The problem is customer expectations. If I'm modding Kerbal Space Program, I'm downloading a file and putting DLLs into my game directories...there's a comprehension that I'm adding code to the game, and I should at least use a little bit of caution. If it's a brand new mod by an unknown user, with no forum thread talking about it, I might wait because I know there's an element of risk--or look at the code on github. If the mod says it's only parts with no code changes, I can glance in the zip file and verify that.
Apparently if I'm modding Skylines, adding new assets is as easy as "check a box on Steam, now it's available". There's no comprehension that it should be dangerous, so I wouldn't think to take those precautions. If it's not curated, and there's no notification when you add something that changes the code, then that is a problem. Making the user acknowledge that it's adding uncurated code and yes they want to proceed, and only doing that if it's really adding code and not just assets, is a good step at least.
That's a Paradox thing. The games they publish (well, make, really) are well known for having a ton of optional, aesthetic DLCs. These landmarks are a lot pricier than normal, but it sure as hell is optional! I'm hoping that this game will follow the Paradox business model in the future.
Example for Europa Universalis: New units for your conquistadors? Do they change the gameplay? No, not at all, they just make it so if you're Spanish-ish, and fussing around in New World colonies, your unit art is different. Um... great? It's $2.50. Not worth it. Crusader Kings, new character portraits that are more realistic for certain cultures? $2.50...nahhh. Another hour of music that goes into the rotation when playing as certain religions? Also $2.50. Not worth it at all for new players, but if you've already dumped two hundred hours and don't use your own soundtrack, yes it is...and unlike little art or code changes, you know they had to pay some composer a nontrivial amount of money to commission it, so it's all cool. They also like to add expansions for $10, $15 or so that add major new mechanics, but they're always optional--never prerequisites for future DLCs--and they come with free patches that tweak bugs and existing mechanics. I think I own all of the music mods, none of the art mods, and 75% of the gameplay mods for EU4 and CK2, and I'm pretty happy with their a la carte system. Just remember they're supposed to be optional.
Also remember that this game IS NOT CONNECTED to the (terrible) Cities XL series. Different creators, different publishers. I have no idea how they didn't get taken to court for the name because there is massive marketplace confusion here, but they aren't related.
The original SimCity was useful bonding for me when I was a bit younger than that age, so I'd guess yes.
Controls are a bit more complicated, roads don't always build the way you'd like them to unless you're obsessively careful, but it's also pretty forgiving about doing crazy stupid sprawling things so probably no harm there.
I have mixed feelings. On one hand, people shouldn't be able to attach unsandboxed C# code to house assets and stuff where they might not know what they are getting. On the other hand, that's some pretty awesome power to give modders. Minecraft wouldn't be the game it is today if it wasn't for mods written in (presumably) unsandboxed Java, same with Kerbal Space Program, and this mod policy means someone really could write a downloadable fix for the traffic. Making it completely unsandboxed means you could even do crazy stuff like "interface with an online topo-map service and automatically generate a landscape from the real world". I bet someone'll write something like SimCopter given enough time...etc.
Some people in that thread claimed that the Steam Workshop mods are curated by the actual game developers. If that's true, and they are responsible about it, then this is pretty nice!
Probably because they're not _that_ bad once you get used to how and why roads are different from SimCity? I mean, sure, I expect that things will get tweaked in future patches. I don't know about this design studio but Paradox loves to change their own games, and fixes (meddles with) mechanics in free patches. Still, it hasn't been a game breaker for me yet by any stretch.
Got Cities Skylines a couple nights ago, sinking tons of time into it. It seems...adequate I guess? First one that's been even adequate in well over a decade though. Transportation is a little more like the (confusingly, unrelated) Cities XL series...in that roads actually have lanes that actually matter. Not a perfect implementation, there's quirks like a lack of a way to merge two one-way streets directly onto a two-way street without allowing a u-turn at the intersection, but it's a heck of a lot better than the nightmare that was SimCity 4's road pathing. Also, unlike Cities XL, the city building part is actually a game instead of a micromanagement chore.
Game balance is a little meh, but again--better than any other city builder since SC2k. I'd say it's worth it, especially since it isn't sold for AAA-game price. Of course, people who played SimCity 2000 probably don't have the time to blow on city builders these days. It's published by Paradox (Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis) and it shows...none of their games aren't huge enormous time sinks.
