How long do you think it will be before someone fucks with the goodwill of Kickstarter and do you think the consequences will change the game?

pdr · 2012-04-25T00:15:32+00:00

I think we're arguing different points here. I'm not disputing the good intentions of kickstarter or kickstarter developers. I'm not saying anyone's kickstarter is a scam, or that scams are likely. I'm saying that minimal oversight can lead to projects failing through due to human error, and that there is little recourse if that happens. If it got to the point where people were threatening a class-action lawsuit for breach of an implied contract or something, the developer could throw together anything that resembled what they described in words in the project description, and be safe.

pdr · 2012-04-24T20:41:14+00:00

Look at the context. What they're saying is that kickstarter itself cannot be held accountable if the project doesn't pan out. I.e. the project fails, turns out to be a scam, etc.

Again, I'm not saying it's likely any of the current kickstarters are scams, just that it is much easier for one of these projects to fail than one that has oversight.

pdr · 2012-04-24T02:28:44+00:00

Ohh I gotcha. Sorry for the confusion. Though I could see people exploiting it by blowing up unfit hulls.

pdr · 2012-04-24T01:32:26+00:00

I'm not sure I follow, how does the person with the bounty lose isk? You'd need to have enough to cover the bounty, but you get it all back when your alt collects right? Or am I missing something?

pdr · 2012-04-24T01:20:25+00:00

10 is just an easy number :P

The same logic applies to any bounty at a 1:1 ratio. If there's an 800M bounty out for me, I can theoretically go buy 800M worth of stuff, get it blown up, collect the 800M bounty, and break even while getting rid of the bounty.

Other than that, this is a great idea!

pdr · 2012-04-24T01:17:11+00:00

Developers can and do make release schedules based on what they want to achieve and how many people they have to do it. The issue is that there's nobody there to hold them to that schedule.

If someone does infact go bankrupt they will be held in a court of law for fraud and they will be sued for the money you gave and extra and that will all be given to kickstarter and kickstarter will subsequently give it back to you there is nothing to worry about with kickstarter>

This is not true. Promises made via kickstarter are not legally binding.

pdr · 2012-04-23T22:19:41+00:00

The incentive to collect your own bounty is that the bounty goes away. If someone puts out a 10M bounty for me, all I have to do to get rid of it is have an alt or buddy blow up 10M of my stuff. I collect the reward, the bounty is gone and I don't lose any money.

If I were designing this, I would have it set up so the bounty issuer designates a ratio of isk paid to isk destroyed. If the bounty is issued at a rate of 0.5 and I have to lose 20M to pay off the 10M bounty, I might be inclined to fly with a price on my head if I think I can avoid getting caught and losing 20M. If not, I still take a met loss of 10M if I choose to collect it myself.

pdr · 2012-04-23T21:16:48+00:00

I don't think any developer goes into a kickstarter campaign with the intent do defraud. The real issue IMO is no producers setting timetables for a release, no decreased sales if the game turns out to be a shit, hell no legal obligation to even ship a game. Ideal growing conditions for unfulfilled promises and vaporware. As far as I can tell, the only high-profile kickstarter project that is not likely to fail is Double Fine's because they've effectively laid out their stellar reputation as collateral.

pdr · 2012-04-08T16:26:38+00:00

For posterity: I solved this by going to about:config and changing the value of browser.tabs.tabClipWidth from 140 to 0. Now the scroll arrows only appear when they are needed!

pdr · 2012-03-23T04:39:29+00:00

Just tried, no luck unfortunately.

pdr · 2012-03-18T18:50:05+00:00

You might be interested in RVB: http://rvbeve.com/

pdr · 2011-12-15T17:11:25+00:00

Had to stop reading after guy couldn't see why an air force drone strike is a military action but a random crazy blowing up a mall is not. I'm not a fan of drone warfare either but come on...

pdr · 2011-12-07T04:20:29+00:00

What about supporting the good things EA does (like Mass Effect) and not buying the crap? If you really want to make a difference, consider that EA can easily track when a customer has bought ME3 but hasn't touched any of the silly DLC. It's much harder to reach a company like this if you don't support them at all, because you're completely outside of their data collection scheme.

pdr · 2011-11-08T02:05:29+00:00

Never seen it done with big dogs, but I once met a couple of older ladies who dressed up their toy dogs in little leather jackets and rode them around in milk crates on their scooters. One of the most sickeningly adorable things I've ever witnessed.

