Bay 12 Games Forum

Quote from: alexandertnt on April 26, 2014, 07:35:52 pm

We could have everybody work 10 hour weeks to get a minimum income, instead of some 50 hours and some none. As automation increases, keeping 9-to-5 workdays seems counterproductive.

hmmm.  Mandated work hours?  what would in theory happen  to those who do not meet that requirement?  Or will the government assign and/or monitor jobs and work?

We already have regulated working hours, at least here in Australia and in Europe (Don't know about America). I am not saying the regulations have to be particularly strict or "mandated", but I don't really see the big difference between what we have now and something like that.

It wasnt that long ago the working week was 6 days.

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So do charities, many of which are religious and are much less willing to help those who are not of their faith or willing to convert (for example, me). I'm not sure what this governmnet self-interest is exactly. Down here in Australia, you get unemployment benefits if you are unemployed and looking for employment, and thats about the only condition.

Charities don't have to be religious.  Actually, given the amount of skepticism in America, and presumably the world, why should they be?  I volunteer for three of them regularly.  One is actually a Non-Profit, non-religious one for Autism, one operates out of a church as a third party, and one is the remnant of a mission.

Churches will likely be attractive spots to conduct from, but what stops communities from forming their own charities?  Or town or regional charities?  You don't have to belief in any god to donate time/money/supplies.  I  think its our culture, its very focused on the individual.  And I've heard its even worse up here in New England where I currently live.  At least down South I hear they are polite enough to say high to relative strangers . . .

Socialism is supposed to be about care for your fellow countryman, right?  Why do we need the government to force us into it?

They don't have to be religious, but that doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of the are. Simply because they legally can, doesn't help someone's situation. It also doesn't change the fact that if I were to lose my job, I would likely find it very hard to get charity help and being told that there is no law against helping me doesn't exactly prevent me from going hungry. Charities also suffer from an unjustified can't-do-evil reputation.

You don't need the government, but its a very useful tool. The government (even if it requires a lot of altering and change) can be used to benefit people.

:/  Yes there is already a dependence on the system.  Those who genuinely need it.  And there are those who flagrantly seek to exploit the system.  There is no solution to it other than weaning them off or continuing to pay, although how we 'wean' them is open to debate.

I was not referring to "the system" (welfare) specifically.

How many people know how to hunt or farm for food I wonder? Probably not many as they are reliant on private systems. The public welfare system is also reliant on the private sytem.

I agree that companies are trying to undermine our rational decision making, but they do it to so-called "core" gamers as well. e.g. By making old-school RPG's or nintendo hard platformers and advertiseing them as such even if they are not actually very good games.

I think Early Access is treated a little harshly sometimes. It can take many years to develop a game, and some people just seem annoyed that the game doesn't suddenly come into existance right now.

Although there are bad developers and exercising caution is always good.

Quote from: alexandertnt on April 25, 2014, 08:53:01 pm

Thats all great and fine if you want to play popular blockbuster games, but what about niches (because not everybody wants to play "a minecraft game")? Their are games out there which just don't have a replacement, and probably won't have companies rushing over to make one anytime soon.

Tough cookies I guess.

Thats why I don't support it.

Nothing really 'ruins' gaming for long before the Firaxis' of your favored genre reemerge to tap into the market that's already been jaded.

If your favourite book vanished from existance, could you really just go out and find another similar "close enough" book and make that your favourite? There is no market to produce your favourite book.

So it's all great and fine that Firaxis make games, but I don't want to play "a Firaxis game", I already have the game I want to play and think its rubbish that that game could stop functioning for no technical reasons.

But on the other hand, it's not as apocalyptic as you guys are making it out to be - if they fuck up, if their idea of service is to say "no, we aren't making money on DLC, so you can't play," you're free to move on to a different game made by a different person, sometimes Re: sci-fi minecraft clone #487 even in the same genre and setting. That's their compulsion to help you - there's ridiculous amounts of competition for your attention, even coming from their own archives (why do you think they've started reselling older games, like it's some huge favor to the old fans?), and you're free to walk.

Thats all great and fine if you want to play popular blockbuster games, but what about niches (because not everybody wants to play "a minecraft game")? Their are games out there which just don't have a replacement, and probably won't have companies rushing over to make one anytime soon.

Another issue is that people generally don't understand the EULA and its potential legal ramifications, so it's very difficult for individual consumers to be villigant about EULA's when they can't even understand them. It's unreasonable to expect each consumer to understand them as they can be quite complex. A consumers advocate here would be quite useful.

Plus don't forget to actively verbally criticize the product (and not just not purchase something and remain silent), Artsivision need to know why people stopped purchasing Battlefield Black Ops Duty in order to have any hope in improving it.

I could lower the productivity of minions working in the dark, but it would be kind of silly. I'd have to add a warning for that, and you'd be searching around for that one dark tile. What do you think?

I think if you were to give the light sources a fair cost (rather than just 1 wood) they could increase the cost/difficulty of expansion, which IMO is a good idea.

Linearity is never good.

Why?

Linearity is a technique that can be very useful, particularly for story telling.