At this point, one would assume even the drooling halfwits at File 770 would be able to recognize that neither Jon Snow nor Ramsay Bolton were exactly liable to give Hannibal or Alexander a run for their money. One would assume wrongly, of course, but it’s understandable that one would be inclined to do so.
Tag: games
Mailvox: no refunds!
MC tries, and fails, to get a refund
Recently tried to get a refund for Star Citizen, and today they sent
back a boilerplate “nope!” with a bunch of “feel good crowdfunding
garbage.”I’ve backed literally hundreds of Kickstarters, and less than one percent have failed as spectacularly as this train wreck.
Just one more data point, but I agree with your assessment that they’re circling the drain at this point.
Now, I’ve only backed a few Kickstarters, so I am no expert, but this sounds distinctly suboptimal to me.
Mark Kern banned by Twitter
World of Warcraft developer Mark Kern kicked off Twitter:
Twitter has joined Facebook and Reddit in Silicon Valley’s post-Orlando hall of shame. They’ve become the latest social media platform to censor users for discussing this weekend’s Islamic terror attack.
The victim is Mark Kern, a highly prominent video game developer who worked on the original edition of Blizzard’s highly acclaimed World Of Warcraft, who was suspended from Twitter earlier today.
Kern currently runs the League For Gamers, a consumer advocacy group fighting censorship and moral panic in the video games industry. Kern, who had more than 61,000 followers on Twitter prior to his suspension, was a frequent critic of the platform for its drift towards censorship over the past two years. Now he’s been censored himself.
Unbelievable. The thought police are running completely amok in the wake of Orlando. Too much dangerous thinking!
UPDATE: And after stories on Breitbart and Drudge, he’s back.
No more Star Citizen refunds
Derek Smart correctly anticipated Star Citizen’s new Terms of Service:
I have been making a lot of noise about the ToS and the fact that RSI/CIG are required to provide refunds and financial accountability to backers for failure to deliver the promised game, 18 months from the expiration Feb 2015 ToS v1.2. Those clauses triggered on May 31st, 2016.
I wrote about that extensively:
A lot of Shitizens said I was wrong, that I didn’t understand it, blah, blah, blah. Yet, with the latest 2.4 patch disaster hurriedly pushed to live (conveniently ahead of E3 which they recently backed out of attending), they have done precisely as I said they would.
They released a new ToS. And if your scam alarm bells aren’t going off already, well, you may be suffering from Sunk Cost Fallacy.
And it came to pass that the new June 2016 ToS has been released with the latest 2.4 “patch” going live. I am working on a blog post for it; but the highlights are:
– You can’t sue them – like ever
– Under no obligation to deliver anything – like ever. Oh and delivery date and clause removed
– No refunds – for any reason – like ever
– Can ban your account – for any reason – delete it, and not refund youIn the meantime, if you ever want legal recourse, do NOT download the 2.4 patch and do NOT do ANYTHING on their site and/or services in which you are required to agree to this new ToS.
That sounds like a company with tremendous faith in its own offerings, doesn’t it?
SJWs attack Warhammer
Social Justice Warriors declare war on Chaos:
Maturity is the ability to respond to the environment in an appropriate manner. This response is generally learned rather than instinctive. The outdated ideas about sex and sexuality – and they are outdated – that Slaanesh represents are simply not appropriate for the game any more. They’re not appropriate for younger gamers; they’re insulting to women, to trans and intersex people, as well as to any man whose sexuality extends beyond five quick pumps whilst thinking of England. The mature response would be to acknowledge this, and avoid the instinct to avoid change. Change terrifies people, especially members of the geek community, who loathe retcons with a passion that could eclipse suns.
But, in my opinion, Slaanesh shouldn’t be part of things as they are. So how could we deal with this?
Well, contrary to what you might think, I don’t actually believe we should Squat it. For better or worse, Slaanesh is a longstanding part of things, and it’s would be simply unfair to those gamers who’ve got Slaanesh armies. As well as this, 40K isn’t just a wargame any more; Fantasy Flight Games’ excellent lines of tabletop RPGs enable the discussion of some very mature themes, especially in more investigation-based games like ‘Dark Heresy’. A Slaanesh cult could be an intriguing way for an appropriately mature group of gamers to look at all kinds of ideas to do with the aforementioned sex, sexuality and other adult issues.
