JonCole

It's worth noting that since this game is MMO-like, different weapons actually have different auto-aim and accuracy stats. Some weapons definitely feel way more precise or have way more leeway for headshots as a result.

I'm not really convinced that this is true. You're talking about the concept of self-driving cars, not the technology of self-driving cars. The current model of self-driving cars is fully autonomous; each vehicle makes decisions independently (based on similar logic, but they're not connected) thus no networking is necessary. But if I attempt to conceptualize the reality of a whole field of self-driving cars, benefits of networking them become apparent - traffic can be diverted in the event of major accidents or natural disasters, traffic can be managed to prioritize service vehicles, etc. Developing this technology would create jobs. Producing the infrastructure to support this would create jobs. This is pie-in-the-sky type thinking and the implementation I'm suggesting is far from assured, but my point is that technology will produce needs (and thus jobs) that are difficult to anticipate. 50 years ago, nobody could have guessed the number of jobs that would require sitting in front of a computer all day. I'm sure that we will see an inflection point in the near future where computers and AI do completely and totally replace labor, but right now that march forward is pretty localized.

Calling the supply artificial seems disingenuous to me for the reasons you mention; while it's possible to adjust supply by hiring more drivers, the overhead and logistics that you mention aren't trivial and I don't think it's unreasonable for a company to have a cap on their overall scope. I think that there's probably a medium to be found, because I don't think that adjusting price for demand is inherently a bitter pill to swallow. It's mostly when we see the 300%+ bumps that put a single trip to $30+ that we really get angry about it. There's also weird price thresholds that we irrationally want companies to adhere to that also piss us off - examples including the cost of food/drinks going up and manufacturers reducing the portion size, aka a Coke bottle getting smaller to stay at $1 rather than increasing price over the $1 threshold. I feel like this plays a part in taxi-analogous services; paying anything more than $10 or so will just feel wrong regardless of how justified the increased price is.

I have really mixed feelings about surge pricing. I know that most of the population thinks that it's predatory, but it makes sense from a supply-demand perspective. But it definitely does feel icky. There was a recent Planet Money episode about a similar issue, starting off with a story in which some Coke executive proposed that vending machines would change price based on time of day (demand goes up when temperature goes up, so should price in order for there to be adequate supply for sufficiently demanding customers) - http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/06/17/415287577/episode-633-the-birth-and-death-of-the-price-tag Basically, I don't know why it feels so bad when price adjusts for demand. And I don't know why we tolerate it for some items versus others.

Well, "worst thing to happen to the [car driving] labor market" is a little dramatic. Undoubtedly a self-driving car business will create/replace many jobs due to the cost of administering such a program, lobbying, regulation, maintenance, support (phone, whatever), etc. I imagine it won't be a 1:1 replacement, but it could be pro-labor in some non-obvious ways.

Uber tracks its Chinese drivers by GPS, threatens to fire them if they attend pro-labor rights taxi protests Uber Driver Threatens to Slit Woman's Throat Over Canceled Ride Uber pays so poorly in NYC that drivers are taking illegal fares and getting arrested for it One of Uber's rental/lease programs essentially requires 20 hours of driving week to pay for just the rental (no insurance, gas, taxes, phone charges, bottled water) By asserting that drivers are not employees (they are app users, yay), Uber claims no liability for accidents, providing legally required breaks for hourly workers, paying worker's comp, and many other worker's rights

From everything I understand, as the bigger company Uber is doing the biggest amount of weird anti-labor lobbying so I guess they'd be the scummiest. But in a way, it's like comparing cable companies - they're all scummy, but Comcast just happens to be next-level scummy since they have big, big money.

I'm split between trying to force myself to use bumper-jumper and spending a ludicrous amount of money on a custom controller with extra buttons for the extra three fingers on each hand. I feel it's pretty critical to PvP, then again I've gone flawless the last three weeks so I'm a PvP-guy I guess.

The demo is a vertical slice of the full game with the very beginning of the game. It obviously doesn't cover raid mechanics or end-game content, but it's at least an hour or two of PvE content. It also includes a Strike, which is a 3-player co-op extended mission. Also, all game progress in the demo progresses to the main game if you upgrade it in-client.

Do you not like FPS on controllers or something? As a traditional console gamer, I'd say that Destiny has some of the best controls and mapping options out of any modern FPS (like Halo before it) but if you just don't like controllers than it'd of course be lame.

Destiny is a great game that everyone should play.

I got a Husk after running that quest probably less than 10 times. But I will probably not make a Necrochasm, as I've played with people who've reported not getting a Crux after 40+ CEHM runs.

Containment shields work just like Oracles. SGA doesn't register hits on oracles or containment fields as a result. This is the reason to keep SGA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BZGdiNU6XA Thorn, Invective, and Bad Juju are all good Exotic Bounty rewards. SGA is obviously situational, but it's so good in those situations.

