Random News not worthy of own thread

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pjknibbs
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by pjknibbs » Sat, 27. Oct 18, 05:19

RegisterMe wrote:
Sat, 27. Oct 18, 04:20
The important word being "If".
In this case, there was no "if" about it--the odds of winning this particular lottery is a bit over 500 million to 1, so theoretically you would get a 300% return on investment if you went and bought every possible combination of winning numbers with a prize of 1.6 billion. Of course, it would be totally impractical to actually do that--you'd have to buy nearly a thousand tickets per second over the week before the draw to get all those combinations!

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Golden_Gonads » Mon, 29. Oct 18, 07:02

pjknibbs wrote:
Sat, 27. Oct 18, 05:19
In this case, there was no "if" about it--the odds of winning this particular lottery is a bit over 500 million to 1, so theoretically you would get a 300% return on investment if you went and bought every possible combination of winning numbers with a prize of 1.6 billion. Of course, it would be totally impractical to actually do that--you'd have to buy nearly a thousand tickets per second over the week before the draw to get all those combinations!
You aren't accounting for a second person (or more) having the same numbers.

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Morkonan
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Morkonan » Thu, 1. Nov 18, 23:04

Hilarious!

A guy gives out "random stuff" to the "Trick or Treaters" showing up at his door this Halloween. Priceless... I laughed a bit too much.

https://imgur.com/gallery/Ewl5659

(Click the speaker icon to hear the sound.)

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felter
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by felter » Fri, 2. Nov 18, 02:39

We had someone giving out some interesting things to kids for their treats, though not quite so amusing.
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Morkonan » Fri, 2. Nov 18, 19:23

felter wrote:
Fri, 2. Nov 18, 02:39
We had someone giving out some interesting things to kids for their treats, though not quite so amusing.
It'd be interesting to see if there was a follow-up. Though, I find it strange that her kids, two and five years-old, were out without her supervision and that there's no mention of her questioning the person that did supervise them. (I assume there had to be such a person, perhaps her husband?)

Remember the dire warnings of "razor-blades in treats?" I don't know if you guys had such a rumor, but it was a very old warning that even I remember hearing as a kid. Well, that never happened. The rumor got started somewhere and no incident like that ever occurred, but people latched onto it and treated it like it was so common that all treats the kids got had to be checked for razor-blades. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago, it finally happened. It was caught, thank goodness, but someone finally did make the "Old Wive's Tale" reality. (I don't know if they were ever caught. I hope they were!)

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Morkonan » Sat, 3. Nov 18, 22:22

At Blizzcon, everyone was waiting for the "Big Announcement" that has been teased a bit. Well, it came...

Blizzard and Activi$ion announce "Diablo Immortals," an MMO Diablo game... only for mobile devices.

The apathy of the reception was palpable and the outrage is starting to build.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoS3KdCnbZg

Seriously? A friggin' mobile game? No PC plans at all? Friggin mobile? A friggin mobile game that will probably be monetized out the aSS?

HOW IN THE F DID THEY THINK DIABLO FANS WOULD REACT?

Omg... I can't even... WTF? And, then they have the ballz to quip to their disbelieving audience, "What? Don't you guys all have phones." WTF BLIZZARD?

You can see them struggling on stage with the realization that this announcement just went over like a fart in an elevator. Look at their discomfiture! Look as the realization hits their friggin' faces that the Kool-Aid they've all been probably drinking during their development sessions is actually rat piss.

"Oh, would you like a new Diablo game? Would like a Diablo MMO? You would? You've always wanted one? Well, look no more, now you get one! AND, if you buy a Dialbo Immortal $hitbox, loaded with new monthly transmogs and a "free pet," we will personally come over to your house and shove our fists up your ___, too! For five bucks extra..."

As Sterling noted, a Twitter poster summed it up nicely, I think - "Diablo is the equivalent of a father telling his one million children that not only will there be no Christmas, Santa was killed in a car-crash..."

Oh, this is worthy of a thread. But, right now, we have to let the outrage die down so we can figure out wtf Blizzard is really doing, here. Or... not. Screw that - Blizzard has jumped the shark with Activision and what's likely to be a mobile-mmo-rip-off-monetization policy scheme that could possibly end with the entire gaming universe imploding, ripping a hole in the fabric of time and plunging us all into a universe of........