So what to do? Well, in my opinion, the best solution would be to ‘retire’ Slaanesh as a GW-produced faction and make the army Forge World’s property. If you’ve not read any of FW’s books, I can attest that they have demonstrated time and again that they can do nuance. Not to mention, FW’s models are NOT targeted at children, but explicitly as adult collectors, meaning it’s possible to completely ignore that issue of inappropriateness. GW as a company can completely take advantage of this, having its cake and eating it, and they should. Obviously, this does nothing to overcome the inherent problems of sexist models, or the deeply embedded homophobic and transphobic imagery, but that’s something which can be looked at over time in Black Library books, Forge World supplements, and FFG RPG supplements.
Slaanesh has already been replaced by the Horned Rat in AoS, which clearly shows it can be done in 40K too. To be honest, this is the ideal opportunity to do something exciting and new for Chaos players, giving them a whole new Chaos power to deal with. They could bring back Malal, or they could choose something else to fill the gap more naturally. Either way, it would be a step towards turning 40K into an actual, truly mature environment, and that can only be a good thing.
But it isn’t going over as well as earlier incursions in other areas, since the at least part of the Warhammer community is apparently aware of the driving force behind these demands for change.
- You want to rewrite 40k (or something else) to evolve it into something more than caricatured meatheads in power armor and one-dimensional demons, that’s great, more power to you. You want to rewrite it because someone somewhere might use it as an excuse to glorify their imagined victimhood, hell no, f*** you. We have, as a society, been walking on eggshells for years, cringing in fear every time the Manufactured Grievance Industry opens its maw, and shamed into reflexive self-censorship. That’s not a path to maturity, that’s perpetual infantilization.
- The longest article bols has ever produced and its basically puritan garbage.
- Screw this politically correct noise, I don’t play warhammer to
facilitate a discussion about sexuality and politics. I got enough of
that in my sociology degree. I don’t really care if the aesthetic of
Warhammer and Slaanesh is “immature” because maturity is not a virtue I
associate with playing with plastkc soldiers with a heavy metal
aesthetic. - Social justice gaming.
- Usually the “Sexist” Complaint Mob are the most racist/sexist/Immature.
And they are never happy with any response to an issue they have raise.
They could Retcon the Emperor into a Asexual Gender queer Arrow and They
would take issue with Emperors armor being “Male armor” Or The fact he
has 20 sons Or The he a colonizer. The best Way to Be Mature Is to Say.
There are Slaanesh Models If you don’t like them Then Don’t Buy them for
your Children. Your “Moral” views should Have Zero on what I use my
Money to purchase - Today’s achingly sensitive souls are like the high-minded moralists of
the Victorian era; always taking offensive just for the joy of being
offended. ‘Look what a kind, intelligent, sensitive person I must be,
I’ve opened your eyes to a load of crap that yesterday no-one with more
than two brain cells had ever taken remotely seriously anyway.’ The article has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with the author’s own ego and sense of himself. - Don’t like it? Don’t buy it. Don’t watch it. Don’t listen to it.
SJWs often forget, that we’re kinda living in a free world, where everyone have a choice of what they want to do/see/feel. Oh, wait, I forgot – SJWs are the ones who try to use theme of “protecting someone’s rights” to simply stomp other’s freedom.
By this point, it should be obvious that #GamerGate was never just about video games, it was merely the first battleground. As explained in SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police, SJWs will NEVER stop until society is fully converged. No organization, no interest, no activity, and no individual is safe from their thought-policing. Neutrality is not possible because they do not recognize it. Submission or resistance are the two available options.
More Star Citizen shenanigans
Derek Smart has news about CIG’s unusual approach to customer support:
Here is what happened over the weekend.
A backer whale with over $40K “invested” in Star Citizen, discovered
that he was tagged (essentially Blacklisted) in the CIG customer service
dB.https://www.reddit.com/r/Starcitizen_trades/comments/4mmg4y/psa_cigs_blacklist_categorization/
In a hilariously inept (it’s CIG!) move, they didn’t realize that Zendesk tags are public facing.
