Thursday Next

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.

Well, it's technically only an investment if it happens to be one of the Kickstarters offering rewards. Otherwise it's a straight up donation.

Well, maybe I shouldn't say but... a consumer contacted Amazon to say that when their child put the ME3 disc in their Xbox it made a strange noise and "noxious fumes" were emitted by the console. This caused the child to have a headache and nosebleed. Fortunately the window was open so the child survived. Rather than dashing to the nearest hospital the distraught parent instead placed another disc in the console and finding that no noxious gasses were released leapt straight on to the internet and emailed Amazon to report (using abysmal spelling and grammar) that there was clearly something wrong with the game as it was not supplied as described. The child was, last I heard, recovering from his ordeal well, but was still feeling weary. True story.

Incidentally, that Amazon thing, totally not an RME / not as described issue.

Pretty sure that Wipeout 2048 has it disabled. Which is a shame cos that game is purrdy.

Ok, wow, that got pretty heated pretty quickly. Some thoughts from me: @Dean: It's $250 for Horse Armour because the only difference between the $250 donation and the $500 donation is that you get an in game badge saying "I donated $500!" on top of the $250 stuff. Also, FDS started throwing the word "invest" around not me or Yant. As Yantelope said (before things got really out of hand) if you get stiffed (hopefully you won't) suing the Kickstarters costs money, since you're generally looking at low value investments it's not going to be worth your while chasing for the money. You could maybe set up a Kickstarter to fund the legal action though. I totally see the value in the "feel good factor". I buy games new and I spend silly money on Signature Editions and such because I like games and I like supporting the industry, I am under no illusions that the cost of the items in these super special editions comes anywhere near the value of the contents of the box. If this is how you get that buzz, more power to you. For me Kickstarter is a big risk that I'm not willing to take. Double Fine make good games. Sure, but they also made Brutal Legend which was not as good (or at least, I was not as fond of). They aren't perfect, they can slip up. Paying someone $40 so that they may or may not finish a game that may or may not be any good is not a risk I'm willing to take. I'm not as broke as Jonny, but I still can't stomach the idea of slinging $40 at something without a guarantee of a return. @RockyRan At no point did I say that I want the Kickstarter bubble to burst. I don't want anyone here to donate to a project that hits its target and then fails to deliver. At the moment the media, supported by Double Fine and others is treating Kickstarter like the second coming of Christ, as others have pointed out, it's no less risky than putting your money in anything else, it could fail and I am interested to see what the backlash will be like when a high profile project does eventually fail. Finally, with people paying in advance, especially with Takedown, there is a lot of talk of getting community input. We've discussed a lot in the ME3 thread about where the line between author ownership and community ownership is drawn. This particular Kickstarter seems to blur that line even more. I know they say on their Kickstarter page that this is not "design by committee" but that won't stop people complaining if the game is not as open as they hoped, is not as tactical as they wanted and so forth, and having paid to develop it you may (in my opinion rightly) feel a sense of entitlement that when they used your money to make your game they should have made it the way you wanted. I think I'd honestly be more comfortable with Kickstarter if it was just "I'm doing a thing, donate some money please." It's the offer of a gift that puts me on edge because once you have established an expectation of a reward in exchange for money, that starts to feel less like a donation and more like a transaction.

People invest in businesses that they believe will make them money. That's my problem with Kickstarter, on the one hand you call it a donation, on the other an investment. You have all the risks of an investment (losing your money), with none of the benefits (getting more out than you put in). At best you can hope to break even and get the reward you pledged for (assuming that in pledging for that reward you accept that it is of equal value to your donation).

Well, no one should "believe in science" or "have faith in science". Scepticism towards what anyone tells you is a good scientific thing. I'd be just as concerned if everyone started blindly believing whatever Brian Cox said as I would be if everyone blindly believed what the Pope said. As others have said, it's not that people are doubting science, no one is jumping off of buildings because gravity is a load of bunkum, at least, no one sane is. It's that people are questioning the motives of the people who are telling them stuff. It's a very good thing. We should be more sceptical as we get more intelligent.