clyde

The tendency of egg-avatars being the face of indignant demands for intolerance reminds me of Danielle talking about the baby(fetus?) in the sink who rattles through conservative-dad denigrations.

I started looking at archaic terms for what we put under the "games" umbrella and found some interesting entries. I think that most of the single-player games I play could be considered tour puzzles. I love that name. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_puzzle

Totilo seems to be saying that the no-Patreon-funding guideline is not a no-coverage-of-Patreon guideline. http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s85v81

I'm enjoying the 8v8 mode more than I thought I would. The maps and methods of traversal are not designed for this mode; that is why I'm enjoying it. I've only played a few rounds, but what tended to happen in the games I just played was that the teams cluster pretty heavily and a pattern of flushing and flanking developed organically. A lot of people take cover inside of windows that overlook large expanses. I just played a match where we spent a quarter of the game to take one such location and once we did, we gained a considerable amount of points. Everyone camped the many entrances to that room and it was really fun. There is also a lot of instances where players want to cross large distances in a weaving fashion, it gives me a very satisfying stand-off or jousting feel. All that said, I found it to be more draining than attrition and not as much fun. 100 kills is a lot of kills. It is an interesting mode and I recommend trying it out. The fact that the maps are designed for a different game makes the mode feel fresh, where you realize all the map-design tropes that you take for granted in most other competitive first-person shooters. Plus it's a different way to see the maps that I'm familiar with. Me and someone else camped the crane-room bay-window area in the lower parking-lot of Overlook. I never spend time in that thing.

The F.B.I. isn't going to be doing anything about the pressure of harassment though (and they shouldn't). Involvement by the F.B.I. will have no effect on a woman and/or minority making a game, and understanding that in order to be accepted as worthwhile, they'll have to do extra work to establish authenticity. It won't change that reporters at larger media-outlets are going to second guess whether or not they should be reporting on smaller games that deal with social issues or come from a variety of perspectives because it will inevitably be seen as motivated by journalistic corruption and patronizing activism. It won't stop the death-by-a-thousand-cuts aspect of the general misogyny and/or intolerance, only the severe and public cases of death and possibly rape-threats.

It's going to be interesting when the next not-game made to focus on a perspective from a traditionally disempowered minority gets attention from media-outlets.

I think it would make the game less fun (I don't think Monopoly is fun), but it would be a more powerful rhetoric (like Monopoly). I love the idea of choosing "fun" mode or "rhetoric" mode at the beginning of the game.

In Wabash Cannonball also known as "Chicago Express", you use your capital to buy controlling-shares of railroad-companies. If you own shares then you can decide where the railroad is built. After each round, players recieve a payout that is profit from each railroad divided by the portion of shares owned. So for example: if I own two shares if the green railroad and only one other player owns a share, the I would get 2/3 of that railroad's profit which I can then use to outbid other players for additional shares. It is a game though. One thing I don't like about it is that the advantages of the monopoly aren't expressed clearly in the game because it ends too soon. I'd like it if I had the option to grind the other players out of business using the capital I've accumulated. Instead, a winner is declared when it is obvious who will be able to do so.

I seem to remember reading that the consumer version of the Rift is probably going to have a similar feature. Seeing it in the video makes the idea look like a great solution for user input.

Is there a thread where interesting tales of A.I. are collected? I just read Hernandez's article on the person who tried to kill everyone in FallOut 3 and I'd love to read more accounts of the emergent narratives inspired by broken A.I. http://kotaku.com/meet-the-guy-who-spent-seven-months-killing-everyone-in-1629588651

Samsung just showed off their mobile VR device and say it will launch this year. http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/03/samsung-virtual-reality/