If you had been tagged, you could find out by going to the support page
and opening a new support request. the dropdown should be there if you
have been tagged.https://cloudimperiumservicesllc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us
Some people were calling it a fake.
So others (including myself) went digging. What we found was rather startling to say the least.
Then one person confirmed it; as did several others less than an hour later.
http://i.imgur.com/THVmlKH.jpg
Someone with a tag made a video of it because some Shitizens (abusive
& toxic anti-social Star Citizen fans) were claiming the whole thing
was fake.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXD7JKT6bcE
In my case, they gave me a special tag. This is a dump direct from the
page via Javascript and JSON. From the main CS page, you could just go
to the page > View Source > search for “Greetings sourcecode
lurker!”https://i.imgur.com/o0UJmfc.png
A forum thread “Publicly tagging customers in CIG CS?” that appeared on
the CIG website was not only closed, it was completely removed.
Archive.is capture: http://archive.is/L2G1kNot only was CIG caught using customer information given to them, then
matching it against information (e.g. a Goon is a denizen of the SA
forums) they pulled elsewhere, but they were also using it to determine
the level of service and attention given to backers who have thus far
given them almost $115 million.
This just keeps getting crazier and crazier….
#ItsOver
“Mark Skelton – Art Director – has quit CIG.”
In case you didn’t know who that is, Mark Skelton was, until now, the Art Director for Star Citizen. I also understand that at least one top-level suit will be announcing a similar departure soon.
But don’t worry. There is always Elite Dangerous. To say nothing of what looks like the incredibly exciting Goats In Space.
Condition Red
Derek Smart chronicles the growing industry awareness that not all is right in the Star Citizen universe:
For Star Citizen, the elephant in the room in terms of tech, is this notion that somehow a twitch-based game designed to be instanced, and which can’t even get more than 10 clients in a session without very bad things happening, is going to turn into an MMO. But back in Nov 2012 (when he was seeking funding for the project) when Chris Roberts wrote this missive about multiplayer and instancing, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that this guy – who hadn’t made a game in almost 15 years at the time – really believed that what he was writing and dreaming about, was in fact possible. Hint: it’s not. Like over 90% (at last count) of everything he has said/promised about this project in order to get funding, it’s pure and utter horse shit. And back in July 2015, one of the devs actually added his own thoughts which then made it painfully clear that not only were they winging it – which is the basis for R&D btw – but that they also had absolutely no clue how they were going to actually do it.
As of this writing, not much has changed since then; neither in the underlying network architecture, nor the instancing part of it.
As an experienced software engineer, I tell you – flat out – that inter-instance communication described in this manner – and for the game pitched – is not only improbable, but it’s also the sort of thing that fairy dust is made of. And we’re not talking about the ability for a database in one server instance to talk to another database (e.g. user) in another instance. That’s pretty trivial (we’ve done just that in Line Of Defense btw) and rudimentary. No, we’re talking about the ability for one game instance (A) with players, to communicate with another game instance (B) that also has players. As that is the only way that you’re ever going to get Tom on A to see/communicate with Harry on B. Before you even go that far, know this, in order for that to even work, you need to have a unified and persistent universe that acts as the “play” area for Tom and Harry.
Before you say Eve Online has done it; don’t – they haven’t. If you’re a programmer, go ahead and read up on the EO architecture (1, 2) – which btw has been drastically improved upon over the years. That EO bespoke architecture was built from the ground up as part of the engine and for a specific game. A game that’s not twitch-based or anywhere near the fidelity of the seamless architecture that Star Citizen is shooting for.
Simply put, without a seamless inter-instance communication backend, there is no Star Citizen MMO. Like ever. And while Chris was flat out of his depths and just making shit up, Alex on the other hand outlined how it could be done. Theoretically. See the difference between those two accounts of the same thing? While you’re at it, this is the list of games made with CryEngine. Count the number of standard MMO games which have actually been completed and released.
