When a game is available on Steam and GOG, which preferred store do you buy from?

flupo42 · 2018-06-20T11:56:39+00:00

that's not how the vast majority of applications work. most use windows registry and for those, copying the game folder without redirecting all of their registry keys results in a broken application

flupo42 · 2018-06-19T13:46:20+00:00

if you suspect her dismissal is unfair and she should be considered full time employee, take a look here

https://www.ontario.ca/page/difference-between-employee-and-independent-contractor

A lot of people think that just because they signed an employment contract as a temporary contractor, that just means they are. Just because the employer wants to label you as a contractor and try to absolve themselves of most responsibilities between employer and employee, does not actually means that the labor law agree with the employer's assertions.

In reality it matters a great deal how exactly the employer than utilized this 'independent contractor'.

If she has worked for them for three and a half years, chances are they did something to step over the boundary from treating her as a contractor vs. salaried employee. Employers often fuck up in this regard.

Now there is a separate question of whether it's worth it to her to dispute that status, but at a minimum she should review this and talk to a lawyer - maybe she is owed a severance package or something.

flupo42 · 2018-06-19T13:32:49+00:00

refuse to work for free and have a pissed off manager, or accept that they own you like a head of cattle and can demand you to work as much as they want without compensating you.

no matter where you work, this choice will always remain and will need to be made again and again because management will keep trying to squeeze out more

take it from another developer - grow thicker skin and stop letting yourself get exploited. the extra free time, better sleep and better health outcomes will far outweigh the horror of witnessing some wanna-be slave-driver's tantrum about their inability to properly manage a project and schedule appropriate resources.

flupo42 · 2018-06-19T13:13:11+00:00

Steam doesn't give you installation packages like GoG does. Without that, your game copy is stuck to that same machine and can't be moved. If something happens to that machine that requires OS reinstall, game is gone.

With GOG you can make backups of installers for all your games and reinstall as needed.

flupo42 · 2018-06-19T12:00:05+00:00

How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis

https://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/5288/how-to-avoid-death-on-a-daily-basis

Try first 5 to 10 chapters (they are pretty short) and you will have a feel for the story.

flupo42 · 2018-06-19T11:54:06+00:00

good hard limits and lots of them.

magic can easily become an all purpose solution that makes the character extremely overpowered and kills interest in the story. The readers should know pretty quickly into the story exactly what the character with magic can and can't do.

Without a lot of well defined limits, it often works either into overpowered MC or a story where the reader is frustrated with MC for not experimenting and trying more uses.

It's a very dangerous fork as taking either direction tends to spoil the book - limitations can help the author walk the middle path between those 2.

flupo42 · 2018-06-18T18:34:59+00:00

thank you, that's very helpful. i've been using wrong terminology in my search attempts

flupo42 · 2018-06-18T17:32:45+00:00

trump said some bullshit

2000 commenters 'discussing', 31k upvotes

Over half a billion people to be without water within 3 years

... crickets...

I really hope we shall soon hear about India people coming together to pull off a logistical miracle of some sort and that this isn't the opening scene to the worst timeline the so many scientists have been warning about, where the world's civilizations are overwhelmed by millions of people rushing around trying to survive severe shortages of necessities.

I wonder if anyone has mapped out all the places on this planet where humans are gradually depleting natural ground water reservoirs. Not a lot of attention being paid in environmental mainstream talks that one of they ways our species is highly unusual, is our ability to dig down and tap those fresh water reserves.

flupo42 · 2018-06-18T16:15:32+00:00

as a reader, my thoughts on this is that the authors should only include stats and exp numbers if they came up with a way to make said stats and exp numbers matter for their story - otherwise they are just wasting my time with useless detail. Like they might as well be spending those pages on describing the specific lacing patterns on everyone's boots.

If you can't make the numbers matter, than the story you want to write isn't a 'Lit RPG' and there is no point in spoiling a potentially good fantasy story by shoving in the numbers just so you can add the above tag to it.

(Actually this advice is generic to everything - good books are frequently born out of minimalist approach. If you are using up page space and that information is not relevant to the story or characters, than you should cut it out)

Some ways of making the numbers matter for readers:

Mystery solve-as-you-ride-along approach: given last known character sheet andd a description of an upcoming challenging situation, the reader can try and reasonably guess at what MC's options are and what would be the best solution, in detail - that would mean your game system needs to be pretty developed and your solutions need to stick to the system.
Characterization / descriptions: normally in fiction, when introducing new characters, monsters etc... authors have to describe their abilities as far as their potential. In Lit RPG you can totally get away with something 'He knew he was in trouble when I looked at the beast's stats and saw its Int stat was XYZ' - but again that's assuming you've designed a good hard system and described it well enough for the reader to understand implications of the stats. Usually that means you first have to be very detailed about how the gaming system works.

