clyde

I think the only reason this is true right now is because labor is still worth something. If all the work to make luxury goods can be done by robots and algorithms, then the entireity of the market could just be rich folks selling super nice golf-carts to each other.

I'm not very knowledgable about computer-learning or A.I., but my experiences playing Artificial Life have given me the impression that defacto A.I. just needs a genetic algorithm and the ability to mutate its' own fitness functions to some degree. The individual phenotypes are dumb, but the colonies as a whole seem capable of solving problems without human input.

I've gotten the impression that I need to play it more than once. I was just so bummed by the narrative dead-end I hit and felt slighted after my first playthrough.

I think part of my frustration is that there are no online spaces where the expectation is that everyone can use anyone else's stuff for commercial or non-commercial derivative works. Or that even when that expectation is held by most, there is no legal backing. Think of something as fluid as conversation. There might be a tinge of annoyance when someone repeats an idea or phrase that you initially shared when it's not credited to you, but no one is calling for full citations of where all the things people are saying come from. I assume that we can all see how that would stifle the conversation. Though some folks may be having conversations for commercial purposes, their particular capitalist needs don't trump the freedom to converse and share ideas freely and without credit. That is!what's going on with all images, sounds, characters, stories, games, and now even jokes are being removed from the Commons into the land of profits and property rights. Let's consider an example of how sharing spaces cannot exist free of the rules put in place by profit-motive in the current paradigm: At openClipArt.org it first seems like this is a place where things can freely be ripped-off and riffed-on, but then when you examine it closely you find out that much of it is derivative (a.k.a. unlicensed) work. Turns out that tracing something in vector-graphics does not remove the property-rights from the owner. And let's suppose for a moment that it did: this well is so easily poisoned that someone like myself who just wants to grab a puzzle-piece, still can't because I would have to check to see if this work was original work by the person who uploaded it (because one person may be uploading non-original work). It gets worse. Suppose someone uploads their original work and claims that they surrender all rights to it; they can't. It's not legal to surrender intellectual property rights. So here we have a rare place where imagework is supposedly freely shared, but in reality it's just another place where the rules of capitalist intellectual property rights need to be considered constantly. You folks have everywhere on the internet to display and charge for your creative works while I have no where that I can comfortably share images, sounds, and written works with others without having to keep it on the down-low until some profit-motive decides to sue or harass.

Thanks for posting illuminatedspace. I don't really have anything to say about most of your post, but there is one place I can make a clarification: In this case, I would feel that the product would be worth using, but that it would be not worth what they are asking for in exchange (or even worth caring what they are asking for in exchange). I don't see any contradiction there. If I'm putting a jig-saw puzzle together and the piece that fits is in my hand, I'd like to just put the piece in without paying $50 in compensation or even looking at its licensing restrictions to see that they want $50 for it (or finding out that they claim I can't sell the puzzle because I used the piece). ---------------------------------------------------------- I thought this was rather relevant to the discussion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Owens_Thompson

There are still half-mechanics, but I didn't find it frustrating to the point of feeling like my time was being wasted like back in October. Results may vary. I would recommend just going in and looking around for an hour or two. It's crazy and interesting. What have you heard about the support?

