Henroid

So I just found out there's a character planner already made on the internet for Fallout 4. It's all based on info discovered from a leak that happened this past week. So enjoy I guess, unless you try to avoid this sorta thing before a game is out; in which case I say, enjoy resisting temptation. http://www.rpg-gaming.com/fo4.html

Someone compiled what the top candidates for the Dems and Republicans are saying about the points from the Campaign Zero site. Bernie Sanders is definitely in the lead here, Clinton isn't even trying, and the Republicans kinda want to make a few of the points actually worse than they already are. https://twitter.com/samswey/status/661745995668062208

Every book ever. Because hearing people talk, especially unscripted, is way more intriguing and enlightening as to who they are as people or what their philosophies are and how much they hold onto those philosophies. Writing just buys time to bullshit or mask over known flaws or errors in logic. Just like this post.

There's more Activision Blizzard news. Via Gamespot: Blizzard just reported World of Warcraft subscriber counts for the last time. http://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzard-will-no-longer-report-world-of-warcraft-s/1100-6431943/ 3 months ago the count was at 5.6 million, and it is now at 5.5 million. It's one of the smaller drops to happen but they're back at the end of their launch year at this point. And don't get me wrong, it's still multi-millions of players. It's not like this ship is a financial failure. If anyone out there is going, "WoW is doomed," just remember that people have been saying that ever since the Cataclysm expansion, when subscriber counts actually started to fall; though that was back in 2010. And it was literally like 12 million to 10 or 9 million. STILL A LOT OF PEOPLE. But it does make me wonder what's motivating this. Famous posted on Twitter last night a graph of Activision Blizzard's stock. It's dropped significantly since 2012 but I think that's when they bought themselves out from Vivendi. I bring this up because I'm convinced this news of changing how Blizzard reports its success metric is meant for stock investors, who typically ruin the video game business in my humble view. I think a lot of people just expect WoW's titanic subscriber count to be the norm for games, not understanding what a rare freak of nature it was to begin with, and with AB's stock running low they want to preserve what they can. I can't blame them in that regard - as I said, I blame investors. But at the same time, it side steps the responsibility of explaining to investors and educating them on what things are actually like. From here on out Blizzard is going to be reporting "engagement" metrics on their games, and so far they haven't elaborated on whatever the hell that means. It reminds me of how Sony shifted its business reporting during the PS3 era when they were taking serious lumps though. Rather than report on PS3 units sold, Sony started to talk about the "Playstation family," which included the PSP, PS3, PS2, and for a while the PSX. It was an obvious mask and pathetic as hell. But business investors are hyper-reactionary these days because the culture changed over the course of the 80s and 90s to expect some immediate "rich as fuck" return.

I really wonder how King's direction is going to change after this. King has been more notorious than Activision in recent years. Activision has been really quiet and hasn't done anything really hostile to consumers, and Bobby Kotick has been quiet from his usual "I want money" shtick. But King? Remember when they were trying to patent "Candy" and "Crush" and oh my god WHAT is our legal system even!?

Okay, I just found out about this minutes ago and can't contain my excitement. Announcement trailer: So basically the game is... one person is actually at the computer trying to defuse a bomb. The other player (or players if you want) have an actual physical manual in front of them with instructions on how to disable that bomb. But player 2 cannot look at the screen. Player 2 must communicate to player 1 how to defuse the bomb. It's more or less like those scenes in movies where Bruce Willis or whoever calls the guy on the radio and is told what to do. I figure this game is right up the alley of this community. Also Nick Breckon must be player 1 and Jake Rodkin is player 2. Or vice versa, whichever.

The Secret World. Yes I know it's an MMO and perpetuity is the goal of the gameplay. But it does have a story element, as most MMOs do, and I wanted to see it thru because I had heard very often how great it is. Supposedly. Well, it's not. The Secret World is the ultimate 'make me a pie' MMO. I mean... it's not literal pies, but the tasks you do and what they amount to seems to be so little. The pies are replaced with zombies. The setting of the game is our world, as it is, but all mythical / paranormal shit you've ever heard of turns out to be real and something has happened to let it pour out in droves across the world. Or something. I thought that would be cool, but it turns out it's resulted in the game having no direction in its writing. It's shockingly bland, which sucks when you have access to so many great things. The most jarring thing to me, though, is that the spoken dialog from missions makes no sense. Literally shit like... a cop will tell you about some kittens he had as a kid getting drowned, then suddenly you have a short chain of missions about defending a police station from zombies. No connection at all. And the game is just full of shit like that from everything I've seen. It's almost as if the fade to black to take you out of mission start cutscenes is where the NPCs whisper, "oh by the way do this." As far as its gameplay goes, it's actually like a reduced button WoW. And fits perfectly in line with how the Mists of Pandaria expansion for WoW played out, where most enemies you fought had a visual indicator for strong attacks they were performing. Step out of the way, and that's it. You're safe. It was boring in WoW and it is boring in TSW. I almost want to appreciate the way skills / abilities work out in this game, but it makes your strength ambiguous to measure, and some of the things like leveling your ability with shotguns give the lamest of returns. It uses flat numbers, but they are just a masked form of the 1 to 5 percent bullshit WoW and many other MMOs started out with. Which I have come to loathe.