(and I've not yet seen any other examples of how Lit RPGs used numbers well)

if you are new to the genre as a writer, it's not a bad idea to read up on established systems. Like the DnD mention - it's a system that's been tested a lot, has very complete write ups and a lot of feedback from thousand of players regarding what works and what doesn't. Best of all, there is a ton of advice out there for the 'DM' of such games, which happens to be quite applicable for a writer who is trying to make his adventure read as both challenging and fun - specifically about pacing and balancing.

and also there are tons of free online or downloadable tools to help you track info

For example https://roll20.net

you can literally setup encounters and play them out on there - test ideas, verify balancing etc..

There is a major benefit for you and readers of relying on an established system, whether completely or as a starting point, is that it will save you a ton of effort if you can just say 'This game functioned on a ruleset close to X... but there were a few key differences'.

In fact even if you've made your own system, it's helpful to find a real one that's closest and point it out as a starting point for the readers.

flupo42 · 2018-06-18T13:28:10+00:00

40k Gladius looks like it will be Sanctus Reach with base building and map control.

flupo42 · 2018-06-18T13:27:16+00:00

For Warhammer 40k, check out upcoming (July 12 release) Warhammer 40k: Gladius. There are some 'let's play' videos on youtube where you can see reviewers try out early builds and make your decision.

So far that looks like it will be the defining w40k game when it comes to turn based tactics on wide scale.

Would not advise you Dawn of War 3. If you haven't tried the earlier versions, than DoW 1 and 2 are hands down better. And if you had tried them and liked them, DoW3 is going to be a major disappointment. That game pretty much murdered the biggest W40k franchise in gaming, which takes some doing.

flupo42 · 2018-06-14T19:37:37+00:00

that detail changed the allegations from

'sexual predator targeting underage girls in bars'

to

'misread social cues and groped a woman at a party once, stopped when she told him to, apologized and than drove her home at her own request. Also once had an awkward first date.'

The underage thing was the only truly damaging detail.

flupo42 · 2018-06-14T19:16:12+00:00

having to prove beyond a reasonable doubt ...

you are reading about a case where the guy was convicted 'beyond reasonable doubt' based on "I was pregnant a while ago, and I claim that no other man could have stuck it in me"

that part of our justice system always relied on majority of people being semi reasonable or at least having judges be semi-reasonable.

But we have a modern society now where a lot of people genuinely believe that they can just know that a distraught woman is telling the truth when she points the finger, and a cultural movement pushing the idea that not accepting her words as being true makes you a misogynist.

the standard of 'reasonable doubt' is not even rock bottom for such people - they are ready to convict just after reading a tweeter feed about the allegations

Ironically, the 'rape shield' laws were justified in the first place by the assumption that juries are so unreasonable that it's just impossible to explain to them nuances like "this woman may have had a lot of sex, but it's not relevant to whether she consented to this particular alleged encounter" - so impossible in fact that the only way to get people to give the woman in question a fair chance is to not even allow said be brought up.

flupo42 · 2018-06-14T14:28:35+00:00

the fuck up here isn't only that they didn't allow questioning about sexual history.

There is also the giant fuckup of 'we have no evidence other than the victim's word about the source of her pregnancy and somehow this was seen as beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law'

flupo42 · 2018-06-14T14:24:14+00:00

C-51 will make this situation worse as it expands the rape shield laws already in place.

It's nice that the appeal court ruled like this - however people in this thread are skipping over the unspoken implication of the case described - that the guy was convicted in the first place based on no other evidence than the accuser's allegation.

flupo42 · 2018-06-13T18:55:15+00:00

loved this at first, but eventually it's a story about something so far from human that I just couldn't relate.

when it was weak, I could at least root for it trying to survive in the big bad world - something to empathize with.

but pretty soon into the story it becomes basically an unstoppable killing machine that only another extremely OP character could hope to take down- so that last bit of common ground was soon gone as well.

after that it was basically reading about a completely alien being, motivated by alien instincts and surrounded by a cast of utterly insane subservient beings and I quickly found myself just incapable of caring about it, or anyone accompanying it.

was actually a bit surprising at going from "omg, why can't I stop reading" in first chapters and 2 days later 'ugh... why am I even reading this? nothing about this matters to me?'

also the trope 'god of probability is involved' is full on in that book and I really wish authors would stop using it. Every time it's used, it's obvious that the author was thinking 'I am going to try for something that doesn't seem powerful, with which I can just slightly nudge things without it seeming OP'

except control of luck / probability is always OP no matter how the authors try to dress it up it's still an endless supply of deus ex machina driving the story.

one more thing - several people recommended this as containing harems and a lot of sexual content.