I'm glad you heard that NPR story. When I heard that story there was what seemed to be intended as a second half. Here is the original story. I don't understand the connection you are making in the above statement. That piece talks also mentions how there were common practices that were not discussed because individuals in the community felt their rights were being violated; assumably permission was difficult to gain, so people just ripped stuff off without asking (and I don't think it's hard to imagine that the community was better because of this stealing). A thing of value mentioned in that article is dependent on the willing ignorance of artist's rights to images of their own creation and disingenious silence that the author seems to rationalize by thinking of their own perspective on the issue as the cultural norm. It's a great example of what we are talking about here. At the same time, I imagine that you don't think we shouldn't always default to a person's feelings. Something that I don't feel is being acknowledged enough in this thread is that this isn't just a matter of artists using information in ways that make other people unhappy; it's also a matter of people claiming that they have rights to stop artists from using that material. I'm not claiming that it should always go one way or the other, I just want to get people to start acknowledging that requiring permission and consensus before a move can slow things down so drastically that the art might not happen. I'm not saying that the value of creating the art, the resulting work, and the reception is of greater importance than someone's feelings or the rights they believe they have. But I will say that these two sides are often mutually exclusive and we should look at what we are losing before defaulting to putting more importance on someone's feelings. My concern with your evaluation of people's feelings over intellectual, abstract ethical positions and sound rhetorical arguments is this: Often, what two parties want to happen is mutually exclusive. If we aren't using intellectual, abstract ethical positions and sound rhetorical arguments, then we are using something else to figure out who gets their way and it might not be as ethical of a method. Again, often we are choosing between two parties. I think your premise is that people own their own image. I don't agree with that, but for the sake of argument I'll choose a more mild example. Someone might not want an image of their graffiti used in something, should that emotion be enough to command any artist's respect? If we require them to provide a convincing argument on why we shouldn't be able to use an image of their grafitti, are we underestimating empathy and risking making *shitty aggressive art? *I don't like the idea of using "shitty" here because it is way too ambigious of a concept for this argument. There is a lot of shitty art I like. There is also a lot of aggressive art that I like. Here is an example of something I like that is both aggressive and shitty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=320&v=m1wkfJY3AZM I'm happy to hear that you are interested and I'm excited to consider your suggestions. Ideally what the game would be able to do would be to survey the player on why something is OK or not OK. But not only does this get technically complex, but it also would change the motivation of answering. In the current format, the player are asking themselves why it is OK or not Ok and what it is Ok or not OK for. Prompting these questions for someone so that they can consider their own views for the first time on things they assumed were already obvious is worthwhile in itself. Maybe Pippin Barr will make a better version* *It's a loose conection, but I say it because I really like Leaderboarder which I think has a similar feel). I don't understand what you are saying. Who is losing what?

For the week of May 18th, 2015 we will be playing: Hazy Hazy Town by thecatamites You can play the game in your browser here. You can download the single game from here for free Or you can buy the entire collection of 50 games from here.

I don't know what your personal circumstances are, and I should mention that I dress like a lazy lumberjack with an unhealthy fondness for large pockets (and I hang my keys from my belt-loop with a carabiner that wouldn't be able to sustain my load), but I love the idea that this article could encourage some people who dress pragmatically to take some fashion risks. That could be fun. If it sounds like something you would enjoy doing, read a few fashion articles or watch a youtube video about it. Maybe you'll pick up a fashion tip that excites you. It can be fun to get a new look and go into public, it's thrilling.

[cue makeover montage]

I got the impression that the article was just to point out that homegeniety and its social pressures still exist even if they spawn from casual attitudes. Based on the confusion that we've been discussing, I could see this one point being difficult to get peers to acknowledge. I imagine that the article was the author's attempt to make a substantial argument when it has probably been difficult to do so in group conversations with a majority of male peers. I don't think the author was so much trying to change how folks dress as much as she is just trying to get her peers to acknowledge that social norms exist in their culture and that she feels limited by them.

I think the idea is that the author noticed that even though the game-development crowd she participates in likes to think that they are open minded and casual, a homogeniety has occurred that has created defacto norms that make people like herself less likely to be expressive. The argument goes that because this has occurred somewhat organically among folks that pride themselves on their own non-chalance, the norms are more difficult to address.

I do need to play around with it more, but a big part of TyranoBuilder's appeal is having this stuff worked out by the template being so limited. It's a great tool and I use it, but I just wanted to point out that one of its major advantages over Ren'py either needs to be improved or requires more finesse than implied by the marketing message.

Are you talking about the guy who was the face of the Gears of War franchise or the guy who makes the Democracy series?