Splatfest: Pirates vs Ninjas is upon us in North America! I only have one question; who's ready to walk the plank?

The Yawhg. Okay so maybe this isn't really what the thread means but still, that game is amazing. My roomies played it a lot today. I, at one point, sabotaged what would've been a good ending by using my awesome finesse to be the Looter.

SXSW is just... I don't even know what to say. This isn't a debate class thing, this is abused people wanting to speak about the abuse, but the abuser is being given time for... god knows what reason. This isn't in the realm of "alleged" abuse either. It's right fucking there and many Goobergate members proudly wear that badge.

Years ago in another web community, someone said, "I'm amazed at how willing the American workforce is to bend over and get fucked in the ass." Anyone know the song by John Lennon, Working Class Hero? It's a good one. Check it out.

Paradox Interactive just bought White Wolf Publishing from CCP. It's an all-cash buy, but the amount hasn't been disclosed. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/257682/Paradox_pays_cash_to_take_White_Wolf_Publishing_off_CCPs_hands.php The deal includes World of Darkness, which was canned this past April. It's possible now that Paradox Interactive will revive the project. But for now, the White Wolf brand is in good hands and won't merely be sat upon. Edit - Oh yeah, and Paradox is going to let White Wolf Publishing operate independently.

It still feels very extreme to have as a thing we do here. I don't think very many people consider it 'normal.'

My employer denied my time off request for Christmas despite being made two months in advance, which is the standard work ethic thing I've been taught and lived by my whole life. More to come later perhaps but for now I'm having to cancel a flight and risk my grandmother dying without seeing me one last time because if I still go I'll lose my job and I've had bad luck finding work my whole life and fuck capitalism forever, nobody can convince me it is a good thing.

The option that they missed was calling the students' parents to have them remove her from the class. If what she was doing was SO BAD in the first place.

Couple things via Gamasutra as I'm going to bed. 1) Single-player games that had authentication required to play but the servers are now dead are DMCA exempt, rules a court. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/257502/Singleplayer_games_with_dead_authentication_servers_ruled_DMCA_exempt.php 2) A UK board is giving mobile devs (proper) shit for advertising to children so heavily to buy bullshit in their apps. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/257531/UKs_advertising_standards_body_sanctions_freetoplay_kids_game_devs.php

I want to 'go on record' as it were to say that the teacher was complicit in the violence by allowing it to happen and merely saying that the student "should have cooperated." Another student in the class was arrested because she stood up and started to defend (verbally) the girl in the video. Who, by the way, was in trouble for chewing gum in class. Yes, that's what this is about. She was chewing gum, so the teacher told her to leave the class and she didn't want to. Which, by the way, goes in the way of denying black people an education. I added the link to http://www.joincampaignzero.org/ in the OP by the way. It was part of my original intent in making this thread because of how important this all is but I was... so mad yesterday. To be mild and non-dramatic about it.

Randi Harper pointed out how long she's been taking shit for being anti-harassment, and the SXSW people were harassed for a week before caving in. Another thing that's happening recently with GG by the way is that some of them are rallying to boycott the new Assassin's Creed, which I guess has Karl Marx in it? And they're all "RAWR COMMUNISM" and some are flipping out about Feminism being Communism or something. I dunno. It's strange to see McCarthyism alive and in action (though thankfully not at a government level).

This isn't for my levels. Anyone know Iga? Of Castlevania fame? He makes levels in Mario Maker. And his experience as a game developer / designer shows so much. His first level was a remake of the first level from Castlevania. Later down the line he ended up making Legion in Mario Maker. Yes, Legion, the boss comprised of the souls of the damned. And it's GOOD and works. Here's the code for it (and subsequently how to find him): B71C-0000-0088-A4E4

I prefer Randy Savage for Skyrim non-sequiturs.

Can't blame the confusion about the company name though. It does sound absurd and joke-like.

Bad waves surrounding Harmonix. Via Eurogamer, turns out some employees were posting 5-star reviews of the game to Amazon. The company admitted to it, saying these employees acted on their own. As small as the effort was I would believe the story; I'm sure some people out there are going, "IT WAS A DIRECTIVE TO BOOST REVIEWS" but if that were the case there would be all sorts of dummy accounts involved. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-10-22-harmonix-admits-to-employees-posting-positive-rock-band-4-amazon-reviews I'm not sure if I particularly care if an employee who made something posts a review of it, provided they disclose they helped make the item in question, and the review isn't max-stars or least-stars (it'd be more believable if someone was noting drawbacks, for example).

So far I haven't run out of ideas for levels. They're mostly centered on trying to be as actual-Mario-esque as possible. This time it's Scroll Stroll, a SMB3 themed level. E367-0000-00B9-ABDB

Honestly I think it's worthwhile being in on the ground floor of what people are learning they can make. ANYWAY I have a fourth level. I'm still trying to keep the spirit of Super Mario Bros 3 whenever I make levels in its aesthetic. E6E0-0000-00B7-EB31

I'm a little worried about this push that the end of the Empire means the galaxy fell into some sort of Fallout situation. RUINS EVERYWHERE.