Also, if you don't build graveyards after a certain point, people start complaining about the dead bodies stinking up their houses, and that's hilarious.
As is the idea of tech blogs, which are perennially stupid when it comes to actually understanding the legal system, posting articles without understanding the subject matter. If you read the text it mainly says "if you're going to act like a bank, we're going to regulate you like a bank, even if you claim cryptocurrency makes you immune because it isn't real". I don't see how it seems unreasonable. Given bitcoin exchanges' track records it seems like a downright good idea, and it might help shake off the terrible reputation that bitcoin has outside of crazy people.
I'm actually pretty amazed that there hasn't been a legit drone attack inside the US yet. You can easily make a quadcopter carry a couple pounds of arbitrary stuff, and I'm sure someone even marginally creative could do some very bad things with a couple pounds of aerially delivered whatever.
I do think that manually piloted drones are the least concern here. Fully autonomous is the way of the future, commercially.
Also I have a strong suspicion that various TLAs are keeping a very close eye on drone hobbyist sites to see what fun creative things people are doing. Doing something dangerous with a drone is no longer "I will build custom hardware and write custom code", it's now "I will combine a few things off of shelves with some malicious intent". So maybe there really is a lot of value in them developing defenses against off-the-shelf stuff? Hm.
How much are people paying for memberships there? What's the rent like in the bay area? Hackerspaces aren't small. How often do they need to fix or replace equipment, what's the power bill like...
Hackerspaces I've seen keep going out of business. Their users just don't pay enough to support higher wage workers. People want a life full of luxuries, but aren't willing to spend enough for those luxuries to keep the creators well paid.
This seems a little disingenuous. Part of why they don't follow up on these crimes is that they don't have the resources to track criminals that they can't identify. If a private citizen can go to the police and say "I've been robbed, and this is a picture of the guy from my privately owned home security camera", they're a lot more likely to pursue it.
Of course they could probably also do better if they had more resources, but who wants to pay for more cops?
Seems like it was pretty equal to me. They sure as hell hurt the reputation of that fraternity in other areas, in other colleges, by being associated with them. So they got de-associated.
The Starship Troopers movie doesn't much resemble the book because it wasn't based on the book. No, literally, it was a totally standalone work that was written from the ground up as terrible B-movie schlock, and someone pointed out that it had a passing resemblance...so they licensed the name for marketing, changed a couple characters and locations, that's it. Heinlein's estate didn't care that it was completely different because he's dead and it's free money.
It's arbitrary as far as an individual business is concerned, and that business doesn't necessarily have any control, insight or predictive ability over why it happens. If Google changes their rules and screws over 5% of businesses in order to make more money--even after you factor in the loss of business to Google because of its poor practices--then of course it will do so. Government is at least theoretically obligated not to do that.
What about Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which is an actual fan work (and IMO surprisingly good)? It's funny in that it twists the characters into something different, but parody is not the *purpose* of the work as far as I can tell, especially because it's long as hell. It stands on its own as a creative effort, but the world and characters are derived from the original. Which sounds...actually pretty similar to this short, if this short was extended into a series.
The fact that the Power Rangers thing is short leans in its favor as being created just to poke fun at the original, but if you keep going with it (like Methods of Rationality did), I don't see how you can keep saying each subsequent episode is still a parody of the original work.
Try that as a business. If Google arbitrarily decides that you no longer show up on search lists, or even that you no longer show up on a map--your business basically ends, unless all your business comes from the sidewalk.
Business can't plan or talk to customers or have any strategy whatsoever without at least some estimate...that's just the real world. If devs don't give estimates, managers have to make estimates. If managers don't make estimates, business makes estimates. You want devs to do the estimating.
Searching is the killer app of e-readers (or just PDFs) to me. Even if I have a physical book, which is sometimes easier to reference, I like having a PDF that I can search in. Fiction, nonfiction, reference manual...doesn't matter, still want search.
Slashdot Mirror
What else does it add? I was considering it on Steam but the description only seemed to list those buildings. Wondering if I missed out.
The problem is customer expectations. If I'm modding Kerbal Space Program, I'm downloading a file and putting DLLs into my game directories...there's a comprehension that I'm adding code to the game, and I should at least use a little bit of caution. If it's a brand new mod by an unknown user, with no forum thread talking about it, I might wait because I know there's an element of risk--or look at the code on github. If the mod says it's only parts with no code changes, I can glance in the zip file and verify that.
