Nachimir

I didn't realise you could pick them up and use them.

Not comical. Terrifying:

He's slowly morphing into Nathan Drake.

I don't really want to resurrect the Allen discussion, so just: thank you for calling me out on this.

When you post something like that, I know there's going to be some quality swearing

What subeditor? Why subeditor? I bet this doesn't get to press.

Yeah, the ones that do it well seem to only sell aesthetic items. I wonder how big a userbase you need to profit from that though? F2P design basically requires a real money dividing line to be plonked down somewhere, and putting it through the art assets creates no tension between designers and players. Rather than art or game design, I'd love to see one that puts the line through the codebase. i.e. the game is buggy as fuck until you pay to enable various chunks of code. Wait this would be a horrible yet probably worthwhile-in-some-grotesque-way experiment.

#teamcabot Hoping the best for you and him both, subbes.

I doubt they're adding Broken Age. That would be such a terrible move so close to release and after the flak they caught launching it.

The harassment I previously mentioned has become much less frequent, and is now sanctimonious in tone. Which is mostly funny, TBH. A text he sent yesterday still made my blood boil a little, but I know now I can take this without losing my cool.

The people most in favour of F2P always seem to be those making, or trying to make, money from it. When Ridiculous Fishing launched, the biggest F2P advocates I follow on Twitter were calling Vlambeer idiots because they were "leaving so much money on the table". Way to misunderstand Vlambeer's stance and the point they were making. (edit) None of those people calling them idiots seemed to be conscious of or reflect on the significance of using F2P aesthetics in a non-F2P game. I too, have never played a game that was definitely improved by the model. I'd love for it to exist. I hope it does. It's hard to make something fun that then also sells stuff on the basis that buying it will make it more fun (See: Punch Quest failing for so long). It's easier to use the dark pattern of inflicting pain, boredom or discomfort on the player then offering purchases to alleviate it. I think that with so much exploitative prior art (fnar), it has an aesthetic problem though: The first time that pop up or energy timer enters into it, I just exhale and uninstall the game. I feel too weary of the bad stuff to attempt finding something good in the morass. Edit: Making something "fun, but not too much fun" is also, I think, a dark pattern that conflicts with the overall goal of designing a fun game. It reminds me of the design in Lifeboat, where you're secretly in love with one of the other player characters, and the points/winning structure mean you want them to do well, but not too well. That's conflict used for gallows humour and game balance, and it's fine because it exists within the magic circle of the game. I don't think similar conflict is a productive design goal or condition to inflict on game designers, and easily puts designers and players in adversarial positions outside the confines of the game.

This forum is probably not a great place to ask for legal advice, but on the other aspect yes: It would be weird to have descriptions for some but not others. Standard not a lawyer disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Both Alexes are good guys, they've helped me out too. Here is a hypothetical situation you should probably take to a lawyer: If having a description makes it fair use, how about having a description for every game while also getting permission for everything you can? I'm not sure if that puts you on stronger legal ground overall by covering your back in the maximum number of ways for each illustration, or [large copyright holder] could argue that in treating all illustrations the same, you should have their permission as well as the description. Even if it's fair use, there is always the possibility that you'd have to fight a large copyright owner over it. Which is a great shame, I don't want to see that fear put a damper on your work.

If you're the kind of person who can feed off the frustration of crappy jobs to do creative things, then it seems like either job would do that for you. The stable one, while it doesn't pay so well, is probably better suited to you getting that creative time though. It sounds like the postal one would be both more challenging and more frustrating.

This reminds me of an issue I've sometimes faced helping to run a hackspace, to which we've never found a perfect solution. Occasionally, someone has committed some bullshit, and while it's being discussed someone says "But he's done a lot for the space". People really dislike the internal paradox and conflicting impressions that creates about someone, but the person in question should always answer for that bullshit. Simultaneously on and off topic thing: I hadn't heard of the Bill Cosby thing before. That's so heinously fucked up.

I was expecting a "plop" sound at the end Thrik.

That's a lovely thing Ucantalas. I really feel for people who work in call centres, it must be so stressful. I've known a few who burnt out within weeks and could never go back to that kind of work.

Does anyone else find it incredibly annoying that the Vita version constantly resets to default Spelunky guy instead of remembering the last player character you selected?

They ran a single drone program in Liverpool for a while, then shitcanned it. IIRC, reasons were: 1. Personnel costs made it expensive to run. 2. The situations that sold it were somewhat sensational and don't often happen in everyday policing, i.e. "It could check out a dangerous area before we send officers in". 3. It mysteriously plunged into the river Mersey and was never recovered. If anywhere fully scales a drone program up to a financially viable surveillance network, it might just turn into a revenue stream based in petty fines

No, he'd have no case, and yes, I'm on android so there are various apps that will make sure I never see a single call or SMS from him if I choose not to. Thanks all

No, the term "trigger warning" is very different to reading an account that might be relating events very similar to traumatic experiences you've had. Without it, people can be dumped into, basically, an attack of PTSD without warning. The phrase may be a reminder of something, but it's better than that. I read that piece a few days ago, and don't have much to say except "Fuck Woody Allen". I saw mention of some people on twitter claiming the accusations were false. I think: You don't make up a story like that in a male dominated industry, that exists within a patriarchy.

No, he doesn't even drink and I'm absolutely certain he wouldn't take any recreational drugs. He's also always been a bit emotionally immature and selfish, and he had a very rough time in the final months of 2013. It wouldn't surprise me if he developed mental health issues, and I think that's one of the things that's cooled my anger.

If he starts again, my phone will be dumping every text and call from his number. I wasn't sure how bad it'd get today, so piling up the evidence seemed like an important thing.

A former friend has spent the past twenty four hours trying to manipulate me into giving him money. He phoned last night and said: I repainted your old room this week, and I want money for the paint. I moved out of the room six months ago. When I pointed out he once lost about £120 worth of my stuff and refused to take responsibility for it, he first threatened to "charge" me £300 for labour too, then segued into a dumb but effective strategy I've seen him use a lot in arguments: Ignoring almost everything the other person says, and drilling down into every tiny detail until they lose the will to fight. I hung up on him. He's been texting a lot, trying every form of emotional blackmail he can think of. I've caught him out in several lies, been assertive but polite, and ended it with "Do not continue harassing me over this". Never one to not have the last word, he capped it all with a morose "I thought we were friends, I'm very disappointed in you". He stopped being my friend quite a few years ago after repeatedly being an unrepentant asshole. I'm ok, but pretty emotionally exhausted, and knowing he takes stuff out on the people around him, feel very bad for my old housemates right now

I was speaking to a massive A.C.D. Sherlock fan the other night, and she said that third episode was one of the most faithful adaptations they've done. The original featured a man blackmailing women, and Watson as, very likely, an unreliable narrator. That said, at the end of this series I thought "Well it's no Poirot". It's pretty well made, fluffy entertainment.