As I write this blog in the middle of May 2016, not only do they not have a persistent universe to speak of, but they still have serious issues with instances hosting more than 10 clients. Not only that, as an instanced game, the chances of you and your buddies to be in the same instance are next to impossible. This is not a game whereby you fire up a server browser, join a server, then tell you friends to come to that server before it fills up. Nor is it a game whereby you can spin up your own private server – which they also promised btw.
The sad part of all this? They were never supposed to be building an MMO to begin with. Somewhere along the line, despite saying it wasn’t an MMO, Chris decided they were going to build one after all. Just like that.
There is more being discussed at Guard Frequency, including what could be a very important date of 31 May 2016.
DevGame starts tomorrow
The first session in the DevGame 2.0 course begins tomorrow at 12:30 Eastern. I’m concerned that I don’t have the emails for the two of you who paid at the White Bull site, so shoot me an email if you did and you haven’t received an invite yet.
Above is a screenshot from a game that one team of our DevGame 1.0 attendees has created; the game is very close to completion and the lead programmer and the lead artist will be making appearances to discuss how they applied what they learned to Elveteka, which is a remake of the classic Apple II game Karateka.
If you are a Brainstorm member or took the DevGame 1.0 course, you are welcome to attend. It’s not too late, so if you want to attend, you can either sign up for the course, or just shoot me an email with DEVGAME in the subject if you qualify for a free seat.
Don’t fret if you don’t receive the registration link right away. I’ll send another batch out tomorrow morning.
A Hugo nominee on PC in PC gaming
Speaking of the Hugo Awards, it’s downright hilarious to see how completely the SJWs reject Sun Tzu’s admonition to know oneself as well as one’s enemy. Their problem, you see, is that they are just too decent and good and pure and naive to discuss politics or even be in contact with anyone who refuses to submit to their Narrative.
renepavan
With guys like Vox Day throwing their weight around, and Trump supporters and alt-right dudes becoming increasingly more common in the Internet, I find myself staying more and more away from anything having to do with political discussions.We Liberals have a tendency to be too idealistic and naive when dealing with sociopaths like Vox Day. We think adhering to the laws and customs and moderation and good manners and common sense will eventually win the day. I don’t think so anymore.
When you face sociopaths, you should either go to war with them and beat them, or you should just go away and avoid any further contact. Honestly, dudes that actually preach genocide and purging the human species from the “weak” scare the crap out of me (I’m not necessarily talking about Vox Day here, but alt-right dudes that have started to proliferate online, Vox Day’s brothers and sisters).
I never thought I’d miss the Bush supporters. 🙂
So yeah, I’m staying well away from anything having to do with politics from now on. I tend to get too angry and frustrated. And I think “our” side in this Hugo mess is being too moderate in dealing with VD and his cohorts. He will not go away by himself, and I feel the Hugo “brand” is doomed.
grrm
It is sad but true that often liberals are handicapped by their own liberalism and sense of fair play.
It’s good to see SJWs rediscovering the benefits of segregation, anyhow. It’s even better to see that they remain entirely clueless about themselves. I have to admit, it is certainly informative to learn that shrieking “racist sexist transphobic bigot anti-semite global warming denier” at those who disagree with you and attempting to discredit and disemploy them is nothing more than “adhering to the laws and customs and moderation and good manners and common sense.”
Regardless, watching SJWs try to play the naive liberal is like seeing a cannibal answer the door while wearing the skin of his most recent victim.
Speaking of segregation, one author has withdrawn his book from a competition because the reviewers are SJWs who are more interested in “who, whom” than anything to do with the actual plot, characterizations, or writing style of the book:
There’s been a trend swelling in the last few years among book reviews, fueled by the “outrage cliches” of the interweb. This idea that a book, a story, should be judged largely based on several things which matter more than anything else: The color of the main character’s skin, their sex, and their sexuality. Then the same for the author.
How bad is it? Last week the Nebula awards were swept by female authors. Which would be totally fine … except for how the news presented it, which was best summed up in the i09 article I read that didn’t discuss the books that won at all, but only that the winning authors were women.
Since there is no place for us where they are, there can be no place for them where we are.