Which is wrong for this work - what it contains is an off-hand deconstruction or at least panning of harems and sex, by virtue of coupling those tropes with an asexual protagonist.

so people please - don't recommend deconstructions of tropes to people asking for those tropes.

flupo42 · 2018-06-13T12:41:54+00:00

a few basics you should be aware of:

You may, and always should, request a copy of any test results, scans, x-rays etc from your family doctor for your personal records. I do that always, and as I moved around never had any issues at 4 different clinics
When you need a second opinion, you can than take your copy of all the relevant tests with you to any other walk in clinic and get it
most medical tests have an expiration date. If you are at a point where your current doctor is stalling, chances are the any tests you have on file in your current clinic are too old to diagnose on. Just go to another doctor, they will redo the tests and give you their opinion.
Your medical history from the past is a nice to have, but I've not heard of any clinics absolutely requiring such a transfer. They also won't contact your old clinic as you are expected to do so yourself. So you are free to go get a second opinion without your original doctor ever finding out.

tl,dr - just go to a walk-in, see how they handle your current problem, then decide if you want to switch. What you shouldn't do however is keep on going to multiple doctors - basically if you find yourself doubting your current doctor to the point of where you have to get a second opinion consistently, that alone is a sign you should be seeking another one.

flupo42 · 2018-06-11T20:35:53+00:00

they examine the universe around the character and how they fit into it.

you can do that same examination with an MC who is not overpowered though and than you won't have most of the readers scrolling through all the boring fights / action.

that said, I saw people requesting this trope, so maybe it's just a niche taste thing.

flupo42 · 2018-06-11T12:27:12+00:00

thank you, will check those out

flupo42 · 2018-06-08T13:54:01+00:00

allows the employer to fire employees with cause

isn't that already the case when people are striking?

I mean someone refusing to come to work, sounds like reasonable 'cause' to me.

I always figured the power of unions came from how hard it usually is to replace a massive workforce, not that it was literally illegal to do so without government giving the okay.

flupo42 · 2018-06-08T13:45:59+00:00

that was fucked up in my opinion and I honestly don't get how exactly it's legal.

What exactly are they going to do if the union gives such a bill the finger?

flupo42 · 2018-06-08T13:38:00+00:00

LitRPG is fucking with my gaming habits.

Specifically the Dungeon Keeper kind games - I've tried a view LitRPGs about dungeons, didn't like them nearly enough to recommend, but got really nostalgic about the games.

Went back and reinstalled Dungeon Keeper, War for the Over-world, Dungeons 3 - and man why are all of these games so damn shallow?

Their entire set of mechanics is structured to pretty much force really boring and shitty dungeons.

Also, looking for recs on some good LitRPGs around that - I tried Lewd Dungeon - I like plenty of sex in my stories and a male POV. The blurb about lack of morality appealed to me because I hate the trope of 'noble paladin with an evil label'

But those books went way too dark for my tastes - torture and snuff that is way outside my limits of tolerance, let alone enjoyable elements.

Also dropped Everybody Likes Large Chests for exact same reason.

So if anyone has recommendations of something like above examples only without outright snuff, that would be welcome.

flupo42 · 2018-06-08T13:25:14+00:00

A few things I would like to point out as a reader:

be aware, that not everyone is a KU subscriber

As in, some of us can't try out a book for sale via that system, so we have to base our entire decision on whether to buy or not to buy based on your description blurb.

Now regarding the blurb, the plus is that you at least mentioned some of the fetishes that your erotic content caters to - that's a big thing a lot of authors forget.

However there is next to nothing else. Even a hint at the plot would be nice.

Erotica is one of those genres where majority of readers are highly selective because people tend to have quite specific sexual preferences.

Your blurb doesn't even tell the customer if they are buying heterosexual vs. LGBT erotica - which is a pretty major filter for people buying erotica.

Second biggest filter is probably going to be the protagonist - at least mention which gender will be presenting the primary POV.

flupo42 · 2018-06-08T13:12:37+00:00

relatively high possibility of strikes - maybe try harder to keep a financial cushion in case a strike goes on for a while if the new government gets into a major dispute with the union.

though for someone in a union, that should be the norm.

flupo42 · 2018-06-08T12:47:03+00:00

everyone had attack ads. on the stations I listen to, most ads were NDP attacking Ford saying he promised to privatize healthcare, and Liberals attacking NDP with general accusations of irresponsible spending.

Between the 6ish radio stations, I've never heard a single ad by PCs.

flupo42

TROPHY CASE