Edit:Add - And, as Sterling noted, this will probably go over well for them, Blizzard/Activision, because some people will buy it and buy all the loot boxes and monitization items hand-over-fist. But, I suppose that now that TotalBiscuit has passed, some developers in the gaming industry can much more easily show their contempt for their audience. I am not against anyone making a decent living, I just can't stand it when they turn to selling crack in order to do it... I'm looking forward to other gaming pundits weighing in on this, too. Some of the more outrageous and funny ones are going to have field-day with it compared to Sterlings uncharacteristic calm with this announcement. I guess he's still in shock. (I miss TB. :( )

Edit:Add - And, the well-produced memes are starting to flow... Here's a classic "dubbed" meme that hits all the high-points of the news, with style and grace, of course. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 3CvVuhJI8o

And, YES! There's already a "Downfall" meme. Teh Interwebz can be a wonderful place when it doesn't take itself too seriously. :) Surprising how fast pirated copies of Vegas get pushed into meme production, isn't it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ-8LG4jARs

(Obviously, these "dubbed" memes aren't as entertaining for those who speak the original language, so just mute them and laugh along with the rest of us if you speak it. :))

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by pjknibbs » Sun, 4. Nov 18, 05:24

The guy on stage making that announcement is apparently one of the guys who's responsible for the massive improvement in Diablo 3 since release--wonder which manager he pissed off to be given this role? I just can't believe that *nobody* at Blizzard failed to realise what the fan reaction to this was going to be.

Best bit was the guy who asked if this was an out-of-season April Fool, though. Legend.

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by birdtable » Sun, 4. Nov 18, 07:37

Diablo Mobile .... Don't blame the fox for following the scent, the fault lies with the chicken.

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felter
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by felter » Sun, 4. Nov 18, 14:31

There are reports of the manipulation of dislikes on the promo video for Diablo Immortal on youtube, as at one point there were well over 300k dislikes for it and if you take of right right now, there are only yes that's only 138,378 down votes, so what happened to those other 200k down votes. By the way at this time it has only 7,734 like votes. Not going there way right now, not what they imagined.
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Antilogic » Sun, 4. Nov 18, 14:34

All they had to do to make the announcement go fine was not to have it as their headline announcement at Blizzcon.

This is where they announced Overwatch, Diablo 3, all the BIG games. And nothing, but a little mobile game that's a carbon reskinned CLONE of a an existing title, made by a third party developer - not even by Blizzard!

Just...announce it at Gamescon or some shit. Not to your most hardcore PC gaming fans who you have been teasing and hyping for the past few months.

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Morkonan » Mon, 5. Nov 18, 03:00

Antilogic wrote:
Sun, 4. Nov 18, 14:34
All they had to do to make the announcement go fine was not to have it as their headline announcement at Blizzcon....
^--- This.

Several "industry commentators" have remarked on this, stating that nobody would have really cared if they had just downplayed this and make it a sort of "also ran" title. It would have been especially effective if they announced a remaster of Diablo 2 or something at Blizzcon, which is what most people want, and then announced this product alongside it.

But, no... They ran the hype train right into a bridge abutment.

@felter - Reportedly, they've removed and re-uppped the vid several times, trying to "erase" downvotes.

@birtable - Yeah, but it's just too "dirty." It's certainly where a huge amount of money can be made, but then one can make that sort of money selling drugs to kids... Which is exactly what they're trying to do, figuratively speaking. :)

@pjknibbs - Most would credit the dissolution of Blizzard North. ___ (edit - Forgot the dude's name. "W" something, "Chen" maybe.) did resurrect Diablo 3 and it's a great game. But, this? This was something that was done, apparently, with very little effort by Blizzard. Netease is the developer responsible for porting what are basically Diablo 3 assets mixed with their own, Neatease's, existing mobile game engine from a different mobile game that they have already proven produces good results. In short, think of it as a reskin of a title that has proven profitable in the Korean/Chinese, etc markets. In short, it appears that Blizz just whored out their IP and let a third-party dev run with it to make a mobile version so they could reap the most profits with the least amount of effort. (Note: I am quite comfortable letting specialist companies that have proven performance do third-party development. That's smart business. But, this? It just doubles the outrage of the fanbase.)

