Random News not worthy of own thread

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Thu, 7. Dec 17, 05:27

pjknibbs wrote:Sigh. Amazon and Google are throwing their toys out of their respective prams--Amazon refused to stock Google hardware in their store, so Google is now going to block access to Youtube from Amazon devices like the Fire TV. Ruddy nonsense, the lot of it--guess I need to look at replacing my Fire TV stick with a third party one that isn't part of the ban.

Wow!

Infos: https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/5/1673 ... omers-feud

Post by **X2-Illuminatus** » Fri, 8. Dec 17, 18:03

Zachary Levi Disses EA at Video Game Awards

No idea who Zachary Levi is, but it is still funny.

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Fri, 8. Dec 17, 18:45

X2-Illuminatus wrote:Zachary Levi Disses EA at Video Game Awards

No idea who Zachary Levi is, but it is still funny.

It's Chuck. Who played opposite firefly's Adam Baldwin and Yvonne Strahovski (Miranda Lawson from Mass Effect). It's one of the better tv series I have seen. Stupid but quirky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDzFf-2AEg8

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Fri, 8. Dec 17, 18:48

X2-Illuminatus wrote:Zachary Levi Disses EA at Video Game Awards

No idea who Zachary Levi is, but it is still funny.

Ah, I see he claimed his Lootbox...

Last-night, Steam did a broadcast of it and gave away a selection of games to 150 logged-in viewers at a time every 15 minutes. By the time I started watching, it was too late to rush to the "Freebie" thread and post the alert.

I watched it and was impressed with Steam's streaming through their front-end. With so many people logged into my region, all jabbering nonsense on chat, the stream was smooth with no issues at all.

I wonder if Steam will be setting the stage for a streaming service with more direct competition with Twitch. The only shortfall there is that Steam is very loathe to deal directly with monetization issues, preferring to basically stay out of anything to do with cash transactions between users. Smart move, but it hampers their ability to compete with certain services. Will they change that? Not sure...

Post by **Ketraar** » Fri, 8. Dec 17, 20:49

I watched TB's snarkatron version of it and its still was painfully dull. Can someone tell me what the Kojima thing was? Is he now on full LSD mode?

MFG

Ketraar

felter · Post by **felter** » Sat, 9. Dec 17, 04:49

Morkonan wrote:
pjknibbs wrote:Sigh. Amazon and Google are throwing their toys out of their respective prams--Amazon refused to stock Google hardware in their store, so Google is now going to block access to Youtube from Amazon devices like the Fire TV. Ruddy nonsense, the lot of it--guess I need to look at replacing my Fire TV stick with a third party one that isn't part of the ban.
Wow!

Infos: https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/5/1673 ... omers-feud

This really annoys me, it is so petty. It does nothing to google, it does not effect them, it only effects Amazons customers and Amazon itself as people will go elsewhere to get their Youtube channel, as the buy a roku or another device rather than a fire TV as it doesn't do Youtube. It's do friggin stupid. You know what I found funny, I just checked my Fire tv and it uses Google DNS as the backup DNS, I've not heard anything about them changing that.

I also have a Chromecast and I hate it, that's why I mainly use fire tv, but I may have to go back to Chromecast as I watch Youtube, how does that help Amazon. Bunch of muppets, so they are.

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Sat, 9. Dec 17, 21:17

felter wrote:This really annoys me, it is so petty. ... Bunch of muppets, so they are.

I gotta look up how you guys use the word "muppets." It's just too darn funny.

But, you do have a right to be annoyed about this. I agree with you. However... Google, as long as they are acting within their contractual agreements, have the right to do as they wish with their IP.

I agree it's... muppitish. I agree that it hurts the consumer. Corporate wars that revolve around "services" usually do end up hurting consumers and those that depend on those services. Far from "price wars", companies that offer services often attempt to isolate and restrict consumer choices instead of lowering prices. They reduce included options, restrict areas of service, refuse to cooperate with other companies providing competing services to help consumers with issues, etc...

Consumer Service Wars are bloody.

But, you have a choice, here. You can "vote with your wallet." IOW, you can refuse to watch youtube... Further, you can tell Google why you're not going to watch their service anymore and, maybe, they'll hear your complaint. Well, probably not, since they are a megacorp and all.

But, still, you do have a choice and you don't have to put up with any of these shenanigans!

Rnett · Post by **Rnett** » Sat, 9. Dec 17, 22:00

Morkonan wrote:
felter wrote:This really annoys me, it is so petty. ... Bunch of muppets, so they are.
I gotta look up how you guys use the word "muppets." It's just too darn funny.

I always wondered about that myself.

Cpt.Jericho · Post by **Cpt.Jericho** » Sat, 9. Dec 17, 23:57

Morkonan wrote:But, you do have a right to be annoyed about this. I agree with you. However... Google, as long as they are acting within their contractual agreements, have the right to do as they wish with their IP.!

Neither Google nor Amazon do have consumers - they have customers. And customers bring money to shareholders. That's what the whole thing is about.

felter · Post by **felter** » Sun, 10. Dec 17, 04:32

Muppets

An alternative term for idiot or moron. Usually used in the UK to describe someone who is incompetant or gormless. Taken from the name for the popular Jim Henson Puppets.

