Twig

Actually, single-screen games go every which way. I'm fondly remembering Jumpman at the moment, and he'd start in all sorts of different positions. Not sure how late that was in convention-setting territory, though.

All right you asked for it I'm about to drop a metric asston of the ones I'm currently following but haven't backed, followed by ones I have backed and that haven't yet finished. board game triassic terror: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2002188924/triassic-terror-fun-with-trex-and-raptors-in-a-pri?ref=card video game empire eden: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1248339394/empire-eden thing rifftrax twilight in theaters: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rifftrax/rifftrax-wants-to-riff-twilight-live-in-theaters-n?ref=discover_pop video game another castle: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uncadedave/another-castle?ref=category animation the reward: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1862188728/the-reward-tales-of-alethrion video game xing: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1781324918/xing-the-land-beyond video game there came an echo: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iridiumstudios/there-came-an-echo-0?ref=live video game shackleton crater: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/470015043/shackleton-crater movie veronica mars: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project art adventures for a lazy afternoon: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/488571414/adventures-for-a-lazy-afternoon Stuff I've backed!: video game ritual dementia: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1957041092/ritual-dementia-the-revenge card game machine for death: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1234131468/machine-of-death-the-game-of-creative-assassinatio board game zombicide season 2: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coolminiornot/zombicide-season-2 video game omega: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/276587736/omega BOLDED IS THE STUFF I'M SUPER INTO (if it's bolded and I haven't backed it yet it's just 'cause I'm lazy). ITALICIZED ARE THE ONES THAT NEED PLEDGES BADLY (or at least cutting it close). That may not affect your decisions, but I tend to be more liberal with my money on projects that are struggling for pledges. Especially video games, because I usually don't give a shit about their rewards. I just want the game.

I AM SO INTO THIS.

Yesterday, I was out at lunch with some coworkers (including my roommate and his girlfriend), and my roommate and I were badgering each other, as we often do. Inexplicably, she went all silent-stare-of-rage on me, and I didn't notice it at first. Someone pointed it out, and then all went quiet. She kept staring at me like I'd killed a puppy or some shit. I shrugged it off and apologized in a general manner, but man what happened. It was awkward. Fortunately we were at opposite sides of the table of 8, so I just turned away and talked to the other half of the table. There's never been any problem between us prior to this. I have no idea what I did! PEOPLE ARE WEIRD.

I think it's a definite possibility, but I feel like designers wouldn't give a shit. Well!, you might say, Back then, the designers WERE ALSO the programmers. True! However, programmers tend to be okay with using maths to figure shit out, should such an occasion present itself. Also, DirectX is top-left to bottom-right, but OpenGL is bottom-left to top-right. This isn't an important fact. I just wanted to point it out because THAT'S WHAT I DO.

It was definitely the best. All of my vivid childhood memories are of utterly embarrassing shit that I will never share with anyone ever. Most of my good memories are very vague, and also not interesting. I'm jealous!

Also, just to clarify, when it's written in columns, it's written right-to-left, by column. I think it's sorta important to recognize that, even if that's not what your initial description would be.

I thought it was based on how many sims are in that bracket/occupation. Although I'm not sure if there's a way to see THAT number. I feel like there must be. Probably in that population breakdown that I never look at. U:

Grow up.

Computers are older than video games.

...But we just finished establishing the fact that left-to-right (horizontal) was not uncommon in Japan during that time, assuming that Wikipedia quote wasn't a bold-faced lie? It for sure isn't uncommon NOW, if my six-month tenure there taught me anything! 'Cause all I really cared about was the writings, of course. U:

One half of that sentence is a lie.

Well, except other cultures didn't really start making games until the standard of left-to-right was set in place... INTERESTING OBSERVATION! The Commander Keen series has a bunch of levels that go every-which-way, including right-to-left and top-to-bottom. (Bottom-to-top is less interesting, because that's par for the course in vertical levels/games.)

It's been working for me? I'm fairly certain I've seen ambulances and firetrucks and police cars and garbage trucks and ET CETERA come in and help me out. I know for certain I've seen criminals coming in from other cities. I've also bought and sold energy, water, etc. Also, now you're arguing about the quality of the implementation of the mechanics, rather than whether or not the multiplayer is core to the game design (or at least what they were going for). That's a different argument. Denying reality because something is done poorly doesn't really serve any purpose. The fact is, EA/Maxis, for whatever reason, wants the game to be a multiplayer experience, and that's what it is.

I agree completely with pretty much everything The 'Blix said. Not that I don't find a lot of this shit pretty hilarious and also sad, but, well, I still really like the game. The small city size is the only thing that bugs me - I purposefully picked an area with interesting terrain and it turns out that was a huge mistake. Building cities organically, WITH the terrain, is what interests me the most. I've learned, now, that I can't do that if I want to have a successful city. Gotta have the grids and shit for optimal efficiency. ERUGH.

All I could think of while watching that Micro Man video was , an ancient shareware PC game.

He's one of the harder carries, but that just means it takes longer for him to build up, which means you have to have a team that can help you survive and defend your base, preferably without his help. I like him 'cause he's fun. U:

So I dunno about all o' Y'ALLS but I'm a huge fan of Veronica Mars. Or at least I was when it was airing. Considering rewatching it now that THIS happened. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project Will I still like it? I DON'T KNOW. Let's find out!

To be honest, I don't think that's a hard problem to solve, either. Just set up a low-priority queue of recalculating the sims' optimal path. Do each one individually as processing time becomes available. Has a bonus of almost being a bit like reality, anyway, as changes are generally adopted pretty slowly. "Oh, turns out this new road is faster. All right, I'll do that from now on." In real life, people would probably figure it out within a day or two, if the road is close to them, but, well, I'm not looking for perfection here.

That, at least, seems somewhat fair if you're utilizing the region-based system with friends (or even by yourself, if you've got two cities), but if you're playing without other cities in the region, it's definitely bizarre. What really confuses me about this pathing issue is, it's not a particularly difficult problem. Mark a house as claimed, once the first Sim tries to go there, and suddenly other Sims won't try race there. Apply that same logic on a permanent basis (again, not a particularly difficult problem), and suddenly Sims only ever go to one house and one job (unless they get evicted or fired or whatever - which automagically makes the entire system more interesting, in my opinion). Sure, changing it at this point might be a lot more work, but it's amazing they didn't build it up from scratch with that mindset. It's way more fun as a programmer, and a designer, and a player to have that kind of detail for such a low cost... It's really weird. Nappi: Ahh, thanks. I thought I'd tried that but I know there are times in the tutorial when it disables all buttons, and times when it doesn't. Maybe I tried during a locked phase.

You know, it's funny, when I first started playing Dota 2, I hated melee carries, but now Void is one of my favorite lords. I love it when I random him. (I rarely pick him, though, unless it's like Random Draft or whatever.) Also, it's like, what the fuck, dudes? Void is kinda useless early game, sure, but he picks up HARD after a certain point. Just calm down and let me get my farm on!

Fun fact: it's made me to the tutorial three times, now. Once for each server I've joined. Is there a way to skip it? I couldn't find one. ):

Well, that would certainly explain the sister-theory brainmass.

lol it's happening again (hold me)

Today I had three huge assholes complain at me (probably would've been four if not for my friend who played with me - which is why I never fucking play alone) for the entirety of a game because I did poorly as Faceless Void in the beginning against a fuckign Sand King/Lina lane WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO. The two botched chronospheres in a row probably didn't help. And then of course I carried because I'm boss and Void is one of my better lords. Every time they yelled at me, I'd just ask them why they were being so mean. I don't think they got the reaction they wanted. U: