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Big news, everybody. Kerbal Space Program is now on Steam! Key Features: Planned Features:

Well, those tweets by her where she gleefully says they 'accidentally killed an exploitative startup's website' and other hostile things seem to still be there. To me it that seems pretty convincing evidence that she did attack them, and directed hate towards the FYC because she apparently misunderstood the rules regarding transgendered participants. Or maybe she still hates them even after the rules have been expressed more clearly, that's also a possibility. As for the Indiegogo hacking, yeah at worst it could've been one of her followers, but I never thought it was her personally or sanctioned by her. I'm not focusing on that incident. It's just her attitude towards the whole thing in her tweets that grates on me. She's attacking them saying things like "FUCK YOU PAY ME" and "You don't need anyone's permission to make your games". Which is true of course, but not everyone is in her position, already being an indie game developer, having funding and a bunch of contacts in the industry. I thought of a comparison today: I'm currently working on my masters thesis. I searched for a number of months for a company that would hire me for a project, so I could get a salary and work experience while writing my thesis. I have no useful contacts in the relevant field and my CV is not very impressive, so I had no luck. Then I asked the university for a topic, which they gladly provided. However, they would provide no funding and there's only a small cooperative interaction with an outside company, who might also not provide any funding, that's yet to be seen. However, I still get to finally graduate and once I do, I'll have that admittedly weak contact into the industry. Now if someone, who already works in the industry and has a good number of contacts, started attacking the university and the company, trying to shut down the project because it "oppresses and exploits him" and "PAY HIM FUCK YOU", I'd hate their guts. (If your knees are jerking and the urge to type "You straight white man are comparing yourself to the hardships of women?!" is overtaking you, calm down. I'm not equating them, it's just a comparison trying to illustrate why I feel how I feel). Here's two potential positive outcome endgames I thought of, there's probably more: 1) Should ZQ express remorse or explain her point of view more clearly, if she's so inclined to in the first place, at how she targeted the FYC, she could be OK in my book. 2) If her Rebel Jam turns out to be real fantastic, 100% non-oppressive and guaranteed to bring huge success to all participants, she'll also be OK in my book. Once more details about Rebel Jam emerge, and if the donations no longer go to her personal account, I'd consider donating to the game jam. (Do I also need to be even more crystal clear that I don't think she's somehow accountable or obligated to apologize to me or any other person? I think I do.) I still stand by my current view on her, but either of those scenarios would be sufficient for me to change my mind. Is that fair?

I do. I just wonder the length of the resulting arugment. Look, the replies are here already. I never brought up her personal life (see after next quote) and games journalism, just the way she sabotaged TFYC's project. I'm not sure sure about what you mean with the second part. Just because she's the victim of a controversy that shouldn't exist doesn't excuse her from the other thing (that is a public matter) she did. And because it came to light that she's responsible to a degree, yes of course I'm going to dislike her for that. I don't know, maybe you're expecting me to feel that way just because I said I don't like her. But the two opinions can be completely separate. Just so noone feels the need to speculate about my views on this or try to dismiss legit criticism towards her as victim blaming, I think that the details (fictional or not) about her personal life being made public, the now sadly standard death and rape threats and the harrassment are as inappropriate as you do. Of course she didn't deserve it. If the personal life thing never came to light, I probably would never have heard of the FYC thing either, in which case I wouldn't be writing this now because the project may have stayed buried. If this was only a matter of her personal life and the games journalism thing, and she hadn't interacted destructively with TFYC, I 100% wouldn't be writing this now. Isn't that how contests usually work? Winner gets the best prize, while the runner-ups get less, sometimes nothing. Maybe I'm being naive and my opinions are being colored, but I still think they should be allowed to take part in the contest. Isn't it considered a problem that there aren't enough women working in the video game industry, and wouldn't this give the potential opportunity to get some names out there? It would be fantastic if lots of women could conjure up tons of experience and credentials, and break into the field so that they would be equally represented. Any of these women, as well as any others out there, are free to make their own indie game, promote it and keep 100% of the profits! I don't see why this project shouldn't be allowed to exist unless it's guaranteed to be a huge financial success, and I especially don't see why its existence should be decided by some people who already have a foothold in the field. This is a quote from the thing I linked in the previous post And I brought up the character because they could've designed it to be pretty much anything. Once the amount of donations from the 4chan group exceeded $2000, they were allowed to submit a character design that would bypass the judging panel. If they were donating just to troll the feminists, wouldn't THAT have been the perfect spot to create some kind of hateful anti-woman character. My point is not that 4chan is now a bastion and a safe haven for feminism, or even common decency, or that their past, current or future misbehaviour should be excused. I'm saying that they're for once doing a nice thing, and people are being hypocrites by sabotaging a cause they should be supporting just because 4chan is involved, or (earlier) because they decided that noone else should be allowed to take part either. My point is that being against ZQ's misbehaviours (the relevant ones) doesn't mean being against feminism or women, that it's because of the other (irrelevant / fabricated or not) misbehaviours OR that it means you think "she deserved it". As for the issues of trust for the FYC and Bjorn's points. Yes, be skeptical. I was very skeptical when the Indiegogo page first went down, and I wondered if it was just some elaborate ruse. Noone's forcing anyone to donate to the project, but noone should direct their twitter hordes to take it down either.