Feel free to not answer, because I imagine it's gotten tiring - but what was the genesis of the latest Peter Coffin antics? Clearly he's shitty based on how he's reacted to criticism, but it wasn't clear to me what his original offense was. Probably the most annoying thing about him is how he continually uses dictionary definitions to "prove" his arguments.

I guess I'm in the mood to watch movies lately because I knocked out a handful this past weekend. Dragonball Z: Battle of the Gods - Pretty good! Out of all of the enemies that the DBZ crew has had to face, this one had one of the more interesting ones. It was nice seeing that art mixed with pretty modern animation. It's also nice seeing Vegeta lose his shit at new heights. Getting pumped for the new DBZ series. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - I really, really enjoyed this one. The CG on the apes was amazing and I really enjoyed Caesar's arc. Pretty much all of the human stuff was subpar, it's really getting to the point where I can't take James Franco seriously in the least. Tom Felton was at least as big of a d-bag as ever, which is entertaining. Going to check out the sequel soon, really want to see how this world breaks down and more Ape domination. Olympus Has Fallen - I kinda ironically enjoyed White House Down, which is the strange mirror universe version of this movie that was directed by Roland Emmerich and featuring his weird sense of humor + love of huge, gratuitous explosions. This movie I liked even more on a different level, as the grittiness wasn't too much and the poor humor of WHD was instead replaced by lean, spartan human interactions that I actually believed. Gerard Butler was at his best and Aaron Eckhart is always a pleasure to watch. This is another one that I watched in anticipation of a sequel, whose trailer just came out and had the Butler/Eckhart duo going to London.

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Qodron tips - Have one person dedicated to Eye-killing and jailbreaking - use a scout rifle for long range Eye kills, use a (preferably full-auto) shotgun for quick jailbreaking. Another tip for the jailbreaker, use Super Good Advice because all hits on the shield do not register as hits on an enemy so you have almost unlimited ammo If for some reason nobody has the jailbreaker buff when everyone is contained, make sure everyone breaks out before attacking ads or Qodron again; you can shoot other people's bubbles from the outside to take them down as well If you're a Voidwalker with The Ram, melee hits on the shield count as kills so health regen is triggered - shoot the shield a bit then melee when your health gets low, rinse and repeat until containment is broken Always prioritize ads, Qodron now spawns ads based on health so clearing ads then dps is an effective strategy (wasn't like this when his encounter first came out)

That's a pretty damn good time for all that content, congrats. It's really nice when you start to get a semi-regular source of etheric light, I enjoy choosing what armor and weapons I like best and making them as good as they can be.

Bulletstorm is a perfect example (for me) of mechanics trumping the "trash mob" concept in the way that SMB suggests, because the rhythmic combo system really makes every encounter an interesting puzzle to solve. It's not about the challenge of shooting, it's about the challenge of chaining the combos and moving through the environment like you would in a game like Bayonetta or DMC.

Yeah, I don't really have a perfect response for that. Maybe the charm and appeal of the non-combat sections of the game completely override the general contempt for those kinds of battles. Also, difficulty options specifically saying "pick this if you really care about story" + automation of combat through programming party members + speeding up combat by holding a button pretty actively indicate that even Atlus don't consider combat to be a big focus of that game.

I don't really know if criticism is a good metric for this, considering the fact that JRPGs have completely fallen out of mainstream critical favor (as well as popular favor, in terms of overall sales) in recent years for some of the mechanics that make "trash mobs" make sense. Some of the more popular modern JRPG (and MMO) games like Bravely Default completely streamline, automate, better contextualize, or eliminate clearing of "trash mobs" to critical success.

Right, a hot dog is an open-faced sandwich

Since FR's have been completely nerfed out of the meta, it's not particularly compelling anymore. That said, it is pretty much the best the FRs have to offer in terms of the combination of perks, charge rate, impact, etc. If you don't have a good FR and would like to use one sometimes to work on your Grimoire score, it's as good a pick as any. And if they ever unnerf FRs, it'll be one of the best in its class. Getting a good roll for a FR is a very, very narrow set of perks so it's easier to buy this one than reforge a Perun's Fire or Give/Take. Also, in case anyone isn't yet on the100 or hasn't checked their emails, Spork/VG posted a Crota NM for tomorrow. Please join us if you can!

Clearly using keyboards and mice/controllers are a skill because you can put a game in front of someone who doesn't play games and they won't know how to work those devices.

I don't really know how clicking a thing or pressing A is definitively mindless while moving a joystick and pulling a trigger isn't. I often play Destiny in Patrol areas while watching a movie. It denies me no attention from the movie, despite however enrapturing pointing and shooting is supposed to be. Trash mobs exist in that game and require zero effort. These encounters are mindless to me, subjectively.