehow I see A Tale in the Desert as a "reasonable" platform for the NASA game; collaborative effort, resources from the environment, public facilities, goals and accomplishments. Behind the scenes, they can work out such details as, "almost everyone makes their own small reactor instead of sharing one larger public one; reactors are only at 10% of capacity; 22% of a person's online time is spent sifting for Uranium; Copper is overused on connecting personal reactors to experiments and under-utilized in other areas; only 7% of players achieve their weekly quota of science experiments." Which might be what they really want to know when astronauts/players are left to fend for themselves in the game environment.
... not all accountants are rats.
Where can I sign up?
Ok so the 3T meteorite which had never previously been found/disclosed gets stolen, big deal, smells of hoax.
But wait, he claims he found alien ship wreckage? F* the rock, tell me the wreckage is still safe!!
Secondlife? Other than pioneering some odd intellectual property (IP) rules, where they don't own things in the game, how is it even vaguely interesting, much less "hottest on the internet?"
...Actually, come to think of it, news outlets have reported on it fairly often.
WoW is certainly a hot item, but it doesn't need a news outlet to let the outside world know what's going on.
Obligatory: So did you see the South Park episode?
How often do you pass over useful, society-benefitting projects because some other novelty has a better bottom line? Is there funding for such beneficial projects, that may not have a strong commercial opening?
"Cables holding me down.." No, I can just barely see the wires the's suspended by, in his backyard, with his mom watching as he lifts his feet off the ground to pretend that he's flying. ...I'm sorry, even if it's legit and that's not his mom, the video is kinda funny.
"In this envelope I have the research that PROVES this so-called 'global warming' effect is not an unusual phenomenon to the Earth. Here, I'll read some excerpts- Hm, a stack of $100 bills. Guess I brought the wrong envelope..."
How can a guide be written for creating "big hits" based on a single instance? Contrapositively, it'd be like writing a postmortem for Daikatana and hoping that there'd never be another Duke Nukem Forever. (Ok the timeline might make that a bad example, but you get the idea).
And as others have mentioned, it's not like SL is a model environment for demo game development. I'm sure plenty of others have gotten into the industry by starting with a Free* graphics engine. So, how does this relate to SL anyway? Mmmm Slashvertisement perhaps?
But of course, the real story behind it would have been the development of the game, spreading word of the game, and pitching one's self to developers to get hired. How about a writeup of that? That seems the be the overlooked, but relevant part of this story that at least I'd like to hear.
...the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through our star system, and our planet is one of those scheduled for demolition! All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in the local planning department on Alpha Centauri for nearly fifty years! For heaven's sake, it's only four light years away you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own lookout.
I'm grabbing my towel and sticking out my thumb.
I been gamin' fo' twenny-fo' years, *Twenny-Fo Years!* And I ain't been addicted YET!
Sounds like some producer wants a magic-bullet program to replace some bad-performing designer. Even in the case of a 'useful' tool to apply to projects, this is likely to become an excuse for when an inconsistency is found later on by QA- "the program said it was good!"
It's not going to find everything, let alone fix it. See Turing: the halting problem.
...and thought that my aversion to them was finally justified. *shrug*
Oh well, time for another cup of coffee.
... will end up as first against the wall when the Revolution comes!
No really, isn't this true of any studio? If all your investment in the R&D for titles on a new platform falls through on a lame title, you're dead, right?
I dunno if going the Hollywood live-action route is a good idea at all. They have 5M+ subscribers, do they really need to expand their audience? Nevermind relating to the other posts about whether or not their servers can handle expanding their market..
How about they just make another DVD of their own CGI? It's more of what we want to see than who they'll likely for actors, directors, locations, etc., and they could put in the voices that we're already familiar with.
Less risky too, since a flop in the box office could kill those hopes of expanding the market.
I for one welcome a return to serving my Apple Overlords! 1982-1990 were fine years for me, with an Apple IIe, IIc, and IIgs. Not that I have (much) against my current overlords, whom I still faithfully serve! (Until the revolution comes).
Don't forget the funny dice with wierd shapes! Content is good and all (depending on the developer/DM), but you know some people play just because of the innovative system. Just imagine, instead of black-box results which can only be understood by statistically analyzing the game for hours or days on end, we *give* you the numbers and the random number generators from the start!
Well okay, you have to go buy your own dice... but then you get to choose cool-looking ones, too!