I'm very interested in economic systems being expressed in computer-games. At first I was looking for games that would show alternatives to capitalist systems, but after looking around I realized what I was missing was games with capitalist systems. I had assumed that capitalism was the default economic system in games, but in actuality, economic systems in games are typically a central power allocating labor based on one person's decisions (the player). Thus far the best critique of capitalism comes from games that attempt to mimic it. The two I've been most impressed with are Wabash Cannonball and La Havre, both are board-games ported to the iphone with AI opponents. I got some recommendations for Victoria 2 but I have only spent an hour or so trying to learn how to play it. From what I can tell, you adjust the skills of the labor centrally by adjusting tax-breaks while having to deal with market forces outside of your national borders. Another game to keep your eye on is Offworld Trading Company whose victory-conditions look to be based on the inevitable monopolies of pure capitalist systems. I've only read about that one, it's currently in an expensive early-access.

I think I just don't like people. Except in rare cases, the more I know about them, the less I want to be around them.

Me too.

I do skip undescribed links. I played it and loved it.

It's true. Try striking a interesting conversation up with the next 10 random people that you encounter in the physical world and see how many aren't completely self-centered at the expense of everyone else. If you manage to find one ask them what they find interesting. Self-selecting groups like this forum and established social-gatherings (hobbyist groups and specialized professions) are spoilt by involving people that have similar interests. Once you move outside of that, you find that people are typically just doing the motions to find a way to take advantage of others and rarely have thought of something interesting or worthwhile to do with that added ability.

But people are so needy, and they aren't interested in Spelunky; they like working too much, going to bars and having kids. Plus they are typically really inconsiderate of anyone who isn't part of their group. People are interesting in their specificity, but so tiring with their childish bullshit and boring opinions. I rarely meet someone who I would want to see twice. The ones I do, I pester forever. Becoming social is no small task. It's not like people are cool. It's hard as shit to find people who want to hang out and not feel like you are out-staying your welcome.

After beating Olmec, I was like "If I can beat Olmec, I can make a game." Now that I've been doing it for a few months, I think of games as some sort of internet-age folk-art. I want to participate in the communities that make small games and explore the medium. I just made my first NPCs that wander and react and it's quite a thrill to watch th behave and tweak it. Shit's addictive.

In reference to enjoying the art of people who are abusive: Recently it was discovered that the male-lead from one of my favorite shows of all time beat up his girlfriend. I'm disappointed in him, but I still want to watch one of my favorite shows of all time. I'm comfortable enjoying something that was made by a abusive boyfriend before I knew they were abusive. That may change. I feel like I was arguing the opposite recently. I probably wouldn't feel comfortable about it if I knew the victim.

I'm skeptical.

My wife and I have this fight about once every two months. You are both wrong. It was all just a fantasy. Total Recall is one of the few action-movies I enjoy because the sensational pacing and extent of it actually expresses the narrative ( that he is paying for and receiving a better-than-life fantasy) rather than distracting me from it. Even though the narrative's intent is to embed enough doubt that we continue to question if it was real or not, it wasn't. At the end of the movie, dude is going to go to get out of the machine, have an uncomfortable dinner with his wife, not be able to sleep, and still have to get up and go to work in the morning.

I'm starting to think that additional disclosures of potential conflicts of interest wouldn't slow the invasion of privacy and mobbing. It's the thrill of the hunt. If journalists did provide additional disclosures, young sherlocks-in-training would just circle them in red, write "SEE!" beside it, and post. I wonder if an actual ARG would fill their voids. Or maybe ARGs are exacerbating all this in the first place. Maybe they are addicted to the magical realism and agency of interactive viral marketing.

It would be funny (but also potentially dangerous) if some of the female game-journalist started using their twitter account for an ARG intentionally since it's being read that way. I don't know what an appropriate final clue could lead to that would make them question what their gnarled priorities though.

Deirdra "Squinky" Kiai glamorizes the struggle of the SWJs against the Gamers in: Quing's Quest VII: The Death of Video Games http://squinky.me/quing/ I was able to play it on my phone.

I wonder if I will do more to this. It's playable. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92741283/accordion%20dancers/Builds.html Sound required.