Thursday Next

I didn't notice it. I find it weird that Joker would take time out for sex... He doesn't seem interested in women in that way.

It happens a lot with new developers generally. You can tell them till you are blue in the face that they need to make a detailed budget beforehand and they'll ignore you. Of the things that they would change should they do it again. I'd be inclined to do less t-shirts and posters and more in-game rewards. That will make a huge impact on how much money you have to develop the game. Dropping attorneys because you are "all getting along at the moment" and "are closer than ever" is silly. Even if you have a difference of opinion and decide to split amicably, what you think is generous could be totally different to what the other side thinks is generous. This stuff needs to be locked down, clearly, in language that leaves no room for misunderstanding and for that you need to sit down with a lawyer. Also, a lot of that $4k was to set up a company and stuff like that. It's a one-off payment that is pretty much essential if you want serious investment down the line. Also, a trip to PAX East could have been put off till next year if you are counting the pennies and have $50k of debt to pay off. It's stuff like this that makes me think that there will inevitably be a huge Video game Kickstarter failure. (Note that I am not a'whooping and a'hollering at the thought, it's just a prediction, not a hope.) It's also things like this that make "Big Evil Greedy Publishers" not such a bad thing. They can provide a lot of help with regard to music, legal support, creative services, marketing and so forth which are, as you can see, not cheap.

Ok. But the video game XIII is not hard to find either. You type in 13 game and the first hit is the Wikipedia entry for the game XIII. Hard to google is not in my opinion, a good reason for not calling it 1988. However. "Being clever.", "Making the name something people talk about.", "Being deliberately mysterious." or "Trying not be mainstream" are all fine. Personally, "zero times ten to the power C" is hard for me to remember. If I googled it there is every chance I will google Ocx10 Or 010X because the collection of characters is too abstract.

Well there's censorship and Censorship. What Boris did is say "I own that advertising space, and you cannot use it." That's definitely little c censorship.

1. You can absolutely TM a number. http://www.ipo.gov.uk/domestic?domesticnum=2424871E 2. If you can google 1984 and come up with a book with relative ease. Finding the game called 1988 is not going to be a stretch.

Total Recall looks like a futuristic Bourne film. Should be fun to watch though. Very excited about Prometheus.

So... why not just call it "1988"?

I went for Play.com cos they're doing some exclusive DLC thing.

A good call by Boris. Some people are calling it censorship, I don't agree. No one is stopping the group from hanging a similar sign on their own property, or sticking it to the side of their own cars. The Mayor of London is simply not allowing a message of bigotry and ignorance to appear on his buses.

:'(

Exactly, you can call English people whatever you like. We're almost impossible to offend.

Darksiders! (I know I know...) Really enjoyed it though, like Zelda, but with a better (fresher) story. Well up for Darksiders 2 now. When's that one out?

Generally speaking, derogatory terms / slurs are fine when directed at people who are in a dominant/majority position. Hence, saying "Fat-cats" is fine when referring to people who are on very high wages with a lot of power. Conversely, calling people who are on benefits and have little influence "dole-scum" is not cool. Calling posh people "toffs" is ok, calling people from lower social circles "chavs" is not. Calling heterosexual people "straight" is fine, calling homosexuals "bent" is not. It's really a simple system. Of course, calling anyone any names is wrong, but the impact varies hugely depending on social status.

I can't wait for the apocalyptic levels of bigotry that I am fully expecting should EA allow same sex Sim couples to have kids. I think the sexual content in DA:O was far more explicit, even that was pretty tame. I think ME3 has flared up perhaps because the game is already somewhat controversial and has popped up on the radars of people who otherwise wouldn't have known there was something going on for them to get offended by.

I agree, there definitely needs to be a balance. While people in the security services and others need to respect the chain of command, the penalties for disobeying orders and revealing secrets should not be overly punitive where there is good cause for it. This particular case seems to be one where the leak was justified.

It's impossible to cover every single thing that people might get offended by. It also doesn't mention that there might be mixed raced relationships but plenty of people would find that offensive. What it does say is: "Players can also initiate brief romantic encounters between characters: dialogue choices are made, leading to kissing and caressing on a bed—sexual activity is implied." It doesn't explicitly state that they are heterosexual encounters.

One of the worst things about waterboarding is that since it came out that the CIA were doing it Hollywood can't stop putting it in films/TV shows etc. It has become the go-to torture method. I think Whistleblowers need to be protected. By turning on your employer you are already taking a massive risk, you're giving up your livelihood, you're probably never going to work in that industry again and if it's the military / secret service you're betraying then I think you'd feel quite justified in being afraid for your life. There should not be the threat of prosecution on top of all that. Unless of course you revealed secrets that pose an actual threat to national security.

Epilogue-tastic. Hopefully this will calm the rage out there.

Activision hasn't done anything lately to earn anyone's ire. As in I can't think of a single thing they've released this year at all. EA is going to walk this. EDIT: Also, I like the Syndicate FPS. EA Spouse was like a decade ago, Bullfrog and Westwood were even longerer. As one of the oldest publishers in the business, there's going to be a lot of bad history. And we only haven't made Mirror's Edge 2 yet.

These things happen. It's been spotted, one of the guys responsible has apologised, a workaround has been provided and a fix is being considered. Not sure what more can be done to be honest.

I'm often found wandering about accidentally picking up things with magnets...

Given that one of the other trophies is "Find a way into the secret base" there is almost certainly some story stuff occurring.

BMWs have the reverse gear further across than first. They rely on resistance. VWs (and SEATs, Skodas and Audis) have a collar that you lift to engage reverse, Fords require that you push the whole stick down. Japanese cars I think tend to have reverse opposite 5th gear (or further across from 6th) and have no special clicky twisty pushy things needed to engage reverse. Personally, I've driven a lot of cars, I used to deliver them for Europcar (a hire company). Automatics are ok, but really, driving manual in traffic is not that arduous and the benefits (for me) far outweigh the negatives. Manuals are, in my opinion, best because they give you far more control over the car. I drop down a couple of gears if I want an instant boost or knock it into high gear if I'm coasting. I can use engine braking to save my brakes and while braking I can take off again without the car having to catch up with me. I also prefer manuals for adverse conditions. Driving through big puddles, low gear - high revs. Driving on ice, high gear - low revs. Also, driving Automatics is really boring.

Good ol' US protectionism. Why make something better or cheaper yourself when you can just stick a big fat tax on the imported goods? Free market my arse.

Patents last 20 years, not 10. Also, completely agree with Ethan. The patent system was originally brought in so that new inventions and discoveries, for example within medicine, would be shared with the world. The idea was that you couldn't protect your invention if you didn't patent it and when you patented it it became public knowledge, so that people could look at your ideas, build on them and come up with even better inventions / innovations. Companies today have twisted the system so that instead of encouraging creativity and innovation it stifles it. The law should have been amended a long time ago with respect to technology patents. 20 years is far too long in the modern world. A 5 year monopoly max is what should be granted to Technology / Software patents. If this patent is as essential to smartphones as is made out in the article then at the very least it should be reclassified as a FRAND patent and Apple should be forced to license it out on reasonable terms.