Apparently if I'm modding Skylines, adding new assets is as easy as "check a box on Steam, now it's available". There's no comprehension that it should be dangerous, so I wouldn't think to take those precautions. If it's not curated, and there's no notification when you add something that changes the code, then that is a problem. Making the user acknowledge that it's adding uncurated code and yes they want to proceed, and only doing that if it's really adding code and not just assets, is a good step at least.
That's a Paradox thing. The games they publish (well, make, really) are well known for having a ton of optional, aesthetic DLCs. These landmarks are a lot pricier than normal, but it sure as hell is optional! I'm hoping that this game will follow the Paradox business model in the future.
Example for Europa Universalis: New units for your conquistadors? Do they change the gameplay? No, not at all, they just make it so if you're Spanish-ish, and fussing around in New World colonies, your unit art is different. Um... great? It's $2.50. Not worth it. Crusader Kings, new character portraits that are more realistic for certain cultures? $2.50...nahhh. Another hour of music that goes into the rotation when playing as certain religions? Also $2.50. Not worth it at all for new players, but if you've already dumped two hundred hours and don't use your own soundtrack, yes it is...and unlike little art or code changes, you know they had to pay some composer a nontrivial amount of money to commission it, so it's all cool. They also like to add expansions for $10, $15 or so that add major new mechanics, but they're always optional--never prerequisites for future DLCs--and they come with free patches that tweak bugs and existing mechanics. I think I own all of the music mods, none of the art mods, and 75% of the gameplay mods for EU4 and CK2, and I'm pretty happy with their a la carte system. Just remember they're supposed to be optional.
Also remember that this game IS NOT CONNECTED to the (terrible) Cities XL series. Different creators, different publishers. I have no idea how they didn't get taken to court for the name because there is massive marketplace confusion here, but they aren't related.
The original SimCity was useful bonding for me when I was a bit younger than that age, so I'd guess yes.
Controls are a bit more complicated, roads don't always build the way you'd like them to unless you're obsessively careful, but it's also pretty forgiving about doing crazy stupid sprawling things so probably no harm there.
I have mixed feelings. On one hand, people shouldn't be able to attach unsandboxed C# code to house assets and stuff where they might not know what they are getting. On the other hand, that's some pretty awesome power to give modders. Minecraft wouldn't be the game it is today if it wasn't for mods written in (presumably) unsandboxed Java, same with Kerbal Space Program, and this mod policy means someone really could write a downloadable fix for the traffic. Making it completely unsandboxed means you could even do crazy stuff like "interface with an online topo-map service and automatically generate a landscape from the real world". I bet someone'll write something like SimCopter given enough time...etc.
Some people in that thread claimed that the Steam Workshop mods are curated by the actual game developers. If that's true, and they are responsible about it, then this is pretty nice!
Huh. Judging by other comments here, maybe I'm wrong about it being livable.
Oh, interesting. Any links about that?
Probably because they're not _that_ bad once you get used to how and why roads are different from SimCity? I mean, sure, I expect that things will get tweaked in future patches. I don't know about this design studio but Paradox loves to change their own games, and fixes (meddles with) mechanics in free patches. Still, it hasn't been a game breaker for me yet by any stretch.
Got Cities Skylines a couple nights ago, sinking tons of time into it. It seems...adequate I guess? First one that's been even adequate in well over a decade though. Transportation is a little more like the (confusingly, unrelated) Cities XL series...in that roads actually have lanes that actually matter. Not a perfect implementation, there's quirks like a lack of a way to merge two one-way streets directly onto a two-way street without allowing a u-turn at the intersection, but it's a heck of a lot better than the nightmare that was SimCity 4's road pathing. Also, unlike Cities XL, the city building part is actually a game instead of a micromanagement chore.
Game balance is a little meh, but again--better than any other city builder since SC2k. I'd say it's worth it, especially since it isn't sold for AAA-game price. Of course, people who played SimCity 2000 probably don't have the time to blow on city builders these days. It's published by Paradox (Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis) and it shows...none of their games aren't huge enormous time sinks.
Also, if you don't build graveyards after a certain point, people start complaining about the dead bodies stinking up their houses, and that's hilarious.