(Looks like I'm a bit late to the discussion here, but that's how I usually am.) I dug a pothole when the Quinn controversy started, and I've been observing the carnage from a distance. I've seen the expected overreactions and misbehaviour from 4chan and the likes, but I've also seen some disgusting things from the Quinn supporter side. While I would probably never put myself completely in either one camp, at this time I would be more comfortable in moving my defensive position closer to the "4chan side" and face the "Quinn side". Or maybe I should say I'm on The Fine Young Capitalists's side, which 4chan also supports, since that has had the most influence on my position. A project where women pitch their game ideas, people vote on their favourite one and the winning idea gets made into a full game. The winner gets 8% of the net profits from the game and the rest goes to charity. They're also free to leave the contest at any time if they feel they'd rather try it on their own. Apparently this project was worth torpedoing and shouldn't happen because ZQ (and her followers) decided that it exploits women. Also there was apparently some misunderstanding about the rules regarding transgendered participants. Pardon my tone, but who the fuck is she to decide whether or not other women should be allowed to take this opportunity? Maybe other potential female game developers are not in a position where they can tweet "help I'm being oppressed" and receive $2300 / month of sympathy money. Maybe not everyone has such close ties to tons of people in the video game industry. I think someone needs to check their privilege (could this be the day that I finally fully understand the meaning of that phrase?! Maybe not). As a result of this, in my book, Zoe Quinn is at least a Grade B asshole. I guess I'm fine with that because she got 4chan to donate to a feminist cause AND colon cancer research, and /v/ even designed a female character, but unfortunately it was a half-nude gross misogynistic sexi- oh wait no, it's a young woman in jeans and a hoodie. Maybe I should've just linked to this instead, since it's more clearly written, calm and reflects my views very well, but I felt that I should maybe try using my own words as well. That's my 2 cents. Removed my 'obvious out'.

This is on sale for 2,39€ on Steam right now. I know that's not a huge financial investment, but I hate buying games I end up not liking, even if they're super cheap. However, this was on my list of games to keep an eye on. Judging from the previous posts, it is/was super easy, but there has possibly been more content added since then. So has anyone played it recently? And actually looking at the recent news:

I played Spelunky practically every day from last November to about a month and a half ago. The latter half of my long run I mostly just played the Daily Challenge. Then I was able to play only occasionally due to reasons, so I fell out of the habit. I still play the Daily occasionally, but my day no longer feels incomplete unless I do. I've beaten Olmec two days in a row now, so I guess I haven't lost my touch. Yesterday I lost the Ankh in the ice caves and today I missed the Black Market entirely, so no Hell runs for me. Having played two days in a row and typing this, I feel that I could pretty easily start playing again every day. I won't resist the call, since it's not a huge time investment, ~30-45 minutes per day. Speaking of which, it is pretty funny how the complete runs all tend to be within a one to one and a half minute margin. Olmec run takes about 31 minutes and a Hell run is 42 minutes.

Starting a game just now. Currently my world generator says: If it was any other game, I'd think it's just a quirky joke load screen status, but with DF I can actually believe that. Update: So I got maybe a few hours into a fort. Now it crashes on load. Unstability was to be expected, so I'm not at all surprised or upset. The only meaningful change I encountered during my very brief experience was that trees are different now. Instead of being just one tile entities that give a single log of wood, they can now be wider and full grown trees can be several z-levels tall. Cutting them down gives way more logs, so wood is not quite as scarce as it used to be.

Hot beans

I also recommend getting this game. It's almost certainly my favourite puzzle game of all time. The other thread is here. Scrolling through it I realize I actually haven't beaten the DLC campaign. The introduction of the teleportation thingy really makes stuff complicated.

That's a shame, since there was still about 25 minutes of the video left. Then again, I don't think they're going to do anything that would make the game more appealing to you. They're probably not going to rename it The American Detention Center Simulator and fix the US prison system on the side.