Everything I've seen involving the script makes me no want to use it. To be fair, I'm not incredibly familiar with javascript or tyranoscript, but if I use it, I'm going to check and see if I just broke the game. The html export feature is the main reason I want to use this over Ren'Py (that and the drag&drop) , but I'm starting to see problems there too. There's probably a work-around, but right now, the game doesn't load completely before playing and this can create some pacing problems and unresponsiveness when playing on the browser. Responsiveness if very important to me; even though visual-novels rarely require dexterity, pressing a button and having snappy feedback is satisfying; pressing a button a few times and something happening a second later feels unpleasant. I haven't given up on TyranoBuilder, but I'm hoping for many improvements. Until then I will probably only use it for small stories and prototypes (while using only the most basic features).

I have the day off and I'm not feeling very creative, so I was comfortable opening Rust again and thinking I might spend the rest of the day there. I mention this because it is the main barrier I face when considering opening Rust. I keep thinking that I will have to have enough time to make friends and build a house. In reality, I got a satisfying session within an hour. Many things happened. It's my opinion that the new build is now better than the legacy build. If you have been waiting for that, I'd say jump in. Rust is still weirdly surreal. I spent my first night here roasting meat and keeping warm. I built a wooden spear and some bandages. I killed a pig during the day and gathered wood. . To give you an idea, in the legacy build I would have had a bow and ten arrows at this point. But in this version I have a wooden spear, not even a stone-axe. I spent ten minutes chasing this deer down with my spear. I tried to be sneaky, but he would still dash away. . I was so proud of this kill that I spend a minute framing this screenshot. On the way over to it after taking my trophy-photo, the deer disappeared. I wasn't able to dress it. That was rough. There are now wooden signs that players can make and paint. Do you like games where you can shoot nazis? Rust may be the game for you. The prevalance of poorly drawn swastikas was concerning in one way; coming across a sign that informed me that I was in the "Dingo Nation" was concerning in a fun, game way though. There were houses everywhere, but seeing that there was some political structure in one of the neighborhoods increased the sense of danger. Indeed, I was killed in Dingo Nation by a player named "Trolololo" with a wooden spear as I used my new pick-axe to harvest stone. I really enjoyed my hour. I'll probably do this more frequently.

Did you have anything in mind? I think about this type of thing a lot. I enjoy asking myself which is more important to me, that a woman made it, or that it has a progressive message? It doesn't come up often in reality. I like Agnes Varda because she's offering me something I can't get elsewhere that I value a lot; she happens to be a woman. One thing I get frustrated about (just an annoyance really) is that poor folks have to care more about the profitability of the art they produce. Typically people try to insure profitability by using the status-quo prescriptively. Another thing is that I love the idea of giving all the folks who can't afford their own housing access to TyranoBuilder, but I expect that most of them would be like "Does it pay?" and when I say "Probably not." they'll dismiss me as some sort of scam.

I didn't know the PC version was that way.

Are you using Blender or something else?

I think too much about this stuff. I like getting updated on what the folks on here are making, but I don't want to bury threads with constant updates. The thing is, I just won't ever check that TIGsource page unless I see it linked here. Maybe the solution is to put dev-logs elsewhere and just link them here when something interesting happens? I don't know. I do know that I'm more interested in what a thumb is working on than what a rando is making. Really, I guess this is what I use Twitter for.

I'll make a gentleman's wager that Mirror's Edge 2 is going to be a VR game.

PlingPling tables are encouraged in the Klik of the Month Klub event for this month! Looks like it will probably end up archiving trainwrecker tables after the event as well. The official time of the two-hour event is 4-6pm Pacific-time Saturday the 16th (tomorrow), but no one really cares if you submit early or late. It's just for fun. There is also an IRC channel available for those who want to type messages while they make games.

A Frog Fractions kinda story. http://kotaku.com/for-two-years-the-kanye-west-rpg-has-been-hiding-a-dis-1704673459

i5 760. Looks like I'll have to spend an additional $200? Ugh.

I think I'll just need a new video-card. That's good. I know I have an i5 chip, but I'm not sure which one.