They're working in Chrome for me right now, maybe they fixed them.
You know it's bad when "injecting metal nanoparticles into the brain and controlling them with magnetic fields" is LESS invasive.
As is the idea of tech blogs, which are perennially stupid when it comes to actually understanding the legal system, posting articles without understanding the subject matter. If you read the text it mainly says "if you're going to act like a bank, we're going to regulate you like a bank, even if you claim cryptocurrency makes you immune because it isn't real". I don't see how it seems unreasonable. Given bitcoin exchanges' track records it seems like a downright good idea, and it might help shake off the terrible reputation that bitcoin has outside of crazy people.
I'm actually pretty amazed that there hasn't been a legit drone attack inside the US yet. You can easily make a quadcopter carry a couple pounds of arbitrary stuff, and I'm sure someone even marginally creative could do some very bad things with a couple pounds of aerially delivered whatever.
I do think that manually piloted drones are the least concern here. Fully autonomous is the way of the future, commercially.
Also I have a strong suspicion that various TLAs are keeping a very close eye on drone hobbyist sites to see what fun creative things people are doing. Doing something dangerous with a drone is no longer "I will build custom hardware and write custom code", it's now "I will combine a few things off of shelves with some malicious intent". So maybe there really is a lot of value in them developing defenses against off-the-shelf stuff? Hm.
How much are people paying for memberships there? What's the rent like in the bay area? Hackerspaces aren't small. How often do they need to fix or replace equipment, what's the power bill like...
Hackerspaces I've seen keep going out of business. Their users just don't pay enough to support higher wage workers. People want a life full of luxuries, but aren't willing to spend enough for those luxuries to keep the creators well paid.
This seems a little disingenuous. Part of why they don't follow up on these crimes is that they don't have the resources to track criminals that they can't identify. If a private citizen can go to the police and say "I've been robbed, and this is a picture of the guy from my privately owned home security camera", they're a lot more likely to pursue it.
Of course they could probably also do better if they had more resources, but who wants to pay for more cops?
Seems like it was pretty equal to me. They sure as hell hurt the reputation of that fraternity in other areas, in other colleges, by being associated with them. So they got de-associated.
Am I just having a really, really cynical day today, or could this never work in the USA because people are much bigger jerks here?
Do you really want a Slashdot full of Zalgo, emojis, and Japanese character art?
Christ, lay off the coffee. It's one of my favorite movies.
The Starship Troopers movie doesn't much resemble the book because it wasn't based on the book. No, literally, it was a totally standalone work that was written from the ground up as terrible B-movie schlock, and someone pointed out that it had a passing resemblance...so they licensed the name for marketing, changed a couple characters and locations, that's it. Heinlein's estate didn't care that it was completely different because he's dead and it's free money.
The original title was Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine.
It's arbitrary as far as an individual business is concerned, and that business doesn't necessarily have any control, insight or predictive ability over why it happens. If Google changes their rules and screws over 5% of businesses in order to make more money--even after you factor in the loss of business to Google because of its poor practices--then of course it will do so. Government is at least theoretically obligated not to do that.
What about Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which is an actual fan work (and IMO surprisingly good)? It's funny in that it twists the characters into something different, but parody is not the *purpose* of the work as far as I can tell, especially because it's long as hell. It stands on its own as a creative effort, but the world and characters are derived from the original. Which sounds...actually pretty similar to this short, if this short was extended into a series.
The fact that the Power Rangers thing is short leans in its favor as being created just to poke fun at the original, but if you keep going with it (like Methods of Rationality did), I don't see how you can keep saying each subsequent episode is still a parody of the original work.
IANAL either, obv.
If you get tired of Google, you "quit using it"?
Try that as a business. If Google arbitrarily decides that you no longer show up on search lists, or even that you no longer show up on a map--your business basically ends, unless all your business comes from the sidewalk.
Business can't plan or talk to customers or have any strategy whatsoever without at least some estimate...that's just the real world. If devs don't give estimates, managers have to make estimates. If managers don't make estimates, business makes estimates. You want devs to do the estimating.
Searching is the killer app of e-readers (or just PDFs) to me. Even if I have a physical book, which is sometimes easier to reference, I like having a PDF that I can search in. Fiction, nonfiction, reference manual...doesn't matter, still want search.