alanschu

In my experience Blizzard is pretty careful about sending links.

Doh, I wish I had seen it was a CinemaBlend link as I tend to not like their articles and the idea of giving them ad revenue of any kind pains me. As for Blizzard, the letters to Zynga is a complete nothing. People with experience making games are getting laid off, and Blizzard is hiring. It seems like a sensible thing for a recruiter to do. It has nothing to with seeking to "emulate Zynga." The Diablo III stuff is more interesting. Originally I thought that the bans were happening simply because people were Linux users, which is an indictment both of Krezack as well as Cinema Blend for their headlines. The unfortunate thing about the Linux users is they admit they have no proof, so for me I step back and go "Is this any different than a Windows user getting falliciously caught cheating in their game?" The issue is more "at what point can a game developer unilaterally decide that the gamer broke the TOS enough to permanently exclude a gamer from using the game. It can happen with Valve and VAC and stuff like that as well. I'm curious if the account was somehow compromised. I likely have a bias to thinking this, because my friend did have an account that was compromised back in 2007, as he wasn't allowed to login to World of Warcraft due to illegal activity. When he commented that he hadn't been playing the game since 2004, Blizzard basically said that the issue was closed and he had no further recourse (this is the **** move). Though he still went out and bought another copy of WoW (and made more secure passwords), he was left up **** creek because his account was banned. My account was once compromised, though I was able to report it when it happened and Blizzard fully restored my account. This was in 2010 though, so I don't know what sort of differences they made in their policy, but in my friend's case he was SOL, whereas for me they basically said "We believe you, here's everything restored." (I actually benefitted greatly since they even restored the wealth acquired by the hacker, so I 1000+ more gold than when I stopped playing!) Although, my account was never explicitly banned for any reason, which may affect their willingness to cooperate. Of course, I clicked on the follow up link on CinemaBlend before realizing it was CinemaBlend, so after reading that article my desires to punch the writer in the face certainly reached typical CinemaBlend levels.

In one of RPS' articles (this) he does mention that RPS shares advertising with Eurogamer. He actually comes clean about a lof of the perk type things he has had done by PR folk, and thinks that if anyone wishes to call him out on it he thinks that that is entirely fair. Though he also states that he feels the idea of game scores being outright purchased is overstated, and feels that woefully inaccurate review scores are more an issue with reviewer incompetence rather than widespread corruption. I find it interesting because in Sid Meier's 2010 GDC keynote he talks about how (within Civ) gamers tend to be paranoid. In that, even if there's a fair and random chance of something happening, if bad things happen "randomly" it's often inferred as the game being out to get them. (I actually found it a pretty interesting talk as he covers gamers not being rational in their expectations, in that despite logically understanding the odds, they still feel the game is being unfair in many cases. You can watch it ). I can see where he's going in games and I wonder if it permeates outside of gaming too.

Wow. Thanks for sharing that Tale!

ERrr, I think you're reading something into my post that's not there. "So what?" People are disingenuous when using such a system when their statements don't reflect the vote given. If you look closely, you'll realize we're arguing the same thing yet you decide to get defensive about it. I gave an example that SUPPORTS your statement. Sorry I guess? EDIT: Actually I disagree with one thing. If I want to avoid a bunch of people giving games 0s and 1s, I should just not make games.

I have literally seen people post reviews in metacritic that are "I really think this is an excellent game but it totally falls apart at the end. 0/10"

Rational science doesn't say that. Rational science avoids the topic altogether because it's unfalsifiable and not worth our time.

Hmm, I guess BioWare made sure to retain the IP rights for Mass Effect, so it probably wasn't as much of an issue to get the first game available.

Sorry, my lucrative perspective was more directed to the idea that they might not need to be a side gig, but rather a fulltime focus. Though I'm just speculating. I have no idea what the numbers are typically like.

The DLC does seem surprising.

I think they are more lucrative than we may realize, though the scope does allow them to be a side gig. Though working on them may present a conflict of interest if it's a side gig and your regular gig is working on game development for a different company.

This breakdown is likely not going to be nearly as interesting as you think it would be. It'd be closer to " $X for programming" and "$Y for design" and stuff like that. Maybe some number juggling for the estimates for the amount of manhours they expect to spend on particular parts of the game and how much they expect those manhours to cost. I've seen them and while I can appreciate the level of detail that goes into them since they affect my job and help me anticipate where things will be shifting from a job perspective, but I don't see much value in showing this breakdown as a fan as all the numbers will lack context for fans.

Although this would qualify the area as being "higher density" in that more content exists within a level too! Whether or not it's "high" density would depend on how much higher density it became. One advantage of BG1 was the "fire and forget" nature of many of the levels makes it easier to create lots of levels.

I'd be surprised too (though I think like others I'd love to be proven wrong).

For the 360, yes it was. EA published the PC version (and since Bring Down the Sky was already a free DLC on the PC, it makes sense for it to just be included).

Yes that's exactly how I remember it!

I'm almost wondering if Todd Akin is some democratic plant.... Great example of Poe's Law at work.

Oh GOD. I was not very good at that game at all!

Was more of a chestshot (and actually wasn't THAT hard as I'm not that good, but it was one of my better hits! haha)

Reminded me a lot of Robosport! :D

The most feminine sport in existence ;P Tell that to the person I packed today with a power spike! \m/

I'd bet mountains of money that Steam trumps it by several orders of magnitude. And I agree that TF2 is likely a big money maker too! @Gorth: You need to pull out the OmniTool in order to run faster.

My muscles say otherwise! I'm also playing "Forum junkie" on BSN <.<

Volleyball >.>

Confidence without ego is important as an aspiring writer. Believe in the work that you do, but recognize that there will be feedback on it and it won't always be flattering.