Bishop149 · Post by **Bishop149** » Mon, 11. Dec 17, 18:03

Here is a game

http://store.steampowered.com/app/558990/Opus_Magnum/

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/1 ... ly-access/

Its from the same people that did SpaceChem and Infinifactory (the latter I still haven't picked up) and is very similar, make a machine full of coordinated moving parts to complete a task.
I'm only a few puzzles in but I am enjoying the hell out of it, one of the few games I have bought full price in recent years, good decision!

Here is a brief synopsis of my working process for each puzzle;
- Struggle.
- Fail.
- Fail again.
- Botch together a solution that just about works.
- Have another go to come up with something a little more elegant, do ok.
- Look at the heavenly and beautifully efficient solutions other have created.
- Self-loathing.
- Move on to next puzzle.

Its great, trust me!

red assassin · Post by **red assassin** » Mon, 11. Dec 17, 20:49

Okay, I've played SpaceChem, I've played InfiniFactory, I've played Shenzhen I/O. In every single one of them, I've played it for a good few hours, then eventually got too frustrated with the harder puzzles for it to be fun any more. (Shenzhen I/O in particular started to feel too much like my actual job.) Is there any particularly compelling reason to play Opus Magnum or is it just going to be more of the same?

felter · Post by **felter** » Tue, 12. Dec 17, 02:28

I think this does deserve its own thread, but I'm posting it here anyway. It sorts of goes back to something I mentioned the other week there, about an adult buying an 18 registered game for a kid, because he didn't realise what the game contained. Well this time it's gaming skin gambling and how youngsters use these websites but there is one line in the story that shouts out to me

Vicky Shotbolt, from the group Parentzone said: "It's a huge emerging issue that's getting bigger and bigger, but parents aren't even thinking about it.

And here lies the problem, parents not knowing what their kids are doing, or not caring what their kids are doing. I hope and think that the denizens of this forum are a little bit more savvy on these subjects, maybe even because of this forum, but why can't more adults act like adults and make a greater effort to know what their kids are getting up to. We hear these stories all the time but yet they continue to ignore what they do get up to, makes me sad.

Bishop149 · Post by **Bishop149** » Tue, 12. Dec 17, 03:02

red assassin wrote:In every single one of them, I've played it for a good few hours, then eventually got too frustrated with the harder puzzles for it to be fun any more. (Shenzhen I/O in particular started to feel too much like my actual job.) Is there any particularly compelling reason to play Opus Magnum or is it just going to be more of the same?

I think its mostly more of the same. IMO its a little more accessible with a better reward / frustration balance than their previous efforts. But I dunno if this would be sufficient to offset your experiences thus far.
Perhaps grab it on discount at some point?

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Tue, 12. Dec 17, 03:15

Just a note on certain sorts of games:

Minecraft is fun, for awhile. But, it soon turns into "boring" unless you start building contraptions. Then, it becomes fun again. (For awhile.) So, for those with a puzzle-solving creative spirit, like programmers, Minecraft becomes a puzzle-solving-contraption-building game and "exceeds its original programming" because of those enthusiasms.

Terraria is much like that, with similar building and design capabilities. (I think it's the better game of the two, actually, in terms of gameplay.) You're free to play however you wish, but coming up with contraptions and building in switches and circuits can be entirely part of the regular game experience... or not - It's up to you.

IOW, there are games out there that could provide people who like puzzle-solving/programming/creative games with multiple choices of playstyles across many gaming sessions, giving them opportunities for mindless fun and creativity coupled with "hard work," which gives great satisfaction when it achieves its goal. X3TC is like that, for me, with its endless complex logistics chains, the "fun" of setting up different types of system, just because you can, etc... And, if I don't feel like going through all that work, today, I don't have to.

("Gnomoria" is a good choice, too, but it has its faults. There's plenty of interesting building to be done and a great deal of logistics and planning going on. But, it doesn't go really "deep" into anything, which makes the end-game suffer, unless you've purposefully done things to make the game harder. (Or accidentally done them.) Unfortunately, it has some bugs that won't be fixed which could render one's game virtually unplayable... I love the game, hate some of the bugs that, while I can usually fix, myself, cause too much energy to be wasted during play. :/)

If one has to "work hard" at every play session, it's no longer a enjoyable game. The "work" needs to be part of the "fun." When that is all that there is, it loses its luster and becomes "not fun." Games that offer, not require, both sorts of play opportunities are, by and large, great games. (Unless they're "Dwarf Fortress" and visually assaulting the player while torturing them with archaic menu systems...)

X3TC = The best of both worlds in a science-fiction game, for me.

felter · Post by **felter** » Tue, 12. Dec 17, 16:37

The future of policing

Golden_Gonads · Post by **Golden_Gonads** » Fri, 15. Dec 17, 10:53

Disney have indeed bought out Fox (except for Fox News, sports and a couple of other minor bits) for $66.1 Billion... Though it still has to be confirmed by anti-trust/monopoly folks.

66,100,000,000 Dollars...

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Fri, 15. Dec 17, 11:00

So, they own the rights to Futurama now?

And Firefly....

Good News Everybody!

I think....

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Sun, 17. Dec 17, 02:25

Just sharing some laughs...

https://i.imgur.com/axdRMEO.gif

I can't ever not laugh at this. Crying right now, still...

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Mon, 18. Dec 17, 22:31

The Pentagon recently conducted a secret study of UFO phenomenon: https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/16/politics ... index.html

And, this story just hit the press, too: 2 Navy Airmen and an Object That ‘Accelerated Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen’

So... yeah. This happened. Now what?

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Random News not worthy of own thread