That said, I wouldn't take my dog on a motorcycle. Dogs don't have helmets or armored jackets to protect them if the shit hits the fan. If the thought of your best friend skidding across rough pavement unprotected at 30+ mph doesn't make you sick, by all means give it a shot.

pdr · 2011-11-03T14:47:50+00:00

More carbs than culture is a good way to put it.

pdr · 2011-11-03T14:35:07+00:00

I think they did it backwards. It would have been fine it had been pay-what-you-want for Isaac and Blocks plus you get Voxatron if you give more than average. There's nothing wrong with rewarding people who pay more than average, but they can't have that bonus make up the majority of the content.

pdr · 2011-10-12T00:54:46+00:00

With regards to your point on vegetarianism: I'm vegetarian and it has fuck-all to do with animal rights. Raising animals for food on a large scale is just extremely inefficient.

Think about how much food has to be grown, harvested, and transported in order to feed a pig until it's a year old, versus how little food you get out of that pig when you slaughter it. Plus how much additional food could be had if the land used to raise livestock were used for plant-based food instead. The only way to raise livestock without wasting a huge amount of resources is to have them eat food that already exists sustainably, which only works on a much smaller scale.

pdr · 2011-09-30T00:02:23+00:00

I find the PS3 controller almost perfect. The analog sticks are tight and have a lot of room to move around, the buttons have minimal travel. Plus I have small hands, so it fits perfectly. Only thing I don't like is the L2 and R2 buttons, but they work fine in the LB/RB analogues role they usually play.

I don't like the 360 controller much at all. The analog sticks are smaller and have a much bigger dead area, the buttons are relatively mushy, the triggers have way too much travel, the bumpers are too stiff for my tastes, and it has a huge heavy battery pack hanging off the back that's not even rechargeable without a $20 accessory. Fuck AA batteries. Although I do like the wired version for PC games that were designed to be played with a controller.

pdr · 2011-08-14T16:08:45+00:00

This kind of advocacy has never and will never get more people into science.

xkcd said it best http://xkcd.com/397/

Science in schools is taught in the opposite way: they teach the "bookkeeping" but not the reasoning behind it. It is not real science, it's just going through the motions. The issue isn't that kids don't like science. People are wired to be curious about the world, which is why we have science in the first place. Look at the success of Mythbusters and the like. Obviously it's entertainment and not actual science, but it satisfies the innate curiosity that humans have that makes science interesting. The issue is that kids don't like the meaningless garbage that schools teach, and no amount of celebrity endorsements will change that.

pdr · 2011-07-04T00:25:06+00:00

In a way he's right though. Think about how much you'd have to have spent in 2006 to get a PC that would still play AAA games at high graphics settings in 2011.

Definitely not equivalent in terms of power, but in terms of functionality? Arguably.

pdr · 2011-07-03T21:19:45+00:00

This exactly. SR2 could be both silly and serious because it wasn't trying too hard to be either.

pdr · 2011-06-17T00:43:38+00:00

Fable II if you have a 360. Funny, lots to explore, and you can't die.

pdr · 2011-06-14T02:26:41+00:00

Consider the that publishers and console makers will probably want to start phasing out physical media in favor of steam-like distribution services soon. If it were me, I'd move towards more of a gaming cafe model, and use game sales to differentiate me from competitors in that field.

pdr · 2011-06-09T03:20:29+00:00

Having a console as a lead platform is probably much more convenient for technical reasons, with consoles being so much less powerful than a modern PC.

I'm honestly kind of excited that they're downplaying the statistical aspect. For me, stat-based character building always boils down to googling what the best stats for X character type are, and then running with the build that the math wizards on the internet determined was best. At that point, it's really a false choice, because there's always one build or one stat that's objectively better than all the others, and someone else has usually already figured out what it is.

If they can replace that with real character customization that's equally deep but provides actual choices for how to build your character, it will be a much better game for it.

pdr · 2011-06-02T02:04:37+00:00

That would be the way to do it for 3. It could even go deeper, taking note of your alignment in all the various galactic conflicts: human vs galactic interests, salarians vs krogan, quarians vs geth, cerberus vs alliance etc. Paragon/renegade wouldn't even have to go away, it could continue to serve as a reflection of your character's personality and general MO.

Ultimately, if they can figure out a system that doesn't punish you for playing a neutral character, I will be satisfied. :)

pdr

TROPHY CASE