If this keeps "getting bigger" in gaming news, it should probably get its own thread. It was just difficult to predict on "Day 0" so I didn't want to create an unnecessary bit of clutter with a new thread for something that would quickly die down. We'll see how it goes.

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Antilogic » Mon, 5. Nov 18, 12:30

https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comment ... y/e927p90/

Interesting comments from a Diablo 2 producer.

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Morkonan » Mon, 5. Nov 18, 22:20

Antilogic wrote:
Mon, 5. Nov 18, 12:30
https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comment ... y/e927p90/

Interesting comments from a Diablo 2 producer.
Interesting read and pretty much sums up popular opinion. Though, I think this wasn't so much as an IP-offering that was misunderstood, but a cash-grab that was poorly setup and announced.

By the way, it appears that Blizz has NOT been deleting and re-upping that video to get rid of negative reviews. Instead, they've been somehow working the system with Google/Youtube to remove negative reviews. The original url has been archived several times, showing it remained the same over time, with the negative reviews getting reduced and large numbers of comments just being deleted. The latter is predictable, but the former would seem to take more involvement from the host. (Youtube/Google) A youtuber did a vid, showing the evidence, etc.. If I find it again, I'll link it.

If the drama continues this week, probably thread-time.

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felter
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by felter » Tue, 6. Nov 18, 03:14

YongYea has done a video on the missing votes but I suspect most youtube game reviewers are doing the same thing. All Blizz have done by doing this, is they have made a disastrous event even worse for themselves.
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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Antilogic » Tue, 6. Nov 18, 08:52

Morkonan wrote:
Mon, 5. Nov 18, 22:20
By the way, it appears that Blizz has NOT been deleting and re-upping that video to get rid of negative reviews. Instead, they've been somehow working the system with Google/Youtube to remove negative reviews.
This is likely YouTubes anti-botting measure.

The thing is, I am unable to cast any issues really on Blizzard and YouTube for this - it is certain that there is an concerted botting effort to increase the number of dislikes. It's possible also that Blizzard/Youtube are taking advantage of this, but given the number of real users working on increasing the dislikes, what would be the point?

For the botters, their efforts have been achieved, they drew attention to the videos and the dislike issue and more real users will be disliking the video, thus the goal for them is done.

Removing comments is a whole different matter, however. It may also be an automated process, but they have been clearly removing real user comments.

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by burger1 » Tue, 13. Nov 18, 21:26

It looks like people are playing fallout 76 a day early.

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Hank001 » Sat, 17. Nov 18, 01:03

I would have posted this in Death Announcements, but, alas it's not a person, however interesting:

Kepler Space Telescope given final commands for shutdown

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

(Dylan Thomas)
The answer to life, the universe and everything:
MIND THE GAP

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by RegisterMe » Sat, 17. Nov 18, 01:11

Hank001 wrote:
Sat, 17. Nov 18, 01:03
I would have posted this in Death Announcements, but, alas it's not a person, however interesting:

Kepler Space Telescope given final commands for shutdown

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

(Dylan Thomas)
@Hank, thank you for that.
I can't breathe.

- George Floyd, 25th May 2020

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Mightysword » Sun, 18. Nov 18, 00:13

https://imgur.com/a/tR2ia4K

So quick pop quiz, what is the reason I'm linking that screenshot of CNN headline?
Spoiler
Show
It's not Trump
Such a fine example of modern professional journalism that deserve utmost respect. Specifically for consummated individuals who only read news via headline, designed for maximum controversy :D
Reading comprehension is hard.
Reading with prejudice makes comprehension harder.

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Re: Random News not worthy of own thread

Post by Morkonan » Mon, 19. Nov 18, 22:35

CNN: Wombat poop: Scientists have finally discovered why it's cubed

Because I'm sure you guys were curious about this and it's probably a topic you should stay informed on. Great conversation starter at parties! Probably only parties of wombat poop aficionados, but they say there's something for everyone in this world so, here ya go... ;)

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