Alpha 20! Also, Prison Architect is on sale on Steam for -66%, which is about 8,8€. Now is the best time yet to buy this game. Things added in this Alpha are a grading system and actual failure states. Uncontrollable riots, financial failure and too many deaths or escapes can lead to you being removed from your prison manager position. Some cases, like the uncontrolled riot, can lead to the national guard rolling in to retake the prison. Lots of deaths and criminal negligence can cause you to get to experience your prison first hand (see video). Grading happens by evaluating the prisoners that have been released. Data like the severity of punishment, amount of reform programs and the amount of danger the prisoner has been in during their stay in your prison is now collected and compiled to give an estimated reoffending chance for the released prisoner. Your prison is then graded based on the average stats of the released prisoners. Here's the Alpha update video. I could listen to these guys talk for hours.

Boy, what a run today. Got yet another high score, ~682k. This is especially remarkable, since I beat the game the hard way, but didn't anger the shopkeepers at all. Also bought the jetpack in the Mines, so that together with the Ankh is already an over 70k expense. Then, I went through the Worm from the Ice Caves and got the Crysknife. I had the Kapala, so it was a sound decision, although it meant that I also had to go through the Mothership to get to Hell. The Mothership went really well, except for one almost fatal series of events. One of those laser turrets fell down and exploded (don't know exactly why) next to me, taking away 10 HP. That I was able to deal with, but the Alien Queen was also nearby, trying to blast my brains. I was literally this close: -> <- to getting fried before finally recovering. One final feat of strength in Hell. I killed the final form of Yama with the Crysknife

Beat Hell today, as well. It's a special day, since it was the first time I made it all the way through the game after angering the shopkeepers. Also since I robbed the Black Market, I got a new personal high score of 648900. Mostly it was smooth sailing, except at the end of 5-2. My solution to the tricky exit area was the same as spork armada's, except I didn't pull it off quite as smoothly. My health went from 7 to 2 (no Kapala) after an encounter with one of the spike balls. Was left lying on the floor dazed as the enraged shopkeeper was doing his insane dance a mere half a screen to my right. Luckily he didn't reach me and I was able to take him out.

Would you say it's Cling Hocking's rocking stalking game with fun talking and smoking walking animations?

Yeah, that's another thing I should've mentioned, but I wasn't sure wheter the animations were exceptional or I was just enamoured how the game ran consistently at 60 FPS (or something. Still being computer hardware impaired, I've become used to lower FPS and stuttering in my games). I was left admiring the animations on many occasions. For example, you'll be crouching in a shadow when a guard walks past you. Fisher will turn his head to look at the approaching guard, and as they get closer he crouches slightly lower, moves his left hand forward preparing to grab them and his right hand towards the knife holster. Likewise the sneaking animation is different when you're close to enemies. These small details are just fantastic.

I beat Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory yesterday. It's certainly the best Splinter Cell game I've played, probably my third favourite stealth game. Sneaking, using gadgets, distracting guards, remote hacking and disabling lights and security with the pistol EMP thing is all fun. I did an almost-ghost playthrough, meaning no alarms and I avoided knocking anyone out as much as possible. Didn't shy away from a few face slaps when necessary, though. The levels are pretty well designed allowing for extremely stealthy playthroughs for those who look around. Besides being an overall really good game, one thing I noted now (after over 8 years since my last playthrough) was the fun and snarky dialog, although I'm afraid I missed some of the witty interrogations due to my play style. I just love Michael Ironside as Sam Fisher. If you haven't played the series, but you're going to, stop after finishing Chaos Theory. I started playing through Double Agent hoping it's not as bad as I remembered. But it's even worse. Maybe I couldn't begin judging it with a clean slate or maybe I've started overthinking games, but playing through two and a half missions from the beginning left me with this simmering rage and the desire to shove the game disk up someone's ass.

Third day in a row that I beat Olmec in the daily. Also the second day in a row that I lost the Ankh in a dumb way. I boomeranged a flying saucer in close quarters, which drew it closer to me and blew me up. Yesterday I lost the Ankh before even leaving the Black Market. I've also regularly gone through the Worm when the opportunity presents itself. When I learned that there's no time limit on that level, it became a lot less dangerous place since I'm not trying to rush through. The crysknife is really nice, so long as you remember to not use it on flying saucers. If you have the Kapala, the Worm is a good place to be. Also, with the crysknife you can gib bodies for some extra blood. Nasty, but the ends justify the means, right?

Smack them over the head with the ol' sword until they go down. They won't get up unless you go near the downed corpse. But yeah, (spoilers), Thief 1 is pretty heavily populated by zombies, so if they cause you grief then playing through the game would be quite miserable frequently. I wasn't a fan of them either and more often than not my encounters with them involved lots of sword swinging. I didn't even bother to sneak around them if there was only one or two of them. I realize this paragraph isn't very good when trying to defend a stealth game. But I tolerated them, and I'm really really really glad I did, because overall the game really is fantastic.

