Henroid

I'm wondering if the SteamBox is actually not a Valve assembled PC, and is instead just the codename they had for getting pre-built PCs made with SteamOS pre-loaded onto that. Jake said on Twitter that it could maybe also be a hardware rating metric, like what MS has. There's a lot of pieces to this puzzle missing but I think there's at least a lot of potential. I'm not Microsoft's biggest fan regarding all the things they are doing / leveraging with the Windows 8 platform and would like for someone to step up to offer an alternative. As for streaming Windows-only games, I feel like that's the "for now" solution that is being provided. Valve is at least trying to get developers to make Linux support a thing right now. I doubt we'll see 100% of the Steam catalogue converted over, but maybe at least some of it will. Another step is getting hardware manufacturers to make some proper and more timely Linux drivers. Because goddamn.

Oh don't worry, I knew exactly what I was allowing for when I wrote that. Also, wireless tech to me has always been a sort of means to an end, unless you're working in an environment where everyone having remote and mobile access to something is crucial. I've been using mobile broadband (well, except at this very moment temporarily) for the last couple of years and it is... man. I mean the tech would be excusible if it weren't for the management and policies at play. Whenever there's a practical means to have wired equipment or connections I will definitely take that over wireless. Wireless computer mouses and keyboards are like abberations to me.

My drive to California got totally wanked yesterday. A tire blew out and all the shops in the city I was in in Arizona were closed for the weekend. So I'm staying with a friend in Las Vegas (who came to get me and my belongings). Which is staying to a few days' stay because we can't go back to Arizona until he has an off day from work!

The great thing about volatile people banding together is that they're doing so because they're volatile for everyone else. Which means they'll eventually turn on each other. It's kinda like the Sith. When they run out of enemies, or are exiled, they just devour themselves.

Most of my things are packed, I just need to throw away some frivolous boxes / packaging / paper and pack my computer up tomorrow. And then three days driving to California. I was kinda reluctant to go in the first place but being back home in the Bay Area after all these years in Texas, which has lead to a lot of culture shock in my own freaking country, is going to be really comforting.

I think they're putting an effort into making the starter pokemon break their stereotypes / traditions. Fenniken is supposedly Fire / Psychic as opposed to Fire / Fighting, and Froagie or whatever it's called is going to be Water / Fighting possibly. I think Chespin is rumored to be Grass / Dark. If I remember right, the secondary types on all those still form a loop of what works against what.

... oh my gosh he's wearing a camouflaged / invisible tie.

People are generally confused about the handheld gaming world and lean toward "well mobiles do that now" so I see a lot of sentiment lean toward... well, this. I wonder how the 2DS reception would've been if they just said, "Here, play your 3DS / DS games on your T- haha oh wait two screens. Whoops, I got a little too excited there.

So that discussion at the end of the episode about engaging people in discussion or arguments. I recently went on a self-righteous rant elsewhere on the internet regarding the insane people on Twitter or website comment sections who launch vile threats of harm (or wishing of harm) on others. You know, like the Bioware writer who was told by people that her children would be killed and such. The gist of my rant on the topic was that people within internet communities need to confront their peers about that sort of aggression. "Community" is the important word here though. On sites like Twitter and YouTube or news organizations it is harder to orchestrate. But within a forum or video game guild / clan, it's something people can definitely execute on. If you see a peer or many of them being ridiculously hostile, point it out. The whole concept of "just ignore it, it'll go away" doesn't really make a whole lot of sense because the very act of clicking a "post" button gives those people the satisfaction of having some sort of voice. They can't tell you're ignoring it or paying attention to it. Mind you this wasn't a call to go on a witch hunt or to be hyper-aggressive in response to this people. Again, the key word is community, and the more you know someone the more likely your response to them will have an impact. And the more people that have a response toward someone will have an impact. Collectively telling someone to chill will have better effect than telling random commenter to chill. And if it gets bad enough, the heavy hand of moderation / administration can come in and send the person on their way, no longer a part of the community. Either they'll learn through Persona Non Grata that they should shape up, or they'll continue doing what they do. But it's better than saying / doing nothing and let them continue what they do in the first place. It's hard being confrontational while also keeping away from aggression (trust me I know, I have anger management issues). But it's possible to do. "This isn't the community for that shit, shape up or ship out" could really go a long way. Anyway there's my dumb tangent.

Am I doing this right?

