Swimmin' Salmon

This could even be something as mundane as leaky memory. Ie, a hardware issue.

She's on (or was on) Facepalm, and I think Nikki is a "friend"

I was speaking more from the role playing stance. I'm a hunter, not a gatherer. I'm walking around finding enemies and killing them, using whatever is available. Does it really seem in-character to pause after the fight to gather up everything so I can bring it back to various traders for an exchange into gold, or to save those extra potions that'll never be used in battle because I put them in some save-location? Hell no. Make potions have an expiration date. Make wands have a breakage chance for every step you take. This idea that you need to save up a bunch of crap throughout a game instance is crazy. Cleaning? Nope, you are depriving every other resident of the underworld a chance to get some battlefield loot after the real warriors have moved on to the next fight. Let them worry about setting up house.

Jeff should not be encouraging hoarding.

Obviously a remake of the the forum warz of '04 and '05. Forum 13 Forever!

 

Separate note, ever wonder if Emperor Tullegolar was actually Milo Yiannopoulos?

I fully expect Trump to be elected. It is nice to get a civics lesson though.

See how easily I derailed the conversation? That is how Trump won.

Poor Gary. No love for the libertarian.

He's a mod. He could have just harvested all the IP addresses and (assuming no privacy VPN tunnels) just categorized us his way and locked the thread. In fact, why didn't you?

Slarty is the NSA!

This appears to have turned into some kind of full fledged contest.

Obviously, excessive spam can never be bad.

Salmon, while you're right that ideally it should be changed, the reality is that an investigation is very unlikely to cause that change, for the same reasons I gave above. The problems ADoS reported are part of a series of much bigger systemic problems that ultimately hinge on the way we distribute our resources. Taking humane care of people who have both basic (food, clothing, shelter) and less common (e.g., personal or psychiatric) needs, but little to no ability to pay or to earn money, simply requires money from outside the system -- money that we, collectively, do not assign there (whether through government spending, private donations, or any other avenue).

 

While I am generally pro-investigation and certainly pro-information, in these kind of encrusted organizational systems, you have to be aware of the context, of what will happen after the investigation, of what it will look like to stakeholders (including the media and the public at large)... this just isn't the way to effect change. I say this as someone who, you may remember, worked in said industry for a decade.

 

You don't sound like rapid and forced change is your style. I'm more of a Bernie man myself.

Although I sympathize with Vinnie's plight, and applaud his solution, there remains a problem for the rest of the residents, both causers and effectees. It's not a healthy environment, and the fact that it existed at all suggests that a corporate culture exists that encourages it. So, yeah, for the greater good it should be investigated.

Vinnie, does WCVB still do worthwhile reporting, or is it garbage? I know that your situation might be resolved, but if this company is not enforcing the tenancy requirements in their gov't funded housing, it's mismanagement of the public trust, and that gets reporters all in a tizzy. I would call their news desk (phone # on website) and ask to speak to a reporter. Explain the situation, explain your concerns, and ask that they look into it. Invite them to your home. Show them records of phone calls and emails to the company. Let them work up a story, and find other houses that are managed in a similar manner. And then you'll really get to see heads roll...

I see we both still love arguing, so I'll point out that I didn't use the word stagnant. But, you did...

"Ruined the company," Salmon? Now who's being dramatic? I like the older games better too, but that doesn't mean the newer stuff is bad.

Nor does it mean it's good. He got awards for E2, E3, and Nethergate. He then stopped developing what was clearly an open-ended series and started G1. Then G2, and somewhere in there began rewriting E1-3 as A1-3. So, I guess I still feel like he abandoned a great storyline (e3) in favor of playing with some new toy (Geneforge engine) and then felt he needed that design for everything, to the point where he would rather port E1-3 than write new material. I would guess I'm not alone in saying those games were not gameplay improvements, even though they might have played on newer hardware and appealed to a wide audience because of fancy graphics. Which, that's fine, if the gameplay doesn't suffer, which it did (imho). The only reason A4 could have saved his business is because he finally took up again the series that made him believe his company was a viable concern on which to base family decisions. In 2005 or so, 8 years after releasing E3. I'm not a great businessman, but even I know that you can only hang your hat on brand loyalty for so long before you lose customers when you don't create new work. Sure, they'll come back, but that's a long time for the kids to go without bread.

 

I also note that the most original, less of a formulaic "sure thing", SW games all came before the kids did. I can believe kids put some extra pressure on things. IIRC, you also changed when you became a parent, Salmon, although for some reason you just became really hostile to everyone

I think if you go back you'll see I was hostile to a certain subset of mewling entitled forum members, but not most people. I also mostly stopped posting before I had kids, because I realized with the demise of TM that the steady rejection of the things I had found attractive about the community was real, and my enjoyment of the same would indeed be finite. Best to get out before I was completely bitter over the direction in which Jeff ultimately took his business. I wonder how long he can keep rewriting his back catalogue before he realizes that he could just hire it out to some starving programmers in India for a few grand in order to go back to creating new worlds.

 

Also, good to see you again. Still in Chicago?

Jeff has often said "when I look at A4, I see the game that saved my business."

 

Jeff needs to stop being such a drama queen about these things. "BoA almost ruined my business." "A4 saved my business." You'd think the guy cares more about his business than the artistry. Hmm, maybe he does, and that is what ruined the company for some of us, while keeping the doors open for more sub-par games for the masses.

You can just send money in Paypal with a credit card, no? No need to do the bank account thing or open yourself (overly) to fraud.

QFT

Clearly any game designer that doesn't think like I do in a game must be wrong.

And letting them know is the reason for internet.

Not getting what you want is part and parcel with small coding shops. They don't have to cater to you, because there aren't enough of you to build up a groundswell of support that would change their economics to the degree that they have to listen. But a large company with a large following? It's fairly simple for a vocal minority to make a huge deal over some small detail and through the use of the company's own social media force them to change their plans.

 

tl, dr; Jeff's not afraid of hurting your feelings.

Wasn't there a Warehouse 13/Eureka episode about this? I don't think it'll work out all that well, artifact or not.

I had to buy an ipad because a piece of equipment I use requires iOS as the interface. While I like Apple as a stock, I continue to be dismayed by their business practices, unfriendliness to developers, and continuing adherence to "different is better" as a business practice. One day it will bite them in the ass. It looks like it happened a little bit today, with Spiderweb Software abandoning ipad as a development platform. When programming gets in the way of game development, you know it's time to cut that cord.

There was some great stuff back in 2006, 2007. Emperor Tullegolar was particularly erudite.

I am God, suffer my wrath.