I also learned it independently earlier today. When I did, I thought 'I have to make a post about how much I like this'. Speaking of mind control, I just love it combined with the teleporter. Before mind control, it was dangerous to teleport into a 4-square room, since even expert fighters will lose if they're outnumbered. Now it's much more safe and viable, especially with upgraded mind control.

I just finished my longest and most scientific mission ever. When we last left our brave crew, they were picking up some samples from a Class E asteroid. After that, they headed for the Duna system. Here's a shot of the ship near the asteroid. Reached the Duna system, although it did take quite a while since I didn't plan the launch windows at all. Anyways, landed on Duna's moon Ike, got back in orbit and docked with the main ship no problems. Also a choice screenshot before docking with the ship. Landing on Duna... One final shot of the ship with the lander attached with Duna and Ike in the background. I got just over 1000 science points recovering all the parts and experiments I brought back from Duna. But I'd estimate I got as much from transmitting data during the mission. Now I have unlocked additional equipment to get EVEN MORE science points. Huzzah. Maybe I'll go for the Jool system next. Lots of stuff to explore there, as well as a terrifying gas giant.

Don't let the Bonehoard level dishearten you and brace yourself for The Sword. The former I disliked quite much, the latter was... interesting, but taxing.

Today I learned that precise maneuvers with jet engines are pretty damn hard, if not impossible. I tried to build an airlift that uses the extremely efficient jet engines to move 55-WHYAREMO even closer to KSC. What makes them hard to use for this purpose is that their thrust force changes gradually. So if I increase the thrust control to 25%, the thrust force changes slowly over 20+ seconds before settling on a value. The plan of moving the asteroid was thus put on ice until a better solution can be developed. The obvious alternative plan is to transport it by land, but the problem is I haven't yet researched any of the rover wheels (well, technically by now I have). Therefore, I set out on an interplanetary mission of science and conquest. I'll do another post tomorrow, but at this point I have a science vessel (including the mobile laboratory for test equipment resets) in orbit around Duna's moon Ike. I've also landed on and returned from the surface of Ike, leaving behind a flag and taking with me a surface sample and some mystery goo experiments. On my way to Duna, still close to Kerbin, I noticed I was passing closely by (that is, under 50000 km) an asteroid. I made some course corrections to get close to it to pick up some samples. Doing a 2.1 km space walk (in one direction) in deep space with no planets in sight was quite terrifying. With the lack of the navigation tools while on an EVA my brain briefly lost (even the tenuous) grasp of the scale of things and I felt a brief sense of vertigo as I started heading for the asteroid. Anyways, it was a Class E asteroid, the biggest kind. And boy howdy, they do get quite big.

I am playing the career mode. Even though I had uninstalled KSP in the meanwhile, luckily my save was still automatically there after I reinstalled for the new version. Even the Kethane mod appears to be functional, which surprised me. As for the research, unfortunately it didn't seem to give any extra. I had already depleted it by bringing back samples with the refuel ship. I just figured I'd have it as a trophy near the KSC and the thought of recovering it hadn't even crossed my mind. But I got no science when I tried it, which seems like a missed opportunity.

Today my ARM project entered Phase 3: Recovery. May I present to you: ITSA-Bad Idea. I eyeballed the size of the asteroid and built a scaffold to go around it. On the scaffold I included one Claw to keep the asteroid in place and I placed lots of parachutes on the scaffold arms. The idea was to have the contraption work as a sort of "cup" to bring the asteroid safely to the surface even if the Claw couldn't hold on to it during the rigors of re-entry. I totally overdid the payload rocket and I left tons of unused fuel in oribt. At least the contraption was wide enough, but clearly it's going to tip over the moment I let go of it in the atmosphere. And when that happens, it's up to the Claw to hold on to the asteroid. A final shot before the last stage of the mission. Orrie Kerman, on board ITSA-Rendezvous 1, waves 55-WHYAREMO goodbye, not knowing if it's the last time he sees it. Bill Kerman, piloting ITSA-Bad Idea, starts to get nervous. Deorbit was plotted and executed. I tried keeping the Bad Idea in the intended position as long as possible. Parachutes have opened and it looks like we're going to land very close to the KSC. Bill's craft is still under the asteroid and needs to get out quite soon. Firing the decoupler and with a short burn of the engine, Bill gets away from the heavy payload and opens his parachutes. This is the moment. When the Bad Idea's parachutes deploy, the claw is going to be under some heavy strain. Dun DUN DUN!

I just might be past the bottom of my Spelunky Performance sine wave again. It's been a while, but I managed to beat Yama in today's Daily. A week back I couldn't even reach the ice caves. It is weird how my (and probably some other people's as well) performance seems to fluctuate. And acknowledgeing it probably only makes the effect stronger.