Woo so I'm moving back to the Bay Area sometime soon. I was supposed to be there already this week but some foreseen shenanigans put it on hold. A cousin in the family has been setting me up to meet with some union folks across multiple unions across the bay (operation engineers, mechanics, and electricians specifically) since he's some sort of state liason with union leaders and knows them personally and such. So sweet deal. It's all five-year program stuff where you do a mix of working and class room stuff specifically for the job, $17 an hour to start (minus benefits factored in, but you get them along with the pay) and at the end of the five years you get like $50/hour in pay and benefits combined. I should've looked into this years ago when I was in Oregon a short time but that's the way it rolls. It'll be nice being back in the BA. Aside from the familiarity I won't be in rural hell, and the weather kicks ass over there compared to here.

My thing with Mike and his apologies is that they always apologize about people being offended rather than him doing any sort of wrong (intentionally or not). Like it seems to come from a place of, "Whoa people are mad at me" rather than "oh, I hurt people and didn't mean to." That's the only way I can really describe how I end up reading his words.

Because after that part comes this:

Every once in a while people decide to leave when they've had enough of it. Anyway, reading over Mike's non-apology, nothing in there contains him saying he's sorry for making the offending merchandise in the first place. Every time he talked about how the situation should've been dropped on their part, he's included making the merchandise anyway. Like he doesn't effin' get it. He agreed to stop producing / selling the merchandise in protest and still protests. That is not the attitude of someone who is apologetic. It is the attitude of someone who remains bitter.

For every "Congrats Nick!" there is an equal and opposite "Congrats Nick!"

I'm in a weird place regarding Penny Arcade. On the one hand, I've been a part of its forum community for over ten years. It's great over there. There's a lot of great people and there's been a lot of real world connections and help given and received via that community. It is tremendous. It is a staple of my life and has been for years and years. On the other hand, one of the guys creating the content the community is built around is a pretty big asshole. And over the last couple years ability to speak out against them on the forum has been met with actual punishment (including bans of long-standing community members). I've never been to PAX and at this point probably never will go. I don't want to support these guys anymore than I already am by being a part of the community. Luckily, they engage with the community so infrequently that said community isn't something they can take credit for; it forged itself over the years to become the great thing it is. But man... I'm getting tired of Mike's goddamn non-apologies. Even if he does get better at crafting them, sustained, actually-learned-something behavior is how he can show people his sincerity. Not just some goddamn PR post.

The reveal of why Sean objected to the baby / pillow situation made me laugh so loud I woke people up. That was incredible.

Oh man yes. Yeah the Shantae games are pretty high quality games, but are as niche as it gets.

Biff vs. Shooter McGavin

The way the 2nd film ends is so good.

The two Matrix sequels were also produced back to back and came out four years after the first film. Though in the film world, considering how special-effects-heavy those films are, that's pretty damn fast. Though they weren't planning on it being a trilogy. And I guess when you make a half trillion dollars on a single film you have all the money in the world to burn on making CGI go into overdrive for production.

... That was a super ramble and I dunno if I said anything that mattered or addressed any topic actually at hand.

I dunno if films emulate the "quick make franchises and put out as many as possible" thing that video games are going through. Even if they do decide on trilogy franchises, it takes many years for these things to see fulfillment. Like the Chris Nolan Batman films took many years between each installment, but not because that was the fastest they could pump out films. If they wanted to, they could've had one out every year and a half (probably every year). But the Hollywood structure, including the business end, understands the importance of creative freedom. At least to a better degree than the video game industry currently does. A lot of it has to do with Hollywood's ability to parlay a film into other products (soundtracks, toys, advertising partnerships with Burger King or whatever else, etc). They have other ways of monetizing the product that doesn't require a lame formulaic or rushed design. The only way economic structure affects film production is that movie studios will hop on a gold mine for films of a particular theme or genre (which is what the video game industry does too). But overall the saturation of products from the motion picture industry is way less than video games (both in terms of actual flat numbers and ratio of types of movies coming out vs. all movies coming out for the year). In VG if there's a zombie bandwagon, there's just this deluge from everybody to make zombies. In film you're still getting big studios releasing other kinds of movies at least, with as much promotion or backing as the latest "everybody do this." Last note: btw this is why The Dark Knight Rises was a terrible movie; it was forced into being a "oh this is part three of a trilogy long story arc" instead of "a third film featuring this setting."

I still remember the Super Nintendo game for Return of the Jedi, where you fly the Falcon first-person through the Death Star. Twice in a row. The first stage you can take it at your own pace but the second you have to constantly hold down a throttle button. I have a vague memory that you had to press select in order to enable barrel rolling with L and R, which was really crucial for getting through it the second time (and for some reason not the first, but maybe that's my memory being fuzzy). It definitely wasn't quality though and you didn't have to account for the entire ship being to the left of the cockpit. The Falcon seems like it'd be a real pain in the ass to pilot. It's not quite the same as sitting on the driver side of a car and having to account for the few feet of car to your side.

GREAT now I look like a dumb dumb for trying to give